The B215 otherwise known as Bundesstraße 215 is a stretch of roads that are haunted in Germany. It has more deadly accidents than other roads in the country according to the stories, and is also haunted by a Woman in White.
Germany is famous for its comfortable long stretches of highway that cuts through the country in no time. There are some roads though who have a rather dark reputation surrounding the dark concrete.
Read about all the ghost stories about haunted roads in the Moonmausoleum: Here
The B215 is a road in Germany where they say strange things happen. The federal highway runs between Hanover and Hamburg in Lower Saxony. It is an old road and the stretch between Nienurg and Verden was built already in 1849.
Supposedly it has more accidents than any other road in Germany, and in particular close to the city of Verden, they are supposedly more dangerous to drive than other places in the country.
The White Lady Along the Road
There are also stories about a white lady that can be spotted along the Bundesstraße 215. Stories about these White Women are plentiful in Germany and they have long standing in ghost stories. In German legends and folklore the stories of the Weiße Frauen, meaning White Women used to be a name meant to the elven-spirits and the stories of the light elves from pagan times. Today she is known for haunting old castles, families and other places where women died full of regret.
This particular Lady in White is someone you can see out of the corner of your eyes along the haunted Bundesstraße 215 when you are driving down Bundesstraße 215 in the dark. She is said to appear between 2 and 3 am in the night if you are driving too fast. It is unsure if she is a warning to the reckless drivers or if she is the one behind causing the accidents.
In the foggy mountains in northern Spain you find the abandoned town of La Mussara. It is said that people have disappeared into the fog, perhaps been transported to another place. There are also those visiting claiming to hear ringing from the empty bell tower.
Mother, if you give me a husband Don’t give him to me from La Mussara There is always fog there And I don’t like the soil – Local chant
Spain is home to a haunted and abandoned town, where the ghosts of its former inhabitants still linger. It is an eerie reminder of a once thriving community that has now been left to decay and where nature now is claiming everything back.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain
The abandoned town in Spain has become a popular destination for thrill-seekers looking for a unique experience. But it’s also an important reminder of how quickly our lives can change, and how even those who have lived in one place for centuries can suddenly be gone without a trace. But what happened to the La Mussara town, and what are the ghostly legends surrounding it?
The Abandoned Town in La Mussara
Northern Spain has some fantastic hiking routes and a wonderful nature to experience. One of these hikes will take you through the abandoned town of La Mussara in the Prades Mountains. It is also a mysterious town at 995 meters above sea level that is said to have swallowed up the people that used to live there.
La Mussara Abandoned Town: The ghost town found in the La Mussara mountains are now mostly in ruins as the last residents moved ages ago. Here from one of the walls from the former church.//Source//Jordi Gili/Wikimedia
La Mussara Mountain in Tarragona is a mysterious place tucked away in the mountains of Catalonia. The mountain was named after the abandoned ghost town that was deserted in 1959 in the range.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Towns and Cities all around the world.
Why was the town abandoned though? The place has been settled perhaps since Saracen times, perhaps even as far back as the bronze age. In 1857, there were 323 people living there, far from the rest of the world, tending to their farms. Some say it was because of the insects that destroyed the local vineyards and the inhabitants livelihood that made people leave. It was also far from drinking water and the rest of society. There are those that claim something strange is the reason for its abandonment though. According to some, people left because they knew the town was doomed.
The Rocks That Takes People Away – La Piedra del 6
People also claim this is a place where strange things like time jumps happen and where people just disappear without a trace. According to local legend, there is a giant rock in the village called La Piedra del 6 next to a farmhouse.
Historically, Muslim armies area said to have marched through Mussara, a name derived from the term meaning “the place to march.” As these forces made their way toward the valley below, they routinely paused at the Sixth Stone. It was believed that this stone possessed magical properties capable of aiding them in overcoming their adversaries in forthcoming battles.
It is said if you jump over La Piedra del 6 you will be transported to another dimension and lost forever in the worst case. Some claim that you will get transported to another town, some call it Vila del Sis, some claim it is another place in the USA you get transported to.
The Missing People in the Fog
Over the years several people have gone missing from La Mussara after visiting and haven’t left a trace. The writer Lorenzo Fernandez Bueno claims in one of his books that features the abandoned town, that the number of disappearances is much higher in these parts than in the rest of the country.
What happened to those taken away is unknown but the legend coming from the locals, says there is a mysterious fog that covers the countryside around the town, like opening a gateway to another dimension or world. The hikers and visitors have according to this been swallowed and transported because of this fog.
The Strange Fog: One of the things people claim is that it suddenly appears a strange fog were people just disappears into and never comes back.
This is something often called the Peluda, a meteorological phenomenon happening through January and February were a thick and white fog wells over the mountain range between Tossal Gros, Miramar and Torre del Petrol mountain. Could it be a supernatural fog as the legends claim as well?
The Disappearance of Enrique Martinez Ortiz
One example of a mysterious disappearance was the case of Enrique Marinez Ortiz, a 37-year old man who disappeared in the area on October 16 in 1991. He was with a group of friends picking mushrooms and walked past where the TV-antennas are. Some sources claim that the group had passed the rock to investigate, and his friend, Jorge, had talked about the magical and mysterious rumors of it all and all but one had touched the stone. How true that is, is not sure though, as they had been to this area many times before and knew it well.
The Disappearance of Enrique: After he disappeared and the strange details of the case were revealed, the area saw an influx of paranormal researchers and those interested in the occult.
They were walking and talking 300 meters from the television repeater when one of the friends asked Enrique a question. When he didn’t answer, the friend turned and saw he had disappeared, leaving only a wicker basket with a mushroom inside.
They searched for days and even brought in 200 soldiers from Los Castillejos to completely sweep the era. They didn’t find a single trace. It has ever since joined the mystery of the town and the surrounding area. As the years went by and no answers have been given, there have come up many legends about this case. Did they all touch the stone? Did it have something to do with the strange fog?
Months later, in January 1992, Jorge, who was one of Enrique’s friends that was present when he disappeared, went to the Tarragona courts. He wanted to speak to the judge and was very worried and upset as he had experienced something he couldn’t explain.
The three friends who had accompanied Enrique when he disappeared had returned to La Mussara. Around midnight, they heard a noise coming from the church of Sant Salvador. They thought it was horse hooves but unsure so they went to investigate.
Once inside they claimed to have seen seven figures in robes wandering around the temple. Suddenly, they disappeared into thin air. How much of it was true, and who they could have been, has also remained a mystery.
The Strange Interference With Electrical Equipment
There is also something weird going on about the electric stuff in the area. And with the case with Enrique who disappeared close to the TV Antennas, people think it is something more.
Because of this, the abandoned town also attracts UFO seekers to peer to the sky in search of the strange object that is rumored to be seen there.
There are also talks about some electromagnetic interferences that have been measured in the abandoned town.
The Bells Ringing from an Empty Belltower
In La Mussara there are around eight buildings still standing. One of them is the remains of the church of San Salvador from the 12th century. The old church has a bell tower from 1859. According to people they claim that they hear the church bell ring, even if the church has been empty for decades.
The Haunted Belltower: Esglèsia de Sant Salvador a La Mussara is the ruins of the church and according to legends, it is said the sound of the bell ringing can be heard in the night..//Source/Wikimedia
People have also said they have heard strange voices coming from the church. They have also said to have seen ghostly figures, perhaps trying to get back from beyond the veil.
The Foggy Haunted Road to La Mussara
Also the road to the town is said to be a haunted stretch. It always seems to be covered in the same fog found in the village surroundings and the wind is constantly howling.
This old road T-704 leads to the ruins of the town of La Mussara now abandoned and looks like the perfect setting for a horror movie and is considered one of the most haunted roads in Spain.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Haunted Roads
Also on the roads it is said something strange is happening. Once a German engineer drove through the place in 1995 and claimed to have disappeared for three hours. He reappeared in an unknown place and didn’t know what had happened.
The Legends of La Mussara
The place has had rumors of terrible things for centuries and it is as if the town is cursed. Some say it was just bad luck that made the town deserted. But why would this town be cursed?
There are those that claim this place was a center of satanic rituals and is a cursed place where misfortune happens, and many claim it was just a quaint mountain town where the inhabitants were drawn to the bigger cities.
Now, the only life there is in the Refugi La Mussara, a bunkhouse for hikers as well as supernatural seekers that was built in the 80s. Here you can take refuge from the thick fog that comes down the mountain and swallows you whole. And who knows, perhaps you can hear the faint ringing of the bells from your bunk bed late at night?
Explore Palavas-les-Flots, the haunted coastal city of France and learn about its mysterious supernatural phenomena of the ghost of a hitchhiking woman in white.
Palavas-les-Flots is a coastal city in France with a mysterious history. It has been the site of many supernatural experiences, including ghost sightings and numerous unexplained phenomena. Discover the spooky secrets behind this haunted city today!
Palavas-les-Flots is located within the historic Camargue region of France. A walk through the narrow, cobblestoned streets of Palavas-les-Flots will bring you past some of the city’s most mysterious and supernatural sites.
Dame Blanches in French Folklore
One of the most pervasive supernatural mythologies associated with Palavas-les-Flots is that of the Dames blanches, or White Ladies. These mysterious figures are said to wander through fields and forests near the city, bringing with them both luck and misfortune to those who encounter them.
They are known way back from myths and folklore as well and quite well spread in European ghost stories. Tales of these enigmatic creatures have been told for centuries, inspiring many artistic interpretations and offering a glimpse into a fantastic world beyond our own.
Today however they are most often told about in the deepest and oldest castles as ghost of ladies that died gruesome deaths, or along the road as women who died in a road accident of some sort. Very often they are mixed in with the urban legend of the hitchhiker.
Dame Blanches in Palavas-les-Flots in 1981
Many people from the town claimed to have seen one of these mysterious White Ladies late at night near the water. They described the figure as incredibly tall, with flowing white robes and an otherworldly presence.
There was one occurrence that became more famous than others. One night on May 20th, 1981 a group of four people aged 17 to 25 were taking their car for a trip to the sea. After a couple of drinks and a walk in the city they were headed back home around midnight.
The people picked up a female hitchhiker in Palavas-les-Flots right before the Pont des Quatre Canals.
She was dressed in a white raincoat and a scarf and looked to be in her fifties. She refused to speak and sat in the back of the car. Suddenly she would scream: Mind the turn, mind the turn , and the driver slows down and drives safely past the bend.
Suddenly, the two passengers in the back scream out as the hitchhiker disappears into thin air. What exactly happened that night on the road in Palavas-les-Flots remains a mystery.
All the Woman in White Ghosts
While the White Ladies like the one told about from Palavas-les-Flots remain some of France’s most famous supernatural figures, and are hardly the only ones. Across the country, similar legends exist about white women in traditional northern French clothing lurking near places like cemeteries and abandoned houses at night. Whether or not these sightings actually occur is up to debate, but one thing remains certain: The mysterious stories will continue to captivate people for years to come.
The Ghost of Nan Tuck is the haunted legend about an accused witch from England still haunting the woods; she, according to legend, was killed by the villagers chasing her down.Now she is haunting the place she was killed on.
The parish of Buxted in southeast England looks quaint and peaceful enough today if you don’t know its bloody history. The rural parish is green with farmland and woodlands stretching out to the coast. But between the green trees, there is a haunted legend from darker times still haunting the woods.
Nan Tuck is a ghost that is said to haunt the village of Rotherfield in Buxted, England. The story goes that she was a woman who lived in the 17th or possibly 18th century and was accused of poisoning her husband.
The Witch Hunting in England
Nan Tuck was sentenced to death by hanging as the punishment for murder as well as witchcraft was in England. But before she could be executed, she escaped and fled into the woods to escape punishment. Whether she actually did murdered her husband or not is never really discussed or how the trial was. In any case, she was guilty in the public eye and fair game to all.
The public not only believed she was a murderer, but a witch on top of it. This was a time were the fear of witches was at an all time high in Europe and it is estimated that as many as 30 000 – 60 000 people were executed between the 13th to 18th century. In England there is estimated that around 500 were convicted as witches, 90 percent of them women. In England they didn’t burn the witches, but they hanged them.
Many of these deaths had no records of them, and we can see this with this story, that has no written records of it whatsoever, and solely relays on oral tales throughout times. This is what the legend of the Ghost of Nan Tuck tells us.
Nan Tuck’s Escape Into the Woods
Nan Tucks Lane: Heading through Solomon’s Wood. Named after the Ghost of Nan Tuck who was chased down this lane by the irate villagers of Buxted who believed she was a witch. // source
The whole village rallied and started to chase the wicked witch and murderer down in the woods. For days Nan Tuck evaded them by hiding in haystacks, climbing hedges and sneaking around in the woods to escape certain death.
It is said that she was attempting to take sanctuary in Buxted Parish Church known as St Margaret’s Church– according to the right of asylum, fugitives were allowed to escape punishment by touching the altar of a church if they were able to reach it – when local officials who were in pursuit forced her into the woods, and she never reached sanctuary.
Nan Tuck disappeared that night and was never seen again – alive. According to some versions of the tale she was caught up by the angry villagers and it was them who murdered her. In some versions she was killed in the woods, in others, she was taken back and they held a trial by water.
The trial by water was a highly deadly method of finding out whether or not someone was a witch by dunking them in water to see if they floated or sank. And with so many other women accused of witchcraft, she drowned during the trial, which ironically meant she was not a witch as the holy water didn’t repel her, causing her to float like a witch.
The Ghost of Nan Tucks Lane
The legend of Nan Tuck is one that has been told ever since. Sometimes the Ghost of Nan Tuck is depicted as a young woman, sometimes as an old one. It is said that her ghost can be seen wandering the woods near Rotherfield at night.
Legend holds that a circular patch of land in the woods near Nan Tucks Lane, were she supposedly tried to escape through, stays infertile and no vegetation will grow there. And the question if the Ghost of Nan Tuck really was a witch, still remains to this day.
So if you are walking down Nan Tucks Lane late at night and meet someone, perhaps hide and duck as it might very well be the Ghost of Nan Tuck coming for you.
The Nan Tucks Lane poem by Roy Carnon
Whether there really was a woman behind the legend is also a bit uncertain. But the legend of the Ghost of Nan Tuck haunting the woods has made into songs and poems, like this by Roy Carnon:
The new moon older by a memory threw this sinuous line down and round Poundsley way. Following feet that trod the centuries across the weald – deepening contoured tracks unknowing. The way imprinted to Hadlow, Framfield, Buxted, – on to Blackboys, cruciform neeting, pointing the fingerpost of death. Following feet – feet following years crushed harsh in grass; tearing the flowers wond – gaping raped petals laid cold on the lane. Congealing tar concealing blood, the shape of your agony lays still on bruised grass still on earth maimed by you fall. Tear-blurred, memory retreats beneath track-patterned clay but a Sussex lane remembers.
On a big and foggy highway north of Seoul, there is an urban legend of a ghost known as the Jayuro Ghost along the road, looking like she has a pair of sunglasses on in the dark.
The Jayu Motorway, or simply Freedom Road is a big highway in South Korea connecting Seoul to Gyeonggi Province. In some parts you can even see all the way to North Korea from the motorway. The Jayuro Road has a high rate of car accidents because of frequent foggy weather and being badly lit along some parts.
Check out all of our ghost stories about haunted roads in the Moon Mausoleum.
But there is something else in the misty road to be wary of, according to many passing drivers, that claims to have encountered something that has been known as the Jayuro Ghost.
The Jayuro Road Ghost (自由路鬼神) is a very famous korean urban legend that appeared in the early 2004 or 2005 and follows in with the many local variations of the global Vanishing Hitchhiker trope we have many stories about.
The Vanishing Hitchhiker is a well known urban legend throughout the world. Here is a Moonmausoleum original writings based on the Urban Legend – The Vanishing Hitchhiker
The urban legend grew large because of several celebrities that claimed to have witnessed the Jayuro Ghost along the highway. And although the popularity of the legend ebbs and flows since the early 2000s, there are still those who speak about seeing the Jayuro Ghost when driving in the dark.
The Legend of the Woman in Sunglasses
Since it’s such a well known urban legend, there are now countless of variations of it as well. But most of them follow the same pattern.
If you drive along Jayuro Road in the middle of the night, there is supposedly a young woman in her 20s, waving to you while trying to hitchhike. It looks like the woman is wearing a long coat with large black sunglasses, and many realise who they met after they drive past her.
Urban Legend: There have been multiple things inspired by the urban legend. Here from Goedam, an anthology horror series.
To just get a glimpse and not noticing anything strange of a lonely woman by a highway is perhaps the best. Because if you look closer, you notice that she is not alive at all. When you get closer to inspect, you can clearly see it’s not sunglasses, but rather a big black hole where her eyes were supposed to be.
The Hitchhiker
One of the reports comes from a man that actually claims to have picked the Jayuro Ghost up when she tried to hitchhike.
He was driving back from a dinner party and looked away from the road for a second. When he looked up, he saw the woman standing along the highway and he nearly ran her over. It looked like she had just escaped from an accident herself. She asked him if he could give her a ride home. The man accepted and put the address in the navigation system to follow.
But before they reached the destination, the Jayuro Ghost disappeared. When he found out where the destination was, he realized that it was a cemetery.
Who was this Woman?
Can you really trace back a specific person to an urban legend? It is not for lack of trying at least. When they aired a piece on the story on a TVN show in 2007, Kim Sehwan tried to contact the ghost through a medium.
According to that story, the Jayuro Ghost was a woman in her 20s that was killed on the road in 2002 by strangulation, not far from where she is spotted. It was because of decay that she looked like she did with her dark gouged out eyes.
According to the medium relaying the story, the culprit behind her murder was arrested in 2005. Although they never really followed up with a police report on this though.
No matter who she is supposed to have been, a name has never come up. Although, stories of her along the foggy highway often does.
On a road known as the Devil’s Curve in Colombia, the ghost of a bride has been reported on the road since the 70’s, asking passing cars for a ride.
On the road can be a dangerous place to be, especially at night, during bad weather and at high speed. Especially when there are rumors about a ghost roaming the road that are asking you to take them with you.
Since the 1970s, there have been reports about something that looks like the ghost all dressed in white on what is known as The Devil’s Curve or La Curva del Diablo in Puerto Colombia, a coastal town and municipality in Colombia.
There are many tales about ghosts that asks for a ride, disoriented and alone alongside the roads.
The Ghost Bride at La Curva del Diablo has later been dubbed as the ghost bride as many have thought it looks like she is wearing a white wedding dress.
She is said to be asking for a ride of the cars passing by this dangerous road. If they refused, they would later see her sitting in the back of the vehicle, even if they didn’t let her in.
If they did let her into the car, several reports of her sitting in the backseat crying are told, but when the driver turned to check on her, she disappeared, leaving the seat wet. In some versions she smiled and left a sickening smell of rotting flowers in the air before disappearing.
The buses passing by also report a woman that is signaling them to stop. One taxi driver named Hugo Rangel told a story of meeting her in 1993. He was scared as he knew of the ghost bride. She was covered in dirt and looked terrible.
This tale of a female hitchhiking is a very common ghost story throughout the world. The urban legend of The Vanishing Hitchhiker comes in many variations. Considering just how many die a sudden and tragic death on the roads, there might be some truth to some of them?
The Vanishing Hitchhiker is a well known urban legend throughout the world. Here is a Moonmausoleum original writings based on the Urban Legend – The Vanishing Hitchhiker
On the highway in El Salvador, be vary of who you stop for along the way. Especially beautiful women that asks for a ride to a nearby place. It might very well be the vengeful spirit of La Descarnada.
On the long stretch of highway from Santa Ana to Chalchuapa in El Salvador, an old legend is just refusing to die. The legend of La Descarnada, meaning the fleshless in English. She is a vengeful spirit in female form that lures and seduces men that she meets on her way. At first she looks beautiful, young and healthy, but when she has the man in her claws she shows herself in her true form: a rotten living skeleton.
The tale of La Descarnada is a typical ghost legend that are told all across South America and share many similarities with the legends of La Sayona in Venezuela and La Llorona in Mexico for instance. Often her origin story is rooted in being a scorned woman that goes after any man as she wasn’t able to get revenge on the one that mattered. The legend of La Descarnada has also evolved from an old folklore legend to be more similar to the urban legends like The Vanishing Hitchhiker.
The Vanishing Hitchhiker is a well known urban legend throughout the world. Here is a Moonmausoleum original writings based on the Urban Legend – The Vanishing Hitchhiker
La Siguanaba of Central America
The Legend of La Descarnada also has a lot in common with the legend of La Siguanaba. Also known as Cihuanahual, Caballona, Chuca, Sucia, Bandolera, Macihuatli, Matlacihua, Tisigua, and more, is a legendary figure from Central American folklore. Her name, derived from the Quiché language, means “spectral sister of the abyss.”
The Siguanaba is known for her eerie encounters with men who cross her path. As the legend goes, she appears to men, but her face remains hidden. It’s only after she has ensnared a man’s attention that she reveals her true visage, which is often described as a horse or a skull in different versions of the story. This shocking revelation can lead to illness, madness, or even death. The origin of this myth is complex, with roots in both pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures and European folklore. Over time, these beliefs have intertwined, creating a unique and haunting legend that has persisted through generations.
The Hitchhiking Ghost
Late at night on the highway she signals the passing cars to stop. If it is a man travelling alone, she asks for a ride. When he asks her where she is going, she mentions somewhere nearby on his way and it is too easy for him to say he will drop her off there.
Inside the car, she starts her seduction, looking at him provocatively and luring him in. The man doesn’t resist and gives in, starting to caress her. Then the transformation starts, and her beautiful silky skin starts to peel off, little by little and muscles and bones starts to appear under the man’s caresses.
When the man notices it, he freezes, but it is already to late. She continues to decompose right in front of him until she is left as a living skeleton. And those who live to tell the tale have no way of explaining just what happened to them. Although, according to legend they are the lucky ones, as La Descarnada is a folktale that usually ends in the men’s death.
The Legend of La Descarnada
As the legend of La Descarnada continues to send chills down the spines of those who hear it, there is no denying the cautionary tale it holds. The dark tale serves as a reminder to be wary of strange encounters and to trust one’s instincts, especially when traveling alone on long stretches of highway.
For those who have the misfortune of encountering La Descarnada, the outcome is often fatal. The men who fall into her trap are left scarred by the terrifying transformation they witness, unable to comprehend the supernatural force that just took place before their eyes. Their stories, if they’re lucky enough to survive, become cautionary tales whispered among friends and family, spreading awareness of the dangers that lurk on the roads of El Salvador.
And so, the tale of La Descarnada remains ingrained in the consciousness of those who traverse the highways of El Salvador. Her vengeful spirit forever entwined with the folklore of the land, serving as a reminder to heed the warnings of the past and to navigate the roads with caution and wisdom.
In the night at The River Road Bridge in Idaho you can hear the sound of a splash without having dropped anything in the river. Stories about the ghost of a woman that hanged herself from the bridge keeps haunting the place.
Stories tell a dark tale of this bridge. Apparently The River Road Bridge was once the place where a woman hanged herself. She is still said to haunt the bridge and the Boise river below in Caldwell, Idaho.
The River Road Bridge that was once known as the Silver Bay Bridge was built in 1922 and has spurned several crazy legends of hauntings and scary stuff happening around the bridge. It used to be the place on the Boise river where the pioneers on the Oregon Trail crossed the river so it certainly has experienced its fair share of tragedy. But most of them either lead to or come from the legend of the woman that allegedly hanged herself from it.
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The Hanged Woman of The River Road Bridge
There are several variations of who this woman was and why she did what she did. The most often told story though is that she was a mistress that found herself pregnant without anywhere or anyone to go to after she was cast aside.
The identity of the woman is rarely discussed when speaking of the legend, but sometimes she is referred to as Mary, as so many female ghosts are. Was there really a woman that hung herself by the name of Mary from the bridge? Perhaps it was, although most likely not as it probably would have left some traces in history, especially considering it must have been at earliest in the 1920s.
In some variation she was the illegitimate daughter of the American author, Stephen Crane. There are also stories about it was a local pig farmer with a wealthy family that had her hung from The River Road Bridge to avoid any scandal.
Paranormal Investigation
Either way, the paranormal rumors of the bridge draws visitors from the whole state to have a look and carry out different investigations. Many claim to have found proof of something supernatural going on.
There are also talks about strange lights in a spot of a tiny island below the bridge that light up in the night without a known reason. There is also the sound of a splash as if something hits the water below without anything being dropped.
An urban legend that lingers after the story is about how to spot the woman at night at The River Road Bridge. According to urban legend, you take your car and park it at night on the bridge and turn the lights off. If you do this, you will see the shadow of her on the side of the bridge.
On the Venezuelan plains, the vengeful ghost of La Sayona hunts down cheating men that don’t get from it alive. She is cursed to make her revenge on them after she murdered her whole family.
La Sayona is a Venezuelan ghost story about the vengeful spirit of a woman haunting the roads, the jungle as well as the Venezuelan plains. She is after cheating men and appears mostly on the roads, asking men for a ride on the vast Venezuelan plains known as Los Llanos.
Read all of the ghost stories at haunted roads here:
When the man she has chosen as her victim is looking more closely at her, her face is just a skull with terrible teeth. Her name La Sayona is referring to the type of clothes the ghost is supposedly wearing and is a long white dress, and referred to a medieval undergarment. It basically means something along the lines of ‘Sackclothed Woman’.
La Sayona: The ghost has been described as a woman in white haunting the roads in Venezuela. She is like a crossover between the vanishing hitchhiker and the woman in white. But this version is a very dangerous and deadly one.
This is an old legend in Venezuela, similar to many women in white ghost stories from Europe with a hint of The Vanishing Hitchhiker urban legend mixed in with it today. She is also somewhat similar to other vengeful ghosts from across the globe, like the Japanese Onryo or the Korean Virgin Ghost.
Most similar though, will she be of other South American legends about vengeful women on a mission in their afterlife and the story of La Sayona is often mixed with the famous La llorona legend from Mexico. Especially because in these legends, the woman was the violent one. She is also a part of Colombian folklore that has its own spin to it that we will come back to later.
Along the rivers in Mexico a wailing woman wearing white can be see and heard as she comes up drenched from the waters. She is desperately looking for her children she herself drowned. And according to the legends of La Llorona or the wailing woman, you are next.
In the legend of La Sayona there supposedly was a woman named Casilda that lived on the Venezuelan plains in a small town were life was peaceful and without much to worry about. She was the prettiest girl in town and married to a loving husband. Together they had a son and it seemed like she had a perfect life together with her family. But that was all surfaced level though as she had one fault, she was violently jealous.
Once, Casilda was swimming in a river near the village naked where a man from the village spotted her. She told him to get lost and leave her alone, but the man didn’t listen. He would start to follow her and watch her bathing in the river. He then told her that he was there to warn her and said her husband was having an affair with her mother. It was nothing more than a rumor from a random man watching her bathe, but the rumor filled her with an immense rage so she couldn’t think clearly.
Wet Season: La Sayona is known to roam on the Venezuelan plains in search for cheating men she can punish as part of her eternal curse. // Photo: Haroldarmitage
Casilda then ran home to her husband and found him inside the house with their son sleeping in his arms. She was blinded by rage and set the house on fire without asking him for the truth. The villagers heard their screams as both the husband and the son burned to death inside the house.
Meanwhile, Casilda was on her way to her mother’s house that sat on her patio. She would not get the chance to explain either as Casilda attacked her own mother with a machete and stabbed her to death in the stomach.
The mother bled slowly to death, but not before she managed to curse her daughter. She told Casilda that from then on she would avenge all of the women with cheating husbands. And whether her mother and husband really had an affair, she would never get an answer to, driving her mad.
She was from then on known as La Sayona that hunts cheating men by conquering them and then killing them.
The Different Variations of the Legend
There are many variations to this tale today in Venezuela as well as the rest of South America. She sometimes shapeshifts to animals or even monsters or sends out a scream almost like a Banshee that can be heard from a long distance. The variations of the legends have all in common that it is the men who has to pay the ultimate price of her wreath.
The legend of La Sayona is also grouped together with several ghost stories about female spirits haunting the roads and highways after men to take their anger out on. Much like in the case with the story of La Descarnada of the Highway.
On the highway in El Salvador, be vary of who you stop for along the way. Especially beautiful women that asks for a ride to a nearby place. It might very well be the vengeful spirit of La Descarnada.
In some versions of the legend, La Sayona comes out from the jungle where men are working. She comes when the men are talking about sex or about women they left behind. When she appears she either takes form as a beautiful woman or a loved one and manages to lure them into the forest were she has her revenge. There she devours them in an animal-like shape or mangles them, and leaves their body for the rest of them to see as a warning.
In the Colombian version from the plains, they tell that La Sayona was a beautiful woman named Sarona that turned into a monster. In this legend she was not really a violent woman, but a cursed one nonetheless.
She lived as a normal person until she ruined the holy clothes of a priest and was punished for her sin. God condemned her to live an eternity of great hunger because of this. She turned from a beautiful woman to a monster with big teeth and eyes and with an appetite for human flesh.
Sarona’s punishment was something she couldn’t control and she was consumed by it. In her hunger she then devoured her own brother before escaping out on the lonely plains in Columbia where she lives more like beast than man. She comes at dawn and takes drunk men wandering alone she devours.
Now a peaceful place for a road trip, it was once a hot spot for highwaymen and a dangerous place to travel. Sometimes, it was also dangerous for the robbers.
On a chilly Christmas Eve a woman and her father were riding in their carriage down the Road to Hawkhurst Kent. In the eighteenth century highwaymen were notorious and feared in the English countryside. They robbed whoever came their way, and sometimes, the robbery went more violently than necessary. And Hawkhurst housed some of the more notorious gangs and smugglers at the time, making the place feared along the English coast.
Alone With The Highwayman
Dangers on the road: A carriage was a sure sign of wealth and a target for the highwaymen. Photo: Asalto al coche (Robbery of the coach), by Francisco de Goya.
This had been the case of the young woman’s brother, who had been killed on maybe even the same road. But there was one road to take to get anywhere and the same family was again meeting an unfortunate end. The carriage was stopped by the highwayman Gilbert when they were around the village of Marden in Kent. He ordered the father and daughter out of the carriage to strip them of their possessions and valuables. But as soon as the daughter stepped on the ground, the horse bolted, carrying her father away, leaving her all alone with the robberer at the side of the road, seemingly helpless.
But the story comes with a twist seldom seen in other horror stories like these. A horror, not only by being robbed, dawned on her as she laid eyes on the face of the man. She recognised him, Gilbert, as the one who had murdered her brother as well. And she refused to see such a fate befall on herself. Enraged and afraid she drew a knife and stabbed the before he could take more from her by reaching for a hidden knife in her bag and planting it into Gilbert’s side and fled into the bushes.
When the father and the driver managed to calm the horses, they returned to the sight of where they had left her alone. There, all they could find was Gilbert’s dead body that they buried on the side of the road.
The Price of Her Life
It wasn’t until the next day the woman was found by the villagers of Marden, wandering around after having stabbed a man to death. All alone this cold Christmas Eve she had been fleeing from the danger from last night. But although she escaped alive, her body unharmed, it is told that during the night she had gone completely mad.
And every Christmas Eve since, the same scene, the robbery, the murder is repeated by their ghosts, first by Gilbert himself, then later perhaps joined by the woman.
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