Bridge of Lies: The Accomplice

from 2020 in ABC Audio, Bridge of Lies. Remember, you can get new episodes early by following

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Now, here's the next episode of Bridge of Lies. Thanks for listening to Bridge of Lies. Listen to and follow Bridge of Lies on Amazon Music, or just ask Alexa, play the podcast Bridge of Lies on Amazon Music. Also, with Amazon Music Unlimited, you can now listen to your favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks all in the Amazon Music app. Just a warning before we get started. This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence.

It's the afternoon of February 1st, 2017. Police officers are stationed outside a home in Neptune City, New Jersey. Just blocks from Sarah Stern's house. Since the morning, they've been watching a bluish gray two-bedroom house, or two young men live.

“Detective Brian Weissbrot says they know one of them has a two-o-clock class”

at Brookdale Community College. And detectives who were conducting surveillance had seen him leave his house with what appeared to be books in his hand, given to his vehicle and travel away from the home. Just a day earlier, during an undercover operation, Liam McItazney described on tape how he says he murdered Sarah Stern. But Liam is not to the officers' targeting. During the sting, Liam named an accomplice. "The press has came over to the body,

put it in the bushes." That was the first time that press and teller was implicated in the crime.

Preston Taylor is Liam's friend and roommate. He'd also been Sarah's friend. Weissbrot says investigators want to bring him to the police station for questioning. They want to find out if he'll talk, if he'll turn on Liam. So they plan to pull Preston over as he leaves the house he lives in with Liam and drives to class in his black 1996 Mercury Mystique. Detective Weissbrot calls one of the other officers he's

been working with. Detective Nick Catalona to fill him in on this major step in the investigation. Brian called me and said you wouldn't believe what's going on and I'm like, uh, try me. He goes, "I need you to go to the address and tinfalls. We stopped Preston." Suddenly the case, which had been at a standstill for so many weeks, has rapid high speed momentum. A lot of the kind of disbelief that it just all unraveled the way it did as fast as it did.

Once we stopped his car, we detained Preston and transported him to the Momen County Prosecutor's Office. They bring Preston into a small interview room, which is outfitted with video cameras recording everything. He's tall, six foot five, wearing a black sweater. Detective Weissbrot and another investigator are there, too. The three men crowd around a circular table and Preston sits back in his chair with his hands folded in his lap.

I first want to tell you, thank you for our cooperating coming down today to talk to us. We appreciate

I know you did. Detective Weissbrot reads Preston his Miranda Rights, the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and then he cuts right to the chase. We know what happened to Sarah. We know what your involvement in it was.

“All right, we want to talk to you about that. What were most interested in knowing?”

Not necessarily what happened because we already know that. We want to know why it happened. We want to know why Liam did what he did. Preston does not remain silent. He does not ask for an attorney. He looks right at detective Weissbrot and asks. What did he do? He kills Sarah. Okay, can we know you know that? Okay, you know that? Grant? Yes, correct. Preston doesn't try and leverage what he knows

for a deal with investigators. Like Liam sitting in Anthony Curry's car, Preston decides to let it all spill out. Starting with, yes, Liam killed Sarah. What was interesting about Preston's interview is that he just wanted confirmation that we knew that Liam had killed Sarah. And when I told him Liam killed Sarah, that was enough for Preston. Preston realized at that point, obviously, that we knew what had transpired.

anyone confess that quickly. And then he just goes on for, you know, 50, two pages or something

in a transcript of describing everything that they did. Preston had once been Sarah's junior prom date. They'd gone as friends. In a photo from that night, he smiled in a black bow tie, with his arm around her, as she wears a white, off the shoulder dress. Now, he was sitting in a room with detectives, telling them that his Sarah's community and family desperately searched for her, he had known all along that she was not coming home.

But police have a lot more to learn from Preston. How long did Liam plan this brutal betrayal

“of their childhood friend? Why did Liam kill Sarah? Why did Preston go along with it?”

And what happened to Sarah's body? From ABC audio and 2020, I'm Judy Chang. And this is Bridge of Lives. Episode 5, The Accomplice You're a 19-year-old kid. You have a whole life ahead of you, all right? You got to lay it out for us as to why it happened. All right? And why he did what he did?

Preston speaks quietly, almost mumbling. There is no emotion in his voice as he gives a one-word answer. Money. He says Liam murdered his childhood friend for money. How much money are we talking about?

“According to Preston, Liam thought she had anywhere from 50 to 150 grand.”

Preston says Liam came into a bar one day and started talking about Sarah's money. Then, about a month or two later, according to Preston, Liam came up with a plan to kill her and steal it. What did he tell you he planned not doing? Take in her out and let him front somewhere to the disposal body. I mean, you said, "Kate me around what you've been trying on." Preston keeps looking at the detectives sitting

up straight in his chair as he details Liam's violent plot to murder Sarah. Preston says that on the day Sarah was murdered, he was working construction with his dad. He got home just as Liam was leaving for his job, waiting tables at the stake house. He was like, dude, I did it. When he said that he did it, did you know what that meant?

“Yeah, what did you take that to me? That's what I didn't want to see.”

Kill Sarah. Okay. So the her body was still at the house and then he said, "Dear, let's make."

When Preston was first interviewed by police in the days after Sarah disappeared,

his story almost entirely matched the one Liam told the police. He said Liam went to work as usual and when he got home, the two of them hung out at their house. The only discrepancy between their accounts was that Liam said he had a great work shift and Preston said Liam had a bad night at the stake house. Otherwise, they were aligned. Now, Preston is completely changing his story. Step by step, he's corroborating what Liam told Anthony Curry during the undercover

operation about how Liam carried out his plan to murder Sarah and covered up.

Preston says as Liam left for work, he sent him to Sarah's house with two tasks. First,

Liam had lost his phone there and asked Preston to search for it. And second, Liam wanted Preston to move Sarah's body out of the house. When Preston got to Sarah's house, the son was starting to go down. He says he hadn't been to the house for years but it hung out with friends there before. He entered the house through the unlocked back door and found Sarah in the bathroom. Mark's or anything on her body. She was starting to turn pale and like a whitish purple color,

but her light bruises really bad. Preston says he looked around for Liam's phone, but couldn't

to police. After failing to find Liam's phone, Preston says he pulled Sarah out of the bathroom

and hid her body in some bushes in the yard. He had just dragged his high school classmate out of her home and hid in her body. But that was not the end of Preston's night, or the end of his involvement in covering up Sarah's murder. According to Preston, there was much more to Liam's plan and he was a key part of it. He tells investigators

“he waited at home for Liam to return from work. How would you describe his demeanor when he came home?”

Completely France, I can tell him his words. According to Preston, Liam still planned

to steal Sarah's money and get rid of her body and Liam had carefully thought through how to do this. He knew there were surveillance cameras on the street, so Preston says they drove in his car to a street near Sarah's house and parked at a dead end to avoid being captured by those cameras. At the house, Preston says he looked for Liam's phone again while Liam went upstairs to take a safe from Sarah's room. This safe was what Liam had been after all along.

Remember, according to Preston, Liam believed there could be 50 to 150 grand inside. Once Liam grabbed the safe, Preston says they left the house and moved Sarah's body from the bushes to the passenger seat of her car. Liam drove Sarah's car to the bridge and Preston followed behind. They used walkie-talkies to communicate along the way because Preston says, Liam thought it was a bad idea to use their phones.

Preston says Liam needed help, dragging Sarah's body out of the car and pulling her over the bridge's railing, so he stopped his car and helped. Preston keeps his matter of fact tone as he describes what it was like to throw his high school prom date into the shark river. No tears, no shaking in his voice, just the same steady drip of horrifying detail.

“Was that hard to do physically to get her over the bridge?”

Well, did you, did you guys know when she had the water, did you hear anything or see anything? No, no. And then what happened after that? We got in my car and drove down time around and went back to the house. Back at their house, Preston says they drank and smoked weed. And then it was time to break open Sarah's safe and count their money. The whole reason for their betrayal. According to Preston, Liam did the counting.

10,000 dollars. Did you see the money? Can you describe it to us when it was a lot of really old to keep that in turn of money? And it was a lot less than they were expecting. Preston says Liam gave him three grand. I spent half of it on, so it's a really big sum of it. He spent the money on weed. The money he says Liam had killed for. The money Preston had helped cover up a murder for. Preston had spent half of his share already to get high.

Preston says Liam took the rest of the money and put it in a different safe he had. They buried that safe at one location. They put some of Sarah's clothes in her safe and buried it in another spot. At this point, Preston has given investigators a play by play of the aftermath of Sarah's murder, but Detective Weissbrot has some bigger questions for him too.

“What are the other reasons why you chose Sarah under the money? Is there a thrill involved in it?”

Is there something he's always wanted to do? No, it was just for the money.

Okay, what do you need the money for? I don't know, I heard just starting a move out.

I thought I knew that.

During the whole interview, Preston has not shown much emotion and in his version of events,

he just went along with a plan Liam had come up with. Detective Weissbrot wants to know

“more about Preston's mindset. How did he become an accomplice to murder?”

Were you supportive of him doing this, but you can get some of the money? I didn't really do that. I didn't have him to actually do that. How did he do that? I don't really know. Preston says. No emotions, no tears, no remorse. Nothing. What do you think about? I think about what it means for me, if they did come back to us.

Did you think it was gone too? Liam did a pretty good job looking at this made it.

She'd covered everything up. Just put on. The investigators end their interview with Preston after nearly two hours. They tell him a prosecutor will make a decision about what to charge him with. But they're not done with Preston yet. They ask him to take them back to Sarah's house, back to the scene of the crime, and show them exactly how Liam carried out this cold-blooded murder,

and covered it up. Let me just go get our cars ready and we'll take a ride. All right, thank you very much, I appreciate it. All right, let's go. This program is sponsored by ZuckDock. Finding a doctor you actually like might feel like finding a diamond in the rough. You want somebody in network in your area with availability that matches your schedule, but that's just where it begins. You also want somebody who will really listen to you,

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to Sarah's house. They bring video equipment and flashlights to navigate the dark,

and they start recording when they arrive, because Preston is about to walk them through everything that happened at the house. Today's date is February 1, 2017, and the approximate time is 11.15 pm. Detective Weissbrot says, "Because it's so cold out,

“police give Preston a firefighter jacket. It's black, with big yellow reflective strips on it,”

the glow in the dark." Preston is also wearing a red baseball cap that says St. Louis. "I'd parked my car, just right over here, and top the fence right here." Preston is more animated than during his interview at the station. He walks investigators into the house, through the back door. "The lights back here are off, but the kitchen and the living room lights were on." Then, he takes them through some folding doors into the bathroom.

"And Sarah was slumped in this corner right here. Do you recall what Sarah was wearing when you came into the house that day?" She was on a black hoodie. Preston demonstrates how he approached Sarah from behind, looped his arms under her shoulders, lifted her up, and dragged her backwards

“out of the house. "So what a feat dragging on the other ground?" "Yeah, okay, and then I carried her”

over here, and tried to over here and kind of sat around the bushes right here." Preston points to some prickly evergreen bushes by the fence. He explains that when he came back hours later, he waited while Liam got Sarah's safe. Then, Preston says Liam handed him the safe in the back yard, and went out front to get Sarah's car from the driveway. Liam then pulled the car around and went to the fence to meet him. Preston says he lifted Sarah up and passed her over to Liam,

who then put her in the passenger seat of her car. "Lim made the catering and took off. He made her right and took something round about where he had been over to the bridge." Investigators can now visualize how Preston and Liam moved Sarah's body out of the house and into her car, which they would eventually abandon on the bridge. Preston also took police

to where the two safe swarberied. First, he led them to a park by Sandy Hook Beach about 30 minutes

away. That's where investigators say Preston told them he and Liam buried the safe with Sarah's money in it. Detective Nick Catalona says they parked on a side road and walked up a steep hill overlooking an old mortar battery. There were four pits where the mortars, which looks sort of like cannons used to be stationed. "So he walked us down the middle ridge of the four pit and then he pointed to an area in the north of the east corner and said down there is where we buried

the safe and we had to descend into the pit after that. Once we got to the area where he was pointing to, we started the photo and then we started digging. Then as we were digging, we just happened to look just a little bit to the left of where we were digging and there's the corner of the safe. Just sticking out." Detective Catalona says the safe was discovered far from the park's popular areas. "It's not something that, you know, you could just easily just come across. So you could

tell that they'd meant for nobody to ever find this again." After finding that safe, Preston took investigators to Shark River Park, just ten minutes from Sarah's house. They were looking for her safe, the one with her clothes in it. The park is nearly 1,000 acres and it took Preston an hour and a half to find the right location. They were out there for so long, investigators

the sprawling park, Detective Weissbrot said, another set of officers made the next big move in the

“case. They decided to bring Liam in. It had been nearly two months since Sarah disappeared”

and they were now ready to make an arrest for her murder. "While we were in the park with him, Detective said stopped Liam's car and had arrested him at that point." After being arrested, Liam is brought to the same small room with the circular table that Preston had confessed in, just hours earlier. But Weissbrot says, "Leam doesn't know that." "He had no idea."

"Are you being charged with murder, felony murder, first you'd be robbery,

description of human remains, conspiracy and hindering an apprehension." "All the other times, Liam had been questioned by the police, he had played along, answered their questions, tried to seem helpful. This time, unlike Preston, Liam does not talk." He just responds by saying, "He has an attorney." By the end of the night, investigators have Liam and Preston in custody, a detailed account

from Preston of how Sarah's body was moved from her home and thrown over the bridge and the two

safes. They also searched Preston's car. "Right next to the driver's seat between the emergency

break and the center console was a cobra brand of walkie-talkie, which was consistent what Preston told us that they used walkie-talkies to communicate." "And they searched Liam's car."

“"And after we searched his car, the keys for his car had a key." "It was a key to the safe they had”

recovered from Sandy Hook. The one Preston said he and Liam had put Sarah's money in." Inside, detectives found nearly $10,000 in cash. The money was almost identical to the money in Sarah's safety deposit box at the bank. "Dry rot, falling apart, stuck together,

these bills and the bills that we found in Sarah's safety deposit box had to have

at least been exposed to the same environmental conditions for the same relative period of time to exhibit the same sort of wear." Their next stop would be Liam's house. Back in December, they had knocked on his door in the middle of the night, hoping he could help them find Sarah. Now, he was charged with her murder and they were continuing to build their case against him. They were also about to break the news to Sarah's dad. The investigation had led them right

back to where they started. With Sarah's childhood friend, the last person to see her live. "No, it's not 60 cents. It only has a product in our serial and an action, a plan of price, also a fighter." We gather here tonight to bring women back to their right for place. The Testaments, a new Hulu original series from the executive producers of the handmade stale, "Seasier to accept a story than believes that the people around you are monsters." The battle isn't over.

“"You're come to time. You have to take action." When you have to choose your own destiny,”

what's the new Hulu original series the Testaments? Streaming on Hulu and Hulu and Hulu won Disney Plus for Bottle Subscribers, Terms Apply. Sunday nights on ABC, what happens when the person "you love the most" turns out not to be who you think they are. Everything he told me was alive. I was portrayed from the number one true crime podcast Betrayal. He's been living a secret double-life. My marriage ended with a 9-1-1-5. The tape is blood curdling.

The trail, secrets and lies. So many people are living with their own betrayal. Sunday nights at 10-9 central on ABC and stream on Disney Plus and Hulu. I came home from work and I started making dinner and I noticed there was a bright light coming from my backyard. This is Megan McAtazney, Liam's mom. She spoke with ABC News in 2019. And I looked at the back window and I thought Liam and his friends were shooting a movie or a video

and all of the men that were at the property were in street clothes. So I was trying to figure

who they were because I didn't recognize them as Liam's friends and I remember joking and saying hey guys what are you up to back here? What are you shooting? And then a detective yelled at me to stand back and at that point I realized that people were going through my son's trash. They had

“gloves on. They were raiding my son's home. I asked where my son was and I was told, bam you have to”

get back. She says she ran inside to call her lawyer. Liam's dad and Preston's mom but none of them knew anything about what was happening. And we didn't know where our boys were.

Detectives went through the two bedroom house. Liam and Preston lived it. Liam's bedroom was

pretty neat and orderly. Preston's on the other hand was not. We searched the attic. We pulled up insulation in the attic. Look through storage. There wasn't anything. Detective Catalona says that later they searched event and found a key to Sarah's safety deposit box at Carney Bank. Megan Liam's mom says she didn't know what was going on until the middle of the night.

“Emma's told what Liam was being charged with and my head was just spending because I didn't”

understand what was happening. And I just started calling family members and I didn't understand why. In every bone of my body, I did not believe Liam is capable of killing Sarah's turn who he loved and adored. I did not believe Liam is capable of killing anybody. She described her son as a friendly person, a good brother to his identical twin, and two younger siblings, and a loving, generous friend. I don't think Liam had an enemy.

He just adores his friends. He would do anything for his friends. Take the shirt off the back, stop what he was doing to go and help anybody that needed it. He was driving home from school and

“he saw somebody on the side of the road walking. He'd offer them a ride home.”

It had already been a tough week for Sarah's dad, Michael Stern. His mother-in-law had passed away. And now, just days later, detectives were calling him about Sarah's case. It wasn't home and they said, well, we'd like to talk to you at the house and I said, okay, I'll see you in 15 to 20 minutes and walked in and those detectives, the police department. They were there and just sit down and we want to tell you something.

Michael says they told him that during an undercover sting, Liam had described Sarah's murder and it was all on tape. Every awful detail. They just told me what was on there and they said, it was just, you don't want to hear the details. He was shocked. He was sad. He couldn't believe the information that we were providing to him. He knew Liam Acutasent. He knew Liam Acutasent. He knew Liam Acutasent's family, his mother. He had driven Liam to two and from school.

Press and Taylor went to the problem with Sarah. He knew these people. Just can't imagine turning your back on somebody and having them choke you and least leave you there.

Now, you never know who your friends are.

This was the ultimate and be trail for a of a friendship. So I look at life differently. I look at people differently now. Nothing is as it was in my life and a lot of other family members too. Press and Taylor eventually cut a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to robbery, conspiracy, disturbing or desecrating human remains, hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence. He also agreed to testify against Liam. In exchange, a felony murder charge against him,

which could have meant life without parole was dropped. His attorney at the time, John Parone told ABC News in an interview in 2019 that Preston is a follower who was easily led.

actually happened. Preston was a scattered individual that did something wrong and helped somebody

“who did something even more breaches. Unlike Preston, Liam Acutasent pleaded not guilty”

to the charges against him. So his case was going to trial. That meant Michael and all of Sarah's

family and friends would have to face Liam in court and listen to the recording of him

brazenly describing Sarah's murder. So she a path obviously evil definitely.

“Cool, heartless. I don't think there's enough words to describe him. People human being.”

What would happen in the courtroom as Liam stood trial for the ultimate betrayal of his childhood

friend? Prosecutors were heading into the trial armed with Preston's confession and Liam's own incriminating words. But Sarah's body still had not been found and the defense had found a surprise eyewitness. Someone who said he had seen Sarah the morning after her disappearance walking near the

“bridge. Would prosecutors be able to convict Liam or could he walk away a free man?”

Bridge of lives is a production of ABC audio and 2020 hosted by me, Juju Chang, produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fag. Fact checking and production help from Audrey Mossdek and Annelisa Lindur. Tracy Samuelson is our story editor. Our supervising producer is Sasha Aslanium. Music and mixing by Evan Biola. Special thanks to Katie Dendos, Janice Johnston, Joseph Diaz, Avery Brook, and Michelle Margillis. Josh Cohan is our director

of podcast programming. Aiman McNeve is our executive producer. A boy race by him and his story is a story of my family that nobody knows. The new Hulu original series Dear Killer Nannies, streaming on Disney Plus in Hulu, terms of lie, from 30-30 podcasts. Ryan Patta, Senior Defense of Lime and for Miami, gunned out. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U, listen now.