(This story was updated to add new information.)
The visit of a doll steeped in paranormal legend to Gettysburg ended in tragedy this weekend with the sudden passing of one of the national tour’s lead organizers, according to the New England Society for Psychic Research, the organization behind the tour.
Dan Rivera, 54, the lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research and a U.S. Army veteran, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, July 13, 2025, during his visit to Gettysburg, the society announced on Monday evening.
Rivera was among the leading faces of the viral “Devils on the Run Tour,” in which Rivera and other members of the New England Society for Psychic Research had brought the allegedly haunted doll, Annabelle, across the country to various sites.
Adams County dispatch scanner archives showed that firefighters and medical personnel had been called to a hotel in Gettysburg after 8 p.m. on Sunday evening for a report of CPR in progress on a male patient of Rivera’s age.
Adams County Coroner Francis Dutrow, whose office was conducting a death investigation, confirmed to the Evening Sun that, as of Tuesday afternoon, Rivera’s cause of death remained pending the results of an autopsy. FInal results of that autopsy, according to the office, could take several months.
In additional statements, coroner’s office personnel said that the death did not appear suspicious, and that Rivera was found alone in his hotel room. Pennsylvania State Police and the coroner’s office responded to the hotel room to conduct an investigation, according to the office.
The coroner’s office investigates any sudden, suspicious, violent or unexplained deaths that occur in Adams County, according to an informational sheet on the office’s website. Routine death investigations are additionally conducted for any decedents that “may appear to have died from natural causes but are not under a doctor’s care or do not have a significant medical history. “
The Gettysburg leg of the tour, which was hosted by Ghostly Images of Gettysburg Tours at the Soldiers National Orphanage, completely sold out, organizers said, selling over 1,260 tickets across three days on the weekend of Friday, July 11, 2025, with the visit concluding on Sunday afternoon.
Rivera had helped bring the tour to international attention through his public outreach, including numerous viral TikTok videos that Rivera produced with paranormal investigator Ryan Daniel Buell that racked up millions of views as the doll was taken across the country.
The tour had garnered extensive publicity in recent months, even sparking outrage in several locations as many took to social media over superstitions regarding the doll’s storied past.
In the hours that followed the announcement of Rivera’s death on Monday evening, an outpouring of tributes and memorials to Rivera began to pop up across the paranormal community, remembering Rivera for his passion for sharing the paranormal and as a caring husband, father and friend.
‘Close your eyes and envision yourself in a halo of white light’
On Saturday, the Evening Sun was in attendance at the Gettysburg event as Rivera led one of the sold-out tours for patrons to view the Annabelle doll.
Prior to leading the group into the room to view the doll, Rivera was full of charisma as he joked with visitors about the viral fame of the tour and emphasized his focus on making a positive experience for their visit.
“I want you guys to have a good time,” he told the group gathered at the orphanage.
Rivera, who was mentored by famous paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, told those gathered at the event about the steps he had taken to “protect them” from the doll, including the case housing the doll that Rivera had built himself.
That case, Rivera told the group, he built with three crosses, representing the holy trinity, and is stained in a finish that contained holy water.
In his remarks, Rivera joked that “we did not burn down that plantation,” and “we did not free those prisoners,” referencing some of the viral instances that social media had attempted to tie to the doll’s journey.
Later in the tour, Rivera added that Annabelle had not caused a 911 outage that sent wireless emergency alerts blaring across cellphones Pennsylvania, including inside of the first showings of the doll a day prior.
Speaking of his late mentor, Rivera shared with the audience that her guidance for protecting oneself from “evil spirits” entailed almost a form of meditation.
“What Lorraine would say to protect yourself,” said Rivera, “is to close your eyes and envision yourself in a halo of white light.”
‘Insatiable curiosity’ drove passion for weird and paranormal
Biographies for Rivera described an “insatiable curiosity” about the paranormal from a young age that led to Rivera founding his own paranormal investigation group after his service in the U.S. Army.
That curiosity also led Rivera to attend lectures from Lorraine Warren, where biographies said Warren had taken Rivera under her wing and mentored him in the last years of her life, eventually leading to his appointment as the lead investigator for NESPR in 2011.
NESPR was founded in 1952 by Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were known for their paranormal investigations of “The Amityville Horror” house on Long Island, the “Enfield Poltergeist,” and the Annabelle doll.
The legend of Annabelle, and the stories of the Warrens, went on to inspire a lucrative film series, “The Conjuring,” which became the highest-grossing horror series worldwide as of 2023, cementing the Warrens’, and Annabelle’s, place in pop culture history.
After Ed Warren’s passing in 2006, then Lorraine’s passing in 2019, NESPR and the Warrens’ occult museum collection in Connecticut has been maintained by their daughter, Judy Spera, and their son-in-law, Tony Spera.
While the museum closed to the public in 2019 over zoning issues, the items within the Warrens’ museums have in recent years traveled around the country to be displayed.
In addition to his work with NESPR, Rivera had been featured as a paranormal investigator on television, such as the Travel Channel’s “Most Haunted Places,” as well as serving as a producer for paranormal television series such as Netflix’s “28 Days Haunted.”
In a tribute to Rivera by Buell, Buell shared that Rivera had cared extensively for Lorraine near the end of her life.
“He devoted his time, passionately, to keeping Ed and Lorraine’s legacy alive,” Buell wrote in the post.
Buell, who worked with Rivera on the tour, noted Rivera’s success in helping continue the Warrens’ story in recent years through organizing the paranormal convention ParaCon, which visited Gettysburg in 2024, as well as the Annabelle tour, which Buell said had “introduced a whole new generation to Ed and Lorraine Warren’s legacy.”
Rivera’s work involving the paranormal extended beyond publicity, according to the post, including what Buell said was private work that Rivera and NESPR undertook to assist families that were allegedly haunted.
“Just as Ed and Lorraine did,” Buell noted.
‘A true legend was lost’
The news of Rivera’s passing quickly spread among those involved in the tour and through social media on Monday night.
In the announcement by NESPR, fellow investigator Chris Gilloren, who was among those at the Gettysburg event, recalled Rivera’s passion and enjoyment of sharing his love for the paranormal with others.
“Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal,” Gilloren wrote. “His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him.”
“We are heartbroken and still processing this loss,” Gilloren said in the statement from himself, fellow NESPR investigator Wade Kirby, and Spera.
“Thank you for your support and kind thoughts during this difficult time.”
Mary Jo Chudley, of Penn Paranormal in Bucks County, had been among those who participated in the event on Saturday, and shared a tribute to the group’s extensive social media following.
“A true legend was lost, both in life and in the paranormal,” Chudley wrote. “He was one of the kindest, most genuine and funniest guys I’ve ever known.”
On Buell’s post, hundreds of comments and thousands of reactions were shared within just two hours of the post being made, many of which were additional tributes to Rivera.
Many of those commenters spoke highly of their own interactions with Rivera at various paranormal events, recalling his enjoyment of sharing his love for the paranormal with others.
As the news circulated around various paranormal communities, some resurfaced a 2020 post from Rivera that was made in tribute to his own personal mentor, Lorraine, on the anniversary of her passing.
“Does life really end?” Rivera began the 2020 post which included a photograph of the joint grave of the two famous investigators, “I’ve asked myself that question today.”
“My answer was, in life, we leave a piece of ourselves with loved ones and friends on our journey through life until there are no more pieces to give away. You would think that is the end, but, when you look back at all the pieces you gave away, those pieces will always be remembered.”
“So I say I will never die,” Rivera wrote. “My journey has only begun.”
This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Paranormal investigator who helped lead ‘Annabelle’ doll tour passes away in Gettysburg
Reporting by Harrison Jones, Hanover Evening Sun / Hanover Evening Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
