The man who lived in the walls. The unsettling case of Daniel LaPlante - (This would make for a great horror movie)

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In 1986, a teenage girl living in Massachusetts started noticing strange things around her home. Items were being moved. Food was half eaten. At night she heard whispers. She began to wonder if she was going crazy.

But she was not. A boy named Daniel LaPlante, who had briefly dated her, was secretly living inside the crawlspaces of her house.

One day her father opened a cupboard and found a hole behind it. Inside was Daniel, dressed in the girl’s late mother’s clothes and smiling.

Police later found a network of tunnels hidden inside the walls. He had been moving through the house unseen, spying on them, and even leaving messages like I am still here written on the walls.

It sounds like an urban legend, but it is completely real. The most terrifying part is knowing they were sleeping just inches away from him the entire time without ever realizing it.

He also went on to serve multiple life sentences for murder after this whole situation.



 
In 1986, a teenage girl living in Massachusetts started noticing strange things around her home. Items were being moved. Food was half eaten. At night she heard whispers. She began to wonder if she was going crazy.

But she was not. A boy named Daniel LaPlante, who had briefly dated her, was secretly living inside the crawlspaces of her house.

One day her father opened a cupboard and found a hole behind it. Inside was Daniel, dressed in the girl’s late mother’s clothes and smiling.

Police later found a network of tunnels hidden inside the walls. He had been moving through the house unseen, spying on them, and even leaving messages like I am still here written on the walls.

It sounds like an urban legend, but it is completely real. The most terrifying part is knowing they were sleeping just inches away from him the entire time without ever realizing it.

He also went on to serve multiple life sentences for murder after this whole situation.




This just won't happen these days since no young people can afford a house. Good luck trying to live in the paper thin cardboard walls of a modern day condo
 
There's about 15 movies about this. It's actually a trope at this point because there's been so many.
 
When A Stranger Calls Back
People Under the Stairs
The Boy
Hider in the House


To these already mentioned, I'll add the more recent 2019 Helen Hunt flick I See You. The movie invokes the terminology surrounding this bizarre thrill-seeking subculture for some weirdos: "phrogging". It starred Owen Teague who I think is one of the more talented young actors out there. He made my skin crawl in the latest adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand.

The urban dictionary shows an entry for this term dated to 2006. Google Trends lists 2004 as a start date for the term, but results come up blank for that date range due to a dearth of data, so I can't find any details about the earliest search usage.

Apparently Lifetime did a series on this in 2022:

Phrogging: Hider in My House

 
They did make a movie about it, but made it even more terrifying than irl, bc the guy was played by Gary Busey


There's also a movie from 70-80s with a similar story. I think the teen commits a murder and his mom hides him in a secret compartment. Mom dies and new people move in. Drama unfolds.
 
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