Tragedies of Merced's Stayner Family

[Music] the quiet city of merced in central california was rocked by the 1972 kidnapping of a second grader for seven years there was no trace of steven steiner but in 1980 the country would be captivated when the story broke that stephen not only broke free from his abductor in northern california but also led another kidnap victim to freedom steven steiner was reunited with his parents but all was not well after years of struggling to readjust to normal life the story of steven steiner came to a tragic end on september 16 1989 in a motorcycle crash on this episode of history hunters i will tell you the story visit the location of the kidnapping show you as grave and merced and for the first time ever show you the inside of the former stainer home [Music] now if you know anything about steven stainer and carrie stainer the two brothers that made national news for obviously different reasons this is where they lived this is where they grew up steven steener was a kidnapped victim from 1972 and it was here at this house where he was living at the time he was walking home from school trying to get home when he was picked up by two strangers and taken off and sexually molested seven years later he was returned home that usually doesn't happen even stranger thing is that his brother carrie stanner who was four years older than him also lived here he grew up and he became a serial killer killing four women he was known as the yosemite killings i'll tell you all about it on this episode of history hunters good morning uh stephen and mr and mrs stainer and stephen how does it feel to be home feels great this subject is a little sensitive because it touches on so many nerves but i'm in merced california at the merced cemetery here to talk about the ordeal that stephen steiner went through as well as the unfortunate tragedies associated with his brother carrie steener this drama unfolded here in merced in december of 1972 steven stainer was seven years old he was a second grader at charles wright elementary school he was walking home from school two men approached him pretending to be a pastor looking for funds to finance their church and he asked stephen if he could take him home so he could get some donations stephen was so young he believed the story got in the car he never was taken home he didn't go home for another seven years he was kept and told that his parents gave him up because they couldn't afford five kids after seven years of disappearance i'm sure his parents gave up all hope that he would ever return to them but he did in 1980 and fortunately stephen became a hero for rescuing another boy that the abductor had kidnapped stephen helped him get help i went to a police station and the rest is history if you come to the very back corner of the cemetery you will find steven steiner unfortunately the cemetery here has numbers on top of each grave stephen sanders number 140 in the garden of peace section in the back close to the railroad tracks here's the grave of stephen steiner april 18 1965 to september 16 1989 his grave 140. right here is a pretty cool picture of him taken of him after his abduction was over with in 1980 one evening september 16 1989 steven got on a motorcycle while he was working for pizza hut he drove on to santa fe avenue and he got hit by an illegal alien that pulled out in front of them stephen wasn't licensed to ride that motorcycle he didn't have a helmet he was taken to the merced hospital where he died of major injuries to his head [Music] so on september 16 1989 stephen stainer was coming down this road which is called santa fe avenue right past the richwood meat company he was riding his motorcycle without a helmet and when he got to this intersection right here my understanding is that somebody pulled out in front of him i believe his name was antonio luera he immediately fled the scene steven's body was right out there in the middle of the road his motorcycle tossed about his shoes were off the guy would have been coming right out of here i don't know if he turned a left in front of stephen or right but basically steven stainer lost his life right there [Music] he left behind a wife and two children now he's buried right next to his uncle jesse now this uncle was the one who died in 1990 and kind of set carrie stainer over the edge carrie had just endured the death of his brother and then his uncle whom he lived with and they said it was just one of the things that set him over but right here are stephen and carrie's grandparents jeff stainer 1905 to 1984. and over here grandmother louella's dana 1913 to 1981. fortunately grandmother got to see steven returned to his family you would think that being reunited with your family after seven years would be a joyous occasion and for a while it was but stephen had been used to doing things his own way he was able to drink whatever he wanted to because his abductor allowed him to do things while he sexually molested him so when he came back he had all these rules he had to get reaccustomed to his family and he had a real difficult time he turned back to alcohol he kind of did his own thing for a while he got booted out a couple of times and we can all understand why after having been through all the abuse that he had been and the emotional damage that was done to this poor boy he got his life together again he started working odd jobs he never got anything more than minimum wage so because hollywood took such interest in steven stainer's story they created this made for tv movie my name is steven he obtained some royalties he actually appeared in the film as a as a police officer now around this grave site back in 1989 were several hundred mourners including the family members i'm sure that jesse the uncle was here he was living at the time another person who came here was timothy white he was the little boy that stephen slainer helped to rescue from parnell timothy white who was 14 years old at the time served as a pallbearer at his funeral the funeral was held at the mormon church here in merced because of what happened to timothy white being a victim he wanted to be in law enforcement so he became a los angeles county sheriff's deputy unfortunately he died on april 1 2010 from a pulmonary embolism he was buried in newhall at the veterans memorial of eternal valley memorial park he was abducted in 1980 and it was that abduction that precipitated the rescue of both boys so on valentine's day in 1980 parnell got tired of using stephen he decided he wanted to abduct another little boy with the help of an accomplice parnell captured timothy white he was five years old brought him home timmy was crying that kind of set off something and stephen reminded him of his own tears his pain and his loneliness so i believe about a week or two later stephen and timothy decided to make a break for it now stephen had no idea where timothy lived and timothy couldn't remember as well so they decided the next best thing to do and the smartest thing they could have ever done was find a police station they decided to make a break for it they hitchhike all the way to ukiah after steven returned to his family ken parnell was tried for kidnapping standard and white but not for the sexual abuse he served only five years of a seven year prison sentence edward murphy who was parnell's accomplice in the stainer kidnapping was sentenced to five years imprisonment and pearled after two years in january 2003 parnell was arrested again after trying to coerce his female caregiver into buying him a four-year-old boy by this time parnell was 71 in very poor health living in an apartment in berkeley in february 2004 parnell was convicted of attempting to purchase a child in attempted child molestation the prosecution successfully argued that parnell had criminal intentions and he was sentenced to 25 years to life under california's three strikes law parnell died of natural causes in prison in 2008. this is the school that stephen stainer was walking home from that day when she was kidnapped so i'm traveling down 22nd street here in merced it's just east of charles wright elementary school just to give you an idea of the type of houses that are here and we're here back in 1972 at the time of the stainer kidnapping a lot of the trees obviously were not as big and some maybe weren't even planted kind of a middle class neighborhood but the kids who were living south of here would have taken some of the side streets here to the south and headed off towards home that way so this is the central yosemite highway it's state route 140 and right over there is highland stephen seiner would have walked down that school probably crossed right here right down this sidewalk right over here is a church so right there on this side of the pump is where stephen stainer was accosted by the two dirt bags that posed themselves as church people they asked stephen if he would get in the car and they'd take him over to his mother to see if she could make a donation to the church now maybe stephen thought that that was legit because the church is right next door i'm told that the abduction took place right here at these pumps now this is gene street he wouldn't have gone down this route it's not the direct route to home and he would have gone up to the next street now normally stephen would have gone right past this mini mart here it's gas pumps they've got walk down shirley street that where that car is going that's how you would go to his house unfortunately his abductor took him all the way up this way which is highway 140 to cathay's valley where he would be holed up in a cabin and sexually molested within days very tragic event this is the same house where stephen was living the time he was kidnapped it looks pretty much the same that it looked way back in the day this half brick wall is still here that's where this picture was taken of the family right after stephen was returned home kerry is sitting on that ledge stephen is standing right there the corner of where the brick and the house meet and the sisters are gathered around there's also a picture of stephen who was photographed they opened the blinds for the photographers and they took pictures of them through here however right here this way is a picture of carrie stander being embraced by his mother when they found out that steven was coming home that day was a joyous day probably a very shocking day for him you will see in the background of the picture is this garage as i think of all the media that gathered out here that night since stephen stainer returned home after seven or eight years of being abducted it's an amazing historical home here [Music] just below the roof lines glass it's been painted over and it doesn't let any light in but it looks like it's plywood but back when steven lived here it was wide open letting a lot of light in that house people think there's some bad mojo here during the defense phase kerry stainer's defense trial his defense attorney suggested that delbert was molesting his own daughters i think they were making all kinds of excuses for kerry's behavior it was in his house he developed some pretty strange twisted ideas he started feeling the urge to kill women he ended up killing four women and uh it's a very tragic episode in merced history [Music] the renters said they were gonna let me in 1655 this is the stainer living room and it kindly let me go to the backyard here's the garage and the backyard or carrie sainter and steven stainer grew up probably played back here it's not a very big yard this is the backyard of the stainer house i don't think anybody's ever featured this on youtube there's the garage delbert and k stainer bought this house and i understand they did not want to move because they never knew if stephen was going to return home now this isn't theirs but uh this is the exact yard who knows what kind of sick ideas carrie came up with back here it's amazing a deep sickness ran through the soul of carrie steiner who admitted that fantasies of murdering women started when he was seven years old in 1997 carrie stainer was a handyman at the cedar lodge motel in el portal just outside of yosemite national park in february 1999 he had made his way into the motel room of tourists there he tortured sexually assaulted and murdered carol sund 42 her 15 year old daughter julie's son and a 16 year old argentine exchange student salvina peloso stainer disposed of the bodies of carol's son and peloso by torching their car with them inside a note was sent to the modesto fbi office with a hand-drawn map indicating the location of julie's son's body the top of the note read we had fun with this one investigators followed the map and found her remains the murders went unsolved until july 21 1999 when yet another murder took place in the region which yielded clues pointing to carrie stayner sarah and i had actually seen the cabin where the murder took place on an earlier trip this year to yosemite for another episode of history hunters during the murder of 26 year old yosemite resident joy ruth armstrong at foresta witnesses had spotted a blue 1979 international scout parked outside the cabin where armstrong was living detectives traced the vehicle to stainer who became a prime suspect in all four murders stainer shocked investigators when he confessed to not only armstrong's murder but the murders of peloso and the sons he also said that he set the map detailing where julie's son's body was dumped and his vehicle yielded evidence proving his link to armstrong's murder steiner pled not guilty by reason of insanity after he was declared sane a jury convicted him of all four murders in 2002 he was sentenced to death at san quentin prison but governor newsom imposed a moratorium on all executions shortly after he was elected even though he stated that he favored the death penalty as a candidate [Music] now this is the san joaquin valley national cemetery outside of santa nella it's in merced county same county that steven stainer was kidnapped in same county that kerry stainer was raised in this is the newest of all national cemeteries in california and i'm here to look for the gravesite of delbert steiner who was stephen and carrie stainer's dad he was a veteran of the korean war he's buried here we're going to find his grave here we go delbert foy steiner he was a sergeant in the army during the korean war he lived from 1933 to 2013. marker number 2953 always in our hearts i don't think any of us can fathom the agony that it must be for a parent to lose a child male or female to kidnap her knowing that something very terribly wrong can happen and usually does happen they're usually never found or they're killed or abused in such horrible ways i don't understand how any human being could do that to a child delbert standard was almost 80 years old when he passed away but i can't help but think that maybe it was the very bad publicity about carrie killing those yosemite tourists is what helped put him in his grave this whole cemetery is populated with veterans who spent time in foreign lands look at this he's right next to david kessel who served in vietnam so i'm stopping here in apple gate park to show you this statue that was dedicated to a teen hero steven steiner up there you will see stephen holding the hand of little five-year-old timothy white this tells the story kidnapped in 1972 as he was walking home from school and told his parents no longer wanted him seven-year-old steven steiner was routinely violated through seven years of captivity as stephen grew older his captor's preference for younger children drove him to abduct five-year-old timothy white unaware of the fate now intended for him stephen's only thought was to save the new trout from unspeakable abuse he had himself suffered stephen summered the courage to lead little timmy on a desperate flight to safety once returned to his parents stephen took time to educate law enforcement school and parent groups on the insidious methods of child sex predators stephen died at age 24 in a motorcycle accident living a wife and two small children made this memorial to steven stainer's heroism and to all child victims stand as a beacon of hope to families of children still missing and maybe a little thing but i noticed that both their right heels are lifting off the ground kind of that pivotal moment they decide to flee delbert and k stainer got to see this statue dedicated before he passed as i gazed at the statue of stephen stainer and timothy white i couldn't help but wonder how many other children have been kidnapped and never returned home or like stephen are still trapped living with an abductor i am also trouble thinking about children living with abusive parents or guardians fred rogers once said anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me it's time for us to step up and be that hero all of us can do our part by being aware of the signs of abuse and reporting them to law enforcement i'm sure that you can agree with me that children are our most precious resource and need to be protected so i think that's going to wrap up this episode of history hunters we thank you for watching this episode ran about 20 minutes but actually took months of preparation and research but we felt that we needed to be as thorough as we could be to tell this story it's a very complex story involving the stainers i'm not sure if you know this but if you do two simple things for us you can help us promote and grow this channel one of them is to leave a comment hopefully a positive comment and give us a like doing that helps with the algorithms that youtube uses to recommend our channel to others so if you could do us that favor we would certainly appreciate it thank you so much for being a fan of pastry editors [Music] you

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 50,778

Keywords: Steven Stayner kidnapping, Cary Stayner, Yosemite killings, History Hunters

Id: xbLQzQAHVC8

Length: 23min 6sec (1386 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 14 2021