True story behind real Annabelle doll revealed

The Annabelle doll is once again in the spotlight after the death of paranormal investigator Dan Rivera.

Rivera, 43, was found unresponsive in his hotel room during the “Devils on the Run” tour, a three-show weekend event showcasing the Raggedy Ann–style doll many believe is demonically possessed.

Despite no scientific proof, Annabelle remains a staple in paranormal lore.

 While popularized by Hollywood's The Conjuring universe, the real Annabelle looks and behaves quite differently.

The actual doll is a large Raggedy Ann, not the porcelain-faced figure seen in films. According to Ed and Lorraine Warren, the late paranormal investigators, Annabelle was possessed by an evil spirit that terrorized a nursing student named Donna in 1970.

As the Warrens told it, the trouble started when the doll began moving on its own. "It would change positions, move from one room to another," Lorraine Warren once said in an interview. Notes reading "Help us" appeared around the apartment, written in what seemed like childlike handwriting.

The Warrens claimed a medium told Donna and her roommate that the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins had latched onto the doll. The women gave the spirit permission to stay, thinking it was harmless. But the events reportedly grew darker.

A friend of the roommates was said to have been physically attacked. That’s when the Warrens were called. They concluded that the spirit was demonic and took the doll away.

The real Annabelle sits in a glass case in the Warrens’ Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. A sign reads, “Warning: Positively Do Not Open.”