Creature record / 1996

The Sweetwater Chupacabra Killings

March 1996 · Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States

21Thinly documented Cryptid Creature 19 sources

March 1996. Sweetwater, a heavily Hispanic city just west of downtown Miami. In two families' yards, the animals lay dead. Goats, chickens, geese and ducks. 69 in all, by one newspaper's count. Most necks were snapped. Many bore large puncture wounds. An elderly neighbour stood before the TV cameras and showed what she had seen. "It stood up on two legs and was hunched over like this with big arms and looked at me with these red eyes." Just three days earlier, a Miami talk show had aired a special on the Puerto Rican Goatsucker. Now, one paper wrote, the chupacabra had struck outside Puerto Rico for the first time. Residents locked up their pets. Some stood guard with weapons.

▶ Narrate · Pro

Key facts

When	March 1996
Time of day	not recorded
Where	Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, Florida,United States
Duration	not recorded
Witnesses	1
Witness roles	civilians
Found	physical traces
Evidence	none confirmed
Investigations	Dade County police investigation,Metrozoo examination by Ron Magill,University of Miami and Metro Zoo public necropsy, 8 April 1996
Status	debunked

The creature

A dog-like creature that stood up on two legs, hunched over, with big arms and red eyes that looked straight at the witness. A later timeline described a dog-like figure standing up with two short hands in the air. No size, colour, sound or smell was recorded.

Colour	red

Madelyne Tolentino's Chupacabra Sighting, Canóvanas, Puerto Rico (related)

Context

Early 1996. The chupacabra, the Goatsucker of Puerto Rican legend, had been blamed for dead livestock on the island since the 1995 sightings in Canóvanas. The press described it as "a cross between a giant dog and lizard that walks upright."

Sources (19, most influential first)

Curator debunks monster animal-killer · UPI· 1996-03-19 · Press, book, documentary · news
The weird tale of the Goatsucker · St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay Times)· 1996-03-21 · Academic / paper of record · news
FOAFtale News 39 · Bill Ellis, FOAFtale News · Academic / paper of record · academic
Miami news (ACCION mirror) · Princeton ACCION · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
Tales of hideous beast deflated · St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay Times)· 1996-04-10 · Academic / paper of record · news