While growing up in Townsend, LaPlante claimed to have been sexually and psychologically abused by many adults in his life including his father, stepfather and psychiatrist.
[4] As a teenager he was referred to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with hyperactivity disorder, because of his abnormal behavior, his appearance, and his lack of hygiene.
LaPlante was said to have hidden in the walls of the home of 15-year-old Tina Bowen, whom he had feelings for, and thought she rejected him during a conversation they'd had in 1986, and was later arrested.
[12] There was also a new law allowing “juveniles convicted of murder with extreme cruelty and atrocity to ask for parole after they’ve been behind bars for a minimum of 30 years.” The judge, however, affirmed LaPlante's sentence[13] of three consecutive terms of life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after 45 years, after a forensic psychiatrist evaluated LaPlante and found that he was not remorseful for his crimes.
[17] LaPlante was featured in Season 2, Episode 1 of Investigation Discovery's Your Worst Nightmare series "Bump in the Night".
[18] On September 9, 2024, Investigation Discovery released Season 1, Episode 1 of "The Real Murders on Elm Street" titled "Killer in the Walls".
[19] On August 5, 2023, Lifetime released a film titled Boy in the Walls also based on LaPlante's offenses prior to the Gustafson murders where he secretly lived in the walls of a teenaged girls family house and terrorized the family through various methods before committing the Gustafson murders.
However unlike[citation needed] "Phrogging: Hider in My House series "Footsteps in the Attic," Boy in the Walls is a fictional story only loosely based on Laplante.
][22][23] On November 27, 2024, MrBallen released a video titled "The SCARIEST BASEMENT story you will ever hear" about the case, which he previously narrated in one of his live in-person tours.