INVESTIGATION REPORT – NJSP DET. SGT. LEEDS – BORDENTOWN HQ
INCIDENT: 032429 – BENEVENTO FAMILY WINERY, TABERNACLE, NJ
WITNESSES: GIORGIO, FRANCHINO & ALBERTO BENEVENTO
Statement: Giorgio Benevento, Owner, Benevento Family Winery, Tabernacle, NJ
“I was in my fields on this past Tuesday – about 75 feet from the area now cordoned off with yellow tape – when I became aware of movement to the West of my position. Vines were splitting and being pushed down violently.
These are Sagrantin0 Varietal Grapes from my ancestral village of Montefalco in Umbria, Italy. They are very costly – almost irreplaceable!
I approached the area of this disturbance and saw a figure flailing his arms about, tearing my vines left and right. He was moaning and growling guttural sounds like an animal. He caught sight of me and started coming closer. I yelled at him to stop breaking my vines – and to get out. He kept coming.
There was a hideous smell reeking from him. His clothes were torn and soiled and he wore a kind of hooded garment that partially hide his face. When I finally could see whatever part of his face I could see behind the hood, I started to call out for my sons in a panic.
His face was twisted and steaming, boiling in the sunlight – pieces of it seemed to be peeling off and smoking. It was a putrid, sour and rotten stench that you sometimes get from a garbage dumpster. There was a large, glistening ball of dripping mucus or puss that was hanging off his mouth and oozing from his nose. It, too, was sizzling and burning in the sunlight. It started to make loud, screaming noises. I ran.
When I got some distance away – I was running towards my machine shed where my sons were working – I turned and saw him fall in place, still screaming noises like an animal.
My sons and I watched as the thing started to burn and pour out black smoke from it smeared and ripped clothing. Its face burned and showed huge teeth in its mouth. Animal teeth – like from a wolf. We called the State Police.
It left the pile of ash you see right there – the yellow tape was strung by the State Police exactly where it all took place. My grape vines ten feet around the site have since died. It must’ve been the poisoned black smoke coming off that burning thing. I don’t know what it was, neither do my sons. We’re having a Catholic Priest come this Sunday to bless the area – it that alright? “
Statement: Franchino Benevento, Manager, Benevento Family Winery, Tabernacle, NJ
I agree with everything my father just said. On that day I was in the machine shed with Alberto changing the oil in our tractor and generally maintaining our power tools.
I heard my father yelling. He sounded in fear. Alberto and I rushed out to see my father running towards us yelling that someone was in the field menacing him. Alberto and I ran closer to him. Along the way we picked up two rakes and a machete.
I saw a large, wobbly, deformed creature lumbering after my father. Its face was covered but seemed to be red and steaming, almost aflame from the bright sunlight. Suddenly it fell, head-first down and shook, then spasmed as it burst into flames. Fire shot out of the back of its head and arms and legs. Alberto and I just stood there and watched with our father as the thing consumed itself into a pile of gray, stinking ash.
I called the Red Lion Barracks to get the NJ State Police down here. They sent a couple of troopers who took our statements – exactly what we said here – and they asked us not to disturb yellow taped, cordoned-off area. Now the vines around it are killed. We haven’t gone near it since that day. You can still smell the stench of the freakish thing that burned up in our vineyard. We’re getting a Catholic Priest to bless the farm this Sunday. Whatever that thing was, it was evil.”
Statement: Alberto Benevento, Vintner & Chief Cooper, Benevento Family Winery, Tabernacle, NJ
I don’t have much to add to my father’s statement and the statement of my brother, Franchino. But, before the creature fell flat on its face its eyes were spitting out flames – like it was burning from the inside out.
And the thing looked very sick and confused – like it was in tremendous pain and almost asking for help. I haven’t slept through the night since that day. I’m terrified. It’s like a horror movie was being filmed – and something alive was killed right in front of us. Burned to death by the sunlight.”
SITE INVESTIGATION BY NJ STATE POLICE DET. SGT. LEEDS:
After interviewing the above witnesses, I walked the site in full Haz-Mat Gear while Captain Furman video-recorded my examination of the relevant area.
I stayed within the confines of the yellow-tape cordoned Police demarcations. Centered inside this roughly twenty-foot circular cordon is a seven-foot-long heap of ash in the rough configurations of a human being, its limbs and torso being clearly marked by piles of cold gray cinders.
I have extracted from the hand area a gold ring in the shape of a serpent– Marked Leeds1 – and bagged for evidence. I have extracted from the head area a lower jawbone with oversized canine teeth – each at least 2 and 1/2 inches long – Marked Leeds2 – and bagged for evidence.
Nothing further of an evidentiary nature was found at this location. I have requested that the property owner maintain the police yellow-tape cordon indicating the site is still being considered a crime scene for the time being. Mr. Benevento has agreed.
INCIDENT: 032430 – BURNS BLUEBERRY FARMS, HAMMONTON, NJ
WITNESSES: JUAN JALISCA, ALBO JALISCA, JOSEPH CREEDMORE and NJSP TROOPER ROBERT BURKIN
Joint Statement: Juan Jalisco and Albo Jalisco – Albo Jalisco is not conversational in English so his statement is translated by his brother. Both brother’s statements are identical and consolidated herein. Juan Jalisco’s words are transcribed and agreed to verbatim by Albo Jalisco. Both brothers have signed the consolidated document. Statement taken at Burns Blueberry Farm in Hammonton, NJ.
Statement: Juan Jalisco, Hammonton, NJ:
“Me and my brother, Albo, are seasonal workers at Burns Blueberry Farm in Hammonton. We have worked there for about twenty seasons. On last Wednesday I arrived for work at 6:00AM with my brother Albo and we started to uncover the box trucks that all the workers use to harvest blueberries. They straight-job box trucks, the boxes on the back are covered with burlap tarps for the winter.
We were told to work uncovering three trucks in the Northeast yard and got to work. The first and second trucks we uncovered easy. The third truck – a Dodge – was tight. The ropes weaving through the box tarp were pulled real tight. I jumped up on the back of the tailgate and untied some knots. That allowed me to push the tarp back from the box a few feet. As soon as I pushed the heavy burlap tarp back off the box, a bad stink started to come up out of the truck box – and I heard a growl. I looked inside but it was dark. I banged the wood box with my hand – and the growling became louder and louder. I jumped down and got a rack to beat the side of the truck.
The sounds – growling, deep snarling and scraping noises – got real loud. I got scared. Me and my brother Albo got our supervisor, Joe Creedmore, who came and got the thing all worked up – and he called the police.
When the NJ State Trooper came – Burkin – he beat the side of the truck and then pushed the tarp back off the top enough to see something inside the box. He called Animal Control – but they never came.
Finally, the thing started to beat itself against the insides of the wooden box really bad, yelling and howling. The box split apart and fell down off the back of the truck in big pieces. It was probably old and rotten wood to begin with – but this thing finished it off.
Then it just stood there and exploded into flames. It burned itself up in the sunlight while it screamed and shook like it was being shot by a machine gun – but fire was blowing out of it instead of blood or bullets.
That’s all I know”.
(*Note: Albo Jalisco signed and joined in this statement. Witness Joseph Creedmore also signed and joined in this statement, saying that he “had nothing to add”.)
Statement: New Jersey state Police Trooper, Robert Burkin
“On that Wednesday I was instructed by dispatch, Red Lion Barracks in Southampton, NJ, to respond to Burns Blueberry Farm in Hammonton where an animal incident was in progress in the Northeast farm lot.
On arrival I saw Juan and Albo Jalisco, Seasonal Agricultural workers, talking to Joseph Creedmore, their supervisor. They told me there was an angry, injured – possibly rabid – animal in the back of the box truck they were trying to prepare for harvesting that day. I noted that a portion of the rear of the box truck was uncovered. Juan Jalisco had succeeded in pulling back a couple of feet of canvas off the top of the truck box.
I called Animal Control and requested immediate assistance.
I jumped up on the rear bumper of the vehicle to see if I could peer inside the truck and visualize the animal. As soon as I got up on the truck rear bumper, I was overwhelmed by a fetid stink emanating from the truck insides and heard clearly deep growls of an animal that sounded like it was in distress. I called to the animal and tapped the side of the wooden truck enclosure, and it screamed louder and louder, growling – and then started throwing its body against the inside of the truck box. I jumped down off the truck.
The banging got worse and the wood of the truck enclosure began to splinter and crack. It was obviously an old truck, and the wooden box had seen better days. I drew my weapon and told the other witnesses to stand back in case I had to shoot the thing.
Finally, a big piece of the wood box siding split off with a loud crack – it was almost the entire side of the box enclosure. It fell outwards and completely off of the truck, revealing a soiled, bloodied man crouching in the sunlight. He was burning like he’d been doused with gasoline and touched-off with a street flare. He was screaming and writhing in pain waiving his burning arms at the sun as if he was trying to tear it out of the sky. His fingers caught fire, then his legs. His chest then erupted in a blaze like a blown propane grill tank or military flamethrower.
Then he stopped screaming – and just burned up into embers. His ash heap fell off the truck side onto the ground below where I took pictures of it. I cordoned off the truck under orders of my Supervisor at Red Lion and wrote my report to NJ State Police Captain Furman at Bordentown HQ.”
Leeds and Captain Furman catch some lunch at a greasy spoon diner in Hammonton – Taylor Pork Roll and cheese on a hard roll with some blueberry pie, large coffees “to go” – and head back to Red Lion Barracks. Leeds has a hunch that Trooper Burkin is holding out – he’s afraid to say something he knows “On the Record”.
She’s been in that situation too many times not to recognize the telltale facial signals. This cop is holding back.
They get to the little NJ State Police facility – it’s essentially a converted old house that State cops are using as a “Barracks” – and immediately seek out Trooper Burkin.
Leeds wants to handle him alone – away from Captain Furman and any “Chain of Command” complications. She wants this to be “On the Down Low” and “Cop-to-Cop”. A “No-Bullshit Zone” exchange.
She finds Trooper Burkin in the small kitchenette area, struggling with an old coffeemaker that should’ve been thrown in a dumpster years ago.
“Hey”, she says extending her hand.
“I’m Sgt. Leeds...got a minute?”
Trooper Burkin looks at her with his mouth open. Agog.
“Mother Leeds? Wow! I’ve heard all about you, Maam! You’re a legend…”
Burkin shakes her hand warmly, grinning like he’s meeting Mick Jagger.
She’s direct. No use fishin’ about.
“Trooper, tell me now what you didn’t include in your report about the Burns Blueberry Farm…. just between us Gals...OK?”
Uncomfortable silence. Just enough time for Trooper Burkin to wrestle with his conscience and sense of right and wrong. Finally, his better Angels win out. He reaches into his tunic and withdraws something. Then places it in Leed’s hand.
“I pulled these from that pile of ash that fell off of the truck. The guy’s head burned like a flamed beehive, then collapsed down to the driveway in a heap of cinders…”
Leeds looked down in her hand and smiled.
A set of two-and-a-half-inch canine teeth. Vampyre teeth. The real deal.
“Let’s just keep this between us, shall we?” she says. “I’ll be in touch”.
*NO PART OF THIS WORK PRODUCT IS AI
Copyright, 2026 – Jon & Jedediah Croft
www.bogironfoundry.com
Email: vlchek1@gmail.com
