MEXICO CITY [AP] - A family of farmers in northern Chihuahua state say mysterious vampire-like creatures have killed and sucked the blood of more than 60 sheep in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

The state news agency Notimex reported that farmer Ramiro Parra Gonzalez was headed to his field outside the city of Bocoyna on Wednesday when stumbled upon 35 dead sheep, all of which were found without a drop of blood in their bodies and with two small bite marks on their necks.

Parra Gonzalez told police that the slayings were the work of the "chupacabras," or "goat-suckers," a group of legendary beasts that have terrorized his family, Notimex reported.

Parra Gonzalez said he heard dogs who normally sleep in his fields begin to howl exactly at midnight on Wednesday. A few minutes later he heard the dogs running for their lives.

"I thought it was probably a fox," Parra Gonzalez told Notimex, adding that he might not have liked what he would have seen had he ventured outside to investigate.

Parra Gonzalez said Wednesday's attack marked the third time the goat-suckers have struck his family, Notimex reported.

The attacks started on Oct. 10 when Parra Gonzalez's brother, Francisco, said he returned to his fields after lunch to find the lifeless, bloodless bodies of 12 sheep and one pig.

Then on the morning of Oct. 25, another relative, Martin Parra Orpinel, said he found 16 of his sheep dead and another 14 gravely injured. All had been bitten on the neck and mysteriously lost a lot of blood, Parra Orpinel told authorities.

A local police spokesman said authorities were investigating all three incidents.

Rumors of goat-suckers spread across Latin America several years ago, though many officials dismissed the reports, saying animals were being killed by wolves, dogs or coyotes.

The rumors spawned folk songs, t-shirts and even little rubber goat-sucker figures.

Reports were common in Puerto Rico and there were some in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

• Story originally published by:
The Arizona Republic / Phoenix - Oct 31.01

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