The haunted Annabelle doll made famous by The Conjuring movie franchise gave San Antonians the creeps back in May on a tour stop in the city. But since then, she’s been making headlines for a handful of reasons. Here’s a recap of what’s been happening since she left San Antonio — and how she might return.
Annabelle’s handler dies
In July, the sad news broke that Dan Rivera, paranormal investigator with the New England Society of Psychic Research (NESPR) and Annabelle’s handler, had died when the Devils on the Run tour stopped in Pennsylvania. After a whirlwind of internet rumors, Ryan Daniel Buell, another paranormal expert who worked closely with Rivera, denounced speculation that the doll had something to do with it.
“A wife lost her husband and there are children who lost their father,” Buell told MySA in an email. “What we are focused on right now is taking time to grieve and we feel it is insensitive to reach out to family and friends to ask about wild internet rumors involving the doll.”
Remaining tour dates in Maine, Illinois and Kentucky, set to take place from September to November, were kept on the schedule to honor Rivera’s mission to “expose the Devil and his work and to remind people that the power of our loving God is stronger,” Buell said.
Matt Rife purchases Ed and Lorraine Warren’s home
Months later, Annabelle was making headlines again, but this time for a very different reason. Comedian Matt Rife, a horror fan himself, announced on TikTok August 1 that he and YouTuber Elton Castee had purchased the home and museum of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators of whom The Conjuring movies are based. Their Occult Museum in Connecticut is the permanent home of the Annabelle doll and over 700 other pieces of haunted memorabilia…