Is Annabelle Based on a True Story? All About the Real-Life Doll That Inspired the Haunted Tale

Decades after it was first discovered, Annabelle the doll continues to keep people up at night.

The demonic toy became a horror icon when it was featured in 2013’s The Conjuring, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the real-life pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren.

After becoming the focus of its own trilogy of movies, the doll has made appearances at conventions and is currently on tour around the U.S.

It’s been years since the Warrens first came to possess Annabelle, but the children’s figurine continues making headlines, with many believing it is the cause of death and destruction.

On July 13, Dan Rivera, a senior lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), died at a hotel in Gettysburg, Pa., while on tour with the supposedly haunted doll.

But is Annabelle based on a true story? Here’s everything to know about the horrifying history of Annabelle the doll and whether it has been at the center of paranormal events.

Is Annabelle the doll really haunted?

Annabelle the doll is a real antique Raggedy Ann doll, and it is believed to be haunted or “possessed.”

According to the NESPR case file on Annabelle, the demonic toy was bought by a mother in 1970, who gave it to her daughter, Donna, as a birthday present.

Fast forward, Donna was about to graduate from nursing school and lived with her roommate, Angie. Shortly after the doll entered their apartment, strange and unexplained occurrences started happening, like the doll seemingly moving and changing positions by itself.

Donna and Angie began to find parchment paper around the house with messages written on it, like “Help us” and “Help Lou,” who was their friend. The messages were even more bizarre because they didn’t keep parchment paper in their apartment.

Is Annabelle based on a true story?

The 2014 horror film, Annabelle, is an origin story of the allegedly haunted doll, but the plot is fiction.

While Annabelle the doll is real, the movie is not a true story. In Annabelle, a female cult member named Annabelle Higgins kills herself while holding the doll, and the demon she helped summon possesses it afterward.

In real life, Donna and Angie contacted a medium in an attempt to speak with whoever was inhabiting the doll. During a seance, it was revealed that the spirit of a 7-year-old girl named Annabelle Higgins, who had died on the property before the apartments were built, was controlling the doll.

What is Ed and Lorraine Warren’s history with Annabelle the doll?

Donna and Angie thought Annabelle was just an innocent spirit, but their friend Lou was not convinced.

Per NESPR, Lou was attacked by Annabelle and bled, which led Donna to contact an Episcopal priest, Father Hegan, who spoke to Ed and Lorraine about the supernatural event.

After connecting with Donna, Angie and Lou, the Warrens “came to the immediate conclusion that the doll itself was not in fact possessed but manipulated by an inhuman presence,” according to the NESPR case file.

The paranormal investigator couple explained that spirits do not inhabit inanimate objects; only inhuman spirits do.

According to the New Haven Register, she and Ed took the doll and brought it back to their house. They almost crashed their car along the way, and experienced a series of supernatural events in their home after Annabelle arrived, per NESPR.

Where is Annabelle the doll now?

Annabelle the doll is usually kept in a locked glass case at the Warrens’ Occult Museum in Monroe, Conn. According to The Monroe Sun, the museum was closed in 2019 due to a zoning violation.

Since The Conjuring made Annabelle a horror icon, the doll — in its glass case — has made appearances at events and conventions in recent years, including at the Warren’s Seekers of the Supernatural Paracon.

In May 2025, Annabelle was taken on the road for the Devils on the Run tour, making stops across the country, including in Louisiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

It was during the Gettysburg stop that NESPR senior lead investigator Dan died unexpectedly. The cause of his death has not been disclosed.

Which Conjuring movies feature Annabelle the doll?

Annabelle the doll appears in the first Conjuring movie. It would go on to be featured in three of its own spinoff movies: Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation and Annabelle Comes Home.