Famous paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren died Thursday night at the age of 92. She was best known for her leading role in investigating the Amityville horror hauntings, which inspired the 2013 horror film The Conjuring.
Warren's death was announced by her grandson Chris McKinnon on Facebook. "Last night my grandmother, Lorraine Warren, quietly and peacefully left us to join her beloved Ed," he wrote in the public post, which showed a handful of photos of Warren. "She was happy and laughing until the very end. She was my angel and my hero, and she will be deeply missed. Please join us in celebrating her life and honoring her beautiful soul. Remember to treasure those you love while you can. Thank you and God bless you all."
Vera Farminga, who played Warren in The Conjuring, shared her grief on Twitter Friday morning. "My dear friend Lorraine Warren has passed," she wrote. "From a deep feeling of sorrow, a deep feeling of gratitude emerges. I was so blessed to have known her and am honored to portray her. She lived her life in grace and cheerfulness. She wore a helmet of salvation, she dawned her sword…"
The New England Society for Psychic Research, which Warren and her late husband, Ed Warren, started, also shared a note about her death. "The NESPR team regretfully announces the passing of our loving teacher, mentor, friend, mother, Lorraine," read the post, accompanied by multiple photos.
Warren and her husband were both renowned for their work in paranormal investigation and demonology. Though The Conjuring may be the story that most know Warren from, she had an influence on a handful of horror films. The first was The Amityville Horror, which premiered in 1979. It was followed by A Haunting in Connecticut and Annabelle.
The couple owned the Annabelle doll that inspired the horror movie, a supposedly true story of a doll controlled by a demon. When a mother and daughter bought the doll, they soon realized it was haunted when Annabelle began leaving notes and changing her positions. They were told the doll was in fact inhabited by the spirit of a young girl who just wanted love. It was the Warrens, though, who came to believe the doll was possessed.
Annabelle being just one of their many haunted possessions, the couple opened Warren's Occult Museum, which also holds the Conjuring mirror and the shadow doll.
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