Bridge of Lies: The Abandoned Car

March 11, 2026·29 min·2 clips

A 19-year-old aspiring artist vanishes, leaving only her car parked overnight on a New Jersey bridge.

Debra Roberts opens the case. Bridge of Lies is introduced as a seven-part true crime series about Sarah Stern, a 19-year-old from New Jersey. At first, there is not much to go on: her car sits overnight on a bridge, and Sarah is gone. Friends float two possibilities. Maybe she jumped. Maybe she left for Canada. Neither one really closes the question. Then the tone shifts. Statements begin to bother investigators, and the introduction moves toward foul play, with a sting operation waiting in the background. The excerpt breaks for sponsor and entertainment promos before returning to Sarah's hometown. Neptune City comes through in plain detail, not as a postcard: near Jersey Shore landmarks, including Belmar's E Street and Asbury Park, with bars, coffee shops, Italian restaurants, pizzerias, and quiet streets of houses. Population is under 5,000, which makes the case feel close and uncomfortable. Sarah is sketched through her age, her art dreams, and that abandoned car. The excerpt does not solve anything. It sets the table: disappearance, public theory, darker suspicion, small community.

As heard by us

A measured true-crime opener that turns a parked car into a case with real weight.

Bridge of Lies treats Sarah Stern's disappearance as a cleanly reported Jersey Shore mystery. It follows the known facts closely: a 19-year-old from Neptune City, New Jersey, a car left on a bridge overnight, and theories that range from jumping to fleeing to Canada before foul…

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Why you'd press play

You get a mysterious disappearance, a car parked on a bridge overnight, and a sting that reveals a shocking betrayal.

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