In the five days between when Kissimmee teen Madeline Soto went missing earlier this year, and when her body was found along a rural St. Cloud road, police investigators interviewed, re-interviewed and grilled the two adults in her home life extensively.
Videos have been made available of interrogations of mother Jennifer Soto from March 1 — the day her body was found — and her on-and-off boyfriend Stephan Sterns from Feb. 28.
That’s the day Sterns was arrested, and he is held in jail charged with sexually abusing Madeline, who turned 13 the week before her murder, possessing pictures of the abuse and ultimately killing her.
Newly-released videos show Orange County Sheriff’s and Kissimmee Police detectives drilling down to find out what happened to Madeline, how it happened, what Jennifer knew, and when she knew it.
Sterns: “Should I be talking to a lawyer right now?”
When he was interviewed on Wednesday, Feb. 28, Stephan Sterns told investigators he’d been “medicated all week,” saying that was why some of his recollections of Feb. 25 and 26 — the night of Madeline’s 13th birthday party and the day she disappeared — were hazy. That includes saying he got a flat tire somewhere on U.S. 192 (“192’s a big road,” a detective said) on the 26th.
He talked about how Madeline needed someone in bed with her to fall asleep. “We’ve been trying to wean her off of that,” he said.
When asked about his relationship with Madeline, Sterns said, “Great … I’m oneof her favorite people in the world.” A detective replied that “Jennifer talks highly of you.”
The topic shifted back to the morning of the 26th, when told he was seen on the camera in by the complex’s trash compactor at least four times that day. “I took the trash out at some point” to throw away “House trash, must’ve been that morning.”
At that point, he’s told police know Madeline’s backpack was found in the trash, and he’s visibly taken aback.
“I have no idea where she’d be, I can’t think of what happened to her,” he tells the investigators. “I dropped her off on the road to school, it’s the last time I saw her.”
Minutes later, Sterns is told investigators know which pictures of child sexual abuse material have been found on his phone and Google account.
“Should I be talking with a lawyer right now? … I’d really like to try to help, but I feel like I should have a lawyer present at this point.”
At that point he is told he’s being detained on multiple charges of capital sexual battery and possession of child pornography, to which he simply replies. “Okay.” He is then taken into custody to go to the Orange County Jail. He was transferred to the Osceola County Jail days later.
Jennifer’s interview: “He’s the worst person on the face of the Earth”
Two days later on March 1, hours prior to Madeline’s body being discovered, Jennifer Soto finally showed emotion as she recalled what happened on Feb. 25-26.
She said that at work Sunday – training at a Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort that she couldn’t miss in order to get the job, even for her daughter’s 13th birthday party, she realized she hadn’t taken her Saturday medication. She said she felt “a wave of depression unlike I’ve felt in a long time” hit her at work. She took meds midday on Sunday, necessitating needing “a good night’s sleep” that night.
While Jennifer was ready to send Madeline and Stephan upstairs to sleep, “Madeline suggested we all sleep in the same bed together, but Madeline’s not the easiest person to sleep with,” Jennifer said, noting she moves around during the night.
She recited how Stephan left early with Madeline to go to school. He noted they didn’t make a planned McDonald’s breakfast run, he dropped her off at a church near Hunters Creek Middle School, then stopped at a vape shop that wasn’t open. When he returned to the house he told her he left his phone at home. He went out again in the afternoon, and had not arrived by 2:30 when Jennifer left to pick up Madeline from school.
Investigators took her phone to do a forensic download of data. During the interview she got upset about how Stephan appeared on TV interviews crying, about how anxiously he wanted his phone back after detectives took it and “All the (expletive) he had done.”
She said that Tuesday night into Wednesday, when they had to stay at a hotel on 192, she knew Stephan left during the night to go to North Port, where his parents live, and came back.
She became emotional when confronted that Stephan had been sexually abusing Madeline. An investigator suggested Jennifer knew at some point, but she denied it, then the investigator noted her first reaction was to protect Stephan when she told his dad “to get him a lawyer.”
“Since the victimization started, and it happened under your roof, you acted like it didn’t exist. Knowing you saw a picture of it … and you are still protecting him,” the officer said, to which she replied, “If I knew anything I’d tell you. I know you guys tell me your suspicions (that Madeline was already dead), but I won’t believe it until I have her body … I wanted to believe he’s a good guy still but clearly he’s not, but after everything you have told me I know he’s the worst person on the face of the earth.”
Once she accepted that Madeline was killed, investigators asked her what she think happened overnight and into the morning of the 26th.
“I’m thinking he carried her out of the house – I don’t know how no one heard – you’re saying he drove all around town, I’m not sure where he could have gone … him leaving the house multiple times without his cellphone is so suspicious.”
When pressed for locations on where she thought Stephan might have taken the body, she couldn’t think of a place locally – noting he wouldn’t know his way around St. Cloud – but that he might have taken her to North Port when he quickly went there that early Wednesday morning.
“If I were him, and I had to stash a body … my mind would say to go to Lake Toho, there’s a lot of woods there, and gators.”
She was then warned that hindering the investigation of a capital sexual battery could carry the same charges Stephan had gotten by that point.
“That you offered him a lawyer is very weird,” the detectives told her. “I think you know I think you prioritized Stephan … did you prioritize jail?”
“I had no suspicion,” at that time, she replied. “I guess I’m just stupid and gullible and very trustworthy, but I just didn’t think he’d be the type to do anything like this. I thought were you after the wrong person.”
