1. Early life

2. Crimes

3. Trial and conviction

4. Sentencing and wait for execution

5. Media portrayals

6. Further reading

7. References

8. External links

Cary Anthony Stayner (born August 13, 1961) is an American serial killer. Stayner's early life was marked by the abduction of his younger brother Steven by sex offender Kenneth Parnell.

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. The murders occurred in Mariposa County, California, near Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner was sentenced to death for the four murders, and as of January 2019 remains on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California.^[1]

Early life

Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California. His younger brother, Steven, was kidnapped by child molester Kenneth Parnell in 1972, when Cary was 11, and held captive for more than seven years before escaping and being reunited with his family.^[2] Cary Stayner later said that he felt neglected while his parents grieved over the loss of Steven.^[3]

When Steven escaped from Parnell and returned home in 1980, he received massive media attention; a true crime book and TV movie, both titled I Know My First Name is Steven, were made about the ordeal. Steven died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. The following year Stayner's uncle Jesse, with whom he was living at the time, was murdered; Stayner later claimed that his uncle molested him when he was 11.^[4]

Stayner is reported to have attempted suicide in 1991,^[5] and was arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana^[3] and methamphetamine,^[6] although these charges were eventually dropped.

Crimes

In 1997, Stayner was hired as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, just outside the Highway 140 Arch Rock entrance to Yosemite National Park.^[3] Between February and July 1999, he murdered two women and two teenagers: 42-year-old Carole Sund; her daughter, 15-year-old Juli Sund; Juli’s friend, 16-year-old Argentine exchange student Silvina Pelosso; and Yosemite Institute employee Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, a naturalist.^[4] The first two victims, Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso, were found in the trunk of the charred remains of Carole's Pontiac rental car.^[4] The bodies were burned beyond recognition and were identified using dental records. A note was sent to police with a hand-drawn map indicating the location of the third victim, Juli Sund.^[4] The top of the note read, "We had fun with this one." Investigators went to the location depicted on the map and found the remains of Juli, whose throat had been cut.

Detectives began interviewing employees of the Cedar Lodge motel where the first three victims had been staying just before their deaths. One of those employees was Cary Stayner, but he was not considered a suspect at that point because he had no criminal history and remained calm during the police interview.^[7]

When the decapitated body of the fourth victim Joie Ruth Armstrong was found, eyewitnesses said they saw a blue 1979 International Scout parked outside the cabin where Armstrong was staying. Detectives traced this vehicle to Cary Stayner.^[4] This caused him to become the prime suspect in the case. FBI agents John Boles and Jeff Rinek found Stayner staying at Laguna del Sol nudist resort in Wilton, where he was arrested and taken to Sacramento for questioning. During his interrogation, Stayner shocked the agents when he confessed not only to Joie’s decapitation, but to the murders of Pelosso and the two Sunds, and the sending of the map for finding Juli's body as well.^[8] His vehicle yielded evidence proving his link to Joie Armstrong.

Stayner claimed after his arrest that he had fantasized about murdering women since he was seven years old, long before the abduction of his brother.^[9]

Trial and conviction

Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers claimed that the Stayner family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, manifesting itself not only in the murders, but also his obsessive-compulsive disorder and his request to be provided with child pornography in return for his confession.^[10] Dr. Jose Arturo Silva testified that Stayner had mild autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and paraphilia.^[11] Stayner was nevertheless found sane and convicted of four counts of first degree murder by a jury on August 27, 2002.^[12]

Sentencing and wait for execution

In 2002, during the penalty phase of his trial, he was sentenced to death and thereafter entered housing in the Adjustment Center on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California.^[13] Stayner remains on death row as of December 2018^[14][1] though there have been no executions in California since a 2006 court ruling finding flaws in the administration of capital punishment in the state.^[14]

Media portrayals

• Stayner's case was featured in an episode of American Justice produced in 2002.^[15]
• In 2011, the investigation and arrest of Cary Stayner were featured in an episode of FBI: Criminal Pursuit, titled "Trail of Terror", airing on the Investigation Discovery channel.^[16]
• In 2013, the history of Stayner's progress from student to convicted murderer was told in an episode of the U.K. television series "Born to Kill?" titled, "Yosemite Park Slayer."^[17]
• The American Court TV (now TruTV) television series Mugshots released an episode on the Stayner case titled Cary Stayner - The Cedar Lodge Killings.^[18]
• In 2018, the Reelz channel aired an hour-long documentary about the murders that was titled, "Yosemite Park Killer".
• In January 2019, Stayner was featured on the All Killa No Filla podcast.
• In January 2019, ABC 20/20 season 41 episode 21 ran a 1 hour 20 minute story covering the story of Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner. The story was titled “Evil in Eden”
• Stayner was briefly mentioned in season 5 episode 19 of the CBS drama "Criminal Minds" in the episode entitled Right of Passage.^[19]

Further reading

• Mara Bovsun, 2012, "Justice Story: Twisted trail of 'Yosemite murders' leads to resort handyman," New York Daily News (online), Sunday, September 30, 2012, see  , accessed 12 June 2015. [Subtitle: "Cary Stayner planned to kill his girlfriend and her daughter; instead he killed 4 other women."]
• CNN, 2001 [1999], "Yosemite suspect confesses to 4 killings, cnn.com (online), July 27, 1999, see [https://edition.cnn.com/US/9907/27/yosemite.murder.01/index.html], accessed 12 June 2015.
• Stacy Finz, 2002, "Yosemite killer sentenced to death," SFGATE (online), December 13, 2002, see [https://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Yosemite-killer-sentenced-to-death-Terrible-2711605.php], accessed 12 June 2015. [Excerpts from Stayner's confession; subtitle: "Terrible details of Stayner case stun even the judge."]
• {{Citation | last = Smith | first = Carlton | title = Murder at Yosemite | publisher = St. Martins Press | series = St. Martin's True Crime Library | year = 1999 | edition = | url = | isbn = 978-0312974572}}
• {{Citation | last = McDougal | first = Dennis | title = The Yosemite Murders | publisher = Ballantine Books | year = 2000 | url = | isbn = 978-0345438348}}

References

External links

• Documentary series from Court TV (now TruTV) "MUGSHOTS: Cary Stayner -The Cedar Lodge Killings" episode (2002) at FilmRise

• Francois Nardi
• Francois Nepveu
• Francois Nicephore Kakese
• Francois-Nicolas-Benoit Haxo
• Francois Nicolas Fririon
• Francois Noudelmann
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• Francois Olivier Roberge
• Francois Ombanzi
• Francois Ouimet (ice hockey)
• Francois Para du Phanjas
• Francois Parisien
• Francois Partant
• Francois-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers
• Francois Peraldi
• Francois Perol
• Francois Perrier (psychoanalyst)
• Francois Perrodo
• Francois Perrot
• Francois Person
• Francois P. Giraud
• Francois-Pierre Chaumeton
• Francois-Pierre Cherrier
• Francois-Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil
• Francois Pierrot