Found Deceased FL - Madeline Soto, 13, Missing Child Alert, 13500 blk Town Loop Blvd, Orlando, 26 Feb 2024 *arrest*

[Skully]

I don't understand the part about her being on video, in a place across a major highway from her school. No one would drop a child off there, and consider that he dropped her off for school. And yet, there is apparently video of her being there. They haven't said what the video actually shows, specifically. Such a concerning case.

Well my guess is he dropped her off a few blocks for the school (per LE statement) and circled back to tell her had had her phone or to go back and get it, (getting her in his car again). Just a thought. No kid forgets her phone, especially when she had a text about wanting to live in the woods... Hope she is found safe, but so much time has passed.

 

[Tealgrove]

I'm confused about her being seen in the church parking lot.

I think LE sees way more on that video than they are saying and that's why they locked onto the POI so fast. It was a very quick arrest. I'm going to venture a guess that whatever videos and pictures were on his phone were of Madelaine being abused. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to put that together.

The guy is cooked. Hopefully his lawyer convinces him that he is cooked and gets him to reveal what happened and where she is.

Sadly, I don't think there is much hope of finding Madelaine alive at this juncture.

MOO

 

[Eli9]

I'm sickened to read the updates. I was really hoping for a good outcome but that has obviously been wiped from my thoughts at this point.

 

[Curiousobserver]

Girls with stepfathers or mom's boyfriends seem to be at pretty elevated risk...

The prevalence and seriousness of incestuous abuse: stepfathers vs. biological fathers - PubMed

Analysis of interviews obtained from a random sample of 930 adult women in San Francisco revealed that 17% or one out of approximately every six women who had a stepfather as a principal figure in her childhood years, was sexually abused by him. The comparable figures for biological fathers were...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[bdawk20]

I wonder what it was about turning 13….she said she was going to live in the woods when she turned 13, and coincidentally goes missing the day after her 13th birthday.

 

[lightofmine99]

Girls with stepfathers or mom's boyfriends seem to be at pretty elevated risk...

Ladies we have really got to stop letting just any man hang around our kids all the time, we gotta stop prioritizing "our man" over our kids.
<modsnip - quoted post was removed>

 

[JoeFromLB]

I don't have a good feeling about the outcome here. I hope I'm wrong.
This girl, just starting out in life as a teenager...and just like that, gone.

 

[Megnut]

I wonder what it was about turning 13….she said she was going to live in the woods when she turned 13, and coincidentally goes missing the day after her 13th birthday.

Well, maybe she didn't type those messages. Especially if she wasn't always in possession of her phone.

jmo

 

[BrownRice]

My teens forget everything. But they’ve never forgotten their phones. Often forget to charge them though. And in our district, kids use phones in class for math apps, looking up lessons etc.

The story of forgetting phone seems odd unless there’s something else going on.

 

[Mack the Knife]

We don’t know the specifics of the relationship between Stephan Sterns and the mother, and we definitely don’t know that she prioritized “her man” over her daughter, or that she was irresponsible. I don’t think it’s fair to jump to those conclusions. LE has not stated they believe the mother is involved or culpable. She is, at this point, the mother of a (presumed) victim, and she deserves kindness IMO.

One thing that is standing out to me is how quickly they found the CSAM/evidence of sexual abuse. How was it found? Were they just looking at everyone’s phones? How was it found so quickly? Did they have reason to suspect him already, so they did a more in depth search? Why would he hand his phone over? Why was the evidence so easy to find?
It’s frightening to think that someone with no known history of anything like this was apparently not going to great lengths to stay hidden, it’s just that no one knew to look.

 

[MassGuy]

My teens forget everything. But they’ve never forgotten their phones. Often forget to charge them though. And in our district, kids use phones in class for math apps, looking up lessons etc.

The story of forgetting phone seems odd unless there’s something else going on.

I have an issue with the phone being left at home, supposedly being a normal occurrence. There’s a couple things here that leave me with some questions…

 

[MassGuy]

We don’t know the specifics of the relationship between Stephan Sterns and the mother, and we definitely don’t know that she prioritized “her man” over her daughter, or that she was irresponsible. I don’t think it’s fair to jump to those conclusions. LE has not stated they believe the mother is involved or culpable. She is, at this point, the mother of a (presumed) victim, and she deserves kindness IMO.

One thing that is standing out to me is how quickly they found the CSAM/evidence of sexual abuse. How was it found? Were they just looking at everyone’s phones? How was it found so quickly? Did they have reason to suspect him already, so they did a more in depth search? Why would he hand his phone over? Why was the evidence so easy to find?
It’s frightening to think that someone with no known history of anything like this was apparently not going to great lengths to stay hidden, it’s just that no one knew to look.

I think his story didn’t add up, and they downloaded his phone in those early hours. That software is amazing, and organizes everything into easily viewable categories (texts, location data, videos, photos, etc). It can even find things that have been deleted, like web searches and media.

I think this guy handed over his phone because he didn’t want to draw suspicion, and perhaps believed they wouldn’t find anything. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened.

 

[Wallendo]

I'm not local, but have visited Orlando often. It doesn't seem like the kind of place where a person could live in the woods. I don't remember seeing lush forests in Central Florida. It is also a strangely specific note for a perp to fake on a victim's phone. It still seems possible that she was planning to hook up with another person who was going to take her somewhere away from Orlando. If that is the case, it is still a frightening possibility

 

[cuffem]

I'm not local, but have visited Orlando often. It doesn't seem like the kind of place where a person could live in the woods. I don't remember seeing lush forests in Central Florida. It is also a strangely specific note for a perp to fake on a victim's phone. It still seems possible that she was planning to hook up with another person who was going to take her somewhere away from Orlando. If that is the case, it is still a frightening possibility

Born in Orlando and you would be surprised at the rural wooded areas of Central Florida. I still find small towns out in the middle of nowhere that I have never heard of over 50 years.

 

[lightofmine99]

We don’t know the specifics of the relationship between Stephan Sterns and the mother, and we definitely don’t know that she prioritized “her man” over her daughter, or that she was irresponsible. I don’t think it’s fair to jump to those conclusions. LE has not stated they believe the mother is involved or culpable. She is, at this point, the mother of a (presumed) victim, and she deserves kindness IMO.

I wasn't saying that about this lady in particular, I was speaking generally, because we get dozens of cases where what I said is exactly what happens. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my post.

 

[swanniee11]

? Was mom home when he left to take her to school? I don't recall seeing anything on this. I'm wondering what kind of time frame he could have had. IMO

 

[PatchyFog]

I have an issue with the phone being left at home, supposedly being a normal occurrence. There’s a couple things here that leave me with some questions…

Cell phones are banned during the school day in the Orange County school district. Not just during class, but the full day while onsite at school they cannot use their phones. The limited exceptions for use — if there is an official declared emergency or the student needs to access the phone for health monitoring reasons. That being said, I agree that forgetting is odd for any kid with a phone these days, because the second my kids and their friends are offsite from school…out come their phones.

 

[azure]

I had to have a bitter laugh at whoever described this guy as mom's "life partner". It's almost as if they knew that children are at risk from mom's boyfriend and wanted to act like he was more than just a boyfriend. But then within 24 hours, the "life partner" is suspect #1.

I wonder if he refused to marry mom but hung around for access to the girl.

 

[MassGuy]

? Was mom home when he left to take her to school? I don't recall seeing anything on this. I'm wondering what kind of time frame he could have had. IMO

We don’t know, and what we do think we know may not be true in the first place. What concerns me is that she was reported missing on Monday, which could potentially expand the timeframe into the previous weekend.

Just because she was reported missing on Monday doesn’t necessarily mean she went missing on Monday.

 

[SimplyCass]

Cell phones are banned during the school day in the Orange County school district. Not just during class, but the full day while onsite at school they cannot use their phones. The limited exceptions for use — if there is an official declared emergency or the student needs to access the phone for health monitoring reasons. That being said, I agree that forgetting is odd for any kid with a phone these days, because the second my kids and their friends are offsite from school…out come their phones.

Just curious...Are they locked up in a box? Or are the students allowed have them and they get taken away/put in a box if they are seen pulling them out.