00:00:06
-On March 2, 1980, 7 years
after he had been kidnapped
00:00:11
by a pedophile,
00:00:13
14-year-old
Steven Stayner returned home
00:00:16
to his family
in Merced, California.
00:00:19
-Cary later had said that
"There was clearly
00:00:21
a number-one son in the house.
00:00:22
I was pushed aside,
and I was left,
00:00:24
you know, to fend for myself."
00:00:27
-Tormented by his brother's
ordeal and twisted by the abuse
00:00:32
he claimed to have
suffered as a child,
00:00:35
Cary Stayner
became a serial killer.
00:00:39
-When he's 7, he starts
to have these fantasies
00:00:42
of capturing and killing women.
00:00:45
-In 1999, in the Yosemite
National Park in California,
00:00:50
he kidnapped and brutally
murdered four women.
00:00:54
-He said he couldn't
contain himself,
00:00:56
that there was no way that
he could stop this urge to kill.
00:01:02
-The cold-blooded murder
of four innocent women
00:01:05
makes Cary Stayner one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:01:11
♪♪
00:01:21
♪♪
00:01:30
For 5 months in 1999,
00:01:34
fear pierced the peace
and tranquility
00:01:37
of Yosemite National Park
in California.
00:01:41
In that time,
one man abducted four women.
00:01:45
He allegedly raped two of them
and viciously murdered them all.
00:01:50
-Yosemite is one
of those places.
00:01:52
It's the crown jewel of national
parks in the United States,
00:01:55
and the idea that these women
were possibly murdered
00:01:59
after visiting a national park,
00:02:01
specifically Yosemite,
really unnerved people.
00:02:05
-Then, on Saturday,
July the 24th, 1999,
00:02:09
investigators arrested
a handyman
00:02:12
at a local lodge, Cary Stayner.
00:02:15
The 37-year-old was
the prime suspect
00:02:18
in four monstrous murders
in the national park.
00:02:21
While in custody
in Sacramento, California,
00:02:24
he pulled a major surprise.
00:02:28
-While he's being held,
somehow he's able
00:02:30
to get a 25-minute interview
with a local news crew,
00:02:34
and while they're on a break
from questioning him,
00:02:37
he confesses to the news crew
00:02:38
before he even confesses
to the FBI.
00:02:41
-He told his version of events
to a local TV news reporter,
00:02:44
Ted Rowlands.
00:02:47
-The interview
was conducted in a room.
00:02:49
We were separated by glass
and used telephones.
00:02:52
He picked up the phone, and the
first thing he said to me was,
00:02:56
"I want you to contact
Hollywood producers,
00:03:00
and I would like a movie of
the week made about my story,"
00:03:05
and I thought,
"Movie of the week?
00:03:08
This is the same thing
that his brother, Steven,
00:03:11
had had made about his story."
00:03:14
Immediately struck me as,
"Wow. Okay.
00:03:17
This guy is thinking
about his brother."
00:03:20
He immediately went from asking
for this movie of the week
00:03:24
to a full confession.
00:03:27
The first things
out of his mouth
00:03:29
after asking for the movie
of the week was,
00:03:31
"I am guilty.
00:03:33
I killed Carole Sund,
Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso.
00:03:37
-But Stayner adamantly denied
that he had sexually assaulted
00:03:40
the women that he had murdered.
00:03:43
-Cary Stayner has got quite
a strong narcissistic strand
00:03:46
to his personality.
00:03:48
He didn't want to be seen
as the sexual predator
00:03:50
that he actually was.
00:03:52
He wants to be this tough,
dangerous predator, this hunter,
00:03:56
and that's inconsistent
with the label of a rapist
00:03:59
or a sex offender.
00:04:02
The roots of narcissism
are very often in shame,
00:04:04
and I think that's very much
what shaped Cary's famous life,
00:04:08
that he feels ashamed
of who he is.
00:04:10
He feels ashamed
of what he's experienced.
00:04:13
-Stayner's story began
nearly 60 years ago.
00:04:17
-Cary Stayner was born
in August 1961,
00:04:20
in Merced, California.
00:04:22
His father, Delbert,
was a Korean War veteran,
00:04:27
a stiff staff sergeant
who married his mother.
00:04:33
Together,
they had five children,
00:04:35
three girls and two boys.
00:04:39
Close family, but there's not
much doubt in my mind
00:04:42
it was also an abusive family.
00:04:44
It was dysfunctional.
00:04:46
-According to a defense
psychiatric report,
00:04:49
even his mother claimed
to have been abused as a child.
00:04:54
-This family do have
quite a dark history
00:04:57
when you look behind
the closed doors,
00:04:59
so there's a multigenerational
history of abuse going on.
00:05:05
-There were early warning signs
that Cary was having problems
00:05:08
coping as an infant.
00:05:11
-When he's 3 years old,
he starts engaging in a behavior
00:05:13
called trichotillomania,
00:05:15
and this basically
refers to hair pulling.
00:05:17
This is really concerning stuff
because you have
00:05:19
a 3-year-old child who is,
00:05:21
essentially, engaging
in an act of self-harm.
00:05:23
This suggests, to me,
that this was a young lad
00:05:26
who really was trying to
take back some power,
00:05:29
take back some control
over something
00:05:31
that he felt he didn't
have control over,
00:05:34
and this was the way
that it was manifested.
00:05:37
-Age 7, Cary formed violent
fantasies about women.
00:05:42
-He told me
that he had memories
00:05:44
going all the way back
to his childhood,
00:05:46
when he was in his family car
in the supermarket parking lot
00:05:50
fantasizing about killing and
tying up the female checkers.
00:05:55
Thinking that he was that young
and having these urges,
00:06:00
if right, really is
a window into his world.
00:06:05
-But when he's 7, he starts
to have these fantasies
00:06:08
of capturing and killing women,
and for me,
00:06:11
that suggests that he's got
this idea from somewhere.
00:06:14
He's equated violence and sexual
violence with power somehow.
00:06:19
-Growing up,
Cary and his brother, Steven,
00:06:22
7 years younger,
shared a room.
00:06:24
-Cary's younger brother,
Steven,
00:06:26
was absolutely the apple
of his father's eye.
00:06:28
He was the single one,
if you like,
00:06:31
in the family of five children
that the father identified with.
00:06:35
-Then, when Cary
was 11 years old,
00:06:38
tragedy struck the already
troubled Stayner family.
00:06:41
-The decisive moment in Cary's
young life came in December 1972
00:06:48
when he was aged 11,
and his younger brother,
00:06:51
Steven, then age 7,
00:06:54
was abducted by a pedophile
00:06:58
and kept for 7 years.
00:07:03
-This is something that has
a devastating effect
00:07:05
on the family,
00:07:07
so this family member has gone,
and what do you do?
00:07:12
To have something like this
happen during your childhood
00:07:14
is going to have
a devastating impact on you,
00:07:16
especially yourself having
experienced sexual abuse.
00:07:21
-Stayner would later claim
that his Uncle Jesse
00:07:24
sexually abused him
when he was a child.
00:07:27
-For children who experience
these types of things,
00:07:30
they feel like nowhere
is safe for them,
00:07:32
nowhere is secure for them
00:07:34
because your family is supposed
to be your sanctuary.
00:07:37
-The impact that abduction had,
not just on the Stayner family
00:07:43
as a whole, but also on Cary,
was catastrophic.
00:07:50
Cary's father, Delbert,
00:07:51
was distraught,
absolutely distraught,
00:07:55
would cry, would blame Cary for
not looking after his brother,
00:07:59
would say, "Oh, he's the one son
I really loved."
00:08:03
Those vital years
between 11 and 18
00:08:07
were lived in the shadow
of the disappeared Steven,
00:08:15
a kind of almost unimaginable
torture, torment.
00:08:20
-Adding fuel to the fire
that was raging within Cary,
00:08:24
his father heaped responsibility
onto the young boy's shoulders.
00:08:29
-I think he was perhaps,
to a degree,
00:08:30
blamed for the fact
that Steven had gone missing,
00:08:34
and his parents
would say to him,
00:08:35
"Make sure that you
watch your sisters."
00:08:37
So he's charged with the
monitoring and the surveillance
00:08:40
of women, of girls,
at quite a young age,
00:08:43
and he's having quite
a heavy adult responsibility
00:08:45
placed on him.
00:08:47
-Then, on March 2, 1980,
Cary's kidnapped brother,
00:08:51
Steven, suddenly returned home.
00:08:56
-As if by magic,
Steven escapes from his captor
00:09:01
along with another
little boy and reappears.
00:09:05
If there could be said to be
one single moment or trigger
00:09:09
for what became
his killing spree,
00:09:12
it was almost certainly the
return of his brother in 1980,
00:09:16
when Cary was nearly 19.
00:09:21
-Anxiously there to greet him,
his parents, three sisters,
00:09:25
and 18-year-old brother, Cary,
00:09:28
Steven Stayner had escaped
with a much younger boy,
00:09:32
5-year-old Timmy White.
00:09:35
-Steven Stayner's story
made international news.
00:09:38
It was a little boy that escaped
captivity from a pedophile
00:09:43
and basically single-handedly
was responsible
00:09:46
for saving himself,
00:09:48
saving another child, and
putting a pedophile behind bars,
00:09:51
so Cary Stayner's brother,
Steven, was a hero.
00:09:56
-After 7 years,
Parnell thinks that Steven
00:10:00
is really getting
a bit too old for him.
00:10:02
He is a pedophile,
and so he tells the boy
00:10:05
he's got a replacement,
00:10:07
a little boy called Timmy White
who was 5 years old.
00:10:11
Steven realizes
that this cannot be right.
00:10:15
-He rescued that child
and got out of there
00:10:17
and went to the police,
and he said,
00:10:19
"I know my first name
is Steven,"
00:10:20
and that later became
a book and a movie,
00:10:23
and the U.S. was captivated
by this story of this young man
00:10:26
who, you know, overcame
all this terrible abuse
00:10:30
and then put his life
on the line
00:10:31
to save this 5-year-old child.
00:10:33
-The TV movie called
"I Know My First Name is Steven"
00:10:37
was quickly made.
00:10:39
-Cary Stayner was home
during all of this,
00:10:41
watching his brother
get all these accolades
00:10:44
and had all of the attention
of his despondent parents,
00:10:47
who had been so sad for 7 years
with a missing child.
00:10:51
They were now elated to have
their little boy back,
00:10:55
and I think
it affected Cary a lot.
00:10:58
-Cary later said that.
00:10:59
He said, "I felt like
my parents --
00:11:01
There was clearly a number
one son in the house,
00:11:03
and that was Steven,
and so I was pushed aside,
00:11:06
and I was left, you know,
to fend for myself."
00:11:09
-Steven's appearance
on "Good Morning America"
00:11:12
with his parents further
spurred Cary's simmering rage.
00:11:16
-Delbert is seen hugging
his son,
00:11:20
something that he's
seemingly failed ever to do
00:11:22
to his elder brother, Cary.
00:11:25
Never showed much affection,
but all of a sudden,
00:11:28
Delbert is reunited with,
in a way, the golden youth.
00:11:33
There is no doubt in my mind
that this made
00:11:39
Cary Stayner incredibly angry.
00:11:42
-He's not known for being Cary.
00:11:44
He's known for being the brother
of the boy who went missing.
00:11:47
That's not going to have
a good impact on you.
00:11:49
That is going to really
devastate your own sense
00:11:52
of your identity.
00:11:53
Here's a man who is
spiraling out of control.
00:11:56
He's going towards something,
00:11:58
but we don't quite know
what that is yet.
00:12:00
-Steven's return only heightens
the feeling
00:12:05
that his elder brother
00:12:06
has of being somehow a shadow
in the Delbert family life.
00:12:11
-Then, on September 17, 1989,
9 years after being reunited
00:12:17
with their son, Steven,
the Stayner family
00:12:20
was once again blighted
by tragedy.
00:12:23
-When Steven returned,
00:12:25
the tragedies for this family
were far from over.
00:12:28
So Steven got married,
and he had children,
00:12:30
but he was killed
in a hit-and-run accident
00:12:33
only as a young man,
00:12:35
so his life was
quite brutally ended.
00:12:38
-Steven's untimely death
sparked a descent for Cary
00:12:42
into the dark side
of his personality.
00:12:46
-Ironically, when Steven
was killed in the car accident,
00:12:51
Cary was sharing a house
with his Uncle Jesse
00:12:57
and working for
a local mirror-making company.
00:13:01
Steven's death was the trigger
for Cary Stayner
00:13:05
to escalate to violence.
00:13:09
-In 1990, Cary's
Uncle Jesse was found dead
00:13:13
in the house they shared.
00:13:15
Cary Stayner later claimed
as part of his defense
00:13:18
that his uncle
sexually abused him as a child.
00:13:22
It led some to suggest that
00:13:24
Stayner may have had something
to do with his murder,
00:13:28
but at the time,
no one was charged.
00:13:31
-When you look back
at the circumstances
00:13:33
surrounding Uncle Jesse's death,
00:13:36
it was believed that he was
killed
00:13:37
by a drifter
who was around the property,
00:13:41
but that individual was
never actually identified
00:13:44
and convicted of
that particular murder.
00:13:46
-Cary Stayner was questioned
about it and was a suspect,
00:13:49
but was not tried for it,
00:13:52
and Cary Stayner told me that
he did not commit that murder.
00:13:57
-By 1991, Cary Stayner
was working at
00:14:00
the Merced Glass
and Mirror Company.
00:14:03
On the surface, all seemed fine,
but that would be short-lived.
00:14:09
-He is liked by his workmates.
00:14:12
He's regarded as approachable,
as kindly.
00:14:15
You could trust him with anyone.
00:14:16
You might leave
your children with him.
00:14:18
He's absolutely --
couldn't be a nicer man,
00:14:23
and yet, underneath that,
beneath the surface,
00:14:26
Stayner is profoundly
challenged, unbalanced,
00:14:31
a man at war with himself,
at war with his own desires,
00:14:36
at war with his own fury
at what's happened to him,
00:14:41
at the way he's grown up.
00:14:43
-In 1995, Cary Stayner's rage
boiled over.
00:14:48
-One of his coworkers
come across him one day,
00:14:51
basically pounding his fist
into a plank of wood
00:14:54
and saying that
he feels really anxious.
00:14:56
He feels really nervy and scared
and that he feels like
00:15:00
going and killing
all of his coworkers.
00:15:02
He's seen by a psychiatrist,
00:15:04
but he doesn't receive
any ongoing treatment.
00:15:06
It's considered, "Okay. This
looks like it was a one-off."
00:15:10
-He became more and more
isolated.
00:15:13
His parents then
moved away from Merced
00:15:16
where he had been born
and brought up.
00:15:18
Then he was left on his own.
00:15:19
His Uncle Jesse was dead.
00:15:21
His brother was dead.
00:15:23
He had left the job
he'd had for quite some time.
00:15:26
-He decided that he was going
to go off the radar.
00:15:28
He was going to go
and live in the woods.
00:15:30
This guy was going off the grid.
00:15:33
-In 1997, Cary Stayner was hired
as the resident handyman
00:15:38
at the Cedar Lodge Motel
00:15:40
in the Yosemite National Park
in California.
00:15:44
-At the same time, gets a room
above the diner
00:15:48
in the hotel upstairs.
00:15:52
Now, it's quite a big motel,
50-plus rooms,
00:15:55
plenty of coming and going,
rather beautiful.
00:15:58
It was on the edge
of Yosemite National Park.
00:16:01
-At first, all seemed
to be going well for Cary
00:16:04
in this new
picture-perfect setting.
00:16:07
-Everybody loved this guy,
all of his coworkers,
00:16:09
his supervisors.
00:16:11
Everybody said,
"This was the nicest guy."
00:16:13
-You know, he fits in
with this, this laid-back
00:16:14
kind of hippie lifestyle
00:16:17
of a guy who kind of
is quite transient
00:16:19
and goes from job to job,
00:16:21
and you just let people be
who they wanted to be,
00:16:23
so I think he fitted right in.
00:16:25
-But unbeknownst
to those around him,
00:16:28
the affable handyman
was at war with himself.
00:16:32
-His only respite
was hiking in the woods,
00:16:36
and he developed an appetite
for nude sunbathing.
00:16:40
I suspect that he was
having difficulty
00:16:41
controlling
his own sexual desires
00:16:44
and that perhaps nudity
and nudism shared with others
00:16:48
was a way of coping with that.
00:16:50
He was desperately trying
to keep himself under control,
00:16:54
and there's no doubt,
in my mind, of that.
00:16:57
-Stayner spent more and more
time alone in the woods
00:17:00
indulging his peculiar habits.
00:17:03
-Cary Stayner's
other occupation,
00:17:06
apart from hiking
and nude sunbathing,
00:17:07
was smoking marijuana,
00:17:10
which he did on a regular
and persistent basis.
00:17:14
Now, I am not for one moment
00:17:15
suggesting
that inspired him to kill.
00:17:19
I am not linking one
with another.
00:17:22
What I am saying is
it probably further underlines
00:17:27
the imbalance in
Cary Stayner's personality.
00:17:32
-Stayner became obsessed
with Bigfoot,
00:17:35
a mythical beast that,
legend has it,
00:17:38
inhabits the forests
of America's Pacific Northwest.
00:17:42
-He's firmly convinced
that Bigfoot does exist,
00:17:45
and, indeed, becomes almost
obsessed with Bigfoot
00:17:49
and finding Bigfoot.
00:17:52
-I think in terms
of what Bigfoot represents
00:17:55
for Cary Stayner, it's that
childish kind of pursuit
00:17:59
of the monster under the bed.
00:18:01
You quite enjoy
talking about it.
00:18:03
You quite enjoy the feeling
of kind of fear
00:18:05
that you know isn't real fear
because you're actually safe.
00:18:08
He hasn't felt the ability
to have a safe space
00:18:11
in which to nurture
these kind of,
00:18:14
these scary
monster-type stories.
00:18:16
So I think that's why that comes
out when he's an adult.
00:18:19
He's not had the opportunity
to do this as a child.
00:18:21
-Bigfoot was what Cary Stayner
was when he wasn't an affable,
00:18:25
likable person.
00:18:27
Bigfoot was
the real Cary Stayner.
00:18:31
I think that's where
the obsession lay,
00:18:33
and I think the whole concept
of his obsession with Bigfoot
00:18:38
was his obsession
with his own dark side.
00:18:41
There was the Cary Stayner
that was eventually
00:18:44
to emerge into the light.
00:18:46
Somewhere inside, he was
harboring this other personality
00:18:51
which sometimes
he simply had to let out.
00:18:53
But by the time we've got
to the end of 1998,
00:18:58
we have a man who is fraying,
00:19:03
is the word
that jumps into my mind.
00:19:05
It's as if he's quietly
coming apart,
00:19:07
but he's coming apart
steadily, increasingly,
00:19:11
and how does he cope with that?
00:19:13
Up until that point,
he's done everything he can to,
00:19:14
quote, control himself.
00:19:16
"I've got to be in control.
I've got --
00:19:17
My father would want me
to be in control.
00:19:19
That's what we are
supposed to do."
00:19:22
-So he got a job
as a maintenance man,
00:19:25
and this is where I think
00:19:27
he starts to spend
a lot of time on his own.
00:19:30
He's thinking.
He's ruminating.
00:19:32
And I think it's only
going to go one way now.
00:19:35
-By 1999, hippie handyman
Cary Stayner
00:19:39
was a serial-killing time bomb.
00:19:42
On February the 14th,
Valentine's Day,
00:19:45
he was primed to explode.
00:19:47
Stayner's victims --'
a mother, her teenager daughter,
00:19:51
and her young friend.
00:19:56
Yosemite National Park,
California, USA.
00:20:00
It was the low season, and there
were only a few tourists around.
00:20:05
Would-be serial killer
and handyman Cary Stayner
00:20:08
was working
at the Cedar Lodge motel,
00:20:11
and all seemed fine.
00:20:13
-He's struggling
to control himself,
00:20:15
struggling to be what his father
would have wanted him to be,
00:20:18
struggling to be
all right when he wasn't,
00:20:21
and you suddenly have,
literally, an explosion.
00:20:25
-I think when we look at
the time that he starts killing,
00:20:27
he is not in a good place.
00:20:29
He's quite chaotic.
He's quite disorganized.
00:20:31
He's smoking a lot of marijuana,
and we know
00:20:34
that this has an impact
on people's perceptions,
00:20:37
on their thinking,
their train of thoughts.
00:20:40
-On Valentine's Day,
Stayner struck.
00:20:47
-Quite by chance,
he sees a mother,
00:20:51
daughter,
and the daughter's friend
00:20:53
pull into the parking lot
of the Lodge
00:20:55
in a red Pontiac Grand Prix.
00:20:57
They've rented it.
00:20:59
Her name was Carole Sund.
00:21:01
Her daughter was called Juli,
00:21:03
and her daughter's friend
from Argentina was visiting,
00:21:06
an exchange student
called Silvina.
00:21:08
-Silvina was 16 years old,
and Juliana was just 15.
00:21:14
-Stayner told me that he knew
00:21:16
that they were the only
occupants in the entire building
00:21:20
and that he noticed them
earlier in the day
00:21:23
and that one of his fantasies
that he had been thinking about
00:21:27
was to capture and torture
two young girls.
00:21:31
-He's been spending quite
a lot of time on his own.
00:21:33
He's been smoking quite a lot of
marijuana at this point in time,
00:21:36
and he's confronted
with this happy family,
00:21:39
this happy family
that he's never had.
00:21:42
-He knocked on the door and
said, "I'm the maintenance man,
00:21:44
and we have a problem
in the bathroom.
00:21:46
Could you let me in to fix it?"
00:21:48
-It's 11:00 at night
at this point.
00:21:49
Carole is cautious.
00:21:52
She says, "Hang on a minute."
00:21:54
Doesn't open the door,
and she goes back.
00:21:56
Stayner's on the other side
of the door.
00:21:58
"No. There's no leak.
I can't see anything."
00:22:00
"No. I know, ma'am. I've got
to come in. I've got to --
00:22:02
You've got to let me in.
I'm absolutely --
00:22:04
I'll lose my job, you know,
if you don't let me in."
00:22:07
Stayner is very persuasive.
00:22:09
Carole Sund makes the fatal
mistake of opening the door.
00:22:15
-As soon as he got into
the room, he pulled out his gun.
00:22:18
He took Silvina and Juli,
the teenagers,
00:22:21
and put them in the bathroom,
locked the door
00:22:24
and then came out and strangled
Carole Sund in the hotel room.
00:22:30
-Stayner had killed her.
00:22:32
He took her body and dumped it
in the trunk
00:22:34
of the family's rented car.
00:22:36
He then returned to the room.
00:22:39
-Brought both girls out
and began
00:22:42
to sexually assault them,
we later found out.
00:22:45
He then killed Silvina Pelosso
after she started screaming
00:22:51
and was not
cooperating with him.
00:22:54
He took Silvina's body, then,
00:22:56
and put it into the trunk
along with Carole's,
00:22:58
came back and spent
a few hours sexually abusing
00:23:02
and torturing Juli Sund
inside the hotel room.
00:23:07
-And now the fantasy
really comes to life.
00:23:11
Stayner has convinced himself
00:23:14
that he has some
kind of relationship
00:23:17
with the 15-year-old Juli Sund.
00:23:20
She is somehow an object
of his affections.
00:23:24
She is to be cherished
in the mad fantasy world
00:23:28
that he's created for himself.
00:23:30
-Then he said he decided
to take Juli
00:23:34
out in the early morning hours
before the sun came up,
00:23:38
put her in the car and drove
with the bodies in the trunk.
00:23:43
-Behind the wheel
of the rental car,
00:23:45
Stayner headed east
out of the park.
00:23:48
-He ended up taking Juli to a
reservoir called Lake Don Pedro
00:23:54
which is about 90 miles
from Yosemite.
00:23:58
It's very remote.
00:24:01
-They drive in
the Pontiac Grand Prix
00:24:03
to a local beauty spot
with a view.
00:24:07
The sun comes up,
and he picks Juli Sund up
00:24:13
out of the passenger's
seat of the Pontiac
00:24:15
as if she were his bride
and he were the bridegroom.
00:24:20
He carries her to this vantage
point and sits her down.
00:24:27
-Around sunrise,
Stayner slit the girl's throat.
00:24:34
-He left her to die
on this hillside.
00:24:39
Now he had to get rid
of the car.
00:24:42
-Stayner dumped the rental car
with the dead bodies
00:24:45
of Carole Sund and
Silvina Pelosso in the trunk.
00:24:50
He then called a cab to take him
90 miles back to the Lodge.
00:24:55
Then, in a bizarre twist,
the taxi driver later
00:24:58
gave a telling insight
into the man
00:25:01
who just committed
a series of murders.
00:25:05
-He says to the female
cab driver,
00:25:08
"Do you believe in Bigfoot?"
00:25:10
on the way back to the motel,
and she says, "No,"
00:25:14
and he says, "Well, you should."
00:25:16
And in my view,
that's an indication,
00:25:18
a firm, clear indication,
00:25:20
that Bigfoot is
the dark side of Cary Stayner.
00:25:25
-The serial killer
was dropped off back
00:25:27
at the Cedar Lodge motel,
00:25:29
and he acted as
if nothing had happened.
00:25:32
-Back to the motel,
back to work,
00:25:37
Stayner, careful, careful man,
has cleaned the room.
00:25:41
I mean, he is the motel's
handyman, after all.
00:25:43
He's made sure
not to leave any traces.
00:25:45
The Pontiac Grand Prix is gone.
00:25:46
The room is clean.
00:25:48
-Two days went by, and still
nobody suspected a thing.
00:25:52
-No one raises any alarm.
00:25:54
Carole's husband tries
to track her down,
00:25:58
but thinks
she's just making away.
00:25:59
They were going to meet
at San Francisco Airport.
00:26:02
-Concerned that he had not
covered his tracks sufficiently,
00:26:05
Stayner returned to the car.
00:26:08
-A few days later,
he drove back there,
00:26:11
found the car and brought
with him gasoline.
00:26:14
He took evidence out of the car
and then torched it.
00:26:18
From there, he decided
to throw the FBI off
00:26:21
by taking Carole Sund's wallet
and drive it to Modesto,
00:26:26
which was
in the other direction.
00:26:28
-Four days after
their disappearance,
00:26:31
the women were finally
reported as missing.
00:26:34
Then, when the wallet was found
4 days later, 8 miles away
00:26:38
in Modesto, California,
00:26:40
the authorities
suspected foul play.
00:26:43
-The wallet was found
by somebody
00:26:44
who was just walking
down the street,
00:26:45
picks it up
and takes it to the police.
00:26:47
As soon as they found
that wallet,
00:26:49
the case changed immediately
00:26:52
from a missing-persons case
to a criminal case.
00:26:56
-The investigators focus their
attention on finding the car
00:27:01
that the women had
rented for their trip.
00:27:04
-It was a red Pontiac,
00:27:06
so this gave investigators
something to search for,
00:27:09
and because this took place
at a national park,
00:27:12
it had immense attention,
not only from the media,
00:27:15
but from the American public.
00:27:17
-The entire staff working
at the Cedar Lodge
00:27:20
were questioned
within days of the murders,
00:27:22
including the genial
handyman, Cary Stayner.
00:27:27
-The FBI said that he seemed
stoic and calm as can be,
00:27:32
but to him, he said
his heart was racing.
00:27:36
He was nervous,
and he was convinced
00:27:39
that the FBI was
going to be coming back
00:27:42
to arrest him at any moment.
00:27:44
-A month went by,
00:27:45
and the women's bodies
had still not been found.
00:27:49
-The women had vanished,
and the case was getting cold.
00:27:52
Then the next break happened.
00:27:54
The car was located
by a local man
00:27:56
who was out hunting
in the woods.
00:27:58
Inside the trunk of the car
were two bodies,
00:28:01
Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso,
00:28:04
and the car was burnt
to the point
00:28:06
where their bodies
were unrecognizable.
00:28:09
In fact, they had
to use DNA testing
00:28:10
to positively identify them.
00:28:12
-In Cary Stayner's case,
00:28:15
he left the bodies
in a car for 2 days,
00:28:18
and then he set fire to it.
00:28:21
So we've got two problems
here, really.
00:28:23
We have the fact that the bodies
are starting to decompose,
00:28:26
and then we've got
the effect of fire.
00:28:28
That sort of fire is
really quite ineffective
00:28:31
at destroying a body,
00:28:33
so it is a challenge
to the forensic investigators,
00:28:36
but by no means
one that can't be overcome.
00:28:39
-But Stayner was far from being
considered the prime suspect.
00:28:43
-By this time, Stayner is --
00:28:45
You know, how could he possibly
be an object of interest?
00:28:48
I mean,
"I may work at the hotel,
00:28:50
but all sorts of people
work at the hotel."
00:28:52
And, in fact, the local police
drag in all sorts
00:28:57
of potential villains,
you know, drug dealers,
00:28:59
local armed robbers.
00:29:02
They've got about seven
or eight possible suspects,
00:29:05
and at one point they even say,
00:29:06
"I'm sure we've got, you know,
the perpetrator in custody."
00:29:10
-He comes onto the radar
of the investigation,
00:29:13
and he's actually quite helpful
with the investigators.
00:29:16
He shows them around the lodge.
00:29:18
He answers their questions,
and I think,
00:29:21
at this point in proceedings,
he does, I think,
00:29:24
enjoy that feeling of being
close to the investigation,
00:29:27
of knowing how much
00:29:28
or how little the police
know themselves,
00:29:31
and I think this is
something that he feels
00:29:33
that he's going
to get away with.
00:29:35
-But the body of 15-year-old
Juliana Sund was still missing,
00:29:40
and in yet another
extraordinary turn,
00:29:42
Cary Stayner wrote
a letter to the FBI.
00:29:47
-Stayner becomes so confident,
and, indeed, in a way
00:29:49
so arrogant
that he decides to write the FBI
00:29:53
to tell him where
they can find Juli's body
00:29:56
and draws them a little map
and tells them,
00:30:00
"We had a lot of fun together."
00:30:01
-Two weeks after the car was
found, the FBI got the letter,
00:30:05
went out to this spot
in a reservoir,
00:30:08
and there, lo and behold,
was Juli Sund's remains.
00:30:12
-The 15-year-old girl's
decomposed body was found hidden
00:30:15
in the underbrush by the
Merced River in Modesto County.
00:30:20
-When the facts came out about
the condition of Juli's body,
00:30:23
the fact that she had been
murdered, cut,
00:30:27
her neck almost cut off,
00:30:30
that put this case
into a whole nother realm.
00:30:32
When the details
of Juli's murder
00:30:35
and the brutality
of that murder was released,
00:30:38
that sent another shock wave
through the region
00:30:42
because people now knew
00:30:43
that these women
were not only murdered,
00:30:46
but brutally murdered
and possibly tortured.
00:30:48
-But serial killer
Cary Stayner was not done yet.
00:30:53
Soon he would strike again,
and this time
00:30:57
Stayner would do it with
even more terrifying ferocity.
00:31:01
♪♪
00:31:06
By the end of June 1999,
police had discovered the dead
00:31:11
and mutilated bodies
of three women.
00:31:14
They had been viciously murdered
00:31:16
in the Yosemite
National Park, California.
00:31:20
They were found dumped
in the woods about 80 miles
00:31:23
from the Cedar Lodge motel
where they had been staying.
00:31:28
But the killer, Cary Stayner,
the handyman at the same motel,
00:31:32
was not even a suspect.
00:31:34
-The FBI was convinced that
they had the killers in custody.
00:31:39
They believed that
they had solved the case,
00:31:40
and they were just working
on getting more evidence
00:31:43
because they truly believed that
these methamphetamine users
00:31:47
and dealers were responsible,
00:31:49
even though the real killer
was sitting at the hotel
00:31:53
where those girls
were the whole time.
00:31:55
-Three months passed.
00:31:57
No one comes knocking on Cary
Stayner's door to arrest him.
00:32:00
Stayner has remained
undetected, uncharged,
00:32:03
still the affable handyman
at the Cedar Lodge motel.
00:32:07
-But it was only a matter
00:32:08
of time before
Stayner would kill again.
00:32:13
-The balm that I think he felt
00:32:16
from the killings of Carole
and her daughter
00:32:20
and her daughter's friend
was wearing off,
00:32:24
and I think he felt
that he needed another victim.
00:32:29
-On July 21, 1999,
Stayner found his next target,
00:32:34
26-year-old Joie Ruth Armstrong,
a park worker.
00:32:39
-She was one of these girls
that just loved
00:32:42
being out in nature,
00:32:44
and you could see it
in her face, big smile.
00:32:46
Her mother talked
about how happy
00:32:48
she was to have this position
00:32:50
and how happy
she was to be living
00:32:52
in one of the most
beautiful places in the world.
00:32:54
-Joie was loading her car
outside the cabin in the forest
00:32:58
where she and fellow
park workers stayed.
00:33:01
The location was about
a 30-minute drive from the lodge
00:33:04
where Stayner was based.
00:33:07
-Stayner would say that once
he realized she was alone,
00:33:11
something clicked in him.
00:33:13
He said that he was in an area
that he often went to
00:33:17
because he had seen
Bigfoot there.
00:33:19
-And I think they struck up
some kind of conversation
00:33:21
about working in the park,
and here he's got
00:33:24
another opportunity
that's presented itself to him.
00:33:28
-She was by herself.
00:33:29
She's getting ready to go meet
some mates for a hike
00:33:33
up in Northern California,
00:33:35
so she was packing her car
in Yosemite Valley
00:33:38
getting ready to leave
when Cary Stayner noticed her.
00:33:42
He approached Joie with his gun,
forced her inside her house
00:33:48
and put duct tape around
her mouth and her hands
00:33:53
and got her into his car and was
taking off to kidnap her,
00:33:58
but she was able to jump out
of the car and run for her life.
00:34:03
-But taped and bound,
she did not get far.
00:34:06
-She was unable
to outrun Stayner,
00:34:08
so he was able to park his car,
00:34:10
run around,
and tackle her and grab her.
00:34:12
-He absolutely loses
his temper, and he attacks her
00:34:15
so violently that he effectively
decapitates her,
00:34:18
cuts her throat,
but so violently
00:34:21
that it effectively separates
her head from her body.
00:34:25
-He told the FBI that there was
so much blood on her head
00:34:28
that when he looked at it,
he couldn't even see her face.
00:34:32
-We have an escalation
of what he's doing.
00:34:35
He's abducted her.
00:34:36
He's bound her.
00:34:37
He's gagged her, beheads her.
00:34:42
At least we can say it would be
a very rapid death at the end,
00:34:45
and a very brave young woman
00:34:47
to try and escape from
such horrible circumstances.
00:34:50
-This time, however,
Stayner had sealed his own fate.
00:34:55
-Ultimately, that's the murder
that leads back
00:34:56
to the other three.
00:34:58
Had he not committed
that fourth murder,
00:35:00
I don't know that
he would have been caught.
00:35:02
-The next day, on July 22, 1999,
an alert park ranger
00:35:08
found Joie's body.
00:35:10
It was clear that
the current suspects were,
00:35:13
in fact, innocent.
00:35:15
-When Joie Armstrong
turned up dead,
00:35:17
it didn't take long for the FBI
00:35:19
to tell the public that,
indeed, they were wrong,
00:35:22
and the real killer
was still out there.
00:35:24
This now re-ignited
the entire case,
00:35:27
and it took it to another level.
00:35:29
The idea that a young woman
was decapitated
00:35:33
inside the park
was unnerving to everyone,
00:35:36
and now it was all hands on deck
00:35:40
because there was
a murderer on the loose.
00:35:43
-A blue and white
1979 International Scout
00:35:47
was seen parked near
the scene of the crime.
00:35:50
Of the afternoon
of the 22nd of July,
00:35:53
two park rangers
looking for the car
00:35:56
in fact found
37-year-old Cary Stayner.
00:36:00
-One of the things
that he liked to do in the park
00:36:02
was go find a spot along
the river and sunbathe naked.
00:36:06
So after killing Joie Armstrong,
he went to one of these spots
00:36:10
and was out sunbathing naked
00:36:12
when two park rangers
came across
00:36:15
and talked to him, confiscated
his backpack, and let him go.
00:36:19
-Stayner was interviewed again
at the Cedar Lodge.
00:36:22
Again, he was allowed
to be free.
00:36:25
They took samples
and photographs of his tires
00:36:28
to match tire tracks
at the scene,
00:36:30
but they allowed Stayner
to stay free for another day.
00:36:34
-With the net closing in,
Stayner fled.
00:36:38
-After matching the tire tracks,
00:36:39
the FBI went back to arrest
Cary Stayner at the Cedar Lodge.
00:36:42
When they got there,
he was gone,
00:36:43
so they put out
an all-points bulletin.
00:36:46
-The FBI found him on July
the 24th, 1999,
00:36:51
just 48 hours
after his fourth murder.
00:36:55
-Somebody had seen
the news reports that
00:36:58
they were looking for
Cary Stayner,
00:37:00
and there was a photo of him,
and lo and behold,
00:37:02
he was at a nudist camp
up in the Sacramento area.
00:37:07
So he had driven from Yosemite
to this nudist camp
00:37:10
and was just sitting at the
restaurant at the nudist camp
00:37:14
when the FBI came
to interview him a third time
00:37:18
with the intent
of taking him into custody.
00:37:20
-By this point, I'm absolutely
certain in my own mind that
00:37:22
Stayner knew he was going
to be caught and was,
00:37:24
in fact, quite happy
to be caught.
00:37:26
I think, in a way,
he had acknowledged that he was
00:37:31
so badly distorted
as a personality
00:37:35
that he wanted
to be incarcerated.
00:37:39
-When Stayner was arrested,
00:37:41
Ted Rowlands got the call
that changed his life,
00:37:45
and the exclusive confession
that he was able to secure
00:37:50
helped to convict
a serial killer.
00:37:52
-I was alerted by my station
that an arrest
00:37:55
had been made
in Joie Armstrong's murder,
00:37:58
so I immediately
went to Sacramento.
00:38:01
I went to the jail to see
00:38:02
if I could get
an interview with Stayner.
00:38:04
So I asked the jailer if
they would call up and inquire
00:38:08
whether he would be open for me
to come up and interview him,
00:38:12
and the jailer called up
to the cell block
00:38:15
and received word that Stayner
did not want to talk.
00:38:19
So I decided that I was
going to keep asking,
00:38:23
and I ended up spending
the day going back and forth
00:38:26
from the courthouse to the jail
and harassing the jailer.
00:38:29
"Please call up. I'd like to see
if he'll talk to me now."
00:38:33
-Eventually, the reporter's
persistence paid off.
00:38:37
-I remember walking back
into the jail
00:38:39
thinking to myself
I was wasting my time,
00:38:41
and the jailer looked
at me like, "Ugh. You're back."
00:38:44
And I said,
"You know, one more time,
00:38:46
can you just ask him
one more time if he'll talk?"
00:38:48
And the jailer got off
the phone and said,
00:38:50
"By God, he's going to talk."
00:38:52
And immediately I froze
and thought, "Oh, my gosh."
00:38:59
Within 2 minutes,
I was on an elevator
00:39:02
going up to the prison tier,
00:39:05
and I could see
through the glass.
00:39:08
I could see Cary Stayner
go out of his cell
00:39:10
and start walking towards me and
coming right up to the glass,
00:39:14
and there I was 3 feet away
from this serial killer,
00:39:19
and we were talking face-to-face
00:39:21
using a telephone
going back and forth.
00:39:25
-Stayner coldly admitted
to the four murders
00:39:28
that he had committed
in the Yosemite National Park.
00:39:32
-From the moment he walked in,
00:39:34
he was rigid and very
clinical the way he spoke.
00:39:40
His voice didn't go up or down.
00:39:42
There was little or no emotion.
00:39:45
Even when he talked
about the murders,
00:39:46
his demeanor was just detached.
00:39:51
-Cary Stayner confessed,
00:39:53
but despite evidence
to the contrary,
00:39:56
he refused to admit
to key elements of the crimes.
00:39:59
-He admitted to the murders,
but he glossed over the details.
00:40:04
In fact, he lied.
00:40:05
He lied about some
of the story to me.
00:40:09
He told me that
he never physically abused
00:40:12
or tortured any of his victims.
00:40:14
I think he lied to me
because he wanted to take credit
00:40:18
for the murders,
00:40:20
but he was embarrassed about the
torture and the sexual assault,
00:40:23
and he didn't want the public
to know about that.
00:40:26
-I think a killer who confesses
is sometimes
00:40:28
getting some of it
off his chest,
00:40:30
but who's to say, for example,
00:40:32
that Cary Stayner
hadn't killed again?
00:40:34
Did he kill other people?
00:40:36
It's entirely possible.
00:40:38
-And I asked him, also,
to give the families a message.
00:40:41
"What would you say to the Sund,
Pelosso, Armstrong families?"
00:40:46
And he said that he would
like to tell the families
00:40:50
that he's sorry
that their loved ones
00:40:53
were where they were
when they were,
00:40:55
and that, to me,
was really haunting
00:40:58
because what he was
really saying was,
00:41:00
"I couldn't help myself.
00:41:01
There was nothing
I could do about it."
00:41:04
It seemed as though he was
trying to convince me
00:41:06
that he was somehow a hero
00:41:08
for resisting for
30-plus years of his life,
00:41:13
saying that he had had these
urges to torture and kill women
00:41:17
since he was a 7-year-old child.
00:41:22
It was a way to articulate
that this demon inside him
00:41:27
was too powerful.
00:41:29
-Cary Stayner was eventually
tried and convicted
00:41:32
on four counts of murder
as well as additional felonies.
00:41:37
He was sentenced to death
on December the 12th, 2002,
00:41:41
and is now behind bars
00:41:42
in San Quentin
State Prison, California,
00:41:45
awaiting the death penalty.
00:41:48
-There is nothing sympathetic
about this man.
00:41:51
He is, and remains,
a monster, thankfully,
00:41:56
not able to commit
further murders.
00:41:59
If part of Cary Stayner
saw himself as Bigfoot,
00:42:04
it was the part that went
hiking in the wilderness.
00:42:08
He was the monster in the woods.
00:42:11
He was the man whom everybody
should be afraid of,
00:42:15
but, of course,
00:42:17
he didn't present
that to the outside world
00:42:19
working as a handyman
in a motel,
00:42:22
but that's what he thought he
was, and that's what he became.
00:42:27
-The savage and senseless
murders of four innocent women
00:42:32
in the pristine environs
of the Yosemite National Park
00:42:36
in California
marks Cary Stayner as one
00:42:40
of the world's
most evil killers.
00:42:43
♪♪
00:42:52
♪♪
00:43:02
♪♪
