The Perron Family Haunting (The Conjuring House)

In January 1971 Roger and Carolyn Perron moved their five daughters into an old farmhouse on Round Top Road in Harrisville, a village in the town of Burrillville, Rhode Island. They stayed until 1980. The family says that from the first days the house was full of spirits, some gentle and some hostile. Ed and Lorraine Warren came to investigate. Forty years later the case became the basis of the 2013 film The Conjuring.

The house and its age

Carolyn Perron found the property in June 1970, according to her eldest daughter Andrea. The family moved in that winter. The farmhouse is often called the Arnold Estate after an early owning family.

Its age is not settled. Global News, summarising the family’s account, said it was built in 1693. A 2021 sale listing reported by Fox stations described it as built around 1826. NBC 10 called it a 1736 house in 2022, and that date appears in most retellings. We have not seen a deed or survey that fixes the date, so treat all three dates with care.

Earlier versions of this page also listed a run of deaths on the property. They said children drowned in the well, a farmhand was found dead in the barn, and suicides by hanging, poisoning and drowning had occurred there. They said local historians counted eight generations of tragedy. We could not trace any of this to a historian or a record. Andrea Perron has said she believes a “Mrs. Arnold” hanged herself in the barn in 1797. That is her claim, and we have not found a document that confirms it. We have removed the rest.

What the family describe

The family’s account is long and detailed. It is told mainly in Andrea Perron’s House of Darkness House of Light, published in three volumes, and in interviews she and her sisters gave after the film came out.

They describe doors opening, objects moving, beds shaking and the smell of rot in some rooms. They describe a benign spirit they called Manny, and others that seemed tied to former residents. Carolyn, they say, was the main target of a hostile presence. Andrea told NBC 10 in 2013 that the film “has every element of our haunting.” She also called the house “a portal cleverly disguised as a farm house.”

Earlier versions of this page described specific attacks as fact. They said Carolyn was pushed down stairs, scratched until she bled, pinned to her bed and possessed, speaking in languages she did not know. They described a grey woman doing chores and a ghost boy who befriended April. Some of these themes appear in the family’s telling. We could not match the specific details on this page to a published account, so we have cut them back to what the sources above support.

Bathsheba Sherman

The film made Bathsheba Sherman its villain, a witch who sacrificed her baby and cursed the land. The real woman was a local resident of the nineteenth century. Andrea Perron has said she was born in 1812, died in 1885 after a stroke, and is buried in Harrisville with her family.

Local legend says Bathsheba was accused of killing an infant in her care. Andrea told Global News that Bathsheba was involved in an inquest but never charged, and that no evidence supports the witchcraft story. The same article notes that she is said to have lived on the Sherman farm, about a mile from the Arnold Estate, and that her link to the Perron house has not been proven.

Earlier versions of this page said witnesses saw her body twisted and turned to stone when she died. That is folklore. We found no record of it. Andrea herself now says the hostile spirit was more likely Mrs. Arnold than Bathsheba.

Bathsheba’s grave has drawn so many visitors that it has been damaged. PBS has reported on the Burrillville historians Carlo and Betty Mencucci, who restore desecrated graves in the town. Her tombstone was knocked over so often that it broke, and they restored it. They describe her as an ordinary woman who probably died of a stroke in her seventies.

The Warrens and the séance

Ed and Lorraine Warren were already known for their work on hauntings when they came to the farmhouse. Andrea Perron told Global News that they visited about six times over a year, mostly when Roger was not at home. Lorraine described herself as clairvoyant.

The visits ended with a séance. Andrea says her mother was thrown from the dining room into the parlour and knocked unconscious. Roger then ordered the Warrens out. Andrea says their last visit was around 1974, when Carolyn refused them entry. Andrea has also said that the film’s version of the séance is not accurate.

Earlier versions of this page described Carolyn’s chair rising several feet, her speaking Latin, and her lunging at Lorraine. We found no source for those details. They match the film more than the family’s account, so we have removed them.

We have not found a case report on the Perrons published by the Warrens in the 1970s. Ed Warren died in 2006. Andrea has said he asked Lorraine to let the story be told while she was alive.

Why they stayed

The family remained until 1980. Andrea has said they felt they belonged there before they even moved in. Money was a factor too, as with many families in haunting cases. Earlier versions of this page said activity peaked each year in late October and November. We could not find a source for that pattern.

Later owners

Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich bought the house in 1987. They said they lived there in peace. After the film came out they were overrun by visitors and trespassers, and in 2015 they sued Warner Bros. The case was dismissed in December 2017.

Cory Heinzen bought the house in 2019 for a little over $400,000. He rented it to overnight guests and reported doors opening and closing, footsteps, knocking and a black mist. In May 2022 NBC 10 reported its sale to Jacqueline Nuñez, a Boston developer, for $1.5 million, nearly four times the earlier price. We have not confirmed who runs the house today.

So the record after 1980 is mixed. One couple lived there for decades and said nothing unusual happened. Later owners, who came because of the haunting, report activity. Both are what each group would be expected to say, which makes it hard to weigh either.

The film and how to read the case

James Wan’s The Conjuring opened in July 2013. Andrea Perron worked on it as a volunteer consultant. She has said it compresses a decade into a few weeks and captures only a small part of what happened. The film adds a family motel stay, an exorcism and a Bathsheba backstory that the historical record does not support.

The case rests on the testimony of one family, told in detail decades after the events. Their accounts are consistent with each other. They are also shaped by years of retelling and, since 2013, by a film franchise. No photographs, recordings or contemporary written notes from the 1970s have been published. Skeptics point to old-house noises, family suggestion and the influence of the Warrens, whose methods have been criticised in other cases. Believers point to the number of witnesses and how long the family endured it.

We class the haunting as unverified. The family, the house, the Warrens’ visits and the real Bathsheba Sherman are all documented. The spirits are a matter of testimony.

Sources

• Chris Jancelewicz, “‘Bathsheba: Search for Evil’ tells true story of the Perron family”, Global News, 7 October 2021 - Andrea Perron interview on move-in, the Warrens’ visits, the séance and Bathsheba Sherman
• R.J. Heim, “Before Amityville, there was Harrisville”, NBC 10 WJAR, 17 July 2013 - Andrea Perron’s quotes on the house and the film
• Wikipedia, The Conjuring - film details and the Sutcliffe and Helfrich lawsuit
• “‘The Conjuring’ farmhouse in Rhode Island on the market”, Fox 9, 24 September 2021 - listing, acreage and the circa 1826 build date
• “House made famous in ‘The Conjuring’ scares up $1.5 million sale price”, WJLA (WJAR report) - the 2022 sale to Jacqueline Nuñez and Cory Heinzen’s ownership
• PBS, “A Grave Business” (video) - Carlo and Betty Mencucci restoring Burrillville graves, including Bathsheba Sherman’s