While a jury delivered its verdict on the animal cruelty charges against them, a Wisconsin couple was discovered dead of gunshot wounds in a burning house on a Pleasant Prairie property. Now police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the couple’s death.

In 2013, personnel from the Pleasant Prairie Police Department discovered 23 horses on a property belonging to David and Paula White, all of which were malnourished and in need of veterinary and farrier care. Later, law enforcement personnel found the remains of 55 horses and other animals buried on the property and the remains of another five horses in a barn.

Law enforcement authorities later charged David and Paula White with multiple counts of felony animal mistreatment involving death.

Pleasant Prairie Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Dan Reilly said the Whites were slated to appear in a Kenosha County court on March 19 to hear the jury’s verdict in their animal cruelty case. The couple never appeared, and the jury convicted the Whites in absentia of 11 felonies; the pair faced nearly 50 years in prison