Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Missing Girl's Body Found as Mom's Boyfriend Held on Sex Crimes Charges

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Police in Kissimmee, Florida say the investigation into the death of Madeline Soto, 13, is ongoing as her mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, is being held without bail on sex crimes charges. Soto's body was found last Friday afternoon in a wooded area after a days-long search in the Orlando area. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with "True Crime with the Sarge" host Joe Giacalone about the evidence and the additional charges that could be filed in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime. HOST:Angenette Levy: 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. The body of 13-year-old Madeline Soto found outside of Orlando after a frantic days-long search. Now her mother's boyfriend is behind bars. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Stefan Stearns, the boyfriend of Maddie Soto's mother, could be facing even more charges very soon in her death and disappearance. Right now, he faces some sex-related charges.

Maddie had just celebrated her 13th birthday, days before she was reported missing on February 26th, after she didn't show up for school. Deputies launched a massive search for Maddie in the greater Orlando area, scouring the area on horseback. Then-Orange County Sheriff John Mina said the story they were told when Maddie was reported missing began to unravel. 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 Stephan Stearns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day. The sheriff then spoke about things they saw Stearns doing near a dumpster at the family's apartment complex.

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. A short time later, the sheriff said Stearns returned to the family's apartment with Maddie's dead body in the car. Stearns is charged with sexual battery and possession of child sex abuse material. The sheriff said Stearns tried to delete that evidence from his phone and that the crimes committed on the phone actually took place at the home where Maddie lived with her mom and Stearns. This interview with Fox 35 out of Orlando shows Maddie's mom, Jen Soto, talking about her daughter being missing. In it, she says, we dropped Maddie off at a church

near her school. Stearns is seen lurking in the background. Right now, Stearns faces those two sex-related charges, but more charges are likely coming since he's the prime suspect in Maddie's disappearance. Joe Giacalone is a retired cold case sergeant with the NYPD and also host of True Crime with the Sarge. Joe, your first thoughts on this case? It's absolutely horrible and the mom's boyfriend being taken into custody. Yeah, it's just another unfortunate account about exactly what's going on with some of the families that are happening in the United States. We're seeing a number of these cases recently, each one's worse than the next. And I think that, you know, protecting our children and protecting the elderly are the number one and two goals of society. And we need to start doing a better job. Maddie had just turned 13, four days before she was reported missing. Her mom went on television,

was talking to Fox 35 down there in Orlando, and said, we dropped Maddie off at the church near her school. You know, she's putting herself with Stefan Stearns, who the Orange County Sheriff says is the prime suspect in Maddie's disappearance. We expect him to face additional charges. So what is your mind? What do you what do you think is going on with mom there that she's putting herself with Stefan Stearns dropping off Maddie. Well, the only two scenarios is that she's either trying to protect her boyfriend or that she is just under a lot of pressure and just, you know, the whole thing about her daughter missing could be in another, you know, another dimension, so to speak, where she's just so upset she doesn't realize exactly what she's saying.

So listen, as from the investigative standpoint, everything and anything is on the table. We are victimized by someone we know most of the time. I think investigators will keep, you know, plugging along, looking for evidence in this case in order to make sure that the proper person or persons get charged. Joe, something that you talk a lot about sometimes is video surveillance. It's everywhere these days. And Sheriff John Mina of the Orange County Sheriff's Office said they had surveillance videos showing Stefan Stearns at the dumpster at the family's apartment complex that day and that he was dumping things in there. They later find Maddie's backpack and her school issued laptop in that dumpster. Plus, they say they have video showing him coming back to the apartment complex and Maddie is in the vehicle.

But he said she was already dead. So he's driving around with Maddie, according to what he is seeing with her dead in the car. And then this guy, Stearns, goes on TV saying he blames himself for this. He's got tears in his eyes and things like that. Your thoughts on that yes video surveillance and cell phone records right so we see them play a big role in this case but yes the video surveillance is something that law enforcement must be looking for in just about every one of these cases it's pretty uh damning evidence when you have the video of him

discarding these items knowing full well that you know maddie's not coming back so the issue that comes down to is they have enough of the circumstantial evidence to be starting to look at him in regards to what happened to maddie and you know in regards to what you know what the what he says on on the interview it's important like you watch the words that people use if you see them you know speak about people in the past tense and everything like that you need to be you know keep a keep an eye out for certain words that are used they found evidence according to the sheriff on stearns's phone he's innocent until proven guilty obviously but they used this to take him into custody before her body was found we assume that other charges will be filed against him once maybe some

testing comes back. I assume that an autopsy was conducted on Maddie over the weekend. We have some calls out to the police department down there. But they said that they found images. These were images of sexual activity involving young people that occurred at the family's apartment. And in the charges, there's one that's a child younger than 12. And then there's one for a minor between 12 and 17. So they found basically some type of sexual imagery on his phone involving children. And that's what they use to hold him. And he's being held without bail. So what would your concern be? Because this is a guy who I guess was dating Maddie's mother, but I'm sure he's dated other people's

mothers in the past. Yeah. So just from the experience and just from what we know about individuals who partake in some of these things, they need to find out every woman that he's had a relationship with that had children, specifically around this age frame. It's important that they reach out to them. I'm sure they have already put out some information regarding that, and hopefully that maybe some of the women that had relationships with him uh saw his picture on tv and then contact the police uh and let them know something and you know what they they should probably get their kids examined make sure that everything is okay with them also these are disturbing things that happen but you know what it appears as if the police department in my opinion went for that warrant for the cell phone to try to track him and then they found this in you know by total accident and by holding him on

this charge he's not going anywhere which is a good thing so that they can investigate the case and they don't have to worry about him running away and start building this case against him for uh for manuel and soto the sheriff said they also found evidence that Stearns tried to delete this material from his phone. So that almost makes it look even worse. Yes. Deleting anything that you have on a crime like this is like throwing bleach on a crime scene, right? So even though it's electronic,

it shows some intent to try to make this go away. But unfortunately for people who try to do this go away but uh unfortunately for people who try to do this it leaves a record still or a trace behind that and the you know like listen this is some pretty solid evidence against him uh for whatever those cases they're gonna probably have to identify who those victims are too so they have the police have their work cut out for them and you know this is another disturbing case that we've seen now in the United States against children. It just it should be frightening for every parent out there. Another thing that I found on his Facebook page, and I don't know if this is accurate,

but I can't imagine that he lied on his Facebook page about his job history, but he listed himself as a cast member at Disney World. So it kind of makes you think if he was working at Disney at some point in time, my God, he may have had a lot of access to children. Yeah, these are the things that will keep investigators up at night, right? So they're going to have to try to track that down. If he was an employee who he had contact with, if there was any complaints against him in his personnel file all of these things are going to be part of the of the record that investigators

are going to have to do so fortunately for them they have time in order to try to track down this information it's going to be a while before they can get back some of these records right now they're like you said waiting for the autopsy and i don't imagine that they waited any longer than they had to i probably think the autopsy was done within a few hours after her remains were recovered because the longer you go as you know the more difficult it is for instance looking for forensic evidence it could last anywhere from 96 to you know 120 something hours but they want to make sure that they can be able to obtain any physical evidence that might have been found any body fluids and what have you so i don't think they wasted much time. Especially because she was found out in a

wooded area. And we know it can happen, but it's at least, you know, it's Florida. So it's warm down there right now, but it's at least not the summer months where it would be much hotter. So maybe some of that evidence could have been preserved. We'll just have to wait and see what comes out from that. He weighed his court appearance, his first court appearance. So his attorney appeared on his behalf and he is being held without bail. He's innocent until proven guilty. But I think we fully expect additional charges to be filed in this case. The police in Kissimmee say that this is an ongoing investigation.

Joe Giacalone, host of True Crime with the Sarge, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Bynes. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our

guests. And Brad Mabee is our audio editor.