Madelyne Tolentino's Chupacabra Sighting, Canóvanas, Puerto Rico

March 1995. Eight sheep were found dead in Puerto Rico, each reportedly bearing three puncture wounds to the chest, each said to have been drained of blood. The deaths kept coming. By August, around 150 animals had died in Canóvanas alone. More than 200 reports would be made across the island that year.

The second week of August 1995. Early afternoon. Madelyne Tolentino was at her mother's house near Calle 1 and Calle 2 in Barrio Campo Rico, Canóvanas. In the account she gave in March 1996, a frightened driver parking outside made her look out of the window.

The creature was "about four feet, more or less." It was "walking like a human, on both legs," its very long arms drawn back in an attack position, with "three long, skinny fingers." The nose was "two little holes." The mouth "was a slash." Its eyes were dark gray, "damp and protruding, running up to its temples." Down its back ran "a row of distinctive spikes." Its skin was "grayish," "like leather, wet and wrinkled." It moved in "slow, robot-like movements, as if being controlled by someone."

She watched for three to five minutes. In that telling, her mother chased it and a local boy on a bicycle threw bottles at it.

No police or press were called. The story surfaced more than a month later, in the tabloid El Vocero and on local radio. UFO researcher Jorge Martín drew the creature from her description. That drawing became the most widely reproduced image of the chupacabras, the "goat-sucker," a name credited to comedian Silverio Pérez.

Armed mobs patrolled the streets. Canóvanas mayor José Ramón "Chemo" Soto said the creature was real and organized expeditions to find it, without success. In March 1996, the Puerto Rican Research Group interviewed Tolentino. She recommended a film. "A movie called Species," she said. "The resemblance to the chupacabra was really impressive."

June 2010. Skeptic Benjamin Radford met Tolentino outside San Juan and visited the site with her. He found her "open, helpful, and sincere." But the story had shifted. Now she had been asleep until her mother woke her. The creature was "about three feet tall," with five fingers and "big and slanted" eyes, "skipping like a kangaroo, but it had no tail." Only she and her mother saw it.

In 2010, she rejected any firm identification. "I have an interest in UFOs and aliens, but I never said it was either an extraterrestrial or an animal. I don't know what it was. I've never changed my story."

Species opened on 7 July 1995, about a month before the sighting, and featured Sil, an alien designed by H.R. Giger with a spined back, lanky proportions and huge eyes. Radford said Tolentino had seen the film and believed its events were happening in reality in Puerto Rico. He did not call the sighting a hoax, but concluded that "the most important chupacabra description cannot be trusted." As for the livestock, Dr. David Morales reportedly analysed 300 alleged victims and found they "had not been bled dry." Radford pointed to drought driving weakened predators toward farm animals.

Radford's investigation became Tracking the Chupacabra in 2011. Skeptical Inquirer credits The X-Files with helping spread the creature worldwide. Reports followed in Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Later the name drifted to mangy coyotes and dogs in Texas. It all began with one afternoon in Canóvanas, and one woman at a window.