Return of the Bladenboro Beast?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 7th, 2013
Dana Newkirk of Who Forted? reports that the beast may be back:
It appears that the Vampire Beast of North Carolina, a monster blamed for dozens of blood-drained animal corpses, is back on the prowl and hungrier than ever.
In 1953 the Bladenboro Newspaper covered a story about a strange creature that had blamed for the deaths of numerous dogs, draining them of their blood. Local eyewitnesses who spotted the beast claimed it possessed the body of a bear, the head of a cat, and that when it opened its mouth to growl it made the sound of a woman screaming.
The original newspaper article stirred up quite a bit of controversy, so much, in fact, that groups of farmers from neighboring towns came to Bladenboro to hunt and kill the creature. They never did track the beast down, and fortunately for them, the killings eventually stopped on their own.
The bizarre animal exsanguination began again in 2003, only this time it seemed the creature had broadened his horizons and was now killing in a 150-miles radius beyond Bladenboro. During its second blood-run, the Vampire Beast of North Carolina was managing to slay even the bulkiest of Pit Bulls with ease and many Bladenboro residents claimed to have found strange tracks around their dead pets that even wildlife biologists couldn’t explain.
And then, much like in 1953, the killings stopped just as quickly as they began. Until last month, that is..
According to a report by paranormal investigator Thomas Byers, on June 15th 2013, Bladenboro, NC resident Misty Turner and her son Tyler contacted local police after something visited their farm in the dead of night, killing three of their horses and a large Bull Mastiff dog. Misty’s son Tyler found the horses after the barking dog had alerted the family to the fact that something was skulking around the property. The dog continued to bark for quite some time, obsessed with the dense wooded area alongside the farm.
Read her article here to learn more about the new attacks: Has the Vampire Beast of North Carolina Returned? New Killings by Mystery Animal Match Classic Cryptid Case
We have talked about the Beast of Bladenboro quite a bit here on Cryptomundo in the past…
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.
The beast is back!
Interesting to say the least. Whatever is going on, it suddenly struck me that you’d be hard pressed to find a state that didn’t have some history of animal mutilations or blood drained critters being found. Which raises the logical question: what animals do we have on record that can do that? AND, if no suitable suspect can be attributed to it, then there must be something (creature, person or something else:)) responsible.
This article got my interest because I have a cousin in Kentucky (oh, don’t start with the jokes) and a county there is having problems with a similar problem this year–animals being mutilated and killed–to the point that the city council is openly trying to deal with it.
The bottom line is that there seems to be an awful lot of these kinds of cases and no one ever seems to come up with a satisfactory answer or predator.
Anyone else have any ideas? I personally don’t have enough education zoologically to have a suspect list.
Are there any casts of those tracks?
The only critters I know of that could do that to a Pit Bull (I could be overlooking something) would be humans (say cults/covens) and wolverines, which -can- venture very far afield, and aren’t expected when they do.
Leeches?
Some disease that coagulates blood?
There are several species that are hematophages, most invertebrates or insects, but there are some mammals, notably the vampire bat, and even a few birds, such as the vampire finches (real name, Galápagos finch species). The vampire finch is an occasional vampire, while the vampire bat is obligatory.
I am not aware of any large hematophage species.
Interesting but not enough details. How did the horses die? One can say “it looks like they have no blood”, but unless an autopsy is done thats just speculation.
sschaper and Insanity–those were my thoughts too. There are little critters capable of actually draining blood, but not in the amounts that could drain a victim the size of a dog or sheep. Granted we don’t have a real time frame for how long it took, but leeches–it would take a ton of them. Vampire bats aren’t indigenous to North America and no other creatures (other than possibly weird humans with tools) fit the bill. Most animals are not that neat and tidy when it comes to ingesting their food.
The puncture marks and blood drain implies (if we’re dealing with a creature and not a nut) that it doesn’t use its teeth for anything other than making the incision to suck the blood/fluids. This is usually reserved to smaller creatures to my knowledge. larger predators require more in the way of food–proteins and carbs, which is why your larger predators usually eat the tissue–meat, organs, blood, bones, etc.
Again, which brings us to either: there’s some unknown predator that is every bit as good at hiding over the decades, or we’re dealing with humans who do such things for who-knows-why. However, it’s happening in multiple states at various times and on semi-large scales and over a period of time.
Someone ought to write a book on that–ASSuming no one has.
The Beast of Bladenboro is nothing but a mountain lion (Puma concolor), far away from its usual range. BTW: mountain lions are not vampires.
I agree with volmar- mountain lion.
They have been spreading into territories they haven’t been seen for a generation or more all up and down the appalachians. They don’t seem to be shying away from semi-rural and suburban areas anymore.
In most states the official authorities are denying their existence.
A mountain lion travels great distances within its territory, it kills dogs when given the chance, and can easily take down a horse. It also kills most often by crushing the neck and throat area, which can lead to exsanguination. They will also kill for fresh meat, rather than return to an existing carcass, or kill several animals at once, if it is easy to do so.
I have my own “catamount” tale. Back in the 1990’s I came face to face, literally, with a mountain lion when coming out of my tent in the middle of the night, up Pine Creek in Pennsylvania.
@ sschaper a single mountain lion can take a pitbull, no problem. The only chance a pitbull would have is if it was off lease and was smart enough to run like hell at first sight of the mountain lion, or if it was in a pack of 4 or 5.
The cats know that packs of dogs in their territory are trouble, and tend to take out any single dog they cross paths with.