KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A police dog trained to identify the scent of dead bodies “alerted” on a car belonging to missing 13-year-old Madeline Soto’s mother, while traffic cameras captured videos of the mother’s boyfriend driving around Central Florida with the teen’s lifeless body in the front seat of his car, according to investigators.
Prosecutors believe Stephan Sterns sexually molested his girlfriend’s daughter, strangled her to death, and dumped her body in a wooded area outside of St. Cloud.
Sterns, who faces the death penalty if convicted of killing Soto, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
In the fourth episode of “Justice for Madeline,” News 6 explains how detectives used license plate readers and traffic cameras to trace the movements of the two vehicles on the day Soto was reported missing. A condo security guard describes seeing Soto and Sterns the morning of the teen’s disappearance. Crime scene photos reveal what investigators found in a dumpster near the family’s condo.