I'm jeremy wade.
For 30 years, i've been fishing for evidence
To piece together the stories
Behind mysterious freshwater deaths.
Tracking down the perpetrators...
Wherever they're hiding.
And there's one place that keeps calling me back,
A place with more than its fair share
Of lethal beasts...
The amazon.
Now, over the course of an entire year,
I'm delving deeper into this wilderness than ever before.
As always, i'm looking out for an unusual tale,
An unexplained attack
That could lead me to a new monster.
So, when a corpse washes up
Covered in extraordinary bruises,
I start my search for an underwater killer.
This could be the scariest river monster
I've ever come up against.
But the only way to confront this beast
Is in its own element.
— captions by vitac — www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
I've been exploring the amazon for 20 years.
It's a river that has mesmerized me with its split personality.
One moment, it can sustain you.
Then, in the blink of an eye,
It can transform into something deadly.
I've seen injuries inflicted by many underwater assailants.
And the bites or stab wounds left on victims
Can be like a grisly calling card...
Aah!
Giving me a definite id.
But i've just heard about a body that was found
In the northeastern part of the amazon
That had very different injuries.
Reports said the man's torso was covered with bruises
Like nothing anybody had seen before.
No one knows how he died,
But they're blaming it on something in the river.
These mysterious injuries could be the signature
Of a new freshwater killer,
Something i've not yet encountered.
I have to find out what's going on.
The epicenter of this mystery
Is a place i've never been before,
The town of porto de moz in brazil.
This isolated town was first established in the late 1800s
During the amazon's rubber boom.
When this industry collapsed in the early 20th century,
The place became a lawless outpost.
It's now a hub for illegal loggers.
I speak the local language, brazilian portuguese,
Which i hope will get me beneath the surface
Of this community.
My first port of call is the fish market.
Here, i can start getting an idea
Of what's under the water
And what i might be up against.
These are paraiba.
Normally, you'll just see maybe one large one if you're lucky.
I've never seen this number of small ones.
They say a large paraiba can swallow a man.
Big ole mouth on there.
But they're not on my suspect list.
Their bite isn't strong enough to inflict the massive bruising
That was reported on the corpse in question.
This catfish demonstrates how vicious life is
Under the water here.
It's become such an arms race down there
That some fish have evolved armor plating.
If you're a large creature under the water,
The only way you're gonna get through that is with big teeth
And with a very serious bite force.
It's clear the water here
Is a place where killer beasts thrive.
Then i see the remains
Of one of the most dangerous fish i've ever encountered,
An arapaima.
The gills would have been here.
The head out here somewhere.
I put at least 200 pounds on the weight
Of that entire live animal.
Big fish.
Arapaima this large have the potential to kill humans.
I myself had a very close call
When one of these living torpedoes
Launched itself at my chest.
But the injury it inflicts is very localized,
Not the extensive bruising
Reportedly on the corpse i'm investigating.
The fish market hasn't offered up
Any potential suspects.
I need to find someone who actually saw the body
Who can describe the injuries in more detail.
A firsthand account
Could give me the lead i'm looking for.
It seems no authorities were called in
To examine the corpse.
So i hit the streets to find a witness.
Bom dia.
And very quickly, the mystery deepens.
I start to hear about other people who have vanished.
A shop owner tells me about a boat
That was coming back to town after a logging trip.
All seemed fine until it got into port,
Where they made an alarming discovery.
One of the crew who had been at the back of the boat
Had disappeared.
The thing about this particular case
Is that his body, to this day, hasn't been found.
The amazon is well known to be a dangerous region...
Where people do sometimes go missing.
But this wasn't an isolated case.
A man named enivaldo tells me about a father and son
Who went out in a canoe one day.
After a couple of days, they haven't come back.
So, they got people together, had a look.
It turned out that they, too, had vanished.
Everyone here is convinced
That something in the water took these people.
And the next story i hear
Makes me think they could indeed be right.
This time, the victim was a swimmer
Who disappeared in front of dozens of witnesses.
Somebody on the beach near here dived in the water...
And then didn't resurface.
People didn't see anything
Other than the fact that he never appeared,
And to this day, his body hasn't been found.
I'm always on the lookout for anomalies,
For anything unusual
That stands out from the background noise
Of everyday life.
And on the face of it,
There appears to be an unusual concentration
Of disappearances around porto de moz.
Is it the work of a serial killer?
This is becoming a much bigger mystery
Than the one i set out to solve.
I have to find out if the bruised corpse
And the disappearances are connected.
At dusk, i head out of town
To the location of the most recent incident.
I need to get my line in the water
And see what's down there.
Locals avoid going on the river at night,
Fearing that something may attack them.
This is when the big hunters come out.
I find a good spot to tackle up.
Small fish will be darting into the open water
From the safety of the reeds,
A tempting meal for a hungry predator.
Judging by the amount of time it took
For the lead to hit the bottom,
I'm guessing i've got about 15 foot, something like that.
Not very far off the weeds here.
So, quite a respectable depth.
With the clicker on,
I've just got my finger on the line, as well,
So if anything does pluck, i'll feel it.
Then, in the very place where somebody went missing...
Something strikes my bait.
No, don't push, don't push.
Ah!
In the far northeast of the amazon,
I'm investigating the story of a corpse
That washed up with mysterious bruises.
And i've uncovered
What sounds like brazil's very own bermuda triangle,
An area where several people have simply vanished.
Locals are blaming something in the water,
And i'm here to find out if they're right.
I'll get it in the boat.
I'll see if i can just pull it in.
Well, this is a sting ray.
This is a species of sting ray i've never seen before.
It's a good 2 foot across and weighs around 20 pounds.
Freshwater rays are dangerous
Thanks to the weaponry they pack —
The venomous spike on the tail.
Normally, they will stab your foot if you tread on them.
That in itself isn't potentially fatal,
But worst case scenario is that gets infected,
It gets gangrene, and you can die
A very slow, painful, lingering death.
Alternatively, if an artery is punctured,
The unlucky victim could bleed to death.
Though potentially lethal,
Stingrays are off my suspect list.
They're simply not capable
Of producing extensive bruising.
And sting rays don't cause people to disappear.
It's true that in one case i investigated,
A young bride was harpooned in her ankle
By a sting ray,
Which then dragged her to her death.
But her body was eventually found.
I want to release it,
But these things have to be handled with care.
All right.
It's going over the side, tail first.
The next morning, i'm back in porto de moz.
Word of my investigation has reached a port worker,
Mr. Santos.
He says he saw the body with the mysterious injuries.
Could he perhaps have the vital information
I need to solve this case?
He tells me the victim's name was lercio,
And that he'd gone out hunting with a friend.
They went off in separate directions.
Then, lercio's friend heard screams
As though somebody was being attacked.
He went in the direction of the shouts to investigate.
Lercio!
But lercio and his boat had vanished.
Search parties were sent out,
And the corpse was eventually found.
Mr. Santos confirms
That the body was covered in bruises.
And that there weren't any distinctive bite marks
From caiman or the amazon's most feared killer, piranha.
Both of these would have left
Distinctive and recognizable marks behind.
Whatever attacked and killed lercio
Must have been something else.
The body had this look
As if part of it had been crushed,
Particularly the upper body.
Along with the bruising on his neck and torso,
Bones were also broken.
There was this look of some pretty severe physical damage.
These broken bones
Are unlike any injuries i've heard of before.
But what in these waters could have crushed a man to death?
I'm guessing that whatever did it
Must be large...
And extremely powerful.
I want to get my line in the water
At the place where the corpse was found.
But finding someone willing to take me there
Is proving difficult.
My perseverance eventually pays off.
I find a man who agrees to take me into the kill zone.
I'm going to fish in the margins
Where big predators often hunt for their prey.
Bit of tactics, we're moored at the stern of the boat.
The idea being that if anything takes
That tries to get into these sunken trees here —
It's very snaggy here on the margin —
We can quickly get the boat out
And pull anything away from the snags.
I still don't know what i'm hunting,
But i've found that fresh bait is always a good bet
For tempting killers onto my line.
It feels powerful,
But is it a fish capable of killing a man?
The answer right after this.
Pound for pound,
The black piranha has the biggest bite force
Of any animal,
More than a great white shark or even a t-Rex.
I might be closing in.
I've found someone who actually saw the body
Of a man who was crushed to death
By an unknown underwater assailant.
And i have a hunch that the beast behind this
Is also responsible for a cluster of disappearances
Around the town of porto de moz.
Fishing for suspects...
I've got something on the end of my line.
Pull forward. Forward, forward, forward.
It's a redtailed catfish.
That noise is just air being pumped over the gills
Instead of water.
This one is around 20 pounds,
But they can grow much larger —
Four feet long and five times as heavy.
But redtail catfish don't grow big enough
To engulf an adult human,
And their abrasive teeth would leave broken skin.
There's no way this is actually gonna break somebody's bones.
It's not gonna crush to that extent.
Although it's an impressive animal,
We can move it off the suspect's list.
People here live in isolated riverside dwellings
Right above whatever beast is down there.
It's now the wet season,
And water levels are at their highest.
Livestock have little or no escape
From whatever is lurking beneath the surface.
He's saying that there's lots of dangerous creatures
In the water here.
And he says there's something that will take a full-Grown pig.
That is a big animal. It's bigger than i am.
I wouldn't fancy my chances in a fight with it.
I don't think it'd be able to take it down,
But there's something in the water here that can,
And that's actually quite a terrifying thought.
The farmer believes
That whatever has been picking off his livestock
Is also responsible for yet another human corpse
That was recovered near here last year.
And it sounds like the body had similar crushing injuries
To those sustained by lercio.
I'm told that a man named zachelle saw the body
And that he could be found in a nearby village.
I set out to track him down.
Zachelle.
Zachelle tells me the victim was his cousin milton.
On the day he died, milton had gone out to fish.
He'd only been gone 15 minutes
When someone discovered his empty canoe.
There was no sign of any disturbance.
Milton had vanished.
Search parties went out looking for him.
And it wasn't until the next day, the next evening,
Nearly 36 hours later, that they found him.
It was actually zachelle who found the body.
The corpse had extensive bruising, just like lercio.
But this account has some crucial extra details.
The neck was dislocated...
And also had visible bite marks.
This could be the crucial clue i've been searching for.
I've already eliminated everything i can think of,
Including stingrays...
Arapaima...
And catfish.
Nothing i've dealt with before could have done this.
I want to know if zachelle
Recognized the bite marks on milton
And can give me an id on the culprit.
Do you know what animal may have done this?
This is a name i know,
And to hear it is truly terrifying.
I found a crucial witness
Who has finally shed light on a brutal killing.
He's seen a second body
With the same bruising injuries that i'm investigating.
But this body also had bite marks,
Which he says identifies the culprit.
Do you know what animal may have done this?
Anacondas killing humans is unprecedented.
There have never been any confirmed cases.
If these human deaths really are the work of anacondas,
That's a huge revelation.
But the extensive bruising and broken bones
That i've heard about
Are entirely consistent with the anaconda's m.O.
For killing prey,
Squeezing the life out of it.
The anaconda is a water-Dwelling monster
With which i've had little experience.
But is this animal also the cause
Of the disappearances around here?
I need to have a close look
At this highly secretive predator.
Zachelle then tells me his theory
About how milton was ambushed.
He thinks that it probably grabbed him
Straight away in the head,
And literally, one moment he's there in the boat...
The next minute, something grabs him,
And he's in the water.
So he was literally plucked out.
The position of the bite marks
Reveals something else truly terrifying.
From the puncture wounds on milton's neck,
The anaconda appears to have worked its mouth
Around his entire head.
What zachelle says rings true.
Snakes are well known
For consuming their prey head first.
They're easier to swallow that way.
This new evidence opens up the very real possibility
That big anacondas can crush people to death
And then swallow them whole.
And i'm beginning to think that this might explain
Why people have vanished from around porto de moz,
Because when an anaconda feeds,
It leaves virtually no trace of its victim.
Its stomach acid is so strong that it dissolves even bone.
That night, back on my boat,
I take stock of the situation.
I'm used to tracking down large killer fish,
But a reptilian river monster
Is completely outside my comfort zone.
In all my time here,
I've only ever seen a big anaconda once
In guyana on the northern fringe of south america.
That one was about 17 feet long,
And i was terrified to get too close.
But if i'm to solve this mystery,
I'll have to face my fear head on.
Anacondas spend most of their life in water.
They are the heaviest snake in the world.
A big one weighs in at more than 300 pounds.
They're also said to reach lengths in excess of 25 feet
And have a bigger girth than any other snake.
Ambush predators,
They launch lightning fast strikes from the water
At prey standing on the shore.
Favorite victims are animals like capybaras
And sometimes even caiman.
Now i'm putting myself in the coils of danger
To see if they really are big enough
To put humans on the menu.
To prove anacondas are capable of swallowing somebody whole,
I have to confront one face-To-Face
To see with my own eyes
If they really reach man-Eating proportions.
Unlike my normal quarry,
It won't be caught by a rod and line.
It's forcing me into new territory.
Anacondas are rarely seen
And normally live deep in the jungle,
But with urban sprawl encroaching on their habitat,
They've started to appear in towns.
I've just been contacted
By the regional fire department,
Who are regularly brought in to remove anacondas
From people's backyards,
And they're allowing me to ride shotgun
On an emergency call out.
An anaconda was found during a soccer match.
Somebody kicked the ball out of play.
They went after it into the long grass...
And there was the snake just sitting there.
This 12-Foot anaconda
Is capable of squeezing a child to death
And could swallow prey the size of a dog.
Although the head looks small,
An anaconda can separate the two sides of its lower jaw
Enabling it to engulf animals
With a much greater girth than itself.
A 20-Foot anaconda could swallow a man.
But confronting one at any size is something i'd normally avoid.
The snake has to be caught and relocated.
And i've talked the fire department and myself
Into an impromptu training exercise.
Okay?
I'm hoping that by getting hands on,
I can ease myself into the challenge
Of facing something
That could be nearly twice as long as this one.
Just looking at it up close now,
It's in the process of molting its skin.
The scales are falling off.
Even the layer over its eyes is peeling off,
Rendering it temporarily blind.
It makes up for this vulnerability
With added aggression.
Yep, that's a little bit of a strike.
To catch this anaconda,
I have to grab it behind the head.
A moment's hesitation, and it could turn and nail me.
I'm in the amazon
Wondering if anacondas really can grow
To man-Eating proportions.
And could they be responsible
For a clutch of mystery disappearances?
I've got a 12-Foot anaconda cornered on a soccer field
And i'm trying to catch it with my bare hands.
Right, i've got it.
I possibly need to grab it a little bit closer to the head.
What i want to avoid it doing
Is getting its body around my arm.
'cause if that happens, what can happen,
It can actually restrict the blood flow
And my hand will eventually go numb and then let go.
I can see the teeth on the mouth.
They're like the barbs on a fish hook.
They're pointing backwards.
Basically, if that bites you,
It's gonna be very hard to get that off.
It keeps trying to throw a coil around my body.
It's instinctive follow-Up to this
Is squeezing the victim to death.
It's a struggle to stop it from wrapping around me.
I can feel my arm start to weaken,
So before the anaconda gets the better of me,
I drop it in a transport container.
It will be taken far away from here
And released into the jungle.
This emergency call out has given me valuable experience.
I'm getting to know my prime suspect.
But as anacondas go, that was just a small one.
And this investigation won't be complete
Until i encounter an anaconda big enough not just to kill me,
But also to swallow me whole.
I'm now going after a giant anaconda
In its own territory,
The place where it hunts and hides.
The biggest anacondas spend most of their time submerged
Because the water supports their massive bulk.
For any other river monster,
I'd use a rod and line to bring one in.
But anacondas are totally different.
Given their appetite for such large prey,
A bait on a line is out of the question.
So, i'm going to look for it underwater,
But which one of us is the hunter?
Most rivers here are murky,
But i've heard of one said to contain giant anacondas
That also has a degree of visibility.
The famosa river in southern brazil
Is where i'm looking for an anaconda
Big enough to swallow a man.
My plan is to leave the shore and go beneath the surface.
I'll be out of my element
And more likely to stumble into something at very close range,
So i'm carrying a knife.
The only thing about this is the point.
If you actually get that into the inside of a coil,
That will stop it exerting that lethal pressure.
My boat driver is yuka.
He knows the river well.
We arrive at a good spot for me to get in the water.
I'm now in the anaconda's domain,
And immediately, i feel vulnerable.
All i have to do now is find a monster.
If i run into trouble down here,
My only connection to the surface
Is the radio link in my mask.
Recent rains have stirred up the water.
Visibility is down to just a couple of yards,
And the current has become dangerously fast.
The only way i'm managing to hold position at the moment
Is actually hanging onto this rock here.
And if i wanted to go up stream,
There's just no way i'd make any headway
Without pulling myself along.
If i come across an anaconda in these conditions,
As things are,
I'm probably gonna blunder into it.
In this murk, my heart is racing.
Down here, there's nowhere for me to hide.
I could be grabbed from any direction at any moment.
I can't see it.
It's possible it might see me, though.
Suddenly, i see something appear out of the gloom.
It's here.
I'm totally out of my comfort zone
Looking for a giant snake.
I'm investigating whether anacondas really can grow
Big enough not just to squeeze people to death,
But also to swallow them whole.
10 feet down in a powerful current,
There's something coming towards me.
It's here. It's coming down.
It's coming out.
With just a few feet of visibility,
The only camera that picks it up
Is the one fixed to my tank.
I'm right next to it.
I'm with it.
I'm with the snake.
Fighting against the current,
I'm only able to stay with it for a few seconds.
Then it simply vanishes.
Well, i might have lost it.
I think we've lost it.
It just vanished in a matter of seconds.
So, it was just a very short, intense experience.
I've seen an anaconda now in its own environment.
Very, very creepy feeling, encountering a snake underwater.
That anaconda was about the same length
As the one i caught on the soccer field.
A 12-Footer is a good start,
But i know there are giants here.
I've got to head even deeper into the anaconda's territory.
This river is my one chance for seeing with my own eyes
An anaconda of man-Eating proportions
And establishing whether anacondas
Could have been responsible for the bruised corpses
And mysterious disappearances around porto de moz.
I get back in the water
In a place where yuka recently spotted something huge.
I scan both banks for anything that resembles an anaconda.
The last thing i want to do is startle one
And provoke an attack.
Rounding a bend, there's a cloud of silt.
And everything i'd hoped for and feared
Is suddenly there right in front of me.
Look at the size of this!
I've stumbled into a potential man-Eater.
It's got to be a good 20 foot long,
Three times the length of me.
And weighing at least 200 pounds.
It's a monstrous beast.
With a frightening girth.
It is huge. It is absolutely huge.
A bruiser like this
Can go without eating for six months,
By which time it's worked up a man-Sized appetite.
And what they do is they lurk underwater in ambush.
It's terrifying being this close to an anaconda
That could seize me in a flash and then crush me to death.
But only by getting up close
Can i grasp the true scale of this beast.
And i can all too easily imagine
Those jaws working their way around my head
While those massive coils dislocate my shoulders
So the rest of me will slip down.
I'm looking it in the eye.
Actually, one this size could swallow an adult human.
After seeing this giant, i'm in no doubt
That people are potentially on the menu.
And that as well as causing the two grisly deaths,
Anacondas could also have been responsible
For the mysterious disappearances
Around porto de moz.
This has to be one of the most incredible encounters
Of my life.
Anacondas are lurking beneath the surface
All over the amazon, waiting to strike.
And i believe they could be responsible
For other unsolved disappearances
Right across this region.
But by destroying the evidence,
This river monster is covering its tracks.
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