Dan Rivera was the paranormal investigator who died while on a tour he had organised for the Annabelle doll, famously known as the haunted Raggedy Ann doll. According to reports, he was US Army veteran, and was in Pennsylvania for his tour ‘Devils on the Run Tour’. He passed away on July 13, 2025, in his hostel after completing a three-day sellout show in Gettysburg.
Dan Rivera joked before leading the attendees to the room where the Annabelle doll was kept
It is worth mentioning that Rivera was one of the main organisers who was the mind behind the sold-out tours for the visitors to see the Annabelle doll at the Gettysburg event. According to the Evening Sun, which attended the show on July 12, 2025, revealed that it was Dan was cracking jokes with the guests about the tour’s popularity. Addressing the people, who had assembled to meet the doll, Dan said:
“I want you guys to have a good time.”
Dan, who had received mentoring from the famous paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, shared that full measures were taken to ‘protect them’ from the haunted doll, including the case, which contained the doll as he had constructed it himself. Dan further revealed that he had built the case with three crosses that represented the holy trinity and was stained with holy water.
Dan Riveria cracked jokes on the cursed doll and the unfortunate events that followed where it was taken
Dan Rivera joked that they were not behind the burning of the sugarcane plantation in Louisiana and ‘freeing those 11 prisoners in New Orleans. Since the start of the tour in the US, some strange things have happened, and people blamed Annabelle’s tour for it. While Rivera’s cause of death is not known, several netizens on X wondered if he was killed by the haunted doll. One user on X wrote, “This was bound to happen.” Another commented, “I had a ticket to the last timeslot Sunday & didn’t go bc my daughter had a terrible gut feeling. *Never* ignore gut feelings. Glad I stayed home.”
Dan Rivera was the handler of Annabelle
It is worth mentioning that Dan Rivera wasn’t just any investigator. He was the handler of Annabelle. The doll, which has been rumoured to be haunted for several decades. Annabelle rose to fame after the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who kept her in their museum, which was closed after Lorraine died in 2019. The doll was touring with Dan Rivera for months, and since its arrival, strange things had happened.
Ed and Lorrain Warren’s warning of ‘never to move the doll’
Ed and Lorraine Warren had a collection of haunted items, but it was the Annabelle doll that captured the attention of people worldwide. However, the late couple gave a warning that the three-foot-tall Raggedy Ann doll, which was kept in a glass case with a stark warning ‘positively do not open’.
The doll was gifted to a Hartford nurse in 1970, and it used to move on its own and even attacked the occupants’ fiances. The Warrens conducted an exorcism and took it home. They often warned that disturbing the doll could have serious consequences, as they said, ‘Lock her away and never take her out.’ But instead, it was paraded across America, and with each stop, things turned weirder.
What do you think about Dan Rivera’s death at the age of 54?
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