Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries 126. Annabelle’s Tour of Terror About this episode Dark Summer Merch is HERE! Shop now: https://shop.heartstartspounding.com/
Subscribe to Patreon to get 10% off your order!
The internet freaked out last month when the haunted doll Annabelle was taken on tour around the country. Stories started circulating of buildings burning down in her wake, prisoners escaping, and even that she went missing at one point.
But what was really going on, and why was the Annabelle tour such a spiritually chaotic event?
Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/annabelletour
Subscribe onPatreon https://www.patreon.com/heartstartspounding for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt.
Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
Follow onTik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@heartstartspounding?lang=en andInstagram https://www.instagram.com/heartstartspounding/ for a daily dose of horror.
Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Direct deposit provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. See cash.app for more details.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by Toyota. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on an all-wheel-drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or get a Corolla sedan, packed with the latest features, advanced tech, and head-turning style. Take a test drive in two of Toyota's most popular SUVs, the spacious, family-friendly Grand Highlander and adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid and plug-in hybrid models available across the lineup, plus efficient all-electrics like the BZ, BZ Woodland, and all-wheel-drive CHR, you can drive your way and skip the pump. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with legendary resale value,
0:44 Kaelyn Moore? built on a reputation for quality and reliability. So when it's time for your next Toyota, you could trade in for more. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.
1:00 Speaker 01 Some days call for a light jacket,
1:04 Speaker 01 others an umbrella, and occasionally a rowboat.
1:11 Speaker 01 It's good to have options. Your personal protection is no different. It's why Burna offers more ways to defend yourself. Whether it's a night out, a weekend away, or an evening at home with the kids, Burna gives you defensive options from less-lethal launchers to sprays and alarms that fit your life and the situation at hand. Burna launchers deliver serious stopping power against threats from up to 60 feet away, giving you valuable time and distance to respond without getting too close or taking things too far. They're simple to operate, even if you've never used one before, and no background checks or permits are required. Plus, they ship directly to your door. Find the right option for you at B-Y-R-N-A dot com. Must be 18 plus.
1:56 Speaker 01 Purchase and shipping restrictions vary by state and municipality.
2:02 Kaelyn Moore? The internet freaked out last month when the haunted doll Annabelle was taken on tour around the country. I got so many messages from you guys about buildings that were burning down in her wake, prisoners that were escaping, and how she may or may not have gone missing at one point during the tour. But what was really going on? Why was the Annabelle tour such a disaster? I have been obsessively reading everything I can about it and the experiences people had with her, and I wanted to put all of that into one big deep dive episode today for you. And before we get into it, you know, I love hearing about your morbid little hobbies and jobs and interests. And in this episode, I specifically wanted to shout out Adam, who reached out to me. Adam owns The Three Cranes, a pub in Rothrum, England from
2:45 Kaelyn Moore? 1470. He says it's possibly haunted, and they're actually going to do a séance there this July, probably to find out for good. If you find yourself in the area, please check it out and say hello to the medieval ghosts for me. We're off next week, but we'll be coming back strong with the start of our Dark Summer series, Volume Two. I know that a lot of you are going to be on the road, traveling, camping, visiting family for the Fourth of July, so it's an extra good time to binge on episodes you haven't caught up on yet. Make sure you check out the free trials on Patreon and Apple Podcasts, where you're also able to listen to the back catalog of bonus episodes. Last month, we covered Secrets of the Vatican, and this week, we're going to be exploring when psychological experiments go wrong throughout history. So
3:27 Kaelyn Moore? check out those free trials. And do you know what makes it an even better time to subscribe? We are dropping all new Heart Starts Pounding and Rogue Detecting Society merch today. We've got hoodies, our Jinx Disco tee, and my personal favorite, a Rogue Detecting Society journal. Patreon subscribers get 10% off, and Patreon High Council tier subscribers will get 20% off their purchases. I'm very excited about these. I've been wearing the samples around for weeks now, and I've been keeping all of my notes in my RDS notebook. Also, Apple subscribers, make sure you listen through the end of the episode to find out how you can get your very own secret 10% discount. Okay, just to reiterate, next week, Heart Starts Pounding binge week, so try out a subscription, try to catch up on content, get ready for Dark Summer, and make
4:11 Kaelyn Moore? sure you go check out our merch at shop.hardsarts pounding.com. Links to everything are going to be in the description. All right, now let's get to it. Before we get into the tour, let's do a quick little refresher on who Annabelle is. The story, as Ed and Lorraine Warren would tell it, is as follows. In 1970, a 28-year-old nurse in Hartford, Connecticut, was gifted a Raggedy Ann doll by her mother. It was a cute little birthday gift that she didn't really think much of, but pretty much immediately, the doll started exhibiting strange behavior. For instance, she would place the doll on her bed neatly, only to find that it had switched positions while she wasn't looking. Soon, the doll started appearing in different rooms of the house mysteriously,
4:55 Kaelyn Moore? like some invisible force was carrying her around. The woman and her friends would also find scraps of parchment paper lying on the floor with scribbled handwriting that read, "Help me. Help us." It was particularly strange because the woman didn't have any parchment paper in her home at the time. So where were these notes even coming from? She and her friends thought maybe an intruder was sneaking in and leaving them, though they could never find any sign someone had broken in other than the notes. And the notes persisted even when the house was fully locked down. Then, one day, one of her friends woke from a nap to see the Raggedy Ann doll staring at him.
5:36 Kaelyn Moore? And he got the overwhelming feeling of hands on his throat, starting to choke him.
5:43 Kaelyn Moore? After that, the friends called a medium who told them that the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins was trapped inside the doll. Annabelle had lived on the property previously, but died when she was just seven years old. They were told that this young girl just wanted to be loved, and they could give her permission to stay inside the doll, which they did. And that made things much, much worse. It's now believed that that was not the spirit of a young girl inside the doll, but in fact, something much more sinister. And by inviting it to inhabit the doll, it was basically given permission to stay. The name Annabelle stuck despite not being the ghost of the little girl, and she is still referred to as that to this day.
6:30 Kaelyn Moore? Eventually, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren came to own the doll, and they kept her locked in a glass case inside their Museum of Haunted Objects in Monroe, Connecticut. Here's Lorraine talking about her museum and the Annabelle doll.
6:44 Speaker 02 Everything in here has been taken from someplace where people are either killed, or maimed, or so many ways. So it's tragic for me, you know, to even go in. People are very, very interested in the museum. Don't ever touch anything. And if you do, let me know. This is the worst thing in here, is that doll. I'm not gonna stare at it, though.
7:17 Speaker 03 And that's the one that's sort of depicted a little bit in this movie, correct?
7:20 Speaker 02 Yes, it is. That's the Annabelle doll.
7:24 Kaelyn Moore? The couple always made it clear, whatever is in Annabelle is evil, and it's probably something we'll never understand. So it's important that she always stays inside of her case and never moves. So you can understand why the internet was shocked, to say the least, when it was announced earlier this year that she would be going on tour across America. The tour was going to be organized by the New England Society of Psychic Research, or NESP, for short. Now, NESP was founded in 1952 by Ed and Lorraine Warren, and the organization tried to assure everyone that this tour was always part of Ed and Lorraine's plan. They said that the couple knew
8:07 Kaelyn Moore? that not everyone would be able to come visit their home in Connecticut, and they wanted to give more people a chance to see the haunted objects they'd collected over their career. So the idea was always that some of these objects would go on tour. But out of everything in their museum, Annabelle appears to be the only object that constantly needs to be locked up. She's always in her little wooden box with the little glass window because bad stuff happens when she's not. So people, naturally, were nervous, especially because some people mentioned that Annabelle had already been brought to events in the past, and those didn't necessarily go very well. So this story happened to a woman named Katrina Despotovich,
8:50 Kaelyn Moore? though I first heard it told by an Instagram user named Spooks and Ghouls. In 2019, Katrina attended a dinner that Nesper threw called "An Evening with Annabelle." At the dinner, Nesper was going to bring a few haunted objects from the Warren Museum for people to be able to see, including Annabelle and her protective casing. Katrina actually showed a picture of the waiver she had to sign, and it absolved Nesper of all traumatic influence associated with viewing the items or being in the presence of Annabelle and/or items, which I thought that was kind of funny. Now, other items that were at the dinner included a very eerie satanic idol that the Warrens collected
9:32 Kaelyn Moore? from a man in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, just north of the Warrens' home. The figure is tall, lanky, and completely black. It almost looks like it's made out of sticks. It also has these big, uneven, black eyes and two tall horns. The story goes that the man was a hunter who was out in the woods when he noticed this very figure. There was also a man in black robes walking away from the scene, but the hunter didn't get a very good look at him. The Warrens brought the figure to their museum, and Lorraine immediately fell ill. Ed thought it was probably because this object had a curse placed on it by a satanic priestess that once owned it.
10:15 Kaelyn Moore? He had mentioned before that Satanism was much more common in Connecticut than people realized, which, you know, me being from there, that doesn't really surprise me. The vibes are off in some parts of Connecticut, if you know, you know. Another haunted object that was there is known as the Shadow Doll, and it's said to kill people in their dreams. The doll is covered in these black bird feathers, and it also has this black shawl wrapped around it. On top of that, it has a real, human tooth lodged in its mouth. To send the evil of the shadow doll to someone, you're supposed to take a picture of it and write a curse on the back of the photo, and then you mail that image to the person you would like to curse.
10:58 Kaelyn Moore? And finally, at this dinner, there was, of course, Annabelle herself, the woman of the hour. Katrina was very careful while she was at this event, mind you. She's a darkly curious person, just like us, and she wanted to see the doll up close, but she also wanted to be safe. So she had holy water sprinkled on her before the event, and she made sure to be very respectful towards Annabelle when approaching her and taking a photo. But after the event, she noticed that she had multiple strange bruises on her arms and legs. The one on her arm looked like something the size of a doll opened up its mouth and bit down on her, almost like teeth marks.
11:42 Kaelyn Moore? Not really breaking or indenting the skin, but hard enough to leave a bruise. She also had these weird, dark bruises on her legs, like something was grabbing at her. Katrina was completely shaken by this experience, and her story started circulating around the internet once it was announced that Annabelle was going on a much larger tour. Because what Katrina had attended was just a dinner nearby the Warrens' home in Connecticut. What was going to happen when Annabelle was brought all around the country?
12:20 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by Prenuvo. When it comes to your health, there's a lot that you can't see or feel. And sometimes, having more information can make all the difference. That's where Prenuvo comes in. Prenuvo offers proactive, whole-body MRI scans designed to help identify potential health concerns, including many cancers, aneurysms, and other conditions, sometimes before symptoms appear. The Prenuvo scan is non-invasive, uses no radiation, and is designed to give people a detailed picture of what's happening inside their bodies. Taking care of your health isn't just about responding when something feels wrong, it's about being proactive and making informed decisions. Prenuvo is helping people take a different approach to understanding their health.
13:02 Kaelyn Moore? To learn more about Prenuvo and get $300 off your whole-body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/hsp and use code HSP.
13:12 Kaelyn Moore? That's P R E N U V O dot com slash H S P. Terms and conditions apply.
13:20 Speaker 04 Do you like scary stories? Think you've heard it all? Well, you've never heard it like this.
13:28 Speaker 04 Radio Rental is a horror podcast featuring true scary stories told by real people.
13:33 Speaker 05 He's tapping, tap, tap, tap. He's tapping on the door. He wants us to open the door.
13:40 Speaker 06 Then their light turns on and then their light turns on in the shape of a triangle. And I'd say it's probably about the length of a school bus, you know, right above my head.
13:48 Speaker 07 She had long, ratted hair. She was wearing a dress. Her ribs were showing, her fingers were long. She looked shriveled, partially decayed.
14:00 Speaker 06 I'm starting to freak out a little bit. I'm pleading with them to just please let me out. Dee's eyes started opening. They were pure white and I lose it.
14:13 Speaker 04 Radio Rental returns October 23rd. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
14:20 Kaelyn Moore? That brings us to our first stop on the Annabelle tour, West Virginia State Penitentiary. So it seems like the idea was to bring Annabelle to various haunted locations around the United States. The first one being the very haunted West Virginia State Penitentiary. This massive Gothic-style jail opened in 1866 and ran until 1995. And today functions mostly as a museum and tourist attraction. It has an incredibly dark past. Lots of hangings happened on the grounds. And actually Bud Peterson, who was the last man ever executed at the prison, is still buried in the back because his family didn't want to come collect his remains. It's said that his ghost still stalks the area most nights.
15:04 Kaelyn Moore? Back in the day, executions were actually all carried out in public and people in town could gather to watch. That is, until the hanging of Frank Hire.
15:16 Kaelyn Moore? Frank was in the prison for killing his wife and was set to be hanged on June 19, 1931. The Virginia Chronicle reported that that day Frank walked up to the gallows, loudly proclaimed to the crowd, quote, "I am guilty and the whiskey was the cause of it. Jesus has saved my soul and I'm not afraid to die." And then the lever was pulled and the trapdoor below his feet swung open. The only problem was Frank was a heavyset guy and the wrong rope had been selected for the hanging. By the time his body fell through the trapdoor, the rope had sliced his head clean off. Apparently, the crowd could handle regular hangings, but beheadings were far too much for them. And after that,
16:01 Kaelyn Moore? capital punishment was all performed in private. Aside from all the executions, botched and otherwise, 36 murders also happened within the prison, the most famous being the butchering of a man named R.D. Wall. Wall was caught snitching on his fellow inmates in 1929 and three other inmates slashed him with dull homemade shivs in a hallway. By the 1980s, conditions in the prison had totally deteriorated. It had not been kept up at all due to lack of funding. Rats and flies were everywhere. They were infecting inmates with diseases and eating their flesh. The plumbing hadn't been repaired
16:42 Kaelyn Moore? in years and sewage leaked out into the hallways and smeared onto the walls. On New Year's Day in 1986, the prisoners had enough and they rioted, overtaking the guards and the kitchen staff. They held knives to their throats and handcuffed them to each other. Three inmates died in the process, but they were able to get a meeting with the mayor and he did agree to a new list of standards within the prison.
17:09 Kaelyn Moore? The penitentiary did eventually close in 1995. And pretty much to no one's surprise, people started reporting that the prison was haunted basically immediately after it closed. Stories started surfacing of disembodied voices being heard throughout the building. Security guards would see figures out of the corners of their eyes. And visitors reported feeling like they were being touched and grabbed by invisible hands. And so, Nesper thought that this was the perfect place to bring Annabelle for her first stop of the tour. I saw a lot of comments from locals about her being brought to the penitentiary. Mind you, it is located in Appalachia. So a lot of people were basically like, Appalachia has a lot going on as is.
17:52 Kaelyn Moore? We do not need Annabelle here running amok. Thank you very much.
17:56 Speaker 07 Hey, what the [bleep]. Why did I just see a video of Annabelle being brought to the West Virginia State Penitentiary? Let me [bleep] tell you something. It's haunted as hell here. We can't even go in the woods past 8:00 PM at night. Actually, we can't even look in that [bleep] direction. Why would you do that? What the [bleep]. Why would you take a cursed raggedy Ann doll that's known for drop kicking souls into the shadow realm to a facility that's already 97% ghost and one underpaid janitor named Earl?
18:30 Kaelyn Moore? But then, when Annabelle arrived, something really unexpected happened. After Annabelle's night at the penitentiary, Ryan Buell, who worked for the Warrens Organization and seemed to be organizing the whole tour, took to TikTok to explain that when they brought Annabelle into the building, all of the paranormal activity quieted. It was like someone turned the dial on all the ghosts down. He said that Annabelle herself was quiet as well and not much really happened around her. And he seemed to be pretty surprised by this, as if bringing Annabelle into an already paranormal hotspot was like adding fuel to a fire. Everything should amplify.
19:14 Kaelyn Moore? Annabelle would be kind of like the maestro conducting the ghost choir. But no, everyone watched in confusion as everything got quiet that night once she was wheeled in. And then, apparently, when she was wheeled out of the jail the next day, all of the ghost activity resumed.
19:34 Kaelyn Moore? So people started thinking Annabelle was maybe more like a shark in the water. Like, once she comes around, spirits go into survival mode and hide. And if that's the case, then they were in for a really boring next few weeks on this tour. At least, that's what they thought. But then, after this, they brought Annabelle to New Orleans. Now, for her New Orleans stop, Annabelle was brought to the French Quarter as part of an event thrown by Ghost City Tours. New Orleans is a very, very haunted place. We did a whole episode on some of the most famous ghost stories from New Orleans. I'll actually link that in the description for those that are interested.
20:15 Kaelyn Moore? But think modern-day vampires, big above-ground cemeteries with ghosts that stalk the aisles, and a long, rich history of voodoo and other forms of folk magic. There's ghosts all about, but after Annabelle's quiet stop in West Virginia, it seemed like Nesper was feeling pretty calm about her visit, like it would just be another quiet evening. But it became very clear, very quickly, that some of the locals did not want her there. Go to hell, Annabelle! Go to hell, Annabelle! Don't you come to New Orleans for that no more! I'll put my whole little world down on you! I'll respite you in the name of New Orleans voodoo, Annabelle!
21:00 Kaelyn Moore? I resist you! I resist you! This is a woman known as "The Bone Lady," shaking a tambourine at Annabelle and telling her to "go back to hell." The Bone Lady is a fifth-generation voodoo priestess who lives in New Orleans and owns the Voodoo Bone Lady Voodoo Shop. Apparently, when Annabelle arrived, the van carrying her was parked directly in front of the Bone Lady's store, and weird things started happening immediately.
21:30 Speaker 07 When I tell you this is weird, this is getting weird. It is eighty something degrees outside in New Orleans today. And it is ice cold in this shop. As soon as they brought Annabelle next door, it temperature drops. I'm putting on two hoodies. Did you hear what I said? Two hoodies in May in New Orleans. It's eighty something degrees outside. Oh, my gosh. I told you all kind of crazy stuff was happening. Look, the lights are flickering. This has been happening on and off ever since they brought that demon doll next door. Oh, my gosh.
22:00 Kaelyn Moore? The bone lady also stopped some people who were coming out from seeing Annabelle to get their reaction. And people were really all over the map. One woman was excited because she saw the doll's hand move on its own, and maybe she caught it on camera. Another man had that look you get on your face after a really intense roller coaster ride, like he was in shock from the intensity of the experience. And another man refused to speak about what he had seen until he was standing outside of a cathedral.
22:30 Speaker 07 Okay, this man right here, he went to go see Annabelle, and he gonna tell us what he saw. But he so spooked about it that he don't even feel comfortable telling it unless he came over here in front of the cathedral. Now, what did you see?
22:41 Speaker 06 When I looked at the dog, the dog's eye was black. Then the dog's eye turned red.
22:47 Speaker 07 What?
22:47 Speaker 06 The dog's eye turned red. I looked like the pigeon ran around the mother [bleep] corner. When I looked back, the dog still had that red eye. I'm gonna find it. I'm gonna have to come to your place. And you have to teach me some to get this voodoo all the way to his own feet.
23:03 Kaelyn Moore? It's a little hard to hear him, but he says that Annabelle's eyes turned from black to red, and then he ran out of the building. By this point, it was becoming very clear to Ryan and Nesper that New Orleans was not going to be as quiet as West Virginia was. If the West Virginia State Penitentiary went dark to avoid antagonizing her, New Orleans was on full attack mode, sending the living and the dead to get the doll out of the city. After one night in town, though, Annabelle was whisked away to her next spot. And maybe the people of New Orleans all collectively exhaled because they thought that this nightmare was over. But it seemed like the mayhem was only just beginning.
23:49 Kaelyn Moore? The next morning, as Annabelle was being loaded into Nesper's black van to be transported to her next stop in Texas, residents of Louisiana woke to the news that the largest antebellum plantation in the South, Louisiana's own Nottaway Plantation, had burned to the ground. People were shocked at the news. How did a house that lasted 165 years, that had continually been maintained, that had grants given to it specifically for renovation and upkeep, suddenly burned to ash in the night? And I mean ash. When you look at videos and pictures of the event, you'd be hard pressed to find a square inch of this place
24:31 Kaelyn Moore? that was not engulfed in flames. It's like hell opened up and swallowed it whole. And a lot of people in Louisiana started pointing fingers at Annabelle. Because if, let's say, the ghosts of New Orleans were on high alert the night before, waging a spiritual war with the doll, well, there was one place in Louisiana that was also incredibly spiritually dark, the exact type of place that Annabelle would have wanted to attack, at least according to some people in Louisiana. Let me start by giving you a brief history of the Nottaway Plantation. Nottaway was built in 1859 by enslaved people for a man named John Randolph, who was one
25:13 Kaelyn Moore? of the most prominent slave owners in the South. John was a farmer of both cotton and sugar, which made him incredibly rich. At its height, Nottaway held 155 enslaved people, many of which are still believed to be buried on the grounds in unmarked graves. One of these people was Alice Thompson, a woman who would go on to bear the children of John Randolph's son. One of her descendants is a woman named Judy Whitney Davis, and she leads tours at Nottaway.
25:44 Kaelyn Moore? So one thing that Judy noticed about Notaway when she started working there is that the website calls it a resort and a mansion, and it's mostly marketed as a wedding venue. The small houses in the back of the property are now referred to as cottages instead of what they most likely originally were, slave quarters. And when Judy went to the history section of the website, it only mentioned the trees on the property. No, seriously, it's still up to this day. In the history tab, there is one section that reads, quote, "Notaway's grounds feature 16 majestic oak trees spread across the 31-acre property."
26:24 Kaelyn Moore? And that's it. There's no other history of the place mentioned on the website at all. They don't even really talk about when the house was originally built, or what it was built for. It seems like the whole website had scrubbed its dark history, and even the word plantation. But we've discussed this a lot here at Heart Starts Pounding, but it bears repeating. Just because your website is neatly designed with italic 4O-rounded font, just because the photos are all of smiling couples on their wedding day, and just because you've swapped out some of the original furniture, doesn't change the history
27:04 Kaelyn Moore? of what happened there. It doesn't remove the hundreds of unnamed bodies that are buried in shallow graves by the levee in the backyard. It doesn't eradicate the spirits of those who can't ever find rest, who still patrol the halls, no matter how hard the new management tries to ignore them. And so, the day after Annabelle left Louisiana, a fire broke out in the attic of the Notaway plantation. And for 17 hours, it demolished the structure of the house, wrecking the silk curtains, the antique family portraits, the remaining original furniture, and other valuables still left in the home. And immediately, social
27:47 Kaelyn Moore? media exploded. There were memes I saw right away of Annabelle standing in front of the plantation while it burned. Her wicked grin taking on a whole new meaning. It actually became such a viral thing on social media that Ghost City Tours, who hosted Annabelle in New Orleans, issued a statement saying, quote, "We've seen the comments blaming us and Annabelle's visit to our store in New Orleans for the fire. Ha, we realize people are joking. We hope, no, Annabelle didn't burn down Notaway Plantation. Don't go giving Hollywood any more ideas for horrible movies." The official report said the damage was caused by an electrical fire, but that it was a total loss. There was no hope of any sort of recovery for the plantation's main building.
28:32 Kaelyn Moore? And some people felt like this whole thing was too spiritual to just be an electrical fire. They pointed to images of the fire where it looked like figures were on the second floor while everything burned around them. Other people said they could see faces in the flames, as if the fire was releasing all of the spiritual energy of the place in a sort of cleansing. And I did see one quote in all of this that I still think about. It read, "In a city built on spirits, nothing burns without reason." And it seems like a lot of people in Louisiana agree with that statement, especially because not long after the Notaway Fire, another historical building, this time back in New Orleans,
29:15 Kaelyn Moore? would also go on to suffer a catastrophic fire. But not before the people of New Orleans woke up the next day to even more shocking news.
29:31 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by GU Skincare. GU just launched their Heal and Seal Trio, a simple three-step Korean skincare routine that replaces those complicated seven-step regimens. Polish pads to exfoliate, toner pads for dark spots and redness, and NAD Plus cream to lock in hydration overnight. These three products, three minutes a day. Dermatologist tested with over 650,000 happy customers and a 90-day money-back guarantee. Recently, I've been using their NAD Plus cream, which has been so nice to put on at night. I really love it. It's not super heavy, which I love. But it still feels very moisturizing. It doesn't have a lot of scent, which I'm really sensitive to, which is why it works great in my routine. For a limited time, GU is having a crazy deal for our listeners. Their heel and seal trio is already up to 50% off right now,
30:15 Kaelyn Moore? but our listeners can now get an additional 20% off plus free shipping with code HSP at jiyuskin.com. That's jiyuskin.com and use code HSP for an additional 20% off. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. This episode is brought to you by Sejo. A new season always makes me want to reset things. My space, my routine, how my mornings feel, and honestly, upgrading my bedding has made a big difference. And that's why I have been loving Sejo Home. I have the Aerie Weight Eucalyptus Sheets from Sejo. They have a lightweight feel, cool to the touch texture, and now my bed feels like a real reset at the end of a long day. I know that every little bit
30:58 Kaelyn Moore? of improvement I can do with my sleep routine makes a huge difference. And so I'm so happy I was able to get Sejo Sheets. The Aerie Weight Sheets are made with Tencel Liocell, they're doctor recommended, Ecotec certified, and even HSA and FSA eligible, which I genuinely did not know was a thing for bedding. And if you're someone who prefers a more lived in texture, their Lux Weave French Linen Sheets are stone washed and get softer with every wash. Really beautiful for a bedroom refresh. Go to sejohome.com and use code HSP to get 20% off your first order. That's S I J O H O M E dot com and use code HSP for 20% off at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Bigelow Tea. By now, you should all know that I'm
31:39 Kaelyn Moore? obviously a very curious person, and I'm also a big tea drinker. So I have always heard about this tea called Bigelow Constant Comment. It's been around forever and people absolutely love it. I realized I had no idea what it actually tasted like. Obviously, I had to investigate, and now I'm obsessed. Constant Comment is this incredible black tea with real orange rind, cold pressed orange oil, and sweet spices. The best way I can describe it is it's like Christmas in a cup, except you get to drink it all year long. Then I learned the story behind it, which made me love it even more. Constant Comment was created By Ruth Campbell Bigelow and her New York City Kitchen in 1945. She shared it with her friends and everyone kept talking about it. And all of those constant comments actually gave it its name.
32:24 Kaelyn Moore? The recipe is still a Bigelow family secret over 80 years later. So this one is a mystery worth investigating for yourself. Bigelow Constant Comment. Curiously different, impossible to forget.
32:37 Kaelyn Moore? The day after the Notaway Fire, May 16th. Maybe everyone thought that day would be a chill day in the area. Maybe they were finally reaching some equilibrium after Annabelle's departure. But no, once again, the people of New Orleans woke up to a very shocking notification. That night, at 12:23 a.m., 10 inmates from the New Orleans Parish Prison had managed to escape and were currently on the run. So, security footage shows the men running out of the prison in the dead of night with their orange and white uniforms on, using blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire fence, and then running across an interstate into a neighborhood. And these seem to be particularly scary inmates, I should add.
33:20 Kaelyn Moore? The men all ranged in age from 19 to 42 years old and had been imprisoned for a variety of different offenses, from domestic abuse battery to rape to murder. A few of them were imprisoned for life without parole. Not necessarily the people you would hope would be fleeing through the woods in your backyard. Initially, it seemed like faulty locks were the source of the escape, especially after it came out that days before the prisoners were able to flee, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office asked for money to fix faulty locks on the cells. But those who were familiar with the prison knew that it would have been nearly impossible to escape without help. And that's when a little bit more about the escape started coming to light.
34:03 Kaelyn Moore? So, one of the escapees, Derek Groves, was there for a 2018 Mardi Gras shooting that earned him a life sentence without parole. He actually is still currently on the run, but he was dating a woman named Darianna Burton, who used to work for the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, but she was let go for smuggling contraband into the prison for inmates. It's now Believed that she aided in the escape plan by helping the prisoners communicate with people outside of the jail that could help them. A janitor was also discovered to have cut the water supply to a toilet so that it could be removed. And it seems like the prison wasn't aware that the escape had taken place until a routine head count in the morning, when a guard finally realized that 10 people were missing.
34:45 Kaelyn Moore? Eventually, a hole in the prison was found with the words "too easy lol" scrawled above it. I will add here that while eight of the prisoners who escaped have been recaptured, there are still two people that are on the run, and people in the area are still on high alert. Was this back-to-back mayhem the work of Annabelle, or was it just mere coincidence? Why was all of this happening so soon after her visit to the area? Well, people didn't really have a chance to even think about that question, because that's when the next fire erupted. On May 19th, just days after the Notaway Fire and prison escape, Judy Voudreau awoke
35:28 Kaelyn Moore? to the smell of smoke and popping sounds coming from her kitchen. Immediately, she rose from her bed and her heart sank, because she was living on one of the most spiritual sites in all of New Orleans, a site that is a stop on every single voodoo tour that goes through the city. Judy lived in a cottage that was built on top of Marie Laveau's original home. Now, Marie Laveau was the most famous voodoo priestess to ever live in New Orleans. She was known for appearing to never age and for carrying a snake named Zombie around her neck at all times. Born in 1801, Marie grew up to be what some people called the most powerful figure in New Orleans society. People both feared and respected her like she was a Machiavellian prince.
36:13 Kaelyn Moore? She made such an impact that the New York Times actually ran her obituary when she died in 1881. And there are so many stories of how Marie could use voodoo to help people in New Orleans, like the time that a wealthy businessman approached her. His son had been accused of murdering a Crayole girl, and his father begged Marie to use her powers to help exonerate him of the crime. Marie agreed, but only if the man would sign over all of his land to her. The businessman agreed to it and she got to work. According to the legend, Marie went to the St. Louis Cathedral with Zombie, her snake wrapped around her neck, and she prayed at the altar as she held three spicy guinea peppers in her mouth.
36:56 Kaelyn Moore? She asked that the pain she felt from these peppers be penance for the crime committed. And then she took those three guinea peppers and placed one under the judge's seat, one under the jury, and one under the seat of the businessman's son. He was eventually acquitted of the crime and the land was all signed over to Marie. To this day, her house has remained a pillar of New Orleans spiritual history, but that almost all changed on May 19th. Luckily, the fire department was able to put out the fire in about two and a half hours, but that didn't stop it from creeping up the walls, damaging the kitchen and other parts of the house with fire and smoke damage. And once again, the internet cried, "Annabelle!
37:41 Kaelyn Moore? All of this mayhem started just after she left. It seemed like she somehow changed the spiritual makeup of the area and now everything was going haywire."
37:52 Kaelyn Moore? After New Orleans, Annabelle was sent to the Psychic and Spirit Fest in San Antonio, Texas. The event, which was put on by Curious Twins Paranormal at Victoria's Black Swan Inn, was a festival of booths that included tarot card readers, psychics, mediums, crystals, potions, as well as day-long programs of speakers, paranormal investigators, and even a demonologist. But the main event was being able to see Annabelle. And it was actually here that we had some members of the Heart's Artbound community go and see her, though no one reported any bite marks or bruises. I trust that's because you guys went to lengths to make sure you'd be okay in her presence. It was at this stop, though, that rumors started swirling that she had gone missing.
38:37 Kaelyn Moore? A TikTok that has since been debunked claimed that after Annabelle left San Antonio, she was on her way to Chicago for another stop on her tour when she somehow vanished. Ryan with Nesbur did jump onto TikTok pretty much right away, and he debunked this. He let everyone know that she was never going to Chicago and she never got lost along the way. After San Antonio, she went straight back to the Warren Museum in Connecticut, and that's where she is right now. And so, it seems like this leg of her tour ended on a much calmer note, considering how chaotic it had become. But, I will add, this tour is far from over. Annabelle does have some more stops this year, should you be brave enough to go see her.
39:22 Kaelyn Moore? She'll be at an orphanage in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from July 11th to July 13th, and then she's going to be in Rock Island, Illinois from October 4th through October 5th. After that, I believe she's ending her tour at Scare Fest in Lexington, Kentucky, October 17th through 19th, just in time for spooky season. But, what do you guys think? Will the second leg of her tour be as spiritually chaotic as the first? Can anywhere in the US truly top New Orleans when it comes to spirits? I'm honestly not sure myself, but let me know wherever you listen, if you plan on seeing Annabelle while you can, or is she better off left alone?
40:07 Kaelyn Moore? That's all I have for you this week. We're off next week, but we'll be back with the start of our Dark Summer series, kicking off the second week of July, starting with terrifying camping stories. Until then, stay curious.
40:25 Kaelyn Moore? Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kaelyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartstarts pounding.com.
40:42 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by our partner, Vistaprint. If you run a small business, you know that there's a moment where you go from just doing the thing you love to realizing you need stuff, like physical stuff. Custom merch for an event, branded apparel for your team, business cards that actually look professional. That was definitely me with Heart Starts Pounding. What started as a podcast I made in my closet turned into something that had merch, had mugs, had stickers, had all of this stuff that I needed to get made. And Vistaprint made it so much less overwhelming. They are a true print expert. Premium quality products, fast turnaround, and design tools that actually make sense. I actually got custom mugs made from Vistaprint and they are gorgeous and very, very good quality.
41:24 Kaelyn Moore? The quality feels expensive without having an expensive price tag. There's a reason over 17 million businesses trust Vistaprint with their print needs. Vistaprint, print your possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Do you want more Darkly Curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven-day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com/hartstarts pounding.
42:09 Kaelyn Moore? But whatever you do, stay curious.
Previous 125. Zombie Illnesses: Rabies, Parasites and Prions Next 127. Camping Horror Stories // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2 Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated