On the night of January 12-13, 1996, radars from the Joint Air Defense Command of the North American continent (NORAD) detected several unidentified targets over Alaska, flying towards the United States at an altitude of 18,000 meters at a speed of 6,000 kilometers per hour. After some time, the UFOs turned south, flew over Arizona and, finding themselves over Mexico, began to lose speed and altitude. Computers predicted: the point of their meeting with the Earth is in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, near the city of Varginha. This was immediately reported to the Brazilian authorities, who alerted nearby army units.
Meeting with the "devil"
Varginya is located in the mountains at an altitude of over 1000 meters above sea level. About two kilometers from its center, in a wooded area, there is a suburb - Jardim-Andere. From it to the city paths lead through the forest and the adjacent meadow.
On January 20, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, Liliana da Silva, 16 years old, her sister Valkyria, 14 years old, and their older friend Katya Xavier, 22 years old, returned to the city along one of these paths.
“We were walking along the path,” Liliana said. - Suddenly I noticed a strange creature in front of an abandoned building. It was squatting against the wall. His left hand was down, and with his right, it rested against the wall. He had brown, oily-looking skin, large oval red eyes set upright, and three "horns" on his head. On the shoulders, arms and chest, we noticed thick veins like ropes."
“It looked disgusting and I thought it was the devil himself,” added Valkyria. And Katya was amazed that this creature, a little over a meter in height, did not look like either a person or the animals she knew.
For a few seconds the girls froze, looking at this freak, then ran to the nearby house of Liliana and Valkyria. When they told about the ugly creature Louise, the mother of two sisters, she invited everyone to return to the meeting place with him. But the creature had already disappeared, although in the place where it sat, the crushed grass was visible and there was a pungent smell - either sulfur, or ammonia.
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Experts lead the investigation
Three days passed, and the rumor of a mysterious freak spread throughout the city. There were many people who also saw a strange creature. At the same time, all eyewitnesses described his appearance in almost the same way - just like the girls who noticed him.
Learned about the sensational event and Franco Rodriguez Ubiraillara, a 42-year-old lawyer. a university professor who has been studying the UFO problem "in his spare time" for more than 20 years.
First of all, he met with Liliana, Valkyria and Katya, listened to their story, asked a number of questions and came to the conclusion that they were telling the truth. Then he began to look for other eyewitnesses and learned a lot from them.
Thus, the nurse of the district hospital reported that on the evening of January 20, on Saturday, access to one of the departments was prohibited for several hours not only for visitors, but also for patients, and even for staff. Many soldiers appeared around the hospital, army vehicles were parked at the entrance, and unknown, obviously not local doctors, arrived at the hospital.
And on Monday, January 22, all staff were told that the unusual events of the past weekend were training for medical and military personnel. If they are asked about these teachings, then they should keep their mouths shut and deny everything.
It was reported that the captured creature was transported to the Mercy Hospital, which is much smaller than the district hospital and is located in a secluded place. Someone supposedly saw this creature in the inner parking lot of the hospital, it was lying there in an open box. Around a dozen military and doctors stood around, they watched as one of the doctors pulled out a long and thin black tongue from the creature's mouth with tweezers.
And in one of the schools, a high school student said: "My dad told me that the rumors about an alien are all true, and that he saw a film about him, but you don't need to tell anyone about it, because it is dangerous." It turned out that a relative of this boy's father served at a nearby military base and soon after the beginning of all the events he was put in a guardhouse.
Ubiraiyara visited the police chief, lieutenant colonel. He said that he did not know anything about the alien, but that he would certainly find out and check everything. For several days, Ubiraiyara regularly called the lieutenant colonel, but each time he was not there. After that, Ubiraiyara realized that something was happening in Varginya that the authorities were trying to hide.
In mid-February, 32-year-old Vitorio Pacaccini of Belo Horizonte, a member of the city's UFO Research Community Center, joined the investigation.
Investigation progress and results
For almost a month, Ubirayara and Pacaccini conducted an investigation, suggesting that the mysterious creature was the only one - the one that the three girls saw on the afternoon of January 20 and who was later captured. However, many reported the capture of the creature in the early morning of that day, that is, before the girls saw it.
Meanwhile, the events in Varginha attracted the attention of the media, and not only local ones. Dozens of people called both enthusiastic investigators who knew something about what had happened.
Ubirajara and Pacaccini checked all reports, tracked down each alleged eyewitness and spoke with them. They interviewed about 25 eyewitnesses of the events - military, police, doctors and ordinary citizens. Here's what they learned.
After several phone calls to the police about a strange creature spotted by various people at the forest edge in Jardim Ander in the early morning of January 20, four firefighters received a "special assignment" at 08:30. (Here it is necessary to clarify that in Brazil, the fire service also ensures the capture of rabid dogs and wild animals that pose a threat to the population).
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they demanded that everyone around them immediately disperse due to the secrecy of the operation. But by this moment, the creature disappeared into the forest. In full combat form, wearing thick gloves, with trapping nets in their hands, the firemen went deep into the forest in search of the creature.
They managed to find, and then overtake and catch him only two hours later. At the same time, it did not show any resistance, but it was reported that a strong, very unpleasant smell came from it.
When the firefighters returned with the loot to their truck, a car with their boss was already standing nearby, as well as an army van with two officers and a sergeant.
The firefighters handed the creature over to the military, they put it in a wooden box, covered it with a piece of canvas and put it in the back of the van. The officers sat in the back next to the box, and the van went to the military base in Três Coraçoins, 23 kilometers from Varginha.
The crash of a flying saucer …
On the same day, between 13:30 and 14:00, a jogger saw seven armed soldiers entering the forest in Jardim Ander. Soon, the runner heard the sounds of three shots, and then climbed a hill overlooking the forest. An army truck with soldiers stood at the top of the hill, and four more climbed up the slope towards it. The soldiers with difficulty dragged two bags, each of them - together. Something was clearly stirring in one of the bags. The bags were put in the back, then the soldiers climbed up there, and the truck quickly left. It is not known what was in the bags, but it is doubtful that it would have been necessary to involve seven armed soldiers to capture the same "wild animal" that firefighters had previously caught in the same forest, and even open fire at the same time.
Sacrifices, exhortations, results
On the evening of January 20, at about 18:00, a thunderstorm with hail swept over Varginya and its environs. The elements raged for only a few minutes, but all traces left by the mysterious creature (or creatures) were most likely destroyed. However, the search continued, and immediately after the thunderstorm, two police officers discovered another creature hiding on a construction site near the forest. They managed to grab him and put him in the car. The officers took him to the district clinic, but the local doctor refused to examine him and advised him to go to the hospital.
Officers carried out this operation in civilian clothes. One of them, 23-year-old Marco Cerese, stopped at his house on the way to change his clothes soaked through.
There is a version that Cerese was the only person who touched the captured creature with his bare hands. A few days later, he fell seriously ill. He developed a very high temperature, then his arms and legs were taken away, he lost the ability to swallow food, and his skin became cyanotic. No medication helped, and he died on February 15. Relatives were strongly advised to bury Marco in a hermetically sealed coffin and as soon as possible. The relatives were not informed about the cause of his illness and death.
Three and a half months passed, and in the late evening of early May there was a knock at the house of Liliana and Valkyria. The door was opened by their mother, Louise, and four men in civilian clothes entered without asking permission or introducing themselves. They asked all the family members to gather in the room, and then two of the guests, who looked older, politely but persistently persuaded the girls for almost an hour to come out on television with a statement refuting all their previous stories. They even promised to pay well for it.
Not daring to refuse strange visitors, Louise said that they would all think about their proposal together. When the intruders left, they asked not to see them off and not try to see the car in which they arrived. They did not appear again, and the girls did not refuse their previous messages.
Almost from the very beginning, some researchers believed that the captured mysterious creatures, due to their clearly unearthly origin, were taken to the United States.
Confirmation of this opinion can be considered the subsequent visit to Brazil in early March 1996 of the then US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and NASA Director Daniel Goldin, allegedly for the preparation of the upcoming flight of the Brazilian astronaut on the US space shuttle.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №16. Author: Vadim Ilyin