By The newspaper
02 Apr 2024, 08:46 AM EDT
Stephan Sterns relied on his right not to testify before the authorities in Florida and remains detained in a prison in Osceola County without bail on charges of having sexually abused the 13-year-old minor Madeline Soto, who was found dead on Last March 1st.
Stepfather is the main suspect in the disappearance and death of Madeline Soto
Sterns, 37, was the boyfriend of Jennifer Soto, the teenager’s mother. He is also the main suspect in the disappearance and death of the young woman.
However, the man has not been charged in connection with the events. The reasons are not clear.
On February 28, two days after Soto disappeared, Sterns was arrested and charged with the first counts of child sexual abuse.
He was later charged with 60 more sexual charges.
The allegations include sexual assault against a minor under 12 years of age; sexual assault with a minor between 12 and 18 in her custody, and unlawful possession of materials depicting sexual acts by a minor 10 years of age or older.
The criminal arrest complaint cited by local media indicates that, during the investigation into Soto’s disappearance, police officers in Kissimmee found several images and videos of a sexual and criminal nature. In an interview with investigators, Sterns authorized them to check the device while he told them that he had accidentally reconfigured it on February 26. That was the day Soto was reported missing. In the morning, Sterns allegedly left her near her school. When her mother went to look for her in the afternoon, she did not find her.
Stepfather would have traveled with the body of Madeline Soto
Soto’s body was found on March 1, around 4:30 pm, along Hickory Tree Road. The young girl was found wearing the same clothes she was seen wearing before she lost track of her.
Authorities maintain that the suspect transported the body in his gray 2010 Lincoln MK car and disposed of a backpack and laptop in a trash container in Kissimmee.
Sterns was seen driving and changing a tire around the area where Soto’s body was discovered.
Security camera footage allegedly shows Sterns dumping the items in the dumpster area of an apartment complex around 7:45 a.m. on Monday.
The objects turned out to be Madeline’s property.
Sterns was allegedly captured on a second video when he returned to the neighborhood where he lived with the minor’s body.
Investigators believe that the man never dropped the minor off at school, and that he had killed her hours before.
Suspect faces life sentence
Sterns was the last person to see the victim alive.
For some of the sexual abuse charges alone, Sterns faces life in prison.
The start of the trial against the man is scheduled for May 13.
Suspect appears on video sitting behind Madeline’s mother in the middle of an interview.
In an interview that the girl’s mother gave to Fox 35, Sterns appears in the background sitting without making any expressions. At times he is seen tilting his head and at other times looking attentively at the exchange between the parties, while the woman alleges that she has no idea what could have happened to her daughter.
In another encounter with the media, the suspect simply says that he dropped Madeline off at school before she was reported missing.
“I left her. Everything looked good when I left. That was the last time we saw her,” Sterna told WFTV 9.
Keep reading:
Trial in Florida against Madeline Soto’s stepfather for sexual abuse will begin in May
Agents in Florida discover “disturbing images”: Madeline Soto’s stepfather would have sexually abused her since she was 11 years old