Cary Stayner claimed he didn’t know why he killed four women, especially after living through his younger brother’s kidnapping and death just a decade before.
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| top row left to right JULIE SUND & CAROLE SUND bottom row left to right JOIE ARMSTRONG & SILVINA PELOSSO |
Cary Stayner was only eleven when his seven-year-old brother Steven was kidnapped by child molester Kenneth Parnell. The following seven years the family were forced to grieve for the boy’s life without knowing if he was truly gone. Cary said that throughout the time his brother was held captive, he felt neglected by their parents. Cary later claimed that during the time that Steven was kidnapped, he was being molested by his uncle Jesse.
Steven escaped from his hell sadly passing only nine years later.
A year after Steven passed, Jesse, the uncle Cary claimed molested him, was murdered. Cary was living with Jesse at that point in time, his life spiralling shortly after the deaths.
Cary was reported to have attempted suicide in 1991, just a year after Jesse’s murder.
Six years later he was arrested for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, the charges were dropped.
After this arrest, Cary was hired as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, California. It seems it was through this job that he came into contact with his four victims, all heading to the motel because of its close proximity to Yosemite National Park.
Carole Sund and her daughter Julie were making the most of a family friend visiting from Argentina for her winter break. The family took Silvina Pelosso to all the hotspots to make her trip memorable. Disneyland, San Francisco and Yosemite were the big three on the list.
Cariole was familiar with staying within Yosemite park but she thought it would be a better idea to spend the night at a nearby motel. She booked a room and the Cedar Lodge motel.
The three settled into their room on the night of February 15th 1999. A knock at the door gained their attention, Stayner was claiming he had to fix something in the bathroom, gaining quick access to the room.
After spending a short while in the bathroom he emerged holding a gun, claiming nobody would be harmed if they cooperated in his robbery demands. He tied them up with duct tape, all three obeying his every order throughout the entire ordeal.
Stayner later said he committed the killings “quietly” strangling Carole and Silvina, putting their bodies into the trunk of their rental car. He took Julie alive, holding her captive in the car with him as he drove about an hour north of the motel.
At Vista Point, Stayner took Julie from the car and slashed her throat.
When the FBI came to investigate the three murders that were believed to be missing persons at this point, Carole’s father had an eerie encounter with the handyman that he later recalled. He said that the man “was kind of peeking at me and watching me” and he said that the entire interaction gave him “an uneasy feeling”.
After a month of searching and the burnt bodies of Carole and Silvina were discovered still inside the charred shell of their rental car. Shortly after the discovery, officials received an anonymous handwritten letter on a sheet of notebook paper. The note had one taunting phrase along with a map to where they would find Julie’s body.
Stayner had reportedly gotten the idea from watching a documentary, he used someone else to attach the stamp and seal the envelope so that his DNA wasn’t connected to it.
It’s believed by investigators that Stayner deliberately led them off course by planting Carole’s wallet at an intersection in Modesto. The reason for picking Modesto was the town was known to have a large number of convicted sex offenders and methamphetamine dealers.
Police believed they were getting close to solving the murders, never suspecting Stayner for them once.
It wasn’t until July that they realised that their theories were wrong.
In July, Joie Armstrong, a 26-year-old naturalist working in Yosemite park, was walking alone when she crossed paths with Stayner. According to Stayner he “couldn’t help himself” after realising the young woman was there alone.
He attacked her with a knife, Joie tried to fight back but was still forced inside Stayner’s truck. Once inside she was bound and gagged. Joie didn’t give up. She threw herself out of the truck’s window and escaped for a brief period.
Stayner chased after her, overpowering her before slashing her throat. It was such a violent attack that Stayner decapitated her.
Blood and other clues were left behind due to the struggle, and when Stayner didn’t show up for work the next day, police grew suspicious.
A few days later, Stayner was arrested at a nudist resort near Wilton. Within hours he confessed to the four killings, providing evidence that only the police and the killer would know. Police searched his vehicle finding further evidence to connect him to Joie’s murder.
Stayner pleaded guilty in federal court to the following in Joie’s case; premeditated first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, and attempted aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death. It’s believed he only pled guilty to avoid the death penalty.
In state court he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, his lawyers claiming the Stayner family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness. Stayner was found sane and convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and one count of kidnapping on August 27th 2002.
He was sentenced to death for the killings, he remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison to this day.
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