Liam McAtasney Biography
Liam McAtasney is a resident of Neptune City, New Jersey who was arrested and charged in connection to the disappearance of Sarah Stern following recent developments in the investigation since Sarah was last seen on December 2, 2016.
Liam McAtasney Age
Liam is 21 years old.
Liam McAtasney Sarah Stern Murder
On Dec. 3, 2016, in the early hours of the morning, Sarah Stern’s 1994 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight was found abandoned on a bridge between Neptune and Belmar, New Jersey, with keys dangling from the ignition inside. By then, Sarah was 19 years old.
The car had not been broken into and there were no signs of a struggle and it appeared like suicide. Helicopters skimmed the shores while dive teams searched the river below, but there was no sign of her.
Liam McAtasney, who was Sarah’s childhood friend provided support for the suicide theory, telling the police; “I just know she’s been trying to get away, been telling me she’s moving to Canada.”
Police also said that Liam told them that Sarah had attempted to take her life once before and that her mother had died from cancer a few years earlier and she’d been arguing with her father recently.
Liam’s friend, Anthony Curry, with whom he attended high school with, told ABC’s “20/20” as part of a special that he and Liam loved movies and that Liam would often give him y ideas “about films I should make and all that stuff.”
Just days before Sarah disappeared, Anthony said Liam told him a strange story. “He told me about this idea he had to kill this girl … that he was going to strangle her and throw her over the bridge with his friend,” Anthony said. Anthony Curry also said that when Liam said that, he never for a second thought that he was discussing real life and that he thought it was a movie.
When Sarah disappeared and her car left behind on the bridge, Anthony said that he did not question it and that he only became suspicious once Liam began contacting him via Snapchat, asking him whether police had reached out to him but even then Anthon did not want to believe anything bad of Liam.
Later, Anthony began to worry about his family’s safety. “If somebody is capable of doing that, he could try to hurt my family or somebody I knew … kid’s wacko, Anthony said.
In January 2017, Anthony contacted the police about the conversation he and Liam had had in November, around Thanksgiving and the police set Anthony up with recording devices to see if he could get Liam to confess and yes he did.
In the resulting audio and video, Liam describes strangling Sarah Stern. He said, “It took me half an hour to kill her.” The motive behind killing her was to get a box full of cash Liam said Sarah had discovered her mother had left for her before dying of cancer in 2013.
In the recording, Liam tells Anthony that he thought it contained tens of thousands but the real sum was much less, just around $10,000. “The worst part of it is I thought I was walking out [with] $50,000 to $100,000 in my pocket, Liam said adding that the cash appeared burnt and that he was unsure a bank would even take it.
Liam was arrested shortly afterward and later denied he was talking about Sarah Stern’s murder, claiming that e believed he was auditioning for a movie.
Liam McAtasney Trial
In hearing on Tuesday, February 26, 2019, Liam was found guilty of murdering aspiring artist Sarah Stern, 19, inside her Neptune City house in December 2016 with the help of his roommate, Preston Taylor, who helped drop Sarah’s body of the bridge.
Preston Taylor, Liam’s roommate, testified for the state after accepting a plea deal and on the stand, he said, “It started off as plans to either burglarize her house or rob her personally. Over time, the conversations progressed to killing her.”
Preston also pleaded guilty to robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, disturbing or desecrating human remains, two counts of hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Liam’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May and he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is convicted of murder, robbery, desecration of human remains and tampering with evidence.
Sarah’s body has not yet been found.