Madeline Soto: A timeline of her disappearance & death
The story of Madeline Soto has affected people across the country and left many in Central Florida mourning the tragic loss.
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The missing 13-year-old girl’s body was found more than a week ago.
Channel 9 has laid out a timeline of the events as they unfolded. Read more below:
Monday, Feb. 26
Madeline’s mother, Jennifer Soto, reported to Orange County deputies that her daughter had disappeared.
Read: Orange County deputies search for missing 13-year-old girl
Tuesday, Feb. 27
Channel 9 spoke one-on-one with Jennifer Soto on Feb. 27, a day after her daughter had been reported missing.
Jennifer Soto said that her boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, dropped her daughter off at a church near Hunters Creek Middle School, where she was student.
Sterns also told investigators Madeline Soto wanted to walk the rest of the way to school, but she never made it.
WATCH: Jennifer Soto, Stephan Sterns speak to Channel 9 about Madeline Soto’s disappearance
Wednesday, Feb. 28
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said his deputies were working with several other agencies to search for Madeline Soto in the areas where she was reportedly last seen.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said more than 50 members of its Emergency Response Team were searching for Madeline Soto near Osprey Park on Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, the Kissimmee Police Department in conjunction with the Sheriff’s Office arrested Sterns on charges of sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse material.
Thursday, Feb. 29
The Sheriff’s Office then said it believed Sterns never dropped off Madeline Soto and is considered the prime suspect in her disappearance.
Deputies said Sterns was captured on camera throwing her backpack and school laptop into a dumpster on the morning of Feb. 26.
Investigators said Madeline Soto’s body was seen in Sterns’ car before he drove away.
Read: Madeline Soto’s body found in rural Osceola County
Friday, Mar. 1
1:30 p.m. Mina held a news conference to say that Madeline Soto had not been located and he was confident that she was dead.
He said that Kissimmee police would take the lead on the homicide investigation.
Mina confirmed that Sterns never dropped off Madeline Soto near her school Monday morning as he had claimed.
5 p.m. Kissimmee police said that Sterns was at the intersection of East Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway and Old Hickory Tree Road and the intersection of Old Hickory Tree and Nolte Roads between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 26.
Police said they believed Sterns had a flat tire and might have been changing it in the same area.
6:25 p.m. The Sheriff’s Office said that Madeline Soto’s body had been found.
Investigators said Osceola County deputies found the body in a wooded area along Hickory Tree Road.
Tuesday, March 5
Channel 9 learned that the story Jennifer Soto gave to law enforcement did not line up with what investigators know.
Jennifer Soto said that the last conversation she had with her daughter happened the night before her disappearance.
But a report Channel 9 obtained March 5 shows that Soto told deputies that she saw her daughter the morning of the girl’s disappearance.
No one has been charged in Madeline Soto’s death. But investigators are looking into who knew what, when. That means they are reviewing initial interviews of the couple and ones conducted later on.
Sources told Channel 9′s Shannon Butler that the statements about the timeline of Madeline Soto’s disappearance have not always been consistent.
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