Matt Rife: Family of Man He Told to Kill Himself Demands Apology

Matt Rife is catching tons of flak for telling a paranormal expert with autism to kill himself ... and now that man's family is demanding the comic issue a public apology.

Here's the deal ... Matt launched a social media attack against paranormal investigator Chris Mac, telling him to "please remove yourself from this earth"... all this because Chris asked Matt not to put the infamous Annabelle doll he owns in a certain place at the Haunted Warren Museum.

Kevin Mac, Chris' dad, tells TMZ ... the family is "irate" with Matt over the "unprovoked" comment.

He tells us his son didn't mean anything by the message and was just expressing a concern. Kevin says Chris is "mentally handicapped" -- and this public ridicule is devastating him.

Chris tells TMZ ... he was angry after he saw Matt's comment ... adding, "Why should I forgive him? He's not going to say sorry."

A source close to Matt told us the comedian is relentlessly bullied in the comment section of his posts with "vile" remarks attacking him ... and he responds to the trolls, and then the troll deletes their comment. We were told there is context missing from Matt's exchange with Chris because some of the comments are deleted.

Matt and his pal, Elton Castee, charge people up to $166 for admission to the Haunted Warren Museum -- and that has rubbed a lot of people in the paranormal community the wrong way ... they say they investigate these cases out of passion, not money.

Time will tell if Matt issues an apology -- or ghosts the family.