He had a long criminal record and had been questioned extensively by the FBI. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. 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. A relatively quiet, but friendly, a motel handyman called Cary Stayners only passions seemed to be nude sunbathing and hiking. Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the July 21 death of naturalist Joie Armstrong. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. 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. Local police and Yosemite Park Rangers began to search the area where the missing three were last seen. 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. Cary looked out for Steven, according to Cary Stayner's former classmate Jack Bungart. 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. The FBI pushed for Strange's arrest, but he denied any part in the triple murders. I was the oldest and all that. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? How frightened the girls must have been when he cut their clothes off.. 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. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. 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. Quotes 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. Steven Stayner was just seven-years-old when he was abducted a few blocks from his home in Merced, And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. 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.". Management found him a hard worker and honest. That same day, Stayner allowed himself to be interviewed by a reporter from KNTV. Then all of a sudden it's gone. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. On Good Morning America in March 1980, Steven shared with host David Hartman that it felt "great" to be home. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. In December 1972, a 7-year-old Steven was kidnapped by Kenneth Parnell, a man who worked at the Yosemite Lodge at the national park near Stevens hometown of Merced, California. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. He was a good student, a But, says Delbert, puberty-aged Cary endured some emotional hardships because of that incident. WebThe story of Steven and Cary Stayner will leave you in absolute disbelief. Specifically, the media scrutiny seemed to affect his older brother Cary, who clashed with his brother after his return. In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. 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. The brothers, four years apart in age, shared a room, but didnt get along, Steven didn't understand the rules that he was now expected to live by. He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. Maria Ledbetter, 24, of Modesto, an admitted methamphetamine addict and former girlfriend of Dykes, about whom she was questioned extensively. 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. Latent fingerprints were also been lifted from the interior of Joie Armstrong's truck, which Stayner admits to touching during his encounter with 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. 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. Goofs 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. While he attended his meeting, the women were to tour the Grand Canyon. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. Parnell, along with Murphy, took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, where he was brainwashed to believe his parents no longer wanted him. 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. 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. Upon examination by the FBI Laboratory, some items have yielded trace evidence. The Cedar Lodge hired him as a handyman in 1997 and gave him the use of a small apartment on the top floor. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. Real Crime 1.23M subscribers Join Subscribe 6.7K 562K views 1 year ago Also known as the Yosemite Park Killer, Cary Stayner murdered four women in 1999 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. 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. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. Steven was told his new name was Dennis Parnell and was enrolled in school. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. "'Deep in my heart I know something my mind does not want to learn,' said Gina,13. Im so proud of the way Carole and Juli lived, and Im so ashamed of Stayner.. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. 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. Something was clearly very, very wrong. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. 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 I never did tell anybody about it, but I remember wishing on a star that my little brother would come back home. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. 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. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. He had given the FBI details "only the killer would know in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession. '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.'". Still, the Bureau intensified its search, recruiting the use of more high-tech equipment and air support. 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. "He was spunky. He died in jail in 2008 at the age of 76. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. Decades later, Stevens older brother, Cary Stayner, made headlines when he was arrested and convicted of the serial slayings of four females. 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. On December 4, 1972, at the age of seven, Steven was approached after school by Edward Ervin Murphy, who claimed he was collecting money for the church. 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. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. | While Steven was a freshman at Mendocino High School, some 300 miles to the south, his older brother Cary was an upperclassman at Merced High School. 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. The trivia item below may give away important plot points. He wanted the world to take note.. After Steven said his mother would be interested in donating, Murphy offered to take the boy home. Previously, the defense had maintained that the FBI had coerced the confession. 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. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. Soon after, he confessed to murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso once in custody. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. | | Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, said his son was deprived of a fair trial by a kangaroo court and a judge who ignored defense arguments. ", 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. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. You have the other brother who's left at home. Agents had interviewed Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the tourists had stayed, and later dismissed him as a suspect. Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood. 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. 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 In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. After a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, everyone was smiling, but Cary in his baseball cap wasnt smiling at all. 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. 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. To the dismay of the Stayner family, the case went cold. 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. Initially, the police didn't have any solid leads as to who killed them. His attempt was foiled when other people were at the house at the time he was planning to commit the crimes. 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. Then there was another murder. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. 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. During the first crash, the truck jackknifed before hitting the car. Her body was next to a stream and head within the water that she and her friends used for drinking water. Steven and Cary Stayner: The tale of two brothers' horror - ABC 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. "We never really got along that well after he came back All of a sudden Steve was getting all these gifts, getting all this clothing, getting all this attention. William Mapother is a cousin of, The unsub bears some similarities with Cary Stayner, older brother of infamous kidnapping victim Steven Stayner (. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. 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 mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. "I've struggled with that issue for the last 24 hours and continue to do so," he confessed. 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.". A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. Cary was off anybody and everybody who met him will tell
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