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HANNIBAL, MO. -- A Hannibal family is devastated after two of their horses went missing a week ago.

The owners suspect they were taken by horse thieves but fear worse things may have happened to them.

KHQA's Kristen Aguirre met with one of the owners to hear her plea for the horses return.

LaDonna Mazzorana has loved horses her whole life. She rescues any that are in need and brings them to her 60 acre farm where she cares for them and raises them as her own.

"A lot of them I rescued from situations where people couldn't afford to keep them and so I took the responsibility on maybe starving or abused," said Mazzorana.

Recently LaDonna noticed two of her horses missing, Miss Piggy and Autumn. After hours searching her land, the horses were still no where to be found. But she is almost certain she knows what happened to them.

"Yes, I feel pretty confident that someone took the horses," she said.

LaDonna believes her horses were stolen and  reported them missing to the Marion County Sheriff's Department. While the case is under investigation, it's hard for officials to move forward with out any formal documentation showing that LaDonna owns the horses.

"We have grade horses what we call non paper horses for the most part, just trail horses we don't use them professionally," said Mazzorana.

Now LaDonna spends her nights crying and worrying about Miss Piggy and Autumn. She fears the worst for them.

"Fearful of what would happen to the horses, with the slaughter houses opening up that's scary. Or the remote chance that they're stuck in a fence somewhere," said LaDonna Mazzorana.

LaDonna and her family recently moved from Northern Illinois where they have rescue teams to search for missing horses. Here in Hannibal there are no such organizations like that, leaving LaDonna to only hope for the best.

"I just hope we find them and their returned. To know that they were safe would be a blessing to know that they were okay," she said.

LaDonna wants to get her horses back but she also hopes her story informs other horse owners to now use extreme precautions to protect their animals.

Both horses missing are chestnut colored and are females. Miss Piggy has a white blaze on her face resembling a lightening bolt and Autumn has one shaped like a star.

If you have any information on these missing horses please contact LaDonna Mazzorana at 573-822-8121.

Here's more on this story from the Hannibal Courier Post.