Box of Money

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Bridge of Lies – "Box of Money"

Produced by: ABC News / 20/20
Host: Juju Chang
Episode Release Date: March 24, 2026
Episode Number: 3 of 6
Main Theme:
The episode delves into the investigation of 19-year-old Sarah Stern’s mysterious disappearance on the Jersey Shore. At its core is the discovery of a secret cache of old cash, providing investigators with new leads and exposing relationships and motives among Sarah’s close friends.

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Episode Overview

"Box of Money" explores the deepening investigation into Sarah Stern’s disappearance and the shifting focus from theories of suicide or voluntary flight to possible foul play. The break comes when the discovery of large sums of old cash, found by Sarah prior to her disappearance, suggests money may have been a motive. The episode centers on evolving suspicions, untrustworthy statements from those closest to Sarah, and insights from law enforcement and reporters as the case turns a crucial corner.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sarah’s Family Background and the Avon by the Sea House

[01:07 – 02:26]

• Sarah’s family once owned a home in Avon by the Sea, which was mostly used for storage after the passing of her mother.
• The house was cluttered and uninhabitable, filled with business leftovers from the Sterns’ bookstore.

Notable Quote:

"The house didn't have any power...the cobwebs were all attacked in the areas of entry." – Detective Nick Catalona [01:47]

2. The Discovery of the Hidden Cash

[02:26 – 03:34, 09:45 – 11:39]

• Sarah’s aunt recounted Sarah finding cash—she counted $10,000, but believed there could be as much as $20,000—in an old box of family photos.
• The origin and intended use of the money remain a mystery.

Notable Quote:

"My grandmother used to keep money in the freezer...People do things differently. Why she had a little stash of money, who knows?" – Detective Nick Catalona [03:17]

3. Initial Theories: Suicide or Runaway

[04:32 – 07:03]

• Early theories explored by authorities included suicide (jumping from the bridge) or Sarah running away to Canada.
• Family and friends adamantly doubted suicide, citing Sarah’s bright spirit and future plans.
• Sarah left all her possessions and even her passport behind, which made the runaway theory less plausible.

Notable Quote:

"There was regular activity on her debit card, but then pretty much stopped the day that she went missing and hasn't been any activity since." – Detective Nick Catalona [07:47]

4. Bank Activity and the Safety Deposit Box

[08:02 – 13:16]

• Investigators discover Sarah opened a safety deposit box at Kearney Bank in September 2016, accessing it three times (September, November, December—the last day she was seen).
• The small gold key found in her car fit the box.
• The box contained $25,250 in old, deteriorating bills.

Notable Quote:

"My first thought was, wow, this is a lot of money." – Detective Catalona [10:18]
"If she was going to leave, she certainly would have taken her money with her." – Detective Brian Weisbrot [13:16]

5. Who Knew About the Money?

[13:26 – 14:16]

• Few people were aware: Sarah’s aunt, some friends (Carly, Liam), not her father Michael.
• The timeline and secrecy around the cash grow important as the investigation turns.

6. Rising Suspicion of Liam McAtasney

[14:16 – 29:31]

• Friend Liam, who spent the afternoon with Sarah the day she vanished, failed to disclose their stop at the bank in initial police interviews.
• Interviews with Liam reveal calm, calculated responses, but he volunteers details about the possibility of Sarah committing suicide—raising red flags for detectives.

Notable Moment:

"I found the question very odd. I would have expected him to ask us questions like, what are we doing to find her... Liam didn't ask any of those questions." – Detective Brian Weisbrot [21:50]

• The Interview Breakdown [17:32 – 28:34]

• Liam’s story about the day: moving bins, Taco Bell, playing video games, then heading to work—he leaves out the bank, then eventually admits he waited in the car.
• Claims Sarah may have found up to $100,000; insists he didn’t see the cash.
• Detectives are troubled by Liam’s omission and lack of curiosity about Sarah’s bank visit.

7. Changing Theories and Cold Trail

[28:34 – 31:17]

• As the weeks pass, a new third theory emerges: Sarah may have been targeted for her newfound money.
• Lack of solid evidence keeps the investigation from moving forward, and hope fades for her father, Michael Stern.

8. The Breakthrough Tip

[31:17 – End]

• A critical tip comes from within Sarah’s own community, involving a friend group and leading to a risky undercover sting.
• This is teased as the catalyst for breaking open the case, setting up the events for the next episode.

Notable Quote:

"Police start to believe that something violent happened to Sarah. But one of the biggest questions is why? When investigators find out about the sum of money that Sarah came into, they start to think that this could be a possible motive." – Reporter Jessica Easthope [28:48]

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Key Timestamps for Critical Segments

• Sarah’s family background / Avon house: 01:07–02:26
• Discovery of hidden cash: 02:26–03:34, 09:45–11:39
• Friends and family reject suicide theory: 04:32–05:22
• Review of Sarah’s bank activity: 07:03–08:02
• Safety deposit box search and findings: 09:45–11:39
• Interviews with Liam – growing suspicion: 17:32–28:34
• Detectives question motives, cold case: 28:34–31:17
• Breakthrough tip / undercover operation teaser: 31:17–End

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Notable Quotes

• "Why she had a little stash of money, who knows?" – Detective Catalona [03:17]
• "Sarah's family and her close friends...described her as being her happy, go, lucky self, that she was in good spirits, that she had goals and she had plans, and that she had things that she wanted to accomplish in life." – Detective Brian Weisbrot [04:32]
• "My first thought was, wow, this is a lot of money." – Detective Catalona [10:18]
• "If she was going to leave, she certainly would have taken her money with her." – Detective Weisbrot [13:16]
• "I found the question very odd. I would have expected him to ask us questions like, what are we doing to find her..." – Detective Weisbrot [21:50]
• "Police start to believe that something violent happened to Sarah." – Reporter Jessica Easthope [28:48]

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Memorable Moments

• The search of the Avon by the Sea house, with vivid descriptions of its state and how Sarah stumbled on the cash.
• The unveiling of the bank’s safety deposit box, Sarah’s key being the perfect match, and the surprising discovery of over $25,000 in old, brittle bills.
• The off-kilter interview with Liam, who not only fails to bring up the bank trip but speculates about Sarah’s body being lost to the ocean, unnerving detectives.
• The emotional desperation of Sarah’s father, Michael Stern, as weeks pass with no answers.
• The episode’s close, spotlighting an undercover sting that promises to finally unravel the case.

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Tone & Style

• The reporting maintains a sober, investigative tone, punctuated by the emotional gravity of Sarah’s disappearance and the perplexity facing police.
• Dialogue and narration emphasize the strangeness and sadness of the circumstances, the suspicions aroused by friends’ shifting stories, and the doggedness of the investigative team.

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Conclusion

"Box of Money" takes listeners deep inside the police work that shifted Sarah Stern’s case from a missing person to possible homicide. As money becomes a key investigative thread, relationships among Sarah’s peers come under the microscope, setting the stage for a dramatic sting operation in future episodes. The episode masterfully blends forensic detail, personal testimony, and procedural insight, keeping listeners on edge as the truth slowly comes into focus.

Transcript

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[Narrator Juju Chang]

a few months before Sarah Stern disappeared, she took a trip to a neighboring Jersey Shore beach town called Avon by the Sea. Her parents had bought a home there and planned to move in one day. But that never happened. On the outside, the house looked like a charming Victorian. It was white with a wraparound porch and lots of big windows. But inside it was clear why the family didn't move in.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

The Avon home was uninhabitable.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Detective Nick Catalona visited the house as he was investigating Sarah's disappearance.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

The house didn't have any power to didn't look like anybody had been in there for quite a while. The cobwebs were all attacked in the areas of entry.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

The Sterns had owned a bookstore called Books Unlimited for decades, and Michael Stern told investigators the house was used to store what was left of the business. Like the Sterns Neptune City house, it was cluttered.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

It was pretty much packed capacity with odds and ends items and just storage. There was a detached garage in the back and that was literally packed from floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

But based on what investigators say, Sarah's aunt told police, when Sarah stopped by the house, she found something of value among all that storage. Her aunt told police Sarah was looking through a box of photos of her mother, who had passed away when Sarah was just 15, and she discovered something else in the box. Cash. A lot of cash. According to what her aunt told police, Sarah counted $10,000 but believed there might have been twice as much. There's A lot we're never going to know about this money, like where it all came from or why it was left in a random box in a house used for storage.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

My grandmother used to keep money in the freezer. Anytime she needed any money, she wouldn't go to the bank. She would go in her freezer and get money out of there. So people do things differently. Why she had a little stash of money, who knows?

[Narrator Juju Chang]

But answering what Sarah did with this hidden treasure and whether it had anything to do with her disappearance, that is where investigators hungry for a breakthrough in the case, turned their attention. From ABC Audio and 20 20, I'm Juju Chang, and this is Bridge of lies, episode three, box of money. In the days after Sarah's disappearance, investigators were working with two main theories. That Sarah had died by suicide or that she had run away to Canada. Police were still exploring both theories, but investigators, including detective Brian Weisbrot, were becoming more and more skeptical that Sarah had jumped off that bridge.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

Sarah's family and her close friends, they described her as being her happy, go, lucky self, that she was in good spirits, that she had goals and she had plans, and that she had things that she wanted to accomplish in life.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Alex Napoliello covered the case for NJ.com and said he got a lot of tips from the community, saying that Sarah, who was known for her quirky sense of humor and her artistic talent, just wouldn't end her life.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

I've covered, you know, cases where people

[Narrator Juju Chang]

jump off bridges in New Jersey.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

However, I had never experienced people coming forward to me saying, this is not the Sarah that we know. Someone who would do this. People emailing me, calling me, telling me this is impossible. There's no way she jumped from a bridge.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

None of the searches for Sarah along the Shark river turned up anything. Not a scarf, not a wallet, not a purse or backpack. Investigators didn't pick up any fingerprints from her car, and they didn't find anything inside the car besides some artwork that Disney memorabilia and a small key. Detective Nick Catalona also searched the Stern's main house in Neptune City a few days after police first went through it in the middle of the night looking for Sarah. Catalona needed to be certain Sarah was not somewhere on the property.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

There was a lot of areas where somebody could have either fallen and got injured and incapacitated or could have been hidden. People tend to kill themselves in the strangest of places. So I searched all the cars on the property, all the buildings, sheds, things like that, the pool area, all the bushes, and there was nothing. The garbage, went through the garbage. There was nothing of any interest whatsoever.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Detective Catalona noticed that all of Sarah's belongings seemed to still be in the house.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

All of her clothing, her. You know, like she was very into her art. All that stuff was still there. I just found it odd. Then Belmont Police Department ultimately had her passport. If she's moving to Canada, you would think that she would need that, her Social Security card, things of that nature. So that didn't make sense to me that she was running away.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Why would she run off to Canada without her car, her clothes, her art, and most importantly, her passport and id? To authorities, the theory that she ran away to Canada seemed to make less and less sense. Investigators decided to look into Sarah's bank records. Maybe there was something in her financial history that could explain her disappearance. Detective Catalona said Sarah's records at JPMorgan Chase didn't reveal anything odd. No big purchases or withdrawals in the days leading up to her disappearance. No. No erratic behavior at all.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

Up until the day she went missing. There was regular activity on her debit card, but then pretty much stopped the day that she went missing and hasn't been any activity since.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

But Sarah also had an account at a local branch, Kearney bank in Bradley Beach. Reporter Jessica Easthope said Sarah had good relationships at the bank.

[Reporter Jessica Easthope]

The manager, Raymond Blochess, was a family friend. The bank staff knew her, and she had known Raymond since she was born. And so the bank was somewhere she was often found. She would even stop by when she wasn't interacting with her account at all, just to say hi.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

As investigators searched for information that could break open this mystery, they received a tip. On the day of Sarah's disappearance, she went to the bank. Investigators learned that in September 2016, just months before she disappeared, Sarah opened a new account at Kearney Bank, a safety deposit box account. According to investigators, a review of her bank records showed she accessed the box three times. Once in September, once in November, and once in December. On the last day she was seen, they got search warrants for her safety deposit box and for surveillance footage from the last time she went to the bank. And that's when they went to the bank to search Sarah's box. The bank kept the safety deposit boxes in a big, shiny metal cabinet. Detective Catalona was there to execute the search warrant.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

The bank has. It's like a two keyed system. So the bank maintains the key and the customer has a key. And the box could only be opened

[Narrator Juju Chang]

with both keys, that small gold key that had been found in Sarah's car. Had the number 35 on it, and it was the matching key for the safety deposit box.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

They inserted their key. I inserted the key that we recovered from Sarah's car and unlocked the box.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

The long, beige metal box was pulled from the cabinet and set down on a table. Detective Catalona opened it.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

My first thought was, wow, this is a lot of money.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

This money wasn't in organized stacks of crisp, clean bills like you see in the movies when someone pulls out a lot of cash.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

This is old, old currency. And it was in a very bad condition. It was, you know, brittle. Some of it was falling apart. Most of them were stuck together. They had a lot of holes in them. These are the old style, smaller portraits. Current currency has the larger portraits on them. It's like when you go to the store and they hand you an old bill. You're like, wow, that's. You know, I haven't seen this in a while. So it's just. It was old. It not widely circulated at all.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Police believe this was the money Sarah found in the Avon by the Sea house, tucked away in a box of photos. And there was far more than $10,000 of it. Double that, actually.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

$25,250 in twenties, fifties, and hundreds.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Catalona noticed that the money was split into a few rough piles.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

There was a yellow mesh bag that had some money in it, and the money seems to have been separated by amounts with index cards. Some of the index cards had the amount of money that was in it. Some of them didn't.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

They sent the money away to their evidence vault. They didn't know whether Sarah had taken money out on her last trip to the bank or. Or put money in. All they knew was that she made this trip just before 3pm on the day of her disappearance. In the surveillance footage from the bank, you can see Sarah is wearing a puffer jacket and glasses. Her hair's in a messy bun. She's dressed for a casual day with a friend, getting lunch, running some errands. As she leaves the bank, she waves and says goodbye to the bank manager, who's a close family friend. She's smiling, and you can see her dimples. Even in the grainy footage, she doesn't look stressed or tense. She looks like someone who's seen some friendly faces and made another ordinary stop at a bank she's been coming to for years. But this trip was not ordinary. This surveillance footage is the last clear recording showing Sarah's face before she vanished into the night. Sarah turns around, walks through French double doors in the lobby and leaves. Another camera shows her exiting through glass doors into the parking lot. She was a 19 year old walking, seemingly carefree, out of a bank where she had over $25,000 in cash hidden away.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

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.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Based on police interviews, it seems that not many people knew about Sarah's safety deposit box. Her dad, Michael, says he didn't. According to investigators, he told police he didn't even know Sarah had found money in the Avon by the Sea house in the first place. Sarah's aunt, her dad's sister, did know about the money. So did some of her friends, based on what investigators say they told them. Friends like her neighbor Carly and her friend Liam. Detective Brian Weisbrot said finding out about Sarah's trip to Kearney bank marked a big turn in the investigation.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

Especially when we took into account that Liam had failed to tell us that he had gone to the bank with Sarah.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam McAtasni Liam had told police about going to Taco Bell and playing video games with Sarah. Investigators knew from the time stamped bank surveillance video that Sarah had gone to the bank right after Taco Bell when she would have still been with Liam. Did Liam know more than he was letting on? Was Sarah's friend going all the way back to first grade hiding something?

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[Narrator Juju Chang]

By December 6, 2016, police officers had spoken with Liam McAtasney multiple times. Now he was being brought in for a more formal interview at the police station.

[Interviewer / Detective]

The detective from the county is going to come in and talk to you. You know, you haven't met him yet.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

So at this point, Detective Brian Weisbrot had just joined the investigation. Weisbrot has a very calm, matter of fact demeanor.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

I wanted to be able to introduce myself to him and also speak to him directly in an effort to find

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Sarah, Liam and the officer sit in plastic chairs at a long rectangular table. The camera is pointed down right at Liam. He's Wearing a blue plaid shirt and has his arms crossed on the table. He's leaning forward in his chair. He's looking down at the table rather than up at the officers or at the camera. And you can see the wavy blond hair on the top of his head. The officers are sitting across from him.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Yeah. I'm Brian. I'm a detective with the prosecutor's office. Nice to meet you, Brian.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Investigators are curious as to why Liam hasn't mentioned the bank, but they don't ask him about it right away. They go through a long list of other questions first, like what he's studying at the local community college.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Psychology. I want to pursue some kind of career in law enforcement.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

How long he's known Sarah, first grade and how close they are.

[Interviewer / Detective]

I would say we're pretty close friends. I'm a lifeguard in Bradley Beach. She was a bad checker, so I saw her pretty much every time over the summer.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Weisbrot asks Liam to go over the day of Sarah's disappearance one more time. Liam says he slept in till noon. Then between one and two, he met up with Sarah and helped her move bins to her neighbor's house. After that, he says, they went to Taco Bell together and brought food back to Sarah's house, where they played video games until Liam left for his job as a waiter at Brennan's Steakhouse. That was it. Again, no mention of visiting the bank. Weisbrot wants to know if Sarah asked Liam to help keep any secrets.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Did you make any promises to Aaron? No, Definitely not. That you wouldn't tell anybody anything? No.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam pauses for a while, and then, without prompting, leads investigators back to a familiar theory that Sarah was in emotional distress and ran away to start a new life with her YouTube friends in Canada.

[Interviewer / Detective]

I had spoken about going to Canada with her over the past few weeks, but that was just kind of her emotional support, I guess. I didn't think she would have actually go through it. I thought this whole Canada thing was just trying to escape the situation she was in, I guess, with her dad.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Detective Weisbrot urges Liam to think carefully. Did Sarah say something that suggested she might be in Canada?

[Interviewer / Detective]

If she told you something, if she told you that she was going somewhere, she told you that she was going to do something, you need to tell us? Yeah. Okay.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

For the whole interview, Liam is looking at the table, only raising his head once in a while to make eye contact with the officers. He's nodding a lot as he speaks and uncrossing his arms occasionally to emphasize a point with a Hand gesture. He does this during what he says next. It's a question that comes out of the blue.

[Interviewer / Detective]

One thing I want to talk to you guys about was if she. She did jump off the bridge, what are the odds that she's not somewhere all the way out in the ocean by now?

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

I found the question very odd. I would have expected him to ask us questions like, what are we doing to find her? What efforts have we made? Who's assisting? Who's helping? Liam didn't ask any of those questions.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Detective Weisbrot pushes Liam on what he just asked about the possibility of Sarah's body being carried away by the Shark river current a few hundred yards out to the Atlantic Ocean.

[Interviewer / Detective]

And did she tell you she was going to jump off the bridge? No. If she had told me that she was going to jump off the bridge, there would have been no way that I could have gone to work that night.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam says he had a great night, a great work shift.

[Interviewer / Detective]

I made a bunch of money. All my tables were good. I had a great time. It definitely. I would not have been able to do that if I missed something. Can you just hang tight right here? We're just gonna step out. Thanks. No problem.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

The investigators step outside for 10 minutes and Liam sits in the room alone. When they come back in, Detective Weisbrot will get to the thing that they really want to ask. What about the bank?

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[Narrator Juju Chang]

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[Interviewer / Detective]

You haven't told us about the bank. Yeah.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam says he told the other detective in the room about the bank during an unrecorded interview at his house. The other detective doesn't react to this, doesn't confirm or deny that Liam ever mentioned the bank to him. But none of the detectives working on the case documented or even remembered Liam ever bringing up the bank in any of their multiple interviews with him.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Did you go to the bank? I was with her. Okay. That's the way back from Taco Bell. And what did she do with the bank? No idea. I didn't go in.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam says he stayed in the car.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Why did she stop at the bank? Why did she tell you she was stopping at the bank? Something to do with her money. I don't know. She had found money in Avon House a few months ago, and she has lockbox full of money in there? I don't know. She was taking money out, putting money in there.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam tells detectives it was her mother's money. And according to him, Sarah thought it could be up to 100 grand in cash.

[Interviewer / Detective]

She wasn't sure how much money she found? Yeah. Now, does that make sense to you, that you wouldn't be sure how much money you found? Well, she told me the condition.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Even as Weisbrot pushes Liam, Liam says stays calm and he doesn't clam up. He keeps responding to the detective's questions. It seems like he's trying to be helpful, offering whatever information he can.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Well, she told me the condition of the money was pretty bad. Like it was all stuck together. Well, it was old. Old bills, so that could have been a reason for not knowing. Did you ever see it? No.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

After ticking through some more questions about the day of Sarah's disappearance, Detective Weisbrot returns to the bank. It seems to really bother the calm detective that Liam left out this crucial detail from the day his friend went missing and now says he doesn't know much about it.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Just hear me out. It just doesn't make sense that. That you would do all these things, stop at the bank so she can take care of her money, and that you ask no questions. She doesn't. You don't inquire about anything. She doesn't share anything with you?

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Liam says he isn't sure what more Sarah could have told him what she's

[Interviewer / Detective]

doing at the bank. I mean, if I was in the car here, I got to stop at the atm. The correct. Well, she was just like, I got a deposit. Like, I have to stop by the bank. That's all it was to it. He's like, all right, I'll stay in the car. Stay in the car. Watch the YouTube video or something. And then we were at her house.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

About an hour and a half into the interview, the officers leave the room again. Liam sits alone for about 30 minutes before they come back in and tell him that his parents have contacted attorneys on his behalf.

[Interviewer / Detective]

We're not going to talk to you any further today. We do appreciate you coming down.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

The interview ends. Ultimately, after approximately two hours of us gathering information from him, something was not right. There was nothing at that point pointing in the direction that someone had hurt Sarah. Yet at the same time, I wasn't sad that something didn't happen to her.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

For the first few weeks of the investigation, police had been working with two theories on this case. But by mid December, reporter Jessica easthope said a third theory was suddenly emerging.

[Reporter Jessica Easthope]

Police start to believe that something violent happened to Sarah. But one of the biggest questions is why? When investigators find out about the sum of money that Sarah came into, they start to think that this could be a possible motive.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Could someone have targeted Sarah for her money? In the minds of detectives, could Sarah's case morph from missing person to murder? Liam was one of the few people who knew about Sarah's money, and investigators felt something was off about his story. But all they had was suspicion. They had no evidence that Liam had anything to do with Sarah's disappearance.

[Reporter Jessica Easthope]

The case doesn't go cold, but it moves in that direction.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Investigators were still searching for Sarah, the promising artist whose life had only just begun. Missing posters featured photos of her and listed a $5,000 reward. Police were getting tips from all over. California, Florida, and Canada. People called in to say they thought they had spotted Sarah somewhere.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

There was not. Not one lead that came in that they wouldn't check.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Michael stern said one of the youtubers his daughter liked posted a video asking for help finding Sarah. It went viral.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

There was 167,000 views on that. That was within. Within a day.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

But none of these efforts led to any answers. For weeks, Detective weisbrot continued investigating, and her dad, Michael, stayed involved in the case, too.

[Detective Brian Weisbrot]

I tried to talk to Michael stern every day or every other day, if not every day. Michael stern was not sitting by without checking in with law enforcement and demanding to know what we were doing.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

December passed. A new year started and the case was still stalled.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

It's horrible. It's a sense of hopelessness when you don't. You just. You have no idea. Sarah's my only child and you know, that's a. It's a. It's a hard feeling that we couldn't find her.

[Reporter Jessica Easthope]

It's weeks and weeks before police come in contact with the person who was going to break this case open

[Narrator Juju Chang]

in the dead of winter. A month and a half after Sarah went missing, investigators finally got a tip that seemed like a breakthrough. It didn't come from another state or country. It came from within Sarah's community, from someone who went to school with Sarah and Liam. Pursuing this lead would require a dangerous undercover sting operation and a high stakes gamble between two friends.

[Detective Nick Catalona]

The cops haven't questioned me.

[Interviewer / Detective]

I know you. I know you're not rap, but we gotta, we gotta play it safe, bro. This is like movie.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

Bridge of Lies is a production of ABC Audio and 2020, hosted by me, Juju Chang. Produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fang. Fact checking and production help from Audrey Mostek and Annalisa Linder. Tracy Samuelson is our story editor. Our supervising producer is Sasha Aslanian. Music and mixing by Evan Biola. Special thanks to Katie Dendos, Janice Johnston, Joseph Diaz, Avery Brooke and Michelle Margulis. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Eamonn McNiff is our executive producer.

[Interviewer / Detective]

Foreign.

[Narrator Juju Chang]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. The Hulu original series, Love Overbore is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. Sixteen singles are headed to this super

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[Reporter Jessica Easthope]

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But whoever you do not choose will be going overboard. This is insane. Let the games begin. Watch the new Hulu original series, Love Overboard. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers.

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