Environment | 5.1. da. He claimed to have raped and killed her at Taylor Mountain, more than 25 miles southeast of . He said he felt like getting in his truck, driving into the office, and killing everyone in there and torching the place. Stayner's boss drove him to a Merced psychiatric center, where he spoke with a therapist. Carole Sund was taken into the bathroom by Stayner and immediately strangled to death and put in the trunk of her rental car. A few months later, in Texas, the alleged killer provided even more details, saying that he and the alleged victim had had lunch together, eating "some fried chicken wrapped in tinfoil" and beer, before he killed her. By last spring the FBI was centering its investigation on two suspects from Modesto, ex-convicts and methamphetamine users who had had violent run-ins with police in the days after the Sunds and Pelosso vanished. "She appeared to have blunt force trauma to the head and was possibly stabbed," the agency said. Lollie Winans & Julie Williams - Shenandoah National Park In May of 1996, 26-year-old Lollie Winans and 24-year-old Julianne Williams set out for a trip to Shenandoah National Park with their golden retriever. Stayner is alleged to have had sexual relations with both of his lodge coworkers during his tenure at the lodge. The Terrifying Story Of The Yosemite Park Killer, were staying at Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, CA. Investigators would eventually turn to a forensic anthropologist, who suggested the deceased was a young woman. He said he felt like he was having a breakdown and said he was all nervous and didn't know why, the colleague later told the San Francisco Chronicle. Where to find the best lodging near Yosemite National Park The Yosemite national park murders Make sure to check out my previous video: https://youtu.be/XF9EgBzJUcc Thanks for watching, I hope to see you next time! However, Stayner is not eligible for parole, and he will never again have the chance to kill an unsuspecting woman. On August 6, two weeks after his arrest, Cary Stayner shuffled into a courtroom at the U.S. District Courthouse in Fresno to answer federal murder charges in the death of Joie Armstrong. Then, view 23 chilling photos taken by the most depraved serial killers. Carole Sund answered, and he told her he was there to repair a leak. Cary Stayners trial has been relocated from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, California. The same week the two bodies were found, an anonymous letter was sent to the FBI with a hand-drawn map. The Kings River is off limits due to swift-moving water as more water has been released upstream from the Pine Flat Reservoir to make way for melting snow, Verboon said. Stayner confessed to the murders and was sentenced to death. In a yearbook photo of the Statesman staff, Stayner is half-obscured in the back row, his skinny frame in a slouch, his head covered by a baseball cap. In March 1999, police discovered the bodies of three females who had been brutally murdered nearthe park. But there was a different mood a few miles away in Foresta. Since Stayner's confession, police departments across the Yosemite region and the Central Valley have reopened several long-dormant murder casesincluding the unsolved 1990 killing of Stayner's uncle. Stayner never went back to his job again. Carol Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso. Where will Californias record melting snow go, and when will it happen? I love Michael with my soul and every last cell in my body. At the Cedar Lodge he maintained a cool facade, even escorting FBI agents from room to room so they could gather fiber samples. At a parking area where the dirt track from her cabin joins the Foresta road, Armstrong managed to open the Scout's passenger door and leap out of the moving vehicle. Required fields are marked *. Wild Crime: Murder in Yosemite - Rotten Tomatoes Her throat had been slashed so fiercely that she was nearly decapitated. Cary, who was 11 when his brother disappeared, would sometimes find his father rummaging through Steven's dresser drawers, weeping. Kay, a Roman Catholic who raised her family as Mormons, became cold and distant, seldom displaying physical affection toward her children. Although it's a mystery as to why Stayner decided to take the lives of four people, he did claim that voices instructed him to do so. Visitors pack Yosemite ahead of closure over snow melt flood watch August 27, 2002 / 10:21 AM / CBS NEWS. Tuckers son, rookie agent Cullen Tucker, played a major role in helping crack the mystery of the victims identity nearly four decades later. Armstrong struggled to get away from Stayner but was ultimately subdued. Cary Stayner was born and raised inMerced, CA, and his family life was rife with tragedy, which he eventually added to himself. Located in Californias Sierra Nevada mountains, it attracts millions of travelers from around the world each year with its towering sequoia trees, cascading waterfalls, and granite cliffs. But in December 1972, the Stayner family's own sense of security was disrupted forever, with results that many believe helped shape the person Stayner became. I got put on the back burner, you might say., By then Stayner, in his early twenties, had abandoned any ambitions he may have had. Turning left off the main Yosemite highway, Kidd steered his Jeep down an unmarked road into Foresta: 30 cabins, inhabited mostly by park employees, scattered across the bottom of a wooded glen. A possible brutal murder in one of the most scenic places in America goes unsolved, a serial killer confesses to more than 100 murders and two generations of detectives try to crack the case. Find it: Evergreen Lodge at Yosemite, 33160 Evergreen Road, Groveland, CA 95321; 209-379-2606. He was eventually apprehended at a nudist colony two hours north of Yosemite. In July, they found a fourth womans decapitated corpse. He showed me his cartoons, Miller says. On El Portal Road, a few miles short of the Cedar Lodge, his vehicle broke down, and he flagged down a ride from a passing Yosemite park ranger. Rangers had cordoned off the area around Armstrong's secluded house with yellow police tape. They were having the time of their lives. They had dinner at the Cedar Lodge restaurant and then strolled back along dimly lit pathways lined with wooden statues of bears and bald eagles to room 509, in the far west wing of the hotel. He was previously a housing and homelessness reporter at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in Sonoma County. Grabbing her from behind, he drew a long knife and cut her throat, continuing to slash until he had decapitated her. That day Steven came home to a hero's welcome and moved back into the tiny bedroom he had shared with Cary. For weeks hundreds of FBI agents, California Highway Patrol officers, and National Park Service rangers combed Yosemite's rugged backcountry with dogs and helicopters. He fled to the Laguna del Sol nudist colony where he lived in hiding. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Stayner, 57, remains in San Quentin Prison. The Chilling Murders Of Three Yosemite Tourists. The series tries to connect Cary's story thematically to the role of media, emphasizing a reporter's claim that Cary's motive for the murders was wanting his own movie of the week. He told Carole and the girls not to panic. The Yosemite Horror - Outside Online Joie Armstrong, who grew up in Orlando, was one of the most popular members of the staff: a bright, energetic young woman who led kids on hikes through Yosemite's backcountry, sharing her knowledge about the park's history and indigenous plants, animals, and insects. The series features exclusive interviews with the victims close friends and detectives, who reveal details about her involvement in an alleged cult. At some point he removed the tape from her mouth. In the gathering darkness, he shoved her into the front seat of his Scout and began to drive back up the road. He gave them his testimony, confessing to killing a young woman in the national park by strangulation. The parks breathtaking scenery, unique geological features, and abundance of wildlife continue to attract visitors from all over the world. Just beyond it lay something else: a woman's body, clad in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Yosemite Lakes, CA Crime Rates & Map - AreaVibes Kenneth Parnell and 14-year-old Steven Stayner shortly before the boys escape. The cab driver, Jenny Paul, was bemused by the haggard-looking man who asked to be driven to the Yosemite Lodge (the former workplace of his younger brother's abductor), a 90 mile, $125 trip. His cartoons are scatter-ed throughout the 1979 high school yearbook: humorous caricatures of his fellow students playing tennis, done with a deft style and a cheerfulness that offers no insight into the mind of a future serial killer. He returned a few days later to set the car on fire. Legal Statement. Venezuela - 36.69 per 100k people. Cary Anthony Stayner was born in Merced, California, an agricultural town of 65,000 people that sprawls across the eastern flank of the San Joaquin Valley and calls itself the Gateway to Yosemite. The motel is where Cary Stayner worked as a handyman and on February 15, 1999, Stayner knocked on Sund's door. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The rest of the investigation would lead them to name the suspected victim and uncover their relationship to an alleged bizarre California cult. Later that day, he called the police when they failed to answer his call. In a setting of beauty and grandeur, a twisted soul was on the loose, a murderer who revived gnawing fears that our national parks are no longer safe. Special Agents with the National Park Service's Investigative. 1. There are quite a few creepy stories involving Yosemite Park, and Stayner's crimes certainly add to that list. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. There is no jail in Yosemite. In addition to the flood warnings, huge swaths of the Lake Tahoe area, as well as Lassen and Plumas to the north and Mono County to south, were under a flood watch, one level below a warning. Facial Reconstruction Attempts to ID Yosemite Homicide Victim - People The teenager was on a trip with her father with a group that had stopped at a camp site that afternoon. April 27, 2023 / 5:56 PM / CBS San Francisco. "It's like, 'This guy has been to the crime scene,'" said former criminal investigator for the National Park Service Don Coelho. A jail is also located in Yosemite National Park, a national park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. That inundated agricultural communities and farmland but returned natural habitat to the flood plain, a boon for native fish and wildlife that have struggled after years of drought. Jack Bungart, the paper's sports editor, once tried to engage him in a conversation about his brother. The two frequented the Merced River together, but when Ronnie would run down to skinny dip with the girls, Cary refused to join him. Steven became a celebrity: There was national newspaper and television coverage, as well as a book and a TV miniseries chronicling Steven's seven years as the sex slave of Kenneth Parnell, a drifter, convicted pedophile, and former employee of the Yosemite Lodge, inside the national park. According to a recent National Park Service report, there are now 29 open cold cases involving people who went missing in national parks. Conditions at The Green House were primitivethey chopped their own firewood for heat and hauled water up from Crane Creekbut Armstrong was content. In four one-hour episodes, the series chronicles the work of investigators Don Coelho and Kim Tucker through the decades. New evidence reveals the confessed killer's tortured pastand his bizarre obsession with Bigfoot. ABC News Studio produces and commissions narrative nonfiction series and specials on topics such as true crime, other investigations, pop culture and news-adjacent stories. The man responsible for the killings was 37-year-old Cary Stayner, a handyman at a motel near Yosemite State Park. The agency enforces regulations prohibiting commercial activities within the park as well as managing the visitor access. Seasons one and two feature the elite detective squad of the National Park Service as they investigate brutal murders committed in America's most majestic wilderness. Most of Yosemite National Park to close Friday over flooding concerns On July 22, 1999, the decapitated corpse of Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong was discovered not far from the cabin where shed been staying. Due to a court ruling on capital punishment, there have been no executions in the state of California since 2006. But this time Stayner's victim was able to attempt an escape. The case would eventually be taken over by National Park Service agent Cullen Tucker, Kim Tucker's son, nearly 40 years later. (Earlier, in what seemed a twisted bid to match his late brother's celebrity, he had told the San Jose TV reporter that he wanted a bidding war for a movie of the week about his crimes.) The victim, who was discovered in Yosemite's Summit Meadow along Glacier Point Road, is believed to be between the ages of 18 and 30. The National Park Service, in addition to managing the visitor centers, campgrounds, and other facilities at national parks, provides public services at other sites. In 1989 Stevenwho friends say never really put his life back together after his ordeal, though he got married and fathered two childrenwas killed in a motorcycle crash. The decapitated body of Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, was discovered in Yosemite National Park on July 22, 1999. Jesus, he said, and ran back to the ranger in charge. They also said hed been sexually assaulted by an uncle as a child, which had contributed to his violent fantasies. or redistributed. Driving along the El Portal Road, past dramatic views of the Merced River flowing through a granite-walled gorge, I found my way to the unmarked road leading into the hamlet. End of text box. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 Yosemite There was a leak in the room above, he explained, and he needed to check whether water was dripping through the ceiling. He was already serving a life sentence for Joie Ruth Armstrongs murder when he was sentenced to death. But with so much water coursing through rivers that flow out toward the Pacific Ocean and feed Tulare Lake, officials have warned that a breach in a levee could cause flooding, regardless of temperatures. Your email address will not be published. The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation are credited with making this possible, according to the report. (California Department of Corrections). The Yosemite Murders by Dennis McDougal - Goodreads Violent crimes in Yosemite Lakes are 18% higher than the national average. "It was pretty obvious it was a human hand," said Tom Day, who stumbled upon the crime scene. He is 5-foot-10 and 155 pounds, with a gray hair and beard and blue eyes. Five months earlier, the disappearance of Yosemite visitors Carole Sund, 42, of Eureka, California; her daughter Juli,15; and Juli's friend Silvina Pelosso, a 16-year-old visiting from Argentina, had touched off one the biggest searches in the history of the Sierra Nevada. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions . Bettmann/Getty ImagesKenneth Parnell and 14-year-old Steven Stayner shortly before the boys escape. Between February and July 1999, Cary Staynerkilled four women near the majestic park in brutal fashion -- highlighting the contrast between him and his deceased younger brother, who was lauded as a hero in life. Their mother, Kay, ran a day-care business and worked at food-service jobs in high-school cafeterias. The wallet with Sunds money and credit cards was discovered in a home in Modesto, California. But shortly after that encounter, FBI investigators compared tire tracks at the crime scene with photographs of Stayner's treadsand got a perfect match. The judge denied the new defense claim that juror misconduct was preventing a fair trial. I know that. The previous day, Cary Stayner had noticed her while walking through the area and decided to kill her. Back in Yosemite, the investigators made crucial breakthroughs with leads from the alleged killer's confession. Cary entered his teen years as an avid and accomplished outdoorsman. The second season of "Wild Crime" on Hulu launches on Oct. 24. I love it here in this house, she wrote to a friend in Florida earlier in the summer. Stayner used a knife to decapitate Armstrong, later discarding her headless corpse in a stream. Lesotho - 43.56 per 100k people. When he realized Armstrong was alone, he pulled a gun and ordered her inside the cabin, where he bound her hands and gagged her with duct tape. Cary's euphoria over his brother's return soon faded. LiveCopter 3 has a view from above of waterfalls leading into Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite on April 28, 2023. Bundy abducted Roberta "Kathy" Parks, 20, from Oregon State University around 11 p.m. He told the FBI that Juli had asked him to carry her because of the cold and indicated that he had lifted her in his arms in the manner of a bridegroom carrying his bride across a threshold. According to a statistician at the University of Florida, the odds of being murdered in a national park in 1995 were about one in 20 millionless than the odds of drowning in one's own bathtub. She previously worked for The Bees sister paper, the Merced Sun-Star, and earned her bachelors degree from Fresno State. Stayner admitted that he had escaped earlier crimes, but he could not resist the urge to kill Armstrong. In an interview with J.P. Miller, a screenwriter who spent a long period with the Stayners doing research for the 1989 NBC miniseries, he vented his frustrations about his brother: His head was all bloated out, Cary told Miller. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Loophole Cary simmered, silently. Honduras - 38.93 per 100k people. Stayner wanted a movie about his story to air once a week, so he spoke with a producer about it. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. He told former coworkers that he was thinking of moving to Santa Cruz to pursue a cartooning career. The trio of tourists had spent a long day admiring El Capitan, Half Dome, and other granite monoliths, ice skating in Curry Village in the Yosemite Valley, and taking snapshots along the Merced River Gorge. Why didn't the FBI ever search for my brother? he muttered. All rights reserved. In the early morning hours of September 13, 1999, three women were brutally murdered in Yosemite National Park. While many people believe that Cary Stayner is alive, he was convicted of the brutal murders of four women near Yosemite National Park in the early 1990s and served only a few years in prison before being released. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In Yosemite, the Merced River was expected to crest its banks early Sunday morning and potentially again on Monday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He abandoned her corpse near a lake. With much of Yosemite Valley closed from Friday night to Wednesday amid flood risk from Sierra snowmelt, the national park is gearing up for an unusual few days with quiet in the valley and . But from February to July 1999, this national park was anything but peaceful. Heres what Raider Nation is saying, Update: 4 killed in mass shooting in Kern County, deputies say. Already, near-overflowing rivers triggered the closure of much of Yosemite National Park on Friday. The man has been identified as Mason Robison, 38, from Montana. Her white pickup truck was still parked in the driveway, packed with luggage for her trip. Aspects of the case begin to fall apart when the alleged killer recants his confession. At 7-years-old, Steven Stayner was kidnapped in 1972 and endured years of sexual assault in captivity. In Canada, homicides represent a fraction of the total number of police-reported violent Criminal Code offences each year. Among the parks largest units is WrangellSt. Later, he wrote an anonymous letter to the FBI, directing them to the place where he had dumped Juli Sund's corpse. At Amistad National Recreation Area, a woman was found floating in a reservoir in about 5 feet of water. Justice Story: Twisted trail of 'Yosemite murders' leads to resort Kidd and four other members of the search party walked the woods along Crane Creek. By his midtwenties, Stayner had settled into a job repairing windows for Merced Glass and Mirror, sharing a house with Jerry Stayner, his father's brother, a truck dispatcher for a hay company. Authorities said he strangledCarole and Pelosso and sexually assaulted and killed Juli. Related Articles Ask Amy: I put a security camera in my room, and what I saw was creepy, The dad whose wife and child were among 5 killed by a neighbor in Texas describes how the massacre unfolded, Ask Amy: My fiancee's family says I'm not invited, and she's going without me, 'Total dominance': Steph Curry breaks NBA Game 7 record, leads Warriors over Kings, Dear Abby: The reason her fiance hid his phone was something she never guessed, Mortgage fees to rise for buyers with high credit scores, fall for those with lower scores, Kurtenbach: Steph Curry built the Warriors dynasty. On March 19, 1999, police found the bodies of Carole and Silvina in the trunk of the burnt vehicle. A series of killings near Yosemite National Park that rocked Central California is nearing its 20th anniversary. Twenty-six-year-old Joie Armstrong worked at Yosemite State Park as a nature guide. The last two murders were reported in Washington, D.C., area park units. Yosemite Lakes is safer than 23% of the cities in the United States. The girls were happy, remembers Carole's father, Francis Carrington, who spoke to them on the telephone that day. You should, he said, because he's real., The Yosemite Institute lies a few miles up the road from the Cedar Lodge: a rustic encampment of wooden cabins and trailers set in a clearing in a pine forest. Then, in 1990, police discovered Jerry Stayner sprawled dead in the bedroom of the house where he lived with Cary, with a shotgun wound to the chest. 91% of visitors were U.S. residents; 89% of those were from California. The victims identity wasnt widely reported, and the series will reveal who she was and what her life was like before her death. Two days later, the handyman was eating lunch at Laguna Del Sol, a clothing optional resort near Sacramento, when the cops took him into custody, drove him to Sacramento, and booked him on suspicion of murder. Officials from the State Office of Emergency Services said they are working with local authorities in the Tulare Lake Basin area to prepare for more flooding in the weeks and months ahead. I Know My First Name Is Steven was a dramatic television movie that aired in 1989. We never really got along well after he came back. According to the March arrest report, Eugene Rufus Dykes, 32, of Modesto, and Larwicks half-brother, was arrested. The Dark History Of Murder And Violence In Yosemite National Park. Stayler stashed the bodies in the trunk of Carol Sund's Pontiac. By his own account, Cary Stayner seems to have been obsessed with the idea that these mountains and forests were the stalking ground of a malevolent Bigfootthat incarnation of our primal fear of the wild, that terrifying yet oddly alluring symbol of the deep woodsbut it's impossible to know if the beast really was on his mind the evening he says he murdered Joie Armstrong, and if a deranged conviction that the mythical Sasquatch lurks in Yosemite truly did possess his imagination the night the Sunds and Pelosso were killed. Whether Stayner was insane at the time of the murders was no longer the issue. The river wasnt forecast to reach much beyond its flood stage of 10 feet, but if it hits 12 feet at the Pohono Bridge, it could flood the main roads in and out of Yosemite Valley. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK -- Hundreds of travelers flocked to Yosemite Thursday before the park shuts down Friday and through the weekend over flood . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, He graduated from Colorado College with a BA degree in history and the University of Southern California with an MS degree in journalism. Stayner claimed he never sexually assaulted any of the women and wanted to keep their deaths as humane as possible.. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. Stayner told investigators that he hadnt initially intended to murder Armstrong, but when he saw her alone outside her cabin, he could no longer resist the temptation to kill again. He later admitted that he would have kept killing until he was caught. He then slit Julis throat and left her body near a creek before returning to burn the car. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Authorities found tire tracks from his truck as well as a red mechanics hat that belonged to him. George Penca, 30, went missing on June 17, 2011 . The 10 Most Deadly National Parks - Outside Online "How could we have missed someone we felt was part of our family?" A month went by before a hiker discovered a vehicle in the mountains, which turned out to be the Grand Prix that Sund had rented. Nearly three decades before Cary Stayner was arrested for abducting and viciously killing four women near Yosemite National Park, his seven-year-old brother Steven was kidnapped and held captive for seven years by Kenneth Parnell, a convicted child molester in California.

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