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Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Nancy Grace here Welcome back to Killers amongst Us,

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Speaker 1: the production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. Sarah Stern a

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Speaker 1: beautiful teen girl who loses her mom after a fight

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Speaker 1: with cancer and was trying to find her way in

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Speaker 1: the world. She disappears from home without a trace, leaving

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Speaker 1: behind so many questions and so few clues. We start

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Speaker 1: at two forty five am the morning of December three,

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, an abandoned car found on any Jersey Bridge.

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, Killers amongst Us? Did the choler id that

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Speaker 1: you know in the answered it was the Sheriff's department

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Speaker 1: because I got a recording that said that the hours

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Speaker 1: are from nine am to five pm and call back

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Speaker 1: or leave a message. So right there I knew it

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Speaker 1: was you know, it was called from an official phone,

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Speaker 1: but didn't have any details. And that's that's how the

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Speaker 1: whole thing started. And you know, I hadn't been able

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Speaker 1: to get in touch with Sarah, so you know, I

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Speaker 1: thought something at that point might be wrong. How long

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Speaker 1: had you been trying to reach her? From about ten

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Speaker 1: thirty the evening before, so that would have been Friday

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Speaker 1: night going into Saturday morning. Michael Stern. This is Sarah's dad, Michael.

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Speaker 1: That evening. You started trying to contact her around ten

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Speaker 1: thirty PM, which would have been I guess a Friday night. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let me go back just a little. My Sarah's grandma,

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Speaker 1: my mother, had called me and said she hadn't been

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Speaker 1: able to get in touch with Sarah all day and

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Speaker 1: she was staying at my sister's house because she had

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Speaker 1: covering from being in the hospital, so she was over

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Speaker 1: there for ten or twelve days to recover, so she

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Speaker 1: wasn't home. And you know, she talked to Sarah every

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Speaker 1: day and she had seen Sarah during the week, but

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Speaker 1: she said she haven't been able to get in touch

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Speaker 1: with her. So I said, well, it's Friday night at

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Speaker 1: ten thirty. You know, she's either sleeping or she's out,

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Speaker 1: or her phones died or something and she's charging it.

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Speaker 1: Sarah always had things going on, seem like twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours a day, so she'd be up at four o'clock

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Speaker 1: in the morning talking to people in Australia or London

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Speaker 1: or California. So okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, I just

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Speaker 1: got to ask you. It's neither here nor there, but

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Speaker 1: why is Sarah up at four o'clock in the morning

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Speaker 1: talking to people in Australia. Well, they were friends. They

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Speaker 1: were her YouTube and the internet friends that she had

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Speaker 1: met at vidcom, Buffer, Fast book Con, Comic Con. Okay,

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Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait, I'm learning what. Tell me

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Speaker 1: about all the cons she went to. Well, VidCon, which

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Speaker 1: you know is in I gets in different places. I

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Speaker 1: don't know. There was California, Anaheim, a couple of times,

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Speaker 1: New York, Toronto, so she was kind of jumping around

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Speaker 1: all over the place along with gone to the people

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Speaker 1: she liked that Grace hell Big and Jenna Marbles and

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Speaker 1: Hannah Heart autograph parties and things like that. That they

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Speaker 1: would have a bookstore, signings and stuff. So she was

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Speaker 1: into the very heavily into internet YouTube and you know,

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Speaker 1: the social media. Celebrate online video with your friends, meet

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Speaker 1: your favorite creators, have the time of your life, create

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Speaker 1: better content, grow your channel, break into the industry, meet

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Speaker 1: fellow creators. Wow. Okay, so I'm learning all about what

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Speaker 1: this is VidCon and I guess everyone, all the YouTubers,

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Speaker 1: all the TikTokers, all of them show up at vidcan

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Speaker 1: So do I have an understanding of what VidCon is?

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Speaker 1: Michael Stern. Yes, that's exactly the way it is. It's

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Speaker 1: the kind of an international national media thing where it

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Speaker 1: could be local or a distant And Sarah had friends

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Speaker 1: in Australia, London. Oh yeah, I'm looking at it right now.

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Speaker 1: Australia London are the ones they mentioned. So she's all

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Speaker 1: over the map. Now you mentioned another thing she liked

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Speaker 1: to go to. What was that started with a bee

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Speaker 1: as a brother? Well, let's see, there was a buffer fast,

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Speaker 1: which is another Internet what's that? But I guess I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna have to look that up too, don't don't judge me.

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Speaker 1: Did you say buffer fast? Buffer fast? Yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: you know when sometimes when you're downloading a program or

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Speaker 1: a video or something, it buffers, you know, just you

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Speaker 1: see the little circle going around. Well, buffer Fest was

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Speaker 1: kind of a takeoff on that saying, where it was

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Speaker 1: an Internet thing where you just learned about the different

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Speaker 1: things that were going on in it. I looked it up.

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Speaker 1: I have to look everything up. Buffer Festival is a

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Speaker 1: four day theatrical showcase of theatrical screenings that celebrates video

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Speaker 1: premiers from acclaimed digital creators. Okay, yep, that says annually

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Speaker 1: in Toronto, or Ontario. Okay, so she's all about digital

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Speaker 1: and see, well, the reason I'm curious about this, Michael

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Speaker 1: Stern and I'm going to get back to her car

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Speaker 1: being found is Bobby, you can't help me out here.

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Speaker 1: I need everybody on this. The bigger her circle is, okay,

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Speaker 1: the more people we've got to look at that may

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Speaker 1: know where she is or what happened to her, see

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Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's not no longer just let's

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Speaker 1: go at the next door neighbor. It's let's go on

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Speaker 1: her all of her devices, her phone, her laptop, her desktop,

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Speaker 1: her iPad, and who is she talking to? Who are

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Speaker 1: her best friends online? She's heavily, heavily involved in and

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Speaker 1: in a fun, fun, good way in creating video content.

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Speaker 1: Bobby Chicon, I mean that's a little overwhelming for an

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Speaker 1: investigator because there's so many directions in which to go

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Speaker 1: looking for information about where is Sarah? Do I have

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Speaker 1: to go to Vicon and buffer Fest? I mean, it

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Speaker 1: really does. It's created in a complete new way of

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Speaker 1: having to investigate these cases that wasn't in existence when

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Speaker 1: I started in this business. And and so you always

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Speaker 1: look at the world of the missing person, the world

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Speaker 1: of whoever you're looking at. And while the Internet has

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Speaker 1: made the world such a smaller place, in one way,

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Speaker 1: it's now completely made you know, the pool of people

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Speaker 1: you have to look at and investigate much much larger

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Speaker 1: for investigators. And to doctor Bethany Marshall's psychoanalyst joining me

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Speaker 1: out of California, Doctor Bethany, this is like a whole

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Speaker 1: new world. As Bobby Checkon said, it wasn't like that

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Speaker 1: when I first became entered the FBI. Now everybody's world

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Speaker 1: has a blown up. And as an investigator, I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to find out where Sarah and I find out she

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Speaker 1: goes to buffer Fast and vig Con and a lot

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Speaker 1: of other places, and she's up at four am talking

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Speaker 1: to her friends in other countries, specifically Ontario and Toronto.

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Speaker 1: I mean that opens up a whole world. Are people

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Speaker 1: creating really alternate IDs online? Well, this is the digital

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Speaker 1: version of a young woman, nineteen year old young woman

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Speaker 1: traveling all over the world and meeting hundreds and thousands

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Speaker 1: of people searching for that one person who may have

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Speaker 1: targeted her, become obsessed with her, started to stalk her,

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Speaker 1: becomes a little bit like a needle in a Haystack, Nancy.

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Speaker 1: When I started on your show on HLN many years ago,

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Speaker 1: we kept covering thirteen fourteen, fifteen year olds who had

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Speaker 1: been abducted at the hands of predators they had met online.

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Speaker 1: And the conventional wisdom Van was, you know, when your

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Speaker 1: child goes online to do their homework or to look

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Speaker 1: on the internet, make sure they're in the living room

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Speaker 1: with the screen facing outwards so everybody can see what

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Speaker 1: they're doing. That was the simple advice we gave back then.

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Speaker 1: That does not even apply anymore. There are so many devices.

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Speaker 1: And as I'm listening to Sarah Stern's father, she was

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Speaker 1: at always these festivals and all these different modes of

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Speaker 1: communication on the Internet. And let's be clear that let's

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Speaker 1: be clear we're talking about the festivals she gets to.

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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the Fry Festival or Burning Men

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Speaker 1: or Coachella where everybody's high and drunk sleeping around. These

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Speaker 1: are actual content, creative festivals as they call them, where

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Speaker 1: you premiere new theatrical entries online. I mean, it's a

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Speaker 1: very creative and positive things she's doing. She's not high

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Speaker 1: as a kite and some tent out at Coachella. That's

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Speaker 1: not what Sarah Stearns about Bethany. It sounds a like

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Speaker 1: a shakespeare festival, you know, got a bunch of I

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Speaker 1: don't know that I go that far. I don't know

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Speaker 1: that I go that far. But okay, so Michael, Michael,

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Speaker 1: I want to go back to Sarah's dad with me

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Speaker 1: right now, Michael Stern, tell me about her. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's that's quite the swing of the pendulum, me saying

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Speaker 1: she's not at Coachella, you know, where everybody's drunk and

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Speaker 1: high and the Bethan goes. Yes, it's like Shakespearean festivals.

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Speaker 1: I don't think I'd go that far. Michael, Just tell

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Speaker 1: me about her. Sarah's kind of hard to describe, but

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Speaker 1: she loved the media and art and creating a you know,

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Speaker 1: of of videos and things like that, little vignettes, and

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Speaker 1: that's what she was interested in. She liked the podcast

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Speaker 1: type of thing. That's Grace Helbig and Jason soul of

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Speaker 1: Meda I think it was, and he was Jason was

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Speaker 1: one of the people that as soon as he found

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Speaker 1: out Sarah was missing. And I don't know how big

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Speaker 1: it's following is. It's probably a million, million and a

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Speaker 1: half people or something, and Grace Helbig has three million

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Speaker 1: or so followers. They were right away, you know, within

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Speaker 1: a few days, they were out there, you know, asking

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Speaker 1: for help to you know, find there. You know, when

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Speaker 1: you said, Michael that Sarah was hard to describe, I

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Speaker 1: kind of know what you mean because I've researched her

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Speaker 1: and talked to so many people about Sarah. I mean,

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Speaker 1: on one hand, she's this happy, go lucky teen girl.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, I look at the photos. She's

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Speaker 1: very into digital creation and photos and some of her

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Speaker 1: um self photos and I'm not going to say selfies

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Speaker 1: because they look as if they're taken by a professional photographer,

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Speaker 1: like she's silhouetted looking out into like an afternoon sky.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they're very thoughtful and kind of deep. And

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Speaker 1: she'd been through a lot because she lost her mother

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Speaker 1: so at her very young age. You guys had already

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Speaker 1: battled a terminal illness, and Sarah lost her mom at

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Speaker 1: a very young age. What happened, Michael, Well, Sarah was fifteen,

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Speaker 1: you know, she was younger. Their mother upper with the

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Speaker 1: answer for about six years, with five and a half

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Speaker 1: six years, and you know, she was on the road

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Speaker 1: to recovery, and then she had a recurrence and subsequently

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Speaker 1: within a year she passed away, and Sarah at that

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Speaker 1: point turned to art and creation, art as a drawing

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Speaker 1: and photography, and also I would say film and the

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Speaker 1: whole media, television kind of John, I want to ask

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Speaker 1: you a question, Michael. You know, I know people ask

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Speaker 1: you about Sarah all the time, but I want to

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Speaker 1: talk for a moment about Sarah's mom because hearing you

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Speaker 1: describe her illness, how she had fought it for so

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Speaker 1: many years, and I thought had beaten it, and then

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Speaker 1: it came back. I remember when they called me and

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Speaker 1: told me that I had a melanoma, and as you know,

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Speaker 1: is the most aggressive form of skin cancer. And my

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Speaker 1: first thought was, Oh, dear God, please please just let

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Speaker 1: me stay here and be with the twins. Just let

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Speaker 1: me stay here. And I continue that prayer so so

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Speaker 1: many days of the week, and I'm imagining Sarah's mom

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Speaker 1: just wanting to stay alive. Sarah's your only child, to

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Speaker 1: just stay alive, to get her through school, to get

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Speaker 1: her through the bumpy road of life, and help her.

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Speaker 1: You know, when you finally go to heaven, you know

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Speaker 1: you've done everything you can for your child to try

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Speaker 1: as best as you can to give them a happy

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Speaker 1: life so that they're set and they're on the path

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Speaker 1: to happiness, whatever that may be. And I'm just imagining

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Speaker 1: Sarah's mom struggling, just trying to stay alive. For Sarah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was it was a tough It was a tough

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Speaker 1: fight the last year. And you know that you just

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Speaker 1: when you don't get any better and you go through

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Speaker 1: treatments and operations and chemo, and it just it's a

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Speaker 1: tough thing to go through. And you know, Sarah, we

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Speaker 1: try to keep things as normal as possible, and you know,

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Speaker 1: Steady even killed, so it didn't seem, you know, so dire,

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Speaker 1: which it didn't seem like it was a dire in

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Speaker 1: the beginning, but as months went by, things didn't get

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Speaker 1: Things just weren't getting better. They were just progressively getting worse.

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Speaker 1: And it was tough for Sarah. You know, she saw

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Speaker 1: her mom. You know, I couldn't do what she used

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Speaker 1: to do, and you know, it was tired all the time,

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Speaker 1: a lot of doctor's appointments, So it was tough for Sarah.

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Speaker 1: When her mom passed away, she kind of found herself.

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Speaker 1: She had some very good teachers in high school, photography

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Speaker 1: and art teachers who took Sarah under their their wing

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Speaker 1: and somehow Sarah just developed his talent within a year

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Speaker 1: and she just became a brilliant artist and photographer, which

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Speaker 1: was amazing to make. I mean, I've never I've never

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Speaker 1: seen a transformation like that. She went from Harley being

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Speaker 1: able to you know, throw up, you know, a picture

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Speaker 1: with a straight line with the rule or as I

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Speaker 1: would say, she just became a brilliant artist in any media,

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Speaker 1: didn't matter what it was, pencil, watercolor, animate, whatever she

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Speaker 1: took her hand to. She just put her entire being

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Speaker 1: into that. And that's how she I think um kind

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Speaker 1: of lived to prove, you know that she could be somebody,

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Speaker 1: you know, and you know, take the pain away from

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Speaker 1: her mother passing away. And I think that's what she did.

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Speaker 1: And she just threw herself into art and media and

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Speaker 1: she she liked it and that's what kept her. That's

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Speaker 1: what kept her going. I mean, I've looked at so

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Speaker 1: many of her pieces, her photography especially, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of her pencil sketches, and they're incredible. In fact, one

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Speaker 1: of her dog, it looks like the dog is about

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Speaker 1: to jump off the page. It's so lifelike, and I

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Speaker 1: was marveling at her talent. When you said you tried

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Speaker 1: to keep everything as normal as possible, as your wife battled,

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Speaker 1: what do you mean by that? Well, just you know routines,

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Speaker 1: you know, get up, go to school, you know, make lunch,

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Speaker 1: take a launch with you or you know, buy lunch

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Speaker 1: in school, and you know whatever the activities where sare

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Speaker 1: was on the swim team for a season two along

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Speaker 1: with her softball. She started UM softball and her freshman

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Speaker 1: year on the varsity team and stayed on the varsity

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Speaker 1: team throughout school with softball, so that was a good

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Speaker 1: uh you know, she just she liked that, she liked

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Speaker 1: the camaraderie with the team and stuff, and you know,

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Speaker 1: so we kept everything as normal as possible for mother

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Speaker 1: would go to the games when she felt up to it,

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Speaker 1: you know, the home games and stuff. So everything seemed

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Speaker 1: normal except for you know, the elms. So it's just

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Speaker 1: kind of you know, you don't want, you don't want

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Speaker 1: to start changing lifestyles with a with you know, with

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Speaker 1: a young child, you know, even though there is a y.

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Speaker 1: So that's we just try to keep possible. We're talking

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Speaker 1: about Sarah Stern's mom, Carla Stern, and I'm speaking with

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Speaker 1: Sarah's dad, Michael Stern, and he is recounting the call

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Speaker 1: he received down in Florida. He's only gone for seven days,

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Speaker 1: He's just seen his daughter, and suddenly, after not being

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Speaker 1: able to reach her since about ten thirty that evening,

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Speaker 1: he gets a three am ish call telling him her

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Speaker 1: car is found on the side of a bridge. When

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking about this bridge and I'm looking at it,

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Speaker 1: her car's part over to the far right. There is

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Speaker 1: an emergency lane of sorts, so it's not blocking traffic,

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Speaker 1: which makes me wonder. Also to our special guests joining

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Speaker 1: US crime and Court reporter for NJA dot com and

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Speaker 1: star ledger Alex Napolello, Alex, with the car pulled over

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Speaker 1: to the side right there in that particular neck of

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Speaker 1: the woods. It could have sat there for hours and

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Speaker 1: nobody have noticed it. It wasn't blocking traffic. It was

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Speaker 1: late at night when it was called in around three am.

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Speaker 1: And what can you tell me about the area. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's near Asbury Park, right, Isn't that where Bruce Springsteen

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Speaker 1: started in the Stone Pony and Neptune Beach. What can

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Speaker 1: you tell me about the area. Correct. So, Neptune City

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Speaker 1: is a very tight Neptune city, thank you. It's a

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Speaker 1: very tight knit community. At the heart of the Jersey Shore.

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Speaker 1: About two miles north is Asbury Park, where as you said,

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Speaker 1: famously Bruce Springsteen got his start playing the clubs in Asbury.

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Speaker 1: Just to the south of Neptune City is Belmar, which

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Speaker 1: is an extremely popular summer destination. It's where many people

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey go to vacation. They grow up, kids

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Speaker 1: grew up going on the boardwalk in Delmar, and so

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Speaker 1: this is a place that's known to practically everyone in

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Speaker 1: the state and even across state lines in New York

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Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania. But Neptune City is a community where everyone

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Speaker 1: knows each other. The Stern family, as Michael could tell you,

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Speaker 1: was well known in the area because they owned and

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Speaker 1: operated an independent bookstore there, and so in turn, Sarah

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Speaker 1: was a well known team in the area. She worked

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Speaker 1: at local businesses in the area, and so she was too.

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Speaker 1: She was well known. But the bridge where the car

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Speaker 1: was discovered, as you said before, was off to the side.

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Speaker 1: It could go unnoticed for hours because it wasn't in

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Speaker 1: any of the travel lanes. It was simply pulled over.

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Speaker 1: I just last week, I was driving over the Route

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Speaker 1: thirty five bridge and there was a truck pulled over,

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Speaker 1: and I didn't even think twice about it. I just

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Speaker 1: kept on driving because it's not that uncommon. You know,

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Speaker 1: when people here Neptune Beach or the Jersey Shore, everybody

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Speaker 1: thinks of the reality show the Jersey Shore. This area

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Speaker 1: could be could not be further from that stereotype, couldn't

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Speaker 1: be further because this area where you guys live, Michael,

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Speaker 1: it's beautiful. There's beautiful yards, very well kept, tidy, perfectly

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Speaker 1: manicured homes, really nice residential areas where you see people

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Speaker 1: out walking and jogging and children out with their scooters.

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Speaker 1: It's nothing at all like the Jersey Shore gang where

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Speaker 1: everybody's passed out drunk on the beach. It was NonStop party.

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Speaker 1: This is a real family area. Do I have that right, Michael? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: pretty much family area. You know. They the Asbury Park

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Speaker 1: is going through like a gentrification and it's coming back,

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Speaker 1: you know, from where it was years ago. Kind of

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Speaker 1: buildings falling apart, a lot of million dollars investments going

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Speaker 1: in along the beach. So it attracts a lot of

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Speaker 1: people to the area, and Asbury Park also very small

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Speaker 1: Ocean Grove which is part of Neptune. And then you've

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Speaker 1: got Bradley Beach and av On, Belmar Spring Lake. So

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of small, small towns. If you if

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Speaker 1: you're driving through, you can pass through, you know, in

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Speaker 1: ten minutes you could pass through five towns. So but

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Speaker 1: it's you know, there's some middle class, some you know,

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Speaker 1: some upper class areas, and it's just a good mix

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Speaker 1: of people and businesses and it's just you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a nice place. The beaches nearby. Yeah, And I guess

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Speaker 1: the point of my analysis of the area is, you know,

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Speaker 1: I see everything through the eyes of a felony prosecutor

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Speaker 1: and crime victim, and immediately you know, doctor Bethany Marshall,

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Speaker 1: psychoanis out of LA went wrong or right? When you

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Speaker 1: see a beautiful neighborhood and children out on their scooters

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Speaker 1: and people walking and cars pulling into the driveway, it

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Speaker 1: gives you a sense of security and safety. And that's

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Speaker 1: the backdrop for finding her car stashed on the side

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Speaker 1: of the road with the keys in it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is an area where there's a low crime rate.

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Speaker 1: So right or wrong we start trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: where Sarah. She's not in her car, and she's left

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Speaker 1: the keys in the car. Nancy. A part of good

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Speaker 1: mental health is living one's life with the illusion that

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Speaker 1: the world is a safe place. This is one of

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Speaker 1: the things we're taught at the beginning of our training

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Speaker 1: as psychologists and psychoanalysts that people who come into treatment

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Speaker 1: who are nervous that their car's going to plunge off

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Speaker 1: the road, or they're going to lose all their money,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be a victim of a crime usually

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Speaker 1: have anxiety disorders. So in a case like this, you

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Speaker 1: have a car parked on the bridge, you have a tranquil, calm,

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Speaker 1: beautiful neighborhood. As you said, children on scooters. You want

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Speaker 1: people in a community like that to live with an

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Speaker 1: illusion of safety because that imparts a sense of well being.

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Speaker 1: And furthermore, when someone then sees a car on the

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Speaker 1: side of the road, they're not going to think the

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Speaker 1: worst in a case like this, They're going to think,

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Speaker 1: you know, well, you know, maybe somebody got sleepy or tired,

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Speaker 1: so they pulled over to take a nap because they

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Speaker 1: didn't think they should keep driving. So in an unfortunate way.

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Speaker 1: This illusion of safety or that nothing bad can never happen,

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Speaker 1: is the kind of environment in which these kinds of

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Speaker 1: crimes can blossom. Because nobody's looking over their shoulder. Nobody's

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Speaker 1: looking to say, is somebody's stalking Sarah, is somebody obsessed

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Speaker 1: with her? Is somebody targeting her? They're just thinking of

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Speaker 1: a beautiful, young, artistic woman in a tranquil community, enjoying

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Speaker 1: her life. That's what people are thinking. Oh and I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you've seen her picture, but I've studied

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Speaker 1: it very carefully. The long black, silky hair, she had

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Speaker 1: perfect skin and beautiful eyes. And she was I mean

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Speaker 1: compared to me. He's five one. She seems tall and

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Speaker 1: thin and statue. She looks athletic. So Bobby Chakohn, with

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Speaker 1: that in mind, with the area in mind that Alex

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Speaker 1: and Michael are describing, you don't think immediately crime. I

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Speaker 1: mean in that area, I would think disabled car. Well,

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Speaker 1: you're trying not to jump to any conclusions, and as

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Speaker 1: an investigator you go in with you know, open eyes.

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Speaker 1: But she also don't want to go in too naive

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Speaker 1: because as we say, we say, you know, in those

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Speaker 1: early minutes of an investigation like that, if you don't

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Speaker 1: handle it properly, there are things and steps that you

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Speaker 1: lose if you don't take them, and you can never

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Speaker 1: go back, and so you do want to, you know,

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Speaker 1: an investigator. This is why maybe investigators suffer from you know,

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Speaker 1: certain um anxiety disorders. But we always you know, think

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Speaker 1: the worst and hope for the best, because if you

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Speaker 1: don't think the worst and you you skip steps, you

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Speaker 1: could lose valuable evidence and valuable information that you just

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Speaker 1: won't be able to go back and get. And so

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Speaker 1: when you see a car like that and it's parked

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Speaker 1: there and it has the keys in it, you know

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Speaker 1: you do, it does start to raise, you know, that

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Speaker 1: level of concern And why would you know, why would

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Speaker 1: the person leave the keys if this is a disabled

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Speaker 1: car and they're going to help you, would you would

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Speaker 1: secure the vehicle before you walk away. So that's exactly

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Speaker 1: that's my first that's my first thing that would would

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Speaker 1: elevate my concern in this game. Take a listen to

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Speaker 1: our Friantoni Yates at Channel seven w ABC our top

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Speaker 1: story this half hour, the mystery of a missing nineteen

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Speaker 1: year old for mom of Kelly Sarah Stearn was last

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Speaker 1: seen late Friday nights. Now her car was found, but

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Speaker 1: searches for her attempts to turn it up, and now

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Speaker 1: our family and authorities upper reward will help lead to clues.

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Speaker 1: New Jersey reported Tony eight in Bellmar the very latest

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Speaker 1: on this story. Tony, yes, exactly. If no word nothing,

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Speaker 1: no one's heard anything from nineteen year old Sarah Stern.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the Mama County Prosecutor's office has taken over

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Speaker 1: this investigation. But we're here in Belmar right now because

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Speaker 1: you see this behind me, the roote thirty five, a bridge,

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Speaker 1: that is where her car was found on Friday night.

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Speaker 1: She's nineteen years old again. She is from Neptune, where

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Speaker 1: she lived with her father and her grandmother. Her father,

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Speaker 1: Michael Stern, actually told us by phone today that he

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Speaker 1: was with investigators trying to come up with anything that

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Speaker 1: may lead them to his daughter. She'd left home on

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Speaker 1: Friday night, then hours later, almost in the morning, her car.

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Speaker 1: According to publish reports in nineteen ninety four, Delta eighty

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Speaker 1: eight was found on the bridge over the Shark River Inlet.

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Speaker 1: The New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit and the

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Speaker 1: National Center for Missing and exploited children are also assisting

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00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: in this investigation. A reward is now being offered in

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Speaker 1: this case. Of course, police are saying at this point,

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Speaker 1: if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of nineteen

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Speaker 1: year old Sarah Stern from Neptune, to please give police

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Speaker 1: of hall. With all of this swirling, Michael Stern, I

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Speaker 1: can only imagine what was running through your mind when

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Speaker 1: you decided to pack up and come home and drive

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Speaker 1: through the night starting around three am, to get from

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Speaker 1: Florida all the way back home. Well, it was a

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Speaker 1: little bit of panic set in, and I started making

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Speaker 1: phone calls even before I left, just try to get

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Speaker 1: all the couple of luggage and some things into the

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Speaker 1: car so I could, you know, we could get moving,

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Speaker 1: you know, on the road, and making phone calls to

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Speaker 1: try to find out if anybody knew anything else, you know,

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Speaker 1: where Sarah was. You know, we had already you know,

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00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: made a few calls and nothing. Nothing came out of

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Speaker 1: that except that nobody could find Sarah. She wasn't she

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Speaker 1: wasn't with friends, she wasn't with neighbors, she wasn't with family.

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Speaker 1: So it was just a kind of a panic for

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Speaker 1: hours during the drive How did you control that feeling

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Speaker 1: when you were driving? Because I remember when I had

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Speaker 1: just packed up the children, everything, and we had flown

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Speaker 1: back home to New York and got everybody in bathed,

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Speaker 1: in bed, and my mom called, it's about eleven o'clock

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Speaker 1: at night, and she said, they put your dad on

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Speaker 1: life support. And I remember standing in that exact spot

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Speaker 1: in our apartment and I said, Daddy, just hang on,

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Speaker 1: I'm on the way, I'm coming right now. And I

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Speaker 1: started I remember it sounded like a siren in my throat, screaming, okay, everybody,

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Speaker 1: get your clothes back on right now, get yourself packed.

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Speaker 1: And I started throwing everything back in the in our

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Speaker 1: bags we had just unpacked. And about fifteen minutes we

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Speaker 1: were all out at eleven fifteen at night on the

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Speaker 1: sidewalk trying to held a cab and I didn't know

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Speaker 1: how we were going to get home at that time

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Speaker 1: of the night, but I had to get home. And

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Speaker 1: the next hours were like a horrible odyssey when I

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Speaker 1: was far away from my dad and I couldn't get

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Speaker 1: to him. What was going through your mind and your

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Speaker 1: heart and your body, is you're driving that very very

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Speaker 1: hours and hours from Florida back to New Jersey. Well,

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Speaker 1: we were all just trying to figure out, you know,

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Speaker 1: what happened and why the car was up there, and

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Speaker 1: that was that, you know, whether it was ran out

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Speaker 1: of gas or mechanical problems. And Sarah was just you know,

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Speaker 1: she was hiding and didn't want anybody to find her

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Speaker 1: because you know, she felt that Sarah was you know,

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Speaker 1: she would take things to heart and she would you know,

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Speaker 1: feel that you know, sometimes if things were her faults,

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Speaker 1: she just wanted to disconnect from the world. But you know,

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Speaker 1: this just nothing seemed right, nothing at all seemed right.

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Speaker 1: From her Grandmam calling me to you know, see if

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Speaker 1: I could get in touch with her find out what's

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Speaker 1: going on. But you know, it just it was kind

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Speaker 1: of panic the whole time. And then like five am,

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Speaker 1: about two hours later, we were in contact with the

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Speaker 1: Belmar Police, the Neptune City Police, the Coast Guard. There

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Speaker 1: was a lot of people involved in the search and

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Speaker 1: looking for to try to find out where she was.

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Speaker 1: And it just panic just stayed and it just didn't

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Speaker 1: get any better during the day because we still couldn't

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Speaker 1: figure things out. There was a lot of strange things, right.

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Speaker 1: Police then doing an alternate investigation. Take listen to police

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Speaker 1: bodycam audio as they enter the Sterns home. There's a

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Speaker 1: teenager that's supposed to be driving, it's parked on top

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Speaker 1: of that bridge. Or getting no answer at the house.

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Speaker 1: I have an open door of the house. I might

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Speaker 1: go inside and make sure everything is kosher here. I

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Speaker 1: don't want to make sure we don't have a jumper.

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Speaker 1: Snounce yourself, really well, that's the same fors Hello, Hello,

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Speaker 1: that's SA Force. Police go to her house. The backdoor

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Speaker 1: is open and the lights are on, and there is

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Speaker 1: no sign of Sarah. Hello, where is Sarah? Stung Nancy

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Speaker 1: Grace signing off good bye to me,