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Steven Stayner
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Steven Gregory Stayner was an American child who became famous after he was kidnapped as a seven-year-old aheld captive by his abductor, to be reunited with his family seven years later.
BiographySteven was born the third of five children of Delbert and Kay Stayner in Merced, California. Steven had three sisters; his older brother is the convicted serial killer Cary Stayner.
KidnappingOn the afternoon of December 4 1972, Steven Stayner was approached by "Reverend" Kenneth Parnell while walking home from school. Parnell asked Steven if his mother might make a donation to his church. Although Steven had been told not to speak to strangers, he thought the man was nice, and believing Parnell to be the pastor of a church, he believed it was safe. Steven accepted an offer of a ride home. Steven questioned Parnell when they drove past Steven's home, but Parnell ignored the boy. Parnell took Steven to his cabin which, unknown to Steven, was located several hundred feet from Steven's grandfather's residence. Steven found several toys in the cabin, and told Parnell he was going to give them to his sisters and brothers when he went home. Parnell's accomplice in the abduction was Edward Ervin Murphy, known as "Uncle Murph" to Steven. Parnell molested Steven that first night.
Parnell began calling the boy Dennis Gregory Parnell, telling people that he was his son. "Dennis" and Parnell moved frequently around California, with Parnell enrolling him into a series of schools. He allowed Steven to begin smoking at a young age. One of the few positive aspects of Steven's life with Parnell was his dog, a Manchester Terrier whom Steven named Queenie. This dog had been given to Parnell by his mother, who was not aware of "Dennis'" existence during the period Steven was living with Parnell.
Parnell repeatedly molested the boy, starting with oral sex and moving onto sodomy. Parnell also babysat for the parents of one of Steven's friends, Kenny. Kenny's mother, Barbara, who was always fighting with her alcoholic husband Bob, eventually moved in with Parnell and "Dennis". One evening, "Dennis" was invited into bed with Parnell and Barbara, and the nine-year-old boy was forced to have sex with her. Eventually, Parnell and Barbara separated, and Parnell began sexually abusing Steven again. As Steven grew older, Parnell allowed him to start drinking alcohol.
EscapeAs Steven entered puberty, Parnell began to look for a younger child to kidnap. On February 14 1980, Parnell and one of Steven's high school buddies kidnapped five-year-old Timmy White in Ukiah, California. Motivated in part by the young boy's distress, Steven decided to escape with him, intending to return the boy to his parents and then escape himself (Steven believed that Parnell had legal custody of him). On March 1, 1980, while Parnell was away at his night security job, Steven left with Timmy and hitchhiked into Ukiah. Unable to locate Timmy's home address, he decided to have Timmy walk into the police department to ask for help, before escaping himself. Before he could successfully escape, the police spotted the two boys and took them into custody. Steven immediately identified Timmy White and then revealed his own true identity and story.
By daybreak on March 2, 1980, Parnell had been arrested on suspicion of abducting both boys. After the police checked into Parnell's background they found a previous sodomy conviction from 1951. Both children were reunited with their families that day. In 1981, Parnell was tried and convicted of kidnapping Timmy and Steven in two separate trials. He was sentenced to seven years but was paroled after serving five years. Parnell was not charged with the numerous sexual assaults on Steven Stayner and other boys, as most occurred outside the jurisdiction of the Merced county prosecutor or were by then outside the statute of limitations. The Mendocino County prosecutors, acting almost entirely alone, decided not to prosecute the sexual assaults that occurred in their jurisdiction. Murphy and the teenage boy who had helped abduct Timmy White were convicted of lesser charges. Both claimed they knew nothing of the sexual assaults on Steven. Barbara was never arrested. Steven remembered the kindness "Uncle" Murphy had shown him in his first week of captivity while they were both under the influence of Parnell's manipulation, and believed Murphy to be as much Parnell's victim as Steven and Timmy were.
Kenneth Parnell's prison sentence for the abduction of Steven and Timmy was considerably less than the seven years he had kept Steven prisoner. Steven's kidnapping and its aftermath prompted California lawmakers to change state laws "to allow consecutive prison terms in similar abduction cases."
Life afterwardSteven married Jody Edmondson on June 13 1985, and they went on to have two children, a son and daughter.
On September 16 1989, just before 5:00pm PDT while riding home after his shift at Pizza Hut, his motorcycle was involved in a collision with a car that pulled out into traffic. Steven received head injuries that were to prove fatal; he died at the Merced Community Medical Center at 5:35pm. He was driving without a license (suspended for a third time due to excessive traffic violations) and without his helmet, which had been stolen a few days before. Over 500 people attended his funeral, including then-14-year-old Timmy White, who helped carry Steven's coffin into the church. Steven had converted to Mormonism just prior to his death.
Media adaptationsIn early 1989 a television miniseries based on his experience, I Know My First Name is Steven (also known as The Missing Years), was produced. Steven, taking a leave of absence from his job, acted as an advisor for the production company and had a non-speaking part, playing one of the two policemen who escort 14-year-old Steven (played by Corky Nemec) through the crowds to his waiting family, on his return to his Merced home. Although pleased with the dramatization Steven did complain that it depicted him as a somewhat "obnoxious, rude" person, especially toward his parents, something he refuted while publicizing the miniseries in the Spring of 1989. The two-part miniseries was first broadcast in the USA by NBC May 21-22 1989. Screening rights were sold to a number of international television companies including the BBC, who screened the miniseries in mid-July of the following year; later still, it was released as a feature length movie.but I use April 18, 1965. I know my first name is Steven, I'm pretty sure my last is Stainer,
and if I have a middle name, I don't know it."
AftermathTen years after Steven's death, the city of Merced asked its residents for proposals for names of city parks which would honor Merced's notable citizens. Steven's parents proposed that one be named "Stayner Park". This idea was eventually turned down and the honor was given to another Merced resident on account of Steven's brother Cary Stayner having confessed to, and been charged with, the 1999 Yosemite multiple murders, amid fears that calling a park "Stayner Park" would be associated with Cary rather than Steven. Efforts still exist to create a statue in Merced in Steven's honor. However, residents of Ukiah, the hometown of Timmy White, carved a statue showing a teenage Stayner carrying a young Timmy White while escaping their captivity. Fundraisers for the statue have stated that it is meant to honor Steven Stayner and give hope for families of missing and kidnapped children that they are still alive.
In 2004, Kenneth Parnell, then age seventy-two, was convicted of trying the previous year to persuade a woman to procure for him a young boy for five hundred dollars. Although Stayner was dead, a written statement he had made before his death was used as evidence in Parnell's 2004 trial. Timmy White was also subpoenaed to testify in the trial. Kenneth Parnell died of natural causes on January 21, 2008, in a California medical facility, while serving a 25-years-to-life sentence.
Further reading- I Know My First Name is Steven, by Mike Echols. Pinnacle Books, New York. 1999. ISBN 0786011041
See also
External links
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