Found Deceased FL - Madeline Soto, 13, Missing Child Alert, 13500 blk Town Loop Blvd, Orlando, 26 Feb 2024 *arrest* #3

[photographer4]

I am way behind on reading this thread & I'm sure this has already been mentioned, but I'll mention it just in case there are others like me who are still catching up...

The Behavior Panel has done a video (youtube) called, "What Did Mom Know of Madeline Soto Killing?"

Any chance someone can summarize? I seldom bother with video / podcasts. Ty in advance if anyone is agreeable.

 

[photographer4]

Personally I just can’t wrap my head around her being posed/in the front seat. Even if he made it look like she were sleeping, he had to have been aware of the possibility of getting pulled over. And the heightened fear of being pulled over considering he had a dead body in the car would surely make him even more cautious. I know when I’ve been procrastinating and driving around with expired registration I’m driving the speed limit and eeking by every cop I see until I get it updated. The paranoia would be infinitely magnified with a death penalty felony on the line.

I remember reading once that people who have just committed a crime are more likely to have a traffic violation. So if police don’t know who to look for, sometimes they review traffic cams just to watch for writing driving; people screwing up basic stops; lane changes; speeding and…driving slower than the law requires.

That fascinated me! I wish I could relocate the article - it was from years ago - I would link it. But alas I can’t recall where it was from. Still very interesting!

All that made me wonder if they are reviewing JS’s driving that day from when she went driving to the school and to look around etc. If she actually did those things she may have been caught on cams too. And if she didn’t, the lack of sightings may also be at odds with her statement(s) to LE.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Son of Sam was caught due to parking tickets.

 

[photoprose1122]

BBM for focus

I agree but then it makes no sense that she would have, as he put it, slept most of the way to school in a what was it, 20 minutes at most drive?

There had to be a reason he made that point.

True, but I kind of thought he said that to dodge the “what did y’all talk about in the car,” question. As has been pointed out, liars often reach for the lies closest to the truth - in this case, he said she was “sleeping” to replace the truth that she was dead.

But, it’s definitely a valid theory that he posed her and said she was sleeping in hopes that anyone that may have spotted them (including cameras) would believe that.

 

[ohiobuckeyegirl]

BBM for focus

I agree but then it makes no sense that she would have, as he put it, slept most of the way to school in a what was it, 20 minutes at most drive?

There had to be a reason he made that point.

In case someone saw her in the car deceased. His excuse was she was "sleeping". He was covering his tracks in advance.
Edit: I believe he rode with her body in the car to create the alibi that he took her to school.

 

[photographer4]

Another thing is "I hope you are safe." I believe JS said this directly to Maddie, I hope you are safe.

SS said he hoped she was safe.

Now just imagine Maddie was in fact kidnapped and able to see her mom on TV and she says, I hope you are safe.

Pretty weak sauce from a mom supposedly a wreck (or however she put it) due to her daughter's disappearance.

One of the absolute strongest parents of a missing kid in my view has got to be Patty Wetterling. Her son Jacob was abducted in the late 80s while out riding bikes to rent a movie one warm October evening and wasn’t seen again until his remains were finally found in the last few years. I read her book about the horrific kidnapping and all the efforts made over a decades long search and I cannot recommend it enough!! It’s called Jacob’s Hope. That is a mother who would die for her babies in less than a heartbeat if it would keep them safe. An unbelievable woman who seems to have faced unbelievable evil and still found the strength to rise above every day somehow. She wanted the world to know who Jacob was and still does. I imagine he’d be very proud of his mother today.

 

[grannygates]

Sorry to be a bug. I can’t seem to get a website to load a copy of the arrest affidavit to check for myself so I thought I’d ask the group.

Do we know whether this apartment complex is gated ?

 

[photoprose1122]

In case someone saw her in the car deceased. His excuse was she was "sleeping". He was covering his tracks in advance.

I think that’s the point they were making, in response to my saying I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of him posing her in the car.

 

[photographer4]

Another thing is "I hope you are safe." I believe JS said this directly to Maddie, I hope you are safe.

SS said he hoped she was safe.

Now just imagine Maddie was in fact kidnapped and able to see her mom on TV and she says, I hope you are safe.

Pretty weak sauce from a mom supposedly a wreck (or however she put it) due to her daughter's disappearance.

DBM double post. Sorry.

 

[Dre]

And this is how he would have, or maybe he Did react to someone accusing him of hurting Maddie. MOO. A master manipulator

Absolutely, he was practicing his gaslighting on strangers- if you’re suspicious of your partner then YOU need therapy because accusation is projected abuse. :barf:

Really no words for how far gone this degenerate continues to prove himself.


I believe (for now) that dissonance is what we see with JS, her gut being onto him before her brain was. Cognitively processing and grasping the entirety of the situation would be incredibly difficult and probably took more time than we think it “should”

I don’t believe she had any facts as to what had happened yet at the time of her interviews. I do believe that SS had manipulated her into thinking it was a good idea to help him look better and make it seem like he wasn’t alone with her for an extended period of time.

In general I fall off of fences pretty quick, but yet here I remain til we get more info.

Moo

 

[ohiobuckeyegirl]

I think that’s the point they were making, in response to my saying I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of him posing her in the car.

Yea, its hard when we're normal people trying to figure out why psychos do the things they do. We tend to look at how we would do things. Nope, thats not how it works lol

 

[photoprose1122]

Yea, its hard when we're normal people trying to figure out why psychos do the things they do. We tend to look at how we would do things. Nope, thats not how it works lol

Very true.

 

[MassGuy]

I remember reading once that people who have just committed a crime are more likely to have a traffic violation. So if police don’t know who to look for, sometimes they review traffic cams just to watch for writing driving; people screwing up basic stops; lane changes; speeding and…driving slower than the law requires.

That fascinated me! I wish I could relocate the article - it was from years ago - I would link it. But alas I can’t recall where it was from. Still very interesting!

All that made me wonder if they are reviewing JS’s driving that day from when she went driving to the school and to look around etc. If she actually did those things she may have been caught on cams too. And if she didn’t, the lack of sightings may also be at odds with her statement(s) to LE.

Her cell phone data will help them track down surveillance footage, and license plate readers could help as well.

That’s partially why I think it’ll take a little while until we see charges. There’s going to be lots of footage to pore over and data to analyze.

 

[photographer4]

In case someone saw her in the car deceased. His excuse was she was "sleeping". He was covering his tracks in advance.
Edit: I believe he rode with her body in the car to create the alibi that he took her to school.

Ok so he made the alibi he drove her to school right? He’s got her propped up in the car. Ok. When he’s got back to the backpack dump site, what’s he done with her then? Is she still propped up? Ok. Does he leave her propped up and drive for awhile and find a spot to park with her dead in the seats propped up? Cover her up with a blanket or otherwise obscure her from view to get out of the area? I don’t mean to be seeming like I’m picking at your post. I am not at all! Your post just made me think of a way this may have gone down is all.

Maybe this is how they came to believe she was dead at 8:19. It could be as simple as he did the perp drive to / away from the school with her propped. Can’t drop her. She can’t move. So goes to the home having made the alibi… gets a blanket or whatever and drapes it over her. If he did that - it would have been pretty sus that she was dead.

Driving along with a literal corpse has got to be a weird thing! Maybe he needed some “space” or to depersonalize her a bit in order to make the drive?

Just a theory. Not fact.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Yea, its hard when we're normal people trying to figure out why psychos do the things they do. We tend to look at how we would do things. Nope, thats not how it works lol

I don't look at psychos through the lens of how I would do things.

However, even psychos have their own internal logic and that logic is what I'm interested in trying to figure out.

 

[Forest_Wood]

her gut being onto him before her brain was.

How would you be able to know that though? There's really nothing that she has said or done imo that shows her gut being onto him before her brain was. MOO.

 

[MassGuy]

In case someone saw her in the car deceased. His excuse was she was "sleeping". He was covering his tracks in advance.
Edit: I believe he rode with her body in the car to create the alibi that he took her to school.

Which would also explain his return to the house. The issue is the timing though, if he was hoping to be caught on camera to establish an alibi (both of them visible in vehicle near school).

It’s just too early.

 

[MamaBearski]

I think there was another video. CCTV of her room perhaps? He deleted off phone and they recovered it. They know how she died and who was present, to let her be cremated already.

I think JS gave him an alibi at best. She protected him somehow. She also may be in hundreds of cctv videos that some poor soul is having to watch now to see the extent of what was going on. I also think ss was trading the videos and they are probably trying to target all of his associates.

Could be. The sheriff made it sound like the 8:19 video was the source but they're trying to inform the public without sharing anything vital so it may have come off wrong.

For reference:
”At 8.19am, we have evidence that shows Stephan Sterns returning to the complex and Madeline was visible in that vehicle. We believe she was already dead at that time,” the sheriff said.

 

[photographer4]

Her cell phone data will help them track down surveillance footage, and license plate readers could help as well.

That’s partially why I think it’ll take a little while until we see charges. There’s going to be lots of footage to pore over and data to analyze.

Someone up thread might have been hulk (new member name escapes me) pointed out something about the police report. That they were called by 4:43pm. But it seemed the call may have been from grandma’s office which is right near the school.

The address noted on the report was not mom’s or the schools. Is that where she called them from or where they met with her? I don’t know. But that may mean she didn’t have her cell phone with her at the time for whatever reason. She forgot it. Couldn’t find it? He hid it from her? It was low on battery and she didn’t have a charger in the car? Could be any number of reasons if she didn’t have / use her cell to call police.

We don’t know where she emailed the teacher from either. Could be she emailed from Grandma’s.

If she usually had her cell on her and suddenly didn’t for a period of time that day / evening that may also help cook a goose if there is a goose to be cooked. MOo

 

[Forest_Wood]

Could be. The sheriff made it sound like the 8:19 video was the source but they're trying to inform the public without sharing anything vital so it may have come off wrong.

For reference:
”At 8.19am, we have evidence that shows Stephan Sterns returning to the complex and Madeline was visible in that vehicle. We believe she was already dead at that time,” the sheriff said.

I wonder if he came back for a shovel or something like that to try to dispose of her and maybe left her in the vehicle while he went into the apartment building to get what he thought he needed. When he opened the car door, she might have been visible by the surveillance camera(s) through the open door when he got out/in. I suspect he had her in the back seat. MOO.