Featured Image Credit: Reel Appreciation/YouTube/dan_rivera_nespr/Instagram
Topics: Horror, Matt Rife, US News, Pennsylvania , Weird
Liv Bridge
Topics: Horror, Matt Rife, US News, Pennsylvania , Weird
The grandson of Ed and Lorraine Warren has dropped a stark warning to the new owner of his grandparents' home and famous 'demonic' doll.
In July this year, a former US Army veteran and paranormal investigator, Dan Rivera, dropped dead in his hotel in Pennsylvania after wrapping up his tour with the notorious 'Annabelle' toy.
The Raggedy Ann doll was allegedly tied to a series of ghostly goings on in 1970 and caught the attention of the Warrens, who were renowned paranormal investigators. They claimed that a demon possessed Annabelle and could move, cause car crashes and had stabbed a police officer.
The self-professed demonologist and clairvoyant, who together founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) in 1952, investigated dozens of bizarre cases, with some of their work inspiring The Conjuring horror movies.
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As for the doll, the couple locked her in a purpose-built glass case and warned that she shouldn't be moved.
Rivera, who Lorraine mentored before her death, clearly ignored that instruction, though Adams County coroner Francis Dutrow determined that his cause of death was linked to his pre-existing history of heart problems and was natural.
He also added that it had been confirmed 'Annabelle was not present in the room at the time of his passing'.
Still, his death has only added more fuel to the fire regarding the devilish doll, which now has a proud new owner.
The Warrens' home and their Occult Museum in Connecticut have been bought by comedian Matt Rife, who has become the legal guardian of the supposedly evil figurine.
Now, their grandson, Chris McKinnell, has slammed the 30-year-old for the move - and gave him an ominous warning.
"One of the worst parts of my grandparents' legacy is that my grandfather ever made the mistake of calling it a museum," he said on the Reel Appreciation podcast.
"It was never open to the public. That's a misconception. It was always by special invitation, one or two people, very small groups with specific instructions — don't touch anything, don't treat anything with misrespect, do not try to communicate with anything."
McKinnell said his stepdad was the one who first wanted to bring the 'thing' on tour, describing how, in his view, the move was 'so dangerous' and 'such a betrayal of everything my grandparents spent their lives doing'.
While Rife's reps told Entertainment Weekly that there are 'no plans to take any of the artifacts on tour', the 30-year-old reportedly wants to open the home and museum for visitors.
McKinnell continued in his fiery rant, stating that, unlike his grandparents, people are now 'doing TikTok videos where they're talking to these things'.
"They're trying to communicate with these things. To me, that place is the Chernobyl of the paranormal, and it bothers me to no end what can happen. We've seen what recently happened."
As for Rivera, McKinnell said he couldn't be sure if the investigator was 'killed' by the doll in some way, but stressed he's had his own fair share of freaky goings on with the paranormal world.
"I've been levitated over stairs in the Smurl house," he said, in reference to the Smurl family whose claims of a demonic haunting attracted Ed and Lorraine to the case and inspired the latest The Conjuring: Last Rites horror released this year.
"I was picked up and thrown across the room with my cousin in our bed in another poltergeist case," McKinnell continued. "I've had the gas turn on my stove three nights in a row without the flame because I was about to go on a case."
He further claimed his 40-year-old researcher died of a stroke, and he was in a car crash following two other supernatural investigations.
"So the paranormal can be deadly," he warned. "It can be empowering. It can be very, very beautiful, but it's like electricity. It can light up the world or it can kill you."