New Jersey

Man, woman charged after child found in ‘despicable’ NJ home surrounded by over 30 dead foster dogs

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2023

Man, woman charged after child found in ‘despicable’ NJ home surrounded by over 30 dead foster dogs

A New Jersey duo was arrested on animal cruelty and child endangerment charges after police found a 9-year-old kid living at their squalid home surrounded by dozens of dead foster dogs, according to police.

Investigators believe Brandon Leconey, 32, and Rebeccah Halbach, 35, were accepting money from animal rescue groups to care for the dogs, but instead would cash the checks and allow the animals to starve to death.

The sickening scene at their Evesham Township home was discovered by officers Monday after a witness reported seeing several malnourished and sick pooches around the property, police said.

After speaking with Leconey and Halbach, police found more than 30 dead canines inside of the home, which was in “despicable” condition.

Fourteen dogs were found still alive — nine of which had to be taken to a local animal hospital — as well as a “numerous” cats and rabbits.

Police had to open up the windows and doors to air out the noxious home before authorities entered, police said.

6ABC

woman holding a dog — Police said nine other dogs were found alive, along with a number of cats and rabbits.

One pooch had to be euthanized because it was in such poor health, police said.

Overall, as many as 100 dogs may have died in the home, with more buried on the property.

“There’s dogs in cages. Live dogs in cages, dead dogs in cages. Dead animals throughout the house,” Evesham Township Police Chief Walt Miller told WPVI.

“Behind the home there was also a burial spot where there was a large number of dogs in various levels of decay,” he added.

Living among the nauseating pet cemetery was a 9-year-old child who was removed from the home due to the unhealthy conditions.

Up to 100 dogs may have died on the property, police said.

crime scene NJ — More dogs were found buried in the backyard of the property.

The child is in custody of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection & Permanency, police said.

“It’s definitely concerning having a 9-year-old child living in this home, sleeping in this home, eating in this home,” Miller said.

Investigators had to open doors and windows to air out the home and reduce toxic gas levels before it was safe to enter the house, he told the outlet.

The child’s relationship to Leconey and Halbach was unclear.

Officials were tipped off to the home by a North Carolina animal rescue that had grown suspicious that the dogs it had sent to Halbach and Leconey to foster in exchange for payment were not being cared for, police told WPVI.

When a representative from Tender Mercies Pet Organization went to their home to check it out, they immediately called the police.

Tender Mercies said that two of its dogs are now back in its custody.

Leconey was booked at the Burlington County Jail pending a detention hearing. Halbach is undergoing a medical evaluation at a hospital for an unrelated medical condition, police said. She will be jailed once she is cleared for incarceration.

Police are searching the home for additional evidence.

Additionally, animal cruelty charges are expected to be filed once the actual number of dogs is determined.

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New Jersey

This might be New Jersey's snowiest day of the entire winter

Published

2 hours ago

November 19, 2024

Press Room

This might be New Jersey's snowiest day of the entire winter

Let it snow! With each passing week, our weather turns progressively colder. New Jersey’s first snowflakes of the season are now in view. And the Winter Solstice is only a little more than a month away. It is time to start thinking seriously about wintry weather. More specifically: Snow.

Here’s when to expect NJ’s first snow of the season

While pondering the many uses of “bread and milk,” I had a scientific curiosity.

I wondered if there was one day of the year that tends to be snowier than every other date on the calendar for New Jersey. Sure, there is an average “peak” to wintry weather. (In fact, there are three distinct peaks — more on that in a moment.) But can we pinpoint a single day that represents the height of New Jersey’s snow season?

As a matter of fact, yes we can.

Methodology

To complete this analysis, I queried the Applied Climate Information System, a warehouse of weather and climate data.

I specifically looked at exactly 50 years of snowfall data, from 1971 to 2020. (An admittedly arbitrary choice for period of record, but I wanted a healthy spread of snow observations both geographically and temporally.) Approximately 675 weather stations reported snow data in New Jersey in that time frame.

For the purposes of this project, I marked a calendar day as “snowy” if any single weather station in the state reported at least one inch of snowfall on that date.

An inch of snow is more than enough to snarl traffic and force you to drag out the snow brush yet again. (Getty Images / Vadven)

The Snowiest Day

There is actually a definitive answer here. With 24 out of 50 years (1971-2020) reporting snow — just shy of half — February 5th is the winner.

And what a funny coincidence: February 5th is also National Weatherperson’s Day. The most important holiday of the entire year!

Detailed Close-up of Groundhog Sitting up and Looking Left

This is a groundhog. Not a meteorologist. (Louise Wightman)

Second place is February 13th with 23 occurrences. Third is January 21nd at 22. And tied for fourth are January 19th, January 25th, February 4th, and February 6th, all at 21 times in 50 years.

February 9 Snow

During this February 9, 2017 snowstorm, a worker clears the platform at a NJ Transit train station. (NJ Transit)

Digging into the Statistics

We can even take all the years of snow data and create a graph. This shows, for each day of snow season in New Jersey (October 4th to May 9th), the percentage of years from 1971-2020 that at least one inch of snow was reported somewhere in New Jersey.

(Visualization: Dan Zarrow / Google Sheets, Data: ACIS)

Day-to-day variability is to be expected. That is resolved by the red trendline, representing a 14 point (2 week) moving average. There are some definitive patterns noticeable here.

First, I want to point out that the dataset is basically tri-modal. Meaning there are three definitive peaks in snowstorm activity. One little bump in snowy days around mid-December, leading up to the Winter Solstice. Another occurs in mid to late January, matching with the climatologically coldest temperatures of the year — the “dead of winter”. And another peak occurs in early to mid February, including the highest bar on February 5th.

In total, 178 days out of 366 have seen observed inch-plus snow in New Jersey. That is an impressive 49% of the year in which it has snowed here.

October snow has happened on a few occasions in New Jersey, including 2011 shown here. (Getty Images)

Looking at our snow season from start to finish (i.e. left to right on the graph), it is clear that snow can fall in November. But inch-plus snow is pretty rare in NJ until December.

There is a notable minimum value on December 24th. Christmas Eve. Only 4 of the last 50 years have shown an inch of magical Christmas Eve snow. But 11 Christmas Day snow observations have occurred. That strikes me as an odd outlier, and makes me wonder if there’s some observation bias or other funkiness with the reports here.

Christmas snow is especially magical. (Craig Allen photo)

You will notice another data minimum on February 29th, due to Leap Day. 4 out of the 13 February 29ths in the survey period reported snow. That comes to about 30%, in line with other nearby dates in late February and early March.

Finally, it is notable how quickly accumulating snow chances disappear beyond the first day of Spring, around March 21st. Snow in April is about as rare as November, at each tail of the graph.

Spring snow happens from time to time, and can cause damage to budding plants. (FamVeld)

Final Thoughts

Obviously, each winter season is different for New Jersey. And this climatological analysis in no way serves as a short-range or long-range forecast. Just a neat little investigation, proving that common sense largely matches reality when it comes to the timing of peak snow chances in New Jersey.

So stock up on the road salt, wear your pajamas inside-out, and start brewing the hot chocolate. February 5th could be a wintry day!

Let it snow: 12 things to know about winter forecasting in NJ

Gallery Credit: Dan Zarrow

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Check out Dan’s weather blog or follow him on Facebook for your latest weather forecast updates.