Steven Gregory Stayner (April 18, 1965 - September 16, 1989) is a victim of an American kidnapping. On December 4, 1972, Stayner was kidnapped in Merced, California by child molester Kenneth Parnell. He lived with his captor for 200 miles in Mendocino County, California until he was 14, returning to his family after he was found while returning another Parnell victim, Timothy White, to his own family.
Stayner died in 1989 in a motorcycle accident while driving home from work.
Video Steven Stayner
Birth and family
Stayner is the third of five children born to Delbert and Kay Stayner in Merced, California. He has three sisters and a brother, Cary. In 2002, Cary was sentenced and sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of four women.
Maps Steven Stayner
Kidnapping
On the afternoon of December 4, 1972, Stayner was approached on his way home from school by a man named Ervin Edward Murphy, who had met Kenneth Parnell when both worked at a resort in Yosemite National Park. Murphy, depicted by people who knew him as a trusting, naive, and simple-minded person, had been enlisted by a jailed child rapist Parnell (who had given himself up as a candidate for Minister Murphy) to help him kidnap a young boy. so Parnell can "raise him in a religious type deal," as Murphy later said.
Acting on instructions from Parnell, Murphy distributed a gospel tract to children who walked home from school that day and, after finding Stayner, claimed to be a church representative looking for donations. Stayner later claimed that Murphy asked if his mother was willing to donate the goods to the church; when the boy replies that he will do it, Murphy then asks Stayner where he lives and whether he is willing to take Murphy to his home. After Stayner agrees, the white Buick driven by Parnell stops, and Stayner willingly climbs into the car with Murphy. Parnell then drove a confused Stayner to his hut near Catheys Valley. (Unknown Stayner, Parnell's cabin is located just a few hundred yards from the maternal grandfather's residence.) Parnell persecuted Stayner on the first night. Parnell began raping Stayner thirteen days later, on December 17, 1972.
After telling Parnell that he wanted to go home many times during his first week with him, Parnell told Stayner that he had been given custody of the child because his parents could not afford so many children and that they did not want him anymore.
Parnell started calling the boy, Dennis Gregory Parnell, defending the true Stayner's true middle name and actual birth date when enrolling in various schools over the next few years. Parnell gave himself as Stayner's father, and they often moved to California, among whom lived in Santa Rosa and Comptche. He allowed Stayner to start drinking at a young age and to come and go almost as he pleased. Parnell also bounced from one crude job to another rough job, some of his work required travel and he would leave Stayner unattended, causing adult Stayner to comment that he could easily use this absence as a chance to escape but did not know how to call for help. One of the few positive aspects of Stayner's life with Parnell is the dog he received as a gift from Parnell, the Manchester Terrier he named Queenie. This dog has been given to Parnell by his mother, who was unaware of Stayner's existence during the period when he lived with Parnell.
For a period of 18 months, a woman named Barbara Mathias lives with Parnell and Stayner. According to Stayner, Mathias, along with Parnell, raped her on nine separate occasions at the age of nine. In 1975, on Parnell's instructions, Mathias tried to provoke another young man, who was in Santa Rosa Boys' Club with Stayner, to Parnell's Car. The effort did not work. Mathias then claims to have been completely unaware that "Dennis" has, in fact, been kidnapped.
Escape
When Stayner enters puberty, Parnell starts looking for a younger kid to kidnap. Parnell has used Stayner to kidnap children on previous occasions; However, all was unsuccessful, causing Parnell to believe Stayner did not have the means to become an accomplice (Stayner later revealed he was deliberately sabotaging this aborted kidnapping). On February 14, 1980, Parnell and a teammate from Stayner named Randall Sean Poorman kidnapped a five-year-old Timothy White in Ukiah, California. Motivated in part by the tribulation of the young man, Stayner decided to return the child to his parents. On March 1, 1980, when Parnell was away for his night security affair, Stayner went with White and boarded Ukiah. Unable to find White's home address, he decides to walk to the police station for help, without him. But the police officers saw and held them both. Stayner immediately identifies Timmy White and then reveals his own identity and story.
By dawn on March 2, 1980, Parnell had been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping the boys. After the police examined Parnell's background, they discovered a previous sodomy belief from 1951. The two boys reunited with their family that day. In 1981, Parnell was tried and convicted of kidnapping White and Stayner in two separate sessions. He was sentenced to seven years but released after serving five years. Parnell was not charged with many sexual assaults on Steven Stayner and other children as most of them occurred outside the jurisdiction of the Mercedes district attorney or were currently outside the statute of limitations. The district attorney of Mendocino, acting almost solemnly, decided not to try Parnell for the sexual assaults that took place in their jurisdiction. This may be because of the prosecutor's conviction that they "protect" Stayner because the victims of rape and abuse are seen as "damaged goods." They may also feel that they respect the reluctance of Stayner's parents to discuss Parnell's crime because of the stigma of male sexual harassment. Ervin Murphy and Randall Poorman, who had helped kidnap Timmy White, were convicted for lesser charges. Both claim to know nothing about the sexual assault on Steven. Barbara Mathias was never arrested. Stayner remembers the kindness of "Uncle" Murphy had shown in the first week of his captivity when they were both under the influence of Parnell's manipulation, and he believed that Murphy was Parnell's victim just like him and Timmy.
The kidnapping of Steven Stayner and consequently prompted California lawmakers to amend state legislation "to allow consecutive prisons in the same kidnapping case."
Next life and death
Upon returning to his family, Stayner has difficulty adjusting to a more structured household because he is allowed to smoke, drink and do what he likes when he lives with Kenneth Parnell. In an interview with Newsweek shortly after he was reunited with his family, Stayner said, "I came back almost grown and my parents saw me initially as their 7-year-old son after they stopped trying to teach me the basics again, it gets better But why does my father not hug me again? [...] Everything has changed Sometimes I blame myself I do not know sometimes if I have to come home. would I be better off if I did not? "Stayner initially underwent short counseling but never looked for additional treatments. She also refused to disclose all details of the sexual abuse she suffered while she was living with Kenneth Parnell. In a 2007 interview, sister Stayner, Cory said that her sister did not seek counseling because their father said Stayner "did not need". He added, "She [Steven] went on with her life but she was very upset." He was ridiculed by other children at school for being abused and finally dropping out of school. Stayner began drinking frequently, and was eventually expelled from the family home. His relationship with his father remained tense.
In 1985, Stayner married 17-year-old Jody Edmondson. The couple has two children, Ashley and Steven, Jr. Jody Edmondson later said that having his own family helps Stayner find peace even though he still blames himself for being kidnapped. In his final years, Stayner worked with kidnapping groups, talked to children about alien hazards and gave interviews about his abduction. He then joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just before his death. At the time of his death, Stayner lived in Merced, California and worked at Pizza Hut.
On September 17, 1989, Stayner was heading home from work on a rainy afternoon when his motorcycle collided with a car pulling traffic from a side street in Merced, California. He suffered a fatal head injury and died at the Merced Community Medical Center shortly after. At the time of the accident, Stayner drove without a license and did not wear a helmet. The driver who hit Stayner escaped from the scene and then surrendered to the police shortly before the Stayner funeral.
On September 20, the Stayner funeral was held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Merced. 500 people attended including Timmy White who is 14 years old who is one of the Stayner bearer.
Media customization
In early 1989, a television miniseries based on his experience, I Know My First Name is Steven (also known as Lost Years ), produced. Steven, taking time off from his job, acting as an adviser to production company (Lorimar-Telepictures) and having a non-talking part, played one of the two police guarding the 14-year-old Steven (played by Corin Nemec) through the crowd to the family he waited for , when he returned to his home in Merced. While delighted with the dramatization, Mr Stayner complains that it describes him as somewhat "annoying, rude", especially to his parents, something he refuted when publishing the miniseries in the spring of 1989. The two miniseries were first broadcast by NBC on 21-22 May 1989. The screening rights were sold to a number of international television companies including the BBC, which sifted out the miniseries in mid-July next year; then, released as a long movie.
Production is based on a script by Mike Echols, who has researched the story and interviewed Stayner and Parnell, among others. After the premiere of I Know My First Name is Steven, who received four Emmy Award nominations, including one for Corin Nemec, Echols published his book, I Know My First Name is Steven , in 1991. In the epilogue to his book, Echols explains how he infiltrated NAMBLA.
In 1999, against the wishes of the Stayner family, Echols wrote an additional chapter, about Steven's brother, punishing serial killer Cary Stayner, at the request of the publisher who then reissued the book.
The title of the film and book is taken from the first paragraph of Steven's written police statement, which was given in the early hours of March 2, 1980 in Ukiah. It reads (note the incorrect spelling of his surname);
My name is Steven Stainer I am fourteen.I do not know my actual birth date but I am using April 18, 1965. I know my first name is Steven, I'm I'm sure last is Stainer [sic] , and if I have a middle name, I do not know that. "
Steven's story is also included in Nigel Cawthorne's Against Their Will book, a compilation of abduction stories.
Aftermath
Ten years after the death of Stayner, the city of Merced called on its inhabitants to submit a name for a city park honoring the famous citizen of Merced. Stayner's parents suggested that someone be named "Stayner Park". The idea was eventually rejected and the honor was given to other Merced residents because Stayer's brother Cary confessed, and was accused of, killing four women in Yosemite in 1999; Mercedes city officials fear that the name "Stayner Park" will be linked to Cary than Steven.
In 2004, Kenneth Parnell, then aged 72, was convicted of trying the previous year to persuade his nurse to get a boy for five hundred dollars. The nurse, aware of Parnell's past, reported this to the local police. Timmy White, an adult male, was summoned to testify at the Parnell criminal court. Although Stayner was dead, Stayner's testimony at Parnell's previous trial was read to the jurors as evidence at the Parnell trial in 2004. Kenneth Parnell died of natural causes on January 21, 2008, at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California, while serving a 25-year life.
Timothy James "Timmy" White later became Deputy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He died on April 1, 2010, at the age of 35 from pulmonary embolism. White survived by his wife, Dena, and two small children, as well as by his mother, father, stepfather and sister. Almost five months later, on August 28, 2010, the statue of Stayner and White is dedicated at Applegate Park in Merced, California. The resident of Ukiah, the hometown of White, carved a statue that shows a teenage Stayner with a young White in hand while escaping from their detention. Fundraising for the statue has stated that it was meant to honor Steven Stayner and give the families of lost and kidnapped children, hoping that they are alive.
Steven's father, Delbert Stayner, died on April 9, 2013 at his home in Winton, California. He is 79 years old.
See also
- List of people who mysteriously disappear
References
Further reading
- I Know My First Name Is Steven , by Mike Echols. Pinnacle Books, New York. 1999. ISBNÃ, 0-7860-1104-1
- From Victim To Hero: The Undead Story of Steven Stayner , by Jim Laughter aided by Sharon Carr Griffen. Buoy Up Press, Denton, Texas, 2010. ISBNÃ, 978-0-937660-86-7
External links
- I Know My First Name Is Steven in IMDb
- Steven Stayner at Find Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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