Daniel LaPlante was featured in Cabernet & True Crime’s debut, called “Episode 1: A Casual Seance”. Click here to listen! (Since, apparently, WordPress won’t let me embed the audio player.) Or, if Podbean isn’t your preferred place for pods, click here to see more options.
Let’s talk about Daniel LaPlante and the horrific crimes he committed in the 1980s.
He was born in 1970 in Townsend, Massachusetts. Daniel suffered sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of multiple adults in his life. His Father was someone who administered the majority of his son’s punishments (allegedly tormenting him physically, emotionally, and sexually on a regular basis).
Daniel struggled academically and socially in school and was diagnosed with dyslexia. Most of his classmates at his high school would refer to him as “creepy” or ‘weird’–which, once we get a little further in the story, may be a little warranted, tbh. He was referred by school officials to see a psychiatrist due to his abnormal behavior and complete disregard for his appearance, hygiene, and self-improvement.
While in therapy, Daniel was diagnosed with Hyperactivity Disorder (usually called ADHD now). And you may think, wow, this is great. He’s gotten help, but his psychiatrist makes this story take an even darker turn and he began making sexual advances toward Daniel, eventually sexually abusing Daniel during their sessions. This was yet another hit from a trusted male figure in Daniel’s life.
He was a small-time thief in his teens, breaking into people’s properties in Townsend and stealing their valuables. By age 15, he wasn’t just breaking into people’s homes, he was leaving stuff there too. He would also move stuff around in the home so people would know someone had been in there, but not so much that it was immediately obvious. He was doing it to purely play mind games. (Which was also something notable that the OG Night Stalker did. And a few other serial killers, if I remember correctly.)
In 1986–when he’s 16—Daniel got a phone number of a family’s address in the area. It’s likely he had burgled the home once and retrieved the phone number. Inside the home lived a father and his two daughters—Annie and Jessica Andrews. They were both close to 16 as well, and Daniel began to talk with them on the phone. He told them he had gotten their number from a friend that went to the same school they did.
He lied and said that he was a good-looking, athletic, blonde, well-educated boy who also lived in the same area as them. Annie and Daniel became acquainted after several phone calls and had agreed to go on a date. Which of course, he was catfishing them.
When Daniel arrived for their date Annie was upset (understandable). He wasn’t a good-looking jock; he was a disheveled greasy dark-haired boy with no attractive features to her. Annie let him take her on a date to the local fair. (This was really nice of her, honestly). After an hour, she had Daniel return her home.
It was during this date that Daniel had learned a lot about the family. They had lost their mother to cancer recently, leaving their father as their sole caretaker. Daniel asked a lot of questions; much more so than simple curiosity allowed for.
Annie later claimed that it seemed as though LaPlante was obsessed with the death of her mother, continually questioning her on how she felt at the moment she died and how much she suffered.
After this, Annie never willingly sees Daniel again.
One evening, as so many teenage girls in the 80’s had done, Annie and Jessica attempt to talk to their mother by performing a séance in their basement. Later that evening, they heard a rhythmic knocking against their bedroom wall as they slept. They talked to the unseen force as if they were talking to their mother one more time. They would ask questions, and the spirit would return answers with knocks on the wall.
This behavior went on for several evenings, but the knocking was so regular it was disturbing the girls while they slept. Eventually, objects began disappearing from the home. The sisters would come home to find their furniture moved from one side of a room to another, their objects thrown on the ground, etc. They believed, that instead of making contact with her mother, they had contacted some type of malevolent demon. (Once again, very 80’s).
Their dad, Brian Andrews, certainly didn’t believe any of this. He assumed his daughters were simply struggling with their emotions from the death of their mother and were attempting to process this in whatever way necessary.
In January 1987, the girls were sitting in their living room, hearing the constant tapping on their wall. It had been so consistent for so long it was beginning to drive them crazy. But this time, the sound was coming from the basement. The girls grabbed a kitchen knife and headed down to the basement. When they got down there, written in blood red on the basement wall was the message “I’m in your room. Come and find me.”
The girls ran from the home and asked their neighbor for help. When their dad returned home, he assumed the girls had defaced the basement and made them go to counselling for their grief. (Not exactly the response I expected but, sure.)
Several weeks later, the girls heard knocking sounds on their walls, but this time they were seemingly coming from behind Annie’s bedroom wall. When they went into her room, they found the message, blood red on the wall, “I’m Back. Find me if you can”.
The girls bolted from the home again. They used their neighbor’s phone, and when their dad came home, he blamed the whole ordeal on his teenage daughters and their over-active imagination. AGAIN. He marched straight into the home to prove there was no one in there. The girls and the neighbor had been outside the whole time, but the house was in further disarray then what they had even claimed. In Annie’s room, “Marry me” had been scrawled on the wall.
On the other side of the room, Brian saw a young boy dressed in the clothing of his dead wife, with a blond wig and wearing her make up. He was also holding a hatchet.
He, of course, was Daniel.
Brian tried to apprehend Daniel himself, but he got away pretty quickly, something Brian was very confused about. The message was written in ketchup. Police found a hidden crawlspace behind a cupboard which was built into the wall of Annie’s bedroom. When the officer opened the crawl space, he found Daniel LaPlante curled up and hiding inside.
Daniel LaPlante was put under arrest. Police discovered that Daniel had been living inside the walls of the home for months. He had tunneled through other areas of the house, creating a handful of peep holes so that he could observe Annie.
Obviously, police put two and two together that Daniel had been pretending to be the ghost of the girls’ dead mother, and the possibility of him revealing himself dressed as her could have been some weird way to pass himself off as her spirit, which I REALLY HOPE they wouldn’t fall for, because hearing knocks on your wall is ~ONE THING~ and having a teenage boy dressed as your deceased mother is completely different.
Although, most agree that the girls were lucky that night, as everyone firmly believes he was ready to use that hatchet had they not believed him.
After this whole ordeal, Daniel was placed in juvenile hall until October of 1987. Right after his release, he went back to burgling, and at some point, obtained two handguns from a neighbor’s home.
On December 1st, 1987, Daniel broke into the home of the Gustafson family, which was about half a mile from his own home. He was greeted by Pricilla Gustafson, whom was 33 and VERY pregnant, and her two young children, seven-year-old Abigail and five-year-old William. Pricilla’s husband, Andrew Gustafson, was at work when the invasion took place.
When Andrew Gustafson came home from work, found Priscilla lying face down on their bed; she had been raped and then shot multiple times in the head at point blank range. He called the police, who found his two children drowned in two different bathtubs, William upstairs and Abigail downstairs. The children were left face down in the tubs.
It is believed by police that Pricilla and William were killed first, and had been deceased by the time Abigail got home.
At the crime scene, investigators found semen and sperm cells near one corner of the bedspread, and a portion of a condom on the floor beside the bed. In the bedroom, there was a sock dampened with saliva, which was most likely used as a gag. Also inside the closet were make-shift ligatures–a necktie, a sock, stockings, and pantyhose.
In the kitchen, there was a nearly full beer and several pages that had been ripped out of a porno mag.
From the murder, it seemed as if Daniel wasn’t mentally or physically capable of handling it. He had used restraints and robbed them at gunpoint, but it appeared he killed Priscilla first to eliminate the biggest threat.
Andrew came home around 5:30 PM Tuesday (the same day as the murders). He attended his six-year-old niece’s birthday party. On Wednesday, December 2nd, Daniel was questioned by police but at that time, they didn’t have enough evidence against him. When they came back later that day- Daniel jumped over the porch rail and fled.
and by that time Daniel was at his 6 year old nieces birthday part. Police had questioned him the next day, (WEDNESDAY) but they didn’t have enough evidence against him. They went back later that day and Daniel had jumped off the porch and fled. So, a manhunt ensues.
A few towns over from Townsend, in Littleton, Daniel broke into a woman’s home and kidnapped her in her vehicle. The woman escaped, but Daniel was still recognized by someone who had seen his photo on the news.
He was discovered hiding in a dumpster 48 hours after the manhunt began. He was inspected, a hair belonging to Abigail was on his sock, and he was arrested and convicted. A year later, he was sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of the Gustafon family.
In 2017, Daniel LaPlante asked to be re-sentenced on the basis that he was a juvenile at the time of the crimes. However, the judge ruled that he had to wait 15 more years before becoming eligible for parole. Recently a forensic psychiatrist evaluated Daniel and he is not remorseful for his crimes.