Yosemite Killings Confession
In February of 1999, Carole Sund, her 16-year-old daughter, Juli, and a friend, Argentinian exchange student Silvina Pesso went missing while visiting Yosemite National Park. Authorities found the bodies of Carole and Silvina one month later in the burned-out remains of their rental car at the bottom of a cliff. However, Juli's body was not found until the killer mysteriously sent police a map with directions to its location.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Cary Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge outside of Yosemite where the victims had been staying, helped authorities collect evidence and open buildings at the lodge in the aftermath of the killings. FBI agent Jeff Rinek befriended Stayner during this time. The two men grew friendly and Stayner opened up about his past, telling Rinek about his brother Steven who had been the victim of a high-profile kidnapping in 1972.
Little did Rinek know that Stayner was himself the killer. Rinek recalled this time together with Stayner in an interview with CBS stating, "We got to know each other. We were two guys that didn't know each other, that were stuck doing something that we didn't really want to be doing, and so we were making the best of it. We were just talking amongst us."
A Second Murder
Months later, Stayner struck again. This time he murdered 26-year-old Yosemite naturalist, Joie Armstrong. Witnesses reported seeing Stayner's car near Armstrong's last known location. Rinek tracked Stayner down and found him at a nudist colony north of Yosemite. Stayner was not a suspect in the case, but Rinek convinced him to travel back to the FBI Office.
A Surprising Confession
Because of the closeness between them, Stayner trusted Rinek. He began to open up to Rinek not just about his brother's kidnapping, but eventually, he confessed to the killing of Joie Armstrong. Then later Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pesso, as well.
In an interview with CBS, Rinek qualified that he didn't gain Stayner's trust on purpose or because he was suspicious of him. "We were two guys together and we were becoming friends with each other. I didn't know what he did. I don't judge people, so when they talk to me, they feel comfortable," Rinek recalled.
A Twisted Past
In the 1970s, Stayner's seven-year-old brother Steven was kidnapped in Merced, California. His captor, Kenneth Parnell, abused Steven and held him hostage for seven years before Steven was able to escape, freeing another victim as well. In the aftermath of his brother's kidnapping, "Cary started acting wildly inappropriately towards females" as reported by ABC.
Steven died in a motorcycle accident in 1989 at only 24 years old. Not long after Steven's death, Stayner's uncle was shot and killed in an apartment he shared with Stayner. Sometime after the deaths of his brother and uncle, Stayner had a "couple of nervous breakdowns" according to ABC, including one that was "fairly violent." It's hard to say whether Stayner's traumatic experiences led him to commit the Yosemite killings. "The obvious question," according to ABC News, "is whether what happened to Steven caused Cary to do what he did."
Conviction
After giving his confession, Stayner was arrested and convicted of all four killings. He was sentenced to the death penalty, and now at 62 years old remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison. Rinek says that people often ask him if he's kept in touch with Stayner, but Rinek says he has not, responding to CBS News, "I think it would betray what I did."
References: Woman recalls moment family learned they were target of 1999 Yosemite killer: 'Our lives were flipped upside-down' | 25 years later: FBI agent shares how he got Cary Stayner to confess to Yosemite killings
