Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Incest, Murder & Suicide: Steven & Katie Pladl

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Incest, Murder & Suicide: Steven & Katie Pladl · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: When an eighteen year old woman reached out to her
0:09
Speaker 1: biological parents, she was hoping for answers about her past,
0:13
Speaker 1: about who she was and where she came from, more
0:16
Speaker 1: particularly why she was put up for adoption as a baby.
0:21
Speaker 1: What she didn't expect was the beginning of a tragic
0:24
Speaker 1: chain of events. Within two years, Katy's complicated feelings about
0:29
Speaker 1: reuniting with her birth family would be manipulated. She was
0:33
Speaker 1: coerced into an illegal relationship with her biological father and
0:37
Speaker 1: gave birth to his child. Eventually, she tried to escape,
0:42
Speaker 1: but when her father realized he had lost all control,
0:45
Speaker 1: the control he so desperately craved, he turned to murder.
0:50
Speaker 1: This is the tragic and deeply disturbing story of Katie Palatal.
0:56
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wickeding germ.
1:00
Speaker 1: Him, a true crime podcasting.
1:03
Speaker 2: The following.
1:07
Speaker 1: Material for matial audience listener discretion.
1:12
Speaker 2: Is I don't know if I want to do this one.
1:33
Speaker 1: This is wow disturbing and heavy case, so we always
1:38
Speaker 1: have the warning at the beginning of the episode. You know,
1:41
Speaker 1: no warning. The following is a true crime podcast blah
1:43
Speaker 1: blah blah. Specific trigger warning on this case. It involves
1:47
Speaker 1: grooming underage, violence, manipulation, and incest. Wow.
1:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ben was doing his little intro and we've mentioned
1:56
Speaker 2: it before, the I'm Ben, I'm Nicole, lad it up is.
2:00
Speaker 2: We record that every time. So he was like doing
2:03
Speaker 2: this intro and then I had to fucking do that
2:06
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole thing. And I was horrified by what he
2:09
Speaker 2: just said because.
2:11
Speaker 1: I told you nothing about this case. Oh often, I'll
2:13
Speaker 1: give you an elevator pitch, you know, like it.
2:15
Speaker 2: He didn't warn me one bit.
2:17
Speaker 1: Nothing, nothing. So this story is actually it's a recommended
2:20
Speaker 1: case from over on Instagram. Shall be Trembling. I totally
2:24
Speaker 1: put you to your name, trembling, shall be Trembling recommended. This
2:28
Speaker 1: case shot us a message. I read the message yesterday
2:30
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, I'm deep diving into it
2:33
Speaker 1: right now. So okay, here we are.
2:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I guess we haven't really done a
2:37
Speaker 2: super gruesome one for some time. Not really heavy. I
2:43
Speaker 2: mean they're all really heavy, they are, but yeah, this
2:46
Speaker 2: one seems like it might be above and beyond heavy.
2:49
Speaker 1: It's disturbing, to say the least, let's put it that way.
2:53
Speaker 1: But what's not disturbing is all the incredible support we
2:57
Speaker 1: get over on Patreon because we have cool people who
2:59
Speaker 1: signed up all the time and they support us, like,
3:02
Speaker 1: for example, Brian Park, Syart, John Tiffany, Anna Sathberg, and
3:08
Speaker 1: Zach Custer.
3:10
Speaker 2: That's awesome, some cool people in this, no kidding, Thanks
3:12
Speaker 2: so much, jeh, thank you very much.
3:14
Speaker 1: We appreciate the support. It means a lot. They get
3:16
Speaker 1: a lot of behind the scenes looks, exclusive episodes for sure.
3:20
Speaker 1: We've got a big library built up at this point.
3:22
Speaker 1: And yeah, we've did a little giveaway recently.
3:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you want to see a picture of Ben
3:26
Speaker 2: sick as shit on the couch, you could go see that.
3:29
Speaker 1: You could, you definitely could.
3:31
Speaker 2: We had to do a little postpone of something and
3:33
Speaker 2: and he had done that to me prior to taking
3:35
Speaker 2: a photo of me sick to say, you know, we're
3:38
Speaker 2: a little delayed here, and so I got him back.
3:41
Speaker 1: Yeah it h yeah, I deserve that. Let's put it
3:45
Speaker 1: that way. I deserved it. But you want to get
3:48
Speaker 1: into this case.
3:48
Speaker 2: I do, do you do? Let's just let's rip the
3:52
Speaker 2: band aid off.
3:53
Speaker 1: Oh, rip the band aid off? Okay, fair enough, Well
3:56
Speaker 1: let's rip that proverbial band aid off. My my hats.
3:59
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Ben, he just put his hat, flipped his
4:01
Speaker 2: hat like it's business time.
4:03
Speaker 1: It's business time. I need to get ready because it's
4:06
Speaker 1: a roller coaster. But yeah, just to reiterate trigger warning
4:11
Speaker 1: on this, there's grooming underage, violence and manipulation, and of
4:14
Speaker 1: course incest as well. Okay, so here we go. Stephen
4:18
Speaker 1: Plattle didn't look like a monster, not at first glance anyways.
4:22
Speaker 1: He was born on April sixth, nineteen seventy five, in Levington,
4:25
Speaker 1: New York. He grew up in a quiet suburban town,
4:28
Speaker 1: no more for its strip malls and stories they're sorry,
4:31
Speaker 1: strip malls than stories like this. But by the time
4:34
Speaker 1: he was in school, Stephen he had already started to
4:37
Speaker 1: stand out, and not exactly in a good way. Classmates
4:41
Speaker 1: remembered him as being odd and withdrawn, the kind of
4:44
Speaker 1: kid who wore the same hockey jersey every single day
4:48
Speaker 1: to school, obviously not really getting it washed or anything
4:51
Speaker 1: like that, just the same clothes over and over.
4:54
Speaker 2: Well, I was like a hockey jersey though maybe it's
4:56
Speaker 2: his lucky jersey for sure. He can't wash that shit sometimes.
5:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're a hockey player, you understand that
5:04
Speaker 1: that equipment gets pretty raunchy sometimes. If it's his lucky jersey,
5:09
Speaker 1: you probably just don't want to be wearing it to
5:11
Speaker 1: school every single day. Maybe save it for special occasions. Now,
5:16
Speaker 1: he rarely talked to anyone unless it was online, and
5:18
Speaker 1: when he did, it was usually with a small, tight
5:21
Speaker 1: group of friends. Some thought he was just shy. Others
5:24
Speaker 1: thought it was, you know, something a little bit more
5:27
Speaker 1: off with them. Stephen was isolated from early on. He
5:30
Speaker 1: lived with his mother well into his adulthood, and there's
5:33
Speaker 1: little public record of you know, supportive or stable family
5:36
Speaker 1: structure really around him. Over time, that isolation it deepened,
5:41
Speaker 1: feeding into a controlling personality and a growing fascination with weapons.
5:45
Speaker 1: He collected firearms, and he developed a volatile temper to
5:49
Speaker 1: go along with it. Neighbors and friends were called sudden outbursts,
5:53
Speaker 1: you know that he destroyed furniture and undercurrent of rage
5:57
Speaker 1: really kind of flowed with him, something that never really
6:00
Speaker 1: went away. He didn't work regularly either. He couldn't hold
6:04
Speaker 1: a job for long, and behind closed doors, especially in
6:07
Speaker 1: his relationships, Stephen's pattern became clear control, instability, and manipulation.
6:16
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety five, at just twenty years old, Stephen
6:19
Speaker 1: found what would become his next target of that pattern,
6:23
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old girl named Alyssa Garcia who lived
6:27
Speaker 1: nearly two thousand miles away. In the mid nineteen nineties,
6:31
Speaker 1: Alissa Garcia was a teenager living in San Antonio, Texas,
6:35
Speaker 1: when she began communicating with Stephen Plattle, a man five
6:38
Speaker 1: years her senior from New York. They met through an
6:41
Speaker 1: online chat room, something that was relatively new and definitely
6:45
Speaker 1: unregulated at the time. What began is online conversations, you know,
6:50
Speaker 1: something casual, just fun, you know, nothing serious, it's just online.
6:54
Speaker 1: It quickly developed into something a lot more serious than that.
6:58
Speaker 1: Now Stephen was older, experienced, and at least to a teenager,
7:03
Speaker 1: seemed mature and intense. He gave Alyssa the kind of
7:06
Speaker 1: focused attention that can be extremely powerful for someone her age,
7:11
Speaker 1: especially if they were emotionally vulnerable or seeking validation. Over time,
7:16
Speaker 1: Stephen began building a sense of emotional dependence with Alyssa
7:20
Speaker 1: in this relationship. This is consistent with what experts recognize
7:24
Speaker 1: as grooming behavior, something that I'm pretty sure we're all
7:29
Speaker 1: aware of now. When it's of course, when an older
7:32
Speaker 1: individual establishes trust control over a younger, less emotionally developed person,
7:37
Speaker 1: often under the guise of bringing them into a romantic relationship,
7:43
Speaker 1: potentially of getting them ready for it when they reach
7:45
Speaker 1: a certain age. That's sort of geez.
7:48
Speaker 2: And just doing this all online, hey, from like a
7:50
Speaker 2: distance away.
7:51
Speaker 1: Correct. Now, Eventually Stephen did travel from New York to
7:56
Speaker 1: go to Texas to meet Alyssa in person. So there
7:59
Speaker 1: was one point where, you know, the whole online portion
8:02
Speaker 1: of it it did fade away because it became much
8:04
Speaker 1: more real in person, in the real world, and from
8:07
Speaker 1: there the relationship intensified rapidly. Alissa's parents were deeply concerned
8:13
Speaker 1: about their daughter's involvement with this adult man. Means she's fifteen, he's.
8:17
Speaker 2: Twenty, right, Yeah, well, I mean five years isn't always
8:21
Speaker 2: a huge age gap, but at that age it sure is.
8:23
Speaker 3: Well, when you're a child and you're an adult, Yeah.
8:27
Speaker 1: If you're thirty and thirty five.
8:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really makes no difference.
8:31
Speaker 1: It does. You're basically the same age, honestly, But if
8:33
Speaker 1: you're fifteen and twenty, that's significant, illegal, very illegal, and
8:39
Speaker 1: very you know, if you're twenty years old, find someone
8:42
Speaker 1: twenty years old don't go into like, I can't even
8:45
Speaker 1: finish my sentence. That's just gross. It's discussing.
8:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
8:48
Speaker 1: Anyways, her parents reportedly disapproved of this relationship heavily, which
8:54
Speaker 1: honestly isn't surprising. However, it appears that they struggled to
8:58
Speaker 1: intervene effectively, and Alyssa later ran away from home to
9:02
Speaker 1: be with Stephen in New York, which she would move
9:05
Speaker 1: into his home while she's still a minor.
9:08
Speaker 2: Dan gosh, I don't love that, no me either.
9:12
Speaker 1: It's most likely that her parents were caught in a
9:15
Speaker 1: very painful, complex situation with this. I mean, their daughter
9:19
Speaker 1: was legally underage but emotionally convinced that she was in love,
9:23
Speaker 1: and at the time, law enforcement and family services often
9:26
Speaker 1: lacked the tools or even honestly the will to properly
9:30
Speaker 1: address online grooming incidents like this. So it's a very
9:34
Speaker 1: delicate and complicated situation to be in, especially when you're
9:37
Speaker 1: trying to deal with your daughter like that. Yeah, so
9:41
Speaker 1: I can't blame them for any sort of stress that
9:43
Speaker 1: they may have been under.
9:44
Speaker 2: For sure, Oh gosh, I'm sure they did like all that.
9:48
Speaker 1: They could rest likely, I imagine. So now after Alyssa
9:53
Speaker 1: moved in with Stephen. She became pregnant at sixteen years old,
9:58
Speaker 1: and she would give birth to their daughter, Denise on
10:01
Speaker 1: January twenty ninth, nineteen ninety eight.
10:05
Speaker 2: Freak, Okay, I'm already angry. I need like a stress
10:08
Speaker 2: ball or something.
10:09
Speaker 1: Oh, You're going to need a lot more than just
10:11
Speaker 1: a stress ball.
10:12
Speaker 2: We should have those wicked Ingram's stress balls, because I
10:14
Speaker 2: would like use the shit.
10:15
Speaker 1: I'm not a bad idea just.
10:17
Speaker 2: Sitting here because I'm like playing with a freakin hairtie,
10:20
Speaker 2: So I could use something better.
10:22
Speaker 1: We should look into that.
10:23
Speaker 2: I think we maybe should, I think so.
10:26
Speaker 1: Now. From that point, the relationship began to unravel in
10:29
Speaker 1: more obvious ways between the two. Stephen struggled with employment,
10:32
Speaker 1: which placed a lot of financial burden on Alyssa. On Alyssa,
10:36
Speaker 1: even as a teenager, he showed signs of being controlling,
10:39
Speaker 1: emotionally volatile, as I've kind of already talked about, like
10:42
Speaker 1: he was destroying property during angry outbursts and such. It
10:45
Speaker 1: created a lot of like really tense and unstable environment,
10:48
Speaker 1: especially for raising, you know, a newborn right and to
10:52
Speaker 1: top it all off, Alica really became increasingly isolated from
10:55
Speaker 1: her family in any sort of support system. So she's
10:58
Speaker 1: feeling alone, feeling neglected, She's she's afraid, and she's you know,
11:05
Speaker 1: she's a young young mother with a newborn child.
11:09
Speaker 2: And her parents, you know, they probably saw this coming,
11:13
Speaker 2: maybe not to this extent, but to a degree, and
11:15
Speaker 2: they were wanting to help her and save her. And
11:19
Speaker 2: at that age, it's pretty hard to get through to
11:21
Speaker 2: someone like you don't think your parents know more than you,
11:25
Speaker 2: which is so funny when you're that young, but it's
11:27
Speaker 2: the truth.
11:28
Speaker 1: Really yeah. Now, She would later describe those early years
11:31
Speaker 1: as emotionally exhausting and frightening. Despite her youth and the
11:35
Speaker 1: power dynamic, it just was not quite equal, and she
11:39
Speaker 1: quickly became the primary caretaker in the home marked by instability,
11:42
Speaker 1: and of course that growing tension. In the months then followed,
11:45
Speaker 1: Alyssa faced a heartbreaking realization she didn't believe she could
11:49
Speaker 1: provide a safe and stable environment that her daughter needed, so,
11:53
Speaker 1: after careful thought, she made the extremely difficult decision to
11:57
Speaker 1: place her beloved child in adoption.
12:00
Speaker 2: That's really strong though, it is of her like that
12:04
Speaker 2: for her to step back and see that and.
12:06
Speaker 1: Say, you know what I need to do? This for
12:09
Speaker 1: my daughter's safe and well being. Yeah, no, that's incredible. So,
12:15
Speaker 1: at just eight months old, Denise was adopted by a
12:17
Speaker 1: couple in New York with a new home. They also
12:20
Speaker 1: gave her a new name, Katie Rose Fusco, and she
12:24
Speaker 1: now had a new start in life. Alisa later explained
12:28
Speaker 1: her decision with a quiet conversation. I have a quote
12:30
Speaker 1: here from her quote. It was so hard to give
12:34
Speaker 1: her up, but I had to because I wanted her
12:36
Speaker 1: to live and be happy.
12:39
Speaker 2: My goodness, Q on the goose bumps, right Freig.
12:43
Speaker 1: For Alyssa, the choice came from a loving and concerning point.
12:47
Speaker 1: Though devastating, it was an attempt to protect her daughter
12:50
Speaker 1: from the uncertainty and growing distress she felt that was
12:53
Speaker 1: all around her. After being placed for adoption in nineteen
12:57
Speaker 1: ninety eight, baby Denise was welcomed in the home of
13:01
Speaker 1: Anthony and Kelly Fusco and now being named of course,
13:04
Speaker 1: you know Katie, right, So here we go, transitioning from
13:07
Speaker 1: Katie to sorry, from Denise to Katie. Now Anthony and
13:11
Speaker 1: Kelly Fusco. They were living in Dover, New York, a
13:15
Speaker 1: small town about eighty miles north of New York City,
13:19
Speaker 1: The Fuscos were described by friends and relatives as kind, grounded,
13:23
Speaker 1: and devoted to their family. Anthony worked in law enforcement
13:27
Speaker 1: as a corrections officer, while Kelly had a career as
13:29
Speaker 1: a secretary. Their life was modest but stable, a world
13:33
Speaker 1: away from the chaotic environment Katie had been born into.
13:36
Speaker 2: So they were good people.
13:38
Speaker 1: They were good people.
13:38
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's good.
13:40
Speaker 1: Katie grew up as part of a close knit household
13:42
Speaker 1: that also included a sibling. She was quiet and gentle,
13:46
Speaker 1: known for her creativity and her deep affection for animals.
13:49
Speaker 1: From a young age, she showed a particularly strong love
13:52
Speaker 1: for rescuing stray cats, and eventually chose to become a vegetarian,
13:56
Speaker 1: a decision that reflected her caring nature as well. Her
14:00
Speaker 1: friends and teachers at Dover High School described Katie as
14:03
Speaker 1: artistic and introspective. She was involved in several high school activities,
14:07
Speaker 1: including cheerleading and band, where she played the drums, but
14:11
Speaker 1: her biggest passion was drawing. She became well known at
14:14
Speaker 1: school for her comic strip art, and she often shared
14:17
Speaker 1: her sketches and personal thoughts in blog posts online. In
14:20
Speaker 1: one of her writings, she expressed how art became her outlet.
14:25
Speaker 1: So to quote her and this blog post quote, a
14:29
Speaker 1: pen and something to draw on became a safe place
14:32
Speaker 1: for me. Inc became my weapon against rules and regulations.
14:36
Speaker 1: For me. Life without art is no life at all.
14:40
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool. I like that. I feel like art is.
14:45
Speaker 2: I mean, either you're got that talent and are creative
14:49
Speaker 2: or you're not. Necessarily it's one or the other.
14:53
Speaker 1: I feel like, I mean, honestly, whether you have that
14:55
Speaker 1: talent or whether you're creative or not, I think we
14:57
Speaker 1: can all appreciate art, and I think we all do
15:00
Speaker 1: appreciate it in certain forms, whether you read books instead
15:04
Speaker 1: of write books, whether you watch movies instead of direct
15:07
Speaker 1: and produce them.
15:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, film indulging exactly.
15:10
Speaker 1: And art honestly runs this world, whether it's bringing you know,
15:13
Speaker 1: advertising to life, those sort of things, to sell products,
15:16
Speaker 1: making the products things that you purchase, in your home,
15:19
Speaker 1: how you design your home.
15:20
Speaker 2: Well, even she said in her quoll, like there's no rules, right,
15:23
Speaker 2: which is pretty cool. So maybe you think you're not creative,
15:26
Speaker 2: but like it's still an outlet for you to even. Like,
15:29
Speaker 2: lots of people do coloring or whatever, right, Yeah, so
15:32
Speaker 2: they're not necessarily drawing, but they're still, you know, being
15:35
Speaker 2: creative and pen to the paper, so.
15:38
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. So I agree with her. Without art,
15:42
Speaker 1: there is no life at all.
15:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
15:45
Speaker 1: Now. Katie graduated high school in June of twenty sixteen
15:48
Speaker 1: and had plans to study digital advertising at a local college.
15:52
Speaker 1: She hoped to build a career in design or media,
15:54
Speaker 1: and her future looked quite bright. But well, Katie had
15:57
Speaker 1: every reason to look forward. She had also been curious
16:01
Speaker 1: about what had come before she knew she'd been adopted,
16:04
Speaker 1: and as she reached adulthood, that curiosity was deepening. Like
16:08
Speaker 1: many adoptees, she began to wonder about her origins, who
16:12
Speaker 1: her biological parents were, why they'd given her up, and
16:15
Speaker 1: what they were like. So in early twenty sixteen, shortly
16:19
Speaker 1: after turning eighteen years old, Katie began searching for her
16:22
Speaker 1: biological parents. She started searching on social media, where she
16:27
Speaker 1: eventually located and contacted both Stephen Palattle and Alyssa Garcia,
16:31
Speaker 1: who were still living together in Henrico County, Virginia, near Richmond,
16:36
Speaker 1: so both her biological parents. The message she sent was
16:40
Speaker 1: cautious and respectful, despite her adoptive parents quiet concerns Katie
16:46
Speaker 1: felt ready to explore this part of her life. For her,
16:48
Speaker 1: it was about understanding where she came from, filling that
16:52
Speaker 1: little missing piece of her identity. May not necessarily be
16:55
Speaker 1: looking to replace her parents, her adopted parents, with the
16:58
Speaker 1: real one sort of thing, but it was just that
17:01
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle that you know, always wondered about.
17:03
Speaker 2: It makes sense, it does so to.
17:06
Speaker 1: Stephen and Alyssa, her message was quite the surprise. After
17:09
Speaker 1: nearly two decades apart, their first daughter, now a young woman,
17:14
Speaker 1: wanted to reconnect. So Katie and her biological parents began
17:19
Speaker 1: communicating regularly, exchanging messages, and eventually they planned to meet
17:24
Speaker 1: up in person. That meetup took place during the summer
17:27
Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, just a few weeks after Katie's high
17:30
Speaker 1: school graduation. She traveled from Dover, New York, to North Carolina,
17:35
Speaker 1: where Stephen and Alyssa had temporarily relocated, and then onto Virginia,
17:40
Speaker 1: where the family was at home. The reunion, by all appearances,
17:45
Speaker 1: was emotional and positive. Photos from that time showed them
17:48
Speaker 1: smiling together having fun. Katie also even met her two
17:52
Speaker 1: biological sisters, now aged eleven and seven years old. The
17:56
Speaker 1: bond seemed to form rather quickly. Kati even extended her stay,
18:00
Speaker 1: and eventually she made the life changing decision she was
18:04
Speaker 1: going to move in with her biological.
18:05
Speaker 2: Parents, whoa okay.
18:08
Speaker 1: She withdrew from her college plans and relocated to the
18:11
Speaker 1: Paladal family home in Virginia.
18:14
Speaker 2: Huh.
18:15
Speaker 1: Now. Her adoptive parents, Anthony and Kelly Fusco, were quite
18:19
Speaker 1: concerned over the situation. They knew Katie was legally an adult,
18:24
Speaker 1: so they couldn't really do anything to stop her, and
18:26
Speaker 1: they supported her independence, but the suddenness of her decision
18:30
Speaker 1: and the distance involved left them very uneasy.
18:34
Speaker 2: Well, I imagine that probably hurt them a little bit too.
18:37
Speaker 1: I'm sure it did. I'm sure it did. But regardless
18:40
Speaker 1: of how they felt, they wanted to support her exploration
18:43
Speaker 1: of their roots and everything.
18:44
Speaker 2: Right.
18:44
Speaker 1: They want to support, you know, their their daughter, because
18:47
Speaker 1: that's who she is. She's, you know, their daughter, So
18:50
Speaker 1: they want to support her. So that they just did
18:54
Speaker 1: their best to do that. But what Katie stepped into
18:57
Speaker 1: wasn't just a stable family environment, wasn't something that she
19:00
Speaker 1: might have imagined. For example, because behind the scenes, the
19:03
Speaker 1: household was already unraveling. Steve and Alyssa. Their marriage had
19:08
Speaker 1: been understrained for some time, the emotional distance between them
19:12
Speaker 1: had grown, and according to Alissa, Stephen had become increasingly unpredictable,
19:17
Speaker 1: to the point where the couple were actually now sleeping
19:19
Speaker 1: in separate bedrooms, and the divorce just basically seemed imminent
19:23
Speaker 1: at this point. At first, the focus was on the
19:26
Speaker 1: joy of reconnecting, though Alyssa, who had grieved every birthday
19:31
Speaker 1: that her daughter had spent away and missed upon right,
19:34
Speaker 1: she was now thrilled to have a second chance to
19:36
Speaker 1: build a relationship with the daughter that she thought she'd
19:38
Speaker 1: lost forever. But soon she began to notice some unsettling changes,
19:43
Speaker 1: not just in the atmosphere the home, though, but in
19:46
Speaker 1: Stephen's behavior towards Katie. Particularly according to Alyssa, Stephen, who
19:51
Speaker 1: had spent years in a pattern of emotional volatility, started
19:55
Speaker 1: changing his appearance in ways that seemed aimed at appearing younger.
20:00
Speaker 1: He shaved his beard, bought new clothes that were a
20:03
Speaker 1: little bit tighter fitting and more form fitting, grew out
20:05
Speaker 1: his hair in a style that more closely resembled you know,
20:09
Speaker 1: some of the boys Katie's age, rather than his own.
20:12
Speaker 1: At first, Alyssa hoped that this was an awkward attempt
20:15
Speaker 1: to just bond with his daughter, right, he hadn't seen
20:18
Speaker 1: her since she was a baby. Maybe it was just
20:20
Speaker 1: this new surge of trying to get along with her,
20:24
Speaker 1: But the sign sodent pointed to something a little bit
20:26
Speaker 1: more serious. Stephen and Katy began spending increasing amounts of
20:31
Speaker 1: time alone together, which isn't bad in itself. You know,
20:34
Speaker 1: a father daughter time, that's important, right, you're bonding, But
20:37
Speaker 1: paired with his history and some other behaviors, it made
20:39
Speaker 1: Alyssa think twice. Stephen and Katy began spending increasing amounts
20:44
Speaker 1: of time alone together, which isn't bad in itself, but
20:46
Speaker 1: paired with his history and some other behaviors made Alyssa
20:50
Speaker 1: thing twice.
20:51
Speaker 2: Now.
20:51
Speaker 1: I remember he had already groomed Alyssa when she was
20:53
Speaker 1: fifteen years old online correct.
20:55
Speaker 2: So yep, I didn't forget that.
20:57
Speaker 1: Bear that behavior in mind. But there were some other
21:00
Speaker 1: things as well that were red flags. For example, when
21:03
Speaker 1: Alissa returned home from work one day, roughly six weeks
21:06
Speaker 1: after Katie had moved in around mid to late twenty sixteen,
21:10
Speaker 1: Alyssa discovered Stephen sleeping on the floor of Katie's bedroom.
21:14
Speaker 1: Now it's described as a reoccurring behavior that happened more
21:17
Speaker 1: than once. But when Alissa confronted Stephen directly after finding
21:21
Speaker 1: him there, his response was described as angry and defensive,
21:25
Speaker 1: and he stormed out of the house with Katie. Soon afterwards,
21:29
Speaker 1: the dynamic between Stephen and Katy shifted rapidly rapidly. Alissa,
21:34
Speaker 1: now deeply uncomfortable and increasingly alarmed over the situation, decided
21:38
Speaker 1: to move out of the home in November of twenty sixteen.
21:41
Speaker 1: The divorce process between her and Stephen was already under
21:44
Speaker 1: way at the point, and after separating, the two began
21:47
Speaker 1: sharing custody of their two younger daughters. Katie, however, chose
21:51
Speaker 1: to remain in the house with Stephen.
21:54
Speaker 2: Oh no, this is not good.
21:58
Speaker 1: By this point, Alyssa had also tried to warn Katie.
22:01
Speaker 1: In private conversations, she shared her own experiences of being
22:05
Speaker 1: in a relationship with Stephen at a young age. She
22:08
Speaker 1: explained why she had made the decision to place Katie
22:10
Speaker 1: up for adoption all those years ago, and described the controlling,
22:14
Speaker 1: unpretictable behavior that she once, you know, lived with, but
22:18
Speaker 1: Katie didn't really seem concerned. In fact, rather than pulling away,
22:23
Speaker 1: a relationship with Stephen appeared to deepen even further.
22:27
Speaker 2: Oh, which I don't even necessarily blame her though, because
22:31
Speaker 2: she is, you know, just meeting her her biological dad
22:36
Speaker 2: and mom for like the first time, and has all
22:38
Speaker 2: this like so many feelings, I'm sure, and in her
22:43
Speaker 2: mind this was nothing. It was just like, you know,
22:45
Speaker 2: building a relationship with her dad.
22:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, so you're definitely on on the right track
22:52
Speaker 1: here with mindset on. It's not her fault whatsoever. And
22:55
Speaker 1: there's a lot of complicated emotions that go with with this.
22:59
Speaker 1: We'll talk talk about some of that near the end
23:01
Speaker 1: as well.
23:02
Speaker 2: But I just have to say one more thing though,
23:04
Speaker 2: because it's one thing for her to or for Steve.
23:07
Speaker 2: It's what's his fucking name, Steve, Stephen Steven.
23:10
Speaker 1: I think I called him Steve want expert.
23:12
Speaker 2: He for him to do this to someone, you know
23:15
Speaker 2: who who is fifteen years old, but like he has
23:18
Speaker 2: no relationship really and now, but this is his daughter,
23:23
Speaker 2: So it's just so different. It's a line that he's
23:26
Speaker 2: crossing big time.
23:27
Speaker 1: Well it's more than one line he's crossing.
23:29
Speaker 2: But yeah, because her for him to have done it
23:32
Speaker 2: to Alyssa. You know, you can kind of understand, but
23:35
Speaker 2: for him to do something like this or what he's
23:37
Speaker 2: about to do to his own friggin kid, it's just yeah,
23:41
Speaker 2: it's just too much.
23:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's trigger warnings at the beginning for a reason, Okay.
23:48
Speaker 1: Alyssa later described a sense of helplessness during this time.
23:51
Speaker 1: She suspected something was very wrong, but nothing concrete had
23:55
Speaker 1: happened that the legal system would act on. From the outside,
23:58
Speaker 1: it still looked like an adult fid and his newly
24:00
Speaker 1: reconnected daughter trying to bond. But to Alyssa, the pattern
24:04
Speaker 1: was very familiar, and she saw it all and was terrified.
24:08
Speaker 2: Oh no.
24:09
Speaker 1: But when no one knew yet was that what had
24:12
Speaker 1: started as a reconnection was rapidly evolving into something far
24:15
Speaker 1: more dangerous.
24:17
Speaker 2: I almost don't know if she should have moved out,
24:19
Speaker 2: but you know, she had to do what she had
24:22
Speaker 2: to do. I guess yeah.
24:24
Speaker 1: By the spring of twenty seventeen, the situation in Stephen
24:27
Speaker 1: Palattle's home had become more disturbing than anyone on the
24:30
Speaker 1: outside could have imagined, but the full truth wouldn't begin
24:33
Speaker 1: to emerge until May of that year, when Alyssa Garcia
24:36
Speaker 1: made the discovery that would shake her to the core.
24:39
Speaker 1: It started during a routine custody exchange after one of
24:43
Speaker 1: her younger daughter's returned home for a weekend visit with
24:46
Speaker 1: Stephen and Katie. Alssa began unpacking her bag when she
24:50
Speaker 1: got her back home and found something unexpected. It was
24:53
Speaker 1: her personal journal. Inside her daughter had written about her
24:57
Speaker 1: father and Katie in a way that went far beyond
25:00
Speaker 1: normal family dynamics. One passage revealed that Katie was now
25:05
Speaker 1: pregnant and that Stephen was referring to her as his baby,
25:11
Speaker 1: So like, Katie's baby is his baby, yeah, telling and
25:15
Speaker 1: telling the children that Katie was now their step mom.
25:18
Speaker 1: Holy shit, so this is actually their sister. And he's like, no,
25:22
Speaker 1: this is your stepmom.
25:23
Speaker 2: Now, we're actually changing this. She's actually your step mom.
25:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. So to quote this entry quote, my dad calls
25:31
Speaker 1: her baby his baby. He doesn't even want me to
25:34
Speaker 1: call her my sister anymore. Katie is probably his wife now.
25:40
Speaker 2: And this poor little thing is just writing in her
25:42
Speaker 2: journal and needing an outlet about this because this is
25:45
Speaker 2: some heavy, heavy stuff.
25:47
Speaker 1: If you think that's heavy, just realize hear this portion
25:51
Speaker 1: because this really shows how heavy it is on this kid.
25:56
Speaker 1: So she had also drawn disturbing pictures inside the journal
25:59
Speaker 1: to go along with this this journal entry right, including
26:01
Speaker 1: one portraying her father as a dark horned figure where
26:05
Speaker 1: she's calling him Satan, and one she even wrote quote,
26:10
Speaker 1: if he's Satan and Katie is human, then the baby
26:13
Speaker 1: will be half demon.
26:14
Speaker 2: Oh boy, this poor little thing.
26:17
Speaker 1: Right to Alissa, there is no more doubt. The fears
26:23
Speaker 1: that she carried for months were confirmed in her daughter's handwriting,
26:26
Speaker 1: and she immediately called Stephen. She's quote, is Katie pregnant
26:30
Speaker 1: with your baby? And he responded with I thought you
26:32
Speaker 1: knew we're in love?
26:34
Speaker 2: What?
26:35
Speaker 1: Yeah? What? Yeah? She was overcome with disbelief, just like
26:41
Speaker 1: you are at this point. In fact, I'm sure way
26:43
Speaker 1: freaking more because I don't think we could even comprehend
26:45
Speaker 1: or understand what to the degree that the stuff that
26:48
Speaker 1: they're going through.
26:49
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
26:49
Speaker 1: But she later described screaming at Stephen on the phone,
26:52
Speaker 1: unable to comprehend how he could say such a thing
26:55
Speaker 1: so plainly.
26:57
Speaker 2: Oh this is so bad.
27:00
Speaker 1: Bonded, How could you She's your daughter, She's just a child,
27:04
Speaker 1: And then she hung up the phone and called the police.
27:09
Speaker 1: That call launched a full investigation into their relationship. Authorities
27:13
Speaker 1: interviewed Stephen. They interviewed Katie as well as the two
27:16
Speaker 1: younger children, her sisters, and Alyssa provided journal entries and
27:20
Speaker 1: voiced her concerns very clearly, but despite the serious nature
27:24
Speaker 1: of the allegations, no arrests were made. At the time.
27:27
Speaker 1: Stephen and Katie continued living together and Katie remained pregnant.
27:32
Speaker 2: What there was just nothing they could do then? Or what?
27:36
Speaker 2: What the hell?
27:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, big old question mark for me. I don't know
27:41
Speaker 1: how to approach that. Oh I really don't.
27:44
Speaker 2: I mean, god, I guess they didn't know how to
27:46
Speaker 2: approach that either, and just decided to do fuck all.
27:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, because right now you're going on strictly allegation, strict
27:52
Speaker 1: allegations here. You have a father daughter living together. That's
27:56
Speaker 1: not abnormal, right, No, she's pregnant, okay, cool? Is it
28:02
Speaker 1: his kid? Prove it? Okay? DNA test has to happen.
28:05
Speaker 1: Is there incest happening? Prove it?
28:09
Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, and who knows if they because I know
28:11
Speaker 2: you can test the DNA, but you would probably need
28:14
Speaker 2: like the consent of you know, Katie yeah, she might
28:18
Speaker 2: not have given that, right.
28:19
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of complicated things to go around here.
28:22
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. I think more should have been done,
28:25
Speaker 1: but it is still a very fragile situation.
28:27
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and I yeah, I'm sure you know, they
28:31
Speaker 2: probably wanted to do more, but maybe they just yeah,
28:35
Speaker 2: their hands were tied potentially.
28:37
Speaker 1: Well, if there are serious concerns of potential incest or
28:42
Speaker 1: a relationship developing into that way, or coercion or grooming,
28:47
Speaker 1: you should at least separate them for a while, you know,
28:50
Speaker 1: because you have a very fragile person in a very
28:53
Speaker 1: fragile situation, you know, just meeting you know, her biological
28:56
Speaker 1: parents and such. Right, and then the biological parents are
28:58
Speaker 1: also divorcing, and now she's pregnant, whether it's his kid
29:01
Speaker 1: or not, and there's only allegations quote unquote of the
29:05
Speaker 1: ancestual relationship. You should at least separate them for a
29:09
Speaker 1: time to ensure that, you know, someone as fragile as
29:13
Speaker 1: Katie in the situation can feel safe and can feel
29:18
Speaker 1: outspoken to speak the truth.
29:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, but did they even have the power to do
29:23
Speaker 2: that because both of them.
29:25
Speaker 3: Are adults, right, true, true, So I don't know, well, regardless,
29:33
Speaker 3: I feel that there's some missed opportunities in this position totally,
29:38
Speaker 3: and if there were better things that they could have done,
29:40
Speaker 3: I think, you know what, the missed opportunities, it just
29:45
Speaker 3: left the road open for the things that followed, let's.
29:49
Speaker 1: Put it that way.
29:50
Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, and I'll just say sometimes if there's a will,
29:52
Speaker 2: there's a way, right, fair, So if they really were
29:57
Speaker 2: going to do something, they might have been able to
29:58
Speaker 2: find a way.
29:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I just do want to say one more thing.
30:03
Speaker 1: Regardless of her being an adult, she could be a victim.
30:06
Speaker 2: Right, Oh yeah, so oh I'm sure she is.
30:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, well no, she definitely is. But I'm trying
30:11
Speaker 1: to speak from the authorities point of view, So they
30:14
Speaker 1: don't know if she's a victim. Right, So from the
30:17
Speaker 1: authority's point of view, she could be a victim. You'd
30:21
Speaker 1: need to do what you can to protect victims, whether
30:24
Speaker 1: you're an adult or consenting or not. I mean Stockholm
30:28
Speaker 1: syndrome for example. You have adults who have been captured
30:32
Speaker 1: and raped and bearing children and they don't want to
30:36
Speaker 1: leave their captor.
30:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that's all they know, right.
30:38
Speaker 1: It's all they know because they're coerced because they're made
30:41
Speaker 1: to think that way. So authorities need to step in
30:44
Speaker 1: to create a situation where it can be evaluated properly,
30:49
Speaker 1: and they did not do that in this case.
30:52
Speaker 2: Well, you also have to say, it's just so fucked
30:55
Speaker 2: up too. It's probably like something they've never dealt with before.
30:59
Speaker 2: Understand right, I'm not on Like, I'm agree there's probably
31:03
Speaker 2: more that could have been done, but it's just like, wow, yeah,
31:06
Speaker 2: where to even start.
31:07
Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing, it's it's a very complicated and
31:10
Speaker 1: very delicate situation.
31:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:12
Speaker 1: Now. On July twentieth, twenty seventeen, just two months after
31:15
Speaker 1: Alyssa had discovered her daughter's journal, Stephen and Katy traveled
31:20
Speaker 1: to Parkton, Maryland, for the purpose of getting married.
31:24
Speaker 2: Oh what.
31:26
Speaker 1: In nearly every US state, including Maryland, marriage between close
31:30
Speaker 1: biological relatives is prohibited by law, but Stephen and Katy
31:34
Speaker 1: managed to bypass this restrict in restriction by lying on
31:37
Speaker 1: their marriage application stating that they were unrelated.
31:43
Speaker 2: The fuck Yeah, I know, seriously, yes.
31:48
Speaker 1: So, despite the disturbing nature of the union, the ceremony
31:51
Speaker 1: was held at a lakeside park, complete with family in attendance.
31:56
Speaker 1: What photographs from that day show a visible pregnant Katie,
32:01
Speaker 1: dressed in a fitted black gown, standing between Stephen, her
32:05
Speaker 1: biological father. You know right, She's married her freaking biological father,
32:10
Speaker 1: as they posed together for wedding portraits. Also president at
32:13
Speaker 1: the wedding were Stephen's mother, Grace, and perhaps most shockingly,
32:18
Speaker 1: Katie's adoptive parents, Anthony and Kelly Fusco, were there as well.
32:26
Speaker 2: Huh. I don't even know what the hell to say
32:28
Speaker 2: to this, because at this point you can.
32:30
Speaker 1: Do something really and yeah it's illegal.
32:33
Speaker 2: I would be the fucking second cousin trying to do something. Yeah,
32:37
Speaker 2: that's crazy.
32:38
Speaker 1: Now. The Fuscos did later explain that their presence as
32:42
Speaker 1: it was an act of emotional support for Katie, not
32:44
Speaker 1: for Stephen. They were very deeply uncomfortable with the situation,
32:48
Speaker 1: but they felt that attending might allow them to stay
32:50
Speaker 1: close to her, at least for the sake of the
32:53
Speaker 1: unborn child. It was in their view better to remain
32:57
Speaker 1: involved than risk losing her completely.
33:00
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess that does make sense, but holy heck,
33:05
Speaker 2: I couldn't even imagine sitting there.
33:07
Speaker 1: I know, like, regardless of their reasons or whatever, like
33:10
Speaker 1: the moment would have been surreal.
33:12
Speaker 2: You think I would just be sobbing the whole entire time,
33:14
Speaker 2: not in happiness?
33:16
Speaker 1: Fair enough. So on September first, twenty seventeen, just six
33:20
Speaker 1: weeks later, Katie gave birth to a baby boy named
33:22
Speaker 1: Bennett Kirian Plattle.
33:24
Speaker 2: Oh I do love that name. That's annoying.
33:27
Speaker 1: The couple had had by then moved into a home
33:30
Speaker 1: together in Nightdale, North Carolina, settling into a suburban cul
33:34
Speaker 1: de sac where they lived openly as husband and wife.
33:39
Speaker 1: To those who didn't know their backstory, they appeared to
33:41
Speaker 1: be a quiet, young couple starting a family, But to
33:43
Speaker 1: those who did know, it was a relationship built on
33:46
Speaker 1: years of deception and balance and unresolved trauma.
33:50
Speaker 2: Okay, but there also is like about a twenty year
33:54
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one year age difference between them. Yeah, yeah, correct,
33:58
Speaker 2: So like she's young but he he ain't.
34:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely he's I mean by this point he's forty.
34:04
Speaker 2: Okay, not saying forties old for everyone like sends us
34:08
Speaker 2: bad reviews. But because you said this young couple, but
34:11
Speaker 2: I guess you said also he was making himself up
34:14
Speaker 2: yere younger too, right, he was. He was to play
34:16
Speaker 2: the role.
34:16
Speaker 1: I guess no, he's probably like a year or two
34:19
Speaker 1: older than we are right now. Okay, Now, by this point,
34:24
Speaker 1: Katie had taken a sharp detour from her life that
34:26
Speaker 1: she had envisioned just a year earlier, a future in
34:29
Speaker 1: art and college, you know, going to New York. It
34:32
Speaker 1: had all been replaced by a secretive marriage, motherhood, and
34:36
Speaker 1: return to the man who biological mother had once feared
34:40
Speaker 1: enough to leave. But this vision of the story, one
34:44
Speaker 1: that now included a baby, a house, and a marriage,
34:47
Speaker 1: wouldn't last. The next chapter began when law finally caught
34:52
Speaker 1: up with the couple. In January of twenty eighteen, four
34:56
Speaker 1: months after the birth of their son, Bennett, Stephen and
34:59
Speaker 1: Katie were rested in Knightdale, North Carolina, following an investigation
35:03
Speaker 1: into their relationship. The charges were serious incest, adultery, and
35:08
Speaker 1: contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The case was
35:11
Speaker 1: transferred to Henrico County, Virginia, where the relationship had first begun.
35:16
Speaker 1: As part of the legal process, DNA testing was confirmed.
35:21
Speaker 1: It confirmed what we already knew, honestly, that Stephen and
35:24
Speaker 1: Katie were both biological father and daughter, and of course
35:28
Speaker 1: that Stephen was a biological father of Katie's child as well.
35:33
Speaker 2: So he's the grandpa and the father of this baby.
35:36
Speaker 1: Correct. In court, Stephen's attorney tried to defend the relationship
35:41
Speaker 1: by framing it as consensual. He stated that Stephen and
35:45
Speaker 1: Katy had met hadn't met, sorry until she was eighteen,
35:48
Speaker 1: and described Stephen as quote head over heels in love.
35:52
Speaker 1: The fact that they were biologically related, the defense argued,
35:55
Speaker 1: was outweighed by the emotions that they felt for each other.
35:59
Speaker 1: What this is the exact kind of attorney that gives
36:02
Speaker 1: defense attorneys bad names.
36:04
Speaker 2: Because that is disgusting. Yeah, oh, how could that even
36:09
Speaker 2: come out of your mouth?
36:10
Speaker 1: I really, But for many, including Katie's adoptive parents and
36:14
Speaker 1: her birth mother, Alyssa, this argument ignored a much deeper truth.
36:19
Speaker 1: Katie had been emotionally vulnerable, newly reconnected with a man
36:23
Speaker 1: that she believed was her father, and quickly drawn into
36:25
Speaker 1: a relationship that raised red flags right from the start.
36:30
Speaker 1: Following their arrest, both Stephen and Katie were released on
36:33
Speaker 1: bond under the condition they do not contact each other.
36:37
Speaker 1: The court, however, made a decision that would later be
36:39
Speaker 1: called into question. Custody of baby Bennett was granted to
36:43
Speaker 1: Stephen's mother, Grace, who is living nearby in Nightdale.
36:48
Speaker 2: Now.
36:48
Speaker 1: At the time, the decision may have seemed routine. Courts
36:51
Speaker 1: often try to keep the children with biological family rather
36:54
Speaker 1: than you know, like the homes and stuff like that
36:57
Speaker 1: whenever possible, but Alissa and others close to the case
37:02
Speaker 1: expressed serious concerns over this. See Alyssa particularly believe Grace
37:07
Speaker 1: would not be able to prevent Stephen from accessing the
37:09
Speaker 1: child if he tried. Well, yeah, so at this time,
37:12
Speaker 1: she's seventy two years old and emotionally close to her son,
37:16
Speaker 1: Grace may not have been equipped to fully enforce the
37:19
Speaker 1: court's order.
37:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, that doesn't necessarily seem like that was thought through.
37:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, to quote Alyssa, she said Stephen shouldn't have
37:27
Speaker 1: been allowed back to North Carolina. And she also said,
37:30
Speaker 1: quote he had access to his house, his weapons, and
37:33
Speaker 1: the baby. That should never have happened.
37:36
Speaker 2: Well, he should have had Yeah, that should never have happened.
37:39
Speaker 2: He should have remained in jail. Maybe Katie gets out,
37:43
Speaker 2: but not him. I feel like.
37:46
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Katie returned to Dover, New York, moving back in
37:48
Speaker 1: with Anthony and Kelly, Fusco her adoptive parents. She appeared
37:53
Speaker 1: to be trying to distance herself from the situation. She
37:55
Speaker 1: kept a low profile, focused on her daily life, and
37:58
Speaker 1: even began working part time in her adoptive grandmother's house
38:02
Speaker 1: in nearby Connecticut, but beneath the surface, tensions remained. In
38:06
Speaker 1: early April of twenty eighteen, Katie broke the no contact
38:09
Speaker 1: order and called Stephen. On the call, she told him
38:14
Speaker 1: what he likely feared most. She was ending their relationship
38:20
Speaker 1: for good.
38:21
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, good for her.
38:23
Speaker 1: So on April eleventh, twenty eighteen, Katie made that decision,
38:28
Speaker 1: one that would ultimately set in a tragic chain of
38:31
Speaker 1: events into emotion. So when she called Stephen that day,
38:36
Speaker 1: she broke the court order, and during the conversation she
38:38
Speaker 1: told him clearly, we're ending the relationship. There will be
38:41
Speaker 1: no reunion, no future as a couple, and she had
38:45
Speaker 1: no plans to raise their son together. Okay, I'm sure
38:49
Speaker 1: she wanted to get full custody herself, but I'm unsure
38:52
Speaker 1: on that. For most people, this would have been painful
38:55
Speaker 1: but a private turning point. For Stephen, though, it was
38:57
Speaker 1: a collapse of control, and according to these who knew him,
39:01
Speaker 1: that control had always been central to how he operated.
39:06
Speaker 1: After the call, Stephen made arrangements to go pick up
39:10
Speaker 1: baby Bennett from his mother, Grace, who had been given
39:13
Speaker 1: custody after the arrest. He told her he planned to
39:16
Speaker 1: take their baby on a skype call with Katie the
39:20
Speaker 1: following day. Grace, unaware of what was about to happen,
39:24
Speaker 1: allowed him to take his child.
39:26
Speaker 2: But she wasn't supposed to write, correct, but.
39:30
Speaker 1: She did because she trusted him.
39:32
Speaker 2: Frigg uh.
39:33
Speaker 1: This is exactly why people are saying she should not
39:35
Speaker 1: have had custody. That night, Stephen returned to his home
39:39
Speaker 1: in Nightdale, North Carolina, with his infant son. At some
39:43
Speaker 1: point after arriving home, he took the life of seven
39:47
Speaker 1: month old.
39:47
Speaker 2: Baby Bennett seriously.
39:50
Speaker 1: Authorities would later determine that the cause of death was suffocation.
39:54
Speaker 2: What the shit.
39:56
Speaker 1: Stephen then placed his son's child, his son's lifeless body,
40:01
Speaker 1: his child in a closet, and then left the home.
40:06
Speaker 1: What In the early morning hours of April twelfth, twenty eighteen,
40:11
Speaker 1: no one knew yet what had occurred, but Stephen had
40:13
Speaker 1: quietly packed his belongings, got into a light blue Mini van,
40:16
Speaker 1: and begun The six hundred mile drive north, heading towards
40:20
Speaker 1: New York, where Katie was living once again with her
40:22
Speaker 1: adoptive parents. Uh oh, he brought with him a weapon.
40:27
Speaker 1: A few hours later. That same morning, Katy Palatle and
40:30
Speaker 1: her adoptive father, Anthony Fusco, were now leaving their home
40:34
Speaker 1: in Dover, New York for what should have been a
40:36
Speaker 1: routine trip. The two were driving to Waterbury, Connecticut, where
40:40
Speaker 1: Katie had recently started cleaning her grandmother's house for a
40:43
Speaker 1: few times a week. They traveled along together in the
40:47
Speaker 1: family's black Toyota pickup truck, unaware that someone was following
40:52
Speaker 1: close behind them. Stephen had driven overnight from North Carolina,
40:57
Speaker 1: and he had arrived in Dover hours earlier. He knew
41:00
Speaker 1: Katie's routine, he knew the roads, and now he was
41:04
Speaker 1: quietly tailing them in his light blue minivan. Just after
41:08
Speaker 1: nine am, as Katie and Anthony came to a stop
41:10
Speaker 1: at an intersection near Route seven and Route fifty five
41:13
Speaker 1: in New Milford, Connecticut, Stephen pulled his vehicle up alongside them,
41:19
Speaker 1: and without any warning, he took his weapon any open
41:23
Speaker 1: fire on their truck, using an arrow AR fifteen semi
41:28
Speaker 1: automatic rifle Stephen fired approximately twenty to thirty rounds directly
41:32
Speaker 1: into the truck. Witnesses nearby watched in shock as the
41:36
Speaker 1: gunman then drove off.
41:39
Speaker 2: This guy is frickin' unhinged.
41:43
Speaker 1: Katie and Anthony were both fatally shot, their truck left
41:45
Speaker 1: idling in the middle of the road.
41:48
Speaker 2: Dang, seriously, so he's just going on a rampage. He's
41:52
Speaker 2: now killed three people.
41:53
Speaker 1: Correct. One witness, a retired firefighter who happened to be nearby,
41:58
Speaker 1: made a desperate nine when one culture what he had
42:00
Speaker 1: seen to quote him. The car pulled up, went around
42:04
Speaker 1: them and shot them a whole clip full into the window.
42:09
Speaker 1: He's dead, the trucks in the middle of the road.
42:12
Speaker 1: His brains are on the road.
42:13
Speaker 2: Oh whoa, Okay, well, I mean, yeah, that's kind of
42:18
Speaker 2: to be expected. Like that would not be a good
42:21
Speaker 2: pretty scene.
42:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, police responded within minutes, both Katie and Anthony were
42:25
Speaker 1: already dead.
42:27
Speaker 2: They wouldn't even seen that come in.
42:29
Speaker 1: Nope. Back in night Downe, North Carolina, Stephen's mother, Grace,
42:32
Speaker 1: received a phone call from her son. During the call,
42:35
Speaker 1: Stephen confessed to killing Katie and Anthony there on the road.
42:39
Speaker 1: He then told her what no one yet had discovered
42:41
Speaker 1: that Bennett was also dead. Grace immediately dialed nine to
42:45
Speaker 1: one one frantic and begged for officers to go to
42:48
Speaker 1: Stephen's home to check on baby Bennett. During the call,
42:52
Speaker 1: she explained through sobs and disbelief that her son had
42:55
Speaker 1: just phoned her to confess it all. Grace also informed
42:59
Speaker 1: authorities that Steven had left a key under the front mat,
43:02
Speaker 1: instructing her not to go in the house, but to
43:04
Speaker 1: call police instead. Acting quickly, officers arrived at Stephen's home
43:10
Speaker 1: in Rosevista Court. Inside they found the scene exactly as described.
43:15
Speaker 1: Seven month old baby Bennett Paladal had been left behind.
43:19
Speaker 1: His life had taken the previous evening. His remains were
43:23
Speaker 1: in fact discovered upstairs in the bedroom closet, and as
43:26
Speaker 1: I mentioned, the official cause of death was suffocation. By
43:30
Speaker 1: the time local police reached the house in Nightdale, they
43:33
Speaker 1: found his body up there, but Stephen. They didn't know
43:37
Speaker 1: where he was, so back in New York, the search
43:40
Speaker 1: was underway for him. Not long after the shootings in Connecticut,
43:43
Speaker 1: approximately three hours later, at around eleven am, his blue
43:46
Speaker 1: Mini van was located in the town of Dover, parked
43:49
Speaker 1: along the side of a quiet road. Inside the vehicle,
43:53
Speaker 1: police found Stephen Paladle. He was sitting in the driver's
43:56
Speaker 1: seat of the vehicle. He was dead, okay, he died
44:00
Speaker 1: by suicide from a single gunshot wound to the head
44:02
Speaker 1: using that same AR fifteen rifle. The van engine was
44:06
Speaker 1: still running, and it had become the final scene in
44:09
Speaker 1: the multi stage tragedy that became this. I don't know
44:15
Speaker 1: how to describe it, honestly, Like I wrote something here
44:17
Speaker 1: saying it's a multi stage tragedy that began long before
44:21
Speaker 1: anyone realized it was unfolding it, I can't describe it honestly.
44:25
Speaker 1: That sentence doesn't do.
44:26
Speaker 2: It just It's just a rampage.
44:28
Speaker 1: Horrifying, it really is.
44:30
Speaker 2: It's a freaking nightmare.
44:31
Speaker 1: By mid morning, authorities in North Carolina, Connecticut, and New
44:34
Speaker 1: York were in communication, confirming the deaths and linking the
44:37
Speaker 1: events into a single case, a triple murder suicide with
44:41
Speaker 1: roots going back decades. The story made national headlines not
44:45
Speaker 1: just for its violence, but for its deeply disturbing nature,
44:49
Speaker 1: involving biological relationships, systemic oversight, and a young woman whose
44:53
Speaker 1: efforts to understand her past led to her death. Even
44:58
Speaker 1: seasoned investigators struggled to pro says what had happened. Nightdale
45:02
Speaker 1: Police Chief Lawrence Capp spoke candidly in the days it followed,
45:05
Speaker 1: and to quote him, I've interacted with a number of
45:08
Speaker 1: dangerous individuals, people who've committed terrible crimes, but I have
45:13
Speaker 1: never seen a case like this. In the days and
45:17
Speaker 1: weeks that followed the death of Katie Paladle, her son Bennett,
45:20
Speaker 1: and her adoptive father, Anthony Fusco, the questions echoed across
45:24
Speaker 1: state lines. This wasn't just a tragic ending. It was
45:28
Speaker 1: a tragedy marked by miss warnings, failed interventions, and deeply
45:32
Speaker 1: uncomfortable truths. For Alissa Garcia, the loss was unimaginable. She
45:38
Speaker 1: had surrendered Katie as a baby in hopes of saving
45:41
Speaker 1: her from danger, and now decades later, she was left
45:44
Speaker 1: grieving the very outcome that she tried to prevent all
45:47
Speaker 1: those years ago.
45:48
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was even thinking, prior to just saying that line,
45:51
Speaker 2: that this musta just destroyed her.
45:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. To quote her, I lost my daughter three times,
45:58
Speaker 1: first when I placed her up for adoption, then when
46:01
Speaker 1: she chose to stay with Stephen, and finally when he
46:05
Speaker 1: killed her.
46:05
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
46:08
Speaker 1: Alyssa wasn't alone in her heartbreak or her frustrations either.
46:11
Speaker 1: Many observers began asking how a case with such clear
46:14
Speaker 1: warning signs had been allowed to spiral so far out
46:17
Speaker 1: of control. From the beginning, there were opportunities for intervention.
46:22
Speaker 1: Alyssa's initial police report in twenty seventeen after discovering her
46:25
Speaker 1: daughter's journal was taken seriously, yes, but no arrests were
46:29
Speaker 1: made until months later, when Stephen and Katie were eventually
46:33
Speaker 1: charged with incest and released on bond. A no contact
46:37
Speaker 1: order was issued, but custody of their infants SOUN was
46:40
Speaker 1: given to Stephen's mother, who, despite her best intentions, was
46:44
Speaker 1: not in the position to prevent further access. They should
46:47
Speaker 1: have kept Stephen in jail at that point well exactly
46:50
Speaker 1: Stephen's prior history, including his earlier relationship with Alyssa, his
46:54
Speaker 1: troubling behavior at home, his emotional instability did not appear
46:58
Speaker 1: to be a factor at all all in custody decisions.
47:03
Speaker 1: The system failed at multiple points. There were opportunities to
47:06
Speaker 1: intervene left, right, center, all earlier, you name it, and
47:09
Speaker 1: none of them were taken. This case, is, of course,
47:12
Speaker 1: a very disturbing one, and it goes far beyond the
47:15
Speaker 1: nature of the legal system, primarily in the early online
47:18
Speaker 1: grooming and the whole mental pieces of the puzzle when
47:22
Speaker 1: it comes to an adoptive daughter being reunited with her
47:25
Speaker 1: family and being taken advantage of by a predator in
47:27
Speaker 1: the process. There have been many case studies done in
47:31
Speaker 1: this story and in this situation. Some psychologists point to
47:35
Speaker 1: what's known as coercive control, which is what you were
47:39
Speaker 1: alluding to earlier, a form of psychological manipulation that can
47:43
Speaker 1: occur both in partner and family relationships. In this case,
47:47
Speaker 1: Stephen had a long established pattern of isolating and influencing
47:50
Speaker 1: younger individuals, beginning with Lyssa and later Katie. Eventually, though
47:56
Speaker 1: Katie was legally an adult and then reconnected. Experts have
48:00
Speaker 1: emphasize sorry that age does not equal emotional independence, especially
48:05
Speaker 1: in reunions with adoptees and birth parents. This is particularly interesting.
48:12
Speaker 1: The case also drew attention to a rarely discussed phenomenon
48:15
Speaker 1: known as genetic sexual attraction also known as GSA, a
48:19
Speaker 1: theory suggesting that close biological relatives, when meeting for the
48:23
Speaker 1: first time as adults, may sometimes experience confusing emotional or
48:28
Speaker 1: physical responses really well controversial and not formally recognized as
48:34
Speaker 1: a psychiatric diagnosis. Some advocates for adoptees have argued that
48:39
Speaker 1: it should be better understood and discussed, not to excuse,
48:44
Speaker 1: but to inform safeguards for reunification experiences.
48:49
Speaker 2: Woh, I've never heard of that before.
48:51
Speaker 1: So it's not an official diagnosis, a psychiatric thing, but
48:54
Speaker 1: it is something that has been seen.
48:57
Speaker 2: Huh.
48:58
Speaker 1: Katie's case, however, went far beyond confusion or curiosity. It
49:02
Speaker 1: became clear through journal entries, court statements, and testimonies that power,
49:07
Speaker 1: not partnership, defined their relationship either way. The death of
49:12
Speaker 1: Katie Palatal, her infant son, and her adoptive father, Anthony Fusco,
49:16
Speaker 1: are more than just the ending of a crime story.
49:19
Speaker 1: They represent a devastating collapse of protection, emotional, legal, and
49:23
Speaker 1: systemic around a young woman who, at her core was
49:27
Speaker 1: simply trying to understand where she came from. Katie was
49:30
Speaker 1: not a criminal. She was not a willing participant in
49:33
Speaker 1: her own manipulation. She was a young adult raised in
49:37
Speaker 1: a safe home, who chose to seek out her biological
49:39
Speaker 1: parents out of curiosity, identity, and the hope of connection.
49:44
Speaker 1: What she found instead was a man who had already
49:46
Speaker 1: shown a pattern of influence over younger, vulnerable individuals, and
49:51
Speaker 1: who used the language of love to justify what was
49:54
Speaker 1: at its heart control. This was not a story of romance.
49:59
Speaker 1: It was not a case of two consenting adults. It
50:02
Speaker 1: was a case of grooming, coercion, and long term emotional entrapment,
50:08
Speaker 1: one that escalated when the victim tried to reclaim her life.
50:12
Speaker 1: What makes this story especially tragic is how many people
50:16
Speaker 1: saw parts of it coming. A child's journal entries raising alarms,
50:20
Speaker 1: a mother made multiple pleased to law enforcement. A courtroom
50:24
Speaker 1: heard arguments about consensual nature of relationships but failed to
50:28
Speaker 1: fully account for its origins. A child was placed in
50:31
Speaker 1: a home where the most dangerous person in the story
50:34
Speaker 1: still had access to them. The result was a triple
50:38
Speaker 1: murder suicide, spanning three states and leaving multiple families and
50:43
Speaker 1: communities forever altered. For those telling Katie's story now, it's
50:47
Speaker 1: essential to say this clearly. Katie was a victim, a
50:52
Speaker 1: victim of manipulation, a victim of isolation, a victim of
50:56
Speaker 1: a deeply broken system that didn't recognize what was happening
51:00
Speaker 1: opening until it was too late. And for others, especially adoptees,
51:04
Speaker 1: survivors of coursive relationships, and those navigating difficult reunions, this
51:09
Speaker 1: case is a painful reminder of how fragile the line
51:12
Speaker 1: between reconnection and danger can be. True crime isn't about
51:16
Speaker 1: what happened. It's about what we missed and what we
51:20
Speaker 1: must do better next time. Because Katie didn't fail the system.
51:25
Speaker 1: The system failed her, and this is the story of
51:28
Speaker 1: Katie palatal.
51:31
Speaker 2: Oh. That is a sad one.
51:33
Speaker 1: Hey, it is.
51:35
Speaker 2: I feel like, yeah, this is no one, no one's
51:38
Speaker 2: like particular fault except for Steven. But he had so
51:41
Speaker 2: many enablers along the way.
51:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, he definitely did.
51:46
Speaker 2: But it's so easy to you know, see what was
51:49
Speaker 2: coming after it happened.
51:50
Speaker 1: To hindsight is twenty twenty. You're right. I think all
51:54
Speaker 1: those around around the case just hoped, hoped for the
51:57
Speaker 1: best and thought that, you know, things might work out,
52:04
Speaker 1: and didn't think that anyone would be capable of this.
52:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that it would end this way, but.
52:09
Speaker 1: Clearly enabling an individual to have that control to continue
52:13
Speaker 1: with these behaviors, it had devastating results.
52:18
Speaker 2: So I have to feel I feel like I have
52:20
Speaker 2: to give a shout out to Katie's adopt adoptive parents
52:23
Speaker 2: for just like taking her back after all this like
52:26
Speaker 2: shit happened.
52:27
Speaker 1: I don't think there was any question.
52:28
Speaker 2: Well I know, so I don't think there was either,
52:30
Speaker 2: Like that's incredible.
52:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think their primary focus her was Katie the
52:37
Speaker 1: entire time. They wanted to make sure that they were
52:40
Speaker 1: there to help Katie. They didn't want to cross any
52:43
Speaker 1: lines because if they crossed lines, then Katie would cut
52:46
Speaker 1: them out and they couldn't be there.
52:47
Speaker 2: To help her, so which would have been so hard.
52:51
Speaker 1: Yes, So they they did some difficult things, things that
52:55
Speaker 1: I'm sure they did not want to do, like going
52:57
Speaker 1: to the wedding, for example, because they wanted to be
53:01
Speaker 1: there if Katie needed them.
53:03
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and I think they were probably very aware
53:07
Speaker 2: she eventually would.
53:08
Speaker 1: Yeah.
53:09
Speaker 2: And then is it Alyssa right, Alyssa Yeah, ah, this
53:12
Speaker 2: would have just destroyed her. Yeah, because I did mention
53:15
Speaker 2: at one point like, oh, she should have stayed there, right,
53:18
Speaker 2: But I'm not saying any of this was her fault anyway,
53:23
Speaker 2: because she definitely tried and she saw She was the
53:25
Speaker 2: first one that really saw it coming. And I'm surprised
53:29
Speaker 2: she got out of that situation really just seeing how
53:32
Speaker 2: how she probably would never have been able to leave Otherwise.
53:36
Speaker 1: Many people are stuck in relationships like that and are powerless,
53:39
Speaker 1: and she managed to find it in her to get
53:42
Speaker 1: out of that situation, so that in itself would take
53:45
Speaker 1: a lot. I understand what you're meaning by like she
53:48
Speaker 1: shouldn't have left. It's like because now Katie's there alone.
53:51
Speaker 1: But I think she tried to leave and get Katie
53:53
Speaker 1: to leave too. Yeah, and it came down to the
53:56
Speaker 1: Katie's an adult and she can make her decisions.
53:58
Speaker 2: You can't control her, no, But I mean Stephen was
54:01
Speaker 2: distracted with Katie, and I think that gave Alyssa, you know,
54:07
Speaker 2: the actual like ability to leave potentially, because he may
54:10
Speaker 2: not have ever let her leave potentially. So I think
54:13
Speaker 2: I just think, no matter what, this just would have
54:15
Speaker 2: ended in a disaster because Steven's a freaking piece of shity.
54:18
Speaker 1: So this is very complicated and very delicate story. If
54:23
Speaker 1: you guys have some thoughts on it, definitely shoot us
54:26
Speaker 1: a message. We're curious. We definitely want to know what
54:28
Speaker 1: you have to say. And yeah, it's a roller coaster.
54:33
Speaker 1: So shout out once again to Shelby for bringing this
54:35
Speaker 1: case to our attention. As soon as I learned about it,
54:38
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy shit, I gotta research this.
54:43
Speaker 2: It is just a doozy and a half it is.
54:46
Speaker 1: If you guys want to check out more of our
54:47
Speaker 1: social media's or anything, If you want to give us
54:49
Speaker 1: some case recommendations, shoot us a message. If you want
54:52
Speaker 1: to just hey, join us on Patreon or anything like that.
54:54
Speaker 1: All our stuff, all our information for this podcast in
54:57
Speaker 1: the description down below. If you want to give us
54:59
Speaker 1: a review, it helps us so much. We are an
55:01
Speaker 1: indie podcast. We write research all this on our own,
55:05
Speaker 1: So hey, a five star goes a long way, and
55:08
Speaker 1: we really appreciate that. Any review, honestly we appreciate. So yeah,
55:12
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. And until next time.
55:14
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go snuggle the shit out of our dogs. Yeah,
55:17
Speaker 2: but until next time, stay wicked.