Growing Up

Cary Stayner was born on August 12th, 1961, in Merced, California, a small rural community about 60 miles west of Yosemite National Park. Cary, the oldest of his siblings, had a brother called Steven and three sisters called Cindy, Jody, and Cory. His mother, Kay, was a daycare worker, and his father, Delbert, was a cannery mechanic.

The family would often visit Yosemite National Park, enjoying activities together like camping and fishing. Cary, in particular, loved the outdoors and being in his own company, and as he got older, he would frequently go there to enjoy the solitude the park provided.

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A defining moment for Cary and his entire family was when his baby brother Steven was kidnapped at the age of 7 by a paedophile, Kenneth Parnell. Cary was 11 when Steven disappeared, and he had to deal not only with his own personal trauma but also with the pain of watching his family fall apart. Steven’s disappearance was the first time Cary saw his father cry. 

Cary spent years feeling neglected because so much of his parents’ attention went on finding Steven. Delbert would later testify that his children were neglected after Steven went missing, and he would frequently yell at Cary. Cary’s mother, Kay, on the other hand, was emotionally cold. As a child, Kay had gone to a Catholic boarding school and been physically and emotionally abused, and this affected her ability as an adult to show her children affection. One of Cary’s sisters would later testify that the children would try to keep quiet and not upset their parents.   

Years later, Cary would tell Mike Echols, the author of the book ‘I Know My First Name is Steven’, that every night for the seven years Steven was missing, he would wish on a star that his brother would return home. 

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As Cary got older, he developed into a talented cartoonist, and in the seventh grade, he was put into the Gifted and Talented Education program (GATE). Cary would go on to draw cartoons for his high school’s newspaper, the Statesman, and when he was 18, his classmates voted him the most creative student in his graduating class.

Those around Cary expected him to go on to use his art in his professional career, though none of the jobs he went on to do were related to his artistic skills. Instead, Cary went on to have a series of menial jobs, such as working for a furniture removal company and an aluminium company. Most of his years were spent working as a glass installer for different companies, fixing or installing broken windows.

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Cary struggled with relationships throughout his life. During high school, Cary was described as a quiet loner, and none of his peers recalled him having a date growing up.

In fact, Cary’s relationship with women was far from normal. He claims to have experienced his first violent fantasy towards women at the age of 7 when he looked through the grocery store window and fantasised about capturing and killing the female cashiers. By the time he became a teenager, these thoughts became darker and more sadistic, and he imagined women marching naked and being gang raped. 

When Cary was about 12, he and a group of neighbourhood boys stripped and ran back and forth several times in front of two girls sitting on the back of a flatbed truck near the Stayner home. In later interviews, Cary’s cousin told how Cary would pretend to hypnotise her and his sisters and then try to get the girls to undress. 

At the age of 16, Cary’s sister had a sleepover, and their neighbour, 14-year-old Flores Tatum, stayed over. During the night, Cary crept under the cot she was sleeping on and touched her breast. She told him to go away, which he did, only to come back and stand naked in the doorway, exposing himself to her. 

Years later, Cary, needing a place to stay, moved in with his younger sister, Cory. Cary’s cousin later claimed that Cory found a video camera in the bathroom that Cary hid there so he could film her taking showers. 

In a confession Cary made years later to the FBI, he revealed that when he was 11 – the same year that Steven disappeared – he was sexually molested by a paternal uncle. Most sources name the uncle as Jesse ‘Jerry’ Stayner, although there may be reason to believe that it was actually a different uncle Cary was referring to as his abuser. Cary described how his uncle showed him pictures of child pornography, and Cary became fixated on some of the images he saw.

Cary’s accusation against his uncle adds another layer of complexity to his already difficult relationship with sex, something that only worsened as he struggled with impotence throughout his adult life.

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In 1980, when Cary’s brother Steven returned home and the family was reunited, the local media descended on the Stayner household, and once again, the now 18-year-old Cary felt pushed to the side. He may have spent years wishing on a star for his brother’s return, but now he was filled with jealousy as he watched the outpouring of attention Steven received.

However, Steven was struggling to adapt to his new life back home. He was no longer the 7-year-old boy his family had last seen, but a traumatised teenager who had spent seven years living with a paedophile. As the family rallied around Steven, Cary hated the attention Steven was still getting and the leniency provided to Steven considering the difficulties he had been through. Pushed to the side again, Cary would drive to Yosemite and seek solace in nature, smoke weed, and sunbathe naked. 

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However, tragedy struck again a year later when Jesse Stayner was found murdered. Jesse had returned home from work to find someone in his house at 1321 Brantley Street, Merced. The intruder then confronted Jesse and shot him with his own gun. The intruder then took off with the gun and Jesse’s truck, leaving Jesse bleeding to death. A passing neighbour noticed the open door and found Jesse’s lifeless body crumpled in a bloody heap on the floor. 

On September 16th, 1989, Steven Stayner was killed in a hit-and-run motorcycle crash at the age of 24, leaving the Stayner family devastated.

Cary had been living with his uncle at the time and claimed to have been at work when the shooting took place. He told the police he had seen a drifter lurking around the house before the murder, though the drifter was never found. Cary wasn’t initially considered a suspect, and Jesse’s murder remains unsolved. 

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In 1991, a year after his uncle’s death, the now 30-year-old Cary attempted suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Poor mental health was something Cary had always struggled with, beginning at the age of 3 when he was diagnosed with trichotillomania, a mental disorder characterised by obsessive and compulsive hair-pulling. This condition led to bullying in school, and he usually wore hats because he was teased about the bald spots on his head. 

In 1995, Cary was working at Merced Glass and Mirror when his friend, Michael Marchese, found Cary standing outside their workplace, shaking and incoherent, apparently in the midst of a mental breakdown. He was pounding his fist against a piece of plywood. Cary told Michael that he wanted to get in his truck and drive into the office, killing his boss and everyone in there before torching the place.

Marchese informed their boss, who then drove Cary to a psychiatric centre in Merced. Cary was treated but soon left, refusing to attend group counselling sessions. Cary then returned to the glass company, collected his cheque, and never returned. He informed his colleagues that he was heading over to Santa Cruz, where he planned to go to school to become a cartoonist. But this was a lie. Instead, Cary made his way to El Portal in Mariposa County to live and work near Yosemite National Park, where years of anger, resentment, and sexual frustration would bubble to the surface and unleash the monster he was soon to become.

Yosemite

In the summer of 1997, Cary was hired as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge Motel in El Portal, Mariposa County, just eight miles from Yosemite National Park. The work was seasonal, but he was able to keep his accommodation above the motel restaurant even when he wasn’t working.

On his days off, Cary would drive to a secluded area by the Merced River and walk down a steep bank to a beach of boulders and sand. He would strip off his clothes and light a joint. Cary had fond memories of Yosemite National Park from his childhood. But there was something else that drew Cary to the area. When he was younger, Cary was adamant that he saw Bigfoot. He would tell anyone who would listen to him about his encounter with the creature. For years, Cary would search Yosemite, wanting to relive the experience.

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In the two years that Cary worked at the Cedar Lodge Motel, he presented himself as a friendly and honest employee. He was always ready to lend a hand, and his colleagues regarded him as a positive figure. However, in reality, Cary was exhibiting predatory behaviour. He would try to pick up teenage girls around the lodge, and at night, he would take the high school girls working at Mountain Pizza to a gazebo and get high with them. 

Cary befriended 17-year-old Jen Yates, whose family run the bar and restaurant at the lodge. Cary and Jen would go for long walks in the woods or sit by the river. However, Jen’s mother, Trisha, was disturbed that a man in his thirties was flirting with teenage girls and found his behaviour creepy. Jen thought her mother was overreacting, until one night in the summer of 1997, Cary invited Jen up to his room. Minutes later, she was back in the bar telling her mum he was pulling his hair out and ranting about his bitchy sisters. Trisha told Cary to stay away from her daughter. 

In the summer of 1998, Cary began stalking two preteen girls from Finland who were staying at the lodge. One night, Cary used the motel’s master key to try to enter their room while they were sleeping. He was equipped with a metal pipe and duct tape. Luckily, the key did not work, and the girls’ guardian woke up when she heard Cary fiddling with the lock. She yelled out, and Cary was able to get away. 

Cary began a relationship with a waitress at the lodge. Her daughter, Lenna, was just 10 years old when her mother and Cary began dating, and Lenna remembers the early days fondly. Cary would give her and her sister a new Beanie Baby each time he saw them, and he brought them pictures he’d drawn himself. He also taught the girls how to dive. However, Lenna was horrified to learn years later from the authorities that actually, Cary had planned on raping her and her sister and had tried on three separate occasions to murder Lenna, her sister, and her mother.

The first time Cary tried to carry out his plan, he made his way to Lenna’s mother’s house to fix a problem with her electricity. He intended to rape the girls, murder the family, and then burn the house down, but fortunately, Cary couldn’t find the house. After that night, Cary realised that he hadn’t been fully prepared anyway as he didn’t have a weapon with him, and from that moment, Cary put a murder kit together and began carrying it with him at all times. 

Cary made another attempt to get to the family on February 15th, 1999. He drove to their property to make some repairs, and unlike the first time, he was prepared. However, a male was on the grounds, and his attempt was foiled. Frustrated, he went back to the lodge. He tried to use the pool, but it was dirty, so he obtained the master key from the main office to clean it. Once the job was done, he pretended to drop the key into the drawer before walking around the grounds with it, a frustrated man. 

Cary walked by a room where four young girls were staying. When he had noticed them the previous day, they had been with a man, and he was unsure whether they were now alone in their room, so he backed off. 

That night, Lenna, her family, and the four girls had a lucky escape, but three other women who had arrived at the lodge the previous day would not be so fortunate. When Cary passed by the window of 42-year-old Carol Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli Sund, and Juli’s 16-year-old friend, Silvina Pelosso, the monster inside Cary was at boiling point and ready to become unleashed.  

The Yosemite Monster

Carole and Jens Sund lived in Eureka, California, with their four children. They were high school sweethearts who had been married for twenty-one years. Their 15-year-old daughter, Juliana (Juli for short), had been born in 1983. Shortly after giving birth to Juli, the couple adopted Jonah. When Jonah’s birth mother had another child a year later, Carole and Jens adopted his sister, Gina. Finally, they adopted Jimmy.  

Carole came from the wealthy Carrington family, which made millions in Northern California real estate. Carole and Jens were successful realtors, and they also owned several malls across the country. Yet despite Carole’s privilege, she used her wealth to help others. Carole worked as a volunteer, helping couples become foster parents or adopt children. She also joined the board of Court-Appointed Special Advocates to help oversee the treatment of abused and neglected children going through the legal system. She was an advocate for ‘Tony V’, a child locked in a cage by his family in Eureka. The case made headlines around the country. Also, Carole and her mother founded Butler Valley Inc., a non-profit group that runs two homes for people with developmental disabilities. Carole’s older sister lived in one of the homes.

Juli Sund had a caring personality, like her mother. When two cheerleaders from her high school were raped at knifepoint by a 21-year-old unemployed man, she joined an anti-rape campaign to fight issues of rape and violence. 

Juli was described by her friends as happy and full of energy. Juli had taken up cheerleading in school. Not because she was a girly girl, but because she enjoyed the competition. She had plans to become an architect, and her interests included writing, poetry, and playing the piano and violin.

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In February 1999, Juli’s 16-year-old friend, Silvina Pelosso, a foreign exchange student from Argentina, stayed with the Sunds. Silvina’s mother, Raquel, and Juli’s mother, Carole, had met over twenty years previously when they were themselves high school exchange students. Carole had stayed with Raquel for six months on her family’s cattle ranch. The two girls struck up a friendship and exchanged friendship rings. They kept in contact throughout the years, and now their daughters were following in their footsteps. 

The Sunds entertained Silvina for several weeks by taking her around well-known places in America such as the Bay Area and Disneyland, and they were now embarking on another trip. 

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On February 12th, 1999, Carole, Juli, and Silvina left the family home and headed for Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was a special place for Carole and Jens, as that was where they had honeymooned. Jens, however, would not be accompanying Carole and the girls to Yosemite and had planned to meet them at a later date at San Francisco airport. From the airport, Carole and Juli would return home to Eureka, while Jens and Silvina would fly to Phoenix, Arizona, where they would meet up with the other three children who were staying with relatives there. Jens had planned to take his children and Silvina on a trip to the Grand Canyon.

Carole, Juli, and Silvina first flew to San Francisco, where Carole rented a red 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix. The women then stopped in Stockton, where Juli took part in a cheerleading contest at the University of the Pacific. Carole and Juli were impressed with the university and arranged to meet with another mother for a campus tour in a couple of days when they would be passing through the area again on their way back to the airport. 

On the 14th, they made it to Yosemite’s western slope, where they checked in at the Cedar Lodge Motel. As it was Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend, the motel was at full capacity, so they were allocated room 509, which was so far away from the lodge’s main office that during bad weather, you would need to drive from the room to get to the lodge’s amenities. 

On February 15th, Carole and the girls spent an enjoyable day ice skating, hiking, and taking in the wonders of the area. They visited Yosemite Falls and saw the giant sequoia trees in nearby Tuolumne Grove. That evening, at around 6:30 p.m., they stopped by Cedar Lodge’s restaurant for a bite to eat. At around 7:30 p.m., they stopped by the lodge’s service desk and rented a couple of videos to watch in their room.

By this point, most of the visitors that had been at the lodge when the woman first arrived had now checked out. With their room the only one now occupied in their building, Carole and the girls had been left extremely isolated. 

At around 11 p.m., Carole, Juli, and Silvina were settling down for bed. They were enjoying the evening and had taken some final photographs of each other messing about in their room. Carole settled down with a book, and the girls watched Jerry Maguire, the movie they had rented earlier. When there was a knock on the door, Carole was apprehensive, uncertain as to why anyone would be knocking at this time of night.  

Standing outside the door was the motel’s handyman, Cary Stayner. He had noticed the red Pontiac sitting alone in the car park and peered through room 509’s window to see who was inside. When he spotted Carole and the girls, he grew interested when he couldn’t see a male with them, and they appeared to be alone.

Carole opened the window to speak to Cary. She wasn’t about to open her door to a stranger at this time of night. Cary explained that he had a work order to fix the leak in the piping above them, and he wanted to make sure no water was dripping into their room. Carole was understandably hesitant, but Cary was insistent, telling her it was an emergency and putting pressure on her to let him in.

Even though Cary had the master key on him that could open every room in the lodge, he didn’t want to use it and narrow down the suspect list for what he was about to do. So he employed an elaborate ruse by first knocking loudly on other doors around room 509 and entering them long enough as though he was checking for leaks. He hoped that by the time he got to room 509, his story would be convincing enough that Carole would let him in. However, Carole was still wary, but when he told her he would call for the manager, she finally relented and opened the door. 

Cary entered the room with his tools and a backpack. The backpack contained his kill kit consisting of a gun, a rope, a large kitchen knife, and duct tape. He went into the bathroom and pretended to look around for a non-existent leak by climbing on the toilet and pulling down the fan. After a few minutes, he replaced the fan and then went back into the bedroom pointing his 22-calibre pistol at Carole and the girls. He told them he was desperate for money, and that he would be on his way if they complied with his demands. They believed him and allowed themselves to be tied up. He ordered them to lie face down on the beds and tied their arms behind their backs, put gags in their mouths, and duct-taped their mouths shut. He then made Juli and Silvina go into the bathroom and closed the door behind them. 

Cary was now alone with Carole in the bedroom. He tied her hands to her feet with rope, kneeled on her back, and used more rope to begin choking her to death. It took him five minutes to strangle Carole, later telling the FBI he didn’t realise how hard it was to strangle a person. He also confessed to having very little emotion, likening Carole’s strangulation to performing a task. Cary then carried Carole’s body outside and put her in the trunk of her rental car. 

Cary returned to the bathroom and led the terrified girls back to the bedroom. He told them Carole was in the room next door. They had no idea that Cary had murdered her. He then cut off their clothes using a knife, and under gunpoint, coerced them into performing sex acts on each other. However, Silvina was also menstruating which turned Cary off, and when she began crying uncontrollably, he became so frustrated with her that he marched her back into the bathroom, shoved her into the bath, and strangled her with the rope. But Silvina was difficult to strangle too. In fact, Cary thought Silvina was dead, but when he realised she was still clinging to life, he covered her mouth and nose with duct tape and watched her suffocate to death. 

Cary then turned his attention back on Juli, whom he sexually assaulted several times. He forced her to fellate him, but Cary was frustrated as he fought against his impotence. When Juli said that she needed to use the bathroom, Cary did not want her to see Silvina dead in the bath, so he took Juli next door to an empty room where he made her shave her pubic hair and continued to assault her. Cary then left Juli tied up while he returned to room 509 to retrieve Silvina’s body, which he placed in the trunk of the car next to Carole. 

Cary then went about cleaning up the crime scene. He left damp towels on the floor to make it appear as though Carole and the girls had showered and left quickly. He loaded their belongings onto the backseat of the car and left the video they had been watching together with their room keys on the dresser. Afraid he had left some of his hair on the bedsheets, he shaved off his own body hair just in case employees were asked to provide evidence, and there would be nothing to compare with any shed hairs at the scene.  

Cary returned to the room Juli was in, and at about 5 a.m. on February 16th, Cary wrapped a pink motel blanket around Juli’s naked body and tied her in the front passenger seat of Carole’s rental car. She had no idea that her mother and friend were lying dead in the trunk. As Cary drove away from the Cedar Lodge, he had no plan on where to go next, and so just kept on driving. Despite the absolute terror that Juli would have been going through, she remained calm as they chatted in the car. Cary asked her questions about herself, but unbeknownst to him at the time, everything he told her was a lie. Juli kept as much composure, dignity, and privacy as she could and told him her name was Sarah. 

Cary turned off at Lake Don Pedro, over 60 miles away from the motel. Dawn was fast approaching, and Cary carried Juli down a dirt path to a small clearing overlooking the water. He later likened the experience to carrying a new bride over the threshold. He told Juli he wished he could keep her before raping her one last time. In a cruel twist, he told her the gun he used back at the motel hadn’t been loaded, and that they could have escaped right at the start. He then fanned out her hair and told her he loved her before cutting her throat so deeply that he almost severed her head. She made a hand gesture to him, which he interpreted as her asking him to finish her off, but he instead looked away as she died. Cary then posed Juli’s body with her legs spread apart and her arms over her chest before covering her with branches and vegetation. He discarded the knife by throwing it down the hill, and then stood and marvelled at the view of the sun rising over the lake. 

Cary returned to the car and opened the trunk. He cut off Carole’s clothes and removed the duct tape on Carole’s and Silvina’s bodies in case it had his fingerprints on. He then drove north to New Melones Lake, a reservoir on the Stanislaus River. He had planned on driving the car into the lake, but some fishermen were there. So instead, he discarded some items, including clothing, sheets, and duct tape, in a dumpster before driving off again to look for an alternative place to dispose of the car with the bodies. He ended up finding a logging road in the Stanislaus Forest off Highway 108, which he drove down as far as he could go. He wiped the car down, scattered some of the women’s belongings around the car, and scratched ‘We have Sarah’ on the hood with a pocketknife. 

Cary walked to Sierra Village to catch a bus, but when he realised he had not wiped down the trunk of the car, he returned to the logging road, causing him to miss the bus. He finished wiping down the car and then stole $200 from Carole’s wallet, and then caught a cab using the money he had stolen to pay the $125 fare. Rather than being driven back to the Cedar Lodge, he had the cab driver take him to Yosemite Lodge, the same hotel Parnell was working at when he abducted Steven. The cab driver, Jenny Paul, later said that Cary looked tired and pointed out a barn in Foresta where he claimed to have seen Bigfoot in 1982. From Yosemite Lodge, Cary would then catch a bus back to his lodgings at the Cedar Lodge Motel. He needed to get back by 5 p.m., as he was on call that night. 

Two days later, Cary returned to the rental car with a can of gasoline. He retrieved Carole’s credit card insert from her wallet and then lit the car on fire. In order to fool the police into thinking robbery had been the motive, Cary then drove two hours west to Modesto, where he threw the wallet insert out of the window at an intersection.

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Carole and the girls did not turn up for their campus tour at the University of the Pacific, nor did they arrive at the airport to meet Jens as scheduled. Jens’ own flight to San Francisco airport had been delayed due to bad weather, and he was five hours late, so when they were not there, he assumed they’d gone on ahead and initially wasn’t too concerned. But when Jens arrived in Arizona, Silvina was not there, and when he called home to see if Carole and Juli had gotten back safely, there was no answer. However, Jens remained calm, reassuring himself and everyone else that Carole was a strong, resourceful woman, and there must be a logical explanation. He was so calm that he played a round of golf in Phoenix the next day. 

However, as time ticked on with still no word from his wife, Jens feared that Carole and the girls had been in an accident and so contacted highway patrol, but no incidents were reported. Carole had not returned the rental car or informed the rental company that she planned on extending the agreement. Jens contacted the Cedar Lodge, who informed him that Carole and the girls had checked out the previous day. When staff checked room 509, everything appeared normal with no evidence of foul play. Checkout had been done in advance and the keys were left on the room desk as was customary. The videos they had rented were left in the room. Their luggage had been removed, although a few souvenirs had been left behind, but it was just assumed they had decided to leave early.

Finally, Jens contacted the Sheriff’s Department to report Carole, Juli, and Silvina missing.

Sund-Pelosso Investigation

The search for Carole and the girls began on Wednesday 17th February. Local law enforcers and Yosemite Park rangers together with family and volunteers combed the rugged terrain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in and near Yosemite National Park by helicopter, foot, and skis looking for any sign of the women and their red Pontiac Grand Prix.

Initially, investigations were focused on there having been an accident, or that the women maybe wandered off the main hiking paths and got lost in the woodland. However, any hope that Carole and the girls were not the victims of foul play disappeared on Friday 19th when a student discovered the insert from Carole’s wallet on a Modesto street. 

The FBI promptly became involved, and sixty FBI agents led by James Maddock joined the investigation, now headquartered in Modesto. Jens had wasted no time flying to Modesto and was quickly joined by Carole’s parents, Francis and Carole Carrington. Silvina’s mother, Raquel Pelosso, also flew over from Argentina and was soon joined by Silvina’s father, Jose.

The same day that Carole’s wallet was discovered, a call to Wells Fargo Bank was made by a woman claiming to be Carole Sund. The mystery caller requested a duplicate ATM card to be sent to her, but she was unable to provide proof of identity. Two days later, the same person called back wanting to know her bank balance. She provided Carole’s social security number and was given the information.

This incident gave the authorities a reason to suspect a financial motive for the women’s disappearances and began working on the theory they were kidnapped or the victims of a carjacking. However, had Carole been targeted over her wealth, no ransom demand was ever made. 

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On February 22nd, a press conference was held, and the Carringtons offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to Carole and the girls’ return. After a couple of weeks, an extra $50,000 was added to the reward fund just for information leading to the location of the car. With an accident all but ruled out, the women’s disappearances were now being treated as a criminal investigation.

Desperate for answers, the family spent the next couple of weeks raising awareness and appealing to the public for help in locating Carole and the girls. Jens appeared on a variety of TV programs such as Hard Copy, Inside Edition, and America’s Most Wanted, while Carole’s parents appeared on Good Morning, America.

The family also hired a private investigator, who monitored all bank and credit card accounts that belonged to Carole. However, there had been no activity whatsoever since Carole withdrew some cash from an ATM several days before her disappearance. 

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Meanwhile, investigators questioned family members including Francis Carrington, who showed nothing but concern for his daughter and granddaughter and was doing everything possible to get them home. Naturally, Jens had been questioned about Carole’s disappearance. He explained that it had taken him a couple of days to contact the authorities because he was just so confident in his wife’s ability to handle herself, and foul play never crossed his mind. He also took a polygraph test, which he passed. 

Employees from the Cedar Lodge Motel were also questioned, including a handyman who had changed the locks to room 509 on the day of Carole and the girls’ disappearances. He passed a polygraph test and was quickly lowered in the list of suspects.

Cary Stayner was also questioned, and the FBI were stunned when they realised that Cary was the brother of Steven Stayner. The FBI knew how much the Stayner family had suffered, and pretty much dismissed Cary as a suspect straight away. Although Cary had been arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, no charges were ever filed, and the authorities believed he had now cleaned up his act.

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On March 14th, a Vigil of Hope was held outside of the FBI headquarters in Modesto as a display of solidarity for the missing women. Over 1,000 supporters attended, and Carole’s daughter, Gina, read a poem for her mother:

At a time when I need my mother’s touch most, all I see of her are pictures nailed to a post. When it is time for bed, I rock myself to sleep. I try to stay strong because I know that’s what you’d want your baby to be, but, Mommy, I don’t want you to leave me.

However, on March 18th, everybody’s worst fears were confirmed when a local man called Jim Powers stopped on a remote logging road in a wooded area and wandered onto the site of the burned-out Pontiac. The car’s license plate was verified as Carole’s rental vehicle, and the FBI was notified. Jim would go on to receive the $50,000 reward money that the Sunds had added to the reward fund for information leading to the location of the car.

Agents soon arrived at the scene, and when they opened the trunk, they discovered the charred remains of two bodies. Although unrecognizable, it was assumed the remains belonged to two of the missing women. However, investigators had no idea which two, and urgently needed to find the third victim. While the probability was she had met the same terrible fate as the bodies in the trunk, there was also a chance she could be alive somewhere and being held against her will. Another possibility the authorities were forced to consider was that the missing female was partly responsible for the Pontiac’s grizzly contents. The car and bodies were removed from the scene and taken to a crime lab for investigation.

Several personal items had been scattered around the vehicle, including Carole’s bag with a credit card still inside. One crucial item found inside the bag was a camera containing an undeveloped roll of film. Once developed, the photographs provided a timeline of Carole and the girls’ final hours. As there were no photos after the evening of the 15th, it was believed the women were likely killed that night. Also corroborating this theory was an analysis of Carole’s stomach contents which still contained the vegetarian burrito she’d had for dinner at the Cedar Lodge restaurant, making it unlikely that she had eaten breakfast the next day. 

On March 21st, the families of the victims held an informal memorial service at the site where the remains were found. Formal identification had not yet been determined, but the next day, on March 22nd, the sad news was received that dental records identified one of the bodies in the trunk as Carole Sund. It would be another week before DNA results would identify the other body as Silvina Pelosso.

However, detectives were no closer to finding Juli, that is, until March 25th when investigators opened a letter that had been received the day before at the Modesto Police Department. It was postmarked March 16th, but a post office mix-up had stopped it from being delivered earlier. The sender not only identified the other body in the trunk but also provided a detailed hand-drawn map with the exact location of where Juli could be found. The top of the note read, ‘We had fun with this one’.

Investigators went to the map’s location over 30 miles away from where the car had been dumped. There, in a clearing near Lake Pedro in Tuolumne County and more than a month since she had disappeared, they found the badly decomposed body of Juli Sund leaning against a large tree. She was naked, her throat had been cut, her ankles had been duct-taped together, and her arms were folded over her chest.  

Detectives examined the note hoping DNA evidence in the saliva used to lick the envelope would lead to the identity of the killer. However, unbeknown to them at the time, the DNA belonged to someone else. Cary had actually paid a stranger $5 to spit in a cup, telling them that he had to take a paternity test but didn’t want to pay for the child. 

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Back at the lodge, Cary was helping the FBI with the investigation. When pink fibres had been found during an examination of Juli’s body, the motel had actually assigned Cary to assist by opening the doors so that investigators could search the rooms for the pink blanket they believed may have been the source of the fibres. Cary had been nothing but cooperative, and there was no reason for the FBI to suspect him. 

Cary’s colleagues also had no reason to think he was in any way involved. Due to the seasonal nature of Cary’s job, he had not actually been working at the lodge at the time of the murders. He had been laid off in January and then rehired on March 18th but was permitted to live in employee housing during that time. However, so as not to draw attention to himself by leaving, he had stayed at the lodge. At night, he would sometimes sit with the locals or Cedar Lodge employees and listen as they talked about the murders, nodding along in agreement at how terrible the killings were.

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The FBI now had two theories they were working on. Firstly, the location of where the car had been found indicated the crime had to have been committed by someone local. Only somebody familiar with the area would have known locals often burn their garbage and old appliances there, so the smoke and smell of burning was unlikely to attract attention. Secondly, there was speculation over whether one person alone would be able to control three women, leading the FBI to investigate the theory that the crime was committed by multiple perpetrators. Plus, the note found at the scene stating, ‘WE had fun with this one’, as well as the multiple crime scenes across many counties was further evidence in favour of this theory. 

With the FBI now locked into the idea of multiple perpetrators from the local area, it began concentrating its efforts on known criminals from within a 75-square-mile area between Modesto and Sonoma. Many of the suspects were methamphetamine users with a record of violence. Although several of Modesto’s shady characters were questioned, a handful stood out to investigators as either responsible for or having some involvement in Carole and the girls’ murders.

Among these suspects was 38-year-old Billy Joe Strange who worked as a graveyard shift janitor at the Cedar Lodge restaurant and happened to be working the evening that Carole and the girls ate there. Strange had a history of violence and came to the FBI’s attention after the husband of a lodge employee he had been having a relationship with was stabbed with scissors and drowned in a creek. The man’s death had been ruled a suicide. Strange was arrested in March for violating his parole conditions. He didn’t have an alibi for the night Carole and the girls disappeared. A search was made of his home and car, and stains that looked like blood were found in his van, although tests later revealed the stains to be rust. Strange took a polygraph test and became angry with the examiner to the point of almost attacking him over the questioning. The test indicated he wasn’t being truthful. 

Another suspect was 42-year-old Michael Larwick, who had a long criminal record, including convictions for rape, kidnapping, and attempted manslaughter. In 1975, he raped a relative while her children cowered in a nearby car. Larwick came to the authority’s attention the day after the vigil when an officer came across a man cruising about with expired tags in the same spot where Carole’s wallet had been recovered. When Larwick fled the scene, a chase ensued until Larwick hit a van crashing at a convenience store. Fleeing on foot, Larwick fired a few shots, hitting the officer. A 14-hour standoff then ensued until Larwick was finally arrested. He was jailed on March 16th. He denied any role in the murders of Carole, Juli, and Silvina, and his polygraph test results were inconclusive.

Larwick’s half-brother, 32-year-old Eugene Dykes also came under suspicion. He had a long criminal record including rape, kidnapping, weapons, and drug charges. He had been originally arrested on March 5th for a parole violation but came to the FBI’s attention after he resisted arrest and held officers at gunpoint for two hours before surrendering. Dykes originally denied any role in the murders, although failed a polygraph test. He later confessed that he and his half-brother were involved, telling investigators that although he didn’t murder the women, he had given away their personal belongings. At one point, he even signed a statement saying he cut Carole’s throat with a knife and helped dispose of the bodies, something that couldn’t be verified due to how severely burned Carole’s body was. Dykes changed his story several times since his arrest and investigators had difficulty corroborating the inconsistencies in his statements. They did go on to link Dykes and Larwick to the murders though through acrylic fibres analysed at the FBI laboratory in Washington. However, Dykes being the letter writer was ruled out as he was behind bars at the time the map was sent.

The FBI investigated a number of other suspects who they believed were involved in Carole and the girls’ disappearances. These included Strange’s roommate, Darrell Gray Stephens (55), who was jailed on March 14th for failing to register as a sex offender after a previous conviction for rape. Larry Duane Utley (41), an associate of Larwick and Dykes who was arrested in May on an unrelated charge but soon released. Kenneth Stewart (24), a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. Angelia Dale who was subpoenaed because she is a friend of Dykes and Larwick. Maria Ledbetter (24), a methamphetamine addict and former girlfriend of Dykes. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney (32), who was arrested on an unrelated drug charge. Teresa Kay Gray (36), who had a warrant out for her arrest after she failed to appear in Stanislaus County Drug Court in June. And Rachel Lou Campbell (36), who had in her possession Carole Sund’s checking account and automated teller machine numbers. She was charged in April with stealing cheques and credit cards and converting them into cash and merchandise worth $365,000.

By mid-April, those who had been detained were ordered to testify in front of a grand jury in Fresno, California. With many of the gang now turning on each other, James Maddock from the FBI was confident the killer was behind bars, and by the end of June, he issued a statement that the key players had been arrested and were in jail on unrelated charges.

The public breathed a sigh of relief. They could relax knowing they were now safe. The public was so confident in James Maddock’s statement that they no longer even felt the need to report anything suspicious. Jenny Paul, the cab driver who picked up Cary after he murdered Juli had considered informing the FBI about her strange passenger, but when she heard the FBI’s statement that the killer was behind bars, she no longer felt she needed to.

However, the FBI had made a terrible mistake. With the public’s guard down and the authorities going down the wrong path, Cary Stayner was free to murder again.

Joie Ruth Armstrong

Joie Ruth Armstrong was a 26-year-old naturalist working at Yosemite National Park. She was a bubbly and enthusiastic educator working for the Yosemite Institute, a non-profit group running education programs through a partnership with the National Park Service. Joie was passionate about connecting children to nature and teaching them to protect and appreciate the natural world. Joie loved her work and was good at what she did.

Joie rented a green, wood-framed cabin known as ‘The Green House in the Meadow’. It was located in Foresta and was part of an enclave of some 30 cabins for use by Yosemite Park workers. Joie lived in the cabin with her fiancé and another roommate. She knew about the murders of Carole and the girls, but like most people in the area, she was under the impression from the FBI that the killer or killers were in custody, even writing in her diary, ‘The monsters are gone’. And so on July 20th, 1999, when Joie’s boyfriend and roommate went away for the night, she didn’t feel overly concerned about being left alone. Besides, she was going to visit a friend in Sausalito, California, the next day, and so she was only going to be alone for just the one night. 

Early the next morning, Joie was packing up her car for her trip away, unaware of the man watching her. It was Cary Stayner. He approached Joie and told her all about his Bigfoot experience, claiming to have seen the creature by a barn close to Joie’s cabin. Joie was naturally wary of the stranger but listened to him with interest. Cary continued making conversation with Joie, and once she put her guard down enough and he had established she was alone, he pulled out his gun and ordered her inside the cabin. He then bound and gagged her with duct tape. In order to keep her compliant with his demands, Cary used the same trick as he had on Carole and the girls, telling Joie he just wanted money, and he would leave if she did what he said.

But Joie soon realised that Cary had ideas other than robbing her. When Cary forced Joie into his baby-blue 1979 International Scout, he didn’t get far down the road before Joie propelled herself headfirst out of the open window of the moving car. With her hands still tied behind her back, she managed to get to her feet and start running for her life. Cary abandoned the truck in the middle of the road and gave chase, but he quickly caught her and knocked her to the ground. The two struggled, and Cary pulled out a knife and slit Joie’s throat. But Joie was a fighter and continued to fight against Cary, pinning her chin to her chest to block the blade from cutting her neck further. But Cary was too strong, and he slashed Joie’s throat again, this time killing her.

Cary dragged Joie’s lifeless body down to a creek. He then went back to his vehicle and parked it before returning to Joie. He put his foot on Joie’s head and sliced at her neck again until he decapitated her. He covered her headless body with leaves and reeds and threw her head in the creek’s drainage ditch.

Cary drove away, but due to Joie’s incredible fight for survival, a large trail of evidence was left at the scene that Cary was unable to clean up in the same way as he had with Carole and the girls. He didn’t get far though before his old truck broke down. He managed to flag down a park ranger for a lift who later claimed there was nothing unusual about Cary. He certainly didn’t act as though he had just decapitated a young woman.  

Armstrong Investigation

When Joie did not arrive in Sausalito as planned, her friend contacted the police. A park ranger went to the Green House and found the cabin door open and music playing on the stereo. Joie’s truck packed with her belongings was still parked outside, so it seemed strange that Joie was not there. Soon, more rangers arrived and began searching the area. A broken pair of sunglasses and a red mechanic’s hat lay on the floor, and there were tire tracks belonging to another vehicle outside.

Later that day, Joie’s headless body was found partially submerged in a creek close to the cabin. Her pants were undone, and her legs were placed in a sexual position. Her bra had been pushed up over one breast. It would take until the next day to find her head under the water about forty feet away from the body. 

Doug Ramsey, the park ranger who had given Cary a lift after his car broke down, and Jeff Powers, an employee of Yosemite National Park Fire Department both came forward as having spotted Cary’s vehicle in the area of the cabin on the night of Joie’s murder. So on July 22nd, a BOLO was issued, and soon a vehicle matching the description given by the witnesses was spotted parked off Highway 140 near a popular skinny-dipping spot along the Merced River.

Two rangers and a Mariposa detective were sent to investigate and found Cary sunbathing in the nude and smoking marijuana. Cary told the officers he was the handyman at the Cedar Lodge and confirmed he was the owner of the vehicle. He agreed to the truck being searched, but when officers asked if they could look inside his rucksack, he refused. At this point, Joie’s head had not yet been found, and the officers were suspicious that Cary was concealing it, so they seized the bag and waited for a warrant to search its contents.

That evening, the authorities picked Cary up and interrogated him. Cary denied any involvement with Joie’s murder or being in Foresta. He was released but told not to leave El Portal. 

Meanwhile, investigators compared the tyre tracks on Cary’s vehicle to those left at the scene of the crime. They were later confirmed to be an exact match. Cary’s backpack was searched, and it was found to contain a knife, a camera, a beer bottle, a harmonica, and tanning lotion. It also had a copy of the novel Black Lightning by John Saul about a sadistic serial killer who cuts women open while they’re still alive. The most incriminating item though was a packet of sunflower seeds from which a torn piece of the wrapper would later go on to match a torn piece of plastic found in Joie’s cabin. 

With the evidence stacking up against Cary, the authorities went back to talk to him at his apartment the next day, but he was gone. He had sold his possessions to employees at the lodge, telling them he needed the money to fix his truck, although he had actually fled to a nudist resort in Wilton called Laguna del Sol. However, before arriving at the resort, Cary first went looking for Lenna and her sister in what was his third attempt at raping and killing them. Fortunately for them, however, his attempt once again failed as another man was staying at the house.

Cary wasn’t at the Laguna del Sol nudist resort for long before a fellow guest who had seen the news reports about Cary informed the authorities that he was there. On July 24th, agents John Boles, Ken Hittmeier, and Jeff Rinek were assigned to collect Cary from the resort and transport him back to the FBI office in Sacramento. However, at this point in the investigation, the agents were unaware of Cary’s involvement in Joie’s murder, believing Cary to be nothing more than a witness. So when they arrived at the resort and approached Cary as he was eating breakfast, they found it very peculiar when he stood up and put his hands on his head. The FBI agents did not place Cary under arrest, and even during the journey back to the office, Rinek casually chatted to Cary as they drove in his car. Rinek asked Cary to talk about his brother, Steven, and Cary complied, telling Rinek he thought Parnell got off easy.  

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Back at the FBI office, Cary was given a short biographical background interview and then given the choice of either eating pizza next or taking a polygraph. Cary replied that he wanted to skip the polygraph and speak to Rinek alone. Rinek had made Cary feel so at ease in the car that Cary now trusted him, and his life story tumbled out. Cary told Rinek about his thoughts of harming girls. He told Rinek about his erectile dysfunction, his obsessive hair-pulling, and how he had been molested by his uncle when he was 11. But the most surprising confession for Rinek, who still believed Cary had been called to the office as a witness, was when he admitted to killing Juli, as well as having information about the murders of Carole and the girls. However, in exchange for this information, Cary went on to make a disturbing demand. His request was for child pornography, telling the agents, “I can’t go to prison for the rest of my life and be happy without seeing it”.

The FBI knew Cary’s demand would never be met, but they needed Cary to talk. In an effort to buy some time and to get their heads together, agents Boles and Rinek gave Cary pizza. As the three men sat eating lunch together, Cary confirmed his guilt by making a comment that the pizza would be his last one as a free man. However, in order to provide the FBI with any more information, he made further demands. One was that he wanted his parents to receive the $250,000 reward money in exchange for him providing the authorities with the information they needed to detain him. Cary’s other demand was that he be sent to a prison near his parents’ home in Merced.

Both of these demands were out of the FBI’s hands. However, Rinek managed to persuade Cary to keep talking, and Cary went on to provide details about the murders that only the killer would know. He told them about how he made Juli shave her pubic hair. He admitted to sending the letter and map and gave details not yet released by the media. He then provided a full confession and the horrific details of what he had done to Carole and the girls. Cary was arrested and jailed for the night. 

The next day, the FBI drove Cary out to the crime scenes where, in front of a video camera, he walked them through the murders. In Foresta, he retrieved the knife that he’d dumped in the woods after killing Joie. His fingerprints were on the handle. At Don Pedro Lake, Cary showed them where the knife that killed Juli could be found. The FBI later recovered that along with the duct tape used to bind her. Cary also took them to a cliff on the way to the lake and showed them where he had tossed the pink blanket he had wrapped around Juli. There was no doubt the FBI had their man.

James Maddock held a press conference later that day. With the Carringtons by his side, Maddock announced that Cary had been arrested and that the FBI had information linking him to the Sund-Pelosso murders. Maddock also said that the FBI were working on establishing whether Cary worked alone or whether others were involved.

The next day, on July 26th, Cary appeared in federal court in Sacramento and was charged with Joie’s murder. He was detained in Sacramento County Jail. Whilst there, Cary made a jailhouse confession to Ted Rowlands, a reporter from KNTV. In the interview, Cary told Rowlands he was guilty of the murders of all four women. He said that he had dealt with ‘voices in his head’ urging him to do terrible things ever since he was young, and the recent murders were because he was unable to resist any longer. Cary also told Rowlands to contact Hollywood producers because he wanted a movie of the week made about him. Cary wanted a bidding war and for everyone to hear his story. 

Trial of Joie Armstrong

On August 5th, 1999, Cary was indicted for Joie Armstrong’s murder. He pleaded not guilty.

Due to the murder taking place inside Yosemite National Park, the case fell under federal jurisdiction, and on February 11th, 2000, federal prosecutors announced their intention to seek the death penalty against Cary. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved the decision. 

However, the case never went to trial. Instead, in September 2000, Cary changed his plea to guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, and attempted aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death after prosecutors struck a plea bargain sparing him from the death penalty. Joie’s mother, Leslie Armstrong, went along with the deal to avoid the agony of appeals and because the death penalty would not bring her daughter back.

For Joie’s murder, Cary was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Trials of Carole Sund, Juli Sund, & Silvina Pelosso

On October 20th, 1999, Cary was officially charged with the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso. Investigators had waited before charging Cary to ensure he had acted alone and didn’t have accomplices. In addition to the murder charges, Cary was also charged with burglary, robbery, forcible oral copulation, and attempted rape. Cary pleaded not guilty.

On June 13th, 2001, a preliminary hearing was held at the Mariposa County Courthouse. The court listened to Cary’s entire six-hour confession. As the tape played, Cary covered his ears with his hands and wept. Silvina’s father, unable to take listening to the detailed description of how Cary brutalized his daughter, jumped to his feet and lunged at Cary screaming, “Son of a bitch!” Jose Pelosso was quickly restrained by attending officers and escorted out of the court. 

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On January 22nd, 2002, a judge ruled that the trial would be moved from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County. Cary’s defence team had argued that the case was too well known, and the intense pretrial publicity made it impossible to seat an impartial jury in California. Three hundred eligible jurors had been surveyed and it was found that 96 percent of those polled in Sacramento County were familiar with the case.

On May 22nd, 2002, Cary changed his guilty plea to innocent by reason of insanity because he knew the state would go for the death penalty. On July 15th, 2002, almost three years after the murders of Carole, Juli, and Silvina, the first phase of Cary’s trial began in San Jose.

Phase One

During the opening arguments, Cary’s attorney, Marsha Morrissey, informed the court that Cary would be taking the insanity defence. His lawyers claimed that the Stayner family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, manifesting itself in the murders as well as Cary’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

A psychiatric report carried out by the defence showed that even though Kay Stayner had been abused by her father as a child, she allowed him to live in their home with her children. Kay claimed to have kept him away from her daughters. However, according to court testimony, the girls were not safe because their father, Delbert, molested them. 

On July 22nd, the court heard Cary’s taped confession. On July 24th, the court then heard Cary’s demands made to the FBI both for child pornography and for his parents to receive the reward money in exchange for his confession. But because Cary went on to confess without his demands being met, any suggestion made by the defence that the FBI coerced his confession was squashed.

Thus, as the prosecution portrayed Cary as a cold-hearted killer, the issue was not uncertainty as to whether Cary carried out the murders but whether he was insane at the time.

Over the next couple of weeks, the defence tried to bolster the insanity defence with experts testifying to Cary’s brain abnormalities and mental illnesses, and therefore, his lack of culpability. One such witness the defence called was Dr Jose Arturo Silva, a psychiatrist who had spent more than 21 hours interviewing Cary in jail as well as speaking with Cary’s parents and sifting through Cary’s medical history, which included interviews with acquaintances and the FBI. His testimony was described by the Fresno Bee:

In the constellation of mental illness, Cary Stayner alone apparently could fill the sky. His enduring preoccupation with the creature Bigfoot. The prophecies of Nostradamus. The nightmares of disembodied heads, the lack of empathy toward others, the violent fantasies of child rape, the obsessive hair-pulling and more…a stew of disorders such as paedophilia, voyeurism, social dysfunction, violent fantasies, mild autism, and even a family tree laden with sexual abuse and mental illness. 

The closing arguments presented two very different views of Cary. The prosecution portrayed him as a sexual predator and a cold-blooded murderer, whilst the defence argued Cary was a mentally ill victim of child abuse who lost control due to his disabilities. 

On August 26th, 2002, the jury took less than five hours to find Cary guilty of the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso. 

Phase Two

The next phase of the trial required the prosecution to prove that Cary was sane when he committed the murders. If Cary was found sane, jurors would then decide whether he should be sent to death row at San Quentin Prison. An insanity ruling would see him committed to a mental institute or spending life in prison, a sentence he was already serving for the murder of Joie Armstrong. 

The defence called Dr Allison McInnes, assistant professor of psychiatry and human genetics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr McInnes addressed the bad genes that ran through Cary’s family history, including psychosis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse, paedophilia, and mental diseases ranging through four generations down to Cary himself. Dr McInnes believed that Cary was legally insane when he committed the murders of all four women. 

Testifying for the prosecution was Dr Park Dietz, a well-known forensic psychiatrist who has testified in several major cases. Dr Dietz argued that Cary knew what he was doing was wrong. He said that Cary was one of the higher-functioning criminals he had encountered, pointing out that the murders were planned, covered up, and lied about.

On September 16th, 2002, the jury agreed with the prosecution taking less than four hours to determine that Cary was sane at the time of the murders.  

Phase Three

On October 9th, 2002, after six hours of deliberation, the jury rejected the option of life in prison and the defence’s pleas for leniency on the grounds of Cary’s mental health. Instead, the jury recommended Cary should die for what he did to Carole and the girls.

After the verdict, Cary asked for a new trial because none of the jurors were molestation victims. However, the judge ignored Cary’s request, and on December 12th, 2002, Cary was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

At the time of writing, Cary is housed in the Adjustment Center on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California. However, the state of California has not executed a prisoner since 2006. Cary Stayner has spent over 20 years waiting for his execution.

Aftermath

FBI Criticism

The FBI came under a lot of scrutiny for their handling of the case with many believing Joie’s murder could have been prevented. Not only had the FBI been fixated on the wrong group of people, but they falsely reassured the public of their safety, including Joie Armstrong. 

Some of the suspects under suspicion had passed lie detector tests and offered to provide blood samples to support their innocence. One suspect even had conclusive proof he had been working out of state at the time of the killings. Their lawyers accused the FBI of treating their clients like patsies waiting on the sidelines for the FBI to make up their minds. 

Eugene Dykes even said during a prison interview that he gave investigators so many different stories he couldn’t think of anymore. “If only they listened to me from the beginning. I told them I didn’t do it”. 

Did Cary Act Alone?

The Stayner family believed Cary did not act alone and is taking the fall for someone else. Carole Sund’s father and husband also felt the same.  

Cary’s note to the FBI with the location of Juli’s body said ‘we’ on it, which many see as proof that Cary did not act alone. They also link the mess Cary made of Joie’s murder when he was acting alone as evidence that he must have had help when he murdered Carole and the girls.  

Many argue that Cary’s remorseful outbreaks in court prove that he did not display the actions of a psychopathic murderer. When the photo of Juli’s body was shown in court, Cary bowed his head and covered his eyes.  

Cedar Lodge Criticism

In 1999, the families of Cary’s victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Cedar Lodge contending that employees of the lodge were wrong to assign the women to an isolated room and failed to do a proper background check on Cary. Both families sought unspecified sums for punitive and other damages and reimbursement for funeral expenses and legal fees.  

Steven Fabbro, a lawyer for the family of Silvina Pelosso said, “Hotels and motels have an obligation to provide security for their guests from either their employees or strangers.” 

In August 2003, the Sund family accepted a $1 million wrongful death settlement from Cedar Lodge. 

Were There More Victims?

Many question whether Carole, Juli, and Silvina were Cary’s first victims with some taking his confidence in subduing three women as an indication he had done this before. After Cary’s confession, the FBI investigated him for a number of further unsolved murders. The following are some of the victims linked to Cary.

Jesse Stayner

In December 1990, Jesse Stayner, Cary’s paternal uncle was shot to death by an intruder in his home. Cary was living with his uncle at the time and claimed that his uncle molested him when he was 11 years old. Though Cary was a suspect, there was no evidence to link him to the murder. Merced County Assistant Sheriff Henry Strength reopened the case after Cary’s arrest, but it remains unsolved to this day. 

Patricia Hicks Dahlstrom

Patricia Marie “Patty” Hicks Dahlstrom was 28 years old when she disappeared from Washington State. She had last been in contact with her family in September 1982 after relocating to Merced, California. There she joined the San Anda Apostolic Church, a religious group founded by cult leader Donald Gibson. An investigation into the cult revealed that sexual assaults had been carried out under various religious pretences. Gibson was put on trial in September 1981 and found guilty of four sexual offences. Patty had testified against him. She left the cult and was last seen by her roommate taking public transportation to Yosemite National Park. On June 28th, 1983, a severed arm and hand were recovered from Yosemite National Park. By 1988, a skull was discovered near the original scene. In 2021, genetic genealogy identified the remains as belonging to Patty. Cary was known to have been acquainted with Gibson and attended his 1981 trial. Authorities believe Cary may have killed Patty in retaliation for her testimony against Gibson. 

Veronica Martinez

In March 1992, the body of 19-year-old Veronica Martinez, a Sacramento waitress, was found dumped in a steep ravine between Auburn and Placerville. She had been decapitated. Although a man in Veronica’s life was suspected, investigators were unable to link him to the crime.  

Sharalyn Mavonne Murphy

In October 1994, the severed hands of 23-year-old Sharalyn Mavonne Murphy were found near New Melones Reservoir. Her headless torso was found off a mountain road in Calaveras County two months later. Neither her head nor the murderer has ever been found. The FBI investigated similarities between her death and that of Joie Armstrong. 

Denise Smith

In December 1994, the charred body of 34-year-old Denise Smith was discovered in a 50-gallon burn barrel off Jacksonville Road near Don Pedro Reservoir, about two miles away from where Juli Sund was discovered. Denise had been stabbed many times before her body was burned and dumped. 

Michael Madden

Michael Larry “Mike” Madden had planned a camping and fishing trip on August 10, 1996. The 20-year-old arranged to meet friends at Sand Bar Flat Campground in the Stanislaus National Forest near Sonora, California but never turned up. Authorities linked Madden to Cary because he committed his crimes near Yosemite National Park, 75 miles east of Sonora. 

Memorial Funds

The Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation was established to raise awareness of missing persons and to assist families by offering rewards for information to help law enforcement officials locate their missing loved ones. The foundation supported many families for over a decade before being dissolved in 2009 and its assets shifted to the Laci & Conner (Peterson) Search and Rescue Fund. 

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The Joie Armstrong Memorial Fund was created in 1999 to promote Joie’s passion for inspiring children to discover and care about nature and the outdoors. In 2000, the Armstrong Scholars program was started to inspire young women aged 15 to 18 to reach their full potential and connect with nature on a 12-day wilderness backpacking adventure in Yosemite’s High Sierra. Each participant receives a $1,500 scholarship from the Joie Armstrong Memorial Fund to cover the majority of the fees for the program. For more information and to make a donation, visit the Armstrong Scholars program page on the NatureBridge website.

Sources

Books

1. I Know My First Name is Steven. Mike Echols. 1999. Pinnacle Press.
2. The Yosemite Killer: Life of Serial Killer Cary Stayner. Jack Smith. Maplewood Publishing. 
3. In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent’s Relentless Pursuit of the Nation’s Worst Predators. Jeffrey L. Rinek and Marilee Strong.

Court Documents

4. Pelosso v. Lodge. California Court of Appeal. March 16, 2006.

Newspaper Articles

5. The Californian. Jurors to Determine Sanity of Convicted Yosemite Killer. 12 September, 2002. Page 20. Via Newspapers.com.
6. The Press Democrat. Steven Stayner’s Uncle Murdered. 27 December, 1990. Page 16. Via Newspapers.com.

TV / Movies / Videos

7. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 4: Cary Stayner Takes Refuge in Yosemite. ABC News.
8. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 5: Mother, Two Teens’ 1999 Disappearance Near Yosemite Leads to Massive Search.
9. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 6: After Third Yosemite Victim is Found, Suspected Killers Are Apprehended.  
10. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 7: The Yosemite Serial Killer Claims His Fourth Victim. 
11. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 8: FBI Finds Cary Stayner Has Fled to a Nudist Colony. 
12. 20/20 Evil in Eden, Pt 9: Cary Stayner Confesses Killing Innocent Women. 
13. 20/20: Paradise Lost. ABC News. 
14. 20/20 Extra: How Intended Victim of 1999 Yosemite Killer Views the Tragedy Today. ABC News. 
15. ABC News Report: Cary Stayner Confesses to Killing a Woman in Yosemite National Park. ABC News. July 26, 1999. 
16. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story. First episode date: April 21, 2022 (USA). Hulu.

Websites

17. ABC News. Did FBI Blunder in Yosemite Murder Case? June 13, 2001.
18. ABC News. July 26, 1999: Cary Stayner Confesses to Killing a Woman in Yosemite National Park. January 9, 2019.
19. ABC News. Woman Recalls Moment Family Learned They Were Target of 1999 Yosemite Killer: ‘Our Lives Were Flipped Upside-Down’. July 19, 2019.
20. Crime Library. Cary Stayner and the Yosemite Murders.
21. Esquire. A Voice In the Dark. January 29, 2007. 
22. Grunge. The Untold Truth of Serial Killer Cary Stayner. October 10, 2022.
23. Los Angeles Times. Judge Approves Change of Venue for Yosemite Triple Murder Trial. October 30, 2001.
24. Los Angeles Times. Jurors Asked to Look into Mind of a Killer. August 19, 2002.
25. Los Angeles Times. Sister Tells of Stayner’s Troubled Childhood. October 4, 2002.
26. Murderpedia. Cary A. Stayner. 
27. NatureBridge: Yosemite Armstrong Scholars.
28. North Coast Journal. Jens Sund Speaks. July 25, 2002.
29. Outside. The Yosemite Horror. November 1, 1999.
30. Press Democrat. Lawyer: Stayner Killed Trio, but was Insane at Time. July 16. 2002.
31. Seriial Killer Calendar. The Stayner Family Tragedies.
32. SF Gate. Defense to Fight for Stayner’s Life / Lawyers Cite Report Detailing a Life of Being Abused. May 21, 2002.
33. SF Gate. FBI Eyes Other Unsolved Killings. July 29, 1999.
34. SF Gate. FBI Missed Yosemite Cab Clue. July 28, 1999.
35. SF Gate. Jury Recommends Death for 3 Yosemite Murders / Formal Sentencing Scheduled for December. Oct 10, 2002
36. SF Gate. He Dreamed of Killing. July 27, 1999.
37. SF Gate. Life goes on for the Sunds. April 11, 1999.
38. SF Gate. Overshadowed all His Life / Low-key Cary Stayner Took Back Seat to Kidnapped Brother. July 30, 1999.
39. SF Gate. Plea for Tips On Missing Mom, 2 Girls / FBI Calls Kidnap Possible — $250,000 Reward Offered. February 23, 1999.
40. SF Gate. Stayner’s Parents Fear Losing Another Son. October 4, 2002.
41. SF Gate. Stayner Tried Before, Expert Says / 2 Girls From Finland Stalked Earlier, Psychiatrist Says. August 1, 2002.
42. SF Gate. Stunning Details in Stayner’s Confession / In Taped Statement, Handyman Tells of Slaying Yosemite Tourists. June 14, 2001.
43. SF Gate. 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. December 15, 2002.
44. SF Gate. Yosemite Killer Sentenced to Death / Terrible Details of Stayner Case Stun Even the Judge. Dec 13, 2002.
45. Strange Outdoors. The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders and the Two Faces of Evil. November 4, 2020.