911, where is the emergency?
It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge.
Was there anybody inside the vehicle?
I looked now and the driver is nowhere to be found. It's the beginning of a mystery.
Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows.
I don't know if we got a jumper or what. Could have pulled up there and just jumped off the bridge.
Underneath the bridge, the current of the Shark River runs fast. Out to the ocean, a search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern.
The resources that are out there right now looking for her, the amount of manpower— we have people swimming in the Shark River in this cold weather. We have boats. We have helicopters.
The day Sarah went missing, she went to her safety deposit box at the bank and brought boxes to a neighbor for safekeeping.
Nobody knew where she was. It was a 19-year-old girl who would have normally been attached to her phone. And she was off the grid.
Sarah was a promising artist, a loving daughter.
Sarah is my only child. It's a hard feeling that we couldn't find her. A million things go through your mind.
Her close friends share with police their varying theories on her disappearance.
In the past, she has had a tendency to have self-destructive suicidal behavior.
I thought she had staged it herself and just went to Canada without telling anyone.
Like, you just hope that, you know, she's alive and Well, what really happened on that bridge? An undercover sting operation reveals the ultimate betrayal, and it's all caught on tape.
Bro, this is like a movie. The cops haven't questioned me. I know you—
I know you're not a rat, but we gotta play it safe.
Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang. From 20/20 and ABC audio, listen to Bridge of Lies, coming March 10th, wherever you listen to podcasts.
On a December night in a small New Jersey beach town, the discovery of an abandoned car on a bridge touches off a search for the missing driver. 19-year-old Sarah Stern, an aspiring artist, has seemingly vanished. Friends tell authorities she might have jumped, or fled to Canada. But troubling statements, omissions and the discovery of a partially-burned cache of money doesn’t sit right with investigators. An up-and-coming filmmaker’s daring undercover sting operation cracks the case wide open. Introducing "Bridge of Lies," a new six-part series from 20/20 and ABC Audio, hosted by Juju Chang.
Listen Wednesdays in the 20/20 podcast feed starting March 10, or Tuesdays by following "Bridge of Lies" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or your platform of choice.
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