Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Maddie Soto Murder: New Docs Reveal Details About Teen's Relationship with Mom

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

The state attorney in Maddie Soto's murder and sexual abuse case have released nearly 900 pages of documents that contain new details about the investigation. The details include information about Maddie's relationship with her mother and what her mother told detectives about the last time that she saw her. Detectives also outline what Maddie's friends told detectives about her relationship with her mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns. Sterns is accused of sexually abusing Maddie and murdering her. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the new information in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Hey there. Hey there. What's going on? So my daughter was dropped off close to school this morning, but never made it. New details about the investigation into Maddie Soto's disappearance and murder are revealed in a cache of documents, including what Maddie's friends told investigators about her and her mom and Stefan Stearns, the man now accused of sexually abusing her for years and murdering her.

I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. This is just some of the nearly 900 pages of documents that have been released by the state attorney in discovery in Stefan Stearns' murder case. Stearns now faces the possibility of the death penalty if he's convicted of murdering Maddie Soto back on February 26th. As police in Kissimmee and deputies in Orange County, Florida searched for Maddie and investigated her disappearance. They said they discovered more than 1,700 images in Stearns' Google Drive that showed him sexually abusing Maddie, sometimes while she was sleeping and at other times while she was awake. Stearns also faces 60 sex crimes charges related to Maddie, some going back to when she was just 8 years old. The investigative documents reveal how investigators found Maddie, some going back to when she was just eight years old. The investigative documents reveal how investigators found Maddie's body and what her friends, teachers, and school counselor

revealed to detectives in interviews. Some of the information is really, really sad, and I'll start with the least sad thing that I could find given the circumstances in this case. Maddie had just turned 13, celebrating her birthday at a party at her grandparents the evening before she was reported missing. Turning 13 is a big deal, especially for a young girl. But the documents say that Maddie was disappointed by her birthday party because it was well advertised. But despite that, not many people attended, nor did many people bring presents. The report notes that Maddie's mother, Jen Soto, did not attend the party and neither did Stefan Stearns.

A friend of Maddie's told investigators that she was upset with her because she didn investigators say Maddie endured and that the night before she died, she had a birthday party that she largely considered a disappointment. The report also reveals information about Maddie's relationship with her mother, Jen Soto. The friend told investigators that another friend told her that Jen Soto said she was going to kick Maddie out of the house when she turned 18 or 19 and disown her. The names are redacted, but you can figure out the names behind the black marks. The friend also told detectives that Maddie texted her each morning, but the morning of February 26th, she did not get a text from Maddie. So she called Maddie and found it odd that Maddie did not answer her phone. The friend continued telling detectives that Maddie. So she called Maddie and found it odd that Maddie did not answer her phone.

The friend continued telling detectives that Maddie only mentioned her biological father briefly, but she was always on a call with her stepdad, Stefan. Stefan and Maddie were always texting, according to this friend, and they were always talking on the phone. Maddie loved him, according to this friend, and they were really close. Now, the person who told detectives that Maddie and Stefan spoke on the phone two to three times per week and texted often made it sound as if Maddie really liked Stefan Stearns. This person also said that Stefan never dropped Maddie off at school. It was always her mom or her grandparents who did that. But another person who spoke to detectives didn't make it sound like Maddie was all that fond of Stefan Stearns.

Maddie's seventh grade counselor told detectives that she felt her mom's boyfriend was, quote, weird and made her uncomfortable. When the counselor asked her why she felt Stefan was weird, she said he was weird because he hangs out in the living room all of the time, eats all of their food food and makes her uncomfortable. The counselor said that Maddie reported

during one of their check-ins that Stefan was moving out and that that made Maddie happy. Stearns moved out around December of 2023. The counselor's last check-in with Maddie was February 6th, 20 days before Maddie was reported missing. This is what Stefan Stearns told detectives the morning after Maddie was reported missing about his relationship with her. I don't know. You've probably been asked already, but she's never

ran away or been away for longer than a certain period of time. She's very dependent on us. I don't think she'd know what to do if she did run away. Besides the ADHD issue, did she diagnose anything else? Yeah, she was tested a while back and had some symptoms of autism, so she's potentially on the spectrum there. She was officially diagnosed with it when she was younger, and then she was retested and said, well, she shows symptoms of being on the spectrum, but maybe not full on autistic. So Stearns described Maddie as being very dependent on him and not the type of kid who would run away. But during that check-in with

Maddie's seventh grade counselor, the counselor mentioned that Maddie was happy that Stearns was moving out. So it makes you wonder, did Stearns kind of think in his head that Maddie was dependent on him and that she really cared about him? Not really sure. There was also discussion in the documents about Maddie not taking her ADHD medication. Her birthday party was the evening of February 25th, but her friend said she hadn't taken her ADHD medication since Valentine's Day, 11 days earlier. And when she didn't take it, the friend said that Maddie could be moodier and could snap at people. Stearns talked about Maddie's ADHD with law enforcement when explaining why Maddie didn't have her phone the morning he said that he dropped her

off down the street from her school. Is it normal for her to not have her phone? Unfortunately, she's severely ADHD, as am I and her mother. So it is not uncommon at all in that very, very usual thing for her to forget things. She'd forget her head if it wasn't screwed on. We're forgetful about, you know, writing her about that. We'll remind her, and then it will leave our mind, and she'll say, okay, and then it will leave her mind. And is she on medication for this though? Normally yes. She's been staying with her grandparents a lot this week while her mom was working. So she has not been getting her meds a whole lot. So she was really spacing. Where is mom working at? What changed in her hours that she needs on this thing? She's training, so it's not a set schedule yet.

Okay. Now, what about Maddie's mom, Jen Soto? She is not charged at all in connection to Maddie's death or disappearance. She faces no criminal charges. But there were some interesting notes about Jen Soto from investigators in the documents. But first, a look back at what Jen Soto told deputies when she reported Maddie missing back on the evening of 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, 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. So she never made it. Okay. As you saw, Stefan Stearns was standing next to Jen Soto the entire time. One deputy wrote in a report that Jen Soto told him that she saw Maddie getting dressed for school around 8 a.m. that morning and that Stefan Stearns took Maddie to school. But another deputy wrote that there were inconsistencies in the information received from Jen Soto. I want to take a moment to tell you about the sponsor of this episode of Crime Fix.

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I use Truthfinder all of the time for work and in my personal life. I've even run a background check on myself, my friends, my family, neighbors, just to see what's out there. And let me tell you, the information that's available is actually kind of shocking. So right now you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash LC crime fix, log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Another detective noted that Jen Soto had said that she had last seen Maddie the night before around 11 p.m. and maybe only heard her getting ready for school that morning. She didn't see her. That's a big difference. Here's more of what Jen Soto said to deputies when Maddie was reported missing, including what she said Maddie was wearing that morning. Madeline Soto, age 13. I'm trying to get a clothing description now.

What was she last seen wearing? Green hoodie. Green hoodie. White Crocs. White Crocs. I'm wearing blue or black pants. I think black shorts. Black shorts. Yeah. Black shorts? Mm-hmm. Okay. Jen Soto corrected Stearns about what Maddie was wearing, or at least added information about it. It raises the question, if she didn't see her that morning, how would she know what Maddie was wearing unless she saw her?

Did Stearns tell her? We really don't know. But we do know what Maddie was wearing when a deputy found her body on March 1st. I'll get to that in a moment. But first, back to Maddie and her mother. You know, a lot of preteen girls argue with their moms, and it sounded like that was happening in their home. Jen Soto had bipolar disorder, according to some of the family friends and the roommates who lived in the home. Friends and counselors had mentioned it, and one, as I mentioned earlier, said that Jen Soto had told Maddie she would kick her out of the house when she was 18 or 19 and disown her.

The investigative documents say Maddie last spoke to her seventh grade counselor back on February 6th. Maddie reported that things were actually good with her mom and at school. So things had improved, it sounded like. The night that Maddie was reported missing, Stefan Stearns went with deputies to the area where he claimed he dropped her off. Around where these communities were. Oh, 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. 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, that's good right here. Okay. Stearns was also interviewed the next day about dropping off Maddie at a church down the street from her school. 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. She prefers her mom's car, but my cars are, I guess, kind of hooties. I get it. It's an image thing.

But that was sometime probably between 820 and 840-ish, somewhere in there. It was along the stretch of the road 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 and 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.

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 was supposed to go.

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. Stearns was arrested about two days later and charged with sexual battery of Maddie. Deputies said they found Stearns' Google Drive that contained those more than 1,700 images, most of Stearns sexually abusing Maddie,

according to deputies. On March 1st, the next day, that was a Friday, a deputy in Osceola County found Maddie's body. Documents say a man had called in reporting that he had seen a car matching Stearns' description with a flat tire along Hickory Tree Road. The property owner allowed the deputy to search the property, and he described finding a body in a prone position, her head and face down, and her knees bent. It was Maddie's body laying in between two bamboo trees, and a pharaoh scan shows how her body was placed in between those trees. The deputy said she had dead vegetation on her, and investigators noticed insect activity from decomposition.

The documents say that Maddie was wearing a green hoodie covering her head, blue jeans, and white socks. She was not wearing black shorts, and she did not have on white Crocs, as Stearns had said. The documents say some of Maddie's belongings had been found in a dumpster at her apartment complex, including a white Croc for a right foot. A white Croc for a left foot had been found in the area where Maddie slept in the apartment, along with another pair of white Crocs that were larger. The sheriff of Orange County had talked about recovering Maddie's belongings from the dumpster at her apartment complex. 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 26th. Detectives later recovered Madeline's backpack and her school-issued laptop from that dumpster. At 8.19, we have evidence that shows Stefan Stearns returning to the complex and Madeline was visible in that vehicle. We believe she was already dead at that time. Stefan Stearns is being held in the Osceola County Jail. He faces that murder charge, of course, and 60 sex crimes charges related to Maddie. And the investigation, according to law enforcement, isn't over. At this time, the only person being

charged is Stefan Stearns. And again, this is not over. There is an ongoing investigation to uncover more evidence, and therefore we can't comment. So will anybody else face charges in Maddie's disappearance and death? At this point, we don't know. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you back here next time.