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. Kenneth"Soldier" Stewart, 24, a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. 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. 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. By the end of June, the FBI had reviewed the testimonies and the evidence linked to the suspects in custody. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. 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.. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. Cary Stayner Span of crimes FebruaryJuly 1999 Country United States State (s) California Date apprehended 1999 7 more rows In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. 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. Cedar Lodge, 9966 CA-140, El Portal, CA 95318. 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. Maria Ledbetter, 24, of Modesto, an admitted methamphetamine addict and former girlfriend of Dykes, about whom she was questioned extensively. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. "He was spunky. 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. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. Chief James Maddock said he himself questioned whether the Bureau could have done anything to prevent Armstrong's killing. Campbell, when first arrested on mail fraud charges, had in her possession Carole Sund's checking account and automated teller machine numbers. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. He then carried Juli to a vista point near Lake Don Pedro, pledged his love, and then cut her throat as the sun rose. Quotes He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. 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. How frightened the girls must have been when he cut their clothes off.. I guess I was jealous. 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. 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. Then all of a sudden it's gone. According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. Goofs ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. Michael "Mick" Larwick, 42, of Modesto, part of a vagabond group of methamphetamine drug users and friends centered in the Modesto area. 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 ", 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. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 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. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story. There was a movie made about Steven Stayner. 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. I was the oldest and all that. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. 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. Her mother had been dating him and he had decided to kill them on Valentines Day. To the dismay of the Stayner family, the case went cold. The police reckoned that the killer of the three women was someone familiar with the county given the location of the Pontiac. They lived in the farming town of Merced, California, the Gateway to Yosemite. Stevens death, along with the death of his uncle soon afterward, reportedly had a serious impact on Cary Stayners mental health and well-being. Then he took action. 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. 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. '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.'". She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. Something was clearly very, very wrong. 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. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. 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. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. Parnell, along with Murphy, took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, where he was brainwashed to believe his parents no longer wanted him. He loved his brother. In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? Although the Merced police department launched a full-fledged investigation at the time of Stevens disappearance, they werent able to find any significant leads. He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. 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. How can one family, contain two completely contrasting children? 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. 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 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. In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. Parnell worked at the Yosemite Lodge, located about two hours away from the Stayner home. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. 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. A relatively quiet, but friendly, a motel handyman called Cary Stayners only passions seemed to be nude sunbathing and hiking. 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. She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. "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. But, to no avail. "Thats when I told him, 'You need to go to a doctor, Cary.'" By mid-April, those who had been arrested were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. 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. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. I guess seven years changed him, too. Cary was off anybody and everybody who met him will tell 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. On Good Morning America in March 1980, Steven shared with host David Hartman that it felt "great" to be home. After a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. In the end, Stayner confessed without the promise of child pornography or reward money for his parents. 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 Specifically, the media scrutiny seemed to affect his older brother Cary, who clashed with his brother after his return. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. But seven years later in February 1980, Steven miraculously reappeared. Special agent Maddock said, "During the last 24 hours, we have developed specific information linking Stayner (also) to the Sund-Pelosso murders.". His attempt was foiled when other people were at the house at the time he was planning to commit the crimes. I went to ask if Cary wanted to talk, reporter Ted Rowlands said. Billy Joe Strange, 39, an El Portal parolee who worked at the Cedar Lodge lounge and restaurant, where the murdered women were last seen. They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. 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. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. 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. Ken Parnell went back to what he had been doing for years. | 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. Angelia Dale, who testified before the federal grand jury. It was then that Steven's nightmare began as Murphy brought him to Kenneth Parnell, a known pedophile. 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. 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 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. 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. On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. The interview was conducted off camera and reported Monday on the late news. Timothy White, the kidnap victim, was only 35 when he died. I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". 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. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. 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. Hastings rejected new defense claims that juror misconduct prevented a fair trial. 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 subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. It was dark when they arrived and Timmy could remember where he lived so they went to the police station. In a voice that seemed relieved to be unburdened from its depth a long-kept secret, Stayner blurted, "I am guilty. You have the other brother who's left at home. 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 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. Very seldom did he get into trouble. And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. You know, hung out with him, played with him.. After Steven said his mother would be interested in donating, Murphy offered to take the boy home. 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 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. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people, he was just a creepy loner. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. "'Deep in my heart I know something my mind does not want to learn,' said Gina,13. Then on March 25, Juli Sunds body was discovered near Lake Pedro in Tuolumme County. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. 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. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. When Steven didnt return from school that afternoon, his parents sounded the alarm. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". The Cedar Lodge hired him as a handyman in 1997 and gave him the use of a small apartment on the top floor. He was arrested in May on an unrelated crime charge but was soon released.

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