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Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is another Mini Morbid.
Because you're getting three episodes this week.
Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid.
But don't get used to it because this is the last week.
We just wanted to catch up because we had to miss the week when... uh my little babe was in the hospital for two weeks so we wanted to catch up and make sure you got All the content.
All of it. Even more content than we normally give.
Every content you could ever... have yeah we just wanted to over content you that's all yeah so it's like this is your third episode yeah oversaturate we're just gonna barge you with us Okay, but not next week.
We're going to be back to just a mini and a main episode next week.
So we'll be back to two from three. So really, not that different.
It's fine. it's fine it's fine all right well it was my turn to get together a mini so this is a mini so we're just gonna jump right in Yeah.
Okay. Let's get it. Let's do this. So strap in because I'm strapped.
Okay. I'm glad. Because this case starts with one of the most freakiest things, in my opinion.
Oh, damn. Which is an abandoned car. oh we hate an abandoned cup yes um so on saturday december 3rd 2016 at about 2 46 a.m nothing good happens then An Uber driver calls into Neptune City Police and says, hey, this car is abandoned.
Not an emergency. Just thought you should know. that was nice yeah and actually a couple people called the car so the police go and check it out and they're like what the fuck like the keys are in the ignition of this car it's Completely operable.
How do you say that? Operable. Operable.
Operable. Operable. Sounds good. The car works.
I was going to say it can drive. You can drive it.
So the keys are in the ignition. You can drive it.
There's nothing wrong with this car. It's straight up abandoned.
Perfectly good car. Yeah. So whose fucking car is this?
Whose fucking car is this? They look and it's registered to a 96 year old woman named Lillian Stern.
Oh, no. But she had actually given her car to her granddaughter, 19-year-old Sarah Stern.
Okay. Okay. But now Sarah... Lillian's okay.
Lillian's okay, yes. Okay. But Sarah... is nowhere to be found.
Oh no. So like I said before, Sarah was 19.
She lived in Neptune City, New Jersey with her father Michael and her dog Buddy. she fucking loved that dog like that dog was her bae oh um she was a good person when you love a dog like that oh yeah And she was a good person.
She was absolutely beautiful, creative, an insanely talented artist, like insanely talented. um an athlete and by all accounts just like one of the nicest people that you could ever meet What the fuck, man?
And, like, she's a 19-year-old girl. It reminds me of your mini episode.
Like, she's just this... normal just in like teenager the twilight of her no not the twilight the dawn of her life yeah exactly lillian is in the twilight of her life but she's in the dawn of her life that was beautiful yeah um so sarah was super into youtube and actually a few people emailed us asking us to cover this And one of those people who emailed us was in this YouTube community with Sarah.
Oh, okay. See, I was just... I'm in the age group that YouTube was like... not what it is now yeah i was like not so much into this whole explosion of youtubers yeah I was like somewhat into it.
Yeah, you definitely were. Like I liked I liked a lot of like the English ones, like like the European YouTubers.
Yeah. We didn't know any. youtubers yeah like they were there weren't actual youtubers your thing was like myspace yeah it was like yeah And YouTube was for watching... Ready?
Ready, my oldies? Are you ready? It's for watching Salad Fingers.
I like crusty spoons. Let's see if anybody knows Tales of the Bloat.
I know that because of you. You know, yeah.
But like, get at me if you know those. I think my friends might have known about Tales of the Blood.
I think we watched it once at like a get together.
Did you really? Yeah. I'm impressed. Thank you.
So this specific community called themselves cream puffs.
From my understanding, the cream puffs are like a fandom of this YouTube series.
Your face looks so concerned. I don't understand.
YouTube confuses me. Yeah. The only thing I use it for are true crime videos.
Yeah, I love those. So the cream puffs, basically, from what I gather, were... a fandom of this YouTube series called Carmilla.
Okay. And basically Carmilla was like a a web series like drama comedy like show and it was based in canada all right that's cool Now, this is kind of a big deal because Sarah fucking loved Canada.
Who doesn't, really? She loved Canada. I'm with her on that.
She actually even traveled there at one point to go to like this YouTube VidCon convention.
Oh, wow. And she met like pretty famous YouTube stars like Jenna Marbles.
Oh, Jenna Marbles. I know that. She's from Boston.
Yeah, see, I know her. So she met Jenna Marbles and actually Jenna Marbles ends up posting a video on her page when Sarah goes missing.
Oh, shit. to help bring awareness to the case sarah had plans of like moving to toronto someday or not she went to toronto for this convention but she wanted to live in canada wow All right.
So as we know, when people go missing, the police interview the people the closest around them.
They contact Sarah's dad trying to figure out, like, is she with you?
Like, what the fuck? Where are you? Her poor father was in Disneyland with his new girlfriend.
You're in the happiest place on earth and you get a call from police like, hey, do you know where your daughter is?
You're away from your child, you know? 16, a 16 hour drive away, to be exact.
Because where is this? This is in Neptune City, which is in New Jersey.
Oh, OK. And he was in there's like multiple Disney.
Disneyland's isn't there? Well, there's one in California and this Disneyland.
And then there's Disney World. Oh, no. Disney World is in California.
Disneyland is in. Florida? I don't know.
I'm assuming he was probably in Florida.
Yeah, probably. And then had to drive back to New Jersey.
What was it? A 16-hour drive, you said? Then he was definitely in Florida.
Yeah. Shut up. so i was like wait a second well i don't know if there's like another fucking disneyland and like nebraska whatever i don't know geography that's awesome so He immediately hops in the car and starts the 16-hour drive back to Neptune City to figure out what the fuck is going on.
Of course. Yep. So the last person to see Sarah before she went missing was her best friend, Liam McIntasney, I think is how you say it.
Well, yeah, McIntasney. So they had hung out pretty much all day until Liam had to go to work at a local steakhouse.
Robin Draper, who was Sarah's neighbor, also saw Sarah that day.
OK. And she had something pretty big to tell police that she didn't really think much of before Sarah had gone missing.
Earlier that day, Robin got a text from Sarah asking if she could drop off a bin of her mom's old things to leave at Robin's house.
Okay. So Robin, like I said, didn't think too much of it at the time.
She'd been neighbors with the Stearns like forever.
She'd seen Sarah grow up. She was friends with her mom.
Sarah's mom had passed away from cancer.
Oh, sad. She was like 15 when her mom passed away.
That's awful. It was really sad. So she figured that Sarah was just cleaning house, needed somewhere to put her stuff.
So Sarah, that day, I'm pretty sure it's like morning-ish time.
She walks across the street with Liam, walks right into the house because she's like friends with them, doesn't matter.
And she's like, yo, like, hey, what's up, Robin?
Like, I'm here to drop this off. Like, yells out to Robin.
But Robin wasn't home. Her daughter Carly was.
So Carly was Sarah's friend since childhood again.
So she ran down to help Sarah and Liam with the bin.
And then after that, she and Sarah made plans to hang out that night.
And then Sarah and Liam had it out. So it was like a pretty normal exchange.
But now that Sarah is missing, she's like Robin Draper is like, You know like it was weird that like she just dropped her mom's stuff off here like because they're almost treating it like it was a runaway like.
Maybe she was trying, like in the Bryce lost pizza case.
Yeah. Trying to get rid of all this stuff before she leaves.
It's alarming when people start to give away stuff.
For sure. And then they go missing. Yeah.
So authorities go to Liam's house pretty early on in the investigation, actually the very morning that Sarah went missing.
Good. In the video, they have like they have a video of the exchange and you can tell it's early.
It's not even light out yet. And Liam definitely like just wakes up and answers the door and is like super confused.
Oh, geez. So they ask him if he's with Sarah, like a Sarah in the house.
And he's like, no, she's not. Last time I saw her was this afternoon.
We hung out. I had to go to work. Like I haven't heard from her.
And they're like, so you haven't heard from her since like you left to go to work. and he's like nope actually um and they're like she hasn't texted you anything like that like you're her best friend yeah and he's like i actually can't find my phone like i don't even know where it is so I'm glad you did that because I'm watching this documentary and I'm like being a judgy bitch yeah and I'm like I'm sorry you're like 19 20 years old I just don't know where my phone 2016 you don't just casually lose your phone no and whenever they say you know what it's weird i don't know where my phone is yeah it's like fuck you you know where your phone and i'm sorry i like i don't think that you go to sleep not knowing where your phone is you know where your phone Like, how are you going to wake up tomorrow?
You have a fucking alarm clock? You know what, Liam?
Not on your phone? Liam. Liam. You know where your phone is.
Where's your phone, Liam? Where's your phone, Liam?
We're going to find out later. We are. So that's neither here nor there right now is what I wrote.
He also tells police right away. Sarah has a bad relationship with her dad.
She's been talking about moving to Canada to get away from everything.
Trying to set it up, Liam. Setting it up.
Seems like you're trying to set it up. So very early on there's a search party put together to look for Sarah.
Neptune City is like one of those like super close-knit communities where like everybody knows each other.
So everyone got together. They had people diving.
They had boat captains looking for her. people from surrounding towns were joining and like they come up with nothing where are you sarah The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
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Liam, his twin brother Seamus, his roommate Preston, who actually Preston took Sarah to the junior prom.
Wow, these are some names. I know. Liam Preston and Seamus.
They're great names. Liam and Seamus are probably Irish.
Yeah, I would say so. And then Preston's probably just.
She's just Preston. Yeah. He's just living his life as Preston.
Hello. Whoa. Whoa. So he took her to the junior prom.
So obviously he's like her good friend. Yeah.
They went just as far. like not romantic but they're all looking for her they're this is their friend they're good yeah but i'm starting to get a little i'm getting a little suspect here They're such good friends What's going on here So police speak to Liam again that day Just to see if there's anything he can let them know that is going to lead them to find Sarah.
Because they're a little suspect. They're probably.
Actually, at this point, I don't know how sus they are.
They're just like, we need to. I think they're pretty much thinking she ran away.
Yeah, that makes sense. Because there's just nothing.
There's no evidence to the contrary. There's no trace of her.
So he again tells them she has this bad relationship with her dad lately.
She was talking about getting away, moving to Canada.
He tells police exactly what they did that day.
He goes over the whole day. They went to the Draper's house to drop that bin off.
They went to Taco Bell. Fuck yeah. They went back to the house, played video games together, and then he left to get to his shift at the steakhouse.
Sounds like a day. Yeah, sounds, I mean, it sounds like a very casual, like typical Friday, Saturday for a teenager.
Very normal 18, 19 year old day. Yeah. Those were the fucking days when you just woke up, cleaned your house a little bit, went to Taco Bell.
Just rolled around, ate some Taco Bell, played some video games.
So he says that he was supposed to work until midnight, but he ended up getting out early at 10 and he just went home.
Um, and everything adds up. His story adds up because the across the street neighbors, the drapers have a security system.
So and you can see Sarah's house is like adjacent right across the street.
So you can see. All the times they left throughout the day in Sarah's car.
And then you can see Liam's car leaving when he said he left.
Never comes back again. Okay. So they have Liam leaving when he said he did, like I said.
And then the last car to leave the driveway is Sarah's house around 1145. presumably headed toward the bridge okay but where is she did she jump off did she fucking like hop on a getaway car head to canada like what the fuck So Liam does say that she did have some pretty self-destructive behavior in the past and maybe she was suicidal. he at one point had this girlfriend named Maggie and like he says that if Maggie didn't text Sarah back right away Sarah would be like I'm gonna kill myself like text me back like seems convenient i don't know yeah it does yeah um i'm really on liam's shit and then but then you have her giving the bin of her mom's things to the drapers yeah so liam says maybe she did jump off the bridge and then he asks authorities while he's speaking to them at the station so this is like on camera if she did jump off the bridge what are the odds that she's not off in the ocean by now Oh, you trying to make sure?
Yeah. You trying to make sure, Liam? And you just coldly ask about your best friends since first grade.
These two had been friends since first grade.
And now you're asking some kind of weird-ass skeevy question about whether she fucking floated into the ocean yet? dead like is she in the middle of the ocean right now and he just coldly asked the question yeah fucking liam man So that same day, his mom and dad hire him an attorney who advises him to stop talking to the police.
Hey, smart attorney. And Liam goes quiet.
Oh, there you go. When Liam stops talking, though, his friend and roommate, Preston Taylor.
Oh, Preston. Remember Sarah's junior prom date.
Junior prom date. He's brought in to speak with authorities just to give any information he might have.
He says maybe she jumped off the bridge because of the issue she's been having with her dad. sounds kind of rehearsed to me and as he's saying this he starts to cry which is like Preston a little weird because it's like you're saying maybe she jumped off the bridge like You're just like cooperating the same story, but you're crying for some reason.
Yeah, and it's like, are you crying because you're sad?
Because you think she jumped off the bridge?
Are you crying because you know you're bullshitting?
Exactly. And it left police with this like weird feeling about the interview.
But still, there's not a lot to go on. yeah and they're like maybe she jumped maybe she ran away and it's like we just hold them on it's like you don't really have anything they don't have anything yeah So then it's discovered that there was a missing piece to this story.
Uh-oh. Sarah went to the bank the day she went missing.
Pretty unassuming thing, but remember that she had been with Liam, and he only mentioned...
The Draper's House, Taco Bell, my favorite place in the whole entire world, and video games.
No bank. Never once did he mention stopping at the bank with Sarah.
Uh-oh. So why would you leave that out? Why, Liam?
It could have had something to do with the fact that Sarah had a lot of fucking money in this bank.
Do you want to guess how much money she had in this bank?
How much did she have? 19 year old Sarah had about $25,000 put in this bank.
Holy shit. Yep. And Liam knew that she had that much money because he was with her when she found this money.
What the fuck? So the two of them were together cleaning out a second home that her family had.
And I think it's pronounced Avon. Like we have an Avon here.
Avon by the Sea is what it's called. So that's where their second house was.
And they stumbled upon this shoebox of like super old money.
Whoa. And basically Sarah's mom had left it to her.
Oh, so and his her Sarah's dad says that like Sarah's mom was a planner.
And this money was to basically set Sarah up because her mom knew that she was going to pass away.
Wow, what a mom. Yeah. Man. So the money was like, like I said, worn.
It was in really bad condition, but nonetheless, shit ton of money.
Yeah. Sarah spent some of it because she's fucking 19 years old and she can.
And then she put the rest $25,000 in the bank.
Holy shit. So the security footage at the bank shows Sarah super happy, super cheerful.
She chats with the teller. She chats with the bank manager, who was actually a super longtime friend of her family's.
She waves goodbye to him. She's smiling.
And later he's like testifying at her trial and he's like sobbing on the stand.
Oh, this makes me so sad. Because he said it was the last time he saw Sarah. he blew her a kiss waved at her and he said i love you and that's the last time he saw her Man, what a last thing to do, though.
Yeah, I know. Blow you a kiss. Say you love them and wave to them. and you can see her leaving like and she's like bye like you can like see her waving and like she's just that hurts my heart yeah it's really sad That's one of the, like you were saying in the Paige Dougherty one where you can see her going into the deli for the last time.
Exactly. Those kind of moments where you're like...
You have no idea what's about to happen to you.
Yeah. And it's like, those are chilling as fuck.
And why would you? Like, especially in this case, you're just hanging out with your best friend.
You're just with your best friend. I hung out with my best friend this morning.
I never assumed that she was going to murder me while we were at breakfast.
Oh, man. So at this point, police are like, this isn't a runaway.
This really doesn't look like a suicide.
Why would she leave? If she was if she was running away, why would she leave twenty five thousand dollars in the bank?
And then a search of her room shows that her passport, her security card.
And Canadian currency are in her room. Yeah.
So she didn't run away. No way. No way. And they realize then that they're working on a homicide.
Oh no, Sarah. So back to when she found the money.
So Sarah called her aunt to tell her that, like, yo, I found all this money.
And her aunt advised her not to tell anybody.
Like, don't tell anybody that you have this much money.
Like, it's a lot of money. Be careful. People are assholes.
Obviously, it was already too late because Liam McIntasney, Sarah's best friend, was with her.
She probably didn't think too much about the fact that he was with her.
I would never think that my best friend would do anything.
That this would be a problem. Right. Liam, on the other hand, couldn't fucking stop thinking about it.
Go earn it then, you little turd. Yeah. God.
So he was thinking this money could change somebody's life, that it was the kind of money somebody would kill for.
No, so Preston Taylor, Preston Taylor later testified.
That's exactly what Liam said. when he told Preston about finding the money with Sarah.
And he pretty much made up his mind like then and there that he needed some of that money.
And maybe he would rob Sarah for it. Maybe he would kill her for it.
Or she's your best friend and you can be like, hey, can I borrow some of that money?
Exactly. Or, like, work at the steakhouse.
I'm sure you make pretty good tips at a steakhouse.
Fucking save them. You want that kind of life-changing money?
Then go work for it. So the original plan was to get her drunk and steal the money.
But that didn't work. I already want to punch. this kid in the face well he's an asshole first of all to get her drunk he brings over mike's hard lemonade which like really wow i don't think that's gonna work Wowzers.
I started drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade when I was 14 years old, okay?
Wowzers. I'm sure Sarah didn't because she seems a little more respectable than I was.
Mike's Hard Lemonade is probably not going to do the trick.
Maybe might get you a little goofy. Might get you real sick with all that sugar.
You're not going to black out and be like, take my money.
Yeah, take all my cash. And she's not a fucking idiot.
She doesn't have the cash in the house, you moron.
Yeah, seriously. It's at the bank. she's responsible what year do you think this is exactly you idiot so that didn't work so he was like he starts to put this plan together like we're gonna kill sarah I'm going to kill Sarah.
I want that money. That escalated quickly.
Oh, yeah. He's a fucking sociopath. Apparently.
So in his mind, he's going to walk away with like 100 grand.
Liam only told one other person about this money other than Preston and his elaborate plan to make it his money.
Anthony Curry. I hate thieves. I do too.
We were just talking about that a couple weeks ago.
Go fucking work for it. Don't take someone's hard-earned money.
Right. Even people who steal little things like piss me off.
Yeah. Make some money. It's not yours. It's not yours.
Whether you're stealing money from somebody or you're stealing something from their store, you're taking money out of their pocket.
Yeah, exactly. It just annoys me. Fuck off.
So anyways, Anthony Curry was a filmmaker from Neptune City who had went to high school with Sarah Preston and Liam.
He was actually pretty good friends with Liam.
And he said that Liam often pitched him ideas for horror movies, which were normally the kind of movies that Anthony liked to direct.
Yeah. This kid is adorable. I love this kid.
I feel Anthony on that. So Anthony came forward to police seven weeks after Sarah disappeared with groundbreaking information.
Oh, snap. It was information. that sounded straight out of a horror film, like the ones he produced.
Only this time, it wasn't a film idea Liam had pitched to Anthony.
It was an actual plan about a real girl with a lot of money and her real ass best friend who wanted to kill her and steal her money.
Wow. So Anthony tells police that he goes over to Liam's house on the night of Thanksgiving.
And Liam told Anthony all about the money that Sarah had. and then he was planning to kill her and aren't you supposed to give thanks on thanksgiving No.
Not hatch a plan to murder your best friend and steal all our money.
It's Thanksgiving night, Elena. God damn it, Liam.
He said he planned on catching her off guard. strangling her, stealing the money, tossing her body over the bridge.
That is so brutal. And I know I already said it like five fucking times.
This is her best friend since the first grade.
That I can't wrap my brain. The first. great and that his method of doing this he's like i'm gonna strangle the most personal thing that's like the most intense way to kill someone just wait it gets horrible oh no So police are like, we need to get Liam confessing to this on tape because other than this is huge and we have nothing.
Yeah. Like we need this confession. Yeah.
So, and there's no body. Sarah's body still hasn't turned up.
Okay. So they set up this sting operation where Anthony meets up with Liam and First, they tried to get it done over the phone and like Anthony calls Liam and he's like, Because they were like bros, kind of.
Yeah. Like friends, like whatever. Yeah.
Anthony is like, I broke my camera. Can I borrow some of that money you have?
Like, you know, all that fucking money. You know that money.
And Liam is like, oh, like, yeah, let's meet up. and he because he fucking knows he's not going to talk about it over the phone so my little asshole um sorry I wrote in my notes, I said, now I'm sorry, but what innocent motherfucker can't briefly talk to you on the phone other than me because don't ever call me for anything.
I hate talking on the phone. Yeah. You and I don't call each other.
Nope. I don't call anyone. But fuck Liam.
I don't care. Fuck that kid. He can have a fucking phone conversation.
Yeah. So anyway. They meet up in this parking lot and Anthony's car is wired.
So you can hear and see the entire exchange.
Oh, shit. I love when there's video. I love when there's video.
I love visual. Oh, I love a visual. What is that?
Like a visual means? A visual... Just a visual?
No, I'm trying to think of a word. Just a visual is all you need?
I don't know. Marquee? No, I'm stupid. Wow.
What's happening? I don't know. What's the word?
A visual? Don't think it's marquee. It's not.
Edit that out. Won't do it. Oh, won't do it.
So, okay. So this makes me mad. So they meet in this parking lot and Anthony's car is wired, like I said. so you see liam get into the car and he fucking greets anthony and he goes what's good money And it infuriates me.
I want to take a bat to that kid right now.
Well, it's like, you know, like you greet all your oldest pals like that, Alina.
Of course you do. What's good money? I often walk into your home and say, what's good money?
What's good money? Like, fuck you, Liam.
After I just... hatched a plan to kill someone for money.
Fuck you, Liam McAtasney. You're from fucking Ireland.
Nobody says that in Ireland. Fuck off. I hate that.
So I just he's an arrogant prick and I just don't like him.
So before Anthony really gets to say much of anything, Liam's like, yo, I'm sorry, no disrespect, but I got to do this.
And he fucking pats down Anthony looking for a wire.
He literally pats him down from head... Or pats him up, sort of, because he starts at his ankles.
That's not guilty at all. No, not at all.
Yeah, there's no suspect there. Like... Looking for a wire.
So please tell me this kid is innocent. It makes no sense.
Absolutely not. So Liam... Obviously, thank God he doesn't look any further than Anthony's body and there's nothing on Anthony.
Um, so then he just dives right into it.
He's like, yo man, sorry, the FBI is on my ass.
First, it was the police, but now there's money involved.
So the FBI is like talking to me a ton. I just can't be too careful.
And then... What the fuck did you do? Right.
So Anthony's like, hey, man, like, what happened?
Yeah. So Liam dives into the entire account of the night he murdered his best friend without an ounce of emotion.
He says he thought killing Sarah was only going to take a few minutes, but actually he timed it.
He literally, he put a timer on his phone and when he started killing her and it took a half hour.
What the fuck? He says he strangled her.
And when that didn't work, he shoved a shirt down her throat.
And held her nose while timing the entire thing.
I'm... That's a nightmare. It's the most terrifying thing that I've ever seen. made me have to take a deep breath.
That makes me so sad for her. If this already wasn't a trigger warning, just like an animal trigger warning.
He says that he killed her right in front of her dog.
And he says that her dog didn't do anything.
He just like laid there and watched the whole Oh, my God.
Okay, that, like, really hurt my soul. It's horrible.
Like, that hurts my tummy. And you know what?
I think he's lying. I think the dog... probably did try to do something and he like heard it or like scared it probably and if he didn't he's probably just fucking terrified like Are you kidding me?
He has no idea what's going on. I'm pretty sure he was like in his crate or like something.
Oh, that makes me so. upset yeah it's awful oh and i think i feel like he just said that to sound like a badass like our dog but it's like no that just makes you sound like the biggest piece of garbage Because you know what?
That dog did do something because John can't, you've seen, John can't even like pretend to tickle me. no without bailey bailey loses her and bailey loves john and would literally yeah like move heaven and earth for him like that dog loves john But the second he goes to even pretend to tickle me, Bailey will eat him alive.
I was thinking, I almost wrote it in here.
I will be like dancing with the girls in the kitchen.
And if I'm like twirling with like one of them, Bailey gets like pissed off.
Yeah. She thinks like I'm trying to hurt them or something.
She protects like whole. hard yeah she does yeah so he's just being an asshole oh that just makes me so sad well And he says that the worst part is that he thought he was going to walk out of this with like 50 to 100 grand and all he got was 10 grand. jesus christ yeah so that is yeah that's the worst part of this yeah and he he goes in i wasn't gonna say like a lot of this i'm gonna like skip some of the things he said because they're just fucking awful and like senseless.
But he says that like the last thing that she said was his name.
And it's probably because she's like... liam like my best friend yeah liam like you know what i don't believe she said your name i don't think so either i don't believe that you little shit yeah he he talks about her like it's this girl that he's like he didn't know best friend since first first grade you're a fucking sociopath that is unbelievable um and oh and he says he goes it's not really like like my life hasn't changed that much like since she's since she's passed away, like since I killed her.
What the hell? He was like, you know, I thought that I was going to have all this money, but like 10 grand isn't really much more than what I had already.
All I've done is like throw better parties.
I hate this kid. And then he goes, what am I going to do?
Live a boring ass life. Oh, I hate this fucking kid.
Okay. I hate this kid. I've never killed anybody, but I don't think my life qualifies as boring because I haven't killed somebody.
Yeah. Holy shit. That's his excuse for this. hell so anthony's like yeah dude like where's the money he's like i want my camera fixed but also i want you to get the fuck out of my car i really want to end this right now It's so sad.
You can see obviously like hit the exchange before Liam gets in the car on the way.
Like they have a little clip of it and he's like so nervous.
He's like singing along to his music. Oh my god. like smoking a cigarette because he's got to act like he's not he's unflappable like he's not i mean like he's in the car with a fucking murderer yeah totally murder fun So he asks where the money is and Liam tells him it's in Sandy Hook and that he doesn't even know if he can put it in the bank because the quality is so bad. because remember like oh yeah because it was old right and it's like if you put that money in the bank they're gonna be like yo like some old ass money exactly that's pretty unique right yeah So he says he kept the money in the house for a while, but then he stopped trusting Preston.
And he's like, listen, buddy, you're the only other person that knows about this all.
And actually, Preston doesn't even know I'm telling you this because if Preston knew that you knew this, he'd probably kill you.
Oh, fuck you. Preston's not doing shit. Preston is a little bitch.
Just wait. Fuck you. Preston would kill it.
Like, fuck that. So Anthony's like, yeah, man, like, good talk.
Like, safe travels. Cool. This was great.
He literally beat you. He goes, safe travels.
And Liam gets out of the car and he probably peeled out of that fucking thing so fast can you imagine after that you're like yeah this has been great yeah super glad to see you again friend all right see you later cool cool cool Bye bye bye.
So they have a taped confession but it gets better than that.
Oh no. So they go to arrest the shit out of Preston.
Just arrest the shit out of him. Because also Liam says that Preston helped him dispose of Sarah's body.
I knew Preston was an asshole. So Preston confesses to everything in literally less than two seconds.
I knew Preston would. He's like, I did it.
I'm sorry. Of course Preston did. This is what happened.
He tells police every last detail. His transcript is 52 pages long.
Good. 52 pages. Sing like a canary. He agrees to go back to the Stern house where he went after Liam called saying the job was done. uh liam had to get to work serving murder steaks oh yeah of course can you imagine if he was your waiter that day no It's like the deli.
Oh, you would just be thinking. Like, that was a murder steak that I ate.
Yeah, that was a murder steak. It's fucked up.
It's not funny. So, Preston goes, I'm pretty sure Liam had left Sarah's body in the bathroom.
So, Preston walks back to the bathroom. And he moves the body to the bushes to hide it until he and Liam could come back that night together to... finish their plan and drive to the bridge, throw her over.
He says he shows them exactly how he picked Sarah up.
She was slumped over in the corner. um he carried her like under the shoulders and he dragged her outside so like her feet were dragging in front of him oh okay almost like a trust fall yeah like kind of position that makes sense which is like a really bad comparison in this situation but um so So he grabbed... So he leaves her there.
And then he later grabs Liam after Liam gets off work.
And then they go back to the house, back to Sarah's house.
So remember how Sarah's car pulled out of that driveway one last time?
Oh, that was not Sarah. At 1145. Nope, it wasn't Sarah.
That was Liam, and Sarah's lifeless body was in the back.
Ugh. Preston was following behind him from what I assume they don't ever really go into like great detail of like how this whole setup was but But what I'm assuming is... Because there was bushes, I think, in either the side or the back of the house.
Okay. And they... they like put her body over the fence like they passed it over the fence so I think You couldn't see from the Draper's camera.
Oh, okay. Like Preston's car. Okay. I think that's how they drove to the bridge.
Yeah. So... The original plan was for Preston to be, so they drive to the bridge and the original plan is for Preston to be waiting on the opposite side So that after Liam threw Sarah's body over, Preston would be waiting and Liam could hop over the media and jump in the car and they could leave.
Jesus. Sorry, I lost my place. But Liam's scrawny ass couldn't get Sarah over the bridge himself.
So he walkie talkies Preston. They bought walkie talkies for this.
For this? Jesus Christ. They bought walkie talkies for the fucking murder.
And actually, they bought walkie talkies before that because when they were going to do that whole thing where they got her drunk. um they needed walkie-talkies Liam walkie-talkied Preston and was like never mind like we're not going to be able to rob her but like come over anyways Can you fucking imagine these assholes being like 10-4?
Like 10-4 over come help me do this. Over and out.
You're a fucking squid. Like you're the worst.
Um, so police also took Preston out to Sandy Hook so he could show them where the safe was with the money in it that Liam had buried there.
He leads them to this like wooded area and the safe is literally sticking out of the ground like when they get to where it is.
That makes sense. It's barely covered. Yeah, that makes total sense.
I would expect nothing more. Yeah, same.
It's locked and it's engraved. It's engraved with the numbers 002.
The lock is engraved. Okay. So at this point, they have way more than they need to arrest Liam.
Yeah. So they go to arrest Liam. He's I don't even remember where he was.
Fuck that. Being dumb. Being dumb. Doing something stupid.
Stupid. Being dumb. Doing dumb stuff. Driving his ugly fucking car.
Yeah. On his person, when he's arrested on his keychain, there's a key with an engraved 002.
Oh, I mean, come on. There it is. It's on his fucking keychain.
Wow. Like, are you an idiot? What a brazen fuck.
Yes, you are. So obviously, it shockingly unlocks the safe.
Crazy. Revealing $9,350. Okay. It's hard to read numbers. numbers are hard and it's in old warren money all in like 50s and 100s just like sarah's money was So, the case goes to trial, and the trial lasts six weeks.
The defense's biggest thing is that there's no body.
They also try to bring up Sarah's relationship with her dad.
They try to be like, oh, he was this horrible dude.
But there's text between the two of them while he's in Disney.
And he's sending her pictures of the castle.
And she's like, oh, it looks so pretty. What day are you coming home?
Yeah, everything seems pretty normal. Like, yeah, exactly.
And then there's also, like, the panic text messages that he was sending Sarah the whole time driving home, like...
Where are you? Please answer me. And actually, I listened to the Dateline podcast on this and her friend Carly was saying that like every day Sarah was missing she would message her on Instagram like because they thought she ran away at first yeah Carly was like if you ran away like it's okay make a Disney account and like like one of my pictures so I know you're okay Oh, that's smart.
Yeah, super smart. That's really smart. Obviously, that never happened.
No, that's a really smart way of doing that.
It was so sad. So then this whole like douchebag guy comes forward and says he totally saw Sarah on Saturday morning at 5 a.m.
He was driving his son to work super early, but he's literally the worst witness ever.
He changes his story and was like, actually, no, it was Friday.
No, wait, it was Saturday. And I think he's just a dickhead who wanted the fame of this.
He did it for the fun of it. um the defense team also comes up with this bullshit explanation for the confession tape saying that liam was auditioning for one of anthony's horror films Turn around and get right the fuck out of here.
That just doesn't make any sense at all.
That's the stupidest shit I have ever heard in my life.
So Liam's mom believes this too. Of course she does.
And I'm not one to like go after the victim like or like the murderer's family at all.
Like they normally had nothing to do with this.
But this woman is a fucking asshole. Yeah.
She sits there in the 2020 interview. And she's like, you know, I hope that someday, like, Sarah turns up.
Like, Michael deserves that. Her father deserves that.
You know? I wish she could have come to us and let us know that like whatever she was struggling with, like treating it.
Oh, shut the fuck up. Like she either killed herself or ran away.
Yeah, stop. and she's like come on that is not a confession tape like she she's like when liam talks about things he doesn't talk about them that way He uses a very serious tone most of the time.
I'm like, honey, no, your kid gets into cars and is like, what's good money?
Yeah, exactly. He's not a very serious boy.
You don't know your kid, obviously. Quite obviously.
And then this woman... It's like it's a very confusing thing because she starts to cry and like puts her hands into puts her head into her hands.
And then when she comes up, there's no tears on her face.
Oh, look at that. And she's pretending to cry, but there are no tears coming out of her face.
Are you auditioning as well right now? Yeah, it's a very confusing viewer experience.
Very weird. And I just really fucking hate her.
Very weird lack of visuals there. Because the thing is, like, I'm very sorry if like something like, like your kid like does something like that.
Mm-hmm. But you owe it to the victim's father and mother or stepmother or their family.
To be like, I am so sorry for what my child did to your child.
And not to sit there and put it right back on their kid.
Exactly. Who's gone. Exactly. Like to sit there and be like well they probably killed themselves or ran away.
And don't fake cry you giant twat. Don't do that.
Come on man. So the jury comes back and finds Liam guilty on seven counts.
Good. Including first degree murder. tampering with evidence the desecration of human remains which he gets an extra 10 years for damn so overall he's sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years Without the possibility of parole.
Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. Justice system.
Honestly, in my fucking opinion, it's not even enough.
I wish there was more. You murdered your best friend since first grade.
Seven life sentences. And I literally wrote in here, like we said earlier, make your own money. make your own money man um preston taylor accepted a fucking plea deal because he was cooperative cried every five seconds he was like i did it i swear Um, so he pled guilty to first degree robbery, second degree conspiracy to commit robbery, and second degree disturbing or desecrating human remains.
He was sentenced to 18 years and he'll have... It's not enough.
It's not enough. The only plus, I guess, is that he'll have to serve at least 15 before he's eligible for...
Okay. The judge reminded Preston in his sentencing that he had multiple opportunities to stop this and he never did.
Good. I'm glad he said that. He was like, just make sure that this weighs on you for the next 15 years.
Because that's what you want. You think about this for 15 years.
And he could have stopped it. Absolutely he could have.
But he just wanted the money. Liam told him well before this was happening what he wanted to do. do.
Like you took this girl to prom. Like these kids grew up together.
Their families knew each other. Like I think Michael Stern like carpooled them like at some point.
That's some sick ass. shit like they all grew up together that's beyond who the fuck can you trust nobody So Sarah's dad, Michael, was never able to give her a proper funeral because they her body still never been found.
Oh, that's awful. He did set up the Sarah Lee Stern Memorial Scholarship to keep her memory alive and to help students looking to go into the arts.
Because she loved the arts so much and she was so fucking talented.
If you're interested in donating to the scholarship, you can send funds online.
I'm going to post when we post the episode exactly where you can send them if you don't see the post for some reason.
You can send them to the Sarah Stern Memorial Scholarship Fund.
P.O. Box 2301, Neptune City, New Jersey 07753.
I love that. And that is another fucking senseless murder.
That's a terrible murder. It's so sad. And thank you to everybody that wrote in and asked for that one.
That's a crazy case. And the fact that they have not found her yet makes my heart hurt.
For that family. They just threw this girl... Like, Liam spent many, many days, like... hanging out with her this was his best friend yeah and then he he once like kills her times it like does all this awful thing and then just disposes of her like she's nothing and talks about her like it's nothing that's horrific yeah Wow.
Thanks for ruining my soul. You're welcome.
You ruined mine earlier. Anytime. So if you do want to donate to that, we're... the Memorial Scholarship Fund.
I'll post it on the Instagram and you can follow us at Morbid Podcast.
Hit us up on the Twitter. It'll be there too.
A Morbid Podcast. Like the Facebook group.
Join it. Morbid colon a true crime podcast Facebook group.
And guys, please write to our email suggesting us more cases because it's always fun when you suggest them.
Yeah, morbidpodcast at gmail.com. We hope you're listening.
And we hope you. Keep it weird. I don't really want to do one for this one.
Yeah, this one was a real bummer. It was a huge bum.
Yeah. Thanks for that. You're welcome. Bye.
Bye, bye, bye. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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