The Moca Vampire
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 20th, 2007
Nick Redfern has posted a guest blog by Scott Corrales on UFOmystic about the Moca Vampire. I will post an excerpt here. Part 1 of the article can be read in its entirety on UFOmystic here.
The entity, dubbed “The Moca Vampire” by the press, kicked off its killing spree in Barrio Rocha, a sector of the town of Moca, where it took the lives of a number of animals in a grisly manner never seen before. Fifteen cows, three goats, two geese and a pig were found dead with bizarre perforations on their hides, suggesting that a sharp instrument had been inserted into the hapless bovines. Autopsies showed that the animals had been thoroughly relieved of blood, as if consumed by some predator.
On March 7, 1975, a cow belonging to Rey Jiménez was found dead in Moca’s Barrio Cruz, presenting deep, piercing wounds on its skull and a number of scratches around the wounds on its body. Jiménez’s cow was added to the growing list of victims, which now totaled well over thirty.
As the number of victims grew, the Moca Vampire acquired an identity of its own, much in the same way that the Chupacabras would twenty years later. Speculation as to its nature was rife: many believed it was a supernatural “bird”, like the one seen by María Acevedo, a Moca resident who noticed that a strange animal had landed on her home’s zinc rooftop in the middle of the night. According to Acevedo’s testimony, the bird pecked at the rusty rooftop and at the windows before taking flight, issuing a terrifying scream. Others more readily accepted any suggestion that it was a space alien, an occupant of the UFOs reported on an almost daily basis over Puerto Rico at the time. Some clung to the belief that a gigantic vampire bat had somehow made it from the mainland to the Caribbean, slaking its thirst on the local cattle. Only days later, farmer Cecilio Hernández notified authorities that the elusive Moca Vampire had slain thirty-four chickens on his property at some point during the night. The supernatural entity was by now responsible for ninety animal deaths in a two week period.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
“On March 7, 1975, a cow belonging to Rey Jiménez was found dead in Moca’s Barrio Cruz, presenting deep, piercing wounds on its skull and a number of scratches around the wounds on its body.”
That sounds exactly like the way a jaguar takes prey. They are the only large cat known to routinely kill prey by biting through the skull. And they have nice long claws on all four feet with which to make all those scratches.
Yes, the way it was killed resembles that of a jaguar. But what kind of jaguar completely drains its prey of blood? That is the part of these stories that I am always a bit skeptical about. No large predator is known to or is physically capable of thoroughly draining a cow entirely of its blood. So what does that leave us with? A sicko out there draining the blood? Some kind of new animal that improbably can perform such a feat? Aliens? Complete fabrication or embellishment on the part of the witnesses? I have no idea, but I would like to find out just what in the world is going on.
The note about the cow didn’t mention it being completely exsanguinated, although the previous paragraph said that the other animals had been.
There really isn’t enough information to make an informed conclusion. For instance, “autopsies” were supposedly done (animal autopsies are more properly referred to as necropsies). Who performed the necropsies? Was it a local farmer, someone affiliated with the police, or a licensed veterinarian? Were they experienced in animal pathology? Were the necropsies done in the field or in a facility designed for such activity, with access to a laboratory? Had there been any rain that might have washed away traces of blood? Had any scavengers been at the carcasses? Many types of insects consume blood and other debris from the area surrounding dead animals. Were the dead animals in an area with sandy or gravelly soil, where much of the blood and body liquids could have drained away?
Many predators and scavengers will drink pooled blood from carcasses. Weasels and some cats are known to do this. And many predators, when faced with a situation where there is a lot of livestock or poultry in a confined area, will continue to kill and kill until either they are tired, driven away, or every animal within reach is dead. The mass killing of the chickens, especially by weasels and other mustelids (foxes , coyotes, and cats have been known to do engage in mass livestock killings too) is something with which poultry farmers the world over are familiar. Even tame dogs sometimes go on livestock killing sprees and kill many more animals than they can eat.
I doubt that these incidents were complete fabrications. There probably were some animals killed and maybe some had unusual wounds. It could be that there was an investigation, the details of which became embellished with each retelling, human nature being what it is. After someone came up with the term “vampire” to describe the killings, human nature would do the rest. Then when more animals nearby turned up dead, human nature would no doubt come into action again, and see a link where maybe there really wasn’t one. After all, we have the example of the Maine Mutant from last summer to show us how true stories can become inflamed all out of proportion almost overnight.
There may have been a large bird in the area. It could even have been a bird unfamiliar to that region. I doubt that the bird had anything to do with the killings, though, except possibly as a scavenger. Birds don’t generally engage in mass killings. Its presence was probably a coincidence.
Something or some things killed those animals, and I, too, am curious as to what it could have been. Even if it was a known or a common animal it is an interesting case.
Kittenz raised some very important and absolutely correct points about the lack of blood found in conjunction with these carcasses.
Blood dries quickly if it isn’t removed by predators or scavengers or drained/soaked into the ground. I doubt many people could recognize a dried out bloodstain on most soils, especially if vegetation is there to hide it and assist in removing it do to dew formation.
Uninformed people finding a dead animal seem to think that there should be huge puddles of blood. Most never realize that bleeding stops when the heart stops unless a body is placed so that gravity will drain out the blood. Blood pools and coagulates (livre mortis) inside a dead body and while decomposition causes reliquification of blood, it takes a while.
I’ve done too many dead body situations on my former job. Educational maybe, but psychologically unhealthy for me so I’m stopping here. Too many bad memories.
“Fifteen cows, three goats, two geese and a pig were found dead with bizarre perforations on their hides, suggesting that a sharp instrument had been inserted into the hapless bovines. Autopsies showed that the animals had been thoroughly relieved of blood, as if consumed by some predator.”
Well, it does suggest fifteen cows were totally drained of blood, so I’d say that covers cows. There certainly is not enough information to tell really what is going on here. Lots of animals drink blood or lap up pooled blood, or whatever, but I get the feeling from these reports that the corpses were bone dry which is odd. That is difficult to explain away without more complete details. Very curious.
Sorry to drone on, but another thing that bothers me about these cases is that they describe the wounds as “bizzarre preforations”. Now Kittenz made a very good point that the other description matches the kill pattern for a jaguar. So who is it that is examining these bodies? Why are these wounds considered to be bizzarre and mysterious? It seems an expert on wildlife did the examination, they could fairly quickly deduce what kind of animal, if it is indeed an animal, it was. I know, there is not enough information to go on at this time, but it makes me wonder.
And you guys said there was no link between Ufology and CZ! The “complete lack of blood” aspect is identical to that found in the American cattle mutilations that have been reported since 1967. In many cases, wildlife officials have examined those bodies, and almost always ascribed the “excisions made with surgical precision” to predator or scavenger marks, and the lack of blood to exactly what’s been said here- unfamiliarity with dead animals, and how blood might be absorbed by various soils.
What seems to be lacking in both cases is an awareness of who found the bodies- farmers and ranchers. Now yes, you’re going to find some clueless or deluded individuals no matter where you go (And group psychology can help in that regard too. Once someone says aliens are mutilating his cattle, perhaps the next guy will too), but in general, most farmers and ranchers should be pretty familiar with dead animals and how they appear under different circumstances.
I just don’t know about these cases. I think officials write them off way too easily, but I also think the public buys into them way too easily too. And all those strange lights in the sky, well, maybe they have something to do with all this, and maybe they don’t. Only investigation can ever hope to discern the difference between coincidence and synchronicity, and even then it might not be enough.
Well it is very odd because I would think anybody who was qualified to do any of the investigations would know about dead animal carcasses and would be familiar with different injuries that could be caused by predators. Yet they still describe them as mysterious and bizzarre. This is very telling to me that something weird is going on. I am not even close to saying it has anything to do with UFOs, but I would like some more info on this one, especially, as Mnynames said, WHO found the bodies and who did the necropsies.