September 24, 2024 • 31 mins
What if the entertainment industry’s biggest names are hiding sinister secrets? Join us on "What We Lose in the Shadows" as Caroline and I unpack the shocking arrest of P Diddy, who faces charges of trafficking, sexual abuse, and RICO violations in Manhattan. We delve into the disturbing allegations, including a heinous incident with Cassie in a hotel hallway, and question the implications of his powerful Hollywood connections. The whispers involving other celebrities like J-Lo, Justin Bieber, and Usher add a chilling dimension, forcing us to confront the harsh realities of how the entertainment industry treats its most vulnerable members.
Switching gears, we examine the heartbreaking disappearance of 13-year-old Madeline Soto. The conflicting accounts from her parents, Jennifer Soto and Stephan Sterns, cast a pall of suspicion over the case. Stephan’s behavior, like resetting his phone before the police could investigate, raises red flags that point to a darker truth. We scrutinize the complex web of lies and denial, comparing it to infamous cases like JonBenet Ramsey. The episode closes on a somber note as we discuss the potential complicity of Jennifer and the gut-wrenching implications of child abuse, trafficking, and the search for justice in such tragic circumstances.
Contact us at: whatweloseintheshadows@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the
Shadows a father-daughter truecrime podcast.
My name is Jamison Keys.
I'm Caroline, Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Caroline, how are you Good?
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You know, I just want to give an update, in case you
have been busy and didn't see it.
Last week, a case that we'ddone earlier, which was, of
course, p Diddy, he was actuallyarrested last week in Manhattan
and he's being held, currentlywithout bond.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I did see that.
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
We'll have to do a real update later on, but it's.
It was very interesting I afterthey sentence after they
sentence him right.
But interestingly, I mean, Iknew they were going to go after
him for trafficking.
I knew they were going to goafter him for, you know, sexual
abuse and so on, and and somevideos have come out really of,
uh, an incident that happenedwith cassie in a hotel lobby I
(01:07):
saw that and that was brutal andyikes but they're going it was
a hotel hallway.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hotel, hallway, for god's sake it wasn't the lobby.
Sadly, because someone elsewould have probably saw if it
was the lobby right, right, soand I was wondering he dragged
her back in, dragged her back inbeat her to the ground and
dragged her back in in a towel.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Son of a bitch, um, yeah, uh, but anyways, he, he, I
really wondered, because thatwas like in march or april that
we did the um, that they madethe raids and so on so I was
just curious what had taken solong with it.
Is he going to be, is he goingto know such, have so much money
and know such famousconnections that he's going to
slip off this hook?
But no, they were just waitingto set it and they even have
(01:47):
charged him with RICO charges.
Are you familiar with RICO?
I'm not Okay.
Rico cases are normally madeagainst the mafia or against,
you know, a drug cartel.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Organized crime.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Organized crime, you know, developing an organization
bent on committing crimes, andnormally, like I said, it's for
the mafia or it's like a bikergang.
That's basically um, that's um,you know doing drug trafficking
or you know weapons and so on,but yeah so.
So that was a surprise and, uh,we'll see where that goes, but
that was a very, very eventfulweek yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I'm interested.
I heard that and these arealleged, but I've heard that
j-Lo was involved and knew aboutit.
I heard that Justin Bieber wasabused by P Diddy and Usher
brought him there to be abusedby P Diddy.
I heard, like all thesedifferent things about, like
famous people and none of it ishas been confirmed, but that
(02:42):
doesn't mean I don't believe it.
You know what I mean.
Like there are reasons thatthese things are being talked
about and I feel like there'sdefinitely some truth to these
claims.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So I watched a couple of things on YouTube of all
places and read a couple ofthings in the New York Times,
and there's a lot of nervouspeople in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Because he would have these crazy freak off yes
parties and things like that.
Yep and um, yeah.
But I know that usher um.
When he first was getting intothe music business, his parents
met p diddy and of course he's acharismatic guy.
He sent usher to like live withhim for a little bit to see
what the lifestyle was like.
And although usher says I neversaw, I saw some wild stuff and
(03:23):
nothing like that, would youknow that was illegal, but he
was a child, he was like.
And although Usher says I neversaw I saw some wild stuff and
nothing like that, would youknow that was illegal?
But he was a child, he was likea teenager.
At this point it's totallyinappropriate.
So I agree, I agree, but theydid ask Usher.
They said well, would you sendyour son too?
And he's like absolutely never.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Exactly so anyways?
No, exactly, but he did,because Usher is the one who
found Justin Bieber.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And so he did send Justin Bieber there.
Well, yeah, and there arevideos of him young, drunk or
something like not in his rightmind, not sober Right, as a
teenager with P Diddy in hishouse.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
See, that's.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It's inappropriate.
It's inappropriate.
So although Usher didn't sendhis own child there, he
definitely did send you know hisprotege Right there.
He definitely did send you knowhis protege right.
Despicable, yeah, I'm just.
This whole thing is justridiculous and I'm just so sick
of the famous people, like youknow, being apathetic to
children.
Like why is it always?
It's always children, actually.
I was gonna ask why, but I feellike it's children, because
(04:17):
they're vulnerable well.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So the case that's been brought and they didn't
bring all the charges, they justbrought a few few so far, so
far, and none of them involvechildren, pedophilia or anything
like that.
At the moment there's a lot ofacts that are covered, but the
defense attorney for Pete Diddyis saying what you're going to
notice is in all these thingsand all these films and so on,
these are adults and therefore Ireally I question that,
(04:45):
although, like I I said,allegedly this is happening, but
apparently we'll see, but thereare a lot, of, a lot of famous
people that are very, verynervous now and almost like a
epstein kind of a exactly thisis.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
This is feeling very similar, right, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
like uh, either either um, oh, what was it r
kelly oh r kelly oh so these men.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know what, throw them away.
Like I'm so done with these men.
You know what?
Throw them away.
Like I'm so done with these men.
There's some nice men left,it's all right.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, I know one, you know two, thank you very much.
Two.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Your brother.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, I wastalking about you.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
No, I figured that.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Now there's a few.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
There's a, literally.
I mean, these famous men arevery dangerous, like the money,
the entitlement.
What my question has alwaysbeen how do you allow yourself
to be manipulated manipulatedlike this?
And I guess part of the answerand part of the problem is if
you're given a certain amount offame and some people that's all
they've ever wanted to be theywant to be rich, powerful,
powerful and famous.
Right, that's not.
Those are the three keystonesto this.
Would be an amazing life if Iwas these three things and if
(05:51):
that's really your bent, ifthat's really you're not so into
relationships or family orstuff like that.
You just want to be rich andfamous and this is your one shot
.
Maybe you're hesitant to reportthings like this, or you know
not to just run when you seethis kind of stuff absolutely,
yeah, they're scared and youknow there's a lot, especially
back then.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I think, like the reason that these are all coming
forward now jeffrey epstein, rkelly p diddy, um, prince andrew
, yeah, harvey weinstein, likethe list goes on, but um, I
think the reason that they'reall goes on but um, I think the
reason that they're all being um, being talked about now and
being taken to court now, isbecause women have finally taken
(06:33):
, you know, their stories,shared them, to show that they
are actually very common, sadlybeing abused, being sexually
abused and trafficking ingeneral, and you know people are
actually listening to this nowbecause of you know this may be
one positive of cancel culturefor sure you know what I mean,
(06:53):
like there are definitelypositives to these things that
we see as negative, but this isdefinitely a positive of cancel
culture well, and one of thethings he said when, or his
lawyer had said when, theydismissed cassie's argument,
right.
How do you dismiss it with videoevidence?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, no one had seen the video evidence and he said
that it didn't exist.
This was all an exaggeration,but you'll notice that he paid
her the next day once she filedit, because he knew there is
video somewhere and after itsurfaced.
So she's a brave woman too.
Absolutely, she's kind of beenthe one that brought this dude
down I love it I love it onceagain.
(07:33):
All this is a legend, just well, not all of it, we saw cassie.
We saw him abuse cassie righthe's definitely a piece of shit
for sure.
Yes, he is, uh, but that's notthe case.
We're actually talking aboutbelieve it or not.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Just a nice long intro, that's right.
Trigger warnings today areneglect, child sexual abuse,
child pornography and murder.
Yikes, today's case is aheartbreaking story of how a
little girl was sexually abusedby her stepfather, a story
that's all too common.
Many children are victimized bypeople close to them or close
(08:06):
to their families.
Uh, however, this story is alittle different, so we're going
to get into why okay this isthe case of madeline soto.
Madeline was born february 2011to her mother, jennifer soto,
and her father, tyler, whoselast name I struggled to find.
So her parents didn't staytogether, but her mother found a
(08:27):
new boyfriend a few years later.
Stephan sterns met jennifer andthe two fell for each other and
finally got married whenmadeline was around eight okay
uh, now there's not a lot ofinformation from when madeline
was eight until 13,.
It was seemingly quiet in theirhouse, nothing really coming up
(08:51):
to the public, nothing strangehappening that they know of.
But now looking back, it was alittle too quiet, I guess.
Wow.
So this year, in February 2024,madeline celebrated her 13th
birthday on a Sunday withfriends and family.
The following day, jenniferasked Stefan if he could take
(09:13):
Madeline to school.
So this is her stepdad, right?
Stefan instead dropped her offat a church that was three
blocks away from the school, forsome reason.
Okay, I don't know if there'straffic or you know whatever.
I don't know if there's trafficor you know whatever.
I don't know, but I justthought that was strange too.
Uh, jennifer goes to pick upmadeline from school at 4 pm
that day, only to find out thatshe's not waiting for her, like
(09:35):
she typically is.
Jennifer starts driving aroundthe neighborhood looking for her
daughter and then goes to hergrandmother's house or
madeline's grandmother's house,so her mom's to see if she's
there.
Jennifer doesn't know what todo, so she emails the school to
see what time madeline left orif anyone you know knows where
she could be.
Uh, the school promptlyresponds uh, that madeline was
(09:58):
never at school that day oh no,not even for first period.
Now I can't imagine the feelingof finding out that your child
has not been at school all dayand is missing.
And they're young, right,they're 13.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
There's nothing more terrifying than not being able
to find your child.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I can't imagine, right, they're so young and
defenseless.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Right, you know I was always a little overbearing,
maybe a little overly zealousand finding you and I know one
time at an Apple festival that afriend of our friends, of our
families and you and yourbrother and their children went
to and suddenly I realized Idon't know where your brother is
.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Oh, that's so scary.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And I'm like, you know I'm frantically looking
around and then you know yourmom says look at that, who would
let their child crawl up on topof that?
You know, 10 feet off of that,on that pretend train, you know
play set on top of it, who wouldlet their child do that?
I'm like um, that's, that'syour son.
That's funny, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So that's so funny.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Kids are too mischievous, they're just so
impulsive.
I mean it was doubly.
I mean I was at one point Ionce said so I was like, oh my
god, he's on top of the trainset.
And then I've realized that Iwe found him.
I like at least he's just ontop of the train.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, honestly so scary when you go to those big
like events.
Um, you know, and parentsexpect the school to take care
of their children, you know,while they're at work sure to
know where they are at least.
So when something like thishappens, it probably sends the
parents into shock.
Um, you know, you think they'reat school and they never win.
(11:38):
Oh, you know, and they're young, it's not like they're just
skipping school right um,because she just turned 13 the
day before.
so jenn Jennifer was extremelyupset that the school didn't
call her to tell her thatMadeline was absent during the
day, as it would have beenhelpful to know as early as
possible that she was not whereshe was supposed to be.
And it's tough for the school,I assume, because kids do skip,
(12:00):
you know, sometimes, especiallythe older, that they get Like
high school age kids are alwaysskipping.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I had a couple children that did that no, you
had one yes, I had one you onlyhad one that would do that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So jennifer calls the police and reports her little
girl missing.
The police are questioningmadeline's mother and stepfather
about when they last saw her.
Jennifer said she saw herdaughter at 8 am when she was
getting ready for school, andStefan describes how he dropped
(12:38):
her off at the church and lether walk the few blocks to
school at 825 to 840.
The following day, jennifer andStefan do an interview with the
local news and tell a differentstory, and this is where it
starts Like already your storyis changing and shifting.
Jennifer then claims that sheand Stefan drove her all the way
to school and saw her go intothe school.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
After they already said that's not what happened to
the police.
That's suspicious Very.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She then backtracked and said only Stefan took her to
school.
After this interview, thingsstarted changing with the
investigation.
Obviously, the public and thepolice found her flip flopping
statements really concerning andsuspicious, all the while
Stefan is sobbing in theseinterviews begging for his
(13:25):
stepdaughter's safe return.
When police interviewed stefan,they asked to take his cell
phone to look through it.
He agreed, but then he didsomething very suspicious.
What's that, can you guess?
he broke it um, basically thesame thing.
Yeah, he reset his phone, sothere was nothing on it.
(13:47):
He said I don't know how I didthis, but yeah, he reset his
phone, so there was nothing onit.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He said I don't know how I did this, but I think I
factory reset my phone, so youhit the button that says factory
reset my phone.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yes, correct.
What he didn't realize is thatpolice have technology
specialists that can recoversome often all of what was on a
device, barring if the device isactually physically damaged.
And of course, they foundhorrific things on his phone.
Yeah, so just be prepared.
Remember those trigger warnings.
They found hundreds of imagesand videos of child pornography,
(14:21):
mostly taken within the sotohome.
Oh my god.
They identified stefan as theperpetrator in these images
because of an identifying markon his body.
It's believed that the child inthe photos were madeline soto
due to the clothing matching theclothing that they found in her
in her bedroom.
A few days later, on february28th 2024, stefan Stearns was
(14:48):
arrested on battery and childpornography.
The police then announced theywere treating this case as a
homicide at this point.
The reason they made thisdecision to switch focus of the
case was because they found somepretty damning evidence looking
through the surveillancefootage from multiple sources
around the community.
(15:09):
They caught stefan throwingaway madeline's backpack and
laptop in a dumpster at 7 30 themorning.
He supposedly dropped her offum to walk to school.
At this point stefan isobviously guilty like why are
you throwing away her stuff thatshe.
This is things, things shewould need for the rest of the
school year right and the laptopuntil it breaks right, like
(15:30):
this is not something that youdump.
Um, he also chose to dump herstuff on the apartment complex
grounds.
Stupid, stupid fortunately,criminals tend to be stupid you
know and and I I'm thankful forthat because, come on, so the
they have easy um evidence toprovide right.
The police sure they found thisvery, very easily.
(15:53):
Uh it it only gets worse fromhere.
Uh, the police are able to seein the video at 7 30 am the
figure of madeline in the car.
The police believe that she hadalready been murdered and he
had her body propped up in thecar what to give himself an
alibi, like in case someone sawher.
(16:15):
No, no, he just had her with himto to take her and dump her.
So the police received a tipstating a witness saw Stefan
changing a flat tire on the sideof the road near a wooded area
45 minutes from their home.
The day Madeline went missing.
Oh no, this man is really justso easy to follow, obviously.
(16:39):
But the police searched thearea and sadly found the body of
Madeline Soto.
The body of Madeline Soto.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Unfortunately, the police department somehow
accidentally posted a photo ofMadeline's deceased body on
Instagram.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh, my God, I don't.
I don't know how that happens,but obviously the public was
very upset to see these photoson Instagram, for sure, where
their children have access.
Right and I know in othercountries crime scene photos are
published for the country tosee, for the public to see, um,
specifically india, they will.
They will show the photos ofthe crime scene.
(17:18):
However, in america this sceneis extremely disrespectful to
the deceased and it is yeah, forour culture.
Yes, um, it's also verydisturbing to viewers to see a
dead child's photo.
This is a child, oh, it wasjust.
It was really bad.
So steven was charged withmadeline's murder after he was
(17:40):
already being held for the othercrimes.
So that's why they like chargehim before, so they could, you
know, have him there until theyfound the body, because they
knew it was only a matter oftime.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
What was the mother's involvement in all this?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I'm so glad you asked Again.
Things are going to takeanother turn here.
So Madeline's mother wasre-interviewed, march 14th 2024,
in which she admits that oftenMadeline would sleep in bed with
her and her husband.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Creepy.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Madeline was 13 years old and For that to happen very
often.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
It's just, it feels very inappropriate, especially
knowing what we know.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
She also said that it was normal for them to sleep in
the same bed even when she wasnot there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Even when the mother was not there, correct?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So she allowed her husband, madeline's stepfather,
to sleep in the same bed withMadeline just the two of them, a
13 year old girl.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, not a chance.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Absolutely not, Jennifer.
The mother said that sometimesshe would leave them alone and
sleep elsewhere in the housebecause she had anxiety and
needed a good night's rest.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I don't know what to even say to that.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Exactly so.
This is she's like.
This is like recorded.
Like I, I, I heard the audio ofthis interview.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Why is a teenager sleeping in bed with a grown man
who was introduced to her life,into her life, only years
before?
To me, it feels like the motherknew about this.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, we don't want to jump to that conclusion
unduly, but at the same timeit's inappropriate it's, it's
utterly inappropriate, it's just, yeah, and I'm sure that there
are some.
You know many, many, manystepfathers and step parents
that you know are perfectly, ofcourse, absolutely, but at the
same time, normally, but that's,you know, age, young girls,
(19:33):
young women, less and less to dowith their parents, exactly.
And yeah, the whole sleeping inthe bed with the stepfather is
just.
There's something very wrongabout that.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Exactly.
Jennifer states that she didn'tknow about the sexual abuse and
that she didn't believe herhusband could do that to his
stepdaughter.
So the police showed her aphotograph of her daughter being
abused by stefan.
She then told them that sheaccepts that that happened, but
(20:04):
she doesn't think that he couldbe so evil as to kill her.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
She literally just saw the photo wow yes she's got
blunders on, she's not trying tosee it, that's all so last
month jumped to last month,august 2024.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Stephen stern's.
Stephen stern's parents wereinterviewed on their thoughts.
His mom said that she doesn'tbelieve that he wanted to hurt
her.
She thinks that it must havebeen accidental he accidentally
murdered her.
Correct, oh yeah, his dad saidthat he feels like do we even
(20:41):
know our son?
Do we really even know him?
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, that's.
At least he's opening up to thepossibility.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Then, in the same breath, he says that he thinks
that he's just the fall guy putto it he felt obviously guilty
about what he describes as aninappropriate relationship with
madeline an inappropriate yes,that's.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's generically sinking more like rape it is.
It was child molestation, itwas rape, yeah yeah, his father
is is sort of in denial, yeahhe's waffling and obviously you
know he's trying to put the bestpossible foot forward with it
all.
It's pedophilia.
It's pedophilia, it's murder.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yep, the sexual abuse of a child that he was supposed
to protect, but instead put hisown sexual gratification above
her safety and above her lifesexual gratification above her
safety and above her life.
We also know that he had herdead body in the car and that he
dumped her body in the woods,turned right back around, got a
(21:44):
flat tire, turned right backaround and cried and pretended
to look for her, all the whilewasting police's time that they
could have used to solve otherserious cases too yeah,
sociopath yes, I mean, it's theepitome of selfishness and
narcissistic behavior is has the?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
has a jury been seated for this yet, or are they
?
They've obviously brought thecharges, but where does it stand
right now?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
uh, so they are still awaiting trial.
But one thing I do agree withhis parents about is that
jennifer needs to be charged.
They mentioned that they thinkthat he was the fall guy for
this and that jennifer wasinvolved.
I totally believe that jenniferneeds to be charged for
trafficking of her own child and, at the very bare minimum,
(22:30):
neglect.
She knew there's no way.
She didn't suspect that thiswas happening.
This happened hundreds of times, from when she was eight to 13
is what they're estimating.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Just wait.
So most recently, jenniferconfirmed that her daughter had
missed her period just beforeshe went missing.
Oh no, so here's what I believehappened.
Jennifer was looking for loveand approval from Stefan, turned
a blind eye to the fact that hewas sexually abusing her own
daughter.
He gets the little girlpregnant and then he kills her
(23:06):
to cover up the abuse.
The question is, did she knowabout him killing her daughter?
I think she did.
I think she was in on it.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, why would you so radically change your
statement from day to day?
Exactly it sounded like theyhad three different stories.
Stories, and I mean, how does amother, even if she's not aware
that the murder has happened,she has to be somewhat aware
that something weird is going onI mean yeah, if he's sleeping
in the bedroom with hisstepdaughter at 13 but she said
(23:37):
that she sent them to go sleepin the bedroom together.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
She was like you guys just take that bedroom and then
I'll sleep down here in adifferent bedroom because I just
need some sleep.
Well, why are you not gettingsleep?
That's my question.
What is going on in the bedroomthat you're not getting sleep?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
oh god, do you know what I mean?
Like this is, but that's whatI'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I'm like what?
And this is like.
She said that she had a rulethat, yes, this is all in, like
the um, the interviews that shedid with the police.
Uh, she said that she had arule that no one else was
allowed to sleep over and shewas very strict about that see,
that's a red flag too I meanit's a red flag?
(24:17):
Yeah, exactly, but and then shehad a rule that, um, that
madeline couldn't sleep alone.
Why?
right so this is how she kind oflike like phrase this to to the
police what I I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That sounds like a fabrication.
That sounds like you're tryingto rationalize.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
You're grasping at straws.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, yeah, and the fact that she knows the little
girl was missing, and then theycompletely changed her story.
No, we actually took her allthe way into the school and then
they changed it again.
I mean, that's just you know.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It's extremely suspicious and I think she
definitely had, at the very bareminimum, an inkling that he was
abusing her I think he, I thinkshe had to have known something
, because I just I just don'tunderstand how she could do this
like I don't understand it.
Obviously he's trash, obviouslyright, but I just can't imagine
(25:20):
like a mother or a fatherletting someone abuse their
child it's shocking.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Plus, I mean, we don't know and I didn't hear
about the day she disappeared inthe time that, um, they were
aware of it.
I i't I'm not sure exactly whatwas happening then.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So she said that she wasn't aware of it until 4 pm.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Still I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Exactly You're calling everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
You're out there looking, you're, you know, I
mean I don't know it, just itreally the whole credibility,
the whole believability of thething it's like I know, you know
most parents if a child is gone, they're not sleeping, they're
not going anywhere, they'regoing crazy.
They're calling the police 25times.
They're out there franticallytrying to find the child, and
(26:10):
that you know frantic behaviorthat frantic.
You know worry, you know terroris palpable, it's evident.
You can see that in cases wherethis kind of thing has happened
.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And then you know there are other cases, like do
you remember the JonBenet Ramsey?
And you know, I mean, there'ssome really odd things about
that case too.
You know the parents didn'treact like normal parents you
would think would Right, or atleast that I remember.
No, they didn't.
And this woman doesn't seem tobe reacting like a concerned
parent either.
She's just like oh, I don'tknow what happened, you know she
(26:45):
was.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
She's just trying to cover her own ass.
Yeah, but even weirder her.
So her birthday was that daybefore.
Before Monday yeah.
When she went missing.
So Sunday her mom didn't go toher birthday party, Like it
feels like she's trying todistance herself with that.
They said she was working Okay,but Did they did?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
they give the time of death.
Did they establish time ofdeath?
No, Could she have died thatday?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I believe so Because.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I think it was in the morning.
You're not going to a birthdayparty.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's so weird.
It's so weird.
And Stefan wasn't at herbirthday party until later.
So who's hosting this birthdayparty?
Who was?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
at the birthday party Family and friends.
But the little girl was thereat the birthday party.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yes, friends, but the little girl was there at the
birthday party, yes, celebratingher 13th birthday, but steph,
the, the stepfather and themother aren't there.
Yep, that's so weird.
It's just the whole thing isweird.
And then afterwards, um, aftershe found out, after jennifer
found out, the mom found outabout the sexual abuse.
She told stephan to get alawyer, like her priorities are
a smidge askew there.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I mean exactly certainly not helping him
arrange an alibi.
It's insane.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, nope, no right parent in the right mind would
do that exactly which makes mefeel like she knew a lot more
than she was leading on.
It makes me feel like she knewthat her daughter was pregnant
and that's why they killed her.
Oh my god, she missed a whole,like she missed one period.
And you know that happenssometimes.
(28:23):
Like periods are not likeclockwork, they don't happen
every month, but you know it'sit's it's it's very odd timing
to miss a period and thendisappear and get murdered.
It feels like one thing isconnected to the other.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It breaks my heart.
You know like that.
This little girl was sexuallyabused in her own home for years
.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
By the people that she took that were going to take
care of her.
She took that for granted bythose people.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
they, they, oh my god they, they trafficked her, yeah
, and then murdered her like shewas nothing I wonder, were the
pictures, the, the things thatwere on his phone?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
was it child pornography in general?
Was it specific to that?
It was her.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
It was her not all some of it was general, like of
other children, um, which is awhole separate.
You know, very, very sadmonster.
Yeah, he's literally despicable, yeah, but yeah, no, a lot of
it was her that he took on hisphone.
I mean, it's just, it's aheartbreaking case and, as of
(29:39):
now, stephan is being heldawaiting trial so what state um
florida?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
so it was in the state of florida it's in the
state of florida and well, youknow, gosh, you hate to think
about it this way, but there isat least a a very real chance
that this guy is going to be inprison forever.
If not, um, you know, they dohave.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
They do have execution in the state of
florida, and especially forsomething as heinous as you know
, something like this, good godit's horrible and I just hope
that they really take their timeand are thorough in their
investigation of the mother,because it really does feel like
she knew something about thissituation happening in her own
house yeah, I mean I, I know, Iknow I've read stories and you
(30:26):
know seen stories in the pastwhere someone really closes
their eyes tightly, that thatthis isn't really going on.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
And sometimes it's about, well, he, I, you know, I
love him and I want to make surehe doesn't leave.
My God, are you kidding?
Are you really giving this guyan alibi?
Are you really closing youreyes so totally that you don't
see this happening?
I mean, there's so many redflags of of you know, the
sleeping arrangements alone.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's feel like she knew about everything Right.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I mean, oh my God, just a terrible, terrible case.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
It's a terrible case.
We'll let you know what happensnext with this case, but that
is the case of Madeline Soto.
Follow the show on whateverstreaming site you're listening
on.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And remember.
All of the source material willbe available in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
And follow us on Instagram at
whatweloseintheshadows, and letus know if you want to hear a
specific case.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Or if you just want to give us some feedback.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Okay, join us in the shadows next Tuesday.
Bye.
Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the
Shadows a father-daughter truecrime podcast.
My name is Jamison Keys.
I'm Caroline, Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Caroline, how are you Good?
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You know, I just want to give an update, in case you
have been busy and didn't see it.
Last week, a case that we'ddone earlier, which was, of
course, p Diddy, he was actuallyarrested last week in Manhattan
and he's being held, currentlywithout bond.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I did see that.
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
We'll have to do a real update later on, but it's.
It was very interesting I afterthey sentence after they
sentence him right.
But interestingly, I mean, Iknew they were going to go after
him for trafficking.
I knew they were going to goafter him for, you know, sexual
abuse and so on, and and somevideos have come out really of,
uh, an incident that happenedwith cassie in a hotel lobby I
(01:07):
saw that and that was brutal andyikes but they're going it was
a hotel hallway.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hotel, hallway, for god's sake it wasn't the lobby.
Sadly, because someone elsewould have probably saw if it
was the lobby right, right, soand I was wondering he dragged
her back in, dragged her back inbeat her to the ground and
dragged her back in in a towel.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Son of a bitch, um, yeah, uh, but anyways, he, he, I
really wondered, because thatwas like in march or april that
we did the um, that they madethe raids and so on so I was
just curious what had taken solong with it.
Is he going to be, is he goingto know such, have so much money
and know such famousconnections that he's going to
slip off this hook?
But no, they were just waitingto set it and they even have
(01:47):
charged him with RICO charges.
Are you familiar with RICO?
I'm not Okay.
Rico cases are normally madeagainst the mafia or against,
you know, a drug cartel.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Organized crime.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Organized crime, you know, developing an organization
bent on committing crimes, andnormally, like I said, it's for
the mafia or it's like a bikergang.
That's basically um, that's um,you know doing drug trafficking
or you know weapons and so on,but yeah so.
So that was a surprise and, uh,we'll see where that goes, but
that was a very, very eventfulweek yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I'm interested.
I heard that and these arealleged, but I've heard that
j-Lo was involved and knew aboutit.
I heard that Justin Bieber wasabused by P Diddy and Usher
brought him there to be abusedby P Diddy.
I heard, like all thesedifferent things about, like
famous people and none of it ishas been confirmed, but that
(02:42):
doesn't mean I don't believe it.
You know what I mean.
Like there are reasons thatthese things are being talked
about and I feel like there'sdefinitely some truth to these
claims.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So I watched a couple of things on YouTube of all
places and read a couple ofthings in the New York Times,
and there's a lot of nervouspeople in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Because he would have these crazy freak off yes
parties and things like that.
Yep and um, yeah.
But I know that usher um.
When he first was getting intothe music business, his parents
met p diddy and of course he's acharismatic guy.
He sent usher to like live withhim for a little bit to see
what the lifestyle was like.
And although usher says I neversaw, I saw some wild stuff and
(03:23):
nothing like that, would youknow that was illegal, but he
was a child, he was like.
And although Usher says I neversaw I saw some wild stuff and
nothing like that, would youknow that was illegal?
But he was a child, he was likea teenager.
At this point it's totallyinappropriate.
So I agree, I agree, but theydid ask Usher.
They said well, would you sendyour son too?
And he's like absolutely never.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Exactly so anyways?
No, exactly, but he did,because Usher is the one who
found Justin Bieber.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And so he did send Justin Bieber there.
Well, yeah, and there arevideos of him young, drunk or
something like not in his rightmind, not sober Right, as a
teenager with P Diddy in hishouse.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
See, that's.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It's inappropriate.
It's inappropriate.
So although Usher didn't sendhis own child there, he
definitely did send you know hisprotege Right there.
He definitely did send you knowhis protege right.
Despicable, yeah, I'm just.
This whole thing is justridiculous and I'm just so sick
of the famous people, like youknow, being apathetic to
children.
Like why is it always?
It's always children, actually.
I was gonna ask why, but I feellike it's children, because
(04:17):
they're vulnerable well.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So the case that's been brought and they didn't
bring all the charges, they justbrought a few few so far, so
far, and none of them involvechildren, pedophilia or anything
like that.
At the moment there's a lot ofacts that are covered, but the
defense attorney for Pete Diddyis saying what you're going to
notice is in all these thingsand all these films and so on,
these are adults and therefore Ireally I question that,
(04:45):
although, like I I said,allegedly this is happening, but
apparently we'll see, but thereare a lot, of, a lot of famous
people that are very, verynervous now and almost like a
epstein kind of a exactly thisis.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
This is feeling very similar, right, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
like uh, either either um, oh, what was it r
kelly oh r kelly oh so these men.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know what, throw them away.
Like I'm so done with these men.
You know what?
Throw them away.
Like I'm so done with these men.
There's some nice men left,it's all right.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, I know one, you know two, thank you very much.
Two.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Your brother.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, I wastalking about you.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
No, I figured that.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Now there's a few.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
There's a, literally.
I mean, these famous men arevery dangerous, like the money,
the entitlement.
What my question has alwaysbeen how do you allow yourself
to be manipulated manipulatedlike this?
And I guess part of the answerand part of the problem is if
you're given a certain amount offame and some people that's all
they've ever wanted to be theywant to be rich, powerful,
powerful and famous.
Right, that's not.
Those are the three keystonesto this.
Would be an amazing life if Iwas these three things and if
(05:51):
that's really your bent, ifthat's really you're not so into
relationships or family orstuff like that.
You just want to be rich andfamous and this is your one shot
.
Maybe you're hesitant to reportthings like this, or you know
not to just run when you seethis kind of stuff absolutely,
yeah, they're scared and youknow there's a lot, especially
back then.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I think, like the reason that these are all coming
forward now jeffrey epstein, rkelly p diddy, um, prince andrew
, yeah, harvey weinstein, likethe list goes on, but um, I
think the reason that they'reall goes on but um, I think the
reason that they're all being um, being talked about now and
being taken to court now, isbecause women have finally taken
(06:33):
, you know, their stories,shared them, to show that they
are actually very common, sadlybeing abused, being sexually
abused and trafficking ingeneral, and you know people are
actually listening to this nowbecause of you know this may be
one positive of cancel culturefor sure you know what I mean,
(06:53):
like there are definitelypositives to these things that
we see as negative, but this isdefinitely a positive of cancel
culture well, and one of thethings he said when, or his
lawyer had said when, theydismissed cassie's argument,
right.
How do you dismiss it with videoevidence?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, no one had seen the video evidence and he said
that it didn't exist.
This was all an exaggeration,but you'll notice that he paid
her the next day once she filedit, because he knew there is
video somewhere and after itsurfaced.
So she's a brave woman too.
Absolutely, she's kind of beenthe one that brought this dude
down I love it I love it onceagain.
(07:33):
All this is a legend, just well, not all of it, we saw cassie.
We saw him abuse cassie righthe's definitely a piece of shit
for sure.
Yes, he is, uh, but that's notthe case.
We're actually talking aboutbelieve it or not.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Just a nice long intro, that's right.
Trigger warnings today areneglect, child sexual abuse,
child pornography and murder.
Yikes, today's case is aheartbreaking story of how a
little girl was sexually abusedby her stepfather, a story
that's all too common.
Many children are victimized bypeople close to them or close
(08:06):
to their families.
Uh, however, this story is alittle different, so we're going
to get into why okay this isthe case of madeline soto.
Madeline was born february 2011to her mother, jennifer soto,
and her father, tyler, whoselast name I struggled to find.
So her parents didn't staytogether, but her mother found a
(08:27):
new boyfriend a few years later.
Stephan sterns met jennifer andthe two fell for each other and
finally got married whenmadeline was around eight okay
uh, now there's not a lot ofinformation from when madeline
was eight until 13,.
It was seemingly quiet in theirhouse, nothing really coming up
(08:51):
to the public, nothing strangehappening that they know of.
But now looking back, it was alittle too quiet, I guess.
Wow.
So this year, in February 2024,madeline celebrated her 13th
birthday on a Sunday withfriends and family.
The following day, jenniferasked Stefan if he could take
(09:13):
Madeline to school.
So this is her stepdad, right?
Stefan instead dropped her offat a church that was three
blocks away from the school, forsome reason.
Okay, I don't know if there'straffic or you know whatever.
I don't know if there's trafficor you know whatever.
I don't know, but I justthought that was strange too.
Uh, jennifer goes to pick upmadeline from school at 4 pm
that day, only to find out thatshe's not waiting for her, like
(09:35):
she typically is.
Jennifer starts driving aroundthe neighborhood looking for her
daughter and then goes to hergrandmother's house or
madeline's grandmother's house,so her mom's to see if she's
there.
Jennifer doesn't know what todo, so she emails the school to
see what time madeline left orif anyone you know knows where
she could be.
Uh, the school promptlyresponds uh, that madeline was
(09:58):
never at school that day oh no,not even for first period.
Now I can't imagine the feelingof finding out that your child
has not been at school all dayand is missing.
And they're young, right,they're 13.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
There's nothing more terrifying than not being able
to find your child.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I can't imagine, right, they're so young and
defenseless.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Right, you know I was always a little overbearing,
maybe a little overly zealousand finding you and I know one
time at an Apple festival that afriend of our friends, of our
families and you and yourbrother and their children went
to and suddenly I realized Idon't know where your brother is
.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Oh, that's so scary.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And I'm like, you know I'm frantically looking
around and then you know yourmom says look at that, who would
let their child crawl up on topof that?
You know, 10 feet off of that,on that pretend train, you know
play set on top of it, who wouldlet their child do that?
I'm like um, that's, that'syour son.
That's funny, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So that's so funny.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Kids are too mischievous, they're just so
impulsive.
I mean it was doubly.
I mean I was at one point Ionce said so I was like, oh my
god, he's on top of the trainset.
And then I've realized that Iwe found him.
I like at least he's just ontop of the train.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, honestly so scary when you go to those big
like events.
Um, you know, and parentsexpect the school to take care
of their children, you know,while they're at work sure to
know where they are at least.
So when something like thishappens, it probably sends the
parents into shock.
Um, you know, you think they'reat school and they never win.
(11:38):
Oh, you know, and they're young, it's not like they're just
skipping school right um,because she just turned 13 the
day before.
so jenn Jennifer was extremelyupset that the school didn't
call her to tell her thatMadeline was absent during the
day, as it would have beenhelpful to know as early as
possible that she was not whereshe was supposed to be.
And it's tough for the school,I assume, because kids do skip,
(12:00):
you know, sometimes, especiallythe older, that they get Like
high school age kids are alwaysskipping.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I had a couple children that did that no, you
had one yes, I had one you onlyhad one that would do that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So jennifer calls the police and reports her little
girl missing.
The police are questioningmadeline's mother and stepfather
about when they last saw her.
Jennifer said she saw herdaughter at 8 am when she was
getting ready for school, andStefan describes how he dropped
(12:38):
her off at the church and lether walk the few blocks to
school at 825 to 840.
The following day, jennifer andStefan do an interview with the
local news and tell a differentstory, and this is where it
starts Like already your storyis changing and shifting.
Jennifer then claims that sheand Stefan drove her all the way
to school and saw her go intothe school.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
After they already said that's not what happened to
the police.
That's suspicious Very.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She then backtracked and said only Stefan took her to
school.
After this interview, thingsstarted changing with the
investigation.
Obviously, the public and thepolice found her flip flopping
statements really concerning andsuspicious, all the while
Stefan is sobbing in theseinterviews begging for his
(13:25):
stepdaughter's safe return.
When police interviewed stefan,they asked to take his cell
phone to look through it.
He agreed, but then he didsomething very suspicious.
What's that, can you guess?
he broke it um, basically thesame thing.
Yeah, he reset his phone, sothere was nothing on it.
(13:47):
He said I don't know how I didthis, but yeah, he reset his
phone, so there was nothing onit.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He said I don't know how I did this, but I think I
factory reset my phone, so youhit the button that says factory
reset my phone.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yes, correct.
What he didn't realize is thatpolice have technology
specialists that can recoversome often all of what was on a
device, barring if the device isactually physically damaged.
And of course, they foundhorrific things on his phone.
Yeah, so just be prepared.
Remember those trigger warnings.
They found hundreds of imagesand videos of child pornography,
(14:21):
mostly taken within the sotohome.
Oh my god.
They identified stefan as theperpetrator in these images
because of an identifying markon his body.
It's believed that the child inthe photos were madeline soto
due to the clothing matching theclothing that they found in her
in her bedroom.
A few days later, on february28th 2024, stefan Stearns was
(14:48):
arrested on battery and childpornography.
The police then announced theywere treating this case as a
homicide at this point.
The reason they made thisdecision to switch focus of the
case was because they found somepretty damning evidence looking
through the surveillancefootage from multiple sources
around the community.
(15:09):
They caught stefan throwingaway madeline's backpack and
laptop in a dumpster at 7 30 themorning.
He supposedly dropped her offum to walk to school.
At this point stefan isobviously guilty like why are
you throwing away her stuff thatshe.
This is things, things shewould need for the rest of the
school year right and the laptopuntil it breaks right, like
(15:30):
this is not something that youdump.
Um, he also chose to dump herstuff on the apartment complex
grounds.
Stupid, stupid fortunately,criminals tend to be stupid you
know and and I I'm thankful forthat because, come on, so the
they have easy um evidence toprovide right.
The police sure they found thisvery, very easily.
(15:53):
Uh it it only gets worse fromhere.
Uh, the police are able to seein the video at 7 30 am the
figure of madeline in the car.
The police believe that she hadalready been murdered and he
had her body propped up in thecar what to give himself an
alibi, like in case someone sawher.
(16:15):
No, no, he just had her with himto to take her and dump her.
So the police received a tipstating a witness saw Stefan
changing a flat tire on the sideof the road near a wooded area
45 minutes from their home.
The day Madeline went missing.
Oh no, this man is really justso easy to follow, obviously.
(16:39):
But the police searched thearea and sadly found the body of
Madeline Soto.
The body of Madeline Soto.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Unfortunately, the police department somehow
accidentally posted a photo ofMadeline's deceased body on
Instagram.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh, my God, I don't.
I don't know how that happens,but obviously the public was
very upset to see these photoson Instagram, for sure, where
their children have access.
Right and I know in othercountries crime scene photos are
published for the country tosee, for the public to see, um,
specifically india, they will.
They will show the photos ofthe crime scene.
(17:18):
However, in america this sceneis extremely disrespectful to
the deceased and it is yeah, forour culture.
Yes, um, it's also verydisturbing to viewers to see a
dead child's photo.
This is a child, oh, it wasjust.
It was really bad.
So steven was charged withmadeline's murder after he was
(17:40):
already being held for the othercrimes.
So that's why they like chargehim before, so they could, you
know, have him there until theyfound the body, because they
knew it was only a matter oftime.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
What was the mother's involvement in all this?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I'm so glad you asked Again.
Things are going to takeanother turn here.
So Madeline's mother wasre-interviewed, march 14th 2024,
in which she admits that oftenMadeline would sleep in bed with
her and her husband.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Creepy.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Madeline was 13 years old and For that to happen very
often.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
It's just, it feels very inappropriate, especially
knowing what we know.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
She also said that it was normal for them to sleep in
the same bed even when she wasnot there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Even when the mother was not there, correct?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So she allowed her husband, madeline's stepfather,
to sleep in the same bed withMadeline just the two of them, a
13 year old girl.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, not a chance.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Absolutely not, Jennifer.
The mother said that sometimesshe would leave them alone and
sleep elsewhere in the housebecause she had anxiety and
needed a good night's rest.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I don't know what to even say to that.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Exactly so.
This is she's like.
This is like recorded.
Like I, I, I heard the audio ofthis interview.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Why is a teenager sleeping in bed with a grown man
who was introduced to her life,into her life, only years
before?
To me, it feels like the motherknew about this.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, we don't want to jump to that conclusion
unduly, but at the same timeit's inappropriate it's, it's
utterly inappropriate, it's just, yeah, and I'm sure that there
are some.
You know many, many, manystepfathers and step parents
that you know are perfectly, ofcourse, absolutely, but at the
same time, normally, but that's,you know, age, young girls,
(19:33):
young women, less and less to dowith their parents, exactly.
And yeah, the whole sleeping inthe bed with the stepfather is
just.
There's something very wrongabout that.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Exactly.
Jennifer states that she didn'tknow about the sexual abuse and
that she didn't believe herhusband could do that to his
stepdaughter.
So the police showed her aphotograph of her daughter being
abused by stefan.
She then told them that sheaccepts that that happened, but
(20:04):
she doesn't think that he couldbe so evil as to kill her.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
She literally just saw the photo wow yes she's got
blunders on, she's not trying tosee it, that's all so last
month jumped to last month,august 2024.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Stephen stern's.
Stephen stern's parents wereinterviewed on their thoughts.
His mom said that she doesn'tbelieve that he wanted to hurt
her.
She thinks that it must havebeen accidental he accidentally
murdered her.
Correct, oh yeah, his dad saidthat he feels like do we even
(20:41):
know our son?
Do we really even know him?
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, that's.
At least he's opening up to thepossibility.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Then, in the same breath, he says that he thinks
that he's just the fall guy putto it he felt obviously guilty
about what he describes as aninappropriate relationship with
madeline an inappropriate yes,that's.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's generically sinking more like rape it is.
It was child molestation, itwas rape, yeah yeah, his father
is is sort of in denial, yeahhe's waffling and obviously you
know he's trying to put the bestpossible foot forward with it
all.
It's pedophilia.
It's pedophilia, it's murder.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yep, the sexual abuse of a child that he was supposed
to protect, but instead put hisown sexual gratification above
her safety and above her lifesexual gratification above her
safety and above her life.
We also know that he had herdead body in the car and that he
dumped her body in the woods,turned right back around, got a
(21:44):
flat tire, turned right backaround and cried and pretended
to look for her, all the whilewasting police's time that they
could have used to solve otherserious cases too yeah,
sociopath yes, I mean, it's theepitome of selfishness and
narcissistic behavior is has the?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
has a jury been seated for this yet, or are they
?
They've obviously brought thecharges, but where does it stand
right now?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
uh, so they are still awaiting trial.
But one thing I do agree withhis parents about is that
jennifer needs to be charged.
They mentioned that they thinkthat he was the fall guy for
this and that jennifer wasinvolved.
I totally believe that jenniferneeds to be charged for
trafficking of her own child and, at the very bare minimum,
(22:30):
neglect.
She knew there's no way.
She didn't suspect that thiswas happening.
This happened hundreds of times, from when she was eight to 13
is what they're estimating.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Just wait.
So most recently, jenniferconfirmed that her daughter had
missed her period just beforeshe went missing.
Oh no, so here's what I believehappened.
Jennifer was looking for loveand approval from Stefan, turned
a blind eye to the fact that hewas sexually abusing her own
daughter.
He gets the little girlpregnant and then he kills her
(23:06):
to cover up the abuse.
The question is, did she knowabout him killing her daughter?
I think she did.
I think she was in on it.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, why would you so radically change your
statement from day to day?
Exactly it sounded like theyhad three different stories.
Stories, and I mean, how does amother, even if she's not aware
that the murder has happened,she has to be somewhat aware
that something weird is going onI mean yeah, if he's sleeping
in the bedroom with hisstepdaughter at 13 but she said
(23:37):
that she sent them to go sleepin the bedroom together.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
She was like you guys just take that bedroom and then
I'll sleep down here in adifferent bedroom because I just
need some sleep.
Well, why are you not gettingsleep?
That's my question.
What is going on in the bedroomthat you're not getting sleep?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
oh god, do you know what I mean?
Like this is, but that's whatI'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I'm like what?
And this is like.
She said that she had a rulethat, yes, this is all in, like
the um, the interviews that shedid with the police.
Uh, she said that she had arule that no one else was
allowed to sleep over and shewas very strict about that see,
that's a red flag too I meanit's a red flag?
(24:17):
Yeah, exactly, but and then shehad a rule that, um, that
madeline couldn't sleep alone.
Why?
right so this is how she kind oflike like phrase this to to the
police what I I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That sounds like a fabrication.
That sounds like you're tryingto rationalize.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
You're grasping at straws.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, yeah, and the fact that she knows the little
girl was missing, and then theycompletely changed her story.
No, we actually took her allthe way into the school and then
they changed it again.
I mean, that's just you know.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It's extremely suspicious and I think she
definitely had, at the very bareminimum, an inkling that he was
abusing her I think he, I thinkshe had to have known something
, because I just I just don'tunderstand how she could do this
like I don't understand it.
Obviously he's trash, obviouslyright, but I just can't imagine
(25:20):
like a mother or a fatherletting someone abuse their
child it's shocking.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Plus, I mean, we don't know and I didn't hear
about the day she disappeared inthe time that, um, they were
aware of it.
I i't I'm not sure exactly whatwas happening then.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So she said that she wasn't aware of it until 4 pm.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Still I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Exactly You're calling everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
You're out there looking, you're, you know, I
mean I don't know it, just itreally the whole credibility,
the whole believability of thething it's like I know, you know
most parents if a child is gone, they're not sleeping, they're
not going anywhere, they'regoing crazy.
They're calling the police 25times.
They're out there franticallytrying to find the child, and
(26:10):
that you know frantic behaviorthat frantic.
You know worry, you know terroris palpable, it's evident.
You can see that in cases wherethis kind of thing has happened
.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And then you know there are other cases, like do
you remember the JonBenet Ramsey?
And you know, I mean, there'ssome really odd things about
that case too.
You know the parents didn'treact like normal parents you
would think would Right, or atleast that I remember.
No, they didn't.
And this woman doesn't seem tobe reacting like a concerned
parent either.
She's just like oh, I don'tknow what happened, you know she
(26:45):
was.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
She's just trying to cover her own ass.
Yeah, but even weirder her.
So her birthday was that daybefore.
Before Monday yeah.
When she went missing.
So Sunday her mom didn't go toher birthday party, Like it
feels like she's trying todistance herself with that.
They said she was working Okay,but Did they did?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
they give the time of death.
Did they establish time ofdeath?
No, Could she have died thatday?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I believe so Because.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I think it was in the morning.
You're not going to a birthdayparty.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's so weird.
It's so weird.
And Stefan wasn't at herbirthday party until later.
So who's hosting this birthdayparty?
Who was?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
at the birthday party Family and friends.
But the little girl was thereat the birthday party.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yes, friends, but the little girl was there at the
birthday party, yes, celebratingher 13th birthday, but steph,
the, the stepfather and themother aren't there.
Yep, that's so weird.
It's just the whole thing isweird.
And then afterwards, um, aftershe found out, after jennifer
found out, the mom found outabout the sexual abuse.
She told stephan to get alawyer, like her priorities are
a smidge askew there.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I mean exactly certainly not helping him
arrange an alibi.
It's insane.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, nope, no right parent in the right mind would
do that exactly which makes mefeel like she knew a lot more
than she was leading on.
It makes me feel like she knewthat her daughter was pregnant
and that's why they killed her.
Oh my god, she missed a whole,like she missed one period.
And you know that happenssometimes.
(28:23):
Like periods are not likeclockwork, they don't happen
every month, but you know it'sit's it's it's very odd timing
to miss a period and thendisappear and get murdered.
It feels like one thing isconnected to the other.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It breaks my heart.
You know like that.
This little girl was sexuallyabused in her own home for years
.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
By the people that she took that were going to take
care of her.
She took that for granted bythose people.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
they, they, oh my god they, they trafficked her, yeah
, and then murdered her like shewas nothing I wonder, were the
pictures, the, the things thatwere on his phone?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
was it child pornography in general?
Was it specific to that?
It was her.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
It was her not all some of it was general, like of
other children, um, which is awhole separate.
You know, very, very sadmonster.
Yeah, he's literally despicable, yeah, but yeah, no, a lot of
it was her that he took on hisphone.
I mean, it's just, it's aheartbreaking case and, as of
(29:39):
now, stephan is being heldawaiting trial so what state um
florida?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
so it was in the state of florida it's in the
state of florida and well, youknow, gosh, you hate to think
about it this way, but there isat least a a very real chance
that this guy is going to be inprison forever.
If not, um, you know, they dohave.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
They do have execution in the state of
florida, and especially forsomething as heinous as you know
, something like this, good godit's horrible and I just hope
that they really take their timeand are thorough in their
investigation of the mother,because it really does feel like
she knew something about thissituation happening in her own
house yeah, I mean I, I know, Iknow I've read stories and you
(30:26):
know seen stories in the pastwhere someone really closes
their eyes tightly, that thatthis isn't really going on.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
And sometimes it's about, well, he, I, you know, I
love him and I want to make surehe doesn't leave.
My God, are you kidding?
Are you really giving this guyan alibi?
Are you really closing youreyes so totally that you don't
see this happening?
I mean, there's so many redflags of of you know, the
sleeping arrangements alone.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's feel like she knew about everything Right.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I mean, oh my God, just a terrible, terrible case.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
It's a terrible case.
We'll let you know what happensnext with this case, but that
is the case of Madeline Soto.
Follow the show on whateverstreaming site you're listening
on.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And remember.
All of the source material willbe available in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
And follow us on Instagram at
whatweloseintheshadows, and letus know if you want to hear a
specific case.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Or if you just want to give us some feedback.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Okay, join us in the shadows next Tuesday.
Bye.
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