phew

Despite What You May Have Heard, Annabelle the Haunted Doll Has Not Escaped Her Museum Display

Photo: Warner Bros.

As much as we would love to report that Annabelle, the haunted doll star of her own titular horror franchise, was currently leading police on a high-speed, multi-state car chase after escaping her museum display case, Annabelle: Connecticut Drift will have to remain but a glimmer in Warner Bros.’ eye, because the doll herself is safely tucked away in storage.

As Entertainment Weekly reports, fans of Annabelle hoped for the best (read: the worst) Friday when word circulated on social media that Annabelle was allegedly missing from her case at the occult museum established at the Monroe, Connecticut home of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators whose cases inspired such horror movies as The Conjuring series, the Annabelle series, and The Nun.

However, it seems that the museum itself has actually been shuttered since 2017 due to reported zoning violations. In 2019, the Monroe Sun quoted Monroe police chef John Salvatore on the Warren home: “It is not a museum. It is a residential house. The street is a very narrow public roadway, inadequate for parking for any commercial enterprise. And the traffic generated by the home inconveniences neighbors.”

In the meantime, the possessed doll has reportedly been placed in the custody of the Warrens’ son-in-law, Tony Spera, along with the rest of their artifacts. In 2014, the late Lorraine Warren explained that Annabelle cannot just be destroyed, because “getting rid of the doll would only get rid of the vessel, not the evil that resides within the doll,” but sounds like the Monroe, Connecticut Planning and Zoning Department is doing the next best thing.

Despite What You May Have Heard, Annabelle Has Not Escaped