Six horses died, now their owners are dealing with the loss of their dreams and treasured family pets. And the Pierce County Sheriff's Office believes a drunk driver started it all.

"It looked like I was being attacked," describes Roy resident Ione Mangan. "I didn't know what was happening at two o'clock in the morning." Mangan woke from a sound sleep Sunday to horror. "My horses screamed, it was a bloodcurdling scream you would never think a horse could make but it did."

In the dead of night her pasture was bright as day. A car crashed into a power pole, downing a 12-thousand volt line right into Mangan's rain-drenched pasture. "The whole pasture was white and blue in flame where the electricity was running on top of the rainwater," says Mangan.

It was bright enough that neighbor Chet Folk watched Mangan's two prized Arabian stallions and her pregnant mare, die. "They were getting shocked," describes Folk. "Hit by bolts as they were running."

He watched from his kitchen window as one of Mangan's horses went down instantly, "the other two just kept running, trying to get away, and it just kept hitting 'em, hitting 'em," he says.

Tacoma Power is investigating, but still doesn't know exactly what happened. An operator shut down the system within ten minutes. But neighbors say it didn't happen soon enough.

"I called 911," cries Mangan, "I said get someone out here, I don't care if it's fire department, police department, somebody to cut that power off, the animals are dying. And there was nothing you could do."

What Chet Folk didn't realize is that while he was watching the arcing and flames growing in Mangan's yard, eventually the power would hit the chain link fence in his yard. It shot like a rocket across the top to where his horse Sam was standing - five pastures away.

Sam was Folk's 15-year-old American Saddle Bred horse. Folk's son Clint grew up with Sam, more family than pet. The horse died instantly.

Clint started to go out to Sam's pasture this morning, just like usual to feed him, before remembering -- Sam was dead. "Just gonna miss him a lot."

And now, Sheriff's deputies say the car crash that started all this -- killing Ione Mangan's prized Arabians, Sam and two other horses -- may have been driven by a drunk driver.

The 21-year old driver lives in the neighborhood. The sheriff's department plans to forward the case to the prosecutor's office for possible charges.