This is the strange story of Daniel LaPlante. It’s become something of an urban legend, and for good reason. He terrorized a family for months by pretending to be a ghost. The truth was that LaPlante was hiding in their wall.
It all started innocently enough with a date. It was 1986 and Annie Andrews he was 16 years old. She got a call from “Danny” who asked her out. She complied and the two met in person, but Annie was less so than impressed. She ended up ghosting him, but he would do the same, but in a different way.
Annie lived with her sister Jessica and their father Brian. After the girl’s mother died of cancer, the women decided to hold a meeting. The event produced no evidence of an afterlife and they let her go. That is until strange knocks started happening around the house. Also, things would disappear from their rooms and the furniture would be rearranged.
But the scariest thing that happened was the words “I’m in your room, come find me” written in what they thought was blood on one of their walls. Panicked and scared to death, the girls ran out of the house. Their father came home and investigated, discovering that the ominous message was actually written in ketchup.
Believing his daughters were seeking negative attention, he let the incident pass. That is until another message appeared in Annie’s bedroom: “I’m back, find me if you can.”
Once more the girls ran away and Mr. Andrews was called. He was about to discover who or what was terrorizing his home. As he made his way to the bedroom, he saw a young man dressed as his deceased wife, holding a hatchet. It was Daniel LaPlante.
A struggle ensued and Daniel almost ran into the air. But once the police arrived and investigated, they found that Daniel hadn’t left the house at all. They discovered that a built-in closet held a secret space and Daniel was hiding inside.
The young man had been living there for weeks. He was arrested and taken to juvenile hall. This was 1987.
Obviously, LaPlante was mentally disturbed. He said he had a traumatic childhood that led him down the path of theft and such serious crimes. These crimes would eventually become deadly over time.
In 1987, after LaPlante was released from the detention center, he was arrested again. This time for murder.
On December 1, 1987, Andrew Gustafson found his wife Priscilla dead. She was sexually assaulted and shot twice. Their young children were found drowned in the bathrooms of the house. Police suspected LaPlante.
A year later, LaPlante was sentenced to three life sentences for the murders.
In 2019, LaPlante was denied parole. It may have been the result of a judge determining that the killer showed little remorse for his crimes.
Many police reports corroborate Danny LaPlante’s story, although some details may be muddled. For example, some reports say he also lived within the walls of a family in Pepperell, MA.