WEBVTT - S1: E12 – BFFs: The Disappearance of Sarah Stern, Part 1 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.960 When a nineteen year old's car was found abandoned on 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:09.640 a bridge at the Jersey Shore, speculation ran wild keys. 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:12.240 We're in the ignition, no sign of foul play, nothing. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.040 Sarah was nowhere to be found. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.120 But was Sarah Stern trying not to be found? 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.560 Sarah talked about possibly starting a new life in Toronto 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:23.560 and moving away. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.040 Her mother had left her a lot of cash. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.840 It all added up to one giant mystery. 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:30.320 You don't know what today. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.680 To be honest, today we're at the Jersey Shore in 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:38.800 the community of Neptune City for BFFs the disappearance of 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:44.080 Sarah Stern. I'm Sloan Glass and this is American homicide. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.760 As a note, this podcast also contains subject matter which 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.480 may not be suitable for all audiences. Discretion is advised. 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.560 The Jersey Shore, What did it give us? Snookie, Polly 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.640 d and Jwow. But what you say see on TV 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.360 and what really happens in real life are two completely 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:05.119 different things. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.720 The Jersey Shore is not quite what you would expect 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:09.360 to see. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.000 Journalist Tom Davis grew up on the Jersey Shore and 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.600 now covers the area for Patch dot Com. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:20.280 It's actually a very conservative, traditional community, that's mixed in 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.040 with a tourist atmosphere. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:27.600 Like clockwork, every summer, tourists and beachgoers take over the area. 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.640 During the summertime, I would say the population probably for 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.959 druples at least, especially on the weekends. It almost develops 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:37.760 a little bit more of a Miami Field to it. 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.679 The party atmosphere every summer takes over the mini bars, restaurants, 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:44.360 and of course the beaches. 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.360 The beaches are the best place to beat. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.040 The shore features forty four beaches in total, and if 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.840 you're like Tom and live there year round, you look 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.360 forward to the off season. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:56.320 For a lot of people, they really kind of hate 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.360 the crowd, so they actually like the fall and the 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.000 winter bigg This is obviously a lot emptier, it's a 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.840 lot less crowded. I always called it the void between 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.919 Labor Day and Moral Day because literally nothing happens here. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.760 But in the early morning hours of December third, twenty sixteen, 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:18.880 something did happen. A ridehair driver noticed an abandoned Oldsmobile 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.480 sedan atop a bridge heading out of town and called 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:23.400 nine one one. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.480 Mine one one, where is the emergency? 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.240 I kut on the Belmore Bridge through the car that 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.480 debanded gets off the side in the road. 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:31.880 Was there anybody inside the vehicle? 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:33.160 I look down. 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.240 That tall bridge spans the Shark River, which despite its name, 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:40.120 isn't known for having sharks. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.560 The water underneath is a Shark River, which is a 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.160 very shallow river. The might do some fishing there. There's 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:46.519 really no swimming or anything like that. 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.040 When police got to the car, they found no one inside, 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.519 so they contacted its owner, Michael Stern. 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:54.799 About three o'clock in the morning. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.880 Was kind of a squeaky voice saying they were from 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:02.280 the Mamouth County Sheriff's Department and they were looking for 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:03.799 the owner of an oldsmobile. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.080 Michael lived in Neptune City, New Jersey year round with 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.839 his daughter Sarah, but at the time he was out 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.000 of town. He was vacationing in Orlando. 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.080 And I said, yeah, you know, Sarah drives that car. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.360 Sarah was his nineteen year old daughter. She was in 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.400 college studying media production. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.560 Well, Sarah was into the arts. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:28.919 She was taking television production, art classes, pottery photography. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.160 Well, her dad was in Orlando, Sarah was back home. 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.720 Sarah was basically by herself, and she didn't like to 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:36.640 be by herself. 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:42.240 Yes, but sometimes, like everyone, Sarah just needed her space. 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:47.160 When she was fifteen, her mom passed away cancer and 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:48.680 it was a tough time for her. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.720 It was very tough. Sarah's mom had a long bout 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.000 with breast cancer. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.760 And Sarah, you know, she was a champ. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.400 She loved her mom and she did everything she could 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:03.360 to keep for comfort when she was going through chemo. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.880 And sadly, her mom ultimately lost that fight. When Sarah 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:08.880 was a freshman in high school. 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.040 She struggled at the time, you know, losing her mom. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.040 Sarah took that pain and channeled it into her artwork. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.000 So she had to kind of find herself and that's 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:26.240 when she threw herself into art, drawing, photography, and the media, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.640 and her talent just blossomed. Within a couple of years, 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.640 she was doing things that I thought were incredible. 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.160 According to Michael, as a widower and father of a 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.880 teenage daughter, he thought the only thing to do was 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.440 to pull Sarah close and cope together. 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.719 Our family basically was Sarah and myself and always a dog. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.840 She loved her dog Buddy, and she dressed Buddy up 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:55.840 in different outfits like put jackets on them in sweatshirts, and. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:05:00.000 The buddy dressed up for Halloween. That was her best friend. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.359 With Sarah and Buddy back home, Michael spent the early 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.040 morning hours of December third, twenty sixteen, trying to figure 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.440 out why Sarah's carr was left on a bridge some 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.240 two miles from their home. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.400 I tried the house phone and her cell phone, and 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:18.880 I wasn't getting anything through. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.800 Then he did what every father of a nineteen year 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:23.839 old would do. He sent her a text message. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.479 The messages were coming up green as opposed to blue 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.680 on an iPhone, so I thought, maybe your phone was off, 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.800 or you know, the battery life had gone down. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.680 By then, the police had gone to Sarah's home and 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:37.000 already did a search. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.000 No one was there except for the dog. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.880 The police found Buddy locked in his cage, which was 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.360 something Sarah's dad said she would only do when strangers 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:47.320 were at the house. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:49.680 It was kind of odd that he would have been 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:55.520 in there, but Sarah was nowhere to be found. At 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.440 that point, we just didn't know what was going on, 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.719 so we just packed up and threw everything in the 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.159 car and started driving north. 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.560 The sixteen hour ride from Orlando to Neptune City gave 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.800 Michael plenty of time to think about what could have happened. 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.880 There was a million scenarios going through my head. Did 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.000 the car stall with something wrong with it, you know? 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.200 Did Sarah have somebody with her that might have abducted her. 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.359 There was also the terrifying thought that Sarah, who was 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.080 struggling with the loss of her mother, possibly took her 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:30.400 own life. 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.480 We had no answers, no answers at all. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.480 Early that morning, the police sent a team of divers 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.080 into the frigid waters of the Shark River to look 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:40.919 for any signs of Sarah. 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.599 The tides go in and out very very quick. 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.960 It's cold, it's rocky in some areas, and it's marshy 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:48.880 and other areas. 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.760 By the time the sun came up that Saturday morning, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.640 there was still no sign of Sarah and no evidence 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:57.919 of what could have happened. 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.120 There were a couple of theories that law enforcement believed. 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.119 Early on, Alex Napoliello covered the story for NJ dot 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.280 com and the Star Ledger newspaper. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.640 It's possible her car had broken down and she flagged 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.840 the wrong person for help, and someone did something terrible 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.840 to her, possibly threw her body off the bridge. And 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.920 I remember early reports talking to sources off the record, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.000 that there was belief that she had jumped off the bridge. 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.440 So then law enforcement wants to start putting the pieces together. 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.280 What was her mental state leading up to this? 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:33.720 You know, was she sad? 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:34.800 Was she depressed? 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:35.400 Well? 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.720 According to witnesses who last saw Sarah, she was not 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.640 in a good place mentally. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.800 Police talked to her neighbor across the street, Robin Draper, 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.600 and what Robin had told them was that Sarah had 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:51.120 seemed a little off that day and not necessarily herself. 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.840 Sarah was over at their home earlier in the day 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:59.120 and she had dropped off some bins of her belongings. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.800 But Sarah didn't just drop all of some of her stuff. 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.160 She also dropped some hints about where she might be going. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.600 Sarah talked about possibly starting a new life in Toronto 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.240 and moving away. If she's getting rid of these belongings 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.960 while her father is vacationing, maybe she wanted to leave 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.280 town without necessarily notifying her family that she was leaving. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.360 One of the last people to see Sarah Stern before 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.680 her disappearance was one of her best friends, Liam Mcatasne. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.320 Liam Mcatazsne was one of Sarah's closest friends growing up. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.839 They lived about a block away from each other. They 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.080 were childhood friends and they did what normal kids do, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.240 play video games, talk on the phone, text with each other. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.600 The two had one of those rare lifelong friendships. They 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.000 met at Sunday School when they were just six years old. 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.839 They were close and they remained close up until the 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:56.880 day she disappeared. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.000 Liam was with Sarah that afternoon as she moved those 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.680 beens filled with her personal belongings into a neighbor's house. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.960 When detectives questioned him, he painted a bleak picture of 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:10.160 Sarah's state of mind. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:17.120 In the past, she has had a tendency to have 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.600 self destructive, suicidal behavior. 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.640 He was telling law enforcement she wanted to move away. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.400 She wasn't happy, she was depressed. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:29.800 Over the past few months, she's been telling. 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:34.040 Me how bad her relationship with her father is and 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.640 how she just needs to get out of here. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.480 She had a rocky relationship with her father. There were 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.760 some periods where you know, they fought and had disagreements. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.960 So let's say that one of Sarah's best friends was right, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.680 and she did leave to get away from her dad, Well, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:54.079 how could she afford it. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.360 On the day before Sarah's carr was found abandoned on 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.679 the bridge, police learned that she I had gone to 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.400 a bank during the day to withdraw money from a 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.640 safety deposit box that she had. 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.040 Liam said he went with her to the bank, but 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.360 stayed in the car while Sarah went inside. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.360 She took out seven thousand dollars. What would a nineteen 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:17.440 year old be doing with this money? 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.000 What nineteen year old has thousands of dollars soft away 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:23.520 in a safe deposit box. 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.439 You don't know what to think, to be honest. 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.280 Sarah's father also didn't know what to think of that cash. 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:31.520 I didn't know about it. 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.000 Well, here's what he learned. Sarah found those thousands of 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.040 dollars in a shoe box inside their home, and this 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:43.080 money was filthy and old from well before the US 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.640 Treasury redesigned the twenty and fifty dollars bills. 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.800 Her mother I'd squirreled away money, I guess for years. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.520 But she mentioned it to somebody and he got back 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:55.360 to Sarah and. 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:57.520 She found it. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.240 So Sarah Stern had some problems with her dad, and 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.320 she had a pile of cash. So it makes perfect 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.120 sense that she left town, but her dad wasn't buying it. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.920 You know, she just wasn't leaving her car on a 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:18.960 bridge and leaving her suitcase and her passport. Her passport 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.280 was up in her drawer where she kept it. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.320 Yeah, without a passport, Sarah would have no way to 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:27.280 get into Canada. 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.040 We just we didn't know. Then. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:33.959 It just left the big open wound. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.240 In the early hours of December third, twenty sixteen, nineteen 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.120 year old Sarah Stearn's car turned up on a bridge 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.320 near her home in Neptune City, New Jersey. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:46.800 There's really not a lot of room over there on 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.480 the shoulder, so it's very, very odd for people to 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:50.640 be stopping. 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:51.120 On the bridge. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.240 Edward Kirshenbaum was the director of Public Safety for the 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:55.840 Neptune City Police Department. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.520 He's bring the ignition with no sign of a driver 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.440 or a pass sure, no sign of foul play. Nothing. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:07.040 And here's a bit of bad luck. Surveillance cameras near 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.000 the bridge were not working that night, but a home 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.280 security camera across from the Stearns house was working. Unfortunately, 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.880 for detectives, they couldn't make out anything other than the 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.560 time Sarah's car came and left the house. 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.600 You don't know what's going on, so you have to 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.640 pull in every resource that you can to try to 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.680 get to the inline of what happened. 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.200 Hundreds of Sarah's friends and neighbors joined Sarah's best friend, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.479 Leah Mcatasne in the search for any sign of Sarah. 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.040 The beaches in the lakes and the inlets were all 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.400 searched by volunteers, so there was an all out effort 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.960 by the community to see if they could locate anything 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:51.200 that would give any indication of what happened to. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:56.360 Sarah stick but detectives were concerned about Sarah's bizarre behavior. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:58.520 The afternoon before she. 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:05.760 Disappeared wasations with friend of Sarah's Liam mcintazie, where she 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.320 may have had some type of suicidal tendency that she 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.160 was upset with issues, maybe because of her mom's death. 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.800 In fact, Liam was with her when she moved some 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.720 of her stuff into a neighbor's house. The afternoon before 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:21.760 she went missing. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.800 Sarah had dropped off bins of her personal belongings to 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.680 be kept in the friend's basement. Sarah also gave a 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.240 bin of footballs and basketballs or some type of equipment 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.120 to kids in the neighborhood, so that was kind of odd. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.760 Liam told detectives that afternoon, the two went to the bank, 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.600 got tacos for lunch, and returned to Sarah's house. They 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.959 ate and then played video games until around four forty 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.040 five PM. That's when Liam left for his job at 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:49.120 a local steakhouse. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.400 Liam was the last person that Sarah had talked. 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:56.520 To, and most concerning was what Liam told detectives about 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:57.679 Sarah's state of mind. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.080 Sarah was unhappy with her home life, that her father 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.280 was overbearing, that the relationship between Michael Stern and Sarah 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.400 Sterne was not a good relationship. 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.920 So naturally, detectives questioned her father, Michael, about his relationship 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.520 with Sarah, and they were surprised by his response. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:21.160 Michael Sterne was an open book. He was forthcoming with 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.440 everything that we discussed. Any type of telephone communication, whether 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.280 it be text messages, their voicemails. 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.320 And these messages didn't show any sort of conflict between them. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.800 Just before Sarah disappeared, she texted her dad, Hey Dad, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:41.040 good afternoon. What day are you coming back from Florida? 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.280 Her text also contained emojis, a smiley face with sunglasses, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.320 a palm tree, and a little red car. Michael's response 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.320 included a picture of a rainbow that had just appeared 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.600 right around that time. He later sent a picture of 0:14:55.680 --> 0:15:01.280 Disney's Magic Kingdom, where he was vacationing. Sarah wrote back, Wow, 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.600 the castle looked so pretty with the lights. She added 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:10.080 a shooting star emoji. It was the last message he 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.720 received from Sarah. So again, what's going on here? 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.120 It's a parent sports nightmare. I couldn't imagine it myself, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.280 and my heart was breaking for him. 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.120 At this point, all detectives knew for sure was that 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.280 Sarah took out a large sum of money from the 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.120 bank and then vanished. 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.480 There was no utilization of any bank cars or anything 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:38.040 that would give some kind of information that she had 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.160 left the area, because without funding, how far can you 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.400 go you have no car, So it was a unique case. 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:45.560 There was nothing adding up. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.120 Even the surveillance footage from the bank showed Sarah smiling 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.680 and waving to the manager as she left, it didn't 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.120 exactly point to someone who was considering taking her own 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:57.960 life or fleeing the country. 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.080 There were no hardcore facts out there, so you had 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:07.680 to use the totality of circumstances to just old fashioned 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.880 police work, hoping that somebody says something, and just talking 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.720 to everybody to try to put the pieces together. 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.200 Journalist Alex Napoleello covered the story. 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.640 Very early on. The reports coming to us from police 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:24.040 was that Sarah was missing and that there wasn't anything 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:29.320 suspicious about her disappearance. And then, sort of seemingly out 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.320 of the blue, the Mammoth County Prosecutor's office puts out 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:37.880 information that they are willing to pay anyone who would 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.160 have information in her disappearance. 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:46.160 That reward, which totaled five thousand dollars, caught everyone off guard. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.840 Now that struck us as a bit odd because usually 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.400 those rewards are put out when there's a crime that 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:53.040 has occurred. 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.120 Reporters saw it as a sign that police no longer 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.560 believe Sarah took off to Canada or her own life. 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.440 And it was the first indication to us that maybe 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.120 something the faarius had happened here. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.840 And then seven weeks after Sarah's disappearance, detectives got a 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.119 mysterious lead from someone who went to high school with Sarah. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.960 Police father got information of a gentleman by the Marathony Curry. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:23.560 Okay, let's talk about Anthony Curry. Like Sarah, he was 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.879 nineteen years old and liked the arts at the time. 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.119 He considered himself to be an aspiring horror movie maker 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.080 and sort of looked the part. He was tall, with long, 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.040 dark hair, wore dark clothing, and smoked cigarettes, but he 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.080 wasn't exactly a loner. In high school, he was named 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:42.879 most likely to become famous. 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:48.600 Mister Curry met with detectives of the case and told 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:49.800 them an incredible story. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:55.520 Incredible is an understatement. Anthony Curry told detectives about a 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.840 bizarre conversation he had with a longtime friend about movies. 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.760 This friend floated a movie idea past Anthony that involved 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.400 robbing and killing someone. 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:13.479 A scenario of parking a vehicle on the bridge, making 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.040 hear that somebody committed suicide by jumping off the bridge 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:18.600 into the water. 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.440 This so called movie plot sounded all too familiar to detectives. 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.200 It was a detail by detail description of what had 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:30.159 happened to Sarah. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:34.960 Star, making things even more bizarre. This conversation with Anthony 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:40.720 Curry happened on Thanksgiving twenty sixteen, just days before Sarah 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:41.840 Stern went missing. 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:48.240 Anthony came up with information that only somebody involved in 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:48.960 the crime would know. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.399 And this person who shared this movie idea with Anthony, well, 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.040 he was also no stranger to Sarah. 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.160 It was a friend of Sarah's, Liam mcintazie. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.800 I know a lot has happened, so let's take a 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:07.080 moment to reset. A week before Sarah disappeared, Anthony Curry 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:12.040 alleges that Sarah's good friend, her best friend, Liam shared 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.680 his idea for a movie about a young woman who 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.520 was robbed, murdered, and then thrown off a bridge while 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.080 her car was left on a bridge to appear like 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:26.040 she took her own life. Things are getting really weird here, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:26.960 so just. 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:29.840 The whole concept is beyond comprehension. 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.120 And Anthony said he never thought about this conversation after 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:38.359 it happened, that is, until he read about Sarah's mysterious disappearance. 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.840 Mister Curry came forward too law enforcement because mister mcintassie 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.240 continued to reach out for mister Curry. 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.000 Leah mcintazzne told Anthony it was urgent they meet up, 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.160 which is what caused Anthony to go to the cops. 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:58.080 But again, Liam was one of Sarah's oldest and best 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.560 and most devoted friends. Could he actually be involved in 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:08.400 Sarah's disappearance? Was this just some sort of weird coincidence, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.280 or had Sarah and Liamp cooked up some sort of plan. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.720 This is just so off the choice that nobody knows 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:16.680 what happened. 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.120 So the police came up with a plan to learn 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.439 the truth, and it involves some serious work on the 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.520 part of Anthony Curry. If he could pull this off, 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.280 it would make him famous for reasons no one in 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:36.879 his high school could have ever imagined. A week before 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.480 nineteen year old Sarah Stern went missing in December twenty sixteen, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:45.280 Leamcatazzne told his friend Anthony Curry an idea for a movie. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.600 In this movie, a young woman is robbed and killed. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.080 Her body is then thrown off a bridge, all to 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.359 make it look like she took her own life. Now 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:01.080 back to reality, nobody was found when already searched the river. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.119 But since the rest of the movie plot sounded like 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.000 what could have happened to Sarah Stearn, Anthony Curry went. 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.160 To the cops, so they wired mister Curry up. 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.159 Edward Kirshenbaum worked for the Neptune City Police Department, and 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:16.680 a plan. 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.199 Was put in placed by the investigative team for a 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:23.480 meet between Liam mctazzie and Anthony Curry, with law enforcement 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:30.280 wiring mister Curry and monitoring with audio and video the 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:31.879 conversation that would take place. 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.800 On January thirty first, twenty seventeen, seven weeks after Sarah 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:41.440 Stearn's disappearance, Anthony Curry met Liam mcintasney in his car. 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.879 The police listened from a safe distance in hopes of 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.960 learning whether Liam's idea for a movie was actually his 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:50.359 plan to murder Sarah. 0:21:52.960 --> 0:22:01.359 Don't he don't put you on to hide from the cops. Dude, 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:04.840 you can't blame me for doing this, right. I got 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.760 a few y real quick, right right. 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.880 Off the bat. Liam Mcatazsney amped up the drama. He 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.719 was nervous and asked to pat down Anthony Curry in 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:17.040 case he was wearing a wire. 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:18.600 No disrespect. 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.680 I'll show you no disrespect, okay. 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.480 Liam's pat down of Anthony didn't reveal anything because the 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.280 police didn't wire him up. They wired up his car, 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.400