Kidnapping of Steven Stayner
The kidnapping of Steven Stayner began on December 4, 1972 in Merced , California , when the seven-year-old Steven Stayner was lured into his car by the perpetrator Kenneth Parnell on his way home from school. Stayner then lived in Parnell's captivity for over seven years, where he was passed off as his son. On February 14, 1980, Parnell kidnapped another victim, the five-year-old Timmy White, which led the now 14-year-old Stayner to flee with White on March 1, 1980.
prehistory
Steven Gregory Stayner was born in Merced on April 18, 1965. His parents were Delbert "Del" Stayner and Mary Katherine "Kay" Augustine, who were married in 1960 and were Mormons . Steven had a brother Cary (* 1961) and three sisters Cindy (* 1963), Jody (* 1967) and Cory (* 1968). From 1967 the Stayner family lived on a farm in Snelling in northern Merced County , California, where Del Stayner ran an almond tree plantation . Although all family members enjoyed the country life, Stayner gave up the farm in 1971 for health reasons and the family moved back to Merced to a single family home at 1655 Bette Street, where Steven started school in September 1971 at Charles Wright Elementary School . He has been described as a lively, open, and polite boy who was quick to make new friends.
Kenneth Eugene Parnell was born on September 26, 1931 in Amarillo, Texas . His parents separated in 1937 and his mother Mary moved the children to Bakersfield, California . After moving back to Texas in the early 1940s, they lived permanently in Bakersfield from 1944, where Parnell's mother ran a guesthouse . There he was the victim of sexual abuse by a guest in 1945. After spending the same year in a correctional facility for setting fire to a willow tree, Parnell was arrested shortly thereafter for car theft and served two years in a juvenile offender's facility in Whittier . After his release in 1947, he was soon reoffended and placed in a home in Lancaster . Even in his youth, Parnell showed pedophile tendencies. In 1951 he was arrested for the first time for the sexual abuse of children and sent to a psychiatric institution, where he was classified as a sex offender. He served several years in various prisons and was paroled in the late 1950s. Even afterwards he became a criminal offender many times, including robbery. Parnell was married three times before the kidnapping; all three marriages were divorced after a few years. In May 1972, he started working as an accountant in a hotel in Yosemite National Park .
kidnapping
procedure
Parnell told his colleague Ervin Murphy, who worked as a kitchen assistant at the same hotel, that he wanted to find a battered boy and take care of him. He and Murphy drove to Merced that morning on December 4, 1972, running errands and looking for a victim. First, Parnell stopped at a mall and asked Murphy to distribute religious brochures to passing schoolchildren. Murphy approached two boys who Parnell didn't like. The two then drove to a gas station not far from the elementary school, where Steven was on his way home shortly after 14:00. Murphy handed Steven a brochure and offered that Parnell would take him home. So Steven got into the back seat of the white Buick and was kidnapped from Parnell's quarters in Cathey's Valley.
Parnell held Steven with him and stated in public that the boy was his son "Dennis". They often moved within California.
On February 14, 1980, Parnell kidnapped five-year-old Timmy White in Ukiah, California . Just under two weeks later, on March 1, 1980, when Parnell was away from work, Steven and Timmy managed to escape. They hitchhiked to Ukiah and reported to the police, whereupon they could be returned to their families.
Parnell was charged and convicted - but only for kidnapping, but not for the numerous sexual assaults on Steven and other boys, as some of them were statute-barred or occurred outside the jurisdiction of the investigating law enforcement agency. He was released on parole after five years in prison.
Processing in the media
The 1989 film Steven - Die Entführung (Original title: I know my first name is Steven ) is based on this case.
In 1991 the book I Know My First Name is Steven was published by Mike Echols, ISBN 1-55817-563-6 , which was published in German in 1993 as I know only, my name is Steven ISBN 3-404-13441-9 . Parnell confessed to the author in the course of the creation of the book that he had abused Steven 3000 times over the years. When asked if he had ever regretted it, all he said was that he always hated mopping up all the blood after abusing the initially seven-year-old boy. He stuck to his view that his relationship with "his" boy was "normal" and that he had given him a lot of love.
Aftermath
Steven Stayner managed to start a normal life after a long period of suicidal and mental health problems. He married in 1985 and had two children. But on September 16, 1989, he died in a motorcycle accident.
Timmy White also has children. He named his first son Steven in memory of his fellow prisoner. Timmy White died of an embolism on April 1, 2010, at the age of 35 in Santa Clarita, California .
Kenneth Parnell was arrested again in 2003 when he tried to buy her child from an impoverished woman. In the course of the Californian “ Three Strikes Act ” he was sentenced to life imprisonment for this - in relation to the previously committed crimes - minor. He died on January 21, 2008 at the age of 76 in Vacaville Jail, California .
On August 28, 2010, a statue in memory of him and Timmy White was unveiled in Applegate Park in Merced, the birthplace of Steven Stayner. Among the guests present were Stayner's parents Delbert and Katherine, as well as his daughter Ashley and the mother of the recently deceased Timmy White.
literature
Mike Echols: I only know my name is Steven (= True Crime - The real criminal case . Band 13441 , no. 990 ). 2nd Edition. Bastei Lübbe , Bergisch Gladbach 1994, ISBN 3-404-13441-9 , chap. 14 , p. 317 (English: I Know My First Name Is Steven . New York 1991. Translated by Uwe Anton).
Individual evidence
Mike Echols: I just know, my name is Steven in "True Crime - The true criminal case", Bastei Lübbe , Bergisch Gladbach 1993, ISBN 3-404-13441-9
- ^ Steven Stayner Memorial Dedication. In: mercedsunstar.com. August 30, 2010, accessed September 19, 2016 .