Cary Stayner

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Cary Stayner

Cary Anthony Stayner (born August 13, 1961 in Merced , California ) is an American serial killer . His childhood and youth were shaped by the kidnapping of his younger brother Steven , who was only able to break out after seven years of imprisonment in 1980. Stayner murdered four women in Mariposa County , California near Yosemite National Park between February and July 1999. After his arrest, he was sentenced to death for these acts and is currently awaiting execution in San Quentin State Prison . Stayner has been dubbed the Yosemite Killer in the media .

Life

Career

Cary Stayner was born in Merced , California and was the oldest of five children. His parents were Delbert "Del" Stayner and Mary Katherine "Kay" Augustine, who married in 1960. He had a brother Steven and three sisters. His mother grew up in a Christian family and attended a religious boarding school, where she was subjected to physical and psychological harassment. Because of this, she soon left the Christian Church and became part of Mormonism . She later described herself as an unloving mother, but made sure that her children were always well dressed and well mannered. Cary's father was a mechanic and parenting style the opposite. After sexually molesting one of his daughters, he was sent for therapy. From 1967 the family lived on a farm where the father ran an almond tree plantation . Just four years later, Del, who was in poor health, gave up the farm and the family returned to Merced.

When she was three years old, Cary was diagnosed with trichotillomania , a disease that causes uncontrolled tearing of the hair on her head. From an early age he had thoughts of murdering the female cashiers when he was shopping in the supermarket with his parents. In 1972 he was sexually abused by his uncle Jesse while he was staying with him.

The family's life changed abruptly on December 4, 1972 when seven-year-old brother Steven was lured into his car by the convicted Kenneth Parnell on his way home from school. Cary later testified that he had never seen his father cry before. Steven spent seven years in the custody of the pedophile who raped him almost every night, but Cary also suffered immensely from the family media hype. His parents suffered from the loss of their youngest son; this meant that his mother only left the house for a year when it was absolutely necessary and his father roamed the area with his pickup truck to look for Steven. Cary later described that he felt severely neglected by his parents during this time.

During this time, his violent fantasies also expanded when he fantasized about women being raped by a horde. He also always tried to see his sisters naked, so he often burst into the bathroom. When a friend of his sister's, who lived in the immediate vicinity of the family, stayed at the Stayner family home, Cary crawled under the covers and grabbed her chest and later exposed himself to her. Cary was described by his classmates as a good but shy student who played baseball on the school team . His name was spelled “Carry” or “Gary” in almost all yearbooks. He often went with his cousins ​​to his favorite spot, Yosemite National Park , where they could hunt, swim, fish or explore caves. He dreamed of becoming an artist and his classmates and friends saw him as a talent from an early age. He was voted the most creative student in the class for his self-drawn comics.

It was only after Parnell kidnapped five-year-old Timmy White in 1980 that Cary's brother Steven decided to flee with White. After his return, he was hailed by the press as a hero who had managed to get out of the clutches of a sex offender . Steven moved into the focus of the public and his family also geared their everyday lives completely to Steven. Cary couldn't handle this situation and was jealous of the many gifts and attention that Steven received. Mike Echols , who wrote the book I Just Know My Name Is Steven , described the situation at a family dinner to which he was invited:

“After [Kay] walked back to the stove after setting the table, Steven remarked to her that she had forgotten one place setting. 'Who?' she said, and Steven pointed over to his brother. 'Oh yes', she said. 'Cary'. "

“After Kay had set the table, she went back to the stove, but Steven noticed that she had forgotten to set a place. 'Who?' she said and Steven pointed to his brother. 'Oh yes,' she said. 'Cary'. "

- Mike Echols : quoted from

Cary gave up the dream of becoming an artist in his early 20s and after his brother became part of the family again, in his early 20s he faced an uncertain future. From then on, Stayner went to Yosemite by himself more and more often to prove Bigfoot's existence . In 1989 he had a nervous breakdown in front of a friend and told her that he felt the need to assassinate the boss of a glass company where he was employed. That same year, his brother Steven died in a motorcycle accident on his way home from work. In December 1990, Cary found his uncle Jesse shot dead in his home. He had lived with this one at the time. Stayner attempted suicide the following year with intentional carbon monoxide poisoning . In 1995 he volunteered for treatment after suffering another mental breakdown. In 1997, he was briefly jailed for illicit possession of marijuana and methamphetamine . The lawsuit was later dropped and he accepted a job as a craftsman at Cedar Lodge in El Portal , California .

Series of murders

In February 1999, his murderous fantasies - which he had successfully suppressed over the years - grew so strong that he prepared special equipment that included a rope, a roll of duct tape, a wavy-cut kitchen knife, a weapon, and a video camera. For a while he observed four young women at his place of work, but left them alone when he discovered that they were being accompanied by a man. Finally, on February 15, he broke into the motel room of 42-year-old Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli and her 16-year-old friend, the Argentine exchange student Silvina Pelosso. He posed as a maintenance technician and was allowed into the room. First he threatened the women with an unloaded pistol, handcuffed and gagged them. He took Carole to the bathroom where he strangled her. He threw her body in his own vehicle before returning to the motel room. He tore the girls' clothes off in order to sexually abuse, coerce and rape them. After nearly seven hours of torture and torture, he was fed up with the lack of cooperation between the two and also strangled Silvina in the bathroom and put her body in the trunk of his car. He then continued the sexual abuse on Juli Sund and took her to Lake Don Pedro in Mariposa County , California , where he cut her throat and threw her out of the car. On February 18, he returned to the rented Pontiac Grand Prix Caroles, put the bodies of her and Silvina Pelosso in it, and drove them to Tuolumne County , over 100 miles from the crime scene, where he buried the car and set it on fire. The remains of the car with the charred bodies of the two women were not found until a month after the murder. The two victims were burned beyond recognition and could only be identified from the dental records. On March 24th, Stayner sent a letter to the FBI with an accompanying hand-drawn map showing the exact location of the corpse on the July Sound. At the beginning of the note was to read:

"We had fun with this one."

"We had fun with this one."

- Extract from Stayner's note to the FBI.

The next day, police officers used the map to find the naked, tied up and disgraced body of July at Lake Don Pedro. The body was hidden behind bushes and an "X" was scrawled nearby. The investigators immediately turned their focus to the Cedar Lodge , where the three victims were last seen, and interrogated all of their employees. Stayner was not seen as a suspect at this point, as he had never appeared before the police and made a calm impression during the conversation.

On July 21, Stayner saw Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, as she was leaving her cabin and loading her vehicle for a trip to San Francisco . Armstrong was a naturalist who also conducted tourist tours in Yosemite. He made up his mind not to kill her, but realized that she was alone and no one around. After speaking to her, he drew a gun and pushed her back into her house. He said to her that he wanted to ambush her. He tied her up and forced her to get into his car. Armstrong jumped head first out of the moving pickup and ran for her life. Stayner overpowered the young woman, dragged her deeper into the woods and raped her. When Armstrong continued to struggle against her attacker, he ultimately cut her throat. He then went to his car and returned to the scene a short time later to behead the body. The body was found the next day.

Arrest and conviction

On July 23, 1999, Stayner was first questioned about the murder of Joie Ruth Armstrong, but was released after a short time. Only the marijuana he had on him was confiscated by the police. That day he missed showing up at work for the first time in a year and a half. Shortly thereafter, witnesses reported to the police who saw a blue International Harvester Scout , built in 1979, outside Armstrong's cabin. Investigators quickly assigned this vehicle to Cary Stayner and made him the prime suspect in this murder case. The next day, FBI agents arrested him at the Laguna del Sol Nudist Resort in Wilton and took him to Sacramento for interrogation . He also confessed to the FBI's three murders in February and, after just a brief chat, offered a deal. This contained the confessions for the four murders in exchange for a pizza and child pornography videos and pictures. He himself said that he had resisted looking at them all his life, but that they probably prevented the series of murders. In the case of the murders of Carole Sund, her daughter Juli and her friend Silvina Pelosso, he stated that he had committed this delusional because he had suffered from violent sexual ideas and could no longer distinguish them from reality. He also lost control of himself during Armstrong's murder, and since he was seven years old, he had had recurring murder fantasies.

At the trial, Stayner pleaded incapacity . His lawyers argued in defense that his family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, and that their client also had these experiences. The psychiatrist Dr. Jose Arturo Silva did diagnose various mental illnesses in him, including a mild form of autism and paraphilia . In the brutal killing with the final beheading of Armstrong, Stayner is said to have developed into Bigfoot, of whom he has been fascinated since childhood. Nevertheless, Silva came to the conclusion that he was sane during the murders and could distinguish between right and wrong. The jury also found him sane and found him guilty of the four murders on August 27, 2002.

He was sentenced to death on December 12, 2002 and has been awaiting execution by lethal injection in San Quentin State Prison since then, although the last execution in California was well over ten years ago ( Clarence Ray Allen in January 2006).

Cinematic processing

The Yosemite killer has been featured in several television series. These were:

  • American Justice (episode 201: The Yosemite Killer , 2002)
  • Mugshots ( Cary Stayner - The Cedar Lodge Killings , 2004)
  • FBI: Criminal Pursuit (Episode 1x06: Trail of Terror , 2011)
  • Born to Kill? (Episode 5x05: Yosemite Park Slayer , 2013)
  • ABC 20/20 (Episode 41x22: Evil in Eden , 2019)

literature

  • Smith, Carlton: Murder at Yosemite , St. Martins Press, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-312974-57-2 .
  • McDougal, Dennis: The Yosemite Murders , Ballantine Books, New York 2000, ISBN 978-0-345438-34-8 .
  • Rosewood, Jack: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers , Wiq Media, 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mike Echols: I Know My First Name Is Steven . Pinnacle Books, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55817-563-1 , pp. 28 .
  2. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 1-2 .
  3. ↑ Mike Echols: I Know My First Name Is Steven . Pinnacle Books, 1991, ISBN 978-1-55817-563-1 , pp. 32 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Martin Chavez, Katie Clark, Toshia Najar, Matt Sers: Cary Stayner. In: Radford University , Department of Psychology. 2005, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 3-4 .
  6. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 12 .
  7. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 11 .
  8. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 13 .
  9. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 4-6 .
  10. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 6 .
  11. ↑ Jack Rosewood: Cary Stayner: The True Story of The Yosemite Park Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers . Wiq Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5168-9308-9 , pp. 15-16 .
  12. ↑ a b Susan Sward, Stacy Finz, Meredith May, Torri Minton: Overshadowed All His Life / Low-key Cary Stayner Took backseat to kidnapped brother. In: San Francisco Chronicle . July 30, 1999, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b c d Stacy Finz, Larry D. Hatfield: Stayner, on tape, describes killing 3 / Court hears graphic details of female tourists' slayings. In: San Francisco Chronicle . June 13, 2001, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b Stacy Finz: The case of a lifetime / For Cary Stayner, there was something about Jeff Rinek that put him at ease - and made him want to talk. In: San Francisco Chronicle . December 15, 2002, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Brian Melley: Details of Yosemite killing given. In: Deseret News . December 13, 2000, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  16. ↑ a b Stacy Finz: The Yosemite Horror. In: Outside Online. November 1, 1999, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  17. ↑ a b Stacy Finz: Stayner told FBI he'd confess to killings if given child porn. In: San Francisco Chronicle . July 24, 2002, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Stacy Finz: Stayner's fixations described / Convicted killer obsessed with Bigfoot, heads. In: San Francisco Chronicle . July 31, 2002, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Stacy Finz: Yosemite killer sentenced to death / Terrible details of Stayner case stun even the judge. In: San Francisco Chronicle . December 13, 2002, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Jeff Jardine, Waiting out the death penalty. (No longer available online.) In: The Modesto Bee. July 26, 2014, archived from the original on August 8, 2018 ; accessed on February 19, 2019 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.modbee.com
personal data
SURNAME Stayner, Cary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stayner, Cary Anthony (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Merced , California