The cursed tour and a notorious doll
Rivera was in the middle of his “Devils on the Run” tour, a travelling showcase of allegedly cursed and haunted artefacts curated by the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), the organisation founded by legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in 1952.At every stop, the headline attraction was the original Annabelle doll.
Yes, that Annabelle—the unassuming Raggedy Ann that inspired The Conjuring universe and one of the highest-grossing horror franchises in cinema history. The doll didn’t originate in Hollywood; the films only amplified its story.
Now, with Rivera gone, speculation is mounting. Was it fate—or did Annabelle claim another victim?
Annabelle’s haunted history
To a casual observer, Annabelle is just a vintage cloth doll—soft limbs, red yarn hair, button eyes, and a stitched smile. But legend has it her grin hides something sinister.
The doll’s eerie history dates back to 1970, when a nursing student named Donna received it as a gift from her mother. At first, it was a quirky addition to her apartment—until strange things started happening.
Annabelle was said to move on her own. Then came mysterious notes. Donna and her roommate, Angie, consulted a medium who claimed the doll housed the spirit of a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died on the property before the apartment complex was built.
The spirit told the medium she felt comforted by Donna and Angie. Moved by the story, they allowed the entity to stay.
That was a mistake.
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The doll reportedly attacked a friend. Lou, a close companion of the women, had always felt uneasy around the doll. He warned Donna repeatedly to get rid of it.
One night, Lou awoke from a deep sleep, paralysed. He saw Annabelle at the foot of his bed. The doll climbed onto his chest and began to strangle him. Unable to move or scream, he blacked out. He dismissed the event as a nightmare but remained uneasy.
The next day, after hearing strange noises from Donna’s empty room, Lou went to investigate. He was attacked by an unseen force and left with seven claw-like scratches on his chest—three vertical, four horizontal—that burned like fresh wounds but vanished within 48 hours.
Enter the Warrens
That’s when Ed and Lorraine Warren got involved.
They concluded the entity in the doll wasn’t a child’s spirit but a demonic force. According to them, it had manipulated the young women to gain their trust and attempt possession.
The Warrens took the doll, blessed it, and sealed it in a glass case at their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. A handwritten warning reads: “Positively do not open.”
A string of chilling incidents
Over the years, Annabelle became a legend. A priest who mocked the doll was reportedly involved in a near-fatal car crash after leaving the museum. A visitor who tapped on the glass and laughed was said to have died in a motorcycle crash hours later.
The doll has also been loosely linked to a stabbing incident and the death of a police officer.
After the Warrens’ museum closed to the public in 2019 due to zoning issues, NESPR began taking Annabelle on the road under strict protocol. The case was always locked, and the doll was never to be touched.
Dan Rivera, mentored by Lorraine Warren herself, became a key figure in this travelling outreach.
This year, the “Devils on the Run” tour launched in May, with Annabelle as its centrepiece. Stops included New Orleans, San Antonio, and Gettysburg—where Rivera died. His final event took place at the Soldiers National Orphanage, a site known for its paranormal activity.
Natural death or something more?
Rivera’s death was ruled natural. But the suddenness—occurring during a haunted tour, in a haunted town, while travelling with a haunted doll—has stirred unease.
Tony Spera, the Warrens’ son-in-law and NESPR’s current director, confirmed that Annabelle is now back at the museum, sealed and secured.
Online forums are buzzing. Was Dan Rivera the doll’s latest victim? Science may say no. But the next time you spot a raggedy doll in an attic or a thrift store window—maybe walk the other way. Just in case.
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