TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Police are searching for a woman after beachgoers at a Georgia beach reported that an injured puppy was being thrown into the ocean earlier this month. 

Tybee Island police officers encountered the dog’s owner Sept. 12 and retrieved the puppy, the agency said in a statement. Police say she told officers her dog had been injured a week earlier, and she did not have the money to seek medical treatment.

Officers cited Candy Selena Marban with violating a city cruelty to animals ordinance and allowed her to go, police said.

Police say their officers responded to a report of the puppy being thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. In a statement posted by police on social media, they did not specifically accuse her of that.

Officers took the puppy in for emergency medical treatment in Savannah. After a veterinarian decided the puppy would have to be euthanized because its injuries were so severe, detectives secured a warrant for a more serious felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, police said.

Police circulated a wanted poster with a picture of Marban and her dog. They say she has ties to Gainesville, Georgia, and they have been in contact with law officers in the Gainesville area in hopes of finding her.

“New information suggests that she may be in the Savannah area, but she could be anywhere,” police said in a Monday update on the case.

Police have not said how exactly the dog was injured a week before they encountered her on the beach.