Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: Accused Killer's Jail Emails Reveal Shocking New Claims

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. Do you know if she has a friend in the area? She does, but she doesn't know where they live. New details are emerging into the investigation into the man accused of murdering Maddie Soto, coming to light in documents released by prosecutors. Plus, we're getting a look at Stefan Stearns' life behind bars, through messages he sent to his family, and how his mom says he's taking the fall for other people. Welcome to Crime Fix,

Starting point is 00:00:36 I'm Anjanette Levy. Stefan Stearns has been in jail since late February, charged with sex crimes related to Maddie Soto, the daughter of his longtime girlfriend, Jen Soto. Weeks later, after further investigation, a grand jury in Osceola County, Florida, indicted Stearns for first-degree murder in Maddie's death. Now, prosecutors have released messages that Stearns sent to family members from a tablet in jail, and those messages are revealing, especially the ones that he sent to his mom i'll have more on that in a bit maddie's body was found in between bamboo trees on a property on hickory tree road a witness had called the sheriff's office saying that he saw a man changing a flat tire in that area the day that maddie was reported missing the reason the man called the vehicle with

Starting point is 00:01:22 the flat tire matched the description of Stearns is silver Lincoln that he had seen on the news. Maddie's body was found on Friday, March 1 on the property near where Stearns was changing that tire. Stearns acknowledged getting a flat tire in an interview with detectives. Maddie's mom and Stefan Stearns reported her missing the evening of Monday, February 26. 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. I went back to the school, it was closed.

Starting point is 00:02:00 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. Stearns and Jen Soto talked about what Maddie was wearing when they claimed to have last seen her.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Madeline Soto, age 13. I'm trying to get a clothing description now. What was she last seen wearing? Green hoodie. I'm trying to get a clothing description now. What was she last seen wearing? Green hoodie? Green hoodie. White Crocs. White Crocs.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Either blue or black pants. I think black shorts. Black shorts? Yeah. Black shorts? Okay. Then later that night, Stearns went with deputies to the area where he claimed to have dropped her off. The hair? Then later that night, Stearns went with deputies to the area where he claimed to have dropped her off. They're here?

Starting point is 00:02:46 It was along this stretch, I couldn't remember the exact spot, but it was just around where these communities were. No, thank you. So it's like around where these communities were. Okay. And it's just like in this stretch, like we could see the overpass down there. Where's this pool? Just on the other side of the overpass.

Starting point is 00:02:58 So somewhere around here. So yeah, somewhere, maybe not the overpass, but somewhere around here. Okay. So it's just like in this stretch, like we could see the overpass down there. Where's this pool? Just on the other side of the overpass. So somewhere around here. So yeah, the other side of the overpass. So somewhere around here. So yeah, somewhere, maybe not this one, but the next one possibly is right in this stretch. We just came down and we drove about halfway down and she was like,

Starting point is 00:03:16 that's good right here. Okay. The prosecutor and Kissimmee police say Stearns' story about dropping Maddie off for school that morning was a lie, and they say they tracked his car using license plate readers to prove it. New documents show the route that police say Stearns took that morning. Curiously, early the next morning on February 27th, police say a white Nissan took the same route from Maddie's apartment complex. Quote, at 3.16 and 15 hours, the white Nissan exits the complex utilizing the main gate. The vehicle follows the same path the Lincoln followed the previous day, with the exception of utilizing the front gate of the complex.

Starting point is 00:04:04 We can probably deduce that the white Nissan belonged to Maddie's mom, Jen Soto. The name of the owner is redacted. It would make sense that police would track vehicles related to anyone who last saw Maddie. But what is curious is why the vehicle took the same route in the middle of the night. This raises the question, did Stefan Stearns take the white Nissan that morning or someone else? We don't know. At this point, only Stefan Stearns is charged with Maddie's murder. But in April, when Stearns was indicted, prosecutors said the investigation was far from over. At this time, the only person being charged is Stefan Stearns.

Starting point is 00:04:36 And again, this is not over. There is an ongoing investigation to uncover more evidence and therefore we can't comment. Now remember, Stearns also faces more than 60 sex crimes charges related to Maddie. Police have said they found more than 1,700 images of Stearns engaged in sex acts with Maddie on his Google Drive. Stearns has been in jail since late February on those sex crimes charges. And it appears that he got access to a tablet in late May and started messaging family members. On June 19th, he wrote to a family member saying he'd been moved to a cell where he said, quote, presumably, I'll be here for a while. Stearns continued, it's not exactly the Ritz.

Starting point is 00:05:18 It's a small cell and the pod is quite noisy. I didn't think I would miss the medical pod, but now I wish I was back in that big cell where at least I could partially see out of the window and look at the sky and the grass and the trees off in the distance as they swayed in the breeze. That same day, Stearns responded to his mom, who wrote to him about a family dog having puppies. Can't get the commissary to work yet. Don't know why, but see if you can drop another $30 in there in the meantime so I can stock up on plenty of coffee. As for books, remove Christine, It, and Eyes of the Dragon from the list and just wait for the Howling Trilogy to be available to

Starting point is 00:05:57 send that. Many of the messages are mundane, like the one about commissary, coffee, and books. He also writes about the lack of utensils to use for eating in jail and feeling hungry. Then on June 25th, Stearns sent a message where he mentioned his legal situation. He wrote, I am not foolish enough to get my hopes up entirely for anything and can only really hope that my legal team will agree with my ideas and are willing to pursue them as tenaciously as I want them to. I can't explain too much here, but there is still perhaps a slim hope for my situation. At any rate, my odds are not 0% at this time. Stearns added that patience and hope were getting

Starting point is 00:06:37 him through, and he said he maintained hope that he might be able to come home once this nasty business had ended. Then 25 minutes later, Stearns' mother wrote a message that was very revealing. She told him to stay positive and to talk with his attorneys. Then she wrote, I keep thinking about how you would not ever rat out a friend. It really made me mad and I felt like you valued them over us and when you let them get away with stuff. Don't be doing that again. We all know blank was heavily involved in this and I am disgusted that she is free and you are not when this is not all your fault. You need to think about yourself more and her less. She sure isn't

Starting point is 00:07:17 thinking of you and how she can help you right now. That whole family is willing to stay quiet and let you take the fall for everything. When you do that, you are hurting us too. Please get out of your head over this and start talking with your attorneys. This stuff is serious and you need to approach it as life and death, which it is. I think of the craziness lived through with various partners. Not a stable life at all for a child. I do pray for name redacted and for you daily. Now this raises a lot of questions.

Starting point is 00:07:46 What did Stearns's mother mean by involved in this when she referred to the person whose name is redacted? It is certainly referring to Maddie's mom. I want to tell you about a great app that I've tried. It's called Upside and it's so good because it will give you cash back on things you buy all of the time like food and gas. Upside gives you real money back that goes straight into your bank account. When I pump gas or order takeout, I always check Upside for the best deals. Why not get cash back when you fill up your tank? Download Upside, check out the offers, and when you find one, claim it and then pay with your debit or credit card.

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Starting point is 00:08:40 Tim Jansen is a former federal prosecutor, currently a defense attorney, and he's been following this case closely. So Tim, your first thoughts on this bombshell message from Stefan Stearns' mother telling him basically that she thinks he's covering for other people. And particularly, it sounds like Maddie's mother. Yeah, it sure looks like that in that email where she says, you've covered, don't be a rat for other people and then it says you're so and so but it clearly looks like the name is blanked out it looks like a very short first name that jen would fit in that spot i want to go back to that because it basically

Starting point is 00:09:17 says you need to think about yourself more and her less she sure isn't thinking of you and how she can help you right now that whole family is willing to stay quiet and let you take the fall for everything. When you do that, you are hurting us too. She advises him to talk to his attorneys. And she's basically saying that there were other people involved in all of this. Is that just a mom kind of coming up with something possibly in her head to try to give her son a lifeline or could there be more to this because the prosecutors said back when they announced the indictment in April that this was an ongoing investigation the investigation was not over however that's been almost three months ago now and we've heard nothing else they never said they were going to charge other people but they've certainly implied that they were looking into other evidence.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Yeah, it would fit the facts. And the most important thing is how small the house was, right? And she was admitted, she let them sleep together in the home, in the bed together. Something triggered, something happened. And it's almost uncanny that she wouldn't have seen or heard something. It's clear, you look at the video or the video the police report in, that computer was thrown in the dumpster or something was thrown in the dumpster before they left the apartment complex. And then he comes back and then he does a circuitous route and then he changes his shirt after two and a half hours. Everything looks very damaging. And the inference there, you go later in that little email,

Starting point is 00:10:56 she talks about all her prior boyfriends, what a horrible life that this girl had. It clearly shows she's talking about Jen being the person who was involved from that email. And she says, the mom says, this stuff is serious and you need to approach it as life and death, which it is. He, of course, is facing the possibility of the death penalty of convicted I think of the craziness that redacted name lived through with blank various partners as you mentioned not a stable life at all for a child I do pray for blank and for you daily so she's implying that Maddie may have possibly been abused by other men. You know, you can read it that way. It clearly shows that the mother believes that Jen was somehow involved

Starting point is 00:11:54 and it would lead that the authorities are still investigating. The problem you have, though, is if they believe that he committed the murder and he buried the body, they're not going to cut him a deal for that murder because she might have known about it or participated. But what if, on the other hand, she committed the murder and he merely got rid of the body and he's not talking? Could that be what Jen is saying? That maybe she told her mother she was going to go to the police and she told her boyfriend and then they took care of it and he emptied the body and we're all assuming that it was him that did it, right?

Starting point is 00:12:37 Because when she gave her statement, while he was in the background lurking, she didn't really come out and say anything that was helpful to the investigation. She claimed she didn't see anything, didn't hear anything. She didn't go up to the school looking for her. She waited for a call. Nothing appears what it is, right? And so that's probably why law enforcement is taking their time. They've got him on evidence clearly from his phone, what he was doing so that's the easy part now the hard part is what do we have what are the phones what are all the cameras in the neighborhoods what is a GPS on the car show and it shows clear tracking of that

Starting point is 00:13:18 vehicle let's talk about that and I do want to mention you know right now Stefan Stearns is the only person charged in connection to Maddie's murder, charged with her murder, charged with sex crimes involving Maddie. Jen Soto is not facing any criminal charges. Police have not indicated that they plan to charge her. So we need to be very clear on that. However, people have had some serious questions about how mom was allowing a boyfriend of hers to sleep in the same bed with Maddie. And there have been some questions about whether or not she may have potentially had an inkling about what was going on. But let's go back to the car tracking because

Starting point is 00:13:57 you bring up something very important. License plate readers are all over the place in many jurisdictions in this country, and they will pick up your license plate as you're driving somewhere. And they did that with Stefan Stearns, and they did that with his silver Lincoln, and they really traced his route the day that Maddie disappeared. And they lay that out in some of the new documents. They also lay out that there was a white Nissan that in the early morning hours after Maddie was reported missing, took the same exact route but left a different way from the apartment complex. It doesn't say who they believe was driving that vehicle, but they say that vehicle took the exact same route. So put your federal prosecutor hat on, Tim, for me for a minute. Is it Stefan stearns maybe taking the white nissan to retrace his steps for some reason um

Starting point is 00:14:48 going to look for something we don't know in the middle of the night in the white nissan because he had had a flat tire in the lincoln that day and maybe didn't want to take that car or could it have been jen soto in that white nissan you know we don't know. And Ann Jeanette, you made a good point. We don't know if Jennifer, if Jen's involved at all. She may not be involved and we're not here to claim she's involved. We're just looking at a police report and comparing it to an email by a mom sent to her son who's facing the death penalty. The fact that that other vehicle took the exact same route is not a coincidence. Now, the question is who was driving the vehicle? Was Stefan driving it or was Jen driving it?

Starting point is 00:15:32 And if Jen was driving it, how would she know to go the exact route? That is going to be curious. And you would hope that there was a camera or something that caught a glimpse of who was driving that vehicle. But it just opens to more questions, right, as a prosecutor. And as a federal prosecutor, I would have my agents doing whatever they can find out who drove that second vehicle that route. How did they know to go that route? And what time did they go? Can we get the whereabouts of Stefan or Jen during the time that other vehicle left? So you can separate or isolate who it could have been the driver, because that can be important. In reading through these tablet messages with Stefan Stearns and this family member, Chris Stearns, it almost seems like he's resigned to being in jail. He knows he's going to be there a long time. He's

Starting point is 00:16:25 come to terms with this. But he also talks about having a glimmer of hope, like all hope is not lost. I'm not sure why he feels that way. We obviously we see the discovery, but we don't know about his conversations with his attorneys. But he's facing serious, serious, serious sex crimes charges. I mean, they said there's more than 1700 images of him engaging in sex acts with maddie going back a couple of years at least and then he faces the murder charge and he's talking about giving away some of his like trinkets and things like that i mean it is quite odd to read these messages. Just just they're so mundane in some ways, but so serious in others. Yeah, they talk about election voting, who can vote, what are you eligible to vote?

Starting point is 00:17:13 You know, when you're in prison and you got charges like this, the defendants will cling on to any hope they have. Right. And as a defense lawyer, you have to at least give them a glimmer of hope or say listen let's go through the process let's see what the discovery we might be able to file motions because you don't want to come out and tell your client by the way oh you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison and maybe death at the very beginning of the case um that doesn't help them assist you they don't trust you if you would say something like that. But at some point, your lawyers have to tell you how bad it is. I always tell my clients and I tell my clients' family, I'm not here to tell you what you want to hear. I'm going to tell you what you

Starting point is 00:17:55 need to hear, the good, the bad, and the ugly, because you have to develop that trust and communication. Because if you're just placating them, no one wants a yes man for a lawyer. You want to hear just like a doctor. Don't tell me the good things. Tell me what I need to know that's bad so I can prepare for it. And it seems like he's just, his conversation just getting by

Starting point is 00:18:17 and talking about other things other than he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Although he's giving away things, which are important to him, it seems, that he's going to give them away because he Although he's giving away things, which are important to him, it seems, that he's going to give them away because he knows he's never going to see him again. Yeah. Lots of talk about commissary books, coffee, and candy. So that's his life right now. That's the conversation they have. And phone privileges and commissary are the most important

Starting point is 00:18:39 things to a defendant in a jail. Tim Jansen, we will keep a close, close eye on it. Maddie Soto is certainly not living the type of life that any young girl should be living. 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.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: Accused Killer's Jail Emails Reveal Shocking New Claims

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: Accused Killer's Jail Emails Reveal Shocking New Claims

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