Kissimmee police say they’ve completed their investigation into the killing of 13-year-old Madeline Soto and, at least for now, don’t plan to charge anyone else besides Stephan Sterns, who’s accused of murder and years of sexual abuse.
Police Department spokeswoman Alibeth Suarez told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday: “We don’t have charges for anyone else in this case at this time.” Suarez was responding to a WFTV report citing anonymous sources claiming police don’t intend to make further arrests.
The statement appears to clarify that Madeline’s mother, Jennifer Soto, is not now suspected of criminal wrongdoing. An Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office spokesman did not say if the office intends to pursue additional charges.
“The current evidence and information support the indictment of Sterns for first-degree murder,” Jason Gunn said by email.
In addition to first-degree murder, Sterns faces dozens of charges of possessing child sexual abuse material as well as sexual battery of a minor. If convicted of the sex crimes he faces life in prison, but a murder conviction could result in the death penalty, which prosecutors are seeking.
Questions about what mother Jennifer Soto knew swirled in the months after her daughter was found dead and longtime boyfriend Sterns was arrested Feb. 28. Madeline was reported missing Feb. 26 and her body was found March 1 in St. Cloud.
About 130 pages of case reports the Sentinel obtained Tuesday shed further light into the investigation of Jennifer Soto, who had denied involvement in Madeline’s disappearance or knowing about the sexual abuse. Critically, despite hundreds of pages of reports released in the months after Sterns’ arrest by KPD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, there are no suggestions investigators considered her a suspect or that her knowledge of what happened — or lack thereof — rises to criminal wrongdoing.
Initially, according to the reports, it appeared Jennifer Soto believed detectives were looking at “the wrong suspect” as they investigated Sterns, who had hundreds of photos and videos in his possession depicting his abuse of Madeline. Previously-released records indicate the abuse began when she was 11.
Authorities said Soto appeared in denial at first of the abuse, despite being shown photos from Sterns’ Google Drive. According to a Sheriff’s Office report, she at one point called the murder “evil” but not the abuse, leading a deputy to believe she was trying to protect Sterns. But she began to believe he was the killer after being shown video of him driving a car with Madeline slumped lifeless in the passenger seat.
“He’s been grooming and abusing my child,” Soto said after detectives showed her images found on Sterns’ phone, according to the reports. When asked if she thought Sterns killed Madeline she’s said to have replied, “At this point, I do.”
Investigators further noted an apparent inconsistency in Soto’s statements about when she last saw Madeline alive, at first telling Orange County deputies she saw her daughter the morning she went missing. She later told police she didn’t actually see Madeline that morning, but she helped pick out her school clothes the night before and slept in while Sterns was tasked with driving her to school.
Soto was also defended by two roommates living with her and Sterns, with one telling detectives she was “in pieces” during the search for her while Sterns was merely “acting like he was concerned.” The other described Soto as “crying and very emotional” the day of the disappearance.
But the roommates told police they were concerned about Madeline at times sleeping in the same bed alone with Sterns,including the night before she went missing. Soto, according to the reports, would brush it off because she didn’t believe he’d harm her daughter. However, Soto told detectives she “was never comfortable” with Madeline and Sterns sleeping together alone — telling them it “didn’t look right to her” despite it happening multiple times.
The day Madeline went missing, it wasn’t until Soto went to pick her up from Hunters Creek Middle School that she realized she never made it to campus. Detectives later discovered Sterns never drove her there and that Madeline was likely dead that morning as he moved to toss her items in a dumpster and dispose of her body.
Reports said when detectives told Soto her daughter’s body was found she “started to cry over the phone and handed the phone to her father to continue the conversation.”
According to FOX 35, emails released by the State Attorney’s Office sent to Sterns in jail by his parents appeared to point to who they believe was an accomplice — but the name was redacted.
Sterns’ mother, Deb Sterns, in an email dated June 25, said, “We all know [redacted] was heavily involved in this, and I am disgusted that she is free, and you are not when this is not all your fault!!”
More details emerge
Meanwhile, according to the case reports Sterns used Google to research details about a powerful anesthetic days before the teen went missing.
Though it’s unclear Sterns actually obtained it, reports by KPD investigators say he used the search engine twice to look up “sevoflurane,” which the National Institutes of Health describes as a “volatile anesthetic” often used in pediatric surgeries.
According to the reports, on Feb. 12 and Feb. 14 he looked up the substance and whether it would appear on a drug test nearly two weeks before Madeline — who an Orange-Osceola medical examiner ruled was strangled to death — was reported missing. It’s not publicly known if she had sevoflurane or a similar substance in her system when her body was found.
“It is unknown why Stephan would be searching this item using the search terms ‘show up in drug test’ when he wasn’t attempting to get a job or he didn’t have any children that were having surgery,” an investigator wrote in a May 8 report.
Though her cause of death was listed in KPD reports, a request for Madeline’s autopsy report was denied by the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s Office. The office cited a state law exempting release of reports about the death of a minor by domestic violence.
The online searches were included among the hundreds of pages of supplemental reports released by KPD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office documenting the investigation into the girl’s death and sexual abuse by Sterns.
The reports also described Sterns’ movements during the initial investigation.
The day he was arrested he drove to his parents’ house in North Port. Investigators believe that was part of an unsuccessful attempt by him to delete contents of his Google Drive, including backups of child sexual abuse material, using the Wi-Fi connection there.
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