Three months after 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing, her body later found on March 1, the Orange County Sheriff’s office in Orlando released the footage of the deputy meeting with Madeline’s mother Jenn Soto and Jenn’s boyfriend, Stephan Sterns.
The young girl was last seen by Sterns. Due to Madeline’s personal request, he dropped her off a few blocks from Hunter’s Creek Middle School. When Jenn Soto went to pick up her daughter on February 26, she never came out.
Surveillance video from the school also showed that Madeline never made it to school that day.
In the footage released by the sheriff’s office, Sterns tells authorities that Madeline was last seen in a “green hoodie, white crocs, and black shorts,” which investigators now believe to be false. A K-9 force attempted unsuccessfully to find evidence of Madeline’s disappearance at the last place she was reported to be seen.
Sterns has since been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Madeline’s death. He is also facing over 60 counts of sex-related charges, including sexual battery and molestation, in a separate case. The jury trial is currently scheduled for July 16.
