Cary Stayner

Cary Stayner
Born	Cary Anthony Stayner (1961-08-13) August 13, 1961 (age 55) Merced, California
Other names	The Yosemite (Park) Killer
Criminal penalty	Death
Conviction(s)	First degree murder, 4 counts
Killings
Victims	4
Span of killings	February 1999–July 1999
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	1999

Cary Anthony Stayner (born August 13, 1961) is an American serial killer. Stayner's early family life was marked by the abduction of his younger brother, Steven, a kidnapping victim of convicted child molester, Kenneth Parnell.

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. The murders occurred in Mariposa County, California, near Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner was sentenced to death for the four murders, and remains, as of March 2017, awaiting execution on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California.

Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California. His younger brother, Steven, was kidnapped by child molester Kenneth Parnell in 1972, when Cary was 11, and held captive for more than seven years before escaping and being reunited with his family. Cary Stayner would later say that he felt neglected while his parents grieved over the loss of Steven.

When Steven escaped from Parnell and returned home in 1980, he received massive media attention; a true crime book and TV movie, both titled I Know My First Name is Steven, were made about the ordeal. Steven died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. The following year, Stayner's uncle Jesse, with whom he was living at the time, was murdered. Stayner would also later claim that his uncle molested him when he was 11.

Stayner is reported to have attempted suicide in 1991, and was arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, although these charges were eventually dropped.

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