The suspect in the murder of Florida teen Madeline Soto was casually standing next to her mother when the girl was reported missing, new body camera footage shows.
Suspect Stephen Michael Stearns, 37, is accused of killing Madeleine and abandoning her body in the woods by the time her family spoke to police on the night of February 26.
Stearns, who was dating Madeline’s mother, Jen Soto, at the time, can be seen standing silently with his arms crossed while her concerned mother explains that Madeline had been dropped off near the school that morning but never showed up to class.
When the officer asked what Madeline was wearing, Stearns spoke up and said the middle school student was wearing a “green hoodie, white Crocs and blue or black pants.”
“She just had her 13th birthday,” he added.
On the morning she was last seen, Jen Soto could be heard telling officers that Madeline had been embarrassed by Stearns’ car and had asked to be dropped off a few blocks away from her school.
“She didn’t want to be dropped off at school. She wanted to be dropped off half a block away so she could walk,” the concerned mother said.
“She never explained anything, but she’s at that stage now,” Stearns added.
“I thought she was looking for her headphones… and she walked away, but she was just looking in that direction and looked just like any other morning,” he said of the last time he saw the teenager.
Police eventually reviewed local surveillance footage and determined that Madeline had never shown up to class at Hunters Creek Middle School.
Just two days after his initial interview with police, Stearns was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and possession of child sexual abuse material.
Stearns, who has pleaded not guilty in the case, was already a suspect in the case when Madeline’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Osceola County on March 1.
Authorities say she was still wearing clothing similar to when she was last seen.
After the girl’s body was discovered, police said security camera footage from the morning of February 26th showed Stearns driving with the girl’s body in his car.
She was also seen throwing items into a nearby trash can, where police later found Madeleine’s backpack and school laptop.
According to an arrest affidavit unsealed in early March, Stearns allegedly began sexually abusing Madeline in 2022, when she was 11 years old.
Stearns was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in April and is scheduled to go on trial in July.
It is not clear whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the case.
