Found Deceased FL - Madeline Soto, 13, Missing Child Alert, 13500 blk Town Loop Blvd, Orlando, 26 Feb 2024 *arrest* #5

[Gemmie]

Cannot count how often my spoken words have been misinterpreted by people writing them down, and I would guess we’ve all seen probable cause affidavits that aren’t _quite_ accurate.

SBMFF

It happens a lot IMO. In fact, I was just at a Dr's appt and the Dr was typing up notes of what I told her I was there for. Did she get them right? No, she did not. I had to correct her which made me think... Should I ask to go over their typed notes and make corrections? I think we all should in all situations where having correct info is vital, like Dr's appts and most definitely things like an affidavit warrant.

Facts need to be facts, not jumbled up with what the note taker thinks was said. It's like the old game of Telephone... The phrase starts out one way, and is never the same when the last person says what they heard. Sometimes they aren't even remotely the same.

 

[ttjo]

Unfortunately, there has to be a penalty for LE making illegal searches. The good news is, most LEO's know exactly when they need to stop and get a warrant. There are plenty of ways to freeze everything, and make sure evidence isn't destroyed while waiting. Exigent circumstances are another subject but it would be interesting to consider that an officer is taking a report of a missing child and begins to see a video of the child as a victim of a felony assault. I would argue that the officer must continue to watch the video as it could have information as to where the child could be found, and maybe even saved if injured or hidden somewhere.
If SS doesn't eventually plead guilty, a defense attorney would be remiss If they didn't attempt to suppress the video at trial, even with initial consent recorded on a bodycam.

MOO

just so people understand: exigent circumstances are characterized by the general guiding principle that there is some manner of urgency prompting immediate investigative action justifying the need to bypass the requirement of first obtaining a warrant in rare cases.
Question:
While investigating a missing persons case would them knowing the phone was wiped give them exigent circumstance? because I didnt think they saw videos/ pictures until it was forensically examined.

 

[certainprocedure]

Unfortunately, there has to be a penalty for LE making illegal searches. The good news is, most LEO's know exactly when they need to stop and get a warrant. There are plenty of ways to freeze everything, and make sure evidence isn't destroyed while waiting. Exigent circumstances are another subject but it would be interesting to consider that an officer is taking a report of a missing child and begins to see a video of the child as a victim of a felony assault. I would argue that the officer must continue to watch the video as it could have information as to where the child could be found, and maybe even saved if injured or hidden somewhere.
If SS doesn't eventually plead guilty, a defense attorney would be remiss If they didn't attempt to suppress the video at trial, even with initial consent recorded on a bodycam.

MOO

Oh, I don’t doubt that an ethical defense lawyer would try, but it seems like the precedent/statute is fairly well set in Florida that if you hand your phone over willingly and consent to the search, the cops don’t need a warrant and the evidence is admissible. It would be a whole other story if they simply pocketed the phone and searched it, but we know that’s not what happened here.

Still going through the actual laws and looking for cases that actually detail things beyond lawyer website blog entries (most of what I am seeing is advice on defense lawyer’s websites). Did learn that not too long ago there was a bill in the state legislature to limit things a bit more (looks like), but it died.

 

[Pruddennce]

This is incorrect; the arrest warrant affidavit says “the mother advised her daughter’s step-father, Stephan Sterns, picked her up from home.” This is written by affiant Detective Brian Moore, and is not a quote from JS.

There is no public information that the arrest warrant was based on a sworn statement by JS or that JS ever used the “picked up” language. JS may have said it, but we do not currently know if that is the case, just as we don’t know if JS called SS “step-father”. It remains possible that Det. Moore misunderstood or mischaracterized.

the use of the term 'step-father'....kind of difficult for me to accept LE would assign that relationship title to him without it being mentioned during her interview. IMO, JS assigned that title when she filed the initial missing report to elevate SS's relationship with Madeline...... the title implies joint authority/responsibility in raising Madeline.

 

[certainprocedure]

just so people understand: exigent circumstances are characterized by the general guiding principle that there is some manner of urgency prompting immediate investigative action justifying the need to bypass the requirement of first obtaining a warrant in rare cases.
Question:
While investigating a missing persons case would them knowing the phone was wiped give them exigent circumstance? because I didnt think they saw videos/ pictures until it was forensically examined.

True, but I am reasonably sure that the issue of exigent circumstances doesn’t matter if the person whose phone you’re searching hands it over voluntarily and consents to a search—just like how in most states LE doesn’t technically need a warrant to search your car if they ask and you say yes.

As long as they’ve got a solid proof that he handed the phone over willingly and/or consented to the search voluntarily and not under any duress, they should be fine, looks like. I don’t think we have anything concrete on the circumstances, do we? Maybe in that first presser with Sheriff Mina? Or in the probable cause affidavit? I swear there was at least a little bit of information on this. I’m gonna go double check.

Edit: Yes. Probable cause affidavit says he provided them consent to search his phone. They should be okay admissibility-wise. In fact from the way it’s written it sounds like he actually gave consent before he told them he did a reset. But that could just be down to the writing and interpretation issues discussed up the thread regarding things like “picked up.”

 

[ttjo]

True, but I am reasonably sure that the issue of exigent circumstances doesn’t matter if the person whose phone you’re searching hands it over voluntarily and consents to a search—just like how in most states LE doesn’t technically need a warrant to search your car if they ask and you say yes.

As long as they’ve got a solid proof that he handed the phone over willingly and/or consented to the search voluntarily and not under any duress, they should be fine, looks like. I don’t think we have anything concrete on the circumstances, do we? Maybe in that first presser with Sheriff Mina? Or in the probable cause affidavit? I swear there was at least a little bit of information on this. I’m gonna go double check.

No nothing concrete. and not even concrete on how they got the data ( could have been from the cloud?) Man, would I hate to be the lawyer that had to try and make it inadmissible.

 

[certainprocedure]

No nothing concrete. and not even concrete on how they got the data ( could have been from the cloud?) Man, would I hate to be the lawyer that had to try and make it inadmissible.

Probable cause affidavit says he gave consent. Hopefully that’s on tape or video or enough people saw it happen. JMO: by the time they asked to see his phone I’m sure they smelled a rat and started making sure they were dotting their is and crossing their ts. SS is the kind of guy most LE folks want to make daggum sure they put away for good.

 

[Beekarina]

Wondering more about SS and his early morning Telegram activity....Maybe someone there told him to factory reset his phone?

We saw how SS talked to people on Reddit, so I don't think it is a stretch to imagine him annoying people elsewhere online.

I wonder if we will learn more about what happened with Telegram? It could be something really horrible and disgusting, but it might also just be someplace SS went to do geeky things like the toys and gaming. I've heard of Telegram groups for totally benign things, like couponing, for example, so I don't think it is *all* nasty, shady, dark stuff.

 

[NoSpoonFeeding]

just so people understand: exigent circumstances are characterized by the general guiding principle that there is some manner of urgency prompting immediate investigative action justifying the need to bypass the requirement of first obtaining a warrant in rare cases.
Question:
While investigating a missing persons case would them knowing the phone was wiped give them exigent circumstance? because I didnt think they saw videos/ pictures until it was forensically examined.

I don't know for sure, it was my understanding that the officer he handed the phone to, saw the video, if not, there was a court order for the forensics and the whole concern of consent search of the phone is moot.
And no, SS saying he did a factory reset would not give exigent circumstances as the officer wouldn't be able to do anything with the phone if he couldn't see the video anyway. A phone call to a judge and rush to forensics would happen.
Edit to add. When an officer has a consent to search and sees evidence of a felony, depending on circumstances, the best and safest thing to do is to stop and get a warrant before continuing searching or investigation further. Consent is fragile and anything said to stop or interrupt the search, ends the consent, absent exigent circumstances.
MOO

 

[Gemmie]

I wonder if he had a chat with some sicko on Telegram?

Everyone seems focused on SS sharing images there, which I agree he likely did as well, but I wonder if he reached out very early Monday morning to his fellow weirdos for advice?

My guess is he reset his phone shortly after using Telegram.

If he reset his phone shortly after using Telegram... then my guess would be that Maddie was deceased before 4:54am. Which begs the question... where was she at ~5am?

 

[Pruddennce]

Wasn’t it stated that he handed over his phone voluntarily? If so, they should be fine, right?

the arrest affidavit: 'during the interview with Stephan, he provided consent to search his phone however he stated he 'accidentally' performed a factory reset on his phone on February 26, 2024, the same day the victim went missing. Stephen provided his phone number to be ___". further: "upon reviewing the contents of Stephan's phone....several videos and images were located which depicted the missing juvenile..."<---we know what their report described

the arrest affidavit is dated the 28th and stamped filed on the 29th....obviously they were able to, as they say, 'locate' data very quickly directly from his phone. obviously, with the following voluminous charges handed down, they were able to obtain historical data records with the warrant.

thank goodness SS lacked tech knowledge...probably saw his 'apps' were gone and the pics/videos were no longer 'visible to him', *sure here's my phone*.

 

[Beekarina]

If he reset his phone shortly after using Telegram... then my guess would be that Maddie was deceased before 4:54am. Which begs the question... where was she at ~5am?

And then we clearly have a very real problem with JS being "too tired" to take MS to school if it turns out MS was deceased prior to 5am and this is related to SS Telegram use....

 

[Gemmie]

the arrest affidavit: 'during the interview with Stephan, he provided consent to search his phone however he stated he 'accidentally' performed a factory reset on his phone on February 26, 2024, the same day the victim went missing.

SBMFF

I think he was confident that his "accidental" factory reset got rid of all evidence, so figured it wasn't a big deal to hand it over. I don't feel like SS is the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

[Ontario Mom]

It's my understanding the information about SS using Telegram very early the day MS went missing, came from some guy on GH's YT channel. I haven't watched any of his videos, so I'm just basing that off what's been said here. If that is correct, can anyone tell me if LE have in fact confirmed anything about this?

 

[Beekarina]

My understanding is GH also repeated what his source did to sleuth SS activity. In order to create a test scenario, GH used his own access of Telegram during the Hamas attacks to corroborate this method was valid.

The time stamps both GH and his source used to check out what SS was up to matched.

That is, both GH and his source have SS accessing Telegram at 4:45 am, and GH and the source are 7 timezones apart from one another, so the timezone data is that for SS.

My understanding is GH also gave this information to LE.

Like pretty much everything else in this case, LE has not commented on it, at least as far as I know.

 

[MassGuy]

My understanding is GH also repeated what his source did to sleuth SS activity. In order to create a test scenario, GH used his own access of Telegram during the Hamas attacks to corroborate this method was valid.

The time stamps both GH and his source used to check out what SS was up to matched.

That is, both GH and his source have SS accessing Telegram at 4:45 am, and GH and the source are 7 timezones apart from one another, so the timezone data is that for SS.

My understanding is GH also gave this information to LE.

Like pretty much everything else in this case, LE has not commented on it, at least as far as I know.

Yeah, I think I’ve watched him like twice ever, but both times I have he showed that he clearly did his homework. This was a good example of that, and I agree with his conclusion.

 

[Rosydecember]

I’m not saying as fact, but, devils advocate, could it be possible that JS has a condition that could cause fatigue? Maybe she was/is tired frequently… besides depression, maybe fibromyalgia or CFS or POTS? Has SS ever taken MS to school before? MOO, not fact, just throwing out some possibilities as no one can understand her being tired, but I get it. *yawn*

 

[MassGuy]

I’m not saying as fact, but, devils advocate, could it be possible that JS has a condition that could cause fatigue? Maybe she was/is tired frequently… besides depression, maybe fibromyalgia or CFS or POTS? Has SS ever taken MS to school before? MOO, not fact, just throwing out some possibilities as no one can understand her being tired, but I get it. *yawn*

And that very well may be true, and that's all she had to say. "My boyfriend took Maddie to school because I was tired." Instead, she last sees Maddie when she goes to bed, and amazingly, saw Maddie getting dressed when she was already dead.

 

[Teche]

This is incorrect; the arrest warrant affidavit says “the mother advised her daughter’s step-father, Stephan Sterns, picked her up from home.” This is written by affiant Detective Brian Moore, and is not a quote from JS.

There is no public information that the arrest warrant was based on a sworn statement by JS or that JS ever used the “picked up” language. JS may have said it, but we do not currently know if that is the case, just as we don’t know if JS called SS “step-father”. It remains possible that Det. Moore misunderstood or mischaracterized.

Did Maddie stay home alone at night?

 

[texaslb218]

Did Maddie stay home alone at night?

That's what I have been wondering.