Legends tied to ‘Lady on the Hill’ fuel new look at El Paso High hauntings

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — For more than a century, El Paso High School has been the subject of ghost stories, with generations of students and staff describing unexplained sights and sounds tied to what many call “the Lady on the Hill.”

Built in 1916, the campus has long been considered a focal point for paranormal legends in El Paso. For the first time in more than 20 years, a local news crew was allowed inside to document an investigation into the school’s reported hauntings.

Among those who say they have experienced something unusual is Alonzo Vega, a science teacher at El Paso High who said he has been teaching there for about 28 years.

“This school is haunted,” Vega said. “It’s especially known as the Lady on the Hill.”

Vega said he has heard noises and footsteps when staying late after dark. He also described a night when he said he saw what looked like a young girl in the hallway.

“I was here late one night and it was really dark and I said I’d better get the heck out of here and I came out of my room and I looked down the hallway and I saw this little girl like in a blue dress and she was just looking at me and it already like say 7 o’clock and it was kind of dark and i said what are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here and she just stared at me. She turned and she vanished. Just like that, she was gone,” Vega said.

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Asked what went through his mind after that experience, Vega said, “I was scared to death. It’s true. Everything they say about the school is true. There are spirits here. I will not stick around El Paso High after it gets dark.”

Monica Fierro, who graduated from El Paso High in 2014, also said she witnessed something she could not explain while on campus as a student.

“I remember sitting down on my desk through my peripheral. I remember seeing a shadow,” Fierro said.

Fierro said she initially believed it was a teacher in the classroom.

“I assumed it was my teacher getting some supplies from the closet, so I waited for her. I waited, I waited. She never came out,” she said.

Fierro also pointed to a story she said is widely known among students and alumni involving a class photo.

“I know that famous picture, right? The famous picture where it’s the full class. I’m not sure what class it is, but 85. Yeah, there’s a girl that appears there that nobody can recall who she was or where she came from,” Fierro said.

During the documented investigation, the crew asked questions in different parts of the school, including whether anyone was present and whether a spirit was a student at El Paso High. At one point, investigators referenced the name “Nancy” while attempting to communicate.

Legends tied to “Lady on the Hill” fuel new look at El Paso High hauntings

The investigation also revisited long-circulating stories about the campus, including a claim that a cheerleader in the 1930s died after jumping from the building following heartbreak involving a football player.

Another legend discussed during the investigation centered on the school’s basement during World War II. Investigators said it was used as a makeshift morgue and that many bodies were stored there. While in the basement, investigators pointed out what they believed looked like blood and described it as appearing fresh.

Vega said he believes activity is not limited to one area of the building, and he described the fourth floor, where he teaches, as a place where he feels something is present.

“All kinds of spirits had to have risen up to the fourth floor where I teach,” Vega said.

He also said his classroom has stairs leading to the roof, and that he feels something each time he uses them.

“In my room, I have stairs that go up to the roof. And every time I walk those stairs and down those stairs, I feel a presence,” Vega said.

Vega said he later looked into the history of his classroom and came to believe it was connected to one of the school’s most enduring stories.

“And I did a little bit of checking and I come to find out that this my room that I teach in is the exact room that that poor little girl walked up jumped off the building to her suicide and died,” he said.

During the investigation, one person reported being pinched.

“Something pinched me,” the investigator said.

Vega said the experiences he has had at night have challenged what he once believed about how the world works.

“That’s why everything that I’ve seen here at El Paso High, especially when I’ve been alone at nighttime, goes against every one of those universal laws that I come to accept,” Vega said. “So there’s not much I can do about it. All I’m doing is waiting for the next time I see something.”

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