Suspect in three deaths kills himself in Dover
Deaths may be linked to infant’s slaying in North Carolina
A man suspected of killing two people in Connecticut and an infant in North Carolina dies by his own hand.
The suspect in a double homicide in Connecticut was found dead Thursday in a minivan parked and running on an Eastern Dutchess County roadside, state police said.
Authorities are reportedly also investigating whether the suspect had earlier killed an infant in North Carolina.
Authorities had not identified the victims as of Thursday afternoon, but a North Carolina television station reported that the man who died in Dutchess County was Steven Pladl, 43. CBS 17 in Raleigh also reported that the people slain in Connecticut were Katie Pladl, 20, Pladl’s biological daughter, and her adoptive father. Reports said Steven Pladl and Katie Pladli were arrested in February on charges of incest and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Their child, 7-month-old Bennett Pladl, was found dead in a Knightdale, N.C., home Thursday morning, according to the television station.
At about 8:40 a.m. Thursday, after the double homicide in Connecticut, New Milford police put area law enforcement agencies on the lookout for the suspect’s vehicle, which was described as a light blue minivan with North Carolina license plates, according to a New York State Police press release.
Reached midday Thursday, a dispatcher at the New Milford, Conn., police station would say only that police were investigating “an active crime scene” on U.S. Route 55 in Gaylordsville, about nine miles east of Dover.
The News-Times of Danbury, Connecticut, reported that a man and a woman were found slain Thursday morning in a pickup truck. The couple’s truck, its driver’s-side window smashed in, was found parked at the intersection of routes 55 and 7, according to the News-Times website. The News-Times also reported that a man who lived near the intersection said he was feeding his horses around 8:40 a.m. when he heard six to eight shots from what sounded like a semi-automatic weapon.
The victims’ names have not been released, according to the News-Times.
The News-Times also reported that police are investigating whether the suspect killed the infant in North Carolina before traveling to Connecticut.
Katie Rose Pladl, according to the news reports, was adopted at an early age by a family in Dutchess County. She graduated from Dover High School before finding her birth parents through social media.
Those news reports also said she moved to Knightsdale, where she eventually became involved in a relationship with her father. The couple were planning to marry, according to the reports.
The suspect’s vehicle was first spotted on Dog Tail Corners Road, east of Berkshire Road, by a Dutchess County probation officer, state police said.
Dutchess County sheriff’s deputies, state police, New Milford police and Connecticut state police converged on the minivan, which was parked on the shoulder of the road next to the Ten Mile River and found the suspect dead in the vehicle, the press release said.
State police did not identify the dead man, who they said died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, or the homicide victims.
They did say “there does not appear to be any remaining threat to the community.”