Three-panel composite of the Selene Delgado news image, police sketch, and smiling woman photo

Selene Delgado

2020urban legend / viral hoaxclassic

Published October 18, 2026

Selene Delgado López, often shortened to Selene Delgado, is a Mexican urban legend tied to a Canal 5 missing-persons segment that researchers suspect the network fabricated. A September 2020 Facebook hoax claiming Delgado had added herself to everyone's friends list spread the story worldwide. By 2022, her portrait had been reworked into a chase bot inside Garry's Mod NextBot servers.

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Overview

Posts about Selene Delgado López fall into three main shapes: shares of the Canal 5 broadcast photo under creepypasta captions, Facebook screenshots that appear to show her inside friend lists, and gameplay clips where her blank portrait chases players through Garry's Mod maps3. The hook is that the headshot itself is unsettling, a stiff, flatly lit passport-style photo that looks like it belongs to no one in particular. Mystery YouTubers favor the first format, picking apart Canal 5 archive footage and speculating about where the image actually came from4. NextBot creators lean on jump scares, pasting her face on a sprite that follows the player at full tilt8.

Origin & Background

Platform
Canal 5 TV (origin) / Facebook (viral spread)
Date
2020

Canal 5, a Mexican broadcast channel, aired a segment titled 'Al servicio de la comunidad' (At the service of the community, translated from Spanish) during the 1990s and early 2000s that profiled missing people. Selene Delgado López appeared as one of the subjects, and true crime hobbyists tracked the case for years5. On September 2nd, 2021, YouTuber FlorecitaDreams published a video arguing that the broadcast photo had been digitally altered from a portrait of Louisiana murderer Derrick Todd Lee, suggesting that Canal 5 had invented the missing woman entirely2.

How It Spread

In early September 2020, a chain post began circulating on Spanish-language Facebook warning users that a woman named Selene Delgado López had somehow added herself to their friend lists. Mashable debunked the claim within days, finding the shared account used privacy tricks to appear in searches without any actual friendship1. English-speaking Facebook users began sharing the hoax soon after1.

On October 29th, 2021, mystery YouTuber Nexpo covered the case inside 'Disturbing Things from Around the Internet [Vol. 13],' and the video reached over 4.5 million views4. Steam Workshop user Dunkaccino had already submitted a Selene Delgado NextBot for Garry's Mod on June 11th, 20216. The bot caught on in summer 2022: Igor Bronshtein's gameplay clip hit 5.7 million views by July8, and Davi's Stuff posted a shorter chase clip on July 6th, 20227.

Timeline

1990

Canal 5 begins airing 'Al servicio de la comunidad,' the missing-persons segment that featured Selene Delgado López[5].

2020-09

The Facebook friends-list hoax about Selene Delgado López spreads in Spanish-speaking communities and is debunked by Mashable[1].

2021-06-11

Steam Workshop user Dunkaccino uploads a Selene Delgado NextBot mod for Garry's Mod[6].

2021-09-02

YouTuber FlorecitaDreams argues the Canal 5 photo was manipulated from a portrait of murderer Derrick Todd Lee[2].

2021-10-29

Nexpo profiles the case in 'Disturbing Things from Around the Internet [Vol. 13],' which reaches over 4.5 million views[4].

2022-05-06

YouTuber Igor Bronshtein posts a Selene Delgado NextBot gameplay video that reaches 5.7 million views within two months[8].

2022-07-06

YouTuber Davi's Stuff posts a shorter Selene Delgado chase clip from Garry's Mod[7].

Frequently Asked Questions