On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". 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. They no longer want you.. 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 I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". 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. He was also angry about how his truck had been searched. 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 a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. How frightened the girls must have been when he cut their clothes off.. He died in jail in 2008 at the age of 76. Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. Robyn Lively is a step sister of Blake Lively. The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. I went to ask if Cary wanted to talk, reporter Ted Rowlands said. Decades later, Stevens older brother, Cary Stayner, made headlines when he was arrested and convicted of the serial slayings of four females. 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. Check-out had apparently been done in advance and the keys were left on the room desk. The FBI also seized clothing stained with blood from her body. He has been questioned about any involvement. "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. 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. After a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. He was charged with attempting to purchase a child and attempted child molestation in 2004, that he was sentenced to 25 years to life. By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. The revelation came in a six Connections On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. Upon release, the FBI warned him not to leave El Portal. Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, said his son was deprived of a fair trial by a kangaroo court and a judge who ignored defense arguments. William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. Cory gets emotional as she describes how he fell through the cracks of familial or institutional care. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. He was arrested on March 5 when he allegedly reported to his parole officer with liquor on his breath. Local police and Yosemite Park Rangers began to search the area where the missing three were last seen. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. However, there were warning signs during his younger years. He was buried Thursday in the town of Newhall, where he had worked as a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy. 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. It was not animated or digitally created; a stunt driver put the truck into a full controlled jackknife in front of the camera. The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. Ken Parnell went back to what he had been doing for years. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. | There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. To the dismay of the Stayner family, the case went cold. 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 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. 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. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. He remains on He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story. There was a movie made about Steven Stayner. "And I did that almost every clear night from then on until Steve finally came back home. 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 2002, Cary Stayner was convicted of first-degree murder on four counts and sentenced to death. | 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. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. 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. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. I was the oldest and all that. 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. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five, less time than he held Steven captive. But by the middle of March, their hopes faded. "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, everyone was smiling, but Cary in his baseball cap wasnt smiling at all. Cary was off anybody and everybody who met him will tell They lived in the farming town of Merced, California, the Gateway to Yosemite. He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. ", 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. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. Still, the Bureau intensified its search, recruiting the use of more high-tech equipment and air support. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a 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 Some who knew Cary were shocked at his arrest. Alternate Versions The dramatic story was told in the 1989 television movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven.. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. 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. 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. Although the Merced police department launched a full-fledged investigation at the time of Stevens disappearance, they werent able to find any significant leads. Very seldom did he get into trouble. Items included in the Television News search service. 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. Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. Initially, the police didn't have any solid leads as to who killed them. She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. Agents had interviewed Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the tourists had stayed, and later dismissed him as a suspect. ", Steven Stayner with his kidnapper Kenneth Parnell. He then carried Juli to a vista point near Lake Don Pedro, pledged his love, and then cut her throat as the sun rose. Larry Duane Utley, 41 an associate of Dykes and Larwick, first picked up during a March parole sweep. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. The two hitchhiked to Ukiah, California. 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. A large search turned up nothing. 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. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. 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. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. 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. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. '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.'". "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". 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 had a long criminal record and had been questioned extensively by the FBI. 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. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. 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. "Thats when I told him, 'You need to go to a doctor, Cary.'" 5-year-old Timothy White walking home from school and they quickly snatched him. 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 Police found her car in front of her cabin, packed for the trip. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. Stevens death, along with the death of his uncle soon afterward, reportedly had a serious impact on Cary Stayners mental health and well-being. 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." 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. 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. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. 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. 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. 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. I never recognized either one of them.". But seven years later in February 1980, Steven miraculously reappeared. Upon examination by the FBI Laboratory, some items have yielded trace evidence. 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. 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. 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. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. 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. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. 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. Parnell worked at the Yosemite Lodge, located about two hours away from the Stayner home. 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. He is currently in his 60s and still on death row while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. 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. He said, I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. 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. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest him. Michael "Mick" Larwick, 42, of Modesto, part of a vagabond group of methamphetamine drug users and friends centered in the Modesto area. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? He befriended a co-worker named Ervin Murphy to assist him in the abduction. Investigators searched his truck and confiscated his backpack for examination. The interview was conducted off camera and reported Monday on the late news. Against the odds, he flourished there. Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the July 21 death of naturalist Joie Armstrong. Steven Stayner was just seven-years-old when he was abducted a few blocks from his home in Merced, Part of TV News Archive. 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. During the first crash, the truck jackknifed before hitting the car. 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. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. I never did tell anybody about it, but I remember wishing on a star that my little brother would come back home. But, to no avail. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. And he wanted the same treatment. Soundtracks. ", Stayner's apartment was searched later in the day and the authorities discovered evidence that linked him to Armstrong's murder. He was known to take refuge in nearby Yosemite, where hed drive up and get lost in nature. For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. 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. | 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. Hastings rejected new defense claims that juror misconduct prevented a fair trial. 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. 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. 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. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. Steven and Cary Stayner: The tale of two brothers' horror - ABC 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. 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. You have the other brother who's left at home. "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. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. "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. He was a good student, a He had given the FBI details "only the killer would know in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession. Cary looked out for Steven, according to Cary Stayner's former classmate Jack Bungart. Connecticut Serial Killer William Devin Howell Describes The Shockin Cary Stayner, the serial killer convicted in the grisly murders of four women near Yosemite National Park, is born on August 13, 1961. He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. Goofs 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. Cary was 11 years old at the time, and deeply upset about his brother's disappearance. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. 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. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. 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. When Steven didnt return from school that afternoon, his parents sounded the alarm. Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. The trivia item below may give away important plot points. This time, agents detained him and forced him to answer more questions. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. 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. Special agent Maddock said, "During the last 24 hours, we have developed specific information linking Stayner (also) to the Sund-Pelosso murders.". They were looking for the missing red 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix as well as the women. Steven Stayner had a new father figure, and it was Kenneth Parnell, who by day, was his father, and by night, was his rapist. You know what I mean? It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. 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. In the Bureau's mind, this time it had the right man.