About a year ago, animal control had a warrant to search the house off Oil Well Road in Punta Gorda after a neighbor reported a dead dog on the property - they found the animals, along with a marijuana grow house.
Over 80 animals were found in repulsive conditions – including alligators, malnourished horses and dead dogs.
Pablo Cauz of Miami was arrested on drug-related charges – he's also been arrested on 26 animal cruelty charges.
It wasn't until this week investigators tied 29-year-old Yusniel Valdez-Darias and 26-year-old Greisy Suarez to the crime – they're charged with 24 counts of cruelty – from abandoning to mutilating and killing animals.
Investigators say they found nails in the hooves of goats, alligators in the backyard in buckets and horses eating old, rotten restaurant waste.
Last month, a suspicious fire broke out at the home when no one was supposed to be living inside.
Neighbors are shocked at the crime, but not surprised about the people investigators say committed it.
Leon Sabutis, a neighbor of Greisy Suarez and Yusniel Valdez-Darias says that for the past four years, he's noticed something strange at his next door neighbor's home in Cape Coral.
"Always a lot of activity with a lot of different individuals," Sabutis said.
Investigators say they observed the same activity at the Punta Gorda home the couple owns.
"Unknown people coming and going from the property and whenever we'd go out there there would be a different person than who you dealt with the last time, different animals coming and going," said Lt. Brian Jones, Charlotte County Animal Control.
The Cape Coral couple has bailed out of jail – they'll be in court next month.
Investigators are still searching for who else may be involved or why the house was set on fire last month.
(NBC2 - Feb 28, 2014)
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