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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 trivia item below may give away important plot points. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. The revelation came in a six Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. WebCary Stayner was convicted of the 1999 Cedar Lodge Killings near Yosemite National Park. Billy Joe Strange, 39, an El Portal parolee who worked at the Cedar Lodge lounge and restaurant, where the murdered women were last seen. In a 2003 jailhouse interview with The Chronicle, Parnell admitted that he had tried to buy the boy to experience the "love and respect" that a son has for a father. 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. 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 paid a local kid to ride with him to the town of Ukiah, California and he told to go and find him a boy. Very seldom did he get into trouble. 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. There, they got a room with a plan to stay for a few days. This time, agents detained him and forced him to answer more questions. In mid-July of 2002, the trial began in Judge Thomas C. Hastings courtroom. Michael "Mick" Larwick, 42, of Modesto, part of a vagabond group of methamphetamine drug users and friends centered in the Modesto area. Then all of a sudden it's gone. 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. And in 1999, the Stayner family was back in the news but this time, for a less than positive reason. Whites stepfather, Roger Gitlin, said White died April 1, 2010, of an apparent pulmonary embolism. 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. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. More than a thousand leads, they confessed, produced nothing. ", FBI sources claimed that he had already confessed his guilt during the Saturday evening interrogation. They were looking for the missing red 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix as well as the women. It was dark when they arrived and Timmy could remember where he lived so they went to the police station. Part of TV News Archive. WebCary Stayner, the handyman at their hotel, confessed after being arrested for beheading another victim, female nature guide Joie Armstrong. Teresa Kay Gray, 36, of Modesto. Local police and Yosemite Park Rangers began to search the area where the missing three were last seen. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Police found her car in front of her cabin, packed for the trip. One brother was subjected to just unspeakable horror for years, but by all appearances, he was a happy-go-lucky, jovial kid with a girlfriend. Vacuum sweepings were taken from inside Joies house, where Stayner claims to have bound her with duct tape, yielded hair evidence. Parnell, along with Murphy, took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, where he was brainwashed to believe his parents no longer wanted him. I wouldnt think that he would think of himself as one, but he is a hero.". Cary Stayner was sentenced Thursday to die for committing three murders near Yosemite National Park in 1999. But seven years later in February 1980, Steven miraculously reappeared. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. 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. '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.'". 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. On February 12, 1999, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli 15, and Silvina Pelosso 16, left their home in Eureka, California to go on vacation in the area near Yosemite National Park in the same state in the United States. Quotes He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. Concluding the interview, he addressed the victims' families: "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. According to court documents filed Monday, Cary Stayner told the FBI he assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund before killing them. Campbell, when first arrested on mail fraud charges, had in her possession Carole Sund's checking account and automated teller machine numbers. 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. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. The Sund family's worst fears were confirmed when a hiker wandered onto the site of a burned-out red 1999 Pontiac, hidden off Highway 108, in the Stanislaus Forest region on March 18. He was arrested on March 5 when he allegedly reported to his parole officer with liquor on his breath. 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. Cory gets emotional as she describes how he fell through the cracks of familial or institutional care. That same day, Stayner allowed himself to be interviewed by a reporter from KNTV. The police reckoned that the killer of the three women was someone familiar with the county given the location of the Pontiac. "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. 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. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. Then on March 25, Juli Sunds body was discovered near Lake Pedro in Tuolumme County. He remains on 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. He loved his brother. The other Sund children believed their mother and sister Juli would be returned. The two hitchhiked to Ukiah, California. 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. When Cary Stayner was questioned by FBI agents, he immediately confessed to the four Yosemite Park murders and provided a detailed accounting of his crimes. 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.". He has been questioned about any involvement. 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. 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. 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. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. Or certainly, nothing noticed by his colleagues at the motel. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. 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. 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. ", Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner in the baseball cap in the background. "He had a great personality," said Lori Duke, who dated Steven in high school but knew him as Dennis. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. Cary was the ideal son, Kay Stayner revealed to the jury during her elder sons trial for murder. 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. Upon examination by the FBI Laboratory, some items have yielded trace evidence. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. "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. 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 In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. The Stayner family was made up of two brothers, three sisters, and parents Kay and Delbert. | The judge said there was overwhelming evidence against Stayner and that the devastating emotional toll justified execution. 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. | For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. When she did not appear as planned, her would-be host had phoned the park. He grew up, got married and had two kids. 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. After graduation from Merced (California) High School, Stayner worked as a window installer at a glass company. Some who knew Cary were shocked at his arrest. Four men were considered the main murder suspects in the initial inquiries. Cary, the motel handyman and champion underachiever who was arrested at a nudist colony, said in a jailhouse interview that voices told him to kill Carole and Juli Parnell and Murphy were driving towards town when Stephen was lured into their vehicle and abducted. Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. The FBI also seized clothing stained with blood from her body. Maria Ledbetter, 24, of Modesto, an admitted methamphetamine addict and former girlfriend of Dykes, about whom she was questioned extensively. He is currently in his 60s and still on death row while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the July 21 death of naturalist Joie Armstrong. "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 two brothers of the Stayner family are both famous - one experienced horror in the hands of a child molester, Steven, and the other, Cary, the serial killer in Yosemite.