Madeline Soto's mom may have known about alleged abuse; said 'sex stuff' was 'not evil': new documents
Jenn Soto may have known about Madeline Soto abuse: new documents
FOX 35 has obtained new documents in the case regarding the disappearance and death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto. A detective in an incident report from the Orange County Sheriff's Office said they believed that her mother, Jennifer Soto, "accepted the victimization" of her daughter.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Stephan Sterns is accused of sexually abusing and killing 13-year-old Madeline Soto. New documents obtained by FOX 35 this week show that the teen's mother may have known about that alleged abuse.
In a fiery conclusion to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office incident report, a detective writes that Jennifer Soto continuously protected Sterns.
Sterns was charged with the teen's murder back in April. He's also facing dozens of charges related to sexual abuse, like battery, molestation and child porn-related crimes. No one else has been charged in Madeline's case, and no other charges are pending, a spokesperson for the Kissimmee Police Department confirmed to FOX 35 on Thursday.
When a detective questioned her about why she prioritizes Sterns over her daughter, at one point she referred to "the sex stuff" as "not evil." That's according to new documents and evidence from the sheriff's office early on in the search for the missing teenager.
"It appeared to me that she had already accepted the victimization that was happening, and her emotion appeared fictitious," the detective wrote in the report.
Detectives also questioned Jennifer about Madeline and Sterns’ relationship.
"It doesn’t sound like you ever had any concerns about Stephan. You know him really well. You’ve never seen anything wrong with [Madeline] and him together, right?" the detective said.
Jennifer said that at first, she didn't trust Sterns with her daughter – because she wouldn’t trust any man. But over the years, she changed her tune.
"I was very vigilant for the first few years of how he would interact with her and I would question if anything was weird, but nothing was truly weird," she said.
Jennifer also told detectives that Madeline and Sterns would often sleep together in her bed, and other times would sleep alone and unsupervised in a separate bedroom. She said the night before she reported Madeline as missing, she wanted a good night’s sleep and slept in her bedroom, but asked Sterns and Madeline to sleep in the guest room together.
This is despite the home having enough space for all three people to sleep in different rooms, detectives note.
Recorded interviews with Sterns’ father show him questioning how trustworthy his own son is.
"Something’s going on. He’s spent a lifetime lying to us, and it’s just never gotten better," Sterns’ father, a former OCSO deputy, told detectives in an interview.
"Before I left the house the other night, I turned to my wife and I said, ‘Do we really know Stephan? Can we honestly say we really know him?’" Sterns' father said.
But Jennifer trusted Sterns enough to let him sleep in the same bed with her daughter.
"Of course it would weird anyone out, a little girl sleeping with a man that’s not her dad. It sounds weird!" she said in a recorded interview with detectives. "I trusted him enough to let it happen."
The records FOX 35's Marie Edinger reviewed also reveal that Madeline's teachers and peers knew something was wrong. They just didn’t know what.
Madeline Soto missing: Jenn Soto, Maddie's mom, talks daughter's disappearance (full interview)
Jenn Soto, Madeline Soto's mom, spoke to FOX 35's Hannah McKenzie this week about the disappearance of her 13-year-old daughter. "Maddie" Soto has been missing since Feb. 26, days after her 13th birthday, and hours after she was dropped up at school. Jenn Soto's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, dropped Maddie near the school, but the girl never made it to class.
Body camera video from detectives canvassing the neighborhood where the Soto family lived shows an interview with a young girl who says she knew Madeline.
"She said that when she turned 13 she’d run away, but I don’t know why," the little girl told deputies.
Incident reports reveal friends told detectives about Madeline "seeming pretty sad" and about her "having a meltdown" days before her death.
"Occasionally, she would start crying? You think that would happen once a month?" a detective asked a friend of Madeline's.
"Sometimes it would just happen," the little girl said.
It wasn’t just Madeline's peers who might’ve known something was seriously wrong though.
Police reports reveal that a counselor told detectives Madeline would have "sleepy days" where she would come in, put her head down, and do nothing – and he suspected she may have been depressed.
Another counselor noted Madeline had talked about Sterns before, saying he was "weird" and "made her uncomfortable" – and said her grades improved after December, when Sterns left the home.
Sterns has a status hearing scheduled for Oct. 14. He's declined previous appearances to appear in court thus far.