Original article (with hyperlinks):
https://revistaquestaodeciencia.com.br/dossie-questao/2026/01/15/fantasias-e-contradicoes-dio-caso-varginha

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Fantasies and Contradictions of the Varginha Case
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The so-called Varginha Case, or Varginha Incident, has consolidated itself over the past decades not merely as a specific ufological episode, but as a social phenomenon of broad reach in Brazil. The city has become part of the UFO tourism circuit, with monuments, themed events, and a public identity associated with the alleged encounter with extraterrestrial beings.

In parallel, a large and heterogeneous body of literature has emerged. Books abound, mainly written by figures who were involved in the investigation: Incidente em Varginha (Vitório Pacaccini, 1996), O Caso Varginha (Ubirajara Rodrigues, 2001), and Varginha: Toda a Verdade Revelada (Marco A. Petit).

There is also an abundance of journalistic reports, ranging from the classic coverage on the television program Fantástico to the numerous recent features, especially now that the case marks its 30th anniversary. Not to mention a profusion of videos across social media platforms, with supporters and detractors presenting the strengths and/or weaknesses of the extraterrestrial hypothesis—the idea that a series of events described in and around Varginha, Minas Gerais, centered on January 20, 1996, were caused by the presence of an alien life form. Modestly and without much pretense, I myself have produced a series of videos on the case.

Nor can we forget the documentaries, which since 1996 have constructed various narratives about the events. One production in particular has, in recent years, gained greater international visibility: the documentary Moment of Contact by the American filmmaker James Fox, originally released in 2023, with a new version in 2025. More recently, from January 6 to 8, Rede Globo aired the documentary Mistério de Varginha, which, in addition to commemorating the 30th anniversary, presented important new information.

Now that everyone is talking about the case, it is extremely important to present a careful and critical analysis. This dossier is an attempt in that direction. It is a summary of a larger work, but it addresses the main points of controversy.

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Crashed Spaceships?
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On January 13, 1996, Carlos de Souza, a businessman from São Paulo and an amateur ultralight pilot, was traveling along the Fernão Dias Highway when, near Varginha, he claimed to have observed an aerial object struggling to maintain altitude. According to his account, the object released white smoke from its sides and emitted an irregular noise, likened to that of an “unbalanced washing machine.” Souza decided to follow the object, believing there might be people on board in need of help, and claims to have reached the site of its crash, later identified as the Maiolini Farm.

Souza reports that he was approached by a uniformed man who prevented him from remaining at the site. He claims to have seen metallic fragments of the object, including a thin material that, when crumpled, immediately returned to its original shape. According to him, military personnel took this material from his hand. He describes an intense military operation, with approximately 30 to 40 people combing the area (collecting pieces of metal), two Army trucks, a large helicopter, a camouflaged ambulance (but bearing a cross), and a strong smell of ammonia. He also claims to have seen several metallic fragments loaded onto the trucks, the largest comparable in size to the rear section of an Opala automobile.

Souza further states that later, when he stopped at a roadside restaurant to eat, he was approached by men dressed in black who appeared to know details of his life and allegedly warned him not to speak about what had happened. They then left the location in a black Opala. Frightened, Souza says he immediately returned to São Paulo.

In another episode, at the Castilho Farm near Varginha, the caretakers Eurico and Oralina reported that, during the early morning hours, they observed a whitish object, described as resembling a “mini-bus,” releasing smoke from its rear and slowly flying over the pasture before disappearing. The couple only associated the event with something unusual after learning, days later, about reports of creatures seen in the city on January 20. Contrary to what many claim, it is not possible to securely associate this sighting with the events of January 20.

These witnesses are not at the origin of the case. Eurico and Oralina reinterpreted their experience in light of the rumors that circulated after the episode involving the three girls (Kátia, Valquíria, and Liliane, whom we will discuss shortly), the true ground zero of the narrative constructed around the “Varginha Case.” I consider it unlikely that they deliberately invented the story; all indications suggest they saw something real, even if it is impossible to identify it precisely based on their account.

Souza’s testimony, however, presents substantial problems. He only came forward publicly in October 1996, when the Varginha Case was already widely disseminated by the media. Souza reports that a friend told him about a dossier published in Revista Planeta in September of that year. Upon consulting that issue, it is striking that several central elements of his account were already present: the Eurico and Oralina sighting, the hypothesis of a craft crash with a damaged extremity, the scattering of metallic fragments across the region, and the mention of the smell of ammonia.

Another problematic point is the description of a metallic material with “shape memory,” which returns to its original form after being crumpled, as well as the scene of military personnel collecting scattered debris and transporting fragments in trucks. These images are remarkably similar to scenes from the film Roswell (1994; see here and here), released shortly before the events in Varginha and widely known at the time. The coincidence is, at the very least, noteworthy.

Inconsistencies accumulate when comparing the different versions of Souza’s account over time. In 1996, he stated that he found the alleged crash site already under military control; in later interviews, such as one given to Marco Leal in 2018 and in the documentary Moment of Contact (James Fox, 2023, 2025), he says that the military arrived after him, approximately 10 to 15 minutes later. There is also an important contradiction: in James Fox’s documentary, Souza clearly states that a soldier pointed a weapon at him. However, in the 2018 interview he explicitly declares that if he said a weapon was pointed at him, he would be lying.

There are also significant chronological discrepancies. The time of the stop at the roadside restaurant varies from 10–11 a.m. in 1996 to approximately 6–7 a.m. in 2018. The number of people in the Opala changes from a single individual in the initial version to two in later versions. In an interview with Projeto 93, an additional episode emerges involving a waiter who allegedly overheard the threats—an element absent from all previous accounts.

Finally, Souza underwent a session of regressive hypnosis, the video of which has been available on YouTube since 2023, during which he began to report the presence of beings, telepathic contact, and other claims that are impossible to verify. There are good reasons for skepticism regarding the usefulness of hypnosis in this context.

In the documentary Moment of Contact, a key witness from 1996 reappears under the pseudonym “Military X,” alleging that the events began at the Maiolini Farm. However, when later questioned by ufologists about this claim, the military witness no longer upheld it, stating that he did not have such information (OVNI Pesquisa 22, 2025, p. 9), further reinforcing the general instability of the narrative.

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The First Capture
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It is alleged that on the morning of January 20, 1996, military firefighters captured a strange creature in the Jardim Andere neighborhood of Varginha, where, later that same day, Kátia, Liliane, and Valquíria claimed to have seen a strange creature perched on the wall of a workshop. This allegation is based on one of the case’s main accounts, the so-called “testimony” of Robson Oliveira.

The account, recorded on audio, was collected on February 16, 1996, by ufologist Vitório Pacaccini, one of the principal investigators of the alleged events. Oliveira’s story—he is now deceased—was what gave some ufologists the conviction that something abnormal had indeed occurred.

Until very recently, everything we knew about Oliveira’s testimony came from various works in which his identity was preserved, such as Incidente em Varginha (Pacaccini and Ports, 1996) and O Caso Varginha (Franco Rodrigues, 2001). However, in 2023, the researcher João Marcelo made nearly 10 minutes of this testimony available on his channel (the full recording lasts over 40 minutes) and decided—much to the fury of many—to identify the individual involved (with his prior consent, of course). Oliveira told João Marcelo that he could identify him after his death. João Marcelo honored that promise.

I will summarize here the main points of those 10 minutes.

Military firefighter Robson Oliveira states that on the morning of the 20th, shortly before 8 a.m., during the change of shifts (he had worked on the 19th), a call came in to capture an “animal in the brush,” an occurrence considered routine. Oliveira did not take part in the action, as he was ending his shift. Shortly thereafter, he learned via radio that the animal had been captured and that an Army truck was at the scene, which aroused his curiosity. He then decided to accompany the commander (then Major Francisco Maciel) to the capture site, where, around 10:30 a.m., he found the being already placed in a net, inside a wooden crate, loaded onto a military truck.

Oliveira claims that he did not see the creature, only hearing a hissing sound coming from inside the crate, and that the description came from colleagues who participated in the capture: a being about half a meter tall, with large, oval, red eyes, three protrusions on its head, a brown body with a dirty, viscous appearance, thin arms, a bulky abdomen, and a debilitated aspect. During transport, Oliveira hitchhiked with military personnel for part of the route and was warned that it was a secret mission; later, according to him, there was a meeting at the Fire Department reinforcing an order of silence. Oliveira concludes by stating that the episode involved something that, in his assessment, “is not of this world.”

The narrative has several problems.

The account was collected by Pacaccini on February 16, when the firefighter could already have heard (and certainly had heard) the numerous rumors circulating since January 20, as well as having watched the Fantástico report that aired on February 4. And he did, in fact, watch it. How do I know this? Oliveira himself says so.

On Fantástico, the girls describe the creature, and Oliveira’s description is quite similar. However, the firefighter mentions that the creature was somewhat pot-bellied. This detail does not appear in the Fantástico report. Where could it have come from? From the rumors. And you do not need to take my word for it. In Manchete magazine (Rio de Janeiro), dated February 10, 1996, one reads about a woman who allegedly called the fire department asking them to take good care of “the ET, because it was pregnant” (p. 17).

In that same Fantástico segment, Oliveira could also hear about the supposed involvement of the firefighters. He says that Captain Pedro Alvarenga, of the Fire Department, had been punished for giving an interview to Fantástico. Additionally, the report also included allegations involving trucks from the Army Sergeants School (ESA) in Três Corações.

By cross-referencing information published in books on the subject, it is easy to conclude that it was Oliveira who disclosed the names of the following alleged participants in the capture: Sergeant Palhares, Corporal Rubens, and soldiers Nivaldo and Santos. However, as OVNI Pesquisa 22 (January 2025) published in an article signed by “team,” and as investigator João Marcelo presented in live streams, the duty rosters for that January 20 do not include the names Palhares and Rubens. Therefore, Oliveira places at the capture site individuals who were not even on duty that day. Did he invent everything, or does the absence of the names indicate a cover-up?

Apparently, he invented everything. OVNI Pesquisa 22 (p. 7) also brings a bombshell piece of information: in more recent conversations, Oliveira “went back on it, saying that he invented everything under coercion” and reportedly expressed regret for having given false testimony. This information was confirmed in the documentary O Mistério de Varginha, third episode, in which we can hear an audio recording made by investigator João Marcelo, in which Oliveira says that “that thing there [the account] was manipulated, there was nothing… it was all a manipulation.” The firefighter provides further details: “I think the person hypnotizes you: ‘you’re going to say this, this, and this. Are you willing to say it?’” According to the firefighter, the persistence was so great that he said, “what do you want me to say?” adding that afterward he regretted it.

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The Creature on the Wall
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The most well-known episode of the Varginha Case occurred on the afternoon of January 20, 1996, when sisters Liliane (16) and Valquíria (14), accompanied by Kátia Xavier (22), were returning home around 3:30 p.m. through the Jardim Andere neighborhood, an area then marked by vacant lots and patches of woodland. Prior to the sighting, they were already apprehensive, having been warned about the possible presence of a harasser in the area.

After changing their route, they passed by a vacant lot on Benevenuto Braz Vieira Street, next to a workshop, where they claim to have seen, in broad daylight, a crouching and motionless creature, described as humanoid, with brown, oily-looking skin, large red eyes, large feet, visible veins, and three protrusions on its head. The encounter lasted only a few seconds. All three fled in panic; Liliane arrived home in a state of shock, saying she had seen the devil.

Her mother, Luíza Helena, went to the site of the encounter shortly afterward, claiming to have sensed a strange smell and observed large three-toed footprints, although these details were not confirmed by other people present, nor do they appear consistently in the initial accounts, and are likely later additions.

According to Luíza, around 10–11 p.m. on April 29 of that year, four men went to her house offering money in exchange for a change in the story, denying that they had seen anything. The offer was allegedly refused.

The analysis of the girls’ account is particularly delicate. There is a general consistency in what they have reported over the years. But it is impossible to state with certainty what exactly they saw. The context itself offers multiple factors that may have influenced perception: the prior warning about a possible harasser, apprehension, an uninviting environment, previous prank scares (they mention this in a conversation with John E. Mack, a Harvard psychologist), the emotional impact of the encounter, and later contamination of memory by the city’s popular imagination.

This local imagination is not irrelevant. The area known as the “Zé Gomes lot,” in the vicinity of the land the girls passed through, had already been surrounded by legends long before 1996. Zé Gomes was described as a strange figure, associated with black magic practices, demonic pacts, and apparitions of creatures with red eyes and unusual appearance on his land. This does not mean that the girls “saw a demon,” but it shows how certain symbols and images were already culturally available and could, in a stressful situation, shape how the experience was interpreted. A more complete account of these legends is available on João Marcelo’s channel.

Ufologist Ubirajara Rodrigues himself, now skeptical of an extraterrestrial interpretation of the case, acknowledges this by stating that people describe what they see based on their physical senses, but that their narratives are inevitably shaped by assumptions, subjective impressions, and cultural references. This is not to say that the sighting was imaginary, nor to assert that there was an extraordinary being, but to recognize that perception, memory, and context interact in complex ways.

Ultimately, the girls’ sighting did occur. Something caused real fear and left deep emotional marks. What exactly was present on that lot, however, remains an open question. The official conclusion of the Military Police Inquiry, which attributed the sighting to a local resident known as Mudinho, seems more like an attempt to close the case than a thorough investigation. Could it have been him? Possibly. Could it not have been? Also possible. What seems clear to me is that the episode says as much about psychology, social context, and the construction of narratives as it does about any extraordinary hypothesis.

Regarding the visit by the “men in black,” ufologists speculate that they were, in fact, people linked to a television network rival to Rede Globo, who were planning to tarnish their competitor’s reputation. It is important to note that this narrative has evolved, and today it is claimed that one of the men was a “foreigner” who did not speak Portuguese. Curiously, this detail does not originally appear in Luíza’s account. For example, see her June 1996 testimony, when she was interviewed by Goulart de Andrade for Comando da Madrugada.

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The Second Capture: The Death of the Police Officer
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The next events in the chronology of the case are the alleged capture of another creature on the night of January 20 and, above all, the death of Military Police officer Marco Eli Chereze. Many believe that the officer died as a result of some disease transmitted by the “creature.” But is there any concrete evidence that Chereze was contaminated by something extraterrestrial?

On the night of January 20, 1996, around 6:00 p.m., Varginha was struck by one of the most intense rainstorms ever recorded in the city. Trees fell, power and telephone lines were torn down, a blackout occurred, and a generalized scene of urban chaos ensued. In this context, we find Marco Eli Chereze and Eric Lopes, police officers assigned to the intelligence and investigation sector of the Military Police, known as “P2.” Marco was sitting in the passenger seat of a car that had a defect: the window would not close, causing him to get thoroughly soaked during the storm.

The shift of both officers was supposed to end before 7:00 p.m., but there is consensus that they remained on duty beyond regular hours, allegedly because they were on alert for any unusual movement in the Jardim Andere neighborhood. Rumors about what the girls had seen there earlier that afternoon were already circulating.

When the rain subsided, Chereze decided to go to his parents’ house. He obtained a change of dry clothes, informed his mother that he would remain on duty until later, and asked her to notify his wife if she looked for him. This point is well established and confirmed by both his mother and his wife: that night, Chereze did in fact work beyond his regular shift. After changing clothes, Chereze and Lopes resumed their patrols. The weather remained unstable, with occasional drizzle, and at a certain point they passed along Benevenuto Braz Vieira Street, the location of the girls’ sighting. They then turned left onto José Afonso de Campos Street. It was there that Lopes braked abruptly: something was said to have emerged from the construction site on the left, crossed in front of the car, and run toward the brush.

It is at this point that the narrative of the alleged capture arises. According to the version that spread, Chereze got out of the vehicle, lunged at the creature, and managed to restrain it without encountering much resistance. The officers allegedly placed the being in the car and set off in search of medical assistance, since the creature appeared to be weakened. They are said to have gone first to a health clinic, where a doctor allegedly advised them to take the prisoner elsewhere, perhaps to a hospital or a zoo.

However, investigations conducted by Ubirajara Rodrigues, João Marcelo, and other researchers indicate that the health clinic mentioned simply did not operate on Saturdays (see OVNI Pesquisa 22, 2025). Residents, former employees, and security guards confirmed that there was no on-call service. This makes that part of the narrative untenable. If something was taken somewhere, it did not pass through any clinic; the only possibility would have been the Regional Hospital.

Chereze died on February 15, 1996, at the age of 23, and his death was quickly incorporated into the ufological imagination as a direct consequence of an “alien” infection. But the medical and forensic documents do not support this narrative. What is recorded is that on February 7, Chereze underwent the removal of a small pustule in the region of the right armpit, a procedure performed at the Military Police’s own clinic. Three days later, he began to experience intense pain, persistent fever, and back pain—a condition compatible, for example, with pneumonia. On the 11th, he was admitted to Bom Pastor Hospital, and on the 15th, transferred to the ICU of the Regional Hospital, where he died.

The autopsy report, signed by physicians Armando Fortunato Filho and José da Frota Vasconcelos, is clear: there were no external injuries of medico-legal interest. The only wound described was a 0.5 cm incision in the right armpit, in the process of healing, compatible with the site of the pustule removal. There were no scratches, strange marks, or any evidence of traumatic contact with another organism. The cause of death was a pulmonary infection caused by bacteria (Enterobacter aerogenes, now reclassified as Klebsiella aerogenes). Another bacterium, Staphylococcus schleiferi, was found in the armpit.

One of the most persistent myths about the officer’s death is that of an “unknown toxic substance” at an 8% concentration. This is a misinterpretation of the test results. A blood count (reproduced in Ubirajara’s book) mentions “fine toxic granulations” in some cells, technically called neutrophils. None of this indicates an unknown substance. Toxic granulations are a classic marker of cellular activation in systemic infections, sepsis, pneumonia, cancer, and other conditions. The term “toxic” does not refer to something exotic, but to the functional state of the cell. The findings are fully compatible with a terrestrial bacterial infection.

There are also claims of a delay of nearly a year in the release of the autopsy report. Records indicate that the delay was due to bureaucratic and financial issues, not an alleged “cover-up.” The Institute of Propaedeutics and Diagnostics, directed at the time by João Janini, withheld the examinations until the costs were paid. Janini himself confirmed this in an interview. Curiously, he is one of the physicians who defends the hypothesis of alien contamination, which makes the idea that he would be hiding information to protect an official version incoherent.

Speaking of him, we need to critically analyze the report later produced by Janini, in which he suggests that Chereze suffered a superficial skin lesion and was infected by Staphylococcus schleiferi. This conclusion directly conflicts with the autopsy report and ignores the central fact: the bacterium associated with the death was located in the lungs and was Enterobacter/Klebsiella, a relatively common bacterium in hospital-acquired infections.

Where did the details of the alleged nighttime capture come from? In an interview, Ubirajara Rodrigues explains that many people think the information about the capture and the involvement of the Military Police came from officer Eric Lopes, but this is not true. The original source was the late head of the Civil Registry Office of Varginha, Antônio José Alves Dalia, who was a friend of Rodrigues. It was he who showed Rodrigues Chereze’s death certificate and provided an entire narration of what allegedly occurred.

Dalia, however, did not say what his source was. The details were allegedly supplemented by the deceased officer’s sister and by someone who checked duty rosters and confirmed that Chereze and Lopes were on duty that day. The connection was built retroactively.

Marco Eli Chereze died of a known bacterial infection, associated with pulmonary complications, in a context perfectly compatible with a hospital-acquired infection. There is no empirical evidence whatsoever of extraterrestrial contamination. Insisting on this explanation requires accepting a highly improbable chain of events and ignoring simple, documented, and well-established explanations. It is necessary to rigorously separate what is evidence from what is conviction or wishful thinking.

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An Alien in the Hospitals
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It is alleged that, after being refused care at the health clinic, the officers took the creature to the Regional Hospital of Southern Minas, in Varginha, arriving around 9:00 p.m. From there, a sequence of accounts begins describing unusual activity: the closure of a ward, the transfer of patients to other sectors, and throughout the night and early hours of January 21, the presence of military police officers and Army personnel, uniformed and armed, circulating through the hospital.

Witnesses to this alleged activity include nearby residents, people who passed in front of the hospital, individuals who entered the facility that night, and employees of the institution itself. What all the accounts have in common is the description of an abrupt break in hospital routine, with restricted access and constant military surveillance.

According to this narrative, in the early hours of January 21 the creature was transferred from the Regional Hospital to Hospital Humanitas, located in a more remote area of the city. The transfer was allegedly carried out by ambulance, precisely to avoid commotion, although neighbors of Hospital Humanitas report having observed military activity in the surrounding area.

The most frequently cited chronology, such as that presented by UFO magazine, states that on January 22, around 9:00 a.m., the Army, through the Sergeants School of Arms (ESA), made a first attempt to remove the creature from Hospital Humanitas. This attempt failed. A second effort, in the afternoon, was allegedly successful.

But is there evidence that the creatures passed through the hospitals?

An article from the newspaper Estado de Minas (reproduced in Ubirajara’s book) suggests that a judicial authority confirmed the capture of the creatures. The text explicitly refers to “creatures,” in the plural, which were allegedly wrapped in plastic tarps and quickly taken to the Regional Hospital of Varginha.

This detail is noteworthy because it deviates from the canonical narrative of the case, which speaks of only one creature captured at night and taken to the Regional Hospital.

Another account, also present in Ubirajara Rodrigues’s book, describes two young women who, prompted by rumors, went to the Regional Hospital. There, a doorman allegedly confirmed that something important had happened, including a transfer to Hospital Humanitas during the early hours of the morning. The young women are said to have gone there, where a nurse on duty allegedly told them it was something unpleasant, that she was forbidden to comment, and advised them not to enter because they would be shocked.

There is also an account shown on the television program Comando da Madrugada, from June 1996, in which a resident near Hospital Humanitas describes having observed unusual movement of police vehicles. He claims that they were not from the Varginha police, but vehicles with license plates from Belo Horizonte.

Another pillar of the narrative is the so-called “Military X,” whose account appears in the documentary Moment of Contact. He was allegedly assigned to a mission at Hospital Humanitas. Inside, he claims to have seen a creature on a stainless-steel table, surrounded by doctors and military personnel. He describes the skin as oily, similar to silicone, and highlights the shape of the foot, in a V, suggesting two toes. He also reports the presence of another soldier with a camera. He claims to have transported the creature from Hospital Humanitas to the Sergeants School of Arms on January 22, 1996.

In the same documentary, there is the account of a radiologist, who says he saw an ESA truck outside the Regional Hospital and several military vehicles in the inner courtyard. He reports being instructed to perform a full series of X-rays on something that was inside a black bag, placed inside a box. According to him, after the films were developed, the military collected all the material and did not allow him to see the results. He also describes an extremely unpleasant smell that allegedly lingered in the environment for quite some time.

There is also the account of the nephrologist Fernando Eugênio do Prado, now deceased. At a nephrology conference in late 1996, he allegedly stated that on January 21 he saw the creature’s body in the morgue of the Regional Hospital. According to the account, he was barred at the door of the autopsy room but managed to see a corpse on a table, with brownish skin, a large head and large eyes, as well as skin with a moist appearance.

More recently, neurosurgeon Ítalo Venturelli gained prominence in the world media. Venturelli initially claimed to have seen only a video recorded at the Regional Hospital, in a hospital setting, without military personnel, with the creature on a gurney; more recently, in the documentary Moment of Contact, he began to say that he saw the being in person, substantially rewriting his version.

All these stories depend, essentially, on the veracity of the so-called second capture. And this capture, as far as can be demonstrated, exists only as rumor. There is no fact that proves it. To make matters worse, it is known with certainty that the health clinic mentioned did not operate that night; it was not open on Saturdays.

If there was no capture, everything that follows collapses, like a domino effect.

Even assuming, hypothetically, that the capture had occurred, the narrative still makes no sense. If the Army and the Military Police had already been on alert since the morning due to the supposed earlier capture, why would they allow an extraterrestrial creature to be taken to civilian hospitals? If the intention were to cover up the case, the logical procedure would be to take it directly to a military facility, not expose doctors, patients, and civilians to an unknown organism, with obvious biosafety risks. Taking the creature first to the Regional Hospital and then to Hospital Humanitas makes absolutely no sense.

Moreover, there are physicians who categorically state that they saw nothing out of the ordinary—no military movement, no isolated wards, no abnormal events. These accounts exist, but they are rarely highlighted.

When we examine more closely the so-called judicial authority cited by Estado de Minas, further problems emerge. She mixes distinct accounts, speaks of two creatures, and gave her interview months after the events, after extensive media coverage. When ufologists later located her, she could not even say which hospital the creature had allegedly been taken to.

The case of nephrologist Fernando Eugênio also unravels: when sought out by ufologists, he admitted having made the comment at the conference, but explained that he did so merely to put an end to his colleagues’ jokes. He categorically denied having seen any strange corpse at the forensic institute.

As for Ítalo Venturelli, his claims lack the technical detail one would expect from a neurosurgeon when faced with a non-human organism, such as information about anatomy, physiology, or the nervous system. In Mistério de Varginha, Ítalo also gives an account. If before the creature had red eyes, now they are lilac.

The exhumation of a young man that occurred during that period helps explain much of the described activity. Official documents show that the body entered the morgue of the Regional Hospital on January 16, 1996, and that the exhumation took place on the 30th. There were, in fact, X-rays, police presence, and restricted access—everything compatible with a case of suspected police violence, not with the presence of an extraterrestrial. The strong smell, the use of coverings, the need for secrecy, and even the complete radiographic examinations all fit within this context.

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From the Hospital to Campinas
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Our focus now turns to one of the most frequently repeated—and at the same time most problematic—phases of the case: the alleged military operation that supposedly transported a creature from Hospital Humanitas to the Army Sergeants School (ESA) in Três Corações, and subsequently to Campinas.

The basis of this narrative lies in accounts attributed to ESA military personnel, collected by ufologists starting in May 1996. Before making any value judgment, it is essential to clarify a fundamental point: the fact that someone has given a testimony does not mean that what was said is true. The existence of witnesses does not, in itself, guarantee the veracity of the events described. It is precisely this distinction that is often lost when discussing the Varginha Case.

According to the material disseminated in ufological literature—especially in the books by Vitório Pacaccini, Marco Petit, and Ubirajara Rodrigues—a second military operation allegedly took place on January 22, 1996 (the first being the involvement in the capture during the morning), aimed at removing a second creature from Hospital Humanitas. This operation would have been carried out by a convoy originating from the ESA, composed of three trucks, a Volkswagen Beetle, a jeep, and a Kombi van.

According to this version, the removal operation from Humanitas and the subsequent transport to Campinas would have been commanded by then–Lieutenant Colonel Olímpio Vanderlei, assisted by Lieutenant Tibério and Captain Edson Henrique Ramírez. The truck drivers would have been Corporal Vassalo and Soldiers De Melo and Cirilo. The Beetle would have been occupied by intelligence personnel (S2), while the Kombi would have been driven by Orlando Siqueira Brasil, a civilian employee of the ESA.

This last detail already raises an important question: what would a civilian be doing in the middle of a supposedly secret military operation? The narrative never offers a plausible explanation for this.

According to Pacaccini, the convoy would have arrived in Varginha in the morning, parked in front of the Paes Mendonça supermarket, and returned to Três Corações around lunchtime. The explanation offered is that the creature was not yet ready for transport. For this reason, the convoy would have returned in the afternoon, with a slightly different composition: Soldier Cirilo would have been replaced by Corporal Welber.

In the afternoon operation, the trucks allegedly reversed into the courtyard of Hospital Humanitas, remaining with their fronts facing the street. According to the account, cloths and tarps from the trucks themselves were used to assemble a kind of opaque “tunnel” between the truck beds and a hospital room, preventing third parties from seeing what was being loaded. The creature, supposedly placed inside a wooden crate, would then have been taken to the ESA.

The following day, January 23, the convoy—led by Sergeant Pedrosa—would have departed before dawn toward Campinas, using three Mercedes-Benz 1418 trucks. It is claimed that at least two creatures may have been transported: the one captured in the morning (still alive) and the other captured during the night. Upon arriving at the Army Cadet Preparatory School (EsPCEx) in Campinas, Captain Ramírez would already have been there, and the lower-ranking soldiers would have been dismissed, returning only on January 24, when, according to Marco Petit, they were surprised to find the trucks empty. They allegedly left Campinas toward the ESA at 7 a.m.

When this version is confronted with the internal inquiry initiated by the Army in May 1996, serious problems emerge. One of the testimonies I consider particularly relevant is that of Orlando Siqueira Brasil, the civilian driver of the Kombi.

Siqueira Brasil states that on January 23, 1996, he received orders from Captain Ramírez to go to Varginha with a Kombi van, carrying a purchase commitment note, in order to arrange wheel balancing and alignment services for trucks, to be performed by the company Automaco. The service would take place over the following days. On the morning of the 24th, he drove two trucks; in the afternoon, two more. The next day, he transported additional vehicles, but part of the service had to be postponed due to technical problems with the company’s equipment.

This account is corroborated by documentation and coincides with the testimony of Soldier De Melo, who also mentions the technical problems. The movement described by Siqueira Brasil is real, documented, and administrative in nature; it does not involve a hospital, creatures, or secret operations. On two occasions (here and here), De Melo gave his version of the facts.

In addition, Siqueira Brasil states that he does not recall the presence of Soldier Cirilo, but confirms the participation of Corporal Vassalo and Soldier De Melo in this movement. Available military records corroborate this information: Cirilo does not appear as a participant in these trips.

Other points further aggravate the problems with the creature-transport narrative. Soldier Cirilo officially declared that he did not take part in any mission involving trucks going to Varginha. He also reports a trip to Jaguariúna, passing through the Campinas interchange, to fetch hay for the ESA’s equestrian section—something that may explain reports from people who claimed to have seen convoys heading “toward Campinas.” De Melo also mentions this trip to Jaguariúna in January 1996.

The case of Corporal Vassalo is particularly problematic. He claims to have been at the ESA at 6:30 a.m. on January 24. However, if he had returned from Campinas at 7 a.m. that same day, as suggested in Petit’s book, this would be impossible.

Another element cited is the construction of a tarp tunnel between the trucks and a room at Humanitas. Curiously, Colonel Olímpio Vanderlei himself, in one of his testimonies, classified this story as fanciful, highlighting its resemblance to scenes from the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), by Steven Spielberg, in which doctors use a plastic tunnel to access the alien.

The observation is pertinent: this is a highly visual, cinematic, and symbolic detail, which reinforces narrative impact more than operational plausibility.

Other civilian witnesses are frequently cited, such as the security guard Eduardo Praxedes and the veterinarian Marcos Mina. However, their accounts are vague, imprecise regarding dates, and reconstructed after the case had already received wide media coverage. Two isolated trucks do not constitute a convoy, and none of these witnesses describes the full composition narrated by the military accounts.

There are also indirect reports, such as that of José Carlos Líberi, based on third-party information, without dates, names, or verifiable details. These secondhand testimonies add little.

Before proceeding, some chronological clarifications are necessary to better situate the reader. The main events of the case allegedly occurred in January 1996. The testimony of firefighter Robson Oliveira was collected on February 16. The account of the supposed witness later known in ufological literature as Military 2 (sometimes called Military X) was collected on May 4. The Army Sergeants School also opened an internal inquiry in May, a procedure that extended from the 10th to the 21st of that month. The testimony of the witness identified as Military 3, who confirmed the claims of Military 2/X, was recorded on May 21 (according to Petit, Varginha: Toda a Verdade Revelada). A Military Police Inquiry (IPM) into the case was conducted in 1997. Now, we can proceed.

Perhaps the most problematic aspect of this entire narrative is the way in which the ESA military testimonies were collected by ufologists investigating the case. Pacaccini admits to having made a “preamble” with the witnesses, with the goal of making them feel more comfortable. From a methodological standpoint, this is extremely serious: a preamble can induce responses, contaminate testimony, and shape the narrative.

Moreover, two military personnel were interviewed together (without being recorded), allowing one to complete the other’s statements—something inappropriate in any rigorous procedure for collecting testimony.

On May 4, days after this first round of testimonies collected by Pacaccini, one of the military witnesses, identified in documentaries as Military X (or Military 2, a corporal from the ESA), agreed to record a video during a meeting considered historic by Brazilian ufology. This meeting took place in Varginha, and the press was summoned so that ufologists could present the most recent results of their investigations. An excerpt of the testimony aired on Fantástico on the 12th. It is quite convenient that the military witness agreed to record his testimony precisely on the day of this meeting, during which Pacaccini revealed to the press the names of the military personnel supposedly involved.

A second testimony, this time attributed to the so-called Military 3 (an ESA soldier), was recorded on May 21, when names, dates, and details of the case had already been widely disseminated by the media. This late confirmation therefore has very limited evidentiary value.

There are also testimonies recorded in the 1997 IPM indicating a highly questionable approach by Pacaccini, involving suggestions of payment for information or videos related to the case. Both Sergeant Caubi Valério and the intermediary Alessandro reported insistence on the idea that a television network would pay large sums for audiovisual material about the case. Regardless of actual intent, the perception of an attempted bribe is serious and further undermines the credibility of the ufological investigative process.

Pacaccini, however, denies that he ever paid to obtain information at any point in the case. But in an interview with Marco Leal, the sister of Marco Eli Chereze, Marta Tavares, speaking about Pacaccini, said the following: “Look, we participated in a very particular investigation where many people spoke; I obtained information from an ESA military man at the time when Vitório Pacaccini paid to obtain information.”

However, the biggest bomb—foreshadowed in OVNI Pesquisa 22—dropped when episodes 2 and 3 of O Mistério de Varginha aired. There we have new statements from Oliveira, from Military 2/X, and from Military 3, who in 1996 had recorded a testimony confirming Military 2’s narrative and adding a few more details. Since then, Military 3 had not given further statements. Shockingly, he revealed that everything had been nothing more than a rehearsed storyline.

According to him, “all of this is creation and invention from Vitório’s [Pacaccini’s] mind,” and he adds: “He told me this story and asked if I could record this story with him; and I, too young and innocent, fell for it.” According to Military 3, they rehearsed what they had to say; he also claimed that Military 2 received money to record, and that he himself also received promises of payment, which were not fulfilled.

Military 3, anonymous (although we know he is indeed the same person who gave testimony in 1996), is not the only one to compromise the Military 2/X narrative. A new character enters the scene, openly identified: Carlos Henrique Bezerra. He reported that in 1996 Military 2 frequently had lunch and dinner at his restaurant (in Três Corações), and they developed a friendship. One day, Military 2 told him the ET story, but warned that if Bezerra told anyone, he would say that Bezerra was crazy. Bezerra then makes the following revelation:

“But then, talking to him, I said: ‘Do you want to make a little money? I can arrange a ufologist to help you talk, everything in secrecy.’ And he agreed.”

Questioned by reporter Paulo Gonçalves, one of the directors of Globo’s documentary, Bezerra confirms that this ufologist was Vitório Pacaccini. Military 2/X denies having been paid, but says, “Offers, I had, but I didn’t get money.” He does not say who made the offers. Importantly, Military 2 says that Bezerra was someone he trusted completely.

As if that were not enough, former soldier Ricardo de Melo enters the picture. In 1996, he served at the ESA and had his name involved in the episode. According to De Melo, he suspected that he had recognized one of the military men who spoke with Pacaccini. He contacted the suspected person, who confirmed that he had received money to record—and that if he had known the repercussion, he would have charged more. Who was this person? Military 2.

But did Military 2 have any motivation to lie? In the 1996 video, he says: “I don’t really like the Army.”

When all these elements are analyzed together—official documents, contradictory accounts, methodological flaws, late reconstructions of memory, and even explicit retractions—the narrative that creatures were captured and transported to Campinas simply does not converge.

What is observed is a confusion between real, routine, and documented military movements that occurred on January 25 and 26, and an extraordinary narrative retrojected onto January 22, without solid support. The story, as told, does not hold up. The Army is not saying that the ESA movement occurred on the 22nd, but rather that the movements on later days, the 25th and 26th, are very similar to those described in the allegations.

Is it not curious that the individuals identified as participants in the supposed transport operation are exactly the same ones involved in routine ESA trips on dates very close to the alleged day? It is also noteworthy that the set of people and the schedules coincide with normal sector activities, including the dynamics of a morning departure and an afternoon displacement, just as recorded in official documents of the convoy that went to Varginha on the 25th.

Added to this is the mention of names associated with regular trips to Jaguariúna, near Campinas. Taken together, these parallels suggest that the narrative of an extraordinary operation is being conflated with ordinary ESA procedures and appears to have been constructed by someone familiar with institutional routine and with the transport sector.

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Unicamp and Badan Palhares
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According to one of Military 2’s accounts, Sergeant Pedrosa, upon the return of the ESA trucks to Três Corações, allegedly remarked something along the lines of, “Wow, Unicamp is huge.” Apparently, from this comment arose the ufologists’ conviction that the creature (or creatures) had been taken to that university.

On May 12, after Fantástico aired, Pacaccini claims to have received a phone call from a Unicamp scientist confirming the autopsy of the creature at the hands of the famous medical examiner Fortunato Badan Palhares. Many later claims about what allegedly occurred in Campinas originate from the brothers Eduardo and Osvaldo Monidini.

The first witness interviewed by them was “Santiago,” who gave an interview on May 21, 1996. Santiago claimed to have a friend on Badan Palhares’ team who had confirmed to him the existence of an underground laboratory built in the 1970s beneath Unicamp’s Hospital das Clínicas, supposedly linked to military interests. According to him, the creature would have arrived in Campinas and been taken directly to Unicamp.

Santiago also claimed that Badan Palhares had been assisted during the autopsy by a German colleague, Konradin Metze, who in an interview with Marco Leal denied everything. Santiago’s accounts contain other problematic claims, such as the alleged transfer of military personnel involved in the operation—something contradicted by official investigations: those military personnel remained in their posts in 1996 and 1997, with one exception.

Further inconsistencies arise when Santiago claims that a relative had seen unusual activity at Hospital Humanitas on January 20, which makes no sense, since the creature would only have been transferred there in the early hours of January 21.

Another source cited is “Jader,” also a pseudonym, who claims that a friend spoke with Badan Palhares’ right-hand man and that the creature arrived at the Hospital das Clínicas during the night. This directly conflicts with Santiago’s version, according to which the creature would have gone to Unicamp in the morning. The three versions (military accounts, Santiago, and Jader) are mutually incompatible; at least one of them must be wrong.

According to reports, in a lecture Badan Palhares allegedly said that he could talk about the case “in a few years,” but there is no independent source or confirmation of this statement. It is also curious that ufologists do not consider that, being human, Badan Palhares might possess a sense of humor.

Badan Palhares repeatedly denied any involvement in autopsies of extraterrestrials. In interviews in May and June 1996, he stated that the information was flawed, that he never received anything from the Army related to aliens, and even invited journalists to visit Unicamp, where no creature was found. In 2005, in a public debate with Ubirajara Rodrigues, Badan Palhares again denied any involvement, clarifying that he had only evaluated images of the famous (and fake) American “alien autopsy,” and reiterating that he had not participated in any real alien autopsy. He also denied the existence of underground facilities at the Hospital das Clínicas.

Badan Palhares explained that the police presence at the university in 1996 may have been mistaken for something extraordinary, since the Military Police were guarding human remains found in a clandestine cemetery (the “Perus remains”) dating from the dictatorship era, whose identification work had been carried out at Unicamp since 1990. There are records of identifications taking place precisely in 1996, which explains the surveillance without the need to resort to extraterrestrial hypotheses.

Finally, mention is made of an alleged driver of Badan Palhares who supposedly overheard the scientist commenting on the case with his wife—something hardly plausible if the goal were secrecy. Added to this is the confusion surrounding the supposed underground laboratory: sometimes located beneath the Hospital das Clínicas, sometimes identified as “Pavilion 18” at the Institute of Chemistry, about one kilometer away.

It is alleged that at the end of 1996 a student attempted to obtain the blueprints of the Hospital das Clínicas in order to determine whether such a laboratory really existed. However, the student was informed that people from Unicamp itself had requested the copies back. Strange: Comando da Madrugada had been at Unicamp before this student (the program aired in June), yet no one bothered to confiscate the copies before Goulart de Andrade could even consider requesting them?

In the documentary O Mistério de Varginha, Badan Palhares made a revelation that many are interpreting incorrectly. The medical examiner says, without identifying the date, that he received a phone call one day telling him not to leave the laboratory because a team from the Brazilian Army would be bringing material to him. This material would be coming from Varginha. Badan Palhares was very clear, however, in stating that he was informed that the material was “for complete exhumation.” I do not recall any ET having been buried and exhumed. When asked whether he knew who made the call, Badan Palhares said he was only told it was from the Public Security Secretariat. When asked whether he remembered being told it was something related to an extraterrestrial, he replied, “No, I do not recall that.”

It is therefore clear that the material—which, incidentally, never reached the medical examiner—originated from an exhumation in Varginha. In fact, there was an exhumation in Varginha in 1996. The family suspected that the young man had been killed by the police. It became a judicial dispute. It is not difficult to connect the dots. In any case, Badan Palhares continues to deny that he autopsied an extraterrestrial from Varginha.

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Final Considerations
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We cannot consider the Varginha Case as an isolated, ideal event that occurred in a vacuum. Carlos Orsi, editor of Revista Questão de Ciência, has already pointed out important factors to be considered, which I summarize below.

In 2001, the Brazilian Air Force Command released a statistical survey of UFO reports recorded between the 1950s and 2000, revealing two striking peaks: 1977–78 and 1996–97, which together account for more than 40% of cases over nearly half a century. These periods coincide with moments of intense media exposure of the theme, such as the release of the films Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the 1970s, and, in the 1990s, the success of the TV series The X-Files (1993) and Roswell (1994), as well as the fake “alien autopsy” (1995), widely disseminated by international and Brazilian media (aired on Fantástico).

It was within this cultural environment saturated with extraterrestrial narratives that interpretations of the Varginha Case took shape. Incidentally, in the 1970s there was another “Varginha Case”: a “flying saucer wanted to land in the city,” reported by a newspaper at the time (I addressed this here). Três Corações, home of the ESA, was also the setting of the “Geraldo Bichara Case,” in which he was allegedly abducted on the institution’s premises in 1962.

Considering everything presented here, as well as numerous details that could not be addressed due to space constraints, it is extremely unlikely that in January 1996 an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashed in Varginha, and that extraterrestrials were seen, captured, transported, and studied.

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CORRECTION, on January 23, 2026:
A previous version of this text stated that original “ET” witnesses claimed to have received a bribery offer on May 29. The correct date is April 29, and the text has been corrected accordingly.
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João Lucas da Silva holds a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Pampa and is currently a PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at the same university.
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