👻 HAUNTED PLACE · EXP. Nº9046
ACTIVE
Annabelle
The object known as Annabelle is a mass-produced Raggedy Ann cloth doll, not the carved porcelain figure of the films.
Where is Annabelle?
- Location
- Connecticut, United States
- Type
- Other
- Coordinates
- 41.315, -73.259
- Last updated
LOCATION
Why is Annabelle said to be haunted?
The haunting story attached to it begins in 1970 with a student nurse in Hartford, Connecticut, who received the doll from her mother and claimed it moved on its own and left pencilled notes. A medium identified the spirit as a girl named Annabelle Higgins, but no police report, newspaper item, or independent witness from that time has ever surfaced. The first published account appeared in 1980 in Gerald Brittle's The Demonologist, written in cooperation with Ed and Lorraine Warren, who presented themselves as demonologist and clairvoyant respectively. The Warrens kept the doll in a glass case in their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, beneath a hand-lettered sign reading 'Warning: Positively Do Not Open'. The town of Monroe ordered the museum's tours to stop in 2016 and issued a cease-and-desist order in 2017, because a museum is not a permitted use in a residential zone, and since 2025 the Warren house has been sold for paid overnight stays. The doll's fame grew through Warner Bros' Annabelle film franchise starting in 2014, which earned over $258 million worldwide. The entire story rests on a chain of custody traceable to the Warrens, who sold books, lectures, and museum admissions based on their account. The screen version is entirely a work of fiction, and the real doll is a common toy with no documented anomalous properties outside the Warrens' own claims.
What is the history of Annabelle?
The first thing to settle about Annabelle is what she looks like. The doll in the films — carved features, porcelain face, hinged jaw — was invented for the screen. The object inside the glass case is a Raggedy Ann: a mass-produced cloth toy with yarn hair and a stitched smile, one of millions sold across the United States. Everything else about the story rests on a chain of custody that is remarkably short and entirely identifiable.
That chain begins in 1970, and it begins with two people. According to Ed and Lorraine Warren — he a self-described demonologist, she a self-described clairvoyant — a student nurse in Hartford named Donna was given the doll by her mother. She and her flatmate said it changed position on its own and left pencilled notes. A medium told them it carried the spirit of a girl called Annabelle Higgins. The Warrens concluded there had never been a girl at all, but something inhuman impersonating one, and took the doll away with them. There is no contemporaneous police report, no newspaper item from 1970, and no named witness whose account does not either come through the Warrens or repeat them. The first published version is Gerald Brittle's The Demonologist (1980), a book written in cooperation with the couple and with the participants' names altered.
Ed Warren's title was one he gave himself. Reviewing the pair's career for Skeptical Inquirer, investigator Joe Nickell wrote that Warren's business card "appeared to represent his total qualifications", and set out a repeated pattern: arrive at a house that is already attracting publicity, reframe it as demonic, secure a book deal. Annabelle became the pattern's most durable product. The Warrens kept her in a case in a converted outbuilding behind their home in Monroe, Connecticut — the Occult Museum — beneath a hand-lettered sign reading "Warning: Positively Do Not Open".
The screen version came much later. Warner Bros' Annabelle (2014) cost around $6.5 million and took roughly $258 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and two sequels followed. Then the money produced a paradox. Brittle, whose 1980 book had introduced the doll to the world, sued Warner Bros for $900 million over the franchise — and his own attorneys argued in the filings that what the Warrens had described did not square with the historical record. The first man to write the story down was, in court, calling it unreliable.
Timeline: the documented record of Annabelle
- 1970 The founding events, as told by Ed and Lorraine Warren: a Hartford student nurse named Donna receives a Raggedy Ann doll from her mother; she and her flatmate report movements and pencilled notes; a medium identifies a girl called Annabelle Higgins; the Warrens reinterpret this as an inhuman entity and remove the doll. No contemporaneous police report, press item or independent witness has ever surfaced.
- 1980 Gerald Brittle publishes The Demonologist, the first printed account of the case, written in cooperation with the Warrens and with the participants' names changed. Every later retelling descends from this book.
- 1992 In a Dark Place is published under the Warrens' name. Its ghostwriter, novelist Ray Garton, later says Ed Warren told him to "use what you can and make the rest up" when the witnesses' accounts would not hold together.
- 2014 Warner Bros releases Annabelle, a spin-off of The Conjuring built around a doll redesigned for the screen. Made for about $6.5 million, it takes roughly $258 million worldwide and launches two sequels.
- 2017 Gerald Brittle's $900 million suit against Warner Bros over the franchise becomes public. His lawyers argue that the Warrens' accounts do not match the historical record — the author of the source book effectively disowning its factual claims.
- 2019 Lorraine Warren dies at ninety-two, on 19 April 2019.
- 14 August 2020 Someone edits the doll's Wikipedia page to state that she escaped at 3:00 a.m. Screenshots go worldwide within hours. Tony Spera films himself beside the case — "Annabelle did not escape... She never left the museum" — and adds that the building has high-tech security. Wikipedia reverts the edit.
- May 2025 TikTok videos with millions of views claim the doll has gone missing. Spera tells Newsweek she never was: the doll had been taken on a short tour of several venues, and "the public was never in any danger".
- August-September 2025 Comedian Matt Rife and YouTuber Elton Castee buy the Warren house in Monroe and put overnight stays on sale for groups of up to eight, requiring both a physical and a "spiritual" liability waiver.
Is there a rational explanation for Annabelle?
The problem with Annabelle is not that the events are improbable. It is that there is nothing left to examine. Every element of the 1970 account — the movements, the notes, the medium, the priest's crash — is known because the Warrens said so, and the Warrens sold books, lectures and museum admissions on the strength of saying so.
Ray Garton, hired to write the Warrens' 1992 book In a Dark Place, described in a 2009 interview what happened when he complained that the family at the centre of that case could not keep their story straight. Ed Warren, he said, replied: "Just use what you can and make the rest up... You write scary books, right? Well, make it up and make it scary. That's why we hired you." Garton has repudiated the book ever since. Nickell, surveying the couple's career, recorded the words others had long applied to them: "charlatans" and "scaremongers".
Three viral episodes show how the story propagates now. On 14 August 2020 someone edited the doll's Wikipedia page to claim she had escaped at 3:00 a.m.; screenshots did the rest, and Tony Spera — the Warrens' son-in-law, who runs the collection — filmed himself beside the case: "Annabelle did not escape... She never left the museum." In May 2025 TikTok declared her missing, and Spera told Newsweek the doll "has never [been] missing. We had taken the doll on a brief tour to several locations." Each denial came from the collection's owners, each arrived while the doll was a paid attraction, and each drew more coverage than the doll had before.
Can you visit Annabelle?
The pin for this entry, at 41.3153, −73.2588, falls on Knollwood Street in Monroe, Connecticut, the small dead-end residential street where Ed and Lorraine Warren lived and where their Occult Museum operated on the property. The Monroe Sun set out the zoning history on 31 October 2019. The town's zoning enforcement officer cited the museum in August 2016 as a commercial use not permitted in a residential zone; a hearing upheld the citation that October and ordered an end to tours and advertising, and in October 2017 the town issued a cease-and-desist order, which the Zoning Board of Appeals upheld with a fine of $13,500. The same report describes a yellow town sign at Knollwood and Main Street reading "Museum closed due to zoning regulations. No trespassing." and police issuing infractions to people found on the property.
Since August 2025 the house has belonged to the comedian Matt Rife and the YouTuber Elton Castee, who let it for private overnight stays. NBC Connecticut reported on 3 September 2025 that bookings for groups of up to eight would open on 5 September, with every guest signing "a physical liability waiver, as well as a spiritual liability waiver", and with four hours in the museum room. Their booking site, hauntedwarrenhouse.com, read on 23 September 2026, gives the price as $666 a night for up to eight people and states "NO TOURS ALLOWED. PRIVATE OVERNIGHT RENTALS ONLY". Every night until 15 April 2027 is marked sold out, nights from 16 April to 31 December 2027 go on sale on 13 October at 3 p.m. Eastern time, and the street address is given only once a booking is confirmed. Supervised museum access for guests runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., and the site says that from 24 August 2026 the Annabelle doll no longer resides in the Monroe house, while more than 600 objects of the collection remain there.
The doll itself is now in Salem, Massachusetts, at the Haunted Warren Museum, 259 Essex Street, which Rife and Castee opened with a public ribbon cutting announced for 19 August 2026. On 23 September 2026 the museum's site offered a self-guided one-hour "Flashlight Experience" for ages 12 and over, "starting at $49.99 for September visits", and announced a three-hour "Paranormal Investigator Experience" for November. Destination Salem's listing gives it as open seven days a week, and Boston's ROCK 92.9 reported on 4 September 2026 that the objects will be on exhibition until Christmas. The dating and the stories attached to the objects, in Monroe and in Salem, come from their owners. The Hartford flat where the 1970 events are set is known only through the Warrens' account, first printed by Gerald Brittle in 1980 with the participants' names changed.
Sources consulted
- Ray Bendici, «Damned Interview: Ray Garton» — Damned Connecticut, 2009 interview
- Joe Nickell, «"The Conjuring" Double Bombshell» — Center for Inquiry, 2017 report
- Joe Nickell, «Lorraine Warren Dead at Ninety-Two» — Skeptical Inquirer, 2019 report
- Cody King, «'I'd be concerned if Annabelle really did leave': Museum owner puts haunted doll escape rumors to rest» — KSAT, 2020 newspaper archive
- Marni Rose McFall, «'Evil' Annabelle Doll Update After 'Missing' Reports Spread» — Newsweek, 2025 newspaper archive
- NBC Connecticut, «You can book overnight stays at the haunted Warren House in Monroe starting this week» — NBC Connecticut, 2025 newspaper archive
Reviewed by V. Serrano on 2026-07-29 · How we verify our content
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