Madeline Soto update: Orange County Sheriff's Office shares new details about case of missing girl

for all right so thank you for being here we have some important developments in this case that we want to share with our community I wish uh we were here to tell you that we have found meline um but we have not found her last night detectives from the CMI Police Department met with mine's mother and they had to tell her the very devastating news that although we have not found meline uh we are now confident that she is dead so our efforts will be focused on recovering meline dozens and dozens of detectives crime analysts and specialized team members uh have been working nonstop and following up on every single lead and every shred of evidence our detectives have determined that meline was never dropped off on the morning of February 26 near her school instead we believe she was already dead at the time and that Stefan Sterns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day we have video evidence that shows Stefan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in CMI at 7:35 on Monday February 26 detectives later recovered mine's backpack and her school issued laptop from that dumpster at 8:19 we have evidence that shows stepan St turns returning to the complex and meline was visible in that vehicle we believe she was already dead at that time as a result of that um although the initial missing person's investigation started in Orange County the Kimi police department will now be taking over the investigation and will become the lead agency and of course the Orange County Sheriff's Office all of our support Personnel um will be avail able and we be still be assisting in this investigation so this time I'm going to turn it over to Chief Holland from the cmia Police Department chief thank you uh for being here as Sheriff Mina said this is still an active and ongoing investigation and there is a lot of additional information that we cannot release at this time um I do want to note that Stefan Sterns was transported transported from the Orange County Jail to the oilla county jail where he is being held on Capital sexual battery charges filed by the CMI police detectives right now our top priority is recovering mateline we are still appealing to our community for its help in this case please share this crimeline bulletin on my right um of Steven Sterns um he was last SE driving a silver 2010 Lincoln MKZ the Florida tag is i y l L82 on Monday Mond February 26th between 1 and 2:30 p.m. in the area of State Road 192 and Old Hickory Tree Road as well as Old Hickory Tree Road and NTI Road during this time frame It is believed that Sterns had a flat tire and might have been seen changing the tire in this area if anyone saw this vehicle or noticed anything suspicious were asking that they call Crim line we will continue to work tirelessly with Orange County Sheriff's Office the Oola County Sheriff's Office and St Cloud police departments to bring a resolution to this case and recover Maddie thank you all right thanks Chief um you know we'll take some questions but just remember you we're still in the middle of this investigation there's a lot of things that we cannot reveal no Sterns has not spoken to anyone the video evidence that that we have so so we're not going to go into those exact details but um we have video evidence that leads us to believe that she's already dead sh a lot ofure time yeah so it could be helpful um to us uh if people saw something and um obviously you we're searching uh many different areas um but if someone saw something in that area you know we want to know about itar what's that searched so we actually have people um searching areas right now so they they've searched a bunch of different areas and they're going to continue to search uh so I don't want to go into specifics on on exactly where I don't want to miss something one more time sorry so what I what I'll say is what I already said is that um you we believe he moved her body in those early morning hours and all that is is still under investigation yes yes we're talking to the mother yes she's not considered so uh we're talking to the mother and all this there you know to my knowledge she's not a suspect in this case right nowo that's correct so from the dumpster we recovered her backpack and her school issued laptop We Believe Bel that she was killed at the house it's it's our belief that she was killed in CMI and and that he moved her body and so that's why the CMI Police Department is the lead investigate investigators now ases yeah that's all part of the investigation so we haven't determined that yet yeah so obviously uh detectives have spoken um to her mother and you know as you can imagine um the reaction that any parent would have that is correct it is transitioned to a homicide investigation and the cimi police department will be um the lead agency in that investigation still we're still investigating it the detectives are continuing the investigation and as more evidence comes up there may be more charges in the future that that's still all part of the investigation I don't want to say right now so yes we reviewed that footage it was very grainy grainy we weren't able to determine that was her but uh like I said we know that she was never dropped off at school that morning that's correct searches are continuing as we speak um and so like I said we have people who are working non-stop and so every lead that comes in every piece of evidence uh that we receive um we're going to follow up on that and if that um leads us to a new search area uh we'll be out all weekend think than

Channel: FOX 35 Orlando

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Id: ty7uIkdvgJQ

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024