Dr. Desmond Kidd is Yosemite National Park’s medical director. In the course of his work at the park, he’s seen horrific injuries and worked countless hours at the park’s clinic. One day, after working nearly 24-hours, he found himself driving off Yosemite highway, through a wooded glen and into the area where a decades-old forest fire had once raged.
Kidd had been dispatched to this scene to help park rangers find a missing girl. He had done this before in the past, helped lost hikers find their way, but today’s journey would prove to be very different and much more unnerving.
A Bad Five Months
Five months earlier, Kidd had become involved in the search for three missing female tourists who had vanished from their room at the Cedar Lodge, a hotel at Yosemite’s entrance. Unfortunately, those three girls had been found brutally murdered a month later, and the memory was still fresh in Dr. Kidd’s mind.
Another Missing Girl
Now, 26-year-old Joie Ruth Armstrong was missing. The brilliant, bubbly, strawberry-blond naturalist lived with her boyfriend and a second roommate in a cabin near Yosemite. She also worked at the Yosemite Institute with Kidd, and though the two weren’t friends, they did know each other. She had planned to spend the weekend visiting friends in Sausalito but never showed. Everyone worried that something terrible had befallen her.
Five Groups
Joie’s white pickup truck was still parked in the driveway when park rangers and police arrived. Her luggage for her trip was packed in the back as if she had been ready to leave. The search team split up into five groups, searching nearby and far afield. They found no sign of the missing woman but did discover footprints, broken saplings, and the trampled evidence of what appeared to be a recent chase through the woods.
Decapitated
Suddenly, Kidd spotted a key ring glinting in the sun. He looked into the ditch where it lay and found something else, the decapitated body of a young woman. Joie’s head sat nearby. It was one of the most gruesome things the doctor had ever seen. The grisly find brought the events of the recent disappearance back to the forefront of Kidd’s mind. He recalled the abducted tourists’ case in sharp detail.
Gruesome Finds
42-year-old Carole Sund of Eureka, California had been visiting Yosemite with her 15-year-old daughter Juli and Juli’s 16-year-old friend, Silvina Pelosso, who had been visiting from Argentina. The evidence gathered by the FBI indicated that they had been abducted from the Cedar Lodge and with the discovery of Carole’s burned-out Pontiac a month later, the truth finally emerged.
Burned Car
Though hundreds of FBI agents, California Highway Patrol officers, and National Park Service rangers had combed Yosemite’s rugged backcountry with dogs and helicopters for weeks afterward, it was a lone hiker who eventually found them. Carole’s charred body was stuffed in the trunk next to Silvina’s. It was 100 miles from the Cedar Lodge. But where was Juli?
Juli’s Body
A week later, the FBI received an anonymous tip that led to Juli’s corpse. The killer had carried her away from the car and cut her throat. It was buried in the underbrush near the Don Pedro Reservoir, a few miles away from the logging trail where the car had been found. Despite the natural beauty of that part of the world, the murders revived a long-dormant fear about our national parks; they were no longer safe.
No Longer Safe
Not only were the murders particularly unsettling, but the location in which they occurred was also equally unnerving to the public at large. How could something so inhuman happen someplace so idyllic and far from the “corruption” of modern society? A family had vanished into the dark, unsettled wilderness without a trace and then been violently killed by a wild woodsman. And now so had Joie Armstrong.
The Strange Car
The police were not without leads, however. Almost immediately, a park employee came forward with information on a blue and white 1979 International Scout that had been parked near Joie’s house on the night of her disappearance. Soon enough, Park rangers spotted the vehicle parked near the Merced River Canyon, right outside the entrance to the park. There, they found a handsome, solidly built, nude man, sunbathing on the riverbank.
Similar Look
The man took a hit off the joint he had been smoking and explained to the ranger and accompanying police officer that his name was Cary Stayner. He also explained that he worked as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge. Neither of these things seemed to interest the cops at the time. They confiscated the marijuana and sent him on his way. Two days later, they took him into custody while he was eating at a “clothing optional” resort near Sacramento.
Confession
FBI investigators had compared tire tracks at the crime scene with photographs of Stayner’s treads and found that it was a perfect match. The 38-year-old then proceeded to confess to not only Joie Armstrong’s murder, but the murders of Carole, Juli, and Silvina. He’d been living under investigator’s noses for five months. Looking into his past, the FBI soon discovered that Staynor’s own family tragedy had transformed him into a violent predator.
Missing Brother
Cary Stayner was a native Californian who had lived outside of Yosemite most of his life. He, along with his three sisters and younger brother Steven, were the children of hard-working, middle-class parents. One afternoon, Steven Stayner disappeared without a trace as he was walking home from school down Yosemite Highway. His distraught parents undertook a veritable quest to find him.
Homecoming
The Stayners put up billboards, passed out leaflets, and even consulted psychics to find him to no avail. His mother became cold and distant towards her children and the father was openly devastated by the loss of his favorite son. Eventually, the family moved on, but one day, Cary heard on the radio that 14-year-old Steven had escaped from his abductor and was returning home. He couldn’t believe it.
Fame And Jealousy
Steven’s homecoming made him a celebrity. He went on TV, spoke to newspapers, and even had a book and miniseries about his time as a sex slave of drifter and pedophile, Kenneth Parnell, a man who incidentally also used to work at the Yosemite Lodge. Cary Stayner was jealous of his brother’s fame and their relationship soured after that, as did his relationship with his Steven-obsessed parents.
Bigfoot
It was around this time that Carl Stayner first began to talk about Bigfoot. He became obsessed with the legendary half-man, half-ape and talked about it all the time. He was absolutely certain it existed and whether he feared or identified with it, the thought of this remarkable cryptid took over his imagination. Perhaps it allowed him to escape from the mundaneness of his own life.
Violent Past
Cary later got into a job repairing glass and moved in with his uncle Jerry. Steven got married and had two kids, but sadly died in a motorcycle crash sometime later. Cary and the rest of the family were devastated. Friends would say the younger Stayner never got his life back together after his ordeal. A year later, Uncle Jerry was found dead on the bedroom floor with a shotgun wound in his chest. Cary was questioned but never charged. Still, people were suspicious.
Dead of Winter
A few years later, Carl had a bit of a nervous breakdown and moved further into the wilderness. He rented a room above the Cedar Lodge and did odd jobs around the hotel. It proved to be a great place for him to get his head on straight. Except for the Bigfoot thing, the likable, handsome man seemed perfectly ordinary. Then Carole, Juli, and Silvana arrived and he went off the deep-end.
Death Penalty
Cary Stayner faces the death penalty for not only the Armstrong murder but the Sund-Pelosso killings as well. Nevertheless, he seems to feel some remorse about what he has done and hopes to sell the rights to the story to Hollywood. Not for himself, but so that the royalties can ultimately be used to compensate the victims’ families. He realizes it’s not much, but it’s all he can offer.
Long-Dormant Cases
Most experts believe that it would be unlikely for Stayner to have targeted three victims for his first killing, so he probably killed before that. Thus, his confession has seen police departments all across the region reopen a number of long-dormant murder cases that he may have been involved in. This also includes the murder of his uncle Jerry.
Obsession
We don’t know much about Cary Stayner right now other than that he is a self-confessed murderer and an unabashed believer in Bigfoot. Even as he awaits his day in court, he seems convinced that there is a malevolent Bigfoot stalking the forests and mountains of Yosemite. Little does he realize, the true monster was him all along.
