New testimony regarding the presence of a strange hairy biped, sporting long claws and of an unusual ferocity, were added to the long list of accounts that the police have gathered in this city, after the judge of the court of instruction, Mario Dilascio, mandated a formal investigation on the subject this month.
The first reference of the case was provided by a couple in a forested area, Arroyo Salado, 2 km to the west and which serves as a "Lover's Lane". They claim to have been attacked by a strange entity standing 2 meters tall, covered in hair, with razor-sharp claws and "bare buttocks".
This eyewitness claim was followed by others, although the most dramatic one was provided by Patricio Saldaño, custodian of the municipal dump, and his children Jesús, José and Neri, ages 16, 11 and 13 respectively, who sworn having seen it at a distance of 10 meters, making an analogous description, to which others were added.
But now there is more: a family surnamed Pereyra told authorities that when going to the municipal dump in their pickup truck, "a beast" described as " large monkey" crossed their path, climbed over the vehicle's hood, and then lost itself in the thicket, leaving claw marks on the chassis. Another: businessman Raul Torres and teacher Hugo Rodas, who teaches in San Antonio de los Cobres, told the chief of the volunteer fire brigade, Jose Exequiel Alvarez, that they found something unusual at El Duraznito. A large unknown animal lay by the roadside, apparently run over by a vehicle. "They got out of their car to take a look, turned it around using a stick, and were astonished. They had never seen anything like it. It had amazing claws, arms like a human, measured 1.50 meters, had a bearlike snout with enormous fangs and genitals identical to those of a male human."
Alvarez has led several expeditions to find the animal and claims having seen it through binoculars. "What I saw resembled a gorilla very closely, but," he asked himself, "what would an African anthropoid be doing here?" The volunteer fireman added that "we will be visiting El Duraznito to see if we find the remains [of the creature] reported by these people."
"Going by the description, it must be a cub of the specimen reported by others. Furthermore, a woman surnamed Galván claimed having seen it in Los Baños, behind the mountains surrounding the thermal springs. I don't think we're dealing with a single specimen, but with a family of them."
