MORGAN COUNTY, Tenn. — Update (Jan. 18): A man accused of throwing a tote bag filled with puppies off a bridge in Morgan County will not face criminal charges after a grand jury did not come to a consensus and was unable to return an indictment.
On Jan. 18, Ninth District Attorney General Russell Johnson said a grand jury was unable to return a true bill indicting Tyler Underwood for animal cruelty, meaning he will not face criminal charges in the case.
"In Tennessee, it takes at least twelve of thirteen grand jurors to return an indictment. By law, the deliberations of the grand jury and their vote is secret. However, the law is that if even two of the thirteen vote not to return a True Bill indictment, this results in a ‘No Bill’ of the indictment, meaning that no criminal charges will be forthcoming," Johnson said.
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UPDATE (Jan. 4): The Morgan County Sheriff's Office said Tyler Underwood, 24, faces six counts of animal cruelty after five puppies were found dead in a tote bag after they were dumped into a river. One of the puppies in the bag survived.
MCSO said Underwood is expected in court on Thursday. He also faces charges of violating probation and theft of property, according to the MCSO booking report.
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The Morgan County Sheriff's Office said Monday they were asking for help finding a suspect in a severe animal cruelty case in the Burrville Community. They later said a man was arrested in the case.
They said it happened sometime last week and were asking for information about anything that seemed suspicious in the "Bone Camp" bridge area last Tuesday or Wednesday. They also said the bridge is located on Burrville Road and were asking for people to respond if they saw cars parked by the bridge or people on foot around the bridge.
A nonprofit rescue in Morgan County, the Morgan County Mutts Rescue Center, also said they were offering a reward for information that leads to charges being filed. They said a red tote bag filled with puppies was dumped into a river or stream off Burrville Road with a green lid on it.
They said the puppies appeared to be between seven and nine weeks old. The rescue also estimated that the puppies may have been dumped on Christmas Day or the day after.
One of the puppies survived, they said.
Later on Monday, MCSO said they arrested a 24-year-old man in the animal cruelty case. They said the man was being held at the Morgan County Jail without bond on unrelated charges as the investigation is finalized.
They said they anticipated he would be charged with six counts of animal cruelty by Tuesday morning.
