The story of the haunted Raggedy Ann doll comes from a case the Warrens investigated in the 1970s. A nursing student received the stuffed doll as a birthday present from her mother. Donna took the doll home, a small apartment she shared with her roommate Angie.
Within days of Donna bring home the doll, strange things began happening inside their apartment. Donna and Angie would often find that the doll had made its way throughout the house. Always finding it in different rooms and places, apparently moving on its own.
Things got worse when the two of them began to find childlike scribbles on pieces of parchment paper around the apartment. Both Donna and Angie denied having anyone over at night or playing a prank on one another and therefore concluded that it must have been the doll who wrote the messages Help Us and Help Lou on the torn pieces of paper.
Lou happened to be a friend of the two women and had his own scare with the doll. One night, he awoke in a frantic state. He gasped for air as he realized that he was unable to move a muscle in his body. He awoke in what appeared to be a hypnagogic experience. The Raggedy Ann doll appeared next to his feet, on top of the covers. To Lou’s terror, the doll then began moving up his leg, slowly climbing up until reaching his chest, close to his face. Lou stated that the doll began to “asphyxiate” him and he was paralyzed completely. Unable to defend himself. Lou blacked out and awoke the following morning. Alive but traumatized. He told Donna and Angie about his horrifying experience and asked them to get rid of the doll.
So what did they nursing students do? Perform a seance of course!
A medium aided in the seance one night and soon they all found out that the doll had been possessed by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle. Annabelle lived in the property long before any apartment building existed. The medium then informed the current tenants that Annabelle had been murdered when she was just seven years old. her body had been found in some barren field close to the apartment.