Haunted Dolls: Annabelle

How would you like to come home one day and find a giant Raggedy Ann Doll sitting on your bed? I for one would certainly burn it right away. That’s what happened in 1970. A mother purchased an antique Raggedy Ann Doll and put it on her daughter Donna’s bed as a birthday present. Until a few days later, the family noticed something strange about the Doll.

Disturbingly, they noticed that this Doll would move on it’s own. The movements at first were too small to notice, but then it started escalating. They would leave their home and come back to find it in a completely different room instead of where they left it. There were times where the Doll would have it’s arms and legs crossed like a real human being. Then, there were times where it would be standing straight up on it’s own feet leaning against a chair. The mother would also leave the doll on the couch as she left for work. When she returned home, she found the doll was gone and her bedroom with the door closed.

Not only could the doll move, it could write as well. A month after the doll was purchased, it started writing penciled messages. Donna and the mother Angie would find pieces of paper that said “Help me”, or “Help Lou.” The way the messages were written were frightening. They appeared as if a child had written them. The notes were written on parchment paper, which Angie never kept around the house. So the question comes up, where did the paper come from?

One night Donna came home and found that the Doll was on her bed again. However, this time, something felt very wrong. Paralyzing fear came over her as she inspected the doll. She found blood drops on the back of it’s hands and chest. Where this liquid red substance came from is unknown. At this time, Donna and Angie finally decided to seek professional help. They contacted a medium and they held a séance. They came in contact with a child spirit named Annabelle Higgens. She was a seven year old girl that resided on the property before the apartment complex’s were built. Her body was found in the field of the property. The spirit convinced the Medium that she felt comfort with Angie and Donna and wanted to stay with them by moving into the doll. Little did they know though, that this spirit is a demonic trickster.

Lou was a good friend of Donna and Angie. When the doll came in to the picture, he knew something was wrong with it. He wasn’t fond of it. He even told Donna to get rid of it because it was evil. Donna accepted Lou’s feelings towards the doll, but decided to keep it. Little did she know that this was a huge mistake. Lou was at their place one night and had a nightmare. It was a recurring nightmare but this time he felt something he was very wrong when he awoke. He felt a feeling of paralysis come over him. He looked around and saw nothing until he came across Annabelle at his feet. The doll slowly crawled up him and when it got to his chest, it stopped. Suddenly, Lou is strangled by the doll, gasping for air and then blacks out. The next morning, he awoke certain that the doll had strangled him in his sleep. At that point, Lou was determined to get rid of Annabelle.

The next day, Lou and Donna were preparing for a road trip, when suddenly they heard a loud banging noise coming from the bedroom. Thinking that someone had broken in, Lou went in to check it out and saw Annabelle sitting in the corner. He looked around the room, looking to see if somebody had broken in. Then when he approached the doll, he felt something was behind him. He turned around and nothing was there. He then looked down at his chest and saw blood all over himself. He then lifted up his shirt and saw seven claw marks across his chest. Three vertically and four horizontally. Strangely, these scratches almost healed immediately.

At that point, it was time to get out the big guns. The Warrens have been dealing in cases with the demonic for years. Donna contacted the church and the church contacted the Warrens for them to check it out. When the Warrens interviewed Donna, Angie, and Lou, they came to the conclusion that the doll wasn’t possessed. It was being manipulated by an inhuman presence. According to Ed Warren, demons can’t possess objects, only people. It created the illusion that the Doll was possessed. “The Demonic is a liar. It’s even been called The Father of Lies” Ed states. It was using the doll because it was waiting to possess a human host.

It was going through the stages of Demonic possession. The first one is infestation. The demon was making it appear that the doll was teleporting to arouse interest hoping that it would get the owners curiosity and give it recognition. Then they got the medium getting to the demon’s next step (inadvertantly of course). Using the Medium, the demon appeared compassionate and innocent, tricking Donna and Angie into letting it stay. Then the negative phenomena (teleporting, blood, and the attack on Lou) continued to occur. The next step would have been complete human possession. At that point, one of them would’ve been dead.

The Warrens had an exorcism done in the apartment. The apartment was cleansed with a seven page document that has positive energy. Instead of getting rid of the evil, they fill the room up with the positive power of God. After the exorcism, the Warrens took the big Raggedy Ann Doll with them. Of course, the doll wasn’t done there. On there way home, the Warrens found themselves having car trouble swerving at corners and having their power steering and brakes go out on them. They pulled over and Ed got out holy water and threw the holy water at the doll with the sign of the cross.

The Warrens arrived home safely after that incident. However, the doll still had to be dealt with. Annabelle did the same thing to the Warrens it did to Donna and Angie. When the left home, it would move around the house. Ed found it one time sitting comfortably in his easy chair. Jason Bradford, a catholic exorcist then stopped by to take a look at the doll. He came across the doll sitting in the chair and told it was just a Raggedy Ann Doll that couldn’t hurt anyone and threw it back in the chair. Ed then said “That’s one thing you better not say.” Lorraine then asked Father Jason to drive home carefully and call as soon as he got home. The Warrens did receive a phone call from Jason, but he was involved in a near fatal car accident. His brakes went out as he was approaching an intersection.

As of today, Annabelle still sits in the home of Ed and Lorraine Warren. She’s kept in the box she came from so it can be contained. Hopefully, it’ll stay there.