OBJECT FILE
Annabelle
FOLLOWThe Warren House and Occult Museum (closed to the public since 2019), Monroe, CT, United States
THE OBJECT
A cloth Raggedy Ann doll, bought as a birthday gift in 1970 for Donna, a Hartford nursing student, and taken by Ed and Lorraine Warren after their investigation. It sat in a locked case in the Warrens' occult museum in Monroe, Connecticut, marked WARNING: POSITIVELY DO NOT OPEN. The museum closed to the public in 2019 over zoning; in August 2025 the house and collection were bought by Haunted Homes LLC (Matt Rife and Elton Castee), who hold the collection as guardians with the New England Society for Psychic Research as custodian.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
Donna and her roommate reported the doll changing position, leaving notes in a child's hand and, once, appearing with what looked like blood on its hands; a medium told them it was inhabited by a girl called Annabelle Higgins. The Warrens' account (Brittle, 1980) is the only source for the apartment events. Everything the films add is invention — the real doll is cloth, not porcelain.
WHERE IT IS NOW
Private collection — kept by The Warren collection (Haunted Homes LLC, guardians; NESPR custodian). The Warren House and Occult Museum (closed to the public since 2019), Monroe, CT, United States.
THE SITE IT SITS IN →PROVENANCE · 3 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1970 – 1971
Donna (nursing student) and her roommate
apartment, Hartford, CT, United States
Year-level dates: the doll was a 1970 birthday gift; the Warrens took it after their case, within about a year.
Source: Gerald Brittle, The Demonologist (1980), ch. 'Annabelle'
1971 – 2025
Ed and Lorraine Warren; after Lorraine's death (2019) NESPR / Tony Spera
Warren home and Occult Museum, Knollwood Street, Monroe, CT, United States
Museum closed to the public in 2019 (zoning). Spera has said the doll never left except for tours.
Source: Brittle (1980); WFSB 2 Aug 2025
2025 — CURRENT LOCATION
Haunted Homes LLC (Matt Rife, Elton Castee), legal guardians of the collection; NESPR custodian
Warren house, Knollwood Street, Monroe, CT, United States
Source: WFSB, 2 Aug 2025 (Monroe property records filed 8 Aug 2025: sale to Haunted Homes LLC, $1m; guardianship of the collection for at least five years)
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
ADD TO THE CHAIN
Sign in to add a sourced step to this object’s history.