Stolen horse from Enumclaw found ‘safe and sound’
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Correction: Reuben the horse was found on April 10, not April 13. The article has been updated.
A stolen horse was recently found “safe and sound” by the King County Sheriff’s Office last Friday.
According to the KCSO, Reuben the horse, 15, was stolen in the early hours of Thursday, April 9.
Jack Hodge’s son found the horse was missing during the morning feed run.
“We’d have occasions over the years where [the horses] would let themselves out and do a little walk around, but in this this particular case it was impossible,” Hodge said. “Reuben’s shank and halter are taken off at night, and… his halter and shank [were] gone.”
The theft followed the death of its owners, Stephanie (Hodge) Burns and Hode’s son, who died last November from breast cancer. She was 42.
Friends and family “jumped on this like you wouldn’t believe,” Hodge said, and soon enough, security footage from a home behind Hodge’s barn was found; it a truck towing a horse trailer arrived at the barn from SE 392nd Street around 1:30 a.m., and left just after 2 a.m.
Hodges was surprised the thieves used that roughshod road for their entry and escape.
“You wouldn’t think a truck and trailer, in the middle of the night, would negotiate it, but that’s what happened,” he said.
The motive for the theft is unclear; family members believe that Reuben was targeted for some reason.
“Obviously they had knowledge of the property to be able to do it, and knowledge of the back gate, and knew where Reuben was, and actually passed barns where other horses were,” Hodge said. “It was very targeted.”
There are suspicions that the truck used in the theft was also used previously by someone who bought hay from the Hodges, but a positive match has yet to be confirmed.
It was not even 24 hours later that deputies found Reuben.
“They took him out of this, I’ll just say what everybody else is saying, a s***hole of a place,” Hodge said; the location of where the horse was found has not yet been disclosed by the KCSO.
“I’m hopeful charges will be made on both the [suspects] and we’ll get some relief that way, because this has been…” he trailed off. “Who steals a horse from a woman that just passed away?”
Reuben was one of Stephanie’s favorites, one of the last of her horses still owned by the Hodge family after many were sold as she underwent cancer treatment.
“He’s a gentle, kind horse to be around,” Hodge said.
This is a developing story, and will be updated as more information becomes available.
