The Orocovis Sheep Killings

Puerto Rico, 1995. The island was in the grip of a severe drought. Livestock deaths were not new here. In 1975 a string of killings around Moca had given rise to the legend of the Vampiro de Moca. Twenty years later, something similar began again.

March 11, 1995. Orocovis, a mountain municipality in the very heart of Puerto Rico. Eight sheep were found dead. Each reportedly bore three puncture wounds to the chest. Each was alleged to have been completely drained of blood. The Spanish sceptics' magazine El Escéptico later listed the first victims as eight sheep, a cow and a bull. Some accounts say parts of the bodies were missing.

No one is recorded as seeing an animal or a creature. The farmer, the people who found the carcasses and the officers who came to look are not named in any source. This was a discovery, not a sighting. Only in hindsight did the three wounds become a signature. Later the chupacabras would be said to leave three holes in an inverted triangle.

UFO researchers Jorge Martín and Marleem Martín carried out field investigations of animal deaths in Orocovis and neighbouring Morovis. Their work became the basis of Scott Corrales's book Chupacabras and Other Mysteries. Jorge Martín's sketch, drawn from witness descriptions, became the classic image of the creature.

That description came later, and from elsewhere. In August 1995, Madelyne Tolentino of Canóvanas described a bipedal thing about four feet tall, with protruding eyes and a row of spikes on its back. "At the time, it was walking like a human, on both legs," she said. The comedian Silverio Pérez gave it a name on his San Juan radio programme. In October, Canóvanas mayor José Ramón "Chemo" Soto organised a hunt of about 200 people, including armed police. Reports followed in Caguas, Guánica, Naguabo and San Germán.

At Orocovis, the police and local authorities pointed to bite marks on the necks and legs. Their conclusion was perros realengos. Stray dogs. Some residents blamed extraterrestrials. No necropsy or lab result was ever published for the Orocovis animals. Later, veterinarian Dr. David Morales looked at 300 reported victims. He found that none had been bled dry.

Sceptics note that dogs can kill without eating, and that prey can die later of shock or internal bleeding. The drought may have pushed predators onto livestock. The tabloid El Vocero floated vampire bats arriving on South American cargo. From November 1995, Jorge Martín argued for aliens and a government cover-up.

Benjamin Radford spent five years on the case. He concluded that Tolentino's description was based on Sil, the creature in the film Species. Radford did not think she was hoaxing. But in his words, "the most important chupacabra description cannot be trusted."

Orocovis has no creature, no photograph and no named witness. Yet this is where the chupacabras story begins. From a few dead sheep in the mountains, the legend spread to Mexico and the American Southwest. The argument over what really killed them continues.