Interesting recent discovery!
About 25 or so years ago (around 1995 I think) a woman came into the music store I was running at the time, situated in central Auckland’s cool and buzzing Karangahape Road. She had heard through word of mouth by mutual friends or musical acquaintances, that I was interested in the paranormal and had collected a few items of an allegedly haunted nature through the years. She brought in a doll to give me. It was her daughter’s doll; but the daughter was having some disturbing issues with it. The girl had claimed numerous times that the doll was talking to her.
The doll itself, I know nothing about the maker or its origins. It has a pull-cord which, when pulled a few times supposedly makes the doll talk through various short phrases. The talk-box gadget inside the doll was faulty and had broken many years ago. Even before it was given to the daughter. The doll originally belonged to the woman’s mother. On her mother’s passing, the doll was eventually handed down to the daughter. From Grandmother to Granddaughter.
As mentioned above, the pull cord mechanism no longer worked. However, the doll would say phrases to the girl at night from over where it sat on a shelf.
I wasn’t told what the doll talked about. Only that it had terrified the daughter to the point she tried to throw it out with the rubbish numerous times. The woman didn’t want this hand-me-down to be destroyed or lost like that. Even when the mother put the doll in her own closet to keep it safe, the daughter would find it and put it in the rubbish bin.
Back then, I never thought at the time to get the woman’s contact details. I just took it as an intriguing new addition to my slowly growing collection.
Recently, I picked up the doll, and decided I’d have a go at repairing the voice box. It seemed like it might be easy enough. The cord still pulled; it just didn’t engage with the voice-box mechanism. The box is inside the stomach area encased in padding, under the lining. This is covered with a dome-buttoned ‘’bum’’-flap on its pink, spotted romper suit costume.
Undoing the domes, one was so locked tight I tore the fabric it was attached to. Underneath I found the fabric had been cut in a line along the stitching. Inside the padding, on top of the voice box was a tightly folded, handwritten note. The note says ‘’Leave me Alone’’.
The mother mentioned nothing of this note and I’m assuming the daughter wrote it. To whom her words are directed at, I guess I’ll never really know.
I’m posting this here, hoping for the slightest chance the woman (or someone who remembers the doll?) might read it, remember me and make contact.
I can’t believe I’ve had this thing for over 25 years and never noticed it. A bit creepy, but so freaking intriguing!
Please see photos below of the doll and the note.
