In 1986, two sisters, Tina and Karen Bowen, began experiencing eerie occurrences in their Massachusetts home. Items mysteriously moved, milk disappeared, and unsettling messages appeared on the walls in ketchup. The sisters believed their home was haunted, but their father, Frank, thought these were just pranks they played on each other.
Then, in December of that year, everything changed. The family came home to a startling discovery—someone had used their bathroom. Frank, concerned and vigilant, searched the house and found a shocking sight: Tina’s 16-year-old schoolmate, Daniel LaPlante, was hiding in a wardrobe.
This was just the beginning of a horrifying revelation. Daniel LaPlante had been living within the Bowen family’s walls for nearly a year. Tina and Daniel had gone on a single date, but after she ended things, he became obsessed, finding his way into their home to watch her.
Joe Turner, the author of “The Boy in the Walls,” shared with the Daily Star: “When Danny first started living in their home, he was basically using it as a hiding place to watch Tina. But over time, he began to relish the fact he could terrify this family. His actions got more bizarre as time went on, and at one point they discovered a bathtub full of urine and a trail of pennies scattered over the floor.”
The situation escalated to a terrifying encounter when LaPlante, his face painted and dressed in a Native American-style jacket and ninja mask, wielding a hatchet, locked the family in a bedroom. Tina managed to escape through a window and called the police.
By the time law enforcement arrived, LaPlante had vanished, but he was later found hiding in a wall cavity in the cellar and was arrested.
However, LaPlante’s criminal activities didn’t end with his arrest. While awaiting trial, he embarked on a spree of burglaries, including targeting the home of the Gustafson family on November 16, 1987. Two weeks later, he returned to their home, armed with a gun. He didn’t anticipate encountering anyone, but when he met 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson, he raped and shot her twice in the head and drowned her two children, William and Abigail.
In October 1988, LaPlante was convicted of the murders of the Gustafson family and sentenced to three life sentences. In 2017, he sought a reduced sentence, but the appeal was denied due to the judge’s belief that LaPlante was not remorseful for his heinous crimes.
This chilling story goes far beyond the concept of a haunted house, revealing a terrifying real-life horror that unfolded within the walls of what should have been a safe home, leaving us all to rethink the bumps in the night.