The Chupacabra Defense: Man Blames Mythical Creature for Drunk Driving Crash

A 21-year-old driver’s explanation for his overturned truck involved a legendary cryptid, but deputies weren’t buying it.

Sometimes the excuses people give law enforcement stretch the boundaries of believability, and occasionally they cross into territory that’s downright bizarre.

The Crash Scene

Deputies in Lawrence County, Indiana got a call just after 1:00 a.m. on October 12, 2025. Single-vehicle crash near the intersection of Patton Hill Road and Vista Drive. The location sits in an unincorporated community called Patton Hill, tucked into Indian Creek Township near Bedford, the county seat. Someone had called 911 about a 2001 tan Chevy S-10 flipped on its side, blocking the road.

The witness mentioned something else. The driver looked drunk and was trying to convince them not to call the police.

Deputy C. Pruett showed up and found 21-year-old Kaleb M. Sowders from Bedford sitting on a limestone rock near his overturned truck. The deputy could smell alcohol immediately. Sowders had glassy eyes and slurred speech. He admitted straight away that he’d been drinking and lost control while driving up Patton Hill Road.

That should have been the end of it. Standard drunk driving arrest, routine processing. Sowders had other ideas.

Going Limp

Deputy Pruett tried to start a field sobriety test with a basic eye examination. Sowders wouldn’t put his phone down. The deputy took it from him. Sowders grabbed for it back. When Deputy Pruett tried to help him stand, Sowders dropped to his knees and lay flat on the ground.

Deputies Long and Pruett had to roll him onto his stomach and order him to put his hands behind his back before they could get handcuffs on him.

They sat him back on the rock. Deputy Pruett tried again to check his eyes. Sowders told him not to bother because he was drunk. He kept refusing instructions and interrupting while Deputy Pruett attempted to read his Miranda Rights.

Deputy Martin eventually took over and got through the Miranda Rights and Implied Consent advisement while Sowders sat in the patrol car. Sowders said he understood and agreed to a blood draw.

The Story Changes

Sowders initially claimed he’d drunk three shots around 11:30 p.m. at a friend’s house. Deputy Martin knew that wasn’t what Sowders had told the EMS crew earlier. He’d told them he’d been at Shorty’s, a local bar. When deputies pointed this out, Sowders backpedaled and said he thought he’d been at a friend’s house.

Then they asked what caused him to crash.

Enter the Chupacabra

Sowders said a Chupacabra ran out in front of him.

Not a deer. Not a dog. A Chupacabra.

The chupacabra translates from Spanish as “goat-sucker.” The legend started in Puerto Rico in 1995. The first attack attributed to the creature happened in March that year when someone found eight dead sheep with three puncture wounds in their chests. Puerto Rican comedian Silverio Pérez gave the creature its name shortly after stories started appearing in newspapers.

The most detailed early sighting came from Madelyne Tolentino in August 1995. She saw it in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, where reports claimed as many as 150 farm animals and pets turned up dead. People described something standing four to five feet tall with spines running from its neck to its tail, huge red eyes, and sharp fangs. It supposedly moved by hopping like a kangaroo.

Timing matters here. Tolentino’s sighting lined up almost perfectly with the Puerto Rican theatrical release of Species, a Hollywood monster movie featuring a creature with nearly identical features, including the distinctive back spikes.

Reports spread fast after that. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and throughout the United States. The descriptions started shifting. After 2000, most sightings described something four-legged that looked like a hairless dog or coyote with a prominent backbone and patchy fur.

Scientists have a straightforward explanation for this. Most alleged chupacabra sightings are actually coyotes with severe mange, a parasitic skin disease that causes dramatic hair loss and changes the animal’s appearance completely. DNA testing on supposed chupacabra carcasses consistently comes back as coyotes, dogs, or foxes infected with mange.

Cryptozoologists have been tracking chupacabra reports since the 1950s, but no one has ever documented the creature scientifically. It ranks third among the world’s most famous cryptids, behind Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, earning its reputation as the southern equivalent of Sasquatch.

Reality Bites

Whatever Sowders thought he saw on Patton Hill Road that night, the deputies weren’t interested in discussing cryptozoology.

They took him to IU Health Bedford Hospital for medical clearance and a blood draw to determine his exact blood alcohol content. From there, he went to Lawrence County Jail.

The charge: felony operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 percent or greater. That’s nearly twice Indiana’s legal limit of 0.08 percent. The felony designation means this wasn’t his first OWI offense.

His Chevy S-10 got towed away, leaving physical evidence on Patton Hill Road of what happens when impaired driving meets creative excuse-making.

The criminal justice system runs on measurable evidence. Blood alcohol content doesn’t negotiate with folklore. Whether Sowders genuinely believed he saw a legendary creature or just thought it might work as an excuse, the Chupacabra defense failed completely.

The creature remains as elusive as ever, never scientifically documented despite decades of reported sightings. Sowders’ sobriety, on the other hand, was quite easy to verify.

References

NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.