Murderer’s Confession Caught on Camera

Sarah Stern’s childhood friend betrayed her for money.

On December 3rd, 2016, in a small town of Neptune, New Jersey, the police responded to a report of an abandoned car found by Shark River with keys in the ignition. They identified the registered owner of the vehicle, the grandmother of 19-year-old Sarah Stern which then, pointed Sarah as the driver.

Sarah was nowhere to be found. Nobody knew where she was. The house she stayed in was unlocked and empty except for a dog locked in a cage.

Worried that it might be a suicide case, they sent out a search and rescue team, a dive team, and even a helicopter scouting the air for her. Her father rushed back from Florida. Her family and the close-knit community came together for her and organized search parties, handed out flyers but her whereabouts remained unknown.

Sarah Stern

Sarah Stern graduated from Neptune High School with an aspiration of becoming an artist. Her relatives described her as a bubbly, happy woman. Karen Watt, chair of the district’s visual and performing arts department wrote,

“Sarah loved to draw and was an incredible portrait artist. Her sense of humor brought contagious joy to classroom settings and to her friends.”

But, that was not what her best friend, Liam McAtasney, painted her as.

In search of clues, the police began questioning people around Sarah, including the man who last seen her alive, Liam. He described Sarah as having an obsession with him and she had self-destructive behavior. Allegedly, Sarah was having troubles with her father, and she wanted to get out of town, to Canada. He said,

“Over the past few months, she’s been telling me how bad her relationship with her father is and she needs to get out of here,”

It didn’t sound like Sarah that everyone knew. The bubbly Sarah shared a close relationship with her father with her last text to his father of shooting stars emoji.

Without any leads to go on, the case gradually turned cold. Despite the combined efforts of the police and the community, they could not find her nor her body.

The Unexpected

2 months later, there was an unexpected break from Anthony Curry, a budding filmmaker, accusing the victim’s best friend, Liam. Anthony has always been close to Liam and Liam always came to him with film ideas including the idea of strangling a woman and throwing her off the bridge. But, Anthony never really thought much of it other than it was a gory film idea.

Until he received daily messages from Liam to meet up in January 2017.

Perhaps, it was about this time with the social media blowing off, Liam realized he had practically told Anthony his entire plan to murder Sarah.

With Anthony’s help, the police were able to set up a hidden camera in Anthony’s car that recorded a confession of how Liam killed and disposed of Sarah Stern. There wasn’t any tinge of remorse nor guilt.

“I choke her out, dragged her to the back, put her in the bathroom and I had to go straight to work.”

It was clear he meticulously pre-planned what he was doing and even, for the lack of a better word, tried his best at it. He mimicked Sarah on how she usually reversed her car as he knew it was being recorded by a CCTV across the street. He recalled the crime in great detail as if he was proud of what he did.

In the video, another unexpected man named Preston Taylor was mentioned. He helped Liam to hide Sarah’s body at the bush when Liam went in for work. Later on, the both of them worked together to dispose of her body by throwing it into the river. The very same Preston, who took Sarah to her junior prom.

All of their actions were for one reason; they were going to rob Sarah.

When Sarah lost her mother to cancer 3 years ago, she inherited a chunk of money and, Liam wanted it. Liam estimated it to be around $50 grand to $100 grand. A discussion between Liam and Preston evolved from “what we would do if we had that type of money.” to “Well, what if we did have that type of money.”

When he found out the money was significantly less than expected, he had a mix of begrudged and disappointment in his voice.

“She only had 10Gs, and this money, I don’t know if it’s burnt or something, it’s old money, terrible quality. I don’t even think I can put it in the bank.”

When the police interrogated Preston, he sang like a bird and agreed to testify against Liam. Preston revealed that Liam had been planning the murder for about half a year. Initially, they were just going to rob her but ultimately deciding to kill her because it was .. easier.

Preston brought the police back to the bridge and showed them how things rolled out on that night including him helping Liam to throw Sarah over as Liam was not strong enough to do it alone. He also revealed the location of the safe containing the money and the key to it, which was found on Liam.

Justice

Liam was found guilty on all 7 different counts and, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 10 years. With a plea bargain, Preston was sentenced to 18 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 13 years.

Judge Richard English said,

“This is really a heinous event since 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.”

All of this would not have been possible for Anthony Curry who came forth. Without him, chances are, this case would have gone cold and remained unsolved. Sarah’s father, Michael Stern said,

“It was a tough decision for him. He didn’t have to come forward,”

In memory of her daughter, Michael set up Sarah Lee Stern Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fundraiser concert was well received and supported, and the Fund has been granting scholarships to art students since 2017.

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