It was absolutely incredible. The moment that Steven Stayner is abducted is the moment this story really begins. Theres going to be a homecoming. You would imagine sheer joy, that the entire family would be ecstatic. But one member is not so thrilled. He was cold. Hateful. A vicious, vicious killer. Buzz hes more vicious than that. We have recovered two bodies. You can never imagine something so heinous happening in and around yosemite. This is a story that decades later, theyre still talking about it. You should never let your guard down. Maybe, just maybe, well find this girl alive. He was handsome, warm, he was like a big teddy bear. He was just our friend. It was frightening to think what he was thinking the whole time. This is yosemite. These things dont happen in yosemite. Yosemite actually means the people who kill. I had the knife with me. You never expect so much terror to happen in such a beautiful place. This story starts in merced, california. Its in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by almond groves and peach orchards. Its a small farming town in the Central Valley of california, which is in the huge shadow of yosemite. Merced, they call the gateway to yosemite. I started singing byebye Miss American pie were talking 1972. American pie was on the radio. Singing thisll be the day that i die its the year of watergate. It was the year that pong was introduced. The brady bunch. Thats the way we became the brady bunch the stayners lived on bette street. It was a middle class kind of a neighborhood. The parents were delbert and kay, and cary was the oldest of five children, he had a younger brother, steven, and Three Sisters too. Del worked as a mechanic in a peach cannery. His mother kay was always described as distant, somewhat aloof. A woman who raised her children with sort of almost a coldness. Cary was a nice guy. He was kind of a quiet guy. Our days would be just get on our bikes in the morning and go to the park. Hang out with friends or skateboard. He loved his brother. Hung out with him, played with him, looked out for him. Steven had walked almost all the way home, and thats when it happened, a man in a car offered him a ride. So at the same time that the stayner boys are growing up in merced, about two hours away in yosemite, theres a little, stooped, pasty, nebbishy guy named ken parnell. Kenneth parnell was working at the yosemite lodge, doing the books for them. He was convicted previously of molesting a child. But he found a job in yosemite because that kind of guy could find a job in yosemite. A lot of people run to yosemite to get away from things. And kenneth decided that he was going to abduct a young boy. He was able to recruit a coworker of his. A slowwitted fella named ervin murphy. And finally, on december 4th, it was a sleety, wintery day, he and ervin murphy got into kens big, white buick and drove into merced. Steven, what happened that afternoon, do you remember, when you were walking home from school . And they saw this little boy, 7yearold Steven Stayner. Steven had left school, headed straight south from here four blocks. And when he was on Yosemite Parkway, which leads to Yosemite National park, he was approached by ervin murphy. Murphy had some religious tracts with him, which hed been using to approach other kids. He asked steven if he thought that his mother would be willing to make a charitable donation to a church. At that point, parnell drove up in this old, white buick. Murphy opened the rear door and steven got in. Instead of taking a right so he could go to his home, they continued directly eastbound. Theyre driving out of merced, going up highway 140. Kenneth parnell stops the car and he goes to a pay phone, he comes back and tells steven, your parents, i just spoke to them. They no longer want you. And parnell then told him, youre gonna be my son. He was a 7yearold, thoroughly confused kid. I think he was probably used to an authoritative approach by his parents, so when parnell told him that his parents said he was gonna go with him, i think he probably believed it. Stevens abduction was sudden, wrenching, brutal and yet, hes gonna be hiding in plain sight for years. The moment that Steven Stayner is abducted is the moment that this story of two brothers really begins. And was absolutely pivotal in terms of the monster coming to life. None of your ideas make eyecare more frustrating, which is why this council exists. Explain yourself its simple. At visionworks, we guarantee youll see great and look great. Guarantee. We say that too. Oh no, we mean it. Mean it. You gotta use these because we dont mean it. Theyre really important because it changes the meaning. So if youre doing [ yells from exasperation ] if you dont love your glasses, well make it right. Guaranteed. Visionworks. See the difference. 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Eliquis is fda approved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical entaocedes whats around the corner tell your doctor about all planned medical entaocedes ask your doctor about eliquis. December 4th, 1972. Steven stayner was abducted on highway 140 in the city of merced by individuals driving in an oldermodel white buick. And theyre driving east, towards yosemite. Parnell lives most of his life in yosemite, in the lodge. He kept steven in his room for about a week after that. He kept giving him this cough syrup to sedate him. I think that parnell felt that the more confused and sedated that he could keep steven in for the first several weeks, the better chance he stood to erase his connection back to his own family. When steven didnt make it home from school, his parents immediately were alerted. Merced was the lead police department, and so they really mounted a large effort to search. And they searched. And there was just nothing there. It happened here at this corner and it was such a classic situation. The kind against which parents are constantly warning their children. The next morning, there was an empty desk in the seconds grade class at Charles Wright school. When he was missing, it rocked the stayner family. It hurt the family dynamic. And it crushed del stayner. He just becomes a broken man, really. Kay becomes even more distant, more aloof. Shes sort of raising her children almost robotically. Kay and delbert became colder to their other children. Cary was very upset. I heard stories about him going out and wishing on a star, that his brother would come home. Maybe he had some guilt, because i believe he was supposed to have been with his brother. Delbert kind of saw steven as his real son, and cary kind of felt abandoned, neglected. A few weeks after he kidnapped steven, parnell pulled up stakes and he started drifting around california. They moved first to santa rosa. They would stay in fleabag motels, a crappy trailer or a broken down house. Steven stayner had a new father figure, and it was Kenneth Parnell, who, by day, was his father, and by night was his rapist. Parnell told him that his name was gonna be dennis parnell, and he enrolled him in school. And the school failed to get the records. Those were the days where youd get a copy of a record. You know, there was no email. In the summer of 1976, its a couple weeks before the bicentennial, and its been four years since steven was told ken parnell was his father. Parnell and steven ended up in li town omptche, cali in mendoco. Aral store. And he kept him on the grounds in a trailer. So this is where ken parnell used to live many years ago. Its a good place to hide. Its a long ways from anywhere out here. Nobody knew what was going on behind closed doors, and that this wasnt a father and son at all. By this time, im pretty certain that parnell felt ive got him emotionally locked in. Going nowhere. From all outward appearances, hed adjusted to his new life. There was no school out there, so every day he had to get on a bus and ride for 30 minutes. This picture just describes what he looked like. His personality, his hairdo, his flannel shirt, his smile. My name is lori and Steven Stayner was my boyfriend in high school. He had a great personality. He was spunky. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal. Growing up with him consisted of a lot of fishing, riding bicycles. He sort of reminded me of shaggy from scoobydoo. He had the same haircut and same shape of face even. He made his way into getting into athletics in his freshman year of high school. He had a level of maturity to him that most of the kids didnt have, and i think part of that was, you know, he was already smoking cigarettes. A lot of kids had freedom, but not his kind of come and go as he pleased. Which makes me wonder, why didnt he just leave . The answer is that steven now has attached to parnell on some parental level, and thats still his dependency day in and day out for food, clothing. And lets face it. It sounds like parnell basically let him do whatever he wanted to do as far as drugs, alcohol. And so his Comfort Level now has set in. Because of the sexual abuse, i think that played into it, too. He knew that that wasnt normal. I dont think that he wanted to have other people know about it. In some ways, it was just easier to go along with what was happening to him. Steven still has a reality that he has a real family someplace else. We were walking home, and he started crying. He said, i want to go home to my real home. We just let it go. We had been drinking some beer and, you know, kids. While steven is a freshman at mendocino high school, some 300 miles to the south, his brother cary was an upperclassman at merced high school. He was cary stayner, the kid who had his brother kidnapped. There was a pall over him. He was actually voted most creative. Cary was very well known for his drawings. I think he was a very, very good cartoonist, especially with the humor. He would always wear a hat, every time you would see him. He was wearing a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. Emotionally, cary had a tough time during his childhood. I dont remember cary ever having a girlfriend, and i never saw him with a girl. Cary started acting wildly inappropriately towards females. He exposed himself to one of his sisters friends. It seemed as though he had a compulsion with trying to get close to women or be sexual with them. But he was unable to develop any sort of interpersonal relationships with any women. Theres a surreal contrast in this. You have one brother whos been subjected to just unspeakable horror for years, but by all appearances hes a happygolucky, jovial kid with a girlfriend. You have the other brother whos left at home. And it wasnt that he was just a loner. He was a bit of a creepy loner. So, in 1979, stevens now 14, hes been with parnell for seven years, and parnell then moves him to a very new, remote location. Then he can sort of, in his mind, stay one step in front of Law Enforcement. Ken parnell takes steven to this small, little town called manchester, kind of along the coast of northern california. 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Hoo book things to do, on tripadvisor. Get everything you need to go back big at the low prices you love from walmart. In 1979, ken parnell pulled up stakes again, and he moved with steven to a small cabin in manchester, california, which is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by almost nothing. This is, for ken and for steven, a turning point. It was a oneroom shack. Very old and cold. At some point, parnell and steven together realized that steven was growing up and that he was no longer gonna be able to be controlled by parnell. Parnell wanted another kid. So, in february of 1980, ken parnell goes back to the exact same m. O. That he used to get Steven Stayner. He paid a local kid to ride with him to the little town of ukiah, california, puts this High School Kid out on the street to go find him a boy, and he finds 5yearold Timothy White walking home from school. Steven watched timmy suffer through this separation from his family for two weeks and decided finally that he had to do something about it. He literally said, i was not gonna let that child go through what i had already been ro and i dnar i now,t wod ju eventually, steven got the courage to take timmy white out of that house. And when Kenneth Parnell went to work, the two hitchhiked to the town of ukiah. Its dark, and timmy cant remember where he lives. So, steven figures the best thing to do is to take him to the police station. Keep in mind, steve stayner was known as dennis for seven long years. But when he arrives at that police station, he says something that will be embedded in the public consciousness forever. I know my first name is steven. And that became the title of a book. It became a television movie, and it made steven famous. Seven long years ago, a youngster in california vanished. Everyone thought he was dead at this point. He had rescued another boy. This is steven today. He is holding 5yearold Timothy White. Who could make this up . Every television network, every magazine cover, every movie executive. There wasnt anyone not interested. There he is. There he is. Steven was a national hero. He returns to merced triumphant. Stevens return has been a joyous event. Within days, hes on good morning america. Good morning, steven, and mr. And mrs. Stayner. Steven, hows it feel to be home . Feels great. Did you remember your parents well . They didnt change that much. I recognized them when i got out of the car. What about your brothers and sisters . They changed a lot. I never recognized either one of them. Mr. And mrs. Stayner, how did this affect your other four children . When steve disappeared, the older two were very upset and i think kind of became very quiet children from the experience. There was a press conference outside the stayner house on bette street. And everyone was smiling. There was a lot of jubilation. This is really some sort of a miracle that stevens come home. The greatest thing that ever happened. Its a blessing. But if you look in the background, theres something worth noting, and its cary in his baseball cap. And hes not smiling at all. Cary, as the older brother, had a very strange relationship now with his younger brother, steven, who was getting all of this attention and who was a different person. In the television movie, theres a sce