Hysterical. An entire town banding together to find a beloved teen. This is a huge search. 100s of people came. A lot of people. We had the Sheriffs Department, got divers. This is things you see on tv, not things that happen to you. And then, someone said he spotted her. I looked at her right in the face just like im looking at you right now. That girl is alive. But a secret recording could catch one of the towns own, revealing a sinister scheme. Saras whole deal was he explained he studied her movements. The plan was to take her money. Evil, pure evil. That is never going to be over. There was something there was something wrong on the bridge. It was 2 45 am, december 3rd, 2016. An old town on the jersey shore called neptune city. It was bitter cold. Dark. It was an uber driver who saw the car just sitting there halfway across the bridge. 911, wheres the emergency . Im actually on belmar bridge. Right after heading down in the middle of the bridge, there is a car thats abandoned. Its off to the side of the road. What kind of car is it . It kind of looks like an old, beat up light tan colored, like sedan. They sent a squad car for a look. The cop got close. It was unlocked. The keys in the ignition. No sign of the driver. Two, three feet away was a railing. And beyond it a straight drop of the night blacker inserting out to sea. What happened here . They ran the plates, discovered the car was registered to a 96yearold lifelong local Resident Named the eastern. But she hadnt used her car that day. Shed loaned it to her 19 year old granddaughter, her name, sarah. Sarah stern. 1000 miles south at disney world, her dad, mike, was on vacation with his girlfriend, christine. He was awakened by his phone. 3 00 in the morning and they just asked is sarah driving an oldsmobile and i said, yeah. Going. Just like that . Yeah. After the call drop, mike called back and got a recount so panicked he phoned a nephew who happen to be a neptune first responder. He called about ten minutes later saying they found sarahs car up on the bridge. She wasnt in it. And then the terror set in. Mike and christine jumped in their car and began the 16 hour drive home. God, i cant imagine what the drive back was like. It was a lot of crying and thinking and talking you dont know . We were getting calls in from the Police Department asking questions and i said, i dont know. Christine drove and Mike Frantically texted, sarah, what is going on . Why is your phone off . Call me when you get this message. Things happen faster in the small town then a big city. Police department, hello anyone home . Announce yourself, please. Officers go through the stern home. It was empty except for sarahs beloved dog, buddy. In his crate. Michael called me that night, 2 30, 3 00 in the morning to tell me that the car was on a bridge. I my thoughts were not good. An old friend of the sterns lived across the street. Officers walked over and asked her about sarah. What mindset was she in today you can see did anybody in your family talk to her this morning . Today . She texted me. She said can i bring some stuff over . Its my mothers. I said, sure. Is she depressed . Is she i think shes depressed. Not suicidal in any way, you think . I dont know. Robbyn told the Officer Sarah had come by the house earlier in the day with her friend lia. Knew they left a container of sarahs things with her daughter, carly. So the officers drove over to liams place to see if he could help. Youre liam . Youve got a second . Can i talk to you real quick . Yeah, no problem, officer. Its sarah here by any chance . No. Once it has to be talked to . Her i was with her today. What time . Before i went to. Get in some light on if thats. Okay we want to get through today. Liam said he hadnt seen sarah since late afternoon. As soon as you hear anything, called the neptune city or Neptune TownshipPolice Department. Thank you. Mike stern had notified including sarahs cousins, lindsay, and lauren. Barr instant panic. I tried calling her phone, sending her texts, didnt answer which was automatically weird because she was glued to her phone. I left the house in my pajamas in my car and race down to where they said they found her car to see if we could find anything. See anything. Just hours later, they were gathered with most of the family at mike and sarahs house. Family was there, his sisters, sarahs cousins. Theres about 30 to 40 people. All kind of frantic . All kind of like, whats going on . Sarahs friends and family, began to imagine all too many things. Including robbyn drapers daughter, carly, a lifelong friend of sarahs. I had my mom on the phone crying downstairs and she said that they found sarahs car on the bridge. You know the bridge . I went down there after it. That morning . Yes. Did your mind go anywhere at all that she might have jumped off the bridge . It was one of the thoughts my head, did she jump off the bridge . I didnt know. Meanwhile, sarahs father on his agonizing drive north, worried that sarah might have done something terribly fatally rash. Because you just dont, know the keys were in the car, the car was operational and sarah was missing. And it was like two, three feet away from that. The water. So mike imagined awful things on his 16 hour drive home. But surely, neither his imagination or any other could stoop so deep as what youre about to see. A case that started on a bridge with the car and ended inside another. How are you doing . What dark possibilities lie in the human heart . Primed both for loyalty and betrayal. Coming up we didnt know what was going on at that point. So it was kind of a panic. Where was sarah . Maybe there was a simple explanation. Everyone knew she wanted to move up north. She said she wants to go to canada. But if she had done that wouldnt she have told someone . Very tightly knit community. When dateline continues. Inez, let me ask you, youre using head and shoulders, right . Only when i see flakes. Then i switch back to my regular shampoo. You should use it every wash, otherwise the flakes will come back. Tiny troy hes right, you know. Is that tiny troy . The ingredients in head and shoulders keep the microbes that cause flakes at bay. Microbes, really . Theyre always on your scalp. Little rascals. But good news, theres no itchiness, dryness or flakes down here i love tiny troy. And his tiny gorgeous hair. Hes the best. Make every wash count little help please. Swords Clashing had enough . No. Arthritis. Here. Aspercreme arthritis. Full prescriptionstrength . Reduces inflammation . Thank the gods. Dont thank them too soon. Kick pain in the aspercreme. Goli, taste your goals. Goli, taste your goals. You want to be able to provide your child goli, taste your goals. With the tools or resources they need. With reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. Fellas, fellas. Thats how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. We wanted to give yall the necessary skills to compete with the future. Kevins now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. For while Police Officers on the route 35 bridge while Police Officers on the route 25 bridge were trying to make sense of what happened in the early dark of december 3rd, sarahs dad, mike, and his golf and christine were frantically driving up highway 95 from florida. Their Minds Whirling among dreadful possibilities. We didnt know what was going on at that point. So we were in a kind of a panic. But to the experts and neptune, the possibilities were limited. The fact that we had at the time that we could go on was that there was either possible suicide, that she had jumped off the bridge, or that she just let her car abandoned. Those are the facts we had. It was hardly surprising that in the little town of neptune city, Ed Cushion Bomb then Public Safety director knew sarah. I knew sarah, she worked at a popular restaurant in neptune city with my daughter. Well enough to know if she was a suicide risk . All i know of sorrow was she was a very nice person, very, bubbly upbeat, never a bad word to say about anybody. Kind of an instance about her . She was very artistic. She was laid back. Just the epitome of innocence. But jumped from a bridge into the shark river . Why would she . She was happy. On the brink of new possibilities. And neptune city on the jersey shore had always been her safe place. A good place to grow up . Yeah. Im happy that i grew up here. Here, they say the sun gets in your shoes. People state, families come back generations. Friendships last whole lifetimes. Everybody knows each other in neptune. Its a very tightly knit community. And if you dont know that person, someone you know is going to know that person. And the block with carli, her brother sam, and Sarah Grew Up On was even tighter. A kind of kid heaven. Thats sarah with the dark bangs. Our age gap between all the kids was six years at the most. And we all played together after school. We were the neighborhood gang. Weve known sarah our whole life. And she was like my older sister. We were like sisters. She was basically family. If i wanted to play catch with someone, i could just ask sarah. Sarah was always there. She was there at all was kind of amazing. A gift. Sarah . She was a miracle child. The only child of mike stern and his wife carla. She didnt think she could have children and finally sarah came along. I fell in love with this kid. Robin, carly and sams mom, was there from the beginning. Carly and i raised our kids together. It was amazing. They hang out at your place a lot . They did. We had a pool. Sometimes ten, 12 kids just splashing around for hours and hours. And it was a good time. Until it wasnt. In 2013, when sarah was just 15 years old, her mom, carla, died after a long struggle with cancer. What was it like when her mother died . Sara was at our house that night. All i remember is Sarah Hearing her sobbing downstairs. I didnt know what to do. Did you know what had happened . Yes. Yeah. Just, hard and it was sad. But sarah managed. Instead of turning into her grief, she reached out. Got even closer to her grandmother and her dog buddy became her constant companion. She loved buddies so much. She really did. She grew closer to the classmates at neptune high school. Her friend liam, his twin seamus, Preston Taylor, preston took her to the junior prom, just friends. She also made a different kind of friend. One you wouldnt necessarily expect. After karlas death, mike found christine and fell in love. Sarah could see christine was good for her dad and maybe her too. I know how sarah felt, i had gone through the same thing she did. My mom passed away when i was young. It wasnt easy at first. No. And maybe thats why sarah so embraced what became a genuine passion. I think making art made her mentally escape from that and be creative and could create any kind of happiness she wanted to. It was a whole other world for her. Yeah. Where sara picked up her talent we still dont know. It was a natural thing for her . It seemed natural. What she turned out was its pretty good stuff. Really neat stuff. She just started drawing and any medium. Beautiful images. Magical, even. She started going to conventions, to meet online stars and artists. Got to meet youtube stars like jenna marbles. There was the Vidcon Convention and she fell in love with toronto. She said she wants to go to canada. When she was ready, mike told her. Yes, but soon, she said. And then it was that Friday December 2nd when sarah dropped by the drapers house. I heard her walk inside and she was calling my mom and saying i was the only one home and she said that she had texted my mom that she was leaving a box here and my mom said it was okay. Sarah was talking about her dad, how she had lost respect for him. Did that seem strange for you . Not really because i knew that they, you know, argued. But i argue with my parents all the time. So it wasnt it wasnt anything unusual. No. As carly told us sarah left the bin, then she was gone. Running errands, she said, in her grandmothers old car. The very car that uber driver spotted after midnight. Abandoned halfway across the route 35 bridge. Was there anybody inside the vehicle . I looked. No. The news spread through the early morning. First responders descended on the bridge and the shark river beneath it. There was a depressing logic to the scene that greeted them. It wouldnt be the first time some desperate soul had taken a final leap. But this was bright, happy, sarah stern. So it couldnt be that, could it . Coming up Police Seek Help from saras friends. Nobody is going to get in any trouble here, trust me. We just have to make sure sarahs all right. And the area last images of sorrow just before she disappeared. Could you tell what her demeanor was . Did she seem frightened or anything like that . When dateline continues. Until, i saw how easily it picked up my hair every time i dried it only takes a minute. Look at that the heavy duty cloths are extra thick, for amazing trap lock. Even for his hair. Wow. And for dust, i love my heavy duty duster. The Fluffy Fibers trap dust on contact, up high and all around without having to lift a thing. Im so hooked. Youll love swiffer. Or your money back icy hot. Ice works fast. Heat makes it last. Feel the power of contrast therapy. So you can rise from pain. Icy hot. Attention hearing loss sufferers do you have trouble keeping up with conversations . So you can rise from pain. Do you listen to tv on max volume . 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We had the Sheriffs Department there. We had divers in the water. Plus an Aviation Unit from state police. We had a call at around 5 am to do a search for someone they believed went off the bridge. We had no idea who it was, the general conception was that someone had jumped. Fred hines was an ems and rescue director. We were in there a couple of hours and somebody walked up to me and just said, were looking for her. I dont know who are looking for and they said sarah stern. Which just put a lump in my throat. Understandable that because sarah lived two houses away from the family. Her father, michael, is a good friend of mine. And all i could think about was how is he going to feel now . While the water search was underway, cups in ten were talking to anyone who might know anything. Is that they caught a few of. Sarahs friends, preston, shaun, liam on a port. We just want to make sure shes okay. Body cams picked up their questions. Did sarah just take off . Were her palscovering for her . No ones getting in any trouble here, trust me. We just gotta make sure sarahs all right and if you have any other information, you can throw data so we can go a little further. Saras friend liam confirmed for that she had left a bin at the draper house and then he and sarah went for lunch together. Meanwhile, back at the end, let the search of the Frigid Shark River was turning up nothing. As the sunset, it became too cold and dangerous to continue operations and the search was called off for the day. I didnt want to go home. I didnt want to try to pass mikes house. I did not have some kind of closure for him. But mike and christine were still making their way home from florida. We gotta left at 3 30 in the morning we got Home At Seven on saturday night. Christine and mike arrive to a packed house. We just started putting ideas and things that couldve happened. How was he doing at that point . I think he was in shock. Yeah. Mike headed for the bridge. What did you first find here . We didnt know. Yeah . All unknown. By the time we were back, the dive crews and everybody had already left. So it was night, you cant do much at night. By the next morning, the county Prosecutors Office was running the Missing Persons investigation. Brian weiss what was the leading detective. We were speaking to friends, family members, there was a house across the street from sarahs house that a video Security Camera that facing her home. Do you see anything on the video . We did. We were able to see her vehicle leave multiple times throughout the day. From those Surveillance Videos, and their interviews, investigators started to piece together sarahs day. She had carried a bin and a box across the street to her neighbors house. That was carly and robbyn drapers house. After that, sara and her friend liam went to lunch at taco bell. The restaurant Security Cameras had her there at 2 18 pm. Later, she stopped by a bank and Security Cameras indicated that was a little before 3 pm. And the branch manager, an old friend of the stern family, remembered her waving hello. Can you tell looking at the video what her demeanor was . Could she seem frightened or anything like that . No, she didnt. She appeared happy, she smiled. She communicated with the staff there who she had known for many years. She had a very nice relationship with the bank manager. And prior to her actually walking out of