Its to imbue community care as essential for when the going gets tough. "The only good part about him being missing," Kay says, "is there was always hope that he would be found.". Lenna said that after Cary Stayner's arrest, her family placed a Beanie Baby peace bear on a little, wicker float down the Merced River to give them peace about everything that happened. Lenna said her family had learned from the FBI that Cary Stayner had tried to kill her family on three separate occasions. Hulu's latest true-crime documentary, "Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story ," traces the nearly unbelievable tale of the Stayner family. Uncle Jerry's murdered. They were at the Merced River, she said, when he started removing all of his clothes. Between February and July of 1999 he brutally murdered three tourists and a naturalist in Yosemite National Park: Carole Sund, 42; Juli Sund, 15; Silvina Pelosso, 16; and Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. Before joining the SFGate team, he worked at the San Francisco Examiner, Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette. The Stayner family Delbert and Kay and their two sons and three daughters lived in a small farming town of Merced, California, known as the gateway to Yosemite Park. If you haven't listened to episode 138 yet, make sure you do that before you jump One brother, Steven, was the victim of a . Then all of a sudden its gone. Cary Stayner's July 29, 1999, booking mug. Cary Stayner, now 57, was convicted of the murders of Armstrong, the Sunds and Pelosso, and sentenced to death for all except Armstrong's. The murders were all over the news and remained unsolved in July, when 25-year-old Joie Armstrong was found headless in a creek. Steven Stayner, 14, is flanked by his father, Delbert (left) during a press conference after Steven and a young boy escaped from a sexual predator on Valentine's Day 1980 in Ukiah, Calif. Cary was arrested after a woman at the nudist resort hed escaped to called a number she saw on television asking for information about him. MERCED - The name sounded familiar to Assistant Sheriff Henry Strength when an FBI agent called him Saturday morning, wanting the criminal record of a possible suspect in a murder in Yosemite. By 1997, hed moved to the Yosemite valley and was working as a maintenance guy at a 206-room motel, Cedar Lodge. In 1981, Parnell was tried for the kidnappings. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Steven Stayner and Timmy White (Courtesy of Hulu), Stayners return to his family was televised in its entirety cameras and hundreds of spectators and journalists were waiting when the police brought Steven and his dog back to his family home in Merced. And they do this ritual in particular to honor and acknowledge Joie. Cary was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the murders of four women in 1999. His father also refused to send him to therapy, because he scorned psychiatry in general and saw therapy as a tool for weak people. One Brother Was a Hero, One Was a Serial Killer: New Docuseries Explores the Stayner Family's Plight. Ted Lassos Jane Austen Catastrophe Unites Queers in Outrage! And while "Captive Audience" focuses mostly on the Stayner family and how Steven's brother Cary grew up to be a serial killer, White's life and story was changed forever by his ordeal. Lynnea Shertz, who grew up two doors down from the Stayners, remembered Cary Stayner as a scrawny teenager who liked to draw figures. Joie Armstrong, the last of Cary Stayner's victims, was beheaded. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, offering an emotional, behind-the-scenes look at the Stayner family, is now available for streaming in three parts on Hulu. She said the visit "sent chills" up and down her spine. Ive endured a lot of true crime docuseries in my lifetime, but this story which begins with the kidnapping of seven-year-old Steven Stayner by a pedophile in Merced, California in 1973 and ends with the brutal murder of four women in Yosemite National Park in 1999 is one of the wildest Ive ever seen. I worked with Carey up in Yosemite, we worked for the same company at 2 different hotels. "He just didn't set off any alarm bells," said former reporter Christine Hanley. The family learned from the FBI that Cary Stayner had tried to kill them on three separate occasions including after he'd killed Armstrong. Parnell offered him a ride, but instead taking the boy home, he kidnapped him. Speaking in an off-camera jailhouse interview Monday, July 26, 1999, Cary Stayner, a motel handyman at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, Calif., said he strangled Carole Sund and family friend Silvina Pelosso in their rented cabin at the Lodge and then abandoned the rental car with their bodies inside, returning two days later to burn evidence. Friends, they did not give him a ride home! Stayner confessed immediately, to sexually assaulting and murdering the women, but later pled not guilty by reason of insanity. At the age of 18, he married a 15-year-old girl, and they had a daughter and divorced four years later. Reportedly, Parnell also abused some of Stevens friends who came over, and as soon as an outraged parent was onto him, they moved again, this time to Manchester. According to The Famous People, the couple eventually had two children, named Ashley and Steven, Jr. Ha! On Dec. 4, 1972, the Stayner family's low profile . Lenna said police told her family Cary Stayner tried three times to kill them. The Stayner family home in Merced, Calif. Child kidnap victim Steven Stayner, 23, is seen smoking a cigarette inside a car about a year before his death. But this was something, totally different," says Jody. He bound and duct-taped her before strangling her. I always look forward to a movie or series in this genre! At the time when I was up there I had just graduated from high school, I had no idea at that time that something had happened to his brother prior. "He was off. In December 1990, Jesse "Jerry" Stayner, 42, Cary and Steven's uncle, was shot to death in his Merced home. AP File Photo/Ted Benson, The Modesto Bee. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. When he realized that she was alone, he said, he could not control the urge to kill her too. He was one of two sons and three daughters to parents, Delbert and Kay Stayner. Voice in the Dark, by Sean Flynn for Esquire (2004) Flynn recounts the major events in Cary and Stevens lives and crimes, and interviews Cary in prison, and Kenneth Parnell, who was then living alone in a white cement row house in Berkeley. He made some money consulting on a TV film written about his horrifying ordeal and got a reward for rescuing the 5-year-old boy. "Cary started acting wildly inappropriately towards females. Even outside of press conferences he held with family members and Timmy, the cameras didn't turn off. Cary Stayner was convicted in the 1999 murders of 42-year-old Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli, their 16-year-old family. Steven was hailed as a hero for rescuing the youngster. Steven's daughter Ashley Stayner, now 36, is also a prominent participant, and the one member of the Stayner family who has spoken to the media following the documentary's release. In the background, wearing a baseball cap, is his 18-year-old brother, Cary. Parnell was convicted for both kidnappings and served five years of his seven year prison sentence. The night before the Emmys broadcast, Stayner was hit by a car on his motorcycle on his way home from work and died of fatal head injuries.14-year-old Timmy White was a pallbearer at his funeral. He was a cartoonist for The Statesman, the school newspaper. Cary Stayner had decided the day after Valentine's Day would be the day he killed Lenna and her family. On Valentine's Day 1980, Steven walked out of a Mendocino County cabin with Timmy, carrying the boy when he got tired. PEOPLE got a first look at Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, which highlights the opposing legacies of kidnapping survivor Steven Stayner and his serial killer brother, Cary Stayner. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? In the little time I worked with him, he just seemed like a regular person.". Cary Stayner will forever be known for marring Yosemite's reputation as a peaceful retreat with the brutal murders of four innocent women. ", "There's a lot of things I wish we'd done differently," adds Kay, struggling to decide if they should have done more to protect his privacy. The film explores the trauma and psychological impact of Stevens abduction and the difficulties he faced trying to adjust to life after his escape. "I remember being one of those people who were like, 'Well they need to hurry up and catch who did this.'". Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. "A lot of attention went to Steven we all got a little jealous," says one of the Stayner sisters in Hulu's upcoming docuseries Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story. At first, Stayner denied being sexually abused by Parnell. Speaking to the FBI, Cary Stayner admitted to killing Armstrong and the three women at Cedar Lodge but he also caught agents unaware, telling them about Lenna and her sister and mother. Steven, in a rarity for a kidnapped child, made his way back to his family after eight years of living under an assumed name and identity given by his groomer and attacker Kenneth Parnell.. Meanwhile, Cary grew increasingly bitter about his family and the entire worlds focus on Steven, telling an interviewer: The way I see, just about anybody would have done the same thing in his shoes We never really got along that well after he came back All of a sudden Steve was getting all these gifts, getting all this clothing, getting all this attention. I heard stories about him going out and wishing on a star, that his brother would come home. He finally escaped with another boy that Parnell had abducted a 5-year-old named Timmy White. Riese is the 40-year-old Co-Founder and CEO of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in California. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story rehashes the series of horrific events spanning the '70s, '80s and '90s that captivated a nation and destroyed a family. Steven was older now, and Parnell began craving a younger son. In February 1980, he enlisted a local boy to help him kidnap five-year-old Timmy White off the street in Ukiah. In court, a psychiatrist called by the defense testified that the Stayner family had a long history of sexual abuse and mental illness, including a history of dysfunction dating back three generations. A doctor testified that Cary was mentally impaired. He was found sane and convicted on three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and one count of kidnapping. Now Steven Stayner's brother, Cary, 37, was the prime suspect in the decapitation killing of a young naturalist, and the FBI suggested he had a role in the murder of three Yosemite tourists in February - Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and family friend Silvina Pelosso.