I was disappointed however on some of the inconsistencies, misspellings, and grammatical errors. After several weeks, the bodies of all three women were discovered. At time of Cary Stayner's trial, stories regularly noted the high-profile abduction . When Stayner was 14, he ran away with another kidnapped boy, Timmy White, and went to the police, ABC News reported. Ive been watching the documentary on Hulu and first Steven is kidnapped and molested and by some miracle, returns to his family, only for some guy to do a hit and run on him? He was 76. In 1972, Parnell kidnapped 7-year-old Steven Stayner of. Unfortunately, the entire incident was part of an elaborate plan to kidnap the boy. He was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison. Sean Poorman, Stayner's schoolfriend who abetted Parnell in the White kidnapping, was sentenced to a term in a juvenile work camp. According to People Magazine, on September 16, 1989, Steven was heading home on his motorcycle from his job delivering pizza when a "car pulled out of the driveway of a migrant-labor camp along the highway." Steven was only 24 but was married with two children: Ashley (3) and Steven Jr. (2). Its a good substitute.. Two men pulled up next to Stayner in a car one day, claiming to be ministers collecting money for their church. Instead, he tried to make the best of it. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, "everyone was smiling, there was a lot of jubilation, but if you look in the background, there's something worth noting, and it's Cary in his baseball cap, and he's not smiling at all," according to Flynn. Stayner and Parnell pretended to be a son and father (via the Lodi News-Sentinel). Flynn said Satyner had "a couple of nervous breakdowns," one of which was "fairly violent." Stayner was taken to Catheys Valley. He was abducted as a child and later died young. He was convicted of the murders of four women between February and July 1999: Carole Sund, her teenage daughter Juli Sund and their teenage traveling companion Silvina Pelosso; and Yosemite Institute naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong. "Kenneth Parnell stops the car and goes to a payphone, he comes back and tells Steven, 'Your parents, I just spoke to them. Parnell had lured the child through use of a deputy sheriff's badge he bought at an army-navy surplus store. He was 79 years old, and from what we can tell, the cause of death has not been made public. On several occasions, Parnell encouraged Stayner to help him lure another boy into the home. sibling. Following his brother's death, History reports Cary worked as a handyman at a lodge near Yosemite National Park. Witnesses later recognized the alleged driver of the automobile. Stayner eventually began drinking more heavily, dropped out of high school, and left his parents' home. Hulus Captive Audience tells the tragic story of two Stayner brothers: Steven, who was kidnapped by a pedophile as a child, and Cary, who later became a serial killer. When Parnell kidnapped 5-year-old Timothy White that year, Stayner fled on foot along with the kindergartner and then hitchhiked to safety, a journey that thrust the two kidnapping survivors into the national spotlight. Steven Stayners parents were left with many questions when their 7-year-old son vanished into thin air in 1972. Hours after Steven Stayner reported Parnells crimes, he was arrested and convicted of kidnapping. Then-7-year-old Steven Stayner was walking home from school on Highway 140 when Parnell and Murphy were driving towards town. On December 4, 1972, seven-year-old Stayner was abducted in Merced, California, by child molester Kenneth Parnell.He was held by his abductor 38 miles (61 km) away in Mariposa County, California, and later in Mendocino County, California, until he was aged 14, when he managed to escape with . Steven Stayner died due to head injuries caused by a motorcycle accident In late 1989, Steven was riding his new Kawasaki motorcycle home from his job as a pizza delivery man when a car pulled out of the driveway just ahead of him. "His idea of serenity was to maybe smoke a little pot and to sunbathe naked.". Timmy White, 5, sits on the lap of Steven Stayner, 14, during a news conference Photo credit: Getty Images - Getty [16] [17] According to prison officials, Parnell died of natural causes. The driver of the car, an employee of the nearby tomato-packing company, fled the scene and was later found in Tijuana. Prior to his kidnapping of Stayner, The Famous People reports Parnell had at least two criminal convictions, including armed robbery and the sexual abuse of a young boy. Stayner told another psychiatrist, Park Dietz, who was hired by the prosecution to evaluate whether he was sane at the time he committed the Yosemite murders, that as a child he worried that the obsessive thoughts he had about holding the neighbor girl against her will somehow caused Steven to be kidnapped. Del was born in New Mexico in May 1933 and moved to Merced County, California, in 1951. Stayner and Parnell moved often, finally settling nearUkiah, California, where Steven Stayner became Dennis Parnell, according to The New York Times. And it wasn't that he was just a loner, he was a bit of a creepy loner," Flynn said. On the afternoon of December 4, 1972, Steven was walking home from school in Merced, a city in California, when a man handing out religious pamphlets approached him. Stayner once told press that he vigilantly watched his kids, and they werent even allowed out on the porch unless they were in sight of him or their mom. Stayner waited until Parnell had gone to his night shift job as a clerk at a local motel on March 1, 1980 and, carrying White on his back, hitchhiked 40 miles to Ukiah. Stayner was seven years old at the time. This includes a 9-year kidnapping and a serial killing pic.twitter.com/WgWQCdDk7h, may queen (@syanarchy) February 19, 2020. Parnell went on to tell Stayner that his parents couldn't afford to keep him any more, that a judge had given Parnell legal custody of him, and that his new name was "Dennis". In 2005, Timothy landed a job as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, according to the New York Times. 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. However, the jury decided otherwise. Steven Stayner testifies about his abduction in 1972 by Kenneth Parnell and his seven years in captivity in this 1981 photo. Tragically, Steven Stayner was killed in a 1989 motorcycle accident at age 24. It is California's oldest correctional institution and has the largest death row in the . He was 18 when his brother escaped his imprisonment and returned home. Steven Stayner Death Obituary: On April 23rd, 2022 Todeath.net received news about the passing of Steven Stayner through a Social Media post. According to the psychiatrists report, Stayners father, Delbert Stayner, was ordered into therapy for molesting his own daughters. The Merced Police Department launched an extensive investigation and search effort. When Steven Stayner returned home, all he really knew about himself was his first name he wasn't even sure how his last name was spelled. However, he allowed him to keep the middle name "Gregory" and his original birthdate. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He's free. "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. "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," Rowlands said. As he never had any rules, he rebelled when his parents forbade him from drinking alcohol and smoking. He also joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As Steven Stayner got older, Kenneth Parnell began planning to kidnap another, younger, boy. "Cary was very upset," childhood friend Mike Marchese told ABC News in a 1999 interview. Cary Stayner is now 57 years old. [8], More than a decade after the sodomy case, Parnell was convicted of armed robbery in Utah. Unfortunately, Kenneth was paroled after five, less time than he had Steven in his "custody." He sexually abused Stayner repeatedly until Stayner fled in 1980 when he was 14. He reunited with his family and later attended college. Police first arrested convicted pedophile, Kenneth E. Parnel immediately and went to work tracking down Ervin Murphy according to Lodi News-Sentinel, who had only been involved in the kidnapping before going his own way. Steven Stayner was born in Merced. In the years after Steven vanished, Del spent considerable time looking for anything that would lead him to his son. As reported by The Famous People, both boys were reunited with their parents on May 2, 1980. Steven Stayner was just 7 years old when he was kidnapped in California in 1972 (via theLos Angeles Times). Parnell worked at a nearby lodge, and on Dec. 4, 1972, he convinced co-worker Ervin Murphy to accompany him into Merced, per ABC News. Del died at his home in Winton, California, on April 9, 2013. While they never gave up hope, the ordeal took a toll on the whole family. The two hitchhiked to Ukiah, California. He briefly attended counseling but instead considered talking to reporters as his form of therapy. Hulus latest three-part documentary recalls the devastating kidnapping of Steven Stayner, a seven-year-old boy living in Merced, California. Flynn said Satyner had "a couple of nervous breakdowns," one of which was "fairly violent. Date of Death: September 16, 1989. Cary Stayner worked at Cedar Lodge for two years before he killed guests Carole and Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso. As reported by People, Stayner struck the driver's side of the car at a high rate of speed. The officers soon realized that both of the boys had actually been kidnapped, and the one identifying himself as Dennis Parnell was actually Steven Stayner. Steven Stayner was kidnapped when Cary Stayner was 11, Rinek wrote. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. In February 1980, Parnell decided to capture a new, younger boy. He died as a result of catastrophic head injuries he got when his motorcycle collided with a car in a hit-and-run accident while on his way home from work. . Fourteen when he was found. Shortly after Stevens death, an uncle with whom Cary Stayner was very close was shot and killed in a home they shared together. He had three sisters and an older brother, Cary. Authorities had already interviewed him once before about the other three murders, but at the time he hadnt raised any red flags. Birthday: April 18, 1965. Steven Stayner was the middle child of five siblings living with their parents in Merced, CA. "He was kind of a quiet guy. He loved his brother, his former calssmate, Jack Bungart, told the news outlet. But on Sept. 16, 1989, Stayner died in a motorcycle crash. He had reportedly suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts but the cause of his death remains unclear. He worked odd jobs delivering food, doing security, and packing meat in a factory until he met Jody Edmondson, whom he married in 1985 when he was 20. Steven Stayners fame was short-lived. American crime victim who was kidnapped at age seven and held captive by sex offender Kenneth Parnell for seven years. The Famous People reports Parnell then took the boy to a remote cabin near Catheys Valley, California. In 1999 a proposition was put forward to rename several local parks in the Merced area to honour outstanding citizens of the city. He died at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville in 2008 at the age of 76. It was Dec. 4, 1972. ? Stayner would not reemerge until 1980, when he fled from Parnell to save another kidnapped boy, Timothy White. #onthisday pic.twitter.com/eW5ce2QtEm The kidnapping had a deep impact on Cary Stayner, his childhood friend, Mike Marchese told ABC News in a 1999 interview. I heard stories about him going out and wishing on a star, that his brother would come home.. . "[2] He claimed to have been married three times, but only one record of his marriage is known. "Merced was the lead police department, and so they really mounted a large effort to search. [3] Parnell was raised mostly without his father, who abandoned the family when Parnell was six. He was convicted in 2004 for attempting to purchase a child for sex and died in prison. Fortunately, Stevens miraculous return in 1980 led to a happy reunion. Stayner, the subject of an NBC miniseries in May, lived as the son of his abductor, Kenneth Parnell, a convicted child molester. Would love your thoughts, please comment. There, they pretended to be ministers and lured the 7-year-old Stayner into the van by telling him, Your parents no longer want you.. After two weeks of watching White cry for his family, the then-14-year-old Stayner decided that was enough. The fact that Stayners brother was kidnapped by a pedophile and abused for seven years adds an almost unfathomable dimension to the tragedy that enveloped this family. Cary Stayner "was a very, very good cartoonist," and was voted "most creative" at school, according to Purdy. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Cary was convicted in 1999 of the murders of four women and sentenced to death in 2002. He had been under hospice care for some time. Flynn said his sexuality was "constantly under attack.". According to The Famous People, the couple eventually had two children, named Ashley and Steven, Jr. They had two kids, Ashley and Steven Jr., who both appear in Captive Audience. Stevens high-school girlfriend, who knew him as Dennis, told ABC News he told her he wasnt going to let that child go through what I had already been through, adding if he didnt take care of it now, it will just get worse. I told you this was a depressing one guys, hope I didn't ruin your day. Steven died in 1989, aged 24. He also quarreled with his parents at home and drank consistently. Steven Stayner was killed in a motorcycle accident when he was 24 years old FBI/Wikipedia On September 16, 1989, Steven Stayner was riding his motorcycle home from work when a car suddenly pulled out of a driveway onto the highway. According to Diane Stevens' testimony, Parnell requested that the child have a "clean" rectum, indicating sexual intentions. 0 references. Parnell was sentenced to 25 years to life under California's "three strikes" law. Stayner had a traumatic childhood involving sexual abuse, the kidnap of his younger brother by a pedophile, and feelings of blame that he could not protect his brother, FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Rinek wrote in his book, In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agents Relentless Pursuit of the Nations Worst Predators. Rinek wrote that even though the abuse likely poured fuel on a fire for Stayner to eventually commit murder, it was one that had already begun to smolder before he was sexually abused and before his brother was kidnapped. He sustained fatal head injuries while on his way home from work when his motorcycle collided with a car in a hit-and-run accident. When he was 24, he died in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident. He sexually abused Stayner repeatedly until Stayner fled in 1980 when he was 14. Parnell forced Stayner to take on the name Dennis Parnell, and shuttled him from remote towns to isolated cabins all around Northern California, according to the Los Angeles Times. Stayner's account of his time with Parnell formed the basis of a 1991 book by Mike Echols. Stayner and his wife were high school sweethearts, the article said. Cary Anthony Stayner (born August 13, 1961) is an American serial killer and the older brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner. In a 2000 interview about his 1951 crime, Parnell said he kidnapped and molested the boy because his wife was pregnant and that he "had to find another outlet. A year later, he was sentenced to life, which was, at the time, the harshest sentence handed down under the the "three strikes" law. When Steven didnt make it home from school, his parents sounded the alarm. When he didnt return home, Stevens parents Delbert and Kay Stayner alerted the authorities but there were no leads. Parnell married 15-year old Patsy Jo Dorton in 1949,[7] had a daughter in 1951, and divorced in 1957. Stayner had a pet dog named Queenie, with whom he formed a close bond, and was permitted to begin drinking and smoking at a young age. Years later in interviews, Stayner admitted to intentionally sabotaging the kidnappings. Surrounded by TV cameras, Steven Stayner, right foreground, and and his brother Delbert Stayner are shown walking toward their Merced County, Calif., home, March 2, 1980, as Steven was reunited with his family following a 7-year kidnap ordeal. Meanwhile, his captors had renamed Steven as Dennis Parnell and he was enrolled in schools as Parnells son during seven years of abduction and sexual abuse, as reported by the LA Times. "He literally said, 'I was not going to let that child go through what I had already been through. Cary Stayner, shown in this March 2, 1980 photo, is hugged by his mother Kay Stayner outside the Stayner home in Merced County, Calif., on the day Stayner's brother Steven was reunited with his family after being kidnapped for 7 years. However, Crime Investigation reports Stayner sabotaged Parnell's efforts, as he did not want another boy to suffer through the abuse he had endured. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. He died behind bars in 2008 from natural causes. He was known to take refuge in nearby Yosemite, where hed drive up and get lost in nature. As reported by The Famous People, Parnell dated a woman named Barbara Mathias for a period of time. Steven Stayner Death - Obituary: On April 23th,2022 celebrityexit learned about the death of Steven Stayner through a Social Media post. Parnell was convicted of two counts of kidnaping and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison in February, 1982, after an 18-day trial in Hayward. Im not sure there is any direct cause and effect," Flynn said. Although Stayner told the younger boy to go inside by himself and tell the officers he had been kidnapped, White refused to leave Stayner's side. Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood.". He had attempted another kidnapping with his mistress Barbara Mathias, but that failed to go to plan. On September 16, 1989, Stayner was riding his motorcycle on his way home from his job, when he collided with a driver coming out of a nearby migrant labor camp. On March 1, 1980, in Mendocino County, California, he and Timothy White, another of Parnell's victims, managed to flee. On December 4, 1972, seven-year-old Stayner was abducted in Merced, California, by child molester Kenneth Parnell. Parnell remained incarcerated until his death in 2008 at theCalifornia Medical Facility, where he died of natural causes. One relative described child sexual abuse as like a family sickness because it had been going on for so many generations. Captive Audience tells Steven Stayner's story after he was kidnapped and abused for seven years. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five -- less time than he held Steven captive. Stayner went on to marry his wife, Jodi Stayner, and have two children. He was not wearing a helmet, and. He was convicted of both kidnappings and served five years of his seven-year prison sentence. Parnell died in 2008 while incarcerated. I guess seven years changed him, too. The now 14-year-old Steven decided to escape with White on 2 March 1980 after witnessing the childs suffering. Watch "20/20's" full story, "The Black Sheep," TONIGHT at 9 p.m. At one point, Steven mentioned in an interview, Ive been talking to reporters for nine years. Currently, Cary, 60, is being held in San Quentin State Prison on death row. As reported by ABC News, Kenneth Parnell treated Steven Stayner like a son. He was quoted after his "rescue" saying he blames himself and doesn't understand why his dad doesn't hug him anymore. Where is Cary Stayner now? According to The Press Democrat, Kay Stayner said she "never did lose [her] hope" of finding her missing son. One last Steven Stayner, one last Timmy White. As Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, a Hulu docuseries that streams today, shows, the two boys bravely testified against Parnell at his trial. A cousin said that Stayner spied on her and his sisters and a neighbor girl, hiding under their beds and secretly videotaping them in the bathroom and bedroom. He was charged and convicted for kidnapping and false imprisonment, sentenced to seven years in prison. On December 4, 1972, 7-year-old Steven Stayner was walking home from school in Merced, California when he was abducted by two men who worked at . Sure, Ive seen the excuse about alleged car troubles but it sure didnt stop the guy from fleeing the scene. and our "You have one brother who's been subjected to just unspeakable horror for years, but by all appearances he's a happy-go-lucky, jovial kid with a girlfriend. On September 16, 1989, Steven Stayner was driving home from work on a California highway after work one rainy evening and got into a deadly collision with a car that turned in front of him. According to The Famous People, Parnell also enrolled Stayner in school. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. But in 1980, the Stayners prayers were answered when Steven returned home after a seven-year disappearance.