Vanished in Orlando: The Case of Maddie Soto

This is one of those cases that captivates America. It's every parent's worst nightmare. And there are a half a dozen different possibilities right out of the sheet as to what could have happened to this child. 9-1-1, Zini, police fire or medical? We already called three times. And the police didn't show up yet. The police didn't show up. So they kept calling 9-1-1, hoping someone would respond. In my heart, I feel like somebody took her. No one could have imagined just how far this story would spiral. Are you in the sense blaming yourself? Sorry about, too. [MUSIC PLAYING] Jennifer Soto went to pick up her daughter at school in the afternoon when she got to school. Madeline Soto wasn't there. So she and her family called police. They quickly realized she never made it to school. She's white, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes. How long has it been since you guys have seen her? She was dropped off at school this morning, and apparently she never showed up. Time is of the essence because the longer it takes to find the child, the worse the end of the story might be. Madeline's mother, Jennifer, she was alerted by an automated recording from the school. It's 6 p.m. that Madeline had not made it to school that day, that she was tardy. She was absent. So there was time lost. She was missing for a while before it was ever reported to police. Does she have a cell phone that she might keep on her person? She had one when she looked at home. It occurred to me in the evening. We'll have deputies out there to come and make her a part with you, OK? That is a very odd word to use, conveniently. So this is going to play into the cell phone or ADHD. She is forgetful. This is typical of Madeline. Multiple 9-1-1 calls came in because the original call you expect law enforcement to come right away. I just called 9-1-1. And when they didn't do that, over and over, again, they called trying to get some help. 9-1-1, what is the location of your emergency? I call as I thought, long as I was a reporting a missing child, I just want to see how long they've got to get here. The cost of currently pending for no one's on their way yet. Not yet, no. Law enforcement has a priority system so they don't divert resources to cases where someone's a runaway, for example, and not endangered. And when the 9-1-1 calls came in about Madeline, at first, it was given the lowest priority. But she was only 13. The age of 13 is a little young to be a runaway. It happens, but it should have raised a red flag right away. And what's worse, several hours go by, and there's still no police response. So they have to call a third time. Now, 1-1-1, what is the location of your emergency? We have a missing child. And the police didn't show it up yet. I think panic sets in. They call on enforcement. They don't show up. And I think they kind of felt disregarded. This little girl's been missing for hours at this point. [INTERPOSING VOICES] We have information, but they're trying to get this someone as soon as possible. So this is one for you guys, really? But we're very busy in the area. I don't understand if they'll be there soon. And they can, OK? There's three hours. In those three hours, could something have been done? Because time is so critical in these situations. And for them, that's a terrible position to be in. Police finally respond three hours after that initial 9-1-1 call. Excuse me, mom. Hey there. Hey there. What's going on? So my daughter was dropped off close to school this morning, but never made it. I went to pick her up from school, say, and she never came out. Sometimes she'll walk you to this office. I came here, nothing. I got a notice, an email from the school saying she was absent. Jen Soto was up front, right? And you saw her with this fear response. When someone's eyelids raise up so high that you literally can see the white all the way around the eyes, that's a high level of fear. In addition to that, she's actually rocking from side to side, that adrenaline rush. That's the panic. What was she last seen where? Green hoodies, white cross. White cross, blue or black pants. Did she like have any places that you guys know that she would usually be at, any friend's house, any places that she'd hang out? Typically, you know. What was really interesting about that is that we had Stefan Stern in the back. He had his arms crossed. He was in a frozen, but yet relaxed position. He didn't show any sort of support for mom, and you would hear him intercept every now and then. But she left her home today. I haven't heard any of her messages. It's only if I just got her right now. Because it's her she left her home. She, you know, out of history, I don't know. She got dropped on. She was like, I-- That was the message. She's an emeritus, by this call. Does she want to be dropped on that speech? She wants to be dropped off. I have a blah, blah, blah, blah. Did she ever move to school? No, we called school. She was walking in that direction. She was lifelike through her back map. She looked the same as in the early morning. But here's the interesting thing is. He said that we took her to school, and we saw her walk across the street. And then it dropped to, he took her to school, because he was the one that drove her. So there was some ambiguity, whether who was the one that dropped off? Was it them together? Or was it just him doing it so low? And was the last time you seen her, do you know that we were running for time? Around 838, where do you want to drop her off? At that point in time, he takes his hat and shoves it down. Now, why is this important? So when we look at these nonverbal cues, it's highly suspicious that something else is going on. His affect is not the same. He's not showing sadness or concern. What are they here? [INAUDIBLE] I don't know where these communities are. And it's just like in the district. We could see the overpass down there. We just came down, and we drove about halfway down. She was like, that's good right here. OK. I believe in this day, and they just don't care what's going on. Police canvassed this entire area around the spot where Madeline was allegedly dropped off. And surveillance footage at a nearby church, that seemingly gives investigators their first break. You know how I keep thinking of? How's it going? Oh, she basically hurt her head. She felt her phone down to me. It's like, that feels intentional. I don't want to be tracked. She got up. She's walking. Oh, yeah. And she walked away, so she's gone. So nobody picked her up. The video from the church, it showed a young woman. Well, Madeline Soto was just walking away. Then that shows that if she didn't make it to school that day, that's because she decided not to show up to school. She perhaps was a runaway. It's possible that she came here, blurry video. But it looks like a house, a child sitting right there. People here said that they were adamant. They seen her on the property. But, as I said, it's a blurry video. And I don't see her getting into anybody's heart in the video. I see her sitting on property for a good, for good take 10 minutes. And then walking off property. I don't know which way she went from there. So now we have a possible sighting of Madeline. But no one has any idea where this young teenager is gone. And the clock is ticking. Everything and everyone kicks it into high gear to try to find her. Immediately you think, and did she skip school? It is pretty normal for us not to go out and search and choose to cover a story and tell law enforcement says, this child is missing or person is missing. But there was just something in my gut that said, you guys probably need to go down and just interview the parents, just in case. She had a birthday party on Sunday. She had a great time. I told her every night and yeah, that was it. I was in the one that took her to your school in the morning. That was my partner. He seemed very emotional right now, I spanked with him. They dropped her off. They had to look for what I drove away. So last night we saw her. It's hard not to, it's the reality you can tell you. We don't know where she is. We don't know if she's safe. We just want a baby. >> Gen Soto and Stefan Sterns had an on and off again relationship, but he was still visiting the family it took us a few days to try to figure out what that relationship was because they called themselves boyfriend girlfriend they said it was her fiance then we found out in the end they didn't even live together at the time they had broken up so there was a really weird dynamic between the two of them with this little girl kind of in between he describes and so did she a close relationship between Madeline Soto and Stefan Sterns you don't want to think it's a possibility but we know in this world and I've investigated thousands of predators over many years you have to look at people closest to the victim because there are the ones with the opportunity and sadly in this world predators will seek vulnerable people that interview immediately raised questions for us about what happened it wasn't about what they said it's about how they acted it was not not the behavior she's not the type that was just who it off we were scared it's what they're at home I don't know if she was trying to walk back home on her own or she was trying to go to her friend's house probably the most I'll say is to walk back to the dog investigators put every resource into locating Madeline canine tracking officers on foot canvassing around the neighborhood anything they can do to try to drum up some kind of lead hey guys so which is going to try to see if we could pull one mark floating that's okay with you guys now we're gonna have the dogs never out again the searches from the canines were not successful because Madeline never made it to school hello if you see this child she looks yes so if you guys see her somewhere just give us a call is it about that love yeah my god I've been crying all day long I kept saying to myself I'm hoping she skips school today unfortunately you know we still haven't found her we're looking for any information possible there is a lot of people in that area which kind of made it even more strange that no one would have seen this little girl because it wasn't like you were in the middle of nowhere this is right in the middle of a very busy area of Orlando we're here looking for a missing child you guys have any video surveillance at all no cameras no it shocks us because it happens in our neighborhood yeah it happens I think every day but it's just it's different on its nearby at this point it is so important to cast a wider net spread word around the entire state even across the country in the hopes of getting some answers this is every parents worst nightmare we have well over 100 deputies detectives intelligence analysts and specialized personnel searching for Madeline right now we will not stop until we find her the community immediately rallied around this little girl the online traffic for this case was insane that then gets all the attention of the Instagrammers and the bloggers and the YouTubers it's now been more than 24 hours since Madeline Soto was last seen so investigators need to speak with Jennifer and Stefan and they sit them down for formal interviews can you tell me when is the last time you were saw her I'm going to say Sunday night Sunday she had her birthday for you right what time was that bird yet I started at 3 o'clock okay from 3 to 1 time I'm not sure I wasn't there I'll work that party was significant because early on we were trying to figure out did something happen at that party there was no indication from that party that anything was wrong I heard her Monday getting ready for school where did she go to bed she actually slept upstairs with we were all going to sleep together in the same bed but I got a new job recently I've been arrested I needed some sleep and Stefan is going to be referring to you right yeah you guys normally all sleep together she seems to me typically when he comes to town he'll sleep in the guest bedroom he moves away back in December so no arguments at home recently or anything no at first the conversation went that they all slept in a downstairs bedroom all three of them in the same bed then when the pictures come out we see that there was an empty room that he was sleeping in and then you see this kind of blocked off room in a common area and that was Madeline Soto's bedroom she did not have a bedroom with the door of her own it is inappropriate for a young teen girl to be in bed on a regular basis with her mother's boyfriend it's not healthy it's not good and in this case it was a predictor of criminal activity what time does you normally leave for school usually around 8 50 at the latest to the previous night you and Stefan had agreed that he was going to get yeah and take her in the morning okay and they were going to stop in McDonald's and get breakfast but she changed her mind when Stefan called me around 10 18 in the morning yeah just let me know that he just brought that home for running a few errands it is crucial to separate the parties out we want them to tell from the beginning to the end the way they remember it we want to know is there language similar or our is it word for word verbatim which would lead to the two of them have already cooperated had this discussion and already planned out what they were going to say when you said you dropped her off like in the area where exactly drop so if you pull down the street going towards a school it was in that stretch of side on the kept going back to Stefan's story and each time you could see some cracks when you keep asking those questions that person has to repeat every time a DBA from that that could be incriminating so after you dropped do you remember what you did after yeah I after I left her you know it's just driving away it looked like she was making a way towards a school like almost I went out with my day I had a couple errands to run over one day to their account would be more similar if they were experiencing it exactly at the same time we know Jen was not there to drop her off what she was doing was parenting what he told her she then took it on as being her story you'd say you guys have a good pretty good relationship yeah definitely very strong bond she say she's usually like a happy go very good very happy she brings a lot of she's so happy to she's looking forward to my visit here she's looking for those all being together once it became a parent that mother's boyfriend had an unusually close relationship with the mother's daughter you have to really dig into that what was going on there where they just you know a stepfather stepdaughter type situation relationship or was there something more to failures the other detective mentions that you did not have your phone yesterday correct I left my phone at home in the morning too I was so busy I was checking your call history I noticed that you don't have anything before this morning is that usual on your phone no it's it's a new phone I went to do an update yesterday morning I don't know what the heck I did but somehow I managed to factory reset my phone and lose all of my contacts all my information how many times in the history of your cell phone ownership have you accidentally wiped out the call record of your phone I have never done this guy now under the harsh light of scrutiny for the disappearance of his girlfriend's daughter what are the odds that magically this happens to him it is very suspicious it stinks to hell in the meantime while we're waiting for all this to get sorted out I am hold on to your phone okay law enforcement was able to recover what was on that phone that was the moment that people knew oh something is terribly wrong do you have any idea where she maybe not whatsoever [MUSIC] How was your name? >> I'm not great. >> Okay. >> I'm just getting very good sleep. >> Just give us a few more minutes. I'm just waiting for you or something else to come, okay? >> Okay. [MUSIC] >> He was asleep on detectives. Walk down. >> Step on. [MUSIC] >> Thank you, sir. >> That's okay. >> I mean, to wake you up, we just talked to Jennifer a little bit. So I may ask you things that you've already answered, probably three or four times. >> And I followed that. >> His behavior of sleeping over the years, he was always tired, he said, right? He was always up at night and he didn't sleep. And he was all grogging and having that conversation. And he used that grogginess as an excuse. >> What are the sleeping arrangements? Sunday night? >> We're in the same bed together, so she's to just a dad. The guest room upstairs, I think. So we'll snuggle a couple of times to have some supplies in the gym to get the sleep of these. >> So you say he's snuggled a little time, what is that? >> I'd like to be alone. She's extremely independent. >> Morning time comes around. >> We got out early to plan on us to get some McDonald's away. So we got out nice and early. Do you remember what time you left? Roughly. >> Not 100 percent. >> Sorry. >> Sorry. >> That we just got being super polite. >> Maybe, maybe 37, 37, 45. >> He never really looked at the police officers in the eye. He never consistently always looked down or around. And then he would make excuses. I'm so sorry. Also politeness, overly politeness and excuses are also a deceptive indicator. >> But we need the house. We start making our way to the school. How was she like at the car right there? Calm down, sleep. >> His vocal tone is down. He's got this kind of scratchy, perform sort of sadness. Yet, his eyebrows never pinched up. Expression and movements within his face never showed authentic sadness. >> You want me to do the rest of the day? >> The next stop I wanted to go to is the make shop. Maybe noon, sure, one o'clock. I have a few here and so on. I wanted to go check out some new shops. But I don't want to be back in time first. So I just ran out. I made up the down one, 92. And I'm getting a flat at some point, which made me late. So I got home and called in and said, hey, I'm so sorry, I'm kind of flat. She already left. >> Now, at this point, detectives have collected several pieces of evidence. But it's something they find in the garbage that peaks their interest about Stefan Stern's movements before Madeline Soto was even reported missing. >> Did you take any trash out from the apartment? >> Is it night before I think I did? >> I took the trash out at some point. >> They started asking him questions. Hey, did you ever go to the trash? And I'm not sure at that point he knew what they were necessarily getting at. >> Nowadays, cameras are everywhere, okay? We see you go by the dumpster. What was in the trash? >> That was trash. >> Okay, when you took her school, did she have her back back with her? >> Yes. >> She did. Well, I can confidently tell you she did not go to school with her back back. >> What was that? >> Because we found in the trash. >> They already knew that his story didn't match up. The video from that apartment complex had shown him throwing her backpack away in the dumpster. >> I have kids, he's got kids. And this little girl's out there somewhere that we need to know where. And I really, really, really think you can almost. >> That was the moment you could tell that he knew he was caught. >> Do you know if she's ever been sexually active with anybody in the past? >> I don't know where I was. I heard there was some sort of incident when she was much younger. She did something with the phone or a camera, but got scolded for it. >> For why don't you understand that you gave the deputies consent to look through your phone? What do you think was on the phone? >> Text messages, emails. >> Pictures? >> Yeah. >> Pictures, we're on there. >> Training card pictures. >> Lightsaber pictures, Disney pictures. >> When the suspect deletes things, they somehow believe they're just pressing delete. Just clears their history forever. It doesn't work like that. Law enforcement is really powerful in this area. They've got advanced technology. >> Do you have a Google account? >> Yeah. >> Do you save pictures to your Google account? >> Sometimes. >> Any package pictures of you? >> Probably, I mean, went to Disney, took selfies on the train. >> I see this all the time when I eat a few predators during our sting operations. They get to a point where they're boxed in, and then you lower the boom. You present this evidence, this digital evidence, that just can't be explained away. >> Any other pictures? >> I think I'm going to be brutally honest with you. There's a phone. And I'm pretty sure you know what some of those pictures are about. So do you want to add to the list of pictures? >> Sure, so I'll be talking. It was a lawyer right now. >> I can't answer that question. >> Feeling guilty? She probably had a lawyer precedent this morning. >> Do you want to know what you're being detained for? >> Yeah. >> Capital sexual battery and position of child prongering. He violated every single layer of that trust when he tried to develop a relationship with his child. And I would argue that he had planned this all along, and he groomed this child. And each time he got a little closer and a little further down the grooming trail, he could justify this in his own mind. And all of a sudden, detectives present him with his digital, forensic, undeniable evidence of a crime. And there's no way out. >> The content on Stern's phone and other hard drives that were found in his storage unit that dates back years. Police even find these new drawings in Madeline's school notebook. >> Thanks for stepping on Stern's father. Laurent Forson were alerted to that hard drive. And it wasn't just images of Madeline, but also images of Jennifer's roommate, people lie, but photos generally don't. And when you can recover 35,000 images, it shows motive. But it also is a separate crime in itself. 35,000 images will get you locked up for life. And sexual abuse of a child, as was found on that hard drive, that could get you the death penalty in Florida. This guy clearly needed to be stopped. >> I don't think anybody saw this case taking that kind of turn. And so now police want to speak to Jennifer again. >> I was a woken up at some time. For the longest time I've been saying he woke me up at 8 o'clock in the morning. But in reality, I don't know what time he woke me up. He told me he was going to go out cruising that night to go look for her. I had a question that I asked him, are you sure it's a good idea? You should probably sit tight, eventually reporters come to the house and do an interview. And he ugly cried in front of the camera too, so he was [bleep] face off crying. Time I thought he was truly heartbroken and not that he had done all this [bleep] to her. Like, I look back at [bleep] now, I'm just like, who's [bleep] going? Who's [bleep] baking? What else has he been lying to me about? Jennifer says, and looking back now, I noticed all of these things that did seem to be off with Stefan. >> I think the victim had came or somebody came and asked Stefan for his cellphone. He started getting very anxious and very panicky going, I want my phone back. I want my phone back. And I'm just like, do you-- are you trying to make yourself more suspicious? At one point, he takes my phone. I think from my phone, he was trying to log into his emails. I started saying to him, like, I think they're focusing it on you. Like, he needs to call your dad and I think we need to get you where. I feel like they're focusing on the wrong person and he has the same thing. >> Do you offer him a lawyer's spirit weird? >> I know, I know. >> The main thing is that she was in constant denial. The fact that she was duped shocked her. So what we saw in her was the shaking and the trembling, the white face, wide eyes, all of these response Physiological responses seemed off. She was replaying things in her subconscious mind they can't possibly be him. The living situation with them helped me out of seemed weird. It's weird to me. Originally, the plan was that all three of us were going to sleep in my bed together. It wasn't until June that he got his own bedroom and I sent him upstairs. That's where the. That's where the request for sleepover started. Okay. And I have time for no. When you guys slept in the same bed together did you ever wake up and find the cuddling and you ever wake up and find them closer than you thought they should be? They would stumble. Yeah. Okay. But we all stumbled. And you never found that weird. I think people felt like Jen Soto led her daughter into that situation by allowing her to sleep with Stefan Sterns. And people wanted to know aren't you asking questions about that? The daughter has never told you anything about what goes on in that room. And this had been going on for years since she was like eight years old. Let's be very clear. There's only one man responsible. But yes, the mother of this child, she's got some culpability here. And I've seen this many times over the years. The mother either doesn't want to believe it or purposefully looks at the other way. Now you know, you've victimized her for a long time. Right? How do you go through? With you home, most likely, you can tell you that today you're still downloading his Google Drive. You're still going through his social medias. And we can now piece back her victimization in your house under your care to 2020. We're looking at a minimum of three and a half years. So at a certain point, I do believe you became aware of what was going on. No. This has been an outgoing thing. And her age, I think she probably thought they were a relationship. She probably thought they were in love. Yes, the mother should have known, should have kicked him out of the house and removed the daughter from harm's way. Absolutely. That's a parents job. But you have to understand the level of manipulation that takes place on the part of these predators. It's a horrifying thing to think about. What this child went through. If I knew anything, I promised you I would tell you, like, I am willing to take a lie detector test. I was oblivious to every four years. Minimum. They actually sell fat fat far back to the clown goes. Let's see. This man has all of these videos on his phone for years. Then you find out he's got child porn images. On other files, they had specific videos of Madeline Soto and Stefan Sterns and the things that he was doing to her. The video showed everything that the police needed to know at the time. That something bad was going on inside that house for years. Because here's a deal. We don't go home until she's found. I believe Stefan killed her. All we can do now is find her as quickly as possible. I don't want to believe he killed her. I want to believe she's still alive 'cause she got kidnapped. But that doesn't seem like that's the case. Well, it's not what I want. Remember, this community thought there was a little girl who had vanished. Now they realize that she was living in a house of health. When you guys showed me the picture of her, I believed the sexual stuff, but I didn't want to believe that he had done anything that was equal to her. And the community was outraged at that moment, not at Stefan Sterns at Gen Soto. Now you have an arrest of the mother's boyfriend, the living boyfriend, so of course you're going to look and scrutinize the mother. What did she know? Should she have known? So that's why a lot of people are wondering, why isn't she arrested for something? But you've got to have enough evidence. Prosecutors just can't go on hunches. Although we have not found Madeline, we are now confident that she is dead. Our detectives have determined that Madeline was never dropped off on the morning of February 26th near her school. Instead, we believe she was already dead and that Stefan Sterns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day. He stuck to the story that Madeline Soto was asleep in the front seat. That made sense if you're thinking about what if somebody sees me going in and out and they saw her slumped over. They had video and knew immediately he was driving around with her dead in the front seat of that car. The evidence is just piling up. And as we've seen in so many different cases before, the video surveillance, that could be the key piece of evidence that takes Stefan Sterns down for the murder of Madeline Soto. We have video evidence that shows Stefan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex. We have evidence that shows Stefan Sterns returning to the complex and Madeline was visible in that vehicle. We believe she was already dead at that time. What does he do? He goes into a parking garage. There's cameras everywhere around you. They could see him taking this lifeless body and putting it into the trunk. All on camera. This is when law enforcement really digs in. They collect several items from the apartment for testing, cell phones from anyone and everyone who was in Madeline's inner circle. And they also collect Jennifer and Stefan's cars. When the canines got a scent of Madeline in Jennifer's car and not Stefan Stern's car, that does complicate things because it does provide the defense with some sort of way out, where perhaps if they introduce that to a jury, that could be reasonable doubt. And the fact that Madeline scent was found in her mother's car does not change the focus from Stefan Sterns, but it is something that law enforcement and prosecutors would have to deal with. We've all heard about the missing child Madeline Soto. Please, if you think or feel you may have heard or seen something, call, give us a tip. We need your help. And breaking news at six sources, just confirmed for Channel 9. The body of missing 13-year-old Madeline Soto has been found. There had been a massive surge for Madeline. And investigators with the Sheriff's Office got a tip that a man had been seen matching Stefan's description, changing a tire. He had a flat tire. And so they go out there to the area to check it out. They find a tire. They search further. And sadly, they find the remains of Madeline's body. And it is as awful as we all suspected. Madeline Soto was strangled. Her body was found feet away from a rural road behind some hay and brush beside a fence in Oceola County. I don't know how long it would have been before we found Madeline Soto's body. If that man hadn't called, he knew exactly where Stefan Sterns was. When that car had a flat tire. And on March 1st, we received information placing Stern's vehicle in a rural area of St. Cloud where ultimately Madeline's body was discovered. At this time, Sterns is facing a total of 60 charges related to our investigation. Police had no problem telling the public what a horrible guy he was. This community felt like this little girl had no ally in her home. They had a huge memorial for a little girl they didn't know. They felt like the protectors of Madeline Soto, even in her death. So months after Sterns was initially charged with just dozens of crimes related to child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography, the homicide case is presented to a grand jury. Another community and the media have been anxious for us if you have an update on this case. Stefan Sterns has been indicted by the grand jury on 1st Remurder on for the killing of Madeline Soto. So it's just threading all of the pieces together, knitting it all together, which led to only one person which was Stefan Sterns. You don't have a man who sleeps with a child and has videos of assaulting her on your phone and then she goes missing and you don't know how it ends. You know how it ends. Now, instead of grouping all of these charges together, the child sexual abuse charges, the homicide charge, prosecutors do something interesting. They decide to actually try these cases separately. I think the reason why the prosecutors here severed the case was because they saw the child sexual abuse as an easy case to prove. Whereas 1st Remurder is a little more difficult. I remember a lot of the cases circumstantial. The evidence in this case is very strong. But having a good case and having a successful prosecution are two different things. And so prosecutors have to really assemble all this evidence in a way that they don't know. they can present to a judge and or jury, to convince them. In the beginning, you had evidence of abuse. He was driving around with her dead and then dumped her in a field in the middle of nowhere. So you think you've heard it all. It cannot get any worse. And then you get the jail calls. So I was not my right mind after I found her. All I know is that when I look at a picture of you and I look at your eyes, I don't see a monster there. I don't see a bad person there. I see my son who I love. Were you expecting the charges? No. The murder charges. Oh, so you got blindsided by that? Yeah. Obviously, you know, it's not true. You know, I never would have wanted her gone to any reason. So, you know, pre-meditated first degree is kind of a piece of science. It almost sounds like you didn't know she had something that had happened to her. Well, I discovered her in the state that she was in. But no, I was not aware that she had passed on. I didn't discover what had happened until the. just around dawn. Okay, interesting, because I discovered that she was very cool. He tells the story to his parents on these jail calls and all of a sudden was like, "Oh, I found her." What? Oh, so now you found her body. You didn't call 911. You didn't scream for help. None of that. Then he says, "Oh, we were upstairs in the bedroom." When you see the pictures, that door has a lock on it. It's like a house of horrors. So, Sterns has a lot on his plate. He's got two separate trials on the horizon, dozens of serious charges that he's facing. And he's got to say to himself, "Is there any chance I could beat this at trial? Or should I just put an end to all this right now?" What was surprising is he was a little bit defiant in the beginning, like, "I don't know what happened to her, that I thought he may take this all the way to trial, but you could tell that reality was starting to sink in. He wasn't getting out of this." Whereas received two plea forms, Sterns, how do you plea to first degree premeditated murder? No contest. I asked the count's one through eight capital sexual battery of Madeleine Soto, 9-13 sexual battery, count's 14-3-20 fluid or lascivious molestation, how do you plea? Guilty. There was direct evidence that Sterns killed Madeleine. The fact that he had all the motive in the world here, this was a very strong case for the prosecution. I think they would have gotten the death penalty if they pursued it, but decided to cut a plea deal instead. He knew that that evidence on his phone that was it. "I agree that it's not fair, that Madeleine is not here anymore, it's about a hard time contemplating a world where she's not around. Her passing has torn me and my family apart as well. And she truly was a joy, and I apologize for all the pain." But in this statement, he only seems to be said for himself. He still doesn't really explain what happened to Madeleine or why he did what he did. Just look at the language and just lay it out and he doesn't really apologize until the end. What he didn't do is to really take ownership. All he's doing is giving lip service. He is telling the judge and everybody else what they're he's expected to say. In the victim impact statements, we get a hear from Madeleine Soto's relatives. The loved ones who had no idea, no reason to believe that Madeleine wasn't any kind of danger under her own mother's roof. "I just miss you and your presence, but that unfortunately was taken from us. I have so much hatred in my heart specifically for the creature that's sitting in this room today. I wouldn't give up my life of them at having to hear with us." Madeleine Soto was my daughter. She was happiness. She was a joy to be around because of the actions of this appraved man. I will never meet the woman she was becoming and I can only hope that he lives a long time in prison and has those same horrors revisited upon him by his fellow inmates. "This monster took advantage of her trust and her innocence. This parasite robbed us of every woman who could have had with me and her life would never be the same." As to first degree, premeditated murder of Madeleine Soto, the arjudicated guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As to the Capitol sexual battery for each county or sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sterns was ultimately given an astounding 21 life sentences and he will never see freedom on the outside ever again. My heart breaks for Madeleine. This poor child did nothing wrong. She was taken advantage of, she was abused and ultimately killed by a predator in our children our most precious asset. And so it's crushing to think about what this child's last moments were like, what her life was like, the abuse that this guy normalized. And for every predator we take down in one of our investigations, it sends a message to a guy like this that you're not going to get away with it. You wish that somebody would have seen a sign and that somebody would have stepped in earlier. It didn't happen one day. It happened for years. How did no one know? Why didn't anybody pay attention? The injustice of that is what we all struggle with and should struggle with because we have to make sure that that's not acceptable because bad things do happen. And it takes all of us to make sure that our children are taken care of and protected.