Possessed doll strikes again?

Bronwyn Rideout - 21 July 2025

On July 13th, paranormal investigator Dan Rivera died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Occult news from the United States doesn’t normally hit the NZ Press, but the NZ Herald did report this particular story in its Entertainment section.

Why? That has more to do with what Rivera was with than Rivera himself.

Rivera was a senior investigator with the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), a ghost-hunting/paranormal investigation group founded by the infamous couple Ed and Lorraine Warren. Rivera was in Pennsylvania for the NESPR-sponsored Devils on the Road tour, a series of occult and paranormal events/conventions where he served as the handler for Annabelle - a Raggedy Anne-style toy that the Warrens claimed was demonically possessed. This is not the first time the doll has left the protection of NESPR - Rivera travelled with Annabelle in 2022 and recorded videos of the precautions he must take when handling the doll.

While taking Annabelle on the road may seem like a nice enrichment activity for the evil ragdoll, Rivera’s death has illuminated the double-edged sword of working in the paranormal industry. Namely, that the myths you help to perpetuate can come to bite you in the ass.

Many of the Warrens’ haunting/poltergeist cases involve them collaborating with, or latching on to, real families who were willing to put themselves on talk shows and in front of press junkets. The story that is shared around the Annabelle doll is different, as none of the human victims in this story have come forward. Additionally, the names of all the victims and priests involved, as well as the timeline of the story, are subject to frequent changes, depending on the edition of the book and who is telling the story. The most consistent details are as follows. The doll was initially a gift received by a 28-year-old (or 24-year-old) nurse named Marguerite Tata (or Donna or Deirdre Bernard, in Ed Warren’s book The Demonologist). With time, the nurse and her roommate, Annalee (or Angie, or Lara Clifton), kept finding the doll in random places around their apartment, and even found notes that read “Help Us” written on parchment paper that the women did not own. Things allegedly took a turn when Donna found the doll covered in a red substance. Donna first contacted a medium, who told her that the presumably friendly, or at the very least benign, spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins inhabited the doll. Through the medium, Annabelle communicated to the roommates that she wanted to stay with them and be loved, to which they agreed.

Angie’s boyfriend Lou (or Cal Randall, or maybe Marguerite’s actual boyfriend Anthony), supposedly never liked the doll, and it is alleged by the Warrens that the doll had injured him at least twice. It is unclear whether these attacks occurred before or after the medium’s visit. It is also an example of how the Warrens’ stories started to bleed together over the years. In Jill Amadio’s article, the open text reads:

“‘I picked up the doll and shook her hard, and shouted, “You’re nothing but a toy!”…so says Anthony Rossi of East Hartford”.

In Ed Warren’s book, The Demonologist, a similar line and action is attributed to Father Daniel Mills, after the doll is relocated to the Warren’s home:

“After hearing Ed’s account of what happened, the priest picked up the rag doll and off-handedly said: “You’re just a rag doll Annabelle. You can’t hurt anything.”

In any event, Marguerite and Annalee contacted a priest at a local community college. Eventually the Warrens became involved, and were convinced that the doll was inhabited by an inhuman spirit rather than a human one. According to the NESPR website, had the situation continued for another fortnight or so, the spirit would have either possessed or killed either/both Angie and Donna. The Warrens eventually took ownership of the doll, and brought it into their home. Annabelle continued to be a menace in the Warrens’ home, leading to the death of at least one priest, until it was placed in a special cabinet. Even then, Annabelle was still dangerous, but the Warrens remained unusually lax in their paranormal security setup for people so concerned about its demonic nature.

Lorraine, Annabelle, and Ed

At the time NESPR was founded, the Warrens also operated an occult museum, and Annabelle would become one of its attractions in the early 1970s. The museum itself is described by Atlas Obscura as accented by “… a Halloween store’s bounty of plastic props…”, and at least one item that has been independently identified as a hoax, an original Necronomicon. Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella visited the museum in 1997 and reported a cluttered collection of kitsch housed in the Warren’s basement:

“Shortly after meeting Ed and Lorraine, two things became very clear to us. One, that they are sincere. They believe the things they say. And two, that they have precious little evidence to support their beliefs. What they do have in abundance, are ghost stories. During that first visit, and in the five hour interview that followed, we were treated to scores of Warren stories. However, despite their insistence to the contrary, stories are not evidence.

On the museum tour, Ed warned us not to touch anything in the main room, as we would open ourselves up to possible possession. If we did accidentally rub against something (which was nearly unavoidable in that crammed space), we were to report it, so that he could purify our auras before we left. The room was a clutter of collected stuff garnered over the Warren’s forty year career. This included paintings, masks, statuettes, and many books. One of these ghostly tomes was an “Unearthed Arcana,” a Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game book. I still have a copy collecting dust in my closet. Ed claimed that the most dangerous item in the house, however, was a Raggedy-Ann doll that was said to still be possessed by a demonic entity. He keeps this enclosed in a glass case for safety, and chillingly relates the tale of the man who ignored his warnings and taunted the doll, only to die hours later in a tragic motorcycle accident.”

You can watch a video of someone’s tour here. Warning for janky video and occasional strobe lights.

Now, Annabelle really just has an unconfirmed body count of one, the unfortunate motorcyclist, along with alleged harm against the three young adults and a jerkass priest. But, from the images above, the Warrens have heightened the atmosphere of danger around Annabelle by attaching a large cross to it, and a now-worn sign that reads ‘Warning, Positively do not open’.

The late Dan Rivera contributed to this mythology. As one of two people who handled Annabelle, he had this to say about Annabelle’s power when asked what could happen to future owners:

“You’d have to see what their intentions are, towards this doll. What are they seeking out of this doll. You know, it could harm them, it won’t harm them today or tomorrow, it could harm them, you know a year down the road, it could affect their family. We’re talking about a demonic presence here that does not like the human form.”

Rivera’s death is certainly quite tragic for his loved ones, but the reporting around Rivera has been unreal and is making his family the victims of his and the Warrens’ success at deceiving people. The coroner deemed it necessary to report whether or not Annabelle was in the room, likely as a result of rumour/viral media campaigns in 2020 and in May 2025, before the tour, when Annabelle was reported missing. There has also been the unsurprising increase on social media of content creators urging NESPR to stop the tour and return Annabelle to the Warren’s basement; people truly believe in the Annabelle story and the demonic power said to inhabit the doll.

Annabell in Gettysburg, picture by Harrison Jones for The Evening Sun

The boundary that separates Annabelle from the public while on the road, picture by Harrison Jones for The Evening Sun

NESPR will continue to tour with Annabelle for the remaining dates of the tour scheduled for 2025. Rivera did not have life insurance, and one of his sons set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of his funeral.