Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: 4 Shocking New Details Revealed

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. That's Stephan Stearns talking with his parents after he was charged with murdering Maddie Soto. The newly released call reveals what he told his parents about the alleged sexual abuse of Maddie. We're just, we're at a loss for understanding how all this came about. I mean, we're just totally, totally baffled. I also have other details on what police found during the investigation. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Stefan Stearns' trial for the murder of Maddie Soto is now set for September 2025. That's a long way away, nearly a year away. Stearns faces the possibility of the death penalty if he's convicted of Maddie's murder. Before Stearns goes on trial for Maddie's murder, he will be tried for sex crimes involving Maddie. He faces 60 counts of sexual battery and possession of child pornography related to images that police said they found on Stearns' phone and Google Drive. Those images showed Stearns, according to investigators, sexually

Starting point is 00:01:25 abusing Maddie, sometimes when she was asleep, sometimes when she was awake. That trial is scheduled for February of next year. Stearns has pleaded not guilty to all of these charges. Now we're learning more about what Stearns told his parents, Chris and Deborah Stearns, in the weeks after his arrest. Just to bring you up to speed, Maddie Soto was reported missing on February 26th of this year. Her mother, Jen Soto, reported her missing that night, with Stearns standing next to her after she went to pick up Maddie from school. Here's a look back at the body camera footage. So my daughter was dropped off close to school this morning, but never made it. I went to pick her up from school. I'm sorry, one second.

Starting point is 00:02:09 Go ahead, sir. Are we looking for another kid or we have a kid? Looking for another one. I'm going to try to understand that. Good. All right, so the people are still on. So let's put that out. Take it to the next one.

Starting point is 00:02:24 Any hospital locations? How old? 13. I'm trying to get there right now. Okay. So she was supposed to be dropped off at school, didn't make it to school. 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.

Starting point is 00:02:47 I went back to the school, they were closed. 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 attendance today and saw that she was completely not at school today either. Okay. So she never made it. Okay. What's her name? Madeline. M-A-D-E-L-I-N-E. M-A-D-E-L-I-N-E. Maddie had celebrated

Starting point is 00:03:10 her 13th birthday the night before with a party at her grandparents' home. This was at the end of February. Stearns hadn't been to Jen and Maddie's condo in Kissimmee since December. Stearns claimed he had dropped Maddie off at school that morning on February 26th. She's got this phase that she's been into lately where she's very particular about what car she's seen getting out of in front of the school. Her mom's car, but my cars are, I guess, kind of empties. I get it. It's an image thing. But that was sometime probably between 8 20 and 8 40 ish somewhere in there it was along the stretch of the road that um 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

Starting point is 00:04:01 of road and that's where i dropped her off. She said she was going to go wait for her friends. She was going to go 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. I said, okay. Let her out. Have a good day. I 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 was supposed to go.

Starting point is 00:04:43 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 I found 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 that direction, so it looked okay. It looked like any other day, and I just continued on. Paul Bergeron was the lawyer who could get you out of any sticky situation. Caught selling pirated videos like Queen Latifah? Caught stabbing your spouse nine times with a steak knife? Better call Paul. We see lawyers like this in The Sopranos or Breaking Bad. but what happens when those fictional lawyers exist

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Starting point is 00:06:10 details and he just happened to factory reset his phone, by mistake he said, after he claimed he dropped Maddie off at school. Stearns was arrested days after Maddie disappeared and charged with sexual battery. 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 at the time and that Stefan Stearns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day. We have video evidence that shows Stefan Stearns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in Kissimmee at 735 on Monday, February 26. Detectives later recovered Madeline's backpack and her school-issued laptop from that dumpster.

Starting point is 00:07:08 At 819, we have evidence that shows Stephan Stearns returning to the complex, and Madeline was visible in that vehicle. We believe she was already dead at that time. Maddie's body was found on Friday, March 1st, in between two bamboo trees on a rural farm property after police got a tip from a man who'd seen someone matching Stearns' description changing a flat tire the day that Maddie disappeared. On April 10th, detectives said Stefan Stearns called his father, Chris, and said, you know that I would never have wanted that for her, meaning Madeline.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Stefan then says, I am not sure really that any one person is specifically responsible. It's probably a combination of factors that led to it. I have never felt anything like that before. It was horrible. Chris tells Stefan that he hopes the truth will come out. And Stefan responds, well, yeah, as if he was dodging the statement. Now to that newly released phone call. It took place on May 13th. The state attorney's office for Orange and Osceola counties just released it. Okay. Happy birthday. Belated birthday, mom, and happy belated Mother's Day. Hi, sweetheart. I was so hoping to hear from you. I'm so glad I'm hearing from you now.

Starting point is 00:08:23 Yeah, I'm sorry I wasn't able to call you all weekend. They had us on lockdown, so no one was able to do anything. What's interesting about this call as you listen to it is Chris Stearns, Stefan's father, has told detectives before that he worked in law enforcement in the past. He talks with the detectives a lot and appears to offer a lot of information. Were you expecting these charges? No. A murder charge. Oh, well, sure.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Okay, so you got blindsided by that. Yeah, obviously, you know, it's not true. You know, I never would have wanted her gone for any reason, so, you know, premeditated first degree is kind of a dick punch. So Stefan Stearns told his parents he wouldn't have wanted Maddie gone for any reason at all. The conversation then turned to Jen Soto and whether Stearns was cooperating with police or not. No, I was wondering if you had any updates or anything. Nope, we haven't heard a thing. Just, you know, speculation that she's been put in an institution and hiding in an institution. At her lawyer's request.

Starting point is 00:09:33 I mean, are you helping, are you cooperating with police about her participation in any of this stuff? There's been no opportunity for me to cooperate with anything, as I understand the police keep saying that I'm uncooperative, but they haven't asked me anything to cooperate with anything as I understand the police keep saying that I'm uncooperative, but they haven't asked me anything to cooperate with, so whatever that means. Hmm. So the, um,

Starting point is 00:09:53 your attorney isn't approaching them and saying my client would like to speak with you? Well, my attorneys are pretty much saying to keep my mouth shut until the trial starts. Well, okay. Okay. I don't know why they were going to wait till the trial, but that's their business, not mine. They don't want anything to hurt my chances?

Starting point is 00:10:21 Yeah, I understand. Okay. So at this point, it sounds like Stefan Stearns' parents believe that Jen Soto is involved and that Stearns has information about this. But I'll tell you about evidence police said they found from the day Maddie disappeared later on. Stearns then talked to his parents about his theory about why prosecutors might be going after him charging him with first degree murder. Keep in mind, before that, he was charged with more than 60 counts of sexual battery, related to Maddie. Obviously there's concerns that they're artificially inflating everything up as high as they can possibly do it.

Starting point is 00:10:58 Yeah, they are. Yeah. They're trying to see what'll stick. What the plan is there. Is there just trying to scare me into pleading down or I don't know. No, they're not. Okay. They're just trying to pick as much as possible.

Starting point is 00:11:17 Are you able to share the Saturday night before you left for Kissimmee, you were pretty upset about something. Did they have to do anything with Kissimmee and the events that took place the next couple days? No. No. No, I was just stressed out about money and job and everything like that. Some woman got on a YouTube thing and said that you weren't even at the party.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Party? Yeah, her birthday party. Yeah, I hadn't gotten there yet. I went up there Sunday evening and got there after she was done at her party. Oh, okay. And we were very happy that I was there. Maddie had that 13th birthday party, as I told you earlier, that Sunday night. Then she went to bed with Stefan Stearns, and sometime during the overnight hours,

Starting point is 00:12:22 police believe Stearns murdered her and then acted as if he was taking her to school and drove around with her body in his car for hours well you know the the penalty for the crimes you've been charged with carry a minimum 40-year sentence so obviously we're going to be gone r Rick will be gone, we'll all be gone. I mean we're sad about that obviously because there won't be anybody here for you when you come out. Yeah, and I'll be lucky if I have another 40 years left in me either. And I guess that's where everything sticks. I wish there was a way that you and I can have a conversation,

Starting point is 00:13:22 all of us could have a conversation to understand what's taking place, how this came about, how you arrived here, because it would help us better understand the situation because we're just at a loss for understanding how all this came about. I mean, we're just totally baffled. Well, I didn't start it. You didn't start it, but you participated in it, which is just as bad as not starting it. I can't get into specific details or anything, but, you know, I mean, if you'd like to schedule a visit with me or something, maybe we can find some way to talk. I don't know. I think we're always going to be recorded. So there won't be an opportunity to do that. Did you catch what Stearns said there?

Starting point is 00:14:13 He said he didn't start it. And his father countered by telling him, you didn't start it, but you participated. It sounds as if Stearns is trying to blame someone else, and the only person he could really blame would be Maddie's mom, Jen Soto. Jen Soto has not been charged with any crimes related to Maddie's death, disappearance, or the alleged sexual abuse of her daughter. She has been questioned by law enforcement at length about allowing Maddie to sleep in the same bed as Stearns. On March 1st, police said they recovered surveillance video that showed Stefan Stearns moving Maddie Soto's body the morning he claimed he had taken her to

Starting point is 00:14:51 school. The surveillance video came from a Holiday Inn vacation club. While reviewing the surveillance, Detective Jones observed that at approximately 940 hours, the target vehicle, a silver Lincoln MKZ, turned onto the above business property from Emissary Avenue, then proceeded to their parking garage. While in the parking garage, a male wearing a dark hat, red shirt, and tan pants exited the vehicle and opened the trunk. The male then walked to the front passenger side of the vehicle, opened the door, and proceeded to carry what appeared to be a limp body to the trunk of the vehicle. Now, I've and proceeded to carry what appeared to be a limp body to the trunk of the vehicle. Now, I've told you many, many times that police found more than 1,700 images on Stefan Stearns' phone and Google Drive that showed him sexually abusing Maddie.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Detectives said there were other images they found that showed Stearns peeping on one of Jen Soto's roommates. A detective wrote, I noticed Stefan had a folder on his phone's gallery labeled, This Woman's Name, which contained over 90 images that were captured of an unaware female. Upon further examining these images, I identified the female in the images to be Stefan's roommate. The photographs slash videos of this woman were captured in her bedroom and in a bathroom while she was nude, where she had an expectation of privacy and they appear to have been captured without her knowledge or consent. In addition, the images appear to have been taken with a device that was concealed to the view of the roommate. Now, there's also been discussion about Maddie and Stern's texting about a coin, two sides of a coin.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Detectives wrote, on 12-16-2023 at 0047 hours, Madeline sends a text message to Stefan that contained a photograph of two coins. The coins had the inscription of New Parent Decision Coin and appeared to be from Amazon.com. The name is redacted, but it is Madeline and it says she sends two follow-up texts to Stefan stating, we need this and get it for us, please. A search of Amazon for these coins revealed these coins are for new parents where one can flip a coin to decide if it is the mother's or father's time to complete a task for a newborn. Due to the fact that this conversation was not near Father's Day or Mother's Day, it leads one to believe that Madeline and Stefan had possibly spoken about conceiving a child. Now if this is true, it's a big wow moment.

Starting point is 00:17:17 Maddie was a kid and there has been speculation that she may have been pregnant since she had possibly missed her menstrual cycle that month. We still don't know if that's true, but her mother was questioned about it. Those coins look like this on the Amazon website. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: 4 Shocking New Details Revealed

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