Casa de la Tía Toña — the phantom children of Chapultepec Forest, Mexico City

The Casa de la Tía Toña (Aunt Toña's House) is a ruined building in the Chapultepec Forest of Mexico City associated with one of the capital's most disturbing legends. According to the story, Tía Toña was a wealthy elderly woman who lived alone in the forest and took in orphaned children. When the children became too numerous or difficult, she allegedly threw them into a ravine. Her ghost and the ghosts of the murdered children are said to haunt the ruins and the surrounding forest. Visitors to the area — which lies in the forested section of Chapultepec near the third section of the park — report hearing children's laughter and crying, seeing small figures running through the trees, and encountering an elderly woman who beckons from the ruin's entrance before vanishing. Several fatal accidents have been reported near the site, attributed by locals to the vengeful spirits of the children. Chapultepec Forest, the largest urban park in Latin America, has numerous haunted locations, but Tía Toña's house is the most feared. The legend may have roots in actual events, or it may represent a folk processing of Mexico's ongoing crisis of violence against children.