Madeline Soto update: Latest on Florida girl's disappearance, death investigation

well right now a mother in Orange county is begging for help locating her missing daughter Maddie SoDo was last seen on Monday one day after she and her family celebrated her 13th birthday Soto's mother Jen says surveillance video shows Maddie hanging out in a church parking lot after being dropped off for school but she never made it inside she says deputies are using canines and a piece of MD's clothing to try and track her scent near town Loop Boulevard FDLE has issued a missing child and if

you see her please contact the Orange County Sheriff's Office happening right now take a look at this search Cruise out looking for a missing 13-year-old girl Sky Fox over the scene just a short time ago these folks are out searching in the area of osprey Park this is right near Hunters Creek authorities say 13-year-old Maddie SoDo was last seen Monday just one day after her birthday she was dropped off for school that morning on Monday she did not make it inside the school Maddie may be wearing

a green jacket black shorts and white crocs Fox 35 was able to speak with her mom who says that she just wants Maddie to come home safe I'm trying to hope for the best but I'm just I'm scared for her I want her to be okay and I want her to be safe I don't want I don't want her to come back harmed so mom tells us that Maddie has never run away with before she says she does sometimes forget her cell phone at home and she did forget her cell phone on her way to school on Monday morning the sheriff

's office is searching for Maddie with Kines that's right near town Loop Boulevard where we were showing you that video again this is in the Hunter Creek area Osprey Park if you think you have seen Maddie please call the Orange County Sheriff's office right away they did say that she was seen on surveillance video in a church parking lot right next to the school but then was not seen after and tell us what's going on with Maddie well um Monday morning we took her to school we dropped her off clo

se to school across the street from a church which is very it's right next to the school um she crossed the street um and walked to school what we thought walked to school um my boyfriend who drove her to school W drove away at at that point um it was seen on video footage that she hung out in the parking lot of the church for a few minutes and then got up and walked towards the school but she never made it that walk from and that was around 9 a.m. when she got up uh she never made it to school

after that um it's right next to the school I don't know why she didn't make it I don't know if something happened on her walk along the way or if she got taken but she never made it and that was the last anyone seen of her or heard from her yes um I went to pick her up after school um and she wasn't there um so I started driving around trying maybe thinking she took a walk maybe she decided to walk to my mom's office which is pretty close to the the school as well drove around and I didn't see

anything I drove back to the school school was closed I emailed one of her teachers they confirmed that she was absent all day at that point is when I called 911 because I realized something was truly wrong um have you heard from like any of her friends has she been active on any social media she hasn't been active on social media none of her chats none of her games uh we did contact all her friends none of them had seen her Monday or heard from her um yeah there's no update and I have to ask th

is and I know I I hate doing it but is she the type that would run away has this happened in the past or anything has she ever threatened to run away never she's never ever mentioned anything like this before and she's not the type to want to do this um she did accidentally leave her phone on Monday um which is kind of normal for her she's got ADHD and very forgetful um so she left her phone at home so there's no way to trace her they tried tracing her school laptop um but that's off so it's not

pinging to anything Jen what what is your fear I know you mentioned she's on games and stuff do you think she could have like met somebody and tried to meet up with them from she's open to us she's open with us about you know if she's got a crush with anyone and she told us she had a crush on someone at school um and I looked at their messages nothing was weird I looked at all of her messages all of her deleted messages nothing seemed weird it didn't seem like she was talking to anyone um so I

don't feel like that's the case I feel like she may have been taken um because this is not like her at all to just disappear and not tell us not let us know where she's going or who she's with um yeah what what are you getting from law enforcement I mean are they actively searching for her I mean what what happens now I mean especially that she doesn't have her phone with her um so as far as I know they're conducting a search around the school behind the school there's a Shingle Creek there a a

Wooded Path area that you could walk uh it's a hiking path they are going back there with their can9 dogs uh they've taken a piece of her clothing to see if they can trace her scent um they're also taking their own Vehicles I'm not sure what type of vehicles but they're going into the woods to to search for her um but I don't feel like that's going to find anything right now we've had people all day on that trail sending us photos to see if anything there looks familiar and like her personal bel

ongings and nothing is hers so I'm not sure I'm not sure where to go from here I'm just contacting the news to get the word out to get some help because I'm desperate I I'm a wreck right now so you think that she's been taken against her will I do think so yes as a mom you know what is your what's your mother's intuition telling you right now I'm trying to hope for the best but I'm just I'm scared for her I want her to be okay and I want her to be safe I don't want I don't want her to come back

harmed I just I just want her back whatever that means just I just want her back are you getting any updates from law enforcement I mean yes they're searching that small area but have they gotten any hits on any scent or anything like that they haven't let me know anything they haven't updated me since I spoke to them this morning I've contacted them to get some information or to give them some leads but I've heard nothing back and Jen there's no way that she just being you know a teenager was l

ike maybe had a fight with you or an argument with you and was like you know what I'm going to go hang out at so and so's house and teach her a lesson you know could that be a scenario I don't believe so we actually haven't gotten into a fight in like a few weeks or arguments or anything like that if anything on Sunday she celebrated her 13th birthday with my entire family and she had the best day she was so happy she showed us all her gifts um she was she's just a happy girl and she showed it o

n on Sunday night when she went to bed she was so happy so you know she had the best day I just you know there was no there was no moment in that evening from when she got home from the party that she had her phone or had the laptop she went straight to getting ready and went to bed so I know she didn't have any conversations with anyone she didn't make plans with anyone I didn't I didn't see any of that so she spent the whole Sunday celebrating her 13th birthday was her 13th birthday on that Su

nday or that was just like the the time you guys were celebrating that was the time we were celebrating her birthday was on Thursday the 22nd okay she 13 but that's just so heartbreaking to be celebrating her 13th birthday and then the very next day that's the last you you see you've seen of her yeah yeah where where do you go now are you going to go out there and and search or look or what is your are you sticking by the phone are you you know what are you doing I'm staying at home staying by t

he phone hoping she just appears um I know my entire family is out looking they've all uh spread a bunch of Flyers they've gone I've had people contact me that they've gone to the international airport to spread Flyers to Amtrak to Greyhound just any way that if someone's taking her and they're trying to take her just to show her face just to make sure you know she's not being taken against her will and you mentioned ADHD was there anything else maybe mentally going on or that that you knew of u

m she does suffer from anxiety and once upon a time she was diagnosed with autism uh we had her re what's the word brain reevaluated okay we had her re-evaluated um a few months ago actually and they told us no she didn't have autism but she did have some autistic traits she did have ADHD some autistic traits but not autism so I'm not sure where to leave with that because one doctor said she did and one doctor saying she doesn't and I don't know she's just in the middle I guess she because she d

oes have some Tendencies but socially she's pretty great so I'm not sure and with the video that you were able to see whenever your boyfriend dropped her off where where was that what like which video was that a surveillance camera it was a surveillance camera from the church uh Peace church right next to met uh Hunter Creek middle school and do you have that video I don't have that um they didn't show me they wouldn't show me that it was actually they they my sister was the one at location and

they were letting her know what they saw on camera okay to any of us got it okay Jen is there anything else that you'd like to to add please please please if you have any information contact me contact law enforcement um any any information helps um Maddie if you see this please come home please be safe I love you very much if you have my Maddie please just let her come home we just want her home all right well good afternoon so thank you for being here um so we can bring as much attention as po

ssible to the case of uh Missing juvenile meline stto so let me first start by saying you know I know as a parent this is every parent worst nightmare uh many of our detectives and deputies who are working the case they also have children um so they're working extra hard to find meline we can't even imagine uh the pain and anguish that mine's family is going through but I do want to assure the community that we have well over 100 deputies detectives uh intelligence analysts and specialized Perso

nnel who are investigating this case and searching for meline uh right now and we will not stop until we find her so meline is 13 years old she has been missing since 8:30 on Monday morning when mom's boyfriend dropped her off near Hunters Creek uh Middle School uh it was he dropped her off actually near the peace United Methodist Church on Town Lo Boulevard so I'll kind of go through like a timeline of events as we know it um like I said mom's boyfriend dropped meline off at about 8:30 a.m. on

Monday morning a few blocks away from the school at approximately 4:30 on Monday afternoon mine's mom went to the school to pick her up and found out that meline was not there and had never um reported to school so she never actually entered uh the school and so we also learned that uh meline left her phone at home home that day so we were called uh on Monday evening at approximately 8:00 p.m. our Patrol deputies went out there met with mine's mom at the school um near Hunter Creek uh to take a

report on on her missing daughter so uh we started the investigation uh that night uh started canvasing the area looking for any Witnesses or surveillance video so later that evening uh while we were doing investigation we did obtain um an article of meline from the house we called our blood hound The Blood Hound did uh an extensive search which unfortunately did not provide any results about her whereabouts so our missing persons uh detectives responded to take over the investigation so they di

d uh interviews with Mom mom's boyfriend mine's friends uh from school uh we were able to access mine's phone and there is information on the phone uh that indicated that she told people when she turn turned 13 which was on February 22nd she actually wanted to go live in the woods uh so that was in her phone and so during the course of the day on Tuesday uh detectives and deputies conducted extensive interviews uh an extensive canvas we collected video from the area uh and again conducted interv

iews with family members so on yesterday we distributed Flyers uh in the area near the school uh as a matter of fact malin's family had their own Flyers we're also Distributing Flyers uh to family and friends and students at the school at the same time um so the house is in CMI where the family lives uh is being held overnight uh by the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the cassm police so that we could secure search warrants uh this is common practice in cases like this and those search warran

ts should be executed today at uh on Wednesday this morning more than 50 members of our Emergency Response Team uh responded out there to the area near the school and conducted an area search for meline and so we have a command post set up out there at that area we also have a command post set up here at the Sheriff's Office uh for the investigative side of it uh so you know our detectives are continuing to do interviews and follow up on all possible leads one thing we do in all missing person c

ases especially missing juveniles our uh sex offender surveillance Squad goes out and makes contact with every single sex offender in the area um of mine's last location and so you know I wish I had uh some more definitive answers we just want to keep getting mine's picture out there uh we want people who may know something about her disapperance to call us they can call us anonymously at 100 423 tips they can Al also call 911 if they think they know what happened to meline and again uh you know

it's every parent worst nightmare uh but rest assured that you we are doing everything possible uh we have an extensive uh section dedicated um to working solely on fin finding out where meline is and I'll take some questions but again still early on in the investigation I'll start over here so um right now um the the facts of The Disappearance uh don't qualify through the for Department of Law Enforcement for an amber alert certainly if through the investigation it does qualify for an Amber we

will send that out say the uh her mother's boyfriend is there any indication father's in picture is local is there any possibility another family M from Guess prage might be involved in this there's no information to indicate that uh there's another family member um outside family member is involved not at this time is local I'm not sure yeah let's go somebody else no just the information on the phone was that when she turned 13 which was just February 22nd um she was going to live out in the w

oods so um it's one of the reasons we're out there in that area searching that was uh yeah through either text messages or or other social media messages Sheriff I dropped ch well also mention she asked Dro officiation dropped yeah that's certainly um all the things that our detectives look at I know the initial information was that she said hey uh you know I'm a barrist of this vehicle whatever so Dro me off um at this location uh we're still following up on on all of that um but yeah certainly

something that that we will look into you know why not why not drop her off at the school but we're looking into all that so we collected that video uh analyzed it and it's a very very grainy video so we're not actually sure if that's uh meline but we but we've collected video um from the from other parts of that area too so anytime we have like a missing juvenile we certainly look at everyone uh that has contact uh with that juvenile it's one of the first things we do so the investigation is o

ngoing so yeah anytime that we have a missing uh kid um who who left her phone at home you know who was dropped off you know early a few bus from school we look at all of that so you know you know anytime a child goes missing you know to me it's always suspicious and and in this case that's why you know we're putting all these resources um towards finding her you know well over a 100 Personnel um are working to find her from detectives to uh analysts uh to specialized Patrol mounted Patrol our E

mergency Response Team and others uh not to my knowledge no nothing that was uh beyond the obvious yeah yes where no so we're searching U all the areas uh around um that area where she was last seen and then of course we're searching any area uh where we've received any tips or uh any areas that um investigative leads have have led us to I can't tell you exactly when it was it obviously it was before um she turned 13 which was February 22nd but that's all I can tell you right now was there any I

ND other than that to to my knowledge there was no other indication of turmoil in the house Poss so you know that's why we have all these these people out there we don't know if she was taken we don't know if she stepped away um you know it you she left her phone at the house uh so that's why you we're putting all this effort into that's why we're doing this press conference to hope you know someone from from the public may have saw something you know it might not have seemed like a big deal at

the the time but now knowing what mine looks like uh you maybe it's some information that could help us find her her whereabouts we're told that yeah so um anytime a juvenile goes missing um we're always looking at uh social media or phones obviously I said we have our phone we're able to analyze our phone so anything that's involving gaming or social media certainly uh we take a look at and just know that a lot of times some of that information from uh you know third party social media platform

s does take time we need to get subpoenas and information um but yeah we are looking at that phone and certainly that's you know things that our detectives will look at yeah so like I said uh you know throughout the investigation um and tips that come in we we search different areas I'm not exactly sure where they are right now I just know that we've searched several areas out there MD us what kind ofus blound yeah the the blood hounds I mean you know we we put out our own videos uh you dependin

g on on the scent and how strong it is you know there there's cases of blood hounds you tracking someone uh a mile or even more away so that's why we have blood hounds here you know we use them anytime we have a missing person um and so you know that's one of the uh reasons we not too long ago uh we put out our scent evidence kit um if you know if you want to you can get one of these scent evidence kits you can put a piece of their clothing an article their clothing inside this kit and then if G

od forbid uh someone who's elderly who may has dementia or Alzheimer goes missing we can give The Blood Hound let them sniff that article and and they may be able to take uh The Blood Hound right to it but they're they're incredible animals uh as you know and they're they're very capable of of doing those those searches so the information have is is that was it that it was that the mom's boyfriend um dropped her off that's the information I have sh's a amount so alls I will say is that our detec

tives are following up on every single lead uh with the end result of finding uh meline uh that's that's their number one priority but they in investigations like this they they look at everything like I said you know we interview family members we locate sex offenders that are in the area uh we look at video we look at everyone's phones we do search warrants to see if there's any indication in the house uh so we do all of that um and it's an extensive investigation so I said well over 100 peopl

e are involved so yeah we're hoping uh some tips come in um that that may help us uh again we're we're going to continue to uh look at all the things that we do uh license PL readers video surveillance cell phone information from from everyone uh and those are all the things that are going on right now uh if we get tips you know certainly we will um you know there there's a lot of different areas out out there um and and we'll send our our search teams to to different areas of the next couple da

ys mention us that the that change SE uh no um you know we treat a missing person as as a missing persons and I know there's there's different levels and people are on on the Spectrum at different levels so it wouldn't it wouldn't change our investigation it's just a piece of information that we know and you know based on our our our training of dealing with um people who may be on the spectrum that that's something that we take into consideration about where they might end up where they might g

o all right all right thank you the search for Maddie continues Maddie if you see this please come home it's now been 4 days since 13-year-old meline SoDo was last seen in Orlando her mother's boyfriend now sitting in a jail cell the prime suspect in her disappearance based upon his uh refusal to come to court he's got an out of County warn out of Bola County his bonds will remain at none and Fox 35 got Stefan Sterns on camera before he was arrested tonight Maddy's family is hoping for good news

as they wait for a break in the case we will not stop until we find [Music] her developing story tonight A lot has happened over the past few days since Maddie disappeared so here's what we know right now Maddie celebrated her 13th birthday on Sunday good evening thanks for joining us I'm John Brown and I'm Marisa Goldsmith Monday morning mty's mom's boyfriend Stefan Sterns reportedly took Maddie to school she was last seen crossing the street around 8:30 that morning Orange County deputies rel

eased this missing person's poster on Tuesday and then Wednesday morning deputies searched the woods near Hunter Creek and then held a press conference and then just before 10:00 last night deputies arrested Sterns his charges include sexual battery Fox 35's Hannah Mackenzie joins us live tonight and Hannah you have been following this story for a while now Sterns has been named a prime suspect in the case yeah Marley said I sure have and I actually spoke with one of Maddie sto's aunts today she

tells me this has been a very difficult for day for them and this news this new development has really been devastating to the family but they're still holding out hope for madd's safe return Maddie sto missing since Monday the 13-year-old allegedly dropped off for school near town Loop Boulevard around 8:30 didn't make it inside Stefan Sterns now named Prime suspect in her disappearance Sterns is the longtime boyfriend of sto's mother Jen you can see him here in the background of our interview

with Jen sto Tuesday I went to pick her up after school um and she wasn't there sitting behind her Sterns is fidgeting and cracking his knuckles that's a way to release tension the point is tension is actually one of the 27 what we call points of interest points of interest that can lead to possible deception or suspect Behavior human behavior investigator Susan Constantine isn't connected to this case we asked her to weigh in on Stern's mannerisms in my personal opinion I would have said Sheri

ff's Office you need to take a really good look at this guy he is presenting to me suspect Behavior right now Sterns is behind bars charged with sexual battery and possession of material depicting sexual performance by a child Sterns voluntarily handing over his phone stated he accidentally factory reset the device the day Soo went missing on it investigators were covering disturbing photos and videos an arrest warrant from CMI police revealing details too graphic to air what about Mr Sterns the

37-year-old being held without bond refusing to show up in court Thursday retired detective David nutting has dealt with hundreds of suspects over the years how frustrating is it when you have a prime suspect who is refusing to play ball or give up information or just answer questions is especially frustrating in cases involving children you know because it just seems so right to in human nature to just tell where tell everything you know I mean it's this is this is a truly innocent Vic victim

uh this is somebody Maddie a young girl who did not live a high-risk lifestyle and she's apparently with this this monster and you just it's just frustrating is why can't you just tell us what happened and let's resolve this case and bring Maddie back home ears is from Northport Florida that's about two hours from here he still has ties to the area on Thursday the Northport Police Department confirming they too have assisted in this investigation if you know where MADD sto is or you have any inf

ormation that may help investigators with this case you're asked to reach out to the Orange County Sheriff's Office call 911 or call Crim Stoppers and kissing me tonight Hannah McKenzie Fox 35 News all right so thank you for being here we have some important developments in this case that we want to share with our community I wish uh we were here to tell you that we have found meline um but we have not found her last night detectives from the CMI Police Department met with mine's mother and they

had to tell her the very devastating news that although we have not found meline uh we are now confident that she is dead so our efforts will be focused on recovering meline dozens and dozens of Detectives crime analysts and specialized team members uh have been working nonstop and following up on every single lead and every shred of evidence our detectives have determined that meline was never dropped off on the morning of February 26 near her school instead we believe she was already dead at

the time and that Stephan Sterns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day we have video evidence that shows stepan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in CMI at 7:35 on Monday February 26 detectives later recovered mine's backpack and her school issued laptop from that dumpster at 819 we have evidence that shows Stephan Sterns returning to the complex and meline was visible in that vehicle we believe she was already dead at that time as a result of that u

m although the initial missing person's investigation started in Orange County the Kimi police department will now be taking over the investigation and will become the lead agency of course the Orange County Sheriff's Office all of our support Personnel um will be available and we'll be still be assisting in this investigation so this time I'm going to turn it over to Chief Holland from the CMI Police Department chief thank you uh for being here as Sheriff Mina said this is still an active and o

ngoing investigation and there is a lot of additional information that we cannot release at this time um I do want to note that Stefan Sterns was transported transported from the Orange County Jail to the oilla county jail where he is being held on Capital sexual battery charges filed by the CMI police detectives right now our top priority is recovering mateline we are still appealing to our community for its help in this case please share this crimeline bulletin on my right um of Steven Sterns

um he was last seen driving a silver 2010 Lincoln MKZ the Florida tag is i y L82 on Monday February 26th between 1 and 2:30 p.m. in the area of State Road 192 and Old Hickory Tree Road as well as Old Hickory Tree Road and NTI Road during this time frame It is believed that Sterns had a flat tire and might have been seen changing the tire in this area if anyone saw this vehicle or noticed anything suspicious we're asking that they call Crim line we will continue to work tirelessly with Orange Cou

nty Sheriff's Office the Oola County Sheriff's Office and St Cloud Police Department to bring a resolution to this case and recover Maddie thank you right thanks Chief um you know we'll take some questions but just remember you we're still in the middle of this investigation there's a lot of things that we cannot reveal no Sterns has not spoken to anyone the video evidence that that we have so so we're not going to go into those exact details but um we have video evidence that leads us to believ

e that she's already dead this car at that time yeah so it could be helpful um to us uh people saw something and um obviously you we're searching uh many different areas um but if someone saw something in that area you know we want to know about it what's that so we actually have people um searching areas right now so they they've searched a bunch of different areas and they're going to continue to search uh so I don't want to go into specifics on on exactly where I don't want to miss something

one more time so what I what I'll say is what I already said is that um you we believe he moved her body in those early morning hours and all that is is still under investigation yes yes we're talking to the mother yes she's not considered a suspect so uh we're talking to the mother and all this there you know to my knowledge she's not a suspect in this case right nowo dumpster those that's correct so from the dumpster we recovered her backpack and her school issued laptop believeing she was K a

t the it's it's our belief that she was killed in CMI and and that he moved her body and so that's why the CMI Police Department is the lead investigate investigators now yeah that's all part of the investigation so we haven't determined that yet yeah so obviously detectives have spoken um to her mother and you know as you can imagine um the reaction that any parent would have this is from that is correct it is transitioned to a homicide investigation and the CMI police department will be um the

lead agency in that investigationes still we're still investigating it the detectives are continuing the investigation and as more evidence comes up there may be more charges in the future that's still all part of the investigation I don't want to say right now so yes we reviewed that footage it was very grainy grainy weren't able to determine that was her but uh like I said we know that she was never dropped off at school that morning that's correct searches are continuing as we speak um and s

o like I said we have people who are working non-stop and so every lead that comes in every piece of evidence uh that we receive um we're going to follow up on that and if that um leads us to a new search area uh we'll be out all weekend we're we continue to follow breaking news in Oola County the body of 13-year-old matd stto has been found the Orange County Sheriff's Office just confirmed that news Sky Fox is flying over a wooded area along Old Hickory Tree Road we're told Matty sto's body was

found near there in a remote area Fox 35 Stephanie buffam Monti joins us live and Stephanie what can you tell us about this heartbreaking development yeah truly heartbreaking we are learning that meline sto's body was found right near where I am standing on Hickory Tree Road and they found her body around 4:30 this afternoon according to the Sheriff's Office in a very wooded area and a source tells Fox 35 that it takes a couple of miles to get to where her body was found by foot I want to just

show you what it looks like over here right now you can see we're blocked off um at this intersection a sheriff's office Deputy blocking off the area where they say that they found meline sto's body and now this is Sky fox video of teams out here searching this area and this of course comes after the Orange County Sheriff John Mina said that he was confident that Maddie was dead and that they were working to find her body that was the latest we had heard from earlier this afternoon and now we ar

e getting this heartbreaking update that her body was found I want to show you a picture of this car this is stepan Stern's car who was Maddie's mom's boyfriend he was a suspect in her homicide case um he was last seen driving a silver Lincoln and in this area of Old Hickory Tree Road and Noti Road and now of course we are learning that her body was found in a wooded area uh we of course um are going to try to find out any more information about this case and we will bring it to you live for now

reporting live Stephanie bonti Fox 35 News right now on Fox 35 News at 10 morning Maddie the body of 13-year-old meline stto found in the woods in Oola County tonight the community coming out by the hundreds to honor the young girl's memory we came out here cuz we just wanted to pay our respects to this girl that died in such a horrible fashion as family and friends mourn the investigation into who killed her and why continues I'm Stephanie buff Monti we are a mile and a half from where 13-year

-old meline sto's body was found I'll have a live report on the search and the homicide investigation the body of mty soda was found tonight near St Cloud the search for her began on Monday and is now shifted to a homicide investigation as the community is mourning Maddie tonight good evening and welcome I'm John Brown and I'm Hannah McKenzie the prime suspect in her disappearance Stefan CERN is still sitting in a jail cell tonight but so far he has not been charged in her death we have Team cov

erage tonight Fox 35 Stephanie buffamante is live near the spot where mti's body was found but we begin with Fox 35's Randy hildr live outside Matty's Middle School in Orange County and Randy a vigil for Maddie just wrapped up not too long ago there yeah initially organizers anticipated maybe 20 to 40 people would show up when they put the post out uh considering the news that her body had been found came out about 45 minutes before this vigil was set to start we saw hundreds show up to honor he

r life now step to the side we're right in front of the middle school and within the last few minutes we saw those who couldn't attend earlier come tonight to pay their [Music] respects in situations like these it's hard to find the words to express and it's hard to provide peace to a heart that's broken tonight's hearts are shattered the feeling is uh for sure it's overwhelming sadness disbelief any loss of any child is tragic uh this is just a heartbreaking situation to see this family go thro

ugh hundreds of community members gathered in front of Hunter Creek Middle School in honor of 13-year-old Maddie SoDo initially a vigil to pray she'd be found safe now a moment to honor her life atmosphere is heavy with grief with helplessness because I know you can identify me when you say that you wish you could have done something a community trying to make sense of the tragedy we will get through this one step at a time together in unity balloons candles teddy bears tears songs and prayers f

or Maddie and those who knew and loved her we as one Community we as Community will comfort each other we comfort each other and we'll get through this hard time we get through this hard time now we didn't see mat and we didn't see mti's family here organizers of tonight's visual says that this was organized not in connection with her family or in connection to the school district but just as an opportunity for people to come together and heal uh in terms of next steps Orange County Public Schoo

l says that it will have grief count in place here at Matty's ele uh Matty's Middle School uh for students and staff who need some help processing this live tonight Randy hrth Fox 35 News thanks Randy and that vigil happened shortly after the Orange County Sheriff's office confirmed that Matty's body had been found Fox 3i Stephanie buff Monte is live near St Cloud tonight not far from where she was found so Stephanie certainly not the result anybody wanted to hear tonight no it was not 13-year-o

ld meline sto's body was was found just about a mile and a half from where I am standing right now off Hickory Tree Road a heartbreaking update for so many who were hoping she' be found alive sky foxs over the area near Hickory Tree Road where law enforcement say the body of 13-year-old meline SoDo was found days after she was reported missing Deputy say a tip LED them to recovering the teens's body in a rural area of St Cloud they say she was found in shrubs off the road we sent our units out h

ere and we discover what appears to be a body um the body has clothing very similar to what the victim was last seen wearing deputies believe that meline was never dropped off at school Monday morning and was dead before then mti's mom's boyfriend Stephan Sterns is the main suspect in this homicide we have video evidence that shows Stephan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in CMI at 7:35 on Monday February 26 detectives later recovered mine's backpack and her school

issued laptop from that dumpster at 8:19 we have evidence that shows stepan Sterns returning to the complex and meline was visible in that vehicle we believe she was already dead at that time Sterns was last seen driving a silver 2010 Lincoln MKZ that afternoon between 1 and 2:30 on Old Hickory Tree Road and NTI road which is near where her body was found Friday our cameras were rolling as Sterns was transferred from Orange County to Oola County jail today before she was found where was Maddie

last seen why aren't you helping her mother and her family this is a little girl help them find Maddie Sterns is in jail with no bond he will have a first appearance in Oola County court tomorrow reporting live in St Cloud Stephanie mman Fox 35 News just one day after the body of 13-year-old MADD stto was found the prime suspect in her disappearance was a noow in court today thanks for joining us at 5 I'm Manny Martinez Stefan Sterns waved his first appearance before a judge this morning for the

second time in just a span of a few days he's now facing sexual battery and child pornography charges but has not so far yet been charged in MD's death Fox 35's mat Tres explains why more charges could be on the way stefen Sterns was a no-show for his first appearance in Oola County Court his lawyer didn't even want the judge reading out the charges Steven Sterns your honor at this time I am gonna wave Mr Sterns appearance I'm also going to wave the reading of these charges Mr Stern is aware of

what he's been arrested for at the first appearance Sterns faced charges in including sexual battery and possession of material depicting sexual performance by a child Sterns had voluntarily handed his phone to investigators who managed to recover photos and videos that they call disturbing investigators say he's also the prime suspect in MADD Soto's disappearance search teams finally recovered Mattie's body Friday evening after an exhaustive search through the woods in Oola County the judge sa

id Sterns would stay behind bars understood sir you got zero Bond and 24 CF 632 good luck to you Orange County deputies have turned over the case to CMI police Sheriff John minus says they have proof Sterns tried to cover his tracks after madd's death we have video evidence that shows Stephan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in CMI at 7:35 on Monday February 26 detectives later recovered mine's backpack and her school issued laptop from that dumpster at 8:19 we hav

e evidence that shows stepan Sterns returning to the complex and meline was visible in that vehicle we believe she was already dead at that time former Orlando Police Chief Orlando rone says Sterns may have thought he could fool investigators this is a perfect example of someone who probably thought I can get away with this and unfortunately everything is pointing at the fact that he had now been caught for the murder of this child CMI police say at this time they aren't releasing any further up

dates on the case in CMI Matt treesa Fox 35 News right now on the Fox 35 News at 10: morning Maddie support continues to pour in for 13-year-old Matty stto after her body was found yesterday in aola County thanks for joining us at 10 I'm Manny Martinez we have Team coverage again tonight from the courtroom to a memorial and it's Fox 35's Stephanie buff mati that leads us off from where investigators found MD's body residents set up this Memorial along the road near where Maddie was found I spoke

with people who brought flowers here who say they never met Maddie but were heartbroken to hear of her loss I don't even know the girl I'm getting choked up but uh it it's just sad that it happened she didn't deserve that flowers stuffed animals and rosaries all for meline SoDo many in the community were shaken to hear of the 13-year-olds death especially when her body was recovered in their neighborhood I felt devastated I felt like it was something so messed up and nobody should ever go throu

gh that the Oola County Sheriff's Office says a tip LED law enforcement to her body off Hickory Tree Road Friday afternoon Jason Garcia used to ride past there on the way to school it was definitely heartbreaking because it's like you know it's close by home and when I actually like saw where she was basically found I was like wow like I used to take the bus like every single morning and throughout this area so it was something that you know just broke my heart meline was found in a very rural p

art of Oola County only a few homes on this stretch of Hickory Tree Road deputies believe Maddy's mom's boyfriend Stephan Sterns moved her body and is the prime suspect in her death and that's what so many find so hard to stomach nobody should be killed and thrown in the middle of nowhere it's something that shouldn't happen to no child out there and it's like you know why why like someone that could have a bright future Sterns who is now Behind Bars was last seen driving a silver 2010 Lincoln M

KZ Monday afternoon between 1 and 2:30 on Old Hickory Tree Road and Noti road which is near where her body was found this Man's family member caught a car driving past their home Monday afternoon on a home security camera that matched when and where Sterns was driving he gave it to CMI PD I believe the CMI Police Department is going to make sure they have all the solid evidence that they can get to make sure that this man stays behind bars if you have any tips that may help this investigation ca

ll the CMI Police Department you can also call Crim line and remain anonymous reporting in St Cloud Stephanie wanti Fox 35 News and right now investigators are working to piece together meline sto's murder the 13-year-old teenager was found dead in rural Oola County on Friday the prime suspect Maddie's brother's mother's boyfriend is behind bars this morning this investigation has been a multi-agency effort as you know officers and deputies from Orange and oela counties work together hoping for

a positive outcome but prepared for the worst Maddy's case ultimately ending in tragedy joining me in studio now to discuss the death investigation is former Orlando Police Chief Orlando rone Chief thank you so much for being here it is always good to see you thank you for having me this was just such a massive search effort and for those of us in the media who do these kinds of stories all the time and for you as as former police chief walk me through kind of the stages and how when we all kind

of knew that this was not going to end the way that we had hoped it would so when the first officer arrives um through the process until the investigators come on the scene there's a lot of information that's being collected and based on that initial information that sets a stage for the things to come in this particular situation it was clear that something was not right and through the process of collecting evidence to include video evidence and what have you that also created uh more of an u

rgency or actually set the stage for what was then said that the outcome of this investigation was not going to be a good one one of the things we noticed is that uh the morning that the announcement was made that mine's body had been found the family had stopped talking does that indicate that perhaps the night before they were told which we now know that this was not going to end the way that we of course wanted it to end and with the family not speaking out at all and then this discovery bein

g made it kind of was strategic I think on the part of the police to say listen we're going to keep you quiet but then we're going to make this announcement and that's typically how it works when you know that this is going to be the end result yes you have to take into consideration how any messaging will affect the family the survivors and uh in in this particular case I think it was the right move you know to inform them of what was going to happen and of course uh the outcome that was announ

ced the thing I think is so sad is that we're all human beings I say this all the time as a journalist there are some stories that even though you know we obviously have to be object objective we are human beings and they still affect us talk about the mental toll that something like this takes on the officers who are probably parents themselves and how this can affect them like you said we're all humans and officers are human beings that have families and can relate to what the agony that someo

ne is experiencing when they lose someone so it's tough but also think about this there they're also trained to deal with these situations in other words they're exposed to a lot right everyone has a limit but they're exposed to a lot and therefore that is why they're most prepared to handle these type of cases but we they everyone must keep themselves in check to ensure that it doesn't affect them to the point where later on it could be detrimental for their career I want to talk a little bit a

bout the mom Zoom interview two things uh stood out to me with that the first one was that she said we we dropped her off we we we and then she kind of switched to to I and then he was in the background of that interview kind of cracking his knuckles and looking fairly nervous and and and that kind of thing and I think you know everybody's kind of antennas were raised during that interview do you think that police looked at that as well and kind of said okay something kind of is not right here I

can assure you that the law enforcement agencies that are involved are looking at everything and nothing has been discounted uh at this point and the investigation is ongoing that's that's one thing that uh everyone must keep in mind everything that to the law enforcement agency the lead agency investigating this case may find to be suspicious or needing further clarification that will take place you said the investigation is ongoing what could that include so of course there is the evidence th

at was now that is now being collected or has been collected where unfortunately the body was found there's additional evidence that was collected from the scene forensic evidence video evidence I mean there's a slew of things that have to come together in order for them to formulate a conclusion or at least present what they believe is a conclusion to what led to her death with that said everyone involved the family members friends and anyone who may have had any contact with the person respons

ible will be subject uh of will be part of the investigation so all of that has to be filtered through before eventually the state attorney and the prosecution sees the evidence or gets the evidence and determines what next step must be taken and very quickly before we go it may be hard to determine but generally in cases like this what is the time frame what is the uh time frame until it perhaps it it goes to trial time is of the essence but eventually and ultimately it'll be up to the prosecut

ion to determine when is that best and also for the the court system the judicial system to determine when those things will take place Chief alone always good to talk to you I feel like we never have enough time thank you so much it's good to see you thank you