Drowned By Twisted Teenager

It was theth most unthinkable crime, committed by a boy on the cusp of adulthood. But what turned Daniel Laplante into a violent murderer?

Nursery-school teacher Priscilla Gustafson, 33, was married to her childhood sweetheart Andrew and pregnant with their third child.

She taught Sunday school – and their kids, Abigail, 7, and William, 5, sang in the choir.

But on 1 December 1987, the Gustafson family was brutally ripped apart.

Andrew made a terrible discovery at their home in Townsend, Massachusetts.

Priscilla’s body – face down with a pillow over her head. She’d been raped and shot twice in the head. Distraught, Andrew called for help.

Police later found the bodies of their two young children – drowned in separate baths in the house.

Immediately, police had a suspect – Daniel Laplante, 17.

A young local who, a year earlier, had been arrested after jumping out of a cupboard in someone’s home in a nearby town, Pepperell.

Dressed as a Native American, face covered in war paint, he’d wielded a hatchet and held four family members hostage before they’d managed to escape.

When caught after that crime, Laplante had been held in a youth detention centre for nine months before his mother posted bail and he was released, awaiting trial.

Freed...to kill Priscilla and her children.

Now, police eventually caught up with him.

In October 1988, he went on trial at Middlesex Superior Court, accused of the murders.

By then, he was 18. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and given three consecutive life terms without parole. There was mass outcry that a boy so young could be capable of such brutal, sadistic murders. So what had turned Laplante into such a monster?

Weird

Little is known of Laplante’s early life. But according to his defence, he suffered ‘extreme psychological abuse’ from his father, was sexually abused by a psychiatrist, and struggled with dyslexia and hyperactivity disorder.

His parents had separated and, at the time of the murders, Laplante was living in Townsend with his mother and stepfather.

His peers, students at North Middlesex High School, described him as ‘weird’.

Laplante had a history of breaking into homes, moving objects, leaving some items behind. Playing mind games.

When first approached by police for questioning the day after Priscilla was found dead, Laplante was being tutored in the Townsend Library.

‘Hey, I’m not a bad guy,’ he said to the officers.

Awaiting the verdict,

How could a boy so young be capable of such brutal murders