A man, Steven Pladl, 43, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car in New York on Thursday morning.
He is the main suspect in a rather troubling story: Pladl has been accused of killing his daughter whom he had a child with, the child itself and the girl’s adopted father.
The twisted story began after the daughter, Katie, 20, reached out to her parents via email.
Katie had been given up for adoption in 1998, but then sought her parents at age 18. She found her father who at the time was married with two children already.
She then moved into the house and started living with Pladl.
Soon, however, it became clear that something fishy was going on after Alyssa, Steven’s wife at the time, discovered her 11-year-old daughter’s diary in which the little girl revealed that her father was going to have a baby with her stepsister.
Alyssa subsequently moved out of the house with her two children and later contacted the police to report the activities of Steven and Katie
Steven had earlier confessed to Alyssa over the phone and said he and Katie planned to marry.
According to WTVR, Steven’s mother called police on Wednesday night fearing for his welfare because Katie had said their relationship was over.
In a 911 call she said: “His wife broke up with him yesterday over the phone.
“She’s in New York and he told me he was on his way to her and then he was coming back.
“He left the baby dead.
“He told me to call police and that I shouldn’t go over there.”
Police Chief Lawrence Capps of North Carolina addressed a press conference about this disturbing case.
“We are heart broken, saddened over the death of this child,” Chief Capps said.
“And like you, we’re trying to make sense of all the factors that lead up to this senseless taking of life.”
Katie had reached out to her parents via email with links to a website which proved that Steven was her father. After she started living there, things became weird and later Alyssa moved out.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, she revealed what her daughter had written in the diary she found;
“Katie is pregnant. Dad says they feel like couples. Did they get a little too drunk that night? My dad is a slut.
“He’s Satan. He’s f***ing SATAN.
“He’ll go to hell but he won’t be the one getting tortured, he’ll be the one torturing people.”
“Wait one second if he’s Satan and Katie is a human then the baby will be half demon.”
She went on to express her utter horror at the revelation; “I lost it. I started screaming. I felt like I was going to throw up,”
When confronted by Alyssa, Steven admitted he was in a relationship with Katie and said her adoptive family had been unhappy at first but had since “come to accept it”.
She reported the incident to the police who then tracked down the two and charged them with incest.
Their baby boy Bennett was found with them.
The baby was the first to be killed, then Katie Pladl and her adoptive father Anthony Fusco were found dead having been shot in their driveway in Connecticut before Steven finally turned the gun on himself and fired.