It was here at the Deer Park/Nicodemus Bridge over the Liberty Reservoir a few weeks ago that fishermen spotted something down in the water, which led police to what they discovered would be one of the worst cases of animal cruelty they'd ever seen.
The reservoir became a crime scene once its waters gave up the body of a black and white, bully breed named Gus and evidence it's drowning was no accident.
"There was a dog leash and an extension cord attached to a cinder block, which would lead us to believe that the individual intentionally drowned the animal," said Sgt. A. Smith of the Baltimore Environmental Police.
36-year old Anthony Michael Muniz quickly emerged as a suspect.
After all, it was Muniz who showed up at the Humane Society of Carroll County in mid-December to turn in Gus as a stray dog and returned just before Christmas to adopt him.
Later, a woman called the shelter from a domestic violence safe house claiming her ex-boyfriend, Muniz, had lied about the dog, and it was actually hers.
He may have gotten away with killing the animal if not for a micro-chip implanted beneath its skin before he could adopt it.
"There was a chip that was placed in by the Humane Society of Carroll County,” said Smith, “Officer Ed Smith of the Carroll County Humane Society---he's one of their animal enforcement officers. He gave me the information regarding the ownership of the dog."
Acting upon tips, environmental police tracked Muniz to where he was hiding in a Gettysburg hotel and his arrest and extradition followed.
According to charging documents, he admitted to tossing the dog, weighted down by the cinder block, from the bridge.
He would later tell people it was pay back for his girlfriend intentionally hurting herself so that she would have a miscarriage while she was carrying the couple's unborn baby.
"I believe this is the most heinous I've seen,” said Smith, “It's the most direct and it seemed to me just to be evil, and the person who could do something like this to an animal is a person who doesn't need to be on the streets."
Muniz is now facing a series of nine separate charges.
He's been denied bail and he's being held at the Carroll County Detention Center.
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