Rotten Mango - Mom Lets 37Yr Old BF Have Cuddle Sleepovers With Her Teen Daughter - Then Teen Goes Missing

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

The plot of a famous thriller goes viral. It goes something like this. A wife is called into the police station to talk about her husband. There are pictures of her husband with another girl. Graphic photos and now that girl is missing. Does the wife know what her husband did to the missing girl? Will the wife support her husband or leave him immediately? Jennifer Soto is at the police station and unfortunately for her - this is not a book plot. “Do you recognize your boyfriend’s penis?”“Yes. That’s him.” She is shown graphic photos of her boyfriend and the girl that has now gone missing but Jennifer isn’t convinced her boyfriend did anything wrong. She says - “I believe the sex stuff but I don’t think he did anything evil.”The investigators pause. What did she just say?They’re disgusted. Because the missing girl is Jennifer’s own daughter.13 year old Madeline Soto. The one her 37yr old boyfriend has been abusing. And yet she defends him?     Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com 

A few years ago, there was a book that had gone viral on Book Talk. This is during quarantine, and it's a really well-done variation of a thought-provoking hypothetical situation. Variations of the plot go something like this. A woman, a wife, is brought into the police station, into one of those interrogation rooms. And the police want to talk to her. They don't want to talk to her about her they want to talk to her about her husband her partner they're like look at this picture is

this your husband in the picture yeah that that's my husband in the picture and that woman and that that other person in the picture that's not you is it no and normally it looks like this is something that normally intimate couples do, and here are the two of them doing it, and you're nowhere to be seen in the picture. Doing what? Intimate things. Oh. And now the wife is confused, and the police inform her, here's why we brought you in.

Because now she is missing. Oh, they're asking the wife, do you know about this woman? Yes. It's a compelling plot. I mean, it went viral for a reason, but maybe not so much for Jennifer Soto. She is a woman from Florida and the officers in 2024, they sit her down to talk to her about her on and off

boyfriend of seven-ish years. Does that look like your boyfriend's hand? Whose hand does that look like to you? I would say it looks like his hand, yeah. So you and Stefan have been sexually intimate before in the past? I mean they've been dating for seven and a half years so yeah yeah I would say yeah. So you're aware of what his private part looks like. Is that correct? These are the direct conversations Yes, okay. Does this look like Stefan's private part to you and they show her a picture No

Okay, what about this one? They show her another picture Possibly yeah Yeah, it might be it if anything. It's not even the body part that I'm recognizing, it's the things around it. Okay, well we have Stefan's phone. We have your boyfriend's phone. We were able to get into his phone and there are some very unfortunate graphic pictures of him conducting very sexual acts with Maddie. Maddie, the one that had gone missing recently in Florida. The missing persons case that everybody is talking about.

Look, I wish I could tell you this is all a made-up story Jennifer, but it's not. Did you ever suspect anything like this? No. Are you okay? Can I get some water? I can't breathe. Is this a surprise? Yeah, are there photos of her? Mm-hmm. I don't want to believe this is true. Can I see some of the evidence? What makes you believe it's not true? I thought I knew him well enough Okay. Well, so our goal is we want to find Maddie. Do you know if Stefan has any special hangout spots? No, there's no place I can think of outside of shopping at Target. Anywhere else that you can think of. Silence.

What are you thinking about right now, Jennifer? How this can be true? How I missed the signs? What signs are you saying you missed? No, like I'm just saying if if there were any signs I didn't see any I just want to I believe you I want to believe you but I can't believe you till I see the actual evidence. are you sure you want to see that? I'll go get it. are you sure you

want to see those photos? can you tell me what's being done in those photos? she has his private part in her mouth. Do you think he would ever hurt her? I don't think he would. No. Like I believe you when you talk to me about those images. Those images might be real or they could have happened, but I don't believe they're related to this case.

I don't think some of those pictures, Jennifer, they go back to 2022. So two years prior. I understand it's a lot to take in right now. I can only imagine what you're going through, but we need to know everything. Our main goal is to find Maddie and bring her back home. And we need your help. Did he mention taking her anywhere? No.

I don't want to see those images, but I do feel like I need proof of evidence. But I'm afraid of being traumatized forever, so I don't know what to do. Like, what if we're focusing on the wrong guy? Like, okay, the sex things happened, right? But what if that's completely like a side thing and not having to do with this, like her missing? I believe he did the sexual stuff, but I don't believe he had anything- I don't think that he ever did anything evil to her. Like, what if he did this stuff?

Fine, but what if she's still missing out there? The authorities are quiet. It's a very odd reaction to have, because the person who is missing is Jennifer's own daughter, who is 13 years old, and Stefan is Jennifer's 37 year old boyfriend. Jennifer says, and I repeat for you, like, okay, the sex things happened, right? But what if that's completely like a side thing and not having to do with this, like her being missing? I believe he did the sexual stuff, but I don't believe he had done anything evil to her. This is the case of Madeline Soto. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

They focus on finding missing children, reducing child sexual exploitation, and the prevention of child victimization. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team and we would also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at rottenmingopodcast.com today's case involves heavy themes of CSAM, CA, CSA, SA, and potential familial incest there are quite a few mentions of those themes throughout this entire episode, and this is just part one so if this is too much, please take a break, break get some air we'll see you in the next one charges have been pressed in this case

lots of charges over 60 counts but unfortunately and legally there has yet to be a trial so innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law but netizens they feel otherwise this is gonna be a two-part case I tried so hard to keep it into just one part, condense it down, but I went through 20 plus hours of police footage, interviews, audio interviews, body cam footage, over a thousand pages of court documents, and there is just no way to condense it down into one. In part one, this episode, we're gonna be focusing on Maddie going missing, what happened that day, and the weird actions of

her own mom, Jennifer Soto. In part two, we focus on Stefan Stearns, the 37-year-old boyfriend of Jennifer Soto, and all of the conspiracies that are tied to what happened. There's conspiracies and allegations of a larger network of CSAM, formerly known as CP, but child sexual abuse material, rings on telegram, organizations operating in Florida, allegations of pregnancies, I mean there's a lot happening. So stay tuned for part two and let's get started. Jennifer Soto and her boyfriend Stefan Stearns are sitting in front of the camera.

They're talking to Fox 35. They're talking to all the local news networks that are calling them. Help us find Jennifer's 13-year-old daughter, Madeline Soto. Maddie Soto. She is missing. Look, this area in Florida, there is so much that can happen. Some say because of its close proximity to Disney World, it's near Orlando. Some say it's a hub for human trafficking. Kids get snatched to be sold. There's all these conspiracies, there's rumors, you go online, you're gonna be spiraling down these rabbit holes. And if you're not spiraling, then there's other major considerations you have to factor in, like Alligator Lake. Alligator Lake in Florida is a pretty small lake, but it's got at least 300 alligators in there, in one singular lake. It lives up to the name. It's advised that if you walk your dog around the lake, don't put your dog too

close to the water's edge. You just never know what the alligators are gonna consume. So yeah, a missing child anywhere, but also near Disney World, near alligator lakes, especially concerning and time is of the essence. Jennifer is doing a zoom call with Fox 35 from it appears to be her kitchen. Her boyfriend, Stefan, is sitting right behind her. So this is interesting. He's not really sitting right behind her, as in they're both doing the interview. He's just kind of in the background. Like when you're on a zoom call with work people and someone walks into the room

and you have to kind of glance back, like, what are you doing? Why are you in this room? Can you hello? I'm in a zoom That's how he's he's just sitting in the background half on screen half not on screen. What is he doing? Just cracking his knuckles Okay, jen go ahead and tell us what's going on with maddie well Monday morning, we took her to school. We dropped her off close to school, across the street from a church, which is it's right next to the school. She crossed the street and walked to school.

Well, we thought she walked to school. My boyfriend drove her to school, drove away at that point, but she never made it. That was around 9 a.m. When she got up. She never made it to school after that. It's yeah That's what happened and that was the last anyone has ever seen of her heard from her Yes, I went to go pick her up after school and she wasn't there So I started driving around thinking maybe she decided to take a walk to my mom's office Which is pretty close to the school as well drove around I didn't see anything I drove back to the school as well, drove around and didn't see anything. I drove back to the school, the school was closed, I emailed one of her teachers and they confirmed that she had been absent all day. At that point, I called 911 because I realized something is truly

wrong. For the audio listeners, I'm trying to mimic her cadence, her tone of voice. So she sounds pretty... Straightforward. You could almost mistake her as a detective recounting what happened. But maybe not as professional, but definitely a little detached emotionally. I hate to ask this, but is she the type that would run away? Is this something that has happened in the past? And this just happened? Or how long has it been? A few hours. Whoa.

A few hours. And that's how calm she been? A few hours. Whoa. A few hours. And that's how calm she is. Yes. Never. She's never mentioned anything like this before. She's not the type to want to do this. She did accidentally leave her phone on Monday,

which is kind of normal for her. She's got ADHD and she's very forgetful. So she left her phone at home. So there's no way to trace her. Jen, what is your fear? I know you said that she's on games and stuff. Do you fear that she could have met somebody and tried to meet up with them?

She's open with us. She told us that she had a crush on somebody at school. I looked at her messages. Nothing was weird. I looked at all of her messages, all of her deleted messages. Nothing seemed weird. It didn't seem like she was talking to anyone. I don't feel like that's the case.

I feel like she may have been taken This is not like her at all to not tell us not let us know where she's going or who she's with I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm just contacting the news to get the word out to get some help because I'm desperate I'm a wreck right now So you think that she's been taken against her will I do think so? Yes I'm trying to hope for the best, but I'm scared for her. I want her to be okay. I want her to be safe.

I don't want her to come back harmed, and I just want her back. Whatever that means, I just want her back. Are you gonna go out there and search or look? Are you sticking by the phone? You know, what are you doing? I'm staying at home, staying by the phone, hoping she disappears.

I know my entire family is out looking. They've all spread a bunch of flyers just to make sure that she's not taken against her will. You mentioned ADHD. Was there anything else, maybe mentally going on, that you knew of? She does suffer from anxiety. Once upon a time, she was diagnosed with autism. We had her re-um, what's the word, reevaluated. We had herevaluated a few months ago actually and they told us no, she doesn't have autism, but she did have some autistic traits. She did have ADHD, some autistic traits, but not autism. Very weird. At the end of the interview, Jennifer shares a message that she personally has for her own daughter Maddie. Maddie, if

you see this, please come home. Please be safe. I love you very much. And if you have my Maddie, please just let her come home. We just want her home. For such an agonizing situation, Jennifer seems to be at best holding it in very well. She's collected for the media interviews, maybe too collected. In another interview with WFTV Channel 9 News, this time the news station comes to her house

to interview her. They set up a camera, and Jennifer is sitting there with a black hoodie on. She is almost vibrating. Think of your phone on a wood table on silent mode. Someone is calling you. It's just vibrating throughout the entirety of the interview. At first I thought she was shaking or the camera is shaking because of how consistent the vibrating is, but I believe and I could be wrong, but if someone is shaking or shuddering, it's a very jerky motion.

It varies in severity. Like sometimes it's a big jerk or a small shiver or you're shaking and then you stop shaking or you try to calm your nerves, but it is a pretty consistent, intense vibrating, which leads me to believe she is shaking her leg throughout the entirety of the video. Oh, yeah. So it's not like she's trembling. She's shaking her leg aggressively. So I was trying to mimic it at my desk too and I was like

recording myself. It looks like shaking of the leg. Okay. This is what the news reporter asks. My first question is what is your first and last name and can you spell them both out for me? Jennifer J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R SOTO O T O S O T O. Mother? Mother? Jennifer, tell me how you're feeling right now. I feel like I can't breathe. All I keep thinking about is where is she? Is she safe? Is she okay? But we're all a wreck. My entire family is a mess. We're just so worried. She recounts very quickly that Maddie was dropped off at her school by her partner, Stefan.

So Jennifer's boyfriend. We're all, well, very close to the school. She says across the street, it's basically right next to the school, but she never made it to the school, was absent, vanished. But in the middle of her explaining, this is interesting. You know those grand clocks that chime every hour? This is, I guess, a cuter, goofier version.

So Jennifer works at Disney. It sounds like a Disney clock. It's like, yoo-hoo, yoo-hoo, and it keeps going. And Jennifer stops, she pauses, closes her eyes, and she smiles. She opens her eyes and looks at it like, ah, this is so embarrassing, and then smiles again. Okay, that should be it.

Sorry about that. And then she takes a deep breath and continues with her story. The reporter asks, is this normal behavior? Not at all, no. She, from time to time, she will leave her cell phone at home accidentally, and that's actually what happened yesterday.

So this is the next day. She left her phone at home, she went to school, and that happens from time to time. She has her phone at home. She went to school and That happens from time to time. She has ADHD, but there's no way to track her because now I have what well now the detectives Have her phone, but this is not normal behavior. No, what are you thinking about right now in my heart? I feel like somebody took her this just isn't like her to just pick up and run away and just not go to school I don't know. I don't know what to think. I know as a mother a lot is going on in your brain. So much. To bring her back home. What have law enforcement told you that you're able to share? I mean that they're doing the best they can. They've had detectives come out, interview us,

they took a piece of her clothing for the canine dog to see if they could sniff her out. I'm not sure when that's being done. We've looked everywhere we thought she could have gone. We checked the walking paths that she could have taken. We checked all our friends houses. We checked everywhere I can honestly think of. Is there anything you think our viewers would need to know about the way you're feeling? The way the family's feeling for Madeline? We are desperate for answers. Anything that you could do to help, I'm here for it. Just please, if you see my daughter, please bring her home. I just hope you're okay, Maddie. I hope you're safe.

I hope you're not hurt. I just hope she's okay. Does she look more worried than yesterday? I don't know. Okay, I can go back and forth. If I try to convince myself that she looks worried, she looks worried, but she just looks a little uneasy. Okay. Now, why are so many news stations interviewing them?

She reached out to them the night that Maddie went missing. Her family members did. I see. To get the news out there, the word out there. And this time around for this news station, Stefan Stearns also does an interview. He's got a black hoodie on, a full beard and a baseball cap that's put on backwards. His eyes are really red. He's clearly, at least visually, he seems more emotional than Jennifer does. It's not a contest, but he seems

somewhat distraught to the point where the reporter starts, you seem emotional. Explain to us what happened. I dropped her off. Everything looked fine when I drove away. That was the last time we saw her. What were the conversations you had in the car when you dropped her off? Not much. She was asleep for most of the way,

told her to have a good day at school and she got out. I said I love her, she said thanks, love you too. That was it. So where do you think she could possibly be? I mean, this isn't, as I was told, this isn't normal behavior. This isn't normal behavior. She's not the type to just run off.

We don't know where she can be. We're scared. We just want her home. Are you, in a sense, blaming yourself? It's hard not to. Why? I dropped her off early. I could have waited longer.

She looked okay. She was walking towards the school. I saw her, like it was any other day, so I went on with my day. It's hard not to blame myself. What has the conversation been with Jennifer since? Because again this is Jennifer's biological daughter, not Stefan's biological daughter. So you could imagine there might be some relationship turmoil. Yeah. She's been very, a lot stronger than me. She's been holding it together very well, but it just keeps coming in waves.

Reality keeps hitting. We don't know where she is. We don't know if she's safe. We're just scared. We just want her home. Stefan says he even went out with the cops to search for her. And was her body language off

when you dropped her off at school? Happy, happy. She had a happy weekend. She just turned 13. She had her 13th birthday party Sunday, and this was Monday that she goes missing. She was happy that we were all together here and she's just very happy.

She was a happy kid. She's very sweet. She's a very sweet girl. She brings us, she brings a lot of joy to us. And we just not knowing. So the unknown is killing you. It's like our whole world is upside down. I'm not feeling her presence here. Sorry. He keeps wiping his tears and apologizing. Sorry. I should be crying. It does appear to be

Sorry, it's just hard What do you want our viewers to know? She's a sweetheart. She's a very sweet girl kind girl Please just be nice to her bring her home. If you find her tell her we love her wherever she is. I hope she's okay She's a good girl, she's a good kid. This is a living nightmare, a living nightmare. Day started off like any other, I just want to wake up. You just get hit with these waves of reality, just it's setting in. As soon as it got dark last night, so this is the first night that she's missing. We just really started falling apart because we knew that it wasn't going to come to an end,

and now we're going on 24 hours and still nothing. Conflicting reports here and there. People say they see this, they see that. Nothing is, none of it's conclusive, none of it's helpful. We just want our baby girl back. When these interviews are posted, I will say, we as netizens do seem to have, collectively, conspiracy-tinted glasses these days. A lot of people were just spreading the word in the local area but some netizens were confused especially on TikTok and there were fights people saying how dare you question people how dare you question the poor

grieving family and there were arguments like day one people are arguing yes i would say a smaller minority of people were pointing out weird things I think a lot of people were thinking it they just couldn't say it. So a lot of people were saying it in oh She looks like maybe she's still processing a lot of the shock But the more opinionated comments read mom seems very calm and shaking seems more of like a nervous thing Nervous about something rather than upset that her daughter is missing Another one reads this doesn't feel right. I'm getting bad vibes from the mom. I know everyone reacts differently, but the mom doesn't even seem upset. Others focus on the fact that Jennifer mentions that she did not attend her daughter's birthday

party. So in the Fox 35 interview that I kind of shortened, she's like, oh yeah, I couldn't go because I was working. And the comment reads, how does a mother miss her own child's birthday? For 13 years, you've known to take this day off now or celebrate it when you're not working because Sunday is not Maddie's actual birthday. It's just the day of her party. I could never miss my kids birthday parties.

That's the comment, not me, I don't have kids. One comment reads, did he say she was a happy kid? Is that what the boyfriend just said was? Other comments read, if my daughter was missing, I would not be able to give interviews like this. I would not be able to talk without breaking down. I would not be able to sleep nor eat nor talk or do anything. I would be driving around all night and day looking for my daughter. Crazy to even muster a chuckle about that little clock when your child is missing. I think the mother is actually smiling in the interview. It looks like she knows more than she's letting on. Maybe netizens are being harsh though. I mean I think the internet likes to see the bad in

everything and everyone right off the bat and maybe Jennifer is in shock during these media interviews because she's probably, hopefully, a lot more helpful to the authorities, right? Because these are just media interviews. Because Maddie is 13 years old, the authorities have to rule out the potential that she is runaway. Because the way they search for her, depending on if they think she ran off, versus if they think she was taken, is very different. Jennifer is explaining there's just no way that Maddie would ever run away. Maddie just had her 13th birthday party the night before, and the next day she goes missing. She was happy.

It's just that Monday was a series of unfortunate events. Jennifer was trying to sleep in, get some rest because she forgot to take her medication the night before. She's feeling wonky. She just started a new job. She's still in training. Stefan is taking Maddie to school that morning, but he forgets his phone. He spends a good chunk of his morning waiting in front of the vape shop to open Stefan is taking Maddie to school that morning, but he forgets his phone. He spends a good chunk of his morning waiting in front of the vape shop to open after he drops Maddie off, but they never open, and later he gets a flat tire. Monday's a mess.

So the police are like, okay, run us through the day. Run us through Monday morning and everything that happened. What time did you wake up? Jennifer tells the authorities. I'm going to say around 8 o'clock in the morning, Stefan came into the room and was trying to put the leash on the dog. He came into the room somewhere between 8 and 8 15. He came in to put the leash on the dog. I got up to help him because my dog is kind of nervous. It's a nervous dog and I didn't want him to pee on the bed. We wrangled him, put a leash on him

and he said go back to sleep. I said okay so I laid back. I went back to sleep. I heard people in the kitchen. I'm not sure exactly who was in the kitchen because we have two female roommates. As far as I know, yeah, as far as I know Maddie came downstairs to get ready. So she kind of, yeah, she's got this bedroom in the living room. If you go into the apartment, you'll see there's like those fake walls separating half the bedroom. So the living room is half and then her bedroom is half. She's got like a desk with a bedroom and a TV and a dresser and she'll hang out in there during the day but she never sleeps in there. She always sleeps with

me and the rare occasion she'll sleep in the guest room upstairs but most of the time it's with me. Okay, what time did you wake up on Monday? Well, Jennifer's thinking back and she says, okay, so Maddie's classes start at 930 which means they usually do drop off. They leave the house at around 850 she checks her alarms I pretty sure I woke up that morning at like 9 o'clock in the morning and then I left the house at 930 in the morning so Stefan drops Maddie off Jennifer wakes up at 9 they're already out of the house then at 930 she leaves the house because she has a doctor's appointment at 10.15.

And it took a while. They did the blood work. I think I got home somewhere around 11, 11.15. But when she gets back home, Stefan is there. And the two of them just spend like an hour catching up about their mornings. And she says Stefan was filling her in on how the two of them had left early to go to school.

Mattie had woken up early and he decides, let's go to McDonald's. And that was the plan. Jennifer knew this was the plan, that he was gonna take her to McDonald's, grab breakfast, and Jennifer says but on his way to school she was very sleepy and wanted to sleep in the car. She said that she did not want to go to McDonald's, she just wanted to be dropped off and he let me know that he had left his phone at home because I had called him multiple times and he hadn't picked up. He left his phone at home by accident, went to the vape shop after

dropping Maddie off, but they didn't open for some time. So he waited for quite a while in front of the vape shop, but they still didn't open so he finally gave up and came home. They hang out for a little while. He then leaves again to run some errands, hit up the vape shop again, then go to Target, a place called House Rules. It's a game shop. They sell board games. Then he's gonna be home before Jennifer does pick up for Maddie. Or at least that is the plan. But he gets a flat tire on the way back, so Jennifer goes to pick up Maddie by herself. She says, so... I went to go. I usually leave around 2.30 to go pick her up. She gets out at 4. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to the school. Then I wait about an hour for her to get out. I waited the whole time. When the bell rang,

she didn't come out. She is usually one of the first kids that usually comes out. Why does she go so early? She likes to be at the front of the line. So if you know school pickup in America, you gotta wait in line. There's like a parade of cars. I see, I see. And I realized I was holding up the line because everybody behind me, their kids had gotten in their car and they needed to get out of the line, but because I was first in line, I was holding up the line. So after that, I'm gonna say at about 4 10, she waits about 15 minutes, she feels like she can't wait any longer. Maybe Maddie didn't know that Jennifer was picking her up, so she took a side door out of the school and started walking home.

Jennifer puts her car in drive, starts heading along the path that Maddie normally takes when she does have to walk home. She spends another 30 minutes waiting to see if Maddie is going to be seen walking. And nothing. Maddie is nowhere. This is when Jennifer starts freaking out. She calls Maddie and she's like, shit, Maddie left her phone at home. I have her phone in the car with me so I can't even call her. Okay, that's fine. She calls Maddie left her phone at home I have her phone in the car with me so I can't even call her okay that's fine she calls Maddie's best friend who tells her Miss Soto Maddie never came to school today what do you mean she never made it to any of her classes any of her periods nothing Jennifer tells the officer at

this point I started to panic because I knew something was wrong I emailed one of her teachers a few of her actually, well one of them responded to me. He said she didn't make it at all. Is it common for her to not have her phone? Yeah she's got ADHD. She's super forgetful. She doesn't even she doesn't even realize that she's in the shower for a whole hour. She loses track of time. She's very forgetful. That day a missing person's report is filed for Maddie a day after her birthday party and actually four days after her actual birthday when she turned 13. The incident report reads February 26 2023 at approximately 8 a.m. Jennifer observed and last saw Maddie getting dressed for school. Stefan

Stearns takes Maddie to school dropping her off near the intersection of Town Loop Boulevard and Hunters Park Lane at approximately 8.30am. The official written statement that Jennifer writes by hand for the police is, Today, around 8am, I saw Maddie getting ready for school. I'm not sure what time they departed. Stefan Stearns took her to school and dropped her off close to the school at around 8.30-8.45am. She never made it to school. I went to pick her up at around 4pm to pick her up and she never came out. I searched the

area, went to my mother's office to look for Maddie and could not find her. Have you ever had those moments? You meet someone and they smile at you but the smile feels like their lips are smiling but their eyes are laser sharp just digging into you and then throughout the day they see these really weird things or like tiny little micro expressions and you just get a bad feeling about them but when you try to explain it to them I thought he was creepy he kept saying you look really really good today okay maybe they're just trying to be nice to you no but

it's the way that they were smirking like they didn't like they they meant something else. Maybe they were being sarcastic. It was weird. You're probably thinking too deep into it. What's wrong with you? And then later later they were saying things like well if people tried better to look better then I wouldn't have problems. Like what does that even mean? They're not talking about you. Like there's always... It just sounds like you're crazy. Like you're trying to make it about you. Nothing that they're doing is inherently that suspicious or that unsettling. It's just a collection of everything. They're saying like there's some people this action is just off?

Yeah, and then you try to tell your friend about it and they're like, you're thinking into it. They're just being nice They're not talking about you. Not everything is about you that you're being weird Okay, and you're like, no, I don't know how to explain this but all of it combined. You just don't You don't have a good feeling about it. And that is how this case feels to the authorities First, I mean the setup of the house. It's a four-bedroom house feels to the authorities. First, I mean the setup of the house. It's a four bedroom house. One room is on the first floor along with the kitchen and the living room. That bedroom, the first bedroom, is occupied by Jennifer. Then you

go upstairs you have three more bedrooms. Outside each room there are numbers, literal numbers, hanging on the walls. Number two, number three, number four. So two and three are rented out by two female roommates. Number four used to be empty but it's on and off again, Stefan's room. When he's not sharing Jennifer's room, he's in room number four. It could be considered a guest room. So where's Maddie's room?

In the living room. There's these two room dividers just half-hazardly set up in the middle of the living room. That's Maddie's room. Behind this partition is Maddie's bed, a dresser, a nightstand, some of her clothes. I do want to mention this is not like a flex space in New York City.

It's just two partitions. You could see through the top. You could see through the sides. It's not at all private, which I'm sure is pretty important to the development of a 13-year-old girl. It's kind of strange. It's odd, especially when you consider the fact that room number four was relatively empty most of the time.

So why not just use it as Maddie's room? And side note, this whole house is owned by Jennifer's dad. He rents it out to everybody including his own daughter, so I believe he collects rent money from Jennifer every single month, but even more the reason that Jennifer couldn't make that Maddie's room. Room number four. It just seems odd that Maddie doesn't get to have her own room. It's weird. It's like living in a two-bedroom apartment with you and your child, but instead of giving the child the other bedroom, you leave it as a guest room for your boyfriend whenever he wants to use it? One of the more seasoned detectives takes one look at the Fox 35 news segment and he says, it's not sincere. I mean, looking at that that video one time Jennifer's cries don't feel sincere

He says he's unsure why though the thing that he's learned is Sometimes people struggle to show real emotion when they're aware of what the truth is Even when another officer is interviewing her she's explaining how Stefan went to the vape shop that morning And these are like all the odd small things She says after he dropped Maddie off he goes to the vape shop that morning and these are like all the odd small things she says after he dropped Maddie off he goes to the vape shop do you want the name of the vape shop the officer is like yeah I mean if you have it off the top of your head but I'm sure we're gonna talk again soon and we'll have more questions no I'm just saying because that might be helpful if you guys you know want to see

like surveillance or anything so what an odd thing to say. Because Maddie would have already been dropped off. If you're looking for missing Maddie, why would they need surveillance at the vape shop? Yeah, so that almost coming from an angle of, oh, to verify if my boyfriend was actually there. So it's like covering for the boyfriend. Like if you wanna check on my boyfriend,

then go check the, you know. Meanwhile, we're searching for Maddie. And that is time of the essence. Why would you want the police to waste their time looking at vape shop CCTV when I'd be like, can you check every single camera near the school, near the drop off point, not the vape shop. Who cares about the vape shop?

In another interrogation with an officer, Jennifer talks about how Maddie hates being alone. She says, even now, I hope she's not alone. I mean, or I don't know. I hope if she's being taken, I hope she's being taken care of or she's safe. I just, I don't know. Just kind of a weird statement. And there are just other small, strange little moments that make the officers go, I don't, what is going on?

They just pause. For example, when the officers want to go pick up an article of clothing that Maddie has worn that has her scent for the dogs to track Stefan offers what about a pillow she likes to sleep on Jennifer looks at him yeah but you slept on that pillow this morning oh that's right I snuggled with her pillow it's just kind of strange verbiage yeah like I guess if you were taking a power nap before going back out to search and you just used a random pillow, but it's a little weird. It's like a dog snuggling with their owner's pillow.

Then another officer asks Jennifer, so let me ask you this. Where all have you looked for Maddie? Me? I haven't looked anywhere. I stayed at home just in case she would come back. I wanted someone to be home in case she comes back home. Jennifer mentions how this case, which I don't know, I see a lot of netizens being like, that's weird. And personally, I think it's weird too. If someone needs to be home just to make sure

my 13 year old child that I don't have comes home, it should be like the lowest on the totem pole person. Yeah. Like just someone in the family stay home. And then everybody else needs to be out searching. Yeah. She says that the case has gotten so big that people recognize her in public. She says, I don't want to be seen in public, just everyone to recognize me and know what's happening. So to answer your question, I haven't gone out looking for her because I don't know where to search and yeah, I haven't. Another officer who's there asks, I'm just curious, why didn't you go search for her? I know you said that

you didn't know where to look, but was there any other reason that you didn't want to go search? I wanted to be at home to make sure she would be, like somebody would be home if she came home. I didn't want the house to be empty. And then the last few days, I just feel like, I don't know, the media has been bombarding us. It's just, I've been feeling overwhelmed with the attention. I just needed to preserve my mental health and I just had to stay home. I tried to go out a little bit yesterday to keep my mind off of things, just to buy, I mean, I don't have a a toothbrush I don't have anything right now but at the moment when we're out in public I just felt like so exposed and like I shouldn't be out I shouldn't be doing any of this I grabbed what I needed

quickly and we left I just want to preserve my mental health I'm just worried in the past I've been hospitalized for mental health issues and I'm just afraid that this is gonna make me spiral so I'm just worried. In the past, I've been hospitalized for mental health issues, and I'm just afraid that this is gonna make me spiral. So I'm just gonna stay sane. I'm just trying to stay sane. I don't want to end up in the hospital again. I don't want to be unstable again. I just can't carry anyone else's emotions right now. I have my own to deal with.

I don't want my own mental health to suffer right now. She says the first night that Maddie goes missing, she calls Fox 35 after getting home and then quote, what else did I do? I think I had to eventually eat and take my medication. I'm not suggesting that she not take her medication, but a lot of parents are confused on how she can even digest food at all. And she even states that Stefan mentioned going out to look for Maddie the first night that she's missing. And she said, I even questioned that. I asked him, are you sure it's a good idea? You should probably sit tight.

Let's just wait and see if she comes home. I don't know if it's just me. Perhaps it's reflective of my poor ability to safeguard my own mental health. But I don't care if I spiral to the bottom of the earth. I don't think that I would have the self-control to say, let's take it easy and not look for my missing loved Loved one my family member. I Think not being out there would make me spiral even deeper

Yeah, but the biggest thing is the officers are going through the incident reports and there are so many things that don't make sense Over the course of what 48 hours? Multiple different detectives have spoken with Jennifer and something is not adding up. When authorities walk through Monday morning with Jennifer, not once does she mention seeing Maddie, indicating the last time that she would have seen Maddie was not Monday morning but Sunday night. But previously, she explains seeing Maddie getting ready for school Monday morning and even describes in detail what Maddie wore to school that day on Monday, which she dressed herself to go to school in on Monday.

And in the initial report, she writes that she saw Maddie wore to school that day on Monday, what she dressed herself to go to school in on Monday. And in the initial report, she writes that she saw Maddie. The officer questions her about that. When you reported her missing, you remember writing a statement? Yes. In that statement, you say you saw Maddie. I know. I misremembered.

I didn't see her. But I wanted to believe I saw her, but I didn't. But when you're talking to the deputy on his body cam, you describe what she was wearing that day because she had picked it out the night before. The police still want to know why she wrote saw on the initial report. Saw. Saw is a pretty common word. It's not a it's not like a legal language. It's not something that you would only use when you file a police report. It's a pretty straightforward word.

Did you see? Did you not see? Jennifer asks, can I tell you my thought process on that or where I came from with that? I was handed this form and I was like, where do I start? What do I write? And somebody said, tell them what you saw. And so I just wrote, I just started with, I saw, and then I wrote out what I wrote out. But it wasn't until later I was like, wait, I them what you saw. And so I just wrote, I just started with I saw, and then I wrote out what I wrote out. But it wasn't until later I was like, wait, I didn't see her.

I assumed that I saw her. I assumed that I heard her, but I didn't. In reality, I didn't see her. I heard someone in the kitchen, but I don't know who that was. An officer clarifies with Jennifer then, did you see Maddie on Monday morning? Visually see her? No.

Did you hear her? I heard many people in the kitchen. I'm not sure if it was my roommate or Maddie specifically. When's the last time you saw her then? Saw her? I'm gonna say Sunday night. Heard her? I heard her Monday morning getting ready for school. I heard her Monday morning getting ready for school? So that means the last time Jennifer Soto might have seen her child Maddie was Sunday night the night before at 11 p.m. That's like almost a what 10-hour discrepancy Which means how do we know if any other part of this report or timeline is factual is true? Do you know what time torture is?

I mean, technically a lot of places have time torture. Some jails will have time torture. You just never get to know the time. To make it even worse, you block out the window so you can't tell if it's day or night. That's time torture. There's like a psychological reason that humans go crazy if they don't know what time it is. It's our inner circadian rhythm that goes out of whack. But in this police interrogation room, there's like a weird, I don't know if it's intentional, but the clock is perpetually frozen at 2 54. You don't know how long you've been talking to the authorities. You don't know how long they've been grilling you, because you look up at the clock three hours later perhaps four it's still 254 wait is that something you noticed or someone pointed it out? yeah it's right

like the clock is center on the interrogation footage just in the middle of the wall so nobody acknowledged that no you just noticed yeah okay a lot of netizens also noticed they're like, that clock is weird. Is that intentional? Yeah, yeah. It feels intentional. Jennifer is sitting in the middle of the blue couch, like right at the crack of the couch cushions, like in the middle of a two-seater couch. I wouldn't say that she looks comfortable per se, but she doesn't look uncomfortable. She's all the way leaned back.

Do you guys have tissues? One of the two detectives in the room gets up, grabs her a roll of tissues. Thank you. She places them on the couch without using them. She talks about her experience being a mom. I was hyper vigilant as hell, you know, as a mom, because I was like, never trust a man. Never trust anyone, not even my dad, right? Like never trust anyone. I grew up being like never trust a man never trust anyone not even my dad right like never trust anyone I grew up being told never trust a man my mom put that in my body never trust a man I even had a rule for the longest time Maddie would want sleepovers and I would be like no absolutely not because I have no control and something could really happen and I was very vigilant no

sleepovers no nothing for a very long time, for years. Me being super paranoid not to trust anyone, I just wanted to make sure nothing was happening and that I was missing something. But according to Jennifer, Maddie would always ask if she could have a sleepover because she wanted to watch movies and eat snacks. Eventually, Jennifer gets tired of saying no, and you know what? She thinks it would be nice to have Maddie do sleepovers so that Jennifer could get a good night's rest because they sleep in the same bed all the time, right? That's how Maddie's sleepovers, quote sleepovers, that's what Jennifer calls them.

That's how Maddie's sleepovers with Stefan start. With her own mother Jennifer encouraging them to go upstairs to the guest bedroom for a sleepover. The night before Maddie goes missing was a sleepover. Officers ask Jennifer, where did Maddie sleep Sunday night? She actually slept upstairs with Stefan. We have a guest bedroom. We were all going to sleep together in the same bed. So she's explaining that normally it's the three of them on her king-size bed. But the order that's already I'm calling somebody, okay? I'm already calling somebody but the order of the sleeping arrangements is even weirder. It's Stefan, Maddie, Jennifer.

She says we were all gonna sleep in the same bed together, but I needed some good sleep and I had not, I got a new job recently and I haven't been well rested and I needed some sleep so I asked, hey, can you guys go to the guest bedroom upstairs? I know that he was gonna get her ready for bed so I sent them upstairs and I went to bed. So the reason that you sent Maddie up with Stefan

is because you started a new job at Disney. I just started a new job at front desk, and I hadn't been sleeping well. I have to take- I take psychiatric meds every night for my bipolar disorder. Now, side note, any criticism against Jennifer is not to stigmatize her mental health, and I think to even say, oh, well, she has bipolar disorder. I see a lot of people with bipolar diagnosis get very upset on Reddit because they're like, I have bipolar disorder and I'm a parent and I assure you this is not a reaction of her mental health. This is not a normal reaction.

Just keep that in mind. She says, I take psychiatric meds every night for my bipolar disorder. And if I don't take them the right way and go to sleep on time, because I forget them the night before. So on Saturday night, I forgot my meds. So Sunday all day, I was not myself. You know, I'm like, oh my gosh,

hey, I need to be medicated. I need to sleep. I asked Stefan, can you take care of the morning duties? Do drop-offs so I can go to sleep. Jennifer states that she really needed a good night's sleep because Sunday she had been acting so strange that even her co-workers were like you're acting weird today. She said I couldn't even smile at the customers all day so I really needed a good night's sleep and my medication to

function well so she sends them both upstairs to sleep because Maddie likes to thrash around in her sleep. Is it normal for both of them to sleep in the same room? Sometimes when I really need a good night's sleep, I'll send them upstairs, but also a lot of times we will all sleep together in the king-size bed, all three of us, or sometimes Stefan will go upstairs, Maddie and I will sleep in our bed alone. It just really depends on what's going on, you know, that night with our schedules and what we're doing. So this is when the police just found out

about this crazy sleeping arrangement. Yes. And the police are like, what the fuck? Every single, she talks to multiple officers and every single time, personally, I think she hesitates every time she brings it up. She tries to make it sound, this is my personal opinion, she tries to make it sound as normal and natural as possible,

but I feel like she always has this like, let me explain type of feeling to her statements. And every single time, all the officers are like, wait, wait, let me get this straight, what? What are you talking about right now? And this is, they're not, are they investigating her right now or they're trying to get an understanding

about what happened? They're trying to get an understanding of what happened. And this is immediately red flag. Oh. What's going on? Huge red flag. Okay. Huge. Now the weird thing is, Jennifer doesn't even have work on Monday.

She's off Monday and Tuesday. But I guess she really needs her sleep. She sends her 13-year-old daughter to go upstairs with her boyfriend straight to room number four. That room is relatively empty except for a few things. 37-year-old Stefan, 13-year-old Maddie, a gun in the dresser, and a tube of masturbation cream. A woman named Mary calls into the police station. The case that's been all over the news, the case of Madeline Soto going missing, the missing 13 year old girl, she knows these people. That guy Stefan, she dated him briefly

when they were both working for Disney. So they all worked for Disney at one point. And she's like, I was dating him, it wasn't a serious serious relationship they were intimate from around December 2022 till about May 2023 they were not life planning like nothing about this relationship was serious wait I thought Steve Stefan yes Stefan dated Jennifer for seven years on and off and what's crazy is when this takes place, they're not even dating, they are broken up. So she sends her daughter upstairs with her ex-boyfriend. I mean, not that boyfriend would make it any better, but. Yeah, wow. Just another clarification.

Mary does not wanna think of a strong future with Stefan. I mean, to put it bluntly, Stefan has a hard time staying correct. She's not shaming him, but in one occasion, this is important, she tells the police this because she thought it was that pertinent. Stefan wanted to try to get excited, if you will. Why is that? This is so out of nowhere. What do you mean? Like, why did she bring up this up? Oh there's a whole thing. Okay. So she explains that they tried multiple times and nothing was

working and then he's like okay let me let me try something new I think this is gonna work. Can you lay down flat on your face just like on a plank and play dead? Don't move. Don't do anything. Suddenly it works. That's the only time. Any other time? Nothing. Mary tells investigators. In fact, you know, this is where Mary thinks, okay, that alone, not that crazy. We're not judging anyone. We're not here to like yuck anyone's yum, right? But she would ask Stefan to spend the night and he would absolutely refuse. I need to go sleep at Jennifer's house. Mary's still confused like, what do you mean you need to go sleep

at your ex-girlfriend's house? What do you mean by that? You guys are broken up. That doesn't even make sense. What do you mean? He says, oh, it's because I need to cuddle with Jennifer's daughter, Maddie. Otherwise she can't fall asleep.

Whoa. Again, this is not his daughter. It's not like, oh, I gotta tuck my kid in the bed. Otherwise she can't fall asleep. Whoa. Again, this is not his daughter. It's not like, oh, I gotta tuck my kid in the bed. Otherwise she can't fall asleep. She gets upset. It's his ex-girlfriend's daughter, who is also not like a two year old. She's 13.

Like this is all so weird. It does. But this is a few years ago, right? This is a year ago. Okay, so she's 12. Yeah. Or, yeah, 12. Okay.

Yeah, but like also not her biological dad, no familial relations, and also he's not a stepfather. I don't know. A lot of, I don't know because I don't have a stepfather and I'm not in a blended family like that. He said cuddle. He said cuddle. He didn't say read a book or do a nighttime routine or we have to keep a schedule. It didn't seem parental. or we have to keep a schedule, it didn't seem parental. It's very weird. People were saying it's understandable if perhaps a stepfather forms a parental bond. So it's like, okay, even though we're broken up, I want to make sure that this kid's life stays stable. That's not this vibe.

She's like, what are you saying right now? That is weird. And it gets more perverse. He starts chuckling like he's reminiscing. She's like, why are you laughing? There's this one time he explains that he was sleeping in the same bed as Maddie and he wakes up and he's having a exciting reaction.

Mind you, this is the man who cannot get it up. And he's like, oh yeah, it was up. So I had to turn it around. She's like, is this some sort of, I mean, he's laughing. Is this a joke? Is this real? Did this happen? Even if it is a joke, that's so alarming. If it happened, it's even more alarming. What? Mary breaks up with him soon after and is just so thrown off by the whole thing. Forgets about it. This is on the news and she's calling the cops like, hey, I don't know, something is weird. Something's weird. About him. Yes. Soon after, just like Mary, another person is watching the news on what's going on. Maddie's case is getting a lot of attention and this man is sitting there watching the TV, very

confused. Jennifer and Stefan are doing interviews and Jennifer is talking about, my partner dropped my kid off, my partner did this, my partner did that, my boyfriend. And this guy is like, I know that they're broken up. Like I know these people. He says it's so odd. Why are they going around being my partner this, my boyfriend this, my girlfriend this? He reports to authorities, what's even weirder

is when they did break up, Stefan seemed really distraught. Not that he was losing Jennifer, but that he was losing the quote, bond he created with Maddie. And at the time, I guess this man tried to chalk it up to a parental bond, because he had been in Maddie's life since she was eight. Just keep that in mind. But now, now it's strange strange who is this man he's a fellow gaming friend of Stefan's so they met through a board game but they're not actually friends they have this one shared hobby a niche interest so it's like meeting at a hobby

club okay and he's like I don't know I don't know this guy that well but he's weird is he reporting it this as well? Yes, to the police. They're calling the police. They're being very proactive. Wow. So the police decide, okay, let's go talk to Maddie's seventh grade counselor. The counselor is informed that Maddie had ADHD and had a hard time focusing. This is how they're explaining it. That Maddie had anxiety and panic attacks. She would meet with Maddie a few times during the school year to check in and do these little check-ins with her. But if Maddie ever needed anything outside of those check-ins, Maddie could come to her. She has normal conversations like any other teenager. It's not until Maddie brings up

Stefan and she tells her counselor, I don't like him. He's weird. What do you mean he's weird? Can you explain more about that? He just eats all our food and hangs out in our living room. Just makes me feel uncomfortable. That's all. But when Stefan moves out at around November of 2023, so this takes place February of 2024, he moves out four months prior to this, which then you're like, okay, how are they doing sleepovers? Stefan would periodically visit for weekends, for weeks at a time.

And again, he and Jennifer are not dating. So it's extra weird. Maddie tells her counselor that because Stefan is moving out, she's really happy about that. The very last check-in was done at February 6, 2024, about literally 20 days before Maddie goes missing. And Maddie's grades are up. Her relationship with her mom seem to be getting better Everything seems to be getting better and then Stefan out of nowhere Decides he's going to visit for Maddie's 13th birthday And it's very interesting because the authorities are now wondering what exactly is Stefan's relationship with Maddie

He claims he's her favorite person in the whole wide world But just like everything else in this entire case, I am not an accountant, I'm not a mathematician, but it is so clear nothing is adding up. They asked Stefan, run us through what happened that Monday morning. The incident report summarizes that Stefan tells authorities he dropped Maddie off at 825, 840 that morning about a block away from the school and according to Jennifer and Stefan, Maddie was going through this phase. She was embarrassed by his car so he just dropped her off where nobody can see her. The officer clarifies with Jennifer, really?

When did she express that she was embarrassed? Multiple times. Anytime we've been like I think Stefan might take you to school or he might pick you up, she goes, can you pick me up far away? Can you lead me here? I don't want to be seen. I don't want to be seen. He drops her off and he sees her walking towards the direction of the school. As he starts driving away, he says, he looks back one more time at Maddie and she is reaching through her backpack, rummaging through, it looks like she's looking for something, perhaps her pair of headphones. He said it quote, looked the same as any other morning. After dropping Maddie off, Stefan goes to a vape shop to get some more vapes, but they were closed. Then he goes home, waits about an hour just hanging out with Jennifer before heading back out to the vape shop. That's around 11am and once he's done with that he runs some errands, target, house rules, window shopping for newly released games, and then he's supposed to come back home

so that he and jennifer can go pick up maddie together but he gets a flat tire on the way. It's a whole thing. But that's the thing. It's 2024. The police pull all of the street cameras and his movements aren't making any sense. They're not making sense at all. In fact, he and Maddie just drive around for about two hours. They leave the house at seven something in the morning, because remember Jennifer says they don't leave until about 850 and they drive around. Well, he's driving. He's driving around till about nine something

in the morning and then she just vanishes out of his car. What exactly is being recorded on the camera? Him driving this way, him driving that way, he's driving everywhere except to the school. He's driving to Sea World or near Sea World at least. He's driving all over the place. He leaves the apartment complex. Do we see who's in the car or is just the car?

Yes, he is in the driver's seat. Maddie is in the passenger seat. Driving around, the security officer says that morning he left, right? He didn't see him leave, but he comes back. He comes back and he says, oh, my little kefop is not working to open the gate to the complex. And the security officer notices a girl in the passenger seat in a green hoodie sleeping. So then the security cameras track him. He comes back to the complex to trash something. Inside the trash can, they go through the dumpsters.

Authorities find a white trash bag. Oddly, everything inside is covered in gray paint. It's like someone poured a canister of paint in there. They find a black Hawaiian print backpack and one singular white croc. Maddie's size. Inside the backpack is Maddie's school laptop with her name on there. This is Maddie's backpack. Why would Stefan throw away Maddie's backpack with her school laptop, especially if he is on his way to drop her off at school that morning?

Wow. They also find the flat tire from Stefan's car from later that day. So now authorities are like, it is time to go through Stefan's phone, because here's one thing for sure. He did not drop her off anywhere near where he said he dropped her off. And that's not the only thing that's alarming about these CCTV cameras. We'll get back to it. Let's go through Stefan's phone. That's what the authorities are thinking.

How, when was this now? Like 48 hours? 48 hours. They're like, give me your phone 24 hours it was give me your phone. Wow. Okay, Stefan tells authorities. It's actually a silly goofy little story Yeah, absolutely. They can have his phone go through his phone. He consents to it. He'll sign the waiver Whatever can help at this point. But the thing is Earlier earlier on Monday the day that Maddie went missing. He's so dumb He tried to update his phone to the newest software and he's just so bad with technology

That he was clicking around with a few buttons and it completely factory reset his entire phone It it wiped out all of his contacts all of files, all of his pictures, everything was gone, which is just so frustrating. They take his phone and they look. They look and they recover some files. In fact, when they go on his phone, his Google Drive starts syncing and it just starts redownloading everything that was in his Google Drive. Wait, what do you mean?

It was factory reset? Yes, the phone was factory reset but his account was linked to the cloud and he had data on the cloud that is just available for authorities and they go through it and they find 90 pictures of the roommate, unclothed, one of the female roommates, unclothed in her room and bathroom and it is clear that she has no clue that Stefan had been taking pictures without her consent. Wait, what do you mean? She's, what's her state? She's showering, getting ready, she has no clue that someone, there's no acknowledgement of the camera, yeah, it's a hidden camera. Hidden camera.

He put his camera under her door. Wow, okay. They interviewed the two female roommates. The one that had the pictures taken of her, let's call her Alice. Her name is available out there but just for privacy. Sunday night she says that she heard she's in the room right next to Stefan's the guest room. She's in room number three. She said that she heard a few things like people putting things on the counter, like if you put your phone on the desk and she could hear stuff like that, but nothing that alarming. She didn't hear Maddie's voice

She just assumed that it was just Stefan in the room. She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary But Monday morning she did see a few things out she thought was odd. She went downstairs at around 930 in the morning So Stefan is back home and he's just going in and out of the apartment and kind of going up and down the stairs She thought his movements were odd because you know when you track someone's movements either they're relaxing They go up they do something or they're grabbing stuff or they're moving furniture it The movement pattern just felt odd, but what is she gonna say? I mean, it's weird and he was also doing laundry. She said it he never does laundry And she's eating breakfast. She looks at the table downstairs

Which normally does have stuff cluttered on there and she sees a hammer along with a few other tools. It's just so random She doesn't remember exactly what kind of tools what they were, but she remembers hearing someone using some sort of Power tool earlier that morning. It was just weird. It was different Even Jennifer walks into the room, notices the tools, and asks Stefan what are they doing on the counter. He just responds, oh I was just finishing up a project. Alice overhears this and that's about it. She goes back upstairs, gets ready for work, and she comes down to leave and Stefan is still there. Jennifer is still there and they're

talking, they're chit chatting. So this is after Jennifer's appointment with the doctor. Then when she gets back home from work, Jennifer pulls Alice to the side and says, Maddie is missing. Alice feels like Jennifer seems emotional, but Stefan... She said Stefan looks like he's crying, but overall he seems calm. Yeah, he seemed calm. But still very strange. Authorities dig deeper into his phone and they find recent searches in the past few weeks for something called

sevoflurane. Sevoflurane is an anesthetic that's used for general anesthesia. You go to the hospital, they knock you out with substances like sevoflurane. There's no reason for Stefan to be searching that term. It's not like you can just go buy that. It's not like he had any upcoming operations and additionally he searched this anesthetic along with the phrase, show up on drug test question mark. Which if you are getting an operation you wouldn't care if it shows up on a drug test because you're like, Oh, yeah, I got this operation done. so of course I had this drug in my system. now the police are

more intrigued. they dig deeper into his phone and they get access to a Google Drive and they start downloading all of the files on there. about 1,700 images of CSAM. child sexual abuse material. files upon files, images and videos of Maddie's private parts as well as pictures and videos of Stefan essaying Maddie in one Stefan is seen wearing a red and white Deadpool shirt there's another one where Stefan's face is fully visible and he is assaulting Maddie eventually they'll find 35,000 files of CCM it's unclear unclear if- 35,000? Yes. On a separate hard drive, we're gonna cover that in part two, it's unclear if it was just if

Maddie likely not. One line on the report reads, it should be noted that these pictures and videos collected on several different dates over the course of approximately two years. So so initially they got videos and pictures dating back to 2022, but it is likely much further. it is believed that the abuse dates back to when Maddie was just 8 years old, so for the past five-ish years. one video shows an 8 year old Maddie. the description from the court document is he in the video is essaying Maddie by telling her that she must place his privates in her mouth for three seconds while he counts or else she will lose her phone privileges

unless she does this. some incidents of the abuse that he inflicted on Maddie are obviously logged through the ccm. these are just some of the dates of the files. it's likely that abuse occurred on dates when there was no accompanying digital evidence. So to put it simply, until the trial at the end of this year in 2025, we don't know the full extent of the abuse. June 19th 2019. July, these are just dates that they found files of. Ten or more files. June 19th 2019. July 2nd 2019. July 12th 2019. March 21, 2022. July 22nd, July 25, July 29, July 31, August 2nd, August 10th, August 15, 16, 18, that's in 2022. June 14, 2023, June 19, 23, 26, 29, and it goes until February of 2024. In some of the pictures and videos, Maddie appears to be sleeping. so

according to police reports, the CCM and abuse was perpetrated in Stefan's room, the guest room upstairs, as well as Maddie's partitioned room in the living room. the authorities have to go through the very difficult task of telling Jennifer about all of this. and it's so interesting because when you watch all of the interrogation tapes of when she is confronted with this information that Stefan has been abusing Maddie since she was potentially just eight years old, she has these pauses after every revelation.

And you almost want to fill in the blanks for her. You want to be like, okay, in this moment moment I think she's about to freak out I think she's about to curse him out she's about to say the most unhinged thing she's gonna threaten the most sadistic crimes against this man because that is the only thing that makes sense but Jennifer's reactions are very strange evidenced by a three hour long police interrogation. After Jennifer finds out that Stefan has been essaying her daughter for years, she can still have small talk conversations with officers about just even stuff to do with Stefan without becoming violent.

She tells an officer, he's very childish too, he loves playing video games, he loves playing board games, that's his buddy, aka Maddie. That's who his partner is when he, and he loves hobbies, you know, very big hobby goer. Anytime he discovered a new game or hobby, Matty would get sucked in and involved and want to play as well. They were always playing and I would watch. But they were each other's buddies.

Again, it's weird. There's no moment of reflection and subsequent anger. Like you would imagine that she could say these things and then it slowly dawns on her, this is how he's grooming her and it would flare up this violent anger. So when the police saw that, that's making her look very suspicious, correct?

Yes, and so many times it sounds like the police just don't even know what to say. There's so many times they just go quiet because they're like, I'm trying to build rapport with you and I'm trying to make you feel like I'm not judging you so you'll open up more, but it's to the point where what can I really say to that? Really, like truly. What can I say? It's not that sick piece of shit. Like I should have known he was just, I thought he was finding common hobbies with my daughter for the sake of our family.

There's none of that. There's no nothing. Just, they were best buds. The officer asks, have they gotten less close since she's become a teenager? No, if anything closer ever since he moved away. Somehow five minutes later, she also has the mental capacity and emotional space to giggle about Disney. She says, my sister used to be a character performer as well. She had to quit because she kept getting Donald Duck and his butt was really heavy and it kept hurting her back. This is a few days

after Maddie is missing and she realizes that she has been abused for years. When she's straight up told by an officer that their sleeping arrangements are weird she says, originally the plan was we were all gonna sleep together in my bed, you know? And she talks about how strict she used to be about sleepovers and the officer says, that is even weird because she was saying, Maddie would always ask for sleepovers with Stefan and I would say no because that's like a firm rule that I have and the officer tells her the fact that you even have that rule is weird. like I have a four-year-old kid and I'm never like, oh

my next girlfriend, here's a rule, you're never sleeping with my kid. It's usually just something that doesn't happen. Like you don't set a rule. Why do you need to set a rule for things that just are not in the realm of possibility? Jennifer continues that Maddie would sleep in the middle of the bed when the three of them would share the bed and the officer asks, did you ever wake up and find them cuddling or find them closer than you thought they should be? They would. Yeah, they would snuggle, yeah.

Okay. But we all snuggle. I didn't think that was a problem. What is snuggling to you? She shows the detective, she leans back on this blue couch with the clock that's not moving in the room, and she would say that Stefan would be laying on his back, his arms are out to his side,

and Maddie would be in the crook of his arm. Literally how couples snuggle so bizarre What kinds of clothes do you guys sleep in Stefan would sleep in his t-shirt and boxers? Sometimes he would have pants on Okay, so they would snuggle sometimes him being in his boxers You would wake up and she would be in the nook of his arm and essentially in a cuddling position And you never found that weird No, there are two moments in the interview that Jennifer shows the most emotion. The first being when the detective asks for her date of birth and she says March 2nd. This interview takes place

March 1st and she starts breaking down and says this is going to be the worst birthday ever. Maddie went missing four days after her birthday. Secondly, the detective says, this is gonna be the worst birthday ever. Maddie went missing four days after her birthday. Secondly, the detective says, now listen to the wording, it's very interesting. Now, you know your daughter has been victimized for a long time, right? So prior to this, for the past hour or so, they've been discussing stuff and essaying Maddie.

So this is not the first time in the conversation that it's being brought up. And every other time She's like somewhat emotional not really she's just like I know I know I know it's crazy. I know The detective continues now, you know that your daughter has been victimized for a long time Right under your roof with you home most likely because you said you're always home. I can tell you today We are still downloading his Google Drive's We are still going through his social media his cloud-based servers and everything else We can now piece back her victimization

in your house under your care to 2020. So when I ask, they've woken up cuddling, did you find things suspicious, do you have an open relationship, has he talked to you, has he made inappropriate statements? It's almost like cheating, right? Have you ever been cheated on? Okay, somebody can only cheat on somebody for so long until they fuck up, or something comes out, or somebody says something. We're looking at a minimum of three and a half years that this has been going on, where I'm sure you guys are sexually active. This is where Jennifer Soto starts breaking down. Some netizens think that the detective's words are finally clicking on how long this has been going on under her roof,

but most netizens believe no. It seems like the cheating part gets to her. When he brings up cheating, that's when you see her face get tense and she starts showing a visceral reaction. It feels like speculative, of course, but she is emotional because she feels like he cheated on her rather than the fact that he's been abusing her daughter. She gets really emotional, even rubbing her legs. When the detective says, three and a half years, not only is he being sexually active with you, he's having a sexual relationship with Maddie. Side note, I see this a lot in interrogation tapes, and I wonder if these are people who are new to watching interrogation tapes.

You'll see comments on Reddit or even on TikTok where it's always like, why is the interrogator being so nice to them? Or why are they calling it a sexual relationship when it's clearly essay? And it's usually to disarm potential witnesses. If you use such strong words, people might be taken aback that they don't want to admit that they saw something because, oh, you witnessed the R word and you said nothing versus a sexual really it gives a more opening of Yeah, you know so exactly instead of you committed the worst crime Yeah, better admit it right now. You better admit that you knew it was happy Yeah, so it's um, I do want to just mention that because I see that coming up a lot. It's definitely not The right you get what he's trying to do.

His name is Kevin. The detective is actually really good on this one. Yeah, he continues. At a certain point, I do believe you became aware of what was going on. I do believe a reasonable person would be aware that this is going on. I believe that you became aware of what was happening and for whatever reason, your reasons are your reasons, whether it was discussed that it would stop, whether it was discussed how it would go, you feel some sense of guilt right now. And a lot of the news statements that you've given, again, I can only speak for myself, those statements bother me. It seems like some of your emotion when you talk to the news, when you talk to the deputies, based on my experience in this job, that is not sincere. I feel like some of your sadness is not real sadness.

I find it hard to believe for me that you were so worried about how many pills that Maddie took at night for her ADHD and her medications, but not where she slept or what was going on. I thought we were all safe. I thought because he hadn't shown me anything so far, that was weird. Like everything seemed fine. He seemed like he treated her like, like what?

Like how he treats you Jennifer is silent her body rolls back and she starts sobbing again and she says that's so fucking disgusting what cuz the she's like he treated her like and the officer is like yeah he treated her like how he treated you which is crazy because you guys are dating. Yeah So it say that's so fucking disgusting. Yes, some netizens have interpreted as this is the moment It's hitting her that her daughter is essayed But I don't think so because she goes right back to her weird ways Yeah Others are saying it feels like she has an emotional sore spot of getting cheated on and not the fact that her daughter is being abused

It's weird. Now, Detective Kevin, he asks Jennifer, if, if let's run through this hypothetical situation, because it's been days that Maddie has been missing, the authorities believe Maddie is dead. They're just telling her, let's say she has been killed. Let's say she's passed. What do you think has happened? And I'm going to say this, like I say in so many videos, if an investigator asks you what you think happened, they think you

happened. Jennifer says, I just feel like there would have been more spots in Northport for her body to for her to be dumped. She's saying I I think he dumped, dumped her body in Northport, that's where he's from, two and a half hours away. Wait, so earlier at the beginning of the video, you're saying that, oh, they may have done things, but I don't think he killed her. Yes.

At this point, you're saying she has became more of, oh, and he did it and he probably dumped her there. No. She's like being forced into these hypotheticals. Because the authorities are like, how do you not think so? Let's just walk it through. Let's act like he's responsible. Then what?

What do you think he did? And she's like dumped her in Northport. Dumped. She uses the word dumped. The authorities don't ask her, do you think he dumped your daughter's body? Where do you think he dumped her body? They don't use that verbiage. It's actually pretty callous, especially if you know this is a grieving mother. She uses the word. Kevin just lays it down for Jennifer saying,

you haven't convinced me that you're still not protecting Stefan. I got all these people out here searching. I haven't seen my own kid in days because I'm looking for Maddie. Can you believe that? I can't go home and see my kid because you're protecting Stefan. You have not shown me one bit that you prioritize Maddie over Stefan and that sucks. I don't care anymore about Stefan. Anymore? Because we're being assholes, right?

Because I'm not being nice. But up until a few days ago, it was okay that she was being abused, right? It was no big deal. No, it wasn't okay. I was honestly, I saw that and I was in shock. I don't know what to believe. I didn't know what to believe. How do you not know what to believe? You believe it now because we showed you pictures of it. You can't deny it anymore. He was abusing her. Dead or alive, she's missing. Her body is out there. I don't, I didn't know, I don't see him as the smartest man. Stefan, like I don't. I let him do what he does, but I don't trust a lot of his own, you know, what's the word, judgment. I'm not sure, I just don't trust that he makes

the smartest decision sometimes. He might act like the smartest man in the room, but I don't think he is. Which is so odd, if you don't trust his judgment, you trust him around your daughter? Okay, forget the realm of sexual abuse on a safety level. I would never trust my nieces with someone that I personally don't think has good judgment because I'm like, they're gonna trip and fall, they're gonna get hit by a car because they're not watching them, but the detective catches something else. I'm sorry, you said, I let him do what he does. What do you mean by that? Just if he wants to get up and go to the store, I'll ask him where you're going, but I won't stop him.

I just let him go on his way. I just let him do what he wants to do. She's asked again, what do you think happened? You know authorities are trying to get her to understand that they believe that Maddie is likely dead by this point and that she has not been taken. Whatever happened, Stefan most likely a thousand percent knows and is involved and maybe even Jennifer knows as well. That's what they're trying to figure out. So what do you think happened? Is it possible and this is her tone of voice, is it possible that he could have drugged her? Could he have choked her? I just don't know. I just don't know how you kill someone and don't like I don't

know how you don't leave a mess or evidence Jennifer talks a lot about being anxious. She talks about her medications non-stop with every single investigator on this case Everyone's mental health works very uniquely with even with the same disorders. She talks about anxiety Her body language is fascinating if I were ever put in a situation where I have to brainstorm a devastating end of the world hypothetical situation where the stakes are high, a family member is in danger, my body language I would imagine, I'm doubled over, I'm in a fetal position, I'm like freaking out, something is happening. She's like leaned back all the way on the couch.

Her hands are in the pockets of her hoodies and she's like, I guess he could have choked her. I don't know how there wouldn't be evidence though. I guess he could have dumped her body in Northport. She continues to say things like dump her, stash the body. She keeps referring to her daughter as the body, saying things like he stashed the body, then came back, but I mean, how do you move a body in daytime and not be seen? Maybe he went back to the body to either move the body again or check to make sure he did a good job? She also brings up if the body was near her at all at any point, she probably would have smelled something. Again, this is... This is crazy. Like...

This is her daughter. The officers grill her for a long time trying to get her to tell them where Maddie could be if Jennifer has to take a good guess. She says again, maybe in Northport. I can see him stashing the body somewhere around Northport. She says, but I don't want to say anything and like, lead you guys to Northport and do a search and nothing's there. We're gonna go everywhere. Okay, well I just know that you guys are like looking at me for details, but I don't want

to send you on a wild goose chase. Riddle me this, if your loved one is missing, would you not want the police to turn over every stone and check under everybody's porches and look under every single person's sock drawer in the tri-state area? She says, if I were him and I had a stash of body, my mind would say to go to Lake Soho. There's a lot of woods there, there's a lot of gators. It's just the whole interrogation or interview is very bizarre. Jennifer is asked about what she and Stefan spoke about after he dropped her off and she

does this twice. She says, he discussed having to reset his phone even though he didn't want to, or no, not reset his phone. He discussed needing to update his phone because he's been avoiding it for so long. I said just do it, stop avoiding it, just do it. He started the update and through the update he's like, oh my god, I don't know what button I press but I just factory

erased my entire phone and I said that was stupid, how did you manage to do that? He goes, I don't know, I wasn't paying attention and I just clicked the button and it happened and I said okay that's unfortunate wait did she admit that she knew he was doing this to the daughter this whole time no more she claims she had no clue yeah and then once she finds out she says okay, okay, fine. Quote, the sex stuff happened, but I don't think he has anything to do with her disappearance. Did he tell you that he meant to reset his phone? No, he didn't tell me. He acted like and said it was an accident.

You don't find that odd? Of course I find that odd. That's suspicious as hell. Then later in the interview, she says it again. That Monday after Stefan drops Maddie off at school, he's so normal, she says he was sitting on the computer chair chatting away with me, talking about resetting his phone, not resetting his phone, updating his phone. She keeps slipping up on that. It's interesting. Additionally, because not only did Stefan reset his phone that afternoon, but later

that night. So after the first night of searching for Maddie, he reset his phone once more at midnight. So he did it twice. He factory resets his phone once more at midnight. So he did it twice. He factory resets his phone twice. Wow. But again, she says, I guess I'm stupid and gullible and very trustworthy, but I didn't think he would be the type to do something like this. Earlier in the interview, though, she mentions that Stefan always lies to his parents.

He steals from his parents, which by the way, his parents are a big part of this case now. They've been doing interviews and we're gonna go over that in part two, he lies to his parents, steals from his parents, is always manipulating his parents, when detectives confront her, like what do you mean you just trusted him and never thought he would do something like that when you have said nothing positive about his character? you say he has bad judgment, blah blah blah, and then you say, oh well I trusted him. What made you trust him? It doesn't make sense.

She just argues, well yeah, lying to them, his parents yes, but lying to me? I never thought he would do that. The police question why she didn't grill Stefan more about that day of dropping off Maddie because she just claims, she was like, oh, did you drop her off? He's like, yeah. She just runs with it. Even if Stefan is biologically Maddie's father, this is something that you see a lot in cases where parents start blaming each other.

They start grilling each other. Like, why weren't you doing this? You could have looked, you could have done this, it becomes a whole thing. She was just like, oh, you dropped her off? You were the last person who was here? Oh, okay. She claims that she trusted him and that she

was medicated. she's spewing all of this and the detective shuts her down. the detective says, juvenile robbery suspects utilize the excuse of- I was high on drugs. I was blacked out. every juvenile robbery suspect I interview, in your words, medicated. in their words, they're high, incapacitated, drunk drunk It is an excuse to avoid admitting what happened when you say you are medicated I can't think of an amount of medication that would numb you so bad to the fact that there's an Investigation right in front of your face for your missing daughter being medicated is just an excuse to avoid answering why you didn't discuss With him what happened it minimizes your guys' interactions by saying you were not fully coherent. There is not a single person that I know that can sit in a car and watch a bunch of detectives and crime scene investigators and everybody else search your house, seize your house,

and be so numb that somehow it's not ringing bells. It's not overcoming the power of this little medication. There's no way. The human body will overcome that in a big situation. You didn't take enough medication to numb you of the reality of what was occurring. I mean, there's no way. Unless you're fully incapacitated, there's no way that you were so numb that everything he described to you,

I described to you was not in the forefront of your mind. You weren't numb. Just like these robbery kids weren't blacked out, they weren't high enough to not remember the robbery, they just don't wanna talk about it. damn. no, it just wasn't clicking, it didn't click to me, I really thought you guys were going after the wrong guy, that you guys were wasting time, that the real suspect is out there.

she has these moments throughout the multiple hours long interrogation that have me staring at her through my peripherals, just side-eyeing her because she tells officers I think I've only driven twice since this has all happened One of those times was really scary because I was ugly crying and I couldn't stop I was sobbing and driving like that is not safe at all. I just don't want that to happen again She's just telling officers this unprovoked and they respond with silence because what a strange random thing to say But clearly it means a lot to her because she brings it up twice with two different sets of detectives. Stefan and I were in separate cars. I ugly cried on

the way home sobbing like where I couldn't see the road I shouldn't have been driving like I was swerving I ugly cried on the way home and I went straight home. She also asks when she's gonna get her laptop back because she has ten years worth of pictures of Maddie in there that she really wants to print out because all of her pictures of Maddie are digital, which again the officers don't even know what to say because the way she's asking is so nonchalant but also should she not be more focused on bringing her daughter back versus her laptop and figuring out where her daughter is? Aside from the obvious in-your-face reasons that one might have a distaste for Jennifer Soto,

there are certain things that she does when she's questioned by the police that, and this could be me absolutely losing my mind after listening to 20 plus hours of footage and going through so many court documents, be that as it may, Jennifer was making me pull my hair out. Every single time authorities ask her a question, she hits him with a... I want to say... I have asthma. I have so many allergies and I just... it's like it's not even an allergic... like I can't breathe. It's like a... Additionally, she has this very bizarre tendency to respond to questions with, I wanna say, or I'm gonna say.

What time did you wake up? I wanna say nine. Just say nine, just say nine. Did you see her? I'm gonna say I didn't see, just say you didn't see her. My skull was turning into a bowl of neuro pudding just listening to her. Do I need to calm down?

Yes, am I gonna calm down? No, because she just keeps engaging in so much small talk for someone whose daughter is not only missing but whose daughter she just found out has been victimized for perhaps half of her daughter's life. She will be on the way to the police station and small talking with officers about how she briefly lived in New York City and hated the subway commutes.

She says, worked in the office, partied that night. That was exhausting, honestly. I did not like it. I just like going home and going to sleep. Her daughter is missing. But full transparency, the reason I think I truly dislike her is, after finding out that Stefan has been essaying her daughter since she was eight Documenting the entire crime over the years under her roof and clearly the police believe that he is involved in her disappearance Jennifer disagrees and she says quote No, I think you guys have the wrong guy. My biggest fear was that she was being sex trafficked

Maddie was being sex trafficked in her own home essentially. Oh when it's a complete stranger it's sex trafficking but when it's your boyfriend it's sex stuff. And what does self-proclaimed hypervigilant mother Jennifer do once she finds out that Stefan has been abusing her daughter? she sends a text message to Stefan's father. Get Stefan a lawyer now. Moreover, after she gets out of the police station, she goes to meet up with Stefan's dad, and he says, I'm expecting her to just blow up,

start beating the shit out of me, scratching me, chew my ass out, none of that. Instead, she tells Stefan's dad, unprovoked, and just seemingly randomly that because of her medications that she's taking for bipolar she has not been intimate with Stefan so he is very sexually frustrated. What is happening? Yeah. In part two we're gonna be going over where they find exactly what happened because the CCTV footage shows Maddie in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on,

and she is driving around with Stefan for about two hours Monday morning. If you look at the CCTV footage, you see Stefan's car at 7.30, driving inside the complex where they live. 7.35, he's throwing something into the dumpster in the complex where they live, which is later found out to be her backpack and the white croc shoe. 7.50, he leaves the complex. 8.15, he re-enters the white croc shoe. 750 he leaves the complex. 815 he re-enters the complex. 831 he leaves the complex. 901 he's seen. 935 he's seen. Maddie is seen in the car on CCTV cameras, slumped to the

side, allegedly asleep, that's what Stefan says, in the same exact position since 730 till 941. her position does not change. at 941 a.m. he drives into a parking complex, backs his vehicle into a parking space, gets out and obviously this is unreleased footage and should never be released, he gets Maddie's body out, carries her from the passenger seat and places her into the trunk of the car and then drives back home. Meaning the whole time Stefan had been driving around, talking to the apartment security staff, throwing trash into the dumpster, Maddie was sitting in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on, already dead. Officers show Jennifer a picture of Maddie in the passenger side of Stefan's car from

one of the CCTV cameras. That's Maddie sleeping in the car. That's what Jennifer says. Maddie is not asleep in the car. What do you mean? Do you believe Maddie is asleep here? Is she dead? I don't know. We don't know where she's at. That's a really odd way for her to be laying down sleeping.

So the next picture is Gonna be Maddie in the front seat of Stefan's car. That's taken at nine o'clock in the morning near SeaWorld Are you telling me you're looking for a body right now? The officers they don't like her reaction They tell her we are literally having a conversation about Maddie possibly being dead and you have yet to shed a tear and There are so many questions now because Maddie has been seen slumped in Stefan's car for almost two hours, Monday morning.

What was he doing? What was he trying to do? Why is he driving around for two hours? And more importantly, where is Maddie now? But also, why is Jennifer's reaction to this information so strange? Why is her reaction to everything so unsettling and so odd? Why did Stefan kill Maddie, allegedly? Where did he put her? How much does Jennifer know? In part two, we will go through more of Jennifer's inconsistent

interviews, as well as Stefan's entire interrogation, jailhouse phone calls to his parents, and who he's befriended in jail because they're not good people, as well as more evidence against Stefan. We'll also go through Jennifer's interview after Maddie's body is found and after Stefan is charged with capital murder, that interview, Jennifer receives derivative immunity. And we will talk about what that means in part two. So with that being said, that is it for today's episode.

Stay tuned for part two and please stay safe and I will see you in the next one.