He walked naked and and smoked pot, he could find the peace that he so desperately needed. 42-year-old Carole Sund of Eureka, California had been visiting Yosemite with her 15-year-old daughter Juli and Julis 16-year-old friend, Silvina Pelosso, who had been visiting from Argentina. A family had vanished into the dark, unsettled wilderness without a trace and then been violently killed by a wild woodsman. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. Failed to delete flower. based on information from your browser. Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. In late March, a taunting letter and a map were sent to an FBI agent in the Modesto, California, office, giving investigators a big clue into where Juli Sund was. Pleasant Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6753355/joie-ruth-armstrong. I do that when I go home to my wife, and I break down and I start crying and I tell her then.". I felt he was in pain and suffering, and I felt that what he was doing by telling these stories was a good thing for him and it was a good thing of course for the victims families to know," Rinek said. Stayner eventually brought Rinek and Boles to the places he discussed during his confession and the evidence they would be able to find there. Sorry! Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. One of those arrested, and later released, was Cary Stayner, who worked at the Cedar Lodge as the handyman. I was at a girlfriend's house, and I guess it's this girlfriend and her two daughters that were my original intended victims," Stayner told the agents during his interrogation. Timothy Lee White, 5, gets a piggyback ride from 14-year-old Steven Stayner at a news conference in Ukiah, California, in 1980, Kenneth Parnell stops the car and goes to a payphone, he comes back and tells Steven, Your parents, I just spoke to them. Joie Ruth Armstrong had been working for the Yosemite Institute for the past year and had worked on education programs through a partnership with the National Park Service. She nagged them about recycling and using Styrofoam, they said. I never recognized either one of them.". "He asked me if I thought it was just, and I told him absolutely no," said Rinek, who is the author of "In the Name of the Children," a true-crime account of the cases he has investigated during his career with the FBI, including the Cary Stayner case. Thanks for your help! "My wife Lori and I, were at our best when were helping people, and we dont necessarily decide who were going to help and who were not going to help.". In the following months, the FBI announced that they believed the people responsible for the murders were in custody. Armstrong led nature tours in Yosemite National Park. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. Rangers found her body at about 1 p.m. Thursday near the living quarters she shared with a man and a woman at employee housing units just west of the Crane Flat campground. The suspect, Cary Stayner, 37, had been one of the people questioned after the triple killings in February, but, at that time no evidence linked him directly to the crime and he had been released. He originally was questioned and ruled out as a suspect in those killings. You have the other brother who's left at home. Web posted at: 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT). Then he took action. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. It was discovered beyond a campground adjacent to her living quarters in the Foresta community, a group of 30 cabins for use by park workers. Stayner, a motel handyman at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, Calif., was arrested Saturday, July. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Joie Armstrong (6753355)? But, to no avail. "We needed [him] to be very calm and very thoughtful and to just give us an accounting of everything that happened.". ", Steven Stayner and Cary Stayner in the baseball cap in the background. "Joie was phenomenal," she told the Sacramento Bee. Her head wasn't found until later. It was around this time that Carl Stayner first began to talk about Bigfoot. The FBI Laboratory has also found possible bodily fluid stains on a bed sheet taken from her residence. On the drive to the FBI field office, Rinek asked Stayner if he was related to Steven Stayner. Ham, who has known. No one at the institute or at the park service would comment Friday morning. The 38-year-old then proceeded to confess to not only Joie Armstrongs murder, but the murders of Carole, Juli, and Silvina. Stayner, clad in a red jail jumpsuit, bowed his head but showed no emotion as Judge Hastings sentenced him to death three times, once for each murder, after returning to the courtroom. Try again later. You know, hung out with him, played with him.. Armstrong's head was later found near her body. Arrested on an unrelated drug charge, he has been questioned about the Yosemite case. SACRAMENTO - Handyman Cary Anthony Stayner has confessed to murdering Yosemite naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in . "He had a great personality," said Lori Duke, who dated Steven in high school but knew him as Dennis. I guess I was jealous. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did. What were you feeling? Unofficially, Jens Sund offered a $250,000 reward for information that would lead to the return of the missing women. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. One colorful sign decorated with red hearts read "Let Foresta Heal." The FBI task force investigating Yosemite issued a federal warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear in Stanislaus County drug court in June. Angelia Dale, who testified before the federal grand jury. Steven Stayner testifies about his abduction in 1972 by Kenneth Parnell and his seven years in captivity in this 1981 photo. Joie Ruth Armstrong. "Privately, some members of the Sund-Pelosso task force were saying the same things to the media. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Then on March 25, Juli Sunds body was discovered near Lake Pedro in Tuolumme County. Former FBI Agent Jeff Rinek recalls the moments Cary Stayner approached 26-year-old Joie Armstrong at her cabin in an area of Yosemite National Park in 1999. Two days later, they took him into custody while he was eating at a clothing optional resort near Sacramento. Now she knew why they could not say whether the body they found had red hair. At one point, Stayner told the agents that Armstrong was able to fling herself out of Stayner's moving car and ran away until he was able to catch her. A naturalist with the Yosemite Institute, she was last seen alive leaving her office in Yosemite Valley about 5 p.m. Wednesday. . Tell me what you did?' At that point, Rinek said he feared Stayner would refuse to continue to confess. He paid a local kid to ride with him to the town of Ukiah, California and he told to go and find him a boy. Stayner then detailed the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso. The search team split up into five groups, searching nearby and far afield. They said he was cooperative and agreed to talk with them. He befriended a co-worker named Ervin Murphy to assist him in the abduction. Carole Sund, her daughter Juli Sund and friend Silvina Pelosso were missing for a month before their bodies were found. He also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. FBI agents had questioned Stayner after the body was found -- even searching his backpack for her head -- but let him go. At that time, the Bureau stated that, while no one had yet been charged, it felt that those responsible for killing the three women at Yosemite were already behind bars. Although most of the stains were likely to include Armstrong's blood, Stayner was observed to have a laceration on his hand during his interrogation, and therefore may have been cut and bled during the attack. Why did you do that? You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. He usually ate lunch and dinner at the motel restaurant. At a press conference outside the Stayner house, everyone was smiling, but Cary in his baseball cap wasnt smiling at all. Acting on a tip from a caller who was worried about the whereabouts of his friend, Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, park rangers found her decapitated body on the morning of July 22, 1999. Eugene "Rufus" Dykes, 32, also of Modesto and Larwick's half-brother was arrested in March. Rachel Lou Campbell, 36, of Modesto, was charged in April with stealing checks and credit cards, and converting them into cash and merchandise worth $365,000. Hed been living under investigators noses for five months. Cary Stayner became emotional discussing how his brother had been held captive for so long, while his abductor was only sentenced to seven years in prison. Perhaps it allowed him to escape from the mundaneness of his own life. What were you thinking? It proved to be a great place for him to get his head on straight. Her head was later discovered in a stream - a stream she and her friends used to drink . Ham and Skalitzky described Joie Armstrong as an adventurous environmentalist. The beheaded body of a young naturalist Friday touched off a new murder investigation in the second grisly crime in this busy national park in the past five months. Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. He abandoned the group's rental car with the bodies of Carole and Silvina inside, returning two days later to burn the evidence and retrieve the wallet, which he dumped in Modesto to confuse authorities. "Now, we had been going through, not details, but the emotional impact this had on him. While Steven was a freshman at Mendocino High School, some 300 miles to the south, his older brother Cary was an upperclassman at Merced High School. Now, 26-year-old Joie Ruth Armstrong was missing. After a couple of weeks, he upped the sum to $300,000. Armstrong recently climbed to the summit of Mount Shasta and part way up El Capitan in Yosemite. By the end of the car ride, Rinek had developed a connection with Cary Stayner. "Thats when I told him, 'You need to go to a doctor, Cary.'" In the end, Stayner confessed without the promise of child pornography or reward money for his parents. Except for the Bigfoot thing, the likable, handsome man seemed perfectly ordinary. Im so proud of the way Carole and Juli lived, and Im so ashamed of Stayner.. There was a dramatic period of silence after Rinek invited Stayner to continue opening up, Rinek said. A few months later, Yosemite Institute naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong was also found murdered. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. In (the) interview, Stayner said he had fantasized about killing women for the last 30 years and described in detail how he murdered all the women, He had strangled Pelosso and Carole Sund in their rented cabin in the Cedar Lodge motel, then took Juli Sund to a lake, where he killed her early the next morning. Through the media, authorities alerted the public to be on the lookout for Stayner. More than a thousand leads, they confessed, produced nothing. Five months earlier, Kidd had become involved in the search for three missing female tourists who had vanished from their room at the Cedar Lodge, a hotel at Yosemites entrance. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. There was Armstrong's solar-heated shower and the garden that she proudly nourished with water that she carried in heavy buckets from a nearby creek. . Cary and the rest of the family were devastated. That evening, the group grabbed some videos from the lodge's service desk to watch in their room. The phone at Headlands Institute in Marin went unanswered. ). "The only time Steve would kill anything like a fish is because we were gonna eat it. Witnesses reported seeing a blue car parked outside the cabin where the Yosemite Institute naturalist had. He has been questioned about any involvement. By Friday, July 23rd, Stayner, in the meantime, had disappeared from the area, by the time agents came to arrest him. Her body was found 27 feet away from her head in a drainage ditch. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. On March 1, 1980, Steven waited until Parnell was at work and then fled the house with Timothy. Armstrong spent months with her grandmother as she underwent chemotherapy, Ham said. He denied any role in the Yosemite slayings. But he was surprised that did not find his wife at the airport and assumed she had flown ahead, The next day, he tried to contact them again and failed and he called the police. On February 12, 1999, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli 15, and Silvina Pelosso 16, left their home in Eureka, California to go on vacation in the area near Yosemite National Park in the same state in the United States. She had probably been murdered on the evening of Wednesday, July 21. And this time I want to hear, 'Tell me what the victim perceived. Family members linked to this person will appear here. In his capacity, Stayner performed technical and housekeeping duties, everything from fixing electrical and mechanical breakdowns to delivering extra towels and bedding to guests. Caroles charred body was stuffed in the trunk next to Silvinas. Her roommates were away on business, Thompson said. They finally caught up with him at the Laguna Del Sol nudist colony, which he frequently visited. The Yosemite Institute is a nonprofit group that runs education programs through a partnership with the park service. "I ask [people Im interviewing] first to tell me in a narrative outline way, 'What did you do? As winter merged into spring in March of 1999, a cloud of terror was hanging over Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, those three girls had been found brutally murdered a month later, and the memory was still fresh in Dr. Kidds mind. He rented a room above the Cedar Lodge and did odd jobs around the hotel. Timothy White, the kidnap victim, was only 35 when he died. A year later, Uncle Jerry was found dead on the bedroom floor with a shotgun wound in his chest. His attorney said Monday she feared the documents' release will make it tougher for Stayner to get a fair trial. Despite this, he never appeared to behave lewdly nor perversely in public. Even as he awaits his day in court, he seems convinced that there is a malevolent Bigfoot stalking the forests and mountains of Yosemite. 6. On July 22ndher body is found. Things to do in Napa Valley during Bottlerock, plus hotels, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). "[The judge] sentenced Cary to death, and they took him out of the courthouse. In May 2002, Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1999 murder of Pelosso and the Sunds. They had stayed at the motel where Stayner worked. They lived in the farming town of Merced, California, the Gateway to Yosemite. Stayner said to investigators I want you to get a hold of some producers in Los Angeles. Those sources say it is difficult for some investigators to believe Stayner could have gotten the jump on all three women without any help, let alone dispose of their bodies.". Shockingly, Stayner then told Rinek and Boles he had actually planned to kill three other females before he came upon the Sunds and Pelosso. Upon release, the FBI warned him not to leave El Portal. And now so had Joie Armstrong. "He has entrusted in me the gift of his confession, and it is my obligation to show him that Im worthy of it," Rinek said. After several days, the bodies were identified as Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso through dental records. Jeffrey Wayne Keeney, 32, of Modesto. Everyone worried that something terrible had befallen her. Convicted in 1978 for rape and robbery, he was jailed on March 14 for failing to register as a sex offender. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Rinek said his wife Lori has been his rock and feels that without the support of his family he wouldnt have been able to deal with this and the other cases he's investigated. The Stayners put up billboards, passed out leaflets, and even consulted psychics to find him to no avail. Her decapitated body was discovered Thursday near her home in the. He was charged with attempting to purchase a child and attempted child molestation in 2004, that he was sentenced to 25 years to life. Jeff Rinek, a former FBI agent, is the author of "In the Name of the Children," a true-crime account of the cases he has investigated during his career with the FBI, including the Cary Stayner case. They confiscated the marijuana and sent him on his way. It was one of the most gruesome things the doctor had ever seen. However, there were warning signs during his younger years. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. His mother became cold and distant towards her children and the father was openly devastated by the loss of his favorite son. Joie Armstrong and her grandmother had grown extremely close since Leslie Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer in April, said family friend Anita Ham. Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. We have set your language to Try again later. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. It is the same garden that her mother, Leslie Armstrong, asked FBI agents to continue watering when they sealed off the property and searched it for evidence after Joie Armstrong's murder. For months, law enforcement officials were stumped by the deaths of three tourists: Carole Sund, her teenaged daughter Juli, and a family friend, Silvina Pelosso. GREAT NEWS! At the time Juli Sund's body was found, six days after the discovery of the two other victims, the authorities said only that they had been led to the body by a tip. "He took us to all the spots, and he knew exactly where everything was," said Boles. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Nevertheless, he seems to feel some remorse about what he has done and hopes to sell the rights to the story to Hollywood. She is remembered as a young woman who had a tremendous enthusiasm for life and a deep desire to give of herself . Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Cary Anthony Stayner (born August 13, 1961) is an American serial killer and the older brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner.He was convicted of the murders of four women between February and July 1999: Carole Sund, her teenage daughter Juli Sund and their teenage traveling companion Silvina Pelosso, and Yosemite Institute naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong. Movies. He loved his brother. He went on TV, spoke to newspapers, and even had a book and miniseries about his time as a sex slave of drifter and pedophile, Kenneth Parnell, a man who incidentally also used to work at the Yosemite Lodge. Stayner told the agents that he wasn't being violent, just trying to subdue Armstrong and she fought back. Eventually, investigators found Armstrong's body near a stream in the woods about a half mile away from the cabin. But Juli Sund was still missing. The issue of whether his confession was coerced seemed to be resolved when on July 24, the court heard the recorded demands that Stayner made to the FBI agents that he wanted to be satisfied before he would give them his confession. Steven told the police what happened to him and Timothy and he was also able to tell them his real name was Steven, not Dennis. ", Finally, Rinek says hell ask them to write a letter of apology to the victim. "As soon as it got light (Thursday), we were able to begin mounting a search where her residence is," National Park Service spokesman Kendell Thompson said. They had been hosting Silvina, who was a foreign exchange student from Argentina and a friend of Juli's, She was spending three months with the family. Despite the natural beauty of that part of the world, the murders revived a long-dormant fear about our national parks; they were no longer safe. Im just horrified when I think of what happened in that room, what my daughter felt when she realized she was in serious trouble, said Carole Carrington as she asked the judge to sentence Stayner to death. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. She was subpoenaed because she is a friend of Dykes and Larwick. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. She was a vegetarian. Darrell Gray Stephens, 55, Strange's roommate. The agents bought some time and began questioning Stayner about Armstrong. Cary Stayner worked at Cedar Lodge for two years before he killed guests Carole and Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso. There was a problem getting your location. Joies head sat nearby. That same day, Stayner allowed himself to be interviewed by a reporter from KNTV. The judge said there was overwhelming evidence against Stayner and that the devastating emotional toll justified execution. Joie was the fourth woman murdered in the Sierras in five months. Stevens homecoming made him a celebrity. The hire car company confirmed that Carole had never returned the rented Pontiac, nor told them that they were extending their agreement. July 24thCary Stayner is arrested at Laguna Del Sol Nudist Camp. He told Hartman that his parents "didnt change that much," but his brother and sisters, "they changed a lot. Please reset your password. I had a backpack, small green backpack. "The manager comes out and said, 'Yeah, he's inside sitting in a corner booth, and you'll be able to find him because he's the only one wearing clothes,'" Boles told ABC News. "I dont know how to think of it. Thus, his confession has seen police departments all across the region reopen a number of long-dormant murder cases that he may have been involved in. Tragically, Steven Stayner was killed in a 1989 motorcycle accident at the age of 24. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Stayner, from Merced, California, was the older brother of Steven Stayner. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. He also faces trial in the murder of three tourists but has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution team was headed by George Williamson and the defense team was headed by Marcia Morrissey. A week later, the FBI received an anonymous tip that led to Julis corpse. Cedar Lodge, 9966 CA-140, El Portal, CA 95318. Soon enough, Park rangers spotted the vehicle parked near the Merced River Canyon, right outside the entrance to the park. Release Calendar Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Cary later got into a job repairing glass and moved in with his uncle Jerry. '", "In my opinion, Cary Stayner was not a psychopath. The killer had carried her away from the car and cut her throat. "Theres a crude map, and the map shows Route 120. Try again later. By the time Steven was 14, he had been abused and manipulated by Parnell for seven years and Parnell and Steven together realized that Steven was growing up and that he was no longer going to be controlled by Parnell and they would need to find someone else that they could sexually abuse. The death-penalty trial of Cary Stayner was moved from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, CA. The month before, Carole Sund, her teenage daughter Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, a young exchange student from Argentina, had gone missing from their room at the Cedar Lodge just outside of the park. She was reported missing by a friend in Sausalito about 3 a.m. Thursday when she failed to show up there for a planned visit. July 26, 1999 "He was spunky. "And in order to do that, part of doing that is to not be judgmental, not respond when he says things that repulse me, not to show the emotion thats coursing through me. Stayner surprised them by saying said he would give them closure on what happened to Joie Armstrong and "more," but in exchange, he asked to see child pornography. Michael "Mick" Larwick, 42, of Modesto, part of a vagabond group of methamphetamine drug users and friends centered in the Modesto area. Jens couldn't accompany them on this trip because he needed to prepare for an upcoming business trip. Kenneth"Soldier" Stewart, 24, a former cellmate of Dykes who was charged with attempted murder. This also includes the murder of his uncle Jerry. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. I got put on the back burner, you might say," Cary told J.P. Miller, a filmmaker who wrote a screenplay about Steven's abduction. On February 15, the ladies hiked into Yosemite National Park on one of the many trails. They decided to take him in again after learning on Friday that he had failed to show up to work at the Cedar Lodge. During Stayner's interrogation, the agents told Stayner he couldnt view child pornography in exchange for his confession. According to Special Agent Christopher Hopkins , both the FBI's Evidence Response Team and the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office collected items of potential interest from Room 509 at the Cedar Lodge Motel, the room in which Stayner sexually assaulted Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso and murdered both Carole Sund and Silvina.

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