ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Two days after Madeline Soto failed to show up at school last February, Orange County Sheriff John Mina held a news conference seeking information from the public about the missing 13-year-old.
Unbeknownst to the reporters assembled inside the sheriff’s office and Central Floridians watching livestreams of the news conference, the last two people believed to have seen Soto were being questioned in the very same building.
During the interrogation, detectives informed Jennifer Soto that pornographic images of her missing teen daughter had been found on a phone belonging to her former boyfriend, Stephan Sterns.
[TIMELINE: Here’s where things stand in the Madeline Soto case 10 months later]
At nearly the same time, detectives in a nearby room confronted Sterns about the illicit photos and took him into custody on charges of capital sexual battery and possession of child pornography.
A grand jury later indicted Sterns in Madeline Soto’s murder. Sterns has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In Part 5 of “Justice for Madeline”, News 6 takes you inside those interrogation rooms as detectives tried to learn the missing teen’s whereabouts.
All episodes of “Justice for Madeline” can be found here:
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