Varginha Incident

On January 20, 1996, in the Brazilian city of Varginha, Minas Gerais, three young women — Liliane Fatima Silva, Valquiria Fatima Silva, and Katia Andrade Xavier — encountered a creature in a vacant lot near a road in the middle of the afternoon. The being was described as approximately five feet tall, with dark brown or black oily skin, a large head with three bumps or horn-like protrusions, enormous red eyes, and a foul smell. It appeared injured or distressed, crouching near a wall. The women fled and reported the encounter to their family. Their accounts under questioning remained consistent.

Within hours of the initial sighting, and apparently in connection with a separate crash event reported by local fire department personnel that morning near the Varginha airspace, Brazilian Army units from the 6th Military Police Battalion and the 3rd Regional Military Hospital arrived in the area in substantial force. Multiple civilian witnesses reported seeing military vehicles and personnel conducting an operation in the area where the creature had been seen. According to researcher and filmmaker James Fox, who spent years documenting the case for his 2022 film 'Moment of Contact,' two creatures were recovered and transported — one alive — to the Humanitas Hospital in Varginha and subsequently to a military facility.

A Brazilian Army soldier named Marco Aurelio Eli Chereze reportedly handled one of the beings without protective equipment during transfer. He subsequently developed a severe and unusual systemic infection and died three weeks later at age 23. His widow and family have stated publicly that he told them he had handled a non-human creature. The physician who treated him, Dr. Fortunato Badan Palhares, was never permitted to list the true cause of death on the death certificate, according to family accounts.

The Brazilian Army and government have officially denied all aspects of the incident. However, the number of independent civilian and off-record military source accounts, combined with the physical circumstances, led Fox's investigation — which included on-camera testimony from then-Mayor Heraldo Rodrigues, retired military personnel, and medical staff — to conclude the event was genuine. 'Moment of Contact' (2022) remains the most comprehensive journalistic investigation of the case, submitted for consideration at multiple international film festivals.