Family hear bizarre 'tapping' coming from walls of home before making chilling discovery

Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing

'I'm in your closet. Come find me,' read a ketchup-written note on the wall of a family's home.

For months, nine-year-old Tina and her 15-year-old sister Karen Bowen had noticed things going missing in their home and the TV turning on on its own, so naturally they assumed their home in Townsend, Massachusetts, was haunted - that or their mom, who had died from cancer, was trying to get in touch with them.

When they highlighted the issue to their dad Frank, he laughed it off but would often be out of the house with work. So, Tina and Karen took it upon themselves to find out and so whipped their Ouija board out.

Tina and Karen dusted off a Ouija board in the hope of communicating with their mom who had tragically passed away (Getty stock)

That's when the bizarre 'tapping' noise began coming from the walls in their home, and when Frank returned one day he overheard his daughters discuss their supernatural encounters - but he put it down to grief.

"Over the next few days, the tapping sounds in the house would continue, and they were no longer just coming from the basement," explained podcaster Mr Ballen, who shared the case with his listeners.

"They were also coming from the kitchen. They were coming sometimes from the second floor. They were coming from all over the house. But the girls were the only ones who could hear the sounds."

However, their initial excitement turned to terror and so they decided to muster up the courage to go into the basement armed with a kitchen knife but retreated in fear.

While returning upstairs they discovered someone had written on their walls in ketchup, writing: "I'm in your closet. Come find me."

Jurors in the murder trial of Daniel LaPlante walk out of the home of the victims to see where the bodies were located after they had been killed in Townsend, on Oct. 6, 1988. Jurors in the trial of LaPlante, who is accused of killing a Townsend woman and her two children spent the day touring sites related to the case (Janet Knott/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

When Frank returned home, he assumed it was a cry for help by his daughters and so sent them to a counsellor.

It all came to a head in December 1986, when he took his daughters and one of their friends out for dinner. Upon their return they noticed all the lights in the house were switched on and the TV too, while the furniture was rearranged.

As Frank went room-to-room, with his daughters and their friend close behind, they spotted a message: "marry me?" written in shaving cream on the wall.

Mr Ballen went on: "He hears movement in the closet, in the room that he's in. Frank turns and he looks at this closet. The doors are open to this closet, but it's a dark closet. And out of the closet, walks a man who is wearing a dress, Frank's dead wife's dress. This person had clown makeup on their face, and they were wielding a hatchet."

The three girls bolted upstairs and Tina exited out of a bedroom window and darted to her neighbors home for them to call 911.

By the time cops arrived, the boy had vanished, leaving behind only his hatchet.

They were sent away from the home, until several days later Frank returned to collect clean clothes but noticed that there was activity going on in the first floor so he called the police to check if they were still investigating the home - they weren't.

Murder suspect Daniel LaPlante is arraigned in Ayer District Court in Ayer, Mass., in 1987 (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

When an officer arrived, they opened the door to find pennies glue to the ceiling. Among several other chilling things there was also more messages on the walls and above pictures of Tina and Karen there was the writing: "I'm going to kill you, Tina" and: "I'm going to kill you, Karen" with knives stabbed into pictures of them.

As a sweep of the property was carried out, a cop made a bone-chilling discovery.

"Looking back at this officer is Danny LaPlante. He's crouched down, he's got a hatchet over his shoulder, he's wearing a dress, and he's staring back at this officer," Mr Ballen explained.

Daniel LaPlante, who was 16 at the time, had been living within the walls of their home for six months, and had reportedly asked Tina out at school but she rejected him.

He was arrested but having served just 10 months in a juvenile detention center he was released and went on to rape and murder 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson, who was pregnant at the time, and drowned her two kids - five-year-old William and seven-year-old Abigail.

In 1988, Daniel LaPlante was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for their murders.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org