A handful of creepy dolls keep getting washed up on a Texas shoreline and researchers have no idea why it keeps happening.
Jace Tunnell, director of the Mission-Aransas Reserve at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, surveys a 40-mile stretch of Golf Coast beach with his team twice a week. On multiple occasions, they have been finding various types of dolls that have turned even creepier during their time in the water.
The first doll head was found in January 2021 and was eventually purchased by a member of the public for $35. Mission-Aransas Reserve was able to donate to a sea turtle rescue program. All of the dolls the team finds are now being kept in a bucket to be sold at the reserve’s annual fundraising auction.
Since posting about the creepy dolls on their Facebook page, their following has greatly increased with several people asking to see more disturbing dolls. The researchers have found around 30 dolls since the first but continue to find more almost every time they’re out surveying the beach.
In a study conducted by the group, Tunnell said: “Texas coastal bend beaches get 10 times the amount of trash … than any other beach in the Gulf of Mexico.” That’s compared to what researchers in Mississippi and Florida found after conducting similar surveys.
Tunnell said that a “loop current” stretching from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida is the reason for the area getting more trash washed up onshore. The current creates eddies that washes debris toward the Texas coast. As for how these creepy dolls manage to always show up, that mystery still remains.