Several members of a family in upstate New York were laid to rest this weekend after a family reunion led to incest, childbirth and then murder.
The tragedy centers around a woman named Katie Fusco, who sought out her biological father only to marry him a while later. The two even had a child together before she and the baby were killed, along with Fusco’s adoptive father.
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Neighbors of Katie’s adoptive parents told the Associated Press, “We’re all still in shock. It’s crazy. I don’t know what else to say. It’s horrible.”
The harrowing story of this family tragedy has been captivating headlines across the country, prompting a closer look at the lines between familial and romantic love, and the warning signs of prolonged abuse. Here’s a look at Katie’s journey to find her roots.
Birth Parents
Steven Pladl reportedly met a woman named Alyssa on the internet in 1995. At the time, Pladl was 20 and Alyssa was 15-years-old. It wasn’t long before she became pregnant.
The young couple named their daughter Denise. Alyssa Pladl spoke to the Associated Press last week. She said that they had put their daughter up for adoption at 8-months-old. She explained that the couple was young and poor, and couldn’t care for Denise.
However, Pladl expressed her suspicion that her husband had physically abused Denise as a baby. She didn’t offer any details on this hunch.
“It was so hard to give her up,” Alyssa said, “but I had to because I wanted her to live and be happy.”
Adoptive Parents
Denise was adopted by Tony and Kelly Fusco. They renamed her Katie, and raised her in their home in Dover, New York along with their own biological daughter.
“They had a very, very normal life,” recounted Kelly Fusco’s brother, Cary Gould. “My nickname for Katie was Pac-Man. She was always eating. She loved animals. She was a vegetarian.”
Katie also loved art. She gained a reputation around Dover High School for her comic strips, and she hoped to go off to college and get a job in digital advertising.
“A pen and something to draw on became a safe place for me,” she once wrote on her blog. “Ink became my weapon against rules and regulations. … To be short; for me, a life without art is no life at all.”
Graduation
In January of 2016, Katie turned 18. Rather than going straight to college, she decided to try and reconnect with her birth parents. She contacted the Pladls in Henrico County, Virgina, and moved in with them that August.
Tony and Kelly Fusco were reportedly nervous about the arrangement. Gould told reporters that they grudgingly decided Katie was old enough to make her own decisions. They supported her through her move.
Reunion
The Pladls were not a happy family when Katie arrived, according to AP. Steven and Alyssa Pladl had reportedly decided to separate, and they were already sleeping in separate rooms when their estranged daughter arrived.
“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,” Alyssa Pladl said, adding that Steven had verbally and emotionally abused her for years.
She even confided in Katie that she believed Steven had abused her as a baby, saying that she had put her up for adoption for her own protection. Alyssa told the outlet that Katie didn’t seem concerned by this news.
Unlikely Love
Alyssa told reporters that Steven Pladl’s demeanor shifted once he met his daughter. He began dressing differentlyย — in skinny jeans and form-fitting shirts. He grew his hair out and shaved his beard. She said that six weeks after Katie moved in, Steven slept on the floor of her room.
Alyssa was concerned by this. After he did it again a second night, she confronted him. However, she says that Steven told her it was none of her business. He and Katie reportedly stormed out of the house.
Alyssa finally moved out of the house in November of 2016.
Pladl Sisters
Alyssa and Steven had two younger daughters, of whom they shared custody, and she said it was from them that she learned for sure of Steve and Katie’s relationship.
In May of 2017, Alyssa said she read one of her 11-year-old daughter’s journal entries, where she described Steven and Katie’s incestuous relationship. She said that it also mentioned Katie’s pregnancy, and said that Steven had told his daughters to refer to Katie as their stepmother.
“I started to become hysterical, and I called him,” she said. “I said, ‘Is Katie pregnant with your baby?’ He just said, ‘I thought you knew. We’re in love.’”
“I started screaming,” she went on. “I was just cursing him out: ‘How could you? You’re sick. She’s a child.’”
Incest Charges
Alyssa Pladl called the police on Steven and their daughter, but it was too late. Steven Pladl and Katie Fusco were married in Parkton, Maryland on July 20, 2017. Records show that they lied on their application, stating that they weren’t biologically related, according to the Associated Press.
It was just two months after Alyssa and Steven Pladl’s divorce was finalized.
Tony and Kelly Fusco even attended the wedding. They posed for a photo with Steven and Katie, who wore a short black dress. Gould told the outlet that the adoptive parents believed there was nothing they could do, so they decided to support Katie rather than alienate her.
Baby Bennett
Katie gave birth on Sep. 1, 2017 to a son named Bennett. She moved with Steven to Knightdale, North Carolina, where they had a house in a cul-de-sac. They lived just east of Raleigh, and settled in with hopes of raising their growing family without anyone knowing about their relation. However, Alyssa’s call was finally getting somewhere.
Steven Pladl and Katie were arrested in January on charges of incest, according to the Associated Press. They were ordered not to contact each other by a judge, and Pladl’s mother — Katie’s grandmother — was given custody of Bennett.
Steven Pladl’s lawyer, Rick Friedman II, stressed that there was never any allegation about his client pressuring Katie into their relationship.
“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,” Friedman said. “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.”
Katie moved back in with the Fuscos, though she travelled to Waterbury, Connecticut, to see her grandmother and her son twice a week, according to Gould.
Murder
It was on one of those trips Katie, along with Tony Fusco and Bennett, were allegedly killed. On Thursday, April 12, Fusco and Katie began the drive from their home in Dover to Waterbury. Surveillance footage reportedly shows Steven Pladl watching from a nearby minivan.
Gunfire was reported in New Milford, Connecticut not long after. Katie and Tony Fusco were both killed. Steven Pladl’s mother then reportedly called 911, saying that her son had just called her and told her that he had killed Katie, Fusco and the baby.
“I can’t even believe this is happening,” she said, according to a transcript of her emergency call. She also told police that Pladl was upset because Katie had contacted him to end their relationship.
Pladl was found dead in Dover, suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bennett was later found dead in the home Steven and Katie had shared. Katie was 20 years old, while Fusco was 56.
Alyssa Plaadl told reporters that she’s still struggling to process the horrifying experience.
“I’m grieving. I’m sad. I’m upset,” she said. “But I also want to have something good come out of this. If it’s to get truth out there, to open people’s eyes to incest.”
