RedHanded - Madeline Soto: Handed to a Monster | #418

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Almost immediately after 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing in February 2024, something didn’t seem quite right.Her mother Jennifer Soto – and Jennifer’s boyfriend Stephan Sterns – gave a series of strange interviews in the press. And over the next five days, as investigators picked apart the lives (and sleeping arrangements) of those who lived in the Soto home, bombshells kept on rocking the people of Osceola County, Florida. Until finally, the horrific reality of what Maddy endured was revealed to the world.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600, to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm Surruthy. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Redhounded, where I have broken. by no caffeine binge by having all the caffeine I can fit into a cup

even I who have no caffeine rules would never in a million years order a triple shot I ordered it online so I could like run to pick it up because I was like oh I've got to catch this train and it was like it's recommended

just two shots for this size I was like three make it three and then I got to the train station fine got on the train And then it just dumped me on the side of the fucking tracks in the middle of Welland Garden City. I was like, this train's not even meant to fucking stop here. And then I had to order an Uber. And luckily I got one all the way from Wellen to East London.

Could have been worse. And the best thing that happened when the car pulled up is it was like one of those Tesla's that opens like a bird. And I was like, this is so extra. That's so funny. But I am here. My heartbeat is like a little hummingbird. And I'm just going to get through this. And I'm already feeling quite angry about this case.

Yeah, you have been a bit of a rage whirlwind. So shall we just get 999 on fucking speed time? When I have a heart attack before this episode is over. Because this is a case that I have been following from the very beginning. Can confirm. Mm-hmm. Because almost immediately, as soon as 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing in February 2024, something didn't seem quite right.

Madeline's mum, Jennifer, and her boyfriend, Stefan, spent hours giving these, like, in-depth statements to the police, which we're going to get to, and also very tearful interviews to the media. But within days, it became crystal clear that this was not a case of an errant teenage runaway or even some sort of opportunistic kidnapping. and as investigators picked apart the lives

and sleeping arrangements of those who lived in the Soto home soon came bombshell after bombshell with the reality of what Maddie had endured finally being revealed to the world in a story more twisted than anyone could have imagined Madeline Soto was born on the 22nd of February 2011 Her parents, Jen Soto and Tyler Wallace, separated pretty much straight away,

with her dad moving to Texas and marrying another woman just two months later. And it doesn't seem that physically, at least, Madeline's dad, Tyler, was in her life that much at all. As Maddie grew up, she discovered a love of music and dancing and art. She was a generous and kind girl. She was a bit quiet and she did seem to struggle concentrating in class Maddie was eventually diagnosed with anxiety and ADHD She took hydrazine at night to help her sleep

and Adderall during the day Maddie lived in Kissimmee in Osceola County, Florida I have spent an enormous amount of time in Kissimmee Have you really? Is it because back back when you were younger used to go there then. That's where the house is.

Ah. Because it's close enough to Disney World without having to be in actual Orlando, which is wild. I've never been to the Sunshine State, much to my chagrin. I wouldn't. One day, one day. I don't know. I think that particular area hasn't got much going for it. It's Miami's its own thing.

I don't think you can lump that in with the... the whole state. I was going to say, because I've started rewatching Dexter. Uh-huh. And it does make me want to go to Miami. I really want to go to Miami. Yeah. But I would say Miami has a lot more in common with Cuba than Kissimmee does with Miami.

I see. I see. So yeah, they're in Kissimmee, Osceola County. And Maddie and her mom, Jen, they live in a very nice, four-bed, detached house set within a gated community. And yes, as Hannah has said, central Florida. Land of a million theme parks, maybe more, who knows. And it seems very much inescapable probably in the lives of the residents there for miles around. In fact, shortly before Maddie's 13th birthday, which is where our story starts,

her mother Jen got a job on the front desk at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. And if you're wondering how the family could afford such a massive four-bed house in a very fancy gated community on a single income, Because yes, although Jen was in a relationship with a man named Stefan Stearns who did stay at the house quite regularly, he certainly did not financially contribute to the family. I will say, everywhere is a gated community. I see. And you can ask my mother about the housing crash that happened very specifically in that area. I see.

They are not expensive. Okay, because I was like, that's a very big house. Not in Kissimme. It's not. Okay, I see. So, yeah, basically how she does fund it, though, is because she's not earning a huge amount of money. Sure, sure, sure. And she's just started this job as like a receptionist.

But basically what she does is she buys a four-bedroom house and then she rents out two of the rooms to lodgers. What it makes me think of, and I haven't been there for a long time and, you know, who cares what I think I'm just a potato. But, you know, in the big shore where they go around and they're asking all these people who've had these subprime mortgage and they go to, her house that's abandoned and there's a gator in the pool. Yeah. That's what it's like. I feel you. I feel you. So yes, that is minus the gator, minus the pool.

Big fucking house. Two lodgers living there. And when I first read that, it was like, oh, two lodgers. And I'm not going to like decry a mother who is clearly doing her best on the limited income that she have to bring her daughter up in probably as nice scenario as she

can because, of course, that makes a difference to children. But as we can already There are quite a few non-biologically related adults around 13-year-old Maddie a lot of the time. Which can, just statistically speaking, often be quite bad newsbears. And only gets worse. Because at the time, Jen and Stefan were struggling through their fair share of relationship issues as well. He had lived in the house full time from 2017 up until December 2020. and then he'd moved back in with his parents in Port North four hours away.

But Stearns still came to visit Jen and Maddie very regularly. However, when he did come to stay, he and Jen slept in separate bedrooms. And some of you might be frantically counting on your fingers to work out how this arrangement, if you can call it that, complete with two adult lodgers and a 13-year-old girl, adds up to one room for each of these people. Well, it doesn't. With all of the bedrooms occupied, Jen made her daughter a weird makeshift bedroom in the living room of the house.

It was separated from the main living space with a screen. Like one of those foldy ones. Yeah. A lot of places have reported this screen to be a partition wall, but it absolutely is not. It's like something you'll see on a spare room ad that's like self-contained bedroom and it's just like a toilet with one of those like concertina screens. That's exactly what it is. It's basically like what Victorian ladies would have like hidden behind to get out of the bath. Yes.

One of those fold out wooden room dividers that people used to hide their clutter. Just throw a rug over it. That's my trick. That's foreclutter. Wall clutter, little roomer divider, chuck it in front of it. And behind the so-called partition wall screen is the quote-unquote room. And it's a bed and a chest of drawers and a desk. And that's where Maddie was supposed to be doing her sleeping.

And her homework, presumably. Maddie mostly used this space to hang out in and use her computer. but not actually to sleep. That's because the lodgers would often be up and about in the living room quite early, and they'd wake her up. And this is where, quite early on, any benefit of the doubt that I could give Jen Soto for wanting to, you know, have this big house to bring Maddie up in in a nice area, kind of runs out of road quite quickly, because the bedroom allocations, to me at least, clearly shows the pecking order of priority within the. home as far as Jen is concerned. Why isn't Jen Soto sleeping downstairs and giving her daughter the room upstairs? Or why isn't fly-by-night boyfriend down there?

Quite. Yeah. Because remember, this is her daughter who already has difficulty sleeping at night because she's on medication to help her sleep at night. And also on medication because she has difficulty concentrating at school. Which if you don't have a good night sleep because the lodgers are fucking up and about waking you up early, it's just going to make that situation even worse. Even if you ignore that, like the kind of challenges that Maddie has with her ADHD and

anxiety, even if you ignore that, wouldn't it just be a good idea to give a teenage girl her privacy in a house full of random adults? Surely your daughter's sleep, safety and comfort should be the most important thing. Yeah, I agree. And also, I think one of the major problems I think about, like, the discussion about ADHD is that everyone thinks they know what it is and most people categorically do not. Like a friend of mine who's a teaching assistant for special needs kids explained it really well to me the other day. She was like, I always think about it like when you have an auditory processing disorder,

everything is the same volume. And ADHD is a life processing disorder. I can't differentiate between the importance of things, which is why I get really bothered, very quickly by people interrupting or talking over each other because I have my entire life known that I get it wrong. So when that happens, it makes me really anxious because I'm like, I'm going to miss it. And then everyone's going to be mad at me and then I'm going to get shot. And that happens every time someone talks over someone else. So if you are a child with ADHD in a very overstimulating environment, that's even worse.

Yeah. Because she has no safe space to retreat to. And yes, absolutely the point you made, Hannah. Like, okay, if Jen's not going to take the room downstairs, here's an idea, Jen. Why not tell your fucking boyfriend to just stay at his parents' house where he lives also rent-free? Or when he does want to stay at yours, tell him, no, adult man, you can't have your own fucking room.

Because surely, I know they're having like these relationship issues, but surely if Stefan Stearns is coming over to stay at your house Jen, then surely you're in a good enough place as a couple for him to sleep in your bed with you, his partner. Otherwise, why is he there? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.

Or, I don't know, how about this? Why doesn't he get relegated to the weird living room situation? Why is it maddy? Because Jen Soto's priorities. And look, I appreciate that if you guys listening don't know this case, you're just like, Why is Suru coming down so fucking hard on this bed arrangement so early? Hold your fucking horses. But if you're already, as angry as Siru is, it's going to get worse.

Because, as we said, Maddie didn't often actually sleep downstairs. Most of the time, she would end up in bed with her mum. And sometimes, Stefan Stearns would join them. Can we just? I can see... Mm-hmm. I can see a situation where that isn't weird. Not this one.

No. But like, I can understand parent, step parent, stepchild. I can understand that. Yes. There, look, firstly, can I say, she's 13 years old. She's a girl. And by Jen Soto's own admission, Maddie sleeps in the middle. Secondly, Stefan Stern's 37-year-old man, he hasn't been around Maddie her whole life.

So it's not like he's a step-parent. who's been there for a long time. He's committed to Jen Soto. They're married. He's integrated into this family. It's been there for four years. He comes and he fucking goes. He doesn't even live in the house anymore.

And yes, no, I hate this. Yeah. I hate this so much. No, no, no. And I'm also like, there's another fucking bed next door. If they're all sleeping together, why are they all sleeping together? If Stefan Stearns is going to sleep with Jen Soto, then why is Maddie in the bed? There's another bed next door.

Oh, rage. And sometimes 13-year-old Madeline Soto would sleep alone in bed with her mum's 37-year-old on an off-again boyfriend in his room. Alone. It's not good. No. So put a big uncomfortable pin in that, and probably your own ears and eyes and just orifices. Because we'll come back to it later on.

For now, let's go back to Jen Soto's first week working at the Disney Resort. She had a training day set for Sunday the 25th of February 2024, which sadly was the same day that Maddie was having her 13th birthday party. Still, despite the fact that her mother couldn't make it, Maddie had a great day surrounded by family at a party thrown for her by her grandparents. No one at the time had any idea of the devastation that the next five days would bring. After the party, Maddie was dropped off at home at around 8.30pm.

When she arrived, there was no one there. Stefan turned up about ten minutes later. He was there for a planned week-long visit to celebrate Maddie's birthday. So that night, he made sure that Maddie took her medication. He took a shower and then he went to bed, although he was still awake when Jen finally got home at half ten. Jen was stressed. She'd messed up her own medication the previous night and had barely slept. So she told Stefan and Maddie that she just had to get a good night's sleep to be fresh for the work the next day.

Now Maddie, according to Jen, was a sleep fidgetter and Stefan snored. So Jen asked Maddie if she would sleep in Stefan's bed with Stefan, while she, Jen, slept downstairs. Jen also asked her boyfriend if he would be okay to take Maddie to school the next morning so that she could have a bit of a lie in and Stefan said that he'd be more than happy to So who is this Stefan Stern's character? A lot of the information out there about him

comes from people who knew him growing up. His parents have also given a number of interviews which we would highly recommend checking out because they are very enlightening. they paint a picture of a child they didn't know how to parent who grew into a man they had to look after well into his thirties they paid as bills he lived in their house for free he stole from them regularly

and they totally enabled him and it seems that the issue started when Stefan Stearns was eight years old when he was run over by a truck twice I know I like watch the interview where the mum is talking about it

and I'm like twice but it's because the truck hits him and then reverses and accidentally hits him again I mean I cannot imagine how horrific

that must have been to witness girl in my year at school got run over by her doctor oh my god broke her arm fuck it it's like a doctor's version of a fucking ambulance chaser

oh my god You're listening to an episode of Shorthand, our weekly show for Wondry Plus subscribers. Listen exclusively and ad-free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app. All right, very quick break, because I know you are gagging to get back to this particular episode. But we have to tell you a little bit about what's going on on Patreon this week.

Certainly. Well, this week we have Under the Duvei, where I explain how hypnosis works badly, but it works. It does work. And I will tell you how I came off the pill and now the back knee's back. We also have a little chat about Russell Brand and contemplate the composition of the soul and whether it even fucking matters. And then I do a little review on a throwback dating TV show that I watched on Channel 4 called Perfect Match where I literally couldn't believe, A, that people were smoking in clubs because it's that old, and then all the horrific things that were coming out of people's mouths.

And you can listen to all of that over on Patreon, and you can watch it too. Under the Duvei is every week. We release it every Wednesday morning. And also on Patreon, you can get Red-Handed, totally ad-free, and we also do monthly bonus episodes. And you can find all of that at patreon.com forward slash red-handed. So, yeah, Stefan Stearns' mom witnessed this horrific accident

and said that the truck actually ran. over her son's head. So I think it's safe to say that this would have resulted in a pretty severe traumatic brain injury that would have no doubt impacted Stern's development, his impulsivity, his IQ and his judgment. But make no mistake, as we will see throughout this episode, Stefan Stearns certainly knows the difference between right and wrong. Stearns, though he was never actually like a loner or completely socially ostracized or anything, was regarded as odd growing up.

Like the interviews I watched with kids who knew him in like school, they're like, he was part of like a friendship group. He wasn't like a total weirdo, but there was something off about him. And as he got into his teenage years, he started showing some pretty troubling signs. It's been reported that he would collect his own sperm in jars that he would keep in his bedroom. And allegedly, as if that was a weird enough, he would take these jars into school and slip the contents into girls' drinks. And like, that isn't just like a little teenage prank. that's violation it is boundary crossing to the extreme

it's deviant there are also allegations that I've read from people that Stefan Stearns went to school saying that he would also photograph and film girls without their consent a habit that you will soon discover he never quite let go of

and this one is a pretty bleak because another friend claims that back then, when they were like teenagers, he and Stearns had shared an online drive. And one day, this friend had found all sorts of disturbing images on there. Now, he never actually clarifies exactly what he found on there, presumably because he's embarrassed about what happens next,

which is the fact that, according to him, Stefan Stearns' mom paid him off to stop him from reporting it to the police. But I think, judging by what's going to happen in this episode, I'm guessing it was some sort of child sex abuse material. Safe to say, Stearns never really grew up into a functioning adult. He never settled in a job and mostly just dicked about with his pretty lame hobbies. He worked for a while in real estate and then in contracting and he even did a short stint as a cast member at Disney World,

which is absolutely terrifying, considering what he turned out to be. But at this point in his life, when he was with Jen Soto, those who had only known Stefan as an adult figured that he was just a bit of a man-child who didn't wash, spent too much time playing Warhammer,

and loved buying things that he could not afford. How much Jen knew about his true proclivities is a question for later on. And with regards to his parents, they always disapproved of Stefan's relationship with Jen. Could that be because, as we go on to see, they knew damn well what their son was and the risks that he posed to Maddie Soto. So the next day, on the 26th February, the day after his Jen-approved sleepover with Maddie, At around 10 a.m., Stefan texts Jen

to tell her that he'd taken Maddie to school. He said that they'd left very early at around 7.15 so that he could take Maddie for a McDonald's breakfast. But he said that on the way Maddie changed her mind and said that she didn't want one after all. He also told Jen that Maddie had forgotten her phone that day. And that wasn't a massive shock. It was like Maddie to forget things.

And since she was just at school all day, Jen figured it was no big deal. That afternoon at 4.30, Jen went to school to pick Maddie up. But long after the bell had rung, there was still no sign of her daughter anywhere. Jen didn't know what to do. She couldn't even call Maddie. She knew a few places where her daughter might go hang out, but it wasn't like her to just disappear. Still, Jen went to check, and she also called a few of Maddie's friends. But they all told her that they hadn't seen Maddie all day.

So Jen emailed the school And they sent over the attendance sheet Which confirmed it Maddie had never made it to school that day Finally, at 8pm that evening 12 hours after Stefan Stearns claimed to have seen Maddie Three 911 calls were made to report Maddie We actually don't know who called the police

But we know that it wasn't Jen or Stefan. It was probably a family member of Jens who was with them. And frustratingly, as if this isn't a big enough delay, the police didn't arrive at the house to speak with the Soto's and Stern until after midnight. Why would Jen still be at the house waiting? Sure, someone should stay home in case Maddie turns up, but why isn't Jen Soto at the police station demanding someone listened to her, but her missing child. I find that really strange. I don't know whether this is because of the Disney connection.

But I can't get Casey Anthony out of my head. Yeah. And look, I don't want to give away all of my thoughts straight away, so I'm going to, like, hold them under my bushel. But it's just weird. I just want everybody to remember these things, right? Yeah. I just think it's strange.

Like, the 911 calls, I've listened to them. And you can tell in them that the person who's calling, who, like I said, I think is a relative of Jen's, is getting increasingly frustrated. The police are not responding very, like, urgently to the situation of this 13-year-old girl being missing. And I just don't know why Jen Soto isn't at the police station because it takes so long for the police to come there. They call at 8 p.m. The police don't get there to speak to them for a. another four hours, I would have been banging down the door of the police station being like, why won't anybody listen to me? My daughter is missing. And again, you know, we can say we'd all

react differently. But when the police get there, watch the body cam footage, which we're going to go on to play you some clips of. I'm not saying Jen Soto's just chilling, but like I did think it was quite weird. Anyway, during this initial police conversation with Jen and Stefan. Jen clearly takes the lead. Stefan sort of like hangs back a bit. He's got his arms folded across him. He's got this very like sad look on his face.

And it's just very obvious. He does a lot of mirroring. He just repeats everything that Jen says. Or like kind of randomly talks over her saying things that are like not really adding anything. It's quite strange. But Jen seems okay. I would say she seems a bit anxious and she seems very wise.

like a woman who has maybe had three shots of espresso. And yes, that's totally to be expected. And I do think she seems quite together. Now, people say that she doesn't look sad enough that her daughter is missing. And like, maybe I'm not going to get into that. People react very differently in situations like this. I can totally imagine a situation in which you are just going to be more proactive. You're going to be very focused rather than falling apart.

because you don't know what's happened yet. You just want to find your child. And also, I think if Jen was hysterically crying, people would just be like, oh, look, she's trying so hard to seem distraught. So I don't think there would necessarily be any winning in this scenario. Did she want me dropped off at school? She's a lot of left away.

It's in the name of us thing. She's in the paper. But he dropped her up for the left away and dribble with. Did she ever go to school, though? No, we called me. I was walking in that direction. She was likely through her back test. I thought maybe she was just swimming for her headphones

before she kind of walked in on. Yeah. But she was just coming, you know, gambling over in that direction. I looked the same as in the other morning. Okay. So yeah. Basically, Jen tells the police

that Stefan had taken Maddie to school and dropped her off at the car park of the Peace United Methodist Church, a half mile, so about a 10-minute walk from Hunter Creek Middle School. And apparently this is because Maddie was embarrassed to be seen in Stefan's car. Not completely unusual for a teenager.

And during this initial conversation, Jen also says that she saw Maddie and Stefan that morning. This is very important. That's not in this clip we just played you, but she makes it very clear that she saw them that morning. She even describes what Maddie was wearing, as if she physically saw her daughter leave the house. And Stearns tells police that Maddie got out of the car,

told him she loved him he said it back and then as he drove off he saw Maddie rifling about in her bag as if she was looking for something and that's very important later on so keep that in your brain hole

and also I will give you an image of me this morning as I was rifling through my bag looking for my headphones and then I realised that I had left them in the basket of a limelike oh no and now they are in wood green

where they will remain I am not getting those back Oh miserable Oh that's sad Anyway Despite a slow start The next morning the police did move quite quickly They cordoned off the gated community where Maddie lived

And they assigned more than 50 officers From the Orange County Sheriff's Department to look for her They even took sniffer dogs to her school And to the car park where Stern said that he had dropped Maddie off. But the dogs didn't pick up a centre either location. Back at the police station, investigators interviewed the lodgers from the Soto House, but both were quickly cleared due to solid alibis. Then, the police

tried to remotely locate Maddie School laptop, but it was turned off. Thankfully, they at least had her phone, because remember she'd forgotten it that morning. Or, someone had. The problem was there wasn't really that much on the phone. There was nothing suspicious on her social media. They looked at all of the games that she was playing, if she was interacting with anybody on there. Nothing.

There was just one thing that stood out. Maddie had sent a text to a friend saying that when she turned 13, she wanted to run off and live in the woods. And she had turned 13 just four days before she went missing. So the police pondered, had she run off after all? But soon, the police would make some discoveries that put these messages into sharp focus, as the heartbreaking words of a desperate girl, not those of a rebelling teen. Because soon the investigators learned that the last person to have seen Maddie alive,

Stefan Stearns, also regularly shared a bed with the teenager. Stearns' ex-girlfriend had come forward and informed the police that Stearns had told her that he regularly slept next to Maddie. Stearns said that Maddie was an anxious girl and that he would cuddle her to sleep. Why would he tell his ex-girlfriend that, for a start? But maybe he was trying to play it off like he's this really good caring guy taking care of this anxious child and that she trusted him

needed him. Stearns even told police how needy maddy was, as if she was the one making him sleep with her. Yeah, in like one of the police interviews when they bring up the sleeping arrangements, he's kind of like, we were trying to break her off the habit, but she was just very needy, she was very anxious, like she needed someone to hold her to sleep, and I'm just like, you fucking piece of shit.

Stearns also allegedly told his ex, and this just gets... fucking weirder and weirder. Allegedly, Stearns told his ex that he would sometimes wake up with an erection when he was in bed with Maddie. Why would Stefan Stearns

tell his ex this? Because the first bit, right, where he tells her that he sometimes cuddles Maddie to sleep. I mean, the word's just like curdle in my mouth. Okay, I think he's playing this like, I'm such a good guy. I'm like, I'm doing this really nice thing

for this girl that needs. needs me. She's so attached to me. Like, I'm this good hero. Why on earth would you tell anybody this? I think it's Stefan Stern's pushing boundaries again. Yeah. Either he's trying to upset this woman because I think we've come across this before, this idea of like saying very like extreme things to people, particularly in a sense. sexual way to push boundaries, knowing that it's going to make them feel uncomfortable and then getting turned on or getting off on the discomfort that you can see in them. It's like flashing, right? The flashing is because you see the horror and the shock in another person's face and then

that's what turns the person on. Like, is that what he's doing here? Like verbal flashing. I don't know. And or is he checking for reactions? Perhaps is Stefan Stern's trying to normalize what he's doing by sleeping next to Maddie and getting an erection. Or maybe is he trying to pull this ex into this fantasy that he has? Or maybe he's just fucking stupid. Yeah, it literally could be any one of those in equal waiting. Exactly. I really don't know.

But what screams out to me about this situation is can we really be expected to believe that a man who says this sort of thing, To his ex-girlfriend, in four years of a relationship with Jen Soto, never said anything inappropriate about Maddie to her. So are we really expected to believe that Jen Soto had no inkling of the weird dynamic? And maybe, I don't know. I'm not saying that every situation in which a child is abused in a house, typically the mother knows. I'm not saying that's always the case. I'm sure, absolutely I believe there are situations in which the mother has no idea what's going on.

But I find it hard to believe with things like this and with more things that we're going to go on to talk about. When the police searched the Soto House, they found some stuff, they found sex toys, they found lube, and they found a nine-millimeter pistol all in Stefan's room. Which, you know, nothing illegal there, especially not in fucking Florida. And in Maddie's room, they found a pair of men's underwear, clearly belonging to Stefan Stearns. So, with their suspicions reaching a fever pitch, the police checked CCTV around the apartment building

on the morning that Maddie vanished. And at 7.35 a.m., Stefan Stearns can be seen stopping his car near the communal rubbish bins. He's very obviously throwing something away. And, in the front seat of his car, there is a passenger wearing a green sweatshirt, clearly visible. It's Maddie. She's slumped over in her seat with her eyes closed and her mouth at an odd angle. Maybe she had just been asleep. But things were not looking good.

Investigators also tracked down CCTV footage of Stearns driving in the wrong direction to where he'd originally said he'd gone after dropping Maddie off at that church car park. After this, he was then spotted on CCTV at 1.30pm on Old Hickory Tree Road, changing his tyre. And then he was seen going back to the gated apartment complex to dump yet more rubbish bags in the communal bins. Needless to say, after seeing all of this,

the police made a beeline for these bins. And in these bins, they found Maddie's backpack. The very same backpack that if you will remember, Stefan Stearns claimed to have seen Maddie rifling around in as he drove away after dropping her off. So if you left the backpack with Maddie when you dropped her off in the car park, Stefan, how's it in the fucking bins at the apartment? The police were now extremely suspicious of Stefan Sterns.

And requested access to both his and Jen's phones. And they're both agreed. Though Stefan did tell the officers that he had accidentally factory reset his phone the day before, so there might not be much on there. It's a very hard to factory reset a phone. He is not the brightest man in the fucking woods. That's just like that.

It's not very hard, but it's not something you can do accidentally. No, no, it's like you're going to... It's a several-step process. You're going to factory reset your phone. You're going to lose X, Y, Z. Do you want to continue? Okay, yes. He's such a fucking liar.

And a bad one. The police made sure to do a real good deep dive into Stern's phone and his internet use. Which they're going to do anyway, but they're going to do it doubly when you tell them you've accidentally factory reset or phone. Yeah. And they pretty quickly found a Google drive belonging to Stefan Stearns. In total, on his factory reset phone and on this Google drive, the police discovered files upon files upon files of child sexual abuse material, including 1,700 images

featuring 13-year-old Maddie Soto and the third. 37-year-old owner of phone and drive, Stefan Stearns. And there's no easy way to say all of this. But the police report states that these images included extreme close-ups of Maddie's breasts, vagina and anal opening. There are also images showing penetration and evidence of sexual battery. These photographs of Stern and Maddie

went back more than four years to when Maddie had been just eight years old. And from the look of the room and the sheets in the photographs, officers could tell that these pictures had been taken inside the Soto home. Other images showing one of Jen Soto's female lodgers naked in the bathroom were also discovered. And data revealed that someone had recently made an attempt to delete them all, Meanwhile, Stearns was giving interviews about his missing Maddie. So, by the time the police sat down to speak with Stefan Stearns again on the 29th of February 2024, they already knew what he had been doing to Maddie for years.

And sadly, they were certain that this was no longer a missing person's case, but a murder inquiry. Let's listen to a clip from that very interview. It starts off with questions about the night of Maddie's 13th birthday party. And just, FYI, some names have been redacted. So that's what the random silent bits are about. So the party ends. Did you pick them up from the party? Someone must have dropped her off.

Okay. She was there when I got there. Jim asked me to make sure. In the shower, did her bedtime routines, which she did, she was already on top of it. So, nothing to do that. Okay. What time do you think you got back in Kissimmee?

Uh, what time I got into Kissimmee? Yeah. Maybe 8.3 or something like. Well, my memory is not super alive a long time from, so I've been medicated for well. a part of a week okay that's fine what do you think that is important anxiety mostly if you know some money troubles lately makes yourself around so okay well hopefully your money troubles get better i've been medicated on advance since probably Saturday okay what are the

sleeping arrangements he sleeps in okay um did she sleep in her bed sunday night uh no uh I was just back and I've been away for a couple months. I'd be in the same bed together, so to get some serious sleep. So she said, no to that. She said, you know, that. The gas room upstairs had to be found that. So I had some snuggle full time.

I'm surprised in gym and get to sleep in peace. Okay. So you say snuggle time? What does that mean? I'd like to be alone. She is extremely dependent. She does not like to be alone at all. She needs human presence around her.

Gotcha. We've been trying to meet her off of that, but it's been difficult. Did you take any trash out from the apartment? Is it mean? I think I did. I'm not sure.

I took the trash out at some point. But, like, I remember. So it was the night before us the morning of. Is there a common trash place or... Yeah. Okay. Is that where you took the trash out? Yeah.

Okay. Blanky had her backpack. Presumably. her school computer was in her backpack and you described her wearing green jacket some kind of dark colored shorts and white cross okay well I can confidently tell you she did not go to school with her backpack because we found in the trash so with Stefan, here's what I'm asking you

and pleading with you is to dig down to do some soul searching. Okay, understand? Family's pleading with you. I'm pleading with you. Because this is a little that we need to find. And it's as more time goes around,

goes by, it's tough. I have kids. He's got kids. And there's little girl's out there, somewhere that we need to know where. And I really, really, really think you can help us. I think... I mean, you want to get something off your chest.

I don't know what it is, but I'm pleading with you. I don't know. I don't. What happened? I dropped her off. I don't know. Where? I dropped her off on the road to school.

Celeste I saw her. Have you and her ever exchanged, like do you guys exchange text messages? How do you guys communicate? FaceTime. She'll face it night when I'm not around before my time to say tonight. And from what I understand that you gave the deputy's consent to look for your phone. Okay. And you voluntarily gave it to them so they could bring it here to it through the extraction and stuff like that. Okay. what do you think was on the phone text messages text messages uh-huh emails all of stuff pictures yeah what kind of pictures yeah what kind of pictures

were on there um training card pictures lightsaber pictures Disney pictures Do you have a Google account? Yeah. Do you save pictures to your Google account? Sometimes. Or is it automatically, I know, sometimes phones sync to a cloud and... Yeah, right. Let's think it backs up to Google.

Here's where I'm gonna be brutally honest with you. There's... There's... ...and I'm pretty sure you know what's a phone. pretty sure you know what some of those pictures are about. You're a very intelligent person. I don't want you to discredit yourself by saying you don't know about all the pictures that are on your phone.

You understand what I'm saying? So do you want to add to the list of pictures? Should I be talking with a lawyer right now? I can't answer that question. My sole purpose right now is to see if I can find you can help me. Okay. I'd like to try to help.

I feel like I should probably have a lawyer at this point. So you're on an attorney? I think so. Okay. That can happen. I want to let you know you're not free to leave. You're being detained, okay? Do you want to know what you're being detained for?

be entertained for? Capital, sexual battery, and possession of child pornography. Okay. So we're going to step out. If you need anything, please tap on this door. Okay? And there's going to be detectives outside that we'll be able to do. Okay.

It's like rage bait listening to him speak. Honestly, I have listened to these interviews far too many times, and I, I have listened to these interviews far too many times. just, I can't stand his voice. I can't stand the pathetic, weasily way in which he just like, he's like, oh no, that's not, that's not what happened. And they're like, I think the detective, as you guys just heard in there, I think the detectives in this case do a really, really good job.

We hear some bits about like how they do some not so great things later in this episode. But I think those detectives who interviewed him, they are doing such a great job because they just give him enough rope. And he's just like, no, that's not true. And they're like, but Stefan, it is true, isn't it? because this is all of the stuff we have on you. Yeah. It's just embarrassing and rage-inducing to listen to.

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Anyway, during this interview, Stearns is also asked about what he did after dropping Maddie off at the car park. He, obviously, lies he claims that he drove off north to run some errands. But remember, his car had been spotted driving in the other direction towards Kissemi. When the police pointed this out, Stefan Stern suddenly said that he just remembered.

He'd actually forgotten his gate-clicker, so he'd had to go back to the house first. The police pushed Stearns hard to reveal his movements that day, because while they have some CCTV footage, if they would have any chance of finding Maddie, dead or alive, they needed to know where else he'd been. But after this interview, Stearns was to be. charged with the sexual battery of a child under the age of 12 and possession of child abuse material, at which point he asked for a lawyer and stopped talking to the detectives. In another conversation with Jen Soto's lodgers, one said that she had heard noises coming from the Stearns bedroom that night. The police noted that those noises would have had to have

been pretty loud to be heard through two closed doors and across a hallway. To the police, it seemed odd that the lodger had heard that. But Jen Soto hadn't heard anything, and had seemingly been none the wiser for years. And maybe clips like the one were about to play you from an interview that Jen gave to Fox made her look all the more suspicious. Well, Monday morning, we took her to school. We dropped her off close to school across the street from a church, which is very, it's right next to the school.

She crossed the street and walked to school, what we thought walked to school. My boyfriend who drove her to school drove away at that point. It was seen on video footage that she hung out in the parking lot of the church for a few minutes and then got up and walked towards the school. but she never made it to school after that. It's right next to the school. I don't know why she didn't make it. I don't know if something happened on her walk along the way or she got taken, but she never made it.

Okay, just to clarify, just to clarify, the bit where Jen says that there was CCTV footage of Maddie in the car park, where Stern said he dropped her off is not correct. She was told this at the time. She was told that there was CCTV footage. I think the police made a mistake. So she's not lying.

But that turned out not to be true. So just to not confuse anybody, there was never, ever CCTV footage of Maddie in that car park. So just ignore that bit. Did you notice how many times Jen Soto in that interview says we? We dropped her off at school. We drove her to school. We didn't do anything, Jen.

You aren't there. Stefan Stur. Did it. I feel like she continuously uses the word we to present like this united front of her and Stefan. Like she's not willing to break with Stefan. Yeah. And yes, you can say by this point Stefan Stearns hasn't been arrested. None of that is known to Jen. But she also knows she wasn't there. So what has he said to her to make her feel like they need to have this united front? Yeah. Because all he did is drop her off. Why can't she just say my boyfriend drop her? off. I don't know. I think it's maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I do think it's weird. And also obviously this is an audio format. So unless you guys go and watch the clip, which will leave all the links.

You were going to say, and also, I know what happens. Also that. Unless you guys are going to go watch the clips of this, which highly recommend that you do. But let me just explain to you what's going on in this clip. You've got Jen sat, you know, facing the webcam, talking to

the interviewer. And then you've got sterns just sort of like ambling about in the background. It's really fucking weird. If I was the newscaster, I would be raging. I'd be like, get him out of the fucking shot. It looks weird. It looks sloppy. It looks really, really strange.

Like, he sort of walks around for a bit and the clip is quite long and he does it for basically the entire clip and then eventually he ends up just sort of placing himself on like the armrest of a chair just weirdly in shot like at the edge of the like webcam screen I don't like I don't know it's very very weird some people hypothesize

and I guess you could say this like he's doing it to intimidate Jen to make sure she doesn't veer off story but like that's not really the impression I get I think no I'd me either it makes me there's a trend on TikTok right where women will like come up to the camera and be like my boyfriend is going to show you

his Lego and you're going to be nice and then like their like husband or whatever comes like this is um the quickie mark that I made and they're just in the background being like just like like making threatening faces that's what it reminded me of the just sort of like but he's I'm with you I don't think that's why he's doing I think that because we've done interviews like that with news channels, I think that they're setting it up, they're testing whatever and then they go live and then he starts walking about and then they can't do anything about it without stopping the broadcast. So they're just like when that little baby walked it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like totally, I get that they can't stop it. I'm just like he's such

an odd person. Oh yeah. Because in interviews like that, you can see yourself and he's looking at the screen so he can see that he's in the shot, but he remains in shot. And whatever his intentions are, if his intentions were to intimidate Jen to keep her sort of on track, I don't get the vibe from Jen that that's the impact it's having on her. It's like to her, she's not even clocking it. I don't get a vibe from Jen that like, oh, I'm scared of him. I better make sure I say the right things. She seems very calm.

She seems very in control. She seems like she's got her story. I don't feel like she's sort of anxiously looking at him for approval or anything like that. I would almost be more inclined to think that if he wasn't in the shot because if you watch her eyes when she's talking, she looks up a lot, which is what people do when they lie, by the way. Yeah. But if I couldn't physically see where he is, I could have been convinced that he's standing in front of her computer, threatening her from there and she's looking up to check. That I would, but you can see he's not doing that. And she doesn't look at him.

She doesn't look at him. Okay. So, yeah. weird, weird, weird. But then there's this. So you think that she's been taken against her will? I do think so, yes. As a mom, you know, what's your mother's intuition telling you right now?

I'm trying to hope for the best, but I'm just, I'm scared for her. I want her to be okay. I want her to be safe. I don't want to. I don't want to. her to come back harmed. I just, I just want her back. Whatever that means, just, I just want her back. Whatever that means. What does that mean? I just want her back, whatever that means. If I was being nice, I would say, whatever ransom I have to pay, whoever I have to speak to, whatever I have to speak to, whatever I have to do, I want.

will do it. Or if she's back and she's got no legs or something. Sure. That's, if I was on her side, that is what I would argue. And that's fair. That is fair. I think to me, and maybe, you know, I'm very tunnel vision because I'm like, I don't have any evidence, right?

I'll say this now. I don't have any evidence that Jen Soto was involved. And I also don't really believe that she was involved in the murder. I don't believe that, just to put that out there. but it really feels to me like a woman who has resigned herself within days of her daughter going missing that Maddie is dead

that's how it came across to me and we all know the statistics when a child goes missing yes unfortunately by that point the chances are that that child is already dead but that is something that law enforcement and people who are on the outside can logically know

typically the parents of missing kids cannot bring themselves to think the worst has happened. Sometimes even for weeks, months, years, you'll find the bedrooms of those children kept in immaculate condition in case the child comes home. Lights will be left on in the house every night in case the child comes home. Jen Soto's already there. It's how I took that phrase.

Now maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's how it felt. So, the police bring Jen in for another interview. And this was after Stern's cachet of child sex abuse images of Maddie had been found and he'd been arrested. This interview starts with the detective being very direct. He tells Jen that he believes that Maddie is dead. And says in no uncertain terms that he believes Stefan Stearns killed. her. Yeah, so we've jumped a little bit. So that interview that you guys heard with Fox is pre-Sephan Stearns being arrested. And the police are obviously under him. They've got the phone by this point.

They've like, they know what he's done. And then they start to wonder about Jen. And that's when they pull her in for this interview after Stefan Stearns is now been arrested. So I just want that to be in the context that Jen, by the time she's being interviewed now in the clips that we're going going to play you. She knows what Stefan Stearns has done sexually, and she knows he's been arrested for that. And the police are so sure that Maddie is dead, because by now they had discovered even more CCTV of the day that Maddie disappeared. At 9.35am that morning, hours after claiming to have dropped Maddie off at school, Stefan Stearns was caught on CCTV driving into a multi-story car park.

There he had been seen backing his car into a space, getting out, opening the passenger side door, and carrying Maddie's body into the boot of the car. What the fuck? That is so unbearably stupid. He is so stupid, so stupid. He literally picks, and yes, you can't tell if she's just drugged or dead. But come on, picking her up. He doesn't pick her up and put her in the back and say, oh, she was asleep.

I just wanted to lay her down. But she's her in the fucking boat of the car. I also bet any money that it was one of those car parks that just scans your license plate and you don't have to actually do a ticket. There are cameras in there. Why did you think that that was a safe place? Because he got run over on the head twice when he was eight, maybe. Okay, fair, fair cop.

No, I mean, it's mind-boggling. I can only imagine what was going on with the police when they found all this. They must have been like, this guy is fucking shooting himself. Fish is shooting itself in the barrel here. Like it is staggering. So Jen is brought in to be interviewed by the police. She's told all of this. She's shown everything.

But she insists that she didn't know anything. And that until his arrest, she didn't believe that Stefan could have done anything wrong. And this interview with Jen It goes on for like three hours And it is so weird Because randomly at points Jen seems to defend Stefan And you can see the detective

becoming visibly frustrated Now let's listen to a clip And we're going to start with a comment That Jen says Just in case you know you guys don't catch it Because your audio quality isn't fantastic She says All the shit he did to her

Meaning Stefan Hans turns raping her child. The time I thought he was truly heartbroken and. Not that he had done all this shit to her. Like, I look back at shit now and just like, he was fucking lying. He was fucking baking. What else has he been lying to me about?

I know he's like a master liar manipulator because he's done it to his parents. And he's told me and shown me the lives he's done to his parents. But I don't know why I never thought, not me. The lines are about money. They're about where exactly what he's doing? Yeah, all that. To his parents. Yeah, he's stolen money from his parents.

They used to have a few thousand dollars hidden in like a closet for emergency fund kind of thing. And during COVID, he stole like he wanted RC cars. See, if he wants something, he's got to get it no matter what. I started saying to him, like, I think they're focusing on you. Like, you need to call your dad, and I think we need to get you a lawyer. I feel like they're focusing on the wrong person, and he kept saying the same thing. He kept repeating what I was repeating. That, um, they're focusing on the wrong person.

How do you feel when he's saying he's a lawyer? He didn't believe me. Like, when I told him, like, don't you see, Brondix is closing down the house. they know something or there's something like they know something, something's happening. They wouldn't be locking down the house this way if they didn't have suspicions of something. But in my, I wasn't thinking, I don't know why I wasn't thinking him.

Like, I was just like, no, they've got the wrong guy. Pretty jarring stuff. Firstly, let's talk about Jen's body language because you can't see it because this is the ear show. She definitely looks anxious. but sometimes Jen's got her arms quite firmly above her head which I'm having demonstrated for me now as she's slouched down on a sofa

and she looks quite chill and relaxed and she's literally doing that pose as she is talking to detectives hours after finding out what Stefan Stern's has done and during an interview with the police start by saying we think he's killed your daughter and she sat like this. Mm, yeah.

I don't know, man. Then there's all of the flip-flopping. Over three hours, Jen goes from blaming Stearns to talking about how she'd encouraged him to get a lawyer. Before his arrest, she seems to have been a lot more concerned with Stefan Stearns not being falsely accused of murder than she was about finding her missing child.

You could say that Jen didn't know, what Stefan Stearns had done at that particular point. And yeah, okay, maybe, but much like with the rooms in the house, I think it shows Jen's priorities. However, doesn't really fucking matter because any grace that we could have scraped off the floor and given to this woman went directly out the window when we heard this. That was still me under the assumption that,

I think at one point, No, I went when you guys interviewed me, and when you guys showed me the picture of her, I believed the sexual stuff, but I didn't want to believe that he had done anything equal to her. I'm like, no, what if she, what if he did this stuff buying, but what if she's still missing out there? What if somebody took her? I still wanted to believe in his, I believed him. I believed his whole story. So I'm just like, I kept repeating that part. I'm just like, what if she did they adopt up?

What if she got abducted? What if she's missing? But that was me assuming that you guys had the wrong guy. I wanted to think he was a good guy still, but clearly he's not. After everything you guys have told me and have shown me, I know he's the worst person on this face of that right now. We know he's a piece of down.

No. But you didn't know that then. He didn't. Then you offered a guy, and the police suspected, suspected of kidnapping, abducting, abducting, assisting to disappear. Often a lawyer. And then we don't have to round things with that.

You went back to what you just said is the sex stuff, it's fine. It's not fine. I'm sorry. Just in case you didn't catch what she says. She says, when you guys showed me the pictures of her, meaning Maddie, I believed the sexual stuff. So the rape of her child by Stefan Stearns. but I didn't want to believe he'd done anything evil to her.

What if he did this stuff fine, but what if someone else took her? To me, it seems very clear that Jen must have been aware of the sexual abuse. She shows no signs of shock during these interviews, supposedly just after finding out what happened under her own roof with her child for years? Am I jumping to conclusions? It's worth like saying, but I didn't think he'd done anything evil to her, implying that sexually abusing your child wasn't evil, and then saying, what if he did this stuff fine? What if someone else took her? Help me out here. I agree with you. I do think she knows. Devil's advocate? Devil's advocate is, to me, that's just someone who is

scrabbling around trying to cover themselves because she knows what's coming next. I think she's panicking and she is desperately trying to convince the officers interviewing her that not only did she had nothing to do with it, she had no reason to suspect that Stefan Stearns had murdered her child. And that's why she's like, oh, like all of that stuff, but like he didn't killer you know i think i totally agree with you i think like what hit me the most about that is maybe less of what she actually thinks about the abuse i think the people can let a lot of things go in a lot of situations i think i do think she knew but i i don't necessarily think she thought it was fine necessarily just based on that statement i think she's trying to cover her own

ass. Yeah, I honestly, I don't know what Jen Soto is thinking. I think the fine, okay, but I didn't think he'd done anything evil to her. It makes me feel like she knew, she had known for a long time, and that she had come to terms with it and rationalized it in some fucked up way to herself. Because I can't justify how any mother would think that her child being sexually abused by a grown man would be anything other than evil. And as for the murder of Maddie, after a long time during this interview, Jen starts to hazard guesses as to where Maddie's body could be. Obviously, the police are trying to get this out of her. And I can absolutely understand why the detectives are doing that. Here is this woman in front of

them who they strongly suspect knew about the sexual abuse. So why would she not know about the murder or why would she at least not know where the body was? And Jen actually says at one point, If I name places, it's going to be wooded areas that I can think of. But he hasn't told me anything. We haven't discussed it. Why would you then name wooded areas? Why would you think that? Why are you contemplating?

The death of your child? To me, it is stark and staggering. I know the police have told her. We think Maddie's dead. Is denial not the first fucking stage of grief? No, that can't be true. Drew, she can't be, she's jumping to fucking wooded areas. Spoilers, that's where Maddie is.

And somehow, things just kept getting worse. After Stefan Stern's arrest, the police knew that they needed to collect all of the evidence that they could get their hands on. So they went to search his parents' home in Port North. Stearns had been spotted making an overnight dash there after Maddie had disappeared. And when they arrived, well, officers were met with quite the bonkers scene. Stern's mum was standing outside the house crying uncontrollably and screaming Maddie's name. And inside, the police found out what had upset Mrs. Stearns quite so much. It was a headless, limbless sex stall in Stefan's room.

his mum had actually thought that it was Maddie's torso this time for the first time ever in a true crime podcast it was actually a mannequin but imagine what a piece of shit

you would have to be for your own mother to think that you had the body of your girlfriend's missing daughter in your childhood bedroom for that to be her first conclusion before the police had

even proven that Maddie was dead. They're not like, oh, you've arrested our son. He couldn't possibly have anything to do with this. The mum's like, oh my God, Maddie, Maddie, Maddie. She's literally outside screaming Maddie's name because she thinks there's a fucking dead body in her house. Yeah, I'm with you, man. They know what you fucking is. Yeah.

Stearns' father even told police that he felt like Stefan Stearns had been rehearsing his story and rehearsing it on him because, quote, it was the same routine that he used during a media interview. Park, yeah. Quite the shock for everybody, but nobody. However, it wouldn't be long before investigators got the break that they needed. Stearns had told Jen that his car had had a flat tire at around 1pm near Old Hickory Tree Road on the day that Maddie went missing. And this seems to have been true, because he was seen changing his tire.

A member of the public later reported, having also seen Stirl. in the area, doing something suspicious in the woods. So, officers went to search the wooded area nearby. And guess what? There they found Maddie's body. The official cause of death was ruled to be strangulation. The police also found that in the weeks leading up to Maddie's disappearance, Stefan had searched the words,

Cervo Floraine show up in drug test. Sevoflurane is an anaesthetic that can be used to disorientate people and cause amnesia and it's usually used in medical treatments. Now we don't know if this drug was found in Maddie's system because her autopsy has still not been released to the public. But the police's working theory is that Stearns had killed Maddie in the Soto home in his bedroom while the others had slept before moving her body in the early hours of the morning. The discovery of Maddie's body shocked the community.

A vigil was held that night near Madeline's school, and hundreds of people turned out. Stefan Stearns was due to have his first appearance at Osceola County Court the day after Maddie's body was found. But, of course, he didn't show up. He sent a lawyer in his place. And on the 12th of March, just two weeks, after Maddie had first gone missing. The Orange slash Osceola State Attorney's Office announced that it had filed 60 counts against Stefan Stearns,

eight counts of sexual battery on a child under 12, five counts of sexual battery with a child aged 12 to 18, seven counts of lewd or lascivious molestation, and 40 counts of unlawful possession of materials depicting sexual performance by a child. Upset? Yeah. Well, the Sheriff's Office's social media accounts are about to somehow make this whole situation even worse.

Because on the same day that the charges were released, the Instagram account for Osceolo County Sheriff, Marcus Lopez, made a boost. The caption read, Great Day with Arsenias, followed by an emoji of a smiley face with a halo. But the image? It was a confidential crime. scene photo featuring the dead body of a young girl. And the clothes in the photo, the green hoodie and dark trousers, were consistent with what Madeline was believed to be wearing when she was reported

missing. Mother fuck. How? Hell in the fucking fuck. Do you go on Instagram? Right, great day with our seniors and then accidentally post a fucking dead body. Why is a dead body picture even on your phone in the first place. Yeah. I do not understand how this happened. Slag off GDPR all you want. Fucking hell. It is unbelievable. The post was deleted very quickly and reporters were told that it had just been shared accidentally, which I believe, but my God. Jesus. And that's not all. The very same morning that that post hit Instagram. Niva Rodriguez. Niva Rodriguez. A civilian sheriff's office employee shared a selfie that featured Stefan Stearns to her personal Facebook page. She snapped it as he was being led out of jail and then popped it on Facebook with the caption.

If God's love has been poured out over your life, don't allow evil to keep you away from what he has prepared for you. Which is just such fucking nonsense. Like, that doesn't even make sense. I know. I was going to be like, what does she mean? What does she mean? I don't get it. And, like, I accidentally deleted the link to the picture in here and I can't find it again.

But basically, it's like a picture of her face. I'd like, Stefan Stearns is in the background about to walk out of court. Yeah. Bad news. Anyway, let's get back to the grim discoveries. Because sadly, they just kept on coming. On April 1st, 2025, Stefan Stearns' father was clear. out a storage unit when he found a hard drive and two USBs.

On these devices, police found more than 35,000 images of child's sexual abuse material, which answered the question of the sudden run that Stearns had made in the direction of Port North after Maddie vanished. He had clearly been looking to destroy evidence. Police believed that he wanted to use his parents' Wi-Fi to log into his Google account in an attempt to delete as many images and videos as he could. And the only reason those hard drives were still in that storage unit was that Stearns didn't have the clicker that he needed to get in there. I know.

A question worth discussing that we haven't touched on yet is why did Stefan Stearns murder Maddie Soto? He had been abusing her for years. why did he kill her now? And that's just quite tricky to answer. Maybe it was an accident. But given that she died by strangulation, that's quite hard to believe.

It's the favourite of the like sex game gone wrong defence, which you can't use in this country anymore. Fucking good. Exactly. Thanks to we can't consent to this. And as we have said, many, many, many, many times. To kill someone via strangulation is very difficult. and takes a lot of sustained pressure for an extended period of time.

Very, very impossibly rarely, is that an accident? Absolutely. I just made my very first documentary appearance, and I had to do some research into this for that. And yeah, it's very, very difficult. It's like 10 seconds, 20 seconds, maybe before somebody loses consciousness if you're strangling them, especially a child, for sure. Let's say 10 seconds.

that pressure would need to continue to be applied for another four to five minutes before it would be fatal so fuck off with your I accidentally strangled somebody do you know what I whenever I was discussing the rough sex defence with anybody like just sort of socially in the pub because I'm normal I was always quite shocked by like

okay but like what if you know someone actually is you know they do die accidentally because of a sex game wrong what about those I was like the actual percentage of people that happens to is so minuscule. I cannot believe that that is the argument you are using that like the whatever it is like 0.2%

of cases that like that means the law should not be passed for the 99 others. What the fuck is wrong with you? We're not that fragile. It's not that easy to just kill somebody. Like okay yeah like you say there may be

one tiny fraction of cases where that happens. But again, my question is like, how, what are you fucking doing that killed another human being? I just, I cannot imagine it. Maybe I'm just a fucking prude, and I can't imagine enough of, like, what people get up to that they're accidentally killing each other while having sex. But no, fuck off.

It's just a non-starter for me. Maybe, perhaps. Stefan Stearns had murdered Maddie because she was threatening to reveal what he had been doing to her for the past four years plus. And maybe she had just turned 13 at a very pivotal age. She would no doubt have started talking with friends about boys and crushes and all that sort of stuff. So could it be that this was the point that Maddie started to develop a clear framework for how fucked up what Stefan Stearns was doing?

Or maybe even realizing that what was happening to her, even if she didn't have the sort of like emotional language to identify it as abuse, maybe she realized that what was happening to her wasn't happening to him. everyone else. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe she was starting to become a bit more forceful. Maybe she started saying no, maybe she had started pushing Stefan Stearns away. Or perhaps it was because, as some have speculated, Maddie was pregnant.

Now, we can't confirm this because investigators have never, ever confirmed this theory. And also, like I said, the autopsy has never been publicly revealed. But I have listened to police interviews with some of Maddie's school friends. And they seem to indicate a change in her behaviour around the time that she died. She was suddenly wearing very, very baggy clothes and presenting as highly irritable when she missed her period or when it was late. Now, of course, that isn't proof that Maddie was pregnant. Of course, these things could also have just as likely been symptoms

of the sexual abuse that she was suffering. but we also know that she had been being abused for four years so for her to change that behaviour so notably right before her death maybe she did know she was pregnant or maybe she suspected she was pregnant maybe she told Stefan Stearns that night and he thought that this was his only way out I don't know

there are even suggestions that that whole like I'm going to run away and live in the woods text that Maddie had sent had actually been planted by Stefan Stern's building some sort of alibi because he knew he was going to kill Maddie. I don't know if I totally believe that. Because I don't, it's not that smart anyway. It is quite stupid thing to have done if he did do it. But like, I don't even think he would have thought that far ahead.

I don't think thinking ahead is something that he's capable of. Yeah. On April the 24th, Stefan Stearns was indicted on a first-degree murder charge by a grand jury and prosecutors made it clear that they wanted the death penalty. Stearns' lawyer filed several motions arguing that the death penalty would be unconstitutional. He also filed motions seeking to suppress the evidence found on Stearns' phone, arguing that it had been unlawfully seized. The lawyer argued that the police made no attempt to get a warrant

and that Stearns wasn't given a choice, which isn't true. Stearns consented to hand over his phone because he thought that he had successfully got rid of everything. You can't. And lastly... His lawyer claimed that Stearns was under the influence of a prescription anxiety drug at the time, that his phone was seized, and that he hadn't eaten that day. I mean, he didn't have loads to work with, so give it a go, I guess. Yeah.

But thankfully, none of these attempts to weaken the case worked. The judge refused to have the evidence thrown out. However, the case would also never go to trial, because Stearns had been offered a plea deal. And when I found out he'd been offered a plea deal, I was like, why the fuck? I'll go on to talk about why in a second, but basically Stefan Stern's like, ignores the plea deal offer and waits to see what the judge's decision is about the phone evidence. Because I think if the judge had said that the phone evidence was going to be thrown out, and it was really only on the phone evidence and the Google Drive that there were pictures of Maddie, if that had been thrown out, then he may have had a chance of getting away with it at trial. And then when the judge is like, no, no, the phone evidence is fine to be entered.

Then he takes the plea deal. And he took it to avoid the death penalty. And this happened, as we said, this year in 2025. And it was the second high profile case this year that ended like this. Because you remember, the other one was, of course, the Idaho student murders case with Brian Koberger. So I just wanted to explain in case anybody is confused about why in two cases where the prosecution had so much compelling evidence did they give out plea deals? Well, there's a few reasons. Firstly, it's a lot cheaper. These plea deals mean no trial, no appeals ever, and no expensive

death row process with all the appeals that that entails separately. Also, it is actually becoming harder and harder to actually execute anyone in the US. Pharmaceutical companies are refusing to sell the drugs needed for the lethal injection to the state. which again drags out the situation. So with the plea, as unsatisfactory as it feels, the prosecution used the death penalty as a threat to basically just shut the whole thing down. And I think that while on one hand I appreciate that it is efficient,

like they're getting it done, we know these men are guilty, they're going away, they're never going to appeal, and as we said with the Brian Goeberger case, in a way it's good while the families were very upset, and I understand why they're not going to have to sit through years of endless appeals while they have to listen to this man fucking lie. But I do also think it's potentially dangerous this road that prosecutors are going down because if you can't actually use it, if you can't actually use the death penalty,

having it there as this sort of purely used bargaining chip is increasingly leading to victims' families feeling like they're being lied to and used, which is what we saw with Brian Koberger. and I think that destroying that trust between victims' families and the judicial system and the prosecution while I understand they're like the ends justify the means I think that's a dangerous road to be heading down I agree that it has problems

however trials are very expensive and they're very time consuming and there aren't that many judges etc I can see If we just lived in a world where nothing mattered, and the only thing that affected anything was right and wrong, then I would be like, nobody deals for anyone ever. But I think I can understand why it exists as a mechanism. It's tough. Yeah, it's really hard because, yeah, I think I can also understand why victims' families are like, we have the death penalty in this state.

I live in this state. I support the death penalty. this hideous thing has happened to my family I want that man you have so much evidence that we've spent fucking years working with you to collect I want that man put on trial

and I want him executed and then when the prosecution turn around and say we're going to use it as a way to just make this go away I understand why totally understand why and I said it with the Brian Koberger case

I think it was the right thing to do for the families whether they were able to see that in that moment or not but if that continuously happens and that's always seen as the bargaining chip because people know they can't actually do the death penalty really anymore. I can understand why people are just going to start to feel like them,

why the fuck have we caught it? It's a complicated one. But yeah, that's what happened. And so, on the 21st of July 2025, more than a year after Maddie Soto's death, Stefan Stearns appeared in a Kessimi courtroom for his sentencing. He had pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and guilty to the 20 counts of sex crime.

He said to the court I have prayed to God countless times to trade places with her to take me instead and unfortunately that's just not how he works I apologise for all the pain fuck off he was sentenced to 21 life sentences

without the possibility of parole so Stefan Stearns will never walk free now that we're done with him finally before we wrap up this episode let's talk about Jen Soto and the role that she played in the abuse and murder of her daughter.

I will say, as I said already in this episode, I don't think that Jen was involved in Maddie's murder. I don't think so. But I do think that she knew what Stefan Stearns was doing to Maddie. Maybe not at first. I don't think it started off that way. But I think she discovered over time,

or at least realized over time. And I think she allowed it. to keep Stearns around. Now, some people have said that she's not the smartest person. And I don't know. In the interviews I've watched with her, she doesn't come across as particularly dumb. I think she's quite articulate.

She seems to be quite able to control herself. She seems to be able to take charge, take the lead. She certainly doesn't seem like some shrinking like wallflower. I really don't get that impression from her. I also don't buy the narrative that in this case Jen Soto was like this poor abused woman who couldn't stop this monster that she'd let into her life

No and I think I think what we don't want to admit collectively as a species is that this sort of thing goes on a lot more than any of us want to admit Absolutely It never happens overnight And when Jen Soto

was told what the police had found on Stearns' phone. She didn't really seem that shocked or repulsed. When she was shown the images, she even pretended not to recognise Maddie. Or Stearns. Or even her own house. Maybe she was just in denial from the shock.

Maybe. But how naive do you have to be to allow, nay, encourage your teenage daughter to share a bed with your boyfriend? She says that she allowed it because she trusted Stefan and that he treated Maddie as if she was his own daughter. And look, I'm sorry, but I feel like she sacrificed Maddie for what she wanted, which was to keep this relationship going with Stefan Stearns,

because this idea of like I allowed it because I trusted Stefan Stelz, okay, sure, fine. but safeguarding is not about like oh i'm sure it's fine it's about thinking about the worst possible scenario which hopefully you would do as an adult and i as a parent as a mother but i also understand like people people want to think the best of the person that they're with i appreciate that as well but i just feel like how in four years did you not know that anything was wrong i don't understand that and why would you take such a risk I don't know, I just think it's absolutely horrific.

And contrary to what she initially tells the police, which was that they only ever slept in the same room a few times, Jen Soto would later admit that she actually couldn't remember how many times she had let Madeline sleep with Stefan alone in his bedroom. So I don't know. I don't know if I can find it in me to give Jen Soto too much grace because maybe she made some mistakes. Maybe they really were just oversights on her part.

But Maddie was a child. When the abuse started, she was eight years old. And she was her daughter, and she was totally dependent on her mum to protect her. Wasn't Maddie's decision to let this man into their lives. Jen Soto made that decision, and she should have been looking after her fucking child. And also, why when all of this was,

going on? Did Maddie not feel like she could tell her mum anything? Now I appreciate, obviously, it's a very difficult topic for children to bring up. She may not even have had the vocabulary to say what was going on. But like, I don't know. And yes, of course, you can also say that Maddie was probably manipulated by Stearns. Maybe he twisted things to make her feel like she couldn't tell her mum. Or did Maddie not tell her mum because she knew that Jen knew what was going on and it all just become this weird normalised situation I don't know and look I don't want to sound like I'm just coming down hard on Jen Soto because yes I also think where the fuck was her dad and I get it it's hard because like these people have lost so much like I don't think Tyler

Wallace is a bad man the minute that he found out Maddie was missing he drove 14 hours through the night to get from Texas to Florida. Like, I'm not saying he's a bad person. I'm not saying he's even a bad dad. But it's so hard when situations like this happened that it's not just a case of despicable child sexual abuse and murder, but of rampant neglect. Like, Maddie was this beautiful, kind, generous 13-year-old girl with her life ahead of her who was failed by every single adult in her life.

and like maybe that sounds harsh but like I don't know how you can look at a picture of her and not feel that level of rage on the 22nd of February this year 2025 on what would have been Madeline's 14th birthday the community came together for another vigil they gathered to honour her memory at Lakefront Park and St Cloud

over the year families have been driving up to the place where her body was found and placing stuffed animals there and for the vigil these were all collected and more than a hundred were displayed together on a wall as a symbol of the community's support Maddie's friend read a poem which ended but I feel okay knowing you're doing fine above I'll try not to call

I'll try not to shed but I'll always be lucky that you are my friend Ugh. Yeah. It's horrible. Yeah, truly. And, yes, I have a one, I'm glad that we didn't have to sit through a fucking trial listening to Stefan Stearns. Yeah, it's, I know what you mean, though. It's such a hard, like, transparency issue. But, you know, I can also understand.

Practically. Practically, administratively, taxily. That money's better spent elsewhere, but it's tricky emotionally for sure. Yeah. So that's it, guys. Thank you for listening. I don't know. Go punch something like a wall or in honour of Stefan Stearns,

like some sort of warhammer figurine. I don't know. Just go for a run. You'll feel better. Or do that. And we will see you next week for something. It's probably just as rage-inducing. Goodbye.

Bye. To listen to shorthand every week, start your seven-day free trial with Wondry Plus, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or in the Wondry app. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger bruce. With a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists out there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That motherfucker is not real!

And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast. Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.