ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — The mystery behind two missing baby giraffes is still swirling around the Natural Bridge Zoo in Rockbridge County. The case dates back to 2023, when the Attorney General’s Animal Law Unit seized 100 animals due to neglect allegations.

In March 2024, a jury awarded 71 of those animals to the county, returning 29 to the zoo. Throughout the legal saga, the giraffes stayed at the zoo because they’re difficult to move, and somewhere along the way, two of them became pregnant.

In October 2024, officials moved the zoo’s male giraffe off the property, and zoo owner Gretchen Mogensen streamed the process on Facebook Live.

They managed to run him over that one time… She slams the door on him and then he hits the door…He hit the side of his neck, he hit his shoulder and he is a senior,” Mogensen said in a past interview, referring to a moment where the giraffe was hit with a gate. “So many people that are watching the livestream are saying ‘If that was me I’d go in and do something,’ but the reality is, if I try and walk over there to go and do something, I’m gonna get arrested.

Gretchen Mogensen and former owner Karl Mogensen were both charged with contempt of court, as prosecutors alleged that they impeded the movement of the giraffes.

RELATED: Natural Bridge Zoo’s owners found guilty of contempt of court as legal battle continues

In their hearing on Wednesday, the defendants weren’t given active jail sentences, but they’re both facing thousands of dollars in fines, after the judge found them guilty of violating a court order.

We would have moved those giraffes, those pregnant giraffes in October, but for the threats by Karl Mogensen and the Facebook live,” Michelle Welch, a special prosecutor with the AG’s Animal Law Unit, told the court.

[Karl] told me that he would shoot anyone that came that day,” Gabriel Spencer, a special agent for Virginia State Police, testified

In April, the AG’s ALU went to the zoo for a court-ordered surprise inspection. However, officials were met with a surprise.

“The two female giraffes were no longer pregnant, but there were no calves present,” Investigator Amy Taylor said.

Taylor said there was evidence of their births, like afterbirth on the female’s tail, so the search began for the babies. However, she said they still haven’t been found.

I have an active criminal investigation,” Taylor said.

According to state records, the zoo has taken animals from their mothers just days after birth in the past.

“It’s a violation of Virginia code, code of Virginia… to transport them without their mothers or to separate them before seven weeks of age,” Taylor said.

Gretchen Mogensen is set to go back before a judge for a second court order violation hearing, this one regarding those giraffes. That date hasn’t been set, but prosecutors said they plan to discuss her role in where the babies may have gone.