MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "The Carancas Curse"
Mon, 12 May 2025
This story is a fan favorite from MrBallen's Medical Mysteries.In September 2007, a meteor strike leaves a massive crater in the high Peruvian desert, drawing curiosity seekers from miles around. Shortly after, people from the nearby town of Carancas start becoming violently ill. Some residents fear a curse has befallen them, but the truth might be much more frightening.Listen Now: Wondery.fm/MBMMFor 100s more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @MrBallenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who is MrBallen and what is the podcast about?
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. If you're a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, then you should check out my other podcast, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Each week, I dive into some of the most bizarre, mind-bending medical stories you've ever heard. Cases that leave doctors scratching their heads, miraculous recoveries that defy logic, and strange medical mishaps that seem too wild to be real. These stories are more than just eerie. They are a reminder of how unpredictable and sometimes terrifying life can be.
Up next is one of my recent favorites from the series. Whether you're new to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or a longtime listener, I think you'll find it just as captivating as I did. If you like this content, make sure to follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
We put out new episodes every week, and each one dives into a bizarre, mind-bending medical mystery that will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about the human body. In November of 2007, a scientist stood on the edge of a 50-foot-wide crater in the Peruvian high desert. The crater was full of water.
But despite its innocent-looking appearance, this crater full of water held incredible danger. When it formed two months earlier, hundreds of people and animals in the area had gotten violently sick, and so far, no one had come up with a good explanation for how this was possible. In fact, according to the laws of physics, the crater shouldn't even exist.
It was a mystery that had researchers all over the planet scratching their heads. But as the scientist stared down into the big crater, he thought he might have the answer to both of these mysteries. And if he was right, it would mean that the threat posed by this crater was far greater than anyone imagined.
Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.
If you liked today's story, please ask the follow button to come skip some stones with you on a lake, but when the follow button isn't looking, steal their phone and skip that into the water. Today's story is called The Carancas Curse. It was a chilly morning on September 15, 2007.
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Chapter 2: What happened when the meteor struck near Carancas, Peru?
The mayor greeted the old woman and then thanked the doctor for traveling all this way to Deseguadero. The doctor stood upright, looking tired but hopeful. He explained that all the patient's blood work was coming back normal. He didn't know why they were sick, but judging from their symptoms, he said everyone should make a full recovery in a few days.
Trujillo smiled with relief, but the old woman hissed and called the doctor a liar. Many of the patients around her nodded in agreement, eyeing the doctor like he was in on some big conspiracy. He heard them muttering about evil spirits causing this disaster. Trujillo knew that many villagers believed the meteorite was a curse from the ancient spirits.
And because of that, many had refused to listen to the Red Cross doctors and aid workers. To Trujillo, this was the problem with people of the Carancas region. Outsiders never came to the area, so many of the villagers didn't trust them. Trujillo knew that Carancas was not cursed. He just needed to find a way to get his people to listen. Then an idea struck.
Maybe he could get them to believe the science with the help of someone who could appease the spirits. Trujillo left the health clinic, climbed into his car, and drove the seven miles to Carancas. The small village, nestled in the shadows of snow-capped mountains, was eerily quiet and deserted.
As the mayor slowly drove through the narrow and winding streets, he could see people peering out their windows. Normally, they'd come outside to wave hello, but now it seemed like they were terrified of leaving their homes. A few minutes later, Trujillo pulled up to a small adobe house with a thatched roof. It belonged to the local shaman, a man the mayor had long respected for his wisdom.
Everybody in town trusted the shaman, and Trujillo hoped he could bring some calm to the community. Trujillo stepped out of his car, and he was pleased to see that the shaman came out of his house to greet him. Trujillo explained the situation to the shaman, and the shaman nodded thoughtfully, and he agreed that the meteorite was not a curse, although it had disrupted balance in the land.
And so he said he was happy to do his part to restore the natural order of things. Trujillo smiled and shook the shaman's hand. He promised he'd be in touch soon, and then Mayor Trujillo headed back to his car. With the shaman's help, he was sure he could get the townspeople to listen to him and restore order in the town.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Montreal, Canada, a professor named Peter Schultz was standing in line at a coffee shop scrolling through the news app on his phone. He taught Earth Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island, but he was in Montreal for a conference on craters made by meteorites and other space objects.
He was fascinated by the articles about the meteorite strike in southern Peru, and not just because he found meteorites in general interesting. This one stuck out, because it made no sense. The reports said that Karankas was struck by a chondrite meteorite, the most common type of meteorite, but also the most fragile. A chondrite meteorite is a type of rock that comes from asteroids.
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