Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MADDIE, 13, SEAT-BUCKLED DEAD INTO CAR OF MOMMY'S LOVER

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

The day Madeline Soto vanished, her mother, Jennifer, writes in a sworn statement that she saw her daughter getting ready for school that morning.  In a later interview, Jennifer Soto instead says she heard someone in the kitchen. She assumes it's Madeline, but that isn't the only change in the mother's story. Jennifer finally tells investigators she last saw her 13-year-old daughter the night before, when she sent Madeline to another bedroom with Stephan Sterns.  According to Mom, this is a common arrangement when she needs to get a good night's sleep.  Early in the investigation, Stephan Sterns was a person of interest. The day Madeline Soto is reported missing, investigators allegedly found 1,700 sexually explicit images on Sterns's cell phone. Investigators have also said they found images and video on Sterns’ phone showing he molested her for years.  Initially, Stephan Sterns tells investigators he drops the girl off near Hunter's Creek Middle School. However, around that same time, investigators say a license plate reader detected Sterns's car miles away from the school. Using data from license plate readers and surveillance video, investigators track Sterns's car as it travels east from Kissimmee toward St. Cloud and Old Hickory Tree Road, where Madeline Soto's body is found lying face down near bamboo trees covered in debris.  Investigators obtain surveillance video from the morning Madeline Soto is reported missing a trash compactor where a tread from Stephan Sterns's car is found as well as items belonging to Madeline Soto, like her black backpack. Sterns is caught on video throwing these objects in the trash compactor.  Minutes later, Sterns is caught on surveillance video at 7:36 a.m. driving away from the Kissimmee, Florida neighborhood with a female in the front passenger seat.   Investigators believe the female seen at 7:36 a.m. in the surveillance video in the front passenger seat of Stephan Sterns's vehicle is Madeline Soto's dead body propped up and buckled into the seat to appear as a living person, but closer inspection of the video shows her head leaning toward her shoulder with her mouth open.  Sterns is caught on surveillance video again at 8:19 am when he is seen entering the front security gate of the neighborhood with a female, in the same position as the surveillance video. Stephan Sterns's car is seen on surveillance footage again, this time turning into the parking garage of Holiday Inn Club Vacations in Orlando. He drives to the top level of the parking garage and gets out of his car around 9:42 a.m. A man matching Sterns's description is seen allegedly opening the trunk, walking around to the passenger seat, opening the door, and carrying what appears to be a "limp female body" to the trunk of the vehicle. At 9:44 a.m. the vehicle is seen on surveillance video leaving the parking garage and driving away. The Florida State Attorney's office release more than 900 pages of information showing how investigators, using surveillance videos and license plate readers tracked Stephan Sterns leaving an apartment complex in Kissimmee on the morning of February 26, and driving to an area of St. Cloud where Madeline Soto's body is found four days later. It remains unclear as to how Madeline Soto died. The Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office announced that it filed 60 counts against Sterns, including: Eight counts of Sexual Battery on a Child Under 12 Five counts of Sexual Battery with a Child, 12-18 Seven counts of Lewd or Lascivious Molestation 40 counts of Unlawful Possession of Materials Depicting Sexual Performance by a Child, 10 or More Stephan Sterns will face the death penalty if convicted of the murder of Madeline Soto.  JOINING NANCY GRACE TODAY:  Terasina Niles - Madeline's Aunt    Jarrett Ferentino – Pennsylvania Attorney/Homicide Prosecutor,; Facebook & Instagram: Jarrett Ferentino; Host: “True Crime Boss” Podcast Dr. Jorey Krawczyn – Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. – Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide”  Joe Scott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” X: @JoScottForensic Shannon Butler - Investigative Reporter at WFTV-9 Florida See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Little Maddie Soto, just 13, now believed That's right. Is she actually buckled in dead and he's driving around with her? Because when you look very carefully at Granny's surveillance video, she's tilted over to one side, her head is over, and her mouth is open. Is this after years of sex abuse by mommies live in? I'm just trying to take it all in, and from what I can determine from our own investigation here at Crime Stories, that sex abuse by mommy's boyfriend started around the time little Maddie was just eight years old. I am learning now from a treasure trove of state's documents

that the night before Maddie, just 13 years old, went missing, translation, murdered. The night before she goes missing, her mother sent her to bed with the live-in so mommy could get a good night's sleep. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. So Madeline is 13 years old. She has been missing since 8.30 on Monday morning when mom's boyfriend dropped her off

near Hunters Creek Middle School. He dropped her off actually near the peace united methodist church on town boulevard 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 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 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 um 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 last name s-o-t-o s-o-t-o yeah

you just heard the sheriff who's an incredible sheriff john mina and he's saying that the boyfriend dropped maddie off that morning at school? No, he didn't. When I heard day one that she got dropped off at the Peace United Methodist Church and not school, and there was confusion about where she got dropped off right there. You know what? I know where I drop my children off. I know where they get out of the car. How come he didn't? Why was there confusion about that? That's a whole nother can of worms. If you don't mind, control room, please, I want to hear that again.

The girl's missing. And he's like, hey, can I bum a cig off you? He's just like so chill, not worried at all. Then I found out later that morning when everyone is running around trying to find Maddie, he says he's zonked out on sedatives because of his anxiety. I bet. 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 i went back to the school it was 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 um 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 last name s-o-t-o s-o-t-o yeah guys with me an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now including shannon butler investigative reporter wftv9 in Florida in this jurisdiction. But first, I'm going to go to a very special guest joining us.

It's Teresina Niles. This is a very dear member of the family related to Maddie Soto's bio dad wife. So they're seeing it from a different angle because they're seeing it from dad's angle. Teresina, thank you for being with us. I really appreciate it. You know, in the last days, I've been reading all the new headlines and we went further and got, there's a 900-page document that I have been, you know, wading through. I've got to tell you, it just made my heart stop. And I understand that you and Maddie's bio dad are reeling at the new information, which aspect of the new information just released is the most concerning to you? I think the biggest aspect has been the timelines that, you know, we weren't, you're ready to hear,

but you're never ready to hear. And so seeing those kind of layout and essentially a lot of my family and I, we haven't read through the documents. But I have seen quite a bit from social media. And it's just devastating. And the description of how she was found and just things of that nature. You're never ready to hear something like that, especially when it's somebody that you've watched grow up. And, you know, it's truly devastating, all of it. You know, Teresina, everyone joining us is a special guest, Maddie's aunt, Teresina Niles. I don't think that you should be hard on yourself at all. Do you know to this day, today,

I have never gone to the scene where my fiancé was murdered. Why? Because it would just put me back at square one. I'd start all over again. I mean, sometimes it's just too much to take in. I've just been thinking so much about what I'm hearing, especially the part, the allegation that Maddie was being molested by this guy as young as age eight.

And I bet anything she never said a word to her dad about it no I we wouldn't be like none of this would have happened if we even had an inkling so it's I think that was another sorry that was another thing from the the documents once we saw how many other of her friends and people didn't know either and we're just it doesn't take the pain away or the guilt um that's that that's there but it does show that like that nobody knew that closest to her and it really is devastating other than the people that did know, I guess. Ms. Niles, did you guys have any idea that the mother was letting, was just basically sending Maddie off to sleep with the boyfriend at night? Not at all. Not at all. So all of this is news. How is Maddie's dad reacting to all this? He must be devastated. It's been difficult to just see my brother-in-law, Tyler, and my sister, Tatiana, just go through any of this just because they loved her so deeply. and it's incomprehensible. I truly can't even find the words to convey the devastation

that I'm witnessing and seeing and reading. It just makes everyone really sick, really, really, really sick. I pray to God, Ms. Niles, I pray to God that one mother out there and one father, especially dads who are not in the home, like when the parents are divorced or separated, hear this and understand what's happening in so many homes across our country. Guys, I want you to take a listen to more of what the mom says. What was your last seen wearing? Green hoodie. Green hoodie.

White Crocs. White Crocs. Blue or black pants. I think black shorts. Black shorts. Yeah. Black shorts? Okay.

Black shorts. All right. Do you know if she has friends in the area? She does, but she doesn't know where they live. She doesn My shorts. All right. Do you know if she has, like, friends in the area? She does, but she doesn't know where they live. She doesn't know where they live. Okay. I asked all of them. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Joining me, an all-star panel, and want to go out to shannon butler he was an investigative reporter wftv9 in florida shannon thank you so much for being with us i gotta tell you this new release of documents and information uh you've seen a wrecking ball, right? It feels like a giant wrecking ball just hit me in the head when I see what was going on in that home and I'm hearing the circumstances surrounding this little girl, 13-year-old Maddie's death, her murder. This with the backdrop of the boyfriend being charged with at least 60 sex counts on children, be it taking videos, pictures, molesting, the whole shebang. And look, the mom did not murder the daughter. He did, according to police. But wow, I mean, letting the fox in the hen house.

What was she thinking? And her story completely changed. I can't help but feel blame toward mommy. Yeah, I think everybody, I mean, we have been following this case for months and we've had so many people call and email and say, what are they going to do about Jen Soto? People are angry because of everything that happened before they reported her missing. We still have that piece of the timeline that we don't know yet of what happened between when she sent her daughter up to bed to sleep with Stefan Stearns. And then in the morning when he was seen with her inside that car, we have that gap there in that timeline. I think that will tell us some things. We have asked the

Kissimmee Police Department time and time and time again, is there going to be an arrest made of Jen Soto? Because so many people believe that she was complacent in this, that there were things that she did that would have changed the outcome of this situation if she hadn't done it. That timeline we are waiting on and hopefully will tell us more. But at this point, it just doesn't seem like police are moving towards Jen Soto. You know, this is an investigation, and we've been through this a million times, unfortunately, and things can change. But right now, it seems their focus is just on Stephen Stearns. And I know that is what so many people do not want to hear. To Jarrett Fiorentino, Homicide Prosecutor in Pennsylvania,

JarrettFiorentino.com, host of True Crime Boss podcast. Jarrett, thank you for being with us. Jarrett, how many times have you seen it? I've seen it so many times. I'm up to here with it. Mothers that side with the molester. I remember the first time I saw it. I couldn't believe it. I remember the case. I took the case to trial.

I got held in contempt., blah, blah, blah. Long story short, mothers, girlfriends, lovers, mistresses siding with the guy that's molesting their child. Nancy, it's a power dynamic. It's crazy what's going on here in this case. The fact that Jen Soto is continuing to protect Stearns, at a minimum, she lied in the ages of the investigation. And if we've learned anything from the cases we've seen over the past, loved ones who are lying about missing, when there's someone missing about small details or large details, it's hiding something, something very big. And she's hiding to protect Stearns

and very likely to protect herself. Yeah, you know what, Jaron Farentino? I want to follow up on something that you just said, lying about details. Okay, let's give her the benefit of the doubt for one moment. See, I'm projecting again. I remember distinctly the last time

I saw Keith before he was murdered. I remember what we talked about. I remember what I was wearing. I remember whatly the last time I saw Keith before he was murdered. I remember what we talked about. I remember what I was wearing. I remember what he was wearing. The whole thing. I remember how cold it was outside that morning in August. I remember everything about it. How does she not remember what happened?

So I've got a problem with that, but I'm not a shrink. Maybe Dr. Crawson can explain it. To Joe Scott Morgan joining me. Guys, Joe Scott Morgan, Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University with a state-of-the-art criminal procedure

and criminal justice program. Author of Blood Beneath My Feet. Host of Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan. It's a hit podcast. I could go on and on and on. But what really matters to me about Joe Scott Morgan, he has investigated at least 1,000 unexplained deaths where he has to make the determination about what happened. He is a death investigator. Joe Scott, I'm getting chills on my arms. I'll

tell you why. How many child death cases have you seen where there were years of warning signs? signs. Mommy, don't send your little girl to go sleep with your boyfriend. Don't. Hey, why is he even living in the house? Number one. I'd send him back to his mommy and daddy. C-O-D. Right? Bye. That said, why wasn't he at work? What was he doing? How was he benefiting the family at all? You want to tell me, Joe Scott Morgan, that there was no sign this little girl had been being molested since she was at least eight years old? Nothing? Not even a suspicion? And it happened, happened, happened for years. I mean, the little girl told people, I want to go live in the woods. Why? My daughter, has your son ever said that to you? My daughter and son have never said, I just want to go live alone in the woods. And they really mean it. And they say it over and over for years that they want to get away from home? Joe Scott, you see a dead child's body.

And you know, Joe Scott, from all the cases that you have handled and investigated, that this could have been prevented. How do you do it? How do you do it? Excellent question. Because we've seen so many of these things where they just absolutely lose any kind of responsibility. It's just lost out in the weeds. And of course, we have to remember, the alleged perpetrator here is whacked out of his mind on benzos. He even says this,

you know, he's suffering from terrible anxiety. Yeah, I know why in the hell you're suffering from terrible anxiety at that moment in time when you think you know let's just go with this this line of thought here hold on i want to as i say to the twins when they have to go get you know a tutorial skill suck in all the knowledge you can so you just said correctly it's really hard to argue with you when you're mostly always right, Joe Scott. Remember, I put in mostly right there. He's whacked out on benzos. True, he is because of his anxiety, because he just murdered Madeline there. That's why he's anxious. But he had the wherewithal to dispose of her body, to lie, to come up with all sorts of stories to explain his circuitous route. I don't know how whacked out he really was or how much he just wants us to believe that.

And what's a benzo? That's where I was starting. Yeah. You know, he claims that he's suffering from, you know, kind of this anxiety disorder, apparently, that he has to regulate himself with these meds in order to function day in and day out. And I guess that's what you do when you live in mom and dad's basement or you're the boyfriend that mooches off of a single mom and perhaps, perhaps is victimizing the deceased here since the age of eight, since the age of eight. That's what they're saying.

And yeah, I can, I can see why you would need benzos on board. What's the benzo? What's a benzo? Well, we think about clonazepam, for instance. We think about things like Valium, you know, those types of things that kind of soothe us and calm us down. And there's so many of them out there just floating about. And if he got his hands on these, he's going to try to numb himself, perhaps, because the

reality that he's having to deal with or that he's not facing up to at this moment. There's not a nice way to ask this, Joe Scott. So I'll just ask it. How can we be so, as he says, his words, not mine, zonked out. How can he be so, quote, zonked out, but yet he could still affect a child rape? I'm not going into the details. Okay. How can he be so lethargic and sedated, but he could still commit a child rape and try to cover his tracks. And remember, he also

said, I don't know how I did it, but I did a total reset on my phone, a factory reset, and I erased all my contacts. Hello? We still found hundreds of child porn images and videos. He didn't do that good of a job of it. So how high was he really? Did you look at this video, Joe Scott? Do you see him standing there? Yeah, yeah. He seems completely lucid at that moment in time, doesn't he? You know, he's, I mean, he's got his arms crossed there,

maybe perhaps in a defensive posture. I don't know. That's a Dr. Joy question. But he seemed to be present in the moment. He's responding. What did they say? You know, just a moment ago, control played the clip of him. He was the first one to speak up about her clothing, Nancy. How would he know about her clothing, what she was wearing? Well, he's he's he's the person that's supposed to be conveying her to all these places. You mentioned the twins just a moment ago that you know specifically where you let them out. I knew where I let my kids out

when I dropped them off at school. You're going to let her wander the streets? Oh, by the way, yeah, I dropped them outside of a Methodist church and not at school. Oh, by the way, yeah, she was embarrassed to be seen with me. Yeah, there's more to the story.

I know the initial information was that she said, hey, I'm embarrassed of this vehicle, whatever. So drop me off at this location. We're still following up on all of that. But yes, certainly something that we will look into. Why not drop her off at the school? But we're looking into all of that. Yeah, that's not true. He did not drop her off at Peace United Methodist Church because she didn't want to be seen with parents or because she was embarrassed of the car. She was murdered and hidden behind a row of bamboo, very thick.

Her items were thrown into a dumpster, including her backpack and her school issued computer. And he, Stephan Stearns, was spotted at that dumpster. A male called in with the tips describing his vehicle. And then he was outside the vehicle with a tire iron. At this moment, I don't know the official COD. We are waiting. But I want you to hear more

of what mommy and live-in now murder defendant said. How about, does she have like Apple Watch? She's got a device, the only device she's got on her right now is her school laptop. Her school laptop.

Is that trackable? I don't think so. I don't think so. It should be. It should be. If the Wi-Fi is turned on, it'll try to connect to the Wi-Fi. And also, I want you to hear where the live-in, a.k.a. Stefan Stearns, describes where Maddie went. She got dropped off. She was like, I... So she's embarrassed by this car. describes where Maddie went. No, we called school. She was walking in that direction. She was rifling through her backpack, just looking for something.

I thought maybe she was just looking for headphones before she got her walking arm. Yeah. But she was just kind of, you know, shambling over in that direction. It looked the same as any other morning. Teresina Niles, could you tell us about Madeline? Yes. Maddie was the light of my sister Tatianaiana, and my brother-in-law, Tyler's eyes. She was in their entire world. Their love for her definitely seeped into the rest of us in the family. And we just had this hope and prayer that one day we would be able to have more time with her, spend more time with her,

watch her, you know, go through the milestones and make memories as a family. But we weren't given that opportunity. So a lot of it was from watching afar. And when they did get, you know, a chance to have her and be with her, they spent every moment, like, cherishing it. So it was very, this is all very difficult to understand, especially finding out in real time as well with the rest of the world. The nightmare she was living through and went through and, yeah, it's just been incomprehensible for us investigators believe the female seen at 7 36 a.m in the surveillance video in the front passenger seat of stephan stern's vehicle is madeline soto's dead body propped up and buckled into the seat to appear as a living person but closer inspection of the video shows her head leaning toward her shoulder with her

mouth open stern's is caught on surveillance video again with her mouth open. Stearns is caught on surveillance video again at 8.19 a.m. when he is seen entering the front security gate of the neighborhood with a female in the same position as the surveillance video captured at 7.36 a.m. Jarrett Ferentino joining me, veteran homicide prosecutor at JarrettFerentino.com, host of True Crime Boss podcast. Jared, I've been looking at this guy's statement. His, as we just saw on video, the level of detail he is giving. It's amazing how when people lie, they will go through so much detail, superfluous detail that really comes back to bite them in the neck. For instance, he claims that that morning he and Maddie had to turn around and go all the way back to Kissimmee

because they left behind the gate remote to get into their neighborhood. He then claims he had a flat tire. He then claims that he got lost and on the way to taking her to school and he couldn't recount his exact direction. And this is because police kept asking him questions, asking him questions about where he went that morning and why he was spotted going eastbound on the highway. How does anybody tell that lie, Jarrett Fiorentino? It's a complete horror show. And he's desperate at that point. He's got to know the gig is up, Nancy. He's in lie upon lie. Anybody in close proximity of a missing child or murder who then claims they were just driving around or has erratic driving patterns, nine out of ten times is the person responsible. But you know what I thought was notable about that video we showed initially when they were reporting? He knew exactly what Maddie was wearing, jeans and a green sweatshirt.

Mom got it wrong. Mom said she was wearing black shorts. So he was telling the truth about certain items and lying about others. I'm going to go to Dr. Jory Croson joining us, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University. You can find him at drjory.com. Dr. Jory, I'm always amazed at the level of detail liars include in their statements. But more fascinating is why women choose to be blind to the molestation of their children and actually side with the predator. I've seen it over and over. When you look, there's so much to the answering of that question because there's so much involved here.

You can see that there's definitely a different type of relationship between the mother and the live-in boyfriend. When that first video, you watch the body language of both of them they're almost in like support of one another with their story it's like mother has a knowledge that there's some complicity on her part of this involvement here and that she may not have all of the information from the boyfriend right now and so she's kind of almost treading softly, even maybe fearing the worst has happened. But they're complicit in their actions.

And I don't think they've gotten time to be alone to either share what's going on. And I don't think that the live-in boyfriend for sure has told the mother that he has killed her daughter. It's amazing to me that women will stand by a guy that is molesting their child. I don't get it. To Teresina Niles, this is Maddie's aunt on the dad's side. Teresina has, do you know whether the bio dad has confronted Maddie's mother? Confronted her in the past about other things or? Well, yes, that's a good start. Thank you. Did he ever confront her about the living situation with the boyfriend? No, I don't think

a lot of us were aware of any of that. Ah, so that was hidden, hidden from the bio dad. Has he tried to get in touch with the mom since her body was discovered? Everything has gone through the correct actions to communicate with the liaisons that they have in place. I'm worried that Maddie's dad is blaming himself and he should not. Is he? Because that's a very normal reaction. To many degrees, for sure, with my brother-in-law and my sister and the rest of the family in general.

It's hard not to. There was no signs, but looking back, you just, what if, what if, what if we could have done or what if we would have known? And it's really hard not to live in that and see them going through it. So it's definitely been a challenge. We know this case has gained significant public attention because Madeline had just celebrated her 13th birthday and was just a child. The evidence shows an individual that was entrusted to keep Madeline safe made calculated moves to dispose Madeline's belongings and place her body in a wooded area before she was ever reported missing. For the four days following her disappearance, the entire community was actively looking to find Madeline safe and alive. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

I want you to hear the boyfriend, Stefan Stern, speaking to police. And what a wild story he gives. Reminds me a little bit of top mom Casey Anthony. Her story kept changing and changing and getting bigger and bigger and bigger of a lie. Same here.

Listen. At 810, your car is seen going southbound at this intersection. So meaning going toward Kissimmee. I had forgotten so I had forgotten my gate clicker I'm sorry I forgot I had gone back to the house real quick after we left because I forgot my gate clicker. I actually had to go through the front gate and use my parking pass to grab my clicker.

So it was the wrong time. I'm sorry. Like I said, I'm just guesstimating these times. I'm not a morning person. Not a morning person to death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, not a morning person. The daughter is missing and he's not a morning person, so he can't answer police questions. Joe Scott, you and I have very carefully investigated the case, studied this most recent outpouring of documents, and I want to hear your theory about what happened to 13-year-old Maddie. In my opinion, she was deceased when she went into that car, Nancy. Now, you know, for me, I think that it was something that took place in a very private location in order, the facilitation of her death, I'm speaking of. And then he had to secret her out of that location into the vehicle and transport her

away. That vehicle itself is going to play a key role, I think, because we have to consider all things. Remember, her autopsy report has not been released. And by virtue of Florida statute, it's not going to be, apparently, because we have an involved minor here. But here's the thing. She's, you know, we talk a lot about primary scenes and secondary scenes and tertiary scenes. This car itself is a crime scene. I want to know what physical evidence they found in there. And I know before everybody jumps to the conclusion, well, her DNA will just naturally be in there because she frequents the use of that car with this fellow.

However, I want to know what the source of the DNA is, their blood in that car specifically. That's something that you would not anticipate being in there. And that's going to give us an idea as to perhaps what may have happened. He's riding around at this point with this deceased young child in the car with him that he has posed Nancy allegedly. Remember what was said. She's leaning over to the left. Her head is tucked down. Her mouth is open, Nancy. He's trying to find a place to deposit her remains, and not just her remains, but all kinds of evidence that would

link him back to her relative to her personal belongings. Oh, I don't know where she went. Dropped her off at the church, you know. But later on, they're going to find all of these items in the dumpster, perhaps. And then her discarded and apparently covered, which goes to this idea of him thinking, thinking about what to do. He's not so out of his mind that he doesn't have control over what's happening. Joining us is Shannon Butler, investigative reporter, WFTV 9. There are 60 charges against the live-in, Stefan Stearns, many of them sex battery on a child. And I'm wondering if they're

not getting a lot of that from his phone. Of course, he said that morning he did a massive factory reset. Those are his words, not mine. Massive factory reset. Wow, that's quite the coincidence, is it not, that he does a factory reset on his phone the moment she goes missing? So on what are these sex battery on a child charges predicated? So I think that was the first red flag for investigators. I think they knew the minute he reset that phone that was at the moment they realized you know something was was terribly wrong here and that was what they originally arrested Stefan Stearns on it wasn't until later that they filed

those murder charges but those videos gave them a very good indication of what was going on since she was eight years old. And that gave them plenty to go on to start to look at other things. What was she last seen wearing? Green hoodie. Green hoodie. White Crocs. White Crocs. Blue or black pants. I think black shorts. Black hoodie. Crocs. White Crocs.

Blue or black pants. I think black shorts. Black shorts. Yeah. Black shorts? Mm-hmm. Okay. Black shorts.

All right. Do you know if she has, like, friends in the area? She does, but she doesn't know where they live. She doesn't know where they live. Okay. I asked all of them. Guys, I've been looking at the particular charges, and I want to go straight out to Jarrett Fiorentino, former homicide prosecutor in Pennsylvania. There's so many to look at.

There's 60 charges. But I'm looking, of course, there's all the sex batteries on a child under 12. So we know the claims go back for years. I believe they go back to age eight for this little girl. But listen to this, Jarrett. Unlawful possession of materials depicting a sex performance by a child. That says to me there's a strong possibility he actually videoed the sex abuse on Madeline. Nancy, that is certainly a possibility based on the charges against him at this point.

And it could even go to motive, intent and opportunity to have killed Maddie to cover up what he was doing. I also know recovered in his vehicle was a phone tripod used for filming, which again, that's just my mind assessing the evidence and looking at what was recovered here. It's not too much of a leap to think that somebody collecting child sexual abuse materials wouldn't be documenting the abuse he's committing on Maddie. So those charges may be just that. To Teresina Niles, this is Maddie's aunt. Teresina, what is your message to parents listening tonight? I, when Maddie passed away at the funeral, we all went as a family and promised her that she didn't die in vain. And I wanted to work really hard in ensuring that with, you know, taking care of being strong for my family and also being strong for her. I know that with since this is all started and happened, I've worked with many advocates that are local in Florida. And they've really helped kind of bring all these communities that have reached out to my family and I, supporting us during all of this.

And it's solely on Maddie's behalf, and that's been, it hasn't gone unnoticed for sure. It's amazing to me that you and Maddie's father can put one foot in front of the other. And I want to thank you for being with us today. Thank you. And sounding the warning for other parents out there, because Maddie never mentioned any of this to her father. He didn't see any signs. Not just him. You didn't. The stepmom didn't. The teachers didn't. Very rarely do child molestation victims actually speak out. They think it's all their fault and they're embarrassed.

So they go to great lengths to actually cover it up. And I hope her dad knows that. Guys, I want to report that this is a death penalty case. They're in Florida. And Florida typically doesn't just give the sentence of death penalty. They carry it out. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace signing off.

Good night, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.