A trusted employee at a ranch in St. Landry Parish is now accused of cattle rustling.

The ranch owners are now left devastated and paying thousands in order to recover.

Mariah Lowrey said her parents are now traveling out of state and paying out of their own pockets to get their cattle back.

“The worst part is that we have to buy the animals back. My parents drove 13 hours yesterday to Carthridge, Texas round trip and paid $6200 to buy three of our animals back and the one in Elton we have to pay $1700 to get her back,” said Lowrey.

Lowrey said 13 heifers and an angus bull worth more than $30,000 were stolen from Lowrey Farms in Melville.

“Our $3500 bull was castrated. He’s a steer. He’s gone. We can’t ever get him back. They said they can’t even find him and the heifers that were probably pregnant, but it was early now they’re at a feed lot too,” said Lowrey.

St. Landry Parish Sheriff deputies arrested and charged 37-year-old  Jeramie Brown of Eunice and 23-year-old Dustin Guillory of Mamou with two counts each of criminal trespass and two of cattle theft, a felony.

Lieutenant Clay Higgins said cattle theft is taken very seriously in the parish.

“The importance of ranchers and farmers in St. Landry Parish can’t be understated. You know the sheriff doesn’t take kindly to cattle rustling,” said Higgins.

Lowrey said Brown is a former employee at the ranch.

“He lived at our farm. We gave him a place to live. We fed him and washed his clothes and they spent a lot of time with him and to have him do this is just devastating because you feel so secure when you’re out in the  country you’re far away from everybody,” said Lowrey.

Lowrey said her family is now working to recover from this big hit to their farm.

They’re now focused on getting their found animals back to health.