When a husband discovers his wife and two children brutally murdered, police begin to suspect the killer is someone they have arrested before. One year prior, a disturbed teenager terrorises a family for months by hiding in a most unlikely place.
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00:00Andrew Gustafson lived in Townsend, Massachusetts with his wife and his two children.
00:27He was trying to get in touch with his wife and he was calling the house in Townsend but
00:31she wasn't picking up so he was concerned.
00:42He came home and he found no sign of life at the house.
00:53He called for his wife, no answer.
00:57Called for his children, no answer.
00:59So he had this feeling of dread inside him.
01:07He went upstairs to the bedroom and his wife was lying face down on the bed with a bloody
01:18pillow on top of her head.
01:22He didn't have it in him to go looking for the children so he called the police and waited
01:25for them outside.
01:28This was just a horrific, horrific scene and something that does not happen in little New
01:32England towns like this.
01:34So people were terrified.
01:35The entire area was terrified.
01:54It's just a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible,
02:11terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible,
02:23terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible.
02:30On December 1st, 1987, when the police arrived, Andrew Gustafson told them that his wife was
02:38dead upstairs.
02:40She was also several months pregnant.
02:44And they questioned him.
02:45How do you know she's dead?
02:47And he said he just knew and said that his children were probably dead too but he hadn't
02:52gone to look for them.
02:54So the police didn't know what was going on.
03:00I was notified by the state police headquarters of an unattended death in Townsend.
03:06We went upstairs and in the bedroom I observed the body of Priscilla Gustafson on the bed.
03:14I saw what appeared to be bullet holes in the back of the pillowcase or the pillows
03:20that were on her head.
03:23She was partially clothed.
03:25One hand was tied to one of the bedposts and on the nightstand was a half-empty bottle
03:31of beer, which I thought was very strange, and an open condom packet.
03:51When I went to the upstairs bathroom, I saw the body of a young boy, five years old, face
03:59down in the bathtub.
04:02We do try to compartmentalize those types of scenes so it doesn't affect the job that
04:09we do, but I just have a vivid memory of that little boy in the tub.
04:20And on the first floor was the body of a young girl, fully clothed, drowned in the downstairs
04:31bathtub.
04:35To think what it would take to drown William and Abigail, just two innocent children, and
04:41not just killing them, but drowning them, that's physically hands-on, holding somebody
04:46under the water until they die.
04:48For someone to do that, there's, I mean, it's beyond words, it's beyond evil.
04:58Andrew Gustafson was an attorney, was married to Priscilla.
05:01She taught Sunday school and kindergarten.
05:04She was well-liked in the community, and they seemed like they had an idyllic life.
05:12But as a homicide detective, you have to start from the very closest circle to the people
05:18who knew the victim.
05:19In this case, no one was above suspicion.
05:26When police checked out Andrew Gustafson's alibi, almost immediately word spread.
05:32I mean, Townsend, Massachusetts, a small town in America, even though it's only 30 miles
05:38outside of Boston.
05:40This is kind of Americana.
05:42A lot of the cemeteries in this area go back to the 1600s, and so it has a really long
05:47history.
05:49It's a safe, quaint little New England town.
05:53Townsend only had, in the 80s, probably 10,000 people.
05:56This is your home for original reporting.
06:01The murder was so horrific, it drew the attention of the Boston media, some national media,
06:07and the media descended upon that little town.
06:11Everywhere you turned, there was a sense of fear, a sense of, am I safe in this little
06:17town that I grew up in?
06:21People were locking their doors, they owned guns, they were making sure they were loaded.
06:26Everybody was looking out for their neighbors, people were looking out for anything suspicious.
06:31The entire area was on edge.
06:41So police checked out Andrew Gustafson's alibi, and it became clear he was not involved in
06:47the murders.
06:49This poor man lost his wife, lost his baby, and lost his two children, all at the same
06:55time with no known motive.
06:58It must have been just the worst possible day that anyone can imagine.
07:07So Andrew Gustafson spoke to the police, and he recalled that there were things missing
07:11from the house, and they'd had a burglary in recent days prior to the murders, where
07:16a cable box had been missing, where there'd been a glass of beer or a drink left out in
07:22the house.
07:23Things that didn't seem that serious at the time now took on importance.
07:29Police knew that there'd been a string of burglaries in the area.
07:33So when Andrew Gustafson told the police about the prior burglary, immediately they thought
07:37these might be linked.
07:42The police had a working theory that Priscilla and William had come home and caught the burglar
07:49there and that this had been an impulsive crime.
07:55Abigail came home later.
07:57She was the last one killed.
08:01Police were looking at this as possibly just being an interrupted burglary.
08:07But everybody knew that we had a killer on the loose.
08:10No one knew where he was going to show up or what horrible crime would happen next.
08:17During that time, I was a police lieutenant from the town of Pepperville, Massachusetts.
08:23When I heard of the murders and the nature of the murders, it sounded like something
08:27Daniel LaPlante would do, and I think he was entertained by such things.
08:34We had already arrested him on the charges of kidnapping.
08:39He was certainly a person of interest based on his violent past, but this guy is a juvenile.
08:46Daniel LaPlante was only a 17-year-old boy, but he was no ordinary teenager.
08:53He was a dangerous individual, cold, calculating, a very, very smart young man.
09:02He was on a path of escalation.
09:08His criminal acts went from routine breaking and enterings to the most sinister and bizarre
09:15acts that I had ever experienced.
09:34Everybody knew that a killer was out and on the run, and everybody was looking over
09:40their shoulders.
09:42Police told people to stay indoors.
09:44They told people to keep their doors locked.
09:47Police had no idea what was motivating the killer.
09:50The fact that there had been a string of local burglaries seemed like it was related because
09:55of the prior burglary in the Gustafson's home.
09:58But were these even related to the burglaries?
10:01They really had no idea.
10:04We developed a list of the usual suspects, and I use that term very loosely.
10:09It's people who had criminal backgrounds, who have committed violent crimes, who have
10:13been breaking into houses.
10:1517-year-old Daniel LaPlante was on that list.
10:20We found out the house breaks, including stealing guns out of houses, all started to occur after
10:26he got released on bail.
10:29We were starting to put pieces together.
10:31A couple of detectives found him at a library in Townsend.
10:38So they went and spoke to him, and they didn't have a great feeling on the interview.
10:44He told them that he had an alibi, that he'd been at a birthday party, and there were other
10:49people who could corroborate that, but he seemed a little jumpy, so police were suspicious.
10:55And then, he just fled.
10:59He was a person of interest, but we didn't have evidence that tied him to the scene.
11:04So we needed to gather as much information about Daniel LaPlante as we can.
11:09He had committed crimes in Townsend as a juvenile, and also in Pepperill, which is a neighboring
11:15town.
11:16He was arrested.
11:17It was out on bill for the crimes he had committed in Pepperill.
11:23Frank Bowen lived in Pepperill, Massachusetts.
11:26He was a bus driver, and he lost his wife to cancer in 1986.
11:32He had two daughters.
11:36Tina was a teenager in high school, and she had a younger sister, Karen.
11:42And the three of them were alone in grieving the loss of their mother, trying to cope with
11:46Frank working long, long hours, and his daughter's home alone.
11:53The daughters were not dealing well with the loss of their mother, and they were trying
11:57to contact her.
12:00They had a seance, and while conducting the seance to try to communicate with the deceased
12:06mother, they started to hear noises, knocks on the walls, and they felt that it may be
12:20a signal from their deceased mother.
12:29And then they started noticing things that seemed out of the ordinary.
12:35They'd come into rooms, and they would find lights that had been off were now on.
12:42Things were moved in various rooms around the house.
12:46So they started asking their mother questions.
12:52And when they would ask questions, there would be knocking in response to it.
13:00So the two little girls, who were dealing with the loss of their mother, went and told
13:04their father that they actually had their mother in the house, and she was trying to
13:08contact them.
13:09And the father, Frank, just thought that they were grieving.
13:13He did create a disjoint between the two daughters and their dad.
13:19He honestly felt that they needed psychological help and that this was not happening.
13:26But that changed very quickly.
13:29On December 8th of 1986, the family had returned home and found that one of the toilets had
13:40been used.
13:44They immediately figured that somebody had been inside the home, and they started a search.
13:57When he got up into his bedroom, Frank finds a man in there wearing this oversized coat
14:18in war paint, carrying an axe.
14:22It's like something out of a horror movie.
14:25And he took this family hostage.
14:29He was very deliberate.
14:30He was very calm.
14:32He seemed to have no fear whatsoever.
14:36And he had secured them in that room and had left them there.
14:49At that point, one of the daughters escaped, was able to go next door, report the kidnapping,
14:57call the police, and we arrived.
15:01We searched the home, the woods around the home.
15:05We searched the area, the roads, and no suspect was found.
15:12As police officers, we had to believe the story, as unbelievable as it sounded.
15:20I had covered murders.
15:22I had covered suicides, strange deaths.
15:26I had never encountered anything like this.
15:31During our search, I did find the hatchet just outside one of the doors, but as far
15:39as a sign of an intruder, we found none.
15:44No member of that family were able to identify the intruder.
15:49His disguise apparently, and the theory instilled, made it impossible for them to identify who
15:55this was.
16:00But now, Frank knew his girls had been telling the truth, that there was something happening.
16:04It wasn't just in their minds.
16:07Our thought was that the suspect, if he existed, had fled into the woods.
16:14We're talking nighttime, and it would have been very easy for the intruder to hide himself
16:23in the woods, and finding him would have been extremely difficult.
16:34The family didn't want to be back in the house, understandably.
16:38The girls were just terrified, so immediately they went and just stayed in a hotel, because
16:43they knew they couldn't sleep in that house again.
16:55Two days later, Frank returned to the house, and as he was approaching, he saw something.
17:22He saw the same man as before, and thought, this man is trying to kill us.
17:28So Frank Bowen called the police.
17:30I got there about 10 minutes later, and you could see he was distraught.
17:36And he said, I just saw him, he's in the window, he waved at me.
17:42I said, okay.
17:46The police had locked the house when they left the night of the incident.
17:52So I walked around the house to check for tracks.
17:55There was none, no broken windows, the doors were intact.
18:01So I decided, if I'm going to go in this house with a very slim possibility in my mind that
18:06somebody's still here, I'm still not going to just walk in.
18:12So I unlocked the door real quiet, and as soon as I cleared the door, there was a picture
18:19up on the right-hand wall of the family, and there's a big knife stuck right in that
18:25picture.
18:26And written in magic marker, it said, I'm still here, come find me.
18:34At that point, I said, he's here.
18:39I don't know how, but he's here.
18:49This was terrifying for this family.
18:57An intruder had been in the house and had held the family hostage, and now he's back
19:02again.
19:03He won't give up.
19:06Officer Steve Benzen arrived at the Bowen's house, and he was certain that the intruder
19:11was still there.
19:15I'm listening quietly, because now I'm thinking, I want him to think the homeowner's here,
19:23not me.
19:24And I look to the right, and I can see the hallway that goes down to the rest of the
19:30house, and there's another picture of the family with another knife stuck through it.
19:37I said to myself, I've got to search this house, and I'm going to need help doing it
19:42to get it right.
19:43So I backed out real quiet, and I got the radio, and there was a sergeant at the station.
19:48And I said, I need you up here, I need you up here now.
19:52We checked everything.
19:54Closets, between mattresses, under the bed, you name it, we checked it.
20:02Every place we could possibly think of, we checked.
20:07And we wound up in the laundry room downstairs.
20:14And I remember looking up at the ceiling going, I don't understand why we can't find him.
20:22And then, just like that, I looked up at the corner, there was a set of pipes from the
20:29upstairs bathroom, but they didn't like looking at the pipes, so they built a wall to hide
20:34the pipes.
20:36And I'm looking at this wall going, there's enough room for someone to hide behind that
20:41wall.
20:47And as soon as I walked over there and turned on the light, I saw there's a four-foot pile
20:51of dirty clothes right there, and nobody stacks dirty clothes behind a false wall.
21:06I just moved a couple of pieces of clothing.
21:11I saw black hair, and I said, got it.
21:18He just looked at me out of the corner of his eyes, and I could see the wheels turning.
21:23I said, I want to see your hands real slow, and he's got a pistol right here.
21:29And he put his hands up real slow, when I saw they were empty, I reached in and grabbed
21:35him right by the arm, I said, let's go.
21:41The intruder was a 16-year-old boy, his name was Daniel LaPlante.
21:47This was no ordinary teenager.
21:51Beyond that, this was no ordinary criminal.
21:55After having arrested many young men, I was rather surprised by his unconcerned manner.
22:03This young man, despite his age, was very dangerous.
22:09And for the first and last time in my entire career, I bypassed the usual ritual of taking
22:16only two mugshots, and I took six of them, thinking that they would be used sometime
22:23in the future.
22:30So Daniel suffered a lot of abuse as a child.
22:34He was abused by his father, his psychiatrist, by other people, sexually and physically and
22:40psychologically for a long period of time, and he displayed really troubling behavior
22:47from an early age.
22:49He was a loner.
22:51He was somebody who didn't know how to deal with other human beings, and that only got
22:56worse with time.
22:58He was held at my request, without bail, on the charges of kidnapping, but also for
23:04mental evaluation.
23:07At the time, we approached the assistant DA to really work hard on the case to get it
23:13before the judge.
23:14In other words, for his trial not to be delayed.
23:20To be targeted by a psychopathic person like this is really shocking.
23:26So once they arrested the suspect, they realized that Tina had dated Daniel LaPlante once.
23:32He'd made contact with her over the phone, and then eventually they had a date, and they
23:36went out for ice cream, and he misrepresented himself on the phone.
23:40He completely misrepresented who he was and what he looked like, and she got a, she got
23:44a bad feeling from him, so she broke it off after that one date.
23:48So that one date led to this guy stalking her and living inside the, the walls of her house.
24:03Daniel was in and out of that house for six months.
24:06One of his acts was to remove electrical outlets so he could spy on the family members.
24:27And he was able to see when they vacated a room, leave his hiding space, and create these
24:36disturbing acts that would get the girls to fight among themselves and to tell their
24:42dad these stories of milk being drank, channels being changed, and it would allow him to slip
24:52back into his hiding place.
25:06Everybody remembers that feeling of hearing something thump in the basement, thinking
25:25it's a monster, thinking somebody's hiding in the closet.
25:33In this particular case, it was actually true.
25:47It's terrifying that a single date just going out for ice cream and not progressing beyond
25:52that is going to turn into somebody breaking into your house and then tormenting you for
25:56months.
25:59Whatever his plan was, whether it was to rape one of the daughters, whether it was
26:05to kill all three people, I can't be sure.
26:14So Daniel LaPlante was sent to Bridgewater Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, and after
26:20that evaluation, he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, and he was put into
26:25juvenile detention.
26:28And everybody felt they should be safe.
26:35Daniel LaPlante lived on Elm Street, and it was only a mile through the woods from
26:40Augustuson's house, except Daniel LaPlante was in juvenile detention, or so they thought.
26:50When he turned 17, the judge decided that he should be tried as an adult, and when Daniel
26:55LaPlante was charged as an adult, he was able to get bail.
27:00He was brought before the judge, not to be tried, but on a bail hearing, and the judge
27:08at the time, without any police input or presence, released him on $10,000 bail.
27:16And his mother mortgaged their house and put up the $10,000 bail to get him out.
27:23There's no question that the judge made a massive mistake.
27:28Daniel LaPlante was very dangerous, from terrorizing a family to kidnapping.
27:37When I found out about the murders, I said, I wonder what Danny LaPlante is doing lately.
27:54Homicide investigators had this other violent, strange, bizarre crime with Daniel LaPlante
28:03living a mile from this triple murder.
28:08I think that's an aha moment for the police, but they didn't have any hard evidence to
28:12tie him to the murders, other than his proximity to them and his prior violent past.
28:19So at 7 o'clock that next morning, we reconvened at the crime scene to gather as much information,
28:26as much evidence as we can.
28:30Outside the house, there was a pillow hanging on the ground, so I called in a state police
28:35canine tracking team, and we began a scented search, and the dog was on a heavy scent,
28:43tracking from the yard into the woods.
28:47Within a few minutes, one of the state troopers found a wet flannel shirt.
28:52In addition, there was also wet gloves in the woods.
28:57So the police believed that those articles of clothing could have been involved with
29:01drowning the children.
29:04The canine immediately picked up on a scent from those items and led us through the woods,
29:12and eventually led us to Daniel LaPlante's house.
29:20After we did the canine track, we applied for a search warrant.
29:26We executed that search warrant, did a complete search of the entire residence.
29:31Daniel was not there at that time.
29:34One of the key pieces that we found were a pair of wet socks in Daniel LaPlante's bedroom,
29:41and on the wet socks, we found a blunt hair.
29:45Could be from Abigail.
29:52In addition to that, we found some bullets.
29:56Those spent bullets matched the cartridges that were used to murder Priscilla Gustafson.
30:03There was no doubt that we were on the right track.
30:07After we recovered those items, we applied for an arrest warrant for Daniel LaPlante.
30:13But at this point, Daniel had fled, and a manhunt was on.
30:19We released his picture to the media, and the media ran with it.
30:2324 hours after the triple homicide of the Gustafson family in Townsend, police are still
30:28on the hunt for their killer.
30:30On the 6 o'clock news, the 11 o'clock news, they posted his picture.
30:34We tried to let people know we were looking for Daniel LaPlante, and anyone who could
30:39help us, we encouraged them to drop us a tip.
30:43The media from Boston and from Worcester and from all over Massachusetts had descended
30:47on Townsend and Pepperell.
30:49And as a reporter, I was talking to the police officers, the chiefs of police, I mean, everybody
30:54was harried and frazzled.
30:55People who were off duty had come back on duty.
30:58Everybody was involved with this.
31:02For the first time in my police career, and the last time, I put on my bulletproof vest.
31:09I felt Daniel would head to Northwest Pepperell, because he knew it well.
31:20It's almost rural, heavily wooded, very easy to avoid detection.
31:28And my choice was prophetic.
31:32The reports of a suspicious young male in the area were almost immediate.
31:39And they were located within a wood area bordered by four roads.
31:46So we circled that area.
31:53I pulled into a driveway in one of the homes.
31:57And a lady said, I know why you're here.
32:00I just arrived back home.
32:02Could you please come in my home while I re-enter it?
32:06And I said, we certainly will, ma'am.
32:09I asked my partner to remain in the cruiser.
32:12So upon our arrival into the home, it didn't take more than half a minute, and I heard
32:18a loud thud upstairs.
32:22I quickly asked the lady, do you have a pet?
32:26She said, I have a cat.
32:27I said, that was no cat.
32:34Upon getting to the top of the stairs, I found a 16-gauge shotgun lying at my feet with the
32:41bolt closed, assuming it was loaded.
32:45I believe that was the sound of the thud that I heard.
32:51We did a thorough search of the entire home.
32:55He had fled from an upstairs window, had jumped onto the garage, into the woods behind the
33:00home, and had taken flight.
33:05His goal was to take me out with a 16-gauge shotgun.
33:10I believe what deterred him was the presence of my partner in the cruiser.
33:16The husband of the house did indicate that the shotgun was his, but he indicated that
33:23a handgun was missing, and also a belt of ammunition, and it was obvious that the intruder
33:31was attempting to arm himself.
33:35Everybody knew that the killer was running around, and the police were everywhere.
33:43Every time somebody saw something move in the woods, they'd call it in to the police.
33:47People are locked into their homes in total fear, and they should have been.
33:52They absolutely should have been.
33:53When you kill three people, there were no bounds anymore.
33:58There was a real danger of him not just abducting anybody, but he would have killed them.
34:05People knew they had to try to catch him before somebody else died.
34:19This was one of the largest manhunts in Massachusetts history.
34:24Everywhere you turned, there was a police car, there was an officer looking for Daniel
34:27Platt.
34:28We knew this person was dangerous.
34:33We knew he had the potential to kill again.
34:37We needed to get him off the streets.
34:38You have to remember, we were dealing with this young person who hid himself in walls,
34:43who made his way through this forest.
34:47So this person was skilled at avoiding detection.
34:57In a matter of 15 to 20 minutes, I do get a report that, once again, faced with a police
35:03officer, this fleeing felon decided to run into a lumberyard in the town of Ayer.
35:12My fear was, was Platt armed with a handgun?
35:16Somebody was going to get taken hostage, or somebody was going to get killed.
35:23So the police cordoned off the area, they blocked off the streets, a police helicopter
35:28was up, and police were going through it, and at some point, one of the officers thought
35:33he heard something by a dumpster.
35:38Several officers surrounded the dumpster.
35:43They ordered Daniel to come out, and he finally decided to surrender himself.
35:55He was transported to the state police barracks located on Elm Street in the town of Concord,
36:02Massachusetts.
36:03He was charged with the murder of Priscilla Gustafson, Abigail Gustafson, and William
36:11Gustafson.
36:12I sat next to him during trial.
36:15His eyes were cold.
36:18He looked right beyond you, no remorse whatsoever.
36:24So I covered the trial for my newspaper.
36:26I remember sitting in court and looking at LaPlante, and he was just without emotion,
36:31just expressionless.
36:32Like, he never showed an ounce of empathy.
36:35He never showed any discomfort for what was going on.
36:39He was a soulless look.
36:40The jurors can follow us with their notebooks, and they can't.
36:43There were several factors that linked Daniel to the murders.
36:47Shell casings that were found in the LaPlante home were the same exact type as those found
36:53at the murder scene.
36:57Also a hair found on one of Daniel's socks was indeed from the head of the murdered Abigail
37:05Gustafson.
37:08During one of the searches at the LaPlante home, the actual murder weapon was found,
37:14which was a .22 revolver in an abandoned vehicle located on the LaPlante property.
37:23We also recovered two cable TV boxes and remote controls that were taken previously at the
37:29Gustafson home.
37:30So before the murders happened, LaPlante had been in that house previously.
37:36You may all be seated.
37:44At the courtroom, ironically located at the intersection of Elm Street and Gorham Street,
37:51the jury found Daniel LaPlante guilty of the murder of three members of the Gustafson family.
37:58Guilty of murder in the first degree.
38:00He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms with no chance of parole.
38:10You're looking at somebody, perhaps, if such a thing exists, being totally evil.
38:20The lead investigator told me, Tom, have you seen how Elm Street keeps popping up on this?
38:27You know, his residence on Elm Street, he gets taken to the state police barracks on
38:35Elm Street in Concord.
38:38He's prosecuted, found guilty at the courthouse at the corner of Elm Street in Lowell, Massachusetts.
38:46There are seven total Elm Street connections in this LaPlante saga, which is quite bizarre.
38:58Was justice served here?
39:01I guess under the law, justice was served.
39:04But how can you ever recover from losing your wife and your two children and your unborn baby?
39:10So he was off the streets.
39:12But as far as the Gustafson family goes, I can't, I can't answer that question.
39:19You know, a case like this is just so, so terrible.
39:22Just, it's just so awful that people never get over it.
39:26Like, it's a kind of thing that makes people pause and really think, how could one human being do this to another?
39:36I've never forgotten it.
39:38You know, I covered it as a reporter, but I've never forgotten this case.
39:41It was evil showing its face.
39:47Two beautiful children, another one on the way, and this terrible person broke into the house and ended it.
39:55For no reason, just killed these people.
39:59There was no real motive that we ever uncovered, other than the fact that they walked in when he was in that house.
40:06This person was cold and evil personified.
40:26Once upon a time, Elm Street was a good place to live.
40:33We're the type of community where people still wave to you.
40:36The charm's there.
40:38It's pretty, but we have our fair share of serial killers.
40:45There was satanic rituals being held there.
40:48Is he still out? Is he still alive?
40:51There was satanic rituals being held there.
40:54Is he still out? Is he going to come after me?
40:57A firefighter said something heinous had happened.
41:01You don't really know when it's going to happen or what's going to happen, or who's doing it.
41:05I was screaming, my dad's dead, someone's killed him.
41:09Evil took over that night.
41:13Being aware of the danger out there.
41:16I don't know that I've ever seen Roger like that.
41:19I don't see that as human. I see that as murder.
41:23Detectives found things that were beyond their wildest nightmares.