Morbid - The Unsolved Murder of Marilyn Sheppard

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

On July 4th 1954 Marilyn Sheppard was brutally killed in her home while her husband was asleep on the couch downstairs. Marilyn’s husband Sam would soon be accused of the killing and would later stand multiple trials deeming his innocence or lackthereof. Ash will walk us through said trials and then some other theories about possible culprits. Unfortunately to this day Marilyn Sheppard’s murder has never been solved. 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 Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. The mini morbid. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, morbid. Mini morbid. Mini morbid. So what's up, everybody? We can just dive right into this, yeah. Yeah, this is a mini morbid. We don't banter here. I know. We've gotten some really good feedback about our banter recently. Actually, we have. We really have. No, that's what I mean. We've gotten some beautiful people telling you. I don't know. We've gotten some beautiful people telling you. us to never stop bantering and we love you guys. So guess what? This episode is just us talking about our life. It's just banter. Banter. No, it's not. It's not. It's not. It's a mini episode about Daniel LaPlante. Do you know anything about Daniel LaPlante? Sounds kind of familiar, but I don't know. Okay. Well, Daniel LaPlant was born in, I don't know how to say this, but I'm going to go with

Townsend, Massachusetts. I like it. Cool. In 1970. He had a very traumatic childhood. I'm shocked. Including sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. Oof. Yeah. That's the trifecta. His dad was like a very abusive factor in his life. His dad was super abusive in just about every manner, like sexual.

Oh my God. Everything I mentioned before. Guys, don't have kids just to abuse them. Seriously. Come on, man. It's, it makes me nuts. It makes me really angry. Obviously he had issues in school.

Mm-hmm. And he had socially, excuse me, he had social issues. because he wasn't exactly the boy next door. No? No. He struggled with dyslexia. He had pretty bad skin. And overall, he just really didn't care about his appearance or personal hygiene.

So that made it hard for him to make friends. He's a target. Kind of fit in with him in crowd or any crowd for that matter. Most of the kids he grew up with thought he was spooky, strange, and just like off, like an off guy. Oh, no. I know. Sounds very familiar. Shit.

Oh, you? I was like, who was she talking about? I think you're talking about yourself. I am also spooky, strange, and a little off. Oh, my God. Can we put that on a shirt? Spooky strange and a little off. Yes.

Okay, but yeah. So even teachers were alarmed by his lack of motivation, and he was sent to see a psychiatrist. Okay. So the psychiatrist was a piece of shit. Cool. And he started sexually abusing him during their sexual. Oh my God.

Yeah. So he literally just, I hate to say this, but he didn't have a fucking chance. No. He also during this time was diagnosed with hyperactivity disorder. Oh, okay. Same. Yeah. Really bad.

Yeah. As a teen, he started breaking into people's houses and stealing their things. Because probably to escape from his life. Yeah, I would say so. But you shouldn't do that. But stop stealing people's things. Because I need to escape from my life every now and then and do you know what I do. I go to Starbucks.

Yeah, exactly. It's like, those are my things. Sponsor us. They're not your things. Yeah, Starbucks sponsors. Can you imagine? By the time Daniel was 15, he had a pattern.

He would, in his pattern is fucking scary. Oh, no. He would break into homes and not only take things, but he would leave random things behind and move things around so that it was clear that someone had been in the house. Like, people would come home and be like, cool someone was here why is that over there

I don't like that at all I hate it I don't like any part of that hate hate hate hate hate hate um so he like really like to mess with people's minds apparently he started getting super into mind games oh no yeah that doesn't bode well for a bright future but guess what things took a turn for the better oh yeah

this is going to be like the happiest episode ever oh good it's not uh but he met this girl And, you know, things always go up when they knew a girl. I'm sure things didn't just go sunny and butterflies. In Philadelphia? No, they didn't. Okay. So no one is actually really sure how he got her number.

Some people think that he burglarized her house at one point and, like, got the number of the family in that process. But it's very unclear how he got the number. But I'm assuming she did not give it to him. No, she did not. So the number of this family, well, I'm like, is it? 877. Get your cell phone down. Everybody, are you ready? This family, is what I meant to say, was the Anderson family. It included a father and two daughters, and the mother had passed away from cancer. Oh. So, Annie was the older daughter. Jessica was younger, and the dad's name was Brian. Okay.

So the first time that Danny called Annie, L-O-L. Danny and she answered the phone and Danny told her that he had her number, or had gotten her number from someone at her school, and he thought she was super pretty, and he was like this blonde, super cute jock type, which, like, that is not the truth, honey. That was not true. Not the truth. And Annie was stoked. Like, she was wicked excited, and they started talking on the phone, like, regularly.

I know, so he catfished her. I make a reference to that later. Okay, good. It took my joke. I knew you would. He literally catfished her. Danny said he went to a different school, so the two decided to set up a date one night. Oh, no.

And Annie was nervous, but they had talked to the phone multiple times over the course of a few weeks, so she was excited to meet this super cute, blondie, football, baseball, sport dude type. Oh, no. Well, imagine her pre-catfish disappointment is what I wrote when she opened the door to Danny on the night of their date. Oh, spooky strange Danny. Spooky strange and a little off Danny. Danny Phantom, if you will. Did you ever watch that show?

No, but that sounds amazing. Funny. Somebody did. Who's listening right now? Absolutely. He was not the cute jock he described himself to be and instead was a pretty scrawny, greasy-looking, creepy-ish guy. Oh, you gotta wash your hair.

But guess what? Annie wasn't a bitch. She still went out with him. Oh, Annie. Yes, girl. Very nice. Listen, she had every right to be a bitch, too. Like, you can't be catfish and people.

Okay? Because it's like, yeah, he probably was like really nervous to like tell her that he was like this creepy, spooky dude. Don't start your relationship off on a lot. Well, and you just don't manipulate people like that. No. You gotta be a front man. If they like you, they like you. If they don't, they don't.

Also, I feel like just like, how do you show up to somebody's house after being like... And like just not say anything about it. It's like, hi. Hey, it's me. She's like, no, it's not. She's like not a blonde. Wrong number at my phone door. You are very different, Gomez.

I'm confused. So, uh, they went to like this carnival slash fair thing together. That seems about right. Um, if you didn't tell me that, I'd be like, they went to a carnival. 100%. Well, they were probably like 15 or something. Yeah. Like maybe even a little young and older.

Carnivals are like inherently spooky. Oh yeah. And have like some weird dark vibe to them. This whole story sounds fake to the point where I was like, like, is this real? There's like lots of sources. All right. So the date sounds worse than any date that I have ever been on or imagined in my mind. Wow. And I've been on a lot of shitty dates. Yeah, you have. And this one's worse. Wow. They started talking and Annie told Danny, I can't stop laughing at how her dad worked a lot because the family had just lost the mom to cancer. And he was a single parent now,

like trying to support her and her sister. And instead of comforting her or saying, something nice, like a wholesome-ass person would do. He was super interested in just like the details of her mom's passing. Ew. Yeah. He wanted to know how. Oh, Annie, red flag. Wait, Joe.

Red flag city. Oh, my. He wanted to know exactly how Annie felt at the moment that she learned of her mother's death. And he wanted to know how much her mom had suffered. Like, those are the questions that he asked. Bye. Sociopath.

I'm running away. You gotta go. Right now. You gotta go. Phone a friend. No one is asking you those questions. No. Even spooky people aren't asking you those questions. No, spooky people.

I'm not gonna ask you those questions. I don't want to know those questions. No, I'm not that spooky. No one's that spooky. Daniel's that spooky. Danny Daniel. Danny Daniel. Danny Daniel, what are you doing? Oh, Daniel.

So, needless to say they didn't see each other again. No, I can understand that. But the shitty date left Danny feeling really sad and missing her mom. And probably really gross. Yeah, really gross. Especially because she was trying to be fucking nice. Like, that would give me some darkness. I'd be like, damn.

Yeah. What the fuck did I just live through? I know. And that's probably like one of her first dates that she ever really went on. Yeah, that sucks. Really sucks. Fucking Daniel. Really weird.

So she and her sister decided to hold a seance in their basement to talk to their mom. Ooh. Yeah. Stuff. Seances are fun, though. They are fun. I don't know if I'd want to do it in this situation. No, probably not.

Sanances are fun when you don't really have somebody like a love, a very beloved one. Yeah, no. That you are looking to, I just feel like that makes it very dark. Yeah, very dark. The girls were home alone and pretty freaked out afterwards. Like they went through and did the whole seance thing. Damn. Yeah.

I wouldn't do that now, but I'm not. Nope. With a room full of people. No, by myself. No, thank you. And that night, they both were having the spooks, but they just kind of chalked it up to the fact that they just had a fucking seance in their house. And then they both. went to bed and they kept hearing knocking noises on the bedroom walls.

Nope. Nope. I'm already... Ew. Like my whole body just like revolting against that. The whole time I was researching this, I was really freaked out. My body's revolting against this. It gets worse. I just got such a show. They thought that they were communicating with the ghost to their mom and started asking her questions. Oh my God. To which more knocking came in response. I'm horrified. So they were, they thought that they were communicating with her. Beyond horrified right now. Yep. The first few nights, they felt happy and were excited to be, like, talking to her again.

Oh, my God. But then shit got really weird. Oh, no. The knocking became more and more frequent and was disruptive to the point that it was, like, really starting to freak them out. I'm, like, literally good. This is the first one that has given me, like, chill chills. Oh, it just wait.

It gets so much worse. Like, chilly chills, maybe heaps. Because, do you know what? You fuck with me all the time on these episodes. And you tell me the worst things. And guess what? Here I am. It's time to pay the Piper.

I don't like it. It's time to pay the Piper, Biatch. They had a feeling it wasn't their mom who they had communicated with. Good bet. And something far more sinister. Likely. The dad, Brian, was starting to get really pissed off because the house would be like a mess and things would be strewn everywhere.

And the girls were like, we're not doing that. Like, we did not do that. And he's like, yeah. Like, who did it then? And like, I know who did it. I know Brian. Brian don't know. I know Brian.

And he felt like maybe he was working too much and that their switch in behavior was kind of like an attention. Like an acting out kind of thing. Yeah. Poor man. So on the night of January, 1987, excuse me. One night in January 1987, the knocking started again while Annie and Jessica were home alone and their dad was at work. The noise this time sounded like. like it was coming from the basement and not the walls.

Nope. So they both grabbed knives from the kitchen and headed downstairs to the basement. No. Which like, nope, no. Nobody, nope, nope, nope. You leave that house, you call the police, girl. Yep, goodbye. So they went right down to figure out what was going on.

Wow. And immediately they saw a message written on the wall in blood. Nope. I'm in your room. Nope. Come and find me. Oh. Nope.

get me an Uber. I've in your room. Come and find me. Immediately get me an Uber. I gotta go. My Uber is here. 12 stars. Hate it.

If you're four minutes away, it's not gonna work out. You have to be here right now. Yep. So they did what any normal person would do and ran the fuck right out of that house. Good girls. Good girls. They ran crying to a neighbor who called their dad, but the dad was pissed when he got there and assumed that this was like them.

More acting of. Yeah, like wanting to come home from work and like, oh my God. Like spend time with them. So he decided that it was time for the girls to go to therapy and deal with like whatever was going on. He's just trying to be a good dad. I know, which is so sad. Yeah, this whole thing is like so dark.

Mm-hmm. So things got quiet for a little bit after that. And Annie and Jessica were relieved as well as the dad who felt like therapy was actually working. Like he was like, okay, like, things are chilling out. We're good. But then shit got realer than it did last time. Oh.

And a few weeks after the basement incident, the girls heard the knocking again. But it was upstairs in Annie's room. No. When they went upstairs to find out again what the fuck was happening, there was another note written in blood on Annie's wall that read, I'm back. Find me if you can. Don't want to. No, thank you. You don't want to do it.

I'm busy that day. I'm so busy. Fully booked. So busy. Hefty schedule. Ew. I'm just picturing this and it's like freaking me out. So, oh, just wait.

I don't like things like in people's houses for long periods of time. It's just not. I hate it. Hating this so much. I hate it more than life itself. I like life though. So they ran to the neighbor again who called their pissed off dad. But the neighbor was like, no, dude.

Like you should have seen them when they got here. They were like shaking and like inconsolable. the neighbor was like yeah they're not making the shit up so brian the dad decided to go check it out and left the girls with the neighbor um when he got inside things seemed a little bit different than how the girls had described them so clearly someone was in the house oh my god like there was shit everywhere like the tv was like i think it was like pulled out and like on super loud or something like that oh and there was like shit everywhere man so he headed up to annie's and saw the note and then saw another note that read,

marry me on the wall. This dude, was this dude a ghost? Because he's really good at pretending to be a scary-ass ghost. Maybe it was a ghost. I haven't told you that it's a person yet. And then he also found a picture of Annie stabbed to the wall. Oh. Yep.

When he turned around, he saw a young boy dressed in women's clothes with makeup on and a blonde. blonde wig. Okay. Some sources said that he was dressed in the wife's wedding gown, and others just said that he was dressed in the wife's clothes. I mean, all of that is terrifying. He had makeup, like, smudged all over his face and a blonde wig on.

No. And I cannot. And he had a hatchet. Oh. He was just hanging out with a hatchet. Oh. Of course he had a. hatchet of all scary ass weapons this motherfucker this spooky ass motherfucker had a hatchet a wig and a hatchet god

what i know um so they got into a physical altercation um but somehow danny so it was danny so it was dany oh it was danny escaped and like vanished into the night like nobody could figure out where the fuck he went god just look for the guy dressed at And the wedding gown would makeup smeared all over his face. Yeah, the potential wedding gown. Well, I don't know where he went. So the dad called the police and when they got there, they like dived into this whole like investigation because they were like, yeah, kids with hatchets like dressed in wedding gowns don't really disappear too easily.

So he's got to be around here somewhere. Pretty big target on his back. So they started carrying out an investigation in the house to figure out where this kid could possibly have been hiding. Oh, my God. And they found him in. the most terrifying place you could ever fucking imagine. A crawl space hidden behind a cupboard in Annie's room. Yup.

I hate this so much. Yup. Hate it so much. He had been hiding there for like they don't even know how long. Oh my God. They found, there was like a tunnel system. Oh and they found awful things in there, didn't they? beer, clothing, including some of Annie's and Jessica's,

and peepholes so that he could see them from anywhere in the house. Oh, no. Yep. Yep. Nope. Yep. This just makes me want to take a sledgehammer to all my walls. I know.

I think it really does. You're welcome. He was arrested. Oh, thank goodness. But he spent approximately no time in a juvenile facility. Oh. Because he was like a juvenile when this happened. and as soon as he was released, he started stealing again.

Oh, so he's rehabilitated. Yeah, totally. In November of 1987, he stole two handguns from a neighbor's house, and on December 1st of that same year is when he broke into another house, ready to ruin the lives of yet another family. Oh, my gosh. Get a job, man. Or a hobby.

Seriously. The Gustafson, Gustafsons? Gustafsons. That sounds good. Yeah. The Gustafsson family consisted of a pregnant wife and mother, Priscilla. Oh, my God.

Andrew the husband slash dad and their two young children, Abigail and William. Oh, my God. Is something terrible going to happen to kids here? Yeah. Oh, no. I know. Oh, okay. It's brief.

Let me get. Okay. Do it. This case is just like so interesting. Okay, do it. So it's unknown exactly what Daniel LaPlant intended. I'm doing when he broke into the Gustafs in home. But either way, it's horrific.

So I'm going to tell you what happened. And trigger warning, there are kids involved in this. How old are these kids? Do you know? They're young. I don't. I'm going to pretend they're like. Do you want me to say hold? I feel like I have to say hold there. Yeah, you have to say a hold there now. Okay.

Andrew returned home from work to find his wife weighing face down on the badly bloodstained bed. She had been shot at point-blank range in the head multiple times and had also been raped. Oh, God. He was pregnant. His 5-year-old son William was discovered by police in a bathtub upstairs. He had been drowned. And his 8-year-old sister was in the bathtub downstairs and had also been drowned. Oh, my God. Yeah. The police apprehended Danny relatively quickly after this. They fucking pull him to pieces. I hope they He broke into a woman's home a few towns over. Jesus.

He kidnapped her to go on the run in her car, but she was able to escape. Good for her. And while that all happened, he was like all over the news. And someone saw his photo on the news, and then he was spotted hiding in a dumpster 48 hours after the whole manhunt began. Oh, God. At trial, he was sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of the Gustafs and family. And by the way, the dad survived.

Oh my God. But did he? No. While in prison, he showed absolutely no remorse. He attempted to sue the courts multiple times for violations of his rights. Bitch, you don't get any rights anymore. He dead-ass said that they were violating his religious beliefs because they wouldn't grant him like specific materials he needed.

Fuck off. As a practicing Satanist to carry out satanic rights. Yeah, literally fuck you. Like, sorry, you know. We just don't have that in the budget. Real Satanists don't murder innocent people. Exactly. So fuck off.

But then all of a sudden he became super apologetic and regretful while appealing for his reduced sentence. Oh, that's convenient. It really was. Literally, I hope somebody took a chainsaw and shoved it up his ass. I also hope that. He wrote, I do not have the words to fully express my profound sorrow, but I am truly sorry for the harm I have caused.

from that very essence of who I am from the depths of my soul What soul? I am sorry and then I wrote after that like boy what soul Wow we are right on it's the same person His sentence appeal was denied and he's still in jail so he's still alive Yep he's still alive do you want to see what he looks like yes I do Super creepy looking I hate him so much well wait until he's doing he looked like when he was like a fucking child I hate this demon. Yeah, so

scary. Well, this is what appeared on her fucking doorstep. She's expecting a blonde jock and this is what appears on her doorstep. No. Done. You are not what I was looking for. Daniel Laplace. I'm super busy that day. Totally booked. And he's got that like creepy

stare. Mm-hmm. Ew. He did not age well. No, he did not age well at all. Oh my God. He's all bald and shit. So yeah. That was horrific. Yeah. But what a really fascinating story unfortunately. Unfortunately. Can you imagine? He literally just was like hiding in their stories where people are hiding in spaces and houses. For like a while. They always get to me the

most. I hate them a lot. Because it's like such an invasion, such an invasion. He could see them anywhere they went in the house. And just knowing that these people are going to sleep at night and he's in their wall. Like I'm not okay with that. I'm going to have a tough time falling asleep to me. Yeah, I'm not okay with that. Yeah, me either. And, and And then he was in the mama's wedding dress or like dress. Or at least clothes of some sort. And a blonde wig with makeup smeared on his face. And a hatchet.

And a hatchet. Of course he had a hatchet. Isn't that? Creepiest weapon. Scary. Hate it. And I can't find anything about how Annie moved on with her life. I was going to say.

How do you ever date again? Seriously. Like that's probably one of the first boys she ever went out with. Yeah. She was pretty young. That's that. Like I'm done. I actually don't.

Thank you. Goodbye. that ever again. Like there's no online dating for her. That's for sure. And I would just not be able to live in a house with walls. No. I need to have like plexiglass walls everywhere.

Yep. Like two-way mirrors. Yep. Well, that was my mini episode and it was quick, but you're welcome. Thank you for truly horrifying me to my core. I succeeded. You did it. This is the first one that you have that has like really made me feel things.

It was a good one. I heard it and I was like, I can't. It's like fast, but I can't not. tell it. No, it's so good. I needed it. Like, good in an awful way. Yeah. Like, you know, very interesting, but very horrific. Disgusting. Oh, hatchets. All right. Hope you guys, dug that. Yeah. That nightmare experience. So, guys, we hope that you find us on Instagram at Morbid Podcast. We hope that you join our Facebook group at Morbid, colon, a true crime podcast, and join that group because it's fucking awesome. It's really great. You could also follow us on Twitter. A Morbid

Podcast. You could send us an email, morbidpodcast at gmail.com. You could maybe like donate to our beachground if you wanted to. Maybe patreon.com slash morbid podcast. You could also go check out the website that my lovely co-host so awesomely designed at girl morbidpodcast.com, mine's the girl. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you let your childhood affect you in a major, major way and you start to go out on dates with girls. and pretend to be someone that you're not. And you show up to her door and you're like, hey, I was supposed to be blonde, but here I am.

I'm little and I'm spooky and I'm creepy. And I'm going to take you on a date and ask you have really fucked up questions. And then I'm going to hide in your walls for a few months. And then I'm going to kill, well, I'm going to try to kill you and wear a wedding dress, and then I'm going to get a hatchet and then I'm going to crawl back into the wall. And then I'm going to go do a really awful thing.

And then I'm going to practice Satanism in jail. Don't keep it that weird. Don't keep it that weird. Don't do it. Thank you. And good night. Bye.