And he's in the house.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, you said that he told you
he killed his baby?
- [Woman] (crying) Oh my goodness.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, ma'am, listen to me, what's your name?
- [Narrator] When an adopted daughter decided to reconnect
with her biological parents, she had no idea
that it would be the worst decision of her life.
Although she may have been looking
for a rekindled relationship with her family,
that relationship would take a disturbing turn
for the worse.
What is up, EWU Crew?
Today we will be following the destructive series of events
that turned a man into a cold-blooded killer.
They say blood is thicker than water,
but when it comes to this case, it will be proven
that father doesn't always know best.
Let's get into it.
As a young man in his early 20s,
Steven Pladl groomed an underage girl
from San Antonio he had met over the internet.
He decided to make the trek from his home in New York
all the way down to Texas to meet the young girl.
The year was 1995, and the girl was 15-year-old Alyssa.
The pair's parents didn't stand in the way of their union,
even though Alyssa was still a child at the time.
The two continued their relationship,
and Alyssa soon became pregnant
just two years after meeting Steven.
On a January day in 1998, the young 17-year-old Alyssa
went into labor, and together with her
soon-to-be-husband Steven welcomed a little girl
into the world.
Alyssa allegedly witnessed Steven physically abusing
their infant daughter, who they named Denise.
According to Alyssa, he would pinch Denise so hard
that he would leave bruises
all over the defenseless baby's body.
If that wasn't enough, she claimed that Steven
would even trap the baby in a cooler
and diabolically wait until almost all the oxygen
had run out before releasing her.
But these were sadly only just a few of the alleged abuses
his daughter would experience at her father's hands.
Fed up, Alyssa stepped in and did one
of the hardest things a mother could arguably do.
She decided to give her baby up for adoption
so that her eight month old could live and be happy.
Steven and Alyssa's daughter Denise was adopted
by Anthony and Kelly Fusco, who were described
as very kind and open-hearted people.
They renamed the baby Katie, and she was sent to live
with them in their happy home in Dover, New York.
There, Katie would grow up to become an artistic young lady,
on her way to college.
All the while her birth parents, Steven and Alyssa Pladl,
remained together and had another daughter
nearly 10 years after giving up Katie for adoption.
Alyssa felt that they were older now and more mature
and therefore more capable of raising children.
They had a total of two children, both daughters.
While the couple raised their two girls,
tension between the pair increased.
Alyssa said her ill-tempered husband's behavior continued
throughout their marriage saying,
"He would destroy things in the home when he was upset,
punching holes in the walls."
Making matters worse was the claim
that Steven could not hold a steady job
for nearly eight years, leaving the burden of providing
for him and their two children on Alyssa's shoulders.
Steven's unpredictability caused great concern for his wife.
Alyssa would later describe Steven's true character
by saying, "I was always on eggshells.
Whatever his mood was, everybody knew.
And that mood was often not happy.
A lot of yelling, a lot of things smashed in the house,
in front of our kids."
Joy returned to Stephen and Alyssa
when they received a notification
on their social media accounts.
It was from their firstborn, Katie,
who was now 18 years old.
She had turned to the internet
to help her track down her biological parents,
and was successful in locating them.
After trading messages, Katie changed her plans
of studying art in college.
Instead, she moved down to Henrico, Virginia
to live with her newly-found biological parents
and younger sisters.
Katie's adoptive parents were wary of the arrangement,
but decided that she was old enough
to make her own decisions.
Familial bonds were formed, but Katie's arrival
would only push Steven and Alyssa's marriage further apart.
Steven's behavior changed
whenever he was around his daughter Katie.
Alyssa even pointed out that Steven attempted
to make himself look younger by shaving his beard
and changing up his wardrobe.
Noticing the growing kinship between Katie and Steven,
Alyssa felt the need to disclose to Katie the abuse
she had suffered at the hands of her father
when she was an infant.
But the news didn't faze Katie.
Instead, the father and daughter grew even closer.
Things between Steven and Katie took an awkward turn
when the 40 year old started sleeping
on the floor of Katie's bedroom.
Growing concerned by the situation, Alyssa asked Steven
why he felt the need to sleep in her room.
He became confrontational and stormed out of the house.
Steven's affection for his daughter
had transcended normalcy.
They had fallen in love.
In November of 2016, still on unaware
of her husband's and daughter's intimate relationship,
Alyssa moved out and filed for a divorce from Steven.
They split the custody of their two younger daughters,
and Katie stayed in the home with Steven.
Now with nothing in their way,
Steven and Katie continued their incestuous relationship.
It wouldn't be until the following May
when Alyssa would finally realize the extent
of the affection between her now ex-husband
and their oldest daughter.
It was a bombshell journal entry
that detailed the unnatural relationship.
The entry was written by Steven
and Alyssa's 11-year-old daughter.
The young girl wrote, "Katie is pregnant.
Dad says they feel like couples.
Did they get a little too drunk that night?
My dad is a (muted)."
Adding, "He's Satan, he's (muted) Satan.
He'll go to hell, but he won't be the one getting tortured.
He'll be the one torturing people."
In the journal, the young girl drew pictures of
both her dad and sister, portraying them as demons.
The entry concluded with, "Wait one second.
If he's Satan and Katie is a human,
then the baby will be half demon."
Horrified about learning of the twisted love affair
and the pregnancy, Alyssa later recounted,
"I lost it, I started screaming.
I felt like I was going to throw up."
She then said that she immediately called
and confronted her deranged ex about it.
He responded, "I thought you knew, we're in love."
Alyssa replied, "How could you?
You're sick, she's a child."
Alyssa tried to save her daughter once again
by calling the police to report the now known incest.
Although police interviewed the two younger daughters,
neither Steven nor Katie were placed under arrest
and they continued living together under the same roof.
On the warm summer day of July 20th,
Steven and Katie decided to take their relationship
to the next level.
They traveled to Maryland to get married.
Father and daughter marriages are not legal
in the State of Maryland, so the couple lied
about being related on their marriage application,
and as a result, were able to legally tie the knot.
As if the wedding wasn't already disturbing enough,
in attendance were Steven's mother, Grace,
alongside Katie's adoptive parents, Anthony and Kelly Fusco.
They can be seen in many disturbing photos smiling
and appearing to enjoy the wedding
alongside Steven and a very pregnant Katie.
Apparently, Anthony and Kelly Fusco only attended
because they felt that all they could do
at that point was support their adopted daughter
in her decision once again.
A few short months later, on September 1, 2017,
Katie gave birth to a baby boy, whom they named Bennett.
However, the happiness of their new marriage
and young son didn't last long.
Steven and Katie were arrested four months later in January
and extradited back to Virginia.
Police administered DNA tests on Steven, Katie,
and their son Bennett to confirm their familial genetics.
The two were officially charged with incest,
adultery, and contributing to delinquency.
In court, Steven Pladl's attorney tried
to justify the unlawful marriage by explaining,
"This case is an 18-year-old girl who shows up
at the doorstep of a 40-year-old man
who's going through difficult times with his wife.
They have a bond because they're biologically related,
but they never knew each other
before they had a sexual relationship.
He was head over heels in love with her,
so much so that that outweighed the issue
of them being biologically related."
Steven was able to post bail and was released first.
The judge ordered him not to leave the State
of Virginia and to not have any contact with Katie.
However, the court did not deny Steven access
to his son, Bennett, who was placed in the care
of Steven's own mother, Grace.
To leave the boy with Steven's mother, who was 72,
was described by Alyssa as a "shocking failure."
She continued, "Steven shouldn't ever have been allowed
back to North Carolina where he had access to his house,
his weapons, the baby.
I can understand they like to put children
in the hands of relatives, but not Grace.
She wouldn't have been able to stop him seeing the baby
even if she wanted to."
Katie was later released on bail
and was also ordered not to have any contact with Steven.
She decided to move back in
with her adoptive parents in New York.
However, Katie broke the no contact order and called Steven
and told him that she wanted to end their relationship.
Heartbroken, Steven did not take the news well.
All he had left in the world was Katie and the baby.
Things then took a devastating turn.
On April 11, 2018, Steven went to his mother's house
to pick up his infant son Bennett,
telling her that he was going to take the baby
up to New York to see Katie.
His mother didn't try to stop him.
She couldn't have imagined that handing over the little boy
would be a death sentence for the helpless child.
Steven took the boy to his home in Knightdale,
North Carolina, where he strangled him
and left his tiny, lifeless body shuttered away in a closet.
This was only the beginning of Steven's murderous rampage.
He left the house and proceeded to drive 600 miles
through the night up to New York,
where he had planned to confront Katie.
In the early hours the following morning,
Steven arrived at the home of Anthony and Kelly Fusco.
He sat and patiently stalked the family
from inside his blue minivan.
He was familiar with the Fusco's family routine,
and he knew they would eventually leave
to visit Katie's adoptive grandmother in Connecticut.
As expected, Katie and Anthony emerged from their house
and pulled out of the driveway in their Toyota pickup truck.
Steven followed closely behind in his minivan.
Steven couldn't hold back his rage any longer,
and when the Fusco's truck came to a stop,
he pulled up beside them and began firing upon them.
With every shot fired, he unloaded his fury
onto Katie and Anthony Fusco,
killing them both in cold blood.
An off-duty firefighter was there to witness the massacre
and was the one to make the 911 call
to first report the double killings.
The firefighter described the horrific scene to dispatchers.
- [Dispatcher] 911, what's the location of your emergency?
- [Caller] Hello, this is a Connecticut.
It's on Route 7 and Route 55.
Someone just went by and shot this guy in a truck.
- [Dispatcher] Somebody just shot somebody in a truck?
On Route 55, sir?
- [Caller] Yes, the beginning of Route 55 and Lewis Avenue.
Just happened.
I'm a fireman out in New York.
The car pulled up, went around him, shot him.
A whole clip full into his head.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, sir, are you still with him?
- [Caller] We're here at the road.
- [Dispatcher] Right at the intersection?
- [Caller] Yes, sir, right at the intersection.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, sir.
- [Caller] He's deceased.
The truck's in the middle of the road.
- [Dispatcher] He's dead?
- [Caller] Yes, sir, his brains are on the road.
- [Dispatch] And he was shot.
Did you see the person who shot him?
- [Caller] Yeah, we pulled up, there's a whole, yes.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, which way did the vehicle go?
- [Caller] Headed toward New Milford, down Route 7.
- [Dispatcher] Down Route 7.
Can you describe the vehicle to me?
- [Caller] It's a blue minivan with,
I believe, a South Carolina plate.
- [Dispatcher] Blue minivan, South Carolina plate?
- [Caller] Yes, sir.
A light blue minivan.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, sir, just stay on the line with me.
- [Narrator] 911 dispatchers soon received
another phone call.
This time it was Steven's mother, Grace.
In the call Grace described what Steven had just confessed
to her, telling dispatchers about the dead baby boy
and how Steven had killed Katie and her dad.
- [Grace] He killed his wife, he killed her father.
And I can't even believe this is happening.
- [Dispatcher] Okay.
- [Grace] He left the baby dead when he left.
- [Narrator] Steven's mother cried out to the dispatcher.
Five miles from the scene of Katie
and Anthony Fusco's slaying, police found Steven's vehicle,
but Steven was in no condition to be arrested.
He had shot himself, and his motionless body sat slouched
in the driver's seat of the running vehicle.
Steven's ex-wife Alyssa eventually looked back
on the events and said, "It's been a difficult
roller coaster of emotions, because I'm so devastated
by the loss of Katie and her adoptive dad and baby.
But it's such a relief that I don't have to look
over my shoulder anymore to see if Steve is there."