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. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. But, says Delbert, puberty-aged Cary endured some emotional hardships because of that incident. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. Then all of a sudden it's gone. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. "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. 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. She was working for the Yosemite Institute for the past year and had worked on education programs through a partnership with the National Park Service. I never did tell anybody about it, but I remember wishing on a star that my little brother would come back home. A large search turned up nothing. However, given Californias statewide moratorium on capital punishment, it doesnt appear that hell be executed anytime soon the states last execution was held in 2006. 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. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, everyone was smiling, but Cary in his baseball cap wasnt smiling at all. 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. Billy Joe Strange, 39, an El Portal parolee who worked at the Cedar Lodge lounge and restaurant, where the murdered women were last seen. Although most of the stains were likely to include Armstrong's blood, Stayner was observed to have a laceration on his hand during his interrogation, and therefore may have been cut and bled during the attack. ", Stayner's apartment was searched later in the day and the authorities discovered evidence that linked him to Armstrong's murder. "Her mother, sisters, and a family friend had been missing for a month by the time Gina Sund read her poem in front of a thousand or so people who gathered in Modesto," writes Time. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 Agents arrived at the scene early on the 19th and upon opening the trunk, investigators found two charred bodies. All of its been bad, Delbert Stayner said of his familys life. ", Steven Stayner with his kidnapper Kenneth Parnell. 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 was arrested on March 5 when he allegedly reported to his parole officer with liquor on his breath. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. Alternate Versions Cedar Lodge, 9966 CA-140, El Portal, CA 95318. So while Parnell was at work, Steven ran away with Timothy, and the two hitchhiked to a police station in Ukiah, California. Check-out had apparently been done in advance and the keys were left on the room desk. He was convicted of four brutal murders in 2002. Cary Stayner, the serial killer convicted in the grisly murders of four women near Yosemite National Park, is born on August 13, 1961. The Sund family's worst fears were confirmed when a hiker wandered onto the site of a burned-out red 1999 Pontiac, hidden off Highway 108, in the Stanislaus Forest region on March 18. During the first crash, the truck jackknifed before hitting the car. On Good Morning America in March 1980, Steven shared with host David Hartman that it felt "great" to be home. In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. Agents had interviewed Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the tourists had stayed, and later dismissed him as a suspect. He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. 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. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. On Saturday, July 24, FBI agents announced at a press conference that a man was in custody on strong suspicion of murder and that a "significant announcement" would be made shortly. Timothy White, the kidnap victim, was only 35 when he died. I guess seven years changed him, too. He died in jail in 2008 at the age of 76. Previously, the defense had maintained that the FBI had coerced the confession. They finally caught up with him at the Laguna Del Sol nudist colony, which he frequently visited. 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. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. 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. He befriended a co-worker named Ervin Murphy to assist him in the abduction. Very seldom did he get into trouble. 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. The dramatic story was told in the 1989 television movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven.. Those sources say it is difficult for some investigators to believe Stayner could have gotten the jump on all three women without any help, let alone dispose of their bodies.". It was not animated or digitally created; a stunt driver put the truck into a full controlled jackknife in front of the camera. This time, agents detained him and forced him to answer more questions. According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. 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. Cary looked out for Steven, according to Cary Stayner's former classmate Jack Bungart. His attempt was foiled when other people were at the house at the time he was planning to commit the crimes. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story. There was a movie made about Steven Stayner. He was arrested in May on an unrelated crime charge but was soon released. But when Parnell kidnapped another young boy, this time 5-year-old Timothy White, Steven knew he couldnt let another child be subjected to the abuse and torment he had faced for years. The FBI also seized clothing stained with blood from her body. Latent fingerprints were also been lifted from the interior of Joie Armstrong's truck, which Stayner admits to touching during his encounter with her. He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. 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. 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. | FBI agent Nick Rossi said on February 26, "At this point, we have not yet uncovered evidence to allow us to determine conclusively whether this was a tragic accident or a criminal act. Two weeks later, FBI agent James Maddock, now placed in charge of the investigation, told the press, "We feel almost certain that the women were victims of a violent crime.". The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. By the end of June, the FBI had reviewed the testimonies and the evidence linked to the suspects in custody. He had talked his way into the room under the guise of fixing a leak, and then sexually assaulted both girls and brutally murdered Carole Lund and Silvina Pelosso in the room. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. It was the last time the women were seen alive. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. Part of TV News Archive. Investigators searched his truck and confiscated his backpack for examination. 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. 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. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. He had no criminal record and his only encounter with the law was for marijuana use in 1997. '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.'". He was also angry about how his truck had been searched. The interview was conducted off camera and reported Monday on the late news. In (the) interview, Stayner said he had fantasized about killing women for the last 30 years and described in detail how he murdered all the women, He had strangled Pelosso and Carole Sund in their rented cabin in the Cedar Lodge motel, then took Juli Sund to a lake, where he killed her early the next morning. The FBI Laboratory has also found possible bodily fluid stains on a bed sheet taken from her residence. He said, I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. And he wanted the same treatment. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. 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. "And I did that almost every clear night from then on until Steve finally came back home. The death-penalty trial of Cary Stayner was moved from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, CA. Quotes Cary was off anybody and everybody who met him will tell Stevens death, along with the death of his uncle soon afterward, reportedly had a serious impact on Cary Stayners mental health and well-being. Steven later said in an interview, I returned almost a grown man, and yet my parents saw me at first as their seven-year-old. Soundtracks. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. ", The FBI was reluctant to finger Stayner because, they, and many others, did not believe that Stayner acted by himself, given the brazen killing of the three women in the Cedar Lodge Motel and the disposal of the bodies. 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. 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. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest him. Although the Merced police department launched a full-fledged investigation at the time of Stevens disappearance, they werent able to find any significant leads. 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. After Steven said his mother would be interested in donating, Murphy offered to take the boy home. Goofs Initially, the police didn't have any solid leads as to who killed them. At the time of the murders, Cary was working as a mechanic at the Cedar Lodge, which is where he met his first three victims Carole Sund, her daughter Juli Sund, and her friend Silvina Pelosso. 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. 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. 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. Steven told the police what happened to him and Timothy and he was also able to tell them his real name was Steven, not Dennis. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. Shortly after Stevens death, an uncle with whom Cary Stayner was very close was shot and killed in a home they shared together. It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. In a voice that seemed relieved to be unburdened from its depth a long-kept secret, Stayner blurted, "I am guilty. While he attended his meeting, the women were to tour the Grand Canyon. The FBI pushed for Strange's arrest, but he denied any part in the triple murders. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. Soon after, he confessed to murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso once in custody. She was subpoenaed because she is a friend of Dykes and Larwick. 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 On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. You know what I mean? One brother was subjected to just unspeakable horror for years, but by all appearances, he was a happy-go-lucky, jovial kid with a girlfriend. Management found him a hard worker and honest. 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. When Cary Stayner was questioned by FBI agents, he immediately confessed to the four Yosemite Park murders and provided a detailed accounting of his crimes. Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. 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.. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. 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. WebCary Stayner, the handyman at their hotel, confessed after being arrested for beheading another victim, female nature guide Joie Armstrong. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. Her mother had been dating him and he had decided to kill them on Valentines Day. 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." It was discovered beyond a campground adjacent to her living quarters in the Foresta community, a group of 30 cabins for use by park workers. Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, said his son was deprived of a fair trial by a kangaroo court and a judge who ignored defense arguments. It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. Cory gets emotional as she describes how he fell through the cracks of familial or institutional care. "I've struggled with that issue for the last 24 hours and continue to do so," he confessed. Parnell, along with Murphy, took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, where he was brainwashed to believe his parents no longer wanted him. Decades later, Stevens older brother, Cary Stayner, made headlines when he was arrested and convicted of the serial slayings of four females. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. Items included in the Television News search service. 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. 51K views 3 years ago 20/20 Extra: For the first time, 20 years after the Yosemite murders, Lenna speaks out exclusively on what she learned about Cary 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. Crazy Credits The California Highway Patrol verified the car's license plate as the Sunds rented vehicle and immediately notified the FBI. "Its difficult for me to picture what Cary has done and knowing Steve because their personalities are completely opposite," Duke, Stevens former girlfriend, said. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. 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. In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. Against the odds, he flourished there. 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. He is currently in his 60s and still on death row while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. The trivia item below may give away important plot points. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. I guess I was jealous. After a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. . 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. He remains on 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. Hastings rejected new defense claims that juror misconduct prevented a fair trial. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. 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. Im so proud of the way Carole and Juli lived, and Im so ashamed of Stayner.. Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. 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. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong None of the women were sexually abused in any way.". For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a Kenneth"Soldier" Stewart, 24, a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. But instead of seeking mental health treatment, he moved to Yosemite. The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. Cary was 11 years old at the time, and deeply upset about his brother's disappearance. | Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. 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. 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. They lived in the farming town of Merced, California, the Gateway to Yosemite. "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. Steven Stayner was just seven-years-old when he was abducted a few blocks from his home in Merced, The revelation came in a six 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. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. I never recognized either one of them.". 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. Something was clearly very, very wrong. Campbell, when first arrested on mail fraud charges, had in her possession Carole Sund's checking account and automated teller machine numbers. In 1972, Stayners 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. Angelia Dale, who testified before the federal grand jury. In 1999, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli Sund, 15, and Juli's friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16, went missing while visiting Yosemite Park. 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. In the Bureau's mind, this time it had the right man. He also struggled in high school where he was bullied for the abuse he had endured. During an off-camera jailhouse interview in Sacramento following his arrest, Cary admitted to Armstrong's murder as well as the murders of Carole Sund, 42, her 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.
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