Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's story is one that I told several years ago back on YouTube.
But during my 2024 live tour, I brought this one back out and gave it a complete overhaul and ended up telling it live.
And the audience really liked it. The story is about a family, a father and his two daughters, whose lives are turned upside down after their mother passes away.
But their grief would soon turn to horror as they began to hear tapping coming from their walls at night.
But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, please tell the Amazon Music Follow button you're going to gift them tickets to my first ever live storytelling tour.
But don't tell them you got them tickets that are mid-row floor seats to the Indianapolis show.
Okay, let's get into today's story. In the fall of 1986, Frank Bowen, along with his two daughters, Tina, who was 15, and Karen, who was 9, they experienced just a terrible loss.
So Frank's wife and the girl's mother suddenly passed away from cancer.
And so that in and of itself was obviously tragic and terrible, but what made it even worse is that, you know, she had been a working mom. and her income was a vital part of just making ends meet in the Bowen household.
And so as soon as she passed away, as much as Frank just wanted to be there for his girls to help them grieve the loss of their mother, he really couldn't.
He started immediately having to pick up all these late night shifts at his job, again, just to make sure financially the family was whole.
And so it's like within days of the mother passing away, Frank is out late at work and these two poor girls are just stuck at home by themselves, just totally grief-stricken and alone.
And so in October of that year, on one of those nights where Tina and Karen were home alone and their dad was out working late, these girls, I mean, you gotta remember, they desperately miss their mother.
All they want is to just have one more interaction with her.
I mean, they can't believe that she's gone.
They were so close with her. It's like their whole lives have been turned upside down.
And so on this night that they're home alone, you know, putting themselves to bed, they start talking about how, man, I just wish there was just a way to communicate with mom.
And at some point, one of the girls says, wait a minute, maybe there is a way to do that.
So the girls owned a Ouija board, and a Ouija board is basically a way people believe they can speak to the dead.
It looks sort of like a game board. It's got letters and numbers on it, and it's got a yes and a no on there.
And there's this thing called a planchette, which is basically like this little free-floating dial, almost like a pointer that you can place on the board.
And people that use the Ouija board will place their fingertips right on the edge of the planchette.
And they will literally just say things like, you know, if there are spirits in the room with me right now, you know, give me a sign.
And in theory, if there are, you know, the spirits will move the planned shed around so that people have their fingertips on it, but they're not controlling it.
And it will move around the board and land on yes or no or spell things out or give numbers.
It's just a way people believe they can speak to the dead.
And so Karen and Tina are like, why don't we get our Ouija board out and have a seance?
Let's try to communicate with mom and see if she manipulates the board and gives us a sign that she's here with us.
And so Tina and Karen, they get their Ouija board.
They go down into the basement of their house.
They lay it out and they put their fingers on the planchette.
And after a minute, you know, one of the girls is like, hey, mom, are you here with us right now? and they have their fingers on the planchette, but nothing happens.
So again, the girls kind of wait a minute, and they try again.
You know, mom, if you're here with us right now, please, anything, just move it even a little bit.
Show us you're here with us right now. Nothing happens.
And so over and over and over again for over an hour, the girls just sit there asking every combination of question they can possibly think of to try to elicit a response from their mother, who they so want to believe is like with them right now, sort of looking out for them.
But no matter how earnestly and passionately they ask these questions, the planchette never moved.
So the seance didn't work. And so the girls, you know, it's not clear if they literally believed they were actually going to get a reaction from their mom.
But, you know, this was pretty disappointing.
It was like another reminder that, you know, mom really is gone.
So they packed up their Ouija board, you know, very frustrated.
And they went upstairs to their respective bedrooms on the second floor of the house.
They climb into bed and they try to go to sleep.
So their father is still out at work, he won't be home for some time, and the girls know this.
They know that they are home alone until they fall asleep.
As they're laying in their bedrooms, it's totally dark, it's quiet, and as they're laying there, the girls begin to hear a tapping sound coming from somewhere in their house.
Now, it was clear to them that the tapping was not coming from the floor of the house they were on.
It was coming from somewhere either on the first floor or maybe down in the basement.
But, you know, at first, the tapping sounds didn't really alarm them at all.
It just sort of sounded like, you know, house sounds at night.
You know, the sound of machines whirring or clicking or maybe branches outside striking the side of the house or who knows what.
But they seemed sort of like harmless sounds that you would expect at night.
However, as the tapping sort of persisted, you know, it wasn't really consistent tapping sound, it was more sporadic, but it was consistently sporadic, like it was obvious, whatever this was, it wasn't stopping.
You know, as that continued, the girls began to tune in more and more to it and started wondering, like, what is this?
And at some point, the younger of the two girls, Karen, the nine-year-old, she started to get spooked.
You know, the sound was kind of freaking her out.
And so she got out of her bed and she left her room.
She goes down the hallway. She comes into Tina's bedroom and she goes up to her big sister and she's like, do you hear that tapping sound?
And Tina's like, yeah, what is that? And so the two girls, they leave Tina's bedroom together.
They go out into the hallway. They can still hear the tapping.
It's kind of coming from downstairs somewhere.
And the girls, they walk to the top of the stairs, basically looking down the stairwell that wraps down to the first floor.
They can't see the first floor. They can only see, you know, the halfway point, the landing.
And they're hearing the tapping sound coming from somewhere down there.
And the girls are just kind of listening, not really reacting.
And at some point, one of the girls says, wait a minute. what if this tapping sound is mom?
What if the seance we did worked? What if she is here and now she's giving us a sign that she's with us right now?
What if it's her? And so feeling sort of excited all of a sudden, one of the girls just says, mom, is that you down there?
And immediately there's a response. something from downstairs is reacting to their question and the girls are psyched.
This is what they wanted when they did their seance.
All they wanted was some interaction with their mother and they think right now they're getting it.
They're talking to their mom. And so after getting that tap, tap, tap response, one of the girls asks another question, you know, mom, if it's really you, you know, give us another sign, really show it's you. something for sure is interacting with them downstairs.
And the girls 100% believe it's their mother.
And again, they are thrilled. And so the girls, they start walking down the stairs, firing off more questions to their mom.
And even though some of their questions weren't really yes or no questions, they would always get that sort of tap, tap, tap response.
Like again, something is interacting with them.
And as they made their way down to the first floor and they're hearing this tapping and they're sort of following it around, it eventually brings them to the head of the stairs that leads down into the basement.
They open up the basement door, and they're asking more questions, they're getting those tap responses, and it's clearly coming from downstairs, and even though the girls are really excited, it's gotta be mom, they weren't so confident that they were prepared to go down into the basement to follow after this tapping sound.
So they sort of stopped at the top of the stairs, you know, looking down into the basement, you know, it's gotta be mom, but it's still a little bit frightening to go down there.
And so they stayed there right above the stairs, looking into the basement, just constantly asking questions and getting responses from down in the basement from mom.
It was great. And eventually after, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever it was, the tapping just stopped.
You know, the girls continued asking questions, but there was no longer any reaction from the basement.
And so at that point, you know, the girls, they're so excited.
They really feel like they've been talking to their mom.
And they're so jazzed up from this experience that they're like, we're not going to be able to sleep.
And so the girls just stay awake in the kitchen until Frank comes home from work.
And when Frank comes inside and he sees his girls are awake, you know, it's like midnight or whatever it is, he's sort of surprised.
But the girls rush up to him and they're like, dad, you wouldn't believe it.
We had the seance and we heard this tapping sound and we know it was mom.
Mom is with us right now. We were talking to her.
Now, Frank, you know, he's totally caught off guard by what they're saying, but he also knows his girls, they're going through this horrible time in their lives.
I mean, they've just lost their mother. He can't even imagine their level of grief.
I mean, he's obviously grief-stricken, but this is their mom.
And so he's seeing his girls for the first time in what feels like a long time, looking really happy and excited.
And they're telling him that tapping sounds in the house are their mother.
And so Frank, like he's not going to pick holes in what they're doing.
He's not going to question, you know, what's actually happening in the house.
Instead, as soon as they tell him all this stuff, he just goes, you know what, girls?
Of course your mom is here. Your mom will always be here.
She will always be looking out for you. Your mom is with you right now in the house.
I'm sure of it. And so the girls, they're like, they're so happy.
Again, this was such an amazing experience.
You know, their dad, he also agreed this is so good.
And so the girls, you know, they happily go upstairs to their bedrooms, then they go to sleep.
And Frank, truthfully, you know, after having this exchange with his daughters, didn't really think much of it.
Again, he's sort of thinking that, you know, there wasn't really tapping sounds coming from his deceased wife.
You know, this is just some coping mechanism that the girls are using to deal with this tragedy.
And he thinks, you know what? It's healthy enough.
It's making them happy. What's the big deal?
So Frank, he goes to bed. The show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
When I fell into a depression in 2018, I didn't know what to do.
Every day I felt stressed, but figured I'd just eventually snap out of it.
However, as time went on, I only felt worse.
And over time, my mental health really took a serious toll on my life and the lives of the people around me.
Friends and family tried to help by, you know, doing their own research and offering different remedies and opportunities to boost my spirits.
But ultimately, it was just such an overload of information that I struggled to make any steps toward getting better.
And in some ways, this only made me feel worse and honestly more depressed.
However, eventually, really with the help of my family urging me to do this, I did speak to a therapist for the first time.
And that's where I had a breakthrough. Now therapy might not be a solution for everyone, but if you're struggling and you don't know what to do and haven't really tried to do anything yet, therapy is a great starting point.
Take time to invest in your mental wellness with BetterHelp.
With access to over 30,000 therapists and serving more than 5 million people globally, BetterHelp is a platform you can trust.
Join a session with a therapist at the click of a button and easily switch therapists anytime at no additional cost until you feel supported.
As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.
Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash mrballinpod.
That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash mrballinpod.
You know that person in your life who just can't stand mayo?
Call them traumatized. Call them closed-minded.
We get it. They're stuck in their ways. But here's the thing.
They just haven't tried Hellman's flavored mayo.
We're talking bold flavors that will flip even the biggest skeptics.
Spicy mayo that adds the perfect kick to your burger.
Garlic aioli that transforms ordinary fries into something extraordinary.
Chipotle mayo that turns your basic wrap into a smoky sensation.
So to all the mayo haters out there, yes, we're looking at you.
It's time to eat your words. Because with mayo this flavorful, any hater is just a mayo lover waiting to be convinced.
Hellman's Flavored Mayo. Get ready to eat your words.
Over the next few days, the tapping sounds in the house would continue and they were no longer just coming from the basement.
They were also coming from the kitchen. They were coming sometimes from the second floor.
They were sort of coming from all over the house.
But the girls were the only ones who could hear the sounds.
Like every time they'd hear the tapping, if their dad was home, they'd call him over, but Frank wouldn't hear anything.
Now again, you know, Frank doesn't really believe that there's actually tapping happening.
He doesn't think this is actually real at all.
But he's playing along with it because, you know, his girls are happy.
You know, clearly this is their coping mechanism.
And so again, Frank's not thinking much of it.
It's harmless. The girls are frustrated that he can't hear it.
But again, it's overall still a very good thing.
It's mom. Mom is trying to communicate with them.
However, after a few days post-seance as the tapping continued, the girls began to change their attitude about the tapping sounds.
The first day and over those first few days, it really did feel like a good thing.
This is mom, this is positive, this was definitely a good thing.
But after about 72 hours post-seance, the girls began to sort of feel frightened by the tapping. because the tapping no longer was really just coming mostly from the basement.
It now started coming almost exclusively from their bedrooms at night.
So they'd be laying in bed and they'd hear, you know, tapping underneath their beds.
They'd hear tapping in their closets and it was frightening.
And they would call their dad in and he'd come into their bedrooms and he wouldn't find anything.
But now, you know, Frank, who previously had just sort of let this continue, you know, this is his girl's coping mechanism for this terrible loss.
Now he's seeing that his girls, they don't really think it's mom anymore.
They don't know what this is. And it's also disrupting their sleep.
And so now it's not a healthy thing anymore.
This is a problem. Like it's disrupting his girl's lives.
And so Frank begins at this point, you know, three days post-seance now, he begins telling his girls like, hey, come on guys, there's nothing to be scared of here.
You know, these tapping sounds are just normal house sounds.
You're overthinking it. Like there's nothing that's going to harm you in the house.
You know, mom is definitely here looking out for you, but she's not making those tapping sounds.
You got to let this stuff go and just forget about this stuff.
But the girls, they're like, dad, we're not making the tapping sounds up.
Just because you don't hear them does not mean they're not real.
And they began to tell their dad, like, we think the seance worked, but we actually no longer think it's mom that's sort of come out of the seance.
We think we unlocked a different spirit, an evil spirit.
And now that evil spirit is haunting our house.
So Frank, at this point, he's like, guys, that's not what's going on here.
You really need to stop. Like, these tapping sounds are not real.
They're in your head or they're normal. And so Frank and his daughters really began to fight over this because the girls, they know they're hearing sounds and Frank's like, I'm not.
And so they're really starting to fight over it.
The girls, they're getting more and more frightened just being in their house, in particular at night when these sounds would typically start.
And so fast forward about a week after the seance, and now the girls really are so scared to be in their house because of this tapping, which they believe is now this evil spirit in their house, they're finding all sorts of excuses to just stay out of their house.
Like when dad's at work late, they're trying to stay at their friend's house and not be home because it was too frightening.
And Frank, he's sort of at his wits end with what to do with his girls, because now this thing that's going on in the house, this delusion, as he believed it was, you know, that his girls were suffering from, it was really disruptive and unhealthy.
And he began telling his girls, like, if you can't stop with this whole tapping delusion, you're going to have to go to grief counseling.
Like, this is too much. And so, again, fast forward about a week here, and that's what's going on in the Bowen household.
And on this particular day, the girls, Tina and Karen, they didn't have a place to go that night.
They didn't have a friend who was available.
And so they're home at their house alone.
Frank's out for the night doing a late night shift.
And the girls, you know, they're in their kitchen just kind of hanging out.
They're pretty anxious here. And they start to hear tapping sounds coming from the basement.
Now, by this point, the tapping sounds were so common that just hearing the tapping sounds was not like this horribly frightening thing.
It was just sort of this very unsettling thing where nobody knew what they were.
And again, the girls think it's something evil.
But on this night that the girls are alone, you know, dad's gone, Tina, the older of the two, she says to Karen, like, dad doesn't believe us.
He does not believe that there's tapping sounds in the house.
And so we, right now, need to go down in the basement and investigate.
Because if we don't, no one's ever going to look into this.
Like, nobody believes us. And Karen is horrified at the idea, you know, Karen's the nine-year-old, of going down into the basement, you know, to go see what this tapping is, but she doesn't want to be away from her sister, and so she's like, okay.
And so Tina gets a knife from the kitchen, she goes to the door to the basement, Karen follows right behind her, and Tina, she opens up the door, and the two girls begin going down the steps.
And once they get to the bottom of the steps and they're in the basement, it's just this kind of blank slate down there.
There's a washing machine and a dryer, there's some boxes, but it's just sort of a dank, sort of open, nothing cellar down there.
And the girls, when they got down there, they're looking for the origin of this tapping sound.
And on some level, they expected to find something that was making these sounds because they've been hearing these sounds.
For them, it's not a delusion. Like, every time they hear these sounds, they are real to them.
Just because their dad doesn't hear it does not mean it's not real to them.
And if you look at the beginning, when they first started hearing the sounds, they thought it was their mom.
And they never really fully investigated.
They maybe didn't want to find out that, you know, perhaps the tapping sound was a washing machine or something, because that would destroy the illusion that it was their mom.
So they never fully investigated then. And then the next few days after that, when it sort of transitioned and became a scary thing, the girls also never really investigated because it was scary now.
They didn't want to know what was making this tapping sound.
And so now here we are a week into this and they've gone down into the basement where they've heard the tapping sounds and they're like prepared to see something that is making this sound because it's real for them.
Like maybe it's a raccoon or some animal that's gotten into their house.
There has to be something because they hear these sounds.
But now they're looking around this basement and there's nothing.
There's nothing that could possibly be making this sound.
And the girls are horrified. And so after being down there only for a couple of minutes, you know, Tina, who's got the kitchen knife, she's like, Karen, let's get out of here.
Like, this isn't right. Let's get out of here.
And so the girls turn around and they begin going back up the steps.
And as they do, they notice something on the stairway wall that they didn't see on the way down.
Written in red on the wall are the words, I'm in your closet, come find me.
And when the girls see that, they are horrified.
They sprint up the stairs. They bolt out of their house.
They go to their neighbor's house, start banging on the neighbor's door.
The neighbor comes to the door and he's like, what's going on?
And the girls are like, oh my God, we had this seance.
We've been hearing tapping in the walls and now somebody's written on the walls.
We don't know what's going on. And the neighbor is so confused, really doesn't understand what's happening.
And he's like, look, girls, just come into my house.
You're safe here. We'll wait for your dad to come home.
He'll know what to do. And so the girls, they're hysterical, they go into the neighbor's house, they shut the door, and they wait, and then a little bit later, Frank Bowen, their dad, he comes home, the neighbor immediately flags him down and calls him over, and he's like, look, here's what happened, your girls came over, they said something about writing on the walls, I don't know.
And Frank's like, okay, all right. And he tells his girls like, look, stay here.
You know, you're safe here. I'll go check the house and make sure nobody's in there.
You know, Frank at this point in no way suspects that there's anything, you know, evil or bad in his house.
He thinks this is just a continuation of this delusion.
The girls are sort of acting out. And so Frank, alone, goes back to his house.
He opens up the door, he goes inside, he searches the house, and he looks everywhere, but there's nobody in the house.
He does find the writing in the stairwell going down to the basement.
You know, it does say, I'm in your closet, come find me, but it's written in ketchup.
And so after, again, searching the whole house and finding nothing other than this writing, Frank goes back over to the neighbor's house and he talks to his girls and he's not mad at them.
In some ways, he feels like all of this is basically his fault.
Like he should have handled this more aggressively at the beginning and he let it get to this point.
And so he tells his girls, like, look. I know that you wrote those words on the wall.
I know that all of this is sort of a delusion that's playing out that started with, you know, something good.
You thought it was mom, but now it's become something that isn't good.
It's disruptive. You've convinced yourself the house is haunted.
And I'm very worried that this is a product of grief.
Like grief is leading you to do these things and it needs to stop.
And so starting tomorrow, you're going to go into grief counseling.
We need professional help here to make sure you girls are taken care of.
I should have done this from the beginning, so we're going to make that happen right now.
Now, the girls knew they didn't write that on the wall.
They're not making the tapping sounds, but they also knew their dad 100% didn't believe them, like zero, and it was not going to change.
And on some level, like they think maybe there's truth to what he's saying.
Maybe they are so grief stricken that they've convinced themselves of things that are not real.
And so in this sort of vulnerable moment where the girls are totally upset about what they've seen and what they've heard, they just tell their dad like, fine, like whatever, we'll go to grief counseling.
And so sure enough, the next day, the girls would start grief counseling.
And right away, all the tapping in the house, all the writing on the walls, all that stuff stopped.
Like peace returned to the Bowen household, at least at first.
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach?
Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families.
With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.
Kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely.
And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place.
Try Greenlight risk-free today at greenlight.com slash wondery.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. I'm excited to tell you about something special.
For the first time, my show, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted, Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles.
This special episode is called A Redacted Medical Mystery.
In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.
To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or Redacted show pages right now.
Or search for A Redacted Medical Mystery in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on Medical Mysteries.
Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body.
And if government conspiracies are more your style, Redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light of day.
Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus.
Fast forward three weeks to December 8th, 1986.
So this is three weeks after the girls began their therapy.
And in those three weeks, the Bowen household is totally calm.
There's no more tapping, nothing, everything is fine.
But on December 8th, Frank, along with his two girls, Tina and Karen, and their friend, Kathleen, they had been out for the evening, maybe getting ice cream or going out to eat or whatever.
And they come back to the Bowen household.
And when they do, it's nighttime, so it's dark outside, and Frank, he goes up to the porch, he goes to the front door, and as he's about to open up the door, he looks through one of the windows of his house, and he sees there are several lights on in the house that he didn't remember leaving on before they left.
And so he just thinks, like, that's weird.
Like, I could have sworn I turned those lights off.
He's kind of looking back at the girls right behind him, sort of wondering if maybe they left the lights on, but he's like, no, that's weird.
So he unlocks the front door, he swings the door open, and immediately he sees this scene inside of his house that makes no sense.
The TV is on, a radio is on, and furniture in the first floor of the house where he's looking has clearly been moved.
Not dramatically, but things have been moved around on the first floor.
Like if you live somewhere, you know where things go.
Things are off. And Frank, like, he's seeing this, and he's sort of looking back at Tina and Karen.
He's like, did they do this? Are we back to this whole delusion?
You've got to remember that even though it's been three weeks now of peace in the Bowen household, Frank is all too aware of how insane it was right before then.
You know, with the girls, you know, writing on the wall, at least according to him, and thinking there was an evil spirit in their house.
And, you know, he's thinking, is this them?
Like, somehow, did they do this? This feels sort of like a continuation of that.
He's looking at the girls, but he's thinking to himself, like, they've been with me.
We've been out of the house. How could they do this?
But again, Frank is sort of caught. You know, on the one hand, he knows this could be his girls, but he's also thinking that's not possible.
And so in that mind state of sort of being caught between these two opposing ideas, Frank, instead of backing out of the house and calling the police like anybody else would do, he instead just begins like walking into the house, sort of nonchalant, like not really sure how to react.
And he begins this sort of half-cocked search through the house.
And the whole time, Tina, Karen, and Kathleen, they see what's going on.
And the two daughters, they're terrified.
I mean, they're all too aware of all the tapping and the writing on the walls.
They're thinking, this is real. It's happening again.
And so they're tucked up right behind Frank, who, again, Frank is, like, in shock.
He's just, like, wandering through the house.
Like, what's going on here? Turns the TV off.
He's walking around. Turns the radio off.
He's moving furniture back around. And he just, he can't believe it.
And so he does this weird, like, again, half-invested search through the first floor.
He doesn't find anybody there. He goes to the second floor, does the same search.
Again, all three girls, the two daughters and the friend, they're right behind Frank because they're so scared.
They do the search of the second floor. Nobody there.
They search the attic. Nobody there either.
They go down to the basement. Nobody in the basement.
Like, there's nobody in the house. And so Frank is like, what is going on here?
And then he remembers there's actually a room on the first floor of the house that he forgot to search.
It was just a front room of the house right off the front entrance.
You know, when he began the search, he just sort of overlooked it because he was sort of in a daze.
And so he's like, OK, I'll go back up there and I'll search that last room and then I'll know the whole house is secure.
Nobody's here. And so Frank goes back up the basement stairs to the first floor.
The girls are tucked up right behind him, still so scared.
And he makes his way towards this room, and this room overlooks the front of the property.
There are windows looking out to the road.
It's just you walk in, there's windows, there's the front of the house, and there's a little closet over to the left.
It's like a sitting room. And so Frank, he goes into this room and right away he sees on the wall right in front of him written in shaving cream are the words, marry me.
And so Frank, he walks over to the words and he's just, he's staring at them being like, what is this?
Like who wrote this? The girls again are right behind him, tucked up against the back of his legs and he's staring.
And as he's doing that, he hears movement in the closet in the room that he's in.
And 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 was wearing a dress, Frank's dead wife's dress.
This person had clown makeup on their face and they were wielding a hatchet. and they walk out of the closet and they look at Frank and they look at the girls who are so shocked.
They're just in silence, staring back at the sky.
And this person looks at Frank and goes, you and the girls go upstairs.
And so Frank immediately goes into protector mode, and he gets between the maniac and his girls, and he just tells the girls, like, go, go, go up the stairs, do what he says.
And the hatchet-wielding maniac just sort of walks along, following after Frank and the girls.
Again, Frank sort of staying between this person and the girls.
And so Frank shepherds the girls up the stairs, and he's like, go ahead, girls, first bedroom, go in the first bedroom.
So they go upstairs, all three girls go into the first bedroom, so Kathleen, Karen, Tina, and then Frank, he goes into the bedroom, and the maniac's right here in the hallway about to follow after Frank, and as soon as Frank gets in the door, Frank shuts the door and holds it shut, and there's suddenly this struggle between the maniac in the hallway and Frank.
The maniac's trying to get in, there's this vicious struggle, and Tina, who's already in this bedroom, just turns, runs, and leaps out the second floor window.
And so she smashes to the ground, she runs next door to that neighbor's house, she slams on the door, the neighbor comes out, and Tina's screaming about, there's someone in my house!
And so the neighbor at this point knows this is a real emergency, they call the police, and then minutes later, the police show up, and when they get there, they look up at the Bowen household, and Frank Bowen is leaning out of that second floor bedroom, and he's screaming to the police, hey, there's somebody in here, he was just at my door, he's gone, I don't know where he is!
And police, they get over, they put a ladder up to the window.
Frank comes down, they get the other two girls down.
So everybody is safely out of the house now.
They've been moved over to that neighbor's house.
And now the police are going to go into the Bowen household to find this dress-wearing, hatchet-wielding, clown-makeup-wearing maniac.
They're going to find him and put him into custody.
And so the police, they go into the Bowen household, you know, guns drawn, and they search that entire property top to bottom, and they find nothing.
Nobody's there. The house is completely vacant.
However, they would find a hatchet lying by the back sliding glass door, and the back sliding glass door was partially open.
And so ultimately, again, when nobody is found inside the house, the police decide, like, well, clearly this maniac, if there really was a maniac, is now gone.
Because look, the door's open, the hatchet's here, so they're gone.
And so the police, they go over and talk to Frank and his family and they're like, look, you know, we don't really know what to make of this.
We didn't actually see, you know, this person you claim to have seen in your house.
I'm sure there was somebody, but we didn't see them.
And so for now, what we're going to do is we're going to monitor your property 24 seven and just see what happens.
See if anybody comes in or out. We'll make sure nobody comes to this property and we'll also begin an investigation in town to try to figure out, you know, who this maniac was.
And in the meantime, you and your girls go stay with a family friend or something.
Just don't be here because we just, we don't know what's going on here.
And so Frank and his girls, they went and stayed with a family friend.
And the police began their surveillance of the Bowen household.
And for two days, nothing happened. Like, nobody went in or out of the Bowen household.
And despite police canvassing the town and trying to figure out, you know, who this maniac could have been, they really didn't get anywhere.
Because remember, Frank's description and the girls' description of this maniac was, you know, probably a man wearing a dress with clown makeup on.
And so effectively, this person had a disguise on.
Like, there was nothing to go on. So, they couldn't find anybody in town, there was no leads, and nobody has come to this house, and they're communicating with Frank Bowen the whole time.
Like, basically, nothing's coming of this case.
And so finally, 48 hours after, you know, confronting this maniac in the closet, you know, Frank and his girls, they've been at the family friend's house this whole time, and Frank's like, you know what, it'd be great to get my toiletries and a few other things from my house, because basically they evacuated their house and didn't get a chance to pack or anything.
And Frank's thinking, like, you know, nothing's going on at the house.
There's no leads in this case. It's, you know, it's got to be safe to go back to my house for a minute and get the things I need.
And so he tells his girls to stay with his family friend.
And Frank, by himself, goes over to his house and it's broad daylight.
And he's expecting to find a police officer, you know, who's monitoring his property.
And he can tell the officer, hey, I'm just going in real quick to get my stuff.
And they would, you know, let him go in and do that.
But when he got to his house, he looked around and he didn't see any police officer outside the property watching the property.
And he's thinking, like, that's pretty weird.
They told me they've been watching my property 24-7.
Like, where are they? But Frank's like, you know, that's weird, whatever.
So he gets out of his car and begins walking towards his front door.
But as he's walking, for a second out of the corner of his eye, he can swear he can see somebody moving in the second floor of his house.
But when he looked up, you know, nobody was there.
But he was certain somebody had been moving around up there.
And Frank's thinking to himself, like, wait a minute, are the police monitoring my house from the inside?
Is that what they're doing? They've been in my house?
I could have sworn they said they were out of my house.
And Frank's like, you know what, just in case, I need to call the police because I don't want to walk in there and startle an armed police officer who's basically looking for an intruder.
And so Frank, he goes to that neighbor's house and uses their phone and he calls the police and he's like, hey, are you in my house?
Is that what you guys have been doing? You've been monitoring my house from the inside?
And they're like, no, we have been watching it from the outside.
Very likely what's happened here is you've arrived at your house at the exact moment when there is turnover happening between the police officers who are watching it from the outside.
Meaning the officer who's been watching your house must have just left, and the incoming officer who will be taking over the next shift is probably on their way, or maybe they're there right now.
And in fact, what you should do, Frank, is hang up with us, go back to your property, and very likely the officer will be there or be there soon, and you can talk to them and have them search your house just in case to make sure nobody's in there.
And so Frank says, okay, he hangs up the phone, he goes outside, and sure enough, now there is clearly a police officer in a car outside of his property.
So Frank goes over and, you know, explains the situation to the officer, and the officer's like, you know, no one's going inside your property.
Literally, we have watched this property 24-7, you know, save for a couple of minutes here and there when we're doing turnover, but nobody's gone in or out of your property.
But either way, Frank, I'll search your house just to be sure.
And so Frank goes back over to the neighbor's house and this officer goes up to Frank's door, he opens it up, he looks inside and he can't believe what he's looking at.
In the first floor of Frank's house, it's just madness.
There are pennies glued to the ceiling of the first floor and the furniture clearly has been moved all over the place, but it's been stacked in these sort of weird arrangements.
And there are glasses of champagne all over the first floor.
And there are kitchen knives that have been driven into family photos on the wall.
Like the knives are still sticking into the photo, and where these knives have been driven through the photo is always on a picture of either Tina or Karen, the two daughters.
And where there are knives in these pictures, above those pictures is written, I'm going to kill you, Tina, or I'm going to kill you, Karen.
And so this officer obviously knows, you know, we have a problem here.
And so he backs out of the house. He calls for reinforcements.
And so all these officers go in, guns drawn, now convinced, you know, clearly somebody has found a way to come in and out of this house or they're still here and we have to find them.
Like, clearly, the Bowens were not lying about this horrible, you know, maniac that they encountered in the second floor of their house when police first showed up.
Clearly, that must have happened, because they didn't do this.
Somebody else did, and they gotta be here.
And so police, they tear the Bowen household apart, looking for this maniac.
They look everywhere, and they can't find anybody.
There's nobody in the house. And on top of that, it had snowed outside, and before they went in, they made sure they walked around the property to see if there were footsteps coming in or out of the property, and there wasn't.
Like, it's not possible what they're seeing.
But they've now torn the house up, looking for anything, and they found nothing.
Other than, again, the madness they've seen with the furniture, the writing, the knives.
That's all they've found. And so after hours and hours of this very frustrating search, a few of the officers found themselves in the basement and they're just standing there talking to each other like, this is crazy.
We must have missed something. Like, what is it?
And at some point, one of those officers who was having that conversation, he had his hand resting on the washing machine.
He's just sitting there like, yeah, what did we miss?
What did we miss? And suddenly, as he's leaning against the washing machine, the washing machine moved.
And so suddenly there's this gap that's been created by moving the washing machine.
And the officer looks at the wall where the machine had been sitting before.
And clearly there is a hole on the wall. and the officer gets out his flashlight and he looks in the wall and kind of scans down and he sees there's this tunnel that's been burrowed in the wall of the basement and it goes over to the corner and looking back at this officer is Danny LaPlante.
And 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.
I'm going to tell you about Danny LaPlante because this story takes a very dark turn.
So Danny LaPlante was 16 years old at the time he was pulled out of the wall.
And six months prior to being pulled out of the Bowen household's wall, Danny had had this very brief interaction with Tina Bowen, the 15 year old.
Apparently they went to school together or had some interaction in town, but Danny had sort of fallen in love or had some sort of romantic interest in Tina, and he felt like Tina had rejected him.
Now, Tina did not remember any of this with Danny.
This is entirely Danny's memory of what happened.
But either way, six months earlier, you know, when he had the sense of rejection from Tina, Danny responded to that by breaking into the Bowen household, cutting a hole in their walls, and burrowing tunnels in their walls.
And for six months, Danny LaPlante lived in the Bowen household in their walls.
Now, Danny was not able to access the entire house through the wall in the basement.
He could basically maneuver in the basement and partially into the first floor.
But in order to get to the other parts of the house, Danny had to leave the wall.
And so routinely over these six months that he was in their house, Danny would literally, while the family was home, just get out and wander through their house.
Like as the family is just living there and they never noticed him.
And so for six months, Danny spied on that family 24-7.
And when the girls had that seance with the Ouija board to try to contact their mother, Danny was downstairs in the basement in the walls watching.
And he saw an opportunity. He thought, I'm going to pretend to be their mother and screw with them.
And so when they heard that tapping sound, that was Danny pretending to be their mom.
He was absolutely trying to get them to believe their mother was here.
But then whenever Frank was around, Danny would stop the tapping and sort of let Frank believe the girls were making it up.
And then gradually, Danny sort of transitioned from it's your mom and it's good to actively trying to terrify the girls.
He began tapping at all hours of the night, he began sneaking out of the wall, going upstairs to the girls' bedroom, flicking the undersides of their beds, going in their closet, tapping in their closet, and then making sure to be hidden or escape before Frank came in.
I mean, this is absolutely psychotic behavior, but it gets worse.
So Danny is taken out of the walls and he's arrested, but then 10 months later, when he is awaiting trial, Danny is released on bail.
And while he is on bail, he would sneak into another family's house in Massachusetts, the Gustafsons' house, and unfortunately, that family would not escape Danny.
Danny would murder three members of that family for really no particular reason.
He just picked a family and killed them.
And so very likely if Tina had not leapt out of the second floor window when Danny revealed himself in that dress with the hatchet and got them to go up to that bedroom, if Tina hadn't leapt out and if Frank hadn't held off the door like that, almost certainly Danny was corralling that family into that room to kill them with the hatchet.
But Tina basically saved their lives. Danny LaPlante is still alive, and he's serving multiple consecutive life sentences, and he actually recently was put up for parole.
He didn't get it, he did not get parole, but during his hearing for his parole, when he was rejected, he was determined to be one of the most psychopathic inmates in the entire prison system.
A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts.
There's this one, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, as well as Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, Redacted, Late Nights with Nexpo, and A Twist of History.
All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts.
To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin.
So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support.
Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show, Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode.
A Redacted Medical Mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.
Listen now on the Medical Mysteries or Redacted feeds, or search A Redacted Medical Mystery wherever you get your podcasts.
