Content advisory: This article mentions sex abuse, CSAM, and homicide. Please take care while reading.
When Stephan Sterns, 37, was arrested for possessing inappropriate – euphemistically speaking – footage of himself sexually assaulting 13-year-old Madeline Soto, people turned their eyes and raised brows to the mother, Jennifer Lissette Soto.
It’s still not clear where Jennifer was at the time of her daughter’s disappearance. Nor is it clear what she knew about her daughter’s prolonged abuse at the hands of Sterns and her ultimate tragic demise, just days after her birthday on Feb. 22.
Most netizens became suspicious of Jennifer when she misspoke during one of her interviews prior to her daughter’s body being found days miles away from their home, already after Sterns’ arrest. She said, “we took her to school,” which she later rephrased as “my partner took her to school.”
A netizen wrote on a Reddit thread:
Take it with a grain of salt, but, one thing is clear, most netizens do not seem to have Maddie’s mother’s back. Many believe Jennifer Soto is guilty of something, if not of Madeline’s murder or direct abuse, then of allowing a sexual predator to prey on her tween daughter not for days, or months, but for years.
Conflicting statements and subsequent silence
At present, the detectives on this case are focused on finding out the truth of who knew what, where, and when – some are also leaking crime scene photos by accident, but that’s another story. This process entails that they have an eagle eye trained on the mother, who, by all means, made a couple of statements that don’t add up.
Jennifer said the last time she saw her daughter was Sunday night, Feb. 25. But to the police, she was inconsistent and contradicted herself, alleging she saw Madeline getting dressed for school, a statement which would give Sterns some protection, as he had claimed he’d dropped Madeline near her school, a narrative that attempted to divert attention elsewhere.
At this point, Sterns has proven himself to be more than unreliable, but, if nothing changes and things run their course, Jennifer is on her way to showing herself just as unreliable. She couldn’t have seen Maddie get dressed in the morning, because it is believed that the 13-year-old had been killed earlier than that.
Another netizen made a good point concerning this:
There are enough holes and ambiguities in Jennifer’s story for people to be reasonably suspicious of her involvement. And now that she has clammed up and reportedly not been as cooperative as when she was giving interviews left and right, the scrutiny has only intensified.
A more recent comment from a Redditor on a different thread reads:
Before 8 am, Stephan Sterns had thrown Maddie’s belongings, including her backpack, in a dumpster. The teenager could indeed be seen in video footage inside the car that morning, but police believe she was already dead. In other words, there is footage that confirms that Sterns drove around with Madeline’s body.
We still don’t know all the facts. Once the medical examiner releases their findings, the picture will become clearer. And hopefully, by the end of this tragic story, someone will be brought to justice for not only having killed Maddie, but also having terrorized her in unspeakable ways for years.
If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
