The Mystery of the Haunted Vallecas Case and the Death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro

The Vallecas Case and the Death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro was a case that left the Madrid police puzzled and the case was left unsolved. Just before and after the death of their daughter the family experienced strange things happening that they believed happened because her interest in the occult and that Estefania might have been possessed.

It’s a story that has captivated the world for decades- the terrifying tale of the Haunted Vallecas case in Spain and the death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro. In 1991, a family in the Vallecas district of Madrid claimed that their apartment was haunted by a malevolent spirit. Over the course of several weeks, they experienced a series of chilling incidents, including unexplained noises, objects moving on their own, and even physical attacks that ended in the death of one of their daughters.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain

The case attracted widespread attention from paranormal experts, skeptics, and the media alike, with many attempting to uncover the truth behind the haunting. But even now, more than 30 years later, the Haunted Vallecas case remains shrouded in mystery, with many questions left unanswered.

Background of the Haunted Vallecas House

The Haunted Vallecas case took place in a modest apartment building located in the Vallecas district of Madrid, Spain. The specific place the hauntings happened was in an apartment on Calle Luis Marin No. 8.

The people living there had a teenage daughter called Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro that lived in the apartment together with her siblings and parents. She was 18 years old and had started to get into spiritualism in the time leading up to the hauntings, and she was especially into ouija boards.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories set in Haunted Houses from around the world.

She used to organize some of her own sessions as well. Once she was playing the game with her friends at school when a teacher found them. They had been trying to contact the boyfriend of one of her friends that had died in a motorcycle accident. The teacher tore the Ouija board apart and the girls claimed to see smoke coming from the glass they had played with, and the friends claimed that Estefania inhaled it.

The Start of Strange Happenings

The haunting of the Vallecas apartment began after this incident. Estefania started to suffer from insomnia and she had hallucinations and epileptic seizures no one could explain. Her parents tried to bring her to different hospitals, but nothing seems to work.

The Vallecas Case and the Death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro was a case that left the Madrid police puzzled and the case was left unsolved. Just before and after the death of their daughter the family experienced strange things happening that they believed happened because her interest in the occult and that Estefania might have been possessed.

Believers of the supernatural came to believe that the young girl was possessed after messing with the occult, something of a satanic panic that were common in the 80s and 90s. One of the theories was that the grandfather of the family wanted to take revenge on his daughter as they didn’t end things on good terms.

She claimed she saw shadows of strange human forms in the night. They had no face and asked her to come with them. To where they were taking her she was unsure of.
The strange things continued to escalate to July 13th in 1991 when she attacked her sister Magdalena. The next day, Estefania had a seizure and was taken to the Gregorio Maraño Hospital in Madrid when she was already in a coma. She died the very same night, although the autopsy remained inconclusive and claimed it was a sudden and suspicious death.

The Haunting of the Family

But the strange things in the apartment didn’t stop after Estefanias death. On the contrary, it escalated until it drove the family from their home.

Soon after, the family claimed to hear strange noises coming from inside the walls of their apartment. They heard knocking, scratching, and even whispers. According to Juan Pedro, the sounds were so loud that they could be heard throughout the building. The family also claimed to see strange shadows moving around their home, and objects began to move on their own.

The mother climbed to hear the screaming voice of Estefania that called for her, as well as what sounded like an old man laughing.

Glass would break, doors would open and close and objects would move, all without anyone touching it. The daughters would wake up with their wrists slammed against the wall. In 1992 Gutierrez called the police and a team led by inspector Jose Negri arrived on November 27th. The parents and children had run out of the building, even though it was pouring rain, they were terrified. They claimed that a huge shadow was watching them from the hallway and their crucifixes in the house moved.

The Investigation of the Vallecas Case Begins

The police went into the apartment and started the investigation. It is this report that has caught the attention of occultists ever since. The police claimed that the wardrobe door opened by itself, even though it was locked, and almost hit the face of one of the agents.

Loud noises came from the balcony, even though there was no one there. Strangest was the brown slime that hung on a bedside table no one knew where it came from.

A crucifix that hung on the wall kept falling down to the ground. The police officers left the scene soon after, knowing that they couldn’t do anything about it.

Two years after Estefanias death, on the 1st of November in 1993, a picture of her that hung on the wall in the living room caught fire. Only her face. The frame or other objects weren’t burned. The family soon sold the apartment and moved away. The people that took over are said to never have experienced something similar.

What Really Happened in the house?

Although the Vallecas case is one of the more famous cases to explore paranormal phenomena in Spain, there have also been put forward other theories to explain it all. As one of the taxi drivers in the neighborhood said once: They often talked about the case and agreed that there was something wrong with the family.

The first thing is the psychological factors that were at play within the family. Her mother was examined and she was found emotionally unstable and anxious with a need for attention. Could she have something to do with the hauntings that happened? Could she have exaggerated their experiences, or at worst, even constructed some of them?

An interesting thing is that when they interviewed Ricardo and Maximiliano Gutierres, two of Estefanas brothers, they rejected the idea that she was possessed by the devil. They spoke out about what happened and their sister together with the police inspector in 2018. They said that she had epilepsy, as well as their mother and that there was nothing supernatural about her.

Although she wasn’t diagnosed, she was taking medication for it. There were things the brothers were unable to explain, but even the thing about the burned picture they didn’t rule out the possibility that some of their family could be behind.

Her sister Manuela claims that what they told back then was the real deal and that something more than just an illness had taken hold of their sister and apartment.

The strange thing is the police investigation who knew nothing of the house before they entered and relayed a lot of what the family had experienced over the years in their official police report.

The Legacy of the Haunted Vallecas Case

The Haunted Vallecas case has had a lasting impact on paranormal research and investigation. It has become one of the most well-known and studied cases in the field of parapsychology, with many experts using it as a reference point in their work.

The case has also inspired countless books, movies, and television shows, with the story of the haunted apartment captivating audiences around the world.

Despite the passage of time, the mystery of the Haunted Vallecas case remains unsolved. It serves as a reminder of the power of the unknown and the enduring fascination that the paranormal holds for so many people.

The Netflix Movie Veronica

The events of the Vallecas Case and the death of Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro inspired the movie Veronica from 2017 from Netflix. It was made by Paco Plaza and gained huge popularity and renewed interest in the strange case.

The events detailed in the movie are based on the case, but of course have taken different liberties to tell a different kind of story.

Conclusion of the Vallecas Case

The Haunted Vallecas case is a chilling and mysterious story that has captivated the world for decades. The strange occurrences that took place in that small apartment in Madrid continue to baffle investigators and skeptics alike, with no clear explanation for the haunting.The case serves as a reminder of the enduring fascination that the paranormal holds for so many people. It also highlights the importance of rigorous scientific investigation when it comes to studying the unknown.

Despite the passage of time, the mystery of the Haunted Vallecas case remains unsolved. It is a chilling reminder of the power of the unknown and the enduring fascination that the paranormal holds for so many people around the world.