Stuti Gokhale
How would it feel if you discover that a complete stranger has been residing in your very home and watching your every move for a long while? That is precisely how the Bowens felt in 1986 when they found out that Daniel LaPlante had been hiding behind the walls of their house for almost a year and was the “invisible force” that had been tormenting them for a while. Lifetime’s ‘Phrogging: Hider in My House’ delves into details of this shocking case and depicts the Bowens’ experiences.
Daniel LaPlante Has a Dark Past
Born in May 1970 in Townsend, Massachusetts, Daniel LaPlante had a rather turbulent childhood- diagnosed with dyslexia early on, he also allegedly faced an abusive father. In fact, he claimed he suffered sexual and psychological abuse by many adults in his life, including his stepfather and psychiatrist too. When he was sixteen, he began pursuing Tina Bowers, a 16-year-old girl from Pepperell, Massachusetts, who had recently lost her mother to cancer and lived with her older sister and father. Daniel called her and claimed that he reportedly lived in her neighborhood and had gotten her number from common acquaintances. After a few telephone conversations with Tina and her younger sister, he convinced the former to go on a date.
When they finally met, Tina was surprised to find out that Daniel was totally the opposite of what she had perceived. Nonetheless, she went ahead with the date yet felt rather uncomfortable when he continuously kept asking her details of her mother’s death. Thus, she hurried through their meeting and returned home, but little did she know that he had become obsessed with her and could go to any extent to harass her. A few days later, Tina and her sister decided to conduct a séance in the innocent hope of contacting their deceased mother.
To the sisters’ surprise, they got back a response to the questions they asked through rhythmic knocks through their walls, and they believed it to be their mother’s spirit. They were unaware that it was actually Daniel, hiding in a crawl space between the walls separating their toilet from the plumbing pipes, and was tormenting them. His behavior worsened over the next several months, as apart from pounding on the walls, he also began to misplace furniture, change channels on the TV, and drink leftover milk whenever Tina and her sibling left the room briefly.
Daniel LaPlante Tormented The Bowens to No Extent
Moreover, Daniel then began writing taunting messages over their basement walls, making them look like they were written in blood. Horrified, the sisters approached their father, Frank Bowen, who initially dismissed their claims as childish antics stemming from the grief of losing their mom. Around January 1987, things reached a head when the girls had another female friend over at their house. When what they believed as “paranormal occurrences” continued, the girls contacted their father from a neighbor’s house.
When Frank and the girls returned to the house, he found the furniture in absolute disarray, as his daughters had stated, as well as the toilet being recently used. As he investigated further, he finally found Daniel hiding in his late wife’s closet, dressed as a Native American and armed with a hatchet. The latter took Frank and the three girls hostage in the bedroom, but Tina managed to escape somehow and call the police from the neighbor’s house.
Till then, Daniel had absconded, and the hostages were escorted away from the house; however, when Frank returned two days later to get some of their belongings, he again saw the intruder. Thus, he called the police, and this time, they arrived carefully and were able to capture Daniel from his carefully concealed hiding space. Per their discoveries, he had been living there for several months without alerting the Bowens.
Daniel LaPlante is Currently Incarcerated
For harassing the Bowens and encroaching on their home, Daniel LaPlante was promptly arrested by the police and was initially detained at a juvenile center till October 1987. He was then released on bail, only to soon return to petty crimes like burgling houses before committing a horrendous offense two months later. On December 1, 1987, Daniel snuck into the Gustafson family’s home in Townsend, where he raped and shot dead 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson, a nursery teacher who was pregnant at that time. He then proceeded to kill her children, William, aged 5, and Abigail, aged 7, by drowning them in separate bathtubs.
Daniel was taken into custody within two days of the triple homicide to be questioned for it but was released shortly after as there was no concrete evidence against him. at the time. However, things changed later the same day as the 17-year-old ran away when officials arrived at his home to interview him further, making his guilt apparent. The fact he subsequently stole a van from a neighboring home, briefly took the woman who owned it hostage, drove away, and then threatened a lumberyard owner with a gun didn’t help his case either. Thankfully, he was arrested before he could do any more serious harm and charged with the triple murders, for which he was tried as an adult, convicted, and given three consecutive life sentences, with a possibility of parole after 45 years.
Daniel did appeal for a reduction in his sentence in 2017 based on new laws stating juveniles who were convicted of murder should be given a chance to re-engage with society. However, the judge affirmed his original verdict based on the sheer heinousness of his actions and the fact he seemed to show no remorse even with the decades gone by in prison. Therefore, today, at the age of 54, he remains incarcerated at the medium-security Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Norfolk, where he’s expected to remain until at least his parole eligibility in 2032.
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