Episode 360

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Sword and Scale contains adult themes in violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

**Jennifer Soto** (0:12)
And when you guys showed me the picture of her, I believed the sexual stuff, but I didn't want to believe that he had done anything equal to her. I'm like, no, what if she, what if he did this stuff, fine.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:29)
Some of the stories we tell here on Sword and Scale will make you sick. They'll tug at your heartstrings. They'll change your whole perspective on humanity.
They're the ones you can't get over, the ones you can't really shake, and they stay with you for a long time. The story we're about to tell you is one of them. This is part one of a two part series. Let's go.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:52)
9-1-1, what's the location of your emergency?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:55)
The call is coming out of Kissimmee, Florida. In a quiet suburban pocket near Hunters Creek Middle School.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:02)
Police, fire, or medical?
Police, possibly. I'm reporting a missing child. And is she white, black, or Hispanic? She's white.

**Jennifer Soto** (2:11)
Kates, and?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:13)
Dirty blonde hair, blue eyes. Okay, hold on with me here. Okay. And then how long has it been though, since you guys have last seen her? Since this morning. She was dropped off at school this morning, and apparently she never showed up. We called everyone we knew, and no one seen her.
She was last seen at the church next to Honey Creek Middle School. I think it's called Peace Church. I'm not sure if the exact address.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:39)
She was dropped off that morning, just steps away from the school, but she never made it inside. By that afternoon, no one had seen her. Not her friends, not her teachers, not a single person at the school. She was dropped off, then just disappeared.
Her name was Madeline Soto, and she was just 13 years old. This was her best friend.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:05)
She came to the school in the middle of the year in fourth grade. She was like the new kid, so like everybody kind of just picked on her and stuff. She was in a different class than me. She got picked on a lot by people like that nobody really liked and stuff.
And then one day, I kind of like went up to her and I was like, hey, what's your name? And then we got to know each other. Ever since then, we've just been best friends.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:30)
As best friends, she and Maddie talked every day.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:33)
Like every single day.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:34)
She texts me every morning I wake up, and I always get a text from her unless she...
But usually, I thought it was fishy yesterday when she didn't text me at all, because usually even if she doesn't go to school that day, she texts me like the night or the day at all, like she'll wake up early just to like text me like, hey, I'm not going to school. And she didn't yesterday, but I didn't think everything other than that, she like, oh, she like slept in or something.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:58)
That morning, February 26th, 2024, was supposed to be routine, a ride to school, maybe breakfast on the way.
It was the kind of morning you don't think twice about until something goes horribly wrong. That morning, her mother's boyfriend, Stefan Stearns, drove her to school.

**SPEAKER_7** (4:16)
Stefan, she was always on a call with him, she loved him, they were really close.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:22)
They left earlier than usual, they had time to spare, and talked about stopping for breakfast at McDonald's. But she changed her mind, as little kids do. She was sleepy, but she also just wanted to get to school early to hang out with her friends. Instead of waiting in the insufferable car line, she asked to be dropped off about a block away.
She would walk the rest of the way to find her friends. Apparently, no matter who was taking her to school, Maddie preferred to be dropped off in the near vicinity. This was usually at the church across the street, where a lot of parents dropped off their kids to avoid the long lines.
That morning, the car pulled over. Maddie got out and started walking.

**SPEAKER_4** (5:09)
We're going to the pool to double check and everything, but from what we know, she wasn't there. So they should be back in the pool too, because it's right next to the pool. That's fine. So if at least one of you remains there, though, to meet with an officer, that's more than fine, okay?