Cary Stayner

Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers claimed that the Stayner family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, manifesting itself not only in the murders, but also his obsessive-compulsive disorder and his request to be provided with child pornography in return for his confession. Dr. Jose Arturo Silva testified that Stayner had obsessive-compulsive disorder, mild autism, and paraphilia. He was nevertheless found sane and convicted of four counts of first degree murder by a jury on August 27, 2002.

In 2002, during the penalty phase of his trial, Stayner was sentenced to death and thereafter entered housing in the Adjustment Center on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California. Stayner remains on death row as of September 2019 though there have been no executions in California since a 2006 court ruling finding flaws in the administration of capital punishment in the state.

In 1997, Stayner was hired as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, California, just outside the Highway 140 entrance to Yosemite National Park. Between February and July 1999, he murdered two women and two teenagers: 42-year-old Carole Sund, her daughter, 15-year-old Juli Sund, Juli’s friend, 16-year-old Argentine exchange student Silvina Pelosso, and Yosemite Institute employee Joie Ruth Armstrong, a 26-year old naturalist.

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.

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 later claimed that his uncle molested him at the same period as when Steven was kidnapped.

When the decapitated body of Joie Ruth Armstrong was found, eyewitnesses said they saw a blue 1979 International Scout parked outside the cabin where she was staying. Detectives traced this vehicle to Stayner, which led to him becoming the prime suspect in the case. FBI agents John Boles and Jeff Rinek found Stayner staying at the Laguna del Sol nudist resort in Wilton, where he was arrested and taken to Sacramento for questioning. During his interrogation, Stayner shocked the agents when he confessed not only to Armstrong’s decapitation, but to the murders of Pelosso and the Sunds, and the sending of the map for finding Juli Sund's body as well. His vehicle yielded evidence proving his link to Armstrong.

Cary Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California. His younger brother, Steven Stayner, 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. Stayner later said that he felt neglected while his parents grieved over the loss of Steven.

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. The murders occurred in Mariposa County, California, near Yosemite National Park. Stayner was sentenced to death for the four murders, and is still on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California.