Bridge of Lies: The Sting

This is Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest True Crime series from 2020 and ABC Audio, Bridge of Lies. Remember, you can get new episodes early by following Bridge of Lies on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now. Now here's the next episode of Bridge of Lies. Just a warning before we get started. This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and strong language. Almost two months after Sarah disappeared, Detective Weisbrot got an unexpected call from Belmar Police. They had someone who said he thinks he knows what happened to Sarah. We need to talk to this person immediately. A former classmate of Sarah's, Anthony Curry, came forward out of the blue, saying he possibly had information about Sarah's disappearance. When he went to the police about Liam in 2017, Anthony was an aspiring filmmaker. He had a square jawline, bushy straight eyebrows, and long curly brown hair. He was living in Brooklyn, but had grown up in Neptune City, not far from the Jersey Shore. He'd graduated in the same high school class as Sarah and Liam. Anthony said he and Sarah weren't friends, but he and Liam were close. They played music together, talked about movies. I was hanging out all the time. I practically lived at his house for a little bit of time, stayed there all the time, ate dinner with the family. Anthony told officers that about a week before Sarah went missing, he had a conversation with Liam, a conversation that he thought they needed to know about. Anthony said he stopped by Liam's house at around 11 o'clock on the night of Thanksgiving to hang out and play video games. He said Liam told him he'd been drinking throughout the day, so by the time Anthony came over, he said Liam was a little drunk. Anthony told police it was just the two of them. Liam's roommate, Preston Taylor, wasn't home. Anthony said they sat on bar stools in Liam's kitchen, cracked open a couple beers, and started talking. Anthony said it wasn't unusual for Liam to pitch him movie ideas. I make movies and I'm a filmmaker. He used to tell me all ideas all the time about, you know, films I should make and all that stuff. He like told me about this idea he had to like kill this girl. That girl was Sarah Stern. According to Anthony, Liam told him Sarah found a huge amount of cash, about $50,000. So Liam said he was going to her house to help Sarah count the money. Anthony noticed how amped up Liam was getting as he kept talking. He was like hyped. He was an energetic kid. He would like, it was like watching like his performance. Like he would like explain it in a way that was like energetic. Then Liam told Anthony how the movie ends. Detective Weiss brought again. Liam had informed him that he was going to rob her of her money, kill her and throw her remains over the Belmar Bridge. It was a bombshell allegation. Anthony was telling investigators that Liam talked about killing Sarah. Liam, Sarah's childhood friend, who'd been searching for Sarah and cooperated with police, who'd given police an alibi for the time Sarah was killed. Before Anthony could fully process what he just heard, he told police Liam laughed and said, wouldn't this be a great idea for a movie? So Anthony shrugged it all off. Besides, he thought Liam was drunk and that this was just another one of Liam's horror movie pitches. I was like, yeah, he's a little nuts, but I don't know. I just thought it was a movie. He'd like, he would tell me ideas all the time and that stuff. The moment came and went. Anthony said the pair moved on to playing Xbox, and Anthony crashed at Liam's place that night. A week passed and Anthony never gave Liam's movie pitch a second thought until he saw a bunch of posts pop up on his social media feed. They all said, Sarah Stern, missing, car last seen on the Route 35 bridge. Whereabouts unknown? Anthony's mind started to race. He told police he was shocked and somewhat in denial. There was no way his friend could have actually killed someone. Liam was drunk. They were just messing around. His funny, lighthearted friend wasn't capable of something so evil, right? According to investigators, Anthony realized this crazy movie idea might have been some kind of plan when he got a chilling Snapchat message from Liam. Liam asked him, did you talk to the police? From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Juju Chang, and this is Bridge of Lies. Episode 4, The Sting Anthony told police that Liam messaged him on Snapchat in January 2017, almost two months after Sarah disappeared, asking if cops had talked to him. Anthony told him no. Liam replied by saying, word, they talk to almost everybody I know. If they haven't already, they won't. The exchange alarmed Anthony enough that he decided to get a record of it. On Snapchat, when you open a message, it disappears when you close it. And if you screenshot the conversation, the other person would know. So Anthony said he took a picture of Liam's message with his digital camera. Authorities said Anthony told them the constant messages from Liam didn't stop. The two usually talked or texted, but Liam kept reaching out over Snapchat. He wanted to get together with Anthony in person. And he was persistent. Anthony said he just kept telling Liam that he was busy or working. But the truth is, investigators said Anthony was terrified. He couldn't sleep or eat. He kept thinking if Liam really did hurt Sarah, who's to say Liam wouldn't come after him? There hadn't been any new movement on Sarah's case in weeks, and police were desperate for any new leads. But when Anthony came forward with this story, well over a month after she went missing, investigators admitted that it sounded too crazy to be true. Someone's saying that he told me he was going to kill her before he killed her. And we're looking at it investigatively and knowing that she's missing. It's obviously something that it sounds a little far-fetched. That's Chris Decker. He's an assistant prosecutor for Monmouth County who got assigned to Sarah's case. As wild as Anthony's story sounded, could it be true? Investigators noted how specific and detailed Anthony's story was, like how he said Liam told him Sarah found the money in an orange envelope and had a safe at a bank in Bradley Beach. But it was Anthony's demeanor that really convinced Detective Weissbrot that his allegations might be the real deal. He was scared. He was scared. And Liam was aggressively trying to communicate with him more, wanting to see him. And that bothered Anthony. Investigators decided to take a chance on Anthony's story because it was basically his word against Liam's. They needed to prove that Anthony was telling the truth, so they asked him if he was willing to go undercover. You can't hide the truth on a wire. You know, if he's saying Liam told me these things and then he gets into a car wearing a wire or recording device with him and he brings it up, it's going to be completely clear whether or not the kid's telling the truth. With Anthony's help, police were hoping to record Liam implicating himself in Sarah's murder. Over the next few days, they worked together to set up a meeting between Anthony and Liam. Investigators said Anthony was driving back and forth between Brooklyn and Monmouth County. He let detectives monitor and record any communication he had with Liam, any phone call, Snapchat picture or message. On January 31st, 2017, investigators brought Anthony into the county prosecutor's office and asked him to call Liam on a recorded line. Anthony was going to try to get Liam to talk about Sarah's murder. This is Detective David Siderex of the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office of Narcotics and Archaeology Force of Electronic Surveillance Unit. Purposes recording device to electronically record conversation between Anthony Curry and Liam McIntazany. For voice identification purposes, Anthony Curry, would you please state your name? Anthony Curry. It's been almost a month since the two friends have talked on the phone. Anthony's voice is calm and controlled. He even laughs at one of Liam's quips. For a few minutes, it sounds like a normal conversation between friends. But in reality, police are closely listening to every word and they have a plan. The ruse is that Anthony needs money. His camera broke and he doesn't have the money to replace it. Anthony's in a real bind, so he asks Liam for help. I got to shoot on Thursday. I have no f***ing cash to pay for anything. You couldn't spot me some cash from that girl's money, right? Anthony says, that girl. The hope is that this will get Liam to talk about Sarah. Liam pauses. I don't think I can do that. We need to talk about that too. Come see me in person with my phone. Liam doesn't want to talk about it on the phone, but Anthony presses on. How much like do you have like anything left from it or no? Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to talk about it right now. Liam shuts Anthony down again. I was just saying I'm not in good off, because I thought I was going to be. He doesn't elaborate and this time Anthony backs off. For a second, the two envision what their future in Hollywood could look like. Anthony jokes that Liam will be his Leonardo DiCaprio. They say in two years they'll make the move. Liam breaks from the daydream to ask Anthony when he's free. He wants to meet up, so before the two hang up, they make tentative plans for later that week. The phone call, obviously there is no significant, you know, admission on that phone call. Assistant prosecutor Chris Decker says they didn't get a confession, but it was a start. Other than it's abundantly clear when they're talking about him borrowing some of that girl's money that Liam is absolutely not denying it, all he continues to say is that I want to talk about it on the phone. We got to meet in person. According to investigators, shortly after the two got off the phone, Liam messaged Anthony and detectives saw an opportunity to meet that night. Anthony told him that he found someone in Neptune who could sell him a new camera, so he'll be in town that evening. Once again, Liam said he can't loan Anthony the money. He said, quote, my cash is low quality. They wouldn't take it. You understand how serious my situation is. I can't say anything on my phone. They settled on a time and place, 11 p.m. Bradley Beach, a Jersey shore town just east of Neptune, a face-to-face meeting between two friends, and investigators are ready to record every word. We invest in our careers, our finances, and our relationships. But when was the last time you invested in your health? Want to shed that extra weight? Need more energy throughout the day? Want to finally crush that brain fog? That's where GobiMeds can help. And here's the best part. Unlike the other big medical weight loss and telehealth companies, GobiMeds has zero monthly membership fees. You pay for your treatment, not a subscription. No hidden costs, just transparent access to great care. And treatments? Start at just $99 a month. The process is really simple. Fill out a quick consultation form. A licensed provider will review and ask any questions. And if approved, your medications will be sent directly to your door. And you can do all of this from your phone. 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Law enforcement from multiple agencies are gathered, hoping tonight is the night they finally break the case wide open. They've given Anthony a clear mission. Get Liam to confess to Sarah's murder and don't get caught. It's late and the streets are quiet as Anthony makes his way to the spot where he and Liam agreed to meet. Detectives have bugged Anthony's car with recording devices, including a camera hidden behind the steering wheel. On the recording, we see glimpses of Anthony's hand on the wheel, but it's clearly angled to focus on the person soon to occupy the empty passenger seat. The camera quality isn't high definition and the dark cabin of the car doesn't help. Anthony's windows are smudged or foggy in a way that makes the outside world a blur. We only see glimpses of the homes and businesses he passes by, spot lit by the yellow street lights. Anthony's feeling a bit tortured about the situation he's found himself in. What made me descend to him? I don't know, when I was outside I smelt the cigarette, the automatic for a second and it was like alright let's do it. It sucks you know whether you know he's still your friend, whether he did something secret, you know it's still just a tough situation, it's tough, it's just tough. This operation depends on Anthony acting natural. That means detectives for their part don't want to over complicate an already stressful situation. Anthony is just catching up with a friend only with an added objective. They did say you know you gotta act sort of like Donny Brasko, you gotta ask him questions. Ever the film buff, Anthony takes the inspiration seriously, channeling the 90s film starring Johnny Depp as an undercover agent. He turns the radio on and tunes it to a rock station. Rockin' Me by Steve Millerband comes on. Anthony sings along. He says he sings when he's nervous. The lyrics are strangely befitting for the moment. Don't get suspicious, now don't be suspicious, you know you are a friend of mine. You know what was weird about that song too? Me and him used to play that song in a band together and that was on the radio when I was driving there. It was weird, it's f***ing bizarre. There's a lot riding on this operation including Anthony's safety. Detectives are hiding in a vehicle just around the corner from the meeting spot. We were listening live through electronic equipment and we did that to maintain the integrity of the recording and also Paramount was safety. Anthony's safety was of great concern to us at that time. They'll be close but not that close. If things escalated or even turn violent, it's possible there isn't much they can do. In other words, Anthony is on his own. Seaman, Sack Martin on the ultimate classic rock show. Back in the car, Anthony is almost at the meeting spot. It's a place where he and Liam would often hang out in their cars and talk. A quiet street with a nice view of the ocean. Assistant prosecutor Chris Decker. It was a place where the two of them I guess had hung out before on Ocean Avenue and Bradley Beach. You know, parks, they're pulling head on facing the ocean. There's no one around, it's almost 11 o'clock at night. I mean, it's pretty desolate in the middle of the winter. Anthony finds a spot, parks and turns the radio down. And you know, that's ultimately where Liam enters Anthony Curry's car. What's happening, bro? How you doing? How you doing? You want a cigarette? Nah, I'm good. I quit that ****. I was smoking. What were you doing? Liam makes himself comfortable in the passenger seat and closes the door. He's got a thick workman's jacket on, zipped to the top. It's a cold winter's night. He seems happy to see Anthony. It's a familiar scene for the old friends. But for Anthony, nothing is the same. Liam feels like a stranger. But Anthony is a different person too. He's now a double agent, working with the police. It's a high stakes gamble. Anthony knows this hangout might put his friend behind bars. Not to mention the danger Anthony could be putting himself in, sitting alone in a car with a suspected killer. But he thinks it's the right thing to do for Sarah and her family. They're greeting is normal enough until it's not. Dude, you can't blame me for doing this, right? I gotta feel you up real quick, right? No disrespect. I'll show you. No disrespect, okay? Okay. Nothing. As soon as you got in the car, he padded him down for a wire. Highly alarming. Why is he padding him down for a wire? Yeah, I got the FBI on my ass, dude. What are they questioning? Oh, yeah, a lot. About what? About killing Sarah. Less than a minute into sitting in Anthony's car, Liam's getting straight to Sarah's death. He goes on saying he's been laying low. Police have been interrogating him. But Liam says everything is going exactly as expected. But I had planned Sarah's situation for me to be interrogated by cops. Like that was a whole part of my plan to make me look not guilty. Like, did you? He planned to be questioned by the police after Sarah's disappearance. He wanted them to. And he was confident in the story he had to tell law enforcement. Unprompted, Liam goes back to that December night. He was last with Sarah. And without hesitation, Liam tells Anthony what investigators have been hoping to hear. Dude. All right, so I'm hanging out with her. She has, we went to the bank, she took some money out. Not all of her money. We're counting it out. And then she goes to walk out the front door. I choke her out, drag her. My biggest problem was the dog and her dog laid there and watched as I killed her. Didn't do anything. Her f***ing dog. Remember, Buddy was Sarah's foxhound, her best friend. When police first visited the house after she went missing, Buddy was locked in a cage. It struck her friends as one of the first signs something wasn't right. Sarah never locked him up. More details come pouring out of Liam. I pretty much hung her. Like, I picked her up and had her just like dangling off the ground. And she just pissed herself and said my name. And then that was it. On the camera footage, you can see Liam bringing his arm up, showing Anthony how he wrapped his arm around Sarah's neck. He says it took him half an hour to kill her. I thought I was going to be able to choke her out and have her out in like a couple minutes. I choked her out and then she was just laying there having a seizure or something. So then I just, I got a shirt and I just shoved it down her throat so she wouldn't throw up or anything and held my finger over her nose and said a timer. That's the only time I had my phone. And it took me like a half an hour after I hit start. Only timer. This is the thing about like heists. There's so much that you can't account for. You don't know. Yeah, you don't know until it happens. And then the next month was just me getting interrogated by cops over and over and over again. Anthony plays it cool as Liam goes on describing his heist as he calls it. Anthony chimes in with an occasional right or yeah, like a good friend does while listening to a story. But Anthony doesn't need to coax Liam. The story comes rushing out. Listening to Liam, he sounds eager like he's finally able to talk to someone about what he did and how he got away with it. Detectives nearby cannot believe what they're hearing. This Liam that they're hearing in the car was not the quiet and concerned friend they spoke to back at the station. I've never heard somebody talk about murdering someone like Liam Mcatassie did. I have never heard someone provide such disturbing and cold chilling and horrific details that he had provided as to what he did to Sarah Stern. Then Liam starts to talk about how he got rid of Sarah's body. And this is when police get another surprise. And the worst part is we threw off the bridge and the body never showed up. We. Liam says we threw Sarah off the bridge, meaning he didn't do it alone. I'm RJ Decker, a private investigator uncovering the sunshine state's darkest secrets. Tuesdays, it's the premier ABC's hottest new crime show. RJ freaking Decker has a living breed. He's a private eye. It's not a standard murder. Something bigger. And a public mass. Trying to get some back to prison today. You go to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes. RJ Decker series premiere Tuesdays on ABC and Stream on Hulu. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Booking hero. It's time to swap your beanie for a bikini and get out of blighting. On the beach, you've got you covered with tons of last minute deals on sunny destinations. Stop booking around and search it on the beach.co.uk for last minute beach and city breaks. After an atoll protected. From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Padder, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gun down. The key to this case. It's Brian. A hour before he died, he was on the phone. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Investigators have been down the street listening to Liam tell Anthony how he killed Sarah Stern. But he says he didn't do it alone. Another one of Sarah's friends helped him. Remember when Liam told officers he lost his phone the day Sarah disappeared? Liam told Anthony he lost it at Sarah's house. I lost it. I couldn't find it. So that why did you take your phone? You should have left it in your pocket. Dude, what were you doing? Strangling someone. So he called on a friend to help him find his phone and hide Sarah's body. But I choke her out, drag her into the back, put her in a bathroom, and then I had to go straight to work. So Preston came over, took the body, put it in the bushes. Liam says Preston, as in Preston Taylor, his roommate and another friend of Sarah's. He knew about Liam's plan and agreed to help move Sarah's body. Detective Weiss brought. Liam had provided Anthony with very specific information that Preston had assisted him in throwing Sarah over the bridge. And then I get off work that night. Preston, I go over to her house, take her safe, bring that over to my house before we do anything. Then we take her body out of the bushes and drag it over to her back fence and I crawl, get into her car, and I back up. There's a security camera across the street. So I had to act like her. So I backed out exactly like she did and drove off. Not put her in the passenger seat of her own car. From there, as the tape records, Liam tells Anthony the pair drove to the Belmar Bridge in separate cars. Liam drove Sarah's silver Oldsmobile. Preston drove his own car. Liam describes how he positioned Sarah's body to sit up in the passenger seat to look like she was sleeping. They used walkie-talkies to communicate. Liam even takes one out of his pocket to show Anthony. He says the plan was to throw Sarah off the bridge, then jump over the divider where Preston was waiting on the other side and drive off. But when they got there, Liam underestimated how much a body could weigh. I see like headlights coming. I try to get her over and I can't f*** my leg up. So now I'm limping, my leg's f***ed up and there's three cars coming up. So I grab her body. Dude, I had superhuman strength and I threw it in the car and three cars go by and I'm f***ing losing my s*** because that easily could have been a cop. So Liam says Preston drove to his side of the bridge to help and together they threw Sarah's body off the bridge. On the recording, Liam goes on to say he spent six months planning Sarah's murder. He mapped out the security cameras in her neighborhood. He'd watched how she pulled in and out of her driveway. He planned how he would dispose of her body and how he was going to make the police believe they were better friends than they were. But what he didn't count on was walking away with so much less money than what he was expecting. The worst part of it is I thought I was walking out 50 grand, 100 grand in my pocket. She had one safe and she took money out and she only had 10 grand. And this money, I don't know if it was burnt or something, it's f***ing old money, terrible quality. I don't even know if I can put any of it in the f***ing bank. Not only was it not as much money as he'd hoped, he thought it was basically unusable. In the video, you can see Liam lean back in his seat and stare out the windshield. He's just told Anthony his biggest secret, that he killed his childhood friend for money. I don't feel any different, but I don't think about it. You always think you're going to try these new things and you're going to change. It just doesn't do anything. It's weird. Anthony says it's like a movie. It's your life you might as well make it one. What are you going to live some boring ass life? He asks Anthony to keep everything he just told him a secret. Liam thinks Anthony and Preston are the only people who know the truth. Little does he know, there's a team of investigators listening in. Preston doesn't know that you know and he knows that you know I don't want him, you know I don't want there to be a chance. Yeah, you don't have to question me. I mean Brooklyn, the cops haven't questioned me. I know you're not a rat, but we got to we got to play it safe. At this point, there's nothing more to say. Anthony got investigators what they needed. He's ready to go home and put this all behind him. Bro, it was a good scene. When I come back down, what the f*** can do something? Listen, look at me. Be safe, all right. Don't do any stupid stupid sh**. Listen, I'm not going to let Preston do anything dumb. I did something really dumb and I planned it out for half a year. I have patience. I got it. It's good talking to you bro. Good talking. Take it easy bro. Safe travels, right? You too. You got everything? Yeah. All right, peace out. Anthony pulls out of his parking spot and lights a cigarette. He thinks about how easy it was to get Liam to open up. He barely asked any questions. He didn't have to push or pry. It was just a conversation between two good friends. I didn't really have to do much work like he wanted to tell me, you know. I think he wanted to get it off his chest. He was like, I'm going to get it off my chest. With Liam gone, the car is suddenly quiet. The camera is again recording just an empty passenger seat. Anthony grips the steering wheel. He put the radio back on. Moving on by bad company starts playing as he drives away. Sarah's promising life was cut short. She trusted Liam enough to tell him about her secret money. And Liam trusted Anthony enough to tell him a big secret of his own. For detectives, the recording of Liam is a damning piece of evidence, but they don't rush to arrest him. They can't. They want more proof to keep building their case. So Liam's free to go home, sleep in his own bed that night, and keep living his life. But officers will be watching. We needed to take the appropriate steps as to what we were going to do next. So we made a decision to conduct surveillance both on Preston and on Liam. We further made the decision that we were going to locate Preston and interview him. Their new mission? Get Preston to fess up. That's next time. Bridge of Lies is a production of ABC Audio and 2020, hosted by me, Juju Chang, produced by Sabrina Fang, Audrey Mostek, and Camille Peterson. Fact-checking by Anna-Lisa 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 Kohan is our director of podcast programming. Aiman McNiff is our executive producer. It's tournament time. It's winter. Go, honk! Get your popcorn ready! All for this. Players walk in. Legends walk out. March Madness on ESPN. Greatness is now playing. Continues through April 5th on ABC ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app, presented by Capital One. I have great news. Malcolm in the middle is back. My life is fantastic now. In a four-part event. All I had to do is stay completely away from my family. Your biggest problem is that we exist. Everyone's invited to the Camp Mass reunion of the year. This family's behavior is toxic to me. You'll just take turns fighting and creating disasters. That's what families do. Malcolm in the middle. Life's still unfair. Premieres Friday, April 10th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Read TV 14-0.