The Tragic Murder of Sarah Stern: How a Friend's Greed Led to a Senseless Killing

Sarah Stern was 19-years-old when she was brutally murdered by her best friend, Liam McAtasney. Despite spending six months to plan her murder, Liam was subsequently arrested alongside his accomplice.

Background

Liam McAtasney planned Sarah Stern's murder for six months with the intention of obtaining the thousands of dollars that once belonged to her late mother who passed away from cancer in 2013.

Sarah Stern, had come across a shoebox full of money with a note from her mother.

McAtasney recruited Preston Taylor to help him carry out the mission, believing that there was up to $100,000 at stake.

According to Taylor, initially, they discussed stealing Stern's money privately. However, over time, their conversations evolved to planning her murder so that they would not be caught.

“Ultimately, we decided the best way to go about it was making it look like a suicide,” Preston said.

The plan involved McAtasney strangling Stern, and then the two of them disposing of her body by throwing it off the Route 35 bridge in Belmar, New Jersey and leaving her car there to make it appear as though she had committed suicide.

To avoid leaving a trail of evidence, McAtasney and Taylor communicated through Snapchat and walkie-talkies on the night of her death, which was December 2, 2016.

In a secret recording that was orchestrated by the police and Liam's close friend, he revealed disturbing sides of the story, even narrating how he strangled her.

McAtasney describes how he killed Stern

“I pretty much hung her, like, I just, I picked her up and I had her like dangling off the ground. She pissed herself, said my name and then that was it. And It took me a half hour to kill her. I thought I was gonna be able to choke her out and have her out in like a couple minutes. I choked her out and she was just laying there having a seizure or something. I got a shirt and I just shoved it down her throat so she wouldn’t throw up and held my finger over her nose and set a timer. That’s the only time I had my phone. And it took me a half hour after I hit start on the timer.”

After killing Stern, McAtasney left her lifeless body slumped over the toilet and fled the scene with a backpack filled with a little over $7,000 in cash. He later returned to steal a safe from her room, which he and Taylor cracked open with a screwdriver. The safe contained just over $2,000.

Taylor, who had known Stern since their freshman year at Neptune High School and had even been her date to the junior prom, remembered assisting in moving Stern's body. They propped her up in her 1994 Oldsmobile "in the passenger seat, sitting up" to make it appear as though she was sleeping.

At the Route 35 bridge, they disposed of Stern's body, and unfortunately, it was never found.

Taylor revealed that both he and McAtasney even participated in the search efforts to "make it appear as though we were concerned about finding her." During this time, McAtasney even gave an interview to a TV reporter.

Preston Taylor Testifies Against Liam

Two months after the murder, on February 1, 2017, McAtasney and Taylor were caught for their involvement in Stern's death.

Taylor confessed to the detectives, revealing what had happened to Stern and leading them to the location where he and McAtasney had buried their own safes that contained the money they had stolen from her.

Taylor pleaded guilty in 2017 to several charges related to his involvement in Stern's death. As part of a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, he testified against McAtasney, his former roommate and was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison.

McAtasney, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release on parole. This is the most severe punishment in New Jersey since the state abolished the death penalty in 2007.

References:

Sarah Stern murder: The 5 most disturbing quotes from confession video

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