Madeline Soto: Missing Kissimmee girl's body found in rural Osceola County

and breaking news at six sources just confirmed to channel 9 the body of missing 13-year-old meline SoDo has been found we have learned that a tip called in after this afternoon's press conference with Orange County Sheriff John Mina LED detectives to her body law enforcement from several agencies still out at the scene right there off of Hickory Tree Road in Oola County good evening to you I'm Christopher Heath I'm Darlene Jones this is certainly a heartbreaking update to this major story we've been following for you since Monday this morning the main suspect who you see here in her disappearance Steven Sterns was taken from the Orange County Jail to the Oola County jail and then this afternoon the Orange County Sheriff told us investigators believed meline was dead but at the time they had not found her body the CMI Police Department is now leading what they are calling obviously a murder investigation we have live team coverage on this major story for you tonight from Orange to oila County following the latest developments we start with with Channel 9's Nick papantonis who is live near the scene where again sources confirm for us mine's body has been found Nick what are you seeing out there so we're on the other side of this field on Hickory Tree Road we're going to zoom in all the way to where deputies have set up a light we can see a couple cars worth of flashing lights Hickory Tree Road shut down for a good couple Mile Stretch we're inside of that perimeter right now as we watch them somewhat do their invest mation we're going to take you to our view from Sky witness 9 uh showing you the scene from above a slightly better view you can see a long line of vehicles on the side of the road there they appear to be focusing their efforts on the woods just off to the side of the road but again a lot uh hidden from our view as we watch this unfold just to give you a recap of what has happened today and why we are here earlier this afternoon Sheriff John Mina up in Orange County as well CMI police chief Betty Holland announced that they had good reason to believe that meline was dead they said video evidence uh put her body in Steven cern's car uh Monday morning when he was supposed to be dropping her off at school they said they found her laptop from school as well as her backpack in a dumpster in the apartment complex where they lived and they said all of that evidence LED them to conclude that she was not alive it's not a search operation as it was a recovery operation at this point Point we've watched deputies and police officers swarm different parts of the area a couple of different times lucking no luck for the first couple but then we landed here on Hickory Tree Road down the road from where officers and deputies said that they images of Stern's car from the day meline disappeared uh they said that they were on the lookout and asking anybody to be on the lookout because they had those images they knew that he was here and that he had gotten a flat tire at some point and they expected him to have changed that somebody to have seen it we've learned because of that press conference that they gave that they uh came to this location uh where they found her body about an hour or so ago now so we are waiting uh to see if a press conference is going to be called to give the update and and explain a bit more in detail about what has happened over the last couple of hours but again a very very sad update here from Oola County and throughout the day um but a little bit of uh answers for mine's mother who again as we've emphasized all afternoon is not a suspect in this case live in Oola County Nick Pap andonis Channel 9 Eyewitness News and there will be a vigil in Hunter Creek tonight in honor of Madeline stto Channel 99's Daryl Matthews continues our live team coverage there and darl organizers are doing this to support mine's friends and her family yeah Chris under these changing circumstances they say now it's time to mourn with the community the family and madd's classmates it broke my heart cuz the first thing that came to my mind was my own daughter and I'm sure that everybody thinks of that at a tragic Moment Like This from a missing person to a homicide community members are trying to come to grips with what is now a death investigation in a disappearance of 13ear old meline SoDo uh she had other family members uh schoolmates you know people that were around her and so now now we mourn now we mourn church leaders were planning a prayer circle in hopes of getting little MADD Holmes safe but now with investigators seeing all signs pointing to a homicide the prayer circle has now been turned into a prayer vigil we want to let the family know that the church is there for them that God doesn't abandon them because the situation changes Friday Eyewitness News spotted CMI police outside the home hours after Stephan Sterns the prime suspect in Matty's disappearance was moved from Orange County to acola this comes just days after we spoke to Sterns who at the time told us he dropped Maddie off at a church near Hunters Creek Middle School are you in a sense blaming yourself it's hard not to why I dropped her off early throughout the week more than a hundred people scoured locations looking for the teen tonight with every bit of new information the community wraps its arms around each other and that vig will be around this school it would not be on the premises but like I said around this school that'll be tonight at 7:00 we're live in Hunter Creek down Matthew Channel 9 Eyewitness News our hearts certainly go out to little mti's family The Disappearance of 13-year-old meline stto prompted concerns about what some parents consider a major flaw in the Orange County School's attendance system mine's mother says she wasn't notified that her daughter was absent from school until nearly 6 6: p.m. channel 99's Ashlin Webb spoke to Soto's mother earlier in the week and Ashlin there is now a petition to change that notification procedure yes I actually spoke to mine's mom Wednesday night before the investigation took the turn that it did she said she felt this was a failure on Orange County schools that she wasn't notified until later Monday evening that Madeline was absent that call was actually after Jennifer had gone to the school to try to pick up m at around 4:30 p.m. now parents are reacting saying that Orange County Schools needs to make make a change hello this is a message from the attendance office calling to inform you that your student was absent today Jennifer SoDo say she got a call like this at 5:55 p.m. Monday 10 hours after her daughter meline didn't show up to Hunters Creek Middle School that is a lot of time you can travel far distances in a matter of 10 hours Sarah Terell the mom of a Hunter Creek Middle School student is one of many now asking why Orange County Schools does not notify parents earlier in the day that their child is absent Terell started a petition Thursday that already has hundreds of signatures I don't think that it would be so horrible that I got a call at 10 or 11 a.m. that my student was absent Orange County Public School says is automated system notifies parents after the school day because the final cut off for teachers to submit a attendance is 3:30 p.m. once attendance is finalized in the system the school district says a report is run and later Guardians are notified their student was absent I have had uh quite a few emails from parents concerned about uh the current procedure that we have in in Orange County School Board member Alicia barant says she plans to discuss Orange County's current procedure with the board I can go to the board table and see if there is uh a procedure that we can change to help um prevent things in the future although with something like this I don't know that this could have been prevented and we can't live in the wha ifs now we checked with other school districts in the area about what their procedure is about this Lake County Schools say they notify parents after the first class that there that a student is absent in in some states like Ohio have laws on the books that require schools to notify parents within 2 hours after a student is absent reporting in Orange County Ash web 29 I Witness news right the superintendent of Orange County Public Schools is expressing sorrow over little mine's death in a statement released to us today Dr Maria Vasquez says she is heartbroken and is praying for the Hunters Creek Middle School Community she told us counselors will be available for students and staff there on campus Chris the Orange County sheriff and CMI police chief both expressed today that this is still an active investigation and more charges could be filed we'll continue to follow every development in this story and share updates both online and on air on WFTV and wftv.com

Channel: WFTV Channel 9

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Id: IqOoXBVjs4U

Length: 9min 4sec (544 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2024