It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. Cary Stayner confesses to killing four innocent women in 1999: Part 9 Two FBI agents were eating pizza with Stayner when he suddenly admitted he murdered Joie Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood. 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. He was also angry about how his truck had been searched. The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. 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. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. Web6,597 views Jan 24, 2019 56 Dislike Share ABC10 172K subscribers On July 26, 1999, former ABC10 reporter Tim Daly went down to the Cedar Lodge where Cary Stayner By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, 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. The FBI task force investigating Yosemite issued a federal warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear in Stanislaus County drug court in June. This time, agents detained him and forced him to answer more questions. And he wanted the same treatment. 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. All of its been bad, Delbert Stayner said of his familys life. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. I went to ask if Cary wanted to talk, reporter Ted Rowlands said. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. But he was surprised that did not find his wife at the airport and assumed she had flown ahead, The next day, he tried to contact them again and failed and he called the police. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". Specifically, the media scrutiny seemed to affect his older brother Cary, who clashed with his brother after his return. I guess I was jealous. 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. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. 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. William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. The initial suspicion was that they may have wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the park. Her body was next to a stream and head within the water that she and her friends used for drinking water. To the dismay of the Stayner family, the case went cold. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. Steven Stayner helped another child escape from a pedophile, after enduring years of abuse and not wanting to see the child experience the same fate. The California Highway Patrol verified the car's license plate as the Sunds rented vehicle and immediately notified the FBI. In 1972, Stayners From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. However, there were warning signs during his younger years. In this, he calmly reviewed how he strangled 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso in the motel bathtub and how he sexually assaulted Juli Sund for hours before brutally cutting her throat. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. I was the oldest and all that. ", Steven Stayner with his kidnapper Kenneth Parnell. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five, less time than he held Steven captive. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. 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. That evening, the group grabbed some videos from the lodge's service desk to watch in their room. In a voice that seemed relieved to be unburdened from its depth a long-kept secret, Stayner blurted, "I am guilty. Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a Because he was the handyman at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal where the Sund & Pelosso group had stayed before they were murdered, his questioning at that time seems to have been more routine than anything. "Thats when I told him, 'You need to go to a doctor, Cary.'" He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. He received the death penalty for killing four women, three of whom had been staying at the Cedar Lodge, where Stayner was employed as a handyman. Check-out had apparently been done in advance and the keys were left on the room desk. 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. Upon examination by the FBI Laboratory, some items have yielded trace evidence. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? During the session, an unexpected event occurred. Special agent Maddock said, "During the last 24 hours, we have developed specific information linking Stayner (also) to the Sund-Pelosso murders.". They had been hosting Silvina, who was a foreign exchange student from Argentina and a friend of Juli's, She was spending three months with the family. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest him. Tragically, Steven Stayner was killed in a 1989 motorcycle accident at the age of 24. In 2002, Cary Stayner was convicted of first-degree murder on four counts and sentenced to death. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. 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. You know what I mean? Silvina Pelossos mother, Raquel, said, I just cannot understand how so many peopledidn't realize that maybe (Stayner) was the man since I heard that he was interviewed some time ago. | He has been questioned about any involvement. 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. 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. Stayner, clad in a red jail jumpsuit, bowed his head but showed no emotion as Judge Hastings sentenced him to death three times, once for each murder, after returning to the courtroom. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. Part of TV News Archive. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. 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. | Timothy White, the kidnap victim, was only 35 when he died. I guess seven years changed him, too. Alternate Versions But it took less than six months for another murder in the area to show them that the killer was still at large this time, the victim was 26-year-old naturalist Joie Armstrong. 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. "And I did that almost every clear night from then on until Steve finally came back home. He befriended a co-worker named Ervin Murphy to assist him in the abduction. 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. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. Kenneth"Soldier" Stewart, 24, a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. On July 23, when Cary Stayner was released from custody for his marijuana charge, he quickly packed up and left for Laguna del Sol, a nudist colony, according to Campbell, when first arrested on mail fraud charges, had in her possession Carole Sund's checking account and automated teller machine numbers. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. 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. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The American Court TV (now TruTV) television series Mugshots released an episode on the Stayner case titled "Cary Stayner The Cedar Lodge Killings". [29] In 2018, the Reelz channel aired an hour-long documentary about the murders titled Yosemite Park Killer. Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, said his son was deprived of a fair trial by a kangaroo court and a judge who ignored defense arguments. Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. Steven Stayner was just seven-years-old when he was abducted a few blocks from his home in Merced, 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. He was arrested in May on an unrelated crime charge but was soon released. So while Parnell was at work, Steven ran away with Timothy, and the two hitchhiked to a police station in Ukiah, California. But instead of seeking mental health treatment, he moved to Yosemite. Cory gets emotional as she describes how he fell through the cracks of familial or institutional care. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. On Good Morning America in March 1980, Steven shared with host David Hartman that it felt "great" to be home. He also struggled in high school where he was bullied for the abuse he had endured. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. 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. WebThe story of Steven and Cary Stayner will leave you in absolute disbelief. On Dec. 4, 1972, Steven, 7, was walking alone to his familys home in Merced, California, when he was coaxed into the car of convicted child rapist Kenneth Parnell, who was posing as a minister. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. 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. 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. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender.