Melissa Ellis served 7 years in the US Military, and graduated from Southern Illinois University of Carbondale with a Bachelors degree in Biology and a Bachelors degree in Management.

In 2002 she relocated to South Florida to accept a civilian position as a biologist with the US Army. Shortly after, she rescued a four month old Catahoula Leopard dog named Sasha from the local shelter and began training her for human remains detection (HRD). She certified in HRD at one year of age and has several finds to her credit.

In January 2006, Melissa added a Golden Retriever pup named Recon to her family and began training her for HRD. Recon was certified in HRD shortly after her one year birthday.

Melissa and her cadaver dogs have been deployed across Florida and Georgia on numerous searches in addition to deployments to Aruba to assist in the search for Natalie Holloway, to New Orleans to assist in the recovery of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and to Baghdad, Iraq to assist the US Military in the search and recovery of US soldiers. She received several awards for her work with the US Army, US Air Force and the US Marine Corps during her time in Iraq.

Melissa has assisted many search and rescue dog handlers in training their SAR dogs to national certification standards. She attends several SAR seminars every year throughout the nation.  She is also continually working to develop her knowledge of K9 scent detection and SAR work, as well as working dog health and nutrition. She is a founding member and the current Vice President of a search and rescue organization. Melissa is currently working as a Biologist for the U.S. Army in New Orleans, LA.