Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / MADDIE SOTO'S MOM FEARED 'WOODY ALLEN' SITUATION, MOM'S BF 'MADDIE STARTED IT'
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace murdered Mattie Soto's mom says
- 0:08Speaker 1: she feared a Woody Allen situation. Really, yet she continued
- 0:14Speaker 1: to allow her than twelve year old little girl to
- 0:18Speaker 1: sleep every.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Night in the bed alone with mommy's boyfriend.
- 0:23Speaker 1: This as on secretly recorded Jill House calls, we hear
- 0:28Speaker 1: mommy's boyfriend turned murder suspect state Mattie started it. I'm
- 0:34Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
- 0:38Speaker 1: with us.
- 0:40Speaker 3: So you're saying, presumably her school competer was in her backpack, Well,
- 0:46Speaker 3: I can confidently tell you she did not go to
- 0:49Speaker 3: school with her backpack because we found in the terms.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Yeah, that's mom's living boyfriend.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Stephan Star Earns trying to describe explain why Mattie's backpack
- 1:05Speaker 1: was found in the trash, talking about that she went
- 1:07Speaker 1: into school the whole time. He knows why her backpack
- 1:11Speaker 1: is in the trash, according to prosecutors, because he put
- 1:13Speaker 1: it there trying to hide Evans. But in the most
- 1:16Speaker 1: recent and bizarre turn of events, murdered Mattie Soto's mother.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Led this think in who has gotten.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Immunity, says she feared a Woody Allen type situation.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Listen.
- 1:37Speaker 4: I've always told him that my biggest fear is that
- 1:39Speaker 4: this would turned into a Woody Allen situation where the
- 1:42Speaker 4: stepdaughter followers, the Chad grooms the child, and the child
- 1:46Speaker 4: in it turns eighteen bringing away with him. I told
- 1:49Speaker 4: him that that was my biggest fear and I don't
- 1:51Speaker 4: ever want that happening, Like, you can't do that to me.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Like, so take a listen to this.
- 1:55Speaker 5: So if we go back to twenty twenty, we're looking
- 1:58Speaker 5: at a minimum of three and a half year, three
- 2:01Speaker 5: and a half years where I'm sure you guys are
- 2:04Speaker 5: sexually active. Yes, so for three and a half years
- 2:10Speaker 5: out of your care and your house, not only is
- 2:13Speaker 5: he being sexually active with you and having sexual relationship?
- 2:18Speaker 2: Did you hear that? Crying? See in my mind?
- 2:23Speaker 1: Straight out to Shannon Butler joining US investigative reporter to
- 2:26Speaker 1: WFTV Channel nine in Florida where this happened. Shannon Butler,
- 2:33Speaker 1: those little gulps should have happened when she first thought
- 2:40Speaker 1: she had a quote Woody Allan situation between her living
- 2:45Speaker 1: boyfriend Stephan Stearns and her little girl then twelve. Of course,
- 2:51Speaker 1: Matty told everyone the moment she turned thirteen.
- 2:54Speaker 2: She wanted to go live in the woods.
- 2:56Speaker 1: G I wonder why, but I think those tears would
- 3:00Speaker 1: have been more appropriate when she first had an inkling.
- 3:03Speaker 1: There was a Woody Allen's situation her words, not mine, Shannon.
- 3:08Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 3:08Speaker 7: Early on in this investigation, when we first talked to
- 3:11Speaker 7: investigators right after those interviews, just hours after those interviews,
- 3:16Speaker 7: they had told us they had felt that she was
- 3:19Speaker 7: much more upset over what was going on with Stephan
- 3:22Speaker 7: Sterns than what was going on with Madeline Soto. I
- 3:25Speaker 7: don't know if just hadn't sunk in yet that Madeline
- 3:28Speaker 7: may be found dead at this point, but they felt
- 3:32Speaker 7: that the tears and the anguish was much more about
- 3:36Speaker 7: Stephan Sterns and what was going on there than about
- 3:39Speaker 7: her daughter, and that always troubled those investigators early on
- 3:43Speaker 7: in those interviews there. I mean, you can see by
- 3:46Speaker 7: their behavior if you listen to this, they were agitated
- 3:50Speaker 7: in this interview, trying to figure out how this possibly
- 3:54Speaker 7: went awry, how she missed it. She said she knew
- 3:58Speaker 7: nothing about it, but in that comment that she was
- 4:00Speaker 7: worried about her daughter, in that Woody Allen right type situation.
- 4:05Speaker 7: Obviously there was some kind of feeling you had right
- 4:08Speaker 7: that something was amiss.
- 4:11Speaker 1: Exactly, Shannon, And you know what, Shannon Butler, guys joining
- 4:15Speaker 1: me from WFTV Channel nine.
- 4:17Speaker 2: You really hit the nail on the head. I want
- 4:20Speaker 2: to hear this.
- 4:21Speaker 1: One more time because all she's talking about is me, me.
- 4:26Speaker 2: Me, me, me, me, me, me, me me me, nothing
- 4:30Speaker 2: about Maddie. Woman. Maddie is dead.
- 4:35Speaker 1: The state says your living boyfriend murdered her before she
- 4:39Speaker 1: could reveal you were raping her practically on a nightly basis,
- 4:45Speaker 1: alone in bed.
- 4:47Speaker 2: While mommy got a good night sleep in another room.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Listen to this. You're dead on, Shannon Butler.
- 4:52Speaker 4: I've always told him that my biggest fear is that
- 4:54Speaker 4: this would turned into a Woody Allen situation where the
- 4:57Speaker 4: stepdaughter followers, the dad, grooms the child and the child
- 5:01Speaker 4: and it turns eighteen bringing away with him. I told
- 5:04Speaker 4: him that that was my biggest fear, and I don't
- 5:06Speaker 4: ever want that happening.
- 5:07Speaker 7: Like, you can't do that to me.
- 5:08Speaker 1: Like you can't do that to me. Okay, wait, wait,
- 5:16Speaker 1: let's analyze this. She but worries onto something.
- 5:19Speaker 2: You have to dissect what she's saying, listen to this.
- 5:23Speaker 1: She says, I've always told him, Stephan Stearns, the alleged
- 5:30Speaker 1: killer and child rapist, her boyfriend, I've always told him
- 5:34Speaker 1: my fear is to turn into a Woody Allen situation
- 5:37Speaker 1: where the stepdaughter is she talking about her natural born daughter,
- 5:41Speaker 1: where the stepdaughter, the dad grooms the child, and then
- 5:45Speaker 1: the child turns eighteen after going through years of rapes,
- 5:48Speaker 1: which Maddie did, years of rapes, the child turns eighteen
- 5:54Speaker 1: and runs away with him, Like what, the child's getting
- 5:57Speaker 1: the big prize here in this scenario.
- 6:00Speaker 2: She runs away with him, And I told him.
- 6:04Speaker 1: That's my biggest fear, that her daughter would run away
- 6:08Speaker 1: with Stefan Stearn's a deadbeat, slung up in his girlfriend's home,
- 6:15Speaker 1: alternating between his mom's basement.
- 6:18Speaker 2: Don't ever, you can't do that to me.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Oh oh okay, there's so many directions to go right here.
- 6:28Speaker 1: Robin Drake is joining me, Guys. Robin Draeke, behavior expert,
- 6:32Speaker 1: former FBI Special Agent Chief let This sink In, chief
- 6:37Speaker 1: of the FBI counter Intelligence Behavioral Analysis Program and author
- 6:43Speaker 1: of Sizing People Up, a veteran agent's manual for behavior prediction. Robin, Drake,
- 6:52Speaker 1: all mom cares about is Matti Soto now dead at
- 6:56Speaker 1: that time, a little twelve year old girl. She might
- 7:00Speaker 1: run away with the big catch, the BBD, the.
- 7:05Speaker 2: Bigger better deal. She might run off with Stepan Stearns
- 7:08Speaker 2: and have them all to herself. Have I lost my mind?
- 7:11Speaker 2: That's what she's saying, Drake, I know.
- 7:13Speaker 8: No, I even wrote it on the sticky here.
- 7:15Speaker 9: I mean, he is so calm, I know, because there's
- 7:18Speaker 9: so many data points that are so predictable in this.
- 7:22Speaker 8: Everything she's been saying the.
- 7:23Speaker 9: Entire time is her her, like you said, like Shannon said,
- 7:28Speaker 9: you know, and that's what the investigators picked up on
- 7:30Speaker 9: right away, and that is they saw deviations from what
- 7:34Speaker 9: normal people that are missing their daughters normally react like.
- 7:37Speaker 9: And she spiked way out of the norm on that.
- 7:39Speaker 9: And there's so much leakage throughout this and even you know,
- 7:42Speaker 9: I know we're not haven't talked about it yet, but
- 7:44Speaker 9: even his parents, I mean, everyone is seeing patterns of
- 7:47Speaker 9: behavior that are deviating from what normal, healthy people do
- 7:50Speaker 9: and they're all signals that say and there's a lot
- 7:52Speaker 9: of unhealthy crazy going on here.
- 7:53Speaker 2: Okay, now you know what Robin Drake, no offense, but.
- 8:00Speaker 1: The FBI special Agent chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program,
- 8:04Speaker 1: I can say there's a whole lot of crazy going on.
- 8:07Speaker 2: I know that much. I'm just a lawyer. Okay, I'm
- 8:10Speaker 2: expecting a little bit more from you.
- 8:12Speaker 1: The mom suspected this a long time before Maddie was murdered.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Before Maddie was raped as a little girl over and
- 8:24Speaker 1: over and over and over with this PERV.
- 8:27Speaker 2: According to the state, presumed innocent, with.
- 8:29Speaker 1: This PERV taking literally thousands and thousands of pictures of
- 8:35Speaker 1: him raping and sodomizing a little girl.
- 8:39Speaker 2: And it went back for years.
- 8:41Speaker 1: As I recall, if I'm wrong, Shannon jump In at
- 8:44Speaker 1: the time she was.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Nine years old, nine years.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Old, sodomizing her and taking videos of it.
- 8:53Speaker 8: Drake, Yeah, this is what evil looks like.
- 8:56Speaker 9: I'm just hoping that at some point they're uncovering a
- 8:59Speaker 9: mass of network that they're going to save other children
- 9:02Speaker 9: from this, because I seriously doubt, because of this pattern behavior,
- 9:05Speaker 9: that this was history.
- 9:06Speaker 1: Can we just save the whole squeeze lemons into lemonade thing,
- 9:10Speaker 1: that this has a silver lining and it's going to
- 9:12Speaker 1: be because because let me.
- 9:14Speaker 2: Tell you, something great. I do think there's going to.
- 9:16Speaker 9: I think we're going to get other people, though, I
- 9:18Speaker 9: see the only thing when.
- 9:19Speaker 1: We're talking about a Woody Allen situation.
- 9:23Speaker 2: Unless you've been living in a cave.
- 9:26Speaker 10: Uh.
- 9:28Speaker 6: I want to.
- 9:28Speaker 2: Explain what Mattie's mom is talking about.
- 9:33Speaker 9: Listen, Woody Allen, Mia Pharaoh, that's the ideal power couple.
- 9:37Speaker 2: And he gave her everything she could possibly want. I
- 9:40Speaker 2: was over the moon happy. But that's the great regret
- 9:43Speaker 2: of my life. I wish i'd never met him.
- 9:46Speaker 6: Allan good eyes child abuse, but Prey admits he's in
- 9:49Speaker 6: love with another of Pharaoh's daughters, twenty one year old assumed.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Twenty one Now, okay, right at the time, that's where
- 9:55Speaker 1: our friend's over at HBO. It's Alan v Pharaoh. Uh
- 10:00Speaker 1: was the name of the special at HBO.
- 10:03Speaker 2: Okay, you know what.
- 10:05Speaker 1: I just got to get my head around this. Mia
- 10:08Speaker 1: Pharaoh says she had no idea that anything inappropriate or
- 10:14Speaker 1: illegal may have been going on, and I have spoken
- 10:18Speaker 1: with family members, and I believe me a pharaoh. But
- 10:25Speaker 1: she gets a very rude awakening, according to her, when
- 10:29Speaker 1: she comes home and finds a stack of X rated
- 10:34Speaker 1: polaroid pictures of her daughter.
- 10:38Speaker 10: Sunny.
- 10:39Speaker 2: Listen, there was a stack of polaroid pictures. All of
- 10:43Speaker 2: them were of my own child. I remember struggling to breathe.
- 10:48Speaker 1: That is mea pharaoh speaking to our friends at HBO
- 10:51Speaker 1: and Alan v Pharaoh Okay, struggled to breathe, joining me,
- 10:56Speaker 1: Anna Sonoda, joining us child sex abuse grooming expert, clinical
- 11:01Speaker 1: social worker and author of Duck Duck Groom, and I
- 11:05Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. You know what, Anna,
- 11:08Speaker 1: I'm just a.
- 11:09Speaker 2: Trial lawyer, and I tried a lot, a lot.
- 11:12Speaker 1: I can't even count how many cases I've either tried
- 11:15Speaker 1: or investigated and brought to a guilty plea chamla stations
- 11:20Speaker 1: where the.
- 11:21Speaker 2: Mother knew full well what was going on.
- 11:27Speaker 1: She either knew outright or she put on blinders and
- 11:31Speaker 1: didn't want to see.
- 11:34Speaker 2: I don't believe that about Mia Pharaoh.
- 11:36Speaker 1: I believe Mia Pharaoh really did come home and find
- 11:39Speaker 1: these polaroid photos, because when she says I remember I
- 11:44Speaker 1: couldn't breathe, it hit her like a train. Unlike the
- 11:49Speaker 1: case here where Maddie Soto's mother way back said I
- 11:54Speaker 1: feared a.
- 11:55Speaker 2: Woody Allen type situation.
- 11:58Speaker 1: What I'm saying is I had so many moms I
- 12:01Speaker 1: just wanted to give them a finger necklace because they
- 12:06Speaker 1: would go along with it or choose not to say
- 12:10Speaker 1: that their child is being raped and sodomized.
- 12:14Speaker 10: Nancy, this is gruesome.
- 12:16Speaker 6: You know.
- 12:17Speaker 10: Even the fact that we have to have this conversation
- 12:19Speaker 10: is an alert, big red flag for anybody who's currently dating,
- 12:24Speaker 10: has anybody coming in and out of their lives when
- 12:27Speaker 10: they have children in the house. You know, predators go
- 12:30Speaker 10: out of their way to be selective and intentional with
- 12:32Speaker 10: who they choose to date, and women who are raising
- 12:35Speaker 10: minor children are a perfect choice for a potential predator. Here,
- 12:40Speaker 10: in this case, we have child maltreatment at a minimum,
- 12:44Speaker 10: because child sexual abuse is not random and it's not sudden.
- 12:49Speaker 10: This was a reoccurring situation, chronic situation for poor Mattie
- 12:54Speaker 10: that she had to endure because no one was protecting her.
- 12:57Speaker 11: When you guys show me the future of her, I
- 13:00Speaker 11: believe the sexual stuff, but I didn't want to believe
- 13:03Speaker 11: that he had done anything equal to her. I'm like, no,
- 13:05Speaker 11: if she what if he did this? Stop buying? But
- 13:08Speaker 11: what if she's still missing out there? What if somebody
- 13:11Speaker 11: took her? I still wanted to believe his I believed him.
- 13:16Speaker 11: I believed his whole story. So I was just like,
- 13:19Speaker 11: I kept repeating that part. I'm just like, what did
- 13:21Speaker 11: she take?
- 13:22Speaker 7: I dropped off?
- 13:22Speaker 11: What if she got abductive?
- 13:25Speaker 2: What if she's missing? What is this woman on about?
- 13:28Speaker 2: What is she saying?
- 13:31Speaker 1: After you showed me the images of my living boyfriend,
- 13:34Speaker 1: Stephan Stearns raping and sodomizing my twelve year old, I
- 13:42Speaker 1: didn't want to think he did anything evil to her?
- 13:44Speaker 2: What okay?
- 13:46Speaker 12: That said?
- 13:47Speaker 1: Let's move forward with what we're learning now. Mom long
- 13:50Speaker 1: fear in a Woody Allen type situation, but did nothing
- 13:54Speaker 1: about it. I want you to see new video that
- 13:59Speaker 1: we have obtained of the defendant, Stephan Stearns, acting out
- 14:07Speaker 1: how Mattie was asleep in his car, Shannon Butler joining
- 14:12Speaker 1: me WFTV. Mattie wasn't asleep, she.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Was dead, propped up in his car and buckled in.
- 14:21Speaker 7: Buckled in yes, assumingly. He wanted to do that because
- 14:26Speaker 7: he drove out of the condo complex right on the
- 14:30Speaker 7: way to school, so that would work with his story
- 14:33Speaker 7: that I took her to school that day. So if
- 14:35Speaker 7: there were cameras or any of the neighbors had seen him.
- 14:38Speaker 7: They could be like, oh, I saw him, she was
- 14:40Speaker 7: in the front seat and they were driving out of
- 14:43Speaker 7: the complex to match his story. But investigators knew right
- 14:47Speaker 7: away from looking at that video, they knew Madeleinsoto at
- 14:50Speaker 7: that moment was not alive. That is why they came
- 14:53Speaker 7: out so early and could say that they believed that
- 14:56Speaker 7: she was already dead before she left the apartment complex
- 15:00Speaker 7: because that video to them was very very clear that
- 15:03Speaker 7: she was not moving in that front seat.
- 15:05Speaker 1: So doctor Eric Ethon joining me more certified forensic pathologist
- 15:09Speaker 1: and consultant doctor Esen, I guess he buckled Maddie's dead
- 15:16Speaker 1: body in because he didn't want to get pulled over
- 15:18Speaker 1: on a seat belt violation. The reality is, doctor Esen,
- 15:24Speaker 1: is that at that time rigor had likely not set in,
- 15:30Speaker 1: so her body would have still been limp, so he
- 15:35Speaker 1: had to buckle her in or should fall over.
- 15:38Speaker 6: Correct.
- 15:38Speaker 12: Yeah, the body still would have been limp, and she
- 15:40Speaker 12: STI would have been warm as well, because it takes
- 15:43Speaker 12: time after death to occur for the rigor to set
- 15:46Speaker 12: in and for the body to cool or rather assume
- 15:48Speaker 12: the surrounding environmental temperature, and then there's also lividity that
- 15:52Speaker 12: would take a while to set in, that settling of
- 15:54Speaker 12: the blood after death.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Old on Nelly, Wait a minute, slow down, man. I
- 16:01Speaker 1: know this is a regular talk for you Emmy's they're
- 16:05Speaker 1: in the medical examiner's lounge. But slow down for all
- 16:10Speaker 1: of us novices, Okay. Rigor is when the body stiffens up,
- 16:16Speaker 1: that there's a live or mortis where the blood settles
- 16:20Speaker 1: down to the lowest point of your body, like if
- 16:22Speaker 1: you're on your back, all the blood in your body
- 16:25Speaker 1: goes to your back and your end and the back
- 16:27Speaker 1: of your legs. So explain to me why he had
- 16:31Speaker 1: to buckle her up because rigor had not yet set
- 16:36Speaker 1: in in regular people talk.
- 16:38Speaker 12: Please, Well, she hadn't gotten stiff yet, so she was
- 16:40Speaker 12: not gonna be able to just sit there in the
- 16:43Speaker 12: car seat without flopping over, and so it had to
- 16:47Speaker 12: be buckled in.
- 16:48Speaker 1: What exactly is rigor and does it set in and
- 16:51Speaker 1: then dissolve over a period of hours or do you
- 16:54Speaker 1: stay in rigor?
- 16:55Speaker 12: No, it's muscle stiffness, So the muscles don't contract, they
- 16:58Speaker 12: just become stiff due to the body depleting this chemical
- 17:02Speaker 12: known as ATP. But trying to keep it simple. The
- 17:05Speaker 12: body becomes stiff, and then over time you'll reach a
- 17:08Speaker 12: full stiffness, full rigor, and then it'll slowly go away.
- 17:13Speaker 12: It all takes. It depends on how you die and
- 17:16Speaker 12: the surrounding an environmental temperature. But it comes on, then
- 17:19Speaker 12: it goes away, Doctor eric Ason.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Every once in a while, while I'm analyzing a case
- 17:24Speaker 1: or I'm investigating a case, and I'm running down the
- 17:29Speaker 1: rabbit hole, sometimes it's easy to forget. We're talking about
- 17:34Speaker 1: a little girl that just turned thirteen, that had been
- 17:39Speaker 1: living in hell for years, since she was at least nine,
- 17:44Speaker 1: And we figure that out because of how far back
- 17:47Speaker 1: the video and photo images on his phone go. He,
- 17:52Speaker 1: according to the state, had been raping and sodomizing this
- 17:57Speaker 1: little girl and taking videos of it.
- 17:59Speaker 2: In mommy home for years.
- 18:04Speaker 1: And you and I are talking about rigor and why
- 18:06Speaker 1: he had to buckle her in and what is life
- 18:09Speaker 1: and mortis and what is rigor? Morris and I have
- 18:14Speaker 1: to think about my little girl and my little boy
- 18:19Speaker 1: at age twelve. It's easy to forget that or do
- 18:24Speaker 1: we just want to forget about it when we're trying
- 18:26Speaker 1: to analyze, because it's hard to focus on probative issues
- 18:30Speaker 1: and forensics when you're thinking about your own child.
- 18:34Speaker 12: Correct exactly. I mean that her she was going through
- 18:38Speaker 12: hell leading up to the death, and then we haven't
- 18:40Speaker 12: even talked about the actual cause of death itself. So
- 18:43Speaker 12: you know, she was strangled, which is a very violent
- 18:46Speaker 12: way to be killed, especially if you're a twelve year
- 18:49Speaker 12: old by another man.
- 18:50Speaker 1: So a grown man, mommy's boyfriend that has been molesting
- 18:56Speaker 1: you for years. Okay, guys, I steered us off course,
- 18:59Speaker 1: but I want to you to see what I saw,
- 19:03Speaker 1: and I couldn't verbalize why I was so aghast when
- 19:07Speaker 1: I saw it, But you'll understand.
- 19:11Speaker 3: I'm just gonna say any thinks she was just a sleeper,
- 19:14Speaker 3: she's just reclient in the chair of sleeping. Okay, explain
- 19:18Speaker 3: to me like reclaiming backwards. Yes, thank you, laying back.
- 19:24Speaker 12: In the chaff.
- 19:34Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Two.
- 19:37Speaker 1: Renowned and veteran trial lawyer Philip Dubay joining us LA
- 19:43Speaker 1: County Public Defender's Office, which means he's tried a lot
- 19:47Speaker 1: of cases. They can't even say no, this case disgusts me.
- 19:52Speaker 1: The judge says, you're on it. You're the public defender
- 19:55Speaker 1: have fun with that.
- 19:57Speaker 2: So I guess, h Philip, I'd like you to.
- 19:59Speaker 1: Look one more time at mom's live in a boyfriend
- 20:06Speaker 1: acting out how little Maddie Soto just turned thirteen. I
- 20:11Speaker 1: just dozed off in the front seat of his car
- 20:14Speaker 1: on the way to school one morning.
- 20:16Speaker 2: She was sleepy.
- 20:17Speaker 7: Watch it's gonna say you think she was just a sleeper.
- 20:20Speaker 3: She was just her client in the chair sleeping, Okay,
- 20:24Speaker 3: explain to me like reclining backwards, yes, thank you, laying
- 20:30Speaker 3: back in.
- 20:31Speaker 1: The shar Do you see him leaning his head back
- 20:34Speaker 1: like he'sozing.
- 20:35Speaker 2: I guess, Philip, debate.
- 20:36Speaker 1: That's why you tell all your clients not to speak
- 20:40Speaker 1: to LA law enforcement.
- 20:42Speaker 13: Of course, and they never listen, and that's why we
- 20:44Speaker 13: all have a job in this system. But I will
- 20:46Speaker 13: say this, to be fair, a lot of kids at
- 20:49Speaker 13: that age you have to get up at six six
- 20:51Speaker 13: thirty are tired. They're sitting in the car, They've maybe
- 20:54Speaker 13: just had a little bit of breakfast, they are fatigued themselves.
- 20:57Speaker 13: They're not exactly like the energized bun looking forward to
- 21:01Speaker 13: going into a car.
- 21:02Speaker 14: Do you say, are you saying she maybe was a
- 21:04Speaker 14: sleep How does that How in this world does that
- 21:09Speaker 14: have anything to do with Mattie, rape, sodomized and dead
- 21:12Speaker 14: by strangulation, and you're talking about some other child might
- 21:17Speaker 14: be a little sleepy in the morning.
- 21:19Speaker 2: What because they had to get up at six thirty.
- 21:21Speaker 2: That has nothing to do with Maddie. She's dead. She
- 21:24Speaker 2: was dead in that photo.
- 21:25Speaker 13: Where's the proof of that beyond a reasonable doubt? So far,
- 21:29Speaker 13: the evidence is the kid was in the front seat,
- 21:32Speaker 13: was tired, leaned her head back, and that's it. I
- 21:35Speaker 13: have not heard one shred of forensic evidence that this
- 21:39Speaker 13: child was in fact clinically dead in the front seat
- 21:43Speaker 13: of that car. All we know is that she was
- 21:46Speaker 13: there and may have dozed off. That's it.
- 21:49Speaker 1: Okay, Shannon Butler, can you please help me throw me
- 21:52Speaker 1: a bone? I need life raft Actually, Shannon joining us WFTV,
- 22:00Speaker 1: explain to Debay how you and I know she was dead.
- 22:05Speaker 1: According to the state in that car buckled and so
- 22:09Speaker 1: she wouldn't fall over.
- 22:11Speaker 7: So investigators were very certain when they looked at that
- 22:15Speaker 7: video of the car driving out of that complex, they
- 22:20Speaker 7: could tell just from the video that Madeleine Soda was
- 22:23Speaker 7: already dead. Now, the timeline of when she was killed.
- 22:26Speaker 7: That is still a mystery. They don't know what happened
- 22:28Speaker 7: inside the house, but they know what she was buckled
- 22:31Speaker 7: into the front seat of that car, that she was
- 22:34Speaker 7: already dead. They knew it by looking at it. There
- 22:37Speaker 7: was no doubt in their minds. They came out very
- 22:39Speaker 7: very early and said that Madeline Soda was no longer
- 22:42Speaker 7: a live They could tell, they said, because she looked
- 22:45Speaker 7: limp and was slumped over in the seat. It didn't
- 22:47Speaker 7: look like she was sleeping to that.
- 22:49Speaker 1: You know what, I've got a very strong feeling that
- 22:53Speaker 1: Debay is not going to buy that because investigators said so.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Dodger Erry Ason, she Maddie never made it to middle
- 23:04Speaker 1: school that morning at Hunter's Creek Middle School.
- 23:08Speaker 2: She never got there.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Okay, the last time she was seen she was in
- 23:13Speaker 1: that car with Stephan Stearns. Her mother did not speak
- 23:17Speaker 1: to her as normal that morning before she went to school.
- 23:25Speaker 2: The mother did not.
- 23:26Speaker 1: Hear her voice to know she was alive that morning
- 23:31Speaker 1: before she went to school.
- 23:34Speaker 2: She didn't make it to school. So we know.
- 23:37Speaker 1: That indicates anyway, very strongly, circumstantially, that she was dead
- 23:42Speaker 1: before that. We know, based on eye witnesses that shortly
- 23:47Speaker 1: after she was seen in the car with Sterns. Her
- 23:52Speaker 1: body was dumped. He was spotted at the location where
- 23:55Speaker 1: her body was dumped, going into the woods. Her body
- 23:59Speaker 1: was dumped shortly after that picture. Now, isn't it true,
- 24:06Speaker 1: doctor Ason, that a medical examiner can typically place a
- 24:12Speaker 1: time of death? Isn't that true?
- 24:14Speaker 12: We can come up with a pretty good range, and
- 24:16Speaker 12: so you base it on when they were last known
- 24:18Speaker 12: alive and then when they were found dead, and you
- 24:21Speaker 12: put a bunch of the pieces together, and then you
- 24:22Speaker 12: combine that with some of the postpartum changes that would
- 24:26Speaker 12: have occurred, and so we're usually able to narrow it
- 24:29Speaker 12: down within a pretty good range for the most part.
- 24:31Speaker 11: Yes, I believe the actual stuff, but I didn't want
- 24:36Speaker 11: to believe that he had done any.
- 24:37Speaker 15: Able to her.
- 24:38Speaker 4: But that was me assuming that you guys have the
- 24:41Speaker 4: wrong guy.
- 24:42Speaker 1: I wanted to believe you had the wrong guy, even
- 24:50Speaker 1: after seeing those horrific sex attack images of Stephan Starn's
- 24:55Speaker 1: allegedly attacking her little girl. For years, he kept all
- 25:00Speaker 1: those videos, which is a whole other can of worms.
- 25:02Speaker 1: To doctor Jory Krausen, joining US Psychologists Faculty, Saint Leo
- 25:06Speaker 1: University and author Operation Soos, doctor Jory Craws, And why
- 25:11Speaker 1: do perps want to save their rape videos?
- 25:15Speaker 6: That's a great question. It's because of fantasy. Okay. To
- 25:18Speaker 6: really understand a sexual offender, you've got to get into
- 25:21Speaker 6: their fantasy world and they want to relive that. That's
- 25:28Speaker 6: the whole key, the whole drive of the sexual offender.
- 25:32Speaker 6: You notice on the report they talked about the pictures
- 25:36Speaker 6: were still like she was sleeping. Several of them identified
- 25:41Speaker 6: him with her where her eyes were closed as sleeping.
- 25:45Speaker 6: There's also a report where one of his previous girlfriend's
- 25:49Speaker 6: reports that in order to get an erection, she had
- 25:53Speaker 6: a play like she was dead. Okay, So those are
- 25:57Speaker 6: two connecting behavioral patterns that are very magnificant and tie
- 26:01Speaker 6: into his fantasy world.
- 26:03Speaker 1: Uh you know what, doctor Crawsin, I never said this
- 26:05Speaker 1: to you, but you're kind of creeping me out, and
- 26:06Speaker 1: I thought i'd seen it all. I'm going to move
- 26:09Speaker 1: on from that at his completely accurate Doctor Jory Crawsin.
- 26:14Speaker 1: Not only is Mama on record claiming she feared a
- 26:18Speaker 1: Woody Allen situation between Stephan Stearns and her little girl.
- 26:22Speaker 2: But yet did nothing about it.
- 26:24Speaker 1: And we have Stephan Stearns acting out how Maddie was
- 26:28Speaker 1: asleep in the front of his car buckled in. There
- 26:31Speaker 1: are photos and videos taken of Stephan Stern's Listen.
- 26:49Speaker 7: He go ahead and turn around saying the wall, put
- 26:52Speaker 7: your hands behind your back, put together on your praying
- 26:56Speaker 7: just like that.
- 26:56Speaker 3: Going to spread your feet for me. Did you get
- 26:59Speaker 3: a really good picture of this right here the school area?
- 27:11Speaker 2: See right there?
- 27:11Speaker 1: They are trying to get photos of his hands, his wrists,
- 27:15Speaker 1: his arm below the elbow. I wonder if there were
- 27:19Speaker 1: scratches or bruises there where Maddy tried to fight back.
- 27:23Speaker 1: You know, I want to look at that video from
- 27:25Speaker 1: beginning to end.
- 27:26Speaker 2: One more time.
- 27:27Speaker 1: If you don't mind control room, let's just start it
- 27:29Speaker 1: at the get go. Okay, take a look at this guy,
- 27:34Speaker 1: Stephan Stearns. Look at him now. Think about a little
- 27:39Speaker 1: nine year old girl seeing this coming into the bedroom
- 27:45Speaker 1: every night, and what could she.
- 27:48Speaker 2: Do Anna Sonoda.
- 27:50Speaker 1: She couldn't call out to mommy because in her mind
- 27:54Speaker 1: that wouldn't do any good because mommy loves.
- 27:58Speaker 10: Her rapist Nancy and had to pay the ultimate price
- 28:01Speaker 10: for Jennifer to continue our relationship with an evil predator.
- 28:05Speaker 10: In the form of Stefan. We know that grooming was
- 28:08Speaker 10: taking place. We know that the highest risk environment for
- 28:13Speaker 10: a child is their home where they live. And again
- 28:16Speaker 10: and again, Jennifer opened the door to this predator, allowing
- 28:21Speaker 10: him to come in. And where were the mandated observers
- 28:25Speaker 10: in this situation. You know, children are sitting ducks. They
- 28:29Speaker 10: need our protection at all times, and unfortunately, predators get
- 28:33Speaker 10: to run on gas, grooming, access in space. Stefan had
- 28:37Speaker 10: all three in this case, and it led to a
- 28:40Speaker 10: devastating tragedy on all fronts.
- 28:44Speaker 7: I've never seen any sign. I tried watching her like
- 28:47Speaker 7: a hog.
- 28:48Speaker 4: I thought I was doing a good job, but it wasn't.
- 28:50Speaker 7: I was oblivious to every four years.
- 28:56Speaker 1: You know, I'd like to believe her, but yet I
- 28:59Speaker 1: know that in the last hours we find out that
- 29:02Speaker 1: prior to watching her like a hawk, mom Jennifer Soto
- 29:07Speaker 1: feared a Woody Allen type situation between her little girl
- 29:14Speaker 1: and her living boyfriend Stefan Sterns.
- 29:18Speaker 2: Okay, there's more.
- 29:21Speaker 1: Stephan Sterns actually blames the state for inflating his charges,
- 29:30Speaker 1: artificially inflating his charges. Mattie's dead, She's been raped and
- 29:38Speaker 1: sodomized for years, So I don't think those charges need inflating.
- 29:45Speaker 2: Mister Sterns, listen to this.
- 29:47Speaker 15: Were you expecting these charges? The burger charge? Oh well
- 29:55Speaker 15: you get motly so you got blindsided by that?
- 29:58Speaker 16: Yeah, obviously you know it's not true. You know I
- 30:02Speaker 16: never would have wanted her and read him, so you
- 30:05Speaker 16: know he meditated first degree is kind of clients.
- 30:10Speaker 1: These recorded phone calls. I don't know how in this
- 30:13Speaker 1: day and age you cannot know your jail calls are
- 30:16Speaker 1: being recorded. That said, take a look at what Stephan
- 30:22Speaker 1: Stearn's is actually saying straight out to Robin and Drake
- 30:27Speaker 1: joining Us, former FBI Chief of FBI counter Intelligence Behavioral
- 30:31Speaker 1: Analysis Program, author of a lot of books. Robin, do
- 30:35Speaker 1: you hear what he's saying in that first bit of sound?
- 30:39Speaker 1: And this is him talking to his mom and dad
- 30:41Speaker 1: and let me tell you, I'm going to play some more.
- 30:43Speaker 1: And dad, who I think was former l E law
- 30:46Speaker 1: enforcement man, he can smell some serious hot steam and
- 30:51Speaker 1: BS he's talking to his son, who's like, what but here?
- 30:57Speaker 1: Just just kick it off. Stephan starn says, I don't
- 31:01Speaker 1: know what the plan is. Are they just trying to
- 31:03Speaker 1: scare me depleting down. Oh no, Sterns, that ain't gonna happen.
- 31:07Speaker 1: You're not bleating down? What involuntary manslaughter or fat chance?
- 31:12Speaker 1: They're trying to scare me and trying to hurt me
- 31:16Speaker 1: as much as possible. Maddie was left dead right sodomized,
- 31:22Speaker 1: her stuff on in a dumpster, her body found, and
- 31:26Speaker 1: he's saying, they're just trying to hurt me as much
- 31:29Speaker 1: as possible.
- 31:30Speaker 9: Response isn't as completely shocking and important about how there's
- 31:36Speaker 9: so little regard for the dead little girl by both.
- 31:40Speaker 8: Him and her mom.
- 31:42Speaker 9: And like you just pointed out, it's really really striking
- 31:45Speaker 9: to me about how the parents seem to be kind
- 31:50Speaker 9: of just knowledgeable in some way. You know, it's not
- 31:54Speaker 9: like a shocks them. And can you imagine any one
- 31:56Speaker 9: of your beautiful little children being accused of something like this,
- 32:00Speaker 9: You know, the shock that disbelief, because if you are
- 32:03Speaker 9: used to seeing and having a healthy relationship with your
- 32:06Speaker 9: child and something like this happens, it's a huge shock
- 32:09Speaker 9: to your system. But this doesn't send me much of
- 32:11Speaker 9: a shock to them. There's a lot of leakage for
- 32:13Speaker 9: a lot of years that they didn't like the behaviors
- 32:15Speaker 9: they were seeing and you're hearing it come out in
- 32:18Speaker 9: this conversation right here, and then his self centered focus
- 32:22Speaker 9: is just on full display.
- 32:31Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Shannon Butler are joining me.
- 32:37Speaker 1: Investigative reporter WFTV Channel nine, Florida. Shannon is Stefan Stearn's dad,
- 32:44Speaker 1: former law enforcement.
- 32:46Speaker 7: He knew you could tell in those calls. He knew exactly, Oh.
- 32:49Speaker 2: Yeah, good, that's what I was just gonna say.
- 32:52Speaker 1: I know he roomed over all these calls, and you
- 32:56Speaker 1: can tell him he's like, who smelling ma, I mean,
- 33:00Speaker 1: he could smell it a mile away.
- 33:03Speaker 2: How are Sterns' parents reacting to all of.
- 33:07Speaker 7: This, Well, the dad had questions very early on, because
- 33:10Speaker 7: the parents actually came up when Madeleine Soda was missing
- 33:14Speaker 7: to try to help locate her. They came out, came
- 33:18Speaker 7: up right after, you know, he told them, Hey, Madeline's missing.
- 33:22Speaker 7: And the dad was always a little bit suspicious of
- 33:26Speaker 7: what was happening because Stearns, remember, left in the middle
- 33:30Speaker 7: of the night, was driving around and you can tell
- 33:33Speaker 7: just kind of the matter of factness on those calls,
- 33:36Speaker 7: but you can also hear a little bit of that
- 33:38Speaker 7: anguish as they let it set in that. Hey, by
- 33:41Speaker 7: the way, by the time you get out of jail,
- 33:43Speaker 7: we'll all be gone and there will be no one here.
- 33:46Speaker 1: Given what Shannon Butler has just told us, I want
- 33:49Speaker 1: you to hear what we're talking about. The dad asking
- 33:54Speaker 1: how did this whole thing come about, and Stefan Stearns
- 33:59Speaker 1: essentially says she started it.
- 34:02Speaker 15: Listen, you know you and actually have a conversation.
- 34:04Speaker 17: All of us could have a conversation to understand what's
- 34:09Speaker 17: taking place, how this came about.
- 34:12Speaker 15: How you were right here, because it would help us, help.
- 34:16Speaker 17: Us better understand the situation, because we're just ratter lost
- 34:22Speaker 17: for understanding.
- 34:26Speaker 15: How all this came about. I mean, we're just totally
- 34:28Speaker 15: totally baffled.
- 34:30Speaker 16: It started.
- 34:33Speaker 15: You didn't start it, but you participated in it, which
- 34:36Speaker 15: is just that that is not starting at.
- 34:37Speaker 1: The reminder to all, jen Jennifer Soto, Maddie's mother, has
- 34:45Speaker 1: not been charged, has not been named a POI, person
- 34:48Speaker 1: of interest or suspect in this case. As a matter
- 34:51Speaker 1: of fact, in their wisdom, she has been granted a
- 34:56Speaker 1: type of immunity, so based on many of the things
- 35:03Speaker 1: she told investigators, she cannot be prosecuted for those things.
- 35:09Speaker 1: It's a limited use immunity. Jen Soto not a suspect.
- 35:14Speaker 10: A woman got on a YouTube thing and said that
- 35:17Speaker 10: you weren't even at the party.
- 35:21Speaker 15: Pardon yeah, her birthday party.
- 35:25Speaker 16: Yeah, I hadn't gotten there yet. I went up there
- 35:26Speaker 16: a Sunday evening and got there after she was done
- 35:30Speaker 16: at her party.
- 35:31Speaker 15: Oh okay, okay, and I was.
- 35:34Speaker 16: We were very happy that I was there with the
- 35:36Speaker 16: very happy the history of us were together and was
- 35:38Speaker 16: shaping up to be a great week and a great visit.
- 35:41Speaker 16: You know, there was no weak was craything to happen
- 35:44Speaker 16: that happened.
- 35:45Speaker 2: There was no reason for anything to happen that happened.
- 35:50Speaker 1: Again, just like we heard Anna Sonoda claiming, and I'm
- 35:53Speaker 1: going to need a shrink on this, It's like that
- 35:57Speaker 1: didn't have to happen.
- 35:58Speaker 2: Well, according to the state, you did it. That's why
- 36:01Speaker 2: it happened.
- 36:02Speaker 1: She didn't just suddenly fall over dead after having been
- 36:05Speaker 1: raped and sodomized.
- 36:06Speaker 2: This little girl, Maddie so too. It didn't just happen.
- 36:10Speaker 1: Shannon Butler with me investigative reporter WFTV Channel nine.
- 36:14Speaker 2: Shannon tell me the time frame from her birthday to
- 36:18Speaker 2: her murder.
- 36:19Speaker 7: The birthday was on that Sunday night, she got dropped
- 36:23Speaker 7: off back at the house, and that's when also came
- 36:27Speaker 7: to the house.
- 36:28Speaker 1: You know, I don't know why, doctor Jory Crawsen, as
- 36:31Speaker 1: many times as I've combed over this case, I didn't
- 36:33Speaker 1: put that significant fact together. The night of her thirteenth
- 36:37Speaker 1: the birthday party, she was killed.
- 36:40Speaker 6: There could be a couple of reasons for that. Pedophiles
- 36:43Speaker 6: have age specific victims, and when they start to age out,
- 36:47Speaker 6: they start to move on. Okay, he really couldn't move
- 36:50Speaker 6: on with this because she now becomes a liability. One
- 36:54Speaker 6: of the other things already mentioned.
- 36:56Speaker 15: Was she started it.
- 36:58Speaker 6: That's part of the fantasy that he was living, that
- 37:01Speaker 6: this child came on to him sexually. I would lose
- 37:05Speaker 6: count how many times I've heard penophiles tell me that
- 37:08Speaker 6: during clinical assessments. That's part of that fantasy they build.
- 37:13Speaker 1: You know, to Phillip Debate joining us, you just heard
- 37:16Speaker 1: Stefan Stern saying, quote, there's no reason for anything to
- 37:20Speaker 1: happen that happened. I know you're not going to comment
- 37:25Speaker 1: on any of your cases, but have you noticed because
- 37:30Speaker 1: I have.
- 37:33Speaker 2: Defendants, perps suspects.
- 37:35Speaker 1: Try to blame the crime on it just happened. Like,
- 37:39Speaker 1: here's a good example. I had a guy break into
- 37:42Speaker 1: a woe's home.
- 37:44Speaker 12: She came home.
- 37:46Speaker 1: Not only did he kill her, he raped her first,
- 37:49Speaker 1: and when asked why, he says, I don't know, my
- 37:52Speaker 1: little mate, you just got up as if he's blaming
- 37:56Speaker 1: his penis for the rape and murder, it's the penis's fault.
- 38:00Speaker 1: And here we're hearing step On Stearn saying there's no
- 38:03Speaker 1: reason for anything to happen.
- 38:05Speaker 2: That happened. It just happened.
- 38:07Speaker 13: Yeah, Unfortunately he doesn't know the elements of the crimes.
- 38:10Speaker 13: He seems to think that by being ignorant or trying
- 38:14Speaker 13: to attribute it to something that was beyond his control,
- 38:18Speaker 13: or that's something that appeared to be a natural urge
- 38:21Speaker 13: or sort of mutually consensual if you will, that it
- 38:25Speaker 13: somehow makes it lawful. And all he did was just
- 38:29Speaker 13: dig himself into a hole much deeper than he already was.
- 38:33Speaker 1: Because everyone I love when he just said that een
- 38:38Speaker 1: that Hey, this grown man. I mean you did see
- 38:41Speaker 1: him without a shirt on, right, nobody wants to see
- 38:43Speaker 1: that coming in the bedroom, all right, That said much
- 38:46Speaker 1: less a nine year old little girl.
- 38:49Speaker 2: You just said.
- 38:51Speaker 1: Mutual consent. If you will, I won't. I will not
- 38:56Speaker 1: go down your garden path. That he thought this was
- 39:02Speaker 1: mutual consent, well.
- 39:04Speaker 13: Then there's nothing to argue. Frankly, in his mind he
- 39:09Speaker 13: feels that there was consent. It is not a defense
- 39:12Speaker 13: because of the child's age. So all he did was
- 39:15Speaker 13: incriminate himself even further. I mean, that's just the bottom line.
- 39:19Speaker 13: There's just no way out of this. And frankly, they
- 39:22Speaker 13: didn't even need his statements. They don't even need those
- 39:24Speaker 13: jail calls. They have ample evidence without a word coming
- 39:28Speaker 13: out of his mouth to nail him. The only real
- 39:30Speaker 13: issue here, and I know we're not discussing it, is
- 39:33Speaker 13: whether or not he will die. And this is a
- 39:36Speaker 13: type of case. As defense counsel, I would be groveling
- 39:39Speaker 13: for what we call ELWOP life without parole. That is
- 39:42Speaker 13: his only hope in this case. It's not whether or
- 39:45Speaker 13: not he will ever get out. The question is one
- 39:47Speaker 13: of housing. Will he be condemned or will he be
- 39:50Speaker 13: in general population for the rest of his life too.
- 39:53Speaker 1: Robin Drake cut, longtime colleague, behavior expert, and you know
- 39:58Speaker 1: the rest Former FBI author Robin Drake, this guy not Debey,
- 40:05Speaker 1: this guy.
- 40:06Speaker 2: Stephan sterns I mean, hey and Jennifer Soto. What a pair.
- 40:12Speaker 2: But what about steph on Stern's It didn't what happened
- 40:17Speaker 2: didn't have to happen, like it just fell on their heads.
- 40:20Speaker 2: He did it, according to prosecutors.
- 40:23Speaker 8: Yeah, he's victim blaming.
- 40:24Speaker 9: He's every time I hear watch him speak any anything,
- 40:29Speaker 9: it looks like he's so rehearsed. He's done this before,
- 40:32Speaker 9: he's he's thought about this a lot, He's contemplated this
- 40:35Speaker 9: a lot, and the entire world he's created around himself
- 40:38Speaker 9: to him is extremely believable. You know, as our lawyer
- 40:41Speaker 9: was saying, you know, it's in his own mind. If
- 40:45Speaker 9: he blames a victim, it shouldn't be an inflated charge.
- 40:48Speaker 9: And literally he believes that because he is just so
- 40:51Speaker 9: twisted and so broken and he allowed himself to keep
- 40:53Speaker 9: going down this dark, evil path or he victimized her.
- 40:57Speaker 9: And I wouldn't be surprised if they find him.
- 41:00Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything about the
- 41:04Speaker 1: years of sex abuse and ultimate murder allegations, please dial
- 41:12Speaker 1: four zero seven eight four six three three three three
- 41:17Speaker 1: four zero seven eight four six three three three three.
- 41:23Speaker 1: We remember an American hero Police officer, Kevin Taun Galt PD, California,
- 41:31Speaker 1: just thirty five, shot and killed in the line of duty.
- 41:34Speaker 1: A US Army Vet, Tawn served with Galt PD three years.
- 41:40Speaker 1: Survived by parents. Grieving parents Marianne and Will, sister Julie.
- 41:47Speaker 1: American hero Officer Kevin Taun. Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend.