The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Incest case ends in slayings, suicide by N.C. man
NEW MILFORD — A North Carolina man who fathered a child with his biological daughter shot and killed her and her adoptive father in the Gaylordsville section of New Milford early Thursday, then took his own life in nearby Dover, N.Y., as police closed in.
Meanwhile, authorities visiting the man’s home outside Raleigh found the body of the child, who was also dead.
New Milford police said they found the bodies of a man and a woman, both dead of gunshot wounds, in a black pickup truck near the intersection of routes 7 and 55.
The driver’s-side window had been smashed in, and the bodies were still strapped in their seat belts.
The suspect was found shortly afterward in Dover, about 16 miles away, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Police did not identify the suspect or his victims. But police in Knightdale, N.C., identified him as Steven Walter Pladl, 45, the slain woman as his biological daughter, Katie Rose Pladl, 20, and the slain man as her adoptive father, Anthony Fusco, 56.
Authorities in Cary, N.C., released the tape of a 9-1-1 call Pladl’s mother placed Thursday morning. Her son had called her a few minutes earlier, she said, saying he had killed his child, his wife and his wife’s father.
Pladl’s mother also said he had called the night before to report that he and his wife had broken up, and that he was heading to New York with their child.
Knightdale police said the body of 7-month-old Bennett Pladl was found in a home belonging to his father, but did not say how the boy died.
According to Raleigh-area news reports, Steven and Katie Pladl had been charged with incest in February. They had told authorities they planned to marry.
News reports also said Katie Pladl was adopted at an early age by a family in Dutchess County, N.Y., and graduated from Dover High School. When she turned 18, she found her birth parents through social media.
She went south to meet them, the reports said, and eventually became involved in a relationship with her father, who divorced her mother to join her.
New Milford police have not provided details of the shootings in Gaylordsville, but witnesses said the shooter might have used a semiautomatic weapon.
Police from the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police and New Milford police converged on the vehicle, which was parked with the engine running on the shoulder next to the Ten Mile River. The suspect apparently took his own life as police approached.