Kriti Mehrotra
Having been physically, mentally, and sexually abused for most of his childhood, it’s no surprise that Daniel LaPlante grew up to be a loner of sorts. The fact that he was diagnosed with dyslexia and hyperactivity disorder, for which he received almost no aid, didn’t help either. Unfortunately, further personal problems only drove him to act out, and slowly, his actions turned unforgiving. After all, as profiled on ‘Your Worst Nightmare: Bump in the Night,’ although Daniel is a convicted killer, his torment on Annie and Jessica Andrews was what turned everything around.
Who Are Annie and Jessica Andrews?
Back in 1986, in a small town in Massachusetts, Annie and Jessica Andrews were still grieving the loss of their loving mother to cancer when a new enigma came into their lives. As expected in a situation like this, then-16-year-old Annie was at a stage where she just wanted comfort and joy. Thus, when a stranger called her and carefully claimed to be a neighborhood kid who had asked mutual friends for her number without seeming sleazy, she spoke with him. They openly talked for a while before she agreed to an innocent local fair date, only to regret it soon after.
When Annie met her date face-to-face for the first time at her doorstep, she was disappointed as he was not what he’d made himself out to be. Daniel J. LaPlante was dressed shabbily, looked unhygienic, and spoke in a manner that contradicted the charming boy on the phone in every way. She still gave him a chance, but it didn’t work out, leading her to return home with a need for her mother. Annie and her much younger sister Jessica consequently tried to communicate with her through an Ouija board that same evening, which Daniel saw since he had followed her back.
Using that and his years-long experience as a petty thief despite being a teenager, Daniel began knocking against the walls and doors of their home from that night onwards. At first, the sisters thought that the Ouija board had worked, yet as months passed and the knocking turned into their belongings and furniture being moved, they grew scared. Cryptic messages also started appearing. Still, it was almost a year before the girls’ father believed their claims of third-party involvement after finding Daniel in his late wife’s clothes inside a bedroom, holding a hatchet.
Where is Daniel LaPlante Now?
Annie and Jessica Andrews’ father called the cops following a brief struggle with the 17-year-old, which ended with him supposedly fleeing the scene. However, upon a search of the house, an officer discovered a crawlspace with Daniel hiding inside. By the looks of it, they concluded that he’d been living there for months. He was subsequently detained at a juvenile facility before being granted bail once the prosecutors decided that he would be tried as an adult. Not wanting to do anything else, Daniel continued his thieving antics, ultimately leading to murder.
On December 1, 1987, Daniel LaPlante broke into the Gustafson family home, where he raped and killed 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson, a pregnant nursery school teacher, by shooting her twice at point-blank range. She was found face down on the bed inside the master bedroom with a pillow over her head. He also killed her two children, 7-year-old Abigail and 5-year-old William, by drowning them in separate bathtubs of the home. Priscilla’s husband survived because he was at work. Daniel was charged and arrested for this atrocious offense within days.
Tried as an adult, Daniel LaPlante was found guilty and sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after 45 years. He sought early parole in the late 2010s but was denied, meaning he won’t be eligible again until 2032. In other words, at the age of 51, he remains incarcerated in a Massachusetts state prison. According to reports, Daniel does not regret any of his actions even today.
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