Steven’s older brother, Cary Stayner, was found guilty of murder and the family made headlines again. Many such unfortunate events have been held before with the Stayner family.
What crimes were committed by Cary Stayner?
In 1999, Cary was arrested for the murder of a young woman named Joey Ruth Armstrong in Yosemite, California. Nature guide Armstrong, 26, was found decapitated in a wooded area of the national park near her home.
During a behind-the-scenes interview in a Sacramento jail following his arrest, Cary confessed to killing Armstrong, as well as the murders of Carol Sand, 42, her daughter Julie Sand, 15, and Julie’s girlfriend Silvina Peloso, 16, according to The New York Times.
Cary worked as a janitor and stayed at the Yosemite Cedar Lodge, the same motel where the trio lived. In his prison interview, he said he killed the women “because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Prior to Cary’s murder, he said, “He dreamt of killing women for 30 years before he found his moment this February,” according to The New York Times. A week before Armstrong’s beheading, he said he “could no longer resist the temptation to kill again”.
What was Cary Stayner’s sentence?
Cary was not initially charged with the murders, but due to the significant amount of evidence he left behind, the FBI brought him up. Since they found his car near Armstrong’s cottage, Jeff Rineck (the FBI agent who was on Cary’s case at the time) said they wanted to use him as a “natural witness for questioning,” according to ABC News.
According to FBI agent John Bowles, who fled to a naturist colony after Armstrong’s murder, Cary was found by the FBI and brought in for questioning, where he confessed to her murder and detailed the act “as if he were reading a soup label”. Soon after, Cary confessed to killing three other women.
Where is Cary Stayner now?
Currently, Cary, 60, is being held at San Quentin State Prison on death row. It is California’s oldest correctional facility and houses the largest death row in the country. Because of his conviction, Cary is “not eligible for parole,” according to the prison’s website.
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