Jefferson’s Tonya Fea, 47, charged with drowning a 10-week-old Golden Retriever puppy in a township lake, waived her public appearance in Passaic County Superior Court on Wednesday for a grand jury hearing, according to a press release from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.
Fea allegedly put the puppy in a cage weighed down with a crystal vase and then submerged it in Greenwood Pond off Bonter Road April 30.
According to police, the puppy was discovered in the cage on the pond’s edge by a local rescue shelter worker.
The corpse was taken to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory for a necropsy, police said.
The necropsy found that the puppy died as a result of drowning, police said.
The story garnered national and international attention after the rescue worker posted graphic images of the puppy on social media.
Fea was charged a week later on charges of two counts of third degree animal cruelty and one count of defiant trespass, a petty disorderly persons offense, police said in a press release at the time.
She was issued a summons and initially scheduled to appear May 22 at Central Judicial Processing Court, but waived that appearance in favor of the grand jury proceeding, officials said.