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Katie Pladl’s initial reunion with her biological parents began as a joyous occasion.
However, the situation soon took a dark turn when her father, Steven Pladl, developed romantic feelings for his teenage daughter, leading to her becoming pregnant and their secret marriage—a situation that ultimately led to their arrest.
As Katie attempted to escape the relationship, authorities report that Steven killed their infant child. He then allegedly pursued Katie and her adoptive father, fatally shooting them before ending his own life.
This heartbreaking tale is at the center of the Lifetime movie Husband, Father, Killer: The Alyssa Pladl Story, which is now streaming on Netflix.
Here are the key details surrounding this shocking relationship and the deadly events that ensued:
Who Was Katie Pladl?
According to those who knew her, Katie—then known by her adoptive name Katie Fusco—was an happy, average American teenager growing up with her adoptive parents Tony Fusco and Kelly Fusco.
“They had a very, very normal life,” her uncle Cary Gould told The Associated Press. “My nickname for Katie was Pac-Man. She was always eating. She loved animals. She was a vegetarian.”
But while in high school, Katie—who had also been a talented artist—began to wonder about her biological roots.
When Did Katie Pladl Reconnect with Her Birth Parents?
Her birth parents Steven Pladl and Alyssa Pladl had placed her up for adoption when she was 8 months old. Alyssa told The AP that she had just been 15 when the relationship with a then 20-year-old Steven began.
They later welcomed a daughter they named Denise, but their age, lack of money and Alyssa’s suspicions that Steven may have been physically abusing his daughter, caused them to place the child up for adoption.
“It was so hard to give her up,” Alyssa remembered, “but I had to because I wanted her to live and be happy.”
The baby was adopted by the Fuscos, who changed her name to Katie and raised her in upstate New York.
After turning 18, Katie reached out to Steven and Alyssa, who were happy to reconnect. Katie held off on attending college to move in with her the Pladls in August of 2016.
Steven Pladl Begins Sexual Relationship With Daughter Katie Pladl
Not long after, Alyssa—who was having marital problems with her husband—noticed Steven taking more care of his appearance and sleeping on the floor of Katie’s bedroom, she told the AP.
She moved out, then learned in May 2017 after reading her 11-year-old daughter’s journal that Katie and Steven had begun a romantic relationship and Katie was pregnant.
“I started to become hysterical, and I called him,” Alyssa told the AP. “I said, ‘Is Katie pregnant with your baby?’ He just said, ‘I thought you knew. We’re in love.’”
Horrified, Alyssa went to the police.
Steven and Katie illegally wed in a ceremony attended by her adoptive parents, who felt there was nothing they could do to stop the union.
The couple welcomed son Bennett Kieron Pladl on Sept. 1, 2017.
Then, in January 2018, they were arrested and charged with incest in Virginia’s Henrico County, according to a statement from the Knightdale Police. Steven’s mother was granted custody of their child as the legal case played out.
Meanwhile, Katie decided to end the relationship and moved back in with her adoptive parents, WVIT reported.
Steven Pladl Begins Alleged Murder Spree
On April 11, 2018, police said Steven asked his mother to take the baby to his house, saying that he planned to Skype with Katie. Later that night, he spoke to his mother again and said he was taking the baby to see Katie in New York.
Hours later—on the morning of April 12—Steven called his mother to tell her that he had killed Katie and her adoptive father, police said.
“When asked about the baby, Steven told his mother he had killed the child and left him at the residence in Knightdale,” police said in the statement. “Pladl’s statement immediately prompted calls to 911 by his mother.”
Police arrived at the couple’s home and found the baby dead in the house.
The bodies of Katie and Tony Fusco were found in their car at the intersection of Route 55 and Route 7 in New Milford, Connecticut.
As a man told a 911 dispatcher, per WVIT, ”Somebody just went by and shot this guy in the truck.”
Knightdale Police Chief Lawrence Capps told the station that Steven had gone to New Milford “for the specific purpose of making some confrontations.”
Steven Pladl Found Dead in New York After Allegedly Killing Katie Pladl
Steven was found dead several miles away in Dover, New York in his vehicle from what police determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Yesterday’s events were sad and devastating,” Capps said in the 2018 statement from police. “We may never understand the mindset or motives of Steven Pladl, but we do know his actions have shattered the lives of countless people.”
Meanwhile, Alyssa was still struggling to come to grips with her former husband’s alleged actions.
“I’m grieving. I’m sad. I’m upset,” she told the AP. “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.”