Madeline Soto: Handed to a Monster | #418

RedHanded

Wondery | RedHanded

True Crime

4.5 • 18.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost immediately after 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing in February 2024, something didn’t seem quite right.

Her mother Jennifer Soto – and Jennifer’s boyfriend Stephan Sterns – gave a series of strange interviews in the press. And over the next five days, as investigators picked apart the lives (and sleeping arrangements) of those who lived in the Soto home, bombshells kept on rocking the people of Osceola County, Florida. Until finally, the horrific reality of what Maddy endured was revealed to the world.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to RedHounded early and ad free.
0:04.6	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:17.8	I'm Surruti.
0:19.0	And welcome to RedHanded, where I have broken my no-caffeine binge by having all the caffeine I can fit into a cup.
0:28.6	Even I, who have no caffeine rules, would never in a million years order a triple shot.
0:35.6	I ordered it online so I could run to pick it up because I was like, oh, I've got to catch this train.
0:42.9	And it was like, it's recommended just two shots for this size trip.
0:47.5	I was like, three.
0:48.5	Make it three.
0:49.6	And then I got to the train station.
0:52.0	Fine, got on the train.
0:53.3	And then it just dumped me on the side of the fucking tracks in the middle of Welland Garden City. I was like, this train's not even meant to fucking stop here. And then I had to order an Uber. And luckily I got one all the way from Wellend to East London. Could have been worse. And the best thing that happened when the car pulled up is it was like one of those
1:11.0	Tesla's that opens like a bird.
1:12.9	And I was like, this is so extra.
1:15.5	That's so funny.
1:16.4	But I am here.
1:17.8	My heartbeat is like a little hummingbird.
1:20.7	And I'm just going to get through this.
1:22.5	And I'm already feeling quite angry about this case.
1:26.0	Yeah, you have been a bit of a rage whirlwind.
1:29.8	So shall we just get 999 on fucking speed time? When I have a heart attack before this episode is
1:36.6	over. Because this is a case that I have been following from the very beginning. Can confirm.
	...

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