{"id":2450,"date":"2022-05-17T07:17:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T07:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2022-06-02T05:50:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T05:50:42","slug":"sund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/sund\/","title":{"rendered":"Motel Handyman Confesses to 4 Yosemite Murders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Please note that this is an evolving story. We urge you to bookmark this
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<\/b><\/span>His friends didn’t consider him a killer and, up until now (7\/25\/99), neither did the FBI. Motel handyman Cary Stayner, according to court – admitted affidavits & now published reports, has confessed to 4 murders. The most recent? … a week earlier slaying of Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong. The other 3 murders? Yosemite tourists Carole Sund, daughter Julie Sund & family friend Silvina Pelosso earlier this year … this triple homicide the subject of a massive law enforcement manhunt as well as “headline” media stories around the world. As one newspaper editorialized: “how could such a terrible crime take place in such a beautiful place?”<\/span><\/p>\n

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On Monday, July 26, Cary Stayner was arraigned in federal court in Sacramento. Lacking a grand jury indictment, the Sacramento arraignment lasted just minutes … just enough time for Stayner to be read his rights, to have a first degree murder charge in the Armstrong confession against him explained and to receive a court ordered public defender. Court proceedings will resume August 6th in U.S. District Court in Fresno and a plea will presumably be entered at that time. No court date nor formal charges have been announced regarding the Sund \/ Pelosso murders \/ confession.
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26 year old Joie Armstrong, according to friends, loved people and loved nature. Only days before she was killed, she e-mailed a longtime Florida: “You should see this place … I love my garden and living in Yosemite – one of the most beautiful places in the whole wide world.”<\/p>\n

Ms. Armstrong had been been living in Yosemite and working for the Yosemite Institute, a non profit group running educational programs via a partnership with the National Park Service. Armstrong’s torso was found a short distance from her cabin in Yosemite’s Foresta region on Thursday, July 22. Her decapitated head was found nearby.<\/p>\n

Stayner lived just outside Yosemite in El Portal at the Cedar Lodge Motel where he worked as a handyman. He had been questioned months earlier in the Sund \/ Pelosso murders. That motel was the last location where the trio was seen alive.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Stayner’s sport utility vehicle was seen near Armstrong’s Foresta cabin barely an hour before she was last seen alive that Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Twice on Thursday, law enforcement interviewed Stayner. He was neither arrested nor detained but, upon learning that the handyman failed to show up for work the next morning (his first absence in a year and a half, we’ve learned), the FBI apparently wanted to talk to Stayner again. He was arrested Saturday, July 24 at a Sacramento area nudist camp (friends described him as an outdoors person and a “naturalist”) after someone there heard news reports and called authorities. Stayner was reinterviewed and then arrested for the Armstrong murder … a murder that Stayner has now, according to court submitted affidavits, admitted to. The Sund \/ Pelosso confessions apparently soon came thereafter.<\/p>\n

As to Stayner’s involvement in the Sund\/Pelosso murders: FBI District Chief Jim Maddock has refused to say why Stayner was dismissed as a suspect earlier. In Maddock’s words: “I look forward to the day when I can share the details of the investigations from start to finish.”
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Meanwhile, we have pieced together the following information:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Stayner was indeed the handyman at the Cedar Lodge Motel in El Portal. That same lodge was the last place that Carole, Julie & Silvina were seen alive. That was on February 15. On March 18, law enforcement found the torched remains of the trio’s rental car in neighboring Tuolumne County. In the trunk, the 2 badly bodies later identified as mother Carole Sund & friend of the family Silvina Pelosso. In late March, the FBI & Tuolumne County authorities discover the body of daughter Julie Sund near Lake Don Pedro, 40 minutes away from the rental car location.<\/p>\n

Stayner grew up in nearby Merced in the San Joaquin Valley. Some childhood friends described him as a “nice guy” but also a “loner.” His family suggests he may have been coerced into a confession.<\/p>\n

Two other items of importance here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

#1:<\/strong>\u00a0Cary Stayner’s uncle, Jesse Stayner, was shot to death in December, 1990. The homicide was never solved. Merced County authorities say they will once again open up the unsolved case. Is Cary Stayner a suspect in this now reopened homicide? Yes.<\/p>\n

#2:<\/strong>\u00a0Cary’s brother Steven made national headlines back in 1972 when he was snatched off a Merced street at age 7. He remained missing for 7 years. Steven was reunited with his family in 1980, hailed as a hero for finally going to authorities when his abductor Kenneth Parnell, a since convicted child molester, kidnapped yet another boy. (You might recall that the abduction was made into a television mini – series.) One final piece of irony, brother Steven Stayner’s family reunion was not permanent. He died in a hit & run accident in 1989. He was 24.<\/p>\n

More relevant information is contained in the “Points to Ponder<\/a>” segment at the end of this page. Meanwhile, for the internet’s most concise & comprehensive view on a triple murder that has now taken on a fourth victim, please scroll below:
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Update on the 3 Missing Yosemite Women: 3 GrizzlyFinds<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a case that millions of people on two continents have been following ever so closely. 42 year old Carole Sund of Eureka, California, her 15 year old daughter Julie and 16 year old Silvina Pelosso, a visiting family friend from Cordoba, Argentina seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth since February 15th during a trip to Yosemite. They were last seen at a restaurant adjacent to the Cedar Lodge just outside the El Portal, Highway 140 entrance to the park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now however the case has taken on all aspects of a gruesome tragedy. \u00a0 Here is the crime investigation chronology:<\/span><\/p>\n

Thursday, March 18<\/strong><\/p>\n

Law enforcement announces they had found the women’s rented 1999 red Pontiac Grand Prix. A private citizen located the badly burned vehicle 100 yards off Highway 108 near Long Barn, California. Positive investigation is confirmed via the still readable license plates. Baffling investigators is the fact that the car was found 3 hours away from El Portal. Further baffling investigators: Carole Sund’s wallet is recovered (without money or credit cards) in the Central Valley city of Modesto (2 hours away).<\/p>\n

Friday, March 19<\/strong><\/p>\n

At 11am the FBI holds a press conference in Miwuk (only a short distance from where the torched car was found). Sacramento District FBI Director Jim Maddock reports the horrific news. Two bodies were found in the car’s trunk and they were both so badly burned as to be unrecognizable. There is a very audible groan from the hundred or so reporters and camera people in attendance. We are told there has been no positive identification of the bodies and no timetable as to when there might be one. Director Maddock announces that Tuolumne County Sheriff Dick Rogers is now officially in charge of the investigation and Tuolumne County District Attorney Nina Deane will be in charge of prosecution of this case. Continuing to assist in the investigation will be a large FBI Task Force and several other law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Reporters are also informed that there will be no further announcement of possible suspects until an arrest or arrests have been made. Dozens of acres of the Stanislaus National Forest have been cordoned off as a crime scene. Every car traveling on highway 108 through this area is being stopped with motorists and their passengers being quizzed as to their destination. Local residents and those traveling to nearby recreational facilities are being allowed through.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Click on this link<\/a>\u00a0to see 2 pictures from this major press conference.<\/p>\n

Saturday, March 20<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another press conference is held at the Miwuk United States Forest Service headquarters. Tuolumne County Sheriff Rogers and the FBI’s Maddock announce the following:
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