Valley Park Chupacabra, St. Louis County, Missouri

Valley Park sits on the western edge of St. Louis County, Missouri. On its land lay the remains of Lake Hill Speedway, a one-third-mile track that began as dirt and was paved in 1966. It sat between two sets of railroad tracks, and the only way in was through a tunnel under a railroad trestle. The track closed in the 1980s, apart from a brief revival attempt in 2007. By 2013 it stood disused.

September 17, 2013. FOX 2 St. Louis published a story from one of its viewers. Stephanie Reynolds, of Valley Park, said she had recently seen a strange animal near a gate. FOX 2 described it as a small grey dog-like animal. Photographs came with the report.

It was not alone, she believed. Reynolds wrote that she had "heard up to four of them" on the Old Lake Hill Speedway property, "seen around the front gate." She reported seeing one.

The next day Patch retold her account in different words. A "large, doglike creature with no hair and a distressed, skeletal appearance." Small or large. Both versions trace back to the same statement.

FOX 2 followed with what it called exclusive video of the alleged chupacabra in Valley Park. Reporter Anthony Kiekow obtained the footage. It showed a grey, dog-like animal that residents said they had seen several times in the area. Some of them called it a chupacabra.

Eric Londal was less sure. To him it looked like "a weird coyote." On Facebook, commenters wondered whether it was a dog or a coyote in need of care.

The Missouri Department of Conservation responded to the photos with a public statement. Every year, it said, people send in reports and photos like these. "The animals in the photos turn out to be dogs or coyotes suffering from severe sarcoptic mange and malnutrition." It added: "No wildlife biologist has ever confirmed the existence of one." Its own field guide listed the chupacabra as "legendary." Conservation officials told FOX 2 the animal was likely a dog with mange. On September 19, FOX 2 ran a story titled "Coyotes with mange getting much needed help."

No one alleged a hoax. No one questioned the photos or the video. But the animal was never captured, never examined, never tested. Wikipedia's chupacabra article sums the case up in a single line. Reports in St. Louis "were attributed to a dog with mange."

It belongs to a crowded season. In August 2013, a trail camera in Louisiana caught a "chupacabra" that a state biologist identified as a mangy coyote. Days later, Discovery News revisited the 2007 "blue dog" of Cuero, Texas. In Argentina that September, a carcass turned out to be a naturally mummified cat.

And in October, Jennifer Whitfield and her son saw a hairless animal in Picayune, Mississippi. A state wildlife officer called it a mangy coyote. Different places. The same grey, hairless shape at the edge of town.