New documents: Madeline Soto was strangled to death

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (Court TV) — Six months after she was found murdered, investigators have revealed that Madeline Soto was strangled to death.

Madeline Soto was last seen on Feb. 26, 2024. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement)

The body of Soto, 13, was found on March 1 in a wooded area days after she was reported missing on Feb. 26. Her mother’s boyfriend, who is also described as her stepfather in court documents, Stephan Sterns , was arrested and charged with her murder and dozens of sex crimes after more than 1500 disturbing images and videos were found on his phone.

Newly released documents in the case, reviewed by Court TV, indicate that when Soto was found, she showed signs of decomposition on one side of her face and her hands. Detectives noted, however, that the bottoms of her socks were clean, indicating that she hadn’t walked to the place where she was found. The medical examiner also immediately noted that the right portion of Soto’s hyoid bone “was not intact, which could possibly be related to her being strangled.” Weeks later, the official medical examiner’s report would list strangulation as the cause of death.

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Detectives noted in their reports that Jennifer Soto, Madeline’s mother, had admitted to sending her teen daughter to sleep in bed with Sterns the night before she disappeared. “Jennifer said she didn’t feel comfortable with Madeline sleeping with Stephan, and it didn’t look right to her. I asked Jennifer when she started feeling comfortable with it and she said she never was comfortable with it. I challenged Jennifer about telling them to go to sleep together on 02/25/2024, and she [said] it was a selfish move because she wanted a good night’s sleep.”

Stephan Sterns was charged two days after 13-year-old Madeline Soto disappeared. (Osceola County Sheriff’s Office)

Investigators also asked Jennifer about her sex life with Sterns, who said that they had actually recently broken up. She said that she ended the relationship because “he was a messy person” and said that because of her medications, they didn’t have much of a sexual relationship. The detective wrote, “I asked Jennifer to explain her and Stephan’s sex life, which she described as ‘vanilla.’ Stephan would want to have anal sex with Jennifer, but she said she didn’t want to.”

In later interviews with police, Jennifer described Sterns as “a master liar and a master manipulator.”

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A roommate who lived in the home with Jennifer, Madeline and Sterns described Sterns’ behavior on the morning Madeline was reported missing as “odd.” She said she saw him going up and down the stairs, going in and out of the home, and “was also washing clothes, which she has never seen him do.”

The documents also revealed some information about what investigators found after serving search warrants on Sterns’ electronics.  A warrant revealed that Sterns searched “sevoflurane” on multiple dates. Sevoflurane is an anesthetic used during general surgery. Police said, “It is unknown why Stephan would be searching this item using the search terms of ‘show up in drug test’, when he wasn’t attempting to get a job or he didn’t have any children that were having surgery.”

Sterns has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has not appeared in person at any of his court hearings.