Morbid - Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

When Tina Bowen and her sister, Karen, began hearing knocking in the walls of their home in Pepperell, Massachusetts, the girls believed it was their recently deceased mother trying to reach out to them from beyond the grave. In time, however, the knocking became more intrusive and aggressive, and it was soon accompanied by objects being moved around the house and frightening messages left on the walls. After months of torment, the Bowens discovered that it wasn’t a ghost haunting their home, but sixteen-year-old Daniel LaPlante, a boy Tina had briefly dated and who’d become obsessed with her. Daniel LaPlante was arrested and charged with various crimes, for which he was convicted and served a sentence in a juvenile detention center. Unfortunately, the court’s decision to try LaPlante as an adult meant that he was granted bail and after just one year in detention, he was bailed out and allowed to live with his mother pending trial. It turned out that brief period of freedom was all the time LaPlante needed to find a new object of his obsession and by the time the police learned of his violent intentions, it was already too late. References Campbell, Jerome. 2019. Mass. High Court Rejects Early Parole Petition For Man Convicted Of Murder In 1987. June 6. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/06/06/daniel-laplante-parole-denied. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Daniel J. LaPlante. 1993. 416 Mass. 433 (Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, November 16). Conteras, Cydney. 2023. Daniel LaPlante hid in walls before murdering pregnant woman and her children. July 28. Accessed July 7, 2026. https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/daniel-laplante-murder-priscilla-gustafson-family. Crimaldi, Laura. 2017. "Doctor doubts killer's remorse." Boston Globe, March 23: B1. Cullen, Kevin, and Jim Gomez. 1987. "LaPlante ordered to undergo tests." Boston Globe, December 5: 1. Cullen, Kevin, Diego Ribadeneira, and Doris Wong. 1987. "Suspect in slayings is captured." Boston Globe, December 4: 1. Cullen, Kevin, Richard Kindleberger, Paul Langer, Diane Lewis, Diego Ribadeneira, and Doris Wong. 1987. "A youth who sowed fear." Boston Globe, December 4: 1. Lagner, Paul. 1988. "4 more letters given to judge in LaPlante murder case." Boston Globe, September 16: 82. Lane, Tom. 2021. The Elm Street Nightmare. July 8. Accessed July 7, 2026. https://www.celticssentinel.com/2021/07/the-elm-street-nightmare.html. Langner, Paul. 1988. "LaPlante convicted, gets life in 3 killings." Boston Globe, October 26: 1. Ribadeneira, Diego, and Doris Wong. 1987. "Police seeking 17-year-old suspect for slayings of three in Townsend." Boston Globe, December 3: 1. Ribadeneira, Diego, and Jim Gomez. 1987. "Two families shaken by close calls as suspect in murders roamed free." Boston Globe, December 5: 10. 2015. Your Worst Nightmare. Directed by Pat Rogers. Performed by Pat Rogers. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid in the Burr months. Happy September. I knew what to sing this time. Last time I didn't. I feel alive. Oh, yeah.

I feel powerful. I feel like we put practical magic on in the studio today and just had it play. And it was gorgeous. Well, we did our shit. Like, it's 70 degrees. Yeah. Barely. It's raining.

It's gloomy. We got yummy drinks this morning. We had good breakfast. We saw a dog. I yelled at that dog that I loved it and that I hope it had a great fucking day. It's true. And I'm having a great day. And we got cake because it's Caleb's birthday.

It is Caleb's birthday. Caleb of horror soup and scream fame. Hell yeah. If you see him in the streets. Say happy birthday, bitch. belated happy birthday because his birthday's today you missed it yeah so say hope your birthday was great hope your birthday was swell big fella yeah so we're gonna eat cake with him when we record scream later not marble cake because it came to my attention today that the two other people in this office don't like

marble cake no i hate marble cake i ordered a cake and i was like you guys like marble right and they both aden and elina were like what yeah and i thought they were fucking with me no where do you guys stand on marble cake. Let us know. I just have never liked it. I don't get it. I think you get the best of both worlds. See, I don't, here's my thing. Whole ass one thing. Don't half-ass too. See, I don't even feel like it's half-assing. Marble cake is fully half-assing both flavors. No, I think it's so yummy. You're never getting a full bite of one flavor. And if you are, it's usually shitty of that flavor, to be quite honest. I've never had a marble cake where I was like, wow, this is good cake. Like, it's just like, no, it's just like, no, This is shitty.

Please let us know where you stand. Yeah, I just don't like it. I fear just from this room today that I'm in the... No, I think you might be in the majority. I think it's fairly beloved. But I don't know. I've never made a marble cake. I just assume most of my views are in the strange category, so I just could be wrong.

A lot of them are. I think a full chocolate cake is where it's at or a full vanilla cake. I mean, I'm down for both of those too. Make it like put your whole tent toes down into that flavor. Here's the thing. about my thick ass. Cake is cake and I like all cake. I like, I like red-up. I like velvet cake. I like cookies and cream cake. I like marble. I could name you a bunch of cakes. See, I'm very, I'm picky with lemon cake. Oh, honey. Yeah. Make sure you're doing the cake right for me. Good to know. I'll never make

you a marble cake on your birthday. Well, what would you do? I would be, I would eat it and thank you for it because you put time and effort into it. Wow. Yeah. But now I know. So that would be such a dick move. That was like a happy birthday? No. I feel like that was shitty. So yeah. Yay for the Burr months. And cake.

Already decorating for Halloween. I'm already ready for it. I'm going to rewatch Widows Bay. That's my next thing. I told Drew today that if he didn't get my Halloween decorations out of storage, that I would fight him to the death when I got home from work. And he said, clearly you haven't been looking at the doorbell cameras. And there they were.

And I said, oh, my God. I'm so excited to decorate. Yeah, I feel good. I feel alive. Yeah. My seasonal depression is leaving. Slowly but sure. Because I have reverse seasonal depression. Yep. So I feel good. It's valid. I feel good today. I feel powerful. I did something really weird and powerful earlier that I didn't even mean to. I wish we could talk about it. Yeah, it's crazy. But it was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced in my life. But it shows you that I come into my true power in the fall. Even eight. I know it's not fall yet. What? But yeah, it's fall. But today on this, the first day of the Burr Months.

On this bird day. We're going to be doing the crimes of Daniel LaPlante. Now, you may be like, wait a minute. This sounds a little familiar. We did a mini morbid. Yeah, it was one of my first mini morbids. Way back. It had to have been like 2018, 2019, maybe.

I think I got a solid five pages put together. Yeah, like it was a mini morbid. Yeah. So we didn't really get into like the, you know, the nitty gritty. And it's been a long time. It's kind of gotten buried in the archives. So we wanted to do like another look at this case because this case is a crazy case. It is fucked up.

So this will have a little bit more of the details that a mini morbid normally wouldn't simply have. And it's a crazy one. It's also a Massachusetts case, which is. It is? Yeah. I forgot that. Yeah. Fuck.

This is Massachusetts. Oh, shit. Which is kind of gross. What, how many? That's like, that's almost 10 years ago that we covered that. Yeah. So, and again, like, we just didn't go deep into it. No.

So we went deep into it this time in Holy Hell. Fun. So let's get into it, shall we? Let's. So this goes back to early 1986. Frank Bowen's wife lost, unfortunately, her long battle with cancer. So he was left alone to raise their two teenage daughters, Tina and Karen. This was at their whole.

home in Pepperel, Massachusetts. Pepperel. That's a small town near the New Hampshire border for those who don't know. As the sole income now for the family, Frank took whatever shifts he could with the bus company he worked for. He just worked his ass off to make sure the kids had everything they needed. But he often had to work at night, which left the girls home alone in the house. Yeah.

Again, they're teenagers. It's not like he was leaving children. It's also the 80s. So Tina, one afternoon, got a call from a boy. who said his name was Danny LaPlante. Yeah. Danny told Tina he actually went to a different high school than her, but he had gone to her high school.

Or I think it was like he'd gotten her phone number because a friend of his had gone to her high school. Okay. And thought that they would maybe hit it off. Weird. This is the 80s. Oh, okay. Fair.

This is the only way of communicating. If you want to get in touch with someone or you want to start anything, you have to call. I literally just said earlier, like maybe two minutes ago, this is the 80s and then you're like, this is the 80s. And I'm like, and you're like, oh, right, right. Now, over the phone, Tina said that Danny seemed charming. He seemed nice, like someone you would want to get to know and why not? All right. So almost immediately, the two started talking daily and, you know, they were like really hitting it off. Cute. And for Tina,

the relationship with Danny was her first and she was just really excited about it. Now, after a few weeks of daily phone calls, Danny finally mustered up the courage to ask Tina on a date. And the two made plans to meet at a local ice cream shop, which should be like a very adorable. Yeah, date one. Love it. And Tina couldn't wait to finally meet Danny in person. And he had also said, he had claimed that he was like a football player and super popular. And like he's an OG catfish.

He's kind of like the dream guy for like a teen. You know what I mean? But so she gets to the ice cream shop. And the image of Danny that she had built in her head was different. Shattered, I would say. Okay. Rather than a handsome football player who was like outgoing and excited to meet her, Danny was very disheveled and unkempt.

He did not look like a football player. You know, and he just wasn't the same in person. And she was like, oh, this is not the same. So she, you know, she kind of felt like she had been lied to because she, had. He had led her to believe certain things about himself and we've all seen catfish. Again, catfish. He pulled in Angela. So she was disappointed and frankly she was uncomfortable. Yeah. This guy has lied to you. You don't want to start anything off on a lie. And now you feel weird about it. Like that's weird. So after an hour or so she was like, I'm pretty good with going home now.

Like she was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. Thanks, but no thanks. Which is 100% her right. Absolutely it is. If you are not into someone on a first date, you can end that date five seconds into the date. It doesn't fucking matter when. It's called free will. Exactly. Now, for a few weeks, Danny had been, you know, a pleasant distraction from the pain of her mother's recent death. Yeah.

It kind of brought her into something a little exciting and something she could actually be happy about it. But after that really awkward afternoon date, she didn't see Danny again. And she was just like kind of thrown back into dealing with the grief of losing her mother. Now, one afternoon, a few weeks after that disastrous date, Danny. Tina and Karen decided, you know what, we want to try to talk to our mom. So they held the seance. They did like a little like Ouija board kind of situation. Okay. They wanted to just talk to their mom. Yeah. Teenage girls who just lost her. I would do the same thing. So down in the basement, they set up candles. They did like the whole thing. And they were just trying to talk to their mother's

spirit. And they were like, you know what, this was kind of unsuccessful. Nothing really happened. but almost immediately after the siance, strange things started happening in the Bowen household. One night while Tina and Karen were watching TV, they heard loud knocking. That sounded like it was coming from the front of the house. So assuming someone was knocking at the front door, Tina went to see who was there, but no one was there. Now the next night, the noises continued, and it occurred to Tina and Karen that the seance, maybe it was successful. Maybe this is what this is. And they were like, wow, like maybe this is some form of.

communication, which literally shatters my heart. Yeah, that breaks my heart into tiny little pieces. Because it wasn't just knocking. There were other inexplicable things happening in the house. Like the lights would go on and off without anyone touching the switches. Objects would be moved or like misplaced completely. The TV channels would change, like sometimes seemingly on their own. Reporter Jeffrey Higgins said the two girls believed they'd contacted their mother. Yeah. They thought their mother's ghost was doing these things to somehow communicate with them. Now, Tina and Karen may have believed they'd successfully made contact with their mother,

but it didn't make them feel better because it didn't feel like their mom. Yeah. So maybe they were like, oh, no, like we've made contact with something, but it's not mom. They were worried. Yeah, because then the knocking on the walls and other forms of communication seemingly are things happening, they said it felt often aggressive and like vaguely threatening. Yeah. Which was not their mom's energy.

They also started a sense that whatever was communicating. them was somehow also watching them. Ew. And again, if this was their mother's ghost, it didn't make sense that she would take food and drinks from the refrigerator. No. Which would happen. Oh.

When no one was home, there would be food or drinks gone from the refrigerator. This would fuck me up on a level that I can't even explain out loud. Yeah. After more than a month of noises and missing objects. A month? Mm-hmm. They decided to tell their dad what was going on. And after hearing the story, Frank, you know, like,

kind of broke its heart. He assumed the girls were just still really wrestling with the grief of losing their mother. And they were like, he was like, I think this is just them really wanting to hear this or experience this. Or maybe it's just like it's an old house. It's probably just noises. Higgins said their reporter said, their father, Frank, never heard any of the taps, but he was working a lot. He just thought these were two teenage girls reaching out desperately and trying to contact their mother. And their imaginations were getting the best of them, which is a reasonable thing to them.

Yeah, absolutely. The noises and other inexplicable experiences continued, though, for several weeks. They would get louder. They were getting more aggressive with each time they would happen. And in time, the girls started to think, okay, I don't think this is our mom at all. Like this is, and I don't even know what this is, but we got to do something about that. And that was confirmed one night in the fall of 1986. It was just a typical evening at their house. And Frank was at work. Tina and Karen were home. They were watching TV. And they heard the familiar knocking. And this time, though, it didn't sound like it was coming from the walls, but from the basement. Ew. Determined to figure this out. Tina grabbed a flashlight, which also... Bad ass. Yeah. With Karen right behind her, they descended into the dark basement.

And at first, it looked like nothing was different in there. But as Tina swept the flashlight across the room, she saw it. On the wall, across from the stairs, written what looked to be blood was a message. It said, I'm in your room. Come find me. Ew. Yeah. Oh, I just got chills.

As someone who has been a teenage girl before, that is the shit that is nightmares are made of. You can't even conceive of that. No. Being home alone without your dad in the house. As a teenage girl, I'm just speaking for my own experience. Yeah. Hearing noises in the basement and then going down. there and seeing written in what looks to be blood,

I'm in your room, come find me. That's a horror movie. Urban legend. That's not even what? That is the movie Urban Legend. So obviously fucking terrified. The girls did exactly what they should. They called their dad at work and they were like, this is what we just found.

So he comes right home and called the police immediately. And when an officer arrived, he and Frank went and searched the house in the basement. But when the officer looked at the message on the wall, he said it wasn't blood. it was ketchup. Okay. But it was supposed to look like blood. I mean, still, yeah, I could understand why you would think that. And obviously, you know, the fact that it wasn't, so again, this is the 80s.

Yeah. This is the 80s. We don't believe women. Yeah, we don't believe anybody. So, like, because it was ketchup and not blood, they just kind of thought. So Frank was, like, explained to the officer. He was like, my wife did just recently pass away. We're all struggling to adjust to it.

Like, they have been hearing noises. They have thought that there was ghosts. they have thought they may have been contacting her. So the police officer was kind of like, yeah, that's probably just kids' imagination. They probably did it. Maybe to get a little attention because you're working a lot. Yeah. And Frank thought that too.

He was like, I have to work so much. I wonder if they're like trying to get me home kind of thing. And like, so he wasn't mad. He was just like, oh, I feel bad. Like he's a good dad too for like really like giving a shit. And thinking like, okay, maybe this is on me. Like, you know what you're like? maybe me, which again.

I know the bar is low. I'm like, it's so cool that as a daddy gave a shit. He gave a shit. But he was working so hard just to support them. And he's thinking, okay, this thing I have to do, maybe I'm actually causing issues. Like, they want me to be home. But obviously, like, it was frustrating for them. Yeah.

You know. But after the whole basement thing, things at the Bowen House seemed to calm down. There weren't any noises for a little while. That all came to an explosive end on the night of December 8th. Frank had taken the girls out to dinner. And they had also taken Tina's friend Kathleen with them to dinner. Nice. Kathleen Knapp, her name was.

And after dinner, they arrived back at the house. And Frank could immediately tell that something wasn't right in the house. Not only were there some valuable items clearly missing, but it also looked like someone had used the toilet while they were gone. So convince, obviously, someone is broken into the house. Frank started searching the house to make sure the intruder wasn't. still there. And he went from room to room. And then when he got to Tina's bedroom, he opened the closet door and he was surprised to find a man standing in front of him in Tina's closet.

No, thank you. With a hatchet in one hand and a pipe wrench in the other. Fantastic. So later, Frank would describe the man as being in his, what he thought was his early 20s. Okay. And Tina told police he was about six feet tall, at least. Okay. But their descriptions varied somewhat from one another. What they all agreed on, though, was that the man had painted his face with ketchup and mayonnaise in a pattern that looked like war paint.

His hair was spiked in multiple directions, and he was wearing what they all described as a, quote, hairy jacket. A hairy jacket? Yes. The fuck is a hairy jacket. I assume like a fur coat, maybe. Why wouldn't you just say fur coat?

I don't know. No, it's got to be. different. I don't know. A hairy jacket. Ewe and ketchup and manis all over your face. That's fucked. Manis is good for your hair. I don't know about your skin. Disgusting. And to find that in your daughter's closet holding a hatchet and a pipe wrench. And the dad isn't armed. Like what the fuck? What happened? So, yeah. I don't even remember. I'm like, what happened? What happens? The man advanced on Frank and rounded all them up together. Oh, fuck. And then in a, because he has two weapons, remember. Yeah. Yeah. And he's threatening the girls. He's threatening like, so they're just trying to like, well, they just got home.

They're so off guard. Then in a quote, very calm manner, he ordered them all into one of the other bedrooms. So he was like wrangling them into a bedroom. But thinking quickly, Frank managed to slam the door to the bedroom once they were all inside, leaving him out on the outside. Like he was able to like push him out of the bedroom. Good, good, good. So temporarily safe in the bedroom, Tina, crawled out the window and climbed down the side of the house. Damn. And then ran to the neighbor's house and called police. That ass alert number two.

Yeah. In a small town like Pepperell, they don't really get a lot of calls like this. This is wild that this was in Pepperel. Right? So they did, the dispatcher was like, holy shit. People are being held hostage in a home. Like, what the fuck? So the police got there lickety split because like they're not doing anything else.

So they got there right away. And the officers were relieved to find Frank and the girls in the house. unharmed. Unfortunately, after thoroughly searching the house, which included at least one canine officer, they found nothing. He was no longer there. He just fled the scene. Okay. Now, although the intruder was gone, the family was understandably very shaken up and uncomfortable with the idea of staying in that house that night. It's going to say, I'd be like, we're going to the holiday in. So Frank booked a room at a hotel nearby where they would stay for a few days while everything was investigated. Smart. Two days after the home invasion,

on December 10th, Frank went back to the house just to get some more of their stuff. And when he pulled into the driveway, he said, he looked up at the house and standing in the second floor window, he saw the silhouette of a man looking at him. Oh, why is this motherfucker just like hanging out in this empty house? Assuming it was the intruder, Frank ran to the neighbor's house and called the police again. So moments later, Pepperel police officer Stephen Bazanson arrived at the house. And he was skeptical about what Frank had reported, which I'm like, Maybe don't be...

Why were you skeptical? Like, they didn't lie about this before. Yeah. So Bazanson said, I could tell as I drove up. He was very upset. He's pointing at the house. I said to myself, here we go. He's going to say he saw the guy at the window.

Because this is now the third time they've come and not found anything. But I'm like... But still... Do you think he's just like making this shit? Like, why would he make the shit up? Yeah. And also, what else are you doing? So with his gun drawn, he entered the house cautiously,

announcing himself and demanding anyone else to make themselves known. and he had barely taken 10 steps inside when he saw the first floor was a disaster. Oh. Yeah, he said when I opened the door on the right-hand wall, I saw a knife sticking out of the wall. And I see it's through a picture, a family picture. Oh, my God. Written on it in magic marker, I'm still here. Come find me. Oh.

He said, now the hair goes up on the back of my head. On another wall, there was a second picture pinned to the wall with, the kitchen knife, and it too had a message written in Magic Marker, I'm going to kill you all. Oh my God. Yeah. And the police officer found this. This is next level shit. Yeah.

After finding all of this, Bazanson called for backup, and within two minutes, he was joined by Chief David Young and Sergeant Jim Scott. They all started searching the home, searching each floor, the basement everywhere. And despite a second thorough search, the three officers failed to find anyone in the house. And Bazanson recalled thinking to himself, that bastard is still here, we're missing something. Yeah. And he was.

They were. Now, as he took one last look around the second floor of the house, because he said, he's here, I know it. Like he was like, I know he didn't leave. Bazanson spotted a small door in the bathroom that provided access to the pipes. And he said, I'm thinking, son of a bitch, there's enough room back there for someone to hide. So he shines his flashlight into the crawl space.

and landed right on the intruder's face. Oh, my God. He said, I pulled my pistol and said, I got the son of a bitch right here, but he didn't move. I told him, let me see your hands or I will splatter your brains all over that wall. And I said, Massachusetts. That is the most Massachusetts arrest. I was like, damn.

Put your hands in the air kid. Or I'm going to make your brains go everywhere. The son of a bitch. We love son of a bitch over here. Like he said son of a bitch twice. And that same thing. It's not enough. Now, the intruder did as he was told.

To Bazanson's surprise when he came out of the crawl space, it was not an adult man, but a teenage boy. A boy who would quickly be identified as Tina Bowen's one-time friend, like a long-distance friend who they went out once. 16-year-old, Danny LaPlante. 16 years old. Hiding in the walls. What struck the officers most about him wasn't how young he was, which was. crazy, but it was how eerily calm he was.

Ew. Bazanson said, he was not afraid. He looked out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't afraid to have a gun stuck next to his head. Jesus. Yes. Now, during their search of the house, Pepperel officers discovered that LaPlante had been effectively living in the walls of the Bowen's house, some of which

allowed just a few inches of space to move for several months. That is insane. Presumably, since the knocking and the walls began in June. Yep. Now this is December. He's been in there since June. Literally half a fucking year.

From his various positions in the walls, he was able to see through vents and would coordinate his activity to coincide with times when Frank was at work. This is my worst nightmare. That's why he never heard it, but his daughters did. In the late evenings, when he was sure the Bowens were asleep, he would emerge from the hiding place in the walls and take food and drinks out of the refrigerator and move the family's belongings around. Just to fuck with them.

Also, that's why I have motion detectors. Yeah, same. Because the balls it takes, too to even, like, what if somebody comes down for a glass of water? Yeah. You just didn't give a fuck. No, he was ready to take care of that. That is brazen.

Now, when the news of the home invasion and what plants arrest hit the local news, everyone in Pepperel and the surrounding towns were fucking shocked. Yeah. A kid's been living in the walls. So I did not know this was going on. I bet your parents were. I bet my parents were. local attorney Patricia Wagner said he was in a sense holding these people hostage nobody would

have thought some guy would be living in their walls no also why did I just call mom and papa your parents I thought that was funny too but I let it go I sat here with it and I was like why did I say that you're like your parents your fucking parents were probably worried about it I don't know those those homies I got to ask them about it yeah I should have we just saw them I know but a lot of people who knew Danny weren't entirely surprised that he'd done something so bizarre and violent. Imagine knowing somebody that you wouldn't be shocked if you found out they lived in someone's walls for six months. And showed up at a hairy jacket.

Do you know? Not a hairy jacket. I still have so many questions about that. Can you think of one person where you wouldn't be shocked if they lived in somebody's walls for six months? I'm trying. Like, I'm genuinely trying. Thankfully, no.

Yeah, I don't think I can't either. I really can't think of somebody that has that kind of patience to be. be honest. Yeah, truly. That's so fucked. That's my worst fear. That's how we stayed at a hotel together on the first night of your book tour when I didn't sleep. I was totally convinced somebody was watching me from the event. And I was like, holy shit. It's my biggest fear. That is scary. Well, apparently, one neighbor told a reporter, when you saw Danny, you watched him.

He earned his reputation. He was a troublemaker from day one. Oh, shit. That's scary. Trouble maker. Okay. Yeah. But living in walls? Not okay. Like, that didn't shock you? Other neighbors and peers later described him as strange and disturbed. From an early age, he learned a rep in the neighborhood as a problem child who frequently acted out. Jill Gary, who was one of the neighbors of the little plants, told a reporter that when Danny was seven years old, seven.

She and her husband hired him to help them in the greenhouse, like paying him like a little bit of money to clean out the stones in the fields where they grew pumpkin and squash. Oh, hell yeah. That's so New England. But when she went to check on him a few hours later, he had smashed all the pumpkins and squash in their field. What a son of a bitch. I'd be fucking pissed. Oh, my God. Like so pissed.

Yeah. Now, Danny, Danny said a Denny. Denny. Danny. Danny. Danny's tendency to act out and be destructive was, as far as most of the people in Pepperel could tell, perfectly in keeping with his family's reputation in town. I can't remember anything about his family.

I was just sitting here wondering about that. Now, this is just so a reporter for the Boston Globe said his family is far from popular, living in a rundown house that has always seemed more a home to barnyard animals and junk. Oh. That said, not one, you can't really judge people by their home, I don't think. We had somebody in our town who lived in a crazy ass house. And he was the nicest man. And he was a very kind person.

And like super philanthropic. And super, he like gave all his money to like other things. He was also rich as fuck, which was quite a nice. crazy. Exactly, but he just didn't care to take care of his own stuff. He just wanted to help other people. He just wanted to vibe. So, like, don't immediately judge people like that. Yeah. Just saying. I'm not saying that's the case here. I'm just saying like, you know, you know. And then there was that other house and that guy was really nice. Really nice. That's the thing. I've seen two situations where that, where you can't really judge the book by the cover.

So I'm just saying. Neither of those houses exist anymore. No, they don't. I don't. I know. But in that said, not everyone thought very poorly, especially of Danny's mother, Elaine Moore in his stepfather. Local attorney Robert Casey said they're both salt of the earth kind of people. Oh, really? So there's like very conflict. It might just be people judging based off of what they see. Yeah, like a book based on the cover.

Or you just don't know. Yeah. That's just like two sides of it. Interesting. By the time he was 10 or 11. I mean, clearly Danny was a fucking wreck. Like he was a problem. Yeah.

But that's not always due entirely to one thing. Right. You know what I mean? So by the time he was 10 or 11, Danny's behavior turned criminal at 10 or 11. I think it was criminal at seven years old, smashing pumpkins. In 1981, the local general store was broken into and police strongly suspected 11-year-old Danny and a friend of committing the crime. But there was no direct evidence linking them, so they couldn't do anything. A B&E at 11.

Yeah. In the summer of 1985, before I was born. Oh, just before. Danny's mother enrolled him at St. Bernard's High School, a private Catholic high school about a half hour away in Fitchburg. She said, Jod will save you. Yeah, Massachusetts, too. Fitchburg is in Massachusetts. Danny joined the football team, ran track, and got mediocre grades. But he struggled to make friends.

Okay. And again, it looks like the parent, they were trying. Yeah, it sounds like it. Classmate Patrick, I think it's McGiggin. McGiggin? McGigin. I like it. told a reporter, the guy never really was all that friendly.

He never liked to go to parties. He never really talked much. And a lot of the other students describe him as a loner who mostly kept to himself. After one year at St. Bernard's, he withdrew from school in June 1986, which was when he reached out to Tina Bowen on the phone. It's unclear whether he had known Tina from a previous school year, but he was clearly interested in her and got her number from the phone book. and placed the call. Okay. So he might have known her because remember he went to St. Bernard's after, like he transferred there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he might have gone to her school. He could have gone to the school. Even though he said he didn't. Exactly. And she might not have noticed him because she's when she was younger. He's him. When she rejected him after their first date, he was unable to simply let the rejection

go and he became obsessed with her and eventually started hiding in the walls of her home to torment her entire family as punishment for her rejection. Oh my God. Do you know what I was going to say? I wonder if he, like, followed her home after the date. But back in the day, wasn't your address in the phone book, too? Yeah. They just sent you a giant book.

Why? Did everyone's addresses? That was a good idea. Because, you know what? It's like, it just wasn't a thing like, like, like, these things obviously happened, but they felt few and far between. Right. You know, like, it just didn't feel that scary. Yeah.

Like now, it's just like. The scariest thing in the world, if anybody knows where it's insane. It's insane. your shit is. Now, following his arrest in December, Danny was charged with armed assault in a dwelling, breaking and entering, malicious injury to a property, an armed burglary. And the last charge was relating to the jewelry and personal items he'd stolen from the house. Gotcha. Under the circumstances, he was booked at the Peppro Police Station, then transferred to the state psychiatric hospital and Bridgewater for a psychiatric evaluation. Now, because of his age,

he was a minor. The contents of the court proceedings related to this whole thing. thing are not available to the public. That's such a bummer. So the outcome of the psychiatric evaluation and any other info about Danny's mental health are unavailable for that time. I would pay money to read about that. What is known is that Danny was eventually transferred from Bridgewater State Hospital to a juvenile detention center, which tells you a little bit about what's going on.

There were many good findings. Yeah. In October, 1987, after spending 10 months in a juvenile facility, awaiting details about his trial, the judge set the bail at $10,000. And after taking out a second mortgage on their home, Elaine Moore was able to afford the bail. And Danny was released into her custody. Oh, wow.

Yeah. After a decade of Danny's bad behavior, the residents of Pepperell were not pleased that he had returned home. Yeah, out on these streets. Yeah, neighbor Darlene Mahoney told a reporter, you'd see him walk out there by himself, and she gestured to the woods behind his house. And she said, that's the only place you'd see him.

The woods. The fuck? Yeah. The thing was, Danny wasn't just spending time in the woods. He was wandering the neighborhood checking for unlocked doors. Because he's going to go live in somebody else's walls. Yeah, he's not going to stop what he was doing. On the afternoon of October 14th, someone broke into the home of Raymond Pendell

and stole two 22-caliber pistols in a large amount of cash. Oh, my God. A few weeks later, Danny's parents found one of the pistols and its holster in his laundry basket. It's also like, dude, I don't know what I would do if my kid was accused of this. I can't imagine that. But he's a danger to other people. And if you're going to bail him out, okay, like, that's a whole argument in and of itself. But you better have eyes on this motherfucker if you're bailing him out.

Well, that's the thing. That's your responsibility. I don't, and again, I'm not saying I know what I would do in like these situations. But from my place right here, I'm sorry if you terrorize an entire family for six months and say you're going to kill them all and try to hurt them and literally break into their house. like to hold them hostage with their father. I think you should stay in jail. I'm sorry.

I love you. Yep. But you are paying for what you did. And that's, and it's like, and also, you're dangerous. I'd be scared for my own safety. That's something you just have to come to terms with. It's not going to be easy. And you can say I still love you.

I still support you as a human being. But you are dangerous to other people and I can't have this happen to somebody with me. It's my responsibility. Allowing you to be out. And that's what I'm saying. I'm like, dude, it's your responsibility to, again, keep eyes on him. And you can't have that kind of responsibility. Not when you're dealing with somebody like that, even if it is your child.

Like, he's obviously dangerous. Yeah. He's, you're not going to be able to have eyes on him all the time. It's just not going to work. It's not realistic. So you need to, you know, it sucks. The whole thing sucks, I feel for these people. But so they did confront him.

And he claimed that he'd obtained the gun a year earlier. that was despite having been underage and unemployed at the time that he claimed to have obtained the gun. He said, no, I got it when I was 15. His parents accepted the excuse, but they took the weapon away. In the weeks that followed, the break-ins and thefts around Pepperel continued. Crazy. Weirdly enough, on November 16th, Danny broke into the home of his neighbor's Andrew and Priscilla Gustafson,

who lived directly behind him. It was about a quarter mile through the woods. among other things he stole a cordless telephone two telephone cable boxes and remote controls and several silver coins later when he was interviewed by police Danny's brother Stephen told investigators he saw Danny with silver coins

similar to those reported missing including a statue of Liberty coin in a box like a fancy one about a week after the break in at the Gustafson home Danny approached his brother Stephen and Stephen's friend Michael Pilever and asked whether either of them could get him 22 caliber bullets. I'd be like, you're on bail, so no.

And I'd be like, why. Yeah. What's the reason? I don't even want to know why. So they did. They said, why? And he said he, quote, wanted to make a large bullet and sell it. What?

I'd be like, what? Now, apparently Michael Polowski, the friend, was unaware of the whole. whole stolen gun situation. Because that was like they kept it in the family. Yeah. So he had no idea that that was part of this old thing. So he was like, okay. Like, you want to make a Jared bullet?

Like, I don't know. He's like, you're going to cut me in on the sales? Yeah, he's like, this is wild. So he was like, sure. And a few days later, he provided him with a handful of bullets from a box that he had himself. Okay. And in the week that followed, Danny practiced loading and unloading the guns.

On the evening of December 1st, Andrew Gustafson returned home from work a little past 5 p.m. He was typically greeted at the door by his children, five-year-old William and seven-year-old Abigail. And he said it was empty and quiet in there. So immediately he's like, what is going on? So he's wondering, are they upstairs? So he went upstairs and checked the primary bedroom where he discovered the body of his wife, Priscilla. She had a pillow over her face with two bullet holes torn through it. So panicked. He called the police to report the murder and screamed at the dispatcher, I don't know where my children are. Within minutes, officers from Townsend and Pepperill were at the scene.

Not entirely certain what to expect from this whole thing. Officer George Ahho, one of the officers, said, Officer Johnson and I went inside a search. First, we went upstairs where the wife was, and she was on her back with a pillow over her face. You could see she had been shot through the pillow. After confirming that Priscilla was unfortunately deceased, Aho and Johnson began searching the house for the children.

Aho recalled, I went into the upstairs bathroom. The shower curtain was pulled shut. I opened the shower curtain, and there was a blonde-haired little boy, I believe, lying face down. We searched downstairs. We found the daughter in the tub. There was still water in it. Oh, my God. He drowned both the children, by the way.

Yeah. Outside, Ajo informed Andrew Gustafson that they had, unfortunately, found his children deceased. and then he called for additional officers and crime scene texts to come. In the bedroom, a technician from the Department of Public Safety, found a portion of a broken condom on the floor, as well as semen on the bedspread. In the closet, they found, quote, a knotted brown sock dampened with saliva,

consistent with having been used as a gag. There were also seven ligatures crafted from a necktie, stockings, and pantyhose. In the kitchen, detectives found an open, nearly full bottle of beer sitting on the counter and, quote, several pieces of paper which were torn from the pages of a pornographic magazine. Jesus Christ. And as if this couldn't get any worse, they found out that Priscilla was pregnant. Yeah. So two children, three children, technically, and an innocent woman killed in their home.

Like, horrific. He is a deranged motherfucker. Yeah. Now, to state police detective Joe Lawless, which what a name for a detective. I was going to say, you got to be a criminal or a detective. Detective Lawless. He'd been at the Bowen crime scene when Danny was arrested. He said the scene at the Gustafsson house felt eerily familiar.

And his mind immediately went to Danny Laplace. He said there were certainly were some. parallels between the crime scenes. He lived almost directly behind the Gustafsson's house. It was through a thick area of woods, but there were no other houses between them. The next day, during a search of the woods behind the Gustafsson house, investigators discovered a flannel shirt, the nameplate from their house, and a pair of wet work gloves. When they were given the shirt to smell, the tracking dogs followed the scent to within three or four feet of the Lapland home, I'm sure. That afternoon, detectives interviewed Danny

at a local library, and he claimed on the previous afternoon he'd been at home watching television, and he didn't know anything about the murders, and he didn't know anything about the previous breakings. Wow. His alibi was weak as fuck as best. Anyone see you home watching TV? Yeah, and the investigators were suspicious. But when they returned a short time later with a warrant to search the house, Danny had fled. Interesting.

So now they're all but certain that Danny LaPlant is the killer, and the district attorney's office issued a warrant for his arrest. And he hasn't even gone on trial yet for... No. And now they're going to have to find him. Yep. So the news that Danny was on the run set everyone in Pepperel in Townsend and all the surrounding towns on edge. Select woman, Julia Stockwell, told a reporter, this is not supposed to happen in this kind of town.

People are crushed, scared, and trying to figure out a way to deal with it. Like, babe, this isn't supposed to happen anywhere. No. Among those most frightened were the Bowen family. Yeah. They'd moved to New Hampshire. since the home invasion, but they were scared that they might be targeted by Danny a second time. And, like, tracked down some of that. Yeah, so Frank Bowen took the girls to a hotel and waited to

hear for police. He was like, I'm not doing this. Like, what a dad. While police in the area set up roadblocks and mobilized a search team of officers from various agencies, they had sent dogs, they had a helicopter. During all this, Danny is just frantically planning his escape. With police everywhere, like in the air and on the ground now, Danny's options were pretty limited. And it's unclear where he was on the first day of that whole like manhunt. But on the second day, he looks like he fell right back into his old habits. Okay. What he knows best.

Broke in somewhere. On the afternoon of December 3rd, Lynn McGovern returned to her pepural home a little before 2 p.m. And before she'd even stopped the car in the driveway, she had woman's intuition. And she said she was just struck with a distinct feeling that something is wrong. Wow. she didn't even see anything. So she didn't even go in her house. In fact, she walked back to the road,

got out of her car and just walked to the road and flagged down one of the peprel officers who was assisting in the search of Danny and told him, I think someone's in my house. And she had no reason to think so. Women. She pulled in the driveway and she said, I just got this wave that like something's wrong,

don't go in that house. I would trust her with my life. I would, too. I would trust her with my damn life. I would. Like Lynn? Yeah. If you're out there.

I trust you. Lynn McGovern. I trust you. And what a bad bitch to listen to that intuition. Because it's not always easy to listen to because sometimes your brain will convince you like, don't be over dramatic. I do that all the time and it's never good. Nope. So don't do that.

So she says, hey, I think someone's in my house. And the officer was like, I'll totally take a look. But he was like, I got to be pretty fast because they need me to get back to the search for Daniel will plan. She's like, I think you have found your daughter. Paul McGovern, her husband, said as soon as they opened the front door, they heard a thump upstairs. The officer turned around and told his partner to turn off the cruiser and get help. Unfortunately, by the time the officers entered the house, Danny had jumped out the second story window, slid down the garage roof into the ground, and then fled into the woods. A few hours later, 17-year-old Jonathan Lang was at home alone when he heard a knock at the door.

No, thank you. He looks out the front door and there's no one there. goes to the back door and he sees a teenage boy standing on the porch. And he later said, I just taped the news on the VCR. Stop it. And I recognized him instantly as Danny Lapland. Oh, my, imagine that motherfucker on your backstep and your home alone. So LaPlante asks him whether the Lang's had a dog.

He literally says, do you have a dog? I'd be like, I have two fucking huge dogs who will tear you apart. I'd say we have 17, in fact. And he must have seen the concern look on Lang's face because he was, horrified because seconds later LaPlante began begging to be let into the house. No. So Lang was like, absolutely not, fucker. Absolutely not.

So Danny flashed the pistol and screamed, let me in and kept saying it. Oh. Like, he was screaming at this 17-year-old, let me in and like flashing a pistol. That's fucking terrifying. Lang still was like, go fuck yourself. And instead ran to the phone and called the police and Danny fled again. Yeah. Now, increasingly desperate for an escape route, Danny next entered the-

the home of Pamela McKella and held her at gunpoint. Jesus. Entered her home and held her at gunpoint. She said, he asked me if I knew who he was and I said, yes. LaPlant then asked why there were so many police officers in town and she explained, they're looking for you. Hello? Now panicked, Danny forced McKella into her van and told him to her to drive him away.

As they drove, McKella watched LaPlan out of the corner of her eye, all while trying to formulate an escape plan. because people from Massachusetts don't play. No, we don't fuck around. We don't play. Finally, when she came to a stop sign, she slowed the van to about 15 miles an hour and jumped from the driver's side.

Queen shit. Rolling down a small hill and landing on pavement. I'd rather get road burn than deal with Daniel LaPlane. When she looked back to see where he was, she saw the van make a right-hand turn. Have my van take it. Yeah. Pamela immediately reported the kidnapping to police

and a helicopter managed to track the van from the air. until an officer could arrive. Chasing the van through the streets of nearby and nearby air the town. Yep. The officer managed to get LaPlante to pull his vehicle off to the side of the road, but Danny immediately jumped out of the car and fled on foot in the direction of a lumberyard. So officers from multiple jurisdictions descended on this lumberyard and started to search. During this whole thing, Officer Scott Como and Paul Barada spotted Danny hiding over and over,

overturned dumpster inside of it. Okay. Right where he belongs. Right where he belonged in the fucking trash. And they said, we just told him, you're not going to get out. And so he came out and laid down on the ground for us. What a moron. Also, how many charges have you now racked up on your, like already you were fucked?

Yeah. And then you just racked up a bunch of extra charges. Yeah, he's just going, going, going. During his initial interview following his arrest, Danny insisted he had been home. He'd been home watching MTV. when the murders were committed. Then why are you running? He said, I had nothing to do with anything.

Why are you running? Yeah, but he was charged with three counts of first degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty, and was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for what would be three weeks of extensive psychiatric evaluation to determine if he was competent to stand track. At the time, Elaine Moore and her husband, David, his parents, stood by their son and protested his innocence.

They said he didn't do it. And I said Okay Okay David Moore told a reporter You talk to anybody Who knows him personally And they would say he couldn't do that

He's not violent Oh Okay Based on the motions put forth By LaPlant's lawyer It was increasingly clear That they were going for the insanity defense But the Middlesex County

Assistant District Attorney Was prepared for that To be inevitability Also you don't run if you're insane Yeah and they started building a defense among other things, evidence of Danny's mental competence could be seen to the extent at which the crime had been orchestrated. And remember the pillow.

Yep. And the lengths to which he went to cover up his involvement, which included snipping the collection portion of the condom so as to not leave behind any fluids, although he inevitably did in the process. So he thought he was smart with that. Investigators also pointed to the fact that Priscilla had either been ordered to redress herself or he had redressed her afterwards. Oh my.

Yeah. On January 13th, 1988, Daniel O'Brien appeared before a judge in Cambridge where he was indicted for the three murders as well as 10 charges related to the attack on the Bowen family the previous year and nine other charges related to robberies committed in Townsend around the time of the murders. At the time, he was denied bail and held at East Cambridge jail. Yeah, they saw how well bail worked out before. After nearly 10 months of delays in pretrial hearings, LaPlante's trial began in the fall of 1988.

At the time of his arrest, the evidence against Danny was monumental. Insurmountable. By the time the trial began, the prosecutor had received also letters reportedly written by Danny to a friend. And in them, he wrote, among other things, they won't find the gun. I was alone. They got nothing on me. In another letter, he wrote, they have no gun yet, and they'll never find it. They have a lot of other things.

They went to the trial. Investigators had found the gun and it was in the glove compartment of an old Jeep on the LaPlante property. Wow. Good hiding spot. Yeah. Some of the more compelling testimony came from Stephen LaPlante's brother's friend there, Michael Polowski. He was the one who provided the bullets that unfortunately Danny used to kill the Gustafson or Priscilla Gustafson.

Pulaski was able to provide a sample of the bullets he'd given Danny, which a lab matched to those used in the murder. And a ballistics expert testified that the rounds had been fired from a 22 caliber pistol discovered on the LaPlamp family's property several months earlier. Yeah.

On October 25th, after nearly a month of testimony, the jury deliberated very briefly before coming out to find LaPlant guilty on every single count. Judge Robert Barton said during sentencing, there are some that would say that you should receive the same sentence that you imposed on the Gustafson family.

Yeah. That is death by. ligature or hanging, but we have no death penalty in Massachusetts. Unfortunately. Instead, Barton sentenced LaPlante to three consecutive life sentences with no parole, no commutation, and no furloughs. Good. In simple terms, he was never to be released from prison.

Should never see the sun again. Danny has appealed his conviction in various points over the years, but none have been successful. In 2017, when LaPlante petitioned the parole board to consider him for his eligibility, his case was rejected largely on the grounds that he appeared to have no remorse for his crimes still. Wow. Yeah. Psychiatrist, Dr. Fabian Sala said all of this was just a presentation to come across as somebody who is sad about something, for which, in my opinion, he is not because he, like, pretended to cry.

It was an execution. He executed one person, went and executed a second person, and then he ended up executing a third person. And we should call them children. Exactly. Two years later, in March 2019, LaPlante took his case to the state's highest court, arguing that he should be eligible for parole due to legislation adopted in 2014. That said inmates convicted of murder as juveniles must be considered for parole after serving a minimum of 30 years. The amount of times we run into that. The court rejected its claims, citing the 2017 conclusion that Danny was not remorseful for his crimes.

Period. Speaking on behalf of the justices, Justice David Lowry wrote. wrote, the defendant's sentence is proportional both to the crimes he committed and to his particular characteristics as an offender. Absolutely. So he will stay in prison. Good. That's where he belongs. Horrifying.

He's a monster. A straight-up monster. He's a monster. They would be wise to never consider. Oh, they never should. He lived in people's walls, killed a pregnant woman and her two children. Yeah. Like, no.

You don't, you know, and then went on the run and kidnapped another person. Yeah. And victimized how many others by breaking into their houses as well. Exactly. Like, he truly haunted the town of Pepperel in the surrounding areas. Yeah. And the surrounding town, like, and the poor, like, obviously, the Gustafsons, like, I can't imagine the father. Andrew, what he has gone through.

No. Losing everything. Yeah. At once. And just, like, losing everything, like, your home as well, you could never. stay there. Yeah, that's the thing. That's your life. You lost your life essentially. Like, how do you, how do you live? I don't know. With that, like, I feel so bad. And then the Bowen family having to deal with like the terror that they were living with. The terror that they were living with and then the PTSD that would

come after that. Yeah. Your home is your safe space. And for that to be violated in that way, yeah. I can't imagine ever feeling safe again. Like how do you get? comfortable. It would make me like the opposite of agoraphobic. Yeah. I just want to be out all the time. Truly. Oh, honey, we need a fun fact after that.

We really do. My goodness. Yeah. I got one for you. It's about alligators. Alligators. Yeah. This fun fact says,

please hold. Let me get it up. Alligators have 74 to 80 teeth at any time and can go through 3,000 teeth within a lifetime. Holy shit. Yeah. As their teeth wear down, new ones grow in to, replace them. Damn.

Isn't that? Like, you never have to go to the dentist. Never. Just regenerate a new fucking tooth 3,000 times. And sharks do that. Oh, they do? Yeah.

I didn't know that. I'm pretty sure they do that. I don't know how many, but I don't think they like indefinitely do it. Interesting. Let's Google it. Yeah.

I think they have like several, but I don't know if it's an indefinite amount. How many teeth will sharks go through in a lifetime? Wow. They do even more. Really?

Yes. They can go through 20,000 to 50,000 teeth, sometimes up to 200,000 depending on the species. Damn. And they don't have any roots. Wow. Yeah, that's why they pop out so easily. Yeah. And they grow like new rows of teeth too.

It's not even just like one regenerating. Yeah, they grow like whole. Damn. Show me your teeth. Show me your teeth. Isn't that fascinating? On top of this, like, fun fact, I just, I had to look up how Andrew was doing, Andrew has passed away, unfortunately. But he remarried.

Oh. He had children. He had grandchildren. So he had a good life. Like he was able to, to gather the pieces and seemingly lived a very lovely life. I'm happy that, like, happiness found him. Yeah. People said just in his, like, you know, obituary. Yeah.

It says he had a hearty laugh, a warm and welcoming smile, a keen and reflective mind and kind words for everyone. He was a light in the darkness. Oh, wow. So he was like a lovely person. Okay, that's an even more fun fact. And he had a big, lovely family. He had two daughters. Like, I'm very happy to hear that he was.

That he could find happiness again. He was able to find a life again after that. I just can't imagine it exploding the way it did. No. And like, and he looks like such a sweet guy. Oh, he looks like. like a sweetie. Like he just looks like a sweet man.

I'm, I'm so happy that happiness found him. So to Andrew's family. I'm really happy that he had you. Yeah, cheers to you guys. That really killed me to think of him walking into that house. Yeah. My God. God damn.

All right, guys. Well, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you. Keep it weird. But that's where you go live in people's walls and terrorize a community. And the surrounding communities as well. Don't get out of here. Don't do it.

Get out of here. Thank you.