Cary Stayner

Cary Anthony Stayner is a convicted American serial killer who murdered four women in Mariposa County, California between February and July 1999. Known as the “Yosemite Killer,” he murdered his victims either by strangulation or cutting their throats. When he was 11 years old, his brother Steven was kidnapped by convicted sex offender Kenneth Parnell and remained missing for the next seven years. Cary grew up believing that he was being neglected by his parents due to their grief over the loss of their younger son. He also claimed that he had been sexually molested as a child by one of his uncles. In 1997, he began working as a handyman at a motel in El Portal. After the discovery of the remains of his first three victims, the initial suspicion did not fall on Stayner, despite the fact that he was one of the employees of Cedar Lodge where the victims had been staying before their deaths. However, when the murder of his fourth victim was linked with a car that was traced back to him, he was apprehended by the police and charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Eventually convicted on all counts, he was sentenced to death in December 2002.