Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 'Friend' murders HS Jr. prom date, throws her body off bridge for 'wad of cash' [Cops]

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'Friend' murders HS Jr. prom date, throws her body off bridge for 'wad of cash' [Cops] · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime stops here dot Com promo code Nancy Crime Stories
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Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. Hi. My name is Lisa Tooma and
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Speaker 1: I am an aunt of Savannah's Burlock. I'm posting from
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Speaker 1: Ohio today as family is scattered around the country praying
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Speaker 1: and leaning in together this day eleven that we're missing Savannah.
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Speaker 1: We wanted to say thank you to all of you
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Speaker 1: who have been praying so fervently for Savannah's safety, that
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Speaker 1: she would return safely to her babies, to her family
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Speaker 1: and her mother and father. We thank you from the
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Speaker 1: bottom of our hearts for those who help search, those
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Speaker 1: who've been doing all they can. We thank you. The
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Speaker 1: family is have a hard time, but we're leaning into
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Speaker 1: each other, We're leading into God, and we know that
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Speaker 1: he is so big. He is so big, and he
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Speaker 1: can do miracles, and we're believing and we're hoping that
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Speaker 1: she is safe and sound, and we are choosing to
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Speaker 1: keep hope alive. We also want to thank the Richmond,
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Speaker 1: Kentucky Police Department who've been working literally NonStop to bring
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Speaker 1: Savannah home. Where is Savannah Spurlock? That is her aunt
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Speaker 1: Lisa Thoma begging for help on Facebook and according to
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Speaker 1: Savannah's mother, somebody knows something straight out to John Limley,
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Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, let's start at the beginning.
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Speaker 1: Tell me about Savannah's disappearance. Well, in the final days
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Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, Savannah Spurlock had a big transition in
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Speaker 1: her life. She went from being a mother of two
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Speaker 1: to being a mother of four. In December, she gave
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Speaker 1: birth to twin boys, The infant's father is Savannah's ex boyfriend,
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Speaker 1: a guy named Shack Smith, with whom she also had
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Speaker 1: her first two children. Now, on the night of January fourth,
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Speaker 1: this is a Thursday night, just a couple of weeks
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Speaker 1: after giving birth to her latest to the twins, she
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Speaker 1: decides she wants a night out on the town and
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Speaker 1: heads to a bar called The Other Bar, a night
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Speaker 1: spot right there on the edge of the University of
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Speaker 1: Kentucky campus. Sometime between two forty five and three am,
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Speaker 1: Savannah makes a FaceTime call to her mom to let
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Speaker 1: her know that she's leaving the bar with a couple
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Speaker 1: of guys and that she'll be home in a few
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Speaker 1: hours by the time the sun comes up. And Nancy,
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Speaker 1: that's the last contact anyone has had with Savannah. We
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Speaker 1: are talking about a missing mother, police looking for her
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Speaker 1: right now. Her mother saying, somebody knows something about the disappearance. Now,
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Speaker 1: what can you tell me about her daughter? Her children.
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Speaker 1: The children are with their grandmother right now. They're both toddlers,
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Speaker 1: and of course they're looking for their mom and the twins. Now,
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Speaker 1: these newborns have been at least three or four weeks
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Speaker 1: now without their their mom Savannah spur a Lot disappears
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Speaker 1: seemingly into thin air. Now at the same time, a
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Speaker 1: new photo has been released of the twenty two year old,
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Speaker 1: taken just before she disappeared, just before she was reported missing.
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Speaker 1: Straight out to Kenya Johnson, felony prosecutor in the Atlanta jurisdiction,
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Speaker 1: What do you make of it? Kenya? So they've definitely
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Speaker 1: got to be more to this story. Twitter verse has
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Speaker 1: been very judgmentsl but no matter what the circumstances are
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Speaker 1: as to how a person lived a life, no one
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Speaker 1: deserves to be kidnapped or murdered or injured in any way.
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Speaker 1: And so she's disappeared with two guys. For the judge,
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Speaker 1: for a judge to sign a warrant and for police
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Speaker 1: to search a home means that there's some pretty compelling
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Speaker 1: evidence that creates a connection, and the police are searching
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Speaker 1: for a more deeper connection to associate her disappearance with someone.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to the aunt. Waiting is hard. Not
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Speaker 1: knowing answers to questions is hard when you're a stranger
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Speaker 1: and you're passionate about this story, when you're living it
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Speaker 1: and breathing it, it can be crippling. To know. Every
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Speaker 1: phone call might be the one, every text message might
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Speaker 1: be the one. But I'm so grateful that they are
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Speaker 1: working and they're protecting the case, and they can't tell
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Speaker 1: us anything, and I would rather that and her come
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Speaker 1: home safe. If you know any thing, we beg you
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Speaker 1: come forward and call the Richmond, Kentucky Police Department. If
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Speaker 1: you heard something, if you saw something, I don't care
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Speaker 1: how small it was. What if that one thing is
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Speaker 1: the piece of the puzzle that they're missing. What if
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Speaker 1: you hold the key to bringing her home? This person
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Speaker 1: who is someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's sister, someone's niece,
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Speaker 1: someone's best friend. We urge you to share your story.
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Speaker 1: Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please keep
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Speaker 1: posting your positive thoughts and your positive prayers. We are
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Speaker 1: going to continue to hope that we see savannahs safe
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Speaker 1: and sound soon. Thank you. Another thing we are learning
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Speaker 1: is that in the morning hours, Savannah's Burlott facetimed from
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Speaker 1: the driver's seat of a car with three other occupants
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Speaker 1: and said she would be home shortly. To John Linley,
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Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, what about them, who
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Speaker 1: were they? Well, they're also seen there are two guys
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Speaker 1: that are seen in a surveillance video as well as
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Speaker 1: in fact, just a few minutes before she made that
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Speaker 1: FaceTime call, she is arm in arm with a gentleman,
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Speaker 1: and then there is a guy right in front of them,
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Speaker 1: walking just ahead of them. And then during that phone call,
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Speaker 1: that FaceTime call, Ellen Spurlock, that is Savannah's mom, said that,
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Speaker 1: of course, we've already mentioned that Savannah said she'd be
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Speaker 1: home in a few hours. And Savannah was in a
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Speaker 1: moving vehicle with the male driving and a male and
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Speaker 1: female in the back seat. They were talking very loudly.
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Speaker 1: In fact, Ellen said she could hardly understand what her
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Speaker 1: daughter was saying during that FaceTime call. This is a
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Speaker 1: young Kentucky mom with newborn twin infants. They are only
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Speaker 1: a few weeks old, and mommy was finally going out
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Speaker 1: for the first time since giving birth and disappears into
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Speaker 1: thin air. If you have information, go to eight five
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Speaker 1: a friend of Sarah Stern classmates at Neptune High School
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Speaker 1: and junior prom dates. Now he stands in handcuffs after
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Speaker 1: admitting involvement in her murder. He was also aware that
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Speaker 1: his roommate, the codefendant in his gate, had planned out
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Speaker 1: the execution of this little girl for at least six months.
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Speaker 1: Prosecutor say Taylor first denied knowing anything, later admitting to
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Speaker 1: moving Sterne's body twice after his friend and roommate Liam
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Speaker 1: mctazney allegedly strangled her on December second, moving her first
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Speaker 1: from her home and then eight hours later from the
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Speaker 1: family's backyard into her car, where the duo drove her
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Speaker 1: to the Belmar Bridge and dumped her body in the
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Speaker 1: Shark River. Today, Judge Bauman ruled that Taylor will remain
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Speaker 1: in jail for pre trial detention no bail after his
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Speaker 1: defense pushed to have him home under his father's watch.
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Speaker 1: The father took surprising actions after his son was questioned
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Speaker 1: by police therein lawes the court's concern and decision to
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Speaker 1: detain why new evidence. Taylor led police to where he
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Speaker 1: buried two safes containing money and Stern's clothing in Sandy
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Speaker 1: Hook and Shark River Park. Motive is something that we'll
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Speaker 1: get into trial, but I will point out the fact
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Speaker 1: that at least one of the defendants has charged with
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Speaker 1: felony murders, So you can infer what you will from
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Speaker 1: that a felony murder, that the allegation of felony is
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Speaker 1: that it's a robbery that occurred in the course of
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Speaker 1: a murder. For two months, Michael Stern held onto hope
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Speaker 1: that his daughter would be found, organizing search parties that
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Speaker 1: Taylor and mctazney were a part of. Taylor later told
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Speaker 1: police he did so to deflect suspicion. Kay, can't pany
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Speaker 1: that so many schools you their best friend has planned
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Speaker 1: something like The search is ongoing for Stern's remains in
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Speaker 1: the hopes of giving our family some closure. Who are
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Speaker 1: hearing our friends at CBS Channel two overwhelming for this family.
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Speaker 1: I'm so distraught. Think of a mother and a father
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Speaker 1: out forming their own search parties trying to find their daughter.
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Speaker 1: This as we learned, a twenty one year old man
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Speaker 1: suspected of murdering his childhood friend his junior prom date
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Speaker 1: for her one hundred thousand dollars inheritance. Oh I Meancy Grace,
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Speaker 1: this is crime stories. Thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 1: Joining me an all star panel. JT. Tipton, private investigator
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Speaker 1: and founder of Syncopace of Security and Investigations in Texas.
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark, psychologist. You can find her at Karen Stark
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Speaker 1: dot com. Kenya Johnson, veteran felony prosecutor in the Atlanta
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Speaker 1: Jurisdiction and joining me Crime online dot Com investigator reporter
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Speaker 1: John Limley. You can find this in every other breaking
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Speaker 1: crime news at crime online dot com. John Limley his
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Speaker 1: junior prom day. Do I have this wrong? John? Just
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Speaker 1: to get some money, they break into the home, take
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Speaker 1: her out of the family home, kill her, leave her
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Speaker 1: body in the backyard, then go out and get the
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Speaker 1: body for the second time. And what throw it into
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Speaker 1: a river to start at the beginning, John Limley, Well,
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Speaker 1: the victim, Nancy in this case is Sarah Stern, twenty
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Speaker 1: fifteen graduate of Neptune High School. That's about midway through
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Speaker 1: the state of New Jersey, but it's still part of
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Speaker 1: metropolitan New York. Sarah was a budding artist there from
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Speaker 1: Neptune City Township. The woman was last seen alive in
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Speaker 1: early December of twenty sixteen, in the early hours of
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Speaker 1: the following day. This is the third December. Her nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety four Oldsmobile eighty eight that she usually drove was
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Speaker 1: found abandoned, the keys still in it. On top of whoa,
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Speaker 1: whoa stop right there, stop right there. That just gave
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Speaker 1: me a shiver down my spine. Karen Stark, psychologist, creator
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Speaker 1: of Karen Stark dot Com. When you hear the car
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Speaker 1: is found abandoned, you know the parents are waiting for
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Speaker 1: her to come home and they can't find or can't
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Speaker 1: find or can't find her. You heard the reporter at
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Speaker 1: CBS Channel two stating that they were hopeful she was
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Speaker 1: coming back. Then you find the car abandoned. Oh and
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Speaker 1: I know that you're picturing it right now, Nancy, because
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Speaker 1: I can't think of how Once you know that there's
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Speaker 1: a car, obviously begin to suspect that she's not alive
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Speaker 1: and what could worse and have a child procede you
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Speaker 1: in death. It's just everything is out of order, and
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Speaker 1: parents never recover from that kind of true. And I
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Speaker 1: mean you lived through a lot of this with me, Karen.
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Speaker 1: Start trying to start my life over again after my
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Speaker 1: fiance was murdered, and it was a really long process.
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Speaker 1: You and I in commercial breaks would sit on the
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Speaker 1: set at Court TV when we weren't watching the trial
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Speaker 1: and talk about how you start a life over again.
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Speaker 1: And JT. Tipton, private investigator found Ersinco pays so security
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Speaker 1: and investigations in Texas. JT. You deal with all sorts
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Speaker 1: of cases. I thought I knew all about paying, grieving
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Speaker 1: suffering when my fiance was murdered, but now that I
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Speaker 1: have the twins, I cannot imagine what these parents are
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Speaker 1: going through. JT. Tipton, have you dealt with parents trying
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Speaker 1: to find their children. It's a that's a very difficult
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Speaker 1: situation to be in. I'm a father of four, and
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine what it would be like to lose
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Speaker 1: one of my children under any circumstances, much less one
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Speaker 1: such as violent as this. I've also dealt with death
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Speaker 1: in the past. My brother passed away about the eight
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Speaker 1: years ago, and we searched for him for weeks until
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Speaker 1: we were able to find him. So it is a
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Speaker 1: it's an arduous project process, and it really really grinds
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Speaker 1: on your soul, you know, it really does, because you
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Speaker 1: keep that hope alive that they may still be alive.
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Speaker 1: I mean, Kenny Johnson, felony prosecutor in Atlanta. You know
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Speaker 1: that I was there ten years. That's one of the
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Speaker 1: murder capitals of the world. You deal with victims, families
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Speaker 1: all the time, and without a body. I mean, here
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Speaker 1: we have evidence that it took them half an hour
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Speaker 1: to strangle Savannah Spurlock, and they finally did it by
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Speaker 1: stuffing a scarf down her throat. But until the parents
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Speaker 1: actually see the body, they're in limbo, Kenya Johnson. Absolutely.
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Speaker 1: And the fear is that someone is convicted for murder
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Speaker 1: and then the body shows up, and of course the
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Speaker 1: conviction would be overturned, but you do hold out hope
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Speaker 1: until that conviction comes and you just realize, oh wait,
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Speaker 1: why would a conviction be overturned just because the body
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Speaker 1: shows up. I mean if if if the person is
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Speaker 1: still alive, then of course it would be overturned. But
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Speaker 1: if okay, so if the person shows up, yeah, well
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Speaker 1: in this case, you know, you're absolutely right, Kenya. In
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Speaker 1: this case, John Limley, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter,
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Speaker 1: we understand that one person one purpose play guilty and
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Speaker 1: the uptailer and the other one mctasney. As now, which
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Speaker 1: one has played guilty in which one has not. Leah mctasney,
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Speaker 1: a former high school classmate, is accused of strangling her
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Speaker 1: during that long planned robbery he has. He's charged with murder, felony, murder, robbery,
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Speaker 1: desecrating human remains, conspiracy to desecrate human remains. Now, let
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Speaker 1: me get this straight, John Lineley. Mctasney described to Telor
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Speaker 1: how he murdered her, how he murdered the girl, and
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Speaker 1: what he said to correct me if I'm wrong, because
18:40
Speaker 1: you've been watching the trial very carefully, that it took
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Speaker 1: him a really long time to make her stop breathing.
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Speaker 1: He strangled her for half an hour, that he was
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Speaker 1: laughing because in the process she quote paid herself and vomited.
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Speaker 1: And when she started throwing up this all I can
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Speaker 1: say is a monster that looks like a human. When
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Speaker 1: she started throwing up, he stuffed a scarf down her throat,
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Speaker 1: and she said his name a couple of times. Do
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Speaker 1: I have that right, John Lemley, that's right? And it's
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Speaker 1: all over a wad of cash that he found in
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Speaker 1: a shoe box of hers, along with a note from
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Speaker 1: her late mother, who had died when she was in
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Speaker 1: high school. Hi Nancy grays here. Have you ever Googled yourself,
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Speaker 1: of Americans admit keeping an eye on their own online reputation.
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Speaker 1: Forty six admit to using the Internet to look up
19:56
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Speaker 1: right away to start searching Truthfinder dot com forward slash Nancy,
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Speaker 1: Truthfinder dot com forward slash Nancy. Find the truth crime
20:55
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace. It's a type of someone would
21:00
Speaker 1: kill for those words from an alleged accomplice in the
21:03
Speaker 1: murder of his childhood friend, Sarah Stern. The trial started
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Speaker 1: today with Preston Taylor revealing what his friend who's accused
21:10
Speaker 1: of strangling Stern, told him after Stern discovered large sums
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Speaker 1: of money in her family's New Jersey home or Anthony
21:16
Speaker 1: Johnson Live and freehold with more Anthony. It was cold,
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Speaker 1: it was callous, and it was calculating. That is the
21:22
Speaker 1: best way to describe the testimony from the prosecution's star
21:26
Speaker 1: witness today, gripping testimony taking place all day. He's already
21:30
Speaker 1: admitted his role in this plot to kill the victim
21:33
Speaker 1: simply to steal her money. Preston Taylor says he in
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Speaker 1: the suspect Liam mctasne, had planned and executed the crime
21:42
Speaker 1: because they believe Sarah Stern had been left one hundred
21:45
Speaker 1: thousand dollars by her mom, who died when the victim
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Speaker 1: was in high school. Taylor said he and mctasney talked
21:51
Speaker 1: about getting their hands on that money. Brought up the money.
21:56
Speaker 1: There was a type of manasimy to kill for mctasni
21:59
Speaker 1: is kids are committing the murder in Sarah Stern's house
22:02
Speaker 1: and dumping her body in the bathroom. Taylor saw the
22:05
Speaker 1: victim's body after going to Sarah's house to look for
22:08
Speaker 1: the suspect's phone and to move her lifeless corpse. You
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Speaker 1: know she was dead, she was her, Taylor says he
22:17
Speaker 1: and the suspect had discussed the final moments of Sarah
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Speaker 1: Stern's life straggled. He took quite a while for the
22:25
Speaker 1: actually sub half hour, and in the process while she
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Speaker 1: After dragging Sarah's body from her home where she was murdered,
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Speaker 1: the suspects used walkie talkies to communicate on the bridge
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Speaker 1: where Stern's car was abandoned after she was dumped in
22:44
Speaker 1: the Shark River. When that's over, Taylor and mcatesney also
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Speaker 1: hid a safe belonging to Sarah Stern, which had some
22:55
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars inside. They had already taken seven thousand
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Speaker 1: dollars from Sarah's home after her death, but it was
23:01
Speaker 1: far short of the amount they thought they would get. Meanwhile, Taylor,
23:05
Speaker 1: who has already pleaded guilty to this crime, debunked the
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Speaker 1: defense theory that Sarah had committed suicide because of a
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Speaker 1: rocky relationship with her dad. She seemed depressed, she was silent,
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Speaker 1: and he answered no to both of those questions, also
23:21
Speaker 1: adding that the suspect and the victim were planning to
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Speaker 1: take a trip to Canada, and Sarah Stern was looking
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Speaker 1: forward to that trip. As for Leah mctasney, if he
23:31
Speaker 1: has found guilty of the crime, he will face the
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Speaker 1: rest of his life behind bars with no possibility of parole.
23:38
Speaker 1: As for Taylor, he's already accepted a plea deal up
23:42
Speaker 1: to ten to twenty years and a state prison. He'll
23:45
Speaker 1: have to serve eighty five percent of that time before
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Speaker 1: he is eligible for parole. You were hearing our friend
23:51
Speaker 1: at ABC seven. That was Anthony Johnson standing out in
23:54
Speaker 1: front of the courthouse. It's happening right now. This beautiful
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Speaker 1: girl murdered by her junior high prom date because he
24:03
Speaker 1: thought she had one hundred thousand dollars in her home
24:06
Speaker 1: that her mom left her. Her mom died when she
24:09
Speaker 1: was little. He had seen some cash and believed it
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Speaker 1: to be one hundred grand. Instead, he found seven thousand
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Speaker 1: in the home, in two thousand in a safe, and
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Speaker 1: they murdered her. This one guy laughing because she quote
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Speaker 1: pete her pants and started vomiting during her murder. I
24:26
Speaker 1: mean Karen Stark, psychologist at Karen Stark dot com. She
24:31
Speaker 1: actually said his name over and over while he was
24:34
Speaker 1: killing her the junior prom day. I mean, you'll look
24:37
Speaker 1: back on junior prom. You'll look at the pictures and
24:40
Speaker 1: you might have looked a little goofy. But most people
24:43
Speaker 1: hold their junior prom date in a special place. You know,
24:47
Speaker 1: you're high school prom, your senior prim your junior I
24:50
Speaker 1: still remember mine. I got a yellow dress from Sears
24:55
Speaker 1: and it costs like twenty two dollars, and I just
24:58
Speaker 1: thought that that was the best thing that had ever happened.
25:01
Speaker 1: And I remember I was five one and my junior
25:05
Speaker 1: prom date was six to four okay, Gary Brown, and
25:11
Speaker 1: we had the best time ever. Now, see that's the
25:15
Speaker 1: way I remember a dance that I went to in
25:18
Speaker 1: the eighth grade. This guy, according to the state, remembers
25:23
Speaker 1: it in a way that makes him want to go
25:25
Speaker 1: murder his junior prom date here and starts. See I
25:27
Speaker 1: kick relate to that thinking, Karen, Well, Nancy, you're a person,
25:31
Speaker 1: an essentient person with real feelings, and are reminiscing about
25:35
Speaker 1: a wonderful time. We're talking about somebody who doesn't had
25:39
Speaker 1: the capacity to feel. So she's calling out his name
25:42
Speaker 1: obviously and distress bleating, and he could care less. It
25:47
Speaker 1: would be the same as if he heard a dog
25:49
Speaker 1: barking in the background. It means nothing to him because
25:53
Speaker 1: he doesn't care. Imagine he's actually willing to kill her
25:58
Speaker 1: over that amount of money. Well, it doesn't even matter
26:02
Speaker 1: how much money that he does his whole plan, and
26:06
Speaker 1: think of that with an accomplice. No less, they think
26:09
Speaker 1: it makes sense to take someone's life for whatever reason.
26:14
Speaker 1: You know. Another thing where I'm wondering is is this
26:17
Speaker 1: more personal than just over money? It's actually Jackie Howard
26:21
Speaker 1: here in the studio question. But I gotta tell you something, Jackie,
26:24
Speaker 1: people murder for money every day, and it doesn't have
26:29
Speaker 1: to be more. I mean, Kenya, Johnson, you've certainly seen
26:32
Speaker 1: crimes over just money. I had a murder over a
26:34
Speaker 1: five dollars debt, five dollars, no connection, no feelings, that
26:43
Speaker 1: was it. I had a murder that I prosecuted over
26:46
Speaker 1: ten dollars hit a crap, ten rock. I mean, Kenya,
26:51
Speaker 1: It's hard for a lot of people to understand if
26:53
Speaker 1: you don't see it every day, But murders happen over money,
26:56
Speaker 1: and much smaller sums of money than I perceived. One
26:58
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars inheritance, absolutely, Nancy. And it's the thought
27:02
Speaker 1: of getting money, even though they may not know what
27:05
Speaker 1: that amount will be. The thought of getting more than
27:07
Speaker 1: what they had drives people to do crazy things. And
27:11
Speaker 1: when it comes to the thirty minutes that they choked her,
27:14
Speaker 1: imagine the jury or anybody that's listening now, how long
27:18
Speaker 1: thirty minutes is with this young lady dagging, still breathing
27:22
Speaker 1: and saying his name. It was just a very traumatic
27:26
Speaker 1: experience and that no one can be unaffected after hearing
27:30
Speaker 1: the details of this car. Well, one thing you got
27:32
Speaker 1: to take in an account to JT. Tipton, Ace, private investigator,
27:36
Speaker 1: founder of Sinco Paso Security and Investigations there in Texas.
27:41
Speaker 1: The witness okays an accomplice, So you got to take
27:46
Speaker 1: everything he says with a box of salt, not just
27:49
Speaker 1: a dash, but a box of salt, because he's trying
27:52
Speaker 1: to save his own skin. So then what you have
27:55
Speaker 1: to do to corroborate his testimony is you, the prosecutor
28:01
Speaker 1: or the investigator, have to go back and you have
28:04
Speaker 1: to corroborate what he says. For instance, he says with
28:08
Speaker 1: then this happened, this happened, This happened then we bury
28:11
Speaker 1: the safe, go back. Can you find the safe. If
28:15
Speaker 1: you can find the safe, that corroborates part of what
28:17
Speaker 1: he said. He said they dumped the body. The body
28:21
Speaker 1: was in the bathtub, then they dragged it to the backyard.
28:23
Speaker 1: Then they dragged it from the backyard and threw it
28:25
Speaker 1: over a bridge. Can you corroborate that? Can you bring
28:28
Speaker 1: out cadaver dogs and find where a dead body was
28:31
Speaker 1: in the backyard, Because it would be at such an
28:34
Speaker 1: easy argument for the defense to say, my guy didn't
28:37
Speaker 1: do it. He did it, and he's trying to pin
28:40
Speaker 1: it on my guy. There's no reason you should believe
28:43
Speaker 1: his testimony. That's where they're going to go. So JT. Tipton,
28:46
Speaker 1: what can police, investigators and prosecutors do to support the
28:52
Speaker 1: turncope the rat Well? Absolutely, As an investigator, it's our
28:56
Speaker 1: job number one to seek the truth and to find
28:59
Speaker 1: Jeff for the victims. So we've got to examine his statements.
29:05
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you're familiar with Mark mcclish. I'd like
29:08
Speaker 1: to run this accomplices statements through statement analysis and find
29:13
Speaker 1: out where there's holes or where there's truth, and then
29:16
Speaker 1: follow up scientifically. Well, there's another thing to John Limley,
29:20
Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. Now see, you've got
29:23
Speaker 1: one of the accomplices. Taylor claiming he was promised thirty
29:28
Speaker 1: percent of the cash, but we know he never saw
29:32
Speaker 1: any of it. The other side, the high school prom date,
29:36
Speaker 1: defense is going to say he's just angry over some money.
29:40
Speaker 1: That's why he's testifying against my client. He's the one
29:44
Speaker 1: that did it. What do we know, John Linley, what
29:46
Speaker 1: more can you tell me about what role Taylor actually
29:49
Speaker 1: admits he played in Sarah Stern's murder. Well, a bit
29:53
Speaker 1: of background on Preston Taylor. He was Liam mctasney's roommate
29:59
Speaker 1: when Stern missing. He is expected to tell the jury
30:02
Speaker 1: that mctasney called him on December second to tell him
30:07
Speaker 1: that he had killed Stern and asked him to move
30:11
Speaker 1: her body from her house. Taylor is also expected to
30:15
Speaker 1: testify that he moved Stern's body outside to some bushes,
30:19
Speaker 1: and then later returned with Liam to retrieve the corpse,
30:24
Speaker 1: load it into Stearns's own car, and bring it to
30:27
Speaker 1: the bridge where they dumped it into that Shark River
30:30
Speaker 1: inlet and left her cart there to make it look
30:33
Speaker 1: like she had committed suicide. Prosecutors also expected to play
30:37
Speaker 1: a video secretly recorded by an acquaintance of Liam mctasney
30:42
Speaker 1: in which he confesses to the crimes. Oh say that
30:45
Speaker 1: again about a confession. Well, there is a video secretly
30:49
Speaker 1: recorded by an acquaintance, maybe a friend, sort of a
30:54
Speaker 1: distant friend of Liam's, in which he confesses to the crimes. Wow,
30:58
Speaker 1: and what do we know what's on that tape? They
31:00
Speaker 1: have not released any details of what's on that tape.
31:03
Speaker 1: It will be interesting to see in that courtroom as
31:07
Speaker 1: if they do indeed play the video. Well, it's another
31:10
Speaker 1: day of searching for the New Jersey team believed to
31:13
Speaker 1: have been murdered and then dumped into a river. Two
31:17
Speaker 1: lifelong friends of nineteen year old Sarah Stern our charge
31:20
Speaker 1: in connection with her murder. Authority say Liam mccattency strangle
31:25
Speaker 1: Stern at her Neptune City home while robbing her in December.
31:29
Speaker 1: Preston Taylor allegedly helped dumped her body. The search for
31:34
Speaker 1: her remains is focused on the Shark River. Inlet that
31:38
Speaker 1: from our friends at ABC seven. The body still not recovered.
31:45
Speaker 1: Back to you, John Limley, Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter,
31:48
Speaker 1: we are talking about the murder of a beautiful young girl,
31:52
Speaker 1: Sarah Stern, by two lifetime friends, one even her junior
31:59
Speaker 1: prom date, Johnnely. What more do we know? Well, we're
32:04
Speaker 1: very interested to hear from the defense in this case
32:08
Speaker 1: because they're expected to focus on the fact that stearns
32:14
Speaker 1: body was never found and this creates reasonable doubt that
32:18
Speaker 1: she's even dead or that a murder occurred. A previous
32:23
Speaker 1: attorney who represented the defendant, Liam mctasney, dismissed his confession
32:30
Speaker 1: to that acquaintance on the secretly recorded video by saying
32:34
Speaker 1: mctasney was always making up stories to impress people, including
32:39
Speaker 1: that acquaintance, who is an amateur horror filmmaker. Defenditive Liam
32:44
Speaker 1: mctaszie's motion to suppress his statement to AC on January
32:47
Speaker 1: thirty first, twenty seventeen, being is hereby denied. It's further
32:51
Speaker 1: ordered that defendant Liam mctasi's motion to supress the electronically
32:55
Speaker 1: recorded phone called text messagers and snapped chats between himself
32:59
Speaker 1: and from January every twenty six, twenty seventeen to January
33:04
Speaker 1: thirty first, twenty seventeen being us here by denying. You
33:08
Speaker 1: just heard what happened in court when the Judge Richard
33:12
Speaker 1: English denied the defense motion to keep that tape confession
33:17
Speaker 1: out of evidence so the jury would never hear from it. Wow,
33:23
Speaker 1: legal maneuver is trying to keep the evidence out Judge
33:25
Speaker 1: Richard W. English ruling that a tape confession that John
33:29
Speaker 1: Linley's telling us about that Liam mctazney made to a
33:33
Speaker 1: friend will be admissible during trial. He was also talking
33:38
Speaker 1: about text messages JT. Tipton, Private investigator founder Sencopay so
33:44
Speaker 1: Security and investigations in Texas. JT. What could the texts reveal?
33:50
Speaker 1: We know they must must be very important because the
33:53
Speaker 1: defense is trying to keep them out from the jury.
33:56
Speaker 1: You know, it's very interesting question. There's no telling exactly
33:59
Speaker 1: what is going to be said in those text messages, though,
34:01
Speaker 1: I bet if we go back far enough, we'll be
34:04
Speaker 1: able to find that there's some sort of a conflict,
34:06
Speaker 1: and usually as a result of that conflict, that's where
34:09
Speaker 1: we're going to find ourselves in this type of a situation.
34:13
Speaker 1: A lot of folks don't necessarily understand how text messages work,
34:18
Speaker 1: so they have to be pulled from the device themselves,
34:21
Speaker 1: which means that most likely a warrant was issued and
34:25
Speaker 1: then they did an image of the phone and went
34:27
Speaker 1: through through that image to come up with those text messages.
34:30
Speaker 1: You know, to you, Karen start, I don't get it
34:32
Speaker 1: why people, Why can't people stop themselves from texting? Because
34:36
Speaker 1: you know, if the defense is finding tooth and nail
34:38
Speaker 1: to keep these text messages out, they've got to be
34:42
Speaker 1: critical to the case. Apparently the two guys couldn't help
34:48
Speaker 1: but text each other about the murder and disposing of
34:51
Speaker 1: Cyril's body. I think that they don't. They don't really understand.
34:56
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people don't understand that your
34:58
Speaker 1: text can be retrieved and actually police have access to them.
35:04
Speaker 1: It just depends on the situation. I also think, think
35:08
Speaker 1: about this, Nancy, it's two guys. When you don't when
35:12
Speaker 1: you have one person, that's something, but two, when you
35:16
Speaker 1: have two, there's always somebody who will talk. It happens.
35:21
Speaker 1: It's like hiring someone to kill someone for you. You
35:23
Speaker 1: know that that eventually that person's going to speak up
35:26
Speaker 1: and say something to someone. I want you to take
35:28
Speaker 1: a listen to some of the testimony regarding the last
35:33
Speaker 1: time this witness saw Sarah Stern alive. Sarah was a
35:38
Speaker 1: special kid. Every time she came into the branch, she
35:43
Speaker 1: would overhead, give me a Because I've been in my
35:49
Speaker 1: branch for thirty four years, a lot of my customers
35:56
Speaker 1: thinkers a long time so well. I have to developed
36:00
Speaker 1: a lot of relationships with people over the years, and
36:05
Speaker 1: Sarah was one of those people. You had a relationship. Absolutely.
36:08
Speaker 1: I had a customer on my desk when Sarah was
36:11
Speaker 1: leaving the bank, and she waited until she saw me.
36:17
Speaker 1: As I said, every time she came in, she came over,
36:20
Speaker 1: get me on it, sometimes give me a kiss. And
36:25
Speaker 1: she waited till I saw her because I had a
36:28
Speaker 1: customer in my desk. And how do you know that?
36:33
Speaker 1: Because she stood in the door looking towards my desk.
36:37
Speaker 1: This is another view cost all right, She's looking towards
36:40
Speaker 1: my desk, and the person in that video you recognize
36:43
Speaker 1: as Sarah play that's where she's waiting to go. We're
36:52
Speaker 1: looking right now at video they're playing in court of
36:56
Speaker 1: Sarah very happily walking out, and hear the bank manager
37:01
Speaker 1: breakdown in tears describing that moment. He's been taking care
37:05
Speaker 1: of Sarah at their bank for years and years and years.
37:08
Speaker 1: Her mom died when she was a little girl and
37:11
Speaker 1: left her a little bit of money, and Stern had
37:14
Speaker 1: just told her next to her neighbor and a lifelong friend,
37:17
Speaker 1: Carly Draper, that she found about twenty thousand dollars in
37:22
Speaker 1: a shoe box in a shoe box from her mom
37:26
Speaker 1: who had passed away, and she was going to use
37:28
Speaker 1: that money to move to an apartment in Canada with
37:32
Speaker 1: defendant mactasney. And that's according to one of her best friends,
37:37
Speaker 1: Carly Draper. Now Tiller, the co defendant, takes a stand
37:42
Speaker 1: and he says that the whole plan to move to
37:45
Speaker 1: Canada was just a trick that mctasni came up with
37:51
Speaker 1: to trick Sarah to withdraw the money from the bank man.
37:57
Speaker 1: This is a very very in dept murder plot. To
38:01
Speaker 1: John Linley, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, Wow, and
38:07
Speaker 1: this is his high school junior prom date, a lifelong
38:11
Speaker 1: friend that was calling out his name as he murdered her.
38:15
Speaker 1: What more do you know? It's been very interesting to
38:18
Speaker 1: read and hear what Preston Taylor has said that the defendant,
38:23
Speaker 1: Liam mctasney did to hatch the plan and to carry
38:28
Speaker 1: it out, he told Taylor. Mctasney told Taylor that Sarah
38:33
Speaker 1: Stern was in possession of quote, the type of money
38:37
Speaker 1: someone would kill for, and his plan was to get
38:41
Speaker 1: her drunk and then take the money. Taylor said, as
38:44
Speaker 1: we've mentioned, he was promised a thirty percent cut of
38:47
Speaker 1: the cash, but never saw any of it. Taylor claimed
38:50
Speaker 1: that on one occasion mctasney tried to carry out the
38:54
Speaker 1: plan and failed. He went to Stearns house with a
38:56
Speaker 1: six pack of liquor drink Mike's Hard Lemonade to get
39:01
Speaker 1: her drunk, then called Taylor by way of walkie talkie
39:05
Speaker 1: to come over grab the cash, but their plan was
39:08
Speaker 1: botched when mctasney learned that Stern put the money in
39:12
Speaker 1: a safe deposit box at a bank. Mctasney offered the
39:17
Speaker 1: idea that they all take a trip to Canada and
39:19
Speaker 1: she take the money out for the trip, but he
39:22
Speaker 1: eventually decided to strangle her, and on December second, mctasney
39:29
Speaker 1: contacted Taylor by way of Snapchat, this time saying he
39:33
Speaker 1: was at the bank with Stern and this was a
39:36
Speaker 1: cue for them to execute their plan. Mctasney later came
39:40
Speaker 1: to the home where he and Taylor lived together and
39:43
Speaker 1: said he killed Stern again. This is all according to
39:47
Speaker 1: Preston Taylor. You know, John Lemley, I've been searching and
39:51
Speaker 1: searching and researching and researching, trying to determine how significant
39:56
Speaker 1: this text messages are that were the source of a
39:58
Speaker 1: big courtroom blow up. You just hit it. The bank
40:02
Speaker 1: manager says, I believe her a kiss and said love you.
40:06
Speaker 1: That had that kind of friendship. He had known the mom,
40:10
Speaker 1: he knew the dad, He had known Sarah her whole life.
40:14
Speaker 1: That reminds me of my little hometown and making Georgia
40:17
Speaker 1: where everybody knows everybody. And she walked out. He broke
40:22
Speaker 1: down crying on the stand, looking at video of her
40:24
Speaker 1: walking out of the bank and catch this at that moment,
40:28
Speaker 1: as Limley just reported, Prosecutors say, while Stern was in
40:31
Speaker 1: the bank, Mac Tasny texts or snapchats tell her and says,
40:38
Speaker 1: I'm at the bank. I'm going to do it now.
40:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to take her out. You know what. They
40:47
Speaker 1: can both rot in hell. We wait as justice unfolds
40:55
Speaker 1: in a court of law. Nancy Grace crime story, Signed North,
41:01
Speaker 1: Goodbye Friend,