Found Deceased FL - Madeline Soto, 13, Missing Child Alert, 13500 blk Town Loop Blvd, Orlando, 26 Feb 2024 *arrest* #11

DNA Solves
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Roommate said: she heard noises coming from the room that Madeline and Sterns shared.

The room Madeline and Sterns shared??? Sharing a room, such that others even noted it was a shared room, vs MS sleeping with SS on the nights JS wanted extra sleep. Not the same thing!

He was never JS's boyfriend.

The roommates warned her, her family warned her, but JS did not want to know. When interviewed (p.73), she said she couldn’t remember how many times she let MS sleep alone in SS’ bedroom. “Jennifer stated she allowed it because she trusted Stephan, and he treated her as his daughter.” She either lived the last years in complete denial or she enabled and allowed.
 

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Thank you for the pics. Wish they had more of a wide angle view with more perspective.

The bed looks weird, sort of portable? Supposedly a king?
I think they all got the same pics, maybe another creator displayed them bigger, Ill check it out.
 
View attachment 527175
Thank you for taking the time to find, post and cue up perfectly!

Jen never questioned why he had this on an interior bedroom door?! Sorry this has likely been discussed ad nauseum, but it's just so friggin strange.
I thought it was for the renters/security? but if thats the case then put a lock on the door, whats the chain gonna do besides lock everyone out while you're inside? ( if Stephan did it then maybe thats the point)
 
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Bedroom#4.jpg posted by @ttjo -
I WISH we could see things more clearly... but...

- Entenmanns on the fridge. Interesting. Was a slice of this that the "raspberry danish" that Stephan was so kind to offer to Maddie in the morning as they drove to school? (I'm joking.)

- WHAT is that humongous brown/golden tube thing on his nightstand? It looks like a vase tipped over?

In the "room#4by door" pic..
- What is that blue/green cylinder thing?
 
Bedroom#4.jpg posted by @ttjo -
I WISH we could see things more clearly... but...

- Entenmanns on the fridge. Interesting. Was a slice of this that the "raspberry danish" that Stephan was so kind to offer to Maddie in the morning as they drove to school? (I'm joking.)

- WHAT is that humongous brown/golden tube thing on his nightstand? It looks like a vase tipped over?

In the "room#4by door" pic..
- What is that blue/green cylinder thing?
I think the blue/green cylinder is a poster or a map in a transparent plastic tube. Probably for his gaming. The decks and the hardcover manuals are both for tabletop strategy gaming. They said he was into Warhammer.

MOO
 
Bedroom#4.jpg posted by @ttjo -
I WISH we could see things more clearly... but...

- Entenmanns on the fridge. Interesting. Was a slice of this that the "raspberry danish" that Stephan was so kind to offer to Maddie in the morning as they drove to school? (I'm joking.)

- WHAT is that humongous brown/golden tube thing on his nightstand? It looks like a vase tipped over?

In the "room#4by door" pic..
- What is that blue/green cylinder thing?
no idea about the brown thing, I though it was a portable speaker?? the blue green thing is a case of some sort, looks like a zipper on top. and all those vaults boxes are Deck Boxes
 

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Bedroom#4.jpg posted by @ttjo -
I WISH we could see things more clearly... but...

- Entenmanns on the fridge. Interesting. Was a slice of this that the "raspberry danish" that Stephan was so kind to offer to Maddie in the morning as they drove to school? (I'm joking.)

- WHAT is that humongous brown/golden tube thing on his nightstand? It looks like a vase tipped over?

In the "room#4by door" pic..
- What is that blue/green cylinder thing?

Brown golden tube thing is a sex toy called a Fleshlight.
 
Is this the one you are looking for? It was not in that 7 hour video, it's separate It was a live from 3 days ago.
Yes! This is it, thank you.

These timestamps are all incorrect because I took them against a different video, and I was going to change them all but I actually think it's easier for y'all to do the math. Every timestamp listed here is 00:31:23 later than what it is in the above video. So for example, where I have timestamped 1:10:00, it occurred at 00:38:37 in GHI's video.

The quotes are actual transcriptions as best as I could hear them, and the descriptions are fairly straightforward but less objective than I try to be in my other summaries because I was just taking notes for myself.

  • Chris talks about contacting SS the morning of and him saying he got a flat tire and that an “occurrence” happened
    • Also SS’s initial story about an abduction. Chris doesn’t buy it and thinks SS was trying a story out on him.
  • Chris apparently spoke to SS after the flat tire but before 4:54, when they had another call and learned about an “occurrence”
  • 1:10:00 - Debra is clearly trying to put blame on JS, says she and MS are about the same size and seems to imply that she could have been disguised as MS in some way. Says SS is sobbing a lot but JS is just quiet, seeming to imply that SS cared and JS didn’t.
  • 1:13:11 - Chris says they spoke again at 6:02 (SS called) and Chris called at 6:18 and 6:22, then Chris called a few more times on Tuesday, then no more calls from SS’s phone, it’s all from JS’s phone
  • 1:15:10 - Chris says SS had to call JS at 10:17 to get back in to the apartment because he didn’t have his clicker. Not clear where he heard this from. Also had hearsay that SS was more tech savvy than Chris had thought.
    • Clear that Chris and Debra are consuming outside rumors.
  • 1:16:00 - Chris got a call at 9:30, he thinks that’s when he had a convo with SS about giving up the phone. Then at maybe 10 or something, he would have already been in bed, he got a call at 10:42 which he missed, then he got a call at 10:43 with SS/JS on speaker and SS said “you need to come up here”. They were being kicked out, didn’t have a place to stay. He left just after midnight. Made a call at 11:56 no answer then at 12 to let them know he was on his way. He got to the hotel about 1:18.
  • 1:20:20 - Chris planned to go to his corporate office and got up to do that about 6:30/7. Got a call from JS at 9:49 to ask if SS was with him, she said he’d maybe been gone 25 minutes. Another call from her at 10:17, then another at 10:47. At one point CS told her to go check in the lobby, at another point he asked if JS’s car keys were there and she said no, and then she called to say that detectives said they would be there within the hour. He went back and SS arrived 15-20 minutes later. He said he got lost driving around Disney.
  • 1:24:00 - Chris mentions that they thought SS had accessed the storage unit but that was incorrect and he hadn’t. Said if he tried to get access to the house that was a bad plan because it was locked and he couldn’t come through the front door’s electronic lock. Said he spent about 3x 45 minutes with SS total because when he got back he went right to sleep and couldn’t be woken up. JS went to sleep too but she and Chris at least got lunch. Debra says at 3:19 the dogs were barking a “war bark” and staring at the window. Says she looked around a bit through the windows but didn’t see anything and figured it was just a critter.
  • 1:31:40 - Around 3 wednesday afternoon, Chris gave SS a spare phone to use. Chris also went to the Operations Center to go to the press conference. He got there separately and couldn’t connect with them
  • 1:34:20 - Haven’t talked to SS since he was arrested, tried to video call yesterday but couldn’t get it to work
  • 1:35:20 - Asked if they’ve talked to JS since the arrest. Chris: “Last conversation, eeugh, text I had from her, was when I asked her, if they, if she had gotten access back into the townhome. Because if there was anything that Stephan had there, like supposedly he had his gun there. I wanted to get it out of there and harm, and bring it back here where somebody else couldn’t do anything with it. And I was making arrangements to do that and she said yes. And then I didn’t hear back from her after today, so she’s going dark on us. “ mmhmm, okay. “Has she lawyered up?” Nope. “Oh. Well, she’s avoiding me for some–for whatever reason, cause up until that point–” well we have her phone “Oh, you have her phone? Oh okay” so that may me, may be one of the reasons. “Oh okay, well if I’m sending you love notes–[unclear] teasing. If I’m sending you messages, now I know, now I know why they’re not going answered. “
    • Confirms that the police have the gun.
    • Debra asked about having the car back, police say no, Chris already wrote that car off and figured they’re never getting it back. When police say they have the gun, she says that’s another thing they’re never getting back, and the officer/detective says no they’ll get that back.
  • Seems to me they are mining for information.
  • 1:37:00 - Debra asks if “she” (JS) had talked to police about that Sunday at the party. Says there would have been adults drinking at the party and that JS and SS would definitely have been vaping. “Her meds were not working and Sunday night when she went to bed with Maddie, and Stephan was in Maddie’s room to sleep, that she woke up with a headache and she told Maddie, she told us, and she told Maddie to go, go sleep with Stephan.” Detective says in her room or his? Chris says his room. “He was sleeping in Maddie’s room, and she sent him, she specifically said, because she told her, she says, I told her to go sleep with Stephan. And I was like, like, the antenna popped up, I said, what a stupid thing to do. Why would you do that? You’ve got plenty of room on your bed. Why would you send them, send Maddie in there to go on a single bed with Stephan.”
    • Says it was just a single bed. Also seems like she thinks MS was in JS’s room first, which we don’t think was the case.
    • Says it was her first time hearing about them sleeping in a bed together, and that JS also said they’d all slept in a bed together and said MS said there was a time she was sleeping with “Mom and Dad” and she rolled over and her leg went on SS’s and she giggled.
    • She says this is one of the other reasons Debra wanted him home, she wanted him “out of that environment.” Which doesn’t make sense if this is the first time she heard about them sharing a bed.
  • 1:43:00 - Debra says SS was hit in the back of the head by a truck’s bumper, then his torso was run over, then the truck hit him in the front of the head when he was 8. He has a TBI and was on an IEP in school.
  • He hadn’t refilled his prescriptions and had asked Chris if he had anything he could use for anxiety before he left, and Debra says JS said she had meds he could use. Chris says when he saw SS he was so zombied out and seemed medicated that Chris doesn’t know how he could have driven to North Port.
  • Brother who is 11 years older who joined the Navy right after high school that he isn’t close to. SS is messy, when they had a farm would never do chores.
    • JS had said she ended the relationship because he was messy.
  • Say he was very smart and could be very focused but was volatile even before his accident.
  • 1:50:00 - Debra yells. She doesn’t scream or hit but she yells. Chris was a DI (Drill Instructor) in the Air Force
  • 1:54:00 - Debra says Chris told her whatever you do to me, I’ll do to you. She dumped popcorn on Chris and then he dumped it on her and that was it, they never fought like that again. But SS would bring up old things and you’d never know when he’d get triggered.
  • Didn’t approve of his friends or most of his girlfriends. Debra says he didn’t date, he hooked up. Said the girls would pursue him. Says friend Chase liked being friends with SS because he could get the girls SS attracted
    • Chase “called into that awful website” Grey Hughes Investigations
    • “I never did anything bad to that kid. I never did anything bad to any of them, except save them.”
  • 1:58:00 - Debra: MS called SS “Dad”. Talked about the last time they saw all of them. Chris: Maybe saw them early 2023. Never noticed changes. Debra: MS was just starting to show signs of bipolar and JS was concerned about it.
  • 2:04:30 - Debra asks if either of the Detectives/Officers like Trump. They don’t want to say anything especially on the record. Debra just wanted to show them something cute.
    • Lol
  • 2:04:50 - Chris: “When this thing came down, Wednesday, afternoon we meet with the detectives, personal escort and what have you. And then everything goes dark at 4 o’clock. 4:04 I get a text message, finally I get a text message from Jen, trying to figure out what the F is going on, and she texts me, she said ‘Get Stephan a lawyer now.’ Okay, why? And then she says well they have found these images on Stephan’s phone that there’s sex acts between Maddie and Stephan. And I go, I, I disbelief, I go, okay? And I asked her how long, she said two years. And, and she said something to the effect of, uh, something to the effect that he needs to lawyer up. And I thought that was just really weird. And so a few hours later, she kind of comes out of the, out of the, uh, [stuttering], I’m communicating with her before this and then i said, I gotta go get something to eat, and, uh gotta use the restroom but the station is locked up, can’t get up. And she said well go up to a Wawa or something, I say okay, and then next thing you know–’No they’re going to let me out and gonna get something to eat.’ So she comes out, and, demeanor is just matter of fact, like, you know, everything’s fine. And, um, we get in the car, and we’re talking, and we get something to eat. And I kept thinking, this is a woman who just learned that her child had been sexually abused for the last two years. And she’s acting towards me like nothing’s happened. And it’s like another day, another evening, now, we’re just spending time together. That entire time. And then I take her back to the police station and then, and then she’s done with her interview. The detectives come out and say ‘we want to talk with you’ I say fine [unclear] a conversation with me, arrange for her to get in the car to stay with [sailor?]. And I go up and have my conversation with Alex, and then I go back to the car and I’m gonna take her back home because she needs a ride home. And even her demeanor coming out with the detectives is just like, everything’s fine.”
    • Detective/Officer asks if this is consistent with previous interactions with her. Chris says yea and this probably the most interaction he’s ever had with her.
    • He keeps talking.
    • This is another time where they’re trying to craft an image of JS
    • It’s weird Chris keeps calling the investigator “Alex”
    • 2:09:00 - “And then she goes on to tell me that Stephan was sexually frustrated, because, because she, she and Stefan were not having sex. She, her medication changed, she didn’t have any interest in sex, and so there was no, there was no sexual engagement between the two of them. And I said, well this is really unusual conversation. To hear this from a mother that you know, if you ask anybody else, you know what would your reaction be, I would be batshit crazy beating somebody up. That was not the case. And then I, then I saw the interview. I said, you know, I, I keep thinking if I saw that interview Tuesday and they called me, I said no effing way would I have gone to Orlando. Because I would have seen for myself like everybody else did on [YouTube? UT?] that they weren’t buying, weren’t buying the story. And what I saw Stephan doing was that repeat of what he had talked to me about on, uh, Monday evening. And, um, uh. I, I was just, I couldn’t–her mannerisms were exactly what I saw and observed Wednesday evening, you know. If not even better, you know. I was just in disbelief as to how she was, how she spoke and how she handled herself, at the point where the bird came into the scene and was squawking, or doing whatever, and everybody paused and you waited, and then. [unclear] stopped and then she smiled and I said boy that’s an unusual response, to smile about this bird and I said[unclear few words]. But then, you know, it carried, carried forward into Wednesday, I don’t think I would have come up, but then I wouldn’t have learned some other things about her had I not come. But it’s like: Why was I brought to Orlando? Unless to get me out of the house?”
      • This actually isn’t that weird to me. It’s not unusual to blame yourself as not being sexually adequate and that’s why the partner seeks sex elsewhere
      • Detective clarifies they’re talking about the news interview
      • Chris says he found it very difficult to tell if Stephan was lying or not, and decided to just assume if his lips are moving, he’s lying
    • 2:10:00 - Mention a rolex being missing, wondering where he got the money for his Omega watch.
    • 2:13:15 - Debra says SS was not allowed to discipline MS, and that JS did that. Said if you’d asked her on Sunday she wouldn’t have thought SS was capable of killing MS. If she had to guess she’d think it was an accident. Then starts going into a weird thing about her being Irish again.
      • “I think, if I had to, if I had to put forward a guess, I would think that it was accidental. I think that….I know it’s stupid, and yes I’m Irish, and yes I’ve had dreams that are pregnant–precognition, yes they come true. But I did have a dream. And in that dream. They were in Stephan’s room, and, and, Maddie’s room. Unclothed. Jen came in to wake her up. Was confronted by the fact that they were together in a way they shouldn’t have been. And I think a struggle ensued, and she either hit or head or broke her neck. Something. I don’t think it was, it was, couldn’t have been a gunshot because everybody would have heard it, I think stabbing you would have found blood. So that’s the only thing I can think. And that, then, as, she would have told Stephan, and in my dream [unclear] this is all your fault, you, you caused this, this is all your fault, you have to fix it.”
      • Chris: “We think he’s, he’s [unclear because Debra’s phone starts going off] falling on the sword, and, um, Jen’s definitely complicit in this in some way. That’s what we think.”
        • Officer: “So then you believe that Jen would have prioritized your son more than her own daughter?” Both say yes, Debra says he’s all she has.
        • Chris: “I think Stephan has decided to be the fall guy in this because he’s feeling remorseful over the, over the inappropriate relationship he had with Maddie, and that, since, you know, if he’s going to be discovered in this that he’s going to be the front guy in this. But, she’s just as culpable as he is in this.”
    • 2:15:00 - Debra says she knows SS was legitimately crying and was sick over it
      • “I don’t know if she just feels vindicated that she took care of it, I don’t know. But I know that he’s the only one that’s feeling any remorse or any sorrow for that child, and she does not.”
    • 2:18:00 - Debra says they need a heads up about how MS died because they are getting harassed.
 
I despise SS as much as the next person, but to be fair I don't think it was a Fleshlight. As I said before, from another angle it looked like just a plain old blow dryer.

I'm too tired right now but tomorrow I'll try to post a still.
 
Yes! This is it, thank you.

These timestamps are all incorrect because I took them against a different video, and I was going to change them all but I actually think it's easier for y'all to do the math. Every timestamp listed here is 00:31:23 later than what it is in the above video. So for example, where I have timestamped 1:10:00, it occurred at 00:38:37 in GHI's video.

The quotes are actual transcriptions as best as I could hear them, and the descriptions are fairly straightforward but less objective than I try to be in my other summaries because I was just taking notes for myself.

  • Chris talks about contacting SS the morning of and him saying he got a flat tire and that an “occurrence” happened
    • Also SS’s initial story about an abduction. Chris doesn’t buy it and thinks SS was trying a story out on him.
  • Chris apparently spoke to SS after the flat tire but before 4:54, when they had another call and learned about an “occurrence”
  • 1:10:00 - Debra is clearly trying to put blame on JS, says she and MS are about the same size and seems to imply that she could have been disguised as MS in some way. Says SS is sobbing a lot but JS is just quiet, seeming to imply that SS cared and JS didn’t.
  • 1:13:11 - Chris says they spoke again at 6:02 (SS called) and Chris called at 6:18 and 6:22, then Chris called a few more times on Tuesday, then no more calls from SS’s phone, it’s all from JS’s phone
  • 1:15:10 - Chris says SS had to call JS at 10:17 to get back in to the apartment because he didn’t have his clicker. Not clear where he heard this from. Also had hearsay that SS was more tech savvy than Chris had thought.
    • Clear that Chris and Debra are consuming outside rumors.
  • 1:16:00 - Chris got a call at 9:30, he thinks that’s when he had a convo with SS about giving up the phone. Then at maybe 10 or something, he would have already been in bed, he got a call at 10:42 which he missed, then he got a call at 10:43 with SS/JS on speaker and SS said “you need to come up here”. They were being kicked out, didn’t have a place to stay. He left just after midnight. Made a call at 11:56 no answer then at 12 to let them know he was on his way. He got to the hotel about 1:18.
  • 1:20:20 - Chris planned to go to his corporate office and got up to do that about 6:30/7. Got a call from JS at 9:49 to ask if SS was with him, she said he’d maybe been gone 25 minutes. Another call from her at 10:17, then another at 10:47. At one point CS told her to go check in the lobby, at another point he asked if JS’s car keys were there and she said no, and then she called to say that detectives said they would be there within the hour. He went back and SS arrived 15-20 minutes later. He said he got lost driving around Disney.
  • 1:24:00 - Chris mentions that they thought SS had accessed the storage unit but that was incorrect and he hadn’t. Said if he tried to get access to the house that was a bad plan because it was locked and he couldn’t come through the front door’s electronic lock. Said he spent about 3x 45 minutes with SS total because when he got back he went right to sleep and couldn’t be woken up. JS went to sleep too but she and Chris at least got lunch. Debra says at 3:19 the dogs were barking a “war bark” and staring at the window. Says she looked around a bit through the windows but didn’t see anything and figured it was just a critter.
  • 1:31:40 - Around 3 wednesday afternoon, Chris gave SS a spare phone to use. Chris also went to the Operations Center to go to the press conference. He got there separately and couldn’t connect with them
  • 1:34:20 - Haven’t talked to SS since he was arrested, tried to video call yesterday but couldn’t get it to work
  • 1:35:20 - Asked if they’ve talked to JS since the arrest. Chris: “Last conversation, eeugh, text I had from her, was when I asked her, if they, if she had gotten access back into the townhome. Because if there was anything that Stephan had there, like supposedly he had his gun there. I wanted to get it out of there and harm, and bring it back here where somebody else couldn’t do anything with it. And I was making arrangements to do that and she said yes. And then I didn’t hear back from her after today, so she’s going dark on us. “ mmhmm, okay. “Has she lawyered up?” Nope. “Oh. Well, she’s avoiding me for some–for whatever reason, cause up until that point–” well we have her phone “Oh, you have her phone? Oh okay” so that may me, may be one of the reasons. “Oh okay, well if I’m sending you love notes–[unclear] teasing. If I’m sending you messages, now I know, now I know why they’re not going answered. “
    • Confirms that the police have the gun.
    • Debra asked about having the car back, police say no, Chris already wrote that car off and figured they’re never getting it back. When police say they have the gun, she says that’s another thing they’re never getting back, and the officer/detective says no they’ll get that back.
  • Seems to me they are mining for information.
  • 1:37:00 - Debra asks if “she” (JS) had talked to police about that Sunday at the party. Says there would have been adults drinking at the party and that JS and SS would definitely have been vaping. “Her meds were not working and Sunday night when she went to bed with Maddie, and Stephan was in Maddie’s room to sleep, that she woke up with a headache and she told Maddie, she told us, and she told Maddie to go, go sleep with Stephan.” Detective says in her room or his? Chris says his room. “He was sleeping in Maddie’s room, and she sent him, she specifically said, because she told her, she says, I told her to go sleep with Stephan. And I was like, like, the antenna popped up, I said, what a stupid thing to do. Why would you do that? You’ve got plenty of room on your bed. Why would you send them, send Maddie in there to go on a single bed with Stephan.”
    • Says it was just a single bed. Also seems like she thinks MS was in JS’s room first, which we don’t think was the case.
    • Says it was her first time hearing about them sleeping in a bed together, and that JS also said they’d all slept in a bed together and said MS said there was a time she was sleeping with “Mom and Dad” and she rolled over and her leg went on SS’s and she giggled.
    • She says this is one of the other reasons Debra wanted him home, she wanted him “out of that environment.” Which doesn’t make sense if this is the first time she heard about them sharing a bed.
  • 1:43:00 - Debra says SS was hit in the back of the head by a truck’s bumper, then his torso was run over, then the truck hit him in the front of the head when he was 8. He has a TBI and was on an IEP in school.
  • He hadn’t refilled his prescriptions and had asked Chris if he had anything he could use for anxiety before he left, and Debra says JS said she had meds he could use. Chris says when he saw SS he was so zombied out and seemed medicated that Chris doesn’t know how he could have driven to North Port.
  • Brother who is 11 years older who joined the Navy right after high school that he isn’t close to. SS is messy, when they had a farm would never do chores.
    • JS had said she ended the relationship because he was messy.
  • Say he was very smart and could be very focused but was volatile even before his accident.
  • 1:50:00 - Debra yells. She doesn’t scream or hit but she yells. Chris was a DI (Drill Instructor) in the Air Force
  • 1:54:00 - Debra says Chris told her whatever you do to me, I’ll do to you. She dumped popcorn on Chris and then he dumped it on her and that was it, they never fought like that again. But SS would bring up old things and you’d never know when he’d get triggered.
  • Didn’t approve of his friends or most of his girlfriends. Debra says he didn’t date, he hooked up. Said the girls would pursue him. Says friend Chase liked being friends with SS because he could get the girls SS attracted
    • Chase “called into that awful website” Grey Hughes Investigations
    • “I never did anything bad to that kid. I never did anything bad to any of them, except save them.”
  • 1:58:00 - Debra: MS called SS “Dad”. Talked about the last time they saw all of them. Chris: Maybe saw them early 2023. Never noticed changes. Debra: MS was just starting to show signs of bipolar and JS was concerned about it.
  • 2:04:30 - Debra asks if either of the Detectives/Officers like Trump. They don’t want to say anything especially on the record. Debra just wanted to show them something cute.
    • Lol
  • 2:04:50 - Chris: “When this thing came down, Wednesday, afternoon we meet with the detectives, personal escort and what have you. And then everything goes dark at 4 o’clock. 4:04 I get a text message, finally I get a text message from Jen, trying to figure out what the F is going on, and she texts me, she said ‘Get Stephan a lawyer now.’ Okay, why? And then she says well they have found these images on Stephan’s phone that there’s sex acts between Maddie and Stephan. And I go, I, I disbelief, I go, okay? And I asked her how long, she said two years. And, and she said something to the effect of, uh, something to the effect that he needs to lawyer up. And I thought that was just really weird. And so a few hours later, she kind of comes out of the, out of the, uh, [stuttering], I’m communicating with her before this and then i said, I gotta go get something to eat, and, uh gotta use the restroom but the station is locked up, can’t get up. And she said well go up to a Wawa or something, I say okay, and then next thing you know–’No they’re going to let me out and gonna get something to eat.’ So she comes out, and, demeanor is just matter of fact, like, you know, everything’s fine. And, um, we get in the car, and we’re talking, and we get something to eat. And I kept thinking, this is a woman who just learned that her child had been sexually abused for the last two years. And she’s acting towards me like nothing’s happened. And it’s like another day, another evening, now, we’re just spending time together. That entire time. And then I take her back to the police station and then, and then she’s done with her interview. The detectives come out and say ‘we want to talk with you’ I say fine [unclear] a conversation with me, arrange for her to get in the car to stay with [sailor?]. And I go up and have my conversation with Alex, and then I go back to the car and I’m gonna take her back home because she needs a ride home. And even her demeanor coming out with the detectives is just like, everything’s fine.”
    • Detective/Officer asks if this is consistent with previous interactions with her. Chris says yea and this probably the most interaction he’s ever had with her.
    • He keeps talking.
    • This is another time where they’re trying to craft an image of JS
    • It’s weird Chris keeps calling the investigator “Alex”
    • 2:09:00 - “And then she goes on to tell me that Stephan was sexually frustrated, because, because she, she and Stefan were not having sex. She, her medication changed, she didn’t have any interest in sex, and so there was no, there was no sexual engagement between the two of them. And I said, well this is really unusual conversation. To hear this from a mother that you know, if you ask anybody else, you know what would your reaction be, I would be batshit crazy beating somebody up. That was not the case. And then I, then I saw the interview. I said, you know, I, I keep thinking if I saw that interview Tuesday and they called me, I said no effing way would I have gone to Orlando. Because I would have seen for myself like everybody else did on [YouTube? UT?] that they weren’t buying, weren’t buying the story. And what I saw Stephan doing was that repeat of what he had talked to me about on, uh, Monday evening. And, um, uh. I, I was just, I couldn’t–her mannerisms were exactly what I saw and observed Wednesday evening, you know. If not even better, you know. I was just in disbelief as to how she was, how she spoke and how she handled herself, at the point where the bird came into the scene and was squawking, or doing whatever, and everybody paused and you waited, and then. [unclear] stopped and then she smiled and I said boy that’s an unusual response, to smile about this bird and I said[unclear few words]. But then, you know, it carried, carried forward into Wednesday, I don’t think I would have come up, but then I wouldn’t have learned some other things about her had I not come. But it’s like: Why was I brought to Orlando? Unless to get me out of the house?”
      • This actually isn’t that weird to me. It’s not unusual to blame yourself as not being sexually adequate and that’s why the partner seeks sex elsewhere
      • Detective clarifies they’re talking about the news interview
      • Chris says he found it very difficult to tell if Stephan was lying or not, and decided to just assume if his lips are moving, he’s lying
    • 2:10:00 - Mention a rolex being missing, wondering where he got the money for his Omega watch.
    • 2:13:15 - Debra says SS was not allowed to discipline MS, and that JS did that. Said if you’d asked her on Sunday she wouldn’t have thought SS was capable of killing MS. If she had to guess she’d think it was an accident. Then starts going into a weird thing about her being Irish again.
      • “I think, if I had to, if I had to put forward a guess, I would think that it was accidental. I think that….I know it’s stupid, and yes I’m Irish, and yes I’ve had dreams that are pregnant–precognition, yes they come true. But I did have a dream. And in that dream. They were in Stephan’s room, and, and, Maddie’s room. Unclothed. Jen came in to wake her up. Was confronted by the fact that they were together in a way they shouldn’t have been. And I think a struggle ensued, and she either hit or head or broke her neck. Something. I don’t think it was, it was, couldn’t have been a gunshot because everybody would have heard it, I think stabbing you would have found blood. So that’s the only thing I can think. And that, then, as, she would have told Stephan, and in my dream [unclear] this is all your fault, you, you caused this, this is all your fault, you have to fix it.”
      • Chris: “We think he’s, he’s [unclear because Debra’s phone starts going off] falling on the sword, and, um, Jen’s definitely complicit in this in some way. That’s what we think.”
        • Officer: “So then you believe that Jen would have prioritized your son more than her own daughter?” Both say yes, Debra says he’s all she has.
        • Chris: “I think Stephan has decided to be the fall guy in this because he’s feeling remorseful over the, over the inappropriate relationship he had with Maddie, and that, since, you know, if he’s going to be discovered in this that he’s going to be the front guy in this. But, she’s just as culpable as he is in this.”
    • 2:15:00 - Debra says she knows SS was legitimately crying and was sick over it
      • “I don’t know if she just feels vindicated that she took care of it, I don’t know. But I know that he’s the only one that’s feeling any remorse or any sorrow for that child, and she does not.”
    • 2:18:00 - Debra says they need a heads up about how MS died because they are getting harassed.
My callouts/takeaways:
  • I think the parents Sterns come off very image-conscious.
    • They offer a lot of information, including things the detective didn't ask and that aren't from their firsthand experiences (eg. things they've seen online)
    • They act pretty familiar with these detectives
    • CS repeatedly refers to “Alex,” who I think is another detective they’d spoken to
  • SS apparently told Chris they thought MS had been abducted, and the school was in a dangerous area. I don't think we've heard of SS saying that to anyone else
  • There is very clear and direct evidence of SS’s guilt but DS repeatedly tries to redirect attention to JS. Chris does a bit of that, but Debra is very transparent about it.
    • Debra also says there would have been drinking at the birthday party and JS and SS would have been vaping. None of these people were there, so to me it comes off just like an attempt to make JS look irresponsible, though I don’t think adults consuming alcohol at a teen’s birthday party is inherently bad
    • Another example is talking about how JS has been avoiding CS, when really she just doesn't have her phone anymore
  • Chris took notes that he referenced during this interview, it seems like he went through his phone to write down certain times so he wouldn’t forget. He doesn’t seem to have written down the text from JS telling him to get SS a lawyer, but I really wish he would have.
    • LE would have this though, since they have JS's phone
  • DS says that the bed in room 4 was a single bed. Is that true? I can't imagine that's true. I haven't seen any photos, but I do not imagine that when he was living there, SS was sleeping in a twin bed after being used to JS's king bed.
  • First I’ve heard of a TBI for SS. I wonder if the defense might make something of it
  • DS also mentions a couple of times that MS called SS "Dad". I think it's obvious that SS was at least partially a stepfather figure, but I haven't heard anyone else referring to him as her "dad" or even her father figure.
  • I don’t really get why SS called Chris to come down or why Chris did. Despite his parents supporting him financially, CS and SS don’t seem close, and he said he didn’t interact with JS much before this. It’s sort of odd.
    • CS and DS seem to think it's so that SS could break into the house, maybe to steal money.
  • DS says that JS prioritized SS over MS because "he's all she has," but I'm not sure how that works with their understanding of SS moving out because he and JS weren't together and CS didn't want to keep paying rent.
  • They think, or are at least suggesting, that JS was the actual killer, and that maybe there was an accident where JS flew into a rage after seeing SS and MS together. I think that given the CoD of strangulation, there is no chance that JS was the killer. Just doesn't fit with any of the evidence, especially if it was unplanned.
Overall, it's a very weird interview to me. They have plenty of gripes with SS, like how he is messy and lazy, and they were suspicious of him and thought he might steal from them, but when it comes to the actual crimes he is charged with, there's a lot of redirection. They know that there are photos of their son abusing MS, and they probably know that their son is captured on video in the process of disposing of her body, but they focus a lot on their perceptions of JS.
 

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