Cary Stayner, born August 13th 1961,is a man who will forever be remembered as a murderer, and a monster. A man who at the age of 38 brutally murdered 3 young women, evaded the police for at least 6 months, and was only caught after killing another woman. Cary Stayner without a doubt had a rough childhood, however his actions aren’t excused by past experiences. considering his younger brother Steven was kidnapped at the age of seven, by a child molestor named Kenneth Parnell in 1972.
Cary was only 11 at the time it without a doubt traumatized him. Steven was held for seven years, efore he escaped and was reunited with his family. Cary states later that he felt neglected while his parents grieved for his brother. Carys brother being kidnapped was the beginning of his psychotic downwards spiral. Not only did he admit to feeling neglected by his parents, but he also admitted later on that along with those feeling he dreamed about killing women.
Cary was not only feeling neglected however, because as his brother became famous with a book and a movie, Cary was sent to his uncle’s house, and while in his care cary was allegedly molested by him at the age of 11. No one can corroborate his story however as his uncle was murdered in 1990. Needless to say that Cary was a pretty messed up child, and in the year 1991 Stayner is reported to have attempted suicide. Stayner was also arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana although that charge was later dropped.
Cary has stated in the few interviews conducted about the murders that he never gave into his urges, even going as far as saying that he never listened to the “voices” before he murdered his first victim. A strategy used in his defence of temporary insanity, but no one really knows if he was elling the truth or if he just wanted a free pass off death row. The story of the murders begins like this, in 1997 Cary Stayner was hired as a handyman at Cedar Lodge motel. The motel was located just outside a highway that led to the entrance of yosemite national park, hence the name the yosemite (park) killer.
Carys boss was one of the first people questioned after the murders, and later told reporters that he was a great worker, and was always the first person to step up for a nasty job, and just an overall great employee to just get work done. Between the months of february and July Cary committed a otal of four murders.. All the victims were women; Two adults, and two teenagers. The women killed were Carol Sund and her 15 year old daughter Julie, and along with them on their trip to yosemite he also killed 16 year old silvina pelosso.
Several months later Cary proceeded to kill a woman by the name of Joie Ruth Armstrong. Although very deeply disturbed, Stayer managed to cover his tracks like he had been killing for years. In the first murder, Cary began by sexually assaulting Carol and silvina, he then slashed their throats before taking julie up to the ake and sexually assaulting her and then slashing her throat too. After committing the murders he waited a day before going back and grabbing carols wallet and burning all the evidence.
Cary being the conniving person he is, dropped the wallet in front of a neighborhood housing many convicted child molestors. Cary then sent an anonymous note to the police stating “we had fun with this one” with a map attached showing where Julie Sunds body was located. After Stayner sent the anonymous letter and map, the police found the wallet in front of the neighborhood and proceeded to arrest several of the onvicted offenders, assuring the citizens of yosemite that they had “their guy” in custody and that they were safe.
Carys plan worked marvelously, and the police fell for everything. He evaded them for 6 months being written off as a harmless employee of the motel, and if he hadn’t killed Joie Armstrong, he probably wouldn’t have been caught. Joie was a naturalist. She was on a nature hike going through yosemite when stayner stumbled upon her, and stayner has stated in interviews that “once he figured out she was alone, he couldn’t resist the urge to kill again. Once he had determined she was alone, he killed her. Stayner decapitated her.
The FBI was astounded to hear that the killer was still out there when they were so sure they had their suspect in custody, and they received massive amounts of criticism and threats from the public for their mistake. When investigating the murder of Joie Armstrong the FBI found an eyewitness who saw what the police would later find out to be stayners car parked outside of the cabin that Joie was staying in. Once the car was traced to him Stayner became the prime suspect, and was arrested at the nudist resort he was taying in.
Stayners vehicle was seized and found to be containing evidence linking him to the murder. During the interrogation Stayner not only confessed to the killing of Joie, he confessed to all four murders, and even to planting the wallet, and sending the anonymous letter with the map that led them to julie sunds body. Stayner claimed after his arrest that he had fantasized about killing women since he was seven years old. Long before his brother was abducted. After Stayners arrest he was charged with four counts of first degree murder, and sent to trial.
Stayner chose to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Stayners lawyers argued that his family had a strong history of sexual abuse and mental illness. They also argued his insanity because of his obsessive compulsive disorder, and the fact that he asked for child pornography in return for his confession. Dr. Jose Arturo Silva testified at his trial saying that he had mild autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, and paraphilia. Nonetheless Stayner was convicted of four counts of first degree murder by by a jury at his trial in 2001. In 2002 stayner was being sentenced.
After being sentenced to the death penalty Cary was moved into San Quentin penitentiary on death row, and as of June 2016 Stayner is still on death row. Even though the gas chamber at SQP has been inactive since 2006, Judicial action called all executions off for the time being over perceived flaws in the process. A more recent ruling by a federal judge has deemed the state’s death penalty unconstitutional because of legal issues raised by the penalties disuse. Stayner may have been sentenced to death but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.
After Stayners trial he wasn’t allowed xtensive interviews, because people did not want him to receive the recognition, and attention he wanted, because perhaps one of the most sickening things Stayner has ever done, is when he was doing a short phone interview with a reporter and said “I want my killing spree to be a “movie of the week”” and promising to split the profits with the families of the victims. There you have it, the life story of Cary stayner. The psychotic, ruthless, and evil monster who felt no remorse for the four people he murdered. A man who I am ashamed to say I share a birthday with.