"Three Separate Times": The Girl Cary Stayner Planned to Kill Speaks, 20 Years Later

Name: "Three Separate Times": The Girl Cary Stayner Planned to Kill Speaks, 20 Years Later
Uploaded: 2019-01-25T00:00:00Z
Description: As a child at the Cedar Lodge, Lenna knew Cary Stayner as the handyman who taught her to dive and bought her Beanie Babies. After his arrest, the FBI told her mother that he had planned to kill them.

As a child at the Cedar Lodge, Lenna knew Cary Stayner as the handyman who taught her to dive and bought her Beanie Babies. After his arrest, the FBI told her mother that he had planned to kill them.

Subject: Cary Stayner
Recorded: about January 25, 2019
Runtime: 4:31 (about 4:08 of the piece, then a 15-second ABC News channel promo)

Content warning: Describes a reported plan to rape and kill two young girls and their mother; refers to the murders of three people; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Cary Stayner. It is a short first-person piece from ABC News, billed as a "20/20 Extra" and posted on January 25, 2019, 20 years after the Yosemite murders. A woman introduced only as Lenna speaks throughout, partly at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where her mother worked and where Stayner was the handyman. There is no narrator, and the interviewer is not heard. Stayner is not heard.

Historical Context

Stayner worked as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge from 1997; Lenna says he lived above its restaurant. In February 1999 Carole Sund, her daughter Juli and family friend Silvina Pelosso disappeared after staying at the lodge and were later found dead. In July 1999 he murdered Joie Armstrong, a Yosemite Institute naturalist. He was arrested on July 24, 1999, and confessed to the FBI.

Circumstances

Lenna met Stayner in 1998, when she and her sister were children. After his arrest, she says, the FBI came to the family home and told her mother privately what Stayner had said about them. ABC describes this as the first time she had spoken publicly; that is ABC's claim.

What the Interview Covers

Lenna remembers Stayner as a fun visitor who taught her and her sister to dive at the Cedar Lodge pool and bought them a new Beanie Baby almost every time he saw them. She describes seeing his arrest on television and crying, "there's no way." She says the FBI told her mother that Stayner had confessed to initially wanting to kill her mother and to rape and kill Lenna and her sister, and that there were three separate times he had planned to kill them. She says she believes he would not have stopped killing. At the lodge she points out the pool, the window where they ordered drinks and the display case where the Beanie Babies were kept. She describes how her family sent a Beanie Baby, a peace bear, down the Merced River on a little wicker float. She says she does not forgive him, but still has a hard time seeing him as a monster.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It shows the Cedar Lodge from the side of a family that knew Stayner well, and his reported plan against them, told by one of the girls in her own words.

Archival Importance

It joins two other Batch 11 Stayner records: ABC10's 1999 report from the Cedar Lodge and FBI agent Jeff Rinek's account of the confession.

Important Caveats

Stayner is not heard. Lenna's account of the planned killings is her report of what the FBI told her mother; no independent source was checked, and none should be added. She gives her first name only, and she was a child at the time: page copy must not add a surname, her mother's or sister's names, or other identifying details. She was not attacked. She names three of the four victims.

Lenna: My name is Lenna, and I grew up in a small town right outside Yosemite National Park. I had not been back to the Cedar Lodge until last year, and it sent chills up and down my spine. My sister and I met Cary in 1998. My mom was a waitress at the Cedar Lodge, where Cary was a maintenance man and lived above the restaurant. We were excited when Cary would come over. He taught us how to dive at the Cedar Lodge. He would buy us a new Beanie Baby almost every time we saw him, 'cause that was pretty big in the '90s. [00:35 to 00:44: music; no words (second machine pass).]

Lenna: I just remember he would show us how to dive perfectly. My sister and I both wanted to be the best at it.

Lenna: It feels like it was so long ago that you forget that it even happened, like a [unclear: "dream" / "drain"], or a movie that you watched, and it almost doesn't even feel like it was you.

Lenna: I see that Cary's arrested on TV, and I remember being very, very upset, thinking there's no way, there's no way. I was, I remember crying. Shortly after, the FBI came to our house and spoke with my mom privately. They were there to let her know that Cary Stayner had confessed to initially wanting to kill my mom, and rape and kill my sister and I. And he didn't. It didn't happen. It's hard to think about that, there were three separate times that he had planned to kill us.

Lenna: I don't, I still don't believe it. Part of me doesn't believe it. I think that he was going to keep trying. I think that he wasn't going to stop killing, and we were his initial victims, and I don't think he was going to stop.

Lenna: We spent a lot of our time in summer outside here, a lot of time inside in the restaurant. My mom worked at the bar, and we spent a lot of our time out by the pool, a lot, most of the time out by the pool. So we would be swimming out there all day long. There's a little window on the side over here that we would order our drinks from and wait for my mom to get off [unclear: "of work" / "the park"].

Lenna: That's kind of different. The display case that's in there with all the bears on it, that's the same. And that's where all the Beanie Babies were. And so that's like a wave of emotion, I guess.

Lenna: After he had been arrested, and learning that he was responsible for the death of Juli and Silvina and Carole, we had our Beanie Babies, and we actually sent one down the Merced River on a little wicker float, to kind of give our peace to everything. It was the peace Beanie Baby, of the peace bear, we sent down the river. I think it helped my mom. It was her idea, and her way of kind of giving peace. I don't think I understood. I didn't believe what was going on. I didn't believe, still then, that he actually could be capable of doing something like that.

Lenna: It's hard for me to think about him being behind bars, and I wonder what it's like for him being there, because he loved to be outside, and I know that he loved Yosemite. I know that he loved being at the river. I know that he loved nature. So that's all taken away from him. And in some way, it's sad. But I also don't forgive him. [03:44 to 03:47: music; no words (second machine pass).]

Lenna: I can't. But at the same time, it's hard to think that he even did it. I, I still have a hard time looking at him as a monster. I just remember him being the fun. Every time Cary came, it was, it was fun, or, you know, where we got new Beanie Babies. It was a good time when he was around. I was excited when he was around. Now, I don't even know how I'd be able to look at him. [04:07 to 04:14: music, then near-silence; no words (second machine pass).]

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