He Said Madeline Soto Walked Into School. She Was in the Passenger Seat.

Madeline Soto turned thirteen on a Thursday in February 2024, and had her birthday party that Sunday at her grandmother's house. Every morning she texted her closest friend, who woke up to the messages waiting. On Monday nothing came. That afternoon her mother stood outside Hunter's Creek Middle School and Maddie never walked out. The man who said he had dropped her off had stopped at a dumpster inside their own apartment complex before the drive to school ever began.

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Madeline "Maddie" Soto, 13, lived in the Venetian Bay community of Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida. She was last seen on the night of Sunday, February 25, 2024, and was reported missing the evening of Monday the 26th after she failed to arrive at school. Her body was found on March 1 in a wooded area near Saint Cloud. The medical examiner determined she had been strangled and ruled the death a homicide. Stephan Sterns, her mother's longtime boyfriend, was arrested on February 28 on sexual-abuse charges after investigators recovered images and videos from his Google account documenting abuse dating back to 2019, when Maddie was eight. A grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder in April 2024, and prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty. On July 21, 2025, he pleaded guilty to twenty sex offenses and no contest to first-degree murder — a plea that permits conviction without admitting guilt, meaning he has never acknowledged killing her — and the judge adjudicated him guilty. He received twenty-one concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole, and the death penalty was withdrawn as part of the agreement. Jennifer Soto, Maddie's mother, was questioned repeatedly, including under an investigative subpoena, and was not charged.

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This account is drawn from the investigative record: gate and highway surveillance footage, license plate reader data, the forensic search of the complex dumpster, digital forensics on both phones and on the Google account obtained by warrant, the medical examiner's findings, police interviews with family, roommates and school staff, and the July 21, 2025 plea hearing.

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This episode discusses the sexual abuse of a child. It is described without graphic detail. Maddie's friends and classmates were children at the time and are not named here.