our killer's name is dubois. >> did you just google who's the killer? >> no, i did not do that. >> let's get this done to everybody. >> being a cop is stressful. >> every year on the job is different. you never really stop being a rookie. >> work >> before we go, the families in need tonight, disney, the parent company of abc donating $15 million to wildfire relief, offering support to the red cross, the los angeles fire department foundation, the los angeles regional food bank. if you'd like to help, go to redcross.org or salvation army usa.org. ♪ [ line rings ]

-is, uh, sarah here by chance? -no. -the resident is mike stern. -hello? -anybody home? -i wasn't home, and they said, "we want to tell you something." you have no idea. it's a sense of hopelessness. sarah is my only child. and you just wonder what happened to her. -our top story this half-hour, the mystery of a missing 19-year-old from monmouth county. sarah stern was last seen late friday night. -but searches for her have turned up empty. now, her family and authorities hope a reward will help lead to clues.

♪ -this is very much a life-altering moment. -i've been honest with you about everything that happened. -you are feeling that pressure. -the only way that we can help you is if you are cooperating with us. -if investigators are going to learn the truth, they're going to have to do it inside the interrogation room. ♪ ♪ -my name is dr. sujeeta bhatt. i'm a research scientist at the institute for defense analyses. prior to this, i actually had spent many years with the fbi's high value detainee interrogation group. we identified knowledge and practice gaps in interview and interrogation. -my name is mark fallon. started as a deputy us marshal, then spent 27 years with ncis.

-i'm brian buchmeyer, abc legal contributor and trial counsel at hamilton clarke, llp. -a real interrogation in the real world should not be confrontational event. you're trying to develop a relationship, and you're trying to elicit information. -once you got that piece, the kind of puzzle pieces all fit together. ♪ ♪ -sergeant hines, neptune city. how are you? hey, i need to talk to somebody about this car on the bridge that you guys found. -at the time, sarah was home alone. police contact michael stern. he's down in florida in disney world with his partner. -phone rang around 3:00 in the morning. they said, "do you know anything about a car? gray oldsmobile?" and i said, "yeah, my daughter drives that car." -we're getting no answer at the house. i have an open door at the house.

i might go inside and make sure everything's kosher here. neptune city police. -the back door is open and the lights are on. and there is no sign of sarah. -hello? -somebody put the dog in a cage. -the only thing home is her dog, buddy... -cute little doggy. -...locked in his crate. -what a good doggy. want a treat? -police called. they were checking the house. they said not in the house. -nothing so far. -now we're kind of wondering what's going on. -we think that's her dog. -and he realizes that he needs to leave now back to his hometown. -driving back, getting calls from family looking for sarah. that's how it started. -our top story this half-hour, the mystery of a missing 19-year-old from monmouth county. sarah stern was last seen late friday night. -neptune city police released a dash cam video of 19-year-old sarah stern's older model oldsmobile found on the belmar bridge, where an anonymous call alerted police to the car.

-when law enforcement comes across this 1994 oldsmobile 88 that is abandoned on this bridge, they are thinking that this is a missing persons case. -this case would rock any town. it's been especially impactful in a town like neptune city because everyone is just so close with one another. ♪ -neptune city, new jersey, is small-town usa as it gets. it's a tight-knit community whose families have lived there for generations. this is one of the places that bruce springsteen sings about. it's beach culture, it's living by the water. and that very much is the identity of neptune city. often when things like this happen, this young woman becomes everyone's daughter. -she was creative, was an artist. she was a sweet girl based upon everything i've ever heard about her. people loved her. -she liked to make people laugh.

-i've known sarah stern my whole life. we were basically raised together as sisters. she loved to paint. she loved to draw. she loved watching youtube. and she loved everything disney. -she was just a pretty unique girl. -and so when you have a case like that, the first thing you go to are family, friends, and whomever has seen that person last. -sarah was last in the company of her close friend liam mcatasney. -liam. you're liam. you got a second? can i come in and talk to you real quick? -yeah, no problem, officer. -is sarah here by chance? -no. -when was the last time you talked to her? -i was with her today. -liam and sarah had known each other since they were six years old. they were good friends. -sarah and liam and liam's roommate, preston taylor, who was sarah's junior prom date, bonded over things like movies and video games. and so she got along with these 19-year-old boys. -understanding her mental state, what she was talking about,

where she might have wanted to go or do was important to get information, and liam seemed to be the person to get it from. -i just know she's been trying to get away. she's been telling me she's going to canada. -trying to get away? okay. canada. she been real depressed lately? -within a very short amount of time, they were already at liam's house... -liam, we've said it a couple times. i'm going to throw it at you one more time, dude. -...asking him questions about where she is. the speed at which they did this was wonderful. -we just want to make sure she's okay. nobody's going to get in any trouble here. -in an attempt to get more information from liam and preston, law enforcement invites both of them into the interrogation room. not necessarily because they were suspects, but just that they needed more details to try to figure out where exactly sarah was. -with an interview, what you're trying to do is obtain information. i usually use a timeline method.

-whatever her emotional state or its cause, sarah having run away seemed unlikely from the beginning, even to liam. -the fact that her car was left on the bridge makes it inconceivable that she would have run away. -and then there was sarah's dog. -after hearing from her friends and family how much she loved buddy, it became obvious

that sarah would have never left without making sure he was taken care of. -if there are a lot of these inconsistencies with what the evidence is telling you versus what someone is saying, it really brings attention to the fact that, okay, there's something going on here. -and then liam and preston would suggest a much darker possibility than running away. -i remember being with my girlfriend. she was completely obsessed with my girlfriend. and something happened with her dad, and my girlfriend had to leave to go take care of her. but she was saying, "if you don't come here right now, i'm going to kill myself."

-suicide was an option that we were exploring. but as we continue to investigate and talk to the people that were closest to sarah, no one had provided us with any information that would indicate that sarah was in any sort of distress. liam had planted the seed very early on that sarah was interested in getting away from her father. -over the past few months, she's been telling me how bad her relationship with her father is and how she just needs to get out of here. -this is where liam begins to peddle his story, which is that sarah was suicidal, that she was looking to get away, that she had a toxic relationship with her father, and that he was crazy. -but sarah's other friends told a very different story. -sarah and her dad were very close.

they became even closer after her mother passed away. they had fights, but every daughter or son has fights with their parents. but they were very close and they both loved each other. -while the conflicting stories about sarah's relationship with her father concern the police, they really proved nothing. and with no physical evidence and no body, law enforcement doesn't know if she died by suicide or if she ran off to canada. but then liam asked a question that kind of raised an eyebrow. ♪ ♪ like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms

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-hey, sergeant hines, neptune city.

what do you guys have this thing listed as? this car on the bridge? is it a missing person? is it -- that car's been out there two hours. this girl at 4:30 this afternoon -- her mother died a couple years ago. she's been very depressed. her father's got a new relationship. she's not getting along with her father. there's all kinds of emotional issues with her. -suicide was still an option that we were exploring. but as we continue to investigate and talk to the people that were closest to sarah, no one had provided us with any information that would indicate that sarah was in any sort of distress, that she was having any anxiety-related concerns. -so law enforcement uses security cameras throughout the neighborhood to try to lock into this timeline given to them by liam and preston to ensure the best possible outcome out of their interviews. -investigators had to turn their attention to surveillance cameras from sarah's neighbor's house that caught sarah's car leaving at several points during the day on december 2nd.

-later in this interview, what he says is that he had a great night at work. that's inconsistent with preston says. -preston said he came home in a very bad mood.

that's the statement evidence inconsistencies that we look for. and that's what an investigator does, is gets to the bottom of it. -but then police notice a huge inconsistency in liam's account of the time he spent with sarah before she disappeared. -sarah had an account and a safety deposit box at kearny bank in bradley beach. -i came home the weekend of december 2nd to go to a christmas light show. i hadn't seen sarah in a couple of weeks, so i was in my room getting ready to go out and i heard, like, the kitchen door open and i heard sarah's voice. and then liam mcatasney walked in behind her. she was telling me that she had found money that she had in a safe. -and she decides to take it with her and put in the bank. she looked at this money as something that her mother left for her. -and she told me not to tell anyone, and i didn't. i just kind of forgot about it until the next day

when everyone found out she was missing. -carly was surprised to hear that liam knew about the sum of money. carly was put off by this because she didn't really trust liam to begin with. investigators need to get into that safety deposit box, and when they eventually do, in it, they find... -$25,250 us cash currency. the first thing that went through my mind is that sarah did not run away, because if she was going to leave, she certainly would have taken her money with her. and at that point we had also located her social security card, her passport, as well as canadian and us currency inside her bedroom. -when investigators find out about the sum of money, they start to think that this could be a possible motive, because it was the one thing that both liam and preston were leaving out of their stories. -the bank in and of itself became a big deal, especially when we took into account

that liam had failed to tell us that he had gone to the bank with sarah. -the surveillance cameras from sarah's neighbor's house. see sarah and liam leave her house once to go to taco bell and come back. they see them leave a second time to go to the bank and come back. -he was referring to detective mahoney, who was sitting next to me. of course i asked detective mahoney if liam had told him that he went to the bank with sarah, and he didn't. -information management is one of these approaches that a guilty suspect may use in an interview. in this case, liam engaging in information management is when he talks about what he's done throughout the day, the day that he was with sarah, but skips over the fact that they were at the bank.

-the detective tipped his hand early. he said, "tell me about the bank." -if they had not done that, what would you have suspected this interrogation would have looked like? -they would have led liam down a road where he could have made more inconsistent statements, made himself look more guilty, implicated himself further. so it gave him an excuse to then come up with a story. -despite liam and preston leaving out the fact that liam had went to the bank with sarah and that sarah had a security box there, it still didn't rise to the level of suspicion of an actual crime, and it wasn't enough for law enforcement to move forward. -because police don't have anything to charge liam with, sarah is still missing. it's weeks and weeks before police come in contact

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for real. ♪entyvio, entyvio, entyvio♪ -it's not a cold case. it was still being actively investigated. -but then investigators received a potentially explosive lead.

-got a telephone call from captain thomas cox of the belmar police department. captain cox had informed me that he had received a call from a retired bradley beach police captain, who reported that his friend's son had information to provide pertaining to sarah stern's disappearance. -i heard about it either through social media or on the radio or something, but the girl went missing. -anthony curry is a filmmaker who went to high school with liam and sarah. -he used to tell me ideas all the time about films i should make. he, like, told me about this idea he had to, like, kill this girl and... ♪ ...that he was going strangle her and throw over the bridge with his friend preston. -anthony was home for the holidays when, on thanksgiving day, he and liam began to text about meeting up.

when they get together thanksgiving night, liam starts to tell anthony about what anthony thinks is another horror film plot. -yeah, i was like, "hey, he's a little nuts," but i don't know, i just thought it was a movie. -anthony didn't take him seriously until a week later when he saw that sarah was missing. anthony realizes that he has to come forward, and the first person he tells is his dad, eddie, who has a connection in a local police department and hooks anthony up with someone who he can talk to about what he heard liam say on thanksgiving. -anthony curry broke this case wide open. -we wanted to corroborate the information that anthony had provided to us, and the best way to do that was to ask him if he'd be willing to participate in a consensual recording with liam and confront him about the information that he reportedly had told him. -investigators get anthony curry to ask liam about the money. they even have anthony make up the story

that he needs a new camera and ask liam for some of the money. -that's a story that has some legitimacy to it. -if you're going to put somebody in an interview situation the way that they put anthony in, you don't want to over-prepare him. you know, you want him to act as natural as possible. you don't want them to be overly talkative. you want to actually have the suspect be the one that provides most of the information. so it's sort of an 80/20 kind of thing. let 80% of the information be coming from the suspect, 20% from you. -they initially tried it with the telephone call. it's the method that puts the informant in the least amount of jeopardy. they come up with a pretty good cover story that he needed money for his camera. unfortunately, liam didn't take the bait.

-that telephone call was very troubling because it was where liam had begun to make statements about sarah's money that she had found and had confirmed that he, in fact, had some of her money. -liam says over snapchat he needed to meet with him in person to tell him why. -on snapchat, that video or picture disappears in 24 hours. but if that person who receives it takes a screenshot to lock in what that looks like, the sender gets a notification of that. as a workaround, law enforcement goes to anthony curry and takes an actual picture of the phone with the messages that liam had sent to anthony so that liam is none the wiser.

-and then anthony curry meets with police officers and they decide that they are going to use him in his sting operation. they outfit his car with audio and video and have him meet up with liam to talk about what happened. -and that raises the stakes because now you're asking your informant, who's under law enforcement control, to have face to face contact with someone that you believe is a murderer. if you're living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or active psoriatic arthritis symptoms can sometimes hold you back. but now there's skyrizi, so you can be all in with clearer skin. ♪things are getting clearer♪ ♪yeah, i feel free to bare my skin♪ ♪yeah, that's all me.♪

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-he was patting him down for a traditional microphone that would be taped to his body. the car was wired, but he wasn't wearing a wire on his body. -put yourself in anthony's shoes. he knows what liam has done. that, in and of itself, puts a lot of cognitive load and pressure and stress on anthony as a person going in there to do the interview.

♪ -you know, it's heartbreaking in a sense. you know, somebody who's your good friend, you don't think they would do something like that to an innocent person. -i thought anthony did a fantastic job. he didn't ask any questions that would actually increase suspicion in liam of anthony. -even when anthony talks about sarah's death and liam says, "oh, didn't you hear about it on the news?" anthony says, "oh, yeah, i just didn't know if you went -- that you went through with it." he does the playing dumb in a way, but does it in a very -- a very successful way.

-if you listen to the story, it appears like this happened. you can hear the emotion in his voice. you can hear the pride in his voice about how he killed her. -i got it. -this is a slam dunk case for prosecutor. -but i didn't really have to do much work. he wanted to tell me. i think he wanted to get it off his chest. for some reason, he trusted me. -that consensual recording, that was the first time that preston taylor was implicated in the crime. liam had provided anthony with specific information that preston had assisted him in throwing sarah over the bridge. -and after that, they went after preston. -we made a decision to conduct surveillance both on preston and on liam. [ police radio chatter ] we further made the decision that we were going to make an effort to locate preston first and interview him as a result of liam implicating him in disposing of her remains with him.

-they bring preston in... ...as a suspect. -we put him into an interview room. we mirandized him. he waived miranda, agreed to speak to us. -...preston, if you understand the right. -and he's asked one question. -what was interesting about preston's interview is that he just wanted confirmation that we knew that liam had killed sarah.

-in my humble opinion, as a public defender of nine years, this is probably the quickest confession that anyone has seen. -he probably made this calculated judgment of, "well, i'm just going to go with it and tell them everything i know at this point. just because i can't -- i can't get in trouble for the murder because they know i didn't do it." -the majority of the interview with preston was him not taking responsibility for the planning phase of the crime. -preston gives investigators a play-by-play

of exactly what liam did, how they moved the body, how they made multiple trips back to the house to get sarah's safe, to bring her out of her house, to put her in the bushes, to throw her over the fence, and throw her over the route 35 bridge. -he also agreed to take us back to sarah's house and walk us through the home and the property, explaining what the two had done. we felt in this particular investigation that it would certainly be beneficial, especially considering the fact that the two of them had made multiple trips to sarah's house during the course of their crime.

-we wanted to bring preston to the bridge so he can identify the exact location where they threw her over the bridge. -during the interview, preston had told us that they had buried two safes, one in sandy hook and the other in the shark river park. the shark river park is a heavily wooded area, and it took a lot of effort for preston to be able to identify the location where the safe was buried. -and when they uncovered it, it was a sentry safe with the combination 002 on it. -but that safe also has a key to it.

and it wasn't in sarah's car, home, or safety deposit box. so who has it? the next step for investigators -- track down liam. some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking allstate first. like you know to check the weather first, before sailing. it's gonna get nasty later. yep. hey! perfect day for sailing, huh? have fun on land. i'll go tell the coast guard. yep. yeah, checking first is smart. so check allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. you're in good hands with allstate.

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(box thuds) (water boils) (packet tears) (tea bag clanks) (water pours) - listening to people that drink bigelow tea is so important to my family, because making that perfect cup, it's the reason we do what we do hi, guys! - hi! - hey! - so what are you guys drinking? - constant comment. - when i'm drinking bigelow tea, it's just a moment for me. it's just me time. - that's what a cup of tea is. - it is. - a moment for you, someone you love. - aw! (customer sighs) - it tastes really great. - yes! it was always bigelow tea - wow! that's what my family hopes for. cheers. - cheers. (bright upbeat music) -liam is arrested while we are in the shark river park with preston. while we were in the park with him, detectives had stopped liam's car and found a key...

-...to that sentry safe on his key ring with the combination 002 on it. and so police, they are now able to arrest liam and charge him with sarah's murder. -stand up. put your hand out. there you go. -the detention hearing for 19-year-old liam mcatasney went as monmouth county prosecutors had hoped. he will remain in custody as the murder case he faces moves forward. -almost two years after his arrest, liam's trial begins. -ladies and gentlemen, sarah stern will not be walking through those doors into this courtroom at any point. she will never send her father another text. she will never hug him or tell him she loves him.

it's because this defendant murdered her and set into action a course of events that assured her body would never be found. we know this because the defendant said it. it's not a plan that he could do by himself, however. he needed help, and he found that help with preston taylor. -preston's testimony was a key part of the prosecution's case, and as a result of that, the defense would have to try to destroy his credibility. -when you listen to preston taylor's testimony, you will find that he is not credible, that he does have a bias, that he does have an intent to deceive. his testimony is untruthful. it's false. it's imagined. it's erroneous and not credible. during that first interview, you never said anything about liam saying that he was going to kill sarah. correct? -right. -leading up to the time frame in december 2016, do you guys ever

begin to talk about specific plans about this money? -yes. -how did those conversations go? -it started off as plans to either burglarize her house or to rob her personally. and over time, the conversations progressed to to killing. -liam's family didn't believe the story that preston was telling police from the beginning. -in every bone in my body, i did not believe liam is capable of killing sarah stern, who he loved and adored. i do not believe liam is capable of killing anybody. -you know, i always thought of him as a storyteller, and i didn't believe it. i didn't think that -- you know, none of it made sense to me. -the defense argued that these crimes didn't happen. -18 years in prison. that's the sentence for an accomplice in the murder of sarah stern in new jersey. preston taylor pleaded guilty to his role in the robbery

and killing of the 19-year-old stern in 2016. -why would he do that if sarah was alive? -michael stern took the stand. this was the first time that michael had the ability to come face to face with his daughter's murderer. -did she look much different in 2016? -i looked at him. he just stared away. -a big part of the defense's case was that sarah had a horrible relationship with her father, michael. and when michael took the stand, you realized that it was anything but that, that they had a normal father-daughter relationship and that they loved each other so much and that sarah really treasured him and michael so treasured his only child. -but anthony curry's testimony and the undercover recording were the prosecution's most powerful weapons. -did you have a conversation with him on that day regarding sarah stern? -yes. -can you tell me about it?

-he told me he was going to meet up with sarah. she found some money, and they were going to count it together. he was going to choke her, choke her out, bring her to the bridge, throw her off. preston was going to drive the escape vehicle, and they were going to bury the money and leave the keys in the ignition and make it look like she killed herself. -even more damning than anthony's testimony is that recording of liam confessing to anthony curry in his car. -but then she was just lying there. we talked about how it could take 30 minutes, or approximately 30 minutes for sarah stern to unfortunately die. -michael sat there with the rest of us

and watched it as liam described, minute by minute, what sarah's last were like. it was nauseating for me to watch as a reporter, and i can't imagine what it was like for michael stern. liam's family said that what liam did with anthony curry on the night of january 31st in anthony's car in bradley beach was an audition for a movie. -he would give you ideas for films. -it's a tough thin to go through, but this ain't no movie. this is real life. -after a four week trial, the case went to the jury for deliberations. -we have a note that says you have a verdict. is that correct? -that's correct. -did the defendant, liam mcatasney, commit the homicidal act resulting in the death of sarah stern by his own conduct? ♪

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-question number one, how do you find as to count one of the indictment as to whether the defendant, liam mcatasney, on or about december 2, 2016, in or about the borough of neptune city committed the crime of murder by purposely or knowingly causing the death of sarah stern, or purposely or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to sarah stern, which resulted in her death? -guilty. -guilty on all counts. unanimous. 12 jurors. guilty. i don't know. sociopath? obviously. evil? definitely. cruel. heartless. i don't think there's enough words to describe him. evil human being. -when i found out that he was guilty, i -- "okay, this is great. like, justice is served."

for those who knew sarah and were close to her, like, the pain and, like, the hurt all over is never going to be gone. you're always going to think of her every single day. and miss her every single day. -that's my daughter. smart kid. good kid. friendly. cared about people. never hurt anybody. she was just a wonderful, wonderful child. you know, becoming an adult and starting to do -- live her own life. -i'm not sure i can explain the depths of depravity of this crime, where you had people who were allegedly friends, who hung out together. preston was the prom date. and to show the callousness with which this act occurred is just inconceivable to me. -all the information that preston taylor had provided to us, the information that liam mcatasney had provided to anthony curry, all that information

was corroborated by physical evidence. -the most significant development in this case by far was anthony curry coming forward and then his courage, because it's absolute courage. -did she tell you she would stop at the bank? -something to do with her money. -part of why the science-based interviewing and interrogation really hasn't broken through to mainstream knowledge is because it's really hard to make it sexy. -it's odd that you'd stop at that florist next to the bank twice in the same morning. -when we talk about accusatorial and we say that this isn't a coercive approach, we naturally think of an approach that we would see in hollywood. -you've got 20 years staring you right in the face. -what do you want me to say? that i did it? -the banging the tables and all of that. and that is not the case in most interviews. and i think this case, the detectives do a really good job of showing you how the accusatorial approach can still be rapport-based in a sense. -a father came face to face with his daughter's killer in a new jersey courtroom.

-sarah lee stern was my daughter, my only child. since the day sarah was missing, my life has been in turmoil. for two months, the agony of searching for sarah was relentless and heartbreaking. myself, along with friends, family members, neighbors, and hundreds of the community. the days the detectives informed me sarah was murdered was overwhelming. -all right, mr. mcatasney, would you stand? -liam was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. -is there anything you would like to say before i sentence you? -years after trial ended, there was an appeal that was very swiftly denied. -for preston's plea agreement and for testifying against liam, preston took a plea deal to aiding and abetting the murder of sarah stern. -the court will accept the defendant's plea of guilty to those charges -- robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, disturbing human remains,

tampering, hindering. -he got 18 years in prison, being convicted of all seven charges. -for his role in sarah's murder, despite having cooperated with the prosecution. -to mr. stern and all those who had the blessing of knowing sarah, i'm sorry for your loss. -finally, we got justice for sarah. it's been a tough two years. i love my daughter, and everybody else did, too. a good kid. she was a rising star. her life ended way too soon. -they have a small memorial for her on that bridge. i always look at the memorial. -whenever i do go over the bridge and it's like sunset and it looks really, really pretty, like just an orangey, like, peach glow. it's like, "wow, she's like an angel." -i have to deal with never-ending closure because sarah's body has never been recovered.

the horrific act of what happened to sarah's body has haunted me to this day and will haunt me forever. i will never be able to hug sarah and tell her i love her. -sarah's body has still to this day never been found. ♪ ♪ quite a show for the folks in the san fernando valley and causing a lot of concern in the communities of tarzana and encino right now. a lot of people looking up in their backyards and wondering how close this is going to get. >> the palisades fire forces another round of evacuations as it suddenly lights up the night and