The Kissimmee Police Department released an 80-page investigation report Thursday in connection with the death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto in February. Her mother's ex-boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, has been charged in the case. (File Photo)
MADELINE SOTO CASE
Orange County Medical Examiner says Madeline Soto was strangled to death
BY MARK BOXLEY OSCEOLA COUNTY
UPDATED 6:11 PM ET AUG. 29, 2024 PUBLISHED 5:05 PM ET AUG. 29, 2024
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — On Thursday, the Kissimmee Police Department released 80 pages of investigative documents which, among numerous other things, reports how medical experts believe 13-year-old Madeline Soto died on Feb. 26.
On March 29, the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office told investigators that Soto had been killed by strangulation, and classified her death as a homicide.
What You Need To Know
- On Thursday, the Kissimmee Police Department released an 80-page investigation report into the death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto in February
- In it, the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office reported that Soto had been strangled to death, and ruled her death a homicide
- Her mother's ex-boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, has been charged in the case and is facing the death penalty if convicted
The report also goes into great detail about the days preceding, and following Feb. 26, when Soto was reported missing after never making it to school.
Her mother's ex-boyfriend, Stephan Sterns has been charged not only in connection with her death, but also with dozens of counts of child sexual abuse stemming from potentially tens of thousands of images found on his Google Cloud account and a hard drive found by his father in a storage unit.
Initially, Sterns told Soto's mother, and investigators, that he dropped off the teen at school the day she went missing, but in the most detailed timeline released by investigators so far, the report shows that his story fell apart quickly, thanks to information from license plate readers, surveillance videos and traffic cameras.
The timeline is reported as follows:
On February 26, 2024, at 0730 hours, Stephan is seen driving his vehicle to the dumpster in Venetian Bay. Stephan is wearing a red shirt and tan pants. Stephan exits the vehicle and throws away two large white trash bags. In the passenger seat of Stephan`s vehicle is a white female wearing a green sweatshirt with her head slumped over to the left. The positioning of the female does not appear to be normal and she doesn`t move while Stephan is exiting or entering the vehicle. The female appears to be Madeline.
On February 26, 2024, at 0810 hours, Stephan is driving south on John Young Parkway approaching Thacker Avenue. Madeline is still in the front passenger seat in the same position.
On February 26, 2024, at 0819 hours, Stephan enters Venetian Bay and exits the rear of the complex at 0831 hours. Madeline is still in the front passenger seat in the same position.
On February 26, 2024, at 0901 hours, Stephan is driving north on International Drive and Central Florida Parkway. Madeline is still in the front passenger seat in the same position. This confirms that Stephan did not drop Madeline off at or near school as he previously stated.
On February 26, 2024, at 0935 hours, Stephan is driving into the parking garage of 9271 South John Young Parkway. Stephan drives up to the second level and parks near the northeast corner of the lot. Stephan backs his vehicle into a parking space by the stairs. Stephan exits his vehicle and walks towards the rear of his vehicle and opens the trunk. At 0941 hours, Stephan is seen placing Madeline, who is wearing a green sweatshirt and blue pants, in the trunk of his vehicle. Stephan then exits the parking garage.
On February 26, 2024, at 1014 hours, Stephan enters Venetian Bay through the east gate of the complex. Madeline is no longer seen in the front passenger seat of his vehicle.
On February 26, 2024, at 1054 hours, Stephan is seen driving to the dumpster in Venetian Bay throwing away more trash.
On February 26, 2024, at 1122 hours, Stephan drives to 13651 South John Young Parkway (eSmokerOnline Vape Shop). Stephan makes a purchase and leaves shortly afterwards. Stephan`s vehicle then travels east on Highway 192 towards Saint Cloud, Florida. His vehicle is captured on several traffic cameras as well as license plate readers.
On February 26, 2024, at 1316 hours, Stephan is driving south Old Hickory Tree Road. Stephan passes Hickory Tree Elementary at approximately 1317 hours.
On February 26, 2024, at 1411 hours, Stephan is driving west on Highway 192 from Old Hickory Tree Road. Stephan`s vehicle now has a spare tire on the rear driver`s side of his vehicle.
On February 26, 2024, at 1521 hours, Stephan is seen throwing items in the dumpster in Venetian Bay.
A roommate living in the Kissimmee home with Soto and her mother — and Sterns, on occassion — said the story of Sterns taking the girl to school sounded odd, as well, because "she has never seen Stephan taking Madeline to school."
Related Stories
Factory reset of Sterns' phone
According to a Feb. 29 arrest affidavit, during the investigation into Soto's disappearance, investigators reported sitting down for an interview with Sterns, who gave them permission to search his phone, but said he had "accidentally performed a factory reset on his phone on Feb. 26, 2024."
In fact, the Kissimmee Police Department report shows that the phone had gone through a factory reset twice within 12 hours before it was searched by police.
"Upon reviewing Stephan`s cellular phone download, the following was observed: On 02/26/2024 at 1212 hours, a factory reset was done on the phone," the report said. "This can only be accomplished by navigating to the settings option in the phone, tapping general management, swipe and tap reset, the tap factory data reset, and then review the information. Once reviewing the information is complete, swipe and tap reset. If there is a password on the phone, at this time a person would have to enter their password. This shows that Stephan could not have accidentally reset his phone, as it has nothing to do with a phone update as he stated during his previous statements made under oath. Another factory reset was done on Stephan`s cellular phone on 02/27/2024 at 0000 hours."
Sterns' own father told investigators that he had serious doubts about it being possible to accidentally do a factory reset on a phone.
"Chris (Sterns, Stephan Sterns' father) would ask what Stephan and Jennifer have done to help find Madeline, and when it was mentioned law enforcement wanted Stephan`s phone, Chris advised him to hand his phone over if there wasn`t anything incriminating on it," the report said. "Stephan then told Chris that he accidentally reset his phone when doing an update, Chris thought it was ******** and said there was no way to accidentally do that."
Chris Sterns continued in the interview, telling investigators he found everything his son had said was suspect.
Chris Sterns "stated he thought everything that Stephan would say was a lie and he didn't know what to believe, especially during the media interview," the report said. "(Kissimmee Police Department) Detective (C.E.) Smallwood asked them if they thought Stephan would be capable of doing something like this, and Debra (Sterns, his mother) said no, and she thought it may have been an accident."
Despite the resets, officers were able to access Sterns' phone and allegedly found numerous explicit photos and videos of a young girl that appeared to have been recorded in the Kissimmee home he shared with Soto and her mother.
Sterns speaks to his parents from jail
The report also notes an April 10 phone call Stephan Sterns made to his parents from the Osceola County Jail that included him telling them that "you know I would have never wanted that for her,' meaning Madeline."
"Stephan then says, 'I am not sure really that any one person is specifically responsible, its probably a combination of factors that led to it,' 'I have never felt anything like that before, it was horrible,'" the report said. "Chris tells Stephan that he hopes the truth will come out, and Stephan responds 'Well, yeah,' as if he was dodging that statement."
Then on May 14 in another phone call from jail, Chris Sterns asked his son why he traveled to their Northport home on Feb. 28 while the search for Soto was still ongoing.
"Stephan stated, 'I had wanted to grab a few things. And um, get my ducks in a row. Kinda prepare myself for whatever was coming, but I couldn't find what I was looking for,'" the report said. "This is during the time Stephan tried logging into his Google account using his parents Wi-Fi, but was unsuccessful. It is believed that Stephan was attempting to log into his Google account to delete the images and videos of his sexually abusing (redacted)."
"Chris tells Stephan he wished they could understand how this whole situation came about and Stephan replies, 'Well I didn`t start it,'" the report continues. "Chris told Stephan he participated in it, and Stephan says 'yeah.' At no point during the conversation did Stephan deny he murdered Madeline.'
Unexplained Google searches
The report goes on to document a pair of unexplained searches for information on the drug Sevoflurane, which investigators said was a "volatile anesthetic that provides hypnosis, amnesia, analgesia, akinesia, and automatic blockade during surgical and procedural interventions" in "neonatal and pediatric patients."
"This information was obtained by Google," the report said. "It is unknown why Stephan would be searching this item using the search terms of '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."
The report later describes images of Sterns allegedly sexually abusing a victim described as a "pre-pubescent female resembling (redacted)," that all describe the girl as appearing to be asleep.
Information in the report from the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office did not say what, if any, substances were found in Soto's system at the time of her death. And while the images and Google search for Sevoflurane are mentioned in the same paragraph, investigators did not specifically link them in the report.
Stephan Sterns continues to be held without bond at the Osceola County Jail on numerous charges, which include:
