OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – More than a year before Stephan Sterns pleaded guilty to raping Madeline Soto and no contest to murdering her, Sterns drastically changed his story about the 13-year-old’s disappearance and death.

“I discovered her in the state that she was in after everything was said and done,” Sterns told his parents in a phone call from the Osceola County jail about three months after his arrest. “I was not aware that she had passed on.”

Sterns, 39, originally claimed he drove Soto to Hunter’s Creek Middle School on the morning of February 26, 2024, after spending the night alone with the 13-year-old in an upstairs bedroom of the condo where Soto lived with her mother.

The teen never made it to class and was reported missing later that night.

“She was still upstairs,” Sterns said in a June 2024 phone call with his parents that was recorded by jail staff. “By the time I realized anything was wrong, it was just far too late. She had been gone for a little while. Just seeing her pale face and blue lips and how ice cold she was, I just cradled her.”

In Part 7 of the video series “Justice for Madline,” Sterns answers his parents’ questions about his attraction to children and what he’d request for a last meal on Death Row had a jury convicted him of Soto’s murder.

All episodes of “Justice for Madeline” can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries