While many people believe that Cary Stayner is alive, he was convicted of the brutal murders of four women near Yosemite National Park in the early 1990s and served only a few years in prison before being released. Based on what Cary Stayner told the authorities in his confession, this is what happened next. August 27, 2002 / 10:21 AM / CBS NEWS. Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, an ebullient, strawberry-blond naturalist at the nearby Yosemite Institute and a casual acquaintance of Kidd's, had been planning to spend the weekend visiting friends in Sausalito. In fact, Yosemite is ranked as the third most dangerous national park in the United States, behind only Yellowstone and Glacier. The Cary Stayner murders took place in 1999 and came to be known as the Yosemite Park Murders, a series of killings which took place over a span of four months. Cary Anthony Stayner was born in Merced, California, an agricultural town of 65,000 people that sprawls across the eastern flank of the San Joaquin Valley and calls itself the Gateway to Yosemite. The whole thing was this miraculous `Stevens been found! homecoming. Dear Abby: Am I overreacting to my European daughter-in-law's behavior? I love it here in this house, she wrote to a friend in Florida earlier in the summer. Cary entered his teen years as an avid and accomplished outdoorsman. Michael Larwick and his half-brother Eugene Dykes were both being held in the Modesto County jailLarwick on charges of shooting a Modesto police officer, Dykes for drug possession and parole violations. He dumped the body in the drainage ditch and discarded the severed head 40 feet away. In Canada, homicides represent a fraction of the total number of police-reported violent Criminal Code offences each year. Cary Stayner became known for killing four women around Yosemite National Park in California. Cary Stayners trial has been relocated from Mariposa County to Santa Clara County, California. "We had no idea of the who, what, when, where, why, or how this hand had come to Summit Meadow," said Kim Tucker, former criminal investigator at the National Park Service. In Kings County, residents in low-lying areas near the rising rivers have been placing sandbags on their properties and moving items to higher ground to prepare. On my trip to Yosemite in August, just days after Joie Armstrong's murder and Stayner's arrest, I found the campgrounds, hotels, and gift shops in and around the park filled to capacity. It was around this time that Stayner surprised friends and family members by claiming to have seen Bigfootthe legendary half-man, half-ape of the Pacific Northwest that the Indians of British Columbia had called Sasquatch. Stayner was questioned several times by law enforcement and eventually confessed to the 1999 murders of 42-year-old Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli, their 16-year-old family friend . He told former coworkers that he was thinking of moving to Santa Cruz to pursue a cartooning career. New victim details released. How to Watch Wild Crime Season 2: Murder In Yosemite Online From He talked about Bigfoot all the time, recalls Kathy Amey, Stayner's cousin. He was totally likable. He blames his own brother for becoming a serial killer. That inundated agricultural communities and farmland but returned natural habitat to the flood plain, a boon for native fish and wildlife that have struggled after years of drought. Now, Kidd was told, another young woman had disappeared. In the dead of winter, when snow dusts the granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada and the night temperatures drop below freezing, the Cedar Lodge is often nearly deserted, with most of the staff on hiatus until spring. "How could we have missed someone we felt was part of our family?" ABC News Studio produces and commissions narrative nonfiction series and specials on topics such as true crime, other investigations, pop culture and news-adjacent stories. The Crimes Of Cary Stayner, The Handyman Who Murdered Four Women Near Yosemite National Park, The True Story Of Efraim Diveroli, The 21-Year-Old Arms Dealer Who Inspired 'War Dogs', Couple Dyes Waterfall Blue For Gender Reveal Party And Contaminates A Drought-Stricken Town's Water Supply, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Legal Statement. Stayner was sentenced to death for the four murders and remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California. The distraught parents became consumed by the quest to find him. Descending to the rocky riverbank, one of the rangers, accompanied by a Mariposa County detective, came upon a handsome, solidly built man smoking a joint and sunbathing in the nude. His funeral was held on Thursday in Newhall, where he had worked as a deputy. The murders occurred in Mariposa County, California near Yosemite National Park. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, which encompasses 8,500 mi (13,700 km) of roads and nine rows of trees. The cab driver, Jenny Paul, was bemused by the haggard-looking man who asked to be driven to the Yosemite Lodge (the former workplace of his younger brother's abductor), a 90 mile, $125 trip. In March 1999, police discovered the bodies of three females who had been brutally murdered nearthe park. Strange denied any involvement in the triple murders, but the FBI pressed for his arrest. Published by Statista Research Department , Oct 14, 2022. We have an 11-44, he said, using the police code for a dead body. He admitted to having a sexual appetite for killing women for the last 30 years. Murphy offered to take the boy home, but Kenneth Parnell instead brought him to him. The 1999 murders of four women near Yosemite National Park were already a big story before Cary Stayner confessed in an FBI interview. Stayner would later tell both the FBI and a San Jose TV reporter that he had his first violent fantasy about women when he was seven years old: On a shopping trip with his mother, he envisioned opening fire on the supermarket cashiers, slaughtering them en masse. There will be high flows in waterways for the foreseeable future.. There are quite a few creepy stories involving Yosemite Park, and Stayner's crimes certainly add to that list. The two frequented the Merced River together, but when Ronnie would run down to skinny dip with the girls, Cary refused to join him. A new season of an ABC News Studios docuseries called "Wild Crime," set to begin streaming Monday, follows a nearly 40-year-old murder cold case in Yosemite National Park and how investigators . Established: 1964 Size: 1.5 million acres Visitors: 7.2 million annually Deaths: 254 Set in the Nevada desert, Lake Mead's high temperatures are brutal and the rugged terrain claims an average 25. He could face the death penalty for the Armstrong murder and will almost certainly be charged soon in the Sund-Pelosso case. He rose to infamy while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely confessed to approximately 600 other murders to Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. "I don't know that what we found was proof," said Tucker, "but I felt like we had found the scene that he described.". Cary Stayner, the serial killer of Yosemite Park - Caso Criminal He then slit Julis throat and left her body near a creek before returning to burn the car. Because Armstrong fought againstStayner, making noise in the process,heleft the scene of the crime in a hurryand left several clues behind, including tire tracks from his vehicle as well as his footprints. Stayner, his three sisters, and his younger brother were raised in a little green-shingled house on Bette Street, in a lower-middle-class neighborhood at the edge of town. Then in July, a teacher at the Yosemite Institute, Joie Ruth Armstrong, went missing. They found beer cans, wrapped-up tin foil, a canteen and what seemed like a piece of fabric that could have been from the victim's jacket. But in December 1972, the Stayner family's own sense of security was disrupted forever, with results that many believe helped shape the person Stayner became. The Cary Stayner murders took place in 1999 and came to be known as the Yosemite Park Murders, a series of killings which took place over a span of four months. Here are the 10 countries with the highest homicide rates: El Salvador - 52.02 per 100k people. And she's been decapitated.. A series of killings near Yosemite National Park that rocked Central California is nearing its 20th anniversary. Cary was questioned about the killing, but he had an alibihe said he had been at work when the shooting took placeand was not considered a suspect, says a Merced detective who worked on the case. He calmly identified himself as Cary Stayner and said he was employed as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge. The suspect, Cary Stayner, 37, was arrested in connection with the triple murders in February. He would go hiking and sunbathing in the nudist colony of Laguna Del Sol on days off. LiveCopter 3 has a view from above of waterfalls leading into Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite on April 28, 2023. Stacey Ann Arras was just 14 when she disappeared at Yosemite National Park on July 17, 1981. The case would eventually be taken over by National Park Service agent Cullen Tucker, Kim Tucker's son, nearly 40 years later. In Yosemite, the Merced River was expected to crest its banks early Sunday morning and potentially again on Monday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The mountains were the only place where he could have some freedom to feel like a person and take control of his destiny.. His mother cried softly and rested her head against her husband's chest. or redistributed. Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 Yosemite During questioning, Stayner stunned investigators by offering to confess in exchange for child pornography. Looking for someone to talk to about Armstrong, I parked and walked toward a cluster of homes, where an elderly woman spotted me as I approached; she seemed to tense and then darted inside a cottage and slammed the door behind her. The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders and the two faces of evil Jesus, he said, and ran back to the ranger in charge. Yosemite Valley to close due to flood risk from melting Sierra snowpack The 10 Most Deadly National Parks - Outside Online They also said hed been sexually assaulted by an uncle as a child, which had contributed to his violent fantasies. The Dark History Of Murder And Violence In Yosemite National Park At night we'd all hang out, watch a video in somebody's room. The ranger later recalled that Stayner had been easygoing, affable, and calm. Cary later told reporters that he almost drove his car into the Merced River in excitement. It wasnt the first time the Stayner family name had been in the news, however. At the very least, however, it seemed a mark of the hold that the wilderness had over Stayner's imagination, taking him far from the oppressive atmosphere of Bette Street. Harriette Cole: My friend's mom didn't recognize me at my job, and she was very rude. 2008. Kay, a Roman Catholic who raised her family as Mormons, became cold and distant, seldom displaying physical affection toward her children.