November 11, 2025 • 16 mins
A 54-year-old Army veteran who traveled the country with the world's most infamous possessed doll died in his hotel room, and the internet exploded with theories.
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#WeirdDarkness #AnnabelleDoll #ParanormalInvestigator #HauntedDoll #EdAndLorraineWarren #DemonicallyPossessed #TheConjuring #TrueParanormal #CursedObjects #DanRivera
READ or SHARE: https://weirddarkness.com/dan-rivera-death-solved/
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
#WeirdDarkness #AnnabelleDoll #ParanormalInvestigator #HauntedDoll #EdAndLorraineWarren #DemonicallyPossessed #TheConjuring #TrueParanormal #CursedObjects #DanRivera
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm Darren Marler, and this is weird dark news. A
man spent years building protective cases with his own hands.
He mixed tolly water into the woodstain. He carved prayers
into the barriers, meant to shield people from what he
believed were genuine dark forces. On July thirteenth, twenty twenty five,
Dan Rivera was found alone in a Gettysburg hotel room.
(00:34):
He was fifty four years old, and the circumstances of
his death would spark one of the strangest debates the
paranormal community had seen in years. Dan Rivera worked as
lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research,
an organization that Adam Lorraine Warren founded back when paranormal
investigation was still finding its footing in American culture. The
(00:55):
Warrends became household names decades later through the Conjuring films,
but they had been doing this work since the nineteen fifties.
Ravera's face showed up on Travel Channel's Most Haunted Places,
and he produced Netflix's twenty eight Days Haunted. He had
the kind of presence that worked on camera, confident enough
to be credible, but not so slick that he came
(01:16):
across as a showman. After Rivera finished his military service,
he started his own investigation group. That's when he connected
with Lorrain Warren during the last years of her life.
She mentored him directly, passing down whatever knowledge she had
accumulated through decades of cases that most people would rather
not think about. Rivera joined the New England Society for
(01:36):
Psychic Research or ANESPR in twenty eleven as lead investigator.
He stayed on after ed Warren died in two thousand
and six, and then after Lorraine passed in twenty nineteen,
working to keep their approach and methods alive. Rivera had
four children. He had a wife. People who met him
during tours described him as engaging and charismatic. He had
(01:58):
figured out how to reach younger audiences, which is not
easy when talking about old cases involving dolls and demons.
He understood social media. He knew how to make the
paranormal accessible without cheapening it. The numbers tell something about
public fascination with this material. When the Annabel tour came
to Gettysburg, posted at the Soldier's National Orphanage by a
(02:20):
company called the Ghostly Images of Gettysburg, they sold more
than twelve hundred and sixty tickets across just three days
July eleventh through the thirteenth. That is not a small
turnout for what amounts to looking at a doll in
a box. The NESPR marketed the tour as celebrating Ada
Lorraine Warren's work displaying Annabel for those brave enough to
(02:41):
face her. The phrasing sounds theatrical, but that's how they
approached it. On Saturday, the day before he died, Ravera
stood in front of a sold outcrowd and walked them
through safety measures. He explained how he had built the
protective display case himself, how it wasn't just about keeping
the doll contained, but about protecting everyone who came to
see it. The case had three crosses, the wood finish
(03:05):
contained holy water. Every design choice came from his religious
faith and his belief that these precautions actually mattered. Harrison Jones,
a journalist from Pennsylvania, attended that Saturday event. He later
told People magazine that Rivera came across as kind and welcoming.
Rivera and his colleague Wade Kirby talked about Annabel's history
(03:27):
and their experiences working with the doll. Over the years,
Rivera spoke openly about building the case from a perspective
rooted in his faith, not as a gimmick, but as
genuine spiritual protection. Sunday night, July thirteenth, emergency responders got
a call. Firefighters and medics rushed to Rivera's hotel. The
dispatch logs showed the call came in as CPR in
(03:50):
progress for a man matching Rivera's age. Adams County Chief
Deputy Coroner Scott Peniwell confirmed later that Rivera's death was
not suspicious. Office came out, State police came out. They
did what they do when someone dies unexpectedly in a
hotel room. They looked at the scene, they documented everything,
and they determined there was nothing unusual about what they found.
(04:13):
The doll wasn't in the room. Rivera was alone. Pennewill
mentioned that Annabel might have been inside a van in
a hotel parking lot, though he could not officially confirm
exactly where the doll was at the time. The distinction
mattered to people who wanted to draw connections between Rivera's
death and the object he'd spent so much time protecting
(04:33):
people from. It took weeks for the full picture to emerge.
The Adam County Coroner eventually confirmed that Rivera's death was
natural cardiac related. He had a known history of heart problems.
The autopsy findings matched what doctors already knew about his condition.
Adams County Coroner Francis Dutrow put it in writing, saying
(04:54):
annabel was not present in the room when Rivera died.
That statement seems almost to offensive, like she knew what
people were already saying online and wanted to cut through
the noise with facts. Dutro added that the office extended
condolences to Rivera's family and loved ones standard language, but
the situation it accompanied was anything but standard. Social media
(05:17):
does not wait for autopsy results or official statements. Within
hours of the news breaking, theories started spreading. Some users
weren't theorizing at all. They were stating it is fact
one TikTok videos text read Annabelle Dahl takes Dan Rivera's life.
Demons are real and not a joke. The video got traction,
(05:37):
it got shares. People who had never heard of Dan
Rivera or the NSPR suddenly had strong opinions about what
killed him. Jason Hawes from Ghost Hunters had seen this
pattern before. He posted a response on Facebook that didn't
mince words. He pointed out that the world had lost
a good man, an army veteran, a father of four,
(05:59):
a husband, someone who genuinely cared about people. Then he
addressed what was really bothering him, the posts blaming Rivera's
death on the Annabell doll, the attacks on ghostly images
of Gettysburg Tours and other venues that had hosted the events.
Oz wrote that it needed to stop. Rivera's family was
grieving and they did not need to read conspiracy theories
(06:20):
about cursed dolls while trying to process their loss. He
called out people using Rivera's death to push an agenda
for prophet, calling it disgusting. Rivera was a family man
and a respected paranormal investigator who died way too young.
Paes wanted people to remember the man, not turn his
death into a clickbait story. The message landed with some people,
(06:43):
others kept posting theories. Anyway, to understand why people immediately
connected Rivera's death to Annabel, you need to know the
story behind the doll. Annabel is a raggedy ann doll.
The kind with red yarn hair and a triangle nose.
According to the Warren's account, a nursing student received the
raggedy ann doll and brought it home to the apartment
(07:06):
she shared with a roommate in the late nineteen sixties
or early seventies. Donna told them the doll could move
by itself. She said that it did things that frightened
her and her roommate. When Donna had received the raggedy
and doll and brought it home to her apartment right away,
things felt off. The roommates noticed strange occurrences. They consulted
(07:27):
a medium who told them the doll was inhabited by
the spirit of a young girl named Annabel. The medium's
advice was that they should accept the spirit make peace
with it. The two roommates tried to do exactly that,
accept the doll's spirit and please it. Instead, things escalated.
The doll showed what the Warrens later described as malicious
(07:48):
and violent intent. According to the Warren's account, the psychic
medium had told the nursing student and her roommate that
the doll had been taken over by the spirit of
a dead six year old girl named Annabel. Higgins. The
story had specific details, a name, an age, a tragic backstory.
It's the kind of thing that makes people sympathetic, that
(08:09):
makes them want to help. The Warrens said that was
the trap. They maintained that the spirit was not a
little girl at all, It was something using that story
to gain access to make the roommates lower their guard.
The Warrens claimed the doll was demonically possessed and brought
it to their occult museum in Monroe, Connecticut, where they
placed it in a display box. The display case the
(08:32):
Warrens built wasn't decorative. The wood stain had holy water
mixed into it. Three crosses represented the Holy Trinity. The
Lord's prayer and Michael's prayer were inscribed directly into the wood.
Every element served a purpose in their belief system about
how to contain demonic entities. Over the years, the Warrens
publicized a growing list of incidents allegedly connected to Annabel.
(08:56):
They said the doll inflicted psychic slashes that drew out
actual blood from victims. They claimed a priest who insulted
the doll ended up running his car into a tree.
They told a story about a homicide detective who was stabbed.
They attributed that to the doll and said it forced
him into early retirement. Tony Spara, who married into the
Warren's family and now manages their legacy, has shared additional accounts.
(09:20):
He tells a story about a priest who showed up
at the Warren's house and loudly proclaimed that no demonic
force was more powerful than the Lord. The priest drove
there in a brand new car that he was proud of.
That same day, according to Spara, the car was demolished
in a collision with a tractor trailer. Spara says the
priest reported seeing Annabel in his rear view mirror moments
(09:40):
before the accident. Then there's a story about a man
and his girlfriend who came to see the doll. When
Ed Warren explained Annabel's history, the man mocked it. According
to Spara, the man lost control of his motorcycle that
same day. The crash killed him and severely injured his girlfriend.
These stories have soulated for decades. Some people believe every word.
(10:03):
Others think the Warrens were skilled storytellers who built a
career on embellishment. The accounts are impossible to verify independently,
which is part of what makes them persistent. There's no
definitive proof either way. Zach Baggins, who hosts Ghost Adventures,
had his own experience with Annabel that he still talks about.
In twenty seventeen, the doll's owner brought Annabel to Bagins
(10:25):
Museum in Las Vegas for an investigation. Begins later told
us Weekly what happened. He said he got very affected
by the doll. Something about being in its presence caused
him to touch it, even though he knew the rules
about physical contact. The owner was not happy about that.
These handlers take the protocols seriously. According to Baggins, it
(10:47):
was a demonic infestation. It severely affected him. He ended
up in the hospital the next day. The attachment lasted
two months, and he described it as one of the
worst experiences of his life. Baggins has investigated paranormal locations
for twenty one years. He's built a career on confronting
things that supposedly go bump in the night. When someone
(11:09):
with that much experience says and encounter ranks among the
worst he's had. It adds weight to the mythology surrounding
the doll ed Warren founded the New England Society for
Psychic Research in nineteen fifty two. That's more than seventy
years of the organization existing in some form. When the
Warrens conducted investigations, they didn't work alone. They brought in
(11:31):
other professionals, nurses, doctors, police officers, researchers. They understood that
credibility mattered, that having witnesses from different backgrounds strengthened their cases.
The Nabel story first appeared in print in nineteen eighty
in a book called The Demonologist, written by Gerald Briddle.
The book presented the Warren's work in detail, including their
(11:51):
accounts of demonic possession, hauntings, and cursed objects. Decades later,
Hollywood turned their case files into entertainment. The Conjuring Universe
brought Annabel to theaters starting in twenty thirteen. The doll
appeared in The Conjuring, then got her own films, Annabel
in twenty fourteen and Annabelle Creation in twenty seventeen. The
(12:13):
character showed up in other franchise entries too. She appeared
in The Conjuring two in twenty sixteen, the Curse of
Laurona in twenty nineteen. The Conjuring, The Devil May Me
Do It in twenty twenty one, and The Conjuring Last
Rites in twenty twenty five. The Conjuring series holds a
Guinness World Record as the highest grossing horror film series
of all time. That means millions of people worldwide have
(12:37):
some familiarity with the Annabel story, even if they've never
looked into the real life case behind it. The Hollywood
version of Annabell looks different from the actual doll. The
movies feature a porcelain doll with a haunting, almost demonic appearance,
something designed to look scary from the first frame. The
real Annabel is just a raggedy ann doll with reg
(12:57):
yarn hair and a gingham dress. It looks like something
from a yard sale, which is part of what makes
the story unsettling for believers. The mundane appearance contrasts sharply
with the malevolent reputation. In twenty nineteen, the Warren's Occult
Museum closed its doors to the public because of zoning violations.
The museum has been operating out of the Warren's home
(13:19):
in Monroe, Connecticut, and apparently the town had issues with
the setup. Even though the museum itself closed, items from
the collection have not disappeared from public view. They've been
displayed at the Warrens Seekers of the Supernatural Pericon and
more recently, they've been featured in the Devil's on the
Run tour that was happening when Rivera died. The tour
represents an attempt to keep the Warren legacy alive and accessible.
(13:42):
Without the physical museum space, traveling exhibitions became the way
for people to encounter these objects that supposedly carry such
dark histories. The New England Society for Psychic Research announced
Rivera's death on Facebook the day after he was found.
The statement came from Tony Wade and another column league
whose name was not specified in the public post. They
(14:03):
wrote that they were sharing the news of their close
friend and partner's sudden passing with deep sadness. They said
they were heartbroken and still processing the loss. The statement
emphasized that Rivera truly believed in sharing his experiences and
educating people about the paranormal. His kindness and passion touched
everyone who knew him. They thanked people for their support
(14:24):
and kind thoughts. The post didn't mention Annabelle directly. It
didn't address the speculation already starting to spread. It focused
on Rivera as a person, a colleague, a friend, someone
they'd lost unexpectedly. Adams County Coroner Francis Dutro's official statement,
released months later after the autopsy results were finalized, also
(14:45):
extended condolences to Rivera's family and loved ones. By that point,
the speculation had run its course through multiple news cycles,
but the coroner's office still felt it necessary to officially
confirm what they had found. A man with a history
of heart problems had died of cardiac related causes, and
the doll people kept asking about wasn't even in the room.
(15:07):
The facts tell one story, the mythology tells another. Rivera
spent his career navigating the space between those two narratives,
trying to document what he believed was real, while knowing
that skeptics would always have explanations. He died doing work
he found meaningful, surrounded by people who shared his convictions,
on a tour designed to honor the mentors who'd shaped
(15:29):
his approach to the paranormal. The Annebel doll sits in
whatever secure location an ESPR keeps her in, now unchanged
by Rivera's death, still generating the same debates about whether
the threat she supposedly represents is real or imagined. The
tour continued after Rivera died because that's what the organization
believed he would have wanted. The work goes on with
(15:51):
or without any single investigator because the people involved see
it as genuinely important. Rivera was fit twenty four years
old when his heart stopped. He had four children who
lost a father. He had a wife who lost a husband.
He had colleagues who lost someone they'd worked alongside for years.
Those are the undeniable facts, the human tool that gets
(16:15):
obscured when people online turn a death into content, into conspiracy,
into one more chapter in a Haunted Dolls mythology. If
you'd like to read this story for yourself or share
the article with a friend, you can read it on
the Weird Darkness website. I've placed a link to it
in the episode description, and you can find more stories
of the paranormal, true crime, strange, and more, including numerous
(16:37):
stories that never make it to the podcast, at Weirddarkness
dot com. Slash News
I'm Darren Marler, and this is weird dark news. A
man spent years building protective cases with his own hands.
He mixed tolly water into the woodstain. He carved prayers
into the barriers, meant to shield people from what he
believed were genuine dark forces. On July thirteenth, twenty twenty five,
Dan Rivera was found alone in a Gettysburg hotel room.
(00:34):
He was fifty four years old, and the circumstances of
his death would spark one of the strangest debates the
paranormal community had seen in years. Dan Rivera worked as
lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research,
an organization that Adam Lorraine Warren founded back when paranormal
investigation was still finding its footing in American culture. The
(00:55):
Warrends became household names decades later through the Conjuring films,
but they had been doing this work since the nineteen fifties.
Ravera's face showed up on Travel Channel's Most Haunted Places,
and he produced Netflix's twenty eight Days Haunted. He had
the kind of presence that worked on camera, confident enough
to be credible, but not so slick that he came
(01:16):
across as a showman. After Rivera finished his military service,
he started his own investigation group. That's when he connected
with Lorrain Warren during the last years of her life.
She mentored him directly, passing down whatever knowledge she had
accumulated through decades of cases that most people would rather
not think about. Rivera joined the New England Society for
(01:36):
Psychic Research or ANESPR in twenty eleven as lead investigator.
He stayed on after ed Warren died in two thousand
and six, and then after Lorraine passed in twenty nineteen,
working to keep their approach and methods alive. Rivera had
four children. He had a wife. People who met him
during tours described him as engaging and charismatic. He had
(01:58):
figured out how to reach younger audiences, which is not
easy when talking about old cases involving dolls and demons.
He understood social media. He knew how to make the
paranormal accessible without cheapening it. The numbers tell something about
public fascination with this material. When the Annabel tour came
to Gettysburg, posted at the Soldier's National Orphanage by a
(02:20):
company called the Ghostly Images of Gettysburg, they sold more
than twelve hundred and sixty tickets across just three days
July eleventh through the thirteenth. That is not a small
turnout for what amounts to looking at a doll in
a box. The NESPR marketed the tour as celebrating Ada
Lorraine Warren's work displaying Annabel for those brave enough to
(02:41):
face her. The phrasing sounds theatrical, but that's how they
approached it. On Saturday, the day before he died, Ravera
stood in front of a sold outcrowd and walked them
through safety measures. He explained how he had built the
protective display case himself, how it wasn't just about keeping
the doll contained, but about protecting everyone who came to
see it. The case had three crosses, the wood finish
(03:05):
contained holy water. Every design choice came from his religious
faith and his belief that these precautions actually mattered. Harrison Jones,
a journalist from Pennsylvania, attended that Saturday event. He later
told People magazine that Rivera came across as kind and welcoming.
Rivera and his colleague Wade Kirby talked about Annabel's history
(03:27):
and their experiences working with the doll. Over the years,
Rivera spoke openly about building the case from a perspective
rooted in his faith, not as a gimmick, but as
genuine spiritual protection. Sunday night, July thirteenth, emergency responders got
a call. Firefighters and medics rushed to Rivera's hotel. The
dispatch logs showed the call came in as CPR in
(03:50):
progress for a man matching Rivera's age. Adams County Chief
Deputy Coroner Scott Peniwell confirmed later that Rivera's death was
not suspicious. Office came out, State police came out. They
did what they do when someone dies unexpectedly in a
hotel room. They looked at the scene, they documented everything,
and they determined there was nothing unusual about what they found.
(04:13):
The doll wasn't in the room. Rivera was alone. Pennewill
mentioned that Annabel might have been inside a van in
a hotel parking lot, though he could not officially confirm
exactly where the doll was at the time. The distinction
mattered to people who wanted to draw connections between Rivera's
death and the object he'd spent so much time protecting
(04:33):
people from. It took weeks for the full picture to emerge.
The Adam County Coroner eventually confirmed that Rivera's death was
natural cardiac related. He had a known history of heart problems.
The autopsy findings matched what doctors already knew about his condition.
Adams County Coroner Francis Dutrow put it in writing, saying
(04:54):
annabel was not present in the room when Rivera died.
That statement seems almost to offensive, like she knew what
people were already saying online and wanted to cut through
the noise with facts. Dutro added that the office extended
condolences to Rivera's family and loved ones standard language, but
the situation it accompanied was anything but standard. Social media
(05:17):
does not wait for autopsy results or official statements. Within
hours of the news breaking, theories started spreading. Some users
weren't theorizing at all. They were stating it is fact
one TikTok videos text read Annabelle Dahl takes Dan Rivera's life.
Demons are real and not a joke. The video got traction,
(05:37):
it got shares. People who had never heard of Dan
Rivera or the NSPR suddenly had strong opinions about what
killed him. Jason Hawes from Ghost Hunters had seen this
pattern before. He posted a response on Facebook that didn't
mince words. He pointed out that the world had lost
a good man, an army veteran, a father of four,
(05:59):
a husband, someone who genuinely cared about people. Then he
addressed what was really bothering him, the posts blaming Rivera's
death on the Annabell doll, the attacks on ghostly images
of Gettysburg Tours and other venues that had hosted the events.
Oz wrote that it needed to stop. Rivera's family was
grieving and they did not need to read conspiracy theories
(06:20):
about cursed dolls while trying to process their loss. He
called out people using Rivera's death to push an agenda
for prophet, calling it disgusting. Rivera was a family man
and a respected paranormal investigator who died way too young.
Paes wanted people to remember the man, not turn his
death into a clickbait story. The message landed with some people,
(06:43):
others kept posting theories. Anyway, to understand why people immediately
connected Rivera's death to Annabel, you need to know the
story behind the doll. Annabel is a raggedy ann doll.
The kind with red yarn hair and a triangle nose.
According to the Warren's account, a nursing student received the
raggedy ann doll and brought it home to the apartment
(07:06):
she shared with a roommate in the late nineteen sixties
or early seventies. Donna told them the doll could move
by itself. She said that it did things that frightened
her and her roommate. When Donna had received the raggedy
and doll and brought it home to her apartment right away,
things felt off. The roommates noticed strange occurrences. They consulted
(07:27):
a medium who told them the doll was inhabited by
the spirit of a young girl named Annabel. The medium's
advice was that they should accept the spirit make peace
with it. The two roommates tried to do exactly that,
accept the doll's spirit and please it. Instead, things escalated.
The doll showed what the Warrens later described as malicious
(07:48):
and violent intent. According to the Warren's account, the psychic
medium had told the nursing student and her roommate that
the doll had been taken over by the spirit of
a dead six year old girl named Annabel. Higgins. The
story had specific details, a name, an age, a tragic backstory.
It's the kind of thing that makes people sympathetic, that
(08:09):
makes them want to help. The Warrens said that was
the trap. They maintained that the spirit was not a
little girl at all, It was something using that story
to gain access to make the roommates lower their guard.
The Warrens claimed the doll was demonically possessed and brought
it to their occult museum in Monroe, Connecticut, where they
placed it in a display box. The display case the
(08:32):
Warrens built wasn't decorative. The wood stain had holy water
mixed into it. Three crosses represented the Holy Trinity. The
Lord's prayer and Michael's prayer were inscribed directly into the wood.
Every element served a purpose in their belief system about
how to contain demonic entities. Over the years, the Warrens
publicized a growing list of incidents allegedly connected to Annabel.
(08:56):
They said the doll inflicted psychic slashes that drew out
actual blood from victims. They claimed a priest who insulted
the doll ended up running his car into a tree.
They told a story about a homicide detective who was stabbed.
They attributed that to the doll and said it forced
him into early retirement. Tony Spara, who married into the
Warren's family and now manages their legacy, has shared additional accounts.
(09:20):
He tells a story about a priest who showed up
at the Warren's house and loudly proclaimed that no demonic
force was more powerful than the Lord. The priest drove
there in a brand new car that he was proud of.
That same day, according to Spara, the car was demolished
in a collision with a tractor trailer. Spara says the
priest reported seeing Annabel in his rear view mirror moments
(09:40):
before the accident. Then there's a story about a man
and his girlfriend who came to see the doll. When
Ed Warren explained Annabel's history, the man mocked it. According
to Spara, the man lost control of his motorcycle that
same day. The crash killed him and severely injured his girlfriend.
These stories have soulated for decades. Some people believe every word.
(10:03):
Others think the Warrens were skilled storytellers who built a
career on embellishment. The accounts are impossible to verify independently,
which is part of what makes them persistent. There's no
definitive proof either way. Zach Baggins, who hosts Ghost Adventures,
had his own experience with Annabel that he still talks about.
In twenty seventeen, the doll's owner brought Annabel to Bagins
(10:25):
Museum in Las Vegas for an investigation. Begins later told
us Weekly what happened. He said he got very affected
by the doll. Something about being in its presence caused
him to touch it, even though he knew the rules
about physical contact. The owner was not happy about that.
These handlers take the protocols seriously. According to Baggins, it
(10:47):
was a demonic infestation. It severely affected him. He ended
up in the hospital the next day. The attachment lasted
two months, and he described it as one of the
worst experiences of his life. Baggins has investigated paranormal locations
for twenty one years. He's built a career on confronting
things that supposedly go bump in the night. When someone
(11:09):
with that much experience says and encounter ranks among the
worst he's had. It adds weight to the mythology surrounding
the doll ed Warren founded the New England Society for
Psychic Research in nineteen fifty two. That's more than seventy
years of the organization existing in some form. When the
Warrens conducted investigations, they didn't work alone. They brought in
(11:31):
other professionals, nurses, doctors, police officers, researchers. They understood that
credibility mattered, that having witnesses from different backgrounds strengthened their cases.
The Nabel story first appeared in print in nineteen eighty
in a book called The Demonologist, written by Gerald Briddle.
The book presented the Warren's work in detail, including their
(11:51):
accounts of demonic possession, hauntings, and cursed objects. Decades later,
Hollywood turned their case files into entertainment. The Conjuring Universe
brought Annabel to theaters starting in twenty thirteen. The doll
appeared in The Conjuring, then got her own films, Annabel
in twenty fourteen and Annabelle Creation in twenty seventeen. The
(12:13):
character showed up in other franchise entries too. She appeared
in The Conjuring two in twenty sixteen, the Curse of
Laurona in twenty nineteen. The Conjuring, The Devil May Me
Do It in twenty twenty one, and The Conjuring Last
Rites in twenty twenty five. The Conjuring series holds a
Guinness World Record as the highest grossing horror film series
of all time. That means millions of people worldwide have
(12:37):
some familiarity with the Annabel story, even if they've never
looked into the real life case behind it. The Hollywood
version of Annabell looks different from the actual doll. The
movies feature a porcelain doll with a haunting, almost demonic appearance,
something designed to look scary from the first frame. The
real Annabel is just a raggedy ann doll with reg
(12:57):
yarn hair and a gingham dress. It looks like something
from a yard sale, which is part of what makes
the story unsettling for believers. The mundane appearance contrasts sharply
with the malevolent reputation. In twenty nineteen, the Warren's Occult
Museum closed its doors to the public because of zoning violations.
The museum has been operating out of the Warren's home
(13:19):
in Monroe, Connecticut, and apparently the town had issues with
the setup. Even though the museum itself closed, items from
the collection have not disappeared from public view. They've been
displayed at the Warrens Seekers of the Supernatural Pericon and
more recently, they've been featured in the Devil's on the
Run tour that was happening when Rivera died. The tour
represents an attempt to keep the Warren legacy alive and accessible.
(13:42):
Without the physical museum space, traveling exhibitions became the way
for people to encounter these objects that supposedly carry such
dark histories. The New England Society for Psychic Research announced
Rivera's death on Facebook the day after he was found.
The statement came from Tony Wade and another column league
whose name was not specified in the public post. They
(14:03):
wrote that they were sharing the news of their close
friend and partner's sudden passing with deep sadness. They said
they were heartbroken and still processing the loss. The statement
emphasized that Rivera truly believed in sharing his experiences and
educating people about the paranormal. His kindness and passion touched
everyone who knew him. They thanked people for their support
(14:24):
and kind thoughts. The post didn't mention Annabelle directly. It
didn't address the speculation already starting to spread. It focused
on Rivera as a person, a colleague, a friend, someone
they'd lost unexpectedly. Adams County Coroner Francis Dutro's official statement,
released months later after the autopsy results were finalized, also
(14:45):
extended condolences to Rivera's family and loved ones. By that point,
the speculation had run its course through multiple news cycles,
but the coroner's office still felt it necessary to officially
confirm what they had found. A man with a history
of heart problems had died of cardiac related causes, and
the doll people kept asking about wasn't even in the room.
(15:07):
The facts tell one story, the mythology tells another. Rivera
spent his career navigating the space between those two narratives,
trying to document what he believed was real, while knowing
that skeptics would always have explanations. He died doing work
he found meaningful, surrounded by people who shared his convictions,
on a tour designed to honor the mentors who'd shaped
(15:29):
his approach to the paranormal. The Annebel doll sits in
whatever secure location an ESPR keeps her in, now unchanged
by Rivera's death, still generating the same debates about whether
the threat she supposedly represents is real or imagined. The
tour continued after Rivera died because that's what the organization
believed he would have wanted. The work goes on with
(15:51):
or without any single investigator because the people involved see
it as genuinely important. Rivera was fit twenty four years
old when his heart stopped. He had four children who
lost a father. He had a wife who lost a husband.
He had colleagues who lost someone they'd worked alongside for years.
Those are the undeniable facts, the human tool that gets
(16:15):
obscured when people online turn a death into content, into conspiracy,
into one more chapter in a Haunted Dolls mythology. If
you'd like to read this story for yourself or share
the article with a friend, you can read it on
the Weird Darkness website. I've placed a link to it
in the episode description, and you can find more stories
of the paranormal, true crime, strange, and more, including numerous
(16:37):
stories that never make it to the podcast, at Weirddarkness
dot com. Slash News
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