Our worst nightmares may have come true in 2025 when Annabelle, the haunted doll, was rumored to have gone missing. Most horror fans already know that the doll inspired the figurine from The Conjuring films and their spinoffs Annabelle. To make matters even worse this year, paranormal investigator Dan Rivera, who helped lead the “Devils on the Run” tour featuring Annabelle with the New England Society for Psychic Research, mysteriously died on July 13 at the age of 54.
So, is Annabelle real, and is she actually haunted?
Learn all about Annabelle’s story and what allegedly happened to her in 2025.
Yes, Annabelle is real. She does not look anything like the doll from The Conjuring or the Annabelle movies, though. Instead of a porcelain, wide-eyed, pig-tailed figurine with angular, rosy cheeks, the real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll with the brand’s iconic red hair, a white and multi-patterned dress and a face with wide-set eyes and a triangle nose.
Apparently, yes — Annabelle was declared demonically possessed in the 1970s by Ed and Lorraine Warren. According to the late paranormal investigators, a student nurse was given the doll, and it exhibited odd and inexplicable behavior. After taking it to a psychic, the student was told that it was possessed by a spirit named Annabelle. Despite all attempts to nurture the doll, the student couldn’t handle the alleged eerie behavior, and the Warrens kept the doll locked inside a glass case in their museum.
