1 00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: You're listening to the second and final part of Unexplained, 2 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:25,840 Speaker 1: Season eight, episode five, Islands of Fear. It was a 3 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: sultry ninety two degrees fahrenheit one day in mid August 4 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five in Canovanas, a town just east of 5 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. Thundery showers earlier 6 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: in the day had given way to slight, overcast skies, 7 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: leaving a heavy, muggy feeling in the air. In Barrio 8 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: Campo Rico, a suburb of San Juan, Madeline Tolentino, was 9 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: helping her elderly mother move into her home. After depositing 10 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: some boxes in the living room, Madeleine glanced casually out 11 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: at the front window as a car drew up in 12 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: the street outside. She watched it carefully as it parked, 13 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: concerned that it might block her driveway. Satisfied it hadn't, 14 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,639 Speaker 1: she was just about to turn back to the task 15 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: at hand when she noticed that the driver had a 16 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: strange look on his face. He seemed to be staring 17 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: out at the windscreen at something in the distance. The 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,919 Speaker 1: look on his face was quite clearly one of fear. 19 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: It was as though he were about to be attacked 20 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:40,040 Speaker 1: by something, thought Madeline. She drew closer to the window 21 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: and scowned the street, trying to see what it was 22 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: that had scared the man so much. And it was 23 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: then she later claimed, that she saw the terrifying creature 24 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: ambling down the street toward the car. Madeleine's description of 25 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: the events that unfolded next in that sleepy Puerto Rican 26 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: barrier would become headline news across the country, and soon 27 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: after the world. The report would trigger similar sightings of 28 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,239 Speaker 1: the so called Tupa cabra across Latin America and beyond 29 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: for decades to come. On March twentieth, nineteen ninety six, 30 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: seven months after her claimed encounter with the Tupa Cabra, 31 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: Madeline Tolentino gave an account of her apparent experience to 32 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:43,079 Speaker 1: two UFO enthusiasts, Lucy Pla and Jose Rodriguez. The account 33 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:48,639 Speaker 1: was astonishingly detailed. As she put it, she first became 34 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,080 Speaker 1: aware of some kind of creature walking down the street 35 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: on two legs. Its eyes were dark gray, she said, 36 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: with no whites to them, and they were elongated up 37 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: woods towards its temples. Even from her vantage point, she 38 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 1: could see that they were damp and protruding slightly. Its face, 39 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:15,400 Speaker 1: she said, was especially frightening. It had two little holes 40 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: in the middle, which she presumed was a nose, while 41 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: its mouth was described as just a slash above the chin. 42 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,600 Speaker 1: She estimated the creature to be around four feet tall, 43 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 1: with long, skinny legs, each with three toes and webbing 44 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: between them like a goose foot. As she described it. 45 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: She added that the creature had short, well combed hair, 46 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,720 Speaker 1: and that its torso bore round it marks where the 47 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: skin seemed to have been burnt by something. The center 48 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: of one of the apparent burn marks revealed pinkish, purply skin. 49 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,920 Speaker 1: The arms were long and thin, with three long, skinny fingers, 50 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,000 Speaker 1: and they were drawn back into what Madeleine described as 51 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: an attack position. Odd featherlike projections protruded from its lower back, 52 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: joined by some sort of coppery brown membrane. Curious as 53 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 1: to what its gender was, Madeleine bent down low to 54 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,040 Speaker 1: see if she could discern anything between its legs, only 55 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: to find that it seemed to be completely smooth, as 56 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:29,599 Speaker 1: if its body had been sealed up. She cried out 57 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: for her mother to come and see it too, and 58 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: together they watched as it moved closer to the car 59 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,680 Speaker 1: in stiff, robotic movements, almost as though it were being 60 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: guided by a remote control. At some point, it seemed 61 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: to become aware of the car and the frightened driver 62 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:55,039 Speaker 1: in sight. For a few spined, hingling moments, Madelin watched 63 00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:00,159 Speaker 1: on the creature halted, apparently unaware that Madeleine and her 64 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: mother were watching it from the window, only for it 65 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: to then slowly swivel its head and gazed directly at them. 66 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: Madelene screamed in horror. This, she said, seemed to startle 67 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: the creature, who then bounded off down the street in 68 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,760 Speaker 1: large hops like a kangaroo. It plunged into a wooded 69 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,159 Speaker 1: lot opposite next to a machine shop owned by Madeleine's husband, 70 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: Jose Augusto, who happened to be away that day. Utterly 71 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: confused by what she just witnessed, Madeleine then claimed she 72 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: went outside to try and get a better look of 73 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: where the creature went, but was too afraid to give chase. 74 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: Her mother, however, seemingly made of sterner stuff, ran immediately 75 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: towards the patch of trees where they'd last seen it, 76 00:05:52,560 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: shouting to a neighbor to help her catch it. With 77 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 1: the creature now nowhere to be seen, Madeleine eventually caught 78 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: up with her mother across the street. They were apparently 79 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,520 Speaker 1: joined soon after by a young man who worked for 80 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: Madeleine's husband. He'd come running out of the shop when 81 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: he heard the commotion in the street. After Madeline quickly 82 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 1: told him what had happened, the young man, who was 83 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: said to be used to wrangling large animals, ran to 84 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: his van and grabbed a pair of heavy duty gloves. 85 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 1: He pulled them on, then plunged hastily into the wooded 86 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 1: lot in search of the creature. A short time later, 87 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,320 Speaker 1: the strange thing re emerged onto the street further down 88 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: the road before sprinting away and out of sight. The 89 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:55,160 Speaker 1: young man reappeared from the wooded patch, flustered and out 90 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 1: of breath. According to Madeline, he managed to track down 91 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:02,360 Speaker 1: the creature, but when he tried to grab it, the 92 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:06,839 Speaker 1: feathers on its back suddenly sprang up, revealing themselves to 93 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: in fact be long, sharp spines. They changed color under 94 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: his hands as he tried to pin them down. The 95 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: young man then apparently grabbed the creature's face and prised 96 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: its mouth open. To reveal large fanglike teeth inside. The 97 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: creature eventually wrestled itself free. Madeleine later told interviewers that 98 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: she believed the creature had supernatural intelligence due to the 99 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: strange way in which it supposedly moved. When her mother 100 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: gave chase after it, Madeleine claimed that for a moment, 101 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: it had levitated as it raced away from them. Later 102 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: that evening, two men who drove the local church buses 103 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: were said to have seen the creature in the barrio again, 104 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: and in the darkness, its eyes had appeared to light up. 105 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: When Madeleine's husband, Jose, returned home, Madelein hesitantly told him 106 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: what she'd seen, but Jose wasn't as surprised or disbelieving 107 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 1: as she'd expected. In fact, he apparently told her that 108 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 1: he'd encountered the same creature earlier that very morning. It 109 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 1: was around seven a m. And Jose was in its 110 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: workshop fixing a truck. He turned on the ignition, but 111 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,040 Speaker 1: when the engine came to life, it didn't sound right. 112 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,440 Speaker 1: When he got out of the vehicle to investigate, Jose 113 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: froze in shock at the sight of a weird looking 114 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: creature emerging from underneath the truck. The creature that was 115 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:56,920 Speaker 1: apparently just as Madeleine had described hers to him, locked 116 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:01,440 Speaker 1: eyes with Jose for what seemed like minutes before darting 117 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: off like a kangaroo at spectacular speed. Madeline Tolentino is 118 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: said to have told her family to keep quiet about 119 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:25,960 Speaker 1: the encounters, fearing what people might say about them, But 120 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:33,319 Speaker 1: word soon leaked out, and before long it was national news. Then, incredibly, 121 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,960 Speaker 1: a number of similar reports about what people were now 122 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: calling a tupa cabra began pouring in from across Puerto Rico. 123 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: But now there was a new edge to the story. 124 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:50,480 Speaker 1: The tuoper cabra had apparently developed a taste for the 125 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:55,319 Speaker 1: blood of farm animals. About a month after her encounter, 126 00:09:55,760 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: Madeline worked with Joge Martin, a journalist specialized in supposed 127 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:05,960 Speaker 1: UFO and alien phenomena occurring on the Caribbean Islands, to 128 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: develop a drawing of the creature she'd apparently seen. The 129 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 1: sketch was widely circulated and published on the front page 130 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:19,559 Speaker 1: of a local newspaper, and by November nineteen ninety five, 131 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: it had gone global. Meanwhile, in the wake of his 132 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:30,319 Speaker 1: own apparent experience, Madeline's husband, Jose Augusto, was drawn deeper 133 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 1: into the search for the so called Tupa cabra. He 134 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:39,720 Speaker 1: claimed repeatedly the creature was making surgical incisions in the 135 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: animals it attacked, insisting that those incisions were much too 136 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,239 Speaker 1: precise and clean to have been made by a mongoose 137 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 1: or a wild dog, as others speculated. He also believed 138 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 1: that the Tupa cabra was partly or completely draining their blood, 139 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: which he insisted it would neither flow or coagulate after 140 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:08,240 Speaker 1: an attack. It examined sheep and goats said to have 141 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:12,000 Speaker 1: been killed by the Cupa cabra that was still flexible, 142 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:16,240 Speaker 1: showing no signs of rigor mortars, a good twenty four 143 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: hours after they died, he said. Augusto was one of 144 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: the first people to suggest the creature might be the 145 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 1: result of some kind of experiment by humans involving extraterrestrials, 146 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,920 Speaker 1: and this is when things get really weird. It was 147 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 1: some time after August nineteen ninety five, according to Augusto, 148 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: when one night one of his neighbors was drawn to 149 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:50,679 Speaker 1: an odd movement in the sky. Gazing up at the stars, 150 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: he apparently saw a large saucer shaped object about ninety 151 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: to one hundred and twenty feet wide, suspended in the 152 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:05,120 Speaker 1: air fifty feet above him. The saucer apparently hovered for 153 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:10,439 Speaker 1: about three minutes before shooting off into the night. Augusto 154 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: said that he also saw a starlike thing, as he 155 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 1: put it, shooting colored laser beams sideways in the sky 156 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 1: over the l Jungk forest before it too vanished. Augusto 157 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 1: then claimed he was contacted by residents of Dorado, a 158 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: town just west of San Juan on the north coast 159 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:36,120 Speaker 1: of the island. They had apparently witnessed a spaceship landing 160 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: in scrub just beyond the town. A ramp had then 161 00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:43,839 Speaker 1: opened up from the vehicle, down which a number of 162 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 1: Tupa cabras were apparently escorted by some other kind of 163 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:52,559 Speaker 1: extraterrestrial being. It was as if the Chupa cabreras was 164 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: some kind of attack doc belonging to the other beings. 165 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,679 Speaker 1: The lagoons in the region were said to bubble strangely 166 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:06,600 Speaker 1: whenever the Tupa cabras were around. Another report from Jose 167 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: Augusto concerned Dorado police officer Juan Colatso, after hearing his 168 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: dog barking in distress outside Colatso ran out to investigate, 169 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: where he apparently found the dog being attacked by a 170 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: tupa cabra. Galazzo was said to have immediately grabbed his 171 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:31,240 Speaker 1: service revolver and fired at the creature. Having been struck 172 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 1: by a few bullets, it bounced off the back wall, 173 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:40,120 Speaker 1: then disappeared into the darkness. The dog was apparently recovered alive, 174 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: but strangely with a section of its coat seemingly shaved away, 175 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: supposedly in preparation for a surgical incision. Puerto Rican veterinarian 176 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:03,160 Speaker 1: doctor Carlos Soto was reported to described wounds on slaughtered 177 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:07,760 Speaker 1: animals supposedly killed by the Tuba cabra as being small 178 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: and perfectly circular, about a quarter to half an inch 179 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: in diameter, and arranged in pairs, sometimes penetrating deep into 180 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 1: the neck of the victims. Such wounds could have been 181 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 1: made by a feral dog, mongoose, or rhesus monkeys. Others, however, 182 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:31,560 Speaker 1: claimed that in some cases the wounds went deeper and 183 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:36,480 Speaker 1: some of the animal's vital organs had been extracted. Up 184 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: and down the country, concerned Puerto Ricans were making reports 185 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 1: to the civil defense, the police, and fort a laser 186 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: the governor's residence, but authorities remained reluctant to get involved. 187 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:54,400 Speaker 1: But as the numbers of dead livestock mounted, the pressure 188 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: for some official action intensified. And so it was that 189 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: on Sunday, October twenty ninth, nineteen ninety five, a man 190 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,600 Speaker 1: with a weather beaten face, Indiana Jones style felt hat 191 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: and steely gray eyes stood on the steps of the 192 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: town hall, sweating in military fatigues as lights and multiple 193 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: camera lenses focused on him. Jose Kimo Soto was the 194 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 1: mayor of CANOVANUS and for over a month his office 195 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: had been flooded with frantic phone calls and visits from 196 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: worried citizens. The carcasses were piling up, Many had mysterious 197 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,760 Speaker 1: puncture wounds, and, as the claims went, had been drained 198 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:46,160 Speaker 1: of their blood. Soto's requests to government agencies for men 199 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,600 Speaker 1: and material to help fund the search had either been 200 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: ignored or turned down. Left with no other option, the mayor, 201 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: who was a former police officer, finally decided to organize 202 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:04,080 Speaker 1: a hunt for the super Cabra himself. Brandishing a large 203 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 1: knife under the media lights, Soto briefed the assembled crowd 204 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:13,640 Speaker 1: and expectant reporters on its plan. As well as enlisting 205 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,400 Speaker 1: the services of a spiritual adviser to help locate the 206 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: strange creature, It also acquired the help of Papo Swing, 207 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:26,120 Speaker 1: a well known clown from Puerto Rican television played by 208 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:31,680 Speaker 1: actor and comedian Raoul Carbonel. As Soto explained to the 209 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: slightly amused crowd, Papo Swing's scary clown face would be 210 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:41,479 Speaker 1: perfect for scaring the monster into a special trap involving 211 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: a hidden net and a goat mannikin filled with fake blood, 212 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: and just in case the Tuba Cabra was a real vampire, 213 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: Mayor Soto would also be bringing a twelve inch crucifix 214 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 1: and a water pistol filled with holy water on the 215 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: hunt too. Mer Soto failed to find and trap the creature, 216 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 1: despite organizing several expeditions to do so. However, his fervent 217 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,080 Speaker 1: belief in the creature and the clear desire to at 218 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:17,359 Speaker 1: least do something, always a winner with voters, did at 219 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:29,320 Speaker 1: least get him re elected. On January fourth, nineteen ninety six, 220 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:34,080 Speaker 1: five months since her first apparent encounter with the Tupa Cabra, 221 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: Madeline Tolentino was driving home with her two year old 222 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:42,840 Speaker 1: son around seven o'clock in the evening when she apparently 223 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:47,879 Speaker 1: saw it again. She was just approaching the town of Arasibo, 224 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: some thirty miles west of San Juan, when she apparently 225 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:57,400 Speaker 1: noticed a powerful odour reminiscent of battery acid inside her van. 226 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: The smell apparently grew increasingly noxious until she began finding 227 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:09,080 Speaker 1: it hard to swallow and her throat became numb. Then 228 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:14,160 Speaker 1: her two year old son started gagging and coughing. Madeline 229 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: immediately stopped the van just outside of Barrio Cambalatche, a 230 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,359 Speaker 1: tiny neighborhood of around forty people. It was then that 231 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: she apparently saw the creature standing in front of her vehicle. 232 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: Its eyes lit up like Christmas lights, blazing of fiery 233 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:37,320 Speaker 1: orange in color. Fearing for her life, Madeline sped home 234 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:42,040 Speaker 1: and told her husband Jose, what she'd seen. It was 235 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:46,399 Speaker 1: a short time later when Jose and Madeline's uncle pulled 236 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: up just outside of Barrio Camberalatche. Finding no evidence of 237 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 1: the creature there, the pair apparently decided to search a 238 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: local wood where there'd been reports of rabbits being recent 239 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:04,600 Speaker 1: and mutilated with a bright full moon lighting the way, 240 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: The pair walked cautiously into the woods, where they later 241 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: claimed to see a silhouette of the creature. It was 242 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: floating in the air they sat, suspended about twenty five 243 00:19:17,359 --> 00:19:21,720 Speaker 1: feet above the ground. The men claimed to have been 244 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:25,879 Speaker 1: scared witless by the encounter, but there's no record of 245 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:31,680 Speaker 1: how it supposedly ended. While no hard evidence of the cupicabra, 246 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:36,920 Speaker 1: no clear photo corpse, or material from which DNA could 247 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: be analyzed, was ever found on Puerto Rico, something was 248 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: killing the livestock there. During nineteen ninety five and ninety 249 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 1: six alone, there were over two thousand unexplained animal deaths 250 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:58,520 Speaker 1: in the country. Stories of the culprit were frequently bizarre 251 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: and contradictory, often nothing more than a mixture of hearsay 252 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,520 Speaker 1: and local folklore, making it hard to tell fact from fiction. 253 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:14,440 Speaker 1: But gradually Puerto Rico's epidemic of alleged tuoper cabra attacks 254 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:18,800 Speaker 1: and sightings died down, and by two thousand and ten, 255 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:24,040 Speaker 1: Madeline Tolentino and her husband Jose's detailed reports of the 256 00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:29,439 Speaker 1: creature had subsided in the public awareness. However, there was 257 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: one tenacious investigator still very interested in the creature. American writer, investigator, 258 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,240 Speaker 1: and self proclaimed skeptic Benjamin Radford had been intrigued by 259 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:57,399 Speaker 1: mysterious and unexplained phenomena since childhood. In his career as 260 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,480 Speaker 1: an investigator and writer, he'd looked into incidents such as 261 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:06,399 Speaker 1: the Pokemon Panic, in which thousands of Japanese children seemingly 262 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:11,080 Speaker 1: suffered seizures while watching an episode of the Pokemon anime series, 263 00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:15,159 Speaker 1: as well as the Santa Fe Courthouse ghost and the 264 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 1: White Witch of Rose Hall, previously explored in Unexplained Season seven, 265 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: episode seven, Mansion on the Hill. Since two thousand and five, 266 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: Bradford had been on the trail of the Chupa Cabra 267 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 1: for a book he was writing about it. He followed 268 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,720 Speaker 1: up on reports, sightings, and carcasses of the alleged creature 269 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,640 Speaker 1: across the US Mexican border region, and had even made 270 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:45,879 Speaker 1: an expedition to the Jungles of Nigeria to investigate a 271 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: rash of reports of a Tuper Cabra like animal there. Now, 272 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,639 Speaker 1: in twenty ten, he had come to Ground Zero for 273 00:21:54,760 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: Tupa Cabra Stories, Puerto Rico to interview Madeline Top and Tino. 274 00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:06,560 Speaker 1: Bradford was troubled by a number of things he'd read 275 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 1: in the transcript of her original interview, conducted a few 276 00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:15,719 Speaker 1: months after her first supposed encounter with the tupacabra, and 277 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,600 Speaker 1: as he questioned her, he noted that some of the 278 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,359 Speaker 1: details of her story appeared to have changed with the 279 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:27,239 Speaker 1: passage of time. For instance, Madeline now said that the 280 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:31,120 Speaker 1: height of the creature had been exaggerated. It had been 281 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: no more than three feet tall, with five fingers, not 282 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:40,240 Speaker 1: three on each hand, and they were fingers, not claws, 283 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:45,959 Speaker 1: she insisted. Bradford also found the incredible detail in Madeline's 284 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: story a little suspicious. How could she have seen and 285 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:54,960 Speaker 1: remembered so much while looking through a window some distance away? 286 00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: And parts of her story seemed contradictory, he thought. At 287 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: one point she said the creature walked or ran, while 288 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:10,160 Speaker 1: in other parts it hopped and even levitated. And why 289 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: had Lucy Pla and Jose Rodriguez, who conducted the original 290 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,879 Speaker 1: interview with Madeline, not managed to corroborate her account with 291 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: those of the man in the car, the young man 292 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: who worked in her husband's shop, or even her own mother. 293 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: When Radford asked Madelin how the worker had managed to 294 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: grab the creature and prize its mouth open to see 295 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:38,880 Speaker 1: its teeth without sustaining any injuries. She dismissed the young 296 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:44,680 Speaker 1: man's story as either an exaggeration or a lie. Radford 297 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:48,639 Speaker 1: noted that Madeline and her husband Jose were part of 298 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 1: a tightly knit Pentecostal Christian community. It's a brand of 299 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:58,679 Speaker 1: faith which shares beliefs with other Evangelical Protestants, but with 300 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 1: more emphasis with the gifts of the Holy Spirit as 301 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:07,359 Speaker 1: they're called, such as speaking in tongues, faith healing, and prophesying. 302 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,359 Speaker 1: Radford wondered if perhaps stress from the many struggles that 303 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,680 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans were facing at the time, an HIV crisis, 304 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 1: dengey fever, drought, the over abundance of rats, and an 305 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:28,199 Speaker 1: impending hurricane, combined with the couple's religious beliefs, had in 306 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:32,320 Speaker 1: some way led them to manifest some kind of evil 307 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:43,360 Speaker 1: creature into being in addition to the many obvious terrible 308 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: things affecting Puerto Rico in nineteen ninety five. Benjamin Radford 309 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,720 Speaker 1: decided to find out what other unusual things might have 310 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:56,040 Speaker 1: been happening at the same time, and there was one 311 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:00,440 Speaker 1: other possibly important event that had not been so high 312 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: in the news cycle. Back in July nineteen ninety five, 313 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,480 Speaker 1: just a month before Madeline Tolentino and her husband Jose 314 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:15,240 Speaker 1: had their first alleged encounter with the Tuba Cabra, a 315 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 1: major American science fiction film opened in theaters across the country. 316 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:26,520 Speaker 1: Although poorly received by critics, it was very popular with audiences, 317 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,919 Speaker 1: combining science fiction and horror to give MGM one of 318 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: its biggest box office successes of the year. That movie 319 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: was Species. It features the creature Sil. Initially appearing in 320 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: human form, Sil morphs into a sexualized insectoid alien human 321 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:54,600 Speaker 1: hybrid with long claw like fingers, reddish, upward slanting eyes, 322 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,120 Speaker 1: and spikes on its back. Like some of the rumors 323 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:05,040 Speaker 1: surrounding the Syl also escapes from a laboratory before going 324 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:12,359 Speaker 1: on a voracious, murdering rampage. Sil can fly, leap, climb walls, 325 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: and hop in non human ways. The opening scene of 326 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,719 Speaker 1: the film even puts Puerto Rico specifically very much at 327 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,760 Speaker 1: the epicentre of the action, with the movie's opening credits 328 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: and subsequent plot linking the Puerto Ricans Arecibo observatories search 329 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:37,560 Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial intelligence to fictional research on merging human and 330 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:44,160 Speaker 1: alien DNA. Madeline Tolentino admitted to Radford that she'd seen 331 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 1: Species in the cinema when it was released shortly before 332 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:53,240 Speaker 1: her Cuba Cabra encounter. Radford asked her if the film 333 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,200 Speaker 1: had possibly made her think that there might have been 334 00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:00,959 Speaker 1: an experiment and an escaped human alien hybrid at large 335 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:07,200 Speaker 1: on Puerto Rico, to which she answered yes. She added 336 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,640 Speaker 1: that she'd also heard from a journalist whom she considered 337 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:16,440 Speaker 1: credible that an unknown experimental creature had indeed escaped from 338 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:22,639 Speaker 1: the El Janke forest. With that, for Benjamin Radford, at least, 339 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,600 Speaker 1: it seemed that all the strange apparent sightings of an 340 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:31,639 Speaker 1: unknown and terrifying predator had merely been conjured by over 341 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,160 Speaker 1: active imaginations triggered by the release of what was then 342 00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:42,119 Speaker 1: Hollywood's biggest blockbuster. What then, of all the livestock that 343 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:47,240 Speaker 1: had very much been genuinely and mysteriously killed in vast 344 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:59,000 Speaker 1: numbers across large areas of Puerto Rico. One Puerto Rican 345 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:03,879 Speaker 1: zoologist Edwin Velasquez, who researched the killings of Puerto Rican 346 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,440 Speaker 1: livestock in the nineteen nineties, believed they were simply attributable 347 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 1: to a combination of feral dogs, the over abundance of 348 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 1: hungry mongoose and perhaps sometimes reeseus monkeys too, that had 349 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: escaped from the search labs over the decades. But what 350 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 1: then about the vampiric nature of the tupacabra reports. In 351 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,040 Speaker 1: his writings called Natural History from seventy seven to seventy 352 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:36,680 Speaker 1: nine CE, Pliny the Elder describes how night jar birds 353 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:41,480 Speaker 1: were often observed flying through goat pastures in the twilight hours, 354 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: darting between the legs of cows and goats. The birds 355 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,000 Speaker 1: were wrongly assumed to be sucking the milk from the 356 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:53,760 Speaker 1: goats odds, causing them to shrivel away. They were given 357 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:59,000 Speaker 1: the name Caprimorgus, which in Latin means goat sucker, which 358 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,000 Speaker 1: ultimately became the genus name for that family of birds. 359 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,760 Speaker 1: During the Middle Ages, night jars were blamed for killing 360 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:12,760 Speaker 1: the goats they supposedly sucked at. As a result, in England, 361 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,200 Speaker 1: they even became associated with the evil spirit park and 362 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:23,160 Speaker 1: the devil. When Europeans discovered vampire bats in Latin America 363 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,960 Speaker 1: around the eighteen forties, the association between the bats and 364 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,240 Speaker 1: the supposedly goat sucking night jar was made, a connection 365 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:37,520 Speaker 1: likely strengthened because both animals are seen at twilight. But 366 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:42,280 Speaker 1: as it happened, stories of vampiric creatures were already well 367 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: established in Puerto Rican folklore long before the arrival of 368 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: colonial Europeans. Vampire stories are often considered Slavic in origin, 369 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:58,720 Speaker 1: but they are widespread in many cultures. Pedro Vidal, a 370 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, has researched the 371 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: origins of Latin American vampire stories and found that they 372 00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: go back to the Mayans, who worshiped a vampire deity 373 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:18,800 Speaker 1: centuries before bram Stoker's Dracula story was conceived. Back in 374 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, some twenty years before the supposed Tuba 375 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,080 Speaker 1: cabra attacks, a number of mysterious livestock killings were two 376 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: reported throughout Puerto Rico, beginning in the small town of 377 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 1: Mocha in the northwest of the island. The deaths were 378 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:43,120 Speaker 1: initially attributed to something called El Vampiro de Moca before 379 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:48,040 Speaker 1: they began to occur elsewhere. Just as with the Tuba 380 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: cabra reports of the mid nineties, the corpses were said 381 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,920 Speaker 1: to have been bled dry through a series of small 382 00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:01,200 Speaker 1: circular incisions, and just like the nineties were reports, no 383 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:07,080 Speaker 1: absolute proof of the culprit was ever established. For now, 384 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: what Madeline Tolentino and her husband Jose really saw during 385 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: those strange months of ninety five to ninety six and 386 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:20,720 Speaker 1: what was really responsible for all those animal killings on 387 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:35,000 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico remains unexplained. Thank you as ever for listening 388 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,720 Speaker 1: to the show. Please subscribe and rate it if you 389 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: haven't already done so. Unexplained will be coming to YouTube 390 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,760 Speaker 1: very shortly in video form, so please watch out for 391 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,120 Speaker 1: future developments there. You can subscribe to the channel at 392 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 1: YouTube dot com. Forward Slash at Unexplained Pod. You can 393 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:55,200 Speaker 1: also now find us on TikTok at TikTok dot com. 394 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:59,600 Speaker 1: Forward Slash at Unexplained Podcast. This episode was written by 395 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: Diane Hope and produced by me Richard McLain Smith. Diane 396 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,160 Speaker 1: is an audio producer and sound recordist in her own right. 397 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: You can find out more about her work at Dianehope 398 00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: dot com and on Instagram at in the sound Field. 399 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,960 Speaker 1: Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard 400 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,160 Speaker 1: McClain smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, 401 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:30,160 Speaker 1: are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The 402 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:34,160 Speaker 1: book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. 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