00:00:00
[audio logo] NARRATOR:<i> Every fraud</i>
<i> begins with a promise.</i>
00:00:08
MICHAEL STERN: They had
planned this and plotted it and practice it to how
they were going to do it
00:00:14
and what they were going to do,
what they were going to say. POLICE (ON VIDEO):
[indistinct].
00:00:19
NARRATOR:<i> A quick fortune, easy</i>
<i> money, or a life torn apart.</i>
00:00:23
BRYANNA FOX: When
he saw Sarah and he heard that she had received
this large inheritance,
00:00:29
he thought, here's a solution
all of my problems. NARRATOR:<i> But behind</i>
<i> these illusions</i>
00:00:34
<i> lie calculated</i>
<i> deceptions, carefully</i> <i> hidden in plain sight.</i>
00:00:38
- Every word that
came out of his mouth was to make the police look
somewhere else besides him.
00:00:46
From that point on,
we watched and we were like, lie, lie, lie lie, lie. NARRATOR:<i> Sometimes</i>
<i> these criminals</i>
00:00:55
<i> are backed into a corner</i>
<i> and feel their only way out</i>
00:00:59
<i> is to kill.</i> BRYANNA FOX:
But for the inheritance, she would probably not be the
target of this financial crime.
00:01:08
MEGHAN DOYLE: The 24-years
that I was a prosecutor, I have never, ever
experienced something
00:01:12
that was so cold-hearted
and made for a TV movie. It was almost unbelievable. [exhilarating music]
00:01:29
[unsettling music] NARRATOR:<i> In December 2016,</i>
<i> a promising young art student,</i>
00:01:38
<i> Sarah Stern, went missing</i>
<i> in the leafy borough</i>
00:01:41
<i> of Neptune City, New Jersey.</i> - I'm Michael Stern,
father of Sarah Stern.
00:01:50
I've lived in Neptune
City all my life. It's a tight knit community. The population is just about
5,000, maybe a little bit less.
00:02:00
And everybody kind
of knows everybody. The housing, everything
is close together.
00:02:06
NARRATOR:<i> Sarah Lee Stern</i>
<i> arrived in this world</i>
00:02:09
<i> on March 24, 1997.</i> <i> She was a much wanted baby.</i>
00:02:16
MICHAEL STERN: We were very
happy, very proud parents. Sarah was just special. It was just the unconditional
love for another person.
00:02:25
And to me, it was just
the kind of spectacular. I mean, I loved
every minute of it.
00:02:32
She used to draw when
she was in grade school, but it wasn't until she
got into high school
00:02:39
where she was doing art,
photography and media that she just all of a sudden-- I would describe it as a-- as a
flower that was kind of the bud
00:02:52
was just on the vine. And then all of a sudden,
one day the sun came out and this bud opened up and it
was Sarah being artistic,
00:03:01
and I can't tell you how
proud I was of her talent and what she could do. NARRATOR:<i> On December 2, 2016,</i>
<i> while Michael Stern was away</i>
00:03:17
<i> on vacation,</i>
<i> Sarah's grandmother</i> <i> had become concerned that she</i>
<i> couldn't get a hold of her.</i>
00:03:24
MICHAEL STERN: I talked
to her the day before and everything was
in good spirits.
00:03:31
Her grandma talked
to Sarah every day. And on that Friday,
unfortunately, she couldn't
00:03:36
get in touch with her. So she sent me a message
and I said, well, it's early.
00:03:41
I said, she may be--
she may be out or-- I tried texting her from 10
o'clock at night until midnight
00:03:49
and had-- wasn't getting
any word from her. Everything was
going to voicemail,
00:03:54
and we just didn't
know what was going on. 911 DISPATCHER (ON PHONE):
<i> 911, where's the emergency?</i>
00:04:03
MAN (ON PHONE):<i> Actually,</i>
<i> on the Belmar Bridge,</i>
00:04:05
<i> heading south in the middle</i>
<i> of the bridge.</i>
00:04:08
<i> There's a car that's abandoned.</i> 911 DISPATCHER (ON
PHONE):<i> The Belmar Bridge</i>
00:04:11
<i> being the 35 Bridge?</i> MAN (ON PHONE):
<i> Yeah, the 35 Bridge.</i>
00:04:17
- My name is Meghan Doyle. I have been a lawyer
for 25 years. I was a Monmouth
County prosecutor
00:04:23
for 24 of those years. There was a call at night
that a car was abandoned on the Belmar Bridge,
and it appeared that it
00:04:33
was a possible suicide. POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> 1-9-0-10, can</i> <i> you see if we have any contact</i>
<i> info for the</i> [indistinct].
00:04:47
NARRATOR:<i> The car</i>
<i> was registered</i> <i> to Sarah's grandmother,</i>
<i> who told them</i>
00:04:51
<i> it was only used by Sarah.</i> <i> Police dispatched</i>
<i> a unit to the home</i>
00:04:57
<i> Sarah shared with her father.</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):
[indistinct].
00:05:02
POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> Trying</i>
<i> to locate the registered owner.</i>
00:05:05
<i> There's nobody</i>
<i> in the house so far.</i> MICHAEL STERN: It was
maybe three hours later,
00:05:11
I got a call from
the police department that her car was found on the
bridge, and Sarah was missing.
00:05:23
We just packed up our bags
at 3 o'clock in the morning, got in the car and started
driving back to New Jersey.
00:05:30
It's a 15-hour trip. In the meantime, they had
already started search parties and water searches.
00:05:38
There were scuba
divers in and nobody knew what happened to Sarah. We couldn't find her.
00:05:44
BRYANNA FOX: They searched
the river up and down, trying to find a body, which
in the middle of winter should
00:05:49
have been pretty
easy to identify through a broken ice and to see
her body, but they didn't.
00:05:58
I'm Dr. Bryanna Fox. I'm a psychological
criminologist at the University
of South Florida and
00:06:04
a former FBI Special Agent. When police are essentially
raiding the missing person's
00:06:12
vulnerability,
they look at things like age, mental capacity,
financial victimhood.
00:06:17
They look at if they
could be ransomed. All of that leads
to them to think it was this person just
gone unexpectedly
00:06:25
for a little while. Are they somewhere else,
or are they in serious danger? MEGHAN DOYLE:
Sarah's grandmother
00:06:31
indicated that the car
was given to Sarah, and Sarah was the only
one who drove it.
00:06:37
So Sarah would be the one
who had left it there. POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> There's</i>
<i> nobody in the house so far.</i>
00:06:44
NARRATOR:<i> The search revealed</i>
<i> that the family dog had</i>
00:06:46
<i> been locked up in a cage,</i>
<i> but there was no other sign</i>
00:06:49
<i> that anyone was there.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: The police
started talking to her friends.
00:06:54
Sarah had a very tight
little group of friends, but I don't know if you
would say she had a million
00:07:00
friends all the time. She was into what you
would call like Comic-Con, and things like that.
00:07:07
So she traveled a lot up
to Canada, to California, doing those types of things. MICHAEL STERN: She
had a lot of friends,
00:07:13
a lot of acquaintances,
and as she went through grammar
school and high school, she developed a lot
of different friendships
00:07:21
from different areas. NARRATOR:<i> Liam McAtasney was</i>
<i> one of Sarah's friend group</i>
00:07:28
<i> from high school.</i> <i> Michael said he and Sarah</i>
<i> had become closer recently.</i>
00:07:34
MEGHAN DOYLE: Liam
grew up in Neptune, went to school with Sarah. They had grown up together,
doing all kinds of things
00:07:42
at each other's houses,
knew each other's families. MICHAEL STERN: She was
a very warm person,
00:07:47
and if she liked you, she liked
you and you were a friend. And she didn't, she just
didn't-- didn't have
00:07:54
anything to do with you. She's just kind
of happy go lucky. And, you know, she kind
of went along with the flow.
00:08:01
So everything was-- was
good with her friends and she enjoy being
around her friends.
00:08:11
NARRATOR:<i> Liam was best</i>
<i> friends with Sarah's prom</i>
00:08:13
<i> date, Preston Taylor.</i> <i> The three of them</i>
<i> had become very</i>
00:08:17
<i> close for the last few months.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: They were
typical 19-year-old kids.
00:08:23
Liam worked as a waiter
at a restaurant in Neptune, and Preston worked with his
dad, I believe, doing painting.
00:08:31
I think they were humble kids. Most 19-year-olds,
they're not driving around in BMWs or Porsches,
or anything crazy like that.
00:08:40
They were just trying
to find their way. Liam was the last
person she was with. The police went to his house.
00:08:47
He seemed to be a very
concerned friend. POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> You got a second,</i>
00:08:51
<i> can I come in and talk</i>
<i> to you real quick?</i>
00:08:52
LIAM MCATASNEY (ON VIDEO):
<i> Yeah, no problem, officer.</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> Is</i>
<i> Sarah here by chance?</i>
00:08:55
LIAM MCATASNEY (ON VIDEO):<i> No.</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> When was the</i>
<i> last time you talked to her?</i>
00:08:58
LIAM MCATASNEY (ON VIDEO):
<i> I was with her today.</i> NARRATOR:<i> As the sun</i>
<i> came up, the whole town</i>
00:09:09
<i> was searching for Sarah.</i> - The next day,
when I got to work at the Monmouth County
Prosecutor's Office,
00:09:16
I was asked to do some
search warrants to start to see if we could
figure out a paper trail
00:09:22
or some type of trail from
a computer or something as to where she possibly was.
00:09:30
NARRATOR:<i> As with any</i>
<i> missing person case,</i>
00:09:32
<i> investigators had</i>
<i> to understand who Sarah was.</i>
00:09:36
<i> Until Sarah's dad</i>
<i> returned, their best</i>
00:09:38
<i> witnesses were her friends.</i> - They then go to Liam
and being like, listen,
00:09:43
we don't know where she is,
if she went in the water, if she left. Liam said I was
with her all day.
00:09:50
POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> What's going on with her?</i> <i> How's she been acting lately?</i>
00:09:54
<i> The same?</i> <i> Different?</i> <i> Liam, you've known her for</i>
<i> since first grade, you said.</i>
00:09:58
<i> - Yeah.</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> Has she been</i>
<i> different than normal lately?</i>
00:10:01
<i> - Well--</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> And for how long?</i>
00:10:04
<i> - In the past, she</i>
<i> has had a tendency</i> <i> to have self-destructive,</i>
<i> suicidal behavior.</i>
00:10:12
<i> Over the past few months, she's</i>
<i> been telling me-- excuse me.</i>
00:10:17
<i> How bad her relationship</i>
<i> with her father is</i>
00:10:21
<i> and how she just needs</i>
<i> to get out of here.</i>
00:10:24
POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> Why was it bad?</i> <i> What made it bad?</i>
00:10:28
<i> - Fighting.</i> POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> Arguing, fighting?</i>
00:10:30
<i> - Arguing, fighting.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: At that moment,
we know that she's not
00:10:33
where she's supposed to be. She's not with Liam, who
she was with all day.
00:10:37
She's not at her house. And they would be the only
two places she would be. And she's not with her car.
00:10:44
NARRATOR:<i> The working</i>
<i> theory was that Sarah may</i>
00:10:46
<i> have jumped from the bridge.</i> <i> Her father, Michael, was still</i>
<i> thousands of miles away and</i>
00:10:51
<i> growing increasingly worried.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: You can
see the text messages
00:10:56
going from a daddy-daughter,
like sweet moment, and then the panic
starts to set in.
00:11:04
Sarah, is everything OK? Sarah, they found your car. Sarah, you're not answering.
00:11:11
And they escalate and escalate,
and the panic is so obvious. NARRATOR:<i> By December</i>
<i> 5, Michael Stern</i>
00:11:25
<i> was still racing back from</i>
<i> a vacation in Disneyland,</i>
00:11:29
<i> unaware of what was</i>
<i> happening at home.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE:
The first few days
00:11:34
of this, we did not have a lot
of contact with Michael Stern. It was with Liam
because Michael Stern
00:11:39
was driving back from Florida. We were beginning
to believe that maybe she had a problem with dad.
00:11:50
NARRATOR:<i> While the authorities</i>
<i> waited for Michael to return,</i>
00:11:53
<i> the police, led</i>
<i> by Detective Brian Weisbrot,</i>
00:11:56
<i> continued to talk</i>
<i> to Sarah's closest friends,</i>
00:11:59
<i> including Liam and his</i>
<i> roommate Preston.</i>
00:12:01
BRIAN WEISBROT (ON
VIDEO):<i> Hey, Liam.</i> <i> Thanks for coming in, man.</i>
00:12:03
<i> - Yeah, no problem.</i> <i> - Do you have to work</i>
<i> or you're off?</i>
00:12:08
<i> - I'm off.</i>
- You're off. <i> - No, I actually have--</i>
<i> supposed to have school all</i>
00:12:12
<i> day, but I emailed</i>
<i> all my professors,</i> <i> and they said it's fine if I</i>
<i> don't come in this week.</i>
00:12:17
<i> - OK.</i> <i> - Yeah.</i> <i> - Why aren't you</i>
<i> going to go in?</i>
00:12:23
<i> - This whole thing is still on.</i> <i> I don't know.</i>
00:12:26
[indistinct speech]<i> to be</i>
<i> taking finals this week.</i>
00:12:33
<i> - OK.</i> <i> Did you go to school</i>
<i> with Sarah as well?</i>
00:12:39
<i> - Yeah, they were all</i>
<i> in a friend</i> group.
00:12:41
<i> That was essentially who</i>
<i> I started hanging out</i>
00:12:43
<i> with when I was high school.</i> <i> - Now, is she near or is she</i>
<i> older or younger than you?</i>
00:12:48
<i> - She's a same age.</i> <i> - Same age.</i> <i> You guys graduated together.</i>
00:12:55
<i> Our police officers from</i>
<i> the state police, the divers,</i>
00:12:59
<i> to us, to the other detectives</i>
<i> that you met over the weekend</i>
00:13:03
<i> trying to find Sarah.</i> <i> And there's a lot</i>
<i> of resources involved here.</i>
00:13:12
- Now, remember, this is
supposed to be his best friend. And Brian says, do you
have any questions for us?
00:13:19
Do you have any
questions for us regarding this investigation? And Liam says, I only have one.
00:13:29
<i> - She-- she did</i>
<i> jump off the bridge,</i> <i> what are the odds that she's</i>
<i> not somewhere all the way</i>
00:13:39
<i> out in the ocean by now?</i> - She would be super
far out at sea.
00:13:43
And he does that
with his hands. I was like, that's
your question? You've been talking about
how abusive our father is,
00:13:51
and the only question
you have is that-- so Brian walks out
and Brian says, he's lying.
00:13:58
Something else is going on. NARRATOR:<i> When Michael</i>
<i> Stern finally arrived back</i>
00:14:08
<i> in Neptune City,</i>
<i> he faced questions</i> <i> about his relationship</i>
<i> with Sarah.</i>
00:14:14
MEGHAN DOYLE: Well,
when you met Michael, he was not any of those things. He was quiet, but he was
immediately heartbroken.
00:14:25
And he would call
the detectives every day to be like, I know my daughter
did not kill herself.
00:14:29
And the pain you would
hear in his voice, the determination
in finding her, made it very clear
that this was not
00:14:37
a man who abused his daughter. BRYANNA FOX: So when it
appeared that Sarah had parked
00:14:45
her car at the top of this
bridge and had theoretically committed suicide,
investigators are looking
00:14:51
into this, but she had a dog
that she had just done surgery. $2,000 worth of surgery on
because she was so hopeful that
00:14:59
her dog was going to survive. It shows that she
had much to live for. MEGHAN DOYLE:
Michael Stern said
00:15:05
right away, Sarah never would
have left that dog in the cage. Something is wrong.
00:15:10
MICHAEL STERN: Sarah and Buddy. There she is. She was quite young
there, and Buddy--
00:15:18
Buddy lived to be a little
over 12 years old, and he was pretty cool. Sarah loved them.
00:15:28
MEGHAN DOYLE: I was at that
time assigned to major crimes, so we started treating
it as an investigation
00:15:36
of a possible homicide. NARRATOR:<i> In the town, everyone</i>
<i> was still searching for Sarah.</i>
00:15:42
MICHAEL STERN: When
Sarah went missing, we arranged a week
later a search party.
00:15:48
And that was done
through Sarah's cousin. We got together. We started doing thousands
and thousands of flyers
00:15:55
were distributed
all over the state. They went nationally. One of her friends
in the social media.
00:16:02
Within three days, he had
300,000 hits, you know, to help to find Sarah. So that's the kind
of people that Sarah knew.
00:16:13
NARRATOR:<i> One thing that soon</i>
<i> became clear to prosecutor</i>
00:16:16
<i> Meghan and the police was</i>
<i> that there was a lot talk</i>
00:16:20
<i> about Sarah's inheritance.</i> MICHAEL STERN: Well,
Sarah's mom, you know,
00:16:24
she had cancer for a little
over five years. It was bad at first, and then
she was in remission.
00:16:31
And when it came back, it
came back with a vengeance. And it was only a matter
of less than a year
00:16:39
that she passed away. MEGHAN DOYLE: The family
had another home in Sea Girt, which is another
beach town in Monmouth County.
00:16:51
Sarah was at that house, and as
she was walking up the stairs, there was a wall that had the
sheetrock or plaster taken off
00:17:00
of it, and you could
see the wooden planks that were behind it. When she looked, there
were boxes of money
00:17:06
that her mother had been
storing away for her. She had told very, very
few people about it.
00:17:15
NARRATOR:<i> There was a rumor</i>
<i> that Sarah could have</i>
00:17:17
<i> inherited as much as $100,000.</i> BRYANNA FOX: Sarah
being the person
00:17:23
that she was, she
didn't act like she had this large inheritance. She certainly didn't go
around telling people
00:17:30
the amount that she inherited. So it was sort of word of mouth
through this small community
00:17:34
that Sarah had received
a large sum of money when her mother had passed
away a few years earlier.
00:17:42
MICHAEL STERN: Her mom had
saved money over the years. Money from her
aunts and uncles.
00:17:47
Not too many people knew
about it, including me. Had I known about it, the money
would have been in the bank.
00:17:52
And I think when
it was discovered, someone told Sarah, don't
tell your dad because he'll
00:18:00
try to take it from you. That's pretty far
from the truth because we already established
a life fund for Sarah.
00:18:08
- Sarah, when she found the
money, she deposited some of it into the bank and put most
of it in safe deposit boxes
00:18:16
so it would stay
in cash the way it was. I think some of it was
to hold on to a little bit
00:18:22
of her mother, because she
had touched it. Her mother had hit it. It was her mother's that
that emotional part of it
00:18:30
was important to her. When she told her
friends, she told three friends that we know of.
00:18:40
I don't know if she
gave an amount. She did, at point, say it
was not hundreds of thousands
00:18:46
of dollars. It was about, I think, $38,000
and change-- maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
00:18:53
But it was all cash. - But unfortunately,
this led to some untruths about the amount
of inheritance,
00:19:02
but that was
actually unfounded. NARRATOR:<i> While Sarah</i>
<i> was still missing,</i>
00:19:11
<i> Liam became the center</i>
<i> of the police investigation.</i>
00:19:15
MICHAEL STERN:
Sarah's relationship with Liam McAtasney
went back years. Not only going to school
together in high school,
00:19:23
but also in the community. They were involved in the
volunteer fire department. McAtasney was in the same
church as Sarah was,
00:19:35
and they made
their confirmation together. And that was an important
step in, you know,
00:19:40
her growing in her religion. Although she wasn't
a highly religious person--
00:19:46
she did believe in God. And for some reason, that
led to trust amongst people. MEGHAN DOYLE:
The police did keep
00:19:54
going to talk to him because he
was the last one with Sarah, and I believe, they all
thought he was lying to us.
00:20:00
We thought that he
knew where she was and just wasn't telling us. LIAM MCATASNEY: I've
been friends with her
00:20:06
since first grade, so we have
a pretty good friendship. BRYANNA FOX: Liam
McAtasney was facing
00:20:15
a lot of financial hardship. He was making poor
life decisions, so he had a lot of struggles.
00:20:20
And when he saw Sarah and he
heard that she had received this large inheritance, he
thought, here's the solution
00:20:27
all of my problems. Liam McAtasney had
wild dreams about how this money was going
to come into his life,
00:20:35
and it was going to solve
all his problems, things he was going
to buy and what he was
00:20:39
going to spend the money on. NARRATOR:
<i> The authorities involved</i>
00:20:43
<i> in the search</i>
<i> for Sarah suspected</i> <i> that Liam and his best</i>
<i> friend Preston were</i>
00:20:48
<i> not being straight with them.</i> <i> Sarah's last movements</i>
<i> linked them with her.</i>
00:20:54
MEGHAN DOYLE: Liam and her
ran a bunch of errands. They went to Taco Bell. They went to a neighbor's house
to drop off some holiday stuff.
00:21:03
They also went to the bank. Neptune City being such
a family-oriented town. Everybody at the bank
knew who Sarah was.
00:21:12
You see her walk into the bank
smiling, waving at people. You could tell the greeting
was just so warm.
00:21:21
Liam stayed in the car. When they got home,
she went upstairs and put that money in a safe.
00:21:27
Got a girlfriend named Carly
who lived across the street that they were planning
on going to Canada,
00:21:35
but not in a point where it
sounded like they were going that morning or that week.
00:21:42
MICHAEL STERN:
She liked Canada. She got a little Canada pin. And I-- I-- I can't even tell you what
some of this stuff is.
00:21:50
Set no path. Never-- never lose your way. And then don't
forget to be awesome.
00:22:02
NARRATOR:<i> Whenever</i>
<i> Liam spoke to anyone,</i> <i> he would talk about</i>
<i> Sarah's plans for Canada</i>
00:22:07
<i> and how she had</i>
<i> family problems.</i> BRYANNA FOX: And they're
interviewing him,
00:22:11
asking if he knew anything
about Sarah's disappearance, and he proposes several ideas.
00:22:16
These are sort
of face value theories that are very easily disproven. I mean, it shows that he didn't
really think this through.
00:22:24
Somebody who runs away
and goes to Canada doesn't have no
cell phone usage, have no financial
transactions whatsoever.
00:22:32
That would be very
easy for police to dispel almost
immediately and yet, he thinks this is going
to quell the police,
00:22:39
and then they'll
just say, oh, great. MEGHAN DOYLE: His story
pretty much stayed the same,
00:22:45
and it was all a lie. Every word that came
out of his mouth was to make the police look
somewhere else besides him,
00:22:55
to look somewhere else
besides it being a murder. Every single thing he and
Preston did from that point on,
00:23:02
we watched and we were
like, lie, lie lie lie lie. NARRATOR:<i> While</i>
<i> investigators were convinced</i>
00:23:15
<i> Liam wasn't being</i>
<i> straight with them,</i>
00:23:17
<i> there was no evidence</i>
<i> of wrongdoing.</i> <i> They needed a break.</i>
00:23:22
MEGHAN DOYLE:
So the Thanksgiving before Liam had a friend who he
spoke to about a movie idea--
00:23:33
Anthony Curry. And he said, wouldn't
it be a cool murder movie if somebody was killed?
00:23:41
We threw her off
the Belmar bridge, making it look like a suicide,
and then stole all her money.
00:23:49
Anthony didn't think
anything of it. He didn't really like
the story, I guess.
00:23:53
And that was it. I'm going to not call
it anything but luck. Anthony Curry seeing something
on Facebook about Sarah missing
00:24:02
and that her car was found
on the Belmar bridge. He called his father
and said Sarah's not missing.
00:24:11
She was murdered
and Liam did it. They then called
a friend who was a detective at the Monmouth
County Prosecutor's Office
00:24:21
who called us and said,
I think this missing girl is not missing. I think these
kids murdered her.
00:24:34
NARRATOR:<i> The police</i>
<i> had long suspected</i> <i> Liam had been</i>
<i> lying to them, but</i>
00:24:38
<i> they couldn't prove</i>
<i> anything till his friend</i>
00:24:41
<i> Anthony agreed to help.</i> BRYANNA FOX:
The police were already
00:24:44
interviewing Liam
McAtasney before this additional
information came forward, so they already had reason
that they were talking to him.
00:24:53
Anthony heard about
this case and thought, is it really possible
that he was involved?
00:24:59
And so it was Anthony
that went to the police and told the story to them. NARRATOR:<i> Anthony, an amateur</i>
<i> filmmaker, agreed to meet Liam,</i>
00:25:08
<i> with the aim of getting him to</i>
<i> admit what he did by secretly</i>
00:25:12
<i> recording their conversation.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: When Anthony
agreed to wear the wire,
00:25:20
it's the first
time in my career, I have ever seen a confession
that was not gotten by police.
00:25:28
It was just a friend talking
to a friend about what he did. - She had one safe
and she took money
00:25:35
out and she only had $10,000. NARRATOR:<i> Unaware</i>
<i> he was being filmed,</i>
00:25:42
<i> Liam proceeded to describe</i>
<i> to Anthony how he had planned</i>
00:25:46
<i> to rob Sarah of her money.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: When
you heard his tone,
00:25:50
his tone was no different
than my tone is right now. The parts of it that
would make the hair
00:25:55
on the back
of your neck stand up was how he talked about
how he planned it, how
00:26:00
he would watch what Sarah did. - I pretty much hung
her, like I just-- I picked her up
and had her just,
00:26:11
like dangling off the ground. MEGHAN DOYLE:
At some point, Liam decided it was going
to be a murder,
00:26:18
and him and Preston
had talked about it. MICHAEL STERN: They had
planned this and plotted it
00:26:24
and practice it to how
they were going to do it and what they were going to do,
what they were going to say,
00:26:30
and how they were going
to lie about things and try to make it look like
Sarah committed suicide.
00:26:36
And she had a bad
relationship with me. And that was the farthest
thing from the truth.
00:26:44
MEGHAN DOYLE: One day, Sarah
was with Liam the entire day. He convinced her
to go to the bank.
00:26:50
When they were at the bank,
he texted Preston and said, this is the day it's
going to happen.
00:26:56
And they went back
to Sarah's house. And according to Liam,
he strangled her.
00:27:03
It took her about 23
minutes to die because he timed it on his phone. - And it took me a half
an hour to kill her.
00:27:10
I thought I was going
to be able to choke her out and have her out
in like a couple minutes.
00:27:25
NARRATOR:<i> The police now</i>
<i> had a confession from Liam</i>
00:27:28
<i> that he had brutally</i>
<i> killed Sarah.</i> <i> However, they needed more</i>
<i> proof, so they questioned</i>
00:27:34
<i> Preston Taylor again.</i> <i> - We know what</i>
<i> happened to Sarah.</i>
00:27:41
<i> Ever since she was</i>
<i> reported missing,</i> <i> the Neptune City</i>
<i> Police Department,</i>
00:27:45
<i> the Belmar Police</i>
<i> Department and</i> <i> the Monmouth County</i>
<i> Prosecutor's Office</i>
00:27:49
<i> has been working tirelessly to</i>
<i> find out what happened to her.</i>
00:27:52
<i> And we did, OK?</i> <i> We know what</i>
<i> your involvement in it was.</i>
00:27:57
<i> All right?</i> <i> We want to talk</i>
<i> to you about that.</i>
00:28:00
<i> All right.</i> <i> What we're most</i>
<i> interested in knowing,</i>
00:28:03
<i> not necessarily what happened</i>
<i> because we already know that.</i>
00:28:07
<i> We want to know</i>
<i> why it happened.</i> <i> All right.</i>
00:28:10
<i> We want to know why</i>
<i> Liam did what he did.</i>
00:28:14
<i> - What'd he do?</i> <i> - He killed Sarah, OK?</i>
00:28:18
<i> And we know you</i>
<i> know that, right?</i> <i> You know that.</i>
00:28:23
<i> Correct?</i> <i> - Yes, correct.</i> - I think that the way Preston
was manipulated by Liam
00:28:29
was out of fear. And at some point, Preston
realized, if I don't go along with this, I could be next.
00:28:35
Not that he ever said that. That's just my perception,
based on the totality
00:28:40
of all of the evidence we had. <i> - Sarah just found a bunch</i>
<i> of money and that was it.</i>
00:28:46
<i> And then it wasn't until</i>
<i> about a month or two later,</i>
00:28:50
<i> he said that he was</i>
<i> coming up with the idea.</i>
00:28:52
<i> - OK.</i> <i> What did he-- what did he</i>
<i> tell you he planned on doing?</i>
00:28:59
<i> - Taking her out</i>
<i> and then find somewhere</i>
00:29:01
<i> to dispose of the body.</i> <i> - When you say taking her</i>
<i> out, what do you mean?</i>
00:29:06
<i> - Strangling her.</i> <i> - OK.</i> - Preston Taylor, he
actually participated
00:29:10
in the cover up of the murder,
so he helped Liam to dispose of Sarah's body.
00:29:16
This was after she was brutally
murdered, strangled, and very-- almost tortured,
psychologically,
00:29:23
if not physically. NARRATOR:<i> Following</i>
<i> the confession,</i>
00:29:27
<i> both Liam and Preston</i>
<i> were arrested and</i> <i> charged with Sarah's murder.</i>
00:29:33
MEGHAN DOYLE: He was
charged in February of 2017 with murder,
robbery, conspiracy,
00:29:40
desecration of human remains. The sentence could
be life to 30 years if it was determined he killed
Sarah with his own hands.
00:29:51
There's a bunch
of stuff to get like-- if my office had suggested
he plead guilty to anything
00:29:57
but life, I might have quit. I don't know if I would
have been able to do it.
00:30:01
That's how terrible I
thought the homicide was and how manipulative
and horrible
00:30:08
he was that he would
go out and do it again. BRYANNA FOX: Police knew that
Preston Taylor was involved
00:30:14
in this scheme and the cover
up of the murder with Liam McAtasney,
but essentially, they
00:30:19
do what they often do,
which is of the two people that were involved. One of them can
flip on the other.
00:30:27
And as they say, there's
no loyalty among thieves. Literally, that
applies to this case
00:30:33
where the same
betrayal that Preston was willing to show to his
good friend Sarah Stern.
00:30:39
He was just
as willing to betray his other friend,
Liam McAtasney, and turn on him to try
to save his own skin.
00:30:47
NARRATOR:<i> Police then took</i>
<i> Preston back to Sarah's house,</i>
00:30:50
<i> where he told them</i>
<i> the whole story firsthand.</i>
00:30:54
<i> - Liam went to grab the safe</i>
<i> from Sarah's bedroom,</i>
00:30:58
<i> and then we moved</i>
<i> Sarah's body from where</i>
00:31:00
<i> it was hidden in the bushes,</i>
<i> through the backyard</i>
00:31:04
<i> and over the fence into her</i>
<i> car parked on Midwood Street.</i>
00:31:09
<i> - OK.</i> <i> - I was informed beforehand</i>
<i> that the back door</i>
00:31:14
<i> would be left unlocked.</i> <i> - Who</i> told you that?
- Liam.
00:31:18
<i> - OK.</i> <i> - And I entered.</i> <i> When I entered, this</i>
<i> door was closed.</i>
00:31:28
<i> This one I couldn't</i>
<i> get open, but I was</i>
00:31:30
<i> able to push this one open.</i> <i> Enter.</i> <i> And Sarah was slumped</i>
<i> in this corner right here.</i>
00:31:39
<i> - OK.</i> <i> How was Sarah's body</i>
<i> positioned in this bathroom?</i>
00:31:44
<i> - She was sitting like</i>
<i> this, tucked into the corner</i>
00:31:51
<i> and leaning over the toilet.</i> - The doing and the undoing
of these two men
00:31:56
was all because of betrayal
of an innocent woman and then each other. POLICE (ON VIDEO):<i> Did you</i>
<i> help him put Sarah in the car?</i>
00:32:06
<i> - I helped him keep her in</i>
<i> while he got the door closed.</i>
00:32:08
<i> Yeah.</i> <i> - OK.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: They then
went to the Belmar Bridge.
00:32:14
Preston following, waiting
at the foot of the bridge. Liam drove with Sarah
in the passenger seat,
00:32:22
like she was sleeping. POLICE (ON VIDEO):
<i> What was the purpose</i>
00:32:24
<i> of traveling to the bridge?</i> <i> - To dispose of Sarah's body,</i>
<i> throwing it off the bridge</i>
00:32:32
<i> into the Marina.</i> <i> Liam had lifted Sarah's</i>
<i> body by the shoulders</i>
00:32:39
<i> and gotten her partially</i>
<i> up onto the curb,</i>
00:32:43
<i> where I then grabbed</i>
<i> her by the legs.</i> <i> Liam had her by the shoulders</i>
<i> and hoisted her up</i>
00:32:49
<i> onto the railing,</i>
<i> and then I pushed</i> <i> her feet over so that she was</i>
<i> going over the rest of the way.</i>
00:32:56
- And then they left
Sarah's car and left. NARRATOR:<i> Neptune</i>
<i> City and New Jersey</i>
00:33:06
<i> was shocked by the arrest of</i>
<i> two local teens, Liam McAtasney</i>
00:33:11
<i> and Preston Taylor,</i>
<i> for the murder</i> <i> of their friend Sarah Stern.</i>
00:33:16
MEGHAN DOYLE: I
think for Sarah, they were genuinely
her friends. I think for Liam,
he was friends
00:33:21
because he knew she
was an easy target, because she was so trusting. And for Preston, I think, he
kind of was along for the ride.
00:33:30
MICHAEL STERN: After McAtasney,
Preston Taylor were arrested, there was a lot
of motions filed.
00:33:36
So basically for a year,
it seemed like every month or so, there was
a motion filed.
00:33:42
They had a set dates. They had to have presentations. And going back and forth
to the-- the court.
00:33:50
MEGHAN DOYLE: Was very
obvious that Preston was controlled by Liam. Preston needed a place to live.
00:33:57
They lived in Liam's
family's back house. I think Preston was
afraid not to help him,
00:34:04
because I think he realized how
dangerous he could possibly be. We met with him
a number of times.
00:34:13
He definitely had a lot
of guilt about it, which I using a phrase
my grandmother used would be
00:34:20
crocodile tears, because you
could have stopped it and you were either afraid
to or were so greedy
00:34:27
that you really thought you
were going to get $100,000. NARRATOR:<i> One of the major</i>
<i> problems with the investigation</i>
00:34:41
<i> was that Sarah's body</i>
<i> had not been found.</i>
00:34:45
MEGHAN DOYLE: I think
what makes the case unique when you look at it,
initially, people
00:34:50
would say there was no body. She was never recovered. It was determined that she
was dumped into the water
00:34:55
and based on the waterway
there, its proximity to the ocean and the tides. They believe that within
the first 10 hours,
00:35:03
she would have been
out to sea by miles. But I think what
makes it unique, especially
for a Monmouth County,
00:35:10
was the fact that this
was a premeditated murder amongst friends. It was not something that
was a crime of opportunity.
00:35:18
It was not a drug
deal gone bad. It was not a domestic
violence situation. This was just a girl
who got targeted.
00:35:27
In my opinion, because Liam
wanted to know what it was like to kill somebody. BRYANNA FOX: Getting a murder
charge when there's no body
00:35:36
is difficult enough. But the fact that they were
willing to move forward with this case when
they didn't even
00:35:42
offer any location
of the body, is really something that's unusual. For some offenders, they
really relish in the fact
00:35:50
that they keep some
information from authorities. It allows them to feel
like I'm better than you.
00:35:56
NARRATOR:<i> Liam McAtasney</i>
<i> and Preston Taylor</i>
00:35:59
<i> finally went to court, but they</i>
<i> had very different approaches.</i>
00:36:04
MEGHAN DOYLE: Liam pled not
guilty to murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery,
desecration of human remains,
00:36:10
and I believe conspiracy
to commit murder. And Preston pled guilty
to robbery, conspiracy, and
00:36:18
desecration of human remains. The key pieces of evidence
in getting the conviction
00:36:24
were his statements to Anthony
Curry and the detectives being able to find all
of the evidence that
00:36:31
corroborated that statement. That-- that was it. NARRATOR:<i> With Preston</i>
<i> pleading guilty,</i>
00:36:39
<i> the prosecution took</i>
<i> the decision to use him</i>
00:36:42
<i> to testify against his friend.</i> - We had a confession. We had the video.
00:36:47
It was how do we
present it to a jury where they understand it. Because when you watch it
and you see it in real life,
00:36:56
like as it was happening,
Liam and Preston both appeared to be worried about Sarah.
00:37:02
It's not to know
they were lying and that was all
premeditated, that you see how calculated it was.
00:37:11
The only thing we needed to do
was get it in front of a jury and know the rules to get
all of the evidence in,
00:37:16
but they did a phenomenal job. All of them. NARRATOR:<i> In court, Preston</i>
<i> Taylor took the stand</i>
00:37:24
<i> and gave evidence</i>
<i> against his best friend.</i>
00:37:27
BRYANNA FOX: Preston
Taylor ultimately did cooperate with
police, and in addition
00:37:31
to a full confession,
he led police to two safes that had both
the money they had taken
00:37:37
from Sarah's safe
deposit box, but it also had her clothes in it. MEGHAN DOYLE: It
took those safes.
00:37:43
There were two of them. Took them and buried
them in Sandy Hook. So I don't know if they
ever had planned
00:37:50
to go back to get them. BRYANNA FOX:
So that conclusively linked Preston and Liam
to Sarah's death,
00:37:57
but I think this was done
not because he felt guilty or any remorse about the crime.
00:38:03
I think it was
just to try to get a lighter sentence for himself
by turning in his friend.
00:38:09
NARRATOR:<i> Once the jury</i>
<i> had heard Preston's story,</i>
00:38:12
<i> Liam's horrifying confession</i>
<i> to Anthony was played in court.</i>
00:38:17
MEGHAN DOYLE: Legally playing
in court was very difficult. It was very difficult
for Anthony to watch.
00:38:22
It was difficult
for the victim's family to hear it because it
was so calculated,
00:38:27
and you knew at that
point that this had been something
that was planned by a friend for at least six
months before it happened.
00:38:40
- The worst part of it
was going to court and finally seeing
the videotape that was recorded by the Monmouth
County detectives was the most
00:38:54
gut wrenching feeling I've
ever had in my life knowing what happened to Sarah.
00:39:00
And-- and being-- being
described by the person that put her hands around her and
choked her to death, it was--
00:39:07
was just the most devastating. I can't even explain how
numbing the feeling is.
00:39:16
<i> - I picked her up</i>
<i> and had her just</i> <i> like dangling off the ground.</i>
00:39:21
- Knowing that's what
happened to your only child who had so much to live for
and was so into life herself.
00:39:34
And through greed and planning,
it was just a horrible thing to go through it. BRYANNA FOX: When
Liam was discussing
00:39:46
the crime with Anthony, he was
discussing it in vivid detail. However, later
in court, he said
00:39:56
it was just emphasizing and
detailing more about his movie plot and that he
was just so into it
00:40:02
and he was discussing
this film he was making. So he was trying to convince
the jurors that, in fact, he
00:40:10
was not responsible. He just so happened
to have this movie script that was so eerily close
to the way Sarah had died.
00:40:18
MEGHAN DOYLE: It's
very hard to determine what Liam's motive was. If it was to steal
a shoebox under her bed,
00:40:24
if it was to get
more money, he did take her to the bank
that day, where she removed about $10,000.
00:40:35
That money was put
in a safe in her room if it was not something that
was hard for them to take.
00:40:44
MICHAEL STERN: If you look
at some of the interviews that were done, especially
the initial interviews
00:40:49
with the police department
in Neptune City and the detectives, that
his answers were--
00:40:55
were planned out and purposeful
to try to keep the pressure off of him and any involvement.
00:41:03
<i> - In the past, she</i>
<i> has had a tendency</i> <i> to have self-destructive</i>
<i> suicidal behavior.</i>
00:41:13
- But as things develop and you
look back in retrospect, there was a lot
of signs and signals
00:41:19
that he should have
been under more scrutiny and probably should have been
questioned much more intensely.
00:41:26
<i> - What are the odds that she's</i>
<i> not somewhere all the way</i>
00:41:29
<i> out in the ocean by now.</i> - And possibly arrested
prior to the two months
00:41:37
that it took before they
actually arrested him. NARRATOR:<i> After</i>
<i> all the evidence,</i>
00:41:45
<i> the jury considered</i>
<i> their verdict</i> <i> and came back with</i>
<i> a unanimous verdict.</i>
00:41:50
MEGHAN DOYLE: No matter how
well we thought we prepared, no matter what we
thought the evidence
00:41:55
was, we still never know
what people are going to do. There's 12 jurors who
have to decide what's
00:42:01
going to happen
in a closed room so you don't know what
they're going to do.
00:42:04
So that was a great feeling. But within seconds
of hearing guilty, you heard her father
burst into tears.
00:42:18
BRYANNA FOX: Well, this is
every parent's worst nightmare to have a child that
was so well raised,
00:42:24
had to deal with so much
difficulty in their life and overcome it. Have something
so tragic occur to them
00:42:30
unnecessarily, especially
by a friend, someone that she trusted. NARRATOR:<i> Preston was</i>
<i> sentenced to 18 years.</i>
00:42:40
<i> Liam was sentenced</i>
<i> to life without parole.</i>
00:42:43
<i> Both lost appeals.</i> MEGHAN DOYLE: When
it first happened and people were talking
about him getting life
00:42:50
and how great that is,
and he'll never get out, it's hard not
to think, well, there's
00:42:54
a father who's never going
to get to see his daughter. A grandmother who passed away
before the verdict came back.
00:43:01
Friends who are never going
to get to do the things they wanted to do. And a 19-year-old
girl who didn't get
00:43:07
to live out her dreams. So I feel like when you look
at it that way, life in jail
00:43:12
is, what is that? Like, is it gratifying? Not really. MICHAEL STERN: It's
hard to describe
00:43:19
the feeling I had
for the people that helped along the way,
both the prosecutors.
00:43:27
But Meghan was, I
think, as a woman and realizing what happened
to Sarah and how it happened,
00:43:33
I think she-- she felt
emotionally attached. BRYANNA FOX:
But for the inheritance
00:43:41
that Sarah had received
from her mother, she would probably not be the
target of this financial crime.
00:43:49
People that she
trusted, that she knew in the small community
growing up ultimately turned
00:43:55
against her and used
what they thought was this big income
they were going to get and use that as the
motivation to kill Sarah.
00:44:09
- When you look at this case
and the huge community outreach and the searches and Liam's
involvement in the searches
00:44:16
and talking to news cameras
when these searches would happen, and cooperating
with the police,
00:44:22
saying this is where she is,
this is where she could be. This is why she left. It is infuriating because you
see how manipulative and
00:44:31
calculated he was. MICHAEL STERN: Remember
Sarah, you know, and I keep her in my heart.
00:44:38
But we have plenty
of photographs. And the people around us,
the neighbors, they understand.
00:44:46
And people come up to me
that I don't really know. And they may see me out maybe
shopping or at a food store,
00:44:52
and they just come up to me
and they know the story. And we had a celebration
of life for Sarah,
00:45:03
which about 1,200 people
attended, maybe more. We didn't-- we lost
count after a while,
00:45:09
but it went on for about
nine hours, 10 hours, and it was just a nice celebration.
00:45:18
BRYANNA FOX: Sarah Stern was
really an all-American girl. She was about 19 years old
at the time of her demise.
00:45:26
She was well-liked,
very sweet, loving. She had some
struggles in her life. Her mother had passed from
a long struggle of cancer.
00:45:36
This was a girl that
really was trying to overcome all of the defeat
that she had felt in her life,
00:45:42
but she was all-American
story and somebody that we all were rooting for. MICHAEL STERN: We did start a
scholarship after we found out
00:45:53
what happened with
Sarah, and we've been doing an art scholarship,
basically art media photography
00:46:02
through Neptune High School. We've done nine years so far. The arts are important, you
know, in all parts of life.
00:46:14
And I think to honor Sarah with
the memorial is-- is important. [somber music] [exhilarating music]