A horrified mum has revealed how a gruesome carcass in her back yard has mystified her neighbours and been branded a sign of the devil.
Michelle Havlik said she was stunned when one of her dogs discovered the mutant creature on their property, and nobody has been able to work out what it is.
Michelle, from Noblesville in the US state of Indiana, says she asked friends and neighbours what it might be, to no avail. Eventually she said she reached out to government scientists to help answer her question.
But just as mysteriously as it arrived, the eerie corpse vanished before scientists had time to study it properly. However one biologist thought he might have had the answer.
Michelle said she initially thought the animals was a dead piglet, but soon realised that it couldn’t be.
“We were just letting the dogs out and my husband saw our dog pull it out of the pool,” she said.
“He yelled for me to come out and see what it was because he couldn’t figure it out.
“It was very weird!
“I’d have said it was the size of a fully-grown guinea pig. It was completely furless.
“I honestly thought it was a baby pig! It was about the same size as one but I knew something was weird about it because of its feet – it didn’t have hooves!”
The 27-year-old continued: “I was so confused.
“I had to take a picture to send it to my dad because I couldn’t figure out what it was.
“I felt super weird about even looking at it.”
When nobody in the family could identify the creature, Michelle turned to her local community’s Facebook page.
“We got so many different answers,” she said.
“Some said it was a groundhog, a naked mole rat, a baby pig, a weasel, gopher, muskrat, a ‘snipe’ and a chupacabra.
“Our Muslim friend said it was the sign of the devil and we needed to cleanse our backyard – which we did.”
The chupacabra is a vampire-like creature that’s entered into folklore across the Americas, and which is said to drink the blood of livestock.
A snipe, meanwhile, could refer to a real family of birds, or a made-up creature like the one depicted in the 2009 Disney-Pixar film, Up.
Still searching for answers, Havlik reached out to her state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for help.
“Finally, after trying for two days to get help from the DNR, I got in touch with the biologist that works there and he was so puzzled,” said Michelle.
“He hold me he needed a little bit to look at the picture.”
And the mystery only deepened, when the corpse vanished.
“I was so weirded out,” the mum continued.
“We went back out a few hours later and it was completely gone.
“Our dogs hadn’t been out so the DNR thinks a bird came and got it, but I’m not sure!”
Eventually, the DNR suggested to Havlik that it could be a groundhog, based on the feet.
Noblesville locals aren’t so sure, however.
Michelle said: “After I posted an update about what the DNR guy said, a lot said it wasn’t a groundhog and was something else.”
The Indiana DNR has been contacted for comment.
