How Did Cary Stayner A Serial Killer Carry Out His Heinous Crimes?

The older brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner, Cary Stayner was the killer of three women near Yosemite National Park and also killed a man. He has yet to be sentenced to death. These horrifying cases had sparked one of the largest manhunts in Sierra Nevada history.

The older brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner, Cary Stayner was the killer of three women near Yosemite National Park and also killed a man. He has yet to be sentenced to death. 

These horrifying cases had sparked one of the largest manhunts in Sierra Nevada history.

Past Life of Cary Stayner

On August 13, 1961, Stayner’s life was turned upside down in 1972 when his younger brother Steven, then seven years old, was abducted by Kenneth Parnell. He was only 11 years old at that time.

Not only that, he still remembers how his little brother, Steven, was tormented and kidnapped for seven years while he was only walking home from school in the family’s hometown of Merced, California.

Delbert Stayner, his father, was a serviceman who worked an 18-hour shift six days a week in a cannery during harvest season.

His mother, Kay Stayner, was a day-care provider who had been reared by nuns in a Catholic boarding school and subsequently raised her own Mormon children.

He was a great child and had amazing artistic skills.. When he was studying at Merced High School, his classmates gave him the title of “most creative” student.

When he received a title in the graduating class in 1979, many people assumed he’d become a comic or a graphic artist, but he did not choose any field for himself.

He was a neglected child. His parents, Kay and Delbert Stayner always grieved for their kidnapped son, Steven Stayner and never gave enough attention to their other children.

Cary Stayner did not have any lofty expectations from his life, however he jumped from one mundane job to the next, such as carrying furniture, fixing windows, and installing shower doors.

In 1997, Cary Stayner was employed as a handyman and then started working at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, near Yosemite. 

Cary Stayner and His Atrocious Crimes

His First Crime

It was February 15, 1999, when Cary Stayner was doing his usual job of being a handyman. He was called to a room to repair the exhaust fan in one of the Cedar Lodge motel rooms.

Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli, and Juli’s friend, 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso, were the only ones in the room. 

When Stayner checked into a room, he said that he needed to repair the bathroom exhaust fan. He drew a revolver on the women and tied their hands with duct tape once they were inside.

Carole Sund was strangled to death by Stayner with a long rope, which took approximately five minutes to finish. 

He did subsequently confess in a taped confession, saying, “I didn’t realize how hard it is to strangle a person. It’s not easy.”  

He went back to the room where he r*ped the younger hostages after dumping Carole Sund’s body in the back of her rental car. 

Then, after killing Carole Sund, Silvina Pelosso was then strangled to death in the bathtub by Stayner.

The assailant then turned his attention to Juli Sund. Because he didn’t need her to witness Silvina Pelosso’s body.

So, what he did was he escorted her across the door to use the restroom in the neighboring room. 

Stayner then tied Juli up and went next door to clean up the crime scene, moving Silvina Pelosso’s body beside Carole Sund’s body.

Juli was covered in a pink hotel blanket and taken out to the rented car, which had Juli’s mother and friend’s dead bodies. 

Unknowingly, he went to Lake Don Pedro and parked his rented vehicle, claiming he had no idea where he was heading. 

Ultimately, he later explained that he started liking that girl, who had informed him her name was Sarah, and that he “wish[ed] he could keep her.”

Stayner combed out her hair after sexually abusing her repeatedly, allegedly told her he loved her, and afterwards murdered her. 

He parked the car into the  bush and dumped it, hailing a cab as well as paying using stolen money from Carole Sund’s handbag for the return trip.

Stayner came back after two days, with a gasoline can and burned it down, etching the words “We have Sarah” into the hood.

Following the Offense

The bodies weren’t found for another month. Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso’s bodies were discovered in the burnt-out automobile on March 18.

On the other hand, Juli Sund’s remains were discovered a week later, thanks to a map given anonymously to the Authorities by Stayner. 

Several workers of the Cedar Lodge, such as Cary Stayner, were questioned by authorities. After interrogation, officials released Stayner and did not take into account him as a suspect. 

The bodies were unrecognizable, in fact their dental records were used to identify them. A message with a hand-drawn map revealing the whereabouts of the third victim, Sund’s daughter Juli, was delivered to police. 

“We had fun with this one,” the remark stated at the top of the note. The remains of Juli, whose throat had been brutally slit, were discovered near the spot represented on the map by investigators.

Stayner subsequently stated that he thought he’d managed to get away with the killings but this was not the only case.

Second Crime

After three months of killing those women, Cary Stayner committed a brutal crime again. He killed and beheaded Joie Ruth Armstrong, who was a 26-year-old Yosemite National Park naturalist.

On July 24, FBI investigators arrested Cary Stayner at a nudist resort after eyewitnesses recognized his vehicle and he became the prime suspect of that case.

Stayner admitted to his previous offenses shortly after requesting a “good sized stack” of child p*rnography in compensation for his confessions, which was rejected.

The Trial

Because Armstrong’s murder took place on federal grounds, Stayner was prosecuted in federal court. 

He pled guilty to intended first degree murder, felony first degree murder, abduction causing death, plus attempted aggravated sexual assault resulting in death to escape a possible death sentence. 

Stayner was condemned to life in jail without the possibility of release after expressing sorrow for what he had done.

Final Thoughts

Stayner’s lawyers stated that his family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, which manifested itself not just in the killings, as well as in his obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Cary Stayner has also mild autism, and paraphilia, according to Dr. Jose Arturo Silva.

Stayner was given the death penalty in 2002 and was placed in the Adjustment Center on capital punishment at San Quentin Penitentiary in California. 

As of November 2021, his death sentence has yet to be carried out.

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