Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Daughter: Judy Spera Today

Last updated: October 9, 2026

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Ed and Lorraine Warren — the world-famous paranormal investigators behind The Conjuring films — had exactly one child: a daughter named Judy. Now known as Judy Spera, she is very much alive in 2026, married to her husband of nearly four decades, Tony Spera, and living in Connecticut. While Hollywood turned her childhood into horror-movie drama, the real Judy grew up mostly with her grandparents, kept her distance from the ghost-hunting world for years, and today helps carry her parents’ legacy.

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Quick Answer

Yes, Ed and Lorraine Warren had a daughter: Judy Warren, now Judy Spera, born in 1951 — their only child. She married former police officer Tony Spera in the mid-1980s and the couple has been together for nearly 40 years. Judy is alive and living in Connecticut as of 2026, and she and Tony remain connected to the Warrens’ occult museum collection. One legacy detail fans love: she appears in a cameo alongside Tony in The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025).

Illustration for Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren

Who Are Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren?

Ed Warren (1926–2006) was a self-taught demonologist, author, and lecturer, and Lorraine Warren (1927–2019) was a professed clairvoyant and trance medium. Together the Connecticut couple investigated some of the most famous alleged hauntings in American history — the Amityville case, the Enfield poltergeist, and the Perron family haunting that inspired The Conjuring. In 1952 they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), which they described as the oldest ghost-hunting group in New England, and they claimed to have investigated thousands of cases over their careers.

Lorraine Warren was the public face of the pair in later years, consulting on the early Conjuring films before her death in April 2019 at age 92. Their case files became the foundation of The Conjuring Universe, one of the most successful horror franchises ever made, turning the Warrens into pop-culture legends. Skeptics have long questioned their evidence, but their influence on horror cinema is undisputed.

Judy Spera: Life Timeline

  • 1951: Judy Warren is born, the only child of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Because her parents were constantly traveling for investigations, she spends much of her childhood living with her grandmother Georgiana and attends Catholic school.
  • Late September 1979: Judy meets Anthony “Tony” Spera, then a police officer in Bloomfield, Connecticut. According to his own telling, he spotted her while writing a report, briefly pursued her flashing-light style, and a fellow officer later introduced them. They begin dating.
  • Mid-1980s: Judy and Tony marry after roughly six years of dating. Ed is said to have given his blessing somewhat reluctantly — a moment the filmmakers of The Conjuring: Last Rites dramatized as a “botched proposal.” By 2019, major outlets described Tony as her husband of 33 years, placing the wedding around 1986.
  • August 23, 2006: Ed Warren dies at age 79 in Monroe, Connecticut. Lorraine continues the work and the museum alongside Judy and Tony.
  • April 18, 2019: Lorraine Warren dies at age 92. The Occult Museum — the sealed room in the Warrens’ home housing Annabelle and other artifacts — is closed to the public later that year, with Tony Spera taking responsibility for the collection and the NESPR legacy.
  • 2025: The Conjuring: Last Rites releases in theaters, centered on the Warrens’ fictionalized Smurl haunting case with adult Judy (played by Mia Tomlinson) at its heart. The real Judy and Tony Spera both make cameo appearances in the film. Comedian Matt Rife also makes headlines by announcing he has become the legal guardian of the Warrens’ home and occult museum collection for at least five years, while ownership of many items, including the Annabelle doll, remains with Judy and Tony.
  • 2026: Judy Spera remains alive and based in Connecticut, maintaining a low public profile while the Warren legacy — films, the museum collection, and the NESPR — continues to draw global attention.

Latest Updates

The biggest recent development in the Warren story came in 2025, when The Conjuring: Last Rites was released as the supposed final chapter of the main Conjuring saga. The film puts a fictionalized adult Judy Warren front and center — including a dramatized version of her 1986 wedding to Tony — and the real Judy and Tony can be spotted in cameo roles during the film’s party scenes. Director Michael Chaves has noted publicly that the real Judy was never possessed, unlike her on-screen counterpart, and that the botched-proposal scene was only partly true: the real proposal was genuinely botched, but the ping-pong showdown with Ed was invented.

In a separate 2025 surprise, comedian Matt Rife announced he had purchased the Warrens’ Connecticut home and its Occult Museum and become the legal guardian of the haunted collection, including the Annabelle doll, for at least five years. Reports at the time stressed that ownership of many artifacts still sits with Judy and Tony Spera, and the couple has kept the legacy alive through the NESPR, whose stated mission is to carry on the paranormal exploration begun by Ed and Lorraine Warren.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Did Ed and Lorraine Warren have children?
Yes — one. Their only child was their daughter Judy, born in 1951, who married Tony Spera and goes by Judy Spera today.

Is Judy Warren still alive in 2026?
Yes. Judy Spera is alive and living in Connecticut. Reports from 2025 described her as 75 years old and confirmed she remains involved with her family’s legacy.

Who is Judy Spera’s husband?
Anthony “Tony” Spera, a former Bloomfield, Connecticut police officer she met in September 1979. He became a paranormal researcher, worked alongside Ed and Lorraine, and after their deaths took charge of the Occult Museum collection and the NESPR.

Was Judy Warren ever possessed, like in the movies?
No. The possession storyline in The Conjuring: Last Rites is fiction. The film’s director has confirmed the real Judy was never possessed by a demon. She has, however, spoken in interviews about experiencing strange dreams and warnings she couldn’t explain — and about staying away from the paranormal world for much of her life out of fear.

Faizi is a content writer at AllAboutFacts (hotteamnames.com), covering vocabulary, language tips, and everyday explainers.

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