which involved killing them all and raping Lenna and her sister. In 1999, Carole Sund, her teenage daughter Juli, and Juli's friend Silvina Pelosso stayed at Cedar Lodge, where Cary worked as a handyman. Dnde ver Entfhrt: Der Fall Stayner? The next day, Steven was told that his parents had given him up, that they couldnt afford so many children (Steven was one of five children), and they didnt want him anymore. But he was pretty messed up and never got any counseling. But in July 1999, the name Stayner made headlines once againwhen Steven's older brother Carywas arrested for murdering a woman in Yosemite, Calif. Hulus Captive Audience takes a look at this case through the eyes of the family, including interviews with Stevens children, sister, and mother. Steven, his memory of his family fading under the strain of the trauma, took to calling Parnell "Dad" and went to class clean and neatly dressed, and otherwise showing no obvious outward traces of being held against his will. ), "I'm very, very, very angry,"his wife Jody, then 21, told a reporter for Knight Ridder that night. Stayner began to drink frequently, and was eventually kicked out of the family home. In 1972, when he was just 7 years old, a stranger convinced him that his mother had asked him to. April 20, 2022 Steven Stayner became a household name in 1980 when he returned home after being kidnapped about seven years earlier. All along, there was the assurance that his story would be made into a movie. Performance & security by Cloudflare. According to The Berkeley Daily Planet, the then 11-year-old felt responsible for his brother's disappearance and felt forgotten by his parents, who were consumed by their son's kidnapping. While he still blamed himself for his abduction, starting a family helped him cope with his past, and he began interacting with child abduction groups and provided advice to children on the topic. In 1999, against the wishes of the Stayner family, Echols wrote an additional chapter about Steven's older brother Cary at the request of his publisher, which then re-published the book.[34]. in journalism and creative writing. Murphy, who was instructed to distribute gospel tracts to school boys, approached Steven Stayner, claiming to be a church representative and asked him if his mother would be willing to donate anything to the church. When 800,000 children disappear every year worldwide 460,000 of these from the United States alone, you tend to keep your children close. He was described as a quiet kid, he enjoyed hanging out with his friends, going to the park, riding his skateboard, or even his bike. As reported by The Famous People, Parnell dated a woman named Barbara Mathias for a period of time. He was mocked at school, which caused him to drop out, and after he began drinking more often, he was kicked out of his parental house. Particular attention was paid to how the events impacted the life of Cary Stayner. [25], In 1985, Stayner married 17-year-old Jody Edmondson,[2] with whom he had two children: a daughter Ashley and a son Steven Jr.[26] He also worked with child abduction groups, spoke to children about personal safety, and gave interviews about his kidnapping. Hewasn't wearing a helmet and he was pronounced dead of a skull fracture at a nearby hospital. Steven told him she would probably want to, and the men offered him a ride home. Its late and dark when they arrive, and Timothy cant remember where he lives, so they went to the police. Stayner, 41, faces the death penalty for the killings of Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, while they were staying at the motel where he. When 14-year-oldSteven Staynerturned upat a police station, more than seven years after he was kidnapped while walking home from school, it felt like a miracle. It wasn't, but when Cary didn't show up for work the next day, authorities put out an APB andthe FBI arrested him at a nudist colony in Wilton, Calif. (He was wearing shorts when agents found him sitting in the camp restaurant. In 1981, Parnell was tried in two separate trials, one for each boy. Miller toldPeople: He was kind of a reckless kid after he came back home he wrecked a couple of cars and I talked to him about being careful, because he could kill himself. Entertainment Television, LLC A Division of NBCUniversal. In an interview with Newsweek, Steven said, I returned almost a grown man and yet my parents saw me at first as their 7-year old. But executing him is not going to bring them back. During the testimony, Kay also said that her father molested her when she was younger. Sandra Hawkins, a family friend, toldPeoplethat Kay stayed strong during the abduction but was totally crushed after learning of Stevens death. It wasnt until 1980 that Kay and the family saw Steven again. On Sept. 20, 1989, Steven Stayner was riding his new Kawasaki motorcycle without a helmet in the rain. [7], After Stayner agreed, a white Buick driven by Parnell pulled up, and Stayner willingly climbed into the car with Murphy. He was held by his abductor until he was 14,. She later insisted she hadno idea that"Dennis"wasn't Parnell's real son, that he even had a birth certificate for the boy. By 1980, when Steven was fourteen, and now a high school student, Parnells need for another boy became more prevalent. ", Though the ready assumptionwas that Steven's sadly short lifehad been defined by his troubles, Jody said he'd been "a very happy man" of late, and they'd been living "a normal life with two beautiful kids.". Yet inanother perversely tragic twist of fate, Whitealso died young, suffering a pulmonary embolism on April 1, 2010, when he was 35. [37], In 2004, Parnell, then 72 years old, was convicted of trying the previous year to persuade his caretaker's sister to procure for him a young boy for five hundred dollars. In the 1970s, they constituted Cary and Steven, their three sisters, and their parents, Kay and Delbert Stayner. Both Del and Kay Stayner testified during the penalty phase of the trial that October that they neglected Cary to a degree when Steven went missing. [1] He had three sisters and an older brother, Cary. Sister Cynthia Sartelltestified that their dad was "on a mission" after Steven disappeared, and looking for their brother consumed his time and energy, to the detriment of his other kids. ", WhenGMAcaught up with him in 1983, Stevendescribed his first year back as"kinda hectic. But, in 1974, things were much different as the family of Steven Stayner would discover. After they stopped trying to teach me the fundamentals all over again, it got better. Born on April 18, 1965, in Merced, California, Steven Gregory Stayner had an older brother named Cary and three sisters. "I didn't socialize with him," Del said. "It's a lot to imagine that any one family could undergo,"Jessica Dimmock, director of the three-part docuseries Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, now streaming on Hulu, told E! It really made me think about shifting sympathies. Stayner looked forward to raising his children, Ashley and Steven Jr, with Jody. Luck was not on his side, however, and at 4:55pm, three miles away and driving under the speed limit, he rammed a car that had pulled into the street just ahead of him. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but only served five -- less time than he held Steven captive. Five hundred people attended his funeral, at which 14-year-old Timmy White was a pallbearer. "He got on with his life," his sister Cory Staynertold the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Returning home, Steven Stayner felt that his parents were still treating him as their seven-year-old child, and had trouble adjusting as he no more had the freedom to smoke, drink, or do whatever he wanted. of revisiting thatunfathomable part ofhis childhood. While they were lovingly raised among almond groves and peach orchards by Delbert and Kay Stayner, their lives in the farming town of Merced were unfortunately in dangerous proximity of a monster. Even though missing fliers circulatedall over the place, including some of the schools Steven attended, no one evercame forward to say they recognized him. Still, the family signed off on it, and Steven even had a nonspeaking cameo asone of the police officers who escort his TV self back home. My dad said he didnt need any.. They passed the street Stevens house was on, and when he told them, the men just said that theyd call his parents, see if he could stay the night. The Most Iconic Celebrity Best Friendships, The Most Iconic Old Hollywood Engagement Rings, The Top Dog Breeds the Year You Were Born, The Most Iconic Oscar Dresses of All Time, Christie Brinkley Honors 69th Birthday in New IG. But the family has since dealt with several tragedies along the way, including Steven's death and his older brother's incarceration for murder. Boy that was one looooong article! Kay and Delbert Stayner married in 1960 and had five children together. In 2002, he was sentenced to death and is currently on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California. Aged seven, Stayner, a California native, was abducted by child molester Kenneth Parnell. Source: Vimbuzz.com Related Posts That year Parnell recently kidnapped another young boy to replace the aging Stayner, 5-year-old Timothy White. When 14-year-old Steven Stayner turned up at a police station, more than seven years after he was kidnapped while walking home from school, it felt like . Meanwhile, Steven was undergoing unthinkable sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse at the hands of Parnell. I don't know sometimes if I should have come home. [30] He was about 14 years old and had been kidnapped by Kenneth Parnell, who sexually abused him. But it wasn't until the age of 37 that he would become a murderer. Born In: Merced, California, United States, Spouse/Ex-: Jody Edmondson (m. 19851989). But after he and a fellow victim escaped in . [24] In a 2007 interview, Stayner's sister said that her brother did not seek counseling because their father said Stayner "didn't need any". However, the young boy could not take advantage of those opportunities as he was reportedly unaware how to summon help. Unfortunately, less than a decade after his incredible escape, Steven Stayner died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24, leaving behind a wife and two children. (There was some impressively stiff competition that year, sothe best miniseries honorwent toWar and Remembrance, which also beat outLonesome Dove. Del Stayner passed away in 2013, but Kay and her grandchildren Steven Jr. and Ashley, who were only 2 and 3 when their father died and grew up knowinghim primarily from Nemec's TV performance, sat down to talk for Captive Audience. He was 35 years old. This idea was eventually rejected and the honor was instead given to another Merced resident, because Stayner's brother Cary confessed to, and was convicted of, killing four women in Yosemite in 1999; Merced city officials feared that the name "Stayner Park" would be associated with Cary rather than Steven. | Before watching 20/20's "Evil in Eden," get the backstory on these notorious brothers. He said, Whats dying? like so much had already happened to him, what was dying compared to that?. Parnell was not charged with the numerous sexual assaults on Stayner and other boys because most of them occurred outside the jurisdiction of the Merced County prosecutor or were by then outside the statute of limitations. Investigator Pat Lunney said, Merced was the lead police department, and so they really mounted a large effort to search. Timothy James White (November 1, 1974 - April 1, 2010) was an American man who was abducted in 1980 by pedophile Kenneth Parnell, and held a few weeks before he was rescued by fellow child captive, 14-year-old Steven Stayner, who escaped and guided the 5-year-old to safety. That would havemade Cary 7 when he first had such a fantasy, when Stevenwas 3 and still several years away from being kidnapped,a trauma that couldn't help butaffect the whole familyand which certainly was invoked when it came time to mount a defense. Steven Stayner got married to Jody Edmondson in 1985. Parnell approached with the car, and they left. So, if youre wondering where she might be today, heres what we know. Steven eventually married and had two children. At the age of seven, Steven Stayner was kidnapped on the afternoon of December 4, 1972 by Kenneth Parnell, who had previously been convicted for sodomizing a young boy and for armed robbery in Utah. From what we can tell, Key spends her life post-retirement in California with her grandchildren and other loved ones. Their mother, Kay, knew Cary to be "artistic, seldom in trouble and quiet," according to The Berkeley Daily Planet. Now I had to compete with a brother and three sisters., Steven had to learn the rules, he was used to coming and going as he pleased, drinking and smoking, and suddenly that wasnt allowed. As for Kenneth Parnell, five years in prison wasnt enough to reform him. The parents of five, who had kept all the presents their son never got to open after going missing a few weeks before Christmas in 1972, ultimatelygot their wish thanks to Steven's bravery. He and her son Lloyd played together. We tried to keep quiet and not upset our parents.. At 14 years old, Steven was reunited with this parents, and became a national hero overnight. Selena is the entertainment and news editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers the latest on TV, movies and celebrities. kidnapped by Kenneth Parnell, who sexually abused him. Why Trust Us? By the time she got there, the 7-year-old was nowhere to be seen. Parents today are very protective of their children, and for good reason. The driver, Antonio Loera, drove off, leaving Stayner helpless on the rain-soaked highway. This story contains details from both cases Steven was 7years old whenErvin Edward Murphy approached the second-grader on his way home from Charles Wright Elementary School on Dec. 4, 1972. He was raising hell at school and causing trouble with the law but things started to change when he met Jody Edmondson. Reminiscent of what happened when kidnapping survivorElizabeth Smartwas spotted in town nine months after she was taken in 2002, seeminglyfree to run but actually terrified of what her abductor might do to her,many would question why Steven didn'ttell someone or otherwise try to escape. [25] He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just before his death. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. They stopped the car and Murphy got out. [38] Timmy White, then a grown man, was subpoenaed to testify in Parnell's criminal trial. Carole and Silvina's charredremains were found March 19 in the trunk of their burned-out rental car, which was abandoned along a utility road off the California 108 highway at the edge of the Sierra Foothills. I don't know sometimes if I should have come home. When Steven Stayner Jr and Where is Steven. "I remember going out one night after Steve disappeared and wishing on a star that my brother would come back home," Cary reportedly told Mike Echols, author of the book I Know My First Name Is Steven. Cary, his older brother, was one of three sisters he had. Soon after, Parnell reached there, driving a white Buick, which Stayner got into willingly, along with Murphy, but instead of his home, he was taken to a cabin in nearby Catheys Valley. Mathias also helped Parnell in the abduction of another boy who was in the Santa Rosa Boys' Club with Stayner, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Shortly before his death, Steven had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Steven passed away an hour after the accident at Merced Community Medical Center. Steven Stayner's incredible story features in the captivating Hulu crime drama Captive Audience . His relationship with his father remained strained. But why doesnt my dad hug me anymore? Your IP: "[23], After returning to his family, Stayner had trouble adjusting to a more structured household as he had been allowed to smoke, drink and do as he pleased when he lived with Parnell. Steven's father, Delbert Stayner, died on April 9, 2013, at his home in Winton, California. [14] In 1975, on Parnell's instruction, Mathias tried to lure another young boy, who was in the Santa Rosa Boys' Club with Stayner, into Parnell's car. Steven, taking a leave of absence from his job, acted as an advisor for Lorimar-Telepictures and had a non-speaking part, playing one of the two policemen who escort 14-year-old Steven (played by Corin Nemec) through the crowds to his waiting family, on his return to his Merced home. It reads: "My name is Steven Stainer [sic]. After Timothy White, who had become a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Deputy, died from pulmonary embolism in 2010, a statue of Stayner and White was built in Applegate Park in Merced, California. 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