Morbid - The Brutal Hoia Baciu Forest

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Today we travel to Romania where everything is terrifying and awesome. Come on, it's the birthplace of Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and it's got one of the scariest forests on this planet. The Hoia Baciu forest is a place where the trees bend like a rule, there is a dead zone in the center that might be a portal to hell, it may have been the location of one of the earliest doomed Romanian settlements and a truly macabre slaughter may have taken place there. Need more? Trust us, there is an endless slew of mystery and terror lurking in this place. The locals won't go in there after night falls, will you? Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is another mini morbid. Because you're getting three episodes this week. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid. But don't get used to it because this is the last week. We just wanted to catch up because we had to miss the week when my little babe was in the hospital for two weeks.

So we wanted to catch up and make sure you got all the content. All of it. Even more content than we normally give. Every content you could ever have. Yeah, we just wanted to over-content you. That's all. Yes. It's like this is your third episode.

Yeah, oversaturate. We're just going to barge you with us. Okay. But not next week. We're going to be back to just a mini and a main episode next week. So we'll be back to two from three. So really? Not that different.

It's fine. It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. All right. Well, it was my turn to get together a mini. So this is a mini. So we're just going to jump right in.

Yeah. Okay. Let's get it. So strap in because... I'm strapped. Okay, I'm glad. Because this case starts with one of the most, like, freakiest things in my opinion. Oh, damn.

Which is an abandoned car. Ooh, we hate an abandoned car. Yes. So on Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at about 2.46 a.m. Nothing good happens then. An Uber driver calls in to Neptune City Police and says, hey, this car is abandoned. And not an emergency, just thought you should down. That was nice.

Yeah. And actually a couple of people called the car. So the police go and check it out. And they're like, what the fuck? Like, the keys are in the ignition of this car. It's completely operable. How do you say that? Operatable.

Operable? Operable. Sounds good. The car works. I was going to say, it can drive. You can drive it. So the keys are in the ignition. You can drive it.

There's nothing wrong with this car. It's straight up abandoned. Perfectly good car. Yeah. So whose fucking car is this? Whose fucking car is this? They look and it's registered to a 96-year-old woman named Lillian Stern. Oh, no.

But she had actually given her car to her granddaughter, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Okay. Okay. But now Sarah... So Lillian's okay. Lillian's okay, yes. But Sarah is nowhere to be found. Oh, no.

So like I said before, Sarah was 19. She lived in Neptune City, New Jersey with her father, Michael, and her dog buddy. she fucking loved that dog like that dog was her bay. Oh. That means she's a good person when you love a dog like that. Oh yeah. And she was a good person.

She was absolutely beautiful, creative, an insanely talented artist. Like insanely talented. An athlete and by all accounts just like one of the nicest people that you could ever meet. What the fuck, man. And like she's a 19 year old girl.

It reminds me of your many episodes. Yeah. She's just this normal teenager. The teenager. The twilight of her, no, not the twilight, the dawn of her life. Yeah. Lillian is in the twilight of her life, but she's in the dawn of her life. That was beautiful. Yeah.

So Sarah was super into YouTube and actually a few people emailed us asking us to cover this. And one of those people who emailed us was in this YouTube community with Sarah. Oh, okay. See, I was just, I'm in the age group that, like, YouTube was like not what it is now. Yeah. I was like... I was like... So I was like...

So I was like... So I was like... Somewhat into it. Yeah, you definitely were. Like I liked, uh, I liked a lot of like the English ones, like, like the European YouTubers. Yeah. Like, we didn't know any YouTubers.

Yeah. They were, there weren't actual YouTubers. Your thing was like, MySpace. Yeah. It was like, yeah. And YouTube was for watching... Ready? Ready?

Ready, my oldies? Are you ready? It's for watching Salad Fingers. And... And... Tales. Let's see if anybody knows Tales of the Blode. I know that because of you. You know, yeah, but like, get at me if you know those. I think my friends might have known about Tales of the Blood. I think we watched it once at, like, a get together.

Did you really? Yeah. I'm impressed. Thank you. So this specific community called themselves cream puffs. From my understanding, the cream puffs are like a fandom of this YouTube series. Your face looks so concerned. I don't understand. YouTube confuses me still. The only thing I use it for like true crime videos. Yeah. I love those. So the cream puffs basically from what I gather were a fandom of this YouTube series called Carmilla.

Okay. And basically Carmilla was like a web series like drama, comedy, like show and it was based in Canada. All right. That's cool. Now this is kind of a big deal because Sarah fucking loved Canada. Like she... Who doesn't really? She loved Canada.

I'm with her on that. She actually even traveled there at one point. to go to like this YouTube VidCon convention. Oh wow. And she met like pretty famous YouTube stars like Jenna Marbles. Oh, Jenna Marbles. Yeah. She's from Boston.

Yeah. See, I know her. So she met Jenna Marbles. And actually Jenna Marbles ends up posting a video on her page when Sarah goes missing. Oh, shit. To help bring awareness to the case. Sarah had plans of like moving to Toronto someday. Or not.

She went to Toronto for this convention, but she wanted to live in Canada. Wow. All right. So as we know, when people go missing, the police interview the people the closest around them. So they contact Sarah's dad trying to figure out like, is she with you? Like, what the fuck? Where are you? Her poor father was in Disneyland with his new girlfriend. You're in the happiest place on earth and you get a call from police like, hey, do you know where your daughter is? You're away. You're away from your child, you know, like.

A 16 hour drive away to be exact. Because where is this? This is in Neptune City, which is in New Jersey. Oh, okay. And he was in, there's like multiple Disneyland's isn't there? Well, there's one in California and this Disney land. And then there's Disney World. Oh, no, Disney World is in California? Disneyland is in Florida? I don't know.

I'm assuming he was probably in Florida. Yeah, probably. And then had to drive back to New Jersey. What was it, a 16 hour drive you said? Then he was definitely in Florida. Yeah, shut up. So. I was like, wait a second.

Well, I don't know if there's like another fucking Disneyland and like Nebraska, whatever. I don't know geography. That's awesome. So. he immediately hops in the car and starts the 16-hour drive back to Neptune City to figure out what the fuck is going on. Of course. Yep. So the last person to see Sarah before she went missing was her best friend, Liam McItazney, I think is how you say it.

Whoa. Yeah, McItazney. Macatazney. So they had hung out pretty much all day until Liam had to go to work at a local steakhouse. Robin Draper, who was Sarah's neighbor, also saw Sarah that day. Okay. And she had something pretty big to tell police that she didn't really think much of before Sarah had gone missing. Earlier that day, Robin got a text from Sarah asking if she could drop off a bin of her mom's old things to leave at Robin's house.

Okay. So Robin, like I said, didn't think too much of it at the time. She'd been neighbors with the Stearns like forever. She'd seen Sarah grow up. She was friends with her mom. Sarah's mom had passed away from cancer. Oh, sad. She was like 15 when her mom passed away.

Oh, that's awful. It was really sad. So she figured that Sarah was just cleaning house, needed somewhere to put her stuff. So Sarah that day, I'm pretty sure it's like morning-ish time. She walks across the street with Liam, walks right into the house because she's like friends with them. It doesn't matter. And she's like, yo, like, hey, what's up, Robin? Like, I'm here to drop this off.

Like, yells out to Robin. But Robin wasn't home. Her daughter, Carly was. So Carly was Sarah's friend since childhood again. So she ran down to help Sarah and Liam with the bin. And then after that, she and Sarah made plans to hang out that night. And then Sarah and Liam had it out. So it was like a pretty normal exchange.

But now that Sarah's missing, she's like Robin Draper is like, you know, like it was weird that like she just dropped her mom's stuff off here. Like because they're almost treating it like it was a runaway. Like maybe she was trying like in the Bryce lost pizza case. Yeah. Like it's get rid of all this stuff before she leaves. It's alarming when people start to give away stuff. For sure. And then they go missing.

Yeah. So authorities go to leave. Liam's house pretty early on in the investigation. Actually, the very morning that Sarah went missing. Good. In the video, they have, like, they have a video of the exchange and you can tell it's early. It's not even light out yet. And Liam definitely, like, just wakes up and answers the door and is, like, super confused. Oh, geez. So they ask him if he's with Sarah, like, is Sarah in the house? And he's like, no, she's not. Last time I saw her was this afternoon. We hung out. I had to go to work. Like, I haven't heard from her. And they're like, so you haven't heard from her. since, like, you left to go to work. And he's like, nope, actually.

And they're like, she hasn't texted you anything like that. Like, you're her best friend. Yeah. And he's like, I actually can't find my phone. Like, I don't even know where it is. So I'm glad you did that because I'm watching this documentary and I'm like being a judge you bitch. Yeah.

And I'm like, I'm sorry, you're like 19, 20 years old. I just don't know where my phone is. 2016. Yeah. You don't just casually lose your phone. No. And whenever they say, you know what, it's weird. I don't know where my phone is.

Yeah. Like, fuck you, you know where your phone is. And I'm sorry, I don't think that you go to sleep, not knowing where your phone is. You know where your phone. Like, how are you going to wake up tomorrow? You have a fucking alarm clock? You know what, Liam. Not on your phone?

Liam. Liam. Liam. You know where your phone is. Where's your phone, Liam? Where's your phone, Liam? We're going to find out later. We are.

So that's neither here nor there right now is what I wrote. He also tells police right away. Sarah has a bad relationship by their dad. She's been talking about moving to Canada to get away from everything. Trying to set it up, Liam. It up. Seems like you're trying to set it up. So very early on there's a search party put together to look for Sarah.

Neptune City is one of those super close-knit communities where like everybody knows each other. So everyone got together. They did, they had like boat dive. They had people like diving. They had boat captains looking for her. People from surrounding towns were joining. And like they come up with nothing. Where are you, Sarah?

Liam, his twin brother, Seamus, his roommate Preston. who actually Preston took Sarah to the junior prom. Wow. These are some names. I know. Liam Preston and Seamus. They're great names. Liam and Seamus are probably Irish.

Yeah, I would say so. And then Preston's probably just... She's just Preston. Yeah. He's just living in his life as Preston. Hello. Whoa. So he took her to the junior prom.

So obviously he's like her good friend. Yeah. They went just as friends, like not romantic. But they're all looking for her. This is their friend. They're good friend. Yeah. But I'm starting to get a little, I'm getting a little suspect here.

Yeah. They're such good friends. It's a little suss. So police speak to Liam again that day. Just to see if there's anything he can let them know that is going to lead them to find Sarah. Because they're a little suspect. They're probably, actually at this point, I don't know how stuff they are. They're just like we need to.

I think they're pretty much thinking she ran away at this point. Yeah, that makes sense. Because there's just nothing. There's no evidence to the contrary. There's no trace of her. So he again tells them, she has this bad relationship with her dad lately. she was talking about getting away, moving to Canada. He tells police exactly what they did that day.

He goes over the whole day. They went to the Draper's house to drop that bin off. They went to Taco Bell. Fuck yeah. They went back to the house, played video games together, and then he left to get to his shift at the steakhouse. Sounds like a day. Yeah, sounds. I mean, it sounds like a very casual, like typical Friday, Saturday for a teenager.

Very normal 18, 19 year old day. Yeah. Those were the fucking days when you just like woke up, clean. your house a little bit. Just rolled around, ate some Taco Bell, played some video games. So, he says that he was supposed to work until midnight, but he ended up getting out early at 10, and he just went home. And everything adds up. His story adds up because the across-the-street neighbors, the drapers have a security system. So, and you can see Sarah's house is like adjacent right across the street. So you can see all the times they left throughout the day in

Sarah's car. And then you can see Liam's car leaving when he said he left. Never comes back again. Okay. So they have Liam leaving when he said he did, like I said. And then the last car to leave the driveway is Sarah's house around 1145, presumably headed toward the bridge. Okay. But where is she? Did she jump off? Did she fucking like hop on a getaway car, head to Canada? Like, what the fuck? So Liam does say that she did have some pretty self-destructive behavior in the past. And maybe she was suicidal. He at one point had this girlfriend named Maggie. And like he says that if Maddie, he says that if Maggie didn't text Sarah back right away. Sarah would be like, I'm going to kill myself, like, text me back, like, la-da-da-da-da. Seems convenient. I don't know. Yeah, it does.

I'm really on Liam's shit. And then, but then you have her giving the bin of her mom's things to the drapers. Yeah, that's that. So Liam says maybe she did jump off the bridge. And then he asks authorities while he's speaking to them at the station. So this is like on camera. If she did jump off the bridge, what are the odds that she's not off in the ocean by now? Oh, you're trying to make sure? Yeah. You trying to make sure, Liam? And you just coldly ask about your best friend since first grade.

These two had been friends since first grade. And you're asking some kind of weird-ass, skeevy question about whether she fucking floated into the ocean yet? If she's dead? Like, is she in the middle of the ocean right now? And he just coldly asked the question. Yeah. Fucking Liam, man. So that same day, his mom and dad hire him an attorney who advises him to stop talking.

to the police. Hey, smart attorney. And Liam goes quiet. Oh, there you go. When Liam stops talking, though, his friend and roommate, Preston Taylor, oh, Preston. Remember Sarah's junior prom date. He's brought in to speak with authorities just to give any information he might have. He says, maybe she jumped off the bridge because of the issue she's been having with her dad. Sounds kind of rehearsed to me. And as he's saying this, he starts to cry, which is like a little weird, because it's like, you're saying maybe she jumped off the bridge, like, you're just like cooperating the same story, but you're crying for some reason. Yeah, and it's like, are you crying because you're sad? Because you think she jumped off the bridge? Right. Are you crying because you know you're

bullshitting? Exactly. And it left police with this like weird feeling about the interview, but still, there's not a lot to go on. Yeah. And they're like, maybe she jumped. Maybe she ran away. And it's like, we just jowl hold them on. It's like you don't really have anything. They don't have anything. Yeah. So then it's discovered that there was a missing piece to this story. Uh-oh. Sarah went to the bank the day she went missing. Huh.

Pretty unassuming thing, but remember that she had been with Liam and he only mentioned the Draper's House, Taco Bell, my favorite place in the whole entire world, and video games. No one did he mention stopping at the bank with Sarah? Uh-oh. So why would you leave that out? Why, Liam? It could have had something to do with the fact that Sarah had a lot of fucking money in this bank.

Do you want to guess how much money she had in this bank? How much did she have? 19-year-old Sarah had about 20. $25,000 put in this bank. Holy shit. Yep. And Liam knew that she had that much money because he was with her when she found this money. What the fuck?

So the two of them were together cleaning out a second home that her family had. And I think it's pronounced Avon. Like we have an Avon here. Avon by the C is what it's called. So that's where their second house was. And they stumbled upon the shoebox of like super old money. Whoa. And basically Sarah's mom had left it to her.

Oh, okay. And his, Sarah's dad says that, like, Sarah's mom was a planner. And this money was to basically set Sarah up because her mom, her mom knew that she was going to pass away. Yeah. Man. So the money was like, like I said, worn. It was in really bad condition. But nonetheless, shit ton of money.

Yeah. Sarah spent some of it because she's fucking 19 years old. Yeah. And then she put the rest $25,000 in the bank. Holy shit. So the security footage at the bank shows Sarah super happy. super cheerful. She chats with the teller. She chats with the bank manager, who was actually a super long time friend of her families. She waves goodbye to him. She's smiling. And later, he's like testifying at

her trial. And he's like sobbing on the stand. Oh, this makes me so sad. Because he said it was the last time he saw Sarah. He blew her a kiss, waved at her and he said, I love you. And that's the last time he saw her. Man, what a last thing to do though. Yeah. I know. Blow you a kiss, say you love them and waved and you can see her leaving like and she's like bye like you can like see her waving and like she's just that hurts my heart yeah it's really sad that's one of that like you were saying in the uh page dowardy one where you can see her going into the deli for the last time exactly those kind of moments where you like you have no idea that that's about to happen to you yeah and it's like those those are chilling and why would you like especially in this case you're just hanging out with your best friend

I hung out with my best friend this morning I never assumed that she was going to murder me no and it's like while we were at breakfast. Oh, man. So at this point, police are like, this isn't a runaway. This really doesn't look like a suicide. Why would she leave? If she was running away, why would she leave $25,000 in the bank? And then a search of her room shows that her passport, her security card, and Canadian currency are in her room.

Yeah. So she didn't fucking run away to Canada. No way. No way. And they realized then that they're working on a homicide. Oh, no. Sarah. So back to when she found the money. So Sarah called her aunt to tell her that like, yo, I found all this money. And her aunt advised her not to tell anybody. Like, don't tell anybody that

you have this much money. Like, it's a lot of money. Be careful. People are assholes. Obviously, it was already too late because Liam McIntazney, Sarah's best friend was with her. She probably didn't think too much about the fact that he was with her. I would never think that my best friend would do anything. That this would be a problem. Right. Liam, on the other hand, couldn't fucking stop thinking about it. Go earn it then, you little turd. Twat, yeah. God.

So he was thinking this money could change somebody's life, that it was the kind of money somebody would kill for. No. So Preston Taylor, Preston Taylor later testified. That's exactly what Liam said when he told Preston about finding the money with Sarah. And he pretty much made up his mind, like then and there that he needed some of that money. And maybe he would rob Sarah for it. Maybe he would kill her for it. Or she's your best friend and you can be like, hey, can I bar.

some of that money. Exactly. Or like work at the steakhouse. I'm sure you make pretty good tips at a steakhouse. Fucking work, man. You want that kind of life-changing money? Then go work for it. So the original plan was to get her drunk and steal the money. But that didn't work because... I already want to punch this kid in the face. Well, he's an asshole. First of all, to get her drunk, he brings over Mike's Hard Lemonade, which like, really... Wow. I don't think that's going to work. Wow. I started drinking Mike's hard lemonade when I was 14 years old, okay? I'm sure Sarah didn't because she seems a little more respectable than I was. But like, I don't know. hard lemonade is probably not going to do the trick.

Maybe might get you a little goofy. Might get you real sick with all that sugar. You're not going to black out and be like, take my money. Take all my money. Yeah, take all my cash. And she's not a fucking idiot. She doesn't have the cash in the house, you moron. Yeah, seriously.

To the bank, because she's responsible. What year do you think this is? Exactly, you idiot. So that didn't work. So he was like, he starts to put this plan together like, we're going to kill Sarah. I'm going to kill Sarah. I want that money. That escalated quickly. Oh, yeah.

He's a fucking sociopath. apparently so in his mind he's going to walk away with like hundred grand um he Liam only told one other person about this money other than Preston and his elaborate plan to make it his money Anthony Curry I hate thieves I do too we were just talking about yeah we were like go fucking work for it even like people it's someone's hard earned money right even people who steal little things like piss me off it's like make the money it's not yours it's not yours and you're taking out of whether you're stealing money for somebody from somebody or you're stealing something like from their store, you're taking money out of their pocket. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, just

fuck off. So anyways. Anthony Curry was a filmmaker from Neptune City who had went to high school with Sarah Preston and Liam. He was actually pretty good friends with Liam. And he said that Liam often pitched him ideas for horror movies, which were normally the kind of movies that Anthony liked to direct. Yeah. This kid is adorable. I love this kid. I feel Anthony on that. So Anthony came forward to police seven weeks after Sarah disappeared with groundbreaking information. Oh, snap. It was information that sounded straight out of a horror film like the ones he produced. Only this time, it wasn't a film idea Liam had pitched to Anthony. It was an actual plan about a real girl with a lot of money and her real ass best friend who wanted to kill her and steal her money.

Wow. So Anthony tells police that he goes over to Liam's house on the night of Thanksgiving. And Liam told Anthony all about the money, all like that had that. Sarah had and then he was planning to kill her. And... Am she supposed to give thanks on Thanksgiving? No. Not hatch a plan to murder your best friend and steal all the money.

It's Thanksgiving night, Elena. God damn it, Liam. He said he planned on catching her off guard, strangling her, stealing her money, tossing her body over the bridge. That is so brutal. And I know I already said it like five fucking times. This is her best friend since the first grade. That I can't wrap my brain about.

The first grade. that his method of doing this, he's like, I'm going to strangle her? The most personal thing ever. That's like the most intense way to kill someone. Just wait. It gets horrible. Oh, no. So police are like, we need to get Liam confessing to this on tape because other than... This is huge. This is huge and we have nothing. Yeah. So, like, we need this confession. Yeah. So, and there's no body. Sarah's body still hasn't turned up. Oh, okay. So they set up this sting operation where Anthony meets up with Liam. First, they tried to get it done over the phone. And, like, Anthony calls Liam. And he's like, because they were like bros kind of.

Yeah. It's like a lot of confusing. Yeah. Anthony is like, I broke my camera. Can I borrow some of that money you have? Like, you know, all that fucking money. You know that money. And Liam is like, oh, like, yeah, let's meet up.

And he, because he fucking knows. He's not going to talk about it over the phone. So. Smart little asshole. Sorry. Oh, I wrote my notes. I said, now I'm sorry. But what innocent motherfucker can't.

briefly talk to you on the phone other than me because don't ever call me for anything. I hate talking on the phone. Yeah. You and I don't call each other. Nope. I don't call anyone. But fuck Liam. I don't care.

Fuck that kid. He can have a fucking phone conversation. Yeah. So anyway, they meet up in this parking lot and Anthony's car is wired. So you can hear and see the entire exchange. Oh, shit. I love when there's video. I love when there's video.

I love a visual. Oh, I love a visual. What is that like a visual means? A visual. Just a visual? No, I'm trying to think of the word. Just a visual is all you need? I don't know.

Marquis, no. I'm stupid. Wow, what's happening? Are you okay? What's the word? A visual. Don't think it's marquee. It's not.

Edit that out. Won't do it. Oh, won't do it. So, okay, so this makes me mad. So they meet in this parking lot and Anthony's car is wired, like I said. So you see Liam get into the car and he fucking greets Anthony and he goes, what's good money? And it infuriates me. I want to take a bat.

I'm like in right now. Well, it's like, you know, like you greet all your oldest pals like that, Alia. Of course you do. What's good money? I often walk into your home and say, what's good money? What's good money? Like, fuck you, William. After I just hatched a plan to kill someone for money.

Fuck you, Liam McAtazney. Yeah. What's good money? Nobody says that in Ireland. Fuck off. I hate that. So I just, I just, I just, I just don't like him. So before Anthony really gets to say much of anything, Liam's like, yo, I'm sorry, no

disrespect. to do this. And he fucking pats down Anthony looking for a wire. He literally pats him down from head or pats him up sort of because he starts at his ankles. That's not guilty at all. No, not at all. Yeah, there's no, no suspect there. Like, looking for a wire. So please tell me this kid is innocent. It makes no sense. Absolutely not. So Liam, obviously, thank God, he doesn't look any further than like Anthony's body and there's nothing on Anthony. So then he just dives right into it. He's like, yo man, sorry, the FBI is on my ass.

First, it was the police, but now there's money involved. So the FBI is, like, talking to me a ton. I just can't be too careful. And then... What the fuck did you do? Right. So Anthony's like, hey, man, like, what happened? So Liam dives into the entire account of the night he murdered his best friend

without an ounce of emotion. Oh. He says he thought killing Sarah was only going to take a few minutes, but actually he timed it. He literally... What? He put a timer on his phone. And when he started killing her, and it took a half hour. What the fuck?

He says he strangled her. And when that didn't work, he shoved a shirt down her throat and held her nose while timing the entire thing. I'm, that's a nightmare. It's the most terrifying thing that I've ever seen. That just made me how to take a deep breath. That makes me so sad for her. And this is, if this already wasn't a trigger warning, just like an animal trick. warning. He says that he killed her right in front of her dog. And he says that her dog didn't do

anything. He just like laid there and watched the whole. Oh my God. Okay. That like really hurt my soul. It's horrible. Like that hurts my. And I'll, well, and you know what I think he's lying. I think the dog probably did try to do something. Probably. And he like heard it or like scared it somehow. And if he didn't, he's probably just fucking terrified. Like, are you kidding me? He's like, I'm pretty sure he was like in his crate or like something. So that makes me so upset. Yeah, it's awful. And I think, I feel like he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, like he just said that to sound like a badass like he definitely did dog but it's like no that just makes you sound like the biggest piece of garbage on planet earth because you know what and that dog did do something

because john can't you've seen john can't even like pretend to tickle me no without bailey losing her shit and bailey loves john and would literally yeah like move heaven and earth for him like that dog loves john a hundred percent he goes to even pretend to tickle me Bailey will eat him alive I was thinking I almost wrote it in here. Like I will be like dancing with the girls in the kitchen. And if I'm like twirling with like one of them, Bailey gets like pissed off. Yeah. She thinks like I'm trying to hurt them or something.

She protects like hard. Yeah. So he's just being an asshole. Oh, that just makes me so sad. Well, and he says that the worst part is that he thought he was going to walk out of this with like 50 to 100 grand. And all he got was 10 grand. Jesus Christ. Yeah.

So that is, yeah, that's the worst part of this. Yeah. And he goes in, I wasn't going to say like a lot of this. I'm going to like skip some of the things he said because they're just fucking awful and like senseless. Ew. But he says that like the last thing that she said was his name. And it's probably because she's like Liam, like my best friend. Yeah.

Liam. And you know what? I don't believe she said your name last. I don't think so either. I don't believe that you little shit. Yeah. He talks about her like it's this girl that he's like he didn't know. Best friends in first grade.

First grade. You're a fucking sociopath. That is unbelievable. And oh and he says he goes it's not really like like my life hasn't changed that much like since she's since she's passed away like since I killed her. What the hell? He was like, you know, I thought that I was going to have all this money but like 10 grand isn't really much more than what I had already. All I've done is like throw better parties. I hate this kid. And then he goes, what am I going to do live a boring ass life?

Oh, I hate this fucking kid. Okay. I hate this kid. I've never killed anybody but I'm. willing, like, I don't think my life qualifies as boring because I haven't killed somebody. Yeah. Like, holy shit. That's his excuse for this.

What the hell? So Anthony's like, yeah, dude, like, where's the money? Where Anthony's like, I want my camera fix, but also I want you to get the fuck out of my car. He's like, I really want to end this right now. It's so sad. You can see, obviously, like, hit the exchange before Liam gets in the car on the way. Like, they have a little clip of it. And he's, like, so nervous.

He's, like, singing along to his music and, like, smoking a cigarette. Because he's got to act like he's not. He's unflappable by this. Like he's not in the car with a fucking murderer. Yeah, totally. Murder. Fun. So he asks where the money is and Liam tells him it's in Sandy Hook and that he doesn't

even know if he can put it in the bank because the quality is so bad. Because remember like that. Oh, yeah, because it was old. Right. And it's like if you put that money in the bank, they're going to be like, yo, like some old ass money. Exactly. That's pretty unique.

Right. Yeah. So he says he kept the money in the house for a while, but then he stopped trusting and pressed him. And he's like, listen, buddy. You're the only other person that knows about this all. And actually, Preston doesn't even know I'm telling you this. Because if Preston knew that you knew this, he'd probably kill you.

Oh, fuck you. Preston's not doing shit. Preston is a little bitch. Just wait. Like, fuck you. Fuck you. He's like, yeah, man, like, good talk. Like, safe travels. Cool.

This was great. He literally happy to meet you. He goes, safe travels. Safe travels. And Liam gets out of the car. He probably peeled out of that fucking thing so fast. Can you imagine after that? You're like, yeah, this has been great.

Yeah. Super glad to see you again, friend. All right. See you. See you later. Cool, cool, cool. Bye, bye, bye. So they have a taped confession, but it gets better than that.

Oh, no. So they go to arrest the shit out of Preston because, like, just arrest the shit out of him. Because also Liam says that Preston helped him dispose of Sarah's body in this whole tape thing. I knew Preston was an asshole. So Preston confesses to everything in literally less than two seconds. I knew Preston. He's like, I did it. I'm sorry.

Of course. This is what happened. He tells. police every last detail. His transcript is 52 pages long. Good. 52 pages. Sing like a canary, Preston. He agrees to go back to the stern house where he went after Liam called saying the job was done. Liam had to get to work serving murder steaks. Oh, yeah, of course. Can you imagine if he was your waiter that day? No. It's like the deli. Like, can you imagine if you went to the deli that day? Like, that was a murder steak that I ate. That was a murder steak. It's fucked up. It's not funny.

So Preston goes, I'm pretty sure Liam had left Sarah's body in the bathroom. So Preston walks back to the bathroom and he moves the body to the bushes to hide it until he and Liam could come back that night together to finish their plan and drive to the bridge, throw her over. He says he shows them exactly how he picked Sarah up. She was slumped over in the corner. He carried her like under the shoulders and he dragged her outside. so like her feet were dragging in front of him.

Oh, okay. Almost like a trust fall. Yeah. Like kind of position. Yeah, that makes sense. Which is like a really bad comparison in this situation. So he grabbed, so he leaves her there. And then he later grabs Liam after Liam gets off work.

And then they go back to the house, back to Sarah's house. So remember how Sarah's car pulled out of that driveway one last time? Oh, that was not Sarah. At 1145. Nope, it wasn't Sarah. That was Liam and Sarah's lifeless body was in the back. Oh. And Preston was following behind him.

From what I assume, they don't ever really go into like great detail of like how this whole setup was. But what I'm assuming is because there was bushes, I think in either the side or the back of the house. Okay. And they like put her body over the fence. Like they passed it over the fence. So I think you couldn't see from the Draper's camera.

Oh, okay. Like Preston's car. Okay. I think. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So the original plan was for Preston to be, so they drive to the bridge and the original plan is for Preston to be waiting on the opposite side so that after Liam threw Sarah's body over,

Preston would be waiting and they could, Liam could hop over the media and jump in the car and they could leave. Jesus. Sorry, I lost my place. But Liam Scroni asked, couldn't get Sarah over the bridge himself. So he walkie-talkies Preston. What? They bought walkie-talkies for this. For this. Jesus Christ.

They bought walkie-talkies for the fucking murder. And actually, they bought walkie-talkies before that because when they were going to do that whole thing where they got her drunk. They needed walkie-talkies for that? Liam walkie-talkied Preston and was like, never mind. Like, we're not going to be able to rob her but like come over anyways. Can you fucking imagine these assholes being like 10-4. Like 10-4 over. Come help me do this.

You're a fucking squid. Like you're the worst. So police also took Preston. out to Sandy Hook so he could show them where the safe was with the money in it that Liam had buried there. He leaves them to this like wooded area and the safe is literally sticking out of the ground like when they get to where it is. It's that makes sense. Barely covered. Yeah, that makes total sense. I would expect nothing more. Yeah, same. It's locked and it's engraved in, it's engraved with the numbers 0.02. The lock is engraved. Okay. So at this point they have like way

more than they need to arrest Liam. Yeah. So they go to arrest Liam. He's, I don't even remember where he was. Fuck that. Being dumb. Being dumb. Doing something stupid. Being dumb. Doing dumb stuff.

Driving his ugly fucking car. Yeah. And on his person, when he's arrested, on his key chain, there's a key with an engraved O-O-2. Oh, I mean, come on. There it is. It's on his fucking key chain. Wow.

Like, are you an idiot? What a brazen fuck. Yes. Yes, you are. So, obviously, shockingly unlocks the safe. Crazy. Revealing 9,000. $350. Okay. It's hard to read numbers. Numbers are hard. And it's in old war and money,

all in like 50s and hundreds, just like Sarah's money was. So the case goes to trial and the trial last six weeks. The defense's biggest thing is that there's no body. They also try to bring up Sarah's relationship with her dad. Like they try to be like, oh, he was this like horrible dude. But there's texts between the two of them while he's in Disney. And he's like sending her pictures of the castle and she's like oh it looks so pretty like what day are you coming home like normal seems pretty normal like yeah exactly and then there's also like the panic text messages that he was sending Sarah the whole time driving home like where are you please answer me and actually I listened to the Dateline podcast on this and her friend Carly was saying that like every day Sarah was missing she would

message her on Instagram like because they thought she ran away at first yeah Carly was like if you ran away like it's okay make a Disney account and like like one of my pictures so I know you're okay oh that's smart yeah super smart it's really smart obviously that never happened no that's a really smart way of it was so sad so um then this whole like douchebag guy comes forward and says he totally saw sarah on saturday morning at 5 a.m he was driving his son to work super early but he's literally the worst witness ever he changes his story and was like actually no it was Friday no wait it was Saturday. And I think he's just like a dickhead who like wanted the fame of this. Yeah. I did it for like the fun of it. The defense team also comes up with this bullshit explanation for the

confession tape saying that Liam was auditioning for one of Anthony's horror films. Get turn around and get right the fuck out of here. Um, that just doesn't make any sense at all. That's the stupidest shit I have ever heard in my life. So Liam's mom believes this too. Of course she does. And I'm not one to like go after the victim. like or like the murderer's family at all like they normally had nothing to do with this but this woman is a fucking asshole yeah she sits there in the 2020 interview and she's like you know I hope that um someday like Sarah turns up like Michael deserves that her father deserves that and you know I wish she could have come to us and let us know that like whatever she was struggling with like treating it

oh shut the fuck like she either killed herself and ran away and she's like come on that is not a confession tape. She's like when Liam talks about things, he doesn't talk about them that way. He uses a very serious tone most of the time. I'm like, honey, no, your car, your kid gets into cars and is like, what's good money? Yeah, exactly. He's not a very serious boy. You don't know your kid. Yeah. Obviously. And then this woman, it's like, it's a very confusing thing because she starts to cry and like puts her hands into, puts her head into her hands. And then when she comes up, there's no tears on her face. And she's pretending to cry, but there are no tears coming out of her face. Are you auditioning as well right now? It's a very confusing viewer experience. Very weird. And I just really

fucking hate her. Very weird lack of visuals there. Because the thing is, like, I'm very sorry if like something like your kid like does something like that. But you owe it to the victim's father and mother or stepmother or their family to be like, I am so sorry for what my child did to And not to sit there and put it right back on their kid. Exactly. Who's gone. Exactly. Like to sit there and be like, well, they probably killed themselves or ran away.

And don't fake cry, you giant twat. Come on, man. So the jury comes back and finds Liam guilty on seven counts. Good. Including first degree murder, tampering with evidence, the desecration of human remains, which he gets an extra 10 years for. Damn. So overall, he's sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years without the possibility of parole.

Yeah. Yeah. which is amazing. Yeah, justice system. Honestly, in my fucking opinion, it's not even enough. I wish there was more. You murdered your best friend since first grade. Seven life sentences. And I literally wrote in here, like we said earlier, make your own money. Make your own money, man. Presden Taylor accepted a fucking plea deal. Of course he did. He was cooperative and cried every five seconds. He was like, meh. He was like, I did it. I swear. So he pled guilty to first degree robbery, second degree conspiracy to commit robbery,

and second degree disturbing or desecrating human remains. He was sentenced to 18 years and he'll have to it's not enough. The only plus I guess is that he'll have to serve at least 15 before he's eligible for parole. Okay. The judge reminded Preston in his sentencing that he had multiple opportunities to stop this and he never did. Good. I'm glad he said that. Like he was like, just make sure that this weighs on you for the next 15 years.

Because that's what you want. Do you think about this for 15 years? And he could have stopped it. Absolutely. He could have. But he just wanted the money. Liam told him well before this was happening what he wanted to do. Like, you took this girl to prom.

Like, these kids grew up together. Their families knew each other. Like, I think Michael Stern, like, carpooled them. That's some point. As shit. Like, they all grew up together. Yeah, that's beyond. Who the fucking you trust?

Nobody. So Sarah's dad, Michael, was never able to give her a proper funeral because they, her body's still never been found. Oh, that's awful. He did set up the Sarah Lee Stern Memorial Scholarship to keep her memory alive and to help students looking to go into the arts because she loved the arts so much and she was so fucking talented. If you're interested in donating to the scholarship, you can send funds. I'm going to post when we post the episode exactly where you can send them

if you don't see the post for some reason. You can send them to the Sarah Stern Memorial Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 2301, Neptune City, New Jersey, 07753. I love that. And that is another fucking senseless murder. That's a terrible murder. It's so sad. And thank you to everybody that wrote in and asked for that one. Yeah, because it was a crazy case. And the fact that they have not found her yet makes my heart hurt.

Well, it's like they just threw this girl. Like, Liam spent many, many days, like hanging out with this. This was his best friend. Yeah. And then he, one, like, kills her, times it. Like, does all this awful thing. And then just disposes of her like she's nothing. Like, trash. Like, literally like trash.

Like, it's nothing. That's horrific. Yeah. Wow. Thanks for ruining my soul. You're welcome. You ruined mine earlier. Anytime.

So, uh, if you want to, if you do want to donate to that, um, the Memorial Scholarship Fund, I'll post it on the Instagram and you can follow us at Morbid Podcast. Hit us up on the Twitter. It'll be there too. A morbid podcast. Uh, like the Facebook. group join it. Morbid colon at True Crime Podcast Facebook group.

And guys, please write to our email suggesting us more cases because it's always fun when you suggest them. Yeah, Morbid Podcast at gmail.com. We hope you good listening. And we hope you keep it weird. I don't really want to do one for this one. Yeah, this one was a real bummer. It was a huge bum.

Yeah, thanks for that. You're welcome. Bye. Bye, bye, bye, bye.