Officials confirm ‘haunted' Annabelle doll's whereabouts after missing rumors go viral
The 'demonically possessed' Raggedy Ann doll, which has become a classic fixture in the horror genre, is rumored to have escaped her casing as she traveled around the country on the Devils on the Run Tour hosted by the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR).
In early May, the doll, typically housed at NESPR's Warrens' Occult Museum, founded by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, made a tour stop in New Orleans.
Unfounded conjectures that she had somehow gone missing while in Louisiana began to circulate online after some visitors claimed they didn't see the doll during a tour.
Meanwhile, a recent fire at the nearby Nottoway Plantation-turned-Nottoway Resort in White Castle intensified speculation that there was somehow a connection between Annabelle's supposed disappearance and the blaze.
NESPR lead investigator Dan Rivera debunked theories that the doll had gone missing in a TikTok video posted Saturday.
'I'm here at the museum right now, and I just wanna show you guys that Annabelle is in the Warrens' Occult Museum,' Rivera said. 'Let's go inside and let's check.'
After entering the museum, he walked over to show the doll sitting in a wooden case.
'Annabelle is not missing; she's not in Chicago,' he assured fans, sharing that they were, however, going to be at the 2025 Rock Island Roadhouse Esoteric Expo in Rock Island, Illinois, on October 4.
An additional notice was posted on NESPR's Facebook account that read: 'It's a Rumor... Annabelle has NOT been stolen. The doll is safely in place at the Warren Occult Museum.'
This isn't the first time the doll's supposed disappearance has sparked widespread panic online. In 2020, Tony Spera, the son-in-law of Ed and Lorrain Warren, was forced to clear up rumors that she had escaped her enclosure.
'I'm here to tell you something,' he said on the family's YouTube channel at the time. 'I don't know if you want to hear this or not, but Annabelle did not escape.
'Annabelle's here. She didn't go anywhere. She didn't take a trip. She didn't fly first class and she didn't go out to visit her boyfriend,' Spera quipped. 'I'd be concerned if Annabelle really did leave because she's nothing to play with.'
The Annabelle doll was first owned by a student who, in 1970, called upon the Warrens when she claimed Annabelle started 'exhibiting malicious and frightening behavior.'
Upon inspection, the Warrens claimed that the doll was 'demonically possessed' by the spirit of a deceased girl.
Annabelle first appeared in 2013's The Conjuring before receiving her own spin-off franchise. Annabelle was released in 2014, followed by Annabelle: Creation in 2017 and the latest entry, Annabelle Comes Home, in 2019.
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