Nearly 900 pages of interviews, investigations released
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According to camera footage, a man of Stephan Sterns’ description drove to this Orange County parking garage off John Young Parkway on Feb. 26, the morning of Madeline Soto’s disappearance, and placed “a limp body” in the trunk. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
The 870 pages of investigative reports into the disappearance, then murder, of 13-year-old Madeline Soto of Kissimmee released by the State Attorney’s office give a glimpse into what happened the night before, the day and week she was killed.
Stephan Sterns, the boyfriend of Madeline’s mother Jennifer Soto, is charged with her death, along with 60 other sexual battery-related charges based on about 1,700 graphic images found on his phone and Google Drive. Jennifer has yet to be charged with anything — and makes few appearances in the documents.
Much of what was released consists of maps that tracked Sterns’ cellphone and vehicle in the three days leading to his initial arrest.
Note: Madeline and Jennifer Soto’s names are redacted throughout the report. Context clues were used to connect them through the timeline.
From the report:
Jennifer said in an interview she saw her at 11 p.m. the Sunday before, following Madeline’s 13th birthday party at her aunt or grandmother’s house, and sent her off to sleep in another room, as Jennifer said she was tired and anxious from her work day. Sterns reportedly slept in an upstairs room with Madeline. He said he had come up from North Port in Southwest Florida that weekend — he had moved out in December 2023 for a job that “fell through” — to assist Jennifer since she “had started a new job” with new hours.
Police interviewed someone — the name’s redacted in the report — who said she was Madeline’s best friend, who noted Madeline, “Told her she didn’t get along with her mom.” The two would talk and text every day, and when the friend didn’t get a text the morning of Feb. 26, she called Madeline’s phone, and got no answer. The same friend also stated, “There are roommates that also live in the home with Madeline and her mother, a possible reference to family members like her grandfather who’ve stayed there in intervals, and that, “She does not recall a time when Stephan has ever brought Madeline to school.”
Yet, while Sterns said he drove Madeline to school and dropped her off that Monday just after 8 a.m. at a nearby church, the investigation’s timeline paints a different picture.
Various surveillance cameras show Sterns at these times Monday, Feb. 26:
7:35 a.m.: A man of Sterns’ description is at the apartment complex dumpster, throwing away Madeline’s backpack and laptop and one white Croc of size 5-7; a matching one was found in her bedroom. Sterns’ silver Lincoln MKZ is next seen at 7:50, at the complex’s rear gate. At 8:19, Sterns returns to the front gate, where he engaged with a security officer; he had told detectives he went back because he “forgot his gate clicker.” He’s seen again at the rear gate, and at all of these times, Madeline is reportedly in the car, appearing to be asleep and slumped over;
9:42 a.m.: Video shows a car matching the Lincoln’s subscription backing into a space at the top level of the parking garage at the Holiday Inn Vacation Club administrative offices on John Young Parkway in Orange County, just north of State Road 528. A male matching his description is seen putting “a limp body” in the trunk. (The News-Gazette traveled to this garage last Friday at about 9:30 a.m. The top level of the garage was empty – but has cameras at each corner.)
10:05 and 11:48 a.m.: The Lincoln MKZ soon is seen southbound on John Young; Sterns said he returned home after 10 a.m. after visiting a vape shop that was closed.
Later, video shows the car headed eastbound on U.S. Highway 192 near Partin Settlement Road at 1:05 p.m. and westbound at 2:23 p.m. At 1:12 and 2:17 p.m.: Cameras at Hickory Tree Elementary showed Sterns’ vehicle pass southbound, then northbound an hour later, on Old Hickory Tree Road. This aligns with investigative reports from the week Soto was still missing that put Sterns vehicle in that area between 1 and 2:30 p.m. that day — the time when Sterns said he “caught a flat tire,” explaining why he couldn’t go to pick Madeline up at school. (On March 1, a Forensics technician recovered tire fragments near where they body was found on Hickory Tree Road.)
At 4:35 p.m. cameras showed Sterns back at the dumpster, throwing a damaged tire and what appeared to be tire tread in the compactor.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported they Jennifer’s 2022 Nissan was driven on Feb. 27 between 3:27 and 4:25 a.m. in the area of U.S. 192, and 4:45 a.m. and 10:55 a.m. on Feb. 28, the day Sterns was arrested for sexual battery and two days before Madeline’s body was discovered, “between U.S. 192 and southwest to North Port, Florida.” At 10:10 p.m. that night, an Orange Sheriff’s K9 unit did a sweep of Jennifer’s car and “gave a final alert by the rear passenger wheel well.”
In the report, a neighbor stated they never saw Madeline walk to or from school because, “Jennifer drove her to and from every day.” Among others who were interviewed, a Hunter’s Creek Middle School counselor interviewed conducted “check-ins” with Madeline in December and January noted Soto and reported, “Her mom’s boyfriend was living in the home and she didn’t like him because he was ‘weird’ … because he ate all their food, hangs out in the living room and makes her feel uncomfortable … In December, mom’s boyfriend was moving out of the home and that made her happy … She never disclosed anything inappropriate happening between her and her mother’s boyfriend.”
The last check in was on Feb. 6, and Madeline reported, “That she was really happy and things were good with mom and school.”
The night of Feb. 27, Sterns showed investigators his and Jennifer’s vehicle. He told the detective “not to pay attention to the donut (spare tire)”. An investigator noted a handgun in the rear back pocket of the driver’s seat of the Lincoln, which Sterns said he “usually leaves in the vehicle.” A Sig Sauer pistol, a magazine and a number of live rounds, were also recovered from the apartment. While this was not noted again, a list of other things found in the car including latex and cloth gloves, napkins, a knife, black jacket and a tan blanket across the back seat.
Finally, noteworthy and troubling, when an Orange County deputy was transporting the mother to the site of a press conference, he noted that “Jennifer referred to Madeline using the past tense several times when she mentioned her.”
