“Evil in Eden”: 20/20 Reports on Cary Stayner, the Yosemite Murders and the Stayner Family’s Story of Horror and Heroism August 28 2026

ABC’s 20/20 presents “Evil in Eden” on Friday, August 28, 2026, at 9/8c, returning to the chilling crimes of Cary Stayner, the Cedar Lodge handyman who murdered four women and girls in and around Yosemite National Park in 1999.
The case brought terror to a region associated with some of America’s most celebrated wilderness. Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli Sund and 16-year-old Argentine exchange student Silvina Pelosso disappeared during a trip to Yosemite in February 1999. Months later, 26-year-old Yosemite Institute naturalist Joie Armstrong was murdered near her cabin.
Their killer was a man investigators had already interviewed.
Cary Stayner worked at the Cedar Lodge, where Carole, Juli and Silvina had stayed. He had escaped serious suspicion after the first three murders, but Armstrong’s killing led investigators back to him. After his arrest, Stayner confessed to all four murders.
The crimes carried another connection that made the case one of the most extraordinary in American criminal history. Cary was the older brother of Steven Stayner, who had become a national figure after surviving more than seven years of kidnapping and sexual abuse before escaping in 1980 and rescuing another abducted boy.
One Stayner brother became known for saving a child from a predator. The other became a serial killer.
“Evil in Eden” examines that family history alongside the Yosemite murders, with people who knew Cary as a child and teenager recalling the person they knew before his name became synonymous with four killings.
- Who Is Cary Stayner & Where Is He Now? 2026 Update & Profile
- Who Were The Victims of Cary Stayner? Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong
Contents
- Cary and Steven Stayner Grew Up in Merced, California
- Steven Stayner Is Kidnapped at Age Seven
- Steven Spends More Than Seven Years With His Kidnapper
- Steven Stayner Saves Another Abducted Child and Comes Home
- Steven’s Return Changes the Stayner Family Again
- Cary Said His Violent Fantasies Began Before Steven Was Kidnapped
- Steven Stayner Dies at 24
- Cary’s Uncle Is Found Shot to Death
- Cary Struggles During His Adult Years
- Cary Stayner Begins Working at the Cedar Lodge
- Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso Travel to Yosemite
- Stayner Murders Carole, Juli and Silvina
- The Search for the Three Missing Tourists Becomes a Major Investigation
- A Map Leads Investigators to Juli Sund
- Investigators Focus on the Wrong Suspects
- Joie Armstrong Was a Naturalist Working Near Yosemite
- Joie Armstrong Fights Her Attacker
- Stayner’s Vehicle Leads Investigators Back to Him
- FBI Agents Find Cary Stayner at a Nudist Resort
- Cary Stayner Confesses to All Four Yosemite Murders
- Authorities Investigate Whether Stayner Had Other Victims
- Stayner Makes a Disturbing Request After His Arrest
- Joie Armstrong’s Murder Creates a Federal Case
- California Puts Stayner on Trial for the Cedar Lodge Murders
- The Jury Rejects Stayner’s Insanity Defense
- Cary Stayner Is Sentenced to Death
- California’s Death Penalty Leaves Stayner Awaiting Execution for Decades
- California Supreme Court Upholds Stayner’s Death Sentence in 2026
- Where Is Cary Stayner Now?
- The Four Women Murdered by Cary Stayner
- The Stayner Brothers Came to Represent Opposite Sides of Violence
- “Evil in Eden” Revisits a Case That Changed Yosemite
- 20/20 Examines the Stayner Family’s Story of Horror and Heroism
- More “Evil in Eden”
- More Feature Articles
Cary and Steven Stayner Grew Up in Merced, California
Cary Anthony Stayner was born on August 13, 1961, in Merced, California, the oldest of five children born to Delbert and Kay Stayner. The family included Cary, his younger brother Steven and three sisters.
Merced sits in California’s Central Valley, surrounded by agricultural land and positioned along a route toward Yosemite National Park. Yosemite would become connected with both brothers at different points in their lives.
People who knew Cary during childhood did not describe a boy who appeared destined to become a serial killer. Former friends remembered riding bicycles, skateboarding and spending time in local parks with him. Classmates recalled intelligence and artistic ability.
Cary had a particular talent for drawing cartoons. He contributed artwork to his high school newspaper and was voted “most creative” in his graduating class at Merced High School.
Friends also remembered Cary caring about his younger brother.
That relationship changed forever on December 4, 1972.
Steven Stayner Is Kidnapped at Age Seven
Steven Stayner was seven years old when he disappeared while walking home from school in Merced.
Kenneth Parnell, a convicted child molester who had worked at Yosemite Lodge, enlisted Ervin Murphy to help him obtain a child. The men encountered Steven and lured him into a vehicle.
Steven did not come home.
Police mounted an extensive search, but his family received no answer about what had happened to him.
Cary was 11 when his brother vanished.
A childhood friend later recalled that Cary was devastated by Steven’s disappearance and heard stories about him wishing on a star for his brother to come home.
The Stayner household became consumed by the disappearance.
For Cary, the loss meant growing through adolescence inside a family living with an unanswered question: whether Steven was alive and whether they would see him again.
Steven Spends More Than Seven Years With His Kidnapper
Parnell kept Steven and told him that his parents no longer wanted him.
Steven was given a new identity, Dennis Parnell, and presented as his captor’s son. Behind that false family relationship was prolonged sexual abuse.
Years passed.
Steven attended school and attempted to create some form of ordinary life while remaining under Parnell’s control.
Back in Merced, Cary entered his teenage years as the older brother of a missing child.
Former classmates remembered the disappearance hanging over him. He became known in part as the boy whose brother had been kidnapped.
Cary also struggled with compulsive hair pulling, a condition known as trichotillomania. He wore a baseball cap to conceal bald patches and faced bullying.
Yet he performed well at school and demonstrated enough academic ability to enter accelerated classes.
Then, in 1980, the Stayner family received the news they had waited more than seven years to hear.
Steven was alive.
Steven Stayner Saves Another Abducted Child and Comes Home
Parnell abducted another child in 1980.
The victim was 5-year-old Timothy “Timmy” White.
Steven understood what awaited the younger boy because he had lived through it himself. He decided that Timmy could not be left with Parnell.
On March 1, 1980, while Parnell was away, Steven took Timmy and escaped.
The boys hitchhiked to Ukiah. When Timmy could not remember how to get home, Steven brought him to a police station.
There, the teenager revealed that he was not Dennis Parnell.
He was Steven Stayner.
His statement that he knew his first name was Steven became associated with the case and inspired the title of the book and television miniseries I Know My First Name Is Steven.
Steven returned to Merced as a national story.
His actions in saving Timmy made him a hero.
For Cary, his brother’s return created another major change in the family.
Steven’s Return Changes the Stayner Family Again
Steven returned to a home he had left as a seven-year-old child.
He was now 14.
Television cameras followed him. Interviews introduced him to audiences across America. His story became national news.
At a press conference outside the Stayner home, the family stood before cameras celebrating Steven’s return. Cary could be seen in the background wearing the baseball cap that had become part of his appearance.
People who later studied the brothers’ lives noted the contrast.
Steven was receiving national attention for surviving years of abuse and rescuing another child. Cary, who had lived through the years of uncertainty at home, remained outside that spotlight.
The brothers also faced the difficult task of becoming siblings again.
They shared a room, but Steven had spent seven formative years living under a different identity and under the control of an abuser. Returning to his biological family did not erase those years.
Steven later acknowledged that the transition was difficult. He had spent years living as an only child and now had to adjust to a brother and three sisters.
Cary Said His Violent Fantasies Began Before Steven Was Kidnapped
The extraordinary history of the Stayner family has produced questions about whether Steven’s kidnapping contributed to Cary’s later crimes.
Cary himself complicated that theory.
After his arrest, he said his fantasies about abducting and murdering women had begun when he was about seven years old.
If his account was accurate, those fantasies predated Steven’s 1972 kidnapping.
That does not mean Steven’s disappearance and return had no effect on Cary. Cary later described feeling neglected while his parents grieved for Steven, and the national attention surrounding his brother became another part of the family dynamic.
But the available evidence does not establish a simple chain in which Steven’s kidnapping caused Cary to become a killer.
Journalists and people who knew the brothers have stressed that distinction.
The brothers emerged from the same family with radically different legacies.
Steven survived years of abuse and risked his own freedom to save another child.
Cary became responsible for the murders of four women and girls.
Steven Stayner Dies at 24
Steven survived his kidnapping and entered adulthood.
He married and became the father of two children.
His life after captivity was not without difficulty, but those close to him remembered his pride in who he had become and his ability to build a life after what had happened to him.
Then came another tragedy for the Stayner family.
On September 16, 1989, Steven died in a motorcycle crash.
He was 24.
Timmy White, the child Steven had rescued in 1980, served as one of his pallbearers.
Steven had survived more than seven years of captivity only to die less than a decade after reclaiming his identity.
Cary had now lost the brother whose disappearance and return had shaped much of his youth.
Another violent death would strike the family soon afterward.
Cary’s Uncle Is Found Shot to Death
In December 1990, Cary’s paternal uncle, Jesse Jerrold Stayner, was found shot to death inside his Merced home.
Cary had been living with his uncle at the time.
The killing remained unsolved.
After Cary was exposed as a serial killer in 1999, investigators reconsidered unsolved cases that might have connections to him, including Jesse’s death.
Cary became a suspect but was never charged with killing his uncle.
He later alleged that Jesse had sexually abused him during the period surrounding Steven’s kidnapping.
The uncle’s unsolved death became one of several earlier cases authorities examined after discovering what Cary had done in Yosemite.
Cary Struggles During His Adult Years
Cary’s life after high school lacked the promise suggested by his academic ability and artistic talent.
He worked a series of jobs, including employment installing windows.
People around him began seeing evidence of serious emotional problems.
At one point, Cary described a violent fantasy about driving a truck into his workplace, killing people inside and setting the business on fire.
In 1991, he attempted suicide using carbon monoxide.
In 1995, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after what was described as a nervous breakdown and received treatment before his release.
Cary also had encounters with law enforcement involving drugs. He was arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, although the charges were dropped.
Yosemite became a place where Cary sought isolation.
That connection eventually led him to the Cedar Lodge.
Cary Stayner Begins Working at the Cedar Lodge
In 1997, Stayner took a job as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, a short distance from an entrance to Yosemite National Park.
The job placed him in a landscape he had visited for years.
It also gave him access to motel rooms and brought him into contact with travelers moving through the Yosemite area.
For two years, nothing connected the Cedar Lodge handyman to a major violent crime.
Then Carole Sund arrived with two teenage girls.
The trip would become the beginning of the Yosemite murder case.
Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso Travel to Yosemite
In February 1999, Carole Sund, 42, traveled to the Yosemite region with her 15-year-old daughter, Juli, and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso.
Silvina was an exchange student from Argentina who was staying with the Sund family.
The three were tourists visiting one of the best-known national parks in the United States.
They stayed at the Cedar Lodge.
On the night of February 15, Cary Stayner approached their room.
According to accounts of his confession and the subsequent prosecution, Stayner gained entry under the pretense that he needed to investigate or repair a problem in the room.
Once inside, the handyman became their captor.
Stayner Murders Carole, Juli and Silvina
Stayner restrained the three victims and carried out a series of sexual assaults and killings.
Carole Sund was strangled with a rope and shot.
Silvina Pelosso was sexually assaulted and shot.
Juli Sund was taken from the motel and killed at another location. She was sexually assaulted and her throat was cut.
Stayner then attempted to conceal what he had done.
The disappearance of the three women triggered a massive search.
Their families knew they had failed to return as planned, but investigators had no immediate explanation for how three people could disappear during a trip to Yosemite.
Stayner remained close to the investigation.
He was still working at the Cedar Lodge.
The Search for the Three Missing Tourists Becomes a Major Investigation
The disappearance generated national attention.
Federal, state and local authorities became involved, and searchers combed the Yosemite region looking for the women or evidence explaining what had happened.
FBI agent Jeff Rinek later described the effort as one of the largest searches mounted in the Yosemite area.
Weeks passed.
Then investigators found Carole Sund’s rented Pontiac.
It had been burned.
Inside the trunk were the remains of Carole and Silvina.
The bodies were so badly burned that dental records were used to identify them.
The discovery transformed a missing-person investigation into a multiple-homicide case.
But Juli was still missing.
A Map Leads Investigators to Juli Sund
About a week after Carole and Silvina were found, authorities received an anonymous note.
It contained a hand-drawn map.
Written across the note was a disturbing message: “We had fun with this one.”
The map directed investigators to Juli.
Her remains were found at the location indicated.
The discovery confirmed that all three travelers had been murdered.
Investigators began interviewing employees at the Cedar Lodge because the women had stayed there shortly before they disappeared.
One of the employees they interviewed was Cary Stayner.
At that point, he did not stand out.
He had no criminal record that suggested he was capable of a triple homicide. He remained composed while speaking with investigators.
Police moved on.
The killer had been interviewed and allowed to return to his life.
Investigators Focus on the Wrong Suspects
The Yosemite investigation took another damaging turn when authorities came to believe that other men were responsible for the Sund and Pelosso murders.
People connected to a drug investigation came under scrutiny, and authorities announced that they believed those responsible for the killings were in custody.
The announcement created a sense that the danger had passed.
It had not.
Cary Stayner remained free.
For about five months after the first three murders, he did not kill another known victim.
Then he encountered Joie Armstrong.
Joie Armstrong Was a Naturalist Working Near Yosemite
Joie Ruth Armstrong was 26 years old and worked as a naturalist for the Yosemite Institute.
Her work involved the environment she loved. She taught children about nature in the Yosemite region and lived in a cabin in the area.
In July 1999, she was preparing to leave.
On July 21, Stayner encountered her.
Whatever restraint had kept him from killing during the months after the Sund murders ended.
Stayner attacked Armstrong near her cabin.
Unlike the first three killings, this crime left investigators with evidence that pointed toward him before he could disappear from scrutiny.
Joie Armstrong Fights Her Attacker
Evidence at Armstrong’s cabin showed signs of a struggle.
Stayner attacked her and removed her from the immediate area.
Her body was found about half a mile from the cabin.
She had been decapitated.
Her severed head was found in water a short distance away.
The murder caused investigators to ask whether the Yosemite region was facing another killer or whether Armstrong’s death could be connected to the unsolved murders from February.
They did not need long to find a connection.
Witnesses had seen a distinctive vehicle near Armstrong’s cabin.
It belonged to Cary Stayner.
Stayner’s Vehicle Leads Investigators Back to Him
Witnesses reported seeing a blue 1972 International Scout outside Armstrong’s cabin around the time of her disappearance.
Investigators traced the vehicle to Stayner.
At first, FBI agents regarded him as someone they needed to interview because his vehicle placed him near the scene.
They already knew his name.
He had been interviewed after the Sund murders and had not attracted enough suspicion to become a target.
This time was different.
Evidence connected Stayner and his vehicle to Armstrong’s killing.
Stayner had also left the Yosemite area.
Investigators began searching for him.
FBI Agents Find Cary Stayner at a Nudist Resort
FBI agents John Boles and Jeff Rinek tracked Stayner to the Laguna del Sol nudist resort in Wilton, California.
He was taken into custody on July 24, 1999, and brought to Sacramento for questioning.
Investigators wanted answers about Joie Armstrong.
They received far more.
Stayner began talking.
He confessed to killing Armstrong.
Agents later described the detached manner in which he recounted the crime. Stayner gave investigators details about what had happened and demonstrated knowledge that connected him to the killing.
Then the interrogation expanded.
Stayner admitted Armstrong was not his first victim.
Cary Stayner Confesses to All Four Yosemite Murders
Stayner told investigators that he had killed Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso as well.
The revelation changed the understanding of the Yosemite murders.
The man responsible had not been among the suspects authorities believed were connected to the first three killings.
He was the Cedar Lodge employee they had interviewed.
Stayner provided details that supported his confession and explained how he had gained access to the women.
The admissions resolved the central question surrounding the murders but created another one.
Were Carole, Juli, Silvina and Joie his only victims?
Investigators began reviewing unsolved murders and disappearances for possible connections to Stayner.
Authorities Investigate Whether Stayner Had Other Victims
The four 1999 murders remain Stayner’s confirmed killings.
After his arrest, however, investigators examined several earlier unsolved cases.
One was the 1990 shooting death of his uncle Jesse Stayner.
Authorities also considered the 1994 murder of Sharalyn Mavonne Murphy, whose dismembered remains were discovered near New Melones Reservoir. The similarities between the removal of body parts in Murphy’s case and Joie Armstrong’s decapitation attracted FBI attention.
Investigators also reviewed other disappearances and deaths in areas connected with Stayner.
Those included the disappearance of Michael Larry Madden, who vanished in 1996 while traveling to meet friends for a camping and fishing trip in Stanislaus National Forest.
Another case concerned Patricia Marie Hicks Dahlstrom, who disappeared in 1982 and whose remains were identified through genetic genealogy decades later.
Stayner has not been convicted of any of those crimes.
His confirmed victim count remains four.
Stayner Makes a Disturbing Request After His Arrest
Stayner’s behavior after his capture provided another glimpse into his relationship with publicity.
According to ABC News reporting, Stayner asked a journalist to contact producers in Los Angeles because he wanted a television movie made about his story.
The request carried an unmistakable connection to his brother.
Steven’s kidnapping, captivity and escape had been dramatized in I Know My First Name Is Steven.
Now Cary wanted his own story placed on television.
The episode became another part of the comparison between the brothers: Steven had become famous because he survived a predator and rescued a child, while Cary sought attention after becoming a predator himself.
Stayner’s statements after his arrest also undermined attempts to explain his crimes through a single motive.
He described violent sexual fantasies extending back to childhood and acknowledged responsibility for acts that investigators were struggling to understand.
The legal system now had to determine how to punish him.
Joie Armstrong’s Murder Creates a Federal Case
Joie Armstrong’s killing occurred on federal land, placing her case within federal jurisdiction.
Federal prosecutors charged Stayner with offenses including first-degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death and attempted aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death.
Stayner faced the possibility of a federal death sentence.
He chose to plead guilty.
The plea removed the need for a federal trial over whether he had killed Armstrong.
During sentencing, Stayner broke down and apologized.
He said he wished he could undo what he had done and could not explain why he had committed such a senseless act.
The federal court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Even if no other prosecution had followed, Stayner would never have been entitled to release from federal prison.
California, however, still had three murder cases to prosecute.
California Puts Stayner on Trial for the Cedar Lodge Murders
California prosecutors charged Stayner with murdering Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso.
This time, Stayner did not simply plead guilty.
His defense centered on his mental state.
Stayner entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
The defense presented evidence concerning his psychiatric history and the wider Stayner family.
His lawyers pointed to mental illness, alleged sexual abuse within the family and psychological disorders that had affected him for years.
A psychiatrist testified that Stayner suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, mild autism and paraphilia.
The legal question was not whether Stayner had psychological problems. The jury had to determine whether those problems met the legal standard required to excuse criminal responsibility through insanity.
The Jury Rejects Stayner’s Insanity Defense
The jury did not accept that Stayner was legally insane when he committed the murders.
On August 27, 2002, he was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and one count of kidnapping.
The verdict moved the case into the penalty phase.
Prosecutors sought death.
Stayner’s attorneys argued for his life to be spared, drawing attention to his mental health history, family background and psychological condition.
Jurors faced a man who had already received life without parole in federal court for Armstrong’s murder.
Their decision would determine whether California added a death sentence for the other three killings.
They chose death.
Cary Stayner Is Sentenced to Death
In December 2002, Cary Stayner received a California death sentence for the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso.
The sentencing completed two separate prosecutions.
For Joie Armstrong’s murder, Stayner had a federal sentence of life without parole.
For the three Cedar Lodge murders, he had a state death sentence.
The legal outcomes ensured that Stayner would never return to ordinary life outside prison.
He was sent to San Quentin State Prison, where California housed condemned male prisoners for decades.
His death sentence, however, did not lead to an execution.
California’s Death Penalty Leaves Stayner Awaiting Execution for Decades
California has not executed a prisoner since 2006.
Questions surrounding execution procedures halted executions, and in 2019 Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions while he remained in office.
Stayner therefore remained under a sentence of death without an execution date.
He spent more than two decades within California’s condemned-prisoner system.
Changes to San Quentin and California’s handling of death-row prisoners later resulted in condemned inmates being transferred to other prisons.
Stayner was among them.
His case also remained active in the appellate courts.
More than 23 years after the jury convicted him, California’s highest court issued a major decision.
California Supreme Court Upholds Stayner’s Death Sentence in 2026
In April 2026, the California Supreme Court rejected Stayner’s challenge to his death sentence.
The ruling preserved his convictions and capital sentence.
The decision was significant because it came almost 27 years after the murders and more than two decades after Stayner was sentenced to death.
The passage of time had not changed his legal status.
Stayner remained a condemned prisoner.
The decision also meant that the August 2026 broadcast of “Evil in Eden” comes only months after a major development in the case.
The murders belong to 1999, but Stayner’s legal case remains part of the present.
Where Is Cary Stayner Now?
As of 2026, Cary Stayner remains incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California.
He remains under the California death sentence imposed for the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso.
He also remains subject to his federal life-without-parole sentence for Joie Armstrong’s murder.
Stayner is now 65.
There is no scheduled execution.
California’s last execution occurred in 2006, and the state remains under an execution moratorium.
Even if his state death sentence were removed at some future point, his federal life-without-parole sentence means his convictions provide no path to ordinary release.
The Four Women Murdered by Cary Stayner
The scale of the Stayner family story can sometimes overshadow the four people whose deaths created the criminal case.
Carole Sund was 42.
She was traveling with her teenage daughter and their young guest when what should have been a visit to Yosemite ended at the Cedar Lodge.
Juli Sund was 15.
She was Carole’s daughter and was taken from the lodge before being killed at another location.
Silvina Pelosso was 16.
She was an exchange student from Argentina who had joined the Sund family and became caught in a crime thousands of miles from her home.
Joie Armstrong was 26.
She worked as a naturalist, teaching children about the environment surrounding Yosemite. Her murder five months after the first three killings exposed the man authorities had failed to identify during their initial investigation.
Their deaths are the foundation of the case.
Cary Stayner’s childhood, his brother’s kidnapping and the psychology examined during his trial provide context, but none changes the choices that led to four murders.
The Stayner Brothers Came to Represent Opposite Sides of Violence
The story of Steven and Cary Stayner remains difficult to comprehend because the brothers became nationally known for opposite relationships to violent crime.
Steven was seven when a predator took control of his life.
He endured years of sexual abuse and manipulation. When Parnell brought another young victim into the situation, Steven made the decision that the child would not endure what he had experienced.
He escaped with Timmy White and returned the five-year-old to safety.
Cary became the person from whom others needed to be saved.
He exploited his position at a motel to gain access to three travelers, murdered them and concealed their bodies. Months later, he attacked and murdered Joie Armstrong.
One brother’s defining act was rescuing a child.
The other brother’s defining acts were the murders of four women and girls.
“Evil in Eden” Revisits a Case That Changed Yosemite
The Yosemite murders shattered the idea that the region’s isolation and natural beauty insulated visitors from calculated violence.
The killer was not a stranger passing through the park.
He lived and worked in the area.
Cary Stayner used his job at the Cedar Lodge to place himself near travelers, and investigators spoke with him during the first murder investigation without recognizing that they were interviewing the killer.
That failure became more disturbing after authorities believed they had the correct suspects in custody.
Joie Armstrong’s murder exposed the mistake.
Her death produced the trail that led investigators back to Stayner, and his confession solved the Sund and Pelosso murders.
The case then moved through two justice systems, producing a federal life sentence and a California death sentence.
20/20 Examines the Stayner Family’s Story of Horror and Heroism
“Evil in Eden” is not only the story of how Cary Stayner was caught.
It examines the long history that preceded the murders and asks what people who knew Cary saw in him before 1999.
Friends remembered a quiet boy who rode bicycles, skateboarded and drew cartoons. Classmates remembered an intelligent and creative student. People close to the family remembered his distress when Steven disappeared.
None of those memories foretold what happened at Yosemite.
The episode also returns to Steven Stayner, whose story became one of the best-known kidnapping cases of its era.
Steven endured years of abuse before making a choice that saved Timmy White and freed them both.
Nineteen years after Steven escaped, the Stayner family name returned to national headlines for a reason no one could have anticipated.
Cary Stayner had become the Yosemite Killer.
His arrest solved four murders, his confession exposed what had happened to Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong, and separate federal and state prosecutions ensured that he would spend the rest of his life in prison or under sentence of death.
More than a quarter-century after the murders, that outcome remains in place. The California Supreme Court upheld Stayner’s death sentence in April 2026, and he remains incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison.
ABC’s 20/20: “Evil in Eden” airs Friday, August 28, 2026, at 9/8c on ABC. The episode examines Cary Stayner’s childhood, Steven Stayner’s kidnapping and escape, the four Yosemite murders, the mistakes that allowed Cary to remain free after the first killings, his confession, his trials and the radically different legacies left by two brothers from the same California family.
More “Evil in Eden”
- “Evil in Eden”: 20/20 Reports on Cary Stayner, the Yosemite Murders and the Stayner Family’s Story of Horror and Heroism August 28 2026
- Who Is Cary Stayner & Where Is He Now? 2026 Update & Profile
- Who Were The Victims of Cary Stayner? Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong
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