In April 2018 Steven Pladl suffocated and killed his seven-month-old son Bennet – who was also his grandson. The next day he shot and killed his estranged wife Katie – who was also his daughter - and her adoptive father Anthony. He then took his own life. A serial predator who took whatever and whoever he wanted Pladl’s murders spanned three states and ruined numerous lives.
This episode is not for the faint of heart, for it scrutinizes how Pladl's manipulation and abuse persisted under the noses of those who should have intervened. We probe the silence of adoptive parents, the lapses in authority response, and the chilling reality that this story could have had a different ending. The conversation is raw, the details are unsettling, but the importance of shedding light on such darkness is undeniable.
This is the story of Bennett Pladl and Katie and Anthony Fusco.
In April 2018 Steven Pladl suffocated and killed his seven-month-old son Bennet – who was also his grandson. The next day he shot and killed his estranged wife Katie – who was also his daughter - and her adoptive father Anthony. He then took his own life. A serial predator who took whatever and whoever he wanted Pladl’s murders spanned three states and ruined numerous lives.
This episode is not for the faint of heart, for it scrutinizes how Pladl's manipulation and abuse persisted under the noses of those who should have intervened. We probe the silence of adoptive parents, the lapses in authority response, and the chilling reality that this story could have had a different ending. The conversation is raw, the details are unsettling, but the importance of shedding light on such darkness is undeniable.
This is the story of Bennett Pladl and Katie and Anthony Fusco.
Hi there and welcome to Keller and the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Before we delve into this week's episode, I wanted to flag that I'm giving shout outs to anyone who gives the podcast a five star review. Reviews really help others find the podcast, so I would be immensely grateful for them all. Please do get reviewing an Apple podcast, and thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far. Also, I wanted to say I'm feeling a bit ill today, so huge apologies for the croaky voice. Hopefully I'll be back to normal next week.
Speaker 1:
So today's episode is going to be a tough lesson. I know. I know I do say this at the start of every episode, but today is probably the toughest of all the episodes so far, as you know. You know we talk a lot about awful men on this podcast violent, abusive, controlling and callous men. Elmer Crawford really pushed the boundary for me with his horrific method of killing his whole family through electrocution. There was Ryan Baxter, who set his whole family on fire in a car and I thought probably naively that those would be the worst that we would talk about. Sadly, today we're talking about family and a man who's so much worse than that, as well as murder and suicide. In this episode we will also be talking about child sexual abuse and incest, so there's some really distressing topics in there, and there's information about support available in the episode notes, as usual.
Speaker 1:
In April 2018, stephen Pladale suffocated and killed his seven-month-old son, bennett, who was also his grandson. The next day, he shot and killed his estranged wife, katie, who was also his daughter and her adoptive father, anthony. He then took his own life. A serial predator who took whatever and whoever he wanted. Pladale's murders spanned three states and ruined numerous lives.
Speaker 1:
This is the story of Bennett Pladale and Katie and Anthony Fusco. Our story begins in the mid 90s and 1995 when 20 year old Steven Pladale started grooming a 15 year old girl, alissa. On the internet and on the criminology podcast episode for this story they talk about how the internet in the 90s was a bit of a wild west, as it was so new and generally people and authorities hadn't really realised how much it could be used for grooming, sexual exploitation and all the other horrific harms we know it was used for today. So you know there was quite a lot of things that weren't really monitored, or you know you didn't have to register for things and you know, discussion forums and chat rooms were a bit of a free-for-all. So, as I said, pladale met Alissa in a chat room and charmed and groomed and seduced her with his messages and love letters. Now, at this time, alissa lived in San Antonio, texas, and Pladale lived in New York, which was about 1800 miles away, and after months of messages and letters, pladale visited Alissa in Texas, much of the disapproval of her parents, and they began a relationship. Now, alissa became pregnant when she was 16 years old and she had baby girl Denise. When she was 17 years old, denise was born to Alissa and Pladale, who lived together in Henrico, virginia.
Speaker 1:
At this point. It wasn't the happy family that she craved, though. Pladale abused Denise as a baby. He would bruise her and shout at her and sometimes even put her in a cool box when she was crying. Alissa, and although she was young, she knew that this was wrong and she knew that she had to keep her baby safe. And when Denise was 8 months old, alissa put her up for adoption. So Denise was adopted by a couple called Kelly and Anthony Fusco, who changed her name to Katie and brought her up with another child in their home in Dover in New York.
Speaker 1:
Katie Fusco grew up to be artistic and before she met Pladale and Alissa was excited to go to university to study digital advertising. Kelly's brother said, quote they had a very, very normal life. My nickname for Katie was Pacman. She was always eating. She loved animals. She was a vegetarian. In a blog post that Katie made, she talked about her love for drawing and art. Quote pen and something to draw on became a safe place for me. Ink became my weapon against walls and regulations. To be short, for me, a life without art was no life at all. So obviously a really creative, artistic young woman who was just again so excited to start the next stage in her life. Having, you know, those ambitions to go to university. It must have felt really exciting for her.
Speaker 1:
I'm back to Alissa and Stephen Pladale, and they went on to marry and have two more children who they kept in their family. By 2016, though, alissa wanted to leave their marriage, probably unsurprisingly. Pladale was an abusive husband and Alissa talked about the emotional and verbal abuse she suffered at her hands. She told the Daily Mail dot com, quote I was always on eggshells, whatever his mood was. Everybody knew, and that mood was often not happy. Not happy A lot of yelling, a lot of things smashed in the house in front of our kids. Alissa was on the verge of divorce and they were already sleeping in separate dreams.
Speaker 1:
Now, going back to Katie at a similar time, say she's 18, she's ready to start the next stage of her life, and because Katie was adopted and this often happens with adoptive children when they turn 18, they want to find out about their biological parents. So this is what Katie wanted and it's totally natural and normal for kids who have been adopted. Some of you might know that I worked for a charity in the UK called Cores, which supports women who've had children removed from their care, and we did a lot of work in that charity on ensuring that women were able to maintain relationships with their children where it was safe to do so. So we worked on improving something called letterbox contact, where children and parents wrote to each other when the child had been adopted. There are loads and loads of improvements needed, but I think the bottom line to it is that adopted children will always want to know about where they came from, about their identity and their family, and a more open process of adoption, more sort of open discussions about where they came from and who their adoptive parents are and who their biological parents are. We usually create a much healthier approach to contact and relationships between children and their birth parents than sort of keeping things a secret and lying to children.
Speaker 1:
So, as I'm sure you can imagine, many children now and parents, as Katie did, look for their biological parents on social media. Now, this has obviously its own pitfalls because it is completely unregulated and building relationships between parents and adopted children after they haven't been in contact or had a relationship for so long is a really delicate process and actually does require some support, I think, for everyone concerned. When people are meeting on social media, again, it's a complete free-for-all, so things can go wrong there. And Katie did actually find Stephen and Alyssa on Facebook and they began talking through Facebook Messenger. Now she was really clear that she wanted to meet them and she met them in North Carolina and she just wanted Katie just wanted to find out where she came from, about her parents. Like you know, that sort of real identity, that natural instinct to find out about herself. Now, little did anyone know that meeting her biological parents would eventually lead to murder.
Speaker 1:
So when we left this story, katie was wanting to meet her parents. She'd got into contact with them over Facebook, as so many adopted children do, and they began talking. Alyssa and Plada was keen to meet Katie as she was there. She had initially contacted them in August 2015 and soon travelled to meet them. Now, after some of those initial meetings, she decided that she wanted to move in with Alyssa and Plada, presumably to get to know them better and feel part of the family that she lost when she was younger. So in June 2016, katie moved up to Henrico to live with Alyssa and Plada. Now her adoptive parents, kelly and Anthony, were pretty nervous about this decision, but you know, katie was 18 years old and they really wanted to support her in her choices and the decision she was making.
Speaker 1:
Now, as we talked about earlier at this point, alyssa and Plada's marriage wasn't in the best places. Alyssa was being abused and wanted to leave the marriage. Also, as she was working full-time and Plada was unemployed, as he had been for eight years, I'm sure she was a bit wary about leaving Plada and Katie alone all day, every day, particularly because of her experience of when Katie was a baby and Plada had abused her. Now Alyssa told DailyMailcom that when Katie moved in Plada's behaviour changed a lot. She talked about how he began wearing skinny jeans and like slim-fitting shirts. He let his hair grow long. He was obviously making some attempt to look younger, especially so at this point he was in his 40s, and Alyssa did actually tell Katie privately that the reason why she had to leave their family and why she was adopted was that Plada had abused her as a baby and, according to Alyssa, katie didn't appear too concerned about that. Now, one day, alyssa noticed that Plada had slept on the floor of Katie's bedroom and confronted him about it. He denied anything untoward and their marriage continued to deteriorate. Alyssa moved out of the house, taking her two younger children with her in November 2016, and in March 2017, alyssa's divorce from Plada was finalised. Now, at this point, katie decided to stay in the home with Plada and, unbeknownst to Alyssa, plada had successfully groomed Katie into a sexual relationship and Katie was pregnant.
Speaker 1:
Now, according to a CBS news article, alyssa found out about Pledale and Katie from her 11-year-old child's diary. Her child had written about how she was confused because Katie was supposed to be her step mum. She she'd been told to call her step mum, but her dad, pledale, was calling her baby, his baby, and she was questioning whether she would call the new baby her sister or not. And I can't I just can't imagine how confusing this would be for this young child and, you know, for Pledale to put his children through. That just seems really horrific. Now, when she found out about Katie's pregnancy, alyssa said quote I started to become hysterical and I called him. I said is Katie pregnant with your baby? He said I thought you knew we're in love. I started screaming. I was just cursing him out. How could you? You're sick, she's a child. And Alyssa called the police.
Speaker 1:
After being confronted with Alyssa and with his divorce finalised, pledale probably felt like the pressure was on him to be able to keep control of Katie. So in July 2017, katie and Pledale got married in Maryland. They wrongfully declared that they weren't related in their marriage documents. Now there's a photo of the wedding ceremony which I'll put on my socials. Out there and in attendance was Pledale's mother, grace, and Katie's adoptive parents. From the photos you can see that Katie's adoptive parents were perhaps forcing smiles, but I mean, what were they thinking? They later said that they wanted to support Katie again in her choices and decisions and that they didn't want to have like an estranged relationship with her. I would argue that she wasn't making informed choices here. Stephen had groomed her, a vulnerable 18 year old, who was also his daughter, and now he was committing incest, so how her adoptive parents could stand by and watch is absolutely beyond me. Instead, they could have called the police, like Alyssa, and put Pledale in prison, where he belonged. Bennett Keir and Pledale was born in September 2017, and I'm sure that Stephen Pledale thought he was getting everything he wanted.
Speaker 1:
I have read this story so many times and I still can't quite believe how it got to this point. Somehow Pledale was allowed to groom, seduce, impregnate and marry his own daughter, who was only 18 years old when he was in his 40s. His own daughter who he had a history of physically, emotionally and verbally abusing. His own daughter, who should have been protected by her adoptive parents. He'd been reported to the police for incest. How was he allowed to continue on with his life, marry Katie and for her to have his son or grandson, as he was? It turns out that not only was Pladale a predator targeting vulnerable young women and girls, he was also obsessed with guns. Alyssa told DailyMailcom that he had a stash of guns in his home and that she had actually taken out protection orders after she left him to safeguard her and her two children.
Speaker 1:
By 2018, pladale and Katie had moved to North Carolina and in January of that year he was finally arrested for incest. When facing these charges, pladale's lawyer, rick Friedman, said I hate this. By the way, quote this case is an 18 year old girl who shows up on the doorstep of a 40 year old man who's going through difficult times with his wife. They have a bond because they're biologically related. They never knew each other before, so they had a sexual relationship. He was head over heels in love with her, so much that outweighed the issue of them being biologically related. This makes me so angry or I hate that and the justification and the lack of accountability for his behavior. But because they arrested for incest, pladale and Katie were told not to contact each other and in February 2018, she moved back in with Kelly and Anthony, her adoptive parents. Pladale was released on bail and was told that he couldn't go to his house and couldn't contact Katie. Their four month old son was placed with Pladale's mother, grace.
Speaker 1:
Now this is another unbelievable part of this case one of many. Court didn't put any restrictions on contact with Bennett? None at all. A man who previously abused a child, who had had sex with his own child and who was a controlling, abusive predator, with protection orders against him from his ex-wife and other children. No restrictions on contact with his child at all.
Speaker 1:
Now, obviously, authorities defended this decision and there's a quote in a news article from Shannon Taylor, who was the attorney for Henry Coe County, that said no one could have predicted his actions and apparently they didn't find any risk factors or red flags. Now, you know how often we've heard in these cases that no one could have predicted this man's actions and you know they didn't see the risk or the red flags Right. Well, I'm going to give you some red flags for this man. Number one Pladale groomed a 15 year old girl when he was 20,. Red flag Number two Pladale physically, emotionally and verbally abused his young baby daughter and her having to be removed from his care. Red flag Number three Pladale started a relationship with his daughter when she was 18 years old. Red flag Number four Pladale being an abusive and controlling husband to his first wife, alyssa. Red flag Number five Pladale's ex-wife having protection orders taken out against him to keep herself and her children safe red flag, when that's five red flags that I've just come up with off the top of my head, probably without all the information that I'm sure the court had. So, come on, they could have done so much better here.
Speaker 1:
Apparently, the decision to leave Bennett with Pladale's mother, grace, was taken by the Department of Health and Human Services the equivalent of social services in the UK, I think and according to the criminology podcast, the department did conduct interviews with both Katie and Pladale and then allowed them to leave Bennett to be with Grace. Now I do talk a lot in this podcast about the role of police and how often they have failed families in not holding perpetrators to account for previous domestic abuse or assaults. I haven't talked a lot about other professionals who also have a role in families lives, and social services are one of them. Now, if I worked in children's services and interviewed a couple who were illegally married because they were father and daughter and had a son together, I would be doing everything I could to not only keep them apart, also keep him away from that son, especially as Katie was an adopted child and therefore came with additional trauma from childhood that might mean that she needed extra protection. Where were the risk assessments for this man and protection for Katie and her son? I truly do believe that their murder was preventable and could have been prevented by both police and social services doing different risk assessments and investigating further. Why wasn't Pladale kept in prison when he was charged with incest? Why was he allowed to see his son when he was out on bail? Why was he free?
Speaker 1:
So, in 2018, katie Fusco I refuse to call her Pladale, as that marriage was a sham is back, living with her adoptive parents, kelly and Anthony, and Dover. She travels with Anthony every Tuesday and Thursday to see her adoptive grandmother in Connecticut. Pladale was living miles away in North Carolina, with no contact allowed with Katie, but able to see his son and grandson, bennett. And Bennett, their young son, is living with Pladale's mother in North Carolina. Child's life had already been ruined by this abusive predator and more lives were about to be taken. So this is what happened. This is going to be a really tough lesson.
Speaker 1:
By April 2018, katie had told Plodale that their relationship was over and she didn't want anything else to do with him. Plodale felt like he was losing control and, without control over Katie, he thought he had nothing left. On Thursday, the 12th of April 2018, plodale went to his mother's house and took his seven month old son, bennett, saying he was taking him for a visit with Katie. And, just as a side, this is another sign that Bennett shouldn't have been left with Grace, because she clearly couldn't have stopped Plodale, even if she wanted to. Plodale then took Bennett back to his house the house that actually he wasn't allowed to be in and he suffocated him. He suffocated a defenseless seven month old baby and then disgraced Bennett's memory by hiding him in a cupboard. Plodale then drove the 600 mile journey to where he knew Katie would be visiting her grandmother in Connecticut. He watched Katie and her adoptive father, anthony, from a minivan and actually opened fire on them with an assault rifle. He killed them both instantly Before turning the gun on himself. He called his mother and told her what he'd done. She called 911 and told them quote he left the baby dead. He told me to call the police and that I shouldn't go over there. His wife broke up with him yesterday over the phone. She's in New York and he told me he was on his way after bringing the baby to her and then he was coming back. I can't believe this is happening. He then went to Plodale's house and found a lifeless body of Bennett in a cupboard.
Speaker 1:
So I'll be honest, this has been a really hard one to research and write. It's been a tough one because of the additional issues of child abuse and incest we discussed. Also because I genuinely think that there was no need for it to happen. It could have been prevented so many times over. And there's so much to unpick from this awful, horrific story.
Speaker 1:
And it's interesting because when discussing this story, in some of the news articles and podcasts and things like that, there are some out there that talk about a phenomenon of genetic attraction, where parents and children are attracted to each other, usually after being separated by adoption because of their biological connection. But I wonder where the talk of this phenomenon is, just excusing predatory and horrific behaviour from people who should be responsible adults taking advantage of vulnerable children and young people. Now I'm sure you can guess that I think Stephen Plodale is a serial predator who grooms and seduces children and vulnerable women, no matter who they are. He wants control and takes anything that he wants. It isn't a coincidence that he killed Bennett, katie and Anthony when Katie took back her control and wanted to separate from him. His need for control meant that three lives were taken and three families were broken, left without a daughter, father and just many, many questions. Just think of Alissa and Plodale's other two children who must be so confused and upset and Alissa has actually spoken out about her experiences as well to try and highlight the impact of incest and that she thinks that Plodale could have been stopped as well.
Speaker 1:
I also think this case raises issues around adoption. As someone who has worked in this sector, I know the trauma that the removal of a child from a family causes. Even when a baby is removed from their mother at birth, they still experience trauma and it still impacts on their brain development. Now, katie went through child abuse in her early months of life and that would have caused her immense trauma and even at 18 years old she would have been vulnerable and needed extra protection. When the relationships between birth families and adopted children aren't managed openly and healthily and with boundaries and safeguarding, it does make sense that someone might try and contact people on social media, but with this type of contact there is no safeguarding for the child and it's really concerning and I'm not about to apportion blame or judgement to Katie's adoptive parents, as I know that they were trying to respect her decisions and support her in her choices. I do really feel like an extra caution could have been granted here, especially when she wanted to move in with Alissa and Plodale, not to mention the role of social services. As I said, I genuinely think that they could have added some extra protection for Katie as well, as she was a adopted child. I also highlighted in the episode all the red flags that I saw for Plodale without too much thought. I really believe that more understanding of control could have saved the lives of Bennett, katie and Anthony. Like Albert Plodale, a serial perpetrator with 20 years of grieving and abuse in his life in prison, where he belonged Mostly, I just feel really sad that three people had to pay for his actions with their lives. This episode is dedicated to Katie Fusco, her adoptive father, anthony Fusco, and her baby son, bennett, to the memories of who they were and who they could have been.
Speaker 1:
This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, claire Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tom Box and Pixabay. I'll be back next week with another episode, so please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget that I'll be giving shout outs to any 5 star reviews. So please do leave me a review on Apple Podcasts and follow me on social media at Killer in the Family pod. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care.