3 Real Life & Paralyzing Run Ins With La Llorona Along The Border

Welcome to another edition of Haunted El Paso as we explore the legends of La Llorona across the borderland.

La Llorona is just one of countless Mexican folktales that have been passed down over many generations. The story of La Llorona (Weeping Woman) stems back hundreds of years, and while there are many versions, the most common story is that of a young woman who drowned her children in a river to spite her cheating husband.

After committing the heinous deed, she then throws herself into the river to die alongside her children and, to this day, is said to wander in search of her children in perpetuity.

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From Mexico to El Paso and New Mexico to San Antonio and even Houston, the legends and haunts of La Llorona abound around the region. Locally, sightings of La Llorona place her all along the Rio Grande including near the old Hacienda Restaurant off of Paisano. Stories attest that on certain nights the apparition of a woman has been spotted near the restaurant crying out loudly for her children. 

Locals aren’t the only ones who have allegedly seen and heard from La Llorona. In 2015, Paranormal Research Investigations obtained audio of a recorded conversation between an Anthony, TX police officer with dispatch reporting a strange encounter with what sounded like La Llorona.

The officer is heard saying: “There’s a female … seems to be covered in blood carrying a newborn … walking back and forth...She’s also … Ma’am just for information; she’s also wearing a long, white dress.” 

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If that conversation isn’t spine-tingling enough, then read on because another El Pasoan shared his multiple encounters with La Llorona.  

While scrolling through Truehorrorstoriesoftexas.com, I came across a story posted in March of 2020 of an El Pasoan’s scary encounter with La Llorona, not just once but on multiple occasions. 

According to Reddit user djunderdawg85, he first encountered the weeping woman in the late 90s when he was 11 years old. He then talks about another incident a year later and in the early 2000s while working at a local grocery store in the lower valley. 

Posted on Truehorrorstoriesoftexas.com by djunderdawg85 in March 2020: 

“This happened to me when I was about 11 years old. It was the 90’s. I have lived my whole life in El Paso, Texas.  

One night it just like any other night I lived in a trailer with my mom and dad. My youngest brother was staying with my aunt this night. I fell asleep watching Jay Leno as usual and when I woke up I was on the sofa in my living room. The time was 4:00 am which illuminated from the stove in the kitchen. The television was off and normally I had a light on but this time it was pitch black. I woke up and I heard a horrible screaming that was coming from far in the distance. The screaming was coming from a ditch that was a few feet away from my home. I heard it and I thought I was hearing things. I asked myself “am I dreaming”? Then I started to hear the animals outside howling and whimpering. These animals that I speak of are cats and dogs. As the screaming got closer the animals continued to cry. The screaming was something I have never experienced ever before. It sounded like I was in a big hallway and a woman was screaming her guts out down that hallway. Then in all the screaming, I started to make out words. These words being said by whoever this was at 4 am screaming their guts out shocked me. The woman said, “¡Ay, mis hijos!” (Oh, my children!). 

In a huge panic, I quickly got up from the sofa and ran to the kitchen which was right next to where I was asleep. I turned the closest light and looked around. The screaming didn’t stop. In fact, the screaming only got louder and closer. I questioned my sanity at that moment. Was I going crazy or hearing things? Then I thought to myself “this is real and the animals are responding to it in a negative way.” So I did what any other 11-year-old boy would do in a moment like this. I ran to my mom and dads’ room. I reached for my mom and shook her awake wildly. She woke up slowly and to my amazement, the screaming faded away as she woke awake. I thought to myself “what the heck is going on?” I told my mother “mom do you hear that screaming and crying lady?” My mom was half asleep as she said, “go back to sleep it is most likely just your imagination.” I told her, “no this is real please listen don’t you hear her?” My mom quickly just said, “You are dreaming so go back to sleep it’s going to be ok”. By then the screaming had faded long away like if whoever was screaming knew that an adult is awake. 

I was terrified as I returned to the living room and quickly turned on the television as I left most of the lights on as well. I didn’t go back to sleep until the sun came up. I couldn’t believe what I heard and witnessed. I was treated like a crazy person whenever I told my story. It got so bad that I kept my experience to myself. To this day I don’t care what people think of my experience. I know what I heard. A couple of years later it happened to me again. But that’s a whole other story that I will share later.” 

Second Encounter:  

An incident occurred with my aunt about a year after my encounter. According to my aunt, they were sleeping and suddenly there was a horrible sound coming from the ditch located in front of their house. There is a street between the ditch and the house. But her house and the ditch are really close to one another. It was about 2:30 am when my aunt was awakened by a screaming woman coming from the ditch. She figured maybe somebody was being hurt or attacked. She walked out to the front yard looking towards the ditch and saw there was no woman. My cousin, “her daughter” walked out the front as well asking what was happening. My aunt, of course, had no idea as the screaming grew closer. Then they saw her, a woman in a white dress. The only thing that shook them to the bone was the woman had no feet and was clearly floating. 

One other feature that threw them off was that this woman had no face. They both just turned after seeing that and ran inside their house. My aunt locked the door and called the police. The police showed up minutes later and took their claim seriously. El Paso PD was soon looking at the area where this woman was seen and heard screaming. The police soon returned and said there was no evidence that a woman was there. They looked at the area where the woman was seen walking and not even footprints were found. One of the police officers even asked if maybe my aunt was dreaming about everything that happened. The next day is when I went over to visit and I saw my cousin as I have never seen her before. She had black bags under her eyes and she hasn’t slept since the incident. I asked her what happened and she said she saw what my aunt saw. The screaming woman with no feet and no face. It took her a while to sleep normal again. She never heard or saw La Llorona again. But to this day she won’t deny that she witnessed something that she can’t explain. 

Unlike my cousin, I don’t have the luck of avoiding La Llorona. It was in the early 2000s when I worked here in El Paso, Texas at a local supermarket named Big 8. One of the shifts that I worked was from 3 am to 12 pm. This store was located in the lower valley of El Paso. In the back of the store is a small ditch. One early morning at about 4 have I had the back doors open and I was taking the empty milk crates outside in the back. I was working with 2 other guys at the time of this incident. One of the guys named “R” thought it would be funny to close the back doors and lock me outside as a joke. When I heard the doors close shut, I knew he was just messing around. I thought to myself I will just stay quiet and wait for him to open the doors again. I wasn’t going give in to his joke of trying to scare me. I stood by the doors smiling and thinking to myself “he is not going scare me”. I could hear “R” laughing on the other side of the doors. I thought to myself, “Well the joke is on him because I am not scared.” 

About one minute later in the far distance, I heard screaming. I heard “AHHHHHH!!!!!!” and I thought to myself it’s the same screaming that I heard when I was 11 years old. The screaming got louder and closer to me. I felt a chill down my spine and I felt that I was being watched by some unseen force. I felt a sense of hopelessness. It was a feeling unlike any other. I started pounding on the door. I yelled, “Let me in! There is somebody out here!” I pounded my fists and started kicking the door. “What the fuck?! Let me in!!!” I could hear “R” laughing on the other side of the door. I started to kick the door harder. The screaming was now coming from right in back of me. Just then “R” opened the door and said, “What the fuck is that?” Just then I ran inside and locked the warehouse door. “R” said, “Why was that lady screaming? Did she need help? I told him that I don’t think that was a lady. I told him what had happened to me when I was younger. “R” told me, “J” don’t you think maybe you are cursed or she is following you? I stayed quiet when he told me that. I couldn’t work my shift normally after that. It took a few hours to get over what happened. I admit I was scared and maybe “R” was right. What if she was following me? 

There is one more incident that took place right after. In 2015 I started working as a custodian at Cedar Grove Elementary. Behind the school is the border highway. Then the Rio Grande of course covered by a huge metal fence that separates Mexico from El Paso. I worked the night shift from 2:30 pm to 11 pm. One night I was stuck working with another custodian until Midnight. Right when we were about to leave, we do a walkthrough of the school to make sure all the doors are locked on the outside. I worked with another custodian named “C”. “C” always told me that he has never believed in ghosts. Up until that night, I can say. We walk to our cars and just as I was about to leave, I saw that “C” had open the hood of his car. Then he asked me, “Hey “J” can you give me a jump? My car battery is dead.” I told him yes of course. Just as I stepped out of my car a loud screaming coming from the Rio Grande. 

All the animals in the nearby neighborhood started howling and crying. Once again, the screaming resembled a woman screaming her guts out in a hallway as it echoed all over. “C” looked at me and said, “Oh my god is that a demon?” I told him, “No “C” that is La Llorona. He looked right at me and said, “No way? She can’t be real.” Then I said, “I have heard her before.” Then “C” said, “Hurry please and let’s get out of here!!!!” I gave him a jump and just then we saw a Border Patrol jeep speeding towards the screaming woman. Just then I thought to myself, “I can record this and share it with the world.” I took my phone out and just as I hit record the screaming faded away.” “C” and I looked at each other and he said, “What the fuck?” “Sorry “J” I’m leaving before that evil witch comes back to get us.” We both left and the very next day “C” was telling everybody at work how he heard the witch crying the night before. That was the last time I encountered her. I don’t think it is the last as I feel that she may choose who hears her or sees her. Thank you for listening.” – Reddit user djunderdawg85 

Creeped out yet? We are too!

La Llorona may or may not be real, but to these witnesses, she was terrifying and very real, making her one of the most Haunted El Paso legends from the borderland.