The Sarah Stern Murder Case: Confession, Trial, and Appeals

The Sarah Stern murder case ended with a life sentence for Liam McAtasney, the childhood friend who strangled the 19-year-old Neptune City, New Jersey artist on December 2, 2016, to steal roughly $10,000 from a safe her late mother had left her. McAtasney and his roommate Preston Taylor threw Stern’s body off the Route 35 bridge into the Shark River in Belmar, and her remains have never been found. A jury convicted McAtasney of first-degree murder in February 2019 after hearing a secretly recorded confession, and he is serving life without the possibility of parole. Taylor pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors, and received 18 years.

Who Sarah Stern Was and How She Was Killed

Sarah Stern’s mother died of cancer in 2013 and left behind money that Stern kept in a safe at her family’s home in Neptune City. In September 2016, McAtasney learned about the inheritance and began planning to rob and kill her. Prosecutors said he spent about six months on the plan and told Taylor that Stern had the “type of money somebody would kill for.”¹ He expected $50,000 to $100,000. He got about $10,000.²

On December 2, 2016, McAtasney went to Stern’s home and strangled her. He later admitted the killing took about 30 minutes.³ Taylor came to the house, helped hide the body in the backyard under bushes and leaves, and later helped move it to the Route 35 bridge, where the two threw it into the Shark River.⁴ To stage a suicide, they left Stern’s 1994 Oldsmobile on the bridge with the keys in the ignition. Neptune Township police found the car the next morning. Divers found nothing.

The Recorded Confession That Broke the Case

The case turned on a friend of McAtasney’s named Anthony Curry, a young filmmaker who had known him since high school. On Thanksgiving 2016, days before the murder, McAtasney had described to Curry what sounded like a plan to strangle a girl and throw her off a bridge. Curry brushed it off at the time as one of McAtasney’s movie ideas. After Stern vanished, McAtasney began calling him daily, asking whether police had questioned him.³

In January 2017, Curry went to police. Investigators equipped him with hidden audio and video devices and sent him to meet McAtasney in a car in Bradley Beach. McAtasney patted Curry down for a wire, did not find one, and then described the killing in detail. On the recording he said, “It took me half an hour to kill her,” and complained that he had expected far more than the $10,000 he found.⁵ Taylor was arrested the day after the recording. Both men were formally arrested on February 1, 2017.

Taylor began cooperating almost immediately. He told authorities where two safes were buried, one at Shark River Park and one at Sandy Hook. On February 6, 2017, investigators recovered them. Thousands of dollars in old bills were inside one, which opened with a key on McAtasney’s keychain.⁶

Preston Taylor’s Guilty Plea

Taylor had been McAtasney’s roommate and was Sarah Stern’s prom date. On April 24, 2017, he waived indictment and pleaded guilty to six charges: first-degree robbery, second-degree conspiracy to commit robbery, second-degree disturbing or desecrating human remains, fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence, and two counts of third-degree hindering apprehension. In exchange for his testimony against McAtasney, prosecutors dismissed the felony murder charge. He admitted receiving $3,000 from the roughly $10,000 stolen.⁴

The Trial and the No-Body Defense

McAtasney’s trial began January 23, 2019, in Monmouth County Superior Court in Freehold. A grand jury had indicted him on seven counts in April 2017: murder, felony murder, robbery, desecrating human remains, conspiracy to desecrate human remains, tampering with evidence, and hindering apprehension.⁷

The prosecution’s case had three pillars: the video-recorded confession, Taylor’s testimony, and the buried safes. Jurors watched McAtasney describe the strangulation on camera, including that Stern went into convulsions before she died.⁸ Phone records showed McAtasney had started a timer on his phone at 4:15 p.m. on December 2, 2016, matching the timeline in his confession.⁶

Defense attorney Carlos Diaz-Cobo argued that without a body there was reasonable doubt Stern was even dead. He pointed to a witness, Craig Hetzel, who claimed to have seen her alive the day after the alleged murder, and he suggested McAtasney’s recorded statements were a “movie audition.” Curry rejected that on the stand: “That wasn’t no movie audition. That’s real life.”³

Prosecutor Christopher Decker addressed the no-body argument directly: “Not having a body is not reasonable doubt when you have two involved saying we killed her, we threw her off the bridge, we took her money.”⁶ New Jersey has allowed no-body homicide convictions since a 1975 case in which the appellate division held that “the successful concealment or destruction of the victim’s body should not preclude prosecution of his or her killer where proof of guilt can be established beyond a reasonable doubt.”⁹

On February 26, 2019, the jury found McAtasney guilty on all seven counts.¹⁰

Sentencing

On June 21, 2019, Superior Court Judge Richard W. English sentenced McAtasney to life without parole for the murder plus a consecutive 10-year term for desecrating human remains. English called the crime “a heinous event” and noted the depth of the betrayal: “This involved two people who knew each other since grammar school. He came up with this plan for six months prior and convinced someone else to take part.” He credited Curry as well: “If not for Mr. Curry, this could have been a cold case.”² The prosecutor told reporters afterward that he would have sought the death penalty had it been available in New Jersey.¹¹

Michael Stern, Sarah’s father, wore a purple shirt to the hearing in honor of his daughter’s favorite color. He told the court he was “devastated and numb from shock” when detectives told him she had been murdered. “I’ve had horrific dreams and nightmares. The horrid act of what happened to her body haunts me every day. I will never be able to hug Sarah again.”²

A week later, on June 28, 2019, Judge English sentenced Taylor to 18 years, subject to the No Early Release Act, which requires him to serve at least 15 years before parole eligibility. His parole eligibility date is May 20, 2032.¹² The 18 years exceeded the 15-year term prosecutors had recommended. English acknowledged the cooperation but noted Taylor started talking to authorities only after McAtasney’s confession had already led to both arrests. “He is going to get out. Sarah Stern is gone,” English said.¹³ A state appellate panel upheld Taylor’s sentence in February 2022, though it remanded for a hearing on his ability to pay a $10,000 fine on the robbery count. As of 2022 he was incarcerated at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton.¹⁴

Appeals Through 2025

McAtasney has lost two appeals. His direct appeal was denied in 2023, and the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to take the case. He then filed a petition for post-conviction relief claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, alleging his trial attorney had been intoxicated during the 2019 trial, and asserting prosecutorial misconduct. Trial judge Michael A. Guadagno denied the petition in a 31-page opinion without an evidentiary hearing.¹

On November 6, 2025, a two-judge state appellate panel affirmed. It called the intoxication allegation a “bald assertion unsubstantiated by any record evidence” and found the prosecutors’ trial conduct to be “fair comment on the evidence.”¹⁵ McAtasney remains at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, serving life without parole.

How Sarah Stern Is Remembered

Sarah Stern was active in the Neptune High School Art Club, and teachers described her as a “fearless artist” with a “compassionate nature.”¹⁶ Her art department chair remembered her “contagious joy” in the classroom.¹⁷

A memorial scholarship was established in 2016 at Neptune High School and awards $1,000 to a graduating senior pursuing post-secondary study in fine, visual, media, or performing arts.¹⁶ Her cousin Lindsey Bahr organized a memorial art show at an Asbury Park venue in 2023 featuring Sarah’s own work.¹⁸ Friends and family gather on the Route 35 bridge on her birthday to decorate a memorial with flowers and balloons. Because her body was never recovered, no traditional funeral has been held.

1
NJ.com. Man Loses 2nd Appeal in Murder of Childhood Friend Sarah Stern
2
ABC News. Liam McAtasney Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Murdering Friend Sarah Stern
3
ABC News. Filmmaker Explains How He Helped Police Record Friend Confessing to Sarah Stern Murder
4
New Jersey Courts. State v. Preston O. Taylor, A-2155-19
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6ABC. Jurors Hear Chilling Confession in NJ Childhood Friend Murder
6
Asbury Park Press. Sarah Stern Defense Lawyer: Without Body There Is No Murder
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Asbury Park Press. Plea Expected in Sarah Stern Murder Case
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ABC7 NY. Jurors Hear Chilling, Grisly Confession in Sarah Stern Trial
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Asbury Park Press. Sarah Stern Murder Not First No-Body Homicide Case
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6ABC. Ex-Classmate Gets Life in Prison for Sarah Stern Murder
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NBC New York. Sarah Stern: Ex-Classmate Gets Life in Prison for NJ Murder
12
Asbury Park Press. Sarah Stern Murder: Preston Taylor Loses Appeal for Reduced Sentence
13
Fox 5 NY. Judge Declines to Reduce Sentence in Slaying Role
14
NJ.com. Court Upholds Sentence of Man Who Tossed His Friend Sarah Stern’s Body Off Jersey Shore Bridge
15
New Jersey Courts. State v. Liam P. McAtasney, A-2845-23
16
TAPinto. The Sarah Stern Scholarship for the Arts: Honoring a Legacy of Creativity and Compassion
17
Asbury Park Press. Sarah Stern Arts Scholarship
18
Asbury Park Press. Sarah Stern Death: Murder Victim Honored at Asbury Park Art Show