Case file · Haunting
The Vallecas case
After Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro died in August 1991, months after a Ouija session, her family in Vallecas (Madrid) reported a haunting; in November 1992 police filed a report describing unexplained events.
1991 CE · 40.39, -3.66 · status: disputed
The sceptical view
The police report records officers' impressions, not proven phenomena; the 2017 film Verónica popularised the case with many invented details.
The researched reading
A family’s grief after a sudden death, a frightening police visit and a film that made it famous. Ordinary house noises and shared belief explain the core events.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 38% | A grieving family after the unexplained death of a teenager linked to a Ouija session is primed to interpret noises and events as a presence; grief hallucinations and shared belief are well studied. |
| A cultural story | 24% | The story, including the police report, was expanded by Spanish media and the film Verónica (2017), which added invented details and turned it into a legend. |
| Something in the surroundings | 18% | Door noises, cupboards opening and a crucifix falling in an old flat have ordinary causes: drafts, structural settling, plumbing and traffic vibration. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 10% | There is no evidence of deliberate fraud, but media accounts embellished the police report. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 5% | The teenager’s death has been linked by some to epilepsy, not to the Ouija board; ordinary illness explains the start of the story. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 5% | The police report records what officers felt and heard, not proven phenomena; nothing documented requires more than a frightened family and an old building. |
Official position: A Madrid police report of 1992 described events the officers found strange; no official body declared anything paranormal.