American Horror Story: Was This Elsa Doll Possessed?

On Christmas day 2013 one family residing in the Houston, Texas Area celebrated Christmas and unbeknownst to them, one seemingly normal gift would change their lives forever. Emily Madonia, the mother in the family, had gifted an Elsa Doll to her daughter. Elsa is a fictional character who appears in the Disney’s popular 2013 Frozen movie. While this mass-produced doll acted completely normal in the beginning, as time progressed odd things and strange events would begin happening with the doll. In this post we will examine this modern-day paranormal story and discuss whether these events were real or fake

This story was documented in posts by Emily Madonia on her Facebook page. 

Like much paranormal activity, activity around this object was slow in the beginning. For the first two years all activity surrounding Elsa was seemingly normal. When the pearl necklace was pressed, as expected, the doll began singing the popular song “Let It Go” in English.

Two years later, in 2015, the strange activity would begin though. For example, Elsa would begin singing “let it go” in both English and Spanish although there was no button that switches between these two. As time progressed, the doll would begin to randomly speak or sing, even when the power button was in the off position. 

In 2019, while cleaning, Emily Madonia decided to trash the doll, and this is when things truly began to get terrifying and weird. 

After throwing the doll away, weeks later the family found the doll inside of a bench in their living room. After confronting her children, Emily was adamant her kids didn’t drag it out of the trash. The doll at this point only began speaking in Spanish.

To ensure the doll was disposed of, This time emily and her husband Mat double bagged the garbage and threw it at the bottom of the can. They then wheeled the garbage can to the road on garbage day and ot was hauled away. 

The family would go out of town and was horrified when weeks later the same Elsa doll would appear in the backyard. Emily Madonia was adamant that it was the same one as it had been colored on by her daughter in a specific way. 

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To get rid of the doll for good, the family mailed Elsa to a family friend residing in Minnesota. The man, Chris Hogan, attached the doll to the hood of his car and says if it escapes, he’ll sink it in a lake. 

Since this event occurred, the doll appears to have stayed away from the Madonia family. However, the family though seems to still experience strange activity in their home such as doors opening and closing by themselves and lights turning on and off. 

While this case is an interesting one, there’s certainly some things that are explainable in this case. For one, there are Elsa dolls that speak in English and Spanish, so it’s completely plausible that this version of Elsa was miscategorized for some reason by the manufacturer. It’s also not unheard of for toys to work when in the off position or with no batteries. This is actually quite common and can be due to things like the battery dying or faulty equipment. 

As far as Elsa returning from the garbage, other than the paranormal, there are a few other explanations. 

One is simply this was a prank perpetrated by someone. It is a strange prank surely, but someone could have dug through the garbage and pulled the doll. One important thing to note as well is that on the second occasion there was time between when the garbage was thrown to the bottom and when it was picked up. This means someone could have dug through it at night and pulled the doll. 

While this does seem like a lot, if someone outside the immediate family did this, we have to consider they committed breaking and entering. However, it could have been a friend doing this. 

Another theory is that this story was made up, or completely fabricated by someone in the family, most likely Emily. It’s not clear if she benefitted financially much from this, but it appears she received quite a bit of attention. 

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One criticism of this story is that there doesn’t appear to be any other unbiased adult witnesses. The only other adult individual who saw these events was Matt, Emily’s husband. 

Still, we must acknowledge haunted dolls exist throughout the world and often there is no apparent reason why they are haunted. This lends credence to the Madonia’s claims as there’s no reason why they couldn’t have picked up a haunted object or perhaps an entity inside their home could have possessed the doll.  

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Haunted Dolls are said to be handmade or stuffed dolls that are cursed or possessed. However, the way these dolls are cursed or become possessed is not always evident. We see this with other animate objects too that are said to be haunted as well such as paintings. That said, it is believable this doll could be possessed without any evident source. It’s also more likely the doll would be possessed rather than cursed as the family doesn’t seem to be practice the occult. 

One final thought concerns the treatment of Elsa now. If it is truly haunted or cursed, perhaps the wisest thing isn’t to tape it to the front of the car. The doll could easily see this as disrespectful, and it could target the man holding it now. Perhaps Chris Hogan might want to visit Key West and see the stacks of apology letter to Robert the doll, for being disrespectful. 

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