Sarah Stern’s murderer’s mom says her boy didn’t do it

The mother of convicted murderer Liam McAtasney says her son didn't kill Sarah Stern. Last week a jury in Monmouth County came to a different conclusion. Liam McAtasney was convicted of the December 2016 murder of his friend Sarah and sentenced to life in prison. It's only natural that a mother would not want to believe that her own son would be capable of such a heinous crime. But with the testimony of his roommate and his own video admission of the act, his fate has been sealed.

You can't imagine being in her position. A son you raised and known to be a good, decent, normal kid, could do such a thing, and to a friend. The fact that he so calmly cooperated with the authorities, even helping in the search shortly after her disappearance. If not for his classmate and friend coming forward with the story of Liam's bizarre tale of a similar story a week before it happened and his cooperation with authorities to get Liam to spill his guts, this murder may have never been solved. The whole story was expertly laid out by ABC's 20/20 broadcast this past Friday night. If you haven't seen it, go on demand and find it. There's no re-enactment. The whole thing was chronicled from the beginning by the Neptune City Police and the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office.

After watching you have to wonder how any lawyer could defend this monster. But every person in our society that's accused of a crime deserves a defense and Carlos Diaz-Cobo, his attorney, did his best to provide that. You have to wonder with the evidence presented, how he continued on, but he did to the best of his ability. But to continue on as a mother, Megan McAtasney has to cling to some hope and belief that the boy she raised couldn't possibly be capable of the horror and pain he inflicted, not only on Sarah, but on an entire community and humanity as a whole. This crime and how and why it was acted out is more painful than any of us could bare, especially the mother of the convicted killer. No wonder she's in denial.

And what of Sarah's father Michael Stern. The pain he's endured can only be described as unbearable, yet he carries on, and one only wonders how. Our hearts went out to him from the very beginning. We found this video from our site on his Facebook page.

That was recorded when there was still some shred of hope for a better ending to this story. It's a snapshot in time just like the facebook pages of people involved.
Sarah's Facebook page is still there. So is Liam's with the most recent post of people wishing him a happy birthday in July of 2016.

There's no sense that can be made of any of this, other than to know that evil can lurk anywhere among us. But with the outpouring of love and caring from all of the people that watched this story unfold, there is incredible good in this world too. Hopefully enough to heal all of the people in Sarah's life who loved and miss her.

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