The Varginha Incident (ET de Varginha)

January 13, 1996. Geography teacher Carlos de Souza says he saw a cylindrical object crossing low over the road toward Varginha. He reported white smoke, damage along one side and a strong smell near the place where he thought it came down. He also said Army personnel stopped him from approaching.

January 20, around 1 a.m. Caretakers Eurico de Freitas and Oralina de Freitas said a smoking, submarine shaped object moved low over their pasture for about forty minutes as cattle panicked. That afternoon in Jardim Andere, sisters Liliane de Fátima Silva and Valquíria Aparecida Silva and their friend Kátia Andrade Xavier encountered a crouching figure beside a wall. They described dark brown oily skin, a large head with three protrusions, thin limbs, large feet and large red eyes.

Local investigators linked the aerial reports and the Jardim Andere sighting to emergency and military activity around Varginha. They alleged that one or more creatures were captured and moved through hospitals and military facilities. No single witness claimed to have seen that entire sequence.

The most consequential allegation concerns military police officer Marco Eli Chereze. Ufologists said he handled a creature without gloves. He died on February 15, 1996, at age 23. His death was medically attributed to bacterial sepsis, while relatives and ufologists questioned whether the alleged encounter played any role.

The Brazilian Army investigated the allegations in 1996 and 1997. IPM 18/97 found no evidence of a UFO crash or extraterrestrial capture. It treated reported firefighter calls and military vehicle movements as ordinary activity that had been misinterpreted. For the women’s sighting, the inquiry proposed that they mistook a crouching local man known as Mudinho for a creature during heavy rain.

The Superior Military Court made the inquiry public for the thirtieth anniversary. The three women continued to reject the Mudinho explanation. No verified photograph, biological material or other physical evidence of a creature has been released.

Lead investigator Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues eventually rejected the extraterrestrial and capture narrative, although he did not accuse the three women of lying. In 2026, a former soldier admitted inventing a transport account after a ufologist offered him 5,000 reais. Vitório Pacaccini continued to defend the capture claims. Neurologist Ítalo Denelle Venturelli also said he had kept silent for thirty years about an encounter with a living being at the hospital.

The women’s sighting remains a first-hand report. The wider capture and transport story rests on disputed testimony, some of which has been withdrawn. In 2026, Representative Eric Burlison asked the CIA and FBI to account for any related records. Those requests did not establish that a craft or creature existed.