TERRIFYING TUESDAY: YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REAL VERONICA

​Several months ago, a movie on Netflix called “Veronica” made news. Headlines claimed that the movie was so scary that many people couldn’t even get through it.
 
That sounded like a challenge to me. Not unsurprisingly, I didn’t find the movie that scary. However, I do think that the movie was well done. I was intrigued further by the small-screen hit when I found out that Veronica was an actual person who actually experienced these events.
 
So, I thought for today’s Terrifying Tuesday post, it would be a great time to talk about the true story behind this Netflix hit.

THE STORY

​Back in 1991, Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro was just a care-free 15-year-old with her whole life ahead of her. But, on one faithful day, that all quickly changed.
 
Lazaro and some of her friends decided that they were going to use a Ouija board to try to contact one of the girls’ boyfriend who had passed away following a terrible motorcycle accident.
 
Lazaro’s parents said that their daughter had been showing interest in the occult prior to this séance 

session. It is important to note, however, that “interest in the occult” is subjective. Some people may say you have an interest in the occult just because you clicked on this blog post out of interest. Others, however, will say that people interested in the occult are those who regularly try to communicate with those who have already passed.

During their séance, which the girls performed in a seemingly remote location at their catholic school, the girls were interrupted by a teacher (a nun) who ended up breaking the board in half. We will get in to why that is so bad a little bit later. The girls with Lazaro claimed that they saw smoke going in and out of Estefania’s mouth.
 
Following this experience, Lazaro began to experience seizures and rapid mood changes. She claimed to see shadow figures in her house and in her room. When her parents became worried, they took her to several doctors, but none of them could find anything wrong with Lazaro.

However, if anyone asked Lazaro why she wasn’t doing well, she would admit that she was sure it all had to do with her experience on the Ouija board. Almost six months after the Ouija encounter, Lazaro was found dead in her bedroom. Medical examiners couldn’t find an explanation for her death.
 
Unfortunately for her family, the paranormal activity didn’t stop even a year after Lazaro’s death. 

​The family experienced whispering, shadows, electric malfunctions, and slamming doors. They eventually called the police to report the problem.
 
When the police investigators arrived, they too experienced paranormal activity. The Lazaro case became the first case to list paranormal activity in the police report. Here is what police inspector Jose Pedro Negri said about his experience in the house:

 “When I’d first entered the room, I noticed they had a large wooden crucifix on the wall and hanging off it was a smaller pearly crucifix like the one children get at their first holy communions. There was also a poster. [But a few moments later,] the crucifix had been turned upside down, the little crucifix was on the floor and the poster and the door had three or four deep scratches in them as if someone had clawed through the poster and deep into the door."

​Some inspectors had to leave due to feelings of sickness while inside the house. The inspectors also witnessed Estefania’s photo catching on fire in its frame. The family decided to move. Luckily, the entities that were haunting them didn’t follow.

OUIJA BOARDS

​While I am a fan of investigating paranormal claims and understanding the afterlife and entities like angels and demons, I’ve never been fond of the idea of a Ouija board. Just the thought of it working and being responsible for unleashing unspeakable evil into the world is plenty to keep me away from it.
 
Plus, as someone who has a strong relationship with God and firm foundations in my religion, I don’t feel the need to do anything like that. I say all of that to let you know that I had to do some research on proper Ouija board etiquette to understand what happened to Estefania. 

​According to the research I’ve found, breaking the Ouija board in half was where everything turned south in this situation. The nun was understandably angry that the girls were playing with what could be evil forces on school grounds (or at all), so she broke it.
 
People who use a Ouija board must say goodbye to the spirits they’ve contacted. If they don’t, the spirits are free to “escape” the board. Some say that breaking the board in half can unleash all of the spirits who were contacted using that board.
 
I want to be clear that I don’t think anyone should use a Ouija board. I am simply bringing up this “rule” for using one because it is obvious that this could have been what caused the problems with Estefania.

MY THEORIES

My first theory is possession. As a Christian, I believe in good and evil. I believe that bad entities walk the Earth, or they are looking for a way to get into our world. This thought, for some reason, is widely avoided in many churches. Church people think that if you talk about this stuff, you must want to participate in it. However, for me, I just think it is wise to be educated on good and evil and the lengths bad things will go to in order to wiggle themselves into your lives.
 
From what I’ve learned from my research, it does seem to add up. The strange happenings only became a problem after the incident at school.
 
My next theory is that Estefania may have been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. People with paranoid schizophrenia tend to hear and see things that aren’t actually there. They also have a strong delusion that something is out to get them and hurt them. The seizures could be a different medical condition that just made everything worse.
 
My last theory is a combination of the two first ones. From what I learned in my research, Estefania’s family didn’t experience much until after Estefania died. I think it could be possible that Estefania had some serious mental issues and, after she died, she stuck around to haunt her family.

What are your theories?

CONCLUSION

​So, that is all for today’s Terrifying Tuesday. I hope you are considerably spooked (just as I am as I type this). I pray that you will stay away from objects that promise to connect you to those who have passed or to demons and other bad entities.
 
Stay safe this Halloween and just stay in and eat some candy!