La Pascualita

Chihuahua, Mexico's La Pascualita has been giving window shoppers the creeps for decades with her eerily lifelike appearance and possible adventures after dark. 

Dressed in bridal wear and exhibited in an otherwise unremarkable storefront window, La Pascualita is not your average mannequin. Local rumor has it that the clothing dummy is actually the well-preserved corpse of the owner’s daughter, who died from a black widow spider bite just before her own wedding.

Amazingly, La Pascualita has ‘lived’ in the La Popular store window for over 90 years. She made her first appearance on the 25th of March 1930, reportedly wearing a gown from the spring/summer collection. Immediately locals were struck by how real La Pascualita looked. They were also curiously concerned about her uncanny resemblance to the owner Pascuala Esparz, and given the recent passing of her daughter, rumors of a grisly origin instantly began to swirl around the mannequin. There is even rumor that La Pascualita changes her position when no one is looking.

Even on close inspection, La Pascualita’s skin, hands, seemingly varicose veins and hair do look very real, not unlike the preserved corpses of Lenin and Mao, who were publicly embalmed in 1924 and 1976 respectively. However, in contrast to the actually preserved comrades, La Pascualita is not kept under the watchful eyes of armed guards. 

Update: As of 2024, the mannequin has been removed. In its place there is now an info board.