Paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, whose experiences inspired Hollywood horror films, dies aged 92
- Warren’s decades of ghost-hunting cases with her late husband were portrayed in frightening films like ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘The Amityville Horror’
Worldwide paranormal investigator and author Lorraine Warren, whose decades of ghost-hunting cases with her late husband inspired such frightening films as The Conjuring series and The Amityville Horror, died. She was 92.
Warren’s son-in-law Tony Spera and grandson Chris McKinnell posted on Facebook on Friday that Warren died in her sleep on Thursday night at her Connecticut home. Phone messages and emails were left with several of Warren’s family members. Warren’s lawyer, Gary Barkin, confirmed his client’s death via email.
“She was a remarkable, loving, compassionate and giving soul,” Spera wrote.
The Warrens founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in Monroe, Connecticut, in 1952 to investigate suspected hauntings. The group also posted of her passing on Facebook.
During their 61 years of marriage, Lorraine and Ed Warren investigated more than 10,000 cases in the US and abroad, often writing about their experiences. Their unusual profession has been credited with sparking popular interest in the paranormal, as well as the television shows and films now dedicated to the subject.
“When nobody was really even talking about ghosts, they were just two people from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who came together and fell in love and Ed happened to have had a lot of paranormal instances when he was growing up and Lorraine was always the sensitive clairvoyant,” said Larry Dwyer, a staff writer at the Horror News Network, a website that covers the horror film industry. He said the couple realised they could use their “gifts” and Catholic faith to help people who believed they were being tormented by ghosts or demons.