Criminology - Steven Stayner

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

On December 4th, 1972, 7-year-old Steven Stayner was abducted while walking home from school. Steven's abductor, Kenneth Parnell, manipulated Steven into thinking his family didn't want him and had made Kenneth his guardian. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the infamous abduction of Steven Stayner. Kenneth Parnell was a master manipulator and had previous convictions. He abused Steven for many years, moving around often and changing Steven's name. It wasn't until Parnell abducted another young boy that Steven made the decision, he could not let what happened to him happen to his boy. He got up the courage to take the boy to the police station and both were rescued. The story made headlines. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital production

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. So everyone and welcome to episode 347 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morph, how are you doing this week? I'm doing good. A little bit chilly here in Florida and I've, you know, we're doing some football out there with my son.

And, you know, you don't know how to dress because at practice one day it's really warm. But then, you know, the game two days later, might be freezing, you know, freezing to me is like 60 degrees. So, um, you know, a little bit of that going on. How about you? Yeah, meanwhile, we're stuck here in snow and ice. So don't tell me about your shorts weather on some days. I don't want to hear it. Now, I, I'm doing okay. My wife gave me her flu, I think is what it is. I don't know. She was sick for about a week. And then as she was starting to get better, I, you know, inevitably caught it. That's kind of how it goes in a lot of household. So that's what we're going around with going around a lot right now. So hopefully

you feel better quick. Yeah, I've talked to a lot of people who, uh, have something. They're not exactly sure what it is. But let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Kelly, Kathy Turner jumped out at our highest level and also, uh, Debbie Cox. So it's a lot of great new support. we really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, as always, to the people that support the show. It really helps us out. For anyone else that would like to, you can do so by going to Patreon.com slash criminology. Right, now that we have all of that out of the way, let's get into this week's case. And it's a pretty well-known and infamous child abduction story. And the events have been adapted multiple times for television and movies. It's technically multiple cases

that are interwoven, we'll be talking about them all in this episode and over our next one. We're talking about the abduction of Stephen Stainer at the hands of a monster named Kenneth Parnell. What he went through while being held by Parnell can only be described as pure hell. But this is also a survivor story because Stephen eventually broke free from his captor and lived to tell his story. but what happened to Stephen may have played a major role in Stephen's brother Kerry's life because as much as Stephen Stainer is a hero and a survivor, his brother Kerry went on to become a brutal and sadistic serial killer. So we're covering Stephen's story in this episode.

And then next week, we'll dive into the terrible deeds that his brother Kerry committed. Before we get into Stephen's story and what happened to him, It's probably important to give a bit of background on the main villain in this story, and that's Kenneth Parnell. Parnell was born in September 1931 in Amarola, Texas. His father left when he was just six years old. After this, he and his mother moved to Bakersfield, California. He got himself into trouble with the law often,

finding himself in juvenile hall for things like stealing cars and committing arson. In 1949, when he was 18 or 19, Parnell married Patsy Joe Dorton, but at the time was just 15 years old. They had a daughter two years later when Parnell was 20, and Patsy Joe was 17. This from what we know of is the same year that his crimes really escalated. At this point, Parnell moved away from property crimes and theft and began harming people. This time, Parnell used a sheriff's badge.

He bought in an Army-Navy surplus store to trick an eight-year-old boy, who he then sexually assaulted. He was convicted of rape and imprisoned. of an officer, but sentenced only four years in prison. Parnell would later claim that the lack of intimacy during his wife's pregnancy and the stress of dealing with the pregnancy and then having a newborn had driven him to assault the boy. Patsy Joe and Parnell divorced in 1957. He moved on rather quickly, marrying another woman the same year. But trouble continued to follow him as he moved around the country. Parnell was arrested again. This time for armed robbery in Utah. His second wife filed for divorce while he was serving time for

those charges. Parnell's father died in July 1972, the same year he kidnapped another young boy. It's unclear whether Parnell knew about his father's death or even cared, but if stressful life events like a pregnancy and a new child caused him to act out and assault a young boy, as he once said, it seems like the death of a parent could definitely fit the pattern of triggers or stressors. This time, Parnell had help seeking out his victim. He was able to talk one of his co-workers into helping him with his plan. The accomplice, Edward Irvin Murphy, worked with Parnell at the Yosemite Lodge. Murphy knew the plan called for abducting a child,

but claims that he didn't know what Parnell was planning to do afterwards. According to Murphy, Parnell told him that he was starting a church and that he wanted to be able to raise a child right with religion, so they set off to find one. So obviously more, if we have a guy here in Kenneth Parnell, who starts off with more of what you would think of as property crimes and then graduates into kidnapping and sexually assaulting young boys. But I do want to talk about, you know, this guy, Ed Murphy for a minute. You know, he claims he didn't know what Parnell was planning to do afterwards. But he knew that he was helping him kidnap a child.

I just don't understand that at all. It's almost as if, you know, he's making an excuse for what he did, but the excuse is terrible. It's almost like he's trying to dismiss the fact he kidnapped someone because it was for, in his mind, a good purpose trying to raise this kid right with religion. And so a very flimsy explanation for why he would help do this. I know if, you know, a friend or coworker of mine came up to me and says, hey, I want to gotten kidnapped a child. Can you help me? That's going to raise a red flag.

And I'm going to say, of course not. No, I think everybody listening is like, you know, I've been asked, okay, strange things, I guess, by coworkers, but nothing that rises to something like that. And if I was, it would be a heck no and then a straight call to the police. I mean, Hey, we might have worked together for 10, 15, 20 years, but the friendship, all of that only extends so far. And it doesn't extend that far. The victim that the two men would set their sights on was Stephen Stainer.

Stephen was the third of five children. Born to Delbert and Kay Stainer, Stephen had three sisters and an older brother, Carrie. The Stainer family lived in Merced, California. On December 4, 1972, 7-year-old Stephen was walking home from school along Highway 140, not far from his home, when Murphy and Parnell spotted him while trolling for a potential victim.

The two men pulled up alongside Stephen, Steven driving a white Buick and Murphy was able to lure Stephen into the car by showing him a religious pamphlet and claiming that he was collecting donations for a church. He asked Stephen if his parents would

donate and Stephen agreed to show them where he lived so that he could ask. He got in the car with the two men and they quickly drove down the highway. But they didn't turn off to find Stephen's house. They just kept driving. Stephen was

taken to Pernell's cabin in Kathy's Valley, California, about a half hour away from his hometown of Merced. During the drive, Pernell stopped alongside the road near a payphone. He got out, and to Stephen, it looked like he made a phone call. When he got back into the car, Pernell told Stephen that he had just spoken to his parents, and they had confirmed they didn't want him anymore. If Stephen had any instincts to fight back and run away, the news that he was no longer welcome at his own home may have changed his mind. And more if, you know, we're talking about a young child here in Stephen Stainer, who at the time was only seven years old. The one thing that we know is that these predators, they're very manipulative, especially when it comes to young children. And we've all heard

the stories about predators luring kids into their car or van with candy or some type of ruse, right? And that's what happened here. Parnell acting as though, you know, he's with some religious organization. That might have put Stephen off guard. Well, obviously this guy's okay. He's with the church or something along those lines. I mean, to a seven-year-old, that might have almost seemed authoritative. And it's frightening to know that these kinds of predators are just cruising around at any time trolling for victims, looking for kids on the side of the road that they can use these different tactics on.

And they always seem to have the same playbook. It's always, can you help me find my puppy? Do you want some candy? You know, this one was a little bit different. This is talking about some religious stuff. But one way or another, they always seem to lure the child in in these cases and get them to let their guard down

by talking about something that makes the child forget for a second that they, you know, stranger danger that this person might not be a friend. And in a lot of the stories that we talk about, you know, we sometimes dissect, you know, well, okay, what's the person's mindset here? Or what would their ability be to fight, to run? What tactics would they use in a certain situation? I think that's much tougher to even hazard a guess on when you're talking about a seven-year-old. And then you have this what was most likely a fake phone call, but Parnell telling Stephen that his parents didn't want him anymore.

Yeah, that's a whole other level of evil to make this young child feel like his parents have given him away, essentially. and to an adult that sounds ludicrous. But to a child that age, he didn't know any better. Maybe he thought, oh, my God, my parents are sending me away with this guy. So he had to be frightened, confused.

And I think that's what Pernell counted on to help make this happen. Now, Parnell had no idea. And at seven years old, Stephen likely didn't either. But Parnell's cabin happened to be extremely close. to the home of Stephen's maternal grandfather. It was so close, in fact, that had Stephen broken free and ran and knocked on nearby

doors, he may have wound up at his grandfather's house. We're talking about a distance of a few hundred feet. Unfortunately, despite being so close, Stephen didn't run. And his grandfather had no way of knowing that Stephen had been abducted and was so close. Once Stephen's family realized he was missing, they alerted. police and that area of California was saturated with newspaper articles and TV news segments about the case and missing flyers with Stevens photo were spread all over.

While the Stainer family anxiously awaited news about their missing son, he was going through a terrible ordeal at the hands of Kenneth Parnell. We can't even know and don't want to know exactly for that matter what Parnell did to Stephen staying over the next week in that cabin. He reportedly was tortured, raped, and sodomized repeatedly for days. In between the attacks, Stephen would cry and beg Pernell to let him go home to his parents. But Parnell planned on keeping Stephen for the long haul, and Stephen missed his family and was constantly anxious, waiting for the next assault by Parnell. After growing tired of telling Stephen he wasn't going home, Pernell tried to break his spirit. He lied to Stephen and told him

his parents made Parnell his legal guardian because they couldn't afford to raise him. He said a judge granted him custody. Thinking that he was an unwanted child, who was essentially just legally given to his captor, Stephen sort of began to get used to his new life with Parnell as his forced father figure. He started going by a new name, Dennis Gregory Parnell, keeping only his real middle name. Parnell also used his real date of birth when he later enrolled him in school. We don't know everything that Parnell did to Stephen to control him and get him to not run away or tell anyone that he had been abducted, but that's what happened. Stephen never tried to leave or to alert anyone that he had been taken.

Maybe at his age he really thought his parents had abandoned him. Parnell was so sure that Stephen wouldn't run or tell anyone who he really was, that he let him go to school. Stephen fell into the role of Dennis Parnell so perfectly that no one, not teachers, not his friends or friends of Parnells, ever thought that Dennis Parnell was really Stephen Stainer. And more of this is a big case for a reason. You know, the details of it are shocking, some of which we haven't talked about yet. But, I mean, this case grabbed the attention of the nation. and maybe the world for that matter, but it was in the early 70s.

There was a little bit different time. The new cycle was not quite as robust back then. But this was a case that even then received a lot of attention. But I can't help but feel just so horrible for Steven Steiner. You try to put yourself in the mindset of, a young boy like Steven Steiner. And it's hard to do because how can you imagine what it was like unless you really lived through it?

But obviously, you know, he endured some of the most horrible acts perpetrated upon him that you can imagine. And this went on for, you know, a very long time. But then there's also kind of a separate thing, which is. is he's being victimized by this man, Kenneth Parnell, but also being made to believe that his family didn't want him. It's tough to even think about. It really is. And it's frightening how much control and influence and maybe brainwashing went on here that Kenneth Parnell felt comfortable enough to let Stephen pose as his son and go out and go to school and have friends

and interact with teachers, never once worried that he was going to say, hey, my name is Steven. I don't, I'm not really this kid, you know, call the police. He didn't have that fear. He had so much control over him. And I think that's really frightening that someone like him is able to do that with a child. Now, Parnell would move around a lot. with Stephen enrolling him in different schools, which may have helped them fly under the radar

and avoid any suspicion. On the surface, some of the things Parnell did were normal, father-sum-sum-things, like giving Stephen a pet dog. But Queenie, the Manchester Terrier, was a gift to Parnell from his own mother, who had no idea that his son had kidnapped the child. Other things, obviously, including the kidnapping and regular assaults, had no semblance of guidance or normalcy. weeks turned into months and months to years. Parnell let Stephen start drinking and smoking when he was very young. This likely helped Stephen mentally escape his situation, but helped Parnell keep him compliant too.

Parnell went back and forth between showering Stephen with gifts, the illusion of freedom through things like cigarettes and alcohol, and positive attention to threatening him and beating him. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible.

A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. When Stephen was not, about two years into his captivity, a single mom named Barbara, Matthias moved into Parnell's home. She had been babysitting Stephen, who she knew as Dennis for about two years. During the nine months that she lived with them, she along with Parnell jointly molested Stephen at least nine different times. Now, she would later deny this allegation, though there is little reason, if no reason,

for Stephen to lie about this. Stephen would also later tell authorities that he remembered a time that Barbara tried to lure young boy into her car in 1975 so she could bring him back to Parnell. She denied this allegation as well. But assuming it's true, it would mean that Parnell

was again able to find another adult willing to help abduct a child with him. Barbara Matthias moved out to the Parnell home in the spring of 1976 and later claimed to have no knowledge of Stevens kidnapping.

She thought that she was just a babysitter who was watching Parnell's son. According to her, Parnell even showed her birth certificate for him, leaving her no reason to think there was anything suspicious going on. Articles from the time note that there was no explanation for why they ended up going their separate ways. Matthias was never charged with any crime and connection to Stevens kidnapping or for any sexual assault, both of which she still denies knowledge of.

Yeah, these things that Barbara allegedly did, according to Stephen, are disgusting. And it's so frightening that once again Parnell was able to find somebody that would go along with these kinds of terrible crimes. And where does he get these people? Does he just move in circles with people that are doing, that are willing to do this kind of stuff? And, you know, if those kind of circles of people are out there, you know, as a person, you know, as a parent that's just frightening to think of. Well, and I think the other thought is, is this guy the ultimate master manipulator?

Is he just so good at manipulating other people? Or is he good more at finding the right people who can be manipulated? And maybe it's a little bit of a combination of both. I'm sure this guy was a good manipulator, a good con man. But maybe part of that is also, you know, finding the right people who he believes will go along with his twisted plans. And again, this is at least on the part of Barbara Matthias, all alleged activities.

These are claims that Stephen made, but you got to ask yourself, why would a kid who went through all this make this up? Years passed by and finally Stephen entered high school. For his freshman year, Stephen, known to everyone else as Dennis, attended Mendocino High School. He made friends, had her girlfriend, and kept his grades up. To his schoolmates, everything seemed fine. Stephen didn't seem like any other student. It seemed like he really made the best of a terrible situation, and outside of the home was to some extent thriving.

It was also at this time that things started getting a little better at home as Stephen aged because Parnell gradually lost interest in sexually abusing him. But while Parnell may have lost interest in abusing Stephen, the urges for a younger boy were still strong. Pernell wanted a replacement, a younger boy, and had tried multiple times to get Stephen to help him lure another child back home. But something always went wrong. While Parnell thought Stephen was just bad at that kind of thing, not really a smooth talker or an improviser, it was actually Stephen doing his part to keep another child from growing up like he did. He made sure that none of the attempts were successful and always did something to thwart Parnell's

plan. Eventually, Parnell grew tired of Stephen's failures to help him lure a new victim, so he decided to repeat exactly what he had done with Stephen without his help. He didn't really need him anyway because Parnell was once again able to enlist someone to help him with the kidnapping on Valentine's Day, 1980. Randall Sean Porman, who was actually one of Stephen's friends and just a teen himself at the time, helped Parnell abducted five-year-old Timothy White from Ukiah, California. Porman, who was only in the seventh grade, had been friends with Stephen for about a year.

And like everyone else who knew them, thought that Parnell was his real dad. While he was apparently all right with kidnapping a child, it was only because he didn't realize he would be handing him over for Parnell to sexually assault and hold in captivity. According to ABC News, Parnell, the night before they abducted Timothy, offered Porman, alcohol, marijuana, and $50 in cash to help him find a boy so he could, quote, build his family. Parnell and Porman acted the next day on the plan. First, Porman waited at the Palace Hotel in Yucaya where Pernell worked, the night shift. Once Parnell was finished with work, they went shopping.

They bought a few things for the plan, orange juice, sleeping pills, and even a girl's outfit so they could dress their abductee as a girl in case anyone was looking for him. There was also a blanket in the back seat so they could cover their victim up in the car and keep him out of sight. They got everything they thought they needed for smooth abduction and getaway. Later that day, Timothy, a kindergartner at the time, was walking home from school. like he always did, every day. He walked most of the way home with a classmate and only walked alone from the classmate's house to his own. The day Parnell and Porman found him,

he was already on that second leg of the wall. He was alone and almost home. Parnell stayed in the driver's seat of the car and Porman got out and pretended there was an issue with one of the tires. He asked Timothy to hold the valve stem for him. But Timothy got spooked and took off, running and tried to climb a chain-link fence to get away. He didn't make it very far.

Later, he would tell the press Democrat, I got a couple of steps. Then he grabbed me and threw me into the back seat. As soon as they had him in the car, he was forced to take sleeping pills with orange juice. He cried until they took a fact and he fell asleep. After the abduction was complete, Parnell told Porman, You've made me a very happy man. just before threatening him and his family, scaring the boy into secrecy.

I think this is one more instance where Parnell was able to control someone, this time a child himself, with the lure of drugs, alcohol, and some cash. And, you know, for some kids that age, they can be influenced with things like that. And I think Parnell knew that. And being the master manipulator, he seemed to be, he was able to win over this kid and make him an accessory to this abduction.

And I think even being a child, he knew that it wasn't right to kidnap this kid, but he wasn't able to resist what Parnell was offering him. Yeah, it's a tough situation because, you know, he is, is a young kid, but obviously what he's doing is very wrong, horrible, in fact. But the one thing that keeps going through my mind more, is you have this guy Kenneth Parnell who is able to get multiple people to help him abduct children. And it just floors me how someone is able to do this. You think about the risk that someone has taken even broaching the subject with someone.

And yet he never, you know, runs into any. that goes to police and says, hey, this guy is trying to abduct children. He's trying to get me involved, trying to get me to help him. So just think about the selection process and what he must have gone through to get to the point where he was sure or relatively sure that, you know, he had a person who wouldn't rat him out. I mean, that's, it's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around, to be honest with you. And part of me wonders if he even cared whether they would go to the police. Maybe he was so hell bent on getting a child for these terrible purposes that he didn't

even think through whether they would go to the police or not. Maybe it was more of an urge that he couldn't control and was willing to take a chance that the person wouldn't go to the police. Yeah, there's a part of that that could be true. But I actually think he was very calculating about it. I think he probably sized up a lot of different people, but only approached people once he was relatively sure, that he could influence them,

that they wouldn't, you know, rat him out. There's a lot that had to have gone into the thought process here, as bad as the ultimate thoughts were. Back at Pernell's home, a remote cabin in Mendocino County, Stephen came home and saw Timothy and knew exactly what he must have been feeling. Parnell told Timothy the same things he had once told Stephen about his parents. Timothy later told the press Democrat,

he told me I was given to him by my parents, and they couldn't afford me and didn't want me anymore. Timothy added that Pernell said he was going to be my new dad. It was almost exactly what he had told Stephen years before, word for word. Now, we talked a bit about how when he was, first abducted at seven years old, Stephen may have believed what Parnell had told him about his parents not wanting him. But as Stephen grew up,

he had started to realize that nothing about the situation or about what Parnell said made any sense. If his parents had given him up, why did he need to change his name? If this was a legal arrangement, why would his parents have ever chosen someone who would harm him to be his guardian? But by then, it felt too late to Stephen to do anything about it. They had moved around. And Stephen had forgotten details about his family.

He knew that the whole situation wasn't right, but he also wondered that if he ever came forward to say who he really was, would anyone even believe that he was Stephen Stainer and not Dennis Parnell? How could he prove it? Although Stephen's sense that Parnell had lied to him about his parents, giving him up and not wanting him, he always held back on trying to escape, on the off chance that Parnell was telling the truth. But Stephen knew that it wasn't too late for Timothy. People would still be actively looking for him. Stephen was sure that he had been abducted and that this wasn't

some kind of legal custody exchange. He saw the planning and the previous attempts. Now Stephen saw the pattern beginning again. To help hide Timothy, who had very recognizable blonde hair, Parnell died at dark brown. He also took the clothes he had been wearing on Valentine's Day when he was abducted and gave him new clothes. Stephen knew he had to act and help Timothy, or he might face a year's long ordeal like he had. Stephen saw how Timothy was scared and confused,

and he cried wanting to go home. Stephen couldn't take that anymore, and he made a decision that he was going to help Timothy to escape. Stephen Stannard later told Newsweek, I couldn't see Timmy suffer. It was my do-or-die-dye chance. and I also would be coming home for doing something positive. Stephen determined that it was one thing not to fight for himself,

but it was another thing altogether, something unacceptable to him, to stand by and do nothing while someone else went through hell. Parnell was very trusting of Stephen, or very sure of himself, and the brainwashing job he had done. Nothing changed after he kidnapped Timothy. Parnell was still working the night shift. at the Palace Hotel in Yucaya and he was regularly gone overnight, trusting 14-year-old Stephen to watch over Timothy on March 1, 1980,

after Parnell left for work. Stephen took Timothy and headed to Yucaya over an hour away. He put Timothy on his back and carried the little boy walking until a passing driver picked them up. They hitchhiked the rest of the way. Once in Yucaya, in the dark and the chaos, Timothy couldn't help point Stephen in the right direction of his home. So Stephen decided to find the police station.

Stephen walked into the police station with Timothy and told investigators about Timothy's situation, but he also told them that he was a missing child too. At first, the officers didn't believe him, but they were able to find his missing poster and confirm this story. He wasn't able to tell them much about himself because he had forgotten so much, but he did tell the shocked officers, I know my first name is Stephen. He wasn't sure if he even had a middle name,

but he thought his last name was Stainer, spelled in a different way, spelled with an eye instead of a Y. He gave them the birth date he said he used, unsure when he was actually born. Stephen was now a hero after bringing Timothy home less than a month after the boy was abducted. Now, obviously, police had a million questions for Stephen.

They wanted to know who had abducted him and how he was treated, according to E. Online, at first, Stephen was adamant that he wasn't mistreated. Investigators noted that he clearly has conflicting thoughts about his captor. It seems that Stephen didn't want to tell them or couldn't tell them what he experienced partially due to his shame and embarrassment, but also because he had been brainwashed by Parnell. And he thought of him in some way as, you know, kind of a father-like figure. Eventually, he admitted everything.

He had been through, though he didn't like to talk about it. Police alerted the Stainer family, that Stephen was alive and was safe. They were understandably shocked by the news, but obviously very happy. The news quickly caught wind of Stephen's recovery, and the press converged on the scene, creating a media circus over the two boys being safely returned to their families. And morphed to me, as terrible. as it had been, you know, what, what Stephen went through at the hands of Kenneth Parnell, this part of the story is absolutely amazing, you know, through all the brainwashing.

And it had been years of it. Through all the torture and sexual abuse, Stephen was able to get the courage to put this boy on his back, get to the police station, and tell the police what had happened. happened, you know, saving both of them. Yeah, I think it took a lot of courage to make that stand and make that decision, knowing it was the right thing to do for both Timothy and himself. And then to have the courage to talk to police and tell them what he had gone through, you know, I think that must have been very hard, very difficult for him to talk about that stuff.

He was probably humiliated by it and embarrassed to have to retell what had happened. But I think that the police needed to know all that stuff to know what charges they'd be bringing against Parnell and how to prosecute him. And to know exactly what type of monster this guy was. And I think based on what Stephen was able to tell the police, they knew they needed to get Kenneth Parnell off the street. Parnell was arrested in charge with kidnapping both Stephen and Timothy as well as false imprisonment because of the sexual assaults on Stephen had occurred in different. jurisdictions, and also due to the statute of limitations expiring, Parnell wasn't charged for those offenses. He went on trial in 1981 and was convicted, but again he received a light sentence, just seven years in prison. He was released on parole after serving only five. He served less

years in prison than years of his life Stephen had lost being his captive. The law would later be changed to give people like Pernell more time behind bars by allowing consecutive sentences for multiple deductions. Edward Irvin Murphy, who helped lure Stephen into the car for Pernell, was also arrested, went to trial, and was found guilty. He was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He claimed to believe that Pernell was a minister and that he had no idea of his plans to harm Stephen. Murphy was released after just two years in jail. Randall Porman, the teen who helped abduct Timothy, was also convicted for his role, since he was only 16 at the time. He served his time in juvenile hall.

And I can only imagine more if the anger that is welling up inside everyone who's hearing this because it's welling up inside me, you know, Parnell gets seven years, serves only five years. I mean, there's no way around it. For what he did, that is just a slap on the wrist. It really is. it infuriates me that the laws were the way they were back then that would allow that to happen. And then you look at a guy like Edward Murphy, yes, what he did was terrible. But nowhere near to the level of what Kenneth Parnell did. And he didn't receive, you know, that much less than Parnell did.

And I think Parnell's sentence is especially late when you consider that he had a previous record for hurting a child and raping a child. So why that wasn't taken into consideration in sentencing is kind of mind-boggling to me. But that seems to be the case and some of the older cases that we do. You know, it's like they didn't factor in as much people's previous convictions. you know, the laws were written in a way that people couldn't even be prosecuted for some of the crimes because too much time had gone by. It's just, you know, almost like the perfect storm of things that allowed him to only serve five years in prison.

But it's maddening to think that a guy could get away with all of that and only do five years. Yeah, especially because that's the kind of person that needs to be all. the streets and needs to be locked up. Although Stephen was free and safe and returned home to his family, back at home, he had a hard time adjusting. He described his first year back to ABC News is kind of hectic. He told Newsweek, I returned almost a grown man. Yet my parents saw me at first as their seven-year-old.

Despite Stephen being reunited with his family, it was clearly not an easy reunion. And in many ways, he felt like he didn't belong there. He told ABC News for seven years, I have been supposedly an only child. Now, I had to compete with a brother and three sisters. He also had to deal with other kids at school, knowing everything he had been through from the details in the media, and then using those details to make fun of him, questioning his sexuality because a man had assaulted him. And although his parents were overjoyed to have him home,

he was still a child and a part of the family. And like any household, there were rules and expectations. During his time with Parnell, Stephen didn't really have any of that. He was allowed to drink, smoke, pretty much do whatever he wanted. Once a good student, Stephen's grades tanked. And he ended up dropping out of school. Sadly, Stephen expressed a tinge of regret when it came to returning to his family, telling Newsweek, everything has changed. Sometimes I blame myself. I don't know, sometimes if I should have come home.

Would I have been better off if I didn't? Stephen tried as best as he could to come to terms with what had happened to him and to have his normal relationship he could with his family. In 1985, when he was 20 years old, he married 17-year-old Jodie Edmitson. A couple went on to have two children, one son and one daughter. With the hardest and darkest part of his life behind him, it seemed that Stephen had a future to look forward to with the young family by his side. But tragically, Stephen's life would be cut short. On September 16th, 1989, at just 24 years old, Stephen Stainer lost his life in a motorcycle accident. He left his job at a pizza parlor and was riding home without his helmet on when a car turned in front of him and they collided.

Stephen was rushed to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead from a skull fracture. The driver of the car that collided with Stephen, Anthony Laura, fled the scene but later turned himself into police. He was convicted of felony hit and run and sentenced to three months in prison. Stephen's family was devastated. By his loss, he had been brought back to them, but the time they had with him wasn't long enough. After the accident, Stephen's young widow, Jody, told Knight Ritter News, I'm very, very, very angry. I've never been this angry. Jody said that Stephen had been very happy lately and was enjoying life with his young family.

More than 450 people came to Stephen's funeral, and Timothy White, the boy he saved, now 14 years old, was one of Stephen's pallbearers. Stephen once carried Timothy, and now Timothy was doing the same for Stephen. Stephen's stanner was laid to rest in Merced Cemetery. Those that knew Stephen and strangers alike celebrated his life in memory. They once again remembered his bravery and heroism, forgetting himself and Timothy White out of a terrible situation. They also recalled that Stephen had thwarted Kenneth Parnell's attempts to abduct other boys. If Stephen was still alive today, he would be turning 60. both of his children are now older than he lived to be.

And more if there's no way around it, this is a very sad story. You have a kid who was abducted at the age of seven. We just talked about how, you know, he lost his life at the age of 24. But what I want to focus on is, you know, this reunion with his family, which, you know, should have been amazing. actually wasn't for Stephen because of everything he had gone through. I mean, he actually, you know, told the paper at one point, I don't know sometimes if I should have come home.

Would I have been better off if I didn't? That's just amazing that he even had those thoughts. But that's how messed up what happened to him was and how devastating it was for him. what it did to him. It's very sad for sure for him and his family because they can't make up for that lost time. And once he was put back into that home, it just didn't feel natural, I think, to him a lot of the time. And there was maybe some kind of disconnect and just not that bond that should have been there maybe. And I think it just proves, as you said, just how messed up this entire situation is that,

it forever altered Stephen's life and his family's lives, and they missed out on a lot of time together. And even the short time that they had together before Stephen died, it just wasn't the same. And it couldn't be the same because Stephen was changed by his time with Kenneth Parnell. It's also very sad that, you know, he did get married. He did. have children but died so young that he never really got to, you know, live his life out. Just sat all the way around. Yeah. And he gets away from this monster only to, you know, his life to end early anyway.

It's just very tragic. As for Kenneth Parnell, once free from prison after his very short sentence for what he did to Stephen and Timothy, he never changed his ways. He was arrested yet again in 2003, despite being in his 70s and needing the assistance of a caregiver, as he always had. He tried to get someone to help him find his next victim. This time, he offered the sister of his caregiver, $500 to kidnap a four-year-old boy and also get a birth certificate for him. She reported his offer to the police. She helped them set up an undercover operation.

There was never an actual specific child that Parnell was targeting, but she went along with the plan long enough to get the proof needed to put him back in prison and make sure he didn't have the chance to ask someone else who may have actually helped him. And I go back to something that you said more from when we were talking about the light sentence for Kenneth Parnell. This is the exact type of person that you need to keep off the streets. This is a person who, even by the time he was sentenced, had already demonstrated that going to prison, being incarcerated was not a deterrent. He'd already done it, gotten out, and then went right back to, you know, doing some of the same bad things he had done before. How could somebody not believe that when he got out this time, he was going to.

going to do it again. And I think this clearly supports the argument that people like Kenneth Parnell can't be changed, they can't be cured, they're always going to try and do this stuff if not taken off the street. According to the press Democrat, Kenneth Parnell was charged with a solicitation to commit a crime, trying to buy a human being, an attempted child stealing. He claimed that he just wanted to raise a child. The 72-year-old sat in a wheelchair during his 2004 trial. Timothy White testified against him again. Though Stephen Stainer had been dead for over a decade, the jury heard his voice, as his testimony from the first trial had been recorded and was now being played back. Randall Porman, the teenager who had helped Parnel kidnap kidnapped Timothy,

also testified against him. This trial was the first time Timothy and Porman had seen each other since the trial in 1981. The two hugged and Timothy accepted Porman's apology. Due to California's three strikes law. Pernell was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He died of natural causes in prison on January 21st, 2008. He was 76 years old. And I know the law wasn't written that way back then, but in my mind, more if that's what he should have gotten back in 1981, he should have gotten 25 years to life,

at the very least. Because, you know, from my way of thinking, he did what five years and then he spent probably four years in prison the third time before he died this is a man who for all of the horrible things he did didn't spend that much time in prison and it's kind of infuriating yeah and i wonder at the end of the day if he had other victims that we don't even know about over the years i think it's hard not to believe that he did but i also want to talk about, you know, this woman who actually turned him in because we talked about it earlier, how he was able to get so many different people to go along with him.

Well, thankfully, this woman, you know, wasn't going for it. She wasn't fooled by Kenneth Parnell and helped the police catch him before somebody else suffered the same fate as Stephen Stainer and some of the other boys. Just one year after testifying against Parnell the second time, Timothy White became a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputy. He took pride in helping people and protecting them the way Stephen Stainer had done for him. He served for five years. Sadly, Timothy White passed away on April 1, 2010, at the age of 35, due to a pulmonary embolism.

Like Stephen Stainer, he was married with two children at the time of his death. A book about Stephen's case was written by Mike Eccles called I Know My First Name is Stephen. And in May 1989, not long before Stephen was killed, a mini series of the same title debuted on TV, once again putting Stephen's case back into the spotlight and reminding people just how much he had gone through. Over 35 million viewers tuned in to watch the program. And for many of them, it was their introduction to Stephen's case. And I think if you're of a certain age, Morph, as you're of a certain age, morph, as you'll and I are. This is a something that a lot of people will remember. I remember it. And I kind of remember

being scared by it. Now also there was, you know, the heroism and all of that that came through by what Stephen did. But I remember as, as, you know, a teenager thinking, oh, my gosh, I can't believe that this could happen to a shot. That was very frightening. It was sort of sobering a wake-up call. That kind of stuff happened. And I remember watching this show clearly as well. And it was well done. And it actually won some some different awards. It was done tastefully. And it was pretty fact-based. So if anyone wants to go back and check that out, it's probably worth the watch. But I also remember kind of the climactic moment. being that phrase, right?

I know my first name is Stephen. In 2003, when it was proposed that a park be named Steven Stainer Park, it wasn't approved. The city council felt that Stevens Park would be more appropriate because use of the last name Stainer would probably make the public think of Stephen's brother, Kerry Stainer first. Sadly, Stephen's bravery and heroism is often overshadowed.

by his brother Kerry's brutal and cold-blooded crimes. And that's exactly what we'll be talking about next Saturday night in our episode, the crimes of Carrie Stainer. And there's no doubt that Carrie Stainer was a cold-blooded killer. But as we wrap up this episode on Steven Stainer more, you know, there's a lot of emotions that have run through me as we've kind of gone through the episode, it's impossible not to feel for Stephen and what he went through, first being kidnapped at the age of seven being sexually abused for many,

many years in unspeakable, horrible ways. The thought that his family had given him up. And then you have the bravery of Stephen saying, you know what, I don't want this to happen to Timothy White. And I'm not going to let it happen. So there's such a range of emotions, I think, to this story. It's hard not to be moved by everything that happened to Stephen, how he made it through it, how he survived, how he was able to help someone else escape. And there's definitely a really. clear hero aspect to Stephen for making this out of it and for helping Timothy get out of the

situation as well. But then more sadness, right? Because what should have been this unbelievable reunion with his family, it just didn't play out that way. I think in large part because of everything that had happened to him, it was hard for him to kind of re-enter. into the family life, a family that he hadn't been with for quite a long time. Yeah, and I think that was an unforeseen complication from all of this. He got away from Kenneth Parnell, but wasn't able to escape these other issues that came along later as a result of what he had gone through. And then getting married, starting his own family, but tragically losing his life young.

and not really, you know, ever seeing his kids grow up. And like I said, just, just a range of emotions in this one. And I think it was a reminder, too, talking so much about Kenneth Parnell, that these kind of people are out there. They do this stuff. They did it back then. They still probably do it now, although probably harder to get away with it now with, you know, cameras all over the place and phone records and things like that.

it seems like it wouldn't be as easy to do this now, but back then it was easier. And it's just frightening that people could do it and still try and do it now. And I think tragically, sadly, in many of these kinds of cases where a child is abducted by a predator like this, you know, for the purpose of being raped, they usually, in a lot of instances, are dead within, what is it, 12 hours. So it seems like Parnell wasn't looking to kill these children, but what he was looking for was an extended period to abuse them, which is a whole other hell in itself. So, you know, there was no good outcome here for Stephen. I don't think in any scenario. But no doubt, you know, a very infamous case and would be if it was just Stephen and Kenneth Parnell and Timothy.

white. But when you add in Stephen's brother, Kerry, which we're going to talk about next week, it just makes the whole thing even that much more bizarre and tragic. But that's it for our episode on Steven Stainer. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends, word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media. We're on X with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to Facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast, discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology,

but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care everyone. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations. piling up and audit dread? It's time for Vanta. Vanta automates security and compliance, brings evidence into one place, and cuts audit prep by 82%. Less manual work, clear visibility, bastard deals, zero chaos. Call it compliance or call it Compliance. Get it? Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to VANTA.com slash com.