Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Missing Dead: Sarah Stern

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

On a December evening in 2016, a man called 911 when he spotted an abandoned car on a bridge. Police discovered that 19-year-old Sarah Stern of Neptune City, New Jersey, usually drove the vehicle. She was now missing, and police needed to determine if she had left the car voluntarily or was the victim of a crime. If you’d like to learn more about the cases covered in this episode, or learn more about Missing and Unidentified Persons Awareness Month, head to www.spotify.com/disappearances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the nature of this case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of assault, murder, and suicide. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health, visit spotify.com slash resources. Police sometimes run up against conflicting statements in missing persons cases. One witness might say she was depressed. She wasn't feeling like herself. She was looking for an escape. While another could say she was happy, she had her whole life ahead of her, she would never do something like that. It's human nature to try and make sense of things that we don't understand.

To come up with theories about what happened and why, even if you don't really know what happened. Nowhere does this feel more true than in a missing person's case, especially when detectives haven't ruled out the possibility of suicide. And a body hasn't been found. Like when 19-year-old Sarah Stern disappeared. Many assumed suicide, but they were very wrong. Welcome to solved murders, true crime mysteries, a Spotify original from, Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host, Wendy McKenzie.

Every Wednesday, we step into the world of true crime's most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detectives closed the case. You can find episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify. This is our third and last episode for Missing an Unidentified Person's Awareness Month in May. In honor of this event, we had solved murders have been shedding light on a topic that shrouded in misconception. No body homicides. According to former federal prosecutor, Tad de Baez, more than 540, 42 nobody homicide cases have found their way into U.S. courtrooms. And of those cases, around 86% ended in a conviction, which is actually higher than for general homicide cases.

And this is no small feat. In our third and final episode, we'll again be debunking four words. No body, no crime. Today, we're covering the case of 19-year-old Sarah Stern, who went to. missing from her sleepy New Jersey Beach town in 2016. After her car was found abandoned on a bridge, many suspected Sarah died by suicide until new shocking information came to light. For this and more, once again, we have our friend and missing person's advocate, Sarah Turney. My name is Sarah Turney and I host Disappearances and The Voices for Justice podcast. I've talked about circumstantial evidence in previous episodes, and this is a case that It's all about circumstantial evidence and how it contributed to the outcome.

For even more programming around missing persons awareness month, be sure to check out her podcast, Disappearances, a Spotify original from Parcast. And you can visit Spotify.com forward slash disappearances for more ways to get involved. And we'll be back right after this. On Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 246 a.m., the 911, operator in Neptune City, New Jersey, received a call. A man's voice, calm yet urgent, told the dispatcher it wasn't an emergency. At least he didn't think so.

There was a car stopped on a nearby bridge, and it just made him feel a little uneasy. It was an odd place to park. The car looked like it was turned off, possibly abandoned. He told the police they should check it out. Investigators wasted no time responding. Neptune City was a small beach town with a tight-knit community. Chances were at least one officer knew the owner of the vehicle. As they pulled up, the car didn't appear damaged.

It was on the older side. The keys were inside, but the driver was nowhere in sight. Officers ran the plates and learned it belonged to a 96-year-old woman named Lillian Stern. But she wasn't the one driving that night. night, she'd loaned the car to her granddaughter, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Sarah had lived in Neptune City most of her life. In December of 2016, she was living with her father, Michael. At the time of her disappearance, Michael happened to be with his girlfriend on vacation at Disney World. He got a call in the middle of the night and answered half

asleep. The voice on the other end of the line asked if he knew anything about a gray Oldsmobile. Michael said that yes, his daughter drove the car, and the caller hung up without identifying themselves. When he called back, he found out that the number belonged to the Monmouth County prosecutor's office. Clearly, something was wrong. In time, Michael learned what happened. Sarah's car was found abandoned on a bridge. His daughter was missing. He tried calling her. Maybe there was a simple explanation. Only Sarah didn't answer.

Panicked, Michael got in the car and started the 16-hour drive from Florida to New Jersey. Meanwhile, detectives paid a visit to the home she shared with her father. When they arrived, lights were left on inside the home. The back door was unlocked, but no one was inside. The police went in outfitted with body cameras. They were able to capture every step they took and every question they asked during those first few hours of Sarah's disappearance. I think body cam footage is so valuable. Again, that's Sarah Turney, host of disappearances.

What I really love about it is there's no interpreting the scene. I mean, to have this video record of exactly what happened, you can't debate that. there's no relying on anyone's memory, there's no going back and trying to interpret the scene, it's all right there for exactly what it is. In most of the body cam footage, nothing seems amiss. Until one moment when the police find Sarah's dog buddy, he's locked in his crate without any food or water. In the video, he looks legitimately scared. After searching the Stern's house, police questions Sarah's neighbor Robin Draper.

Robin was the mother of one of Sarah's close friends, Carly. And as it turned out, Robin saw Sarah hours before she disappeared. That day, Sarah had stopped by Robin's house with another friend, Liam McIazney, and a strange request. Sarah wanted to know if she could leave a box of stuff at Robin's house. She said the box contained some items that once belonged to her mother, who passed away from cancer three years earlier. Robin didn't ask questions. She said she'd keep the box for as long as Sarah liked. And Sarah went on to talk to Robin's daughter Carly for the last time.

Given the location of Sarah's car, police asked Robin if she believed Sarah might have died by suicide. Robin said Sarah seemed depressed. Police continued collecting information. After the drapers, they visited some other friends of Sarah, Liam McEman. Katasni and Preston Taylor. The two 19-year-olds lived together just a few minutes down the road. Again, Liam was with Sarah when she visited the Draper's that day. He and Sarah had known each other since first grade. They grew up just a few blocks away from one another. They'd always been friendly with one another, but their relationship had deepened a lot over the past several months.

They'd been spending a significant amount of time together, playing video games, watching movies, reading comic books, pretty typical teenage stuff. Liam's roommate Preston also knew Sarah well. He and Sarah had been close in high school. He actually took Sarah to prom junior year. By almost every account, Sarah was never romantically involved with either Liam or Preston. As far as the two young men were concerned, Sarah was just one of the guys. Police knocked on their door around 4 a.m., less than two hours after the night.

911 call, alerting them of Sarah's car. Liam cooperated with police. He led detectives into their home and answered their questions. Liam's statements seemed to corroborate what Robin had told the police. Sarah had seemed depressed lately. Sarah didn't have an easy home life, at least according to Liam. She and her dad had been fighting a lot recently. He also claimed that Sarah had displayed self-destructive, even suicidal behavior in the past.

Police now had a car abandoned on a bridge and two different statements from people close to Sarah supporting the idea that she may have died by suicide. But the simplest explanation isn't always the correct one. Coming up. It is extremely difficult to just disappear without a trace. The events of Sarah's day. Before she vanished. This episode is presented by.

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And now, back to our story. On December 3rd, 2016, Neptune City PD received a call about a car that was abandoned on a local bridge. The driver had been a 19-year-old woman named Sarah Stern. Sarah was now missing and police assumed the worst. According to Sarah's friend, Liam McIazney, Sarah had been struggling with depression while living at home with her father. They'd been getting in fights recently, and Liam believed Sarah was in a headspace to make rash decisions.

But suicide wasn't the only option on the table. Liam told detectives that Sarah had spoken about wanting to move out of the country altogether, to Canada. She'd apparently fallen in love with the country while attending a few YouTube conventions. Police took Liam's statement seriously. It seemed like he may have known more about Sarah's private life than anyone. He was also the last known person to spend time with her. According to Liam, he and Sarah were hanging out the day before the car was found.

Sarah's dad was at Disney World. They played video games while enjoying free reign of the house. house. They took a break to grab Taco Bell at some point in the afternoon, and on their way back to Sarah's, they stopped by the drapers. That's when Sarah asked Robin to take the box with her mother's stuff in it. Liam told police he didn't find the gestures strange at the time. He said Sarah had been packing up a lot of items lately and giving them to people to look after. Later, around 4.30 p.m., Liam left Sarah's place to wait tables at a local steakhouse called Brennan's. He said he worked until about 10 p.m. and then went home and called it a night.

Police could corroborate much of Liam's story. Security cameras at the Taco Bell showed him and Sarah ordering at the drive-thru that afternoon. Cameras on Sarah's neighbor's house showed Liam pulling out of her driveway, presumably heading to the steakhouse. And surveillance videos from the restaurant confirmed he worked his shift. By Liam's account, he was at his house, either sleeping or getting ready for bed when Around midnight, neighbor's cameras caught Sarah's car, pulling out of her driveway. This was about three hours before the 911 call to the police. But something was still off.

Police brought him in again days later on December 6th. For the most part, he told the same story as he did earlier. But he seemed to imply, more than ever before, that Sarah died by suicide. He reiterated comments about Sarah's depression, the fights with the fights with their father and unprompted implied that Sarah may have also been struggling with her sexuality. Then, he asked this of the police. If she did jump off the bridge, what are the odds that she's not somewhere all the way out in the ocean right now? Which begs an additional question. Does Liam's response actually mean anything?

Honestly, it reminds me of when people try to interpret 911 calls. Like, you never know how you're react in an emergency situation. Some people get extremely cold and calculated focused on what they need to do. Other people get extremely emotional and reactive. Everybody responds differently and I don't think it's fair to judge people on these initial reactions. It's so early on in the investigation, I don't think this question means anything. The conversation with police was enough to get Liam's family to hire him a lawyer. But detectives took a break from Liam. In the next day, they shifted their focus to his roommate, Sarah's other friend and former prom date, Preston Taylor. Preston gave police an account that was consistent with Liam's. He also said he thought

Sarah most likely died by suicide. But by this point, certain details seemed to poke holes in that theory, like how Sarah's dog buddy was left in its cage without food or water. She wasn't the type of person to leave her dog alone for long periods of time, let alone locked in his crate without dinner. This brought up the question, why would she have given away all of her stuff but not found someone to take care of the dog that she loved so much? Then detectives learned that both Preston and Liam omitted a significant detail about Sarah's last day. After grabbing lunch at Taco Bell, Liam and Sarah made a detour.

to a local bank. Video footage at the bank showed Sarah coming in that afternoon. She was alone and smiling. According to the tellers, she seemed to be in good spirits. They knew her well and her behavior didn't strike them as unusual. Sarah wanted access to her safety deposit box. She'd recently deposited a hefty sum of money. Money she'd told Liam about.

What happened was, a few months earlier, Sarah was at her family's second home. She was looking through her mother's things and found a shoebox filled with cash. It reportedly contained anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000, and the bills were old. They were practically falling apart and some of them were stuck together. But at the end of the day, money was money, and there was a lot of it for a teen. Sarah spent some of the cash before putting the rest in that safety deposit box. She told Liam about the windfall but kept it a secret from her father.

The day she went missing and her and Liam went to the bank, she took out some of the money. Liam knew this and lied to the police about it. After police learned about Sarah's trip to the bank, they secured a warrant to search the contents of her safety deposit box and found about $25,000 left inside. If Sarah had fled to Canada, she probably had to be able to. would have taken all the money with her. Along with the fact that Sarah left her social security card and her passport behind, police had to rule out the idea that Sarah ran away.

I think looking into the idea that people left on their own accord is fair. You do need to consider that possibility. But you also have to balance that with how realistic that possibility is. I mean, there's surveillance everywhere. And they're obviously tracking her social security number. they're tracking her bank accounts. And I would argue with today's technology, it is extremely difficult to just disappear without a trace.

So Sarah was probably not a runaway, and it was beginning to seem like Liam had something to hide. But without a body or more evidence to work with, Sarah's case stalled out. At least until January 2017, about seven weeks after Sarah's disappearance. Then a new witness came forward. 19-year-old Anthony Curry.

Anthony was a filmmaker and close friend of Liam's, and he said he had a confession to make. That past Thanksgiving, a few weeks before Sarah went missing, Liam pitched him an idea for a movie. It was about a robbery, a murder, and a foolproof plan to get rid of the body. by throwing it off a bridge. Coming up, and it changes the case forever. Anthony Curry goes undercover.

And now, back to our story. Around Thanksgiving, 2016, Liam McItazney told his friend Anthony Curry a story. It involved murdering Sarah for money and throwing her body off a bridge to hide the remains. He then said to Anthony, it would make for a good movie. Anthony didn't think much of it at the time,

but a few weeks later, when their mutual friend's car was found abandoned on a bridge, Anthony couldn't help but connect the dots. He wondered whether Liam might have had a hand in Sarah's disappearance. He eventually worked up the resolve to speak with police. Anthony told them that Liam had been sending Snapchat messages asking to meet up ever since Sarah went missing. Liam implied that he had something urgent to tell him.

Anthony had been dodging the messages, afraid of what he would learn, or what would happen. But the police saw an opportunity. They asked if he'd be willing to wear a wire and meet with Liam, maybe get a confession. Thankfully, Anthony agreed to the plan. I have to give huge props to Anthony here. I mean, making the choice to do this to help Sarah's case in this way, by literally putting himself in danger, is extremely brave. I know from experience that approaching someone you think could be possible for murder

and trying to get those answers out of them is terrifying. It's not an easy or fun thing to do, and honestly, Anthony didn't have to do it, but it changes the case forever. Before the end of January, police had Anthony call Liam with a story about needing money for a camera. If Liam did steal Sarah's money, they figured he might be in a place to help Anthony. But the call didn't go as planned. When Anthony got a hold of Liam,

he told Anthony that he didn't want to discuss money over the phone. He wanted to meet in person and proposed that Friday. Anthony agreed. And when Friday came, Anthony sat in his car in a parking lot by the beach. He blasted music trying to calm his nerves. Finally, the passenger door opened and Liam got in. The first thing Liam did was apologize to Anthony. He said he was sorry, but he couldn't trust anyone.

He needed to check him for a wire. Liam patted down his arms and torso. Anthony tried to play it as cool as he could, and luckily Liam found nothing. Because there was no wire on Anthony, at least not on his body. Confident their conversation was private, Liam turned to Anthony and started talking about everything. His plan to take Sarah's money started back in the summer of 2016 after Sarah found that shoebox full of cash. At the time, he and Sarah were more like acquaintances, but Liam knew that if his plan was going to work, he needed to earn her trust. So Liam spent more and more time with her, and soon it worked.

To an outsider, they appeared to be best friends. Liam had successfully cozied up to her. The next step was to take her money and run. But his plan evolved that November. He came up with a new idea. Kill Sarah and make her death look like a suicide. There was just one big hurdle. Liam didn't have access to the cash.

Sarah kept it in that lockbox at Carney Bank. He needed a way to convince. convince her to take it out. On December 2nd, Sarah's father was out of town and things finally fell into place. Liam and Sarah discussed her running away to Canada and starting a new life. Sarah wasn't necessarily ready to take the leap, not then, but Liam convinced her to at least get out the money for when the time was right. It worked.

Sarah went to the bank while Liam waited in the car. Then they returned to her home, only for Liam to grab her from behind and choke her. Liam held on tight and hit a timer on his cell phone to see how long her death would take. Around the 30-minute mark, Sarah stopped breathing. Her dog, buddy, had watched. Helpless. Afterwards, Liam got dressed and went to work, as if it was any other day. But on a break, he went home and shared the news with her. with his roommate, Preston Taylor.

He said something along the lines of, I did it and I need you to go to her house and move the body. His confession to Anthony continued. Liam went back to work and Preston followed orders. Preston went to Sarah's house, grabbed her body from inside, carried it outside, and hid it in the bushes. Liam's shift ended around 10 p.m.

and the two returned to Sarah's house. They grabbed the safe with a cache, put Sarah's dog in the crate, and carried Sarah's body out to her car, placing it in the passenger seat. Then Liam drove Sarah's car to a bridge in a nearby town while Preston followed in his own. They arrived at the bridge and parked when the coast was clear. Liam flagged down Preston to help toss Sarah over the railing. Then they turned to the cache. Anthony heard all of this over the span of about 20 minutes. The conversation ended with Liam saying he was disappointed in himself,

but not for the reasons you'd expect. He was disappointed because he thought he'd be walking away with somewhere between $50,000 to $100,000. But there was only about $10,000 in the safe, and it was so old and damaged he didn't even know if he could spend it. Liam never said Sarah. his death was an accident, or that things simply got out of hand. He admitted to premeditated murder, with robbery as the motive. As far as Liam knew, no one knew the truth aside from Preston and now Anthony.

Liam didn't know that the mic wasn't on Anthony's body. It was on his car, along with a small camera. Detectives were watching the whole thing live. They'd gotten their confession. In my opinion, this is best case scenario. It's kind of like body cam footage. You have everything right there on camera in real time. And in this case, you also have witnesses. If this can be used in court, it seems like it's signed sealed and delivered. But nothing is guaranteed.

The day after the confession, they went to Preston Taylor first. They brought him down to the station for questioning and asked him point blank. Did Liam kill Sarah? Preston immediately caved and said yes. Preston agreed to work with the police. First he gave a thorough account of that night. Then he brought police back to Sarah's home to show them exactly how and where everything went down. When asked why he cooperated with Liam,

Preston claimed Liam was a, quote, Manson-like person who had a strange amount of control over him. Preston told police, following the murder, he and Liam had buried Sarah's safe on a small peninsula called Sandy Hook, New Jersey, about a 40-minute drive from Neptune City. Detectives located the safe and found about $9,350 inside. But more importantly, they found a clue on the outside of the safe, a stamp marked 002. Police later found a key with the same numbers in Liam's car.

It was an exact match. Investigators were still without Sarah's body. Chances of recovery were slim. Her remains had likely been swept out to see. But that wasn't going to prevent a trial. Prosecutors felt they had more than enough evidence to pursue homicide charges. By mid-February, 2017, Liam and Preston were behind bars for Sarah's murder,

awaiting their respective trials. That April, Justin Taylor pleaded guilty to robbery, desecrating human remains and tampering with evidence, among other charges. For his cooperation with police, he received some leniency and was later sentenced to 18 years in prison. Liam's trial, on the other hand, took almost another year to get off the ground. The thought of a trial taking a year to get off the ground seems really daunting, but it's extremely normal. These trials take a lot of time. to get up and running, and the thing is, it does actually help prevent appeals in the future.

It's better to address all these concerns before the trial instead of afterwards, because worst-case scenario, if the trial's not done right the first time, you run the risk of having to do it all over again. So as hard as it is to wait so long to get the trial up and running, there is good reason behind it. Liam McIntasney's trial finally began on January 23, 2019. He pledged, not guilty. His attorneys tried to argue the confession he made to Anthony Curry that day was nothing more than a film audition. He wasn't actually recounting the events of Sarah's murder. They also argued that because there was no physical evidence of the murder, there was

reasonable doubt, that age old saying, nobody, no crime. In this case, it didn't work in their favor because the prosecution had a star witness. Preston took the stand to testify against Liam. He assured the jury that Liam had been planning to kill Sarah for months. The plan had been premeditated down to the smallest details like the walkie-talkies they purchased for the day of the murder. Preston said he asked Liam not to go through with it, but Liam did anyway. On February 5th, Sarah's father, Michael Stern, took the stand. He testified that Liam had wrongfully pushed the suicide angle for his own benefit, and he had receipts to prove it.

Liam routinely told police that Sarah and her father had an unhealthy relationship, that they fought constantly. He even made it seem like Sarah battled with depression because of their strained relationship. But Michael showed the court several texts from Sarah that implied. otherwise. Like when he sent his daughter a picture of the castle at Disney World the day before she was murdered. She texted back, quote, wow, the castle looks so pretty with those lights, and they texted every day, seemingly on good terms, not exactly the sign of a strained relationship. Michael's testimony wasn't proof Sarah had zero struggles with mental health,

but it did show that Sarah's relationship with her father wasn't as strained as Liam tried to portray. Altogether, it was enough to convince the jury that Liam McItasney was the cause of Sarah's death, not suicide. On February 26, 2019, he was found guilty of first-degree murder as well as robbery, desecration of human remains, and conspiracy to desecrate human remains, tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension. He was later sentenced to life in prison with no possibility.

of parole. I know that no body homicides can feel really hopeless. To be honest, that's the feedback I often got with my sister's case. I was constantly asked if people were looking for her body. I'm still constantly asked if it was found. That could be extremely disheartening. When I started this entire journey in true crime, I didn't understand the statistics behind nobody homicide cases.

At times, I felt hopeless too. So if you're new to this idea that nobody, homicide cases actually have a higher conviction rate, don't feel bad, I was right there with you too. It's natural for us to want that physical evidence. It's natural for us to ask these things, where's the body? Have you been able to solidify how they died? But I want to go back to the main point of this series, that no body doesn't mean no crime. That just because you're smart enough to hide a body doesn't mean you won't be caught and brought to justice. Circumstantial evidence is evidence. We know that these cases, these no body homicide cases, have a higher conviction rate.

That is an incredibly important message to convey because there are so many families that fight an uphill battle in these cases because the public isn't aware of these statistics. So if you learned anything over these three episodes, I hope it's that nobody doesn't mean no hope. The sooner that we can walk away from the idea that physical evidence is the only evidence, the faster victims like Sarah, Kristen, and Gurley can get justice. If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless or struggling emotionally, visit Spotify.com slash resources for help. Thanks again to Sarah Turney for joining us,

and thank you for tuning into Solved Murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries is a Spotify original from Parcast. Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash,

with Nick Johnson as our head of production, and Spencer Howard as our post-production supervisor. Quality control by Lisa Marie Gallegos. Stacey Nemek is our supervising editor, and Derek Jennings is our writing lead. This episode of Solve Murders was written by Lori Marinelli, edited by Maggie Admire and Connor Sampson, fact-checked by Claire Cronin, researched by Mickey Taylor and Bradley Klein, produced by Joshua Kern and Aaron Larson, and sound design by Alex Button. Our hosts are Wendy McKenzie and me, Carter Roy.