Thursday night, Mandy Oslin, a mother from California, and her two young daughters were informed that their stolen emotional support pig, Honey, had died after being missing for more than a day following the theft of their rental car with Honey in it.

Oslin had brought her daughters and Honey on a trip to Houston earlier in the week. As they were checking into their room at a Houston area La Quinta Inn, the mother went upstairs with the two girls to get them settled. But when she came back to the car, says Oslin, the car and the emotional support animal were gone.

“I went outside. Before we went to sleep, we were going to try to get the pig upstairs. So I went outside and the car was just gone with her in it,” Oslin said. Oslin and her daughters reported the rental car, a 2020 black Hyundai Tucson, and Honey, their emotional support animal missing to law enforcement officers Wednesday morning, according to Deputy Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

While the hunt began, the family extended their trip time in Houston, because they couldn’t leave the area without their beloved family pet. By late afternoon on Thursday, the livestock division of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Jersey Village Police to the Quality Suites Hotel in northwest Harris County, where Honey had been found dead.

A trained animal investigator also responded, and an animal autopsy, called a necropsy, will be conducted. The investigation is ongoing.

“We’re devastated for sure,” Mandy Oslin said. “She’s definitely more than just a pet.”

When the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic started to show up in her daughters’ level of anxiety last year, Oslin decided to bring Honey into the family as a pet, who became an emotional support animal weighing in at 180 pounds.

“As kind of like a healthy distraction, and we’ve trained her to do all kinds of things. She alerts us if anyone is going to have a panic attack,” Oslin said. “Pigs are smarter than dogs, so she can pick up on cues that other animals and even people can’t. So she lets us know when things are about to hit the fan.”

Newsweek reached out to Jersey Village Police for comment and will update this story with any response.