Steven Earl Parent was a victim of the Charles Manson

Charles Manson

Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

 murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

s.
Steven Earl Parent was born in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 to Wilfred Elmer Parent, a construction superintendent

Superintendent (construction)

On larger projects, it is common for most finance-related tasks and long-term scheduling to be handled by a project manager, with the superintendent's job limited to running the day-to-day operations on the construction site and controlling the short-term schedule...

 and his wife, Juanita, a homemaker

Homemaker

Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...

. Parent, along with his three younger siblings, was raised in the Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 suburb of El Monte.

Parent attended Arroyo High School

Arroyo High School (El Monte, California)

Arroyo High School, located in El Monte, California, United States, is a school in the El Monte Union High School District. The attendance area served by Arroyo High School consists of four different communities: El Monte, Temple City, Arcadia, and an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County...

 in El Monte and spent his time listening to popular folk music

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 and playing the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

. Steven's main interest was electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 and mechanics

Mechanics

Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....

, an interest that led to trouble with the law.