Transcript
Echoes From The Grave: Alright, hello to everyone out there. This is Echoes from the Grave and I am your host Brandy. With me today is Mike. Say hello Mike.
michael: Hello Mike. Just kidding.
Echoes From The Grave: Hello, Mike
michael: Hello.
Echoes From The Grave: How are you today, Michael?
michael: Not too bad. It's a nice Saturday that we're recording this on something. wintery skies and almost Halloween.
Echoes From The Grave: It is almost Halloween and... For that, I have a spooky story for you today. But... um i got a question for you mike are you ready to answer some fun little questions
michael: way. not really good at questions but sure i'll take one
Echoes From The Grave: okay this is kind of like a morbid little thing mike you have family members that have passed correct
michael: Yes, at some point.
Echoes From The Grave: Yes, so what would you do to be able to talk to your loved one again?
michael: Uh, also die. End.
Echoes From The Grave: ah Well, so would you maybe try like a seance or? Like get out the old Ouija board.
michael: after seeing how the seance went that one time and uh that show at lagoon I won't do that ever again.
Echoes From The Grave: But...
michael: So I will try Ouija board.
Echoes From The Grave: Ouija board, I feel, would be ah worse than the seance that we saw, but...
michael: it
Echoes From The Grave: Um, I don't know would you maybe talk to a psychic or something?
michael: I don't know. The only time I think about a sidekick is on what I want to eat for dinner.
Echoes From The Grave: You're something else I tell you.
michael: please
Echoes From The Grave: um okay i honestly i don't think i would ever go to a psychic because it scares me
michael: Yeah, I don't know if I would. i don't Amen. Amen. be more nervous about them being right.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, see...
michael: Good. that being a scam so
Echoes From The Grave: I would be I would be so scared. They'll be like. You will get murdered by this man in a yellow shirt. And then every time I see a man in a yellow shirt I'm like is it him?
michael: Yeah, but...
Echoes From The Grave: Is he the one to do me in?
michael: They'll be like, are you doing a podcast? And I'm like, yeah, they're like, that's how you die. And I'm like, okay, well, nevermind.
Echoes From The Grave: We're like, a podcast over, episode done.
michael: Yeah, that's just his God.
Echoes From The Grave: Goodbye. Yeah.
michael: You'll come up with another co -host.
Echoes From The Grave: all right
Echoes From The Grave: All right. Well, I'm not talking to any psychics and I'm not inviting any on anytime soon. So, but I am going to tell you a little story that involves seances and Ouija boards.
Echoes From The Grave: and Murder.
michael: after you just ah after you just asked me if i wanted to use any of those now it involves murder Oh man.
Echoes From The Grave: So...
Echoes From The Grave: Yes. Murder was always the outcome. You know this type of show we're doing.
michael: Oh man. Well, we'll see how this story goes.
Echoes From The Grave: Well the funny part is the seance and the Ouija board is just like a little blip. in this story, so. Get ready to rock and roll.
michael: ah Sit back and relax
Echoes From The Grave: Sit back relax and listen to my Boring voice. Just kidding, guys. Don't call me boring because that would make me so sad. Okay. So let's start.
Echoes From The Grave: In 1986, a couple years before we were even thought, Mike. Tina Bowen was a 15 -year -old girl living with her father Frank and her little sister Karen in Pepperell,
Echoes From The Grave: Massachusetts. Do you know where that is?
michael: No. I... Not sure if I can Google it, though.
Echoes From The Grave: No, I have no idea, even though I'm from the area.
Echoes From The Grave: So, Tina and Karen had recently struck up a little friendship with a young man named Danny. The weird thing is, they didn't actually know who Danny was. He had started to call them a couple weeks before, telling them they went - he went to the same school as them and had gotten their phone number from a boy they knew but he never really told them who the dude was which is weird to me He's just like yeah, I got your phone number. What's up girl?
Echoes From The Grave: Have you ever done that?
michael: No, I don't think I have.
Echoes From The Grave: You've never asked someone for a number in high school and and just called them?
michael: I don't think...
michael: No. um I was more of an outcast at a high school. so
Echoes From The Grave: Well, so was Danny. Actually, after weeks of talking...
michael: aye Amen.
Echoes From The Grave: Fucking. With both Tina and Karen, Dani eventually worked up the courage to ask Tina out on a date around the Easter holidays, to which she agreed. Over the phone, Danny had described himself as that all -American 80s type, a well -educated, good -looking, blonde, athletic boy.
Echoes From The Grave: who showed up could not have been more opposite of who Tina expected. At her door was Mike. No, just kidding.
michael: oh man
Echoes From The Grave: um The Danny who showed up for the blind date was a disheveled, greasy, unkempt, homely boy. Like, that's how they described him in every article that I... read he was just homely i'm like can you imagine well first of all like Everyone's like...
Echoes From The Grave: this guy's so ugly like he's greasy and ugly that's how they described him everywhere that's mean
michael: Yeah, if someone described me as disheveled, I feel like. That would be... uh the worst thing about my existence
Echoes From The Grave: Like this guy is just something. Like he picked him up off the side of the road. Here you go. Here's your date
michael: Here's your homely man
Echoes From The Grave: So Tito was shocked, to say the least. But even though he had lied to her and was nowhere near the boy he pretended to be, she was kind enough to still go on a date to the local fair with him.
Echoes From The Grave: Which, good for you, Tina. I would not. Actually...
michael: Peace.
Echoes From The Grave: i am
michael: u .s
Echoes From The Grave: I would pray.
michael: You just want Ryan Gosling. That's what you expect. You don't expect some disheveled man.
Echoes From The Grave: Well, okay if you're expecting Ryan Gosling and you get like I don't know Frigging the rat from... My Ninja Turtles, like...
michael: Whoa, Splinter? Thanks.
Echoes From The Grave: Do it.
michael: He's a single father of four turtles.
Echoes From The Grave: A single dad who works two jobs. He loves his turtles and never stops.
michael: yes
Echoes From The Grave: like Oh my gosh, no I would probably still go out on a date just because I'm so like I don't want to be mean to people. that I don't know because I mean to you all the time.
Echoes From The Grave: but
michael: I don't know. I mean, after hearing this story, if he's the murderer, I don't know if I would want to go on a date. Maybe he should be cautious of the ah homely man.
Echoes From The Grave: Hmm.
Echoes From The Grave: The homely man. just whatever was the homely it just automatically makes me think of like homeless
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: But that's not the same thing everyone homely means like not cute
michael: Yeah it just means... more shells. Homely.
Echoes From The Grave: More so homely. Well, so after an hour of awkward interactions, an uncomfortable Tina had made up excuses and returned home.
michael: Okay.
Echoes From The Grave: She lasted an hour with this bro.
Echoes From The Grave: But not only was Danny not the boy he had described over the phone, he had also been weird and creepy on this date. Tina had recently lost her mother to cancer and was having a hard time with it, so she opened up to Danny about it on the date, but he asked questions that made her very uncomfortable.
michael: I mean if you're talking about death on the on the first date You kind of open yourself up to that.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, but I also feel like as a teen girl in the 80s, she was just like, oh man, yeah, I'm having a hard time. I really miss my mom. Oh, it happened. She died.
Echoes From The Grave: Oh, no. like i don't know
michael: Yeah. that makes sense yeah i can see that 80s were a weird time too so
Echoes From The Grave: I guess. yeah but i also see like maybe he was asking questions about her family like oh how many siblings do you have how's your mom and dad but also if he's weird and creepy i have no idea So I don't know how it actually got brought up, but she did say that her she opened up to him about the passing of her mother.
Echoes From The Grave: Which, if you all have been talking on the phone for weeks already, how is it not brought up yet?
michael: Yeah, or maybe that's why she brought it up was because maybe they did have that conversation on the phone and he knew about it and she
Echoes From The Grave: That's true.
michael: And so then he started asking more questions. now that they were in person.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, that's true. That could have been it. So he... was asking her creepy questions. He wanted to know if Tina's mothh mother So she, yeah, she died from cancer, but he wanted to know if she had suffered at the end and how Tina felt as she died.
michael: Jesus.
Echoes From The Grave: which Like... How do you think she felt terrible? It's her mom. Tina would say later on it seemed like Danny was obsessed with the death of her mother and after she returned home from the date she would cut contact with him. She would no longer talk to him on the phone.
Echoes From The Grave: Which... Understandable in my opinion.
michael: Yeah, I mean he's Lied about his... Appearance at this point and now he's being creepy um Yeah. I think it's time to cut contact.
Echoes From The Grave: Like... He catfished her which is wild in the 80s. Do you think a lot of people were doing that back then?
michael: Um, i don't know i feel i feel like it's a little bit easier to do you can't really track because you can't really track like where the images were coming from um and i looked up pepperel and it is a small town of about 11 ,000 people outside of Boston right now. So I assume it would be a small town.
michael: of even less people or possibly about the same in the 80s.
Echoes From The Grave: probably i'm surprised you didn't know where it was if it's like on the outskirts of boston
michael: Watch. It's closer to New Hampshire than it is.
Echoes From The Grave: i got you i got you
michael: But...
Echoes From The Grave: Just a little guy, though.
michael: I don't know you know, American education system. I don't know geography that well.
Echoes From The Grave: Not of... okay yeah i don't know where all the states are on the east coast but
michael: or the cities of every state.
Echoes From The Grave: Well, yeah But I just figured. Because like if someone was like, oh, I'm in Beaverton, you'd know that's like... outskirts of Portland. So I just figured you know because you grew up in that area, but What do I know?
michael: yeah I mean, you know.
Echoes From The Grave: So not long after the date with Dani, Tina and Karen were just having a hard time and missing their mom. So as any normal kid would do, they decided to hold a seance.
michael: Just a normal kid, and we're doing 1980 things.
Echoes From The Grave: I just... Yeah, of course. They grabbed a Ouija board and in the basement they... contacted their mom. So they really didn't believe anything would happen. They just wanted to feel a little closer to mom.
Echoes From The Grave: But in my opinion. Don't use a Ouija board guys just go visit her at her grave or... talk to her out loud because Ouija boards are bad juju.
michael: Oddly enough, Target has Ouija boards in their toy section.
Echoes From The Grave: Yes, I think I might have seen Ouija boards at like... Walmart as well but I Don't remember. Don't buy a Ouija board. Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: they're not even the toy ones see you're opening yourself up for some bad news They give me the heebie -jeebies.
Echoes From The Grave: Have you ever used one, Mike?
michael: No. um No.
Echoes From The Grave: So actually, when I was younger, my sister and her best friend like made a Ouija board out of a piece of paper and ah like a glass. And they had me come into their room and play with it with them. And they like had me convinced that this little boy was going to murder me. This little boy ghost. He was going to murder me. I was... terrified i like ran out of the room crying and shit
michael: Yeah, just... ah the Meh. Risk versus reward isn't worth it. at that point Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Plus all like the spooky games we play that have Ouija boards or all the movies that have Ouija boards. not for There's a movie called Ouija also. This is not for me.
michael: Yeah. I'm just we just not that adventurous. If I want to get closer to a loved one that has died, I'd just go to the cemetery.
Echoes From The Grave: the snow.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, there you go. So strangely enough, though, that night when they were in bed, they would start to hear weird rhythmic knocking on their bedroom walls. The seance had been successful.
Echoes From The Grave: they thought Probably not. So in the middle of the night, the girls started...
michael: first
Echoes From The Grave: talking to the unseen force they had contacted believing it to be their mother they would ask questions and receive replies in knocks that would scare me I would be terrified if like...
Echoes From The Grave: that like you're laying in bed but like mom is that you it was like Nope. Nope nope nope no nope.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: like
michael: yes i hear some knocks in there Nope.
Echoes From The Grave: That actually happened kind of when I was a kid. We grew up in haunted houses and we were it was Christmas time and we had Christmas lights on the tree that did not blink.
Echoes From The Grave: but The ghost started making them blink and my mom and brother were asking questions. It was like make it blink one for yes twice for no and it was answering and it scared me so much i started crying i was like i gotta go it's too much
michael: Yeah, I don't know if I would adjust. Okay. because if it We're true, sure. but I don't know
michael: Yeah, I just I can't
Echoes From The Grave: That's too much.
michael: Yeah, I can't I can't even Yeah. Think about like. The bad, the bad part about it was I could. like a demon or something you just opened up and it's like i'm gonna knock on this door
Echoes From The Grave: That is the bad part. So this continued for several nights. eventually it was happening so much that the girls couldn't get a full night's sleep so they'd be trying to sleep and all of a sudden they'd hear knocking on their walls like if that's your mom why is she waking you up she knows you got school in the morning
michael: Yeah, doesn't she want to pack me a lunch now that she's back?
Echoes From The Grave: Golly.
michael: Geez.
Echoes From The Grave: whom Eventually weirder things would start to happen. objects started to be moved or disappear They would come home to find furniture moved from one side of the room to another.
Echoes From The Grave: and the girls would actually start to think that a malevolent demon was in their house instead of the spirit of their mother. Let's...
michael: That's what we call foreshadowing I did not know that was coming.
Echoes From The Grave: yeah
michael: was That's what I'd be thinking. I'd be like, you know what? Why is my furniture upside down? Why is the chair on the ceiling?
Echoes From The Grave: Who ate my bag of Doritos?
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: like
michael: My lunch is now not made, but I have a butcher's knife.
Echoes From The Grave: Thanks, Mom. the Frank, the girl's father, wasn't really around. a ton because he was now a single father having to work so the girls would be experiencing all these scary things alone. And whenever they would bring it up to Frank.
Echoes From The Grave: He... would not believe them. They say, hey, yo, dad, we're hearing these things and things are being moved around the house. And he would kind of just brush them off thinking they you were wanting attention.
Echoes From The Grave: and that they were doing it themselves. which Tell me why. In, like, every scary story or scary movie, the dad always brushes it off. Like, you guys are lying. It's just you.
michael: Because I mean especially in the 80s I feel like a lot of that was happening where it's like You're not. you're not like it's like the source is incredible like when there's children like they just make up stuff and they not having proof but it's easier to brush it off because if you accept that it was real then Right.
Echoes From The Grave: Amen. you're scared too.
michael: Yeah, exactly. Like, I feel like... like as an adult now like thinking of like when i tell my parents like there's a monster under the bed it's like well why would my dad go look for a monster under my bed because i don't think I don't think that he wants to deal with that either. hidden you know So it's easier to just, eh, now you're just thinking it.
Echoes From The Grave: Bro. if a kid My kid, any kid, came to me and was like, hey, there's something scary happening over here. I'd just be like... Sucks. Good luck. I don't want to deal with your scary shit either.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: I'm scared.
michael: Yeah. But then also, I guess, if they're like, oh, these are just kids, they're playing around.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, I get that.
michael: and and there especially maybe they did it already too but
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, maybe they were.
michael: we can't
Echoes From The Grave: like What is it?
michael: Frank's just stressed.
Echoes From The Grave: What is it? crying wolf
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. Yeah, Frank is stressed.
michael: Frank's just stressed. He's like, oh man, the kid's back at it again. Now they're not sleeping.
Echoes From The Grave: He's a cat. My wife already died.
michael: Right.
Echoes From The Grave: What else do I have to do here? So the girls told him that they had accidentally invited a malevolent spirit into the house and he refused to believe them.
Echoes From The Grave: Instead, he just thought they were struggling with the death of their mother. Which... you know
michael: i mean yeah i mean I guess you don't really want to look into it further. You just kind of go. ah this happens especially if It was their first death that they've witnessed. in everything to you Yeah.
michael: Frank's probably seen a little bit more death and sees how grief changes people.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. It... they are younger so he probably is they're just struggling to figure out how to deal with this so they're making shit up um In January of 1987, Karen and Tina were in their front room when... or a living room depending on where you're at when they started to hear the knocking again while the knocking had become so commonplace to them at this point they were a little creeped out
Echoes From The Grave: because instead of knocking coming from the walls it sounded as if it was coming from the basement Which I don't do basements. So no, thank you
michael: Yeah. I mean. I've, I lived in a basement. um as far as like an apartment goes and not too terrible when it's renovated but if It's not renovated. It's not fully furnished. or finished i should say um Yeah, they're a little bit creepy and they're a little dark and sometimes cold.
Echoes From The Grave: dark and dank and where everyone gets murked.
michael: Might be a low, might be a...
Echoes From The Grave: like
michael: Bit homely.
Echoes From The Grave: Mhm.
michael: you might say.
Echoes From The Grave: Homely basement. So... Armed with a knife from the kitchen. the girls started to make their way to the source of the knocking as they made it. Down the stairs they were greeted with an ominous sight. Written on the wall in blood red was, I'm in your room. Come and find me.
Echoes From The Grave: Like, what do you do if you see that?
michael: Because I'm a fat ad. No, I'm alright.
Echoes From The Grave: I'm going inside.
michael: Yeah, I don't know Especially if you if if at that point you think that it's a... Malevolent. Demon I'm not Night. There's it.
michael: No. just
Echoes From The Grave: I'm going to be Aaron in this situation while Zach Baggins goes inside. I'm going outside.
michael: It's going to hit me.
Echoes From The Grave: I will stand back.
michael: Hear me screaming in the background.
Echoes From The Grave: Obviously frightened, the girls ran from the house and went to the neighbors. tina and karen explained that they had what they had seen and heard to their neighbors who called their father frank letting him know that he would need to come home immediately so at this point honestly i think What I had read was he was on a date.
Echoes From The Grave: and they called like the restaurant or something so first off he's already mad about them saying they have a ghost but now he's mad because they he just got cock blocked by his kids in this ghost.
Echoes From The Grave: Imagine.
michael: Ugh.
Echoes From The Grave: As soon as Frank returned, he was pissed at the girls. This wasn't the first time he had been out and the girls would call him and tell him something had happened and he would rush home to find absolutely nothing at all because it was a...
Echoes From The Grave: quote -unquote spirit So when he finally arrived to the... arrived home he went into the house and saw what was on the walls but still didn't believe them when they said that they didn't write it and ordered them to go to counseling to talk about the grief over their mother.
Echoes From The Grave: Which they probably should have been in counseling to begin with, in my opinion, when all of this started. but He didn't know that it wasn't. Not a ghost. Or a ghost? He was just like, these kids are nutty.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Go talk to someone. um A couple weeks after... this come and find me incident the girls heard law Wow. Girls heard loud knocking again. This was only in Tina's bedroom, though.
Echoes From The Grave: karen and tina went into the hallway to search for where the knocking could be originating from but had only heard it in the room so whenever they were out in the hallway it would stop And they'd go back in the room. They'd hear the knocking again.
Echoes From The Grave: eventually they gave up looking and headed back to her bedroom where They... met with something literally terrifying. in blood red again written on the wall was I'm back. Find me if you can.
Echoes From The Grave: So again the girls took off to the neighbors to call Frank and once again he blamed Tina and Karen. When Frank finally came home he angrily marched into the house to prove to the girls that there was nothing there.
Echoes From The Grave: However, when he entered the home he noticed that things were a lot messier than what the girls and neighbors had told him over the phone. So like the spirit got pissed and started making a ruckus in that house.
michael: Spirit didn't want them to leave.
Echoes From The Grave: he's like bro i just want to be your friend
michael: yeah
Echoes From The Grave: Frank. slowly made his way upstairs to see the message that had been left for the girls because he wanted to Like... Yell at them about it. obviously. But when he...
Echoes From The Grave: entered the room he saw a different new message had been written. Marry Me was now painted in Tina's bedroom. But that's not the scariest part, Mike. You want to know what is?
michael: What?
Echoes From The Grave: Looking across the bedroom, Frank sees something that would send chills down. anyone's fine standing in tina's room was a teen boy dressed in the clothing of frank's dead wife.
michael: Alright.
Echoes From The Grave: He was wearing her makeup. her wedding dress and a blonde a wig and he had a hatchet in his hand.
michael: Yeah, it doesn't seem like this could go too well for Frank.
Echoes From The Grave: Maybe Frank should believe his kids, eh?
michael: Yeah, maybe Frank should do an investigation at this point.
Echoes From The Grave: Frank, you should have done something.
michael: Yes.
Echoes From The Grave: so
michael: Start blaming Frank now.
Echoes From The Grave: So the teen boy that was in his dead wife's wedding dress was Danny LaPlante. The catfish and blind date Tina had the year before.
Echoes From The Grave: So they went on a date around Easter. This is like October.
michael: Cheers.
Echoes From The Grave: Or what did I say January of the next year?
michael: It's the January of next year, yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, okay, so January of next year. like almost
michael: These say a few weeks after that. Yeah, that's almost He's close to a year.
Echoes From The Grave: So... yeah just about here i'd say maybe what february
michael: a bindle. Living in the walls. Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. Once Frank and Danny locked eyes, a struggle ensues, but Danny was able to make his escape. Frank remembers being dumbfounded by Danny's escape because he was able to seemingly disappear from sight without much effort.
Echoes From The Grave: like Magic trick.
michael: and he's been moving through the walls so
Echoes From The Grave: he just like throws one of those like Smoke bombs down and he's gone.
michael: Yeah, that's crazy it'll be If I saw someone wearing... My dead wife's clothes.
Echoes From The Grave: Like...
michael: I'd probably
Echoes From The Grave: Not only her clothes but he's got her makeup on in a blonde wig. Where did he get the wig?
michael: I mean, he's probably had some time, though. like i like just keep Yeah, he just keeps returning.
Echoes From The Grave: He's had a year. He's like I need
michael: You know.
Echoes From The Grave: I got the best idea, guys. Let me get a wig and then we'll show them.
michael: My thing is, it's like... did they not realize like Did Danny go to school as well? like Or has he just been staying the here think this whole time? you know.
Echoes From The Grave: Well so we'll get more into that in a minute.
michael: hopefully
Echoes From The Grave: Okay. So with Frank finally believing the girls, the police were called. When they arrived to investigate, they discovered how Danny was able to seemingly disappear with little effort.
Echoes From The Grave: After. You already guessed it, though. But after discovering the messages on the walls had been written in ketchup, the police continued to search for clues and found a hidden crawlspace behind a cupboard which was built into the wall of Tina's room.
michael: That was my bad.
Echoes From The Grave: which First off also, how did they not realize it was ketchup? Like...
michael: You probably don't know. I mean, you probably don't. I mean, you don't really investigate when you see, like, if you open your door and you see that on the wall. You probably just go.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. But the stuff in the basement was written in ketchup too, so they had to clean it up. Ketchup doesn't not smell.
michael: I guess that's true. I guess you don't. Well... Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: They're just like this. Murder juice.
michael: And maybe that's. Maybe that's why Frank didn't believe him, because he was the one who cleaned it up and it was ketchup.
Echoes From The Grave: It was ketchup. These girls and the damn ketchup again.
michael: He's like, dang it, I just wanted a hot dog, and now I don't have ketchup.
Echoes From The Grave: He's like... Oh man, I needed my glizzy.
michael: You're mine. lizard
Echoes From The Grave: Blizzard Gobbler, this guy.
michael: It's...
Echoes From The Grave: So... when the officer opened the hatch to the crawlspace in tina's room he found danny laplante curled up inside so he instead of escaping he just like dropped to the floor and curled up in a ball
michael: I mean... He's probably like, all right, I've been caught. And he's like, no.
Echoes From The Grave: I'm done.
michael: Yeah, no need to fight out of this.
Echoes From The Grave: So Danny had been living in the walls of the Bowen home. They found a bookcase downstairs that butted up against the staircase. And if you moved that bookcase, there was a crawl space.
Echoes From The Grave: You would be able to get into and that's how he accessed the rest of the house. He just like tunneled through their house which Why is there enough space to tunnel through the walls that's weird to me
michael: i mean
michael: Well, I'm assuming because if it's a if it's a Um, Basement. that they... Kind of like through the attic and stuff, too.
michael: But, yeah, I don't know. That's weird.
Echoes From The Grave: Well, not he was...
michael: And how did...
Echoes From The Grave: in their walls.
michael: How does... Yeah, how does a kid find out like that they can do that?
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, exactly. How did he find out that they had all these crawl spaces. was he in the attic and saw oh hey because on an episode of bob's burgers up in the attic
michael: Well...
Echoes From The Grave: they can get into the crawl space from up there and then they can move around the house.
michael: Yeah, so I feel like you know a lot older houses were made wider, like walls.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. Well...
michael: So like thicker, I guess thicker walls.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. That makes... like east coast
michael: so
Echoes From The Grave: or what is it called? up there, like New England.
michael: Northeast, yeah, New England area.
Echoes From The Grave: Um.
michael: New England homes.
Echoes From The Grave: I'm sure. because again bob's burgers they are in like new jersey but the place was built and like i don't know the 30s or something So yeah, maybe they have like a really old house with all these crawl spaces. I don't know. I don't like it i don't need to crawl into my A house's bones?
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: That's weird.
michael: Yeah, I mean like maybe like it was easier for like construction back in the day back when they were
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. yeah that makes sense
michael: building it so you need people to be able to fit there so they can put the beams up and shit
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, that makes sense. But once Danny had been removed from the house, the officers went through the crawlspace and found that Danny had been tunneling through the house and also located...
Echoes From The Grave: many peepholes dotted around so he could watch tina in whatever room she was in So he was obsessed with Tina.
michael: He just wanted a wife.
Echoes From The Grave: that's He just wanted to be her dead mom and marry her. So it became to clear to the girls that it was Danny who they were communicating with and not the spirit of their mom. So here's the thing with Danny and Tina. He actually did go to her school.
Echoes From The Grave: She just didn't know who he was. He saw her.
michael: Hmm.
Echoes From The Grave: at school one day and was like oh holy heck this girl is it for me and then asked some guy in got her phone number so that wasn't a lie he did get his the phone number from some dude but like meeting her and such He already knew who she was.
michael: Bye. i was thinking he was trying to catfish but he wasn't at the same time huh
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, he was like I am not really this hot blonde guy, but... I will. Be your mom for you.
michael: He's like, I can be blonde for you.
Echoes From The Grave: I could be a blonde. Just give me the wig.
michael: Is it?
Echoes From The Grave: So it was believed that Danny had planned to actually reveal himself to the girls dressed as their mother, but it's unclear whether that was to try and convince them that he really was the spirit of their dead mom or just to scare the hell out of them.
michael: Hmm.
Echoes From The Grave: The police think it was to scare them. The fact that I was holding a hatchet. shows how lucky everyone is. like was to make it out. alive that night though.
Echoes From The Grave: Because like... If you look up, this guy's holding a hatchet. He's dressed as your dead mom. He's trying to kill you, I feel.
michael: Yeah, sure.
Echoes From The Grave: and
michael: I dropped my mouse.
Echoes From The Grave: Womp womp.
michael: For. Wow. Mouse is down. That was for dramatic effect actually. Just adding sounds. just
Echoes From The Grave: ah So who exactly was Daniel LaPlante? Daniel was born in 1970 in Townsend Massachusetts. Do you know where that is?
michael: now I'm going to assume. also
Echoes From The Grave: By Pepero.
michael: Nearby. Yeah, I mean Everything seems close.
Echoes From The Grave: ah So...
michael: Messrs.
Echoes From The Grave: He was born Yeah, everything in Massachusetts is next door because it's so small.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: He was born in Townsend and suffered an abusive traumatic childhood mostly at the hands of his father who would torment him physically emotionally and sexually on a regular basis.
Echoes From The Grave: So he had a rough childhood, but honestly... so do other people and they don't do this kind of stuff. in my opinion
michael: Yeah, I don't yeah
Echoes From The Grave: You know. But Danny was a troubled kid who struggled in school. He'd been diagnosed with dyslexia and had been labeled by classmates as weird or creepy.
Echoes From The Grave: In his early teen years, Danny was referred to a school counselor by administration due to his abnormal behavior and general reluctance towards his appearance. hygiene and self -improvement So that's kind of how... I feel like they didn't really notice. I would assume he would go to school sometimes, but in the 80s, they didn't really.
Echoes From The Grave: have the same way of checking if people are in school like they do now.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: They didn't have cameras and everything. They would just like call your house and be like, hey, so -and -so never showed up. But if they're calling the house of someone who doesn't give a shit... then it's not gonna be a problem.
michael: And I guess yeah, like you never have an attendance tracker other than probably just a notebook
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah.
michael: that had an x on it or a circle
Echoes From The Grave: Everyone's like... Mike, are you here? and like Here.
michael: Get away with a lot of shit back in the 80s
Echoes From The Grave: shoot we got a lot of got away with a lot of shit in the 90s and early 2000s too because they still didn't have that stuff i remember in school be like brandy Here. Like...
michael: yeah Now this may got signed to a Chromebook or something every day
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. They got you on camera now. um So seeing the psychiatrist turned out to just be another messed up thing in Danny's life, unfortunately. he was So they were mandatory sessions, and during these mandatory sessions where Danny was diagnosed with...
Echoes From The Grave: hyperactivity disorder. His relationship with the psychiatrist eventually took a darn turn. a dark turn as well a darn turn
michael: A darn turn.
Echoes From The Grave: took a dark turn when the psychiatrist made sexual advances towards Danny. Then for the following year, the psychiatrist sexually abused him during their sessions.
Echoes From The Grave: What is up with all these?
michael: Nothing.
Echoes From The Grave: Creepers!
michael: Just nothing going right for Danny at this point.
Echoes From The Grave: No, he's got dyslexia. He's got hyperactivity disorder. He's got a creepy dad and a creepy counselor.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Poor Danny.
michael: it's a lot of life factors yeah i mean there's an excuse living on someone's walls but
Echoes From The Grave: Kind of.
Echoes From The Grave: or what he's gonna do next.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: By age 15, Danny was breaking into people's homes and not only taking their possessions, but also leaving behind items. He would move objects around people's homes so they would know someone one had been there.
Echoes From The Grave: I feel like that's worse than stealing things from my home. As you...
michael: If someone's...
Echoes From The Grave: moving it around.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: It's like the psychological torture of it.
michael: Okay.
michael: Yeah, you notice it in some ways
Echoes From The Grave: You're like... What the hell is this remote doing taped to the ceiling?
Echoes From The Grave: Dishes. in the background. So back to 1987. Danny would be sent to a juvenile detention center. and um after being caught in the house. where he would stay until October of 1980.
Echoes From The Grave: 87 so this happened what like January, February. He was there for less than a year. Immediately following his release, Danny would go back to his life of crime. He started robbing houses again and at one of these robberies... robberies he would steal two handguns
Echoes From The Grave: One day Daniel's stepfather found a gun hidden in a laundry basket at home. confronting daniel he asked where it had come from and danny claimed that he bought it Which, how are you buying this gun? You're like...
Echoes From The Grave: And now 17.
michael: it was the 80s and In America.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. That's true and... I guess criminals don't really... Abide by the rules. um but so he claimed he bought it which was a flimsy explanation that his stepfather didn't like pursue any further. Usually. like Oh, okay.
Echoes From The Grave: Cool. So that was a moment to intervene and potentially prevent further harm, but no action was taken. and nearly a year after danny's terrorization of the bowens the consequences consequences of that Inaction became tragically clear.
Echoes From The Grave: Just about. Half a mile from Danny's family home lived the Gustafsson family. Angie.
michael: of stuff. offices
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, the Gustafsons. which is a fun name
michael: Yes.
Echoes From The Grave: Gustafsson. It feels like they're powerful.
michael: it know like Yeah, Yeah. they Either that or they're shoemakers.
Echoes From The Grave: Or like Gaston.
michael: so
Echoes From The Grave: Gustafsson Gaston. So Andrew Gustafsson and Priscilla Morgan met in high school and would later marry in college. Priscilla would give birth to their daughter Abigail, or Abby as she went by. in 1979.
Echoes From The Grave: and their son William, Billy. in 1981. The Gustafsson family was, by all accounts, a happy, normal family. Andrew was a very successful lawyer and Priscilla was a preschool teacher at the local play school.
Echoes From The Grave: She was also very newly pregnant. So things were going very well in the family. Um... on Tuesday. December 1st, 1987, that day started off as any other day for the Gustafsons. Andrew was off at work closing an amazing deal with a stake in a local hotel. So he was making bank for his family.
michael: He was in fact bringing in all the bread.
Echoes From The Grave: And...
Echoes From The Grave: He was making bacon. That's what they used to say, right? It was like bringing home the bacon.
michael: yeah i think Bringing home the bacon is... Yeah, that's that's accurate
Echoes From The Grave: yeah So he was making money. and He wanted to celebrate, so he had been trying to call Priscilla all afternoon, hoping to get a babysitter so they could go out that night.
Echoes From The Grave: but he was never able to get her on the phone. At about 5 .20pm, after not being able to reach his wife all day, Andrew arrived home to see her car in the driveway, but the house was dark.
Echoes From The Grave: And it's December in Massachusetts, so it's getting dark. early there. Going inside, he was... He called for... Priscilla.
Echoes From The Grave: But there was no response. No children yelling and playing around the house. there was no noise whatsoever which was An eerie silence he was coming home to.
Echoes From The Grave: Andrew walked up the stairs to his bedroom and was shocked to discover his pregnant wife's lifeless body in their bed, her face covered with a pillow. and just like a blanket over her.
michael: Cheers.
Echoes From The Grave: Priscilla had been sexually assaulted and shot twice in the head at point blank range. uh andrew in shock couldn't find it in himself to look for the kids afraid they would also be dead so instead he went to the kitchen called the police and sat at the table while he waited for them to arrive What a sad day that would be like it's the First day of December, you're getting ready for Christmas.
michael: I already have the decorations up.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah.
michael: Just had Thanksgiving
Echoes From The Grave: The day after Thanksgiving, you are putting that tree up.
michael: Yes.
Echoes From The Grave: I feel like back then in the 80s too, they were way about that shit.
michael: Yeah, Christmas was probably like Thanksgiving you had that family dinner
Echoes From The Grave: There.
Echoes From The Grave: Mhm.
michael: And then you're at the end of the day. after you're putting family dinner away you're still putting that christmas tree up though
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. So... The police arrived and... They found Billy drowned in the upstairs bathroom tub and Abby was found the same way in the downstairs bathroom tub.
Echoes From The Grave: so He was right. The kids were also gone. It was found out not long after that it had been Danny that had broken into the Gustafsons' house and murdered Priscilla, Abby, and Billy.
Echoes From The Grave: Danny's reasoning in this murder remains unknown. But given that Danny's actions. progressed rapidly from burglary to full -scale murder when He had guns suggest that he didn't possess the confidence or physical strength to subdue his victims by hand.
Echoes From The Grave: so they're like he might have wanted to be murdered well i'm assuming since He... um, wanted to Hatch it up the Bowen family. He wanted to murder but maybe he was just too scared to do it.
Echoes From The Grave: that close so that's why he stole the weapons
michael: Yeah. Yeah, maybe.
Echoes From The Grave: But that's
michael: and you He has the air chiefs working his self up to it.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah, he had a year to sit in jail and think about it.
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Um... So... They also found like... a handful of items which doubled as restraints in the house so the theory is that danny forced his way into the residence and held the victims at gunpoint while he restrained them maybe to like burglarize them?
Echoes From The Grave: But then he's like, well, shoot. they saw me, so now I gotta to get rid of them. You know what I mean?
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: the The, like... reason behind it is unknown to them. But. He likely killed Priscilla first to remove the biggest threat, then drowned the children one by one.
Echoes From The Grave: And then I'm assuming he went back to assault her. But I don't know. The kids were like, Abby was old enough. to run and find help.
Echoes From The Grave: So I don't see him taking forever. to assault Priscilla. and then going to the kids, you know what I mean?
michael: Yeah.
Echoes From The Grave: Unless he really, really restrained them. but it didn't take long for authorities to link the Gustafsson family murdered with Danny LaPlante. Police sought to apprehend him, but found that Danny had since fled the area.
Echoes From The Grave: But the... obviously a manhunt. ensued. Danny was considered to be armed and incredibly dangerous. and given his history there was no telling what lengths he might go to avoid the 10.
Echoes From The Grave: detection. A few towns over from Townsend, Danny broke into another woman's home and kidnapped her in her vehicle. Imagine. the woman escaped but danny was spotted by someone who had seen his photograph on the news Um.
Echoes From The Grave: 48 hours later. From When the Manhunt Began, Danny LaPlante was discovered hiding in a dumpster. Where he belongs.
michael: peace
Echoes From The Grave: that smelly homely Shithead.
michael: Yeah. disheveled and everything
Echoes From The Grave: um when he was um like patted down inspected a hair belonging to Abby. was discovered on his sock so like that was cemented his involvement in her murder so He obviously killed everybody.
michael: Hmph.
Echoes From The Grave: Just a year later, Danny LaPlante was sentenced to lee three. life sentences for the murder of the Gustafsson family. He is still in prison today actually they, um, are denying him for parole and all that stuff.
Echoes From The Grave: And I read in an article that Andrew Gustafson married someone. new on December or January 1st 1990 And they live...
Echoes From The Grave: like three houses away from The courthouse where Danny was sentenced.
michael: Peace.
Echoes From The Grave: She's rich. She's got like... A 15 -bedroom house.
michael: Yeah, I guess we don't have to move then.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. well 15 bedrooms i don't know i just deal with it i guess
michael: Yeah, I don't think I I also don't think I'd let Danny out regardless and clearly Eve. escalates pretty quickly.
Echoes From The Grave: Clearly he's a psycho. And yeah.
michael: Yes.
Echoes From The Grave: I would. I also would not let him out. anytime soon.
Echoes From The Grave: But that's it, Mike. That is the story of... Daniel LaPlante and him being a big old creeper.
michael: See? So I think what we learned here is... Check the walls. let me check the walls again And don't use Ouija boards.
Echoes From The Grave: yeah Yes, I would agree check your walls or don't live in a really old house make sure Just build something new and make sure there isn't enough space for people to live in your walls. Don't have a basement or attic.
michael: And if there is there is a crawl space... Make sure that you have a lock on it. that they they you can't that they can't get through the walls.
Echoes From The Grave: Yeah. Yes. just like pour cement through the crawl spaces that way nobody's getting in there
michael: And that is our construction advice. This is a construction podcast.
Echoes From The Grave: Welcome to building houses with Mike and Brandy
michael: Yeah, just pour cement where you don't want things to open.
Echoes From The Grave: Do not ever. mess with a Ouija board and if you do, do it at someone else's house.
Echoes From The Grave: Because you don't want that bad juju coming home to you.
michael: Don't want demons living in your walls.
Echoes From The Grave: No sir. All right, Mike, thank you so much for being here. Thank you to everyone listening out there. And we will see you next time with another fun -filled story.
Echoes From The Grave: Bye Mike. Bye.
michael: See ya.
