The Misery Machine - Father/Daughter Marriage Leads To Killing Spree

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm naive, young, and extremely odd. I'm quiet and awkward and kind of predictable. But that doesn't say a whole lot because sometimes I'm loud and outgoing and pretty sporadic. Some days I love indie and other days I love Dubstep. I hate mainstream and people and socializing with strangers. My life is the Internet and my work is in my art. My behavior is that of a five-year-old, and I believe in magic more than I believe in reality. I'm a bit confusing.

Starting point is 00:00:40 You just have to see for yourself, I guess. In 1995, 20-year-old Stephen Walter Plato met a 15-year-old girl by the name of Alyssa Garcia in an internet chat room. The shoe began a relationship, and Stephen traveled to Texas to be with a teenager. A year later, Alyssa became pregnant. The couple welcomed a daughter into the world on January 29, 1998. They named her Denise, but subsequently, they gave her up for adoption eight months later. Steve and Alyssa were young and poor, but that wasn't the reason that Denise was put up for adoption. According to Alyssa, Stephen would brutally pinch their infant daughter until her body was left black and blue.

Starting point is 00:01:37 The father would also stuff Denise into a cooler to drown out her crying and prevented Alyssa from freeing her terrified infant daughter until she was on the verge of suffocating to death. Alyssa, now 17 years old and estranged from her family, decided the only way to ensure her daughter's safety was to get her as far away from Stephen as possible. and in turn she made one of the hardest decisions that any mother would have to make. Denise was adopted by Anthony Tony Fusco and Kelly Fusco of Wingdale, New York. She was renamed Katie Rose Fusco and grew up with an adoptive sister, Nicole Ann Fusco. Katie created beautiful art throughout her life and planned to pursue a career in digital advertising. She planned to attend Duchess Community College followed by Purchase College in Purchase. New York. Katie was described as a superior drummer, a vegetarian, and a lover of all animals,

Starting point is 00:02:40 with a special fondness for rescuing stray cats. She was a 2016 graduate of Dover High School, where she was famous for her comic strips. She was also a parishioner of St. Charles Baromio Church in Dover Plains, New York. Meanwhile, things were not going so well for Alyssa Plato, Katie's biological mother. After putting up her daughter for adoption, she continued to live with Stephen in a house of absolute horror. Alyssa subsequently married him in 2006 and had two more daughters. The couple settled in Henrico, a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, where Stephen couldn't keep a job and Alyssa worked as a supervisor for T-Mobile. Stephen had a violent temper and he kept a cash of four to five guns on the property and would often threaten to blow his brains out if Alyssa ever left him.

Starting point is 00:03:32 He also threatened to record himself taking his own life and told Alyssa that he'd find a way to make sure the video got to her. Stephen would burst into fits of rage and toss furniture around and punch holes into walls. But by far, this was not the worst of it. According to Alyssa, when a neighborhood cat crept into his garage, his response was horrific. Alyssa recounted the event with, quote, he literally beat it to death with his own hands and maybe some tools, wrapped it in a trash bag, and put it in the garbage, just because he didn't like hats, end quote.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Stephen would also berate his daughters. According to Alyssa, Stephen made their youngest daughter wait in the bathtub in her wet clothing for hours after she soiled herself. And she stayed that way until Alyssa came home to clean her daughter. her up. The little girl was only three years old at the time. Alyssa also noted that Stephen would call their other daughter, who was autistic, the R word, to her face. This all happened, unbeknownst to Katie Fuscoe and her adoptive parents. When Katie turned 18 in 2016, she decided that she wanted to try to locate her biological parents and ended up connecting with them via

Starting point is 00:04:51 Facebook. The Playdals were happy to reunite with her, and instead of going to call her, in 2016, Katie moved in with her biological parents that month. Tony and Kelly Fusco, Kelly's adoptive parents, were apprehensive, but they thought Katie was old enough to make her own decisions and they supported her. However, as we mentioned earlier, all was not well in the plato home. Stephen and Alyssa had already decided to separate and were sleeping in separate rooms. Alyssa told Katie privately that Stephen had harmed her as a baby and that a major reason for the adoption was her own safety.

Starting point is 00:05:29 But according to Alyssa, Katie didn't appear to be concerned. According to Alyssa, Stephen's behavior changed after he met Katie. He began wearing skinny jeans and form-fitting shirts. He shaved his beard and let his hair grow long. About six weeks after Katie moved in, Stephen slept on the floor in her room.

Starting point is 00:05:49 Concerns, Alyssa confronted her estranged husband, who barked at her that it was none of her business, and proceeded to storm out of the house with Katie in tow. In November of 2016, Alyssa finally moved out of the Plato family home, but continued to share custody of her two youngest daughters with Stephen. However, in May of 2017, after going through her 11-year-old daughter's journal,

Starting point is 00:06:14 Alyssa learned some incredibly shocking news. Stephen and Katie were in a relationship, and Katie was pregnant with her biological father's baby. Excerpts from the journal read, quote, My dad calls her baby also his baby. My dad even says she's my stepmom. He doesn't even want me to say or call her sister anymore, with a future journal entry referring to her father reading, quote,

Starting point is 00:06:41 He's Satan. He'll go to hell, but he won't be the one getting tortured. He'll be the one torturing people, end quote. Hysterical, Alyssa phoned Stephen to confront him, and then the police. She immediately sought a protective order banning Stephen from contacting her or their other daughters, which triggered an investigation. On July 20, 2017, two months after his divorce from Melissa was finalized,

Starting point is 00:07:09 Stephen married his eldest daughter, Katie, and parked in Maryland. In attendance at the Simple Lakeside ceremony was Katie's adoptive parents, Tony and Kelly Fusco, and Stephen's mother, Grace. Katie's adoptive parents, as well as Stephen's son, mother knew that Katie was his biological daughter, but apparently none of them had any problem with that, as can be seen from multiple pictures of them smiling and wedding photos alongside Stephen and Katie. The couple lied on their marriage applications stating they were unrelated, despite being under a former police investigation brought on by Alyssa's call. Katie gave birth to a son,

Starting point is 00:07:48 Bennett, Kieran, Plato on September 1, 2017. She, Stephen, and their new baby moved to a house on a cul-de-sac in Nightdale, North Carolina, just east of Rale. However, wedded bliss did not last very long as their lives finally caught up with them. You see, it's not exactly legal for a father to marry and have kids with his own daughter. Stephen and Katie Plato were arrested in January of 2018 and extradited back to Henrico County in Virginia on charges stemming from their unconventional and illegal relationship. A judge ordered them to not contact each other, and Stephen Sassaddle. 72-year-old mother Grace was awarded custody of their son Bennett.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Stephen was released one month later on a $28,000 bond, and Katie moved back in with her adoptive parents, Tony and Kelly, in New York. Every Tuesday and Thursday, she would travel to the home of her adoptive grandmother, Lucille Marino Fusco, in Waterbury, Connecticut. On one such Thursday, April 12, 2018, Katie and her adoptive father, Tony, set out to visit her grandmother together. What they both didn't know, parked nearby in a minivan, was Stephen Plato, stalking their every move. Katie had ended their relationship the prior day over the phone.

Starting point is 00:09:06 Nothing had been put in place legally that banned Stephen from seeing his seven-month-old son, which proved to be a major failure of justice. Stephen told his mother, Grace, that he planned to bring his son Bennett to Katie in New York. Instead, Stephen killed his infant son and stashed his body in a closet the home he formally shared with Katie in Nightdale, North Carolina. Then, he drove almost 600 miles north, roughly an 8-hour and 45-minute drive to ambush Katie and her adoptive father, Tony, who was a retired Coast Guard and corrections officer. Stephen followed their truck to New Milford, Connecticut before spraying bullets into the truck cabin, killing both 20-year-old Katie and 56-year-old Tony. An off-duty firefighter was the first to find them and made the 911 call.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Someone just went by and shot this guy in the truck. It just happened. I'm a fireman out in New York. The car pulled up, went around him, shot him, a whole clip pulled into his head. He's dead? Yes, sir. It brings around the road. Around the same time, another call to 911,

Starting point is 00:10:11 one was made by Stephen's mother, Grace. Stephen called his mother shortly after killing Katie and Tony, and confessed everything to her. My son just called me, and he told me he killed his baby. I just got up the phone just a couple of minutes ago, and he told me to call the police that I shouldn't go over there. A short while later, Stephen's body was found over the state border in Dover, New York. The cause of death for the 43-year-old was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Starting point is 00:10:46 I did not remotely believe that he could harm himself or anybody around him. And when something like this happens, it's a shock. It's disappointing. Katie, her son Bennett and her adoptive father, Tony, were laid to rest on April 21, 2018, at the St. Charles Cemetery. The three were survived by many family members and friends and animals that were raised. Tony and his wife Kelly had rescued over the years, including Bandit, who was described as Tony's four-legged son. Alyssa Plato sent flowers but did not attend the service in fear that her presence would draw further media attention. Instead, she held her own private vigil with friends to mourn the passing

Starting point is 00:11:30 of the daughter she says she's now lost three times and her first grandson. If you appreciate this video and what we're doing, if you could please hit that subscribe button and share our video with someone that you think would appreciate us. This goes a long way to racing our platform. Big, big thank you to Karen Bumaro, who read Katie's journal entry at the beginning of this episode. If you want a follower on Instagram, you can do so at K. Bumbarro. All business inquiries can be directed there as well. We also have a very wonderful group of people going that extra step to support us on Patreon.

Starting point is 00:12:05 I will put their names up right now. I want to say welcome to six new patrons, Emily, Liza, Rachel, Essend, S. Sharon and Lynette. Shout out to our Levi-Tierre patrons, Levi, Holly, Chaka, Amelia, Laura, Cody, and L. There's their lovely pictures right now. Special shout out to our girl, you nasty tier. Dom and Lisa, thank you so much for supporting us and being as nasty as you are. And very, very special shout out to our highest tier.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Patreon supporter, Melissa. There's her lovely picture right now with her little doll hands. And if you two want to support us on Patreon, on patreon.com, patreon.com, slash the misery machine. You get access to all of our secret episodes, and you may even get a postcard. Haunted one. Patreon.com slash the misery machine. But until next week, we love you. We love you. Bye.

The Misery Machine - Father/Daughter Marriage Leads To Killing Spree

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