Steven Pladl: Who Killed Katie and their Son

The case began in 1995, when a 20-year-old man named Steven Walter Pladl met online and met a 15-year-old girl named Alyssa before Steven convinced Alyssa to leave her life in Texas to move to New York with him.

It wasn’t long before Alyssa was 16 years old and found herself pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, whom she named Denise. Alyssa tried her best to create the best life possible for her daughter, but Steven made that absolutely impossible. He was incredibly abusive towards both Denise and Alyssa. He would pinch Denise until her skin was just purple. It got to the point where Alyssa knew she needed to remove her daughter from the situation. She put up Denise for adoption after eight months. Denise ended up being adopted by Tony and Kelly Fusco. They renamed Denise Katie Fusco, and by all accounts, they gave her a great life. Katie knew she was adopted growing up but was always curious as to who her biological parents were.

When Katie turned 18, she set out to find her biological parents on social media. They were actually really happy to hear from her, and they welcomed her with open arms. She decided instead of going to college, she would move to Henrico County, Virginia, to live with Alyssa and Steven.

By the time Katie joined her biological parents in their home, they had two younger sisters, aged 11 and 6 years old. They were incredibly happy to have Katie move in with them, but things between Alyssa and Steven weren’t great. Steven and Alyssa had started sleeping in separate rooms, and shortly after that, Steven and Alyssa decided to separate from each other.

But either way, when Katie was living with them, Alyssa found a moment to kind of pull Katie aside and explain to her why she was put up for adoption. Alyssa told her that Steven had abused her as a baby, and she was worried for her safety, so Alyssa thought putting her up for adoption was what best for her and knew that living with a different family would have given her the best possible life.

But to Alyssa’s surprise, Katie didn’t really have much of a reaction at all. She wasn’t really concerned with any of this, and she wasn’t afraid of Steven at all. In fact, the two got along very well. However, around two months after Katie moved in with them, Steven’s behavior started to change. All of a sudden, he was a man in his 40s, wearing skinny jeans and skin-tight t-shirts. This is when the case gets very disturbing.

Around six months after moving out of the home with Steven, Alyssa learned of the very disturbing relationship that Katie and Steven had formed.

One night, Alyssa was reading her 11-year-old daughter’s journal, and she happened upon a page where she wrote that Steven had told her to stop calling Katie her sister and to start calling her step-mom. She had also drawn a picture of a girl who was supposedly Katie with a big pregnant belly. Alyssa was absolutely frantic and hysterical after reading this, so she called Steven immediately and asked him if Katie was pregnant with his child. To which Steven said Yes.

Steven was totally casual about the entire thing and said that the two were in love and that he thought she knew about it. Katie and Steven had started their sexual relationship as soon as Alyssa had moved out, and the two had plans to get married as soon as Steven and Alyssa had divorced.

She started cursing at Steven and saying that he was sick, that she’s just your child, also she called the police immediately.

Police arrived and interviewed Steven, Alyssa, and the two girls, but at the time, no arrests were made. Also around this time, Alyssa and Steven had finalized their divorce, so Katie and Steven had packed up and moved to Knightdale, North Carolina.

By July of 2017, Steven and Katie applied for their marriage license, and they lied on the application, not mentioning the small minor fact that they were related and that they were father and daughter.

By July 20th, of 2017, Steven and Alyssa got married in Parkton, Maryland, in a small lakeside wedding. Katie gave birth to their baby boy, whom they named Bennett. They lived in a home cul-de-sac in a suburban area, and things seemed to be going great.

By January of 2018, police showed up at their front door and arrested both of them for incest, adultery, and contributing to delinquency of a minor. After appearing in front of the judge, the two were released on bail. But then, after the two were released, Katie went home to live with her adoptive parents in New York. They were ordered to have absolutely no contact with each other, and little Bennett was handed over to Steven’s mother. At this point, Steven was starting to show his unstable and aggressive side more and more, and Katie started to want out of the relationship.

In April 2018, Katie got in contact with Steven despite their no-contact order; she wanted to talk to him and break it off with him for good, and this is what set off the catalyst of the tragic events that would happen next.

On April 11th, Steven went to his mother’s to pick up Bennett and brought him back to his own house, as later found in a frantic 911 call placed by Steven’s mother once he brought seven-month-old Bennett home; he took his life most likely by suffocating him.

April 12th, he left his home, drove around 500 miles north to Wingdale, New York, where Katie lived. He got a minivan and went to the local liquor store, where he sat and waited and watched Katie and Tony leave their home. At this point, Katie and her dad were on their way to Katie’s cleaning job at her adoptive grandmother’s house. As Katie and Tony drove away from their home, Steven followed them from Wingdale to New Milford until they got to a stop sign at the intersection of Route 7 and 55.

Just minutes later, witnesses called police reported seeing someone open fire on two people. Steven Pladl had pulled up next to their truck and fired several rounds from his rifle into the passenger side of the truck. Both Katie and Tony had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to their upper torso and heads. After he shot the two around 8:45 AM, he called his mother and reported that he had killed Katie, Tony, and their seven-month-old baby Bennett.

After receiving this call, Steven’s mother called 911. When police arrived, both Katie and Tony were dead, and their truck was absolutely covered in bullet holes. When police went to Steven’s home, they found baby Bennett’s body in Steven’s closet.

The police then started their manhunt to find Steven, but this didn’t last long as they found him pretty quickly. At 9:15 AM that same day, police in Dover found Steven’s minivan. He was inside in the driver’s seat, slumped over, and he too was dead. He had shot himself in the side of that car.