He married Kay about three years later, and the couple went on to have three daughters and two sons. But things changed when the kidnapper brought in another child to live with them when Stayner was 14. Stayner once told press that he vigilantly watched his kids, and they werent even allowed out on the porch unless they were in sight of him or their mom. Hang out with friends or skateboard," Purdy told ABC News. Steven Stayner was just 7 years old when he was kidnapped in California in 1972 (via theLos Angeles Times). "Steven was a national hero. Kidnapping On the afternoon of December 4, 1972, on his way home from school, Stayner was approached by a man named Ervin Edward Murphy, who had met convicted child rapist Kenneth Parnell while working at a resort in Yosemite National Park. (Parnell's cabin was, unbeknownst to Stayner, located only several hundred feet from his maternal grandfather's residence.) Hulus Captive Audience tells the tragic story of two Stayner brothers: Steven, who was kidnapped by a pedophile as a child, and Cary, who later became a serial killer. Refocus, and listen as we honor the memory of Steven Stayner, a boy kidnapped in his youth, only to tragically die shortly after escaping captivity. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. In February 1999, Carole Sund, 42, was on vacation with her daughter Juli, 15, and Silvina Pelosso, a 16-year-old Argentinian exchange student. The driver of the car, an employee of the nearby tomato-packing company, fled the scene and was later found in Tijuana. Although Stayner told the younger boy to go inside by himself and tell the officers he had been kidnapped, White refused to leave Stayner's side. Prosecutor Tim Wellman had largely argued his case before the jury by showing a slideshow of Stayner marked "1", then of White marked "2", and a blank screen marked "3" to show the nonexistent child that would have been abducted had police not been notified. He wanted the world to take note. Timmy White, 5, sits on the lap of Steven Stayner, 14, during a news conference Photo credit: Getty Images - Getty Then, Del served in the US Army for four years until 1957 as a Staff Sergeant. He literally said, I was not going to let that child go through what I had already been through. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family. Director Jessica Dimmock also brought in Corin Nemec and Todd Andrews, who portrayed Stayner and his brother Cary respectively in TV mini-series I Know My First Name Is Steven, to read interview transcripts. molesting an 8-year-old boy in Bakersfield, California in 1952 when he kidnapped Stayner. Hours after Steven Stayner reported Parnell's crimes, . As reported by ABC News, Lori Duke, who went to school with Stayner, but knew him as Dennis Parnell, said, "He had a great personality. Parnell was arrested that day,[14] subsequently telling authorities "I wanted a family". Watch "20/20's" full story, "The Black Sheep," TONIGHT at 9 p.m. When Stayner failed to return home from school, his parents contacted authorities immediately. "Steven Stayner had a new father figure, and it was Kenneth Parnell -- who by day, was his father, and by night, was his rapist," Rowlands said. But Stayner had issues with readjusting to family life, with a tumultuous teenagehood. During the penalty phase, Del admitted to having neglected his children after Steven went missing and said regarding Cary, I didnt socialize with him. Tragically, Steven Stayner was killed in a 1989 motorcycle accident at age 24. . Accident or not, someone lost their life. On September 16, 1989, Stayner was riding his motorcycle on his way home from his job, when he collided with a driver coming out of a nearby migrant labor camp. Our days would be-- just get on our bikes in the morning and go to the park. Stayner died in 1989 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.[12]. Steven's parents were devastated by their son's disappearance and the lack of witnesses or any evidence in the case. He was a child who was being abused. Mr. White was 5 years old when he was kidnapped in 1980 by Kenneth Parnell, a convicted child molester. He was in the background always.". According to Diane Stevens' testimony, Parnell requested that the child have a "clean" rectum, indicating sexual intentions. Steven Stayner died due to head injuries caused by a motorcycle accident In late 1989, Steven was riding his new Kawasaki motorcycle home from his job as a pizza delivery man when a car pulled out of the driveway just ahead of him. Parnell, a former motel clerk, had already been convicted for molesting an 8-year-old boy in Bakersfield, California in 1952 when he kidnapped Stayner, SF Gate reported in 2008. Cary was very upset, he said. Unfortunately, Kenneth was paroled after five, less time than he had Steven in his "custody." As reported by The Famous People, Parnell eventually convinced Stayner that his parents relinquished their rights and that he was granted full legal custody. And he was 38 when he brutally tortured and murdered 4 females in Yosemite National Parka dream he wanted to fulfill since the age of 7. "Cary, as the older brother, had a very strange relationship now with his younger brother, Steven, who was getting all of this attention and who was a different person," Rowlands said. After her friends reported her missing, police found signs of a struggle at her cabin and half a mile away, they found her body. A year later, he was sentenced to life, which was, at the time, the harshest sentence handed down under the the "three strikes" law. The now 14-year-old Steven decided to escape with White on 2 March 1980 after witnessing the childs suffering. If youre wondering what happened to him since then, heres what we know. When Stayner was 14, Parnell kidnaped another boy, 5-year-old Timmy White. By that time, Cary Stayner was already having grotesque fantasies, the agent wrote. He sustained fatal head injuries after his motorcycle struck a car that suddenly pulled out in front of him as he drove home from his Pizza Hut shift, according to People. As reported by The Famous People, both boys were reunited with their parents on May 2, 1980. ", The Tragedy Of Steven Stayner's 1989 Death Explained. However, he only served five years of his sentence. Steven Stayner captured the heart of a nation when he helped another child escape from a pedophile, after enduring years of abuse and not wanting to see the child experience the same fate. ET on ABC, Cary looked out for Steven, according to Cary Stayner's former classmate Jack Bungart. Telling police, "I know my first name is Steven" became the most iconic moment in Stevens remarkable story later becoming the title of the book and a television movie. Starcasm Staff July 2, 2021 20/20, True Crime. As he never had any rules, he rebelled when his parents forbade him from drinking alcohol and smoking. Steven and Timmy. He'd bought a brand new white and blue Kawasaki EX-500 motorcycle with money from a miniseries based on his childhood kidnapping, called "I Know My First Name Is Steven." When Stayner was 14, he ran away with another kidnapped boy, Timmy White, and went to the police, ABC News reported. Steven Stayner was the middle child of five siblings living with their parents in Merced, CA. But tragedy would strike Stayner one last time. "When Steven came home, Cary was kind of put on the back shelf. The Merced Police Department launched an extensive investigation and search effort. On the afternoon of December 4, 1972, Steven was walking home from school in Merced, a city in California, when a man handing out religious pamphlets approached him. He loved his brother. According to SFGate, his friends and coworkers described him as being impulsive and prone to seemingly abrupt and violent fits of rage. Date Of Death: September 16, 1989 Cause Of Death: N/A Ethnicity: White Nationality: American Steven Stayner was born on the 18th of April, 1965. In fact, the wrong men were custody. However, the jury decided otherwise. He reunited with his family and later attended college. He had been under hospice care for some time. The boys alerted the police and were finally united with their families. [8] Parnell denied in that same interview having been sexually abused himself, although Mike Echols' book I Know My First Name Is Steven states that he was indeed molested at the age of 13 by a boarder in a rooming house that his mother owned in Bakersfield. On December 4, 1972, Parnell abducted seven-year-old Merced resident Steven Stayner with the help of Edward Ervin Murphy, a co-worker at the Yosemite Lodge, where Parnell worked as a night auditor. Steven Stayner was born on April 18, 1965 and died on September 16, 1989. "He literally said, 'I was not going to let that child go through what I had already been through. However, his sexual abuse of the boy never stopped. This poor family! For seven years, as the two moved around Mendocino and Sonoma counties, Stayner was known as Dennis Parnell. Parnell was convicted on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. At the time, Stayner had been missing for more than seven years. Steven Stayner's grave./Steven Stayner. At that point Stayner decided to save White from the abuse he had endured and the two escaped. Meanwhile, his captors had renamed Steven as Dennis Parnell and he was enrolled in schools as Parnells son during seven years of abduction and sexual abuse, as reported by the LA Times. Stayner and Parnell pretended to be a son and father (via the Lodi News-Sentinel). Stayners captor, Kenneth Parnell, convinced co-worker Ervin Murphy to lure seven-year-old Steven into their van on 4 December 1972, telling the boy: Your parents, I just spoke to them. Cary Stayner is led into a van by a U.S. I guess seven years changed him, too. He was seven when he was abducted. He was convicted of kidnapping 7-year-old Steven Stayner as the boy walked . He sexually abused Stayner repeatedly until Stayner fled in 1980 when he was 14. I want a movie-of-the-week made about my story,'" Rowlands said. I returned almost a grown man and yet my parents saw me at first as their 7-year-old, he told Newsweek in 1984. A third brother, Cary Stayner, is seen in a ball cap in the background between his brothers Steven and Delbert. There was out and out fury over the sentence," Flynn said. "I wa. He should have at least gotten involuntary manslaughter. Stayner told another psychiatrist, Park Dietz, who was hired by the prosecution to evaluate whether he was sane at the time he committed the Yosemite murders, that as a child he worried that the obsessive thoughts he had about holding the neighbor girl against her will somehow caused Steven to be kidnapped. ***WARNING: Captive Audience spoilers ahead***. Stayner championed the cause of missing children until his untimely death at the age of 24 in 1989. Stayner was terribly concerned about White's welfare and immediately began planning to get the 5-year-old away from Parnell and return him home to his parents. He was not wearing a helmet because someone had stolen it from him two months prior (via the Los Angeles Times ). Cary Stayner. Prior to his kidnapping of Stayner, The Famous People reports Parnell had at least two criminal convictions, including armed robbery and the sexual abuse of a young boy. His life with Parnell lacked discipline he'd even been allowed to drink and smoke. Witnesses later recognized the alleged driver of the automobile. And if I didnt take care of it now, it would just get worse, Lori Duke, Stayners high school girlfriend, told ABC News. [3] Parnell was raised mostly without his father, who abandoned the family when Parnell was six. After several weeks, the bodies of all three women were discovered. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! I suspect this death is what caused Cary to snap, too, so theres more lives ruined because of the hit and run driver. From 2010 to 2014, the number of accident-related . In 1981, he was. As reported by The Famous People, the man, who was later identified as Ervin Edward Murphy, said he was a representative of a local church and was seeking donations for his parish. In 1972, at the age of 7, Stayner was kidnaped while walking home from school. The officers soon realized that both of the boys had actually been kidnapped, and the one identifying himself as Dennis Parnell was actually Steven Stayner. Kenneth Eugene Parnell was born in Amarillo, Texas[1][2] to Cecil Frederick and Mary Olive (ne Pollard) Parnell, during the region's dust bowl era during the Great Depression. There, they pretended to be ministers and lured the 7-year-old Stayner into the van by telling him, Your parents no longer want you.. Steven Stayner led a short and tragic life. Jeff Rinek, at the time an FBI agent handling Cary Stayners case, said the search for the women was the "largest ever mounted in Yosemite at any time." Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Storypremiered on Thursday (21 April) and features interviews with Stayners mother and, as he survived the terrible ordeal, his son and daughter. For two weeks, Steven watched Timothy suffer the separation from his family. Del died at his home in Winton, California, on April 9, 2013. Im not sure there is any direct cause and effect," Flynn said. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. However, Crime Investigation reports Stayner sabotaged Parnell's efforts, as he did not want another boy to suffer through the abuse he had endured. I dont know sometimes if I should have come home. Delbert Stayner passed away in 2013. When he was 24, he died in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident. . Cos Ive not until about an hour ago and its definitely one for the books. The driver was later caught (per LA Times). 2007. . Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! However, as they were walking toward Stayner's home, they were approached by another man, who was driving a white Buick. Del died at his home in Winton, California, on April 9, 2013. Stayner, who was held captive by Parnell for seven years, died in a 1989 motorcycle crash.
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