Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante

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.

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• 1:46Speaker 01

  Hey weirdos, I'm Elena.

• 1:49Speaker 00

  I'm Ash.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  And this is Morbid in the Burr Months.

• 2:08Speaker 00

  Happy September. I knew what to sing this time. Last time I didn't.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  I feel alive.

• 2:19Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  I feel powerful.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  I feel, I feel like.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  We put Practical Magic on in the studio today and just had it play.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  And it was gorgeous.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  Well, we did our shit, like.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  It's 70 degrees.

• 2:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Barely.

• 2:35Speaker 00

  It's raining.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  It's gloomy.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  We got yummy drinks this morning. We had good breakfasts. We saw a dog.

• 2:44Speaker 00

  I yelled at that dog that I loved it and that I hope it had a great fucking day.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 2:48Speaker 00

  And I'm having a great day. And we got cake because it's Caleb's birthday.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  It is Caleb's birthday.

• 2:53Speaker 00

  Caleb of horror soup and scream fame.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:57Speaker 00

  If you see him in the streets.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Say happy birthday, bitch.

• 3:00Speaker 00

  Belated happy birthday because his birthday is today. You missed it.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  So say, hope your birthday was great.

• 3:06Speaker 01

  Hope your birthday was swell, big fella.

• 3:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, so we're gonna eat cake with him when we record Scream later.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Not marble cake because it came to my attention today that the two other people in this office don't like marble cake.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  No, I hate marble cake.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  I ordered a cake and I was like, you guys like marble, right? And they're both, Aiden and Elena were like, what?

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  And I thought they were fucking with me.

• 3:26Speaker 00

  No.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Where do you guys stand on marble cake? Let us know.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  I just have never liked it. I don't get it.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  I think you get the best of both worlds.

• 3:35Speaker 00

  See, I don't, here's my thing. Whole ass one thing, don't half ass two.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  See, I don't even feel like it's half assing.

• 3:42Speaker 00

  Marble cake is fully half assing both flavors.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  I think it's so yummy.

• 3:46Speaker 00

  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, this is shitty.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Please let us know where you stand.

• 4:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, I just don't like it.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  I fear just from this room today that I'm in the minority.

• 4:07Speaker 00

  Majority. I think it's fairly beloved, but I, but I don't know.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  I've never made a marble cake.

• 4:11Speaker 00

  I just assume most of my views are in the strange category, so I just could be wrong.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  Well, a lot of them are.

• 4:17Speaker 00

  I think a full chocolate cake is where it's at, or a full vanilla cake.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  I mean, I'm down for both of those, too.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  Make it like, put your whole 10 toes down into that flavor.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Here's the thing about my thick ass, cake is cake and I like all cake. I like, I like red velvet cake. I like cookies and cream cake. I like marble. I could name you a bunch of cakes.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm very, I'm picky with cakes.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  Lemon cake.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  Oh, honey. Make sure you're doing the cake right for me.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Good to know. I'll never make you a marble cake on your birthday.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  Well.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  What would you do?

• 4:48Speaker 00

  I would be, I would eat it and thank you for it because you put time and effort into it.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 4:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  But now I know, so that would be such a dick move.

• 4:56Speaker 00

  That would be a dick move now.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Here's your marble cake.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  So, yeah. Yay for the Burr Months.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  And cake.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  Already decorating for Halloween. I'm already ready for it. I'm gonna re-watch Widows Bay. That's my next thing.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  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.

• 5:21Speaker 00

  And there they were.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  And I said, oh, my God. I'm so excited to decorate.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, I feel good. I feel, I feel, I feel alive.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  My seasonal depression is leaving.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Slowly but surely.

• 5:33Speaker 00

  Because I have reversed seasonal depression.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 5:36Speaker 00

  So I feel good.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Valid.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  I feel good today. I feel powerful. I did something really weird and powerful earlier that I didn't even mean to.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  I wish we could talk about it.

• 5:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  But it was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced in my life.

• 5:48Speaker 00

  But it shows you that I come into my true power in the fall.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  Even Aiden was like.

• 5:52Speaker 00

  Fall yet.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  What?

• 5:54Speaker 00

  But yeah, it's fall. But today, on this, the first day of the Burr Months.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  On this Burr Day.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  We're gonna be doing the Crimes of Daniel LaPlante. Now, you may be like, wait a minute, this sounds a little familiar. We, we did a mini morbid.

• 6:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was one of my first mini morbids.

• 6:15Speaker 00

  Way back. It had to have been like 2018, 2019, maybe.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  I think I got a solid five pages put together.

• 6:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, like it was a mini morbid.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:26Speaker 00

  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.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  It is fucked up.

• 6:38Speaker 00

  So this will have a little bit more of the details that a mini morbid normally wouldn't have had.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Have.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  And it's a crazy one. It's also a Massachusetts case, which is.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  It is?

• 6:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  I forgot that.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Fuck.

• 6:51Speaker 00

  This is Massachusetts.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Oh, shit.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  Which is kind of gross.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  What, how many? That's like, that's almost 10 years ago that we covered that. That's nuts.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  So, and again, like, we just didn't go deep into it.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  No.

• 7:03Speaker 00

  So we went deep into it this time and holy hell.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  Fun.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  So let's get into it, shall we?

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Let's.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  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 home in Pepperell, Massachusetts.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Pepperell.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  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.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:48Speaker 00

  Again, they're teenagers. It's not like he was leaving children.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  It's also the 80s.

• 7:51Speaker 00

  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.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:10Speaker 00

  And thought that they would maybe hit it off. Weird. This is the 80s.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Fair.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  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.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  I literally just said earlier, like, maybe two minutes ago, this is the 80s. And then you're like, this is the 80s.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  And I'm like.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  And you're like, oh, yeah.

• 8:28Speaker 00

  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?

• 8:38Speaker 01

  All right.

• 8:38Speaker 00

  So almost immediately, the two started talking daily and, you know, they were like really hitting it off.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Cute.

• 8:44Speaker 00

  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.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, date one.

• 9:01Speaker 00

  You know? 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.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  He's an OG catfish.

• 9:12Speaker 00

  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. Which so she, you know, she kind of felt like she'd been lied to because she had. Yes. He had led her to believe certain things about himself and. We've all seen Catfish. Again, Catfish. He pulled an Angela.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  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, all right, I don't want to do this. 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. But after that really awkward afternoon date, she didn't see Danny again. And she was just like,

• 10:41Speaker 00

  kind of thrown back into dealing with the grief of losing her mother. Now, one afternoon, a few weeks after that disastrous date with Danny, Tina and Karen decided, you know what, we want to try to talk to our mom. So they held a 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 seance, strange things started happening in the Bowen household. One night while Tina and Karen were watching TV, they heard loud knocking.

• 11:27Speaker 00

  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. Cause 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.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  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. Worried. Yeah. Cause 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 to 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.

• 12:58Speaker 00

  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.

• 13:11Speaker 00

  They decided to tell their dad what was going on. And after hearing the story, Frank, you know, like, kind of broke his 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, the 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 think. 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.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  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 gotta 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 or 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,

• 14:38Speaker 00

  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. Yeah. As a teenage girl, I'm just speaking from 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. Like, that's not even what?

• 15:23Speaker 00

  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 and 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. Still, yeah, I could understand why you would think that. And obviously, you know, the just, the fact that it wasn't so, again, this is the eighties. Yeah. This is the eighties. 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, explain to the officer. He was like, my wife did just recently pass away.

• 16:07Speaker 00

  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 I mean? Like, maybe me. I know the bar is low. I'm like, it's so cool that his daddy gave a shit. Gave a shit. But he was working so hard just to support them.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  And he's thinking, okay, this thing I have to do, maybe I'm actually like 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'd 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

• 17:35Speaker 00

  while they were gone. So convinced, obviously someone has 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.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  The Hulu original series Phony is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus October 20th. Sunny's life is pretty great until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his, with one exception, his mom. Starring five-time Emmy nominee Connie Britton and Sam Nivola, this small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface. Watch the Hulu original series Phony on October 20th, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 18:41Speaker 01

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• 19:46Speaker 00

  So later Frank would describe the man as being in his, what he thought was his early twenties.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  And Tina told police he was about six feet tall, at least.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 19:55Speaker 00

  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."

• 20:16Speaker 01

  A hairy jacket?

• 20:18Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  The fuck is a hairy jacket?

• 20:20Speaker 00

  I assume like a fur coat, maybe?

• 20:23Speaker 01

  Why wouldn't you just say fur coat? I feel like, no, it's gotta be different.

• 20:27Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 20:27Speaker 01

  A hairy jacket?

• 20:29Speaker 00

  A hairy jacket.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  Ew, and ketchup and mayonnaise all over your face? That's fucked.

• 20:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Mayonnaise is good for your hair. I don't know about your skin.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  Disgusting.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Ew.

• 20:39Speaker 00

  And to find that in your daughter's closet, holding a hatchet and a pipe wrench.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  And the dad isn't armed?

• 20:45Speaker 00

  Like, what the fuck?

• 20:46Speaker 01

  What happened?

• 20:47Speaker 00

  So, yeah.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  I don't even remember. I'm like, what happened?

• 20:50Speaker 00

  What happens? The man advanced on Frank and rounded all them up together.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Oh, fuck.

• 20:55Speaker 00

  And then, because he has two weapons, remember?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:58Speaker 00

  And he's threatening the girls, he's threatening, like, so they're just trying to, like...

• 21:01Speaker 01

  Well, they just got home, they're so off-guard.

• 21:02Speaker 00

  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.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  On the outside.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  Like, he was able to, like, push him out of the bedroom.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  Good, good, good.

• 21:21Speaker 00

  So temporarily safe in the bedroom, Tina crawled out the window and climbed down the side of the house.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  Damn.

• 21:27Speaker 00

  And then ran to the neighbor's house and called police.

• 21:29Speaker 01

  Badass alert number two.

• 21:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. In a small town like Pepperell, they don't really get a lot of calls like this.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  This is wild that this was in Pepperell.

• 21:37Speaker 00

  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.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:49Speaker 00

  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. That he was no longer there. He just fled the scene.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 22:05Speaker 00

  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.

• 22:13Speaker 01

  I'd be like, we're going to the Holiday Inn.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  So Frank booked a room at a hotel nearby where they would stay for a few days while everything was investigated.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  Smart.

• 22:21Speaker 00

  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.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Oh, why is this motherfucker just, like, hanging out in this empty house?

• 22:39Speaker 00

  Assuming it was the intruder, Frank ran to the neighbor's house and called the police again. So moments later, Pepperell Police Officer Steven Bazanson arrived at the house. And he was skeptical about what Frank had reported, which I'm like...

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Maybe don't be.

• 22:54Speaker 00

  Why were you skeptical? Like, they didn't lie about this before.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:59Speaker 00

  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 gonna say he saw the guy at the window."

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Because this is now the third time they've come and not found anything.

• 23:10Speaker 00

  But I'm like, but still.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Do you think he's just, like, making this shit? Like, why would he make this shit up?

• 23:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  And also, what else are you doing?

• 23:17Speaker 00

  So with his gun drawn, he entered the house cautiously, announcing himself and demanding anyone else make themselves known. And he had barely taken 10 steps inside when he saw the first floor was a disaster.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  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."

• 23:39Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 23:40Speaker 00

  Written on it in magic marker, "I'm still here, come find me."

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 23:46Speaker 00

  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 a kitchen knife, and it too had a message written in magic marker, "I'm going to kill you all."

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Yeah. And the police officer found this.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  This is next-level shit.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  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."

• 24:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:26Speaker 00

  And he was.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  They were.

• 24:28Speaker 00

  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.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  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."

• 25:07Speaker 01

  That is the most Massachusetts arrest.

• 25:09Speaker 00

  I was like, damn.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  Put your hands in the air, kid, or I'm gonna make your brains go everywhere.

• 25:14Speaker 00

  The son of a bitch.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  We love son of a bitch over here.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  Like, he said "son of a bitch" twice in that same thing.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  It's not enough.

• 25:22Speaker 00

  Now, the intruder did as he was told, and 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, the long-distance friend who they went out once, 16-year-old Danny LaPlante.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  16 years old, hiding in the walls.

• 25:46Speaker 00

  What struck the officers most about him wasn't how young he was, which was crazy, but it was how eerily calm he was. 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.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Jesus.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  Yes. Now, during their search of the house, Pepperell 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.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  That is insane.

• 26:16Speaker 00

  Presumably, since the knocking and the walls began in June.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  Yup.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  Now, this is December, he's been in there since June.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Literally half a fucking year.

• 26:23Speaker 00

  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.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  This is my worst nightmare.

• 26:32Speaker 00

  And 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.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Just to fuck with them.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Also, that's why I have motion detectors.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, same. Because fuck y'all.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  The balls it takes to even, like, what if somebody comes down for a glass of water?

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. You just didn't give a fuck.

• 26:59Speaker 00

  Nope, he was ready to brazen.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Take care of that.

• 27:01Speaker 00

  That is brazen. Now, when the news of the home invasion and LaPlante's arrest hit the local news, everyone in Pepperell and the surrounding towns were fucking shocked.

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:11Speaker 00

  I wasn't, because I was one. So I did not know this was going on.

• 27:15Speaker 01

  I bet your parents were.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  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.

• 27:26Speaker 01

  No. Also, why did I just call mom and papa your parents?

• 27:29Speaker 00

  I thought that was funny, too, but I let it go.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  I sat here with it and I was like, why did I say that?

• 27:34Speaker 00

  Your parents, your fucking parents were probably worried about it.

• 27:38Speaker 01

  I don't know those homies.

• 27:40Speaker 00

  I gotta ask them about it.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  I should have, we just saw them.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  I know.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  But a lot of people who knew Danny weren't entirely surprised that he'd done something so bizarre and violent.

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Imagine knowing somebody that you wouldn't be shocked if you found out they lived in someone's walls for six months.

• 27:56Speaker 00

  And showed up in a hairy jacket.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Do you know, not a hairy jacket? I still have so many questions about that.

• 28:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Can you think of one person where you wouldn't be shocked if they lived in somebody's walls for six months?

• 28:08Speaker 00

  I'm trying. Like, I'm genuinely trying.

• 28:10Speaker 01

  Thankfully, no.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't think I can either.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  I really can't think of somebody that

• 28:15Speaker 01

  No, I really can't.

• 28:16Speaker 00

  That has that kind of patience, to be honest.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, truly. That's so fucked. That's my worst fear. Last time 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 vent.

• 28:27Speaker 00

  And I was like, holy shit.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  It's my biggest fear.

• 28:29Speaker 00

  That is scary. Well, apparently, uh, one neighbor told a reporter, when you saw Danny, you watched him. He earned his reputation. He was a troublemaker from day one.

• 28:41Speaker 01

  Oh, shit.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  And that's scary. Troublemaker. Okay.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  But living in walls?

• 28:46Speaker 01

  Not okay.

• 28:47Speaker 00

  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, Jill Gary, who was one of the neighbors of the LaPlante, 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 field, fields where they grew pumpkin and squash.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  Oh, hell, yeah. That's so New England.

• 29:18Speaker 00

  But when she went to check on him a few hours later, she had, he had smashed all the pumpkins and squash in their field.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  What a son of a bitch.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  I'd be fucking pissed.

• 29:27Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Like, so pissed.

• 29:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:30Speaker 00

  Now, Danny, Danny said, Danny.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  Danny.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  Danny.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Danny boy.

• 29:34Speaker 00

  Danny's tendency to act out and be destructive was, as far as most of the people in Pepperell could tell, perfectly in keeping with his family's reputation in town.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  I can't remember anything about his family. I was just sitting here wondering about that.

• 29:46Speaker 00

  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.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  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.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  And he was the nicest man.

• 30:09Speaker 00

  And he was a very kind person.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  And like, super philanthropic.

• 30:12Speaker 00

  And super, he, like, gave all his money to, like, other things.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  He was also rich as fuck, which was crazy.

• 30:16Speaker 00

  Exactly, but he just didn't care to take care of his own stuff. He just wanted to help other people.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  He just wanted to vibe.

• 30:20Speaker 00

  So don't immediately judge people like that.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  Just saying. I'm not saying that's the case here. I'm just saying, like, you know, you know.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  And then there was that other house, and that guy was really nice.

• 30:29Speaker 00

  Really nice. That's the thing. I've seen two situations where that, where you can't really judge the, the book by the cover. So I'm just saying.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  Neither of those houses exist anymore. They're just so weird.

• 30:39Speaker 00

  I know. But, and that said, not everyone thought very poorly, especially of Danny's mother, Elaine Moore, and his stepfather. Local attorney, Robert Casey, said they're both salt-of-the-earth kind of people.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 30:52Speaker 00

  So there's, like, very conflict. It might just be people judging based off of what they see.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, like a book based on the cover.

• 30:57Speaker 00

  Or you just don't know.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:59Speaker 00

  That's just, like, two sides of it.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  Interesting.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  By the time he was 10 or 11, I mean, clearly Danny was a fucking wreck. Like, he was a problem.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:09Speaker 00

  But that's not always due entirely to one thing.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:14Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? So by the time he was 10 or 11, Danny's behavior turned criminal at 10 or 11.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  I, I think it was criminal at seven years old, smashing pumpkins.

• 31:23Speaker 00

  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.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Damn.

• 31:34Speaker 00

  But there was no direct evidence linking them, so they couldn't do anything.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  A B and E at 11.

• 31:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. In the summer of 1985, before I was born.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  Oh, just, just before.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. Danny's mother enrolled him at St. Bernard's High School, a private Catholic high school about a half hour away in Fitchburg.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  She said, "Jod will save you."

• 31:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, Massachusetts, too. Fitchburg is a Massachusetts. Danny joined the football team, ran track, and got mediocre grades. But he struggled to make friends.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 32:03Speaker 00

  And again, it looks like the parent, they were trying.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, it sounds like it.

• 32:07Speaker 00

  Pat, uh, classmate Patrick, um, I think it's McGiggan?

• 32:12Speaker 01

  McGiggan?

• 32:13Speaker 00

  McGiggan.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  I like it.

• 32:14Speaker 00

  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.

• 32:24Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  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.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 32:46Speaker 00

  So he might have known her, because remember, he went to St. Bernard's after, like, he transferred there.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he might have gone to her school.

• 32:52Speaker 00

  He could have gone to the school.

• 32:53Speaker 01

  Even though he said he didn't.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  And she might not have noticed him because he's

• 32:57Speaker 00

  When she was younger.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  He's him.

• 32:59Speaker 00

  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.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  Oh, my god, do you know what I was gonna say? I wonder if he, like, followed her home after, after the date. But back in the day, wasn't your address in the phone book, too?

• 33:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. They just sent you a giant book.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Why?

• 33:22Speaker 00

  With everyone's addresses.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  That was a good idea.

• 33:25Speaker 00

  Because, you know what? It's like,

• 33:27Speaker 01

  Nobody thought things like this happened.

• 33:29Speaker 00

  A thing like, like, these things obviously happened, but they felt few and far between.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  You know, like, it just didn't feel that scary.

• 33:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:37Speaker 00

  Like, now, it's like

• 33:38Speaker 01

  Now, it's just like

• 33:39Speaker 00

  The scariest thing in the world, if anybody knows where

• 33:41Speaker 01

  It's insane.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  All 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, and armed burglary. And the last charge was relating to the jewelry and personal items he'd stolen from the house.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Gotcha.

• 33:57Speaker 00

  Under the circumstances, he was booked at the Pepperell Police Station, then transferred to the State Psychiatric Hospital in 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 are not available to the public.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  That's such a bummer.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  So the outcome of the psychiatric evaluation and any other info about Danny's mental health are unavailable from that time.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  I would pay money to read about that.

• 34:22Speaker 00

  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.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  There were many good findings.

• 34:33Speaker 00

  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.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 34:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. After a decade of Danny's bad behavior, the residents of Pepperell were, uh, not pleased that he had returned home.

• 34:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, out on these streets.

• 35:00Speaker 00

  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."

• 35:09Speaker 01

  The woods.

• 35:10Speaker 00

  The fuck?

• 35:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:12Speaker 00

  The thing was, Danny wasn't just spending time in the woods. He was wandering the neighborhood, checking for unlocked doors.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  Because he's gonna go live in somebody else's walls.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  He's not gonna stop what he was doing. On the afternoon of October 14th, someone broke into the home of Raymond Pindell and stole two 22-caliber pistols and a large amount of cash.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  A few weeks later, Danny's parents found one of the pistols and its holster in his laundry basket.

• 35:36Speaker 01

  It's also like, dude, I, like, I don't know what I would do if my kid was accused of this. I can't imagine that.

• 35:42Speaker 00

  But he's a danger to other people.

• 35:43Speaker 01

  And if you're gonna 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.

• 35:50Speaker 00

  Well, that's the thing.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  That's your responsibility.

• 35:53Speaker 00

  I don't, and again, I'm not saying I know what I would do in, like, these situations, but from my, my place right here, I'm sorry if you terrorize an entire family for six months and say you're gonna kill them all and try to hurt them and literally break into their house, like, like, to hold them hostage with their father and, like,

• 36:15Speaker 01

  You should stay in jail.

• 36:16Speaker 00

  I'm sorry. I love you.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yup.

• 36:19Speaker 00

  But you are paying for what you did.

• 36:21Speaker 01

  Yup.

• 36:21Speaker 00

  And that's, and it's like, and also, you're dangerous.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  I'd be scared for my own safety.

• 36:25Speaker 00

  That's something you just have to come to terms with. It's not gonna 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

• 36:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:38Speaker 00

  with me.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  It's my responsibility.

• 36:39Speaker 00

  Allowing you to be out.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  And that's what I'm saying. I'm like, dude, it's your responsibility to, to, again, keep eyes on him.

• 36:45Speaker 00

  And you can't have that kind of responsibility.

• 36:47Speaker 01

  No, not when, not when you're dealing with somebody like that, even if it is your child.

• 36:50Speaker 00

  Like, he's obviously dangerous.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:53Speaker 00

  He's, you're not gonna be able to have eyes on him all the time. It's just not gonna work.

• 36:57Speaker 01

  It's not realistic.

• 36:57Speaker 00

  So you need to, you know, it's, it sucks. The whole thing sucks, I feel, for these people, but,

• 37:05Speaker 00

  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.

• 37:16Speaker 01

  Like, when I was 15.

• 37:17Speaker 00

  His parents accepted the excuse, but they took the weapon away. In the weeks that followed, the break-ins and thefts around Pepperell continued.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Crazy.

• 37:25Speaker 00

  Weirdly enough, on November 16th, Danny broke into the home of his neighbors, Andrew and Priscilla, 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, uh, break-in at the Gustafson home,

• 38:04Speaker 00

  Danny approached his brother, Stephen, and Stephen's friend, Michael Palowski, and asked whether either of them could get him 22-caliber bullets.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  I'd be like, uh, you're on bail, so no.

• 38:15Speaker 00

  And I'd be like, why?

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:18Speaker 00

  What's the reason?

• 38:19Speaker 01

  I don't even wanna know why. No, you're on bail.

• 38:21Speaker 00

  They said, "Why?" And he said, he, quote, "Wanted to make a large bullet and sell it."

• 38:30Speaker 00

  What? I'd be like, what? Now, apparently, Michael Palowski, the friend, was unaware of the whole stolen gun situation. Okay. Because that was like, they kept it in the family. Yeah. So he had no idea that that was part of this whole thing. So he was like, okay, like, you want to make a giant bullet? Like, I don't know. He's like, you gonna 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 5:00 PM. He was typically greeted at the door by his children, five-year-old William and seven-year-old Abigail.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  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 Pepperell were at the scene. Not entirely certain what to expect from this whole thing. Officer George Aho, one of the officers, said, Officer Johnson and I went inside to 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. Oh.

• 40:00Speaker 00

  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 blond-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. Yep. Outside, Aho informed Andrew Gustafson that they had unfortunately found his children deceased. And then he called for additional officers and crime scene techs to come. In the bedroom, a technician from the Department of Public Safety found a portion of a broken condom on the floor. Oh.

• 40:43Speaker 00

  As well as semen on the bedspread. Ew. 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. End 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. Yep. Technically, and an innocent woman. Yep. Killed in their home.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Like, horrific. He is a deranged motherfucker. Yeah. Now, to State Police Detective Joe Lawless, which, what a name for a detective. I was gonna say, you gotta be a criminal. Detective Lawless. Detective Lawless.

• 41:46Speaker 00

  He'd been at the Bowen crime scene when Danny was arrested. He said the scene at the Gustafson house felt eerily familiar, and his mind immediately went to Danny LaPlante. He said, "There were cer- there certainly were some parallels between the crime scenes. He lived almost directly behind the Gustafsons' 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 Gustafson 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 LaPlante home, I'm sure. That afternoon, detectives interviewed Danny at a local library, and he claimed on the previous afternoon,

• 42:31Speaker 00

  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 break-ins. Wow. His alibi was, uh, 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 LaPlante 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. My God. And now they're gonna have to find him. Yep.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  It's crazy to think how much SimpliSafe has grown in the 20 years that they've been around. I mean, that is literally, like, most of my life. Here's the thing about other home security systems. They're all designed for after. After the window breaks, after someone's inside, after you get the notification, after the police come. Not great. SimpliSafe, though, is the first system designed for before. Stopping a break-in before it even begins, and that's what I'm trying to get down with. With SimpliSafe, smart AI-powered outdoor cameras detect suspicious activity at the perimeter and alert live US-based agents to step in. I think when I feel the most comfort, I mean, I'm always super comfortable in my house, knowing that SimpliSafe is protecting me.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  If I'm home alone specifically, though, I love knowing that if I hear a weird noise outside, I don't need to go check the windows and see what the heck is going on. I mean, I can pull up the cameras and check, but I also know that those US-based live agents are right there, and the cameras are ready to alert them if things get too weird. SimpliSafe has been protecting your world for 20 years. Celebrate their anniversary with us and save 60% on your new SimpliSafe system at simplisafe.com/morbid. That's 60% off at simplisafe.com/morbid. Plus, when you order, write in our show name in the "how did you hear about us?" survey to let them know that we sent you. Don't forget, there's no safe like SimpliSafe.

• 44:37Speaker 01

  This October, you're about to be asking, who is Other Mommy? The new horror movie from Blumhouse, executive producer of Obsession and James Bond producer of Backrooms, hits theaters October 9th. Other Mommy will keep audiences on the edge of their seats, as Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain stars in dual roles. She leaves everyone guessing on just who is Other Mommy. It's been a great year for horror films, and Other Mommy feels like it's going to continue on that path. Your mommy won't save you this October. Other Mommy releases in theaters October 9th.

• 45:11Speaker 01

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• 46:31Speaker 00

  So the news that Danny was on the run set everyone in Pepperell and 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. We, 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 somehow. 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.

• 47:15Speaker 00

  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 Pepperell home a little before 2:00 PM. 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.

• 47:58Speaker 00

  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 Pepperell 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, 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, don't be overdramatic. Yep. I do that all the time, and it's never good. Nope. So don't do that.

• 48:42Speaker 00

  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 gotta be pretty fast because they need me to get back to the search for Daniel Laplante. She's like, I think you have found your target. Yeah. 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. So he goes to the back door and he sees a teenage boy standing on the porch.

• 49:28Speaker 00

  And he later said, I just taped the news on the VCR. Stop it. And I recognized him instantly as Danny Laplante. Oh my, imagine that motherfucker on your back step in your home alone. So Laplante asks him whether the Langs 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 concerned 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. My dog will eat you. Absolutely not. So Danny flashed the pistol and screamed, let me in and kept saying it. Oh. Like was screaming at this 17 year old, let me in and like flashing a pistol. Fucking terrifying.

• 50:13Speaker 00

  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 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. Laplante 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. Oh. As they drove, McKella watched Laplante 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.

• 50:58Speaker 00

  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 burned than deal with Daniel Laplante. 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 area, 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.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  So officers from multiple jurisdictions descended on this lumberyard and started to search. During this whole thing, Officer Scott Como and Paul Barata spotted Danny hiding over an overturned dumpster inside of it. Okay. And 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 here? Like already you were fucked 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?

• 52:27Speaker 00

  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 Laplante's lawyer,

• 53:09Speaker 00

  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? Yup. 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

• 53:54Speaker 00

  or he had redressed her afterwards. Oh my. Yeah. On January 13th, 1988, Daniel Laplante 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. But by the time the trial began, the prosecutor had received also

• 54:37Speaker 00

  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 Palowski. He was the one who provided the bullets that unfortunately Danny used to kill the Gustafson, or Priscilla Gustafson. Palowski was able to provide a sample of the bullets he'd given Danny, which allowed match to those used in the murder.

• 55:22Speaker 00

  And a ballistics expert testified that the rounds had been fired from a 22 caliber pistol discovered on the Laplante 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 Laplante 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, in this case. Barton sentenced Laplante to three consecutive life sentences with no parole, no commutation and no furloughs. Good, have fun. In simple terms, he was never to be released from prison.

• 56:07Speaker 00

  Should never see the sun again. Danny has appealed his conviction in various points over the years, but none have been successful. No. 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.

• 56:49Speaker 00

  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 his claims citing the 2017 conclusion that Danny was not remorseful for his crimes. Period. Speaking on behalf of the justices, Justice David Lowery 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.

• 57:34Speaker 00

  He's a monster. They would be wise to never consider him for parole. He lived in people's walls, killed a pregnant woman and her two children. Yeah.

• 57:47Speaker 01

  Like, no, you don't, you don't do, and then went on the run and kidnapped another person.

• 57:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  And victimized how many others by breaking into their houses as well?

• 57:56Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Like, he truly haunted the town of Pepperell and the surrounding areas.

• 58:01Speaker 00

  Yeah. And the surrounding town, like, and the poor, like, obviously, the Gustafsons, like, I can't imagine.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  The father.

• 58:09Speaker 00

  Andrew, what he has gone through.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  No.

• 58:11Speaker 00

  Losing everything.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:12Speaker 00

  At once.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  And just like, losing everything, like, your home as well, you could never stay there.

• 58:19Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, that's the thing.

• 58:20Speaker 01

  That's your life. You lost your life, essentially.

• 58:22Speaker 00

  Like, how do you, how do you live?

• 58:25Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 58:25Speaker 00

  With that, like.

• 58:26Speaker 01

  Poor man.

• 58:27Speaker 00

  I feel so bad. And then the Bowen family, having to deal with, like, the terror that they were living with?

• 58:34Speaker 01

  The terror that they were living with, and then the PTSD that would come after that.

• 58:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Your home is your safe space, and for that to be violated in that way?

• 58:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  I can't imagine ever feeling safe again.

• 58:47Speaker 00

  Like, how do you get comfortable?

• 58:49Speaker 01

  Or maybe like the opposite of agoraphobic.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:52Speaker 01

  I just want to be out all the time.

• 58:53Speaker 00

  Truly.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Oh, honey, we need a fun fact after that.

• 58:56Speaker 00

  We really do.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  My goodness.

• 58:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:58Speaker 01

  I got one for you. It's about alligators.

• 59:01Speaker 00

  Alligators?

• 59:02Speaker 01

  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.

• 59:14Speaker 00

  Holy shit.

• 59:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. As their teeth wear down, new ones grow in to replace them.

• 59:20Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  Isn't that, like, you'd never have to go to the dentist.

• 59:23Speaker 00

  Never.

• 59:24Speaker 01

  Just regenerate a new fucking tooth 3,000 times.

• 59:26Speaker 00

  And sharks do that.

• 59:29Speaker 01

  Oh, they do?

• 59:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:30Speaker 01

  I didn't know.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  I'm pretty sure they do that. I don't know how many, but I don't think they, like, indefinitely do it.

• 59:35Speaker 01

  Interesting. Let's Google it.

• 59:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. I think they have, like, several, but I don't know if it's an indefinite amount.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  How many teeth?

• 59:42Speaker 00

  I'm not positive.

• 59:43Speaker 01

  Will sharks go through in a lifetime?

• 59:48Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 59:49Speaker 01

  They do even more.

• 59:50Speaker 00

  Really?

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Yes. They can go through 20,000 to 50,000 teeth, sometimes up to 200,000, depending on the species.

• 1:00:00Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  And they don't have any roots.

• 1:00:03Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  Like, the roots of their teeth.

• 1:00:05Speaker 00

  That's why they pop out so easily.

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. And they grow, like, new rows of teeth, too. It's not even just, like, one regenerating.

• 1:00:12Speaker 00

  They grow, like, whole.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Damn. Show me your teeth. Show me your teeth. Also.

• 1:00:17Speaker 00

  Fascinating.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  On top of this, like, fun fact, I just, I had to look up how Andrew.

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  Was doing. Andrew has passed away, unfortunately, but he remarried.

• 1:00:29Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  He had children. He had grandchildren.

• 1:00:32Speaker 00

  So he had a good life.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  Like, he, like, he was able to, to gather the pieces and seemingly lived a very lovely life.

• 1:00:41Speaker 00

  I'm happy that, like, happiness found him.

• 1:00:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. People said, just in his, like, you know, obituary.

• 1:00:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:48Speaker 01

  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."

• 1:00:55Speaker 00

  Oh, wow.

• 1:00:56Speaker 01

  So he was, like, a lovely person.

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  Okay, that's, that's an even more fun fact.

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  And he had a big, lovely family. He had two daughters. Like, I'm very happy to hear that he was.

• 1:01:06Speaker 00

  That he could find happiness again.

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Find a life again after that. I just can't imagine it exploding the way it did.

• 1:01:13Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:01:13Speaker 01

  And like, and he looks like such a sweet guy.

• 1:01:17Speaker 00

  Oh, he looks like a sweetie.

• 1:01:19Speaker 01

  Sweet man.

• 1:01:20Speaker 00

  Oh, I know. I'm so happy that happiness found him.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  To Andrew's family, I'm really happy that he had you.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, cheers to you guys.

• 1:01:27Speaker 01

  That really killed me to think of him walking into that house.

• 1:01:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. My god.

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  Goddamn.

• 1:01:33Speaker 00

  All right, guys. Well, we hope you keep listening.

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  And we hope you.

• 1:01:36Speaker 00

  Keep it weird.

• 1:01:39Speaker 01

  But that's where that you go live in people's walls and terrorize a community and the surrounding communities as well. Don't do it.

• 1:01:44Speaker 00

  Get out of here.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Don't do it.

• 1:01:46Speaker 00

  Get out of here.

• 1:03:18Speaker 01

  Nearly 50 years after Stephen King's Carrie became a cultural phenomenon, Mike Flanagan is reimagining the iconic story for a new generation. After her father's sudden death, Carrie White enters public school for the first time, and must navigate a viral bullying scandal, the relentless pressure of the social media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence. You know, the usual. Carrie is a story about how small acts of cruelty snowball into something catastrophic, a theme that feels as painfully relevant today as it did 50 years ago. I feel like maybe even a little bit more because we are all hooked on social media, and we all know that can be a terrifying place, but not quite as terrifying as the prom scene. Carrie is now streaming on Prime Video.

• 1:04:01Speaker 02

  Talk about regrets. We all know someone who's been in a car accident and said, "I don't need to call a lawyer," only to regret it after their pain and damages were worse than expected. When someone hurts you, you deserve to be compensated fairly. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm, fighting for the people for over 35 years. Injured? Visit forthepeople.com/podcast. That's forthepeople.com/podcast. Their fee is free unless they win.