Case File: Steven Pladl

Long before the crimes that would later bring national attention to the Pladl family, Steven Pladl and Alyssa Bailey met online. Alyssa was 15 years old at the time, while Steven was 20. According to Alyssa’s later accounts, Steven pursued her despite the age difference and soon became a controlling presence in her life.

The couple eventually married and began building a life together. Alyssa later described the marriage as abusive and unstable, alleging that Steven was manipulative, volatile and controlling. In 1998, the couple had their first child, a daughter named Denise. Alyssa later said she made the painful decision to place the infant for adoption because she believed it would give the child a safer and more stable life, but she and Steven went on to have additional children after they gave up their firstborn.

Denise was adopted by Dover Plains, N.Y., couple Tony and Kelly Fusco, who renamed her Katie. For nearly two decades, the Pladls and the Fuscos lived separate lives. Katie grew up knowing she had been adopted and eventually became interested in finding her biological family.

In 2016, shortly after turning 18, Katie contacted Steven and Alyssa through social media. The reunion initially appeared positive. Katie traveled to meet her biological parents and siblings, and the family quickly developed a close relationship.

By August 2016, Katie had moved into the Pladl family home outside Richmond, Va., abandoning her plans to attend college. What began as a long-awaited reunion gradually became more complicated. As Katie spent more time with Steven, Alyssa became increasingly uneasy about the closeness between them. Within months, the Pladls’ marriage had deteriorated, and Alyssa moved out of the home.

In May 2017, Alyssa discovered the extent of the relationship between Steven and Katie after reading one of her younger children’s journals. The entry indicated that Steven and Katie were sexually involved, that Katie was pregnant and that Steven’s daughters were ordered to refer to Katie as their stepmother, even though she was actually their sister. When Alyssa confronted Steven, he confirmed that Katie was carrying his child.

The revelation shattered the family. Steven and Katie were biological father and daughter, but they continued the relationship and began presenting themselves as a couple. Relatives on both sides struggled with how to respond. Tony and Kelly Fusco remained deeply troubled by the relationship but feared that cutting ties with Katie would only further isolate her.

In July 2017, Steven and Katie married in Parkton, Md. Investigators later determined that they had falsely stated on their marriage license application that they were not related, concealing the fact that they were biological father and daughter. Despite their concerns, the Fuscos attended the wedding in an effort to maintain a relationship with Katie.

That September, Katie gave birth to a son, Bennett. Steven and Katie later moved to Knightdale, N.C, where they lived together as husband and wife. By then, law enforcement had been alerted to the relationship by Alyssa, who had called them after learning the truth.

In November 2017, authorities issued arrest warrants for Steven and Katie. In January 2018, they were arrested at their North Carolina home and charged with incest with an adult, adultery and two counts of contributing to delinquency of a minor. Bennett was with them at the time of the arrests.

As part of their release conditions, Steven and Katie were ordered not to have contact with one another. Bennett was placed in the custody of Steven’s mother while the criminal case proceeded. Katie moved back in with the Fuscos at their home in Dover Plains, N.Y.

Over the following months, Steven and Katie remained separated as the incest case moved forward. Katie eventually ended the relationship. According to a 911 call later released by police, Steven’s mother told authorities that Steven said Katie broke up with him over the phone.

After that breakup, Steven seemingly snapped. On April 11, 2018, Steven killed Bennett, who was 7 months old. Police later found the infant dead inside the North Carolina home Steven and Katie shared. In her 911 call, his mother said that Steven admitted to killing Bennet after the breakup. “He left the baby dead,” she told dispatchers. "He told me to call the police and I shouldn’t go over there."

The next day, Katie and Tony Fusco left their home in Dover Plains and headed toward Waterbury, Conn., where Katie regularly visited her adoptive grandmother. Surveillance footage later showed Steven waiting nearby in a minivan before following them. Minutes later, witnesses reported gunfire in New Milford, C.T. Katie and Tony were found fatally shot inside their vehicle.

Steven later called his mother and admitted to killing Bennett, Katie and Tony. He was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Dover.

Because Steven died on the day Katie and Tony were killed, investigators quickly identified him as the person responsible. Authorities in Connecticut, New York and North Carolina worked to reconstruct the timeline of the killings and the final movements of Steven, Katie, Tony and Bennett.

The investigation showed that the murders followed months of escalating legal and family conflict. Steven and Katie had been charged with incest and related offenses, ordered not to contact each other and separated from Bennett while the case was pending. Katie had returned to her adoptive family, and Steven remained in North Carolina.

Investigators also reviewed the no-contact order, Bennett’s custody arrangement and the events leading up to Katie’s decision to end the relationship. Steven’s death meant there would be no trial, no testimony from him and no full legal accounting of how the relationship developed after Katie reunited with her biological family.

The murders devastated both the Pladl and Fusco families. Katie was 20 years old, Bennett was 7 months old and Tony Fusco was 56. Because Steven died by suicide, the pending incest case never went to trial and no murder prosecution followed.

In the years after the killings, Alyssa spoke publicly about her marriage to Steven, her decision to place Katie for adoption and the devastating consequences of the reunion nearly two decades later. She described Steven as abusive and controlling and said the tragedy forced her to revisit decisions and warning signs.

The case continued to receive attention because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the relationship, the illegal marriage and the murders that followed. In 2024, Lifetime released Husband, Father, Killer: The Alyssa Pladl Story, a television film based on the case.

For those closest to the case, the tragedy was not only the violence of April 2018 but the two-year unraveling that preceded it. Katie’s search for her biological family began as an effort to understand where she came from. It ended in a case that permanently linked two families through grief, unanswered questions and the deaths of three loved ones.