"They select a young lad who is a pure maiden, that is to say, who, as they believe, had never performed the sexual act. He is set upon a young stallion who has not yet mounted his first mare, who has never stumbled, and who must be coal-black without a speck of white; the stud is ridden into the cemetery in and out among the graves and that grave over which the steed in spite of the blows they deal him pretty handsomely refuses to pass is where the Vampire lies.[100] The tomb is opened and they find a sleek, fat corpse, as healthily coloured as though the man wore quietly and happily sleeping in calm repose. With one single blow of a sharp spade they cut off the head, whereupon there gush forth warm streams of blood in colour rich red, and filling the whole grave. It would assuredly be supposed that they had just decapitated a stalwart fine fellow of most sanguine habit and complexion. When this business is done, they refill the grave with earth and then the ravages of the disease immediately cease whilst those who are suffering from this marasmus gradually recover their strength just as convalescents recuperating after a long illness, who have wasted and withered. This is exactly what occurred in the case of our young officers who had sickened. As the Colonel of the regiment, the Captain and Lieutenant wore all absent, I happened to be in command just then and I was heartily vexed to find that the Corporal had arranged the affair without my knowledge. I was within an ace of ordering him a severe military punishment, and these are common enough in the Imperial service. I would have given the world to have been present at the exhumation of the Vampire, but after all it is too late for that now."³⁸

There is no explanation about why a pure young boy riding a black horse should have the ability to discover a vampire – this sounds like a later development, contaminated by witch folklore.

Scattered ash or salt about the suspect graves could reveal the footprints of the guilty vampire. Or simply a quick search for any signs of disturbance in a grave – graves with holes in them, sunken graves, graves with crooked tombstones or crosses – could help to reveal the monster in question.³⁹

If that still didn’t locate all the vampire suspects, the tedious and ugly job of digging up all the graves became necessary, so that the corpses could be examined for signs of vampirism. (This was evidenced in the Dubrovnik Criminal Court vampire trial transcript – if at first one doesn’t succeed in finding a bloated corpse, one tries again… and again… and again.)

Vampire Killers - Testimonies

Having identified the vampire by the stated signs of vampirism, the next task was clear. The vampire must be killed again so that the body could never again provide the vehicle for the daemonic force animating it. It was believed that if the body was destroyed, the vampire’s power was at an end – it had no host and thus no way to affect the living.