cover of episode Best Friends For Life?? What Happened To Sarah Stern?

Best Friends For Life?? What Happened To Sarah Stern?

2022/12/13
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本期节目讲述了19岁的Sarah Stern被谋杀的案件。Sarah Stern与Liam和Preston是从小一起长大的朋友。2016年12月3日凌晨,Sarah Stern的汽车被发现停在Belmar, New Jersey的35号公路桥边,车门解锁,钥匙在点火器上。警方调查发现Sarah Stern失踪,家中只有她的狗。警方调查了Sarah Stern的朋友和家人,发现她曾向邻居借宿,并与Liam McIntasney在一起。Liam McIntasney是Sarah Stern最好的朋友之一,他们自幼相识。Liam McIntasney告诉警方,Sarah Stern当天情绪低落,曾提到自杀。警方调查了监控录像,发现Sarah Stern曾去银行取款,但她的保险箱里仍有25000美元。警方排除了Sarah Stern自杀和离家出走的可能性。两个月后,警方收到线索,Sarah Stern的朋友Anthony Curry透露,Liam McIntasney曾在感恩节前向他讲述了一个谋杀女孩的电影创意,这与Sarah Stern的失踪案情吻合。警方安排Anthony Curry与Liam McIntasney进行秘密会面,并记录了他们的谈话。Liam McIntasney承认他与Preston密谋杀害Sarah Stern,并详细描述了作案过程。Liam McIntasney和Preston为了钱杀害了Sarah Stern,他们只偷走了10000美元。Liam McIntasney被判无期徒刑,Preston被判18年监禁。Sarah Stern的尸体至今未被发现。

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An Uber driver discovers an abandoned car belonging to Sarah Stern, leading to a police investigation and the discovery of her missing status. Friends and family describe her as a talented artist and hardworking student, while initial suspicions point towards her friend Liam McIntasney.

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- Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery, and makeup Monday.

Okay, so today's story. It's early in the morning on December 3rd, 2016. An Uber driver is going down Route 35 bridge in Belmar, New Jersey. Now this Uber driver spots what seems to be an abandoned 1994 silver Oldsmobile on the side of the road. Now mind you, it's like,

It's dark out, okay, it's like late night, early morning. So the Uber driver is thinking, "Hmm, you know, that's super weird. "Like what's that car doing out here?" And it just gave them like a really eerie feeling. So the driver ends up calling police to report this random car sitting on the side of the bridge. So officers come out to the area, right? And they check out the car.

And they find that the car doors were unlocked and that the keys were still in the ignition. Now, nothing seemed to be wrong with the car though. It just kind of seemed like someone just left it there. Police end up running the plates on the car and they learned that this car belongs to a 96-year-old woman whose name was Lillian Stern.

Now Lillian Stern lived in Neptune City, New Jersey. So the cops pull up her information, they get her address and they're able to easily track her down and they do so pretty quickly, right? So they go out to her house and they learned that Lillian wasn't the one driving the car that night. It was actually her granddaughter who was 19 year old, Sarah Stern.

She took the car that day. Okay, you know, so where's Sarah then? So nobody had any idea as to where Sarah had been or where she was, I should say. But police head out to where Sarah was living to make sure, you know, everything's good, right? When they get to Sarah's place, they find that her home, the door was unlocked and it was also empty. The only thing that was in the house

was her dog. Her dog was there and still locked in the crate. So it's a little weird, right? Who was Sarah Stern? Sarah Stern was an only child and it was said that she was a beautiful brunette and she was super sweet, she was kind, she was hardworking. She was also a talented artist. She was studying art and television production at the local community college.

Her Twitter account was where she proudly displayed her artwork and she also showed photos of her with different social media stars that she loved. She would attend different conventions like VidCon and Comic-Con. And online, she was also super friendly with social media stars like Jenna Marbles and Julian. So when Sarah had gone missing though,

the well-known YouTubers, they actually posted on their social media asking if anyone had seen her. And they were also on the reward flyer, they were mentioning that a $5,000 reward would go to anyone who was able to provide information as to where she was. So with no leads as to where Sarah is, investigators are just trying to figure out where she's at. They're reaching out to her friends,

trying to gather any information they possibly can. Well, an old friend of the family who lived across the street told investigators that they sent Sarah a text message earlier that day on December 2nd. And Sarah was asking the family friend if she could bring some of her mother's things over to her house.

You see, Sarah's mother had sadly passed away from cancer in 2013 and she still had like a lot of her belongings and she just didn't know what to do with it or where to store it and was wondering if she could leave it with them for a bit. And the neighbor was like, yeah, sure, bring it over, no problem. So she came by, she dropped off the stuff and it was said that she came with her

and her friend, Liam McIntasney. The neighbor told investigators that Sarah, she did seem like pretty down, maybe depressed, but she couldn't say for sure if she was suicidal or not. She did make a mention that Sarah said something along the lines of losing respect for her father. Like she made a comment,

Nothing more than that. At this time, I believe Sarah was living with her father, but her father was out of town. I guess I'm jumping ahead, but I know I forgot to mention that in the story and it's just now clicking. You know, she mentions that to the friend. And then with this information, police are like, okay, let's go talk to this Liam guy because he seemed to be with her last. So Liam was one of Sarah's best friends and they had been friends since they were little.

Little kids. And Liam was known to be a bit of a jokester. He did have a twin brother named Seamus, and they met Sarah when they were like six years old during Sunday school class. And then when they first met, it was said that there was an instant connection and they were just best friends. B-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-

They even had a nickname for their friend group, they called themselves the squad and then they would always hang out together on the weekends. They all grew up together in Neptune City, which was like a tight-knit town, everyone seemed to know everyone, like a good place to raise your kids, I guess. So investigators, they go out to Liam's house and they ask if he knew where Sarah was.

Liam told investigators that he and Sarah had spent the afternoon together, that they just ran some errands. And then they stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. I know, Crunchwrap.

Chemical cheese, love it. And then he ended up, Liam, headed to work. Liam ended up telling police during a later interview at the station that Sarah seemed super depressed and that she mentioned being suicidal in the past. And then he did mention that Sarah told him that she had been having problems with her dad and that the problems were so bad she was hoping to escape and move to Canada.

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One of Sarah's neighbors gave the police their surveillance footage that showed Sarah dropping the bin off at her neighbor's house before leaving with Liam in her car. Now this footage and the surveillance footage from Taco Bell confirmed that both Sarah and Liam did indeed do what Liam had said.

but there was another security camera at the local bank that caught Sarah making a stop there at the bank and she goes like inside, which was interesting because like nobody seemed to mention that, but okay. And after that, they headed back to her house, Sarah's house, and a camera showed Liam leaving her house and then heading to his job at the local steakhouse.

So all this footage like lined up with Liam's timeline that he shared with the police, minus the bank thing, but for the most part, like it was proving that he wasn't lying. Well then at 11:45 PM, the neighbor's camera showed Sarah's car leaving her driveway again, but in the footage, you couldn't really clearly make out like if Sarah was the one who was driving the car and it just kind of seemed a little off. Police, they go out to the bank and they get information that Sarah

had gone there, she'd gone to the bank and she accessed her safety deposit box and she had taken out some of her money. Many friends, family, neighbors, et cetera, believe that maybe Sarah had just run away. But when police, they asked to get access to Sarah's safety deposit box

They found that there was $25,000 still inside. So we both know here that if you are running away, you would take the 25,000, wouldn't you not? I mean, come on, suspish. Police also noted something that may not seem important here, okay? But it ends up being important. So just remember this, got it? Okay, that the money in the box

It was super old money. Like it was falling apart in your hand. So it was just really old money. A lot of friends felt like, okay, if Sarah was really going to run away, there was no fricking way, no fricking way that she would leave without her dog. They were attached at the hip. There's no way she would have left him behind. I mean, that's probably true, but I'm over here thinking who the heck would run away and leave $25,000 behind? That's the real question, really.

the whole her running away thing isn't really adding up. So police go back out to Sarah's house and they end up searching her room. And while searching her room, they find her passport, her social security card. There was like some Canadian currency. Once again, just proving that she most likely didn't run away. Now the location where Sarah's car was found, there was a camera.

like right by there and it was recording where it's supposed to record all the ins and outs, you know? But of course the day of whatever happened, this camera, it wasn't working. And I guess it actually hadn't worked in years. So what was the point you ask? Who knows? Why do they always do this? Always. Like this is a side note.

but I don't get it. We have all these phones that have incredible cameras on them, right? How come they can't seem to get surveillance cameras up to speed? They always look like a random Sasquatch spotting or something. You can't make a damn thing out. Or they just don't work. So it's like, what's the point? Anyways, so with that being said, police are now thinking maybe it was a suicide and then they deploy helicopters, search parties, and then also the Belmar Water Rescue Team.

And they went out there to search the Shark River is what it's called. So they're out there searching for...

But after 11 hours of searching in the near freezing water, mind you, they came up with nothing, not a damn thing. So over the next couple of days, hundreds of people were coming out to help search for Sarah or any signs in the surrounding area. And unfortunately, nothing came up. The bridge where Sarah's car was found, underneath that is the river, you know? And the river, it meets the ocean

and due to like the strong currents, it was believed that if Sarah did jump off and commit suicide, then her body would most likely be carried out into the Atlantic Ocean. Well, two months end up going by and there's still no case, no leads, nothing as to what happened to Sarah. But then they get a lead. Oh yes, they get a lead.

some kid named Anthony Curry, he goes to investigators and he's like, "Hey, I might have some information as to what happened to Sarah." Anthony was a good friend of Liam's and they were both super interested in horror films, not whore, horror films, and they wanted to make their own movies.

So they would just talk about horror films and like, "Oh my God, I like blood and guts and stuff." And you know, they just liked it. So Anthony tells investigators that him and Liam were hanging out on Thanksgiving day, 2016, which was eight days before Sarah went missing. So they're hanging out, they're talking, you know, eating turkey, whatever. And Liam tells Anthony,

"Hey, I've got a good idea for a movie." Now this wasn't weird because they would pitch movie ideas to each other all the time. But this one left Anthony feeling a little off because Liam tells him he wants it to be about killing a girl by strangling her and then throwing her over the bridge with the help of a friend. So the cops are like, "Um, where were you a couple months ago?" You know?

"What took you so long?" And Anthony was like, "Well, you know, at the time, I didn't really think too much of it. He pitched me horror film ideas all the time." But then a week later, Anthony said he was reading about Sarah's disappearance on social media. And at first he wasn't putting two and two together.

So he didn't again think really much of it. It wasn't until Liam reached out to Anthony on Snapchat asking if the cops had talked to him at all. Now this gave Anthony that weird feeling and he wrote back to him and he's like, "No, dot, dot, dot, dot."

Why? And Liam's response was that he needed to talk to Anthony. Anthony said at that moment, that's when he knew like he had to tell police because alarm bells are just going off. So luckily Anthony had taken screenshots of the conversation on Snapchat and then he shows police them.

At this point, the police had already questioned Liam a handful of times, and he had also been out there like on the front lines helping search for Sarah. So for the most part, he wasn't like top of their priority list, you know, suspect list. But with this new information, they're putting some pieces together, and they're thinking back to his interviews, because in the third interview they had with Liam,

Liam asked police, "If you jump off the bridge, what are the odds that, you know, she's not somewhere all the way in the ocean by now?" That's what Liam asked police. And at the time, I guess police didn't really think anything of it. But then looking back, they're like, "Hmm."

That was kind of like a weird thing to say. So now this seemed to be going from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation. Police are thinking, okay, you know, this Anthony kid clearly has Liam's trust. So they do something a little risky and they ask him if he would participate in a sting operation in hopes to get some answers or maybe a confession out of Liam.

because he seems to know something, like something isn't right. So the plan was for Anthony to call up Liam and ask to borrow some money because his story was gonna be that he had broken a camera that he was using during one of his shoots. This kind of sounds weird, but the thought process was that if Liam like did something to Sarah, maybe killed her or something, he may have some extra cash to lend that he took

from Sarah when they went to the bank. So they're thinking like okay if Anthony calls him up, "bling bling bling hello" and he's like, "hey can you spot me some cash from that girl's money?" That's what he asked him and I guess he said, well according to the tapes it went silent for a little bit and then Liam responds with, "uh

Maybe. And then not long after on the phone, Liam says that he doesn't really want to talk about this more over the phone and that they should meet up and talk because that's probably safer. Which is a weird thing to say if you're not trying to hide anything, right? Just arrest him.

That's my thought process, that's enough information. So then on January 31st, 2017, Anthony is waiting in his car in a local parking lot and he's waiting for Liam. Liam pulls up and then he parks his car and then he gets into Anthony's car and then they chat.

Now what Liam doesn't know is that the police are actually listening in to the whole interaction by using little cameras hidden outside and inside of Anthony's car. And thank God they went with the mini cameras because guess what Liam does?

Well, the first thing he does when he gets into Anthony's car is he asks Anthony like, "Hey man, can I feel you up for a wire?" Oh, I would be sweating balls like, "Oh, shit."

So Anthony's like, "Yeah." And then Liam reaches over and he starts feeling Anthony up for a wire. Luckily, he finds no wire 'cause there isn't one on him. And he's like, "Hey man, you just can't be too careful. The FBI is on my ass." So Anthony and Liam are sitting in the car and Anthony asks if he's got the money, right?

And then Liam starts complaining that he didn't get as much money as he thought he would. And that it really wasn't even usable what he did get. Liam went on to say, "The worst part of it is I thought I was going to walk out with 50 grand to 100 grand in my pocket. She only had one safe and she took money out and it was only 10 grand." Something along those lines, that's what he says. You're like, "Alright."

Well, Liam goes on to tell Anthony that he had been planning Sarah's murder for about six months. And the reason that he was planning her murder was because he knew that Sarah had gotten a bunch of money when her mother died. And before her mother died, Sarah had found some hidden boxes that had been like stored away and hidden inside of the house.

and it was filled with money, but it was really old money. It was apparently money that her mom left her, but it was super old and it was just in terrible condition. Liam then went on to complain that the bills, they looked so old and they just looked like they had been burned.

He told Anthony that he was afraid to spend the money because, you know, it might look sketchy having all this old money, so he was trying to lay low for a while before doing something with it. So when Sarah first found this money, she was super excited, and she tells Liam right away, because that's her best friend, and she's like "Oh my god, I just found all this money in my mom's house, you know, it's perfect, I can use this money to help me move to Canada."

But when Liam heard about her having all this money, instead of being happy for her like a friend should, his selfish ass was like, "Hmm, free money you say? I could use some free money."

And the only thing between him and this free money was Sarah. Well, Liam was like, you know, I gotta get rid of her. And he knew he couldn't do it alone. So he actually asked his roommate, whose name was Preston. Preston was like a friend of Sarah's. He was actually her junior high school prom date too. So he asked him like, hey, here's my plan. I wanna kill this girl, we're gonna get some money. Will you help me?

And I guess Preston agreed. Their original plan was to get Sarah drunk. They were gonna strangle her and then they were gonna steal the money. But then they had thought it out a little bit more and they're like, okay, wait a minute. If we strangle her, then there's gonna be a body. So, hmm.

One option was for them to like bury her at a campsite Liam's father owned. And I guess they were like, "No, that's not a good idea." And then another option was to leave her body at the house, but they were like, "No, that's not a good idea either." So they decided to go with making it look like a suicide. That was gonna be their best bet. Great fricking friends, huh?

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Liam also mentioned to Anthony that he was actually smart enough to plan out the aftermath. So he had planned ahead like the answers he was gonna say when police came by to question him, you know, who he was hanging out with, what he did, just the whole plan.

He also made sure that he was seen at the search party efforts. He just had to like make sure everyone saw him as a good friend who was super concerned as to where Sarah could be, that nobody would question him any further. So he's like bragging about this. He's like, "Yeah, I even thought ahead." Well, Liam,

Now, the part that Liam didn't plan was that Sarah's body wasn't gonna show up. So Liam's plan was for Sarah's body to be found in the river, which would prove, in his mind at least, that Sarah did indeed commit suicide. Now remember, Liam is sitting in the car with his friend Anthony, telling him all of this.

I have no idea how Anthony the friend remained cool and calm during this interaction, but he sure did. Bravo. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Well, it's not a bad thing because thankfully he's getting this confession, Bailey. But what I meant was like, I don't know, how do you not freak out? I'd be like, what the fuck?

Get the fuck out of my car. Anthony asked Liam all like super casually, like, "Hey, so what was it frozen in the river?"

And Liam says, "Nah, it probably got sucked all the way out to the ocean." Meaning like the body. Not really sure where to go from there. That's when Anthony makes some kind of like offhand comment about like, "Whoa, that's crazy, it's just like in the movies." And you can kind of tell, 'cause you can listen to the recordings, but you could tell in his voice, he just sounds like a little nervous at this point. At least that's from what I could tell, but who, I don't know what I'm talking about.

So he's just kind of making these little comments in hopes that, you know, Liam will just keep talking, which murderers love to talk, don't they? So of course he keeps talking. Liam goes on to tell Anthony that he hung out with Sarah that day and convinced her to go to the bank and take out some of her money. He also made sure that he was caught on security, like different security cameras, so it would help back up his story later.

He also had everything timed out so he would be seen at work and he was gonna use that as his alibi 'cause he's at work, you know? So Liam tells Anthony that there was so much he didn't account for. Like he didn't realize it was gonna, things could go wrong and he tried to like time everything out but like just things,

took longer than he expected. For example, I guess I should give an example. He admitted that he hadn't accounted for like how long it would take to strangle someone.

Yeah, this is where in the conversation, Liam gets a pretty fricking graphic describing Sarah's death. And honestly, I'm not going to get into the graphic details because it's just brutal, disturbing and really sad. But he tells Anthony like everything in great detail about how it all went down and that he timed it on his phone to see how long it would take to kill her. He's timing it.

For what? The world record or something? I don't know. What a loser. I hate him. Anyways, he went on to say like once he killed her, he left her body in the bathroom because he had to head out and like go to work. But in all of the drama of murdering someone, Liam, he somehow lost his cell phone in the mix, right? Which, whoa, that's not good. He can't find it, but he has to go. He's on a schedule.

So when he leaves, this was like the cue for Preston, remember the guy who came with to help? Well, he came with, he was waiting outside, like being a lookout. So when Liam walks out, that's when Preston goes through the back door of Sarah's place, he drags her body outside and then leaves it in the bushes near the fence. This part, I could not quite understand what

that was about, like why did they do that, but that's what he did, okay? So anyways, when Liam's shift was over at work, that's when he headed back to Sarah's house where he and Preston would steal the safe that held her money, so they take that, and then they load her body into the passenger seat of her own car.

They even went as far as buckling her in to the seat so it looked like she was asleep in the passenger seat.

Kind of. I know. Like who thinks of this? People are disturbing. Liam said that he watched Sarah drive earlier that day and he was like paying really close attention to how she drives because he was trying to make it a point of like backing her car down the driveway like she would have done it so it looked like Sarah was driving the car when the security camera like caught her leaving. So that's what he did. He reversed out of there like Sarah would

And then Liam said that he was relieved because that's when he ends up finding his cell phone, like it was in the driveway of her house. And he's like, "Oh, thank God, 'cause that would have been awful." I'm laughing because I just hate this guy. He's so, I hate him because of how cocky he is in all of this. In the interview, he's such a cocky little dick. Like bragging about how he murdered your best friend since elementary school.

Breathe, it's fine. Liam drives her car out to Route 35, the bridge, and he has Preston driving behind them, like following in his car. The plan was for Liam to throw Sarah's body over the bridge, and then Preston would like drive past and like pull a U-turn. Liam would then jump into Preston's car and then they both drive off and,

live happily ever after, I guess. That was the plan. Both Liam and Preston, they were communicating with one another through walkie talkies. This is my walkie.

walkie talkies. That way they didn't have to use their cell phones to call each other 'cause you know, it will track it. So then Liam goes on to say that he didn't like realize how much a dead body weighed and it was a lot heavier than he thought. So when he was dragging her body towards the edge of the bridge, Liam said he spotted some headlights coming in his direction and he just,

freaks out with like this bump of adrenaline pumping through his body. He's able to like pick up Sarah's body, throw her back into the car and he's just like waits until the car drives by. Once the car drove by, that's when he uses his little walkie talkie to ask Preston to help him throw Sarah's body over the bridge into the icy water of the shark pond.

Liam said in order to make sure it definitely looked like a suicide, he left the car keys in the ignition. And by doing that, his thought process was that looks like a suicide, you know? And because the keys are in there, that's gonna throw the police off. The creepiest part is after this whole story, Liam tells Anthony, "I don't feel any different. I don't think about it much." Like he just showed, he seemed to have no,

Remorse, compassion, sadness, emotion. It seemed to be missing. So again, I don't know how the hell Anthony is keeping his shit together during all this, because wow. But somehow he was able to keep his cool. And again, he makes some kind of like low-key comment, like, oh man, wow, that's crazy, wow.

Oh, crazy man. Again at that point he mentioned like, "Wow, it's like a movie." 'Cause it's like all you can think about really. He's like, "Wow, yeah, it's like a movie." And then Liam said, "Might as well make it one. Why would you wanna live a boring ass life?" That's what he tells him.

So you sure didn't live a boring life, Liam? I guess you got that right. You lost shit. After this conversation, they say their goodbyes and they go their separate ways. And with all of this information they had gotten, Liam was arrested on

on February 2nd, 2017 with a whole laundry list of charges. He was being charged with first degree murder, first degree felony murder, first degree robbery, second degree desecration of human remains, second degree conspiracy to desecrate human remains and second degree hindering apprehension. So a lot of shit. So with Liam finally in custody,

The police, they go to Sarah's father and they tell them everything, right? What they know. And it was said that her father was just in complete shock because this was the boy that his daughter had grown up with. Someone that she considered her best friend who helped

who even like helped search for her just weeks earlier. And now he was being charged with her murder. Like he just couldn't wrap his head around that. Because there was no body for the funeral, the community decided to just hold like a celebration of her life in honor of Sarah. And they did that on July 15th, 2017. So they got together at the local community center and they hung up all of Sarah's art

photos people contributed of Sarah to add to the event. There were a number of different speakers, people who just like, you know, went up there, shared memories, stories. And it was said that there was over a thousand visitors who came through to like show their respect, yeah, for Sarah. So Liam is being charged with murder, robbery and desecration of remains.

But remember Preston, well, he also got arrested and he was charged with second degree desecration of human remains, second degree conspiracy to desecrate human remains, and second degree hindering apprehension for helping Liam move and dispose of Sarah's body

in order to avoid being caught. The Superior Court judge said that Preston folded faster than anybody he's ever seen. Preston, he ends up testifying against Liam in exchange for a plea bargain. He stated that the plan started off as a burglary. The conversation switched,

like from burglary to killing her, okay? Preston also took investigators out to a different location where the two of them had buried this money that was stolen.

Yeah, I guess after they committed the murder, they went and they buried the money until they felt like the coast was clear and then they were gonna go and get it. Preston said that he thought he would be getting at least over $100,000, but instead they only stole $10,000 from Sarah, which Preston ended up agreeing to take a $3,000 cut for his help and then Liam would get to keep the rest.

So all of that for $3,000. Was it worth it? Hell fucking no. No money is worth it, no. God, this is such a stupid story. Like this poor, poor girl. For $10,000?

Anyways, in court Preston during his trial said that he felt pressured to do it because him and Liam had a super close friendship. And then after that he addressed Preston, he addresses the court, he makes an apology and then hopes for the best. Preston, he would end up being sentenced to 18 years in prison and is up for parole in 2032.

Buh-bye. So during Liam's trial, they tried to make Preston just look like a liar and they went on to say that without a body, there was no physical evidence proving that Liam committed this crime. The so-called confession in Anthony's car,

That wasn't a confession at all. That was actually a film audition that Anthony was trying to use as a publicity stunt to boost his own career. This is what they're saying because that makes total sense. So the defense team also brought in an eyewitness. Now this eyewitness kind of throws off the whole game because this guy's name is Craig Hetzel Sr. Craig.

So this witness claimed that while he was out with his son at 5 a.m. driving,

he saw Sarah walking down the street from her car in a leather bomber jacket with a fluffy collar and high-heeled shoes on. Sounds like somebody else, but okay. And then he said a few days later, he saw a missing persons poster. And then he made the connection insisting that there was no way Sarah was dead because he saw her clear as day. This again kind of like throws everything off because he's saying that,

He saw Sarah and people were like, oh my God, really at five? So it just wouldn't, it doesn't line up, right? It throws everything off. But police testified that the car was towed off of the bridge two hours before Craig drove by the spot on the bridge at 5.15 a.m.

but Craig swears up and down he saw Sarah and he was positive it was her because he remembers how odd it was. Anyways, Liam's mother, she said that her son loved and adored Sarah and she believed the recording of her son was a setup because it's nothing anyone would have expected from Liam. She also questioned why Sarah's body wasn't found.

If her son really had dropped Sarah's body in the river, she believed it would have washed up. She went on to say in court, "'I grew up at that beach, and when somebody goes in the water, they wash up somewhere. And when Sarah had not washed up onto any of the shores, it gave us hope that Sarah had maybe just run away.'"

End quote. I get moms in the courtroom, moms who act like this, parents who act like this. I get it. It's hard to believe your innocent little baby child could do something like this. But ma'am, sometimes they do fucked up things. And you know what? That sucks. And that's all I got for you. So ma'am, sorry about that. But I don't think you know your son very well because he seemed a little fucked up. Anyway, so she was just doubting. She was just doubting. There's no way my son did this.

And she did not let up. She still, I think, stands by that. Many were doubting how Liam and Preston could have actually killed Sarah.

According to friends and neighbors, both Liam and Preston came from middle-class families and they weren't like super wealthy, but they also weren't struggling either. They lived very comfortably. So many wondered like, what was the motivation here? Okay, they couldn't have been motivated by money because it just doesn't make sense. They don't need the money. It's like this community could not seem to understand that this guy did it. Maybe he was...

super well liked Liam. And I mean, he was known as a jokester and stuff, funny guy. And I think people were just really having a hard time understanding how he did this. But he obviously held like this dark side of himself. But in the end, the jury wasn't totally sold on the idea that Liam was this perfect little angel. And after five weeks of trial, Liam was found guilty on all counts on June 21st, 2019.

Liam was sentenced to life without parole, plus an additional 10 years. Liam will be serving his sentence at the New Jersey State Prison, which houses like the most difficult and/or dangerous offenders in the inmate population. So good luck. The saddest part of this whole story, Sarah Stern's body has never been found. Yeah, I'm sorry to end it on that, but...

It's true, her body has never been found. It's believed that it went out to the Atlantic Ocean. I am so sorry, this is just an awful story, I know. And that, my friends, is the tragic story about Sarah Stern and her freaking awful friends. That sucks. Could you imagine your best friend? No, you can't, because who does that? Fucking Liam.

And Preston. Well, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. A big thank you to you guys because without you, I wouldn't be here. I appreciate you. I really do. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. And I'll be seeing you guys later.