Over the years, the trees have filled with the mangled remains of dolls, their mutilated limbs and severed heads rotting in the moist air. Locals say the dolls are possessed with the dead girl’s spirit, and witnesses claim they’ve heard the dolls whispering to each other, luring visitors to the island.
That’s not the end of the story. Some 50 years after collecting dolls and hanging them across the island, Barrera himself was found drowned in the exact spot where the girl had died decades earlier.
Since Barrera’s death in 2001, the island, which is actually a floating garden, has seen hundreds of visitors – some of which even bring their own dolls to add to the haunting collection.