Miracle at Sea: The 438-Day Ordeal of a Castaway Accused of the Unthinkable
Jose Salvador Alvarenga: The Fisherman Who Survived 438 Days at Sea Amid Cannibalism Accusations
Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman from El Salvador, made a dramatic survival 10 years ago. The grieving family of the young man who died while out together claim, “He was a cannibal.”
On the 14th (local time), the British media Daily Star reported that Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman from El Salvador, still cannot escape suspicions that he cannibalized a young man who died in a storm while going to sea with him.
In 2012, Alvarenga went out to sea to fish for sharks with Ezequiel Córdoba, who was then 22 years old, but the motor of the boat they were on broke down and they became stranded. He was hit by a storm and drifted for 12 months before being rescued alone from the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in January 2014, making him a global sensation.
He claimed he was able to survive by drinking sea turtle blood, his own urine, and rainwater to replenish moisture and eating fish and birds. He also published a memoir which recorded what happened then.
However, suspicions were raised that Alvarenga supplemented his diet with the body of Cordoba, who died while adrift. Accordingly, Alvarenga underwent a psychological investigation and lie detector test at the American law firm Masonek Law Offices in 2014.
Jeffrey Masonek, a representative of the law firm at the time, said, “After listening to Alvarenga’s story, we came to the conclusion that it is not only epic but also 100% true.
However, in 2015, the Cordoba family raised formal suspicions of cannibalism against Alvarenga and asked for $1 million in compensation from him.
Alvarenga’s side categorically denied these claims. His lawyer, Laccardo Cucalón, said at the time, “This lawsuit is for the Córdoba family to share in the royalties from the biographies published by Alvarenga.” “My income was much less,” he said.
Meanwhile, there are also cases of people actually surviving through cannibalism while in distress. In 1972, a plane carrying an amateur rugby team made up of wealthy students from a Uruguayan college crashed in the Andes in Argentina. At the time, 16 people survived, and some of them are known to supplement their nutrition with dead bodies.