The apparent mystery over the whereabouts of the terrifying doll that inspired several horror movies has been cracked.
There are only a few things in the world that have the power to strike fear into the hearts of everyone.
There’s a spider, a shark, the crippling anxiety of having to live up to your own expectations…and then there’s Annabelle.
That’s right - the real deal.
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You may know her from the Conjuring movies, but a real-life version really does exist.
Sadly, rumors began that the haunted doll which has been caged for most of its existence had gone walkies, and nobody knew where she was.
This news comes after museum officials revealed Annabelle’s whereabouts amid rumors that she'd gone missing.
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You might remember that the Raggedy Ann doll is the apparent cause of a lot of people’s horror after causing chaos in every home she has lived in.
Allegedly haunted, Annabelle has been locked in a wooden cage in a museum for horror fans to look at, and as she’s actually a doll…it seems a little farfetched that she would simply walk out on her own.
So, while she was rumored to have escaped, someone surely must have pinched her.
The doll is usually held at NESPR’s Warrens’ Occult Museum, which was founded by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, however she apparently made a tour stop in New Orleans where she went missing.
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Naturally, people have been freaking out online that Annabelle is out on the streets, ready to strike at any moment.
But did she?
Well, according to NESPR lead investigator Dan Rivera in a TikTok video posted Saturday (May 24), she’s safe and sound and the rumor mill was wrong.
“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.”
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As you can see in the clip, she’s safely inside of her wooden casing.
“Annabelle is not missing; she’s not in Chicago,” he said, but noted that they will be at the 2025 Rock Island Roadhouse Esoteric Expo in Rock Island, Illinois, on October 4.
To make sure that everyone was aware of the false alarm, NESPR’s Facebook account also shared a notice, writing: “It’s a Rumor... Annabelle has NOT been stolen. The doll is safely in place at the Warren Occult Museum.”
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Oddly, this isn’t the first time the doll was supposed to have gone missing.
In fact, five years ago, Tony Spera, the son-in-law of Ed and Lorrain Warren, had to clear the air about where she was.
“I'm here to tell you something,” he said on the family’s YouTube channel in 2020. “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. I’d be concerned if Annabelle really did leave because she's nothing to play with.”
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If you think you could simply destroy the doll to stop people from being scared of her, there’s also a good reason as to why that’s not an option.
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Lorraine Warren, who died in 2019, explained in 2014 that ‘getting rid of the doll would only get rid of the vessel, not the evil that resides within the doll.’
She added: “At least as it sits, we know where it resides. It isn’t out into the world causing harm to others. We have a Catholic priest who performs a binding prayer around the doll which acts as a blockade. The evil can’t penetrate the holy prayers that bind it. Think of it as similar to an electric-dog fence — keeping the dog within set boundaries.”
At least we know she’s safely detained…for now.
Britt Jones