Transcript of Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante

Hey, weirdos. I'm Alayna.

I'm Ash.

And this is Morbid in the Burr Months. Happy September.

Let's do it. I knew what to sing this time.

Last time I didn't. I feel alive.

Oh, yeah.

I feel powerful.

I feel—

I feel like we put Practical Magic on in the studio today and just had it play, and it was gorgeous. Well, we did our shit.

Like, it's 70 degrees. Yeah, barely. It's raining. It's gloomy. We got yummy drinks this morning. We had good breakfast. We saw a dog. I yelled at that dog that I loved it and that I hope and had a great fucking day.

It's true.

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

It is Caleb's birthday.

Caleb of Horror Soup and Scream fame.

Hell yeah.

If you see him in the streets— Say happy birthday, bitch. Say belated happy birthday because his birthday's today. You missed it. Yeah.

So say, hope your birthday was great.

Hope your birthday was swell, big fella.

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

Not marble cake because it came to my attention today that the 2 Other people in this office don't like marble cake.

No, I hate marble cake.

I ordered a cake and I was like, you guys like marble, right?

And they're both—

Aiden and Elena were like, what?

Yeah.

And I thought they were fucking with me.

No.

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

I just have never liked it.

I don't get it. I think you get the best of both worlds.

See, I don't— here's my thing. Whole ass one thing, don't half ass two. See, I don't even feel like it's half-assing. Marble cake is fully half-assing both flavors.

No, I think it's so yummy.

You're never getting a full bite of one flavor, and if you are, it's usually shitty of that flavor, to be quite honest.

No.

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.

Please let us know where you stand.

Yeah, I just don't like it.

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

No, I think you might be in the majority. I think it's fairly Beloved, but I, but I don't know.

I've never made a marble cake.

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

Well, a lot of them are.

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

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

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

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

Yeah, I'm very—

I'm picky with cakes. Lemon cake. Oh, honey.

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

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

Well...

What would you do?

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

Wow.

Yeah.

But now I know, so that would be such a dick move. That was like a dick move now. Happy birthday.

Because your marble cake was shitty. Um, so yeah. Yay for the bir months.

And cake.

Already decorating for Halloween. I'm already ready for it. I'm gonna rewatch Widow's Bay. That's my next thing.

I told Drew today that if he didn't get my Halloween decorations out of storage, that I would fight him to the death when I got home from work. And he said, clearly you haven't been looking at the doorbell cameras.

And there they were.

And I said, oh my God.

Oh my God.

I'm so excited to decorate.

Yeah, I feel good. I feel alive.

Yeah.

My seasonal depression is leaving.

Slowly but surely.

'Cause I have reverse seasonal depression.

Yep.

So I feel good.

Valid.

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

I wish we could talk about it. Yeah, it's crazy.

But it was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced in my life. But it shows you that I come into my true power in the fall. Even in—

I know it's not fall yet. What?

But yeah, it's fall. But today, on this, the first day of the bird month.

On this bird day.

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

Yeah, it was one of my first mini Morbids.

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

I think I got a solid 5 pages put together.

Yeah, it was a mini Morbid.

Yeah.

So we didn't really get into the nitty-gritty. And it's been a long time. It's kind of gotten buried in the archives. So we wanted to do, like, another look at this case because this case is a crazy case.

It is fucked up.

So this will have a little bit more of the details that a Mini Morbid normally wouldn't have.

Simply can't.

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

It is?

Yeah. I forgot that. Yeah.

Fuck.

This is Massachusetts.

Oh, shit.

Which is kind of gross.

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

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

No.

Um, so we went deep into it this time, and holy hell.

Fun.

So let's get into it, shall we?

Let's.

So this goes back to early 1986. Uh, Frank Bowen's wife lost, unfortunately, her long battle with cancer, so he was left alone to raise their 2 teenage daughters, Tina and Karen. Uh, this was at their home in Pepperell, Massachusetts.

Pepperell.

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

Yeah.

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

It's also the '80s.

So Tina, one afternoon, got a call from a boy who said his name was Danny LaPlante. Yeah. Danny told Tina he actually went to a different high school than her, but he had gone to her high school. Or I think it was like he had gotten her phone number because a friend of his had gone to her high school and thought that they would maybe hit it off.

Weird.

This is the '80s. Oh, okay.

Fair.

This is the only way of communicating. If you want to get in touch with someone or you want to start anything, you have I literally just said earlier, like, maybe 2 minutes ago, this is the '80s.

And then you're like, this is the '80s. And I'm like—

And you're like, oh, yeah.

Oh, right, right.

Now, over the phone, Tina said that Danny seemed charming. He seemed nice, like someone you would want to get to know. And why not?

All right.

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

Cute.

And for Tina, the relationship with Danny was her first, and she was just really excited about it. Now, after a few weeks of daily phone calls, Danny finally mustered up the courage to ask Tina on a date. And the two made plans to meet at a local ice cream shop, which should be, like, a very adorable date.

Yeah, date one. Love it.

And Tina couldn't wait to finally meet Danny in person. And he had also said— he had claimed that he was, like, a football player and super popular and, like—

He's an OG jock face.

He's kind of like the dream guy for, like, a teen. You know what I mean? But so she gets to the ice cream shop, and the image of Danny that she had built in her head—

Was different?

Shattered, I would say.

Okay.

Rather than a handsome football player who was outgoing and excited to meet her, Danny was very disheveled and unkempt. He did not look like a football player. 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 yeah, we've all seen Catfish. Again, Catfish.

He pulled an Angela.

So she was disappointed, and frankly, she was uncomfortable.

Yeah.

This guy has lied to you.

You don't want to start anything off on a lie.

And now you feel weird about it. Like, that's weird. So after an hour or so, she was like, I'm pretty good with going home now. Like, she was just like, all right, I don't want to do this anymore.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Which is 100% her right. Absolutely it is. If you are not into someone on a first date, you can end that date 5 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.

Yeah.

But after that really awkward afternoon date, she didn't see Danny again, and she was just, like, kind of thrown back into dealing with the grief of losing her mother.

Oh.

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 séance. They did, like, a little, like, Ouija board kind of situation.

Okay.

They wanted to just talk to their mom.

Yeah.

They're 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. Um, and they were like, you know what, this was kind of unsuccessful, nothing really happened. Um, but almost immediately after the séance, strange things started happening in the Bowen household. One night while Tina and Karen were watching TV, they heard loud knocking that sounded like it was coming from the front of the house. So assuming someone was knocking at the front door, Tina went to see who was there, but no one was there.

Yeah.

Now, the next night, the noises continued, and it occurred to Tina and Karen that the séance, maybe it was successful. Maybe this is what this is.

Oh.

Um, and they were like, wow, like, maybe this is some form of communication, which literally shatters my heart.

Yeah, that breaks my heart into tiny little pieces.

Because it wasn't just knocking. There were other inexplicable things happening in the house, like the lights would go on and off without anyone touching the switches, objects would be moved or Like, misplaced completely. The TV channels would change, like, sometimes seemingly on their own. Um, reporter Jeffrey Higgins said the 2 girls believed they'd contacted their mother.

Yeah.

They thought their mother's ghost was doing these things to somehow communicate with them.

Oh.

Now, Tina and Karen may have believed they'd successfully made contact with their mother, but it didn't make them feel better because it didn't feel like their mom. Yeah.

So maybe they were like, oh no, like, we've made contact with something, but it's not Mom. They were worried. Yeah.

Because then the knocking on the walls and other forms of communication seemingly, or 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 with them was somehow also watching them.

Ew.

And again, if this was their mother's ghost, it didn't make sense that she would take food and drinks from the refrigerator.

No.

Which would happen.

Oh!

When no one was home, there would be food or drinks gone from their refrigerator.

This would fuck me up on a level that I can't even explain out loud.

Yeah. After more than a month of noises and missing objects—

A month?

Mm-hmm. They decided to tell their dad what was going on. And after hearing the story, Frank, you know, like, kind of broke 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— the reporter said their father Frank never heard any of the taps, but he was working a lot. He just thought these were 2 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. 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, but from the basement.

Ew.

Determined to figure this out, Tina grabbed a flashlight, which also—

Badass.

What a fucking badass.

Yeah.

With Karen right behind her, they descended into the dark basement. And at first, it looked like nothing was different in there. But as Tina swept the flashlight across the room, she saw it. On the wall across from the stairs, written in 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 nightmares are made of. You can't even conceive of that.

No.

Being home alone without your dad in the house as a teenage girl. I'm just speaking 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.

That's an urban legend. Like, that's not even—

what? That is the movie Urban Legend.

So obviously fucking terrified, the girls did exactly what they should. They called their dad at work and they were like, this is what we just found. So he comes right home and called the police immediately. And when an officer arrived, he and Frank went and searched the house 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.

I mean, still, yeah, I could understand why you would think that.

And obviously, you know, the fact that it wasn't— so again, this is the '80s.

Yeah. This is the '80s. We don't believe women.

Yeah, we don't believe anybody. So, like, because it was ketchup and not blood, they just kind of thought— so Frank was, like, explaining to the officer, he was like, my wife did just recently pass away. We're all struggling to adjust to it. Like, they have been hearing noises. They have thought that there was ghosts. They have thought they may have been contacting her. So, the police officer was kind of like, yeah, that's probably just kids' imagination. They probably did it maybe to get a little attention because you're working a lot.

Yeah.

And Frank thought that too. He was like, I have to work so much. I wonder if they're, like, trying to get me home, kind of thing. And, like, so he wasn't mad. He was just like, oh, I feel bad.

Like— He's a good dad too, for, like, really, like, giving a shit.

And thinking, like, okay, maybe this is on me.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, maybe me. Yeah, that's a thing. Which, I know the bar is low. I'm like, it's so cool that as a dad he gave a shit.

He gave a shit. But he was working so hard just to support them, and he's thinking, okay, this thing I have to do, maybe I'm actually, like, causing issues. Like, they want me to be home. Um, but obviously, like, it was frustrating for them.

Yeah.

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

Nice.

Kathleen Knapp, her name was. And after dinner, they arrived back at the house, and Frank could immediately tell that something wasn't right in the house. Not only were there some valuable items clearly missing, but it also looked like someone had used the toilet while they were gone. So 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.

So later, Frank would describe the man as being in his— what he thought was his early 20s.

Okay.

And Tina told police he was about 6 feet tall at least.

Okay.

But their descriptions varied somewhat from one another. What they all agreed on, though, was that the man had painted his face with ketchup and mayonnaise in a pattern that looked like war paint. His hair was spiked in multiple directions, and he was wearing what they all described as a hairy jacket.

A hairy jacket?

Yes.

The fuck is a hairy jacket?

I assume like, a fur coat, maybe?

Why wouldn't you just say fur coat, though? I feel like they know it's— it's gotta be different. I don't know!

A hairy jacket? Like, a hairy jacket!

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

Yeah.

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

Disgusting.

Ew.

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

And the dad isn't armed?

Like, what the fuck?

So, what happened?

So, yeah.

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

What happened? So, the man advanced on Frank and rounded all them up together.

Oh, fuck.

And then in a— 'cause he has 2 weapons, remember?

Yeah.

And he's threatening the girls. He's threatening— like, so they're just standing there like—

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

Then in a quote, very calm manner, he ordered them all into one of the other bedrooms. So he was, like, wrangling them into a bedroom. But thinking quickly, Frank managed to slam the door to the bedroom once they were all inside, leaving him out.

On the outside.

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

Good, good, good.

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

Damn!

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

Badass alert number 2.

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

This is wild that this was in Pepperell.

Right? So they did— the dispatcher was like, holy shit, people are being held hostage in a home? Like, what the fuck? So the police got there lickety-split because, like, they're not doing anything else. So they got there right away. And the officers were relieved to find Frank and the girls in the house unharmed. Unfortunately, after thoroughly searching the house, which included at least one canine officer, they found nothing. He was no longer there. He just fled the scene.

Okay.

Now, although the intruder was gone, the family was understandably very shaken up and uncomfortable with the idea of staying in that house that night.

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

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

Smart.

2 days after the home invasion, on December 10th, Frank went back to the house just to get some more of their stuff. And when he pulled into the driveway, he said he looked up at the house, and standing in the second-floor window, he saw the silhouette of a man looking at him.

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

Yeah. Assuming it was the intruder, Frank ran to the neighbor's house and called the police again. So moments later, Pepperell Police Officer Stephen Besanson arrived at the house. And he was skeptical about what Frank had reported, which I'm like, Maybe don't be. Why were you skeptical? Like, they didn't lie about this before.

Yeah.

So, uh, 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.

Because this is now the 3rd time they've come and not found anything.

But I'm like—

But still.

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

Yeah. And also, what else are you doing?

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

Oh.

Yeah. He said, when I opened the door, on the right-hand wall, I saw a knife sticking out of the wall. And I see it's through a picture, a family picture. Oh my God. Written on it in magic marker, I'm still here. Come find me.

Oh.

He said, now the hair goes up on the back of my head. On another wall, there was a second picture pinned to the wall with a knife— a kitchen knife. And it too had a message written in magic marker: I'm going to kill you all.

Oh my God!

Yeah. And the police officer found this.

This is next-level shit.

Yeah. After finding all of this, Bezanson called for backup, and within 2 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 3 officers failed to find anyone in the house. And Byzantin recalled thinking to himself, that bastard is still here. We're missing something.

Yeah.

And he was.

They were.

Now, as he took one last look around the second floor of the house, because he said, he's here, I know it.

He's here.

Like, he was like, I know he didn't leave. Byzantin 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 crawlspace and landed right on the intruder's face.

Oh my God.

He said, I pulled my pistol and said, I got the son of a bitch right here, but he didn't move. I told him, let me see your hands or I'll splatter your brains all over that wall. And I said, Massachusetts.

That is the most Massachusetts arrest.

I was like, damn.

Put your hands in the air, kid.

And then you're like, son of a bitch. The son of a bitch!

We love son of a bitch over here.

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

It's not enough.

Now, the intruder did as he was told, and to Besanson's surprise, when he came out of the crawl space, it was not an adult man, but a teenage boy. A boy who would quickly be identified as Tina Bowen's one-time friend. Like, a long-distance friend who they went out once. 16-year-old Danny LaPlante.

16 years old. Hiding in the walls.

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

Ew.

Bezanson said he was not afraid. He looked out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't afraid to have a gun stuck next to his head.

Jesus. Yeah.

Now, during their search of the house, Pepperell officers discovered that LaPlante had been effectively living in the walls of the Bowens' house. Some of which allowed just a few inches of space to move, for several months.

That is insane.

Presumably since the knocking in the walls began in June.

Yup.

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

Literally half a fucking year.

From his various positions in the walls, he was able to see through vents and would coordinate his activity to coincide with times when Frank was at work.

This is my worst nightmare.

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.

Just to fuck with them.

Also, that's why I have motion detectors.

Yeah, same.

Because fuck you.

The balls it takes to even— like, what if somebody comes down for a glass of water? Like, he just didn't give a fuck.

No, he was ready to take care of that.

Brazen. 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.

Yeah.

I was living in the walls. I was one, so I did not know this was going on.

I bet your parents were.

I bet my parents were. Local attorney Patricia Wagner said, he was, in a sense, holding these people hostage. Nobody would have thought some guy would be living in their walls.

No. Also, why did I just call Ma and Papa your parents?

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

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

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

I don't know those homies.

I gotta ask them about it.

Yeah.

I should have. We just saw them.

I know.

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

Imagine knowing somebody that you wouldn't be shocked if you found out they lived in someone's walls for 6 months.

And showed up in a hairy jacket.

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

Yeah.

Can you think of one person where you wouldn't be shocked if they lived in somebody's walls for 6 months? I'm trying. Like, I'm genuinely trying.

Thankfully, no.

Yeah, I don't think I can either.

I really can't think of somebody that has that kind of patience, to be honest.

Yeah, truly.

That's so fucked.

That's my worst fear. That 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.

Yeah. And I was like, holy shit.

That's my biggest fear.

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.

Oh, shit.

And that's scary. Troublemaker, okay. Yeah, but living in walls?

Not okay.

Like, that didn't shock you? Other neighbors and peers later described him as strange and disturbed. From an early age, he learned a rep in the neighborhood as a problem child who frequently acted out. Uh, Jill— Jill Gary, who was one of the neighbors of the LaPlantes, told a reporter that when Danny was 7 years old— 7— 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.

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

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.

What a son of a bitch.

I'd be fucking pissed.

Oh my God.

Like, so pissed.

Yeah.

Now, Denny— Danny said— Denny.

Denny.

Denny.

Denny boy.

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.

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

Now, this is just— so a reporter for the Boston Globe said his family is far from popular, living in a rundown house that has always seemed more a home to barnyard animals and junk.

Oh.

Um, that said, not one— you can't really judge people by their home, I don't think. We had somebody in our town who lived in a crazy-ass house.

And he was the nicest man.

And he was a very kind person.

And like super philanthropic.

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

He was also rich as fuck, which was crazy.

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

He just wanted to love.

So like, don't immediately judge people like that.

Yeah.

Just saying. I'm not saying that's the case here.

I'm just saying like, you know, You know, and then there was that other house, and that guy was really nice.

Really nice. That's the thing, I've seen 2 situations where that— where you can't really judge the book by the COVID So I'm just saying, neither of those houses exist anymore. No, they don't.

Which is so weird.

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

Oh, really?

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

Yeah, like a book based on the COVID Or you just don't know. Yeah.

So, that's just, like, two sides of it.

Interesting.

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

Yeah.

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

Right.

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

I think it was criminal at 7 years old smashing pumpkins.

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.

Damn.

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

A B&E at 11.

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

Oh, just before.

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

She said, Jod will save you.

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

Okay.

And again, it looks like the parent, they were trying. Yeah, it sounds like it. Classmate Patrick, I think it's McGigan?

McGigan?

McGigan.

I like it.

Told a reporter, the guy never really was all that friendly. He never liked to go to parties. He never really talked much. And a lot of the other students describe him as a loner who mostly kept to himself.

Hmm.

After 1 year at St. Bernard's, he withdrew from school in June 1986, which was when he reached out to Tina Bowen.

Ah.

It's unclear whether he had known Tina from a previous school year, but he was clearly interested in her and got her number from the phone book. And placed the call.

Okay.

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

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

He could have gone to the school.

Even though he said he didn't.

Exactly. And she might not have noticed him because he's—

Yeah, when she was younger.

He's him. Uh, when she rejected him after their first date, he was unable to simply let the rejection go, and he became obsessed with her and eventually started hiding in the walls of her home to torment her entire family as punishment for her rejection.

Oh my God, do you know what I was 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?

Yeah, they just sent you a giant book.

Why?

With everyone's addresses.

Who thought that was a good idea?

Because you know what, it's like— Nobody thought things like this happened. It just wasn't a thing. Like, like these things obviously happened, but they felt few and far between, right? You know, like it just didn't feel that scary.

Yeah.

Like, now it's just like— Now it's the scariest thing in the world if anybody knows where all your shit is. It's insane. 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.

Gotcha.

Under the circumstances, he was booked at the Pepperell Police Station, then transferred to the state psychiatric hospital in Bridgewater.

Mm-hmm.

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.

That's such a bummer.

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

I would pay money to read about that.

What is known is that Danny was eventually transferred from Bridgewater State Hospital to a juvenile detention center, which tells you a little bit about what's going on there.

There weren't many good findings.

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

Oh, wow.

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

Yeah, out on these streets.

Yeah. Neighbor Darlene Mahoney told a reporter, You'd see him walk out there by himself. And she gestured to the woods behind his house, and she said, that's the only place you'd see him, the woods.

The fuck?

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

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

Yeah, 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 2 .22 caliber pistols and a large amount of cash.

Oh my God!

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

It's also like, dude, I—

and like, I don't know what I would do if my kid was accused of this.

I can't imagine that, but he's a danger to other people. And if you're gonna bail him out, okay, like, that's a whole argument in and of itself, but you better have eyes on this shit if you're bailing him out. Well, that's the thing, that's your responsibility.

I don't— and again, I'm not saying I know what I would do in like these situations, but from my, my place right here, I'm sorry if you terrorize an entire family for 6 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, you should stay in jail. I'm sorry, I love you.

Yup.

But you are paying for what you did.

Yup.

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

I'd be scared for my own safety.

That's something you just have to come to terms with. It's not going to be easy. And you can say, I still love you, I still support you as a human being. But you are dangerous to other people, and I can't have this happen to somebody with me allowing you to be out.

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

And you can't have that kind of responsibility.

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

Like, he's obviously dangerous. Yeah, he's— you're not going to be able to have eyes on him all the time. It's just not going to work. It's not realistic. So you need to, you know, it sucks. The whole thing sucks. I feel for these people. But, um, so they did confront him, and he claimed that he'd obtained the gun a year earlier. Uh, that was despite having been underage and unemployed at the time that he claimed to have obtained the gun. No, I got it when I was 15. His parents accepted the excuse, but they took the weapon away. In the weeks that followed, the break-ins and thefts around Pepperell continued.

Crazy.

Weirdly enough, on November 16th, Danny broke into the home of his neighbors Andrew and Priscilla Gustafson. Who lived directly behind him.

Mm-hmm.

It was about a quarter mile through the woods. Among other things, he stole a cordless telephone, 2 telephone cable boxes and remote controls, and several silver coins. Later, when he was interviewed by police, Danny's brother Steven told investigators he saw Danny with silver coins similar to those reported missing.

Mm-hmm.

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, uh, Danny approached his brother Steven and Steven's friend Michael Pawlowski and asked whether either of them could get him .22 caliber bullets.

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

And I feel like, why?

Yeah.

What's the reason?

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

So they did. They said, why? And He said he, quote, wanted to make a large bullet and sell it.

What?

I'd be like, so what? Now, apparently, Michael Pawlowski, the friend, was unaware of the whole stolen gun situation because that was like, they kept it in the family.

Yeah.

So he had no idea that that was part of this whole thing. So he was like, okay, like, you want to make a giant bullet? Like, I don't know.

He's like, you're going to cut me in on the sales? 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, 5-year-old William and 7-year-old Abigail. And he said it was empty and quiet in there. So immediately he's like, what is going on? So he's wondering, are they upstairs? So he went upstairs and checked the primary bedroom, where he discovered the body of his wife, Priscilla. She had a pillow over her face with 2 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!

Oh!

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.

Ugh.

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!

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 7 ligatures crafted from a necktie, stockings, and pantyhose. In the kitchen, detectives found an open, nearly full bottle of beer sitting on the counter and, quote, several pieces of paper which were torn from the pages of a pornographic magazine.

Jesus Christ.

And as if this couldn't get any worse, they found out that Priscilla was pregnant.

Yeah.

So 2 children, 3 children.

Yeah.

Technically. And an innocent woman.

Yep.

Killed in their home. Like, horrific.

He is a deranged motherfucker. Yeah.

Now, to State Police Detective Joe Lawless, which— what a name for a detective.

I was gonna say, you gotta be a criminal or a detective.

Detective Lawless. Detective Lawless. 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 cert— 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 3 or 4 feet of the LaPlante home.

I'm sure.

That afternoon, detectives interviewed Danny at a local library, and he claimed on the previous afternoon he'd been at home watching television and he didn't know anything about the murders and he didn't know anything about the previous break-ins.

Wow.

His alibi was weak as fuck. As best.

Anyone see you home watching TV?

Yeah. And the investigators were suspicious. But when they returned a short time later with a warrant to search the house, Danny had fled.

Interesting.

So now they're all but certain that Danny 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. And now they're gonna have to find him.

Yup.

So, the news that Danny was on the run set everyone in Pepperell and Townsend and all the surrounding towns on edge. Selectwoman 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 from police. I feel really bad. 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 scent dogs, they had a helicopter. During all this, Danny is just frantically planning his escape. With police everywhere, like, in the air and on the ground now, Danny's options were pretty limited. And it's unclear where he was on the first day of that whole, like, manhunt. But on the second day, he looks like he fell right back into his old habits.

Okay.

What he knows best.

Broke in somewhere?

On the afternoon of December 3rd, Lynn McGovern returned to her Pepperell home a little before 2 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. 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.

She just—

she just thinks she knew.

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 overdramatic. I do that all the time and it's never good. So don't do that. So she says, hey, I think someone's in my house. And the officer was like, I'll totally take a look. But he was like, I got to be pretty fast because they need me to get back to the search for Daniel Laplante.

She's like, I think you have found your target.

Paul McGovern, her husband, said as soon as they opened the front door, they heard a thump upstairs.

Ugh.

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 and to the ground, and then fled into the woods.

Jesus.

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. And he later said, I had 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 and you're 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 2 fucking huge dogs who will tear you apart.

I'd say, we have 17, in fact.

And— but 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, Laing 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.

That's fucking terrifying.

Laing 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 McElla 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 McElla into her van and told him to— her to drive him away.

Oh.

As they drove, McElla 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. Finally, when she came to a stop sign, she slowed the van to about 15 miles an hour and jumped from the driver's side.

Queen shit.

Rolling down a small hill and landing on pavement.

I'd rather get road burn than deal with Daniel 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 air until an officer could arrive. Chasing the van through the streets of nearby— nearby Ayer, the town.

Yep.

The officer managed to get LaPlante to pull his vehicle off to the side of the road, but Danny immediately jumped out of the car and fled on foot in the direction of a lumberyard. So officers from multiple jurisdictions descended on this lumberyard and started to search. During this whole thing, Officers Scott Como and Paul Baratta, spotted Danny hiding over an overturned dumpster inside of it. Okay.

Right where he belongs.

Right where he belonged, in the fucking trash. And they said, we just told him, you're not gonna 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 you? 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 at— he'd been home watching MTV when the murders were committed.

Then why are you running?

He said, I had nothing to do with anything.

Why are you running? Yeah.

But he was charged with 3 counts of first-degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty and was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for what would be 3 weeks of extensive psychiatric evaluation to determine if he was competent to stand trial. He says, welcome back. 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.

Okay.

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, 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 an 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 believe— be, uh, leave behind any fluids, although he inevitably did in the process. So he thought he was smart with that. Investigators also pointed to the fact that Priscilla had either been ordered to redress herself or he had redressed her afterwards.

Oh my.

Yeah. On January 13th, 1988, Dan— Daniel LaPlante appeared before a judge in Cambridge where he was indicted for the 3 murders. as well as 10 charges related to the attack on the Bowen family the previous year, and 9 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. Yeah.

After nearly 10 months of delays and 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 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. By the time 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 Steven LaPlante's brother's friend there, Michael Pawlowski. He was the one who provided the bullets that unfortunately Danny used to kill the Gustafson— or Priscilla Gustafson.

Mm-hmm.

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

Yeah.

On October 25th, near— 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. Instead, Barton sentenced LaPlante to 3 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.

Should never see the sun again.

Danny has appealed his conviction at 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.

Yeah.

Because he 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. 2 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.

What the— Horrifying.

He's a monster.

A straight-up monster.

He's a monster.

They would be wise to never consider letting him out.

Oh, they never should. He lived in people's walls, killed a pregnant woman and her 2 children.

Yeah.

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

Yeah.

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

Exactly.

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

Yeah. And the surrounding towns, like, and the poor, like, obviously just the Gustafsons. Like, I can't imagine the father, Andrew, what he has gone through.

No.

Losing everything. Yeah. At once.

And just, like, losing everything, like, your home as well. You could never stay there. Oh, yeah.

That's the thing.

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

Like, how do you— How do you live with that? I don't know. That poor man. I feel so bad. And then the Bowen family having to deal with, like, the terror that they were living with.

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

Yeah.

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

Yeah.

I can't imagine ever feeling safe again.

Like, how do you get comfortable ever again?

It'd make me, like, the opposite of agoraphobic.

Yeah.

I just wanna be out all the time.

Truly.

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

We really do.

My goodness.

Yeah.

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

Alligators?

Yeah. This fun fact says, please hold, let me get it up. Alligators have 74 to 80 teeth at any time and can go through 3,000 teeth within a lifetime.

Holy shit.

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

Damn.

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

Never.

Just regenerate a new fucking tooth 3,000 times.

And sharks do that.

Oh, they do?

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

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

I think they have like several. Interesting.

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

How many teeth will sharks go through in a lifetime? Wow.

They do even more. Really?

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

Damn.

And they don't have any roots. Wow.

Yeah. That's why they pop out so easily.

Yeah. And they grow like new rows of teeth too.

It's not even just like one regenerating.

Yeah.

They grow like whole...

Damn. Show me your teeth.

Show me your teeth.

Also—

Isn't that fascinating? On top of this, like, fun fact, I just— I had to look up how Andrew was doing. Andrew has passed away, unfortunately. But he remarried. He had children. He had grandchildren.

So he had a good life.

Like, he was able to gather the pieces and seemingly lived a very I'm happy that, like, happiness found him. Yeah. People said, just in his, like, you know, obituary, it says he had a hearty laugh, a warm and welcoming smile, a keen and reflective mind, and kind words for everyone. He was a light in the darkness.

Oh, wow.

So he was, like, a lovely person.

Okay, that's an even more fun fact.

And he had a big, lovely family. He had 2 daughters. Like, I'm very happy to hear that he was That he could find happiness again. That he was able to find a life again after that. I just can't imagine it exploding the way it did. No. And like— and he looks like such a sweet guy.

Oh, he looks like a sweetie.

Like, he's just like a sweet man.

Oh, I'm—

I know.

I'm so happy that happiness found him.

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

Yeah. Cheers to you guys.

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

Yeah. My God.

Goddamn.

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

And we hope you— Keep it weird.

But not to where that you go live in people's walls and terrorize a community.

Goddamn.

And the surrounding communities as well. Don't do it.

Get out of here.

Don't do it.

Get out of here.