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. He has been questioned about any involvement. Then there was another murder. He had a long criminal record and had been questioned extensively by the FBI. It was discovered beyond a campground adjacent to her living quarters in the Foresta community, a group of 30 cabins for use by park workers. Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. I was the oldest and all that. 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. 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. On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. 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. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. Angelia Dale, who testified before the federal grand jury. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. 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. I never recognized either one of them.". He is currently in his 60s and still on death row while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. 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 He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. I guess I was jealous. "And I did that almost every clear night from then on until Steve finally came back home. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. Steven and Cary Stayner: The tale of two brothers' horror - ABC And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story,'" There was a movie made about his brother, Steven Stayner, and he wanted the same and for the world to take notice. He loved his brother. Although the Merced police department launched a full-fledged investigation at the time of Stevens disappearance, they werent able to find any significant leads. Some who knew Cary were shocked at his arrest. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. Four hikers visiting Yosemite National Park had been brutally murdered, and Cary Stayner had confessed to the crimes. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. 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. I guess seven years changed him, too. He was known to take refuge in nearby Yosemite, where hed drive up and get lost in nature. "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. Something was clearly very, very wrong. 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. 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. For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. 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. He was buried Thursday in the town of Newhall, where he had worked as a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. Steven Stayner was just seven-years-old when he was abducted a few blocks from his home in Merced, | 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. He then carried Juli to a vista point near Lake Don Pedro, pledged his love, and then cut her throat as the sun rose. 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. 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. Goofs 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. 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. 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. Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. He remains on More than a thousand leads, they confessed, produced nothing. where Stayner was employed as a handyman. Items included in the Television News search service. It was badly decomposed and her throat had been cut. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five, less time than he held Steven captive. 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 | Kenneth"Soldier" Stewart, 24, a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. 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. Police found her car in front of her cabin, packed for the trip. Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. 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 judge said there was overwhelming evidence against Stayner and that the devastating emotional toll justified execution. Special agent Maddock said, "During the last 24 hours, we have developed specific information linking Stayner (also) to the Sund-Pelosso murders.". He wanted the world to take note.. The initial suspicion was that they may have wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the park. In February 1980, Parnell decided to kidnap a new victim. 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. 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. He was a good student, a "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. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. 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. 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. | I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong None of the women were sexually abused in any way.". He also struggled in high school where he was bullied for the abuse he had endured. 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. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. ", Steven Stayner with his kidnapper Kenneth Parnell. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. Unsurprisingly, it didnt take long for the story to become national news, and the teenage Steven was at the center of it all. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. 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. The trivia item below may give away important plot points. Against the odds, he flourished there. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The revelation came in a six Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. 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 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. For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. 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 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. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. At that time, Steven had been forced to endure sexual abuse by his kidnapper, whom he finally turned in to the police. 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. Still, the Bureau intensified its search, recruiting the use of more high-tech equipment and air support. In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood. "I'm confident we've done everything that could be reasonably done.". Cary Stayner Span of crimes FebruaryJuly 1999 Country United States State (s) California Date apprehended 1999 7 more rows In order to prevent Steven from escaping, Parnell was constantly moving the two of them from town to town in California. He was arrested on March 5 when he allegedly reported to his parole officer with liquor on his breath. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story. There was a movie made about Steven Stayner. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? I went to ask if Cary wanted to talk, reporter Ted Rowlands said. 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. For FBI agent Jeff Rinek, it was the climax of a 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. 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. They no longer want you.. You know, hung out with him, played with him.. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest 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.". Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. 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. He was also angry about how his truck had been searched. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. You know what I mean? 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. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. She was subpoenaed because she is a friend of Dykes and Larwick. A large search turned up nothing. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. Stayner was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Joie Ruth Armstrong. 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 Ken Parnell went back to what he had been doing for years. In 1999, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli Sund, 15, and Juli's friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16, went missing while visiting Yosemite Park. Robyn Lively is a step sister of Blake Lively.