26. Sarah Stern - The Mystery on the Bridge
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Thank you so much to everyone who shared on social media this week. We also asked you guys on there what your name should be. Garrett wants all of his listeners to be called the haters, which I guess would make mine the lovers.

Uh, but my favorite suggestions that we got were to call you guys are murder kids or offspring because me and Gare are mom and dad, which I'm just cracking up at. I think that's the funniest thing, but I, I kind of like it. I mean, murder kids does sound a little bad, but I don't know. I mean, I guess this is murder with my husband could be murder with my kids. Yeah. That's kind of funny. Um, so listen up murder kids.

Garrett and I always play this game of how much money would it take for you to do this? Like how much money would it take for you to eat a spider or how much money would it take for you to sell your favorite materialistic thing? Um, like, like Garrett has a baby blanket that he slept with. I have a pillow that I've slept with. How much money would it take for you to sell your blanket? Um,

Like is it? Is in any amount of money like you realistically think how much money would it take for you to sell your blanket and I'll tell you how much money it would take for me to sell my pillow. That's a good question. I think part of me wants to say nothing but the other part of me wants to say I don't know like 10 million dollars. That's it? Yeah I think so. It's 10 million dollars. Oh my gosh I don't think I'd sell my pillow. Oh I don't know 10 million dollars. Yeah that's a lot of money. That's a

That's a ton of money. Yeah, but I don't know about my pillow though. Yeah, like if someone came up to me and was like $20,000 for that pillow, I'd say no. No, no, no. It'd have to be in the millions. See? Yeah, me too. That's how much I mean. I mean, it's a lot of money, but I don't think...

Yeah, I know. Yeah. So people do weird and even sometimes horrible things for money. But in our case today, the real question is how much money would you kill for? This is the story of Sarah Stern.

First, let me give you my sources. ABC has a 2020 on this. ABCnews.go.com, distractify.com, theblast.com, heavy.com, and www.chillingcrimes.com. Keep in mind, all of these sources will be linked in our episode notes if you want to check them out.

Our case starts in Neptune City, New Jersey, which is a small, sleepy, tight-knit town. Everyone knows everyone type of place. Now this is not like the Jersey Shore that we watch on MTV with Snooks and JWoww. It's more of like a suburb place, so don't get in your head that we are, you know, spending our summer on the Jersey Shore. This is more just like in New Jersey, but a suburban place.

Okay. On December 3rd, 2016 at 2 45 AM, a call comes in from an Uber driver who states that a 94 silver four door old mobile 88 is abandoned on the route 35 bridge. Also, that was like a mouthful to say that car name. It didn't appear to have been in an accident. No one was in it. It was just sitting there on the middle of the bridge keys in the ignition.

Cops dispatch to the bridge and chase back the car to a 96-year-old Lillian Stern. After further investigation, they discover that it was actually Lillian's 19-year-old granddaughter named Sarah Stern who frequently drove the car. 96? Yeah. That's old. Police call...

Police call Sarah's parents to see if they know where she is. They get in contact with her dad, Michael Stern, who tells them that he had been trying to contact Sarah all night, but he hadn't heard from her the whole night. He was on vacation in Florida and she was at the house alone.

Sarah's mom had actually passed away from cancer when she was 13, so she wasn't in the picture. As things became clear, a possibility that Sarah was missing, the reality sank in. Sarah was well-known in the tight-knit community. Her family was well-known. It was a big deal when people found out that this car belonged to her and no one, not even family, knew where she was. And why was her phone off on a Friday night?

Sarah is officially declared missing with her car left on the bridge and an investigation immediately starts. Okay. So what year are we in again? 2016. Oh, so fairly recent. Okay. I didn't catch that. Yeah. So it is kind of strange that her phone's off. Uh-huh.

So in the early morning hours of that December 3rd, 2016, police begin looking for any clues as to where Sarah is. They go to Sarah's house at 3 a.m. Because remember, she was missing around 2. And they look around. They use body cams this whole time, which is cool. So you can actually go back and see the footage of them searching her home. They go in her back door. Her lights are on. And her dog buddy is home in his cage. But she is not there.

Police wake the neighbors up and ask if anybody had seen her or know where she is. And I mean, this is kind of cool because this is literally just an hour after they've got the call that she's missing and they've already contacted, well, figured out who the car belonged to, found out it was the granddaughter that usually drove it, contacted the parents, went to the house, woke up the neighbors, asked if anyone knew where she was. Like they've already done so much to search for her. And we know that those first hours are vital.

So one neighbor comes forward and says that Sarah had actually stopped by her house earlier that day. She was dropping off a bin of her deceased mother's belongings to the neighbor's house. She wanted them in a safe place, so she went and dropped them off. The

That's the first question I was going to ask. It's about the dog. Yeah. Does she usually let him out? No, all the neighbors were like, this is really, like, she would never let him out.

never leave him home even if even if she was leaving to go somewhere like she would have made sure he was taken care of she wouldn't have left him in his cage that's so strange because right now it doesn't seem like there's any signs of break-ins though nope okay but all the lights were on okay in the house so the neighbor also mentions that sarah wasn't alone when she dropped the box off earlier that day she was with her good friend liam mccansky

Liam lived just blocks away from Sarah, and they had been friends since they were six years old. They met in Sunday school. Liam lived in a mother-in-law apartment that was in the backyard of his mom's house.

So it was his mom's house he grew up in. And then there was like a little mother-in-law shack. Like a pool house almost. Yes, yes. In the backyard. And he lived in that house because remember they're like 19. With his friend Preston who was also good friends with Sarah. Okay, so they were all three friends. Yep. Preston had actually taken Sarah to her junior prom. Oh, okay. So Sarah, Liam and Preston all known to be good friends. There was no romantic interest between any of them. They were all just buddies.

At 4 a.m., police go to Liam's house and wake him up. So now they were at Sarah's house. The neighbor says, oh, he came over with Liam. She came over with Liam to drop off the mom stuff. So now they go to Liam's house to say, were you with her? So they go wake him up. He's all groggy in the body cam footage because like I said, you can watch it. Liam,

Liam says that Sarah and him had hung out that day. They went to Taco Bell, which you can actually see on the Taco Bell security footage from that day, them pulling up through the drive-thru and ordering. And then they went back to her house to hang out. He tells police that after that, he went to work at 4.30 p.m. and he hadn't heard from her since. I was going to say there isn't. It's 2016, so there's a lot more cameras, but it's not...

now right 2020 we're like everyone has ring cameras and everything you can't even you can't go anywhere yeah i actually think about that all the time me too i think about it i just had a dream about it the other night remember i told you that someone had like broke into our car and i went over to the neighbor's house and was like can you please check your ring yeah and they were like i don't know i woke up i was like so mad i was like the neighbors wouldn't check

But it's nice. Everyone on our street, I mean, even us, everyone has ring cameras. Yeah, I have ring cameras. I don't plan on breaking into my home. I had to make sure to sneak that in. We have a ring camera, too. And I actually have motion detectors in every room and all of my windows are gigged and all my doors, too, just because I'm a crazy crime junkie person. My wife likes true crime. If you guys didn't know that. And I don't want to die in the middle of the night. So Liam, tell us about your life.

tells police that Sarah, you know, they're like, okay, so you went to work. How was Sarah acting? And he goes, well, you know, Sarah's actually been going through it. She doesn't really get along with her dad. They fight all the time. He says that he thinks Sarah was depressed and that she would tell him all the time that she just wanted to quote, get away.

He says she wanted to go to Canada and she was packing all of her stuff up to go. Hence why she was dropping off a bin of her mother's things to the neighbor's house. She was going to run away to Canada after she was getting rid of important things. Like, can you hold these for a while? At least that's what Liam thought they were doing when they were dropping the bin off. Liam interviews...

like, caused concern with local police because now they are worried that Sarah actually isn't missing, but rather she committed suicide off the bridge. I thought you were going to say that she ran away. Well...

Why was her car abandoned on the bridge? So they thought maybe she told Liam she was going to run away, got all of her stuff in order, and then actually commit suicide because she was depressed, according to Liam. Okay. She had expressed to her friend that she was depressed and had been getting everything in order. Then they find her car abandoned on the bridge. Police start searching the water underneath the bridge. Okay. The river that runs underneath this bridge is called Shark River.

Is there sharks? Which makes very much sense. Oh, I just asked a dumb question. It's Shark River. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. I'm like, maybe my dad lied to me, but every time we're talking,

Like river rafting. He's like, no, there's no way there's sharks in here. Stop freaking out, you little Idaho girl. Yeah. So I just think that's ironic. I can't believe I asked that question. Keep going. I'm sorry. I'm keeping it in. So they find nothing in the water. The next morning, police go to Liam's house again at 10, 13 a.m. and ask him for more info. He's the last person to have seen her alive.

Is what they're assuming because they can't find anyone after that. So they go back to him and ask for more info from earlier that day. They ask him, you know, if she mentioned anything about leaving town that day instead of later on, like she was planning, um,

And in the body cam footage, they do start to get like a little stern with him. Okay. He tells them once again that she was suicidal and wanted to run away, but he has no idea if she left yesterday or where she is. He answered every question that the cops ask him. And in the recording, he really does seem genuine. Keep in mind, I watched a lot of body cam and interrogation footage and Liam is not being sus at all. Like he seems super genuine.

Um, I'm surprised he didn't never ask for an attorney or anything. Well, these are just, they're just going to his house. They haven't even taken him into the station yet. Uh huh. Just asking him for information, but they do get like a little son with him. So I, I mean, if that was me, I'd instantly be like, well, but yeah. So the police actually timeline Sarah's whole day with Liam. So they figure out what she did that whole day based off of Liam. A civilian search is started very soon after by family and friends. Um,

Um, Liam and Sarah's father all attend and they just get everyone in the community, go out and search for her. Police look for surveillance cameras from every route that she could have taken from her house to the bridge that night. There's no cameras on the route, but there's one camera under the bridge that

That was over Shark River and one on a railway that was next to the bridge. But both cameras actually happened to not be working that day. Of course. This is when police figure out that Sarah Stern's neighbor had a camera that shows the corner of Sarah's house. So they went to all the neighbors and only one of them had security footage. And you can see Sarah's driveway house in the corner of it.

They go through the security footage and it aligns completely with Liam's version of events for Sarah that day. The only new thing that the camera sees that Liam didn't know about was Sarah's car left her own house at 1145 p.m. And then somehow ends up on the bridge later that night into the early morning. But he was working. So but yeah, and they don't see who's driving it.

They bring Liam in for an official interview at this point, three days after Sarah went missing. Okay. So I wrote why, like when I was reading this and looking through it and watching the footage as I was going, they were focusing so much on him that,

in an effort to find Sarah, but he was so cooperative and, in my opinion, was not raising any red flags. Yeah, my guess is that they don't have any other leads, so the only thing would be to keep questioning Liam. And he was the last one seen alive. Yeah. Or the last one seen with her. Mm-hmm. So in this interview, Liam goes into further detail about Sarah. He claims that she wasn't in a relationship with him or Preston ever, but she...

But he doesn't know if she liked any boys. He said that she would get weirdly obsessed with girls, one of them being his ex-girlfriend, like as friends, like you need to call me, you need to come over here, you need to do this. He then asks the cops after they've kind of finished their questions. So if she did jump off that bridge, what are the odds, you know, that she's not just in the ocean by now? So that's what he asks. Like if she jumped off, wouldn't she just be in the ocean by now? Like why are we still searching the river?

I'm kind of confused why he's asking that. Well, so police make a big deal about this question. This is the first weird act that we've seen from Liam. Like, why isn't he asking what more are we doing to find her? Why is he asking, isn't she just in the ocean by now? She jumped off. Okay, yeah. And I mean, it's not too alarming to me because...

I mean, we just don't... Maybe he is just like frustrated with what's the point of searching for my friend if she's probably already in the ocean by now. Yeah, I'm also surprised. But it's a negative outlook. I'm also surprised too, this is kind of going back, but that he never got an attorney being questioned so much. Anyways. So at this point in the interview, Liam's mom contacts their attorney and so police have to stop the interview. Because technically he was over 18. So...

She couldn't come in and be like, you can't question my kid without. So once she found out he was getting questioned, she called their attorney and the attorney stopped the interview in the middle. Got it. You were jumping the gun. You were right there. Okay. So they stopped talking to him. But next they turned to his roommate, Preston Taylor, who's also her friend, to see if he knows anything.

So Preston comes in. He tells police that Liam said nothing that seemed out of the ordinary that day. He confirms basically everything Liam had said. Police ask Preston what he thinks happened to Sarah. And he says that he thinks she jumped because of what goes on between her and her dad and all the fighting. And...

Police at this point just do not have a good feeling still about Liam and Preston. So maybe that's why they kept pushing. It was, it was at this point in this case that police discover that

that Sarah actually had a safety deposit box at a local bank. Okay. She needed it because when she was going through her mother's things one day, she found a shoe box full of cash. Oh, wow. The cash was old, raggedy, torn up, maybe not even usable. Okay.

Um, she called her aunt after who told her that she needed to put it in a safety deposit box at the bank and not tell anyone because it could be dangerous to let people know, you know, that you found that much money. It was so much, uh, that she was like, I haven't counted it. Like I, it would take me too long. I don't know how much is in there. Do you know how much it was? Okay. Okay.

So Sarah said, okay, I won't tell anyone, but actually I've already told Liam. There was rumors that he was with her when she found the money. But she, either way she told him or he was with her. She was like, he already knows about it, but he's one of my good friends. So like, we won't tell anyone else.

When police find out this info, they go to the bank. They go through the surveillance footage. Turns out that Sarah had actually visited the bank the day that she disappeared. And it was during the time that she was hanging out with Liam. Oh. So he left that out. Yep. That they went to the bank. Isn't that funny how...

I mean, I'm sure that that's where all the red flags start coming in. When you leave stuff out, they're like, dude, come on. Like, why didn't you just tell us that? So police confront Liam with the information and he confirms we did in fact go to the bank while we were together. He says Sarah actually found some money and she had a lockbox at the bank. He didn't know how much money was in the lockbox, but he said that she told him it was between $20,000 to $100,000. Whoa, that's a lot of money. Yeah.

So this new information makes cops feel like Sarah wasn't running away because why wouldn't she take the money with her? Yeah. They also had found her passport. And so they were like, we just don't like if she was going to Canada, wouldn't she have took her passport to get there? Despite all of this, Sarah's still not found and cops feel like they've hit a dead end. Seven weeks after Sarah's disappearance, police get a phone call from someone who went to high school with Sarah.

Anthony Curry is his name, and he's an aspiring film director who went to high school with Liam Preston and Sarah. Him and Liam, Anthony and Liam didn't get close until junior year, but they worked together on films when they did decide to become friends. They shot little home videos, and Liam would act in these videos while Anthony directed them. I've got a bad feeling. Anthony says that on Thanksgiving...

He went to Liam's house and Liam told him that he had an idea for a horror movie.

He was like, here's the storyline. We'll kill a girl in the movie. I'll be the actor. So I'll kill the girl in the movie, strangle her, and then I'll just throw her over a bridge. Oh my gosh. And Anthony was like, yeah, let's do it. Like that would be a great movie. You know, he just thought it was a movie idea until later that year, he sees on social media that Liam's good friend, Sarah had gone missing and that her car, uh,

Was found on the side of a bridge. This sounds kind of like the... If you guys haven't heard it, the Idaho case that you did. Yeah, the Pocatello crazies. Yeah. Yeah. So...

When Sarah went missing, Liam was constantly texting Anthony every single day asking if they could meet up. I need to talk to you, dude. Meet up with me, dude. I need to talk to you. But Anthony wouldn't text him back because he was scared. Good. Because he knew that she was missing. He was scared he was going to hurt him. So he was just like, I'm butting out. I'm not getting involved. I don't want to talk to you about whatever you have to talk to me about. I'm not texting you back.

But then eventually the guilt of like, I think I might know something and I haven't said anything. So he calls police. He tells them what happened on Thanksgiving Day when Liam brought that up. And so they're like, here's the deal, Anthony. We're going to rig your car. We're going to bug your car with video and sound. And we're going to set up a sting operation. And you text Liam back and tell him you're willing to talk.

And, and we'll watch live from a van nearby, just like in the movies. And you see what he has to talk to you about. That would be really scary. Like being Anthony. Yeah, so people give Anthony a lot of props for doing this because at this point, Anthony thinks that Liam possibly killed her. Cause what if he had a gun or who knows when he tries to kill Anthony? So on January 31st, 2017, so keep in mind, this is almost two months after she went missing. Yeah.

Anthony meets up with Liam in his bugged car and you can watch the whole video online. No way. So cops are listening live from the van next door. And as soon as Liam gets in the car, he turns to Anthony. He goes, hey, bro. Yeah. So don't take this the wrong way. No offense, but I've got to fill you up for a wire.

liam said that to anthony yes what the heck don't blame me i got it and anthony's like yeah bro do what you gotta do and he literally leans over and like fills his whole body for a wire it's so weird that i'm sure anthony yeah bro do what you gotta do yeah he's probably like what do you mean you gotta fill me up for a wire okay let me guess your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work you

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It's not even an interview. This meeting up, this operation in this car, the video of it is just like every other video. We talk about completely eerie and uncomfortable to watch. Like the whole time you're just on edge. I've never watched any of these because I think it would give me the... Yeah, the heebie-jeebies. Yeah, the heebie-jeebies. So Anthony really doesn't have to say much. Like he doesn't even have to pry any information out of him. He just sits there and Liam just...

He vomits like he just word vomits all over him. Liam obviously wanted to talk about Sarah. So he starts off by saying, dude, the FBI are on me right now about killing Sarah. He goes, first, it was just the local police. Now it's a federal case. And I've got the FBI up my butt.

He then just says, and the worst part of this whole thing is, you know, I thought I was walking out of this with at least a hundred grand. Um, but when we went to the bank, Sarah only had $10,000 in that box she took out. Oh my gosh. So he did it for the money. Yes. So he says, and he says, you know, the money's terrible quality. He doesn't even think he could put it in the bank. Like it's all, it's all ratted and torn and stuff. It's super old. Yeah.

He says, and keep in mind, Anthony is not asking him, well, where'd you put? He's just talking. And he says that he hid the money in his house first, but then he stopped trusting his roommate Preston with it. So he moved it and hid it somewhere else. And he doesn't tell Anthony where. So did he do this for the money or because he went or for the whole horror movie thing? Like he wanted to actually just kill someone. Yeah. I don't know if we know. Okay. He.

He then tells Anthony, which this is a huge bomb on the investigators because they weren't feeling this way at all. He goes, oh yeah. And Preston helped me and he helped me throw her off the bridge. Oh my gosh. His roommate Preston who took her to the junior prom. So he explains how the whole thing happened. That's so crazy. He goes, you know, she went to walk out the front door after we were done hanging out and I just grabbed her from behind and I choked her.

He was like, you know, I was worried about the dog, but it just laid there and watched me while I killed her. And he goes, it took me about a half hour to kill her. I just couldn't get her to stop breathing. It's not like the movies when it only takes minutes to choke someone out. This just goes back...

I don't, I don't understand. Like, how can you kill someone for 30 minutes? I know. Just blows my mind. He goes into so much detail about the actual murder in this interview. He tells Anthony everything. And a lot of it is gory. I don't even know crude details that like when I was watching it, it made me sick to my stomach. So if you want to hear that part, go ahead, watch the interview. I'm not going to include it in the podcast. Yeah.

He tells Anthony that he's the only person who knows besides Preston what they did to Sarah. And Anthony seriously does such a good job. Like he's just calm the whole time. He kind of like goes along with him. Like, oh dude, really? Like doesn't ever get worked up or scared. So he does. He should be an undercover cop. I think. Were Anthony and Liam that good of friends or? I think just like, I mean, they made movies after school, but it wasn't like they were best friends, but yeah,

I mean, he had already told Anthony that he was thinking about doing this for a movie. And so I think he freaked out when he realized, Anthony probably saw this on the news and probably knows I did this to Sarah. So that's why he was so urgent to talk to me, wanted to make sure he was on his side. Got it. Like, don't go to the cops. Tell me, you know, I did it. You know, I did what I told you I was going to do on Thanksgiving. That makes sense. So...

He tells Anthony, I did it. I don't feel any different. Like they say, killing a person changes you. I don't feel any different. And then it's so weird because after he just like throws up on Anthony, he just gets out and is like, well, good. Good talking to you, bro. Like, it's just a casual conversation. He just gets out of the car. And Anthony's like, yeah, see you, bro. Like he literally just went into detail about how he killed this girl that they went to school with.

And he's like, yeah, see you, bro. Yeah, bye, bro. He probably honestly just wanted to get it off his chest. I agree. Exactly. And obviously, cops are listening to this whole thing in the van. And they were thinking this might not even work. Like most people don't just get in and confess to people what they've done. So I think when they set it up, they were like, well, let's hope he says something. And he literally said everything that they could have ever wanted. Like this is perfect for the investigation. Yeah.

So the next day, cops, instead of going to Liam first, they go to Preston, which is smart. That is smart. They go to him at 2 p.m. the next day. They stop his car. So they pull him over and then they transport him to interview. He confesses so quickly. Like they said, it was the fastest confession they've ever had. They sit down and he has a 52 page transcript telling them what happened.

I was going to say 52 page transcript. So he told them every single detail. Yeah. He just was like, here you go. Yep. We did it. Here you go. Okay. They take him back to Sarah's home to reenact what they did that night on camera. So Preston wasn't there when Liam killed her, when Liam killed Sarah. He, when Liam went to work, cause he really did go to work. Preston,

then went to sarah's house liam called him told him what he did preston went to sarah's house and moved her body into the bushes and in the reenactment he's like i walked in here she was in this little closet thing slumped over like this i grabbed her like this i pulled her outside because it was dark by then it was getting dark by them and he's like and then i just put her in the bushes right there for liam

That's so crazy. I don't understand how you could do that without freaking out. So the weird part is like this video was even more odd to me because he's so flat and cold. Like it's not like he's talking about moving a dead body. They're literally like, what? And so what door did you go in? I went in that door right there. Yeah, I just walked in here. Her body was just in the closet right here. Yeah, I just grabbed her like this.

I just pulled her out here and I just took her to those bushes right there. Like he, it's just like monotone. Was he normally like that? Didn't he, hasn't he said anything about that? I couldn't find anything about that, but I feel like maybe. Okay. Because maybe it's just his personality. Maybe he's, he's just like that. But when you're talking about how you moved a dead body, you would think you would be like,

Yeah. So uncomfortable breathing heavy crying. I don't know. I don't know. Especially, you know, I know he's already caught, but like, I feel like you would feel uncomfortable. I mean, the type of people that I guess are killing people. Yeah. Probably don't really have emotions. That's true. So then he says after that, he jumped the fence because they wanted to avoid the surveillance camera at the neighbor's house.

So Preston and Liam knew about the camera. And so that's why we don't see them come and go from the house because they took her in the backyard to the next to the bushes and then jumped the fence and parked in a parking lot that was on the other side of the fence. And that's where they were like using their cars. Preston led them then to where the safes were buried with the money.

So Preston's like, he hasn't told me exactly where, but it's somewhere around here. And then the safe was literally sticking half out of the ground. So they opened the safe. It only had like 9,000 something dollars. And it was such old money. I saw the picture of it. I'll post it on social media. I mean, I think all cash is usable, right? But it's like old. I mean, like old. I mean, I know there's a point where you can't.

Really? You can't use it. I'm pretty sure. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty positive. Well, and it was so torn up too. That's what I mean. Yeah, I don't think you... Even police said we don't think this would be like you could use it. Okay. So basically he killed her. He killed her for what he thought was going to be $100,000, but it only ended up being $9,000 and it's not even really usable. It kind of sounds like though he just wanted to kill someone. I think so too. Like he... I mean, I think...

That's why I asked you how much money would it take for you to kill someone? Because for him. I can't even hear about murder. Right? No, but I mean like. I know what you mean. It's crazy. And people have killed for less than $9,000. People have killed for fun. They kill because they just don't like someone. So it's just. So he leads them to where the safes are buried. And then the police are like, okay, we think we have enough evidence now to arrest Liam.

They arrest Liam and they literally find on his key chain the key to the safe that was buried with Sarah's money. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So they don't bring him in for the earth. They can't interview him because of his attorney because he's already. And so Preston brings police to the bridge at this point and shows them where they threw her over. He's like, we parked here and Liam was only supposed to throw her over. But Preston had to help because Liam couldn't get her hoisted up over his body. Oh, I think.

A lot of people don't realize how heavy dead weight is. I'm curious to see how Preston is going to be charged. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So they actually make him wear a life jacket when they go do this bridge reenactment because they're worried he'll jump over the bridge. Oh, okay. Oh, this was interesting. They used walkie talkies during the whole night instead of their cell phones because they didn't want to be tracked.

They were conversing through walkie-talkies. I assume this is all Liam's idea, though, like all these steps and everything. Yes, Liam planned it for six months, and then Preston got involved. Oh, my gosh. Okay. And Preston got involved for the money as well.

Okay, got it. They were like planning on splitting it, but apparently Liam didn't trust him because he went and hid the money. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...

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They were two of her greatest childhood friends. Preston makes a deal with cops to testify against Liam at court. Okay. Because Liam's pleading innocence, saying he didn't do it. Had nothing to do with it. Okay.

Liam's mom thinks that her son was set up and I watched an interview with her and she still thinks that he set up. Yeah. She thinks that when he got in that car, he was talking about the movie he wanted to make with Anthony and that they were just talking about Sarah as like the girl actor.

How could you think that after... She says that that wasn't him in there. Like, that was just him acting in a role. So he just had the key on his key chain, like, for fun, you know? The defense takes it like he was auditioning. He was acting. This wasn't real. They made movies all the time. They made horror movies. Anthony was in on this. Okay. Anthony set him up. I mean, we've talked about this before, and it would be such a hard job, but being...

on the defense team or as an attorney for this would be. Yeah. Hard. It would be hard. I don't know. I can't, I don't think I can wrap my mind around your client. Basically, um, confessed on tape. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, that's hard. Um, so the best part of the interview is they're like, so they ask Liam's mom about Preston and she's like, I don't want to talk about Preston. I have nothing nice to say about him. I hate him. Um,

I was just cracking up. Liam denies talking to Anthony around Thanksgiving. He said that whole thing didn't happen at Thanksgiving. The trial starts and Preston testifies against Liam. He tells the whole story to the jury. Prosecution calls witnesses to prove that Sarah wasn't as depressed as they were making her out to be and that she wasn't going to run away. February 7th, Anthony testifies against Liam.

He really seems like he didn't want to do it. Like you can tell at court that Anthony's like, I just was trying to get the guilt off my chest. Like he was probably scared too. Like what if Liam gets out and tries to kill me or something? So Sarah Stern's father breaks down in court when they play the video of them talking in the car. And I, that video made me sick.

Hearing him talk so nonchalantly about killing her and all the gory details. I cannot imagine being the father and having to sit there in court and hear what this evil guy did to your daughter. I just, my heart breaks for her father. That's horrible. February 20th, 2019 defense calls an eyewitness, the defense. So Liam's team calls an eyewitness who says that he was driving his son to work. Um,

And he saw Sarah Stern 12 hours after she was supposedly killed by Liam. So they find an eyewitness who claims that he saw Sarah...

After Liam had supposedly killed her, meaning she just run away. OK, I mean, I don't buy it, but yeah, he his you know, he goes. Yeah. And then a couple of days later, I saw the missing person, the missing person poster and was like, whoa, that's the girl we saw. But he changes his details throughout. So skeptical. None. I don't think the jury believes him. I'm sure you could find anyone that has said, oh, I've seen this person before.

Jury comes back. Well, especially if they're offered money. Once again, how much money would it take for you to perjure yourself? The jury comes back with a guilty verdict and Liam gets life in prison. Dang. He was convicted of first degree murder, conspiracy, desecrating human remains, tampering with evidence, and more. He cried in court when his sentence was announced. And Preston gets 18 years for his involvement. Okay. Do you know...

Do you know what his exact charges were? I think just accomplice maybe because he didn't he wasn't there when Liam actually killed her. He just kind of helped him cover it up. Yeah. So yeah, he gets 18 years and he made a deal for that as well. Got it.

So Sarah's dad was so close and wanted to find her so bad. It seems to me like Liam and Preston planned this out really well, actually. Like they made it look like she ran away. She was already moving her stuff over. And when she went to the bank and took some money and then they left her car and tricked the neighbor's camera. Like I think they they planned it really well to make it look like she had possibly run away.

I don't think if he would have bragged to Anthony, they would have ever been able to prove it. Yeah, I know. You're probably right. I think that's what sealed the deal. Yeah, because I think they made it look too possible that she ran away. I think the key on his key chain and all that stuff, they could have gotten around with, well, we were just best friends. Yeah, she gave it to me that day. She was planning on running away. She gave it to me, you know. Yep. And that's the story of Sarah Stern. Wow, I feel like...

I feel like for some reason, as you were telling that, I kind of got flashbacks of, I don't know if you watched it on Dateline or something one time, because it sounded a little familiar to me. Oh, you did? Yeah, I'd heard this case before, so maybe you... I don't know, maybe I was in the room. Maybe we had watched it before. Maybe I was in the room, I don't know. Actually, I think you're right. Yeah, I kind of like started... I think it was at my mom's house. Yeah, I think that's what... I don't remember all this detail, but I kind of got, wait, I think I heard this before.

Thanks. Shout out to you, mom. Rodney and Garrett's Horizon. That's funny. So I just wanted to say, let's remember that these stories that we share here on our podcast are real people who matter.

And what happens to them should not ever happen to anybody. And these victims slash survivors have families and they mattered. And although so much bad happens and it's extremely interesting to figure out why, let's also think about these victims and keep those affected in all of these stories that we share. Keep them in our thoughts, prayers, whatever you meditate, pray, whatever you do, um,

And spread kindness this week. Love the people that you love and tell them why they matter to you. Life isn't always promised. Yeah, I agree with that. Just because as you tell me all these stories, sometimes it's hard for me to even remember that they're real. Mm-hmm.

Just because they're so crazy and I can't comprehend it. And I just got to remember, like, these are real stories. Like I said, actually happening. True crime is fascinating. The reason. Well, psychology is fascinating. The reason why people make the choices they do is fascinating. History is fascinating. Yeah. But as we explore that side, we also need to remember that there are people who are affected by.

by these bad things that happen. And so whatever it is you do that you can do for them, do it. And then, yeah, just remember that, you know, life isn't promised. So make good choices and love the people in your life. And I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone that's sharing and leaving reviews and... Mm-hmm.

It's my wife works so hard at doing all this research and she, she loves you guys so much. I mean, I do too, but I'm just saying that she works really hard at this. So thank you so much for all that. I seriously do love you guys. I, I feel bad because I feel like now everyone else who's in our life, I just constantly want to talk about my podcast and the people that are in my podcast. I don't like talking about the podcast itself, but just the community. Like I, I feel like I have so many friends and I get DMS every single day and I'm just like, Oh,

oh my gosh, I just, it just is very overwhelming for me sometimes. And I, we love you guys so much. No, it's super fun to watch this grow and hopefully we can get to two a week. It seems like everyone really wants us to do two weeks. It would be awesome if we could get there at some point. Yeah. Well, we love you guys and I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.