Hello, we have an important show for you tonight before we begin a trigger warning.

We will be talking about the murder of 13-year-old Madeline Soto.

Madeline Soto disappeared in February of 24. She was found March 1st, 2024. Her body was found.

She had been murdered by her mother's boyfriend, Stefan Stearns.

Stefan Stearns took a plea deal and he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for both being 13-year-old Madeline as well as murdering 13-year-old Madeline Soto on July 21st,

2025, just less than a month ago. It's something that John and I were following and have been

following and have wanted to cover the sentencing.

I think that many understand the trigger warning, now that I've shared what this is going to be about,

but John is going to go back. Dr. John Matthias is a criminal psychologist as well as a clinical psychologist.

We have been covering this case.

One thing John does is assess offenders and you plan to talk in depth about not just the sentencing and

Stefan Stern's statement, but to revisit some of what we discussed early on when we discussed this in

September of 2024, I believe, or when we first started talking about the murder of Madeline Soto.

So to catch everyone up before we jump in, just again, want everyone to understand that Stefan

Stearns was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And he was initially arrested in 2024 after investigators discovered disturbing videos and

images on his phone depicting him assaulting Soto.

Investigators believe that the abuse began in 2019 when Madeline was only eight years old.

Stern faced 60 charges related to abuse and that was brought against him on March 12th,

for the abuse that Madeline

suffered, not the murder. And right before that trial was to begin, he took a plea deal and now again

has been sentenced for both, both the assaults, the abuse, as well as her murder.

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