What Did Jennifer Soto Know About Madeline Soto’s Abuse?

Jennifer Soto, the mother of 13-year-old Madeline Soto, told Orange County detectives she had been “oblivious” to the sexual abuse her boyfriend Stephan Sterns inflicted on her daughter for years. What Jennifer Soto knew, based on her own statements to police and the investigative record, is more complicated than that: she acknowledged a photograph of oral sex involving her daughter when detectives showed it to her, she told Sterns her “biggest fear” was that Madeline would run away with him at 18, and she arranged for the two to share a bed the night before Madeline disappeared. Investigators wrote that she “accepted the victimization” of her daughter and that her emotions during questioning “appeared fictitious.” She has not been charged with a crime.¹²

What She Admitted in Police Interviews

Jennifer Soto was interviewed by Orange County Sheriff’s Office detectives on the night of February 27, 2024, the day after she reported Madeline missing, and again on March 1, 2024, after her daughter’s body was recovered from woods off Hickory Tree Road in Osceola County.¹

Her default position with detectives was that she had seen nothing. Sterns “never mentioned anything,” she said, and she had “never seen any signs” of abuse. That position broke when detectives put a specific image in front of her. Shown a photograph recovered from Sterns’ phone depicting oral sex, Jennifer told investigators: “I saw the picture of the oral sex happening… I knew that that was true.”¹

During the same interview, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office incident report, Jennifer referred to the sexual abuse of her daughter as “not evil” while calling the murder “evil.” The report said she “continuously protected Stephan Sterns” during portions of the questioning and was pressed on why she appeared to prioritize him over Madeline. A detective wrote that she “accepted the victimization” of her daughter.¹³

Even after Sterns’ arrest, Jennifer told investigators she had urged his father to get him a lawyer because she believed police were “chasing the wrong person” and that Madeline was still alive.³

The “Woody Allen” Fear She Named Herself

Jennifer told detectives she had “always” told Sterns that her “biggest fear” was a “Woody Allen situation” — that Madeline would turn 18 and run away with him.⁴ The admission placed a specific, named worry about a sexual relationship between her boyfriend and her daughter on the record, voiced by Jennifer herself and spoken to Sterns directly, well before Madeline’s death.

Sterns described that same awareness to his own parents. In jailhouse phone calls after his arrest, his mother asked why Jennifer would “send her in there to sleep with you.” Sterns replied that Jennifer knew he had “certain feelings” toward Madeline and that she had “joked about it,” calling it an “Electra complex.”⁵

The Sleeping Arrangements She Permitted

Jennifer told detectives she asked Madeline and Sterns to sleep together in an upstairs guest bedroom on the night before Madeline’s disappearance so that she could get “a good night’s sleep” for her new job. She described this as a rare occurrence.⁶

Law enforcement reports contradicted that characterization. Investigators found it was “not unusual” for the three to share a bed, or for Sterns to sleep in the same bed as Madeline while Jennifer slept elsewhere or was not home. Even during a period in late 2023 when Jennifer and Sterns had briefly broken up, Sterns reportedly continued sleeping at the Soto home and in the same bed as Madeline.⁶

Jennifer told her roommate it was acceptable for Sterns to be alone with Madeline because he “wouldn’t harm” her and treated her “as his daughter.” Sterns justified the arrangement to others by claiming Madeline “always needed human contact when going to sleep” and referring to the behavior as “snuggling.”⁷

A woman who briefly dated Sterns during the 2023 breakup told detectives Sterns said he “needed to cuddle with her so she could fall asleep” and recalled him telling her he had woken up in bed with Madeline with an erection. She found the comments inappropriate and stopped seeing him.⁸

What People in the Home Heard

The roommate who shared the condominium told investigators she heard noises coming from the upstairs bedroom on the night before Madeline’s disappearance, and said the sounds had to have been “significant” to travel through two closed doors and across a hallway. Madeline herself lived in a makeshift bedroom behind a divider wall in the living room of the condominium.⁷

Sterns’ own father, Chris Sterns, told investigators Jennifer was “as culpable as he is” regarding the death of her daughter.⁹ The abuse material recovered from Sterns’ phone and Google Drive dated back to 2019, when Madeline was eight. State attorney documents described her as having been “extremely sexually assaulted for years” before her death at 13.¹⁰

Inconsistencies in Her Account

Jennifer initially told detectives she last saw Madeline around 11 p.m. on Sunday, February 25, 2024, and heard someone getting ready for school the next morning. She then backtracked, admitting the morning noises could have come from her two roommates rather than Madeline, and said she was asleep and did not see her daughter leave the house.⁶ Supplemental Kissimmee Police Department reports noted “inconsistencies in the accounts” given by both Jennifer and Sterns about Madeline’s whereabouts that day.³

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office report noted that Jennifer’s emotions during her interview “appeared fictitious.” Detectives told her directly they did not believe she was unaware of the abuse.¹

Why Jennifer Soto Has Not Been Charged

Despite the admissions, the inconsistencies, and the investigators’ documented skepticism, Jennifer Soto has not been charged with any crime connected to her daughter’s abuse or death. The Kissimmee Police Department said it had “no plans to file charges” against her. Sources told reporters she had “done nothing criminal” and that deputies had not found evidence to charge her. Police described her as cooperating with the investigation.²¹¹

Stephan Sterns pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and guilty to 20 counts of sexual abuse on July 21, 2025, and received 21 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.¹² As of mid-2025, no subsequent reporting has indicated any change in Jennifer Soto’s legal status. The question of whether she should face charges for failure to protect or neglect has remained the subject of public debate and continued media coverage, but prosecutors in Osceola County have treated her as a witness rather than a defendant.¹¹

1
Click Orlando. “I Was Oblivious”: Madeline Soto’s Mother Interviewed by Detectives
2
WFTV. Madeline Soto Case: Deputies Release Interview With Jennifer Soto
3
Fox 13. Madeline Soto’s Mom Knew Stephan Sterns Was Grooming, Abusing Her Daughter, New Docs Reveal
4
Click Orlando. Madeline Soto’s Mother Feared “Woody Allen Situation” Between Boyfriend and Daughter
5
WESH. Jailhouse Calls: Stephan Sterns, Madeline Soto Case
6
Fox 35 Orlando. Madeline Soto: Jennifer Soto, Stephan Sterns Sleeping Arrangements Night Before Death
7
Click Orlando. Full Timeline of the Madeline Soto Case
8
Fox 35 Orlando. Madeline Soto Murder Suspect Stephan Sterns Sometimes Slept Same Bed, Texted Frequently
9
Around Osceola. Sterns’ Parents: He’s Spent a Lifetime Lying to Us
10
WESH. Madeline Soto Showed Signs of Abuse
11
WESH. Madeline Soto’s Sexual Abuse: New Docs
12
NBC News. Man Gets 21 Life Sentences in Death of Madeline Soto