Go inside seven chilling cases of phrogging, from Pamela Anderson’s stalker to the murderous Denver Spider Man.
For many people, the idea that a stranger could be living in your home without your knowledge is one of the most terrifying scenarios.
Unfortunately, for some individuals, this nightmarish situation has been a reality. They have become the victims of phrogging, or the act of a person secretly living in an occupied space without the residents’ permission.
While the word “phrogging” has technically only existed since 2014, the practice is likely as old as homes themselves.
The seven stories below demonstrate how truly horrifying the act of phrogging can be and prompt the unsettling question: Do you really know who is lurking in the nooks and crannies of your home?
The Stomach-Churning Case Of Daniel LaPlante
Barry Chin/Boston Globe StaffDaniel LaPlante, the Massachusetts teen who hid in his crush’s walls and then went on to commit brutal murders.
Tina Bowen was convinced that the spirit of her deceased mother was speaking to her through the walls of her home in Pepperell, Massachusetts.
For weeks, the teenager received cryptic messages scribbled onto the walls in condiments like ketchup. Items mysteriously rearranged themselves around the house. Full bottles of alcohol suddenly became empty.
Then, on December 8, 1986, Bowen and her father returned home to find a bone-chilling sight: a stranger in one of their closets with a painted face, a Native American-style jacket, a ninja mask, and a hatchet in hand.
He forced the Bowens into a bedroom before running off into another part of the home. Tina used the opportunity to escape and call the police.
Authorities arrived and found that the stranger was a teenager named Daniel LaPlante, whom Tina had briefly dated, and he had been living in the family’s crawl space for several weeks, taunting them all the while.
Unfortunately, this creepy story doesn’t end here.
LaPlante would later go on to brutally murder a young teacher and her two children while he was out on bail for the Bowen family incident.
Steve Bezanson, Tom LaneA police sketch of Daniel LaPlante’s hiding place while he was phrogging in the Bowen home.
At first, LaPlante only planned to burglarize the home of the Gustafson family in November and December 1987, but he was caught off guard on December 1st when Priscilla Gustafson and her children came home early.
LaPlante later said that he had considered jumping out the window and escaping, but instead he opted to confront Priscilla, aiming a gun at her and leading her and her five-year-old son William to a bedroom. There, he forced William into a closet and tied Priscilla to a bed, gagging her with a sock.
He raped Priscilla, then shot her twice in the head. Afterward, he took William into the bathroom and drowned him, and when seven-year-old Abigail Gustafson returned home just as LaPlante was leaving, he led the young girl to another bathroom and drowned her too.
LaPlante was quickly linked to the crime scene and subsequently arrested just two days later. During his trial in October 1988, a jury found him guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to three life sentences.
A Honolulu Horror: Phrogging Gone Sinister
Lifetime James and Brittany Campbell, a newlywed couple living in Honolulu at the time of the phrogging incident at their home.
When Brittany and James Campbell returned to their home in Honolulu along with their two young sons on September 20, 2019, a bike sitting outside immediately clued them in that something wasn’t right.
James, 36 years old at the time and a member of the U.S. Navy, went to open the front door of the home — only to find that a stranger was on the other side, forcefully pulling the door closed.
As local station KHON2 reported, James managed to get the man — 23-year-old Ezequiel Zayas — out of the house by yelling at him. The police soon arrived at the property, but after Zayas was arrested, the Campbells realized the true extent of the damage he had caused.
“Everything was torn apart… things were put out on display and kind of organized but chaotic at the same time,” James said. The Campbells also discovered disturbing messages from their unwanted houseguest.
KHON2Ezequiel Zayas, the man caught phrogging in the Campbell home.
On the family’s computers and counters, the Campbells uncovered a series of terrifying notes from Zayas. The notes mentioned bizarre surgeries and a desire to turn the family from “omnivores” to “ezequiels.”
“It was strange and he wrote about wanting to perform surgeries on us and transform us and stuff like that,” said Brittany.
Chillingly, when the couple checked their bedroom, they found knives scattered about. They even discovered diary entries written by Zayas about them, as if he had been watching them for a while before covertly moving in.
“He violated — he violated our family, he violated our home,” Brittany said.
Zayas would eventually plead guilty to first-degree burglary in 2023, part of a plea deal that involved pleading guilty to a number of other crimes, the most serious of which was killing a fellow inmate in the facility that he was being held while awaiting the burglary trial. Because Zayas agreed to the plea deal, the maximum amount of time he’ll spend in prison is 20 years.