Annabelle (doll)
A Raggedy Ann doll alleged to be demonically possessed.
A 28-year-old student nurse named Donna from Hartford, Connecticut gave the Warrens the doll in the 1970s, alleging it could move independently and showed malicious behavior, as recorded in Wikipedia citing People.com and greenwichtime.com.[1]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Raggedy Ann doll
- Claimed by
- Ed and Lorraine Warren
- Location
- Occult Museum, Monroe, Connecticut
- Original owner
- Donna, a 28-year-old student nurse from Hartford, Connecticut
- First film appearance
- The Conjuring (2013)
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Over time, the Warrens publicized claims that the doll inflicted "psychic slashes," caused a priest to crash his car, and stabbed a homicide detective.[2] In 2014, Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema claimed rights to the Annabelle story from chapters of The Demonologist.[3] The doll character appeared in The Conjuring (2013) and its spin-off films Annabelle (2014), Annabelle: Creation (2017), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019).[3][4] Tony Spera, Director of the New England Society for Psychic Research, stated "the doll was never missing" and had been taken on a brief tour.[5][6]
A psychic medium reportedly informed the student nurse and her roommate that the spirit of a deceased seven-year-old girl named Annabelle had taken over the doll, according to Wikipedia citing People.com and greenwichtime.com.[1] The Warrens later asserted the entity was actually a demon and secured the doll in a display box at their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, per the same Wikipedia sources.[1] Zoning violations forced the closure of the Occult Museum in 2019, according to Wikipedia citing The Monroe Sun.[7] In 2025, the Warrens' estate generated online claims that the doll had "disappeared" as a viral marketing strategy for a tour called 'Devils on the Run,' per Wikipedia citing Connecticut Insider.[7]
Comedian Matt Rife, along with Elton Castee, bought the Warrens' home and Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut in August 2025, taking on legal guardianship of the haunted collection including the Annabelle doll for a minimum of five years, as reported by The Independent and Deadline.[8][4][9]
What the cited sources add
Laycock notes that the demonic doll trope likely emerged from early legends about Robert the Doll and a 1963 Twilight Zone episode titled "Living Doll" whose mother character is named Annabelle.[10][11] Hill stated of Ed Warren's supernatural claims, "We have nothing but Ed's word for this".[12]
References
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Is 'Annabelle' Based on a True Story? All About the Real-Life Doll That Inspired the Haunted Tale", People.com; Marchant, "The true story behind the CT doll at center of ‘Annabelle’ film series", greenwichtime.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Levine, "Tellers of Eerie Tales: 'Ghostbusters' Speak at Rutgers", Gloucester County Times, October 30, 1987; Levine, "Tellers of Eerie Tales: 'Ghostbusters' Speak at Rutgers", Gloucester County Times, October 30, 1987; Snyder, "Eerie Duo: Ghost-Hunting Couple Sense a Double Haunting of Kutztown's Old Main", The Morning Call, November 8, 1991; Quarteroni, "More Laughs than Frights At Amityville Horror Night", Centre Daily Times, November 1, 1979 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gardner, "‘The Conjuring’ Keeps Spooking Up New Lawsuits", hollywoodreporter.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Hornik, "Matt Rife buys infamous Annabelle doll’s house and reveals plans for its future", The Independent, August 2, 2025. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McFall, "'Evil' Annabelle Doll Update After 'Missing' Reports Spread", NewsWeek, May 25, 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- McFall, "'Evil' Annabelle Doll Update After 'Missing' Reports Spread", NewsWeek, May 25, 2025. facts only, no text reused. newsweek.com
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "No trespassing signs, fines used to ward off curious souls in search of Warren's Occult Museum The Monroe Sun", themonroesun.com, 28 October 2019; DaRosa, "Annabelle on tour? Why the allegedly 'haunted' doll from Connecticut has been viral on TikTok", Connecticut Insider, May 13, 2025 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hornik, "Matt Rife buys infamous Annabelle doll’s house and reveals plans for its future", The Independent, August 2, 2025; Garner, "Matt Rife & Elton Castee Buy Ed & Lorraine Warren's Home, Complete With ‘Annabelle’ Doll", Deadline, August 2, 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Garner, "Matt Rife & Elton Castee Buy Ed & Lorraine Warren's Home, Complete With ‘Annabelle’ Doll", Deadline, August 2, 2025. facts only, no text reused. deadline.com
- Laycock, "The Paranormal To Pop Culture Pipeline", Religion Dispatches, 2014-07-08. facts only, no text reused. religiondispatches.org
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laycock, "The Paranormal To Pop Culture Pipeline", Religion Dispatches, 2014-07-08 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Annabelle (doll)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hill, "The Warrens: Sorting the truth from the Hollywood myth", Doubtful News (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Annabelle (doll) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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