Photo credit: Dark Horizon Drones
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It is the scenario every dog owner fears, and for Amanda and Zach Sebert in Marysville, Ohio, it became painfully real just as a major winter storm rolled into Union County.
Their one year old Bernedoodle, Gracie, slipped out of the yard in the Adena Pointe neighborhood only minutes before snow and brutal cold shut the county down under a Level 3 snow emergency, as NBC4I reported.
One of the couple’s two dogs was recovered quickly, but Gracie vanished. With roads closed and vehicles grounded, the Seberts searched on foot, pushing through deep snow as panic slowly replaced optimism.
Amanda described the waiting as torture, imagining her dog huddled somewhere in the cold, unable to sleep for days as temperatures continued to fall and sightings failed to materialize.
As hours turned into days, social media posts spread across Marysville, with strangers joining the search, but by Tuesday, hope was fading.
Help from the sky when the snow stopped
The turning point came when the Seberts contacted Dark Horizon Drones, a local drone company that specializes in locating lost animals.
Photo credit: NBC4I
Co-owned by Dale Mannasmith and Cole Chapman, the team flies a DJI Matrice 30, a rugged enterprise drone built for harsh weather and equipped with thermal and high zoom cameras capable of spotting faint heat signatures invisible from the ground.
The almost-perfect Matrice 30
Photo credit: DJI
Bad weather delayed flights, but once conditions improved, the search moved into the air. The pilots operated a two drone system, keeping one aircraft locked on target while the other swapped batteries, ensuring continuous coverage even in extreme cold and wind, a critical advantage during winter operations.
Photo credit: Dark Horizon Drones
Five days after Gracie disappeared, a tip came in reporting a dog matching her description nearly five miles from home along Coleman Brake Road. Mannasmith and Chapman headed straight there, scanning frozen fields with the Matrice 30’s thermal sensor.
At around 100 feet, Mannasmith picked up a barely visible heat signature tucked under tall fescue grass, a hiding spot that explained why ground searches had come up empty. Tracking the movement through wind and snow was difficult, but the drone maintained eyes on the dog as the Seberts were guided to the location.
A reunion driven by drones and community
When Amanda and Zach reached the wooded edge where Gracie was hiding, the reunion was anything but simple. In full survival mode, the dog barked and tried to bolt through more than a foot of snow. Guided by live drone footage overhead, Zach managed to secure her before she disappeared again.
Photo credit: Dark Horizon Drones
Only after they removed their hats and Gracie caught their scent did recognition kick in. The fear melted instantly into kisses, crying, and frantic affection, an emotional release after nearly a week of uncertainty.
Gracie was taken to the vet and, remarkably, suffered only minor frostbite on one paw. Chapman later called the rescue a tear jerker, while Mannasmith described the rush of saving a family member from near disaster. The mission marked their third successful animal recovery this month.
Amanda credits the Marysville community as much as the technology, saying the flood of shares, tips, and volunteers made the critical sighting possible.
One resident even joked that Gracie should become the town’s new mascot, a symbol of perseverance, neighbors helping neighbors, and a little help from above.
DroneXL’s Take
This rescue highlights exactly why enterprise drones like the DJI Matrice 30 matter beyond industrial inspections and public safety headlines.
In freezing wind, deep snow, and fading hope, thermal imaging turned a near impossible search into a successful recovery, proving once again that sometimes the most powerful drone missions are not about flying far or fast, but about finding what matters most.
Photo credit: NBC4I, DJI, Dark Horizon Drones.