Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante

September 3, 2026

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5 min read

Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante

In 1986, a 16-year-old boy named Daniel LaPlante spent months living inside the walls of a family home in Pepperell, Massachusetts, watching the occupants through vents, stealing their food, and leaving threatening messages written in ketchup and magic marker before being discovered with a hatchet and pipe wrench in a teenage girl's closet. What began as a bizarre home invasion case would escalate into something far darker—the murder of a pregnant woman and her two young children, committed by a teenager who had already proven he was capable of extraordinary deception.

The Boy in the Walls

After Frank Bowen's wife died of cancer in early 1986, he worked long hours to support his teenage daughters, Tina and Karen. Tina began receiving phone calls from a boy named Danny LaPlante, who claimed to be a popular football player from another school. Their first in-person meeting at an ice cream shop shattered that image—Danny was disheveled and awkward, and Tina felt uncomfortable enough to end the date early.

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What you'll learn

1 Killer in the Walls: The Crimes of Daniel LaPlante
2 Timestamped Outline
3 (06:02) **Case Introduction** - hosts introduce Daniel LaPlante case as a deeper revisit of an early Mini Morbid episode from 2018/2019
4 (07:10) **The Bowen Family Background** - Frank Bowen becomes a widower after his wife's cancer death, raising teenage daughters Tina and Karen alone
5 (08:30) **The Disastrous First Date** - Danny and Tina talk daily for weeks before meeting at an ice cream shop
6 (10:41) **The Séance and Strange Occurrences** - Tina and Karen hold a Ouija board séance to contact their deceased mother
7 (14:03) **The Blood Message** - The girls discover a message written in what appears to be blood in the basement

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

When Tina Bowen and her sister, Karen, began hearing knocking in the walls of their home in Pepperell, Massachusetts, the girls believed it was their recently deceased mother trying to reach out to them from beyond the grave. In time, however, the knocking became more intrusive and aggressive, and it was soon accompanied by objects being moved around the house and frightening messages left on the walls. After months of torment, the Bowens discovered that it wasn’t a ghost haunting their home, but sixteen-year-old Daniel LaPlante, a boy Tina had briefly dated and who’d become obsessed with her.

Daniel LaPlante was arrested and charged with various crimes, for which he was convicted and served a sentence in a juvenile detention center. Unfortunately, the court’s decision to try LaPlante as an adult meant that he was granted bail and after just one year in detention, he was bailed out and allowed to live with his mother pending trial. It turned out that brief period of freedom was all the time LaPlante needed to find a new object of his obsession and by the time the police learned of his violent intentions, it was already too late.

References

Campbell, Jerome. 2019. Mass. High Court Rejects Early Parole Petition For Man Convicted Of Murder In 1987. June 6. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/06/06/daniel-laplante-parole-denied.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Daniel J. LaPlante. 1993. 416 Mass. 433 (Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, November 16).

Conteras, Cydney. 2023. Daniel LaPlante hid in walls before murdering pregnant woman and her children. July 28. Accessed July 7, 2026. https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/daniel-laplante-murder-priscilla-gustafson-family.

Crimaldi, Laura. 2017. "Doctor doubts killer's remorse." Boston Globe, March 23: B1.

Cullen, Kevin, and Jim Gomez. 1987. "LaPlante ordered to undergo tests." Boston Globe, December 5: 1.

Cullen, Kevin, Diego Ribadeneira, and Doris Wong. 1987. "Suspect in slayings is captured." Boston Globe, December 4: 1.

Cullen, Kevin, Richard Kindleberger, Paul Langer, Diane Lewis, Diego Ribadeneira, and Doris Wong. 1987. "A youth who sowed fear." Boston Globe, December 4: 1.

Lagner, Paul. 1988. "4 more letters given to judge in LaPlante murder case." Boston Globe, September 16: 82.

Lane, Tom. 2021. The Elm Street Nightmare. July 8. Accessed July 7, 2026. https://