Madeline Soto

Case background and investigation

Madeline Soto, 13, was reported missing on February 26, 2024, after she did not arrive at Hunter's Creek Middle School, according to WKMG News 6 (ClickOrlando). Wikipedia notes that the Orange County Sheriff's Office asked the public for help the following day. The man who said he had driven her toward school that morning was Stephan Sterns, the boyfriend of her mother.

According to Wikipedia's summary of the investigation, Sterns consented to a search of his phone, and investigators found sexually explicit images and videos of Madeline on it, some dating back to when she was about eight years old. Wikipedia also reports that her backpack and laptop were later recovered from a dumpster and that Sterns' phone had been factory reset on the day she disappeared. On March 1, 2024, her body was found in a wooded area along Hickory Tree Road near St. Cloud in Osceola County, WKMG reported. The medical examiner later determined that she died by strangulation, according to WKMG and Wikipedia.

A grand jury indicted Sterns on a charge of first-degree murder in April 2024, and in June 2024 prosecutors filed notice that they would seek the death penalty, according to Wikipedia. He also faced dozens of charges related to the sexual abuse of Madeline over several years, Spectrum News 13 reported.

On July 21, 2025, in Osceola County, Sterns pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and guilty to the sex-abuse charges, according to WKMG, Spectrum News 13 and FOX 35. Prosecutors withdrew the death penalty as part of the agreement, which WKMG reported was reached in consultation with Madeline's family, and Sterns gave up his right to appeal. Circuit Judge Keith Carsten sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder count, alongside concurrent life sentences on the sex offenses; FOX 35 reported 21 concurrent life terms in total.

In a ruling signed on September 24, 2025, Judge Carsten designated Sterns a sexual predator under Florida law, WKMG reported in October 2025. FOX 35 noted that Madeline's mother has not been named a suspect or charged in connection with the case. Sterns was 39 years old at the time of his sentencing, according to Spectrum News 13.