The mystery behind a tombstone that was found earlier this month at an NJ Transit bus terminal has been solved.
The headstone, which appeared to belong to an 8-year-old child, actually belonged to a Newark Rottweiler named Max Ferreira, according to the Nutley police department.
Detectives were able to track down animal hospital records that show an animal matching the name and dates inscribed on the headstone.
The tombstone was found by a maintenance worker in the NJ Transit bus depot in Nutley on Aug. 4. Authorities were looking into which cemetery may have been missing a headstone, which read “Max Ferreira, born June 16, 1990, died Sept. 29, 1998.”
Nutley detectives called local cemeteries to ask them about the tombstone and a police alert was sent to surrounding agencies before they found the animal records.
It still wasn’t clear how the tombstone ended up at the bus terminal.
