In June 1839 an accusation was made by the priests of Timok to the district Court of Porec [Zajecar] about the inhabitants of the village Sarbanovac because they had opened the graves and mutilated the corpses of several of their dead.
The village is located in modern day Serbia near Zajecar [North West region].
According to the villagers, nine corpses in the local graveyard had turned into vampires [the people are named in the report] and had strangled several men, women [again, the names are given] and children, six infants and a number of animals.
The villagers turned to their local priest for help, but where forbidden to disinter the corpses.
Because they feared for their life, the villagers decided to wait until the priest was out of town and went to the local cemetery to investigate their suspected vampires.
A man called Novak Mikov was paid with 10 grosas [local coin] to do the dirty work.
He dug up the vampires, cut out their hearts and boiled them in wine. After, the hearts were stuffed back into place, and the corpses reburied.
There was one exception.
When the grave of Jona, the wife of Vinulov, was opened everyone agreed that she was no vampire, so her corpse was buried intact.
Novak and 4 other villagers that were implicated in “masterminding” the plan were convicted of the crime and sentenced to 7 days in jail plus 30 strokes of cane.
๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Vampire Accounts
† Legends
