15-year-old Chloe Hubbell was out of town Friday night, attending a cattle show. When she got back home to Golden Gate Estates with her family Saturday evening, her 2-year-old prize heifer Samantha was gone.
"She knocked down the fence post, which you could tell that's where she squeezed through," Chloe said.
The teen offered a $500 reward to whoever found Samantha safe. But Tuesday night, she got a call from someone helping to search for the heifer near Everglades Boulevard, saying they'd found Samantha's remains.
"It definitely was her," Chloe said. "All that was left of her was bones and a small piece of her tail."
But whoever killed Samantha took two lives - the heifer was pregnant with a calf from a prize-winning bull.
"She was five months pregnant, and it was obvious was obvious that she was," Chloe said. "Whoever did it could have easily called the sheriff's department, letting them know, 'hey, there's a cow in my backyard.'"
"Everyone within blocks of here knew she was missing," said Chloe's father Shannon Hubbell. "But they decided they were going to slaughter her for meat. She's in somebody's freezer now. And they just took her remains, and put her off to the side of the road."
Now the $500 reward is for anyone who can help law enforcement find who killed Samantha.
"We would like justice, for sure," Shannon Hubbell said.
He said that while his daughter is heart-broken over Samantha's killing, she won't give up raising and showing cattle.
"She lives it and breathes it," Shannon said. "24 hours a day, she's cattle, cattle, cattle."
