New details in Dan Rivera’s death: was the Annabelle doll in the room?
New details are emerging in the sudden death of paranormal investigator Dan Rivera, who died while on tour with the haunted Annabelle doll.
Rivera died on Sunday in his hotel room in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania while part of the “Devils on the Run” tour featuring the supposedly haunted doll.
Francis Dutrow, a coroner in Adams County, Pennsylvania, told CNN that the doll was not in the room with Rivera when he died.
Pennsylvania State Police public information officer Megan Frazer also shared a report matching details of Rivera’s case, stating “nothing unusual or suspicious was observed at the scene,” per the outlet.
A police report from July 16 did label his death as “natural,” per E! News, but a final cause of death will be determined in eight to ten weeks with autopsy results.
Rivera was a senior lead investigator with the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) and was visiting Gettysburg, Pa., as part of the “Devils on the Run” tour featuring the Annabelle doll.
Many people online speculated the Annabelle doll, actually a Raggedy Ann doll, was somehow related to Rivera’s death due to its allegedly cursed nature.
But “Ghost Hunters” alum Jason Hawes criticized those theories in a Facebook post honoring Rivera.
“Recently the World lost a good man,” Hawes wrote on July 15. “Dan Rivera was an Army veteran, a father of four, a husband, and someone who truly cared about people. What’s even harder to see right now are the posts blaming his death on things like the Annabelle doll.”
Despite Rivera’s death, the “Devils on the Run” tour is scheduled to continue.
NESPR said in a statement to TMZ that they "do not know what the future of NESPR will look like without Dan, we do plan to move forward with the events previously scheduled for this year."
They added, "We believe with all our hearts that Dan would have wanted the work to continue -- bringing people together, sharing knowledge, and honoring the memory of Ed & Lorraine Warren."
Annabelle was made famous by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who investigated the doll in the 1970s and kept it locked in their occult museum.
The Warrens were the inspiration for “The Conjuring” movies, starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, and the spin off films featuring Annabelle, as well as “The Nun.”
