It's December 4th, 1972 and Steven Stayner who is 7 years old at the time is walking home from school in Merced, California. He is approached by a man collecting church donations and handing out religious pamphlets. He asks Steven if he thinks his mother would be willing to make a donation. He replied that she would, the man asked him where he lived and offered to give him a ride to their home to get the donations. Steven got into the car and that was the last time Steven was seen for 7 years.Steven had no idea the car he was getting into was that of a monster. It was the car of pedophile Kenneth Parnell who had convinced a man by the name of Ervin Murphy to be his accomplice. The two of them worked at a resort together in Yosemite National Park, Kenneth told Murphy that he needed to help him abduct a young boy so he could raise him in a religious-type deal. Ervin fell for it, he was a trusting, naive and simple minded man. He drove a confused and frightened Steven to a cabin nearby Catheys Valley, this cabin he would eventually learn was only several hundred feet from his maternal grandfathers house. Kenneth molested Steven the first night in the cabin and just 13 days later began raping him.
Kenneth told Steven that he had been granted legal custody of him because his parents couldn't afford so many children and they didn't want him anymore. For the next 7 years Steven lived publicly as Kenneth's "Son" changing his name to Dennis Gregory Parnell, the two of them moved around California frequently. After 7 years Steven became to old for Kenneth's preferences, he wanted a second younger victim. Soon Steven had a new "little brother," 7 year old Timothy White. He instantly became emotionally attached to Timothy and made it his mission to keep him from suffering the same abuse that he had gone through. One night Steven led a daring escape in the middle of the night, they were far away from civilization, but he was determined to get the out of there. And he did. He succeeded. The families were thrilled to have their boys back and Kenneth was taken into custody.
Happy ending right? Not so much.
Upon returning Steven was heavily bullied at school over the sexual abuse he went through, so he ended up dropping out. He had a really hard time adjusting to normal life and didn't want to go to counseling. In his early 20's things started to turn around for him, he got married and had 2 children, was training to become a security officer, had joined a church and was volunteering to help others who had gone through similar traumas. Tragically one night when riding his motorcycle home from work he was killed in a hit and run accident. He was 24 years old. 500 people attended his funeral, 14 year old Timothy White was a pallbearer.
As for his kidnapper it was revealed that he had been arrested prior for abusing another young boy, he was sentenced to only 7 years in prison, but was paroled after 5!! He was arrested again in 2004 after trying to buy a 4 yr old online, he was arrested and died in prison a few years later.
The Stayner family went through a lot with losing Steven not only once, but twice. However this wasn't the only trauma the family went through. Steven had an older brother, Cary Stayner. Little fact about Cary he murdered 4 people and is known as a serial killer...
Cary was 11 years old when his brother was kidnapped, a former classmate said Cary "loved his brother. You know, hung out with him, played with him." People said that Cary was kind of a quiet guy, he liked to ride bikes, skateboard and hang out with friends. In reality Cary was having a tough time during his childhood emotionally. He would always wear a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. He developed behaviors that made other uncomfortable, such as exposing himself to his sisters friend. He had a compulsion with trying to get close to women or be sexual with them, but he wasn't able to develop any sort of interpersonal relationship with any woman."
When Steven came back home, a press conference was held out side the Stayner house, "everyone was smiling, there was a lot of jubilation, but if you look in the background of this photo you will see Cary in a baseball cap not smiling at all. They had a very strange relationship after that, Steven was getting a lot of attention and to Cary was a different person.
After high school Cary seemed lost in where he was going in life. Shortly after Stevens tragic death an uncle that Cary was living with was shot and killed in the home, the murder was never solved. Cary stated he was very close to his uncle, but he molested Cary when he was around 11 years old. After his death Cary had a couple nervous breakdowns of which on was "fairly violent." He stated to a friend 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. His friend told him "you need to go to a doctor Cary." Instead he took refuge in
Yosemite to get lost in nature. He would lay naked out in the open, smoking pot trying to find peace with whatever was going on in his head.
In 1997 Stayner got a job as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge only 7 miles from the gate of his beloved national park. Fast forward to February 14th, 1999. Carole Sund, her 15 year old daughter Juli and 16 year old Silvina Pelosso an exchange students staying with the Sunds checked into the Cedar lodge, they were on vacation to see Yosemite. On the 15th they took a hike to see the wonders of the park during the day and that night they rented a couple videos to watch from the front desk. They were never seen alive again. The Inn staff claimed that when they cleaned the room the next morning there was no evidence of foul play, check out had been completed in advance and the hotel keys were left in the room. On March 18th a hiker found a burned up 1999 Pontiac, when police arrived on scene they found two charred bodies, they were unrecognizable, but within a couple days they were identified as Carole and Silvina. Where was young Juli? Police received a note shortly after the bodies were found, this note contained a map and the words "we had fun with this one." On March 25th miles away from where they were found the first bodies and from the help of the map provided they found the badly decomposed body of Juli, her throat had been cut out to the point of almost being decapitated.Just a few months later police received a phone call from a man that was worried about his friend 26 year old Joie Ruth Armstrong's whereabouts. She was a nature guide in Yosemite park and was set to visit him in Sausalito, but she did not appear as planned and he was growing concerned. Police came out to her cabin where they found her car parked out front, it looked as though it was all packed and ready to go for her trip. Her mutilated body was discovered the morning of July 22nd by some park rangers. Unlike the first murders where there was little evidence left behind, there was quite a bit left behind in Joie's case, including tire tracks and footprints. A witness was able to describe a vehicle that was outside of her house, this led police to Cary Stayner, whom they had spoken with back when the first murders happened, but didn't believe he was a suspect.
Cary was located at a nudist colony that he would frequent quite often, they asked if they could talk to him and it didn't take long before they received a full confession to not only killing Joie, but the other 3 woman as well. He was promptly arrested. Cary plead not guilty by reason of insanity, due to various psychological problems. A doctor testified at his trial stated that Cary had autism and obsessive- compulsive disorder. His lawyers argued that Stayner had dealt with sexual abuse in his past and that played a role in him becoming a murderer. Well that didn't work, they found him sand and in 2002 he received a death sentence and is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California.And there you have the story of the Stayner brothers! How crazy that all of this went on within one family.
See you guys next week!
Resources:
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/kidnappings/steven-stayner/
https://medium.com/@michaelmoran/the-most-depressing-follow-up-to-a-happy-ending-ever-the-steven-stayner-story-745e166d75cb
https://abcnews.go.com/US/steven-cary-stayner-tale-brothers-horror-heroism/story?id=60529944
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