January 16, 2025 • 31 mins
When Sarah Stern’s friend shares his idea for a movie, it sounds eerily similar to what happened to Sarah. But without any sign of Sarah or her body, the police must sort out fact from fiction and decide who is telling the truth.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Seven weeks of searching for a missing New Jersey teenager
turned up nothing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sarah was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nineteen year old Sarah Stern was last seen emptying out
her bank account.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
She took out seven thousand dollars. What would a nineteen
year old be doing with this money?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
No one knew what to believe, especially when one of
her former high school classmates came forward with an unimaginable story.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I did something really dumb when I planned it out
for half a year.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
It was a chilling account with no remorse, no emotion.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Beat, throw off the bridge, and the body never showed up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Today, we're in Neptune City, New Jersey, for the conclusion
of BFFs the Sarah Stern Story. My name is Sloane
Glass and this is American Homicide. A warning that this
episode contained some graphic content. Please take care while listening.
Neptune is the Roman god of the sea. It's where
(01:04):
Neptune City, New Jersey, got its name.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Nephton City is a small town about five thousand people.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Michael Stern lived there with his family.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's just a stone's throw from Asbury Park and Belmar,
which is about halfway between Atlantic City, New Jersey and
New York City.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Neptune City is a short distance from the one hundred
and forty miles of ocean front property in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
They're just beach after beach and small towns that were
set up hundreds of years ago, and they each have
their own little unique personalities.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The area is a place popular with tourists during the
warmer months.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Basically all the short towns kind of share the same
common theme, which is the beach and some of the
nightlife and restaurants and John bon Jovi used to hang
around the beaches here.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Michael raised his daughter Sarah Neptune City.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
She loved the beach and she loved being down by
the beach.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yes, being outdoors, especially in the summer, was something Sarah
loved about the area.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We had a swimming pool and a trampoline in the backyard,
so it was always a magnet for the kids to
come over and just hang out, and they would be
there from the morning until night. The kids liked their
the older kids, younger kids so and she got along
with everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
As Sarah grew up, she got involved in photography and
the arts, but she also had no problem getting her
hands dirty.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I'm in construction and sometimes I would just need an
extra hand for a short period of time, and she
would always be there. She liked to get her work
boots on and her jeans and a flannel shirt and
come out with me and you know, work a little
get a little dirty, and so that was kind of
(02:55):
a fun thing with her too.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
According to Michael, the two were on one another, especially
after Sarah's mother passed away from cancer.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
She struggled at times. It's a tough, very tough thing
to deal with that, you know, just one day they're gone.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And in early December twenty sixteen, Michael was the one struggling.
After Sarah mysteriously disappeared.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
They found Sarah's car up on the bridge.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
At the time, there were different theories as to what happened.
One was Sarah was in a very bad place mentally
and took her own life. The other was she quietly
left town to start a new life.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We spent a lot of time looking everywhere, especially around
the Marina area and all through the inlets every day,
hoping that something would turn up and we'd find a
piece of something that belonged to Sarah, or God forbid,
that her body would show up, but we just we
didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Now, keep in mind these searches were happening right away
round Christmas in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Holidays came and went, and we still didn't have any answers,
and it was it was a tough time for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Then the investigation took a turn. In January twenty seventeen,
Anthony Curry, a friend of Sarah's from high school, met
with detectives. He agreed to let them wire his car
for audio and video and secretly recorded a chilling story
from one of Sarah's very best friends and confidants, Leah Mcatassney.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I pretty much hung her. I just I picked her
up and had her just like dangling off the ground,
and she just pitched herself. And then that was it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You just heard Liam, Sarah's friend since the first grade,
talking about how he strangled and then threw Sarah's dead
body into Shark River.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That's not even the worst part. The worst part it
is I thought I was walking out fifty grand, one
hundred grand in my pocket. She only had angrit.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Edward Kershenbaum worked for the Neptune City PD.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Liam mcintazzie was the mastermind of this entire crime.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Police were tipped off by Liam's friend, Anthony Curry. Anthony
was an aspiring movie producer who dreamed of making horror films.
A few weeks earlier, Liam shared his idea for a
movie with Anthony, and it had chilling details that mirrored
what police thought might have happened to Sarah Stern.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
He was one of the only few people that knew
what happened to Sarah and wanted to talk to law
enforcement to let them know exactly what he knew.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
In their secretly recorded conversation, Liam admitted to purposefully feeding
false leads to detectives.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Like that was the whole part of my plant, would
make me look not guilty.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He tried to portray himself as a concerned friend and
continue to try to paint a picture of deception that
it was more or less a suicide or a poor
relationship with her father that led her to possibly jump
off the bridge that night, all along hiding the fact
(06:18):
that he was one that was responsible for her murder.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And in these recordings, Liam said he didn't act alone.
He recruited his roommate Preston Taylor to help dispose of
Sarah's body.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Preston Taylor was involved early on in the planning of
what was going to happen to Sarah Stern.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And get this, Preston didn't just know Sarah. He was
actually her date to the junior prom.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Preston Taylor was the one person that could have saved
Sarah Stern's life, but he chose not to be chose
to follow Liam mcintazzie.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
So if this is actually true, and this is a
real confession, then it's just really hard to wrap my
head around what these so called friends of Sarah's were thinking.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That's what's so baffling. There's no indication of any type
of problem other than pure greed and evil.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Sarah had inherited money from her mother for months. Liam
had his eyes on this money. The afternoon she withdrew
fund from her bank, Liam went into action.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Liam mctasti called Preston Taylor when they were at the bank.
Liam mctas told press Taylor that this was the day
it was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
On February first, twenty seventeen, detectives pulled Preston in for questioning,
we know.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
What happened to Sarah, we know what your involvement and
it was right.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We want to know why it happened.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We want to know why Liam did what he did.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
I got home justice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I know it's really hard to hear Preston in this
interrogation audio, but let me tell you, Preston full it
like a chair, like within a minute.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
He participated, not the actual murder, but the steps taken
to cover up the murder.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Preston said Liam believed Sarah had upwards of one hundred
thousand dollars and killed her for that money, a portion
of which Preston was supposed to get for helping to
move Sarah's body.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Preston Taylor goes over, takes Sarah's body and puts it
over by a hedgerow, covers it with leaves. Once Liam
mcintoze gets off the work, they pulled down the street
behind Sarah's yard. They take Sarah, they throw her over
the fence. They put her in the past your seat
(08:48):
of her car.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
See. I keep going back to this idea that this
is their friend and they're treating her body like it's
a thing. They buckled Sarah into the passenger seat of
her car, and then Liam drove sitting next to the
dead body while Preston followed in another car.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
The immactas he would study Sarah the way she would
back out of her driveway in her car, so his
plan was to pull out the same way after he
murders her.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
A neighbor surveillance camera caught the car pulling out, but
it was too dark for detectives to see anyone in
the grainy footage, so they didn't know who was driving. However,
the time stamp matched up with Preston's story.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
She was thrown into the Shark River on an outgoing tide,
and they then left and continued on with their lives.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Preston cooperated with detectives and led them on a play
by play reenactment of the crime, including where he and
Liam buried two safes filled with nearly ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
In It was just a pure active betrayal. Nobody saw
a coming. Liam mcintazzie wasn't on the police department's radar at.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
All, yet here they were Sarah's one time prom date,
along with her best friend who she met in Sunday School.
Both arrested for her murder.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Preston Taylor was charged with desecration of human remains and
hindering apprehension, and Liam was charged with murder, felony, murder, robbery,
hindering apprehension, a secretion of human remains.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The emotional roller coaster was about to take another dive
as detectives had to share the news with Sarah's father, Michael.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
How do you tell a father who has hoped his
daughter's going to come home that she's not coming home,
that she has been murdered and in fact murdered by
her friends.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Whenever you have a missing person's case, there is always
hope that the person you're searching for will come home.
That hope extends from the family, to the reporters covering
the story, and law enforcement trying to find them. When
that hope extinguishes, there is nothing harder.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I sat down at the kitchen table and he told me,
and I just, I don't know. I was just a
kind of shock after that. I just I just remember
staring at the table and in disbelief that you know,
they knew what happened. They had the confession. Worst day
(11:35):
of my life. It hurts. She was such a good person.
Just finding out that whatever friends killed her, It's this
horrible thing.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
After the arrest of Leah Mcatasney and Preston Taylor for
the murder of their longtime friend, Sarah Stern. Law enforcement
held a press conference.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Our efforts to recover Sayarah's remains do continue.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's right. Even with the two behind bars, the police
continued to search for Sarah's body.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
We're not going to give up that search, and that's
one of the most important things we hope we can
do is bring some closure by recovering Sarah. For mister
Stern and knows it loved her still.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Sarah's Bonnie never turned up, which wasn't good for prosecutor's arguments.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
The lack of a body is always a hurdle with
any type of homicide investigation.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Edward Kershembam worked for the Neptune City Police Department and
he knew without a body it would be tough to
secure convictions.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
So prosecuted officer felt it necessary to offer a deal
with President Taylor for his cooperation a trial.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Part of Preston's plea deal, he pled guilty to a
series of charges and in exchange, agreed to testify against Liam.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
He was crucial because he was there.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
When Liam went on trial in twenty nineteen. It was
the county's first attempt to convict someone of murder without
a victim's body since nineteen seventy five, and to prove
their case, prosecutors relied heavily on that testimony, pressed it
was going to give against Liam.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Said that he killed Sarah and ultimatetal me he needed
me to go over to Sarah's house to no Sarah's body.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
That's Preston Taylor. He testified that Liam Mcatazzne believed Sarah
had upwards of one hundred thousand dollars, an amount he
said somebody would kill for.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
It started off as plan instead Fergizer house or to Robert.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Personally, and.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Over time the conversations progressed to to killing her.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Now Liam's defense attorney was listening to this, but they
were about to take a different route, and suggested that
Sarah Stearn was still alive.
Speaker 8 (14:06):
She wanted to go to California with Canada.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
If any word for.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Here, Lilliam's defense was nobody found a body. Sarah was
not murdered.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
In addition, Liam's lawyer tried to suppress the recorded conversation
between Liam and Anthony Curry, where he confessed to the murder,
but he was unsuccessful. Then he pivoted and explained to
the jury that the tape was nothing more than a
movie audition.
Speaker 9 (14:36):
It was fantasy that it was an audition.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Leah mcpatney made it up for Anthony Curry, the horror
film director.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
What well, I think Anthony Curry gave me.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
The answers to what may this is like a movie?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
If you remember, Anthony Curry kept repeating, man, this is
like a movie throughout that talk with Liam, and Liam's
attorney said Liam had simply made up the story about
strangling a friend to impress Anthony, and that Anthony had
pointed the finger at Liam in an attempt to further
(15:14):
his career.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
The heart film got who says, by the way they're recording.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
You should move out to la with me, and you
should be Leonard of DiCaprio to my market Scorsedes.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So imagine your jur hearing this tape of Liam for
the first time. What do you think he was acting?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I pretty much hung her like I just I picked
her up and had her just like dangling off the ground,
and she just pissed herself and it just did my
name and then that was it. I thought I was
going to be able to choke her out and have
her out in like a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Journalist Tom Davis was in the courtroom throughout the trial
and struggled to make sense of what he heard.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
For somebody to almost walk into a car and right
after hello, just basically start talking about what he did
and how he murdered her, and then you do just
almost like wondered, if is he still acting here?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
What was he doing here?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He and the others who listened were surprised by how
nonchalant Liam sounded.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
There was so monotone about it.
Speaker 10 (16:19):
I expected, actually somebody to be much more anxious. I
expected to be somebody to even show some remorse, because
I believe that's how humans react.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So if indeed Liam was auditioning for a role in
a movie, then what happened to Sarah Stern? Well? The
defense claimed she left town. They even called a witness
who claimed he saw her the morning after she went missing.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There was a girl.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Walking down the street, and I said to my son,
I said, that is.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
An awfully good looking girl to be walking on the
street at five.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
O'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This witness testified that he saw someone who looked just
like Sarah Stern two and a half half hours after
police discovered her abandoned car on the bridge, or about
five hours after. Preston Taylor said he helped Liam mcintasmy
throw Sarah's body into the river.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I got a good look right in her face, stared
right into her eyes away and look kind of you
right out, and she turned her head and duck down
an alleyway, And well.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
I thought she was well dressed.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
That's why I said.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was just so unusual to see.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Somebody well dressed in that.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Early in the morning.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
And just before the top of the bridge it was
a car broken down on the side.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Of the road.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It was the same bridge where Sarah Stearn's car was found.
But there was a problem. According to the police, Sarah's
car had already been towed away by then.
Speaker 10 (17:46):
His testimony didn't seem the jive with the timeline and everything.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
It just felt like that there was this nola that
Liam was going to get out of this.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And then Liam and his defense caught a huge break.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
One of the jurors that actually.
Speaker 10 (18:01):
Posted something on Facebook that was a bit of a
wise ass thing to say about the trial.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The judge learned that jur Number thirteen posted a comment
to Facebook in response to an article about the trial.
She wrote, quote sitting on the jury laughing my ass off. Well,
the judge was furious and stopped the trial.
Speaker 10 (18:24):
And actually there was some fear of the time, you know,
that maybe the sexual whole thing could be retried or
something even declared miss trial.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And that's exactly what Liam's attorney asked the judge to do,
call a miss trial, something Sarah's father, Michael Stern, could
not fathom.
Speaker 10 (18:43):
Father was very upset about it, and he was talking
about how he just didn't want to have to go
through this again.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Jur Number thirteen explained to the judge that she couldn't
have posted the comment to Facebook because it happened while
the court was still in session. She blamed her fifteen
year old sister, who she said, logged into her account
and posted the comment. The judge then stopped the trial
while he decided how to proceed.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So it was really everything was really kind of inn
a limbo, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Leah Mcatazzney's murder trial came to a screeching halt when
one of the jurors allegedly posted about the case to Facebook.
After considering a mistrial, the judge opted to simply dismiss
the jur and then allowed the trial.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To go on.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It was a fairly long trial. Sometimes it felt daunting
and exhausting hearing these horrible details of what had happened
to Sarah.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Journalist Alex Napoliello was in the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
On one side of the room, you had Liam's family,
and on the other side of the room you had
Sarah's family. And this is a family that knew each other,
and all of a sudden, they're on opposite ends of
each other, and there's a lot of animosity towards you
each other. So there was a lot of tension in
the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That tension only intensified after prosecutors played that tape confession
of Liam mcintasney.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
To see Liam mctasney talk about what he did to
his friend in such detail and to talk about it
so casually, I had never seen anything like that as
a reporter covering crime for many years.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But the defense called the tape nothing more than an
audition by Liam mcintasney.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You could hear a pin drop in that courtroom while
that tape was playing.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
In fact, that was the only time the jury heard
from Liam because he did not take the witness stand. Instead,
his lawyer told the jurors that without a body, there's
reason to believe that Sarah Stern was still alive.
Speaker 7 (20:49):
That in and of itself is enough to create the
reasonable doubt that quits my mind.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
But prosecutors fought back and said Liam Mcatazsney was not
an act He was a murderer.
Speaker 9 (21:02):
This is not a movie, it's not a story. This
defendant didn't frame himself for mert, he committed Merton.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
The fact that her body wasn't recovered is not reasonable
that Sarah Stern is dead.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The case went to the jury and very quickly they
asked to see the video of Liam Mcatasney confessing to
Anthony Curry. Meanwhile, Liam's mother went on ABC's twenty twenty
to defend her son. In every bone in my body,
I did not belave Liam is capable of killing Sarah Stern,
who he loved and adored.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
I do not believe Liam is capable of killing anybody.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Liam's mother also addressed the fact that Sarah Stern has
never been found. He says seriously affected our entire family,
and poor Mike Stern doesn't know where his daughter is.
I mean, everybody is affected by this.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
This is a horrible, horrible, horrible situation.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Liam's mother may have thought her son was innocent, but
ultimately it would come down to what the jury thought.
And with no body and Sarah's mysterious behavior leading up
to her abandoned car being found, it was anyone's guess.
And then after just one day of deliberations, the jury
(22:27):
returned with a verdict.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
How do you find a count.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
One of the indictment as toward than the defendant Liam
mcintasne committed the crime of murder by purposely or knowingly
causing the death of Sarah's Starn, or purposely of knowingly
causing serious quantity injury to Sarah Starm which resulted in
the death guilty.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
They found Liam Mcatazsne guilty of six felonies, including first
degree murder. Leah Mcatazsney was sentenced to life in prison
without parole. Journalist Alex And was in the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I remember almost falling off my chair. Her two closest friends,
one being her junior prom date, are charged with her death.
I mean, I was speechless.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Leam Mcatasne was also speechless. He didn't react to his
conviction and continued to stare straight ahead, while Sarah's father
lowered his head and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I can't imagine what Michael has gone through over these years.
I mean from the moment his daughter was reported missing
till Liam was convicted. That was years, and just my
heart goes out to him that he had to suffer
because of this.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
At a press conference after the trial, Michael Stern unloaded
on Sarah's former best friend.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Makes me sick, absolutely sick that somebody would do something
like that, and you heard the test money that it
was all a setup. He was never Sayerah's friend, and
apparently you know, his evil thoughts and his motives are
just beyond anything, any realm of anything that I could
(24:14):
imagine being so evil.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
There were no reports that Liam and Sarah were at
odds with each other, that there was any stripe between them.
They were close and they remained close up until the
day she disappeared.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And he was grateful the case was blown open thanks
to nineteen year old Anthony curry.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
On behalf of our family to the Curry family. I
really appreciate what they did. It took a lot of
courage for him to come forward. I know it was
hard for him, but he knew he had to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Anthony Curry was a game changer for this investigation. Without
Anthony Curry, police don't have the investigation and the case
that they had.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Anthony Curry graduated from aspiring movie producer to actual movie producer.
His first film premiered in twenty twenty two. The movie
was about the violent street kids he grew up with
and was in the works years before Sarah Stern's murder.
With Leah Mcatasney and Preston Taylor in prison, the community
(25:16):
tried to move forward, but it hasn't been easy.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
It's a tragedy.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
What happened to Michael Stone's family should happen to no one.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Edward Kirshenbaum worked with the Neptune City Police Department.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
True justice would be having his daughter back. That would
be true justice, but that'll never happen. Sarah's still not
coming home, so that's that's a sad part of this
all scenario.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
In twenty thirteen, Michael Stern lost his wife to cancer,
and three years later, he lost his only child to
murder by her friend, Liam mcintasne.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
How do you wrap your mind around so so called friends,
child of friends, that they're the ones responsible for the
murder of your daughter. How do you I don't know
if you ever wrap your.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Head around that.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Michael is a unique nanny carries us with them every
single minute, hour, day, week, month and year. It's just
something that never goes away.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Despite countless searches, Sarah Stearn's body has still never turned up.
It's something that continues to keep her father up at night.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I don't sleep very well. I have nightmares, which is
a horrible thing, waking up at two o'clock in the
morning and thinking that Sarah's still alive and she's calling
for me. I just can't get over that. It becomes
harder as every day and month goes by, and every
(26:53):
year goes by, doesn't get any easier. I can't. I
just can't get over the loss of my beautiful daughter.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
The only thing that comforts Michael is the scholarship fund
he set up in Sarah's name at her high school
and the college she attended.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So we want to keep Sarah's name out there as
an artist. Now. My mission for Sarah is to promote
the arts fine arts media for other students who wish
to pursue that career, seeing it blossom, and Sarah, I'd
(27:33):
like to see it blossom with other people that may
be able to use the scholarship to continue their careers.
I love my daughter, I miss her, and I just
hope she's a piece somewhere in heaven.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Preston Taylor, who was Sarah's date to the Junior prom
was also charged in connection with Sarah's death. As part
of his plea deal with investigators, Preston was eighteen years
in prison. He will be eligible for parole in twenty
thirty two, when he is thirty five years old. Meanwhile,
(28:09):
Preston's roommate Liam Mcatasne continues to maintain his innocence.
Speaker 10 (28:15):
There's such a big part of this case that I
feel like is unsolved.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Journalist Tom Davis remains completely baffled by Liam's motive.
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Why would anybody ever go through that effort and to
kill somebody for what period to be about seven thousand dollars,
and in the fact that the person's not even a
stranger as a friend of theirs, they're best friends, you know,
that they were like their own little clique. You would
think that maybe something would have stopped him before he
even got to the house, that maybe something inside him
would have actually some sort of moral compass would have
(28:45):
just stopped this.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
You know, in cases like this, we always want more
answers in the hope they'll help us understand why these
things happen. But we'll never know.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
We need to actually go back at this and actually
find out what happened there, what drove them, what was
there something that happened to them when they were smaller,
when they were kids, when they were teenagers. I mean,
we saw this happen with Timothy mccvey when he bombed
Oklahoma City. It was another thing where there was a
history there where we didn't actually fully expect it to
be what it was. When he eventually got to jail
and he got the prison, he then eventually gave up
(29:19):
what his motives were.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
We need that moment, you know, to find out what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
You know, next time on American homicide, when a married
man leaves his wife or another woman and then vanishes,
police have to figure out if it's infidelity or something
much darker, I'm slung Glass, That's next time on American Homicide.
(29:50):
You can contact the American Homicide team bye emailing us
at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. That's American
Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted
and written by me Sloane Glass and is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
(30:10):
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written
and produced by Todd Gans, with additional writing by Ben
Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurie.
Our Ihearty is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing
(30:33):
and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, Dave Seya, and Britt Robashow.
Additional editing support from Nico Ruka Tanner Robbins and Patrick Walsh.
American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Bains of
Neiser Music Library, provided by My Music. Follow American Homicide
(30:53):
on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide.
Your five star review goes a long way towards helping
others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Seven weeks of searching for a missing New Jersey teenager
turned up nothing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sarah was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nineteen year old Sarah Stern was last seen emptying out
her bank account.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
She took out seven thousand dollars. What would a nineteen
year old be doing with this money?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
No one knew what to believe, especially when one of
her former high school classmates came forward with an unimaginable story.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I did something really dumb when I planned it out
for half a year.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
It was a chilling account with no remorse, no emotion.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Beat, throw off the bridge, and the body never showed up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Today, we're in Neptune City, New Jersey, for the conclusion
of BFFs the Sarah Stern Story. My name is Sloane
Glass and this is American Homicide. A warning that this
episode contained some graphic content. Please take care while listening.
Neptune is the Roman god of the sea. It's where
(01:04):
Neptune City, New Jersey, got its name.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Nephton City is a small town about five thousand people.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Michael Stern lived there with his family.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's just a stone's throw from Asbury Park and Belmar,
which is about halfway between Atlantic City, New Jersey and
New York City.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Neptune City is a short distance from the one hundred
and forty miles of ocean front property in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
They're just beach after beach and small towns that were
set up hundreds of years ago, and they each have
their own little unique personalities.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The area is a place popular with tourists during the
warmer months.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Basically all the short towns kind of share the same
common theme, which is the beach and some of the
nightlife and restaurants and John bon Jovi used to hang
around the beaches here.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Michael raised his daughter Sarah Neptune City.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
She loved the beach and she loved being down by
the beach.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yes, being outdoors, especially in the summer, was something Sarah
loved about the area.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We had a swimming pool and a trampoline in the backyard,
so it was always a magnet for the kids to
come over and just hang out, and they would be
there from the morning until night. The kids liked their
the older kids, younger kids so and she got along
with everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
As Sarah grew up, she got involved in photography and
the arts, but she also had no problem getting her
hands dirty.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I'm in construction and sometimes I would just need an
extra hand for a short period of time, and she
would always be there. She liked to get her work
boots on and her jeans and a flannel shirt and
come out with me and you know, work a little
get a little dirty, and so that was kind of
(02:55):
a fun thing with her too.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
According to Michael, the two were on one another, especially
after Sarah's mother passed away from cancer.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
She struggled at times. It's a tough, very tough thing
to deal with that, you know, just one day they're gone.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And in early December twenty sixteen, Michael was the one struggling.
After Sarah mysteriously disappeared.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
They found Sarah's car up on the bridge.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
At the time, there were different theories as to what happened.
One was Sarah was in a very bad place mentally
and took her own life. The other was she quietly
left town to start a new life.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We spent a lot of time looking everywhere, especially around
the Marina area and all through the inlets every day,
hoping that something would turn up and we'd find a
piece of something that belonged to Sarah, or God forbid,
that her body would show up, but we just we
didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Now, keep in mind these searches were happening right away
round Christmas in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Holidays came and went, and we still didn't have any answers,
and it was it was a tough time for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Then the investigation took a turn. In January twenty seventeen,
Anthony Curry, a friend of Sarah's from high school, met
with detectives. He agreed to let them wire his car
for audio and video and secretly recorded a chilling story
from one of Sarah's very best friends and confidants, Leah Mcatassney.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I pretty much hung her. I just I picked her
up and had her just like dangling off the ground,
and she just pitched herself. And then that was it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You just heard Liam, Sarah's friend since the first grade,
talking about how he strangled and then threw Sarah's dead
body into Shark River.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That's not even the worst part. The worst part it
is I thought I was walking out fifty grand, one
hundred grand in my pocket. She only had angrit.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Edward Kershenbaum worked for the Neptune City PD.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Liam mcintazzie was the mastermind of this entire crime.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Police were tipped off by Liam's friend, Anthony Curry. Anthony
was an aspiring movie producer who dreamed of making horror films.
A few weeks earlier, Liam shared his idea for a
movie with Anthony, and it had chilling details that mirrored
what police thought might have happened to Sarah Stern.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
He was one of the only few people that knew
what happened to Sarah and wanted to talk to law
enforcement to let them know exactly what he knew.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
In their secretly recorded conversation, Liam admitted to purposefully feeding
false leads to detectives.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Like that was the whole part of my plant, would
make me look not guilty.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He tried to portray himself as a concerned friend and
continue to try to paint a picture of deception that
it was more or less a suicide or a poor
relationship with her father that led her to possibly jump
off the bridge that night, all along hiding the fact
(06:18):
that he was one that was responsible for her murder.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And in these recordings, Liam said he didn't act alone.
He recruited his roommate Preston Taylor to help dispose of
Sarah's body.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Preston Taylor was involved early on in the planning of
what was going to happen to Sarah Stern.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And get this, Preston didn't just know Sarah. He was
actually her date to the junior prom.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Preston Taylor was the one person that could have saved
Sarah Stern's life, but he chose not to be chose
to follow Liam mcintazzie.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
So if this is actually true, and this is a
real confession, then it's just really hard to wrap my
head around what these so called friends of Sarah's were thinking.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That's what's so baffling. There's no indication of any type
of problem other than pure greed and evil.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Sarah had inherited money from her mother for months. Liam
had his eyes on this money. The afternoon she withdrew
fund from her bank, Liam went into action.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Liam mctasti called Preston Taylor when they were at the bank.
Liam mctas told press Taylor that this was the day
it was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
On February first, twenty seventeen, detectives pulled Preston in for questioning,
we know.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
What happened to Sarah, we know what your involvement and
it was right.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We want to know why it happened.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We want to know why Liam did what he did.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
I got home justice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I know it's really hard to hear Preston in this
interrogation audio, but let me tell you, Preston full it
like a chair, like within a minute.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
He participated, not the actual murder, but the steps taken
to cover up the murder.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Preston said Liam believed Sarah had upwards of one hundred
thousand dollars and killed her for that money, a portion
of which Preston was supposed to get for helping to
move Sarah's body.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Preston Taylor goes over, takes Sarah's body and puts it
over by a hedgerow, covers it with leaves. Once Liam
mcintoze gets off the work, they pulled down the street
behind Sarah's yard. They take Sarah, they throw her over
the fence. They put her in the past your seat
(08:48):
of her car.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
See. I keep going back to this idea that this
is their friend and they're treating her body like it's
a thing. They buckled Sarah into the passenger seat of
her car, and then Liam drove sitting next to the
dead body while Preston followed in another car.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
The immactas he would study Sarah the way she would
back out of her driveway in her car, so his
plan was to pull out the same way after he
murders her.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
A neighbor surveillance camera caught the car pulling out, but
it was too dark for detectives to see anyone in
the grainy footage, so they didn't know who was driving. However,
the time stamp matched up with Preston's story.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
She was thrown into the Shark River on an outgoing tide,
and they then left and continued on with their lives.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Preston cooperated with detectives and led them on a play
by play reenactment of the crime, including where he and
Liam buried two safes filled with nearly ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
In It was just a pure active betrayal. Nobody saw
a coming. Liam mcintazzie wasn't on the police department's radar at.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
All, yet here they were Sarah's one time prom date,
along with her best friend who she met in Sunday School.
Both arrested for her murder.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Preston Taylor was charged with desecration of human remains and
hindering apprehension, and Liam was charged with murder, felony, murder, robbery,
hindering apprehension, a secretion of human remains.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The emotional roller coaster was about to take another dive
as detectives had to share the news with Sarah's father, Michael.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
How do you tell a father who has hoped his
daughter's going to come home that she's not coming home,
that she has been murdered and in fact murdered by
her friends.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Whenever you have a missing person's case, there is always
hope that the person you're searching for will come home.
That hope extends from the family, to the reporters covering
the story, and law enforcement trying to find them. When
that hope extinguishes, there is nothing harder.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I sat down at the kitchen table and he told me,
and I just, I don't know. I was just a
kind of shock after that. I just I just remember
staring at the table and in disbelief that you know,
they knew what happened. They had the confession. Worst day
(11:35):
of my life. It hurts. She was such a good person.
Just finding out that whatever friends killed her, It's this
horrible thing.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
After the arrest of Leah Mcatasney and Preston Taylor for
the murder of their longtime friend, Sarah Stern. Law enforcement
held a press conference.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Our efforts to recover Sayarah's remains do continue.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's right. Even with the two behind bars, the police
continued to search for Sarah's body.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
We're not going to give up that search, and that's
one of the most important things we hope we can
do is bring some closure by recovering Sarah. For mister
Stern and knows it loved her still.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Sarah's Bonnie never turned up, which wasn't good for prosecutor's arguments.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
The lack of a body is always a hurdle with
any type of homicide investigation.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Edward Kershembam worked for the Neptune City Police Department and
he knew without a body it would be tough to
secure convictions.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
So prosecuted officer felt it necessary to offer a deal
with President Taylor for his cooperation a trial.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Part of Preston's plea deal, he pled guilty to a
series of charges and in exchange, agreed to testify against Liam.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
He was crucial because he was there.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
When Liam went on trial in twenty nineteen. It was
the county's first attempt to convict someone of murder without
a victim's body since nineteen seventy five, and to prove
their case, prosecutors relied heavily on that testimony, pressed it
was going to give against Liam.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Said that he killed Sarah and ultimatetal me he needed
me to go over to Sarah's house to no Sarah's body.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
That's Preston Taylor. He testified that Liam Mcatazzne believed Sarah
had upwards of one hundred thousand dollars, an amount he
said somebody would kill for.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
It started off as plan instead Fergizer house or to Robert.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Personally, and.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Over time the conversations progressed to to killing her.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Now Liam's defense attorney was listening to this, but they
were about to take a different route, and suggested that
Sarah Stearn was still alive.
Speaker 8 (14:06):
She wanted to go to California with Canada.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
If any word for.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Here, Lilliam's defense was nobody found a body. Sarah was
not murdered.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
In addition, Liam's lawyer tried to suppress the recorded conversation
between Liam and Anthony Curry, where he confessed to the murder,
but he was unsuccessful. Then he pivoted and explained to
the jury that the tape was nothing more than a
movie audition.
Speaker 9 (14:36):
It was fantasy that it was an audition.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Leah mcpatney made it up for Anthony Curry, the horror
film director.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
What well, I think Anthony Curry gave me.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
The answers to what may this is like a movie?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
If you remember, Anthony Curry kept repeating, man, this is
like a movie throughout that talk with Liam, and Liam's
attorney said Liam had simply made up the story about
strangling a friend to impress Anthony, and that Anthony had
pointed the finger at Liam in an attempt to further
(15:14):
his career.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
The heart film got who says, by the way they're recording.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
You should move out to la with me, and you
should be Leonard of DiCaprio to my market Scorsedes.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So imagine your jur hearing this tape of Liam for
the first time. What do you think he was acting?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I pretty much hung her like I just I picked
her up and had her just like dangling off the ground,
and she just pissed herself and it just did my
name and then that was it. I thought I was
going to be able to choke her out and have
her out in like a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Journalist Tom Davis was in the courtroom throughout the trial
and struggled to make sense of what he heard.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
For somebody to almost walk into a car and right
after hello, just basically start talking about what he did
and how he murdered her, and then you do just
almost like wondered, if is he still acting here?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
What was he doing here?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He and the others who listened were surprised by how
nonchalant Liam sounded.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
There was so monotone about it.
Speaker 10 (16:19):
I expected, actually somebody to be much more anxious. I
expected to be somebody to even show some remorse, because
I believe that's how humans react.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So if indeed Liam was auditioning for a role in
a movie, then what happened to Sarah Stern? Well? The
defense claimed she left town. They even called a witness
who claimed he saw her the morning after she went missing.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There was a girl.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Walking down the street, and I said to my son,
I said, that is.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
An awfully good looking girl to be walking on the
street at five.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
O'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This witness testified that he saw someone who looked just
like Sarah Stern two and a half half hours after
police discovered her abandoned car on the bridge, or about
five hours after. Preston Taylor said he helped Liam mcintasmy
throw Sarah's body into the river.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I got a good look right in her face, stared
right into her eyes away and look kind of you
right out, and she turned her head and duck down
an alleyway, And well.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
I thought she was well dressed.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
That's why I said.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was just so unusual to see.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Somebody well dressed in that.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Early in the morning.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
And just before the top of the bridge it was
a car broken down on the side.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Of the road.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It was the same bridge where Sarah Stearn's car was found.
But there was a problem. According to the police, Sarah's
car had already been towed away by then.
Speaker 10 (17:46):
His testimony didn't seem the jive with the timeline and everything.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
It just felt like that there was this nola that
Liam was going to get out of this.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And then Liam and his defense caught a huge break.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
One of the jurors that actually.
Speaker 10 (18:01):
Posted something on Facebook that was a bit of a
wise ass thing to say about the trial.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The judge learned that jur Number thirteen posted a comment
to Facebook in response to an article about the trial.
She wrote, quote sitting on the jury laughing my ass off. Well,
the judge was furious and stopped the trial.
Speaker 10 (18:24):
And actually there was some fear of the time, you know,
that maybe the sexual whole thing could be retried or
something even declared miss trial.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And that's exactly what Liam's attorney asked the judge to do,
call a miss trial, something Sarah's father, Michael Stern, could
not fathom.
Speaker 10 (18:43):
Father was very upset about it, and he was talking
about how he just didn't want to have to go
through this again.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Jur Number thirteen explained to the judge that she couldn't
have posted the comment to Facebook because it happened while
the court was still in session. She blamed her fifteen
year old sister, who she said, logged into her account
and posted the comment. The judge then stopped the trial
while he decided how to proceed.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So it was really everything was really kind of inn
a limbo, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Leah Mcatazzney's murder trial came to a screeching halt when
one of the jurors allegedly posted about the case to Facebook.
After considering a mistrial, the judge opted to simply dismiss
the jur and then allowed the trial.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To go on.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It was a fairly long trial. Sometimes it felt daunting
and exhausting hearing these horrible details of what had happened
to Sarah.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Journalist Alex Napoliello was in the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
On one side of the room, you had Liam's family,
and on the other side of the room you had
Sarah's family. And this is a family that knew each other,
and all of a sudden, they're on opposite ends of
each other, and there's a lot of animosity towards you
each other. So there was a lot of tension in
the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That tension only intensified after prosecutors played that tape confession
of Liam mcintasney.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
To see Liam mctasney talk about what he did to
his friend in such detail and to talk about it
so casually, I had never seen anything like that as
a reporter covering crime for many years.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But the defense called the tape nothing more than an
audition by Liam mcintasney.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You could hear a pin drop in that courtroom while
that tape was playing.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
In fact, that was the only time the jury heard
from Liam because he did not take the witness stand. Instead,
his lawyer told the jurors that without a body, there's
reason to believe that Sarah Stern was still alive.
Speaker 7 (20:49):
That in and of itself is enough to create the
reasonable doubt that quits my mind.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
But prosecutors fought back and said Liam Mcatazsney was not
an act He was a murderer.
Speaker 9 (21:02):
This is not a movie, it's not a story. This
defendant didn't frame himself for mert, he committed Merton.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
The fact that her body wasn't recovered is not reasonable
that Sarah Stern is dead.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The case went to the jury and very quickly they
asked to see the video of Liam Mcatasney confessing to
Anthony Curry. Meanwhile, Liam's mother went on ABC's twenty twenty
to defend her son. In every bone in my body,
I did not belave Liam is capable of killing Sarah Stern,
who he loved and adored.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
I do not believe Liam is capable of killing anybody.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Liam's mother also addressed the fact that Sarah Stern has
never been found. He says seriously affected our entire family,
and poor Mike Stern doesn't know where his daughter is.
I mean, everybody is affected by this.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
This is a horrible, horrible, horrible situation.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Liam's mother may have thought her son was innocent, but
ultimately it would come down to what the jury thought.
And with no body and Sarah's mysterious behavior leading up
to her abandoned car being found, it was anyone's guess.
And then after just one day of deliberations, the jury
(22:27):
returned with a verdict.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
How do you find a count.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
One of the indictment as toward than the defendant Liam
mcintasne committed the crime of murder by purposely or knowingly
causing the death of Sarah's Starn, or purposely of knowingly
causing serious quantity injury to Sarah Starm which resulted in
the death guilty.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
They found Liam Mcatazsne guilty of six felonies, including first
degree murder. Leah Mcatazsney was sentenced to life in prison
without parole. Journalist Alex And was in the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I remember almost falling off my chair. Her two closest friends,
one being her junior prom date, are charged with her death.
I mean, I was speechless.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Leam Mcatasne was also speechless. He didn't react to his
conviction and continued to stare straight ahead, while Sarah's father
lowered his head and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I can't imagine what Michael has gone through over these years.
I mean from the moment his daughter was reported missing
till Liam was convicted. That was years, and just my
heart goes out to him that he had to suffer
because of this.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
At a press conference after the trial, Michael Stern unloaded
on Sarah's former best friend.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Makes me sick, absolutely sick that somebody would do something
like that, and you heard the test money that it
was all a setup. He was never Sayerah's friend, and
apparently you know, his evil thoughts and his motives are
just beyond anything, any realm of anything that I could
(24:14):
imagine being so evil.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
There were no reports that Liam and Sarah were at
odds with each other, that there was any stripe between them.
They were close and they remained close up until the
day she disappeared.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And he was grateful the case was blown open thanks
to nineteen year old Anthony curry.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
On behalf of our family to the Curry family. I
really appreciate what they did. It took a lot of
courage for him to come forward. I know it was
hard for him, but he knew he had to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Anthony Curry was a game changer for this investigation. Without
Anthony Curry, police don't have the investigation and the case
that they had.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Anthony Curry graduated from aspiring movie producer to actual movie producer.
His first film premiered in twenty twenty two. The movie
was about the violent street kids he grew up with
and was in the works years before Sarah Stern's murder.
With Leah Mcatasney and Preston Taylor in prison, the community
(25:16):
tried to move forward, but it hasn't been easy.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
It's a tragedy.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
What happened to Michael Stone's family should happen to no one.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Edward Kirshenbaum worked with the Neptune City Police Department.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
True justice would be having his daughter back. That would
be true justice, but that'll never happen. Sarah's still not
coming home, so that's that's a sad part of this
all scenario.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
In twenty thirteen, Michael Stern lost his wife to cancer,
and three years later, he lost his only child to
murder by her friend, Liam mcintasne.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
How do you wrap your mind around so so called friends,
child of friends, that they're the ones responsible for the
murder of your daughter. How do you I don't know
if you ever wrap your.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Head around that.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Michael is a unique nanny carries us with them every
single minute, hour, day, week, month and year. It's just
something that never goes away.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Despite countless searches, Sarah Stearn's body has still never turned up.
It's something that continues to keep her father up at night.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I don't sleep very well. I have nightmares, which is
a horrible thing, waking up at two o'clock in the
morning and thinking that Sarah's still alive and she's calling
for me. I just can't get over that. It becomes
harder as every day and month goes by, and every
(26:53):
year goes by, doesn't get any easier. I can't. I
just can't get over the loss of my beautiful daughter.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
The only thing that comforts Michael is the scholarship fund
he set up in Sarah's name at her high school
and the college she attended.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So we want to keep Sarah's name out there as
an artist. Now. My mission for Sarah is to promote
the arts fine arts media for other students who wish
to pursue that career, seeing it blossom, and Sarah, I'd
(27:33):
like to see it blossom with other people that may
be able to use the scholarship to continue their careers.
I love my daughter, I miss her, and I just
hope she's a piece somewhere in heaven.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Preston Taylor, who was Sarah's date to the Junior prom
was also charged in connection with Sarah's death. As part
of his plea deal with investigators, Preston was eighteen years
in prison. He will be eligible for parole in twenty
thirty two, when he is thirty five years old. Meanwhile,
(28:09):
Preston's roommate Liam Mcatasne continues to maintain his innocence.
Speaker 10 (28:15):
There's such a big part of this case that I
feel like is unsolved.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Journalist Tom Davis remains completely baffled by Liam's motive.
Speaker 10 (28:23):
Why would anybody ever go through that effort and to
kill somebody for what period to be about seven thousand dollars,
and in the fact that the person's not even a
stranger as a friend of theirs, they're best friends, you know,
that they were like their own little clique. You would
think that maybe something would have stopped him before he
even got to the house, that maybe something inside him
would have actually some sort of moral compass would have
(28:45):
just stopped this.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
You know, in cases like this, we always want more
answers in the hope they'll help us understand why these
things happen. But we'll never know.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
We need to actually go back at this and actually
find out what happened there, what drove them, what was
there something that happened to them when they were smaller,
when they were kids, when they were teenagers. I mean,
we saw this happen with Timothy mccvey when he bombed
Oklahoma City. It was another thing where there was a
history there where we didn't actually fully expect it to
be what it was. When he eventually got to jail
and he got the prison, he then eventually gave up
(29:19):
what his motives were.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
We need that moment, you know, to find out what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
You know, next time on American homicide, when a married
man leaves his wife or another woman and then vanishes,
police have to figure out if it's infidelity or something
much darker, I'm slung Glass, That's next time on American Homicide.
(29:50):
You can contact the American Homicide team bye emailing us
at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. That's American
Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted
and written by me Sloane Glass and is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
(30:10):
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written
and produced by Todd Gans, with additional writing by Ben
Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurie.
Our Ihearty is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing
(30:33):
and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, Dave Seya, and Britt Robashow.
Additional editing support from Nico Ruka Tanner Robbins and Patrick Walsh.
American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Bains of
Neiser Music Library, provided by My Music. Follow American Homicide
(30:53):
on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide.
Your five star review goes a long way towards helping
others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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