Search for missing teenager from Hunter's Creek school makes way into Kissimmee

  • Stephan Sterns, 37, on charges of sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse material in connection
    Stephan Sterns, 37, on charges of sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse material in connection
  • Fliers appeared across downtown Kissimmee Wednesday in the Orange County Sheriff's Office's to find Madeline Soto, a Kissimmee girl who attends Hunter's Creek Middle School but didn't show up Monday after being dropped off and has been missing since then. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
    Fliers appeared across downtown Kissimmee Wednesday in the Orange County Sheriff's Office's to find Madeline Soto, a Kissimmee girl who attends Hunter's Creek Middle School but didn't show up Monday after being dropped off and has been missing since then. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
  • Madeline Soto is a missing 13-year-old from Kissimmee who attends Hunter's Creek Middle School. PHOTO/ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
    Madeline Soto is a missing 13-year-old from Kissimmee who attends Hunter's Creek Middle School. PHOTO/ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

In connection with the disappearance of 13-year-old Madeline Soto, the Kissimmee Police Department has arrested her mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, 37, on charges of sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse material. 

Evidence of the crimes was uncovered by Orange County Sheriff's Office during their investigation into locating Soto, a teen missing from her Orange County middle school Monday morning. 

During a press conference Wednesday, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said Sterns dropped Soto off near Hunter's Creek Middle School Monday around 8:30 a.m. Mother Jennifer Soto learned after the school day around 4:30 p.m. that she had never been to school Monday, and that she left her phone at home. The investigation began Monday night. A bloodhound search didn't provide any clues.

Information found in Soto's phone friend she'd told friends that, after she turned 13 (which happened Feb. 22) she wanted to "go live in the woods," Mina said Wednesday, and that Orange deputies are searching areas around the school, as well as areas brought up by tips.

When Kissimmee detectives reviewed the contents of Stern's phone -- after he said he had accidently performed a factory reset on his phone on Monday -- they found files depicting "the sexual performance of a child". The identity of the who is depicted is redacted in an arrest affidavit KPD made available Thursday.

A Kissimmee police spokesperson said that since KPD is assisting the Orange County Sheriff's Office in locating Madeline as part of an active investigation, the agency cannot release further information as to its part of said investigation.

If you have any information regarding her whereabouts, you are asked to call 911 or the Orange County Sheriff's Office at 407-836-4357 or Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS. #MissingChild