Volume 4 · Chapter 5
The Incest Killer
Steven Pladl
Victims: Katie Fusco · Anthony “Tony” Fusco · Bennett Pladl
Case at a glance
- When
- 2016–2018 (killings in April 2018)
- Where
- Henrico County, Virginia; North Carolina; New Milford, Connecticut
- Perpetrator
- Steven Pladl
- Victims
- Katie Fusco, Anthony “Tony” Fusco, Bennett Pladl
- Outcome
- Killed his infant son, Katie Fusco and Tony Fusco, then himself; no trial took place
The case
In the late 1990s, Steven Pladl and his wife gave their infant daughter up for adoption. She grew up in New York as Katie Fusco, raised by Anthony “Tony” Fusco and his family.
In 2016, when Katie was eighteen, she reconnected with her biological parents and moved into their home in Henrico County, Virginia. Within months, Pladl began a sexual relationship with her. His marriage ended, and in 2017 he and Katie married in Maryland. They had a son, Bennett. When the relationship came to light, both were charged with incest.
By April 2018, Katie was living with her adoptive family in New York, and she told Pladl the relationship was over. Pladl’s response was catastrophic. He killed their seven-month-old son at his home in North Carolina, then drove to Connecticut. On a roadside near New Milford he shot and killed Katie and Tony Fusco, who were in a truck together. Soon afterward, Pladl took his own life. Three people and an infant were dead, and there was no one left to put on trial.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 4 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 4 on AmazonCase photographs
5 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“This is one of the hardest chapters I have written, and I thought carefully about whether to include it. In the end it is a story about control, and about a young woman trying to get out. Katie did get out. She deserved the chance to live the rest of her life.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
