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. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. The judge said there was overwhelming evidence against Stayner and that the devastating emotional toll justified execution. 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 Cedar Lodge hired him as a handyman in 1997 and gave him the use of a small apartment on the top floor. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. 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. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. 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. Against the odds, he flourished there. Management found him a hard worker and honest. He was a good student, a "He was spunky. Im so proud of the way Carole and Juli lived, and Im so ashamed of Stayner.. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. During the session, an unexpected event occurred. More than a thousand leads, they confessed, produced nothing. I went to ask if Cary wanted to talk, reporter Ted Rowlands said. "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. He was buried Thursday in the town of Newhall, where he had worked as a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy. Then all of a sudden it's gone. 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. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. He died in jail in 2008 at the age of 76. 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. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. 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. "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". By the end of June, the FBI had reviewed the testimonies and the evidence linked to the suspects in custody. 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. Crazy Credits 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 a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. Stayner was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Joie Ruth Armstrong. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. Then there was another murder. Previously, the defense had maintained that the FBI had coerced the confession. A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. 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. The California Highway Patrol verified the car's license plate as the Sunds rented vehicle and immediately notified the FBI. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. The interview was conducted off camera and reported Monday on the late news. While he attended his meeting, the women were to tour the Grand Canyon. 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 was charged with attempting to purchase a child and attempted child molestation in 2004, that he was sentenced to 25 years to life. | 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. I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. He befriended a co-worker named Ervin Murphy to assist him in the abduction. On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong None of the women were sexually abused in any way.". He was known to take refuge in nearby Yosemite, where hed drive up and get lost in nature. He was convicted of four brutal murders in 2002. He had no criminal record and his only encounter with the law was for marijuana use in 1997. In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. In 1972, Stayners Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. 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. Some who knew Cary were shocked at his arrest. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. 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. 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 subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. 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. It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. Goofs Quotes He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. When Steven didnt return from school that afternoon, his parents sounded the alarm. "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. During the first crash, the truck jackknifed before hitting the car. Something was clearly very, very wrong. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. 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. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. Her mother had been dating him and he had decided to kill them on Valentines Day. In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. Items included in the Television News search service. By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. "He had a great personality," said Lori Duke, who dated Steven in high school but knew him as Dennis. 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.. 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. 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. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. 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. Stevens death, along with the death of his uncle soon afterward, reportedly had a serious impact on Cary Stayners mental health and well-being. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest him. William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. They no longer want you.. Connecticut Serial Killer William Devin Howell Describes The Shockin He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. 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. 5-year-old Timothy White walking home from school and they quickly snatched him. 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.". Carole and her husband, Jens, 43, owned a realtors business in the Stockton area. Robyn Lively is a step sister of Blake Lively. WebCary Stayner was convicted of the 1999 Cedar Lodge Killings near Yosemite National Park. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. Decades later, Stevens older brother, Cary Stayner, made headlines when he was arrested and convicted of the serial slayings of four females. 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. 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 Cory gets emotional as she describes how he fell through the cracks of familial or institutional care. I guess seven years changed him, too. Cary was 11 years old at the time, and deeply upset about his brother's disappearance. In the Bureau's mind, this time it had the right man. Agents had interviewed Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the tourists had stayed, and later dismissed him as a suspect. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. He had given the FBI details "only the killer would know in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. All of its been bad, Delbert Stayner said of his familys life. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. I guess I was jealous. Billy Joe Strange, 39, an El Portal parolee who worked at the Cedar Lodge lounge and restaurant, where the murdered women were last seen. He then carried Juli to a vista point near Lake Don Pedro, pledged his love, and then cut her throat as the sun rose. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. | Michael "Mick" Larwick, 42, of Modesto, part of a vagabond group of methamphetamine drug users and friends centered in the Modesto area. Connections WebThe story of Steven and Cary Stayner will leave you in absolute disbelief. Soon after, he confessed to murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso once in custody. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. The death-penalty trial of Cary Stayner was moved from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, CA. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. 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. 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. Steven and Cary Stayner: The tale of two brothers' horror - ABC The dramatic story was told in the 1989 television movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven.. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. 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. Ken Parnell went back to what he had been doing for years. 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. Still, the Bureau intensified its search, recruiting the use of more high-tech equipment and air support. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. 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. 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. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. Unsurprisingly, it didnt take long for the story to become national news, and the teenage Steven was at the center of it all. Cedar Lodge, 9966 CA-140, El Portal, CA 95318. "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 also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. He also struggled in high school where he was bullied for the abuse he had endured. But, to no avail. But, says Delbert, puberty-aged Cary endured some emotional hardships because of that incident. 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. It was not animated or digitally created; a stunt driver put the truck into a full controlled jackknife in front of the camera. The FBI Laboratory has also found possible bodily fluid stains on a bed sheet taken from her residence. He was also angry about how his truck had been searched. Part of TV News Archive. You know, hung out with him, played with him.. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. 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. The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. Timothy White, the kidnap victim, was only 35 when he died. Agents arrived at the scene early on the 19th and upon opening the trunk, investigators found two charred bodies. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. Cary Stayner, the serial killer convicted in the grisly murders of four women near Yosemite National Park, is born on August 13, 1961. 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. 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. 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. 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. He loved his brother. Local police and Yosemite Park Rangers began to search the area where the missing three were last seen. The initial suspicion was that they may have wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the park. 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. On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. 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. In 2002, Cary Stayner was convicted of first-degree murder on four counts and sentenced to death. 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. 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. 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. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. They lived in the farming town of Merced, California, the Gateway to Yosemite. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? Special agent Maddock said, "During the last 24 hours, we have developed specific information linking Stayner (also) to the Sund-Pelosso murders.". Four men were considered the main murder suspects in the initial inquiries. Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. '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.'". Out of respect for his family and the victim's family, we don't want to say anymore." Investigators searched his truck and confiscated his backpack for examination. The two hitchhiked to Ukiah, California. Im just horrified when I think of what happened in that room, what my daughter felt when she realized she was in serious trouble, said Carole Carrington as she asked the judge to sentence Stayner to death. A relatively quiet, but friendly, a motel handyman called Cary Stayners only passions seemed to be nude sunbathing and hiking. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. 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. 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.