Early in the 1730s, Austrian medical officers witnessed a vampire execution in the Siberian village of Medvegia. This is the case of Arnold Powell. A series of mysterious deaths were then blamed on him, so the villagers decided to dig him up. The medical officers witnessing the procedure described the body as undecayed. Fresh blood flowed from nose, mouth, and ears. New nails had replaced old ones. The villagers smelled vampire and drove a stake through Powell's heart. Whereby a groan emanated from his mouth. This case is typical of many from eighteenth-century Eastern Europe: Normal corpse characteristics were misinterpreted as evidence that a vampire had just returned from a kill.
