http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-metro-dog-killed-family-grief-20180810-story.html
During a Queens family’s frantic search for the shih tzu they thought had run away from home, the suspect now charged in the dog’s death took part in the hunt, pretending he didn’t know what had happened to the beloved pet.
“Lavonia!” Brando Henriquez yelled out as he rode through Broad Channel. “Lavonia!”
That’s according to Lisa Eastzer, whose daughter was dating Henriquez before he was busted last week and accused of beating Lavonia, fracturing four ribs, the afternoon of July 15 — then dumping the dog’s remains in a nearby parking lot.
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Henriquez, 23, of Woodside, is being held on Rikers Island on $7,000 bail.
He faces up to two years in prison — but Eastzer said that’s not enough.
“To lose an animal to cruelty is devastating to say the least,” she said. “They are family.”
Eastzer’s daughter, whose name she asked not be printed, was out of the house for only a half-hour, before returning home and asking Henriquez where Lavonia was.
Authorities said he told his girlfriend the dog might have run away, prompting a four-day search, complete with flyers adorned with the pet’s photo, that ended when the family found Lavonia on July 19, stuffed in a plastic bag and dumped in a parking lot.
Henriquez the same day was charged in an unrelated case with felony drug possession.
His arrest for allegedly beating Lavonia followed an investigation that included the discovery of video that showed him leaving his girlfriend’s home with a plastic bag “containing a lump," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Video also caught him hiding behind a garbage can to avoid passers-by, then running towards where the dog was eventually found, Brown said.