Annabelle Doll Strikes Again? Paranormal Investigator Dies on Haunted Tour

July 17, 2025: Annabelle doll has haunted imaginations for decades—and now, she’s making headlines again following the sudden death of a paranormal investigator. The infamous haunted Raggedy Ann doll, which inspired The Conjuring and its spinoff films, is currently on a nationwide tour dubbed Devils on the Run. But during a recent stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Dan Rivera, senior lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), unexpectedly died in his hotel room. Though the cause has not been disclosed, the incident has reignited fears around Annabelle’s sinister reputation.

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Annabelle first rose to pop culture fame in 2013’s The Conjuring, featuring paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and later starred in her own trilogy of horror films. However, unlike the demonic porcelain version seen on screen, the real Annabelle is a simple cloth Raggedy Ann doll—and she’s very real.

According to NESPR’s original case files, the doll was gifted to a nursing student named Donna in 1970. Soon after, she and her roommate began experiencing unexplainable activity: the doll moved on its own, left eerie handwritten notes on parchment paper (which they didn’t even own), and allegedly attacked a friend named Lou.

Disturbed, the women contacted a medium who claimed the doll was possessed by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins. But when Ed and Lorraine Warren got involved, they determined that an “inhuman presence” was manipulating the doll—not a child’s spirit.

Eventually, the Warrens took Annabelle to their Connecticut-based Occult Museum, where she was kept in a sealed glass case. The museum, closed since 2019 due to zoning issues, has loaned the doll out for special appearances and conventions ever since.

In May 2025, Annabelle hit the road, visiting states like Louisiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. But after Rivera’s death during the Gettysburg leg of the tour, whispers of the doll’s dark power have surged once again.

Is Annabelle still cursed—or is her legacy just fear fueling coincidence?