Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. 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. In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. They were looking for the missing red 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix as well as the women. 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. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. 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. 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. 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 also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. 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. The police reckoned that the killer of the three women was someone familiar with the county given the location of the Pontiac. 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. Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a ", Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner in the baseball cap in the background. It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. 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. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. He remains on 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. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five, less time than he held Steven captive. "I've struggled with that issue for the last 24 hours and continue to do so," he confessed. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. 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. In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. The Cedar Lodge hired him as a handyman in 1997 and gave him the use of a small apartment on the top floor. Crazy Credits Then he took action. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. You have the other brother who's left at home. The FBI Laboratory has also found possible bodily fluid stains on a bed sheet taken from her residence. 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. 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. You know what I mean? Very seldom did he get into trouble. The California Highway Patrol verified the car's license plate as the Sunds rented vehicle and immediately notified the FBI. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. 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. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. But, to no avail. 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. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. Shortly after Stevens death, an uncle with whom Cary Stayner was very close was shot and killed in a home they shared together. How frightened the girls must have been when he cut their clothes off.. In 1972, Stayners 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 was buried Thursday in the town of Newhall, where he had worked as a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. Some who knew Cary were shocked at his arrest. Ken Parnell went back to what he had been doing for years. Then all of a sudden it's gone. '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.'". William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. 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. "He was spunky. 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. I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". Cary, the motel handyman and champion underachiever who was arrested at a nudist colony, said in a jailhouse interview that voices told him to kill Carole and Juli Police found her car in front of her cabin, packed for the trip. He was arrested in May on an unrelated crime charge but was soon released. 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. Against the odds, he flourished there. "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. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? The FBI pushed for Strange's arrest, but he denied any part in the triple murders. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. Management found him a hard worker and honest. Robyn Lively is a step sister of Blake Lively. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. He loved his brother. 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. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. Her mother had been dating him and he had decided to kill them on Valentines Day. ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong None of the women were sexually abused in any way.". | 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. Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. When Steven didnt return from school that afternoon, his parents sounded the alarm. 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. Larry Duane Utley, 41 an associate of Dykes and Larwick, first picked up during a March parole sweep. WebThe story of Steven and Cary Stayner will leave you in absolute disbelief. Decades later, Stevens older brother, Cary Stayner, made headlines when he was arrested and convicted of the serial slayings of four females. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. I guess I was jealous. In the end, Stayner confessed without the promise of child pornography or reward money for his parents. Quotes 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. He has been questioned about any involvement. Agents had interviewed Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the tourists had stayed, and later dismissed him as a suspect. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. 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. The death-penalty trial of Cary Stayner was moved from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, CA. 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. 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. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. | 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 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. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. He had given the FBI details "only the killer would know in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession. The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. During the first crash, the truck jackknifed before hitting the car. 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. Steven was told his new name was Dennis Parnell and was enrolled in school. A large search turned up nothing. 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. 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. Parnell and Murphy were driving towards town when Stephen was lured into their vehicle and abducted. Tragically, Steven Stayner was killed in a 1989 motorcycle accident at the age of 24. On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. Specifically, the media scrutiny seemed to affect his older brother Cary, who clashed with his brother after his return. In 2002, Cary Stayner was convicted of first-degree murder on four counts and sentenced to death. Sandy Cox, whose husband owned the window company where Stayner worked for in Atwater, says, "We've known Cary since he was a little boyIt just doesn't match up. Check-out had apparently been done in advance and the keys were left on the room desk. He had a long criminal record and had been questioned extensively by the FBI. The issue of whether his confession was coerced seemed to be resolved when on July 24, the court heard the recorded demands that Stayner made to the FBI agents that he wanted to be satisfied before he would give them his confession. Part of TV News Archive. 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.". By the time Steven was 14, he had been abused and manipulated by Parnell for seven years and Parnell and Steven together realized that Steven was growing up and that he was no longer going to be controlled by Parnell and they would need to find someone else that they could sexually abuse. I guess seven years changed him, too. The two hitchhiked to Ukiah, California. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. 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 "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. 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 In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. Agents arrived at the scene early on the 19th and upon opening the trunk, investigators found two charred bodies. Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. 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 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 He was a good student, a The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. The interview was conducted off camera and reported Monday on the late news. His attempt was foiled when other people were at the house at the time he was planning to commit the crimes. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Her body was next to a stream and head within the water that she and her friends used for drinking water. "And I did that almost every clear night from then on until Steve finally came back home. Soon after, he confessed to murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso once in custody. 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. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. ", Steven Stayner with his kidnapper Kenneth Parnell. Over the next few weeks, a task force including FBI agents and law enforcers from four surrounding counties, arrested several known sex offenders, drug users, and ex-convicts with a record of violence from within a 75-square-mile area between Modesto and Sonoma. Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. 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." Something was clearly very, very wrong. Cary was 11 years old at the time, and deeply upset about his brother's disappearance. Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, said his son was deprived of a fair trial by a kangaroo court and a judge who ignored defense arguments. 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 that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. In a voice that seemed relieved to be unburdened from its depth a long-kept secret, Stayner blurted, "I am guilty. Upon release, the FBI warned him not to leave El Portal. 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 denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. "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. Local police and Yosemite Park Rangers began to search the area where the missing three were last seen. 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. By the end of June, the FBI had reviewed the testimonies and the evidence linked to the suspects in custody. 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. 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. To the dismay of the Stayner family, the case went cold. Cary was off anybody and everybody who met him will tell The initial suspicion was that they may have wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the park. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. 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. 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 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. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. ", Stayner's apartment was searched later in the day and the authorities discovered evidence that linked him to Armstrong's murder. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes.