Narrator

All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with Popping Boba. To crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's. Refreshers contain caffeine. Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Jennifer Soto

And 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 equal to her. I'm like, no, what if she. What if he did this stuff? Fine.

Narrator

Some of the stories we tell here on Sword and Scale will make you sick. They'll tug at your heartstrings. They'll change your whole perspective on humanity. They're the ones you can't get over, the ones you can't really shake. And they stay with you for a long time. The story we're about to tell you is one of them. This is part one of a two part series. Let's go,

911 Dispatcher

Sam. 91 1. What's the location of your emergency?

Narrator

The call is coming out of Kissimmee, Florida, in a quiet suburban pocket near Hunter's Creek Middle School.

911 Dispatcher

Police, fire or medical? Police, possibly. I'm reporting a missing child. And is she white, black or Hispanic? She's white. Okay. Dirty blonde hair, blue eyes. Okay, hold on with me here. Okay, and then how long has it been, though, since you guys have last seen her? Since this morning. She was dropped off at school this morning and apparently she never showed up. We called everyone we knew. No one seen her. She was last seen at the church next to Hunters Creek Middle School. I think it's called Peace Church. I'm not sure if the exact address.

Narrator

She was dropped off that morning just steps away from the school, but she never made it inside. By that afternoon, no one had seen her. Not her friends, not her teachers, not a single person at the school. She was dropped off, then just disappeared. Her name was Madeline Soto, and she was just 13 years old. This was her best friend.

Maddie's Best Friend

She came to the school in the middle of the year, in fourth grade. She was like the new kid. So, like everybody kind of just picked on her and stuff. She was in a different class than me. She got picked on a lot by people like that nobody really liked and stuff. And then one day I kind of went up to her and I was like, hey, what's your Name. And then we got to know each other. Ever since then, we've just been best friends.

Narrator

As best friends. She and Maddie talked every day.

Maddie's Best Friend

Like, every single day. She texts me every morning I wake up, and I always get a text from mine. Unless she. But usually. I thought it was fishy yesterday when she didn't text me at all, because usually, even if she doesn't go to school that day, she texts me, like, the night or the day of, like, she'll wake up early just to, like, text me, like, hey, I'm not going to school. And she didn't yesterday. But I didn't think everything of it, except that she'd go if she, like, slept in or something.

Narrator

That morning. February 26, 2024 was supposed to be routine. A ride to school, maybe breakfast on the way. It was the kind of morning you don't think twice about until something goes horribly wrong. That morning, her mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, drove her to school.

Maddie's Best Friend

Stefan. She was always on a call with him. She loved him. They were really close.

Narrator

They left earlier than usual. They had time to spare and talked about stopping for breakfast at McDonald's. But she changed her mind, as little kids do. She was sleepy, but she also just wanted to get to school early to hang out with her friends. Instead of waiting in the insufferable car line, she asked to be dropped off about a block away. She would walk the rest of the way to find her friends. Apparently, no matter who was taking her to school, Maddie preferred to be dropped off in the near vicinity. This was usually at the church across the street, where a lot of parents dropped off their kids to avoid the long lines. That morning, the car pulled over. Maddie got out and started walking.

911 Dispatcher

They're going to the school to double check and everything, but from what we know, she wasn't there. So they should be back soon, too, because it's right next to. That's fine. So if at least one of you remains there, though, to meet with an officer, that's more than fine. Okay. Yeah, I'll be here. I'll be here. Okay, then. All right. Thank you so much, ma', am, and I'll go ahead and let you go. We'll be out there as quickly as we can. Okay?

Narrator

When someone goes missing, every second matters. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how much you want a limited resource like law enforcement. If there's no cops available, there's no cops available. What do you expect after years of demonizing law enforcement? All cops are bastards, you say? Yeah, that has a negative. But Opposite effect. Duh.

911 Dispatcher

Police are medical. Hi, I called not that long ago reporting the missing child. I just wanted to know how long the cops are going to take to get here. Okay, hold on. Let me open up the call and let's see. The call is still currently pending to have the deputies respond out there that. We don't have any available deputies. We still have the call up the holding. Okay, so no one's on their way yet? Not yet, no. Does it take long for them to respond to the call? If there's a big emergency in the area and there's nobody, there's no units available, they put the calls on hold. But as soon as one becomes available, they respond to the next pressing call. I'll go ahead and update them with the information. All right, thank you. Because this happened very recently, so we just want to get everyone here. She's been missing since 8am at the

Narrator

same time, her family started calling the school, reaching out to teachers to see if anyone had seen her, but no one had.

Police Officer

Okay, what's going on? Vinny, please. Fire, Medical?

911 Dispatcher

No, it's not a medical issue. We have a missing child since this morning. We already called three times and the police didn't show up yet.

Police Officer

Yes, ma', am.

911 Dispatcher

I see.

Police Officer

There's a way for a deputy to respond.

911 Dispatcher

They haven't. They haven't come here yet.

Police Officer

I'm waiting, ma'.

911 Dispatcher

Am.

Police Officer

I see. It's waiting for a deputy to respond.

911 Dispatcher

You're waiting for a deputy to respond?

Police Officer

Yes, ma'.

911 Dispatcher

Am. And how long do we need to wait? It's a child missing.

Police Officer

I understand that, man, but I'm just not able to get out. I don't know when they'll be there.

911 Dispatcher

So how long do we need to wait? This is an emergency, ma'.

Jennifer Soto

Am.

Police Officer

We have the information, but it just. They're trying to get there someone as soon as possible.

911 Dispatcher

So this is not important for you

Police Officer

guys really, but we're very busy in the area.

911 Dispatcher

Look, I understand.

Police Officer

They'll be there as soon as they can, okay?

Narrator

They didn't just call 911 once. They had to call three times. The first call came in at around 4:43pm then again at 5:16 and then another one at 7:21. It took officers almost three hours to arrive and they didn't get there until 7:37pm Deputy logs show the call sat waiting because no deputies were available. Units were tied up with other emergencies and this one had to wait its turn. But before you blame dispatchers, understand that the people answering those calls weren't the ones heading out to search. They were taking information and waiting for someone in the field to clear. They did their jobs correctly, by the book, exactly as instructed. Maddie's mother was later told there were other missing children that day. Seems like an epidemic, right? Resources were stretched thin. In fact, nearly 1,000 children are reported missing in the United States every day. That works out to about one child every 90 seconds. Or roughly 350,000 children under 18 each year. Think about that for just a sec. That's roughly the capacity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So, yeah, an Indianapolis Motor Speedway's worth of children goes missing every year. But to Maddie's parents, family and friends, statistics didn't really matter at the moment. This was serious and urgent. This was their own daughter. An entire day had now passed with no one seeing Maddie.

911 Dispatcher

Does she have a cell phone that she might keep on her person? She doesn't. She had one when she left that home conveniently today. Okay.

Narrator

It was no surprise that Maddie left her phone at home. This was a common occurrence, and it wasn't just because she was forgetful.

911 Dispatcher

Okay. Is she diagnosed with any medical mental conditions at all? I know she takes medication for adhd, and I think that I'm pretty sure that's it.

Narrator

At 7:37pm Officers pulled into the condo complex in Kissimmee where Maddie lived with her mother, Jennifer Soto. Also in the home was Jennifer's boyfriend, Stephen Stearns, who was frequently there despite an on and off again relationship. The unit itself was shared with rooms rented out to other women, and the condo was owned by Maddie's grandfather. It was a crowded living arrangement with multiple people coming and going and limited space inside the home. By the time deputies got there that evening, both Jennifer and Stefan were there answering questions and helping officers piece together the last known details from that morning. Officers started with the basics, documenting what Matti was wearing and establishing a clear timeline.

Jennifer Soto

Hey there.

Police Officer

Hey there. What's going on?

Jennifer Soto

So was dropped off close to school this morning but never made it. I went to school.

Police Officer

I'm sorry, one second. Yeah, go ahead. Sir,

Stefan Sterns

are we looking for another kid

Police Officer

or we have a kid looking for another one?

Narrator

Like I said, an epidemic. Especially when Disney World is in your backyard.

Police Officer

So she was supposed to be dropped off at school. Didn't make it to school.

Jennifer Soto

Didn't make it to school. I went to pick her up from school today and she never came out. They announced it over the speaker and I'm just like, maybe she walked here. Because sometimes she'll walk here to this office. I came here. Nothing. I went back to the school.

Narrator

They were closed.

Jennifer Soto

I got a notice, an email from the school saying she was absent. But I also messaged her teacher, and he looked at her entire. Entire attendance today and saw that she was completely not at school today either. Okay, so she never made it.

Police Officer

Okay. What's her name?

Jennifer Soto

Madeline. M A D E L I N

Police Officer

E. M A D E L I N E. Last name?

Stefan Sterns

Soto.

Police Officer

S O T O S O T O. Yeah. Date of birth?

Jennifer Soto

February 22, 2011.

Police Officer

February 27, 2000.

Jennifer Soto

22nd.

Police Officer

Oh, sorry. 20 seconds.

Jennifer Soto

2011.

Police Officer

2011.

Stefan Sterns

Just her. The 13th birthday.

Narrator

He said it quietly, but Stefan just pointed out that Maddie had just turned 13. In fact, just the day before, a Sunday, the family had a birthday party. Her mother, Jennifer, and her mother's boyfriend, Stefan were not there, but her best friend was. But on Monday evening, back at the scene, officers needed to know what Maddie was wearing when she was last seen. So they talked to her mom and Stefan.

Stefan Sterns

Green hoodie.

Police Officer

Green hoodie.

Stefan Sterns

White crocs.

Police Officer

White crocs.

Stefan Sterns

Blue or black pants?

Jennifer Soto

I think black shorts.

Stefan Sterns

Black shorts, yeah.

Police Officer

Black shorts. Okay.

Stefan Sterns

Black shorts.

Police Officer

All right. Do you know she has, like, friends in the area?

Jennifer Soto

She does, but she doesn't know where they live.

Police Officer

She doesn't know where she deal with.

911 Dispatcher

Okay.

Jennifer Soto

I asked all of them.

Police Officer

Okay. Is this, like. Does she, like, have any places that you guys know that she'll be? Usually be at any friend's house. Any places that, like, she likes to hang out?

Stefan Sterns

Typically, no.

Police Officer

No, not typically. No. Okay. Weight?

Jennifer Soto

110 pounds.

Stefan Sterns

110. 120. Hair color?

Jennifer Soto

Blonde.

Stefan Sterns

Blonde. Like a dirty blonde? Like a dirty blonde. Okay. Eye color?

Jennifer Soto

Blue.

Police Officer

Does she have any markings on her? Like, any scars or anything like that

Stefan Sterns

distinctive beauty mark on her face?

Police Officer

On her face?

Narrator

On the face, like below the nose

Maddie's Best Friend

or near the nose?

Stefan Sterns

Yeah, like right in that area there. It's. It's very distinctive. You'd know it if you saw it.

Narrator

While one officer was talking to Maddie's parents, another was speaking with staff at the church where she was dropped off that morning. Surveillance showed a child sitting in a parking lot for about 10 minutes before getting up and walking away. After that, the trail disappeared. At that point, investigators were still working through possibilities, including one that seemed plausible that Maddie may have left on her own.

Police Officer

It's possible that she came here and sat in the parking lot for a while. Pants blurry video. But it looks like a Alice. A child sitting right there, and she's hitting. The people here said that they were adamant they seen her on the property, but like I said, it's a blurry video. And I don't see her getting into anybody's car in the video. I see her sitting on property for, give or take, 10 minutes and then walking off property. I don't know which way she went,

Narrator

but the video was blurred, he said, but clearly showed a child lingering for a bit and then walking away. Could it have been Maddie? There were signs, even messages and comments about wanting to leave, about going off on her own and living in the woods when she turned 13. Why the woods? Why 13, you may ask? Who knows? But wouldn't we all like to just go off the grid from time to time? Regardless, this half baked plan was something she had confided about with her friend.

Maddie's Best Friend

We were walking around the bus loop and she was like. She was talking about a gator. And then she was like, you know, it'd be like so cool to do. And I was like, what? She was like, if we like run into the woods, like, you know that trail behind the scope? I was like, yeah. And she was like, it'd be so cool to like go there and just like build a little house. And I was like, the woods, like, with like animals stuff. And I was like, where are you gonna get this, like wooden stuff to build this house? And she was like, I don't know, I'll figure it out. And I thought she was joking and stuff because she kind of like smiled when she did it. So I thought she was joking, but I didn't. I didn't take her seriously. And then when I found out she was missing, I. That came. That popped into my mind. And I told my dad, her saying if she were to run away, she'd go into the woods and find a place and stay there.

Narrator

If this were true, if she really had planned to leave, then where did she go?

Jennifer Soto

He dropped her out half a block away and drove away.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

Did she ever go to school?

Stefan Sterns

No.

Detective

We called school.

Stefan Sterns

She was walking in that direction. She was rifling through her back path, slipping her something. I thought maybe she was just looking for headphones and before she got her walking on. Yeah, but she was just kind of, you know, shambling over in that direction. Looked the same as any other morning. Okay.

Narrator

But it wasn't just like any other morning. On any other morning, Maddie would have been safe in school all day, but she wasn't. She would have made it home after school like every other day, but she didn't. Whether Maddie ran away or something far worse happened, the truth Was that she wasn't just missing. She had vanished. She had just turned into a teenager. And now her family feared she would never make it to adulthood. Maddie Soto had just turned 13. She lived in Kissimmee, Florida, with her mother, Jennifer Soto, in a condo complex near her school. On the morning of February 26, 2024, she was dropped off just a short distance from the schoolyard. A walk she had made before and one that at the time didn't seem unusual. But that morning, she never made it inside. Hours passed before anyone realized something was wrong. Her family made calls to the school, then to 911. By the time deputies arrived that evening, Maddie had already been missing for hours. And no one could say where she had gone after getting out of the car. At first, there were explanations. Maybe she left on her own. Maybe she wandered off. She had allegedly made comments about wanting to leave, about going off into the woods when she turned 13. Maddie lives with her mother and she also spent time with her grandmother from the time she was about 6. Her mother's boyfriend was also in the picture. Jennifer and Stefan were in an on again, off again relationship for years. For the majority of that time, they lived under the same roof. According to Jennifer and other family members, Stefan was like a dad to Maddie and they had a great relationship. But she also had a great relationship with her biological dad and her sister, who lived miles away. If she didn't take off to live in the woods, maybe she took off on a bus or plane to see them. Her friend remembered her preoccupation with getting money for her birthday.

Maddie's Best Friend

Once I turn 13, I'm going to leave this house and never come back.

Jennifer Soto

Why 13?

Maddie's Best Friend

Because I think because she would always brag because I said that I can't wait to my birthday. And she was like, are you having a birthday party? I said, no. And she was like, oh, I get a whole bunch of money, like 5, 500 something dollars on my birthday, you know, like that's like so much money. And I was like, yeah, like I get money, but like, not like that. And I don't really like having birthday parties. The last birthday party I had is so much drama. So then she was like, oh, okay. She would always talk about getting money for her birthday and I didn't give her money. And I already had given her a gift. I brought it to school. She kind of got mad that I didn't give her any money or anything. I was like, I spent money on this. I didn't physically give you any money, though. And then when we also got there. I was like, how many presents did you get? And then she was like, I barely got any money yet. Like, I'm kind of mad because, like, I want more money. I think she was waiting to turn 13. That way she could get on with her money and go. She talks to her sister. Her dad is in Washington, D.C. and I think her sister is too. Her and her sister are close.

Narrator

Missing her biological dad and sister weren't the only reasons Maddie may have taken off without telling anyone. Her friend said she didn't always get along with her mom and she had ADHD and other challenges.

Maddie's Best Friend

Based on what I know, I think she kind of just wanted to be free, kind of just not live under, like, her.

Narrator

The word mom or mom's rules was redacted. But that's a reasonable inference that she didn't necessarily want to live under her mom's rules. She had just turned into a teenager.

Detective

Was she, like, defiant?

Jennifer Soto

Like, didn't like to follow the rules? Sort of, yeah.

Maddie's Best Friend

I mean, it depends if she took her meds. If she doesn't take her meds, then she's, like, really crazy. And she doesn't think. She just does stuff like impulsive.

Jennifer Soto

Yeah.

Narrator

When investigators took a closer look at what actually happened that morning, Maddie's disappearance seemed less like a troubled teenager looking for escape and more like a vulnerable girl who may have been abducted. On the morning of Maddie's disappearance, Stefan drove her to school. This wasn't unusual. In fact, they had a routine for the days he took her to school that included stopping at McDonald's. But that day was different. Maddie was more lethargic and slept the whole way. She refused breakfast twice.

Stefan Sterns

Woke up around 7, 7:15. Somewhere around there is an early start for us, but she had. We had talked about getting McDonald's breakfast beforehand, so we wanted to make good time. We did make good time. We got out the door maybe 7:30 is 7:45 ish. Maybe got over to that area. She was asleep in the car most of the time, just snoozing till we got there. We got to McDonald's. We're close to McDonald's. And I said, you still want it? Wasn't interested in the McDonald's anymore, so we continued on. And she wanted to be dropped off a little down the ways from the school. She's got this phase that she's been into lately where she very particular about what car she's seen getting out of in front of the school. I get it. It's an image thing, but that was sometimes probably between 8:20 and 8:40ish. Somewhere in there. It was along the stretch of the road that on the right side that has all the communities on it. Before you get to the overpass, you could see the overpass from where it was. So it was on that side, on that stretch of road. That's where I dropped her off. She said she was going to go wait for her friends. She's going to find them and hang out and wait for her friends. And I asked if that was going to be okay. She said, yeah, it's fine. Kids get dropped off early enough as it is. It's not totally unusual for that to happen. It's just not usually that early that I drop her off. I do school runs every once in a while for her.

Narrator

Jennifer was happy to have Stefan in her life. He was a huge help to her. He was able to give insight to Jennifer about Maddie's ADHD because he too had adhd. According to Stefan, his ADHD was severe. But Jennifer had issues of her own, including bipolar disorder, which she was medicating for. Typically, the medicine would help regulate her moods and her sleep, but at times she'd forget to take it or her dose needed to be adjusted. She often didn't sleep well and appreciated that Stefan and Maddie had a solid father, daughter like relationship, and he could pick up the slack. In this next clip, take particular notice of how she's explaining her behavior that night, as if she's trying to explain away a question that hasn't been asked yet.

Jennifer Soto

I got home around 10:30. I started getting ready for bed myself. I started eating and taking my meds because I have to take meds. When I went to take my meds, I realized, oh, my God, I forgot to take my Saturday night's meds. Which is why I felt so weird, so abnormal and not myself. Someday, while I was at work, everyone at work noticed I was acting different and not being myself. Like I couldn't smile in front of the guest. I felt this wave of depression that I hadn't felt in years. It was my bipolar symptoms coming up again that I just. I've been medicating myself for.

Narrator

For so Sunday. You took your meds? What meds? If you don't mind me asking, what meds do you take? And like, how does it. Do they put you to sleep deep? Does it help you fall asleep or does it help regulate you?

911 Dispatcher

What.

Narrator

What kind of happens when you take the meds?

Jennifer Soto

So they do all of the above. They make me sleepy, they help me stay asleep, and they Help me function so I'm stable all day. They only work well if I've got a good night's sleep and if I've eaten with them the night before when I take them or the night I take them. The medication is called Geodon. Generic brand is called Zifrazidone. I took my meds and then I told them to start getting ready for bed, to start heading upstairs and get ready, because it was already almost 11 o'.

911 Dispatcher

Clock.

Jennifer Soto

It's past her bedtime. She needs to go to sleep.

Narrator

Even by her own account, when Jennifer did take her medication, it didn't just help her sleep, it knocked her out. She described feeling groggy, disoriented, and sometimes not fully aware of what had happened the night before. Sleep was very important to Jennifer in general. So the next morning, she remembered Stefan coming into her room to get the dog and take him for a walk before he took Maddie to school because she needed to sleep in and didn't want to take her. Stephan confirmed that he took the dog for a walk, and then he said he and Maddie had an early start. Other than Maddie being excessively sleepy and not wanting McDonald's, this was a typical trip to school. Then she just dropped off the radar. Dropping off the radar wouldn't be as easy for Maddie as it would for other students. Her teachers were paying attention. She had an IEP Individualized Education program, or special ed, as it used to be known.

Detective

She has been in my class all year round. She's always very sweet and she struggles a bit.

Jennifer Soto

I mean, all my kids are intensive

Detective

kids, so they're the students who are struggling. She was on my door decorating team.

Jennifer Soto

She was actually chosen to be my

Detective

student of the week from two weeks

Jennifer Soto

ago for helping us win our door

Detective

decorating competition with our friends. She had been reading a book a couple months ago, and it had kissing in it.

Jennifer Soto

And it was a graphic novel. And she was, like, scandalized that there was a kissing scene.

Narrator

Seventh grade was the year sex education was introduced in this school system, so it wasn't surprising the kids would make a big deal about a graphic novel. But she also remembered something Maddie's friends told her. After Maddie went missing.

Jennifer Soto

I was shocked when the kids were

Detective

telling me about the live in the woods conversation. I was shocked to hear something like that. She was very excited about her birthday.

Narrator

She had just been made student of the week. She was quiet, she struggled, and she was happy about her birthday. These were descriptions officers heard over and over. But they also heard that Maddie had a lot of Anxiety. Not just typical worries, but panic attacks. This is the school counselor.

Jennifer Soto

When she has come to me, it's often been those feelings of panic. She's come to me, like, in the middle of class or during lunchtime, just feeling really panicked, kind of heavy breathing, feeling really overwhelmed. And when we've had our conversations about what's going on, what's making you feel this way, I've gotten responses saying, well, it's my anxiety. Sometimes, I don't know, I'm just really overstimulated with all the noise in the cafeteria.

Narrator

But she also talked about things being stressful at home. Her mother was usually the focal point.

Jennifer Soto

When I pressed about that, it seemed to be things along the lines of, well, she gets upset that I'm forgetful or that I don't clean my room the way she wants me to. And we talked about what that does to affect her. And she says, yelling, that makes me get overstimulated. And then I can't respond to her in a way that she wants me to. So we discussed strategies for kind of calming herself down.

Narrator

No one at school was raising any real red flags. A lot of this seemed pretty normal for a seventh grade girl with hormones and adhd.

Maddie's Best Friend

She also has an iep.

Stefan Sterns

Okay, so do you think maybe.

Maddie's Best Friend

I always thought that it was partly because she struggles with learning. So I always thought, you know, kids that struggle with learning also are a little bit withdrawn and have a hard time focusing.

Narrator

So, yeah, there were struggles. A mom who had her own mental health issues, a broken family, adhd. But none of it really pointed to a child who was about to disappear. But investigators had to consider every possibility whether she left on her own, met someone, or was picked up along the way. None of these explanations held up against the evidence. There was no footage of Maddie getting out of a car, no camera capturing the moment she was dropped off. The only video investigators could locate came from the area near the church, showing a figure believed to be Maddie sitting briefly before getting up and walking away. After that, the trail stops. There were no more sightings, no confirmed movement, and no indication she'd made it any farther towards a school. There is no evidence that she ever met anyone, no sign that she left the area, and nothing to suggest she went anywhere at all. The timeline doesn't end extend. It just comes to a dead end. The last person to see Maddie was Stefan. So detectives had no choice but to dig deeper into his version of what happened.

Stefan Sterns

I said, okay, let her out. Have a good day. Love you. Thanks. Love you too. And I Turned around and was driving away and was watching her in my rearview mirror to make sure that she was going where she supposed to go and she was moving in that direction. But she was rummaging around in her backpack or something. What I assumed was probably headphones or something like that. But find out later that she forgot her phone here. So she may have been rummaging for her phone, but she was still kind of making her way towards. Towards that direction. So it looked okay, looked like any other day. And I just continued on.

Narrator

After dropping Maddie off, Stefan tells investigators he left the area and went to a nearby vape shop, but it wasn't opened yet. So he says he returned home briefly. Jennifer was just getting up because she had slept in. They hung out for a bit, and then he went back to the vape shop once it opened. From there, his account becomes harder to follow. He describes driving along Highway 192, stopping at multiple places, including a comic shop and a Target. So, yeah, that's what an adult male is doing on a typical weekday, shopping for comic books and weed, maybe stopping by Target. We are so cooked as a society. Then at some point during that time, he says he got a flat tire. He pulled over and changed it using a spare. He explained apologetically that the flat tire caused him to fall behind, so he missed the opportunity to pick Maddie up from school with Jennifer, as they had planned. On its own, none of that stood out as unusual. Running errands, losing track of time, even getting a flat tire. These are the kind of things that happen to everyone every day. But it created a stretch of time that wasn't clearly accounted for. A window where his movements relied almost completely on his own recollection. And his recollection wasn't great because, remember, he has ADHD also. So far, no footage had confirmed where he was during that period. No independent witnesses placed him at any of those stops. As cooperative as Stefan was, he gave a series of locations, times and explanations that became harder to pin down the more they tried.

Detective

It doesn't make sense.

Stefan Sterns

I apologize for that. I'm trying to help you out the best that I can, but I.

Detective

Right. So like, if you drop her off around 8:40, let's say, give or take 10 minutes, you make it to the shop around 9, the smoke shop, and you sit there and wait for a couple minutes for it to open. You said you waited for maybe five or ten minutes. Right. Does it make sense that you're still there at 10:00'?

911 Dispatcher

Clock?

Stefan Sterns

I was there at 10:00'.

911 Dispatcher

Clock.

Detective

Okay, so what did you do before that?

Stefan Sterns

I dropped her off and I made my way over. Not a direct route, but I made my way over there.

Detective

Did you stop anywhere on your way to the smoke shop?

Stefan Sterns

No, I don't think so.

Detective

Do you have problems with your memory that you can't recall what you did?

Stefan Sterns

I'm extremely adhd. I'm sorry. So just details start to get fuzzy after a while. Even the times I'm giving you are my best guesstimates here. Didn't have my phone with me at the time, so I wasn't aware of exactly what time.

Detective

There's no time on your car transpiring.

Stefan Sterns

There probably is, but it's not my car, it's my parents car.

Narrator

Adhd, no phone, unfamiliar car. I mean, ADHD is a real thing, don't get me wrong. And it does affect memory and the ability to recall details or keep track of time, all of those things. But it may also be a really good cover for someone who's trying to hide something. And that's when the investigation started to shift away from what Steffen said towards what could actually be verified. He gave the investigators every little detail, but he couldn't account for big gaps of time. And while Jennifer corroborated his version of events, she was also unable to explain gaps of time, probably because she was asleep or at the doctor's office, maybe getting medicines readjusted. So investigators turned to the one thing that doesn't rely on memory or even coherence. His phone. His phone showed him going home, leaving again, and doubling back in a pattern that doesn't match the simple errands he described. What should have been a simple morning became a series of trips and changes in direction he couldn't really explain. Jennifer corroborated Stefan's morning.

Jennifer Soto

Pretty sure he called me around 1018.

911 Dispatcher

Uh huh.

Jennifer Soto

What did he call you for? To let me know that they didn't go to McDonald's as planned. He had asked her multiple times if she wanted to stop at McDonald's, because that was the plan. The night before that, they were gonna wake up early. He was gonna take her to McDonald's, do like a special McDonald's breakfast, and then drop her off at school early because she wanted to get there a little early. But on his way to school, she was very sleepy and wanted to sleep in the car. And she said she did not want to do McDonald's, she just wanted to be dropped off.

Maddie's Best Friend

Okay.

Jennifer Soto

Also to let me know that he left his phone at home because I had called him multiple times and he had to pick it up. He had left his phone at home by accident. He had went to the vape shop, but they didn't open on time. So he. Wait. He had waited for quite a while in front of the beep shop. They didn't open. So he left and came back and we hung out a little bit. And then I think he left again to the vape shop to let go by what he needed.

Detective

Okay.

Narrator

Detectives already knew something they weren't telling Jennifer. Something they had already discussed with Stefan. His car was caught on camera with a passenger in it for longer than he admitted, including turning around en route to circle back to the apartment because he forgot a key fob.

Detective

When you came back to get your key fob, what did you do when you got here?

Stefan Sterns

Ran aside, got the key fob, ran back out again.

Detective

Okay, where did you park?

Stefan Sterns

Right, right up here, I think.

Detective

Okay, how long would you say you were inside your apartment for?

Stefan Sterns

Literally long enough to run in, grab the fob and, and come back out.

Detective

So, okay, and then what did you do most? What did you do when you came back out?

Stefan Sterns

Got back in the car and went back on. Went back on the morning mission.

Detective

Okay, the camera has you in the complex for 12 minutes. Does that seem about right?

Stefan Sterns

Yeah. Coming into the complex, driving around, parking, getting the fob, coming back out. Sounds about right.

Detective

Okay, and then you leave. What time would you say you dropped her off at the school or. Not at the school, but in the area?

Stefan Sterns

My estimate was sometime between 8:20 and 8:40.

Detective

Okay, the camera has you leaving the complex at 8:31.

Stefan Sterns

8:31. Okay, so it must have been closer to 8:40 then time roundabout, I think.

Detective

Okay, so like, let's say you drop her off at 8:40. We don't see your car coming back south until 10 o' clock in the morning. So what are you doing between 8:40 and 10:00'?

911 Dispatcher

Clock?

Stefan Sterns

Cruising around a little bit.

Detective

Okay, but I asked you earlier, you know, like what you were doing and you said you were there for like five or 10 minutes and then you came back home.

Stefan Sterns

Yeah, I went to the smoke shop like I said, but I was probably. I may have been meandering around the area, but made my way home.

Detective

Okay, but I'm asking you earlier. Right, and even like the first time we talked to you, you're not telling us that you're like, you know, just cruising the area like you're coming home. So I need to be able to explain, explain to my supervisors why there's such a time gap.

Narrator

Stefan tried to make the return to the apartment sound routine. He forgot a key fob, he said, so he doubled back, ran inside, and came right back out. But investigators were already seeing cracks in that story. The stop took longer than he claimed. The timeline didn't hold. And while he was back at the complex, surveillance caught him doing some things. Things that made the forgot my fob explanation seem maybe, well, like a cover.

Detective

Did she go inside with you?

Stefan Sterns

No, she was in the car. Still. She was asleep.

Detective

Where in the car?

Stefan Sterns

Passenger seat.

Detective

The front seat?

Stefan Sterns

Correct.

Maddie's Best Friend

Okay.

Detective

Does she at any point go in the back of the vehicle, like in the back seat?

Stefan Sterns

No.

Detective

So she was in the front the whole time. Awake or asleep?

Stefan Sterns

She was asleep.

Maddie's Best Friend

Okay.

Stefan Sterns

She was confident. We had gotten up.

Detective

How was she positioned in the front seat?

Stefan Sterns

Lean back in the seat. It's kind of conked out and happened.

Detective

Where was her head in relation to the seat?

Stefan Sterns

Against the seat, I think against it.

Detective

Was the seat leaning back or the

Stefan Sterns

seat was leaning back? Yeah, she had leaned the seat back so that she could recline.

Narrator

And those questions seem kind of like, who cares questions, right? This all took place before he dropped her off at school. According to Stefan, they had been up early. Maddie was tired. She slept on the way. She didn't want McDonald's. They were making good time. And he realized he had forgotten the key fob, so he just drove right back to the complex. She was still asleep in the passenger seat. The problem is. Well, the problem for Stefan was that detectives weren't just looking at the one stop back at the complex. The more they reviewed the surveillance footage, the more they realized the same car Stefan was driving kept appearing different locations, different times, but every time, the passenger looked exactly the same. Her position never changed. She wasn't sleeping. She was already dead. Stefan was driving around for much of the morning with a corpse in the passenger seat trying to pass her off as sleeping. Maddie never made it to school that day because she never got out of the car. On the morning of her 13th birthday party, Maddie Soto would have started another day in her life. School, friends, homework. Instead, she disappeared and never made it to school. What started as a missing child case was now falling apart right in front of her mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, who was the last person to see her. Steffen said it was a normal morning. A school drop off, a few errands, a stop at a vape shop. But the more detectives checked his story, the less less it held. The timeline shifted, the details changed, surveillance exposed gaps. He just couldn't explain and whatever hope was left started fading fast. This was no longer a search for a missing girl. It was a search for a missing corpse. Detectives had to break the news to Jennifer. So they showed her a picture of the Lincoln in the driveway at about 7:30.

Jennifer Soto

That's Maddie asleep in the car.

Police Officer

Maddie's not asleep in the car.

Narrator

What do you mean?

Stefan Sterns

Do you believe.

Police Officer

Do you believe Maddie's asleep there?

Jennifer Soto

Is she dead?

Police Officer

I don't know. We don't know where she's at.

Narrator

Jennifer takes the picture in her hand, scrunches her brow and looks closer at her daughter.

Jennifer Soto

Doesn't find a way for her to be laying down sleeping.

Police Officer

Right now we are probably going to start working this case as a homicide. We believe he possibly has done something to Maddie and we want to know where he would possibly go.

Narrator

Surveillance picks up his silver Lincoln again and again that morning. At 7:35. It's at the trash compactor. Stefan gets out and throws a white trash bag inside. Maddie is still visible in the front passenger seat, her head tilted to the left, mouth hanging open, seat belted in. At 8:19 the car is seen at the front gate. At 8:31 it leaves through the back gate. And in every one of those videos, Maddy is still in the same position. A sleeping 13 year old doesn't usually remain frozen in the same posture across multiple stops, multiple gates, multiple movements through a complex. But a dead body does. And then the cameras at the compactor made the morning even darker. Near the tread from a tire matching Stefan's vehicle, they recover a white trash bag containing Maddy's backpack, a white crock and her school issued laptop. So while Steffen is telling detectives about McDonald's, a vape shop and a forgotten key fob. Oh, and a girl sleeping quietly in the front seat, the evidence is telling a very different story. The car didn't just stay in the Kissimmee area. Investigators later traced Steffen's vehicle out towards st. Cloud, about 30 minutes away. License plate readers and traffic cameras followed the Lincoln to Hickory Tree Road. And by the time the car was seen coming back, it had a spare tire on it. And this time Stefan wasn't lying. At some point that morning, he really did have a flat tire. Someone saw him pulled over on the side of the road coming home from 192 on Hickory Tree. I observed that gray vehicle. Lincoln is a.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

With a black rear tire. He was on the side of the road.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

Stooping down in the back, looking at the tire, which I found odd.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

I saw the normally I just blew it off. But that was around 12:30. The guy didn't see Maddie in the passenger seat because Stefan had already moved her, possibly to her final location by then. It's plausible he got a flat tire while off roading and offloading the body just three hours earlier. Surveillance footage from a parking garage near the vape shop caught him in the act of moving the body. Steffen backs his vehicle into a parking space by the stairs. He exits his vehicle and walks towards the rear. Then he opens the trunk. At 9:41am Stefan is seen placing Matty, who was wearing a green sweatshirt, into the trunk of his vehicle. He then exits the parking garage and heads onto 192. Detectives don't tell him about their mounting evidence. They're still feeling him out. When he's questioned on details about his timeline, his answers are very polite. And he's sticking to his story, his vague story.

Stefan Sterns

I'm so sorry.

Detective

That's okay.

Stefan Sterns

I know the details are important and just the way our brains work with ADHD is those things can get fuzzy.

Detective

Are you on any medication?

Stefan Sterns

I'm supposed to be. I have not been medicated lately, so I'm just not a morning person. Not. I'm very time blind on the best of days and forgetful. So I understand that none of that is helpful in this case. Okay. Pretty sorry.

Detective

We're gonna have the apartment secured for the rest of the night. Okay.

Stefan Sterns

White security. So the investigation's not going to happen tonight?

Detective

It is.

Narrator

He asks whether the investigation will still happen that night. It would. It would. But that didn't stop Steffen from continuing his movements when the interviews ended. Because before sunrise, while the search was still very much alive, he takes Jennifer's car and leaves the hotel, heading out towards st. Cloud around 3am then later that morning, he takes off again, this time much farther. Records show Jennifer's Nissan traveling to North Port. Later, Jennifer would say he came back with a Wawa cup and claimed he'd just gone to 192. He never told her where he'd actually been, which is important because North Port isn't around the corner. It's two hours away.

Jennifer Soto

Because at one point we moved close to where his parents live right now in. They live in North Port, Florida. Sarasota County.

Narrator

You caught that, right? The one place these killers always seem to head towards after killing is back to Mommy and Daddy. And in this case, that was North Port, Florida, where Stephan's parents lived.

Police Officer

Obviously. You live down in North Fort?

Stefan Sterns

Yes, sir.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

And I'm just gonna Shoot you today.

Stefan Sterns

I respect you and everything.

Narrator

There's a storage unit down there.

Stefan Sterns

Yeah, I have a storage unit. You have a storage unit.

Narrator

Is that your son's storage unit or is that yours?

Stefan Sterns

That's your storage unit? Yeah.

Police Officer

Okay. Does he have access to it?

Stefan Sterns

No, I have the keys.

Police Officer

Okay.

Narrator

Were you aware that. Did your son come visit you on Monday morning?

Stefan Sterns

This Monday?

Police Officer

Yeah.

Stefan Sterns

No, he left Sunday. Okay.

Narrator

Stefan's dad sounds confused, because he is. You see, Stefan had been living with his parents for a few months after another breakup with Jennifer. But they were still on good terms. And because of his strong bond with Maddie, Jen invited him back for Maddie's birthday. So his dad is talking about his son leaving on Sunday to head to Kissimmee for Maddie's birthday. He doesn't know yet that just three days later, Steffen would quietly make that same drive back without telling anyone. It would become apparent later in the investigation that Steffen had traveled to his parents place in Northport because he had a hard drive there containing incriminating material, let's say. And as if the Northport trip wasn't incriminating enough, what they found on his phone was worse yet. But he had tried to erase it.

Jennifer Soto

When I saw him at the house, everything was normal. We were chatting, we were talking, he was acting normal. He was sitting in my computer chair just messing around on his phone while we were hanging out. He mentioned something along the lines of, oh, man, I've been avoiding this phone update for a really long time. I should probably update it now. And I said, do it, don't avoid it, just get it over with. And he updates his phone and then tells me, oh, my God, I don't know what button I just pressed, but I just factory reset my entire phone. And I said, how the hell does that happen?

Narrator

Well, that happens quite simply when you have something to hide. You deliberately go to your phone settings, find the reset tab, and tap it to erase all the content. And that's what Stefan thought he did. But a computer scientist he was not.

Jennifer Soto

So earlier that day, I think Detective Hunt came, or somebody came and asked Stefan for his cell phone if he would willingly give it up so that they can look at it or if they would need a port. And I remember him saying, should I have asked a warrant? Should I have? And I'm like, no, you got nothing to hide. Give him your fucking phone. And then when you guys came in the evening and you guys told us to wait outside and we waited in my car, he started getting very anxious and very panicky. Going, I want my phone back. I want my phone back. And I said, listen, at this point, it's their phone, it's theirs for fucking ever. I don't give a shit. We will buy you a new phone. It doesn't matter anymore. Whatever they need, they need. Like, let them look at it. And he's like, I just want my phone back. And I'm just like, do you. Are you trying to make yourself more suspicious? Because like, you're. If you were to go demand your phone back right now, that would look suspicious as fuck. What are you doing? I'm thinking he's just getting impatient because he's bored and wants to play on his phone. And at one point he takes my phone to start playing with it. I give it up. And as if you. Here, play on my phone. Have fun.

Narrator

Just two days after Maddie went missing, detectives had Stefan's phone and all the evidence on it, which was quite a bit. They found graphic pictures and videos of him sexually abusing 13 year old Maddie Soto. In one picture, Stefan's face is visible and his tongue is on Maddie's nipple. It was explicit, undeniable, and extremely disturbing. And it had been saved among an album of child sexual abuse material. They didn't just find one picture or one scene, they found hundreds. Basically a typical Redditor's stash, these pictures pointed to repetition, restoration, a system of abuse. Later reporting would describe roughly 1700 images linked to Stefan's accounts, stretching back at least two years. So the phone did not just prove what Stefan had done. It showed that he had been doing it for a very long time. And the investigators matched the abuser in those files to Stefan's own body parts, if you catch my drift. Reports about the pictures describe a bright pinkish area below the head of the penis and a black mark or freckle on it, also visible in some pictures. Yuck. They also collected penile swabs from them, which I'm sure was quite humiliating. By then, detectives weren't just looking at abuse images. They were connecting the penis in those images directly to Stefan Sterns. Imagine that being your job. Now that detectives had Stefan's phone, Jennifer was forced to reconcile with her understanding of who he really was.

Jennifer Soto

Like, I look back at shit now, I'm just like, he was fucking lying. He was fucking faking. What else has he been lying to me about? I know he's like a master liar, manipulator because he's done it to his parents and he's told me and shown

Narrator

me

Jennifer Soto

the lies he's done to his parents. But I don't know why I never thought, not me.

Narrator

That would be because Jennifer forgot this stark truth that people will always show you who they really are if you pay close enough attention.

Jennifer Soto

I told him to call his dad because I had a feeling something y' all knew something and it was gonna come down on him. And I'm just like, they're focusing on the wrong person. They have the wrong person. In my head, I'm convinced you guys are just. That you have the wrong person.

Narrator

He was definitely a wrong person, just not the wrong person for these crimes. But what happened to Maddie was not an accident at all. Jennifer asked detectives, how the hell does that happen? Well, the detectives wanted that question answered also, and they wanted to know if Jennifer was complicit.

Jennifer Soto

I don't know what you want me to say or do or just want my daughter back.

Police Officer

And this is exactly what I was just talking about. We are literally having a conversation right now about Maddie possibly being dead.

Stefan Sterns

Yeah.

Police Officer

And you have yet to shed a tear.

Narrator

By now, detectives know Maddie is dead. They know Stefan is responsible. But the questions that are about to get a lot darker are these. Why did he kill her? And how does this kind of sexual abuse happen for years in a home with someone you say you trusted with your life? Jennifer may have trusted Stefan with her life, but Maddie was the one who paid for it. And what they're about to uncover is far worse than how she died.

Police Officer

Sa.