Haunted Shirley: The Haunted Doll Study Begins

"Happy birthday! Sending you a premature gift" (my birthday is September 17th). And so, on August 25th, a large well-padded box arrived with a wee Shirley Temple doll. She is one of my favorites as a kid with the red curly locks and singing and dancing. But, this Shirley was a few shades of wrong. Let's begin the ongoing study of a supposedly haunted doll sent to me by a beloved and methodical researcher - 

The first thing that got me was the eyes. What was up with that? From her background (more on that below), she was in a box. If she had been exposed to light, her other coloring, like clothing and face paint would have faded too, but her coloring was robust. Look at her compared to how she is supposed to look (right).

I opened up the note inside the box that gave the background on the doll. Dr. Linda Clarke of Flint Hills Paranormal did an excellent job, as always, of documenting and following up. Here (in italics) is what she had to share - 

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Here is the history and information I know about this doll I am sending you. Just please be careful and know that it is manipulative. I hope the research you do with it finds some solutions to some of these questions we are seeking. This doll may be the real deal.

On August 4, 2018, Brandy and I were in the historic and very haunted part of Topeka (Kansas) looking at some old buildings where so much of the violence happened, pre- and during the Civil War. The river area was extremely violent as North Topeka (across the river) were Confederate sympathizers and those south of the river were Union devotees. Raids and fights broke out there continually with bodies being left by the river to rot. The Trails Gallery and Market is located under the bridge by the river.

We had never heard of it but found that it was a great gem of all kinds of goodies. Brandy was drawn twice into one booth, the second time seeing the doll. She said she felt compelled to come find me and bring me there so that we could purchase it. When I first saw it, I was taken aback and had a hard time catching my breath. I picked it up though…(no idea why I thought this was a good thing) and went to where the owner and I had talked about having an investigation due to a recent fire and amped up paranormal activity. He said that the doll had been left by the former owner of the booth. She had taken everything else. He noted that she was probably the most negative person he had ever met. Both he and his wife were “creeped out” by the doll and told me to take it for free, just to get it out of the flea market.

While we were talking, I started to feel lightheaded and was having a hard time catching my breath. The doll is weighted to sit on a shelf but the body is cloth with something in it to help weight it down, but honestly it felt warm and like a real body. I couldn’t then or now stand to touch it. I put the doll down on a table but Brandy immediately snatched it up, held it like a baby and carried around the store.There was a very ugly painting of a mother and child and for some reason she wanted it to put in her office, but I talked her out of it.

Since both of us were not sure about this doll, I put it in my truck. A bit later that night, I was cooking and the electric burner I was using caught fire. There was no grease or any reason for the fire. We started talking and Brandy realized that she almost bought that ugly painting and that she carried the doll around like a baby and felt very protective of it which isn’t like her. Being separated from it, she realized that it used her to try to get out of the flea market.

On the night of August 5, 2018, I put the doll in the car with a video camera, KII meter and recorder. I really didn’t get anything except a couple very small orbs coming out of the doll, but they were difficult to see. On the recorder, I got a few taps on the recorder, but they may not have been paranormal.

I had the doll in my truck, but the temperature climbed up into the 100s and I didn’t want to ruin it because I wanted to surprise you (Sharon Day) with it for your birthday, so I put it back on the porch. During that time, although my dogs are old and ill, they were really having heart problems and coughing all night. I started having heart palpitations and feeling very weak, as well. After a couple days, the temperature dropped so I put it back in the truck. Both the dogs and me improved immediately.

Not long after this is when I contacted you about sending you the doll since I wanted you to be aware of its possible nature. I don’t become affected by things like this often, but this doll seems to have some negativity about it. You know that I tried again to video and audio tape the doll the night of August 21, 2018 with no results. All I have so far for evidence is the audio EVP that I sent you where it said “let me out.” (I will share this audio below)

Another interesting thing is in doing the research on the doll, we found it is a collector type of Shirley Temple toddler doll from Danbury Mint. This doll has red eyes. A member of our team found a green-eyed one for sale on ebay #131664841827. This seller said that the man had it from had “bought a house in Missouri and it was completely empty except for the doll in a box in the master bedroom. She was looking up at him when he opened the box.” It creeped him out too.

There was a lady who claims to be a medium who saw the doll and wanted it. She said that since it had some Palo Santo around it, that it was bothering the doll and I should remove it. That there was a young spirit trapped in the doll. This is what she said “I would take it slow with this doll. My intuition is reading that the doll is either very shy (sad) or upset that it was moved. Very shy and sad comes in strong when upset. But these are the vibes I’m getting. I would show the doll lots of love but at a distance. Don’t expect too much too soon. Welcome the doll into your home. Ask if there is anything you can do to make her (Him, picking up a male vibrating here) feel better. Then, after a few days start asking if it’s okay to communicate.”

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Linda performed an EVP session with the doll and I noticed around the 3-minute mark a male voice saying one word at around the 3:02 mark (sounds almost Brit) 





On this video below, you can hear what to me sounds like "Please help me. Help me up" (whispered). I have repeated the EVP four times on the video so you can hear it over and over. 




I was anxious to unwrap the doll and give her a looking over.

I set her down on my office chair and put the KII meter near her. It was not showing any activity until I got closer to film her and then it began to flicker. I tested it and stepped back and it stopped. I assumed it was the cell phone causing it. I tried it again and it repeated. So, I went back to doing other things. Later, I decided to test it again, bringing the cell phone up to 4 inches away from the KII with not a single flicker. I thought logically, "okay, one and one, so I can't decide anything with a tie." I did it again, getting up on the doll with the cell phone and it flickered again and stopped when I backed off. 

The signal from the cell varies, so the key here is - NEVER PUT YOUR CELL WITHIN A COUPLE FEET OF A KII METER. It will cause interruptions. Many people film KII EVP sessions with cell phones, way too close.

I decide to do a psychometry read on her and was surprised what I found. Check this video -





Between taking photos of the doll and trying to upload video from the cell phone, the cell and the computer were having a very hard time communicating, sometimes showing the files missing, then back again, not wanting to upload, the cell phone battery draining from 100% to like 18% after taking a few photos of her. The electronic issues were ongoing when it concerned her. When I worked on other projects, no problems. That is incidental, but interesting.


Admittedly, as I walked around her where she sat in the chair, my foot slipped and toes collided with bookcase, breaking off the nails and causing some bleeding and pain, but it could have been my own klutziness. 

When I went to sleep that night, I left her in the chair staring at me 2 feet away. I turned the lights out, and began to her what sounded like male voices talking near the ceiling. It was most odd and made no sense. Then, I saw a dark shadow on the ceiling where the ceiling fan is, a huge black square. This was like the black square I described in the video above. I wondered for a moment if a portal had somehow opened. So, I laid back to sleep, knowing that you are always an open conduit in sleep states.

Oddly, I had a great sleep, pleasant dreams. I don't remember the details of them, but remember waking up feeling pleased.

I survived the night with Haunted Shirley. My team, Arizona Paranormal Research plans to do some extensive studies with her. We will be sharing the findings with the original study team, Flint Hills Paranormal. I highly recommend you follow them on Instagram, Facebook and check out their website. I love this team!

The study of Haunted Shirley will continue with regular updates. I am going to put a tab above to be able to visit the posts.