True Crime All The Time - Liam McAtasney

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

If you suddenly came into a large sum of money, would you tell anyone? If you did tell someone, who would you trust with that secret? Sarah Stern believed she could trust her best friend Liam McAtasney, but she was wrong. Liam thought that money was more valuable than the life of his friend and murdered Sarah when she least expected it.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murderous ways of Liam McAtasney. An intense investigation involving lies, surprise evidence, and a sting operation led to Liam’s arrest after he confessed everything in a secret video recording. It turned out that Liam had an accomplice, a friend to both him and Sarah named Preston Taylor. Liam valued Sarah's life so little that he was willing to kill her just to get his hands on her money.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 240 of the True Crime All The Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. How are you? Hey, I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing great. Cool. My birthday's tomorrow.

Well, happy birthday. I thank you. I appreciate it. We were talking on the Patreon video about, you know, when you get to this age, do you really look forward to it being your birthday? You look forward to getting to another birthday. But, you know, other than that, it's kind of, uh, It's kind of another day, I think, for a lot of people.

Exactly. It's just another day. But it's still good that you make it to your birthday. Yeah, well, you want to do that. Yeah. That's for sure. So we've got some great new support. Let's give some Patreon shoutouts.

We had Deanna Pitts jumped out of our highest level. Hey, Deanna. Donna Ford. What's going on, Donna? Nicole Spangler. Hey, Spangler. Sonia. What's going on, Sonia?

Dee Conley jumped out of our highest level. What's going on, Dee? Our friend down in 10. Texas Ida Mae Savage. Hey, you're such a savage. Vicki Jones jumped out at the highest level. What's going on, Vicki? Kimberly White jumped out at our highest level. Hey, Kimberly. Isaac Rob. What up? Rob. Ashley Stewart jumped out of the highest level. Hey, Ashley. We had Jennifer Bowling. Thanks, Jennifer. Kylie Messer. Hey, Kylie. Samantha. Samantha. Samantha. Samantha. Sherry Jonas. From the famous Jonas family. Tracy Deddy. What's going on, that day? Jessica Anderson.

Hey, Jessica. Kim Peckler jumped out at her highest level. What is happening, Kim? Rhonda Reznor. Appreciate that, Reznor. Aisha Chitou. Well, Chitou to you too. And Suzanne Antonelli.

Hey, Antoni. So we appreciate all that new support. And then if we go back into the Vault Gibbs. Okay. This week, we selected Abigail Cannon. Hey, appreciate that, Abigail. Yeah. So we appreciate the new support, to continued support.

We had some great PayPal donations. as well. Jill Tevis gave a sizable donation. What if she owns those Tevis drinking things? I was thinking about the sandals. Back in the day, wasn't that, no, those were Tevas. I don't know what Tevis. You're talking about Turvus Tumblers. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. She doesn't own any of those. Because none of those match her name. No. Is what I'm thinking. But hey, we appreciate you. We do. Twyla Martin.

What's going on, Twyla? And Mike Morgan. Hey, Mike. Gibbs, you know, it's never too early. to get your crime con tickets. No, get your crime con on. Yeah,

they sell out fairly quickly. Yeah. If you're going, if you're going to buy tickets, make sure you use our code T-Cat, save you a little bit of money off your standard badge price. Yeah. They also help give you an eye out a little.

They do. In getting to crime con. Right now we have an episode out on Unsolved. It's about Margaret and Shauna Tapp. It's Aussie. Australia. You know, somebody corrected me. It's not Aussie. It's Aussie.

Ozzy. Even though it's spelled like you would say it Aussie. Somebody said it's Aussie. Okay. Well, we're going to Aussie. So I learned that. Yeah. I don't think it's a place, but. Well, we're going to Australia. We're going to Australia. And we're going to discuss their murder, a mom and a daughter. Pretty tragic event. And we have several persons of interest. So it's a good episode. And make sure you check that out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time?

Man, I'm excited. Gibbs, have you ever thought about coming into a large sum of money? Every day. Every day of your life. I think a lot of people do. But have you ever pondered that question, though? Let's say you're walking down the street. You're walking through the woods and you find a bag full of money.

Yeah. What do you do? Look around me. Make sure nobody sees you. I mean, I think it's a legitimate. question. And now there's the answer that you'd like to think you would do. Right. And then there's the answer that you most likely would do. I think those sometimes could be different answers. You know, if you found a million dollars in a bag, it'd be pretty hard, I think, for a lot of people not to,

you know, just carry that home with you and never tell a soul. Just sling it over your shoulder and keep walking. So let's say you did that. Then the second question is, you know, is would you tell anyone? And if you did tell someone, who would it be? Who would you trust with that type of secret? Well, the first rule that is never tell anybody. If you don't tell anybody, then there's nobody that can tell on you. Well, we talk about that a lot, right? When it comes to crimes and things, and that does sink a lot of criminals because they can't help but brag about what they do. Yeah.

Sarah Stern believed that she could trust her friend, Liam McAtasney, but she was wrong. Liam thought that money was more valuable than Sarah's life. And he murdered her when she least expected it. So as we go through this episode Gibbs, we're going to be talking about a pretty intense investigation involving lies, surprise evidence, and a state. operation that led to Liam's arrest after he basically confessed to what he had done in a secret video recording. Yeah.

So I think this is going to be a good one that people are really going to enjoy. According to Sarah Stern's father, Michael Stern, Sarah was a talented artist and what he called a rising star. She lived in Neptune City, New Jersey, pretty small town within Neptune Township. near the beach and close to Belmar, New Jersey. Well, it's one of those towns where everybody knows everybody. Yeah, kind of one of those smaller towns where neighbors watch out for each other, you know people's business, and you kind of are able to wave to people and you know them.

It has its benefits. It has its benefits. I think it also has some drawbacks. Yeah, it sure does. Depending on what type of person you are. If you're a person that doesn't follow the rules or breaks the law, that's not really a good situation for you. you. Now, if you're an upstanding member of society, that's great. Yeah, they love you. Yeah,

your neighbor's got your back. You're not doing anything wrong anyway, so. But they're not happy with you. They shun you. Oh, you're out, man, real quick. Because they're going to tell everybody. Yeah. Sarah was very athletic. She loved softball towards the end of high school. She started spending more of her time on art and photography. She won most artistic as her senior. superlative. What did you win, Gibbs in your senior yearbook? Top with the English grammar. Top with the English grammar. Is that what it said underneath your picture? Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I wrote it myself. Did you write it? You were on the yearbook committee.

I was the only one. Yeah. I got Best smile. Did you? Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. I don't really have a great smile. Well, I remember that picture of you in high school that you posted out there one time. Oh, back then, back in the day, sure. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I think when you talk about Sarah Stern, people liked her. She was known for being a very nice person. Sarah's mother died from cancer in 2013. She was a freshman in high school at the time. And she basically kind of really got into her art as a way to help with the grieving process. Sarah always called herself a reckless optimist.

That's good. You know, you try to find the. Best in every situation. No, I do think it's good. But when you use the word reckless in front of it, and she's using it to describe herself, so that gives it kind of a different connotation maybe, right? You're seeing the best in every situation, maybe even when it's detrimental to you. Yeah.

And I think that's what we're going to see in this case. after Sarah finished high school, her father wanted her to go to college. And she went to Brookdale Community College for two semesters before she dropped out. Her dream was to move to Canada. Really? Canada. Yeah. She had traveled to Canada quite a bit.

She went there for YouTube conventions, a Comic-Con. She'd made a number of friends up there on her trips. I think she thought that it would be a very good place for her to continue to pursue a career in the arts. Yeah, well, there's definitely some very good art communities up there. Sarah Stern and Liam McAtasney were childhood friends who lived just a few blocks away from each other. They met in the seventh grade. And from all accounts, Gibbs, they became very close friends from the start. I had friends like that, you know.

That in junior high, became really good friends. We walked the railroad tracks now and then, that one summer during that one weekend. We walked the tracks, found that one body. Yeah, yeah, it was the basis for Stand By Me. Oh, yeah, they did take that from us. Yeah. Yeah. It was an interesting summer.

Liam was also friends with a boy named Preston Taylor. Preston and Sarah were friends as well, but she was closer to Liam. Preston Taylor was Sarah's date to the junior prom. Preston and Liam ended up moving in together after high school, but she was never romantically involved with either of them. She was more friendly with Liam, but basically she was really just focused on her art and her future career. She thought of both of the guys as close friends.

Sarah Stern went missing on December 2nd, 2016, A neighbor's security footage shows her car leaving her house at 1145 p.m. But investigators Gibbs, they later found out that it was not Sarah driving the car. Nobody actually saw Sarah after about 4 p.m. on December 2nd. And there's where the mystery begins, huh? This is where it begins at 246 a.m. on December 3rd. an Uber driver named T.J. Pingator called 911. And he told the operator that he wasn't reporting an emergency, but he found an abandoned car on the

Route 355 bridge. So police got there at around 252 a.m. The car wasn't damaged. The keys were in the ignition and no one was inside. David Kow, another Uber driver also saw that. the car. He saw a young man pop the hood and walk around the front of the car. Now, he just assumed that the car had broken down and this guy was trying to fix it. But he did call the Belmar police and speak to a dispatcher. The dispatcher told him that they weren't looking for a male. They were looking for a female. Well, you know, I can say that these Uber drivers are on top of things, though. Yeah, I actually kind of thought about that as well. So you have two separate Uber drivers. You drivers who see this abandoned car and think, hmm, I should call someone. Yeah. I don't think I would do that.

I would think, okay, somebody ran out of gas. They went walking or whatever. I don't know that I would call 911 to say, hey, I found an abandoned car. Yeah. So I did find that kind of interesting. but police knew they were looking for a female because it didn't take them long to find out that 19-year-old Sarah Stern drove the car. They called her father, Michael, at 3 a.m. And they asked him if he knew about the car. He said, yeah, his daughter owns that car. He was in Florida at the time, but immediately packed his bags and drove back to New Jersey.

And again, Gibbs, we've touched on. it in different ways, but, you know, getting this type of phone call. Now, it's not a phone call to say that a loved one has passed or is deceased, but this to a father or a mother, to a parent, would be a very scary phone call. Hey, we found your child's car abandoned. The keys were in it, but we don't know where she is. I think like Michael, you and I are in the car, we're on a car. We're on a plane. We're stealing a horse if we have to. Yeah, we're headed back home for sure. Yeah, there's no doubt. I think at that point you have to treat it as if it's an emergency. Sarah was well known in the community. She was a popular girl. She had lots of friends,

but no one knew where she was. You know, like most kids her age, she was always on her phone. But when they went to track it, they found out that it was off. And she also wasn't answering calls or text from anyone. Not a good sign. But I think thankfully Gibbs, unlike a lot of the cases that we talk about, police took this one very seriously right from the beginning. They realized that Sarah might be in danger. And they started looking for her right away. And that's really what you want to see.

You really do. Yeah. You know, as not just a parent. I mean, just, you know, as a resident of the community. Even if you don't have really any vested interest in the case, you want to see this from the police because the thought is always there. Okay, what if something happened to my child? What if something happened to one of my loved ones? I want police to spring into action.

And they really do spring into action. Sarah's car was towed off the bridge at 3.17 a.m., which was just a little bit more than a half an hour from the time her car was first sighted. And two minutes after that, police were at her house, searching for her. They found the back door unlocked and all the lights left on. They entered the house, but no one was inside except for Sarah's dog. And he was locked in his crate. And Gibbs, I think, fairly quickly, Sarah's father told the police to talk to Liam McIntasney, who was one of the last people with her.

they knocked on his door at 401 a.m. So, I mean, if you think about this, look at the timeline. Everything is happening very quickly. And it's really what you want to see. When police got there, Liam opened the door and looked as though he had just woken up. He told the police that he had spent the day with Sarah until he had to go to work at 4.30 p.m. And he hadn't heard. from her sense and he couldn't find his phone to try to contact her.

He did mention to police that Sarah was trying to run away to Canada. He said her relationship with her father was tense. She was depressed and she wanted to move away. Later, Liam told ABC. He said, I know that her dad has taken money from her in the past. I think her mom was supposed to leave her money or something. I know she definitely has a lot of trust issues with her dad. So I've been trying to help out with that.

But apparently he was cooperative and the police left his house after getting his statement. But again, the police are very active trying to locate her. I mean, they went all over town looking forward, knocking on doors, interviewing people. This is what you want to see like we keep talking about. This is very proactive. Yeah. No, it is. They spoke to Sarah's neighbor, Robin Draper.

Sarah was close friends with Robin's daughter. Robin said that Sarah would never leave without telling her, and she wouldn't leave her dog. On the second, she brought over a box of her mother's things and asked to store it at Robin's house. Liam was with her. Robin told the police that she thought Sarah seemed depressed. At 10.13 a.m., the police went back to speak to Liam again.

And again, he was willing to talk to them, but said that he didn't really know anything. He told them that Sarah wanted to get away, had talked about going to Canada. And he volunteered information about Sarah's mental health issues. He said she had some suicidal thoughts. She had, you know, all these different types of issues with her dad gives. He just kind of went on and on about a lot of the issues that, he thought she was dealing with. And I think to police, they thought, all right, this kid's pretty forthcoming with

information. Yeah. About Sarah, about himself and what they did, you know, that entire day before she disappeared. He told police that he and Sarah went to Taco Bell, then to Robin Draper's home, and then went to Sarah's house for a few hours. Liam said he left Sarah's house to go to work at 4.30 p.m. and he worked until 10 p.m. Then came home.

He said he didn't have his phone on him. So he didn't speak to Sarah again after he left her house. And I think Gibbs police thought again, okay, this kid's pretty forthcoming. He's telling the truth. He doesn't seem like he's hiding anything. Yeah. So they pretty much accepted his story and they moved on.

Now, when Michael got back to New Jersey, the police interviewed him. because they wanted to ask about his relationship with Sarah. They'd gotten an earful from Liam. Michael was pretty surprised to hear some of the accusations made against him by police. You know, he thought everything between him and Sarah was really good.

And I get that as a father. You know, there are times gives where I think my daughters and I are getting along really well. Yeah. And all of a sudden I find out one of them's mad at me and I didn't even know it. Yeah, I've been there too, man. And it's just disappointing, you know, I mean, when you think things are going good and you find out they're upset about something, they didn't come to you and talk to you about it yet. Yeah, and oftentimes it's something really small.

You know, you said something that you didn't think was insensitive, but, you know, they took it that way and you hurt their feelings or something like that. That happens all the time. But I think in this situation, when your daughter's missing. and you're in an interview with police and all of a sudden they're bringing up these, hey, we understand that you and your daughter have been having all these different types of issues. Okay. Yeah,

you might be taken aback. Yeah. Because number one, you're worried about your daughter. But then secondly, it's almost as if the police are coming at you a little bit and maybe thinking, well, did you have something to do with it?

Do you know more than what you're telling us? because what we're hearing from other people is that your relationship's not so great. Yeah, that's troublesome. Support for true crime all the time comes from Lord Jones, makers of the world's finest CBD products. They've been featured in the New York Times, people, Vogue, Vanity Fair and more. Hey, there's a reason people are talking about Lord Jones. Not only was Lord Jones one of the first premium CBD brands on the market and in stores, but their longtime commitment to quality.

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of her belongings, and they also didn't find any clues about where she could be. Michael organized a civilian search on December 6th, and Liam and Preston were both involved in the search. What police later learned was an attempt by Liam and Preston to throw the police off. So you have this civilian search, right? Hundreds of people showed up. Liam even spoke to the news about, you know, his concern and how he hoped that they would find Sarah. Now, we already know Liam's guilty.

Right. Or he would not be the subject of this episode. But I always find this interesting, you know, whether it's Chris Watts or, you know, you can go through all sorts of different cases where people that, you know, we later find out are guilty or giving interviews to the media. And it's so interesting to watch them. Right. And how they act and, you know,

now once you know they're guilty, maybe have a little bias in how you view them. But I'll tell you, when I saw Chris Watts for the first time, I thought, hmm, just don't look good to me. Right.

Yeah. This is not the grieving husband and, and father. You were not the only one thinking. No. And I think most people or a lot of people definitely thought the same way. Michael Stern's neighbor approached him and told him that they had security footage of Sarah. The recording shows Sarah and Liam coming and going into the house throughout the day.

The camera also captured Liam leaving the house in the late afternoon, basically corroborating his story about going to work around 4.30. 30 p.m. Sarah's car is seen backing out of the driveway around 11.45 p.m. But it's too dark to identify who was actually driving the car. You know, and this is something else, Gibbs, that, you know, you have today that you didn't have in cases 20, 30, 40 years ago. Oh, man. Video surveillance cameras. I mean, everybody in their brother has a ring doorbell or some kind of home secure. camera system that's motion activated now. People have dash cams inside their cars. Not to mention, like we talked about,

the number of people that have an iPhone or an Android phone that takes 4K video. I just assume I'm on camera at all the time. You should. Yeah. You should. Probably on camera right now. Well, you definitely are.

Somehow. If you're in my house, you're on camera. Yeah. Liam came in for another interview with police on the afternoon of December For six. That was a busy day for him out there helping searching and then doing the interview. It is. And I really can't stress enough the timeline here.

I mean, look at all that's happened in really just the span of about three days. Now, in this interview, police really noticed how Liam's description of Sarah contradicted her families. They said she was happy. But Liam said she was depressed and potentially suicidal. But I think this interview went pretty smoothly, as, you know, the other ones had, until the police asked if Liam wanted to know anything about the search or investigation. And it was really the question he asked that made him a suspect in the eyes of police.

Gibbs, he asked how far Sarah's body would travel if she jumped off the bridge. He wanted to know if her body would be far. out in the ocean. It's a little bit strange to ask the police. Well, and I think detectives thought it was a very strange question. Yeah. I think it set off some alarm bells for them because to me, it's so specific. You know, it's not a question of, where do you think she could be? Where else can we look for her? What have you found out? What clue? There's no questions like that. This question is so specific. It involves her jumping off a bridge and how far out in the ocean her body would be.

And this interview turned so quickly that Liam's mother hired an attorney for him. His father also contacted an attorney. So police had to end the interview. But I also think Liam's family was getting nervous because he'd been questioned so many times already. So police couldn't talk to Liam anymore. and because of that, investigators decided to speak to his roommate Preston Taylor. They interviewed Preston on December 7th.

And Preston confirmed everything Liam said. The interviewers asked him what he thought happened to Sarah. And Preston said he believed she jumped off the bridge. When police asked him why he thought that, he said it was because of the stories that he'd heard about Sarah and her dad. So you've got some real conflicting information here. You really do. You have her family saying that, you know, this is a happy girl. She's doing well.

She's into her art, her photography. She's focused on her future career. Yep. And she loved her doggy. And she loved her dog. And you have Liam and Preston kind of painting a picture of, you know, this huge rift between daughter and father. and kind of using that or pointing to that as the basis for their thought that she took her own life.

Because her car was found on the bridge, she must have decided to jump off of it. Yeah, that's a good point. You have to go back and look at where Sarah's car was found. It was found on the bridge. So is that a logical conclusion? The car is there. The keys are there. Sarah's not there.

She must have walked from the car over to the edge of the bridge and jumped off. Then authority spoke to Sarah's friend Carly Draper. Carly said that she saw Liam and Sarah at her house on December 2nd. Sarah told her that she wanted to move to Canada. Then she said goodbye and went home. So I don't think there's any doubt Gibbs that this Canada story had some legs because there were a number of people. It wasn't just Liam and Preston. and that we're kind of talking about her wish to move to Canada.

Right. Yeah. There was some validity to that. It was about a week after Sarah's disappearance that the police learned some surprising new information. About six months before she disappeared, Sarah found a shoebox full of cash at her family's vacation home. And apparently this shoebox had thousands of dollars worth of old bills in it.

Sarah knew that. that her mother left this money for her to find. Well, in the day she found it, she called her aunt. And her aunt told her not to tell anybody about the money. Which I think is wise or was wise on her aunt's part. The problem is Gibbs, Sarah didn't listen. And she told her friend Liam, there was quite a bit of money. Because from what I could tell, Sarah spent about $10,000 of the money.

And then she put the rest in a safe deposit box at her bank. Sounds like a good chunk of change. Yeah. Police found out that on December 2nd, Sarah went to the bank to access her safe deposit box. So they went and seized the box and they found over $25,000 inside. Security footage shows that Sarah and Liam left her house at 2.42 p.m. And they got to the bank at 302 p.m.

Liam didn't go inside, but he waited in the car. So I think Gibbs, Gibbs police were looking at this new evidence as really eliminating the possibility that Sarah ran away. Yeah, why would she leave town with all that cash behind? Yeah, if you're, if you're headed to Canada to start your new life, to start your career in art, photography, whatever it is, that $25,000 would come in very handy. Oh, yeah, it's going to give you a nice they'll start. So I really think it was at this point that police decided that they were no longer looking for Sarah alive and well. They were looking for her body. So you know that they want to talk

to Liam again because they have information that he didn't provide to them. And they asked him, you know, why he forgot to tell them that he went to the bank with Sarah that day. He told them that all he knew was that Sarah went to the bank to access her box of money. She never told him how much she had, but he knew that it was anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000. He told police that Sarah believed her mother hid the money for her so that if Michael took her inheritance, she would still have something left for herself. Well, and her dad didn't know about the money. So maybe there was some validity to her mother hiding this away for her and her only. But Liam wasn't giving anything really a way to police. They weren't getting what they needed out of him. And for the next few weeks, police, you know,

they didn't develop any new leads on where Sarah was, what happened to her, where her body was, if she was in fact dead. But then one of Liam's friends came forward with some information. Anthony Curry was Sarah's former classmate and a close friend of Liam. In January 2017, he went to the police after learning that Sarah was missing. He told police that back on Thanksgiving Day 2016, Liam told him about a plan to murder Sarah for money. And the way he explained it to police Gibbs was that Liam pitched this to him as kind of a bizarre. movie idea about Sarah's disappearance. But he was very specific.

He said he wanted to strangle her, steal her money, and throw her over a bridge. I think part of the problem was is that Liam told stories like this all the time. Which is bizarre. Now, is it strange for one friend to tell a story to another friend? No. in my eyes is it strange to be very, very specific on how you want to murder and steal from your best friend? Yes.

Yes. I think that's very bizarre. But apparently it wasn't to Anthony Curry until he saw Sarah's missing person poster. It was at that point that he felt as though he had to do the right thing and go to the police. You know, and this is something that comes up in a lot of cases, especially when you have school shooters or, you know, things like that. Kids telling other kids that they're about to do something very bad, but the people that they tell the information to kind of blow it off, right? This is a person who talks a lot of smack or, you know, says a lot of things, but. do they really mean it? And then all of a sudden you have a horrible tragedy. And I think back to myself as

as a kid, would I go and tell an adult every time one of my friends said something that seemed off the wall, bizarre, crazy? No. You'd be going all the time. Yeah. Now, I think in today's world, though, it's different. And if you have an individual, a kid who mentions shooting up a school or wanting to hurt classmates. It's a different world. I think you're obligated to come forward right away on those. But it's tough as a kid. Yeah. Because, okay, this is your friend and you're going to what? Go tell your parents who are going to tell their parents or you're going to the police. It's, it's tough. It's not an easy situation to be in. What kids like to make up stories, man. And they do. That's part of the problem. It's attention, right? Seeking attention. Right. So let's say,

99.9% of the time, it's just blowing off steam. But it's that 10th of a percent where somebody is really intent on doing something, you know, very bad. In January 2017, Liam started Snapchat messaging Anthony every day. Gibbs, I don't know a single thing about Snapchat. I know you do. You're a big Snapchatter. Am I?

I know. know a lot of kids use it. I really have no idea what it is. But basically what he said to Anthony was that he needed to meet with him about something urgent. Anthony was scared that Liam would try to hurt him or hurt his family, but he was willing to help the police. Anthony worked with them in basically a sting operation to secretly record Liam. So what he did was he arranged a meeting with Liam on January 31st. 2017 and the police bugged his car with audio and camera equipment. In the video, Liam admitted to murdering Sarah and throwing her body off the bridge. He said that he enlisted the help of his roommate Preston Taylor.

And some of the quotes from the video, they really show how little Liam cared about Sarah cared about her life. Yeah, very cold. Now, the full video has never been released to the public because it's extremely graphic and disturbing. But, you know, I think that part is not in doubt. I mean, this was a kid who just didn't care about this girl who supposedly was one of his best friend. Yeah. Now, when Liam first entered the, when Liam first entered the car, he patted Anthony down.

A little suspicious. Yeah. To see if he was miced. And once he did that, he was willing to basically tell him everything. He probably didn't think that the whole, you know, car would be bugged. Yeah. He thought if anything, Anthony would have a mic on his person. According to Liam, he and Sarah counted the money together at her house.

She tried to walk out the front door, but he grabbed her and choked her from behind. He said he held her off the ground until she lost consciousness. but she wasn't dead. It took 30 minutes for Sarah to die. And Liam said, I pretty much hung her. Like I picked her up and had her dangling off the ground. She pissed herself and said my name and that was it. Sarah was laying there having a seizure for a couple of minutes.

He stuffed a shirt in her mouth, put his hand over her nose and set a timer on his phone. He told Anthony that her dog, laid there and watched as I killed her. It didn't do anything. What kind of dog is that? Then he said, this is the thing about like heists. There's so much you can't account for. You don't know before it happened. It took me half an hour to kill her. The worst part of it is I thought I was walking out with 50 to 100 grand in my pocket. She had one safe that she took money out of and she only had $10,000.

And this money, I don't know if it was burnt or something. All the money was terrible quality. I don't even know if I can put any of it in the bank. I didn't get a lot of money, but I had enough money to live comfortably in my house and have parties all the time. Wow. It's sickening.

Yeah, it really is. It is sickening to, you know, think about this kid relaying to another kid, kid what he did as though he went to his friend's house and ate some pizza rolls. Yeah. I mean, that's basically the conversation, except for the fact that it involves killing a young girl. Right.

All for a little bit of money, right? Yeah. But enough that he can live comfortable and throw some parties, whatever that means. But clearly that was on top of his mind at that moment, throw me some parties with his money. I just think it shows you exactly how callous this kid was. The respect that he had for life, zero. His only goal was to get his hands on this money and get a little taste of freedom,

a little taste of having some money in his pocket. All right, Gibbs, let's take a break to talk about credit karma. Credit karma has been there to help you make better financial decisions. And now they want to help you even more with a credit. Karma money spend account, you can be rewarded for good money habits. Credit karma money is a brand new checking account where you can win cash reimbursements for making purchases. Just pay with your debit card and if you win, you'll be notified on the spot and your instant karma cash will

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transfer limits apply. Gibbs, you know how much I love Best Fiends. I talk about it all the time. I use it as my refuge from kind of the research and the really dark material that you and I are studying week in, week out. I was looking for some type of mobile game when I came across Best Fiend and I was instantly hooked. It leaves your brain feeling refreshingly challenged. And it's way more fun than other matching puzzle games. I mean, this is not a game where you're mashing candy over and over. It's way more fun than that. Some might say it's almost too much fun.

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That's Friends Without the R. Best Fiends. After Liam killed Sarah, he had to go to work. So he asked Preston to come over and put Sarah's body in the bushes outside of her home. And to do this, he promised Preston a cut of the money. But he forgot his phone at Sarah's house when he left. So that's why when he was talking to police, he said, I didn't have my phone with me. Well, he didn't.

He didn't lie about that part. Yeah, he just left it at the wrong place. Yeah, he just left out the fact that he killed Sarah and left his phone at her house. Preston removed Sarah's body from her home just a few hours after Liam strangled her. It was Liam, who was driving Sarah's car at 11.45 p.m. and Gibbs, he said he studied how she backed out, just so it would look like she was driving. Premeditation, huh? Oh, absolutely.

This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. He put her in the passenger seat of the car and he used a walkie-talkie to talk to Preston. When he got to the bridge and got her out of the car, he tried to throw Sarah's body off the bridge, but she was too heavy. then he saw cars coming across the bridge and he panicked. So he put her back in the car and he asked Preston to come over and help him. So, I mean, you have to think, you know, about the investigators, viewing this video, listening to what Liam had said, they couldn't believe that they had basically gotten a full confession on video. So they had what they knew.

needed. Oh, they had the golden ticket. Yeah. On February 1st, police decided to speak to Preston. They stopped his car and took him to the prosecutor's office. They told him that they knew everything. And they wanted to hear from him what happened. He immediately admitted to knowing that Liam killed Sarah. And Gibbs, he basically told them every detail. A lot of detail. It was a lot of detail. the full transcript of his confession is 52 pages long. That's a lot of confession, man. That is a lot of confession. Yeah.

Cricket. Anybody, anybody? According to Preston, Liam came back to the place where they lived, told him what he did and asked him for help moving Sarah's body. Preston went with the police to Sarah's house to do a walk-through. of what happened next. He said Sarah was slumped in the corner of a closet where Liam had put her body. Preston moved her to the bushes and he left. He and Liam came back that night to move her. They dragged her from the bushes to the fence, threw her over, then through the safe over. Preston drove

his car and Liam drove Sarah's car with her body in the passenger seat. They came came to the bridge and they threw her over together. Preston said the money was buried in Shark River Park near the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, but that it was in a different safe. Liam didn't do a good job burying it and police found it partially sticking out of the ground. And basically after finding the safe, the police arrested Liam and they seized his car. In his car, they found the key to the save and they charged him with murder. Seems like they got some really good evidence here. Well, I think so. Liam's trial began on January 23rd, 2019. And the prosecution proposed their theory, which was that Liam killed Sarah for her inheritance money left to her by her mother. They said that he planned

her death for six months. He wanted to retrieve the money from her lockbox after killed. killing her. And they played the full confession video to prove their argument. Pretty powerful presentation to give to a jury. Yeah. I mean, what's better than hearing the defendant say, I did this, this, this and this. Yeah. You don't have to coax it out of them. They've already said it. And they had Preston as their star witness. He detailed how the plan started the office a robbery, but over time, it escalated into a plan for murder. According to ABC, Liam told Preston that Sarah had, quote, the type of money somebody would kill for. If they robbed Sarah, they could get $50 to $100,000. Liam planned to kill her after she took

money out of the bank, but she didn't take out as much as he thought she would. And I think he obviously overestimated how much she had anyway. Not that it would have made more sense to kill her for $50,000 versus $10,000. Yeah, I don't know where these guys thought this money was going to go. I mean, $50,000 is really not a lot of money when it comes down to it, you know? You're going to burn through that so fast for what, for somebody's life? Yeah, I think the problem is, you know, obviously they weren't thinking like that. You know, Liam was thinking, wow, $50,000, $100,000, I can do whatever I want.

Oh, I mean, the type of money somebody would kill for us, right? Well, somebody would because a lot of people do, unfortunately. And they do it for less than that. And they do it for less than that. it doesn't make it any easier for us. And I mean you and I in the audience to understand how that thinking prevails. Yeah. Is $50,000 is $100,000 quite a bit of money?

Sure it is. Is it worth taking someone's life? Absolutely not. And as you said, you're going to burn through that money fairly quickly. And I'll just never understand how somebody makes, makes the decision because you have to make it. At some point in your mind, you have to make the decision that it's worth it to me

to end someone's life to get my hands on X amount of money. I'll just never understand it. Yeah. Once it's gone, they're looking over their back, over their shoulder, whatever, for the rest of their life. Or they're going to have to kill again to make more money. Now, the defense argued that Liam was completely innocent. insert laugh here.

Yeah. Because, you know, just imagine, obviously I wasn't there at the trial, but how do you argue that someone's completely innocent when they basically said on tape exactly how they committed the crime? What they did say was that there was no physical evidence to support the prosecution's case. Basically, what they proposed Gibbs was that Liam made up this. story in the video for a horror film that Anthony was working on. So again, the idea that he's

pitching kind of a movie premise, they said that the prosecution had nobody and really all they had was circumstantial evidence. Okay. Pretty good circumstantial evidence, you know, to me. Pretty strong. According to Liam's defense team, he was always making things. up to be more interesting. Now, that might be true because like you said, a lot of kids do that. They like to kind of pump themselves up and tell others that they've done this, this and this. or they're going to do this, this, this and this to make themselves look better or brag or show off or whatever. Yeah, the problem with that is, is that Preston story matches what Liam said. Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's why it's kind of laughable, right?

That the defense is saying he didn't have anything to do with it. Now, what else are they going to say, though? Oh, I mean, they're going to, yeah, they're trying to create any kind of doubt. Yeah, you can't just admit to it. Anthony Curry testified that Liam told him about the plan to kill Sarah in November of 2016. He said in court that Liam told me he was going to meet up with Sarah. she had found this money. They were going to count it together.

And then he was going to choke her, choke her out, bring her to the bridge, throw her off. And Preston was going to drive the escape vehicle. Then they were going to bury the money and leave her keys in the ignition to make it look as though she killed herself. Well, there's a third person telling the same story, right? Got Anthony, yeah, Preston. And you got Liam.

the whole, the mastermind of the whole thing. But on February 20th, 2019, the defense brought in a surprise witness. A man named Craig Hetzel was driving his son to work in the early morning hours of December 3rd. He said that he saw a girl walking down the street. He looked her in the eyes and she turned her head away. But then he saw Sarah's missing poster a few days later. And he and his son both agree.

that they had seen Sarah Stark. So this is kind of interesting, right? Because the third would be after the prosecution is saying that Liam killed her. Now, Craig really wasn't viewed as a credible witness because he had changed his story. At one point from seeing her on Friday to seeing her on Saturday. He also said that he saw Sarah's car at 5 a.m. But her car had been towed a little bit after 3 a.m. 3.17 a.m.

317, exactly. So obviously it wasn't possible for him to see her car on the bridge. And I think the jury basically rejected his testimony because of the inconsistencies. On February 26th, 2019, the jury found Liam guilty on all seven charges, murder, felony murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, desecration of human remains, tampering with evidence and hindering his own apprehension. That's a book of charges there. It is.

And I like it. I had never heard of hindering your own apprehension. Doesn't everybody try to hinder their own apprehension? You don't want to get caught. Right. So they're going to charge you with that. I'm all for it. Sure.

Yeah. You know, in court Gibbs, the judge said, to Liam that he made a big mistake. He didn't consider that Preston would give up so easily. Preston pleaded guilty in early 2019 to first degree robbery, second degree conspiracy to commit robbery, and second degree disturbing and desecrating human remains. In June of that year,

he was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Got off kind of light. Yeah, I think you can make that argument. I think one. could also make the argument that he didn't kill Sarah. No, he didn't. But he was definitely involved in the planning of it. Right.

He knew it was going to happen. He knew it was going to happen. Didn't do anything to stop it. Exactly. So yeah, I think a lot of people could make the argument one way or the other, right? Up or down where his sentence should be. On June 21st, 2019, Liam was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of He also received an extra 10 years for desecration of human remains to run consecutively.

So I'm not sure how that works. You're already in prison for life with no parole. Right. Just an extra 10 years just in case. Yeah. Well, once you die, you got to do another 10 years. Yeah. Again, I like it.

I'm fine with it. I just, I never understand it. And again, maybe it has something to do with appeals and if something would get overturned. or maybe there would be, you know, some kind of legal wrangling. Maybe then it would kick in. So I get it from that standpoint. Some type of strategy behind it. Michael Stern read a victim impact statement in court.

He said, I was devastated and numb from shock. The day I learned from detective, Sarah was murdered. I've had horrific dreams and nightmares. The horrid act of what happened to her body haunts me every day. I will never be able to hug Sarah again. And I think that's sad. It's always sad to me and very emotional, very powerful many of these victim impact statements. Yeah.

Because they're grieving. And you really, you know, a lot of times you get that raw emotion that comes out as they're talking to this person who took, the life of their loved ones. And I think another tough thing in this case Gibbs is that as it stands right now, Sarah's body still has not been found. So they don't get that closure, right? Yeah. So you don't have remains to bury. You can have a ceremony and you can have a marker, a headstone. You can do all that. But you know there's nothing in there. And then there has to be something very tough about that. I think Gibbs, as we wrap this case up, you can look at Sarah's murder as an unfortunate example of how sometimes you can't trust the people who you thought were your best friends.

And also from a money standpoint, right, how money motivates people to do terrible things. We know it does. Oh, we sure do. It has as far as you can really go back in history, right? Yeah. You know, whether it was money or a caveman who wanted something so he bonked another caveman over the head. Yeah, greed, man. Greed, money, you know, all of it motivates people to do horrible things.

Sarah was murdered by someone that she thought was her best friend. And I think, you know, if you look at the way Liam killed her, the way that he treated her body, it shows that, He never really cared about her at all. He only used her for his own financial gain. How could you do that to someone who you really cared for? I just don't get it. How could you do it to anyone? But especially someone that you've known for such a long time,

considered one of your best friends. Okay, now all of a sudden they got a little bit of money and you're going to kill them? Just like that. Just like that? You make the decision and you plan it over, you know, months and months and months. I mean, they'd be best friends with somebody since, what, seventh grade. Yeah.

Both of them, Preston as well, right? Yeah, they were all good friends. Yeah, just to discount her as a human being like that. Well, and so you bring Preston into it, and I think that's a good point. You know, so Liam makes the decision that he's going to do this. But at some point, Preston made the decision that he was going to go along with it. Yeah. And, you know, how do you do that?

How do you in your mind say, yeah, I'm okay with this. Liam's going to cut me in for a piece of the money. So I'll do whatever he wants me to do. It's going to be worth that piece of pie that I'm going to get from this. No, it's not going to be worth it. It's just hard. It's hard to understand how people can make these decisions and then live with them as though it didn't mean anything.

Yeah. Because I don't think it did to Liam. I don't think he had a bunch of sleepless nights because he murdered one of his best friends. I don't think he did. I don't think he cared about her. I hope he's getting a lot of sleepless nights now, keeping one eye open. We're worried about not rolling over. I'm sure he is.

I'm sure he is. But that's it for our episode on Liam McAtasney. Again, hard name to say. It's why I didn't say it a bunch during the episode. That's why I stayed away from it too. Yeah, pretty tough. Yeah. We got some voicemails, Gibbs.

You want to check those out? Let's hear them. Hi, Mike and Gibby. This is Leah, and I just wanted to leave a voicemail. I just finished listening to your guys' episode on Ronnie Hendrick. And I just wanted to say I appreciate how considerate and thoughtful you guys are about domestic violence and abusive relationships. I've been listening to your podcast for about a year now. and I just appreciate that you guys are so thoughtful on so many different topics like mental

health and LGBTQ and I think you guys do a great job. That episode, the Ronnie Hendricks episode, just really it touched me because I have been in an emotionally abusive relationship. And so hearing you guys be so thoughtful and considerate and understanding of abusive relationships, it really means a lot to me. And I think it's great that you guys continue to educate yourself on topics like that. It may me cheer up a little because it's so great that you guys are so considerate. But yeah, that's all I wanted to say.

So thank you. Keep your own time checking. Bye. Wow, Gibbs. I mean, that makes me tear up a little bit. Yeah, it does. You know, hearing something like that, it means a lot to you and I because we have worked hard to try to, absorb information to educate ourselves on some topics that we didn't really know much about.

Yeah, it's true. Now, we don't know everything. And it doesn't mean that we're not going to make mistakes because we are and we do all the time. Always learning. The one thing that you and I have always strived to do is to try to do the right thing. And I think as long as we do that and we keep learning, that's really all we can do. Yeah.

But we definitely appreciate the kind of word. Really do. Hey, my name's April, and I was calling. I just finished listening to the Betty Black Widow podcast. I'm trying to catch up. I've been a listener for about six months. But you were talking about how they said that it's almost impossible to shoot yourself twice in trying to commit suicide.

Well, my grandfather did do that a couple years ago. He shot himself under his chin, and it went out the top of his nose. And then a little while later, he picked up the chest. going to end and he put it to his temple and sought itself at second time. So it is possible to do it twice, though I think it'd be very difficult. So I was just going to put that in there and enjoy your podcast. Love listening to you and keep your on time ticking. Well, I hate to hear that.

Of course, yeah. Obviously that he did that. But, you know, I think it would be hard to even do what he did. Now, what I was thinking about was I could see how someone could shoot themselves in a place that, well, it's going to hurt, but it's not going to incapacitate you. Right. And I don't remember the episode exactly and exactly what we said. But, I mean, there are obviously certain places where you would shoot yourself where you might not die, but you're not going to be able to pick that gun up again. You're going to be, you know, incapacitated.

Yeah. I'm surprised by what she was describing that he was actually able to pick it up again, because that sounds like it would have been a really nasty wound. It did sound really nasty. Yeah. Hey, guys, this is Cheyenne from Tennessee. I was just calling because I just got done listening to the Gertrude, Benachowski case. I just want to say I absolutely love the episode that you guys do. Obviously, I'm from way behind.

Just started it. But I listen to it every day, no matter where I'm going, no matter what I'm. doing all the time in the house. My kids probably just aggravated with it at this point. My husband, too, I'm sure. But he loves you guys too. You think you're absolutely hilarious. And I just wanted to say that I absolutely love listening to you guys.

You guys keep me grounded when I feel like life is just too much sometimes. It's getting too hard. I'll turn you guys on. And it's just like it all kind of melts away. I realize that life is a lot worse out there for a lot more people and I shouldn't feel so bad. And you guys help a lot with that. So I hope you guys are having a great day.

And I hope to get in touch with you guys soon. All right. Keep your own time ticking. That's a great attitude to have. It is. And it's very true. You know, I tell my daughters this all the time because they think they got a big test coming up or they didn't do well on a test. And they really kind of view it in a scope that is much larger than what it really is.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah. Okay. I get it. disappointed, but it's not, it's not as bad as what you think. Right. It's one grade. You'll, you'll do better next time and it'll all even out. But, you know, when you're in that mind frame, that that B minus or whatever it turns out to be is so big. Yeah. You and I have talked before about

kids breaking up with each other thinking, oh, I'm never going to love again. And, you know, yeah, you're 16, 17, 18 years old. You don't know any better yet. You will. Go to bed, wake up, the sun will rise. Yeah. It's a new day. Yeah.

And so I do get what she's saying. You know, a lot of times we get so caught up in the stress and thinking, who, it's been a rough week at work. My boss is on me. But, you know, you hear some of these stories and you hear what some of these other people have gone through. And it is kind of a way to look at it to say, hey, I don't have it so bad. Definitely awakening some of them. taste. Yeah, but we appreciate it very much. Gives, we had some mailbag. Yes. Chris and Hannah sent us some

just plainola, which is this very good organic granola. Man, you were eating that when I walked in the door. Oh, it's fantastic. It's unbelievable. And I don't usually go in for the organic stuff. Yeah. But this is amazing. Scott Coolman sent us some cool police patches from South Australia. I'm sewing them on my jacket right now. I know you are. you'll get arrested for impersonating a police officer at some point. It'll be fun. Tammy Gibson sent us a huge box for our birthdays, had so much stuff in it, a number of funny books,

playing cards from a number of different countries, a Harley Chip, a Harley Challenge coin. She also sent some of those little Nerf disc shooters, but my girls took those, and they were running around the house, shooting each other with a little... Yeah, that wasn't really cool, man.

Nerf discs. didn't give me notice about that. I walked in that front door, man. They just started firing on you. Like, what the heck? So we appreciate everything that everybody sends in. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of True Crime All the Time. So from Mike and Gabi, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.