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You have the other brother who's left at home. A woman named Lenna learned in 1999 that her mother, her sister and her had nearly been murdered by Cary Stayner. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. Something was clearly very, very wrong. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. 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. "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. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. In the end, Stayner confessed without the promise of child pornography or reward money for his parents. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women. In 2002, Cary Stayner was convicted of first-degree murder on four counts and sentenced to death. 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. 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.". For four weeks, police, family, and volunteers searched the area in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis. I never did tell anybody about it, but I remember wishing on a star that my little brother would come back home. "He had a great personality," said Lori Duke, who dated Steven in high school but knew him as Dennis. 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. 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. He said, I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. It was the last time the women were seen alive. 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. Maria Ledbetter, 24, of Modesto, an admitted methamphetamine addict and former girlfriend of Dykes, about whom she was questioned extensively. 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. 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. 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 Goofs The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. 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. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. Then he took action. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. For years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. Carole and her husband, Jens, 43, owned a realtors business in the Stockton area. 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. The car was hidden off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines. 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. 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. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. 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. And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. 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. 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. How frightened the girls must have been when he cut their clothes off.. Connecticut Serial Killer William Devin Howell Describes The Shockin I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story. There was a movie made about Steven Stayner. Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood. "Thats when I told him, 'You need to go to a doctor, Cary.'" She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. That evening, the group grabbed some videos from the lodge's service desk to watch in their room. Previously, the defense had maintained that the FBI had coerced the confession. Cary always wore a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. 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. In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. 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. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. "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. So while Parnell was at work, Steven ran away with Timothy, and the two hitchhiked to a police station in Ukiah, California. He was arrested in May on an unrelated crime charge but was soon released. During the session, an unexpected event occurred. 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." He did feel, however, that the FBI spared nothing to investigate the earlier killings. 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. 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. Stayner was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Joie Ruth Armstrong. Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. After the fourth murder, the FBI went looking for Cary Stayner to interview him, but initially as a witness. 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. Its manager had seen a story on television, recognized Stayner's photo as one of his guests, and notified the FBI. ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. 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. You know what I mean? The California Highway Patrol verified the car's license plate as the Sunds rented vehicle and immediately notified the FBI. He died in jail in 2008 at the age of 76. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, everyone was smiling, but Cary in his baseball cap wasnt smiling at all. By this point, Cary Stayner had a couple of nervous breakdowns. Quotes He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. | They then headed out for Cedar Lodge in El Portal on February 14, which is located on Yosemite's western slope. Knives were used in the slayings and the weapon suspected in Ms. Armstrong's death was recovered.". A large search turned up nothing. "'Deep in my heart I know something my mind does not want to learn,' said Gina,13. He was a good student, a Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. Agents descended on the colony and returned him to El Portal on Saturday where he was put through a more lengthy interrogation. 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. On days off he would escape to Laguna Del Sol, a nudist colony in Sacramento County. He remains on He grew up, got married and had two kids. 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 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. Hastings rejected new defense claims that juror misconduct prevented a fair trial. But instead of seeking mental health treatment, he moved to Yosemite. While he attended his meeting, the women were to tour the Grand Canyon. I guess I was jealous. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. You know, hung out with him, played with 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.". Cary Stayner went from being the brother of child abductee Steven Stayer to a full-blown serial killer. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? Agents arrived at the scene early on the 19th and upon opening the trunk, investigators found two charred bodies. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. Parnell, along with Murphy, took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, where he was brainwashed to believe his parents no longer wanted him. And he wanted the same treatment. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. On Monday, July 22, the court heard Stayners taped confession, which he had given to FBI agents. 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. Campbell, when first arrested on mail fraud charges, had in her possession Carole Sund's checking account and automated teller machine numbers. The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. They finally caught up with him at the Laguna Del Sol nudist colony, which he frequently visited. 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. 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. "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. 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. The police reckoned that the killer of the three women was someone familiar with the county given the location of the Pontiac. 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. Unsurprisingly, it didnt take long for the story to become national news, and the teenage Steven was at the center of it all. But, says Delbert, puberty-aged Cary endured some emotional hardships because of that incident. However, there were warning signs during his younger years. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. Although the Merced police department launched a full-fledged investigation at the time of Stevens disappearance, they werent able to find any significant leads. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. Her body was next to a stream and head within the water that she and her friends used for drinking water. He was charged with attempting to purchase a child and attempted child molestation in 2004, that he was sentenced to 25 years to life. All of its been bad, Delbert Stayner said of his familys life. He has been questioned about any involvement. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. "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. Soon after, he confessed to murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso once in custody. He then carried Juli to a vista point near Lake Don Pedro, pledged his love, and then cut her throat as the sun rose. Part of TV News Archive. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. Then Carole's wallet turned up in Modesto, which included money and credit cards. I guess seven years changed him, too. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were.