One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. But, to no avail. The FBI also seized clothing stained with blood from her body. Part of TV News Archive. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. "'Deep in my heart I know something my mind does not want to learn,' said Gina,13. On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. Among other things, the FBI Laboratory has found hairs in vacuum sweepings taken from Room 509 and possibly body fluid stains on a blanket (and) a latent palm print from the window sill. He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. On February 12, 1999, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli 15, and Silvina Pelosso 16, left their home in Eureka, California to go on vacation in the area near Yosemite National Park in the same state in the United States. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. I guess I was jealous. In 1972, Stayners Cary, as the older brother, had a very strange relationship now with his younger brother, Steven, who was getting all of this attention and who was a different person, former KNTV reporter Ted Rowlands told ABC News. You know what I mean? Jens had scheduled to meet them at the San Francisco airport that evening on his way to Arizona, to where the others were to accompany him. After Steven said his mother would be interested in donating, Murphy offered to take the boy home. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. He remains on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary. Unfortunately, less than a decade after his incredible escape, Steven Stayner died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24, leaving behind a wife and two children. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. Items included in the Television News search service. Ive never seen anything thats so close to black and white and evil and good as Stayner and our children, said Francis Carrington, the father of Carole Sund and grandfather of Juli. The revelation came in a six 'I try to stay strong because I know that's what you'd want your baby to be, but, Mommy, I don't want you to leave me.'". It then came out that Steven had been kidnapped by Parnell, who had been sexually abusing Steven while also posing as his father and forcing him to go by the name Dennis Parnell. He was known to take refuge in nearby Yosemite, where hed drive up and get lost in nature. Unsurprisingly, it didnt take long for the story to become national news, and the teenage Steven was at the center of it all. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five, less time than he held Steven captive. Stayner's father, Delbert, admitted that he thinks son Cary may have suffered a trauma at age 11, when younger brother Steven, then seven, was abducted in 1972, disappearing for eight years. Stayner was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Joie Ruth Armstrong. The two brothers of the Stayner family are both famous - one experienced horror in the hands of a child molester, Steven, and the other, Cary, the serial killer in Yosemite. The new three-part Hulu docuseries Captive Audience explores the tragic story of the Stayner family specifically the fraught lives of their two sons, Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner. So while Parnell was at work, Steven ran away with Timothy, and the two hitchhiked to a police station in Ukiah, California. But by the middle of March, their hopes faded. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. It seemed as though he had a compulsion with trying to get close to women or be sexual with them, but he was unable to develop any sort of interpersonal relationships with any women. But, as the Hulu doc frames it, the media attention that Steven got after escaping his abductor and also saving Timothy White had a dark side both for Steven and for the rest of his family. He demanded that his parents be given the reward money, that he be incarcerated at a prison near his parents home, and, to Stayners detriment, that he be given a large cache of child pornography. | After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. And he wanted the same treatment. This time, agents detained him and forced him to answer more questions. Cedar Lodge, 9966 CA-140, El Portal, CA 95318. The dramatic story was told in the 1989 television movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven.. Her body was next to a stream and head within the water that she and her friends used for drinking water. Hastings rejected new defense claims that juror misconduct prevented a fair trial. That evening, the group grabbed some videos from the lodge's service desk to watch in their room. Acting on a tip from a caller who was worried about the whereabouts of his friend, Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, park rangers found her decapitated body on the morning of July 22, 1999. In the Bureau's mind, this time it had the right man. He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. Larry Duane Utley, 41 an associate of Dykes and Larwick, first picked up during a March parole sweep. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. In 1997, Stayner got a job as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge, seven miles from the gate of the national park, where he worked for 2 years before the murders.. The trio stayed at the lodge in February 1999, during which time Cary talked his way into their room, where he sexually assaulted and murdered all of them. According to Special Agent Christopher Hopkins , both the FBI's Evidence Response Team and the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office collected items of potential interest from Room 509 at the Cedar Lodge Motel, the room in which Stayner sexually assaulted Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso and murdered both Carole Sund and Silvina. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. He remains on By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The trivia item below may give away important plot points. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. The brothers, four years apart in age, shared a room, but didnt get along, Steven didn't understand the rules that he was now expected to live by. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. The boys were still in elementary school when on December 4, 1972, a man named Kenneth Parnell took seven-year-old Stephen, whilst walking home from school on Highway 140. Cary was 11 years old at the time, and deeply upset about his brother's disappearance. | Initially, the police didn't have any solid leads as to who killed them. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. The initial suspicion was that they may have wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the park. The inn staff claimed that when they cleaned the room the next morning, they had detected no evidence of foul play or anything that made them suspicious. "We never really got along that well after he came back All of a sudden Steve was getting all these gifts, getting all this clothing, getting all this attention. Cary Stayner, also known as The Yosemite Killer, was convicted nearly 20 years ago in the murders of four people in 1999 while he was working as a hotel However, there were warning signs during his younger years. Angelia Dale, who testified before the federal grand jury. Im so proud of the way Carole and Juli lived, and Im so ashamed of Stayner.. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. The police reckoned that the killer of the three women was someone familiar with the county given the location of the Pontiac. All of its been bad, Delbert Stayner said of his familys life. On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. Then he took action. At that time, the Bureau stated that, while no one had yet been charged, it felt that those responsible for killing the three women at Yosemite were already behind bars. You know, hung out with him, played with him.. In his interview, Stayner claimed that hair from his body was left on the bedspread in their motel room, but he returned later and changed the bed. ", Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner in the baseball cap in the background. A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. "He stated that he felt like jumping in a truck, driving it through the shop and killing the boss and killing everybody in the office, and then torching the place," friend Mark Marchese said in 1999. Cary didnt emerge as a suspect during the initial investigation, and the FBI actually believed they had the people responsible for the killings in custody. In a voice that seemed relieved to be unburdened from its depth a long-kept secret, Stayner blurted, "I am guilty. However, when they found Cary at a nudist colony nearby and brought him in for questioning, he quickly confessed to Armstrongs murder, and soon after admitted he was also responsible for the first three killings. While Steven was a freshman at Mendocino High School, some 300 miles to the south, his older brother Cary was an upperclassman at Merced High School. What followed turned out to be one of the most shocking crimes in both National Park and American history, involving a man whose family had already been involved in a notorious crime, literally the two faces of evil. He abandoned the group's rental car with the bodies of Carole and Silvina inside, returning two days later to burn the evidence and retrieve the wallet, which he dumped in Modesto to confuse authorities. In a 2003 jailhouse interview with The Chronicle, Parnell admitted that he had tried to buy the boy to experience the "love and respect" that a son has for a father. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. He grew up, got married and had two kids. Stayner said he thought he had gotten away with the earlier crimes, but could not resist the urge to kill Armstrong after he struck up a chance conversation with her. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. I never recognized either one of them.". "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. Many local residents were convinced that no one person could have created so much horror, "'The logistics of it say it had to involve more than one person, said Letty Carolyn Barry, owner of the Yosemite Rosebud Lodge, west of Cedar Lodge. A relatively quiet, but friendly, a motel handyman called Cary Stayners only passions seemed to be nude sunbathing and hiking. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. . Caroles parents, Francis and Carole Carrington, appeared on the Good Morning, America TV show, to ask for the prayers of Americans and their help in locating their daughter and the children. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. He had given the FBI details "only the killer would know in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession. He paid a local kid to ride with him to the town of Ukiah, California and he told to go and find him a boy. I got put on the back burner, you might say," Cary told J.P. Miller, a filmmaker who wrote a screenplay about Steven's abduction. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. Rachel Lou Campbell, 36, of Modesto, was charged in April with stealing checks and credit cards, and converting them into cash and merchandise worth $365,000. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. See the latest list of Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com, See more StrangeOutdoors True Crime Stories, The horrific rape and murder of Sophie Louise Hook whilst camping in her Uncle's garden, The miracle rescue of Alan Lee Phillips at Colorados Guanella Pass - the man who turned out to be a serial killer, The chilling story of Thomas Lee Dillon - the Ohio Outdoorsmen killer, https://casefilepodcast.com/case-161-the-yosemite-sightseer-murders-part-1/, https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/stayner-cary.htm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner, https://abcnews.go.com/US/steven-cary-stayner-tale-brothers-horror-heroism/story?id=60529944, https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/me-timothy-white10-2010apr10-story.html, https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a26040174/cary-stayner-steven-yosemite-murders/, https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/july-25-1999-cary-stayner-arrested-murder-yosemite-60263995, https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-recalls-moment-family-learned-target-1999-yosemite/story?id=60364987, https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/stayner-sentenced-to-death/, Tagged: The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders, Carole Sund yosemite murders, Juli Sund yosemite murders, Silvina Pelosso yosemite murders, Cary Stayner yosemite murders, Yosemite park murders, Joie Ruth Armstrong, Sign up now for a one-time fee for access to over 55 exclusive member articles, The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders and the two faces of evil, Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com, The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders, The miraculous escape of the Brazilian and German backpackers at Salt Creek in South Australia, Robert Hansen Butcher Baker - the Alaska Serial killer who hunted his victims in the wilderness, The shocking unsolved Keddie Cabin murders, The disturbing death of Fiona Torbet in the Scottish highlands, The unsolved Williams and Winans camping murders in Shenandoah National Park, The real Wolf Creek - The Backpacker Murders in the Australian Outback, The disturbing story of David Shearing and the Wells Gray Park camping murders, The mysterious death of Carol Laughlin in Yosemite National Park, The frightening case of the Trailside Killer David Carpenter, The mysterious Koh Tao - Death Island in Paradise, The disturbing disappearance of the Beaumont children on Glenelg Beach, The Kamloops Triangle - The British Columbia murders and disappearances, The Delphi hiking murders - Abigail Williams and Liberty German, The Peter Falconio disappearance in the Australian Outback, The unsolved murder of Scott Lilly on the Appalachian trail, The disturbing case of James Jordan - The Appalachian Trail Murderer. Alternate Versions But instead of seeking mental health treatment, he moved to Yosemite. | "I remember going out one night after Steve disappeared and wishing on a star that my brother would come back home," Cary reportedly told Mike Echols, author of the book I Know My First Name Is Steven. He had a long criminal record and had been questioned extensively by the FBI. Timothy Lee White, 5, gets a piggyback ride from 14-year-old Steven Stayner at a news conference in Ukiah, California, in 1980, Kenneth Parnell stops the car and goes to a payphone, he comes back and tells Steven, Your parents, I just spoke to them. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "(A witness claimed that) Stayner was angry about authorities seizing his backpack after he was questioned earlier that day. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. But, says Delbert, puberty-aged Cary endured some emotional hardships because of that incident. Management found him a hard worker and honest. Steven and Cary Stayner: The tale of two brothers' horror - ABC The Bureau relocated its headquarters from Yosemite to Modesto at this point and, on February 28, twelve days after the women's disappearance, hinted that was is no longer treating the Sund incident as a missing persons case, but as murder. Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. The issue was no longer who committed the murders but whether Stayner was insane at the time and whether the confession to the FBI agents was coerced. After first flying to San Francisco, where Carole rented a red 1999 Pontiac Gran Prix, they stopped in Stockton, where Juli took part in a cheerleading contest at the University of the Pacific. He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. In December 1972, a 7-year-old Steven was kidnapped by Kenneth Parnell, a man who worked at the Yosemite Lodge at the national park near Stevens hometown of Merced, California. On the way to his police interview he confessed to a detective in the car to murdering Joie Armstrong, describing the brutal killing "as if he was reading a soup label," said John Boles, another FBI agent on the case. It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. Quotes Real Crime 1.23M subscribers Join Subscribe 6.7K 562K views 1 year ago Also known as the Yosemite Park Killer, Cary Stayner murdered four women in 1999 I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. He wanted the world to take note.. He was arrested on March 5 when he allegedly reported to his parole officer with liquor on his breath. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? Parnell worked at the Yosemite Lodge, located about two hours away from the Stayner home. On December 4, 1972, at the age of seven, Steven was approached after school by Edward Ervin Murphy, who claimed he was collecting money for the church. "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong None of the women were sexually abused in any way.". Because of the discovery of Sund's wallet in suburban Modesto, police, and FBI searched "the logical routes in and out of that spot, interviewing homeowners and business owners and others who may have seen them." According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. Curtis Cousin Eddie Smith Claims Alex Murdaugh Made Him A Fall Guy, Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Buster Murdaugh Testified For The Defense At His Fathers Double Murder Trial, Randy Roth From 'A Rose For Her Grave' Is Still In Prison, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. By the end of that evening, the FBI felt it had gathered enough evidence to arrest Cary Stayner for murder, Sunday morning, they rushed him to Fresno to officially lodge a complaint, then to Sacramento on Monday where he was put before the courts. He loved his brother. The suspect, Cary Stayner, 37, had been one of the people questioned after the triple killings in February, but, at that time no evidence linked him directly to the crime and he had been released. Larwick, who grew up in Tuolumme County near where the bodies of Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso were found, was jailed on March 16 after he allegedly shot a Modesto police office. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. She was seen that day at the Institute offices and was planning to visit a friend in Sausalito, California, that day but never made it. I guess seven years changed him, too. On Good Morning America in March 1980, Steven shared with host David Hartman that it felt "great" to be home. Upon release, the FBI warned him not to leave El Portal. The Cedar Lodge hired him as a handyman in 1997 and gave him the use of a small apartment on the top floor.
Swampers Music Schedule,
George R Roberts Atherton,
Do Parking Tickets Go On Your Record In Michigan,
Highland Cow Birthday Decorations,
How Many Times Does Jesus Say Believe In Me,
Articles C