The truth? The movie Annabelle is all fabricated and nothing about it is true aside from the doll. However as the ending scene does leading to the beginning scenes of the Conjuring, the doll is REAL!!
The true story is that a nursing student named Donna received a birthday present from her mother, which happened to be a Raggedy Ann Doll that she bought from some old hobby store. Donna sets the doll on her bed and then forgets about her just like an other present. However, shortly after, Donna and her roommate Angie began to notice that the doll would switch positions and move around their apartment on its own while they were gone. Donna and Angie then began noticing childlike messages that had been scribbled onto parchment paper, such as "Help Us" or "Help Lou," which they concluded must have came from the doll after searching for such paper and pencils, that were nowhere to be found in their apartment.
Soon they called upon a medium, where whatever form is within the doll claims the form of being the spirit of a young girl who once played in that property years before their time and died by a car accident and only wants to be loved. Being nurses who care for people, they felt the need to help and allow the "spirit" to take possession of the doll. Sadly, things later started escalating when Donna's fiancé, Lou, who doesn't believe in the thing possessing the doll to be a spirit, started staying with them. He later starts experiencing reoccurring nightmares, but one time he ends up waking up, not having the ability to move and sees the Annabelle doll by his feet, crawling up him and starts strangling him to the point he passes out. Then, the next morning he wakes up certain it wasn't a dream and determined to get rid of the doll and whatever spirit possessed it.
However, before doing so he had another terrifying experience, where when Angie and Lou were preparing for a road trip they start hearing rustling sounds from Donna's room. Thinking it was someone that broke into the apartment Lou goes to check on what it may be, only to find out that Annabelle was tossed on the floor on the corner of the room. While going to pick up the doll, he feels a terrifying presences behind him. Cautious, he turns quickly to the sight of nothing, but leaves with mysterious bloody claw-like scratches across his chest and claims Annabelle responsible for them.
After being informed of the doll through a priest that Donna contacted, Ed and Lorraine Warren came to investigate. Donna, Angie and Lou soon found out that Annabelle Higgins doesn't exist and that whatever is possessing the doll is possibly some evil entity dying to get Donna's soul. At the recommendation of the Warren's, an exorcism of the apartment was performed and at Donna's request, the Warren's took the Annabelle doll into their possession where it still remains today.
Real Annabelle Doll - Annabelle Movie True Story, Annabelle Higgins.HistoryvsHollywood.com. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/annabelle/>.
The Conjuring True Story - Real Bathsheba Witch, Real Perron Family.HistoryvsHollywood.com. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/conjuring.php>.