Investigators are looking for whoever shot and killed several horses this weekend.

Rhonda Abbuehl says she doesn't understand how someone could be so cruel to shoot her horse. That horse, named Rex, died Monday morning bringing the total number of horses killed to three.

Early Sunday morning, a gunshot woke up everyone in Abbuehl's house. She saw the taillights pulling away, but she has no clue who would've shot at Rex or why.

"Come here Shadow, come here baby," Abbuehl calls to her horse.

Abbuehl is babying Shadow a little more than usual these days; she says he lost a buddy, too.

"My favorite thing is watching them run and play with each other. They'd run up and down with their tails in the air. That was my favorite and now I won't get to do that anymore," Abbuehl says.

Abbuehl says her roommate found Rex bleeding from his hindquarters hours after they heard the shot. In the dark, they couldn't tell anything was wrong because both Rex and Shadow were still standing.

"I can't understand how someone could just shoot an innocent animal standing in a pasture. I just want justice. I want them to be found and then prosecuted," Abbuehl says.

"We have no reason to believe there's a motive other than just to kill," says Capt. Michael Tietz with the Dunn County Sheriff's Department.

Captain Tietz says someone shot three horses within a couple miles of each other near Prairie Farm sometime between 3 and 5 a.m. on Sunday. Abbuehl saw an older model car with longer, narrow horizontal lights fleeing her farm. But, Captain Tietz hopes someone else might have more information.

"Horses are like family members to a lot of people," Tietz says.

Abbuehl raised Rex since he was a baby. Monday, she marked the spot where her nine-year-old horse died with a bouquet.

"White roses stand for love and I love my horse,” she says. “That's the hardest thing is that he's not going to be here. He was my buddy.”

Besides losing her buddy, Abbuehl is also out between $400 and $500 for Rex's vet bill. She paid $1200 for him nine years ago. She hopes to get another horse soon.

Deputies say if the suspects are found they could face up to three and a half years in prison on felony animal cruelty charges.

If you have any information on the horse shootings, you're asked to call the Dunn County Sheriff's Department at (715) 232-1348.

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EARLIER STORY:

The Dunn County Sheriff's Department is trying to find whoever shot and killed three horses between 3:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 29.

Deputies believe the suspect or suspects shot the horses from the road. Other horses in the fields weren't shot. The shootings happened north of Boyceville in the Town of New Haven and the Town of Sherman.

The department says a woman on 1450th Avenue reported her horse was shot and wounded. She says that horse later died. The department says a woman on County Road V told deputies her horse was shot in the head and killed. Another woman on 490th Street told the department her horse was also shot to death.

Deputies say a car with longer horizontal tail lights was seen in the area.

Call the department at (715) 232-1348 if you have any information.