Calif. 'Creepy Dolls' Mystery Solved: The Church Lady Did It

Porcelain dolls left on the doorsteps of homes in an Orange County neighborhood, each doll resembling a young girl inside the house. Have at it, Los Angeles media. And use one word over and over and over. As John Cadiz Klemack, a KNBC reporter, said, "It is certainly creeping these folks out."

Neighborhood resident, Holly Bernstein, told KABC"It's just kind of a creepy thing. I don't know. It's just odd. It seems very odd." Another parent told KNBC, "I'm actually thinking the worst like someone creepy watching our children."

Here are two pictures of the dolls released by the Orange County Sheriff. The sheriff said they were notified Tuesday of dolls left at eight homes over the last week.

KCBS even found the mother of one girl who got a doll, who said, "We're very unsettled and obviously taking it very seriously as it concerns our daughters and little girls."

But by Thursday, police had their man -- actually, woman in this case. The culprit was a woman from church all the families attend.

KTTV reports, "That church member, a woman, was cleaning out her closet. And in that closet were all of these dolls. And some of them had red hair and some had blonde hair. So she matched them up with the children in these homes."

Investigators announced late Thursday night the woman whose daughters are grown thought the dolls would be nice gifts for girls in the neighborhood. The Orange County Sheriff's Twitter page called it an attempt at "goodwill."

​Though investigators said from the beginning there was no apparent crime here, every major TV station in Los Angeles did cover the bizarre situation. All stations also put the story in the first half of Thursday night's newscasts.