I transcribed the parts I thought were notable. The times are relative to 2pm because I was watching a live stream, so timestamps are irrelevant.
All quotes are from Kissimmee PD Chief Betty Holland unless stated as a Q from a reporter:
:00
- Recap of what has happened and is known so far
- Received tip about SS’s car 3/1 in a rural area from St. Cloud which lead to discovery of MS’s body
:02
- Working closely with the State Attorney’s office and the medical examiner’s office
:03
- “We gather additional information from individuals close to the deceased. Each person interviewed is treated as involved until proven otherwise. This is a standard protocol to ensure all the facts are uncovered. During our investigation we have interviewed many individuals. Each interview has been vital to our understanding of the case. We are reviewing all of the information we’ve received and are following up on every lead.”
- “We intend to release additional information in the future, providing more details [unclear] we do not compromise the ongoing investigation.”
:04
- “I don’t have anything new that you don’t already know.”
- Reporter: “Is the mother a suspect or a person of interest in this investigation? And also with the videos that you uncover, is there any evidence of the mother’s involvement in these videos?”
- “Everyone that was close to Madeline is considered a suspect until we prove otherwise.”
:05
- Still waiting on ME’s report
- No conclusion on if MS was killed inside the home or not
- SS has not spoken to LE at all
:06
- Reporter: “Do you believe that there are any other victims”
- “Uh no it appears that this was isolated to the home”
- Chief does not think that SS’s lack of cooperation is slowing down the investigation
:08
- Chief is the mother and the family members being cooperative and answered questions, have they lawyered up? And also the father of Madeline who is not a Florida resident, is he a part of this investigation or at least being asked questions? Was he interviewed?”
- “We have interviewed all those family members that are close. Mother has cooperated. She did give us an interview. So there’s, you know, no one is not cooperating other than Sterns.”
- Chief says identity of children involved is protected under the law
:09
- Reporter asks about, essentially, why SS would freely give up his phone considering the evidence on it. Chief can’t common on it specifically because it wasn’t her department, but it’s not uncommon for LE to ask people
- Reporter asks about Chief’s opinions. “My takeaway from this is talk to your children. Families, talk to your kids. Know that there are agencies out there, the abuse hotline, “help now”. You know that people can report suspicion too, and I would encourage mothers and fathers to have those conversations with the kids and be aware.”
:10
- Reporter: “Had you investigated this family before?”
- Chief: “Not for anything like this, no ma’am.”
- Reporter asks about the duration of JS and SS’s relationship. Chief says they’re trying to get the timeline for this.
JB Biunno (whose stream I’m watching) comments that transferring this from the Sheriff’s office to Kissimmee PD could have slowed things down, but he also expresses shock that this was a press conference without an update.
My callouts:
- A pointed refusal to call out JS for anything OR to clear her of suspicion
- No one is “not cooperating” other than SS
- Chief says this appeared to be isolated to the home. Not clear if that means SS’s direct victims of abuse, or if that would also mean they don’t believe there was any transmission of CSAM to or from SS
- Chief says the family hasn't been investigated for something like this before. I would hope her answer to the question includes the sheriff's dept. and CPS/DFS investigating as well, but it wasn't specified.
- ME report not back yet.
- My read was that, regardless of if LE thinks JS was involved, they don’t seem to currently have any evidence that she was involved. The Chief declined to answer if JS was involved in any of the videos. I think there is about zero chance they have evidence she was involved in any videos or photos otherwise they would have arrested her already, so I think we can extrapolate that even if they think JS wasn’t involved in the murder, they would not say so until she is cleared
- I’m not as unhappy as some folks about this press conference. LE hadn’t really said anything since the allegations that JS is being untruthful came out, and IMO LE doesn’t hesitate to accuse people of being evasive and uncooperative if that’s what they want to do, and here they declined to say that JS is being untruthful
Edited to add: Chief mentions one interview from JS. We know about her sworn testimony about the day of and day before MS went missing, but I'm not positive that that would be considered an interview or the interview the Chief is referencing. Especially because that interview would have been with the Sheriff and not Kissimmee PD.
