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Baking in the South Florida sun, the puppy grew famished and dehydrated. Nearby road work splashed hot tar on the pooch. Blood seeped from his backside. His gums turned pale white. Angry neighbors called police, but the 7-month-old puppy nevertheless died at an animal hospital. Hollywood police immediately issued a summons charging Sascha Gamel, 44, with a misdemeanor charge of confining a dog without proper food or water. But an embarrassing gaffe soon emerged: Gamel, a Seattle real estate developer, hadn’t lived in Florida for years — and he had records to prove it.

Broward prosecutors this week plan to drop charges against Gamel, while investigators look for the real culprit. His defense team believes the real culprit may be a completely bald Miami Beach man with a similar sounding name. Gamel has a full set full of hair.

“Rather than do a proper investigation, the police went to a database, retrieved a phonetically similar sounding name and decided Sasha must be the guy,” said lawyer Simon Steckel. “I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen anything as ridiculous.”

Law enforcement won’t say who is the new target but acknowledge that Gamel is not the dog killer.

“It’s been determined that the wrong person was inadvertently arrested,” Broward State Attorney’s spokesman Ron Ishoy said. “At this time, the State Attorney’s investigation into this matter is on-going.”

The case began in November 2010, when a business man renting warehouse space at 1810 Garfield St. told the building owner, Martin Bloom, he had been “forced out” of his home and needed to keep the Pitbull there for a short time, according to a report by Hollywood detective Cynthia Bates. Sometime after, real estate broker and Underdog Foundation co-founder, Adam Greenberg, noticed the dog, jumping and frustrated, tethered to a fence with no shade and no water. Bloom, meanwhile, called the dog’s owner, who assured he would remove the puppy soon.

“He was digging holes in the little bit of dirt he had. He was very depressed and frustrated. Nobody was walking him. It was a horrible existence,” said Greenberg, who happens to run an animal rescue group, the Underdog Foundation.

A Broward County animal control officer came by twice during the 10 days, but did not remove the dog, instead leaving a pamphlet for how to vaccinate dogs at the warehouse. Finally on Nov. 13, 2010, the dog’s health was so bad that Greenberg called police, who allowed him to take the dog to a veterinarian. The dehydrated and malnourished puppy -- nicknamed “Buddy” by Greenberg -- died eight hours later.

Greenberg and Bloom picked Gamel, the thick-haired Seattle businessman, out of a photo lineup provided by Detective Bates. “I was kind of conflicted in the initial lineup,” Greenberg admitted. “But they looked pretty similar if you take away the hair.”