The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 17

THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, DFCFMHKR 4. 1987 17 Neighbors recall suspect in slayings las one who sowed fear Save 42 to 50 on Petite, Misses or Tall Pantcoats Stand-up collar, button-and-loop closure. Ofpolyester-and-cotton quilted to polyester fiberfill, lined in nylon taffeta. Treated for water repellency. Orig.

catalog prices 34.99-39.99 Now 19.99 Save 38 to 65 24.99 unlined denim jacket 14.99 34.99-$39.99 Misses or Womens pantcoats 19.99 LaPLANTE Continued from Page 1 down house that has always seemed more a home to barnyard animals and Junk. LaPlante has been in and out of trouble most of his young life, waiting trial in at least two criminal cases. And his arrest last year for holding the family of a girlfriend hostage while dressed as Indian and wielding a hatchet seemed to confirm in many townsfolk's minds that there was something very wrong with young Danny LaPlante. LaPlante's lawyer and La-Plante's relatives see not a monster, but a confused youth who Is not capable of the brutality the authorities say LaPlante perpetrated after breaking into the Gus-tafson home on Saunders Road Tuesday afternoon. "I've known the kid for four or five years now, and 1 have as much fear of him as I do my maiden aunt," said attorney Robert F.

Casey Jr. "I can imagine he's going to be painted as an ogre. But with me, he's always come across as a quiet, reticent kid." Reticent was not one of the words neighbors or police used to describe LaPlante. Strange was one. Disturbed was another.

The LaPlantes have lived in a simple, dull-blue wood-frame house on Elm Street for about 1 5 years, according to neighbors. A number of the 8,000 residents of Townsend who watched him grow up lived in fear of Danny LaPlante, particularly in the last year. The family whose Pepperell home LaPlante allegedly took over while dressed like an Indian has moved because of the incident. Police said the family feared LaPlante so much they left their New Hampshire home and moved into a hotel when they heard he was a suspect in the Gustafson killings. "When you saw Danny you watched him," said Elaine Aho, a neighbor of the LaPlantes.

"He earned his reputation. He was a troublemaker from day one." Jill Gerry, another neighbor, who runs a greenhouse with her husband, Jim, recalls they hired Danny LaPlante when he was about six years old, paying him small change to pick stones from the fields where they grew pumpkins and squash. Jill Gerry said tshe knew something was wrong when the little boy smashed all ihe pumpkins and squash. It was the beginning of a bad reputation Xhat has stuck and flourished. When the local variety store as broken into five years ago, taPIante and his friend were sus-ipected.

Since he reappeared in the neighborhood last month, neighbors say five area homes have been burglarized. LaPlante was the suspect in the neighbors' minds. LaPlante went to elementary school In Townsend, then attended St. Bernard's High School in Fltchburg from September 1985 until June 1986. At St.

Bernard's. LaPlante played football, ran track and got mostly Cs. "I talked to some students who were close to him and they said lhat he was a loner, and that they lost contact with him after he left," headmaster Rev. James B. Flynn said.

Patrick McGulgan, a junior at St. Bernard's, remembers, "The guy never really was all that friendly. He never liked to go to parties. He never really talked much." Casey disputed the picture painted by neighbors. He said LaPlante came from a caring household, where he lived with his mother, Elaine Moore, his stepfather, and several brothers and sisters.

Casey said LaPlante's mother works in a business products company and his stepfather in a plastics firm. "They are both salt-of-the-earth kind of people," said Casey. Police say LaPlante has been arrested several times, something Casey acknowledges, but they said they could not release details of the cases because LaPlante was a juvenile at the time of the original allegations. However, a judge recently ruled that LaPlante should be tried as an adult for a Dec. 8.

1986, incident in which he allegedly broke into the Pepperell home of Francis Bowen, the father of LaPlante's girlfriend. Pepperell Police Chief David Young said LaPlante took money and jewelry from Bowen, his daughters Tina and Karen, and their friend Kathleen Knapp. Bowen, his daughters and Knapp escaped through a bedroom window. LaPlante was arrested two days later after he returned to the house. LaPlante was due in Lowell Superior Court next Friday on the matter.

The Bowens, meanwhile, are somewhere in a hotel, hiding until LaPlante is captured. After his arrest for the incident at the Bowen home, LaPlante was held in a state Department of Youth Services secured detention facility from last January until October. When LaPlante's case was transferred from a juvenile court to Lowell Superior Court, he was held in lieu of $10,000 bail. Young said LaPlante's mother, Elaine Moore, remortgaged their house to get the bail money. Still, residents weren't moved by such maternal devotion when they saw LaPlante back in their neighborhood two months ago.

Darlene Mahoney, who lives across the street from the LaPlantes, was one of those disturbed when they saw LaPlante walking around, heading to the woods behind his home. "You'd see him walk out there by himself. That's the only place you'd see him, the woods," Mahoney said. It was through those woods, about a mile, that LaPlante allegedly went to the Gustafson home and wreaked an unspeakable crime. He allegedly raped Mrs.

Gustafson then shot her in the head. He then allegedly strangled and drowned the boy, then did the same to Abigail when she arrived home from school. LaPlante's brother-in-law, who would Identify himself only as Leo, does not believe LaPlante is capable of such an atrocity. "He's scared because he just got out of the hospital about a month ago." he said, referring to LaPlante's release from the DYS lockup. On Tuesday, about a half-hour before Andrew Gustafson arrived home and found that his family had been slaughtered, LaPlante arrived at Leo's home in Fitch-burg to celebrate his daughter's sixth birthday.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Leo said. LaPlante had cake with everybody else, then tickled the birthday girl as they horsed around on the couch. And so Danny LaPlante's brother-in-law was left to wonder aloud something a court of law will ultimately decide: How could this be? 48.99 down-filled jacket 29.99 99.99 Misses fake fur coat 39.99 Save 57 on MISSES Ski Jackets Nylon shell and lining. Insulated with one layer of down and feather, one layer of polyester fiberfill.

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