Clown Doll

Mid 2007. Amanzimtoti, South Africa.

This experience took place over a period of around 5 months. My daughters would stay with their father every second weekend, and an evening midweek. He moved homes frequently, and had recently moved into a 2 bed simplex.

The girls returned back home to me on the Sunday afternoon, full of chatter, trying to tell me about a clown doll that had been found on the top shelf of their bedroom cupboard. There was a lot of excitement about this doll, firstly, how had it got there, who would have left it there. Eventually the chatter would quieten down, and the girls would settle back into the routine for the school week ahead.

But then I began to notice, that after every weekend or time at their fathers house, they would talk incessantly about the doll upon returning home. I too love dolls, and felt, this doll must be something special, so was happy they had found something they enjoyed so much." What does it look like?" I asked, intrigued. Alex brought it along one of the afternoons that she had come from her fathers, to show me. It was a home made rag doll. Blue and white patterned and striped outfit. And it seemed nothing particularly special. Why all the fuss over this old rag doll, when they had any number of fancy Barbie and Bratz, and baby dolls, that both the ex and I had been buying for them, overcompensating for our broken family situation.

However, one day Alex returned home to me, quite distressed. Apparently the doll could change its expression, and had done so. " Mom, I think clownie is real, it has feelings, I saw its face changing" " Also these strange drops appeared on its face, they look like water, but are pale red." The stains had appeared out of nowhere, according to them. The 'stains of these drops' would come and go, changing, like the dolls expressions. Not only this, but the doll would move....

Clown doll would find amusement in causing fights amongst the girls. Hannah would shout at Alex for leaving the doll on her bed, when, in fact Alex had not moved it at all. Alex became very attached to this clown doll, and she always put it on her bed, it would sleep next to her every night that they were at their fathers, but in the morning, every time without fail, the clown doll was sitting at the bottom of Hannahs bed, propped up neatly against the footboard, facing her.

Hannah initially thought it was Alex playing tricks on her, but soon realised that it wasn't, as Alex was still sound asleep.

On one occassion they returned home to find the doll missing. They looked everywhere in the room, but it was gone. Alex started crying, and screaming, blaming Hannah for taking the doll, but it couldn't have been Hannah, as she too had been out with Alex. Going to the bathroom to get some toilet paper to blow her nose, Alex suddenly came across the clown doll, lying down in the empty bath. It gave her quite a fright. "Who put you there!?" she grabbed the doll and showed everyone that she had found it. Nobody knew how the clown had gotten into the bath tub, from the bedroom. Stranger yet, on another occassion where the doll went "missing", it was found hours later, hanging up on a coathanger in the childrens cupboard.

When their father again had to move homes, the children had placed the doll in a box of toys in the garage, ready for the move. However the doll never made it to the next residence. Nobody could understand how it could have gotten out of the box. It simply vanished. Alex was distraught.

I would listen to these emotionally filled stories of the escapades of this clown doll, with a slight bit of amusement, feeling there must surely be some explanation. However, years later, when watching a movie portraying the true story of the Annabelle doll, my daughter screamed out in excitement, " This is just what clown doll was like!"

I suddenly realised, my daughter had had a possessed doll in her bed with her, for 5 months.

I'm very grateful that the doll never followed them, however, we did experience further hauntings and paranormal experiences years later, when the girls grew older, so perhaps they were linked....