Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Dan Rivera knew what it meant to stroll into locations most individuals keep away from. He had stood nonetheless in rooms the place the air by no means fairly felt empty, stepped fastidiously throughout floorboards that remembered an excessive amount of and sat in silence the place youngsters as soon as wept. Ghost tales weren’t tales to him. They had been testimonies.
On the evening of July 13, Dan completed one other tour. It was a full home. The ‘Devils on the Run’ had stopped on the previous Troopers Nationwide Orphanage, a spot layered in loss. He spoke with care, as he all the time did, about Annabelle – the doll many consider by no means really sleeps. Folks listened and laughed. Some appeared over their shoulders. Then Dan stated goodnight and walked away into the Gettysburg darkish.
He by no means made it to morning.
Hours later, resort staff unlocked his door. Dan was alone. He was not respiratory. Paramedics got here. The Pennsylvania State Police arrived. Nothing appeared misplaced. No blood. No damaged glass. Simply quiet.
And one thing was lacking. The doll.
Coroner Francis Dutrow, the primary official on the scene, confirmed what folks had already begun whispering on-line. “The Annabelle doll was not within the room once I arrived. It had by no means been in there,” he stated.
That absence carried weight. Dan had been touring with Annabelle. He had spoken about her solely hours earlier. She was a part of his work, his warnings and his function. However within the room the place he died, she was gone.
The New England Society for Psychic Analysis, the group Dan had labored with for greater than a decade, tried to calm the storm of hypothesis. “She is safely secured,” they stated. However that assertion solely opened extra questions. When did she depart? Who took her? Why was not she there?
Beneath NESPR’s on-line tribute to Dan, somebody wrote requested, “What occurred in that room?”
Annabelle’s story goes again additional than most know. Not born from movie scripts, however from a small residence in Connecticut in 1968. A nursing scholar acquired the doll as a present. She stored it in her residence. Then issues started to maneuver. The woman introduced in a medium. The reply – a baby named Annabelle lived contained in the doll. However the Warrens, Ed and Lorraine, felt one thing colder.
They didn’t name it a haunting. They referred to as it a possession.
The doll was locked behind glass of their museum. A warning written above it, “Do Not Contact.” However Annabelle by no means actually stayed quiet. She appeared on film posters. Impressed whole horror franchises. Gathered followers, skeptics and believers. Dan Rivera spent years carrying her story, reminding those that what scares us usually needs to be heard.
Dan was not on this for fame. He was a veteran. A husband. A father. He joined the NESPR to assist individuals who had been afraid in their very own properties. To supply solutions the place others solely gave silence.
He grew to become a well-known face on paranormal reveals. Netflix’s ‘28 Days Haunted’. Journey Channel’s ‘Most Haunted Locations’. However those that knew him say his actual present was offline, in basements, residing rooms and deserted faculties, the place households waited for peace.
“He all the time listened first. He by no means handled worry like fiction,” the NESPR stated.
Ryan Buell, host of ‘Paranormal State’, described Dan as “considerate, dedicated and sort”. A person who had seen shadows however all the time carried mild.
That ultimate day, Dan didn’t really feel nicely. He advised his colleagues he could be heading again early. The tour went on. He quietly stepped away. By dusk, he was gone.
The post-mortem report will take time, possibly two months. To date, no indicators level to foul play. No proof of something unnatural. However the timing is inconceivable to disregard.
He had spent his evening speaking a couple of cursed object. The doll vanished. Then he died.
Dan’s loss of life has left a gap, not simply in his crew, however locally that adopted his work. The NESPR says their excursions will proceed, now in his identify. However for many who stood with him in previous theatres, deserted hospitals and war-touched orphanages, there’s something they can’t cease fascinated with.
A person dedicated to unmasking worry now gone. A doll that ought to have been locked away now unaccounted for.
Dan Rivera leaves behind his spouse, his youngsters and years of unanswered questions.
He adopted the tales that nobody else dared to. He believed folks after they stated they had been scared. He chased shadows with regular fingers.
Now, as folks seek for which means, all that continues to be is silence and a locked door.
And someplace, as soon as once more, Annabelle is lacking.
