True Crime Campfire - I Know My First Name Is Steven: The Abduction of Steven Stayner

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

In classic literature—and in soap operas, too—there are a lot of families who become lightning rods for misfortune. Sometimes it really strains your suspension of disbelief—like, come on, one family could never go through this much tragedy. But every now and then, a family just seems to be haunted by something sinister. From February through July of 1999, the bodies of four women turned up around Yosemite National Park in California—all brutally murdered and mutilated. The killer was a handsome, likable guy named Cary Stayner, who confessed to the four murders once they had him in custody, and is suspected of quite a few more. And during his confession, the investigators realized why his name had seemed familiar to them. Cary was the brother of Steven Stayner, kidnapped by a pedophile in 1972, forced to change his name to Dennis and held captive for years, until one night in 1980 when he walked into a police station and said, “I know my first name is Steven.” That case captured the world, with books and documentaries covering Steven’s years-long ordeal and the courage of his escape. Now, nearly 20 years later, the Stayner family was once again in the throes of a nightmare. Would Cary have become a serial killer if his brother had never been kidnapped, or was that evil always lurking inside him? It’s a Shakespearean tragedy of a story, and we’ll be telling it in two parts. This is part one--the abduction of Steven Stayner.Big thanks to Mike Moran of the Confessional Podcast for doing much of the work/research on this one! Sources:All That's Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/steven-staynerWikipedia: Kenneth ParnellThe Crime Reel: Part 1 of 2: Steven Stayner. The Troubled Lives of the Stayner BrothersCasefile (podcast): Ep. 154, Steven StaynerThis Is Monsters (podcast): The Story of Kenneth Parnell, the Kidnapping of Steven StaynerFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. In classic literature and in soap operas, too, there are a lot of families who become lightning rods for misfortune. Sometimes it really strange your suspension of death. disbelief. Like, come on, one family could never go through this much tragedy. But every now and then, a family just seems to be haunted by something sinister. From February through July of 1999,

the bodies of four women turned up around Yosemite National Park in California, all brutally murdered and mutilated. The killer was a handsome, likable guy named Carrie Stainer, who confessed to the four murders once they had him in custody and is suspected of quite a few more. And During his confession, the investigators realized why his name had seemed familiar to them. Carrie was the older brother of Stephen Stainer, kidnapped by a pedophile when he was seven years old, forced to change his name to Dennis, and held captive for years, until one night in 1980, when he walked into a police station and said, I know my first name is Stephen.

That case captured the world, with books and documentaries covering Stephen's years-long ordeal and the courage of his escape. Now, nearly 20 years later, the Stainer family was once again in the throes of a nightmare. Would Cary have become a serial killer if his brother had never been kidnapped, or was that evil always lurking inside him? It's a Shakespearean tragedy of a story, and we'll be telling it in two parts. This is Part 1. I know my first name is Stephen, the abduction of Stephen Stainer.

Stephen Stainer was born on April 18, 1965, to Key and Delbert Stainer in Merced, California. Stephen was one of five kids, sisters Cindy, Jody, and Corey, and older brother Carrie, who Stephen was the closest with. Father Dell was an army vet and mechanic, and Mother Key worked in different service jobs over the years. The Stainers were Mormons, always keeping close with the church. They loved outdoorsy stuff like camping and fishing.

They liked to pile into the family car and go exploring. In early December of 1972, like most kids, seven-year-old Stephen was stoked for Christmas. Even though it was still weeks away, he was still so excited he could barely sleep. But there was something nobody knew. Stephen was being watched that winter by a man named Kenner. of Parnell. Parnell had been stalking around the outside of the elementary school where Stephen went, just a few blocks from the Stainer's house. From his old white Buick, he scoped out all the young boys as they made their way home from school every day. He decided which ones he

liked and which ones he thought would make easy prey. He took note of who got on the bus, who got picked up by their parents, and who walked home. Sadly, Stephen checked all the boxes he was on the prow for. And one day, Parnell somehow managed to convince a mailman to tell him Stephen's full name, and a little bit about the Stainer family, which sounds completely insane to us now, but, you know, in 1972, it probably never would have occurred to the mailman that somebody might ask about this stuff for a sinister reason. All this was going on as the Stainers happily went about their lives, making plans for Christmas. And then, on December 4th, as Stephen was walking his usual route home, a strange man approached him. This wasn't Kenneth Parnell. This was a man named

Irvin Murphy. See, Kenneth Parnell was what you might call a master manipulator. Irvin, with a developmental disability that made him more trusting than the average person, was the perfect mark to act as a buffer between Parnell and the boy he planned to kidnap. Ken didn't want to be the one seen on the street talking to a child just before that child went missing. He'd instructed Irvin to hand out religious pamphlets to the kids walking around after school. He'd pointed out Stephen specifically. Okay, Irvin, he'd said. When you get to him, ask him if his parents have anything they'd like to donate to the needy through the church.

Tell him, you'll be happy to give him a ride home and talk with his folks directly. Stephen was a sweet, soft-hearted kid, and he immediately wanted to help out. My mom will probably be interested in donating, he told Irvin. He was a little apprehensive about the whole getting a ride home thing. He pointed out how short of a walk it was, but it was starting to rain, so he decided, what the heck? This guy seemed nice. How insane is it, by the way, if it hadn't started raining right then, Stephen Stainer

might never have gotten abducted. Just that little hare's breadth of chance. So Irvin walked Stephen over to the Buick. The little boy was surprised to see Irvin get in on the passenger side. Of course, Kenneth Parnell, a man Stephen had never met before, was behind the wheel. Stephen was even more confused as Parnell started driving, not to Stephen's house, but out of town and onto Highway 140. But Ken squelched any concerns of Stevens and agreed that, you know, it was probably a good idea to stop at a pay phone and call his parents, so he pulled over and pretended to do that. When he came back to the car, he assured Stephen, his parents were happy to let him come hang out with this weird guy he just made.

met. Of course, why wouldn't they be? He could even spend the night. There are lots of cool toys at my house, Parnell told him. We'll have a great time. So, of course, our skin is crawling as adults, but remember, Stephen is seven. He's a little bewildered, but he was trusting in the way that kids tend to be with adults, so he stayed calm the whole way there. Around nightfall, they pulled up to a small cabin in a trailer park in Mariposa County, about 37 miles from the Stainer's house in Merced. Coincidentally, this was the same trailer park Stevens' grandfather was currently living in, just a short walking distance away, but none of them knew that at the time. As promised, the cabin was filled with new toys, purchased by Parnell and Irvin Murphy,

for the sole purpose of keeping their kidnapping victim calm and compliant. As Parnell talked with Stephen, he learned that his parents had been worried about money lately and that Stephen had been getting in trouble here and there. Of course, being the viper he is, Parnell used this to explain to Stephen why his parents weren't coming to get him. He convinced the poor kid that they'd sent him away for a while. They needed a break from his behavior and some financial relief too, one less mouth to feed. Oh my lord. Kenneth Parnell abused Stephen for the first time that night. So who was this monster? Well, he was born in Amarillo, Texas in 1931, right in the heart of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression.

Along with his mother and several half-siblings, the family eventually moved to Bakersfield, California, after Kenneth's dad left when he was six. Mother Mary Parnell kept the household afloat in Bakersfield by managing a boarding house. Parnell seems to have had pretty severe mental issues his whole life. He tried to remove his own. teeth with pliers at age four and attempted suicide twice at just nine years old. The first time he shot himself in the abdomen and the second time he actually jumped off a barn directly onto a row of spiked boards. Somehow he was only mildly hurt in both attempts. That's really rare for a child that young, isn't it, to attempt suicide? Yeah, that's wild.

Especially like serious attempts too. Oh yeah, with a firearm, that's bonkers. His mother later referred to this time in her son's life as The Troubles. Well, guess what, Mom? The Troubles are just beginning for young Ken. Really, you could just refer to his whole life as the Troubles. He is Trouble. He is the trouble. Kenneth would soon become familiar with another kind of boarding house, the juvenile detention center.

He ended up there for a number of different offenses, stealing cars, burning things, and showing people his No-No Square. Yeah. In addition to pyromania and Grand Theft Auto, Ken was a fan of whipping and out in public for shock value. The results weren't favorable, and Ken often found himself taking long vacations to places where the doors lock from the outside. It's not a huge surprise that Ken really started acting out around age 13. Records show that before his 14th birthday, he was institutionalized for, quote, performing oral sex on another older man. Wow. Hey, 1940s

justice system. Did it occur to you that the grown man might be the one at fault here? Not the, you know, underage boy? No. Great. Teenage Kenneth later got caught engaging in public sex acts with males multiple times. In one of his stints behind bars, he tried to drink disinfectant in another attempt on his life,

but yet again he was unsuccessful. fall. During a brief lull in incarcerations in 1949 when Ken was 18, he married a 15-year-old girl named Patsy Joe Dorton, which, holy shit, that's young. Not super uncommon at the time, but still, yikes. Patsy got pregnant two years later. And like a lot of pregnant women, Patsy found herself pretty uninterested in sex, you know, because she was busy 3D printing an entire human being. This made Ken feel pretty annoyed. Oh, bless his heart. So Ken, in his own words, swear to God he said this, had to find another outlet.

Yeah, well, that outlet was a nine-year-old boy named Bobby Green, whom Ken would employ his trademark manipulation on, convincing the boy he was a cop and that Bobby fit the description of a boy who'd recently escaped from Juvie. For this twisted little ruse, Parnell had actually bought himself a fake police badge at an army surplus store. He assured Bobby that if he wasn't the escapee, he had

nothing to worry about, and they'd clear it all up at the station. He then proceeded to take this poor little boy out to the middle of nowhere and assault him. Afterward, he dropped Bobby back off at the same place he picked him up from. Unsurprisingly, Bobby and his parents quickly called

the police and had Parnell arrested. Kenneth was charged with quote, child stealing, crimes against nature and copulation of the sexual organ. Couldn't you just call it sexual abuse of a child? Did that term not exist back then? It sounds like they were more concerned with the homosexuality part to me. It's like that is just bananas to me, but it was illegal back then.

In fact, gay sex wasn't legal across every state in the U.S. until, buckle up for this, 2003, which is just bananas. I had no idea that it was that recent. That is crazy. In 1952, Ken pled guilty to lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14. Okay, okay. So they let the gay shit go and got him on the correct charges. Yeah.

The state declared him to be a sexual psychopath and handed him a ridiculously light three and a half year sentence, not even in prison, but to be served in another mental institution. And that shit still goes on. Like, people get the most offensive. sentences for abusing children. It's just, it's definitely a hole in our system. It's horrible. And that time included five months that he was on the lamb mid-sentence after a successful escape that he made by breaking a lock in a laundry room. Oh my God. He was eventually recaptured and later the state went on to release Ken on parole under the condition that he continued his psychiatric treatment, which he never once showed up for. And did anybody

keep track and go haul his ass in for parole violation? Apparently not. Was this place what Arkham Asylum was based on? Like, they're just walking out. And I looked it up because I had to know, Arkham Asylum made its first appearance in the Batman comics in 1974. So this, they could have based it on this. Like, what do you mean? He broke a lock in the laundry room and just waltzed out. Ken Parnell's first wife, Patsy, appears to have divorced him and taken their daughter with her sometime after Ken returned from his latest prison stint. Evidence is sketchy for this. We basically only have Ken's word, which is worth about negative nothing in my book, but supposedly he married a couple more times over the next decade and had another daughter. He got arrested again

for armed robbery this time in 1969, and his third wife left him. If she existed, we're not sure. When he got out of prison that time, the state of Utah made him promise to never come back and eventually, Ken ended up in California. Yosemite. The National Park was a nice, isolated place for a guy like Ken to find employment, if he was willing to fudge a little on his resume, obviously, which he was. It was while working at Yosemite in 1972 that Ken befriended his co-worker Irvin Murphy. Irvin was developmentally delayed, a little too trusting of others, and exactly the kind of person a psychopath like Parnell could play like a fiddle. And Ken was going to need somebody like Irvin to pull off his latest obsession. He wanted a boy to take home, raise as he saw fit,

and used to satisfy his disgusting sexual urges. Ugh. Over time, Parnell was able to convince Irvin Murphy that he was in the process of becoming a minister and was hoping to adopt a young boy to raise as a sort of spiritual protege. To, quote, raise him in a religious-type deal. is how Irvin later described it to the courts. Ken, who insisted Irvin call him reverend, claimed that God had ordained this plan and that the boy's quality of life would be way better under his watch.

And so we circle back to December 4, 1972, when seven-year-old Stephen Stainer had the horrendous misfortune of crossing paths with these two men on his way home from school. Stephen was soon on his way to a new childhood he'd never asked for, and the rest of the Stainer family,

family were about to fall headlong into a living nightmare. Stephen's parents were, of course, worried when he didn't come home from school that afternoon, but they figured he probably went over to a friend's house without telling them. This was something he did sometimes. It was part of the reason he'd been in trouble lately. After a few hours, they started calling his friend's houses, and then drove around the neighborhood looking for him. They reported Stephen missing at 5 p.m. Though their concern was growing as the evening approached, the police assured the state Daners that he'd probably turn up soon and that stranger abductions were very rare, which is true.

Yeah. The police and family now joined by a handful of volunteers continued to search into the night. When the sun rose the next morning and there was still no sign of Stephen, things started to get real. The police had parents, Delbert and Kay, take polygraphs and installed recording equipment in their house in case of a ransom call. And of course, the media soon got wind of the storm. story. The family was in a panic. As the days went by, speculation ran wild. Some people even thought Stephen's parents might have sold him to help with their financial problems. Holy shit, yikes. Statistically, when a child goes missing, it's usually the parents, so plenty of suspicion was

flying around about the stainers, but the external search was still going strong as the whole town worried sick about Stephen. It was a rainy day in December, with the temperature dropping every day, and everybody knew he might die of exposure if he was lost somewhere outside. The local Mormon church helped look for him, as did on and off-duty police, regular citizens, Boy Scouts, and even inmates from the local jail, which the last one is just bizarre to me. I assume they got the nonviolent offenders who were maybe doing work release anyway or like they were just the, you know, drunk tank that were out. I would think so.

I'm picturing like Chief Wiggum from. the Simpsons, like, okay, I'll let you out for tonight, but you have to pinky swear you'll come back. That's my Chief Wiggum, thank you. That's pretty good Chief Wiggum. That's all right. Yeah. But apparently people could just leave jail back then, so, you know, who knows?

The police also investigated the known sex offenders in the area. Parnell had somehow been able to avoid being listed as a sex offender in California, despite never making any attempts to change his name, arrogant prick. After a week, the police dropped a devastating bomb on the stainers. The official search was being called off. Obviously, the investigation would continue, but they just couldn't keep combing the area on foot forever. And if Stephen were lost in the wilderness somewhere,

he would have died by now. Damn, I mean, I understand you can't keep a ground search going forever, but a week just seems so fast to me. Like, what if it was your kid? you know. That Christmas was a dark one for the stainers. For a lot of the community, too. Everybody was heartbroken about Stephen's disappearance.

Sympathetic neighbors tried to cheer up Stephen's four siblings with extra gifts, but it didn't really help much. Stephen's presence sat unopened under the tree in the hope he would soon be home to open them. Although the official search parties were no longer active, the investigators and lots of volunteers, kept up a relentless pace to try and fight Stephen. They put missing persons posters up everywhere,

not just in town, but in every neighboring town they could for hundreds of miles. Frustratingly, Yosemite National Park refused to cooperate much. They said it would be bad press for the park, so they wouldn't hang the posters, which is extra awful because that's exactly where Parnell took Stephen next. A few days into the kidnapping, Parnell bundled Stephen into the Buick and moved him to the dorm room he'd be staying in while working at Yosemite. He hid him there, with a bucket for a toilet, since he couldn't usher him back and forth to the bathroom without his co-workers noticing. He often sedated Stephen with sleeping pills to make sure he didn't get too loud.

Irvin Murphy would bring food and toys to Stephen and hang out with him while Parnell was at work. In those first days and weeks of Stephen's new life with Parnell, he became more and more upset and anxious. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his mom and dad and his siblings. He didn't want to stay with this weird man anymore. He cried and begged, but Parnell told him he wasn't going home to his family just yet. I don't think they really need you right now, he said. After a few weeks, Parnell and Irvin put Stephen in the car again, and they all three went back to the cabin for a few weeks. Parnell had a surprise for Stephen, a new puppy he named Queenie. Whatever joy Stephen might have had about his new puppy didn't last long, though.

This was a strategically timed gift given to cut down the shock of the latest lie Parnell was about to tell Stephen, that he had a new dad now, Parnell himself. A judge granted me legal guardianship over you, Kenneth told him. We're family now, legally. Stephen must have been devastated and confused. It's a trick from page one, paragraph one, of the abuser's handbook, as we've talked about before. Isolate your victim from their support system. Convince them, you're all they've got. Nobody else wants them. Parnell worked hard to brainwash seven-year-old Stephen, convincing him that his parents had

agreed to the adoption. They didn't want him anymore. They just couldn't afford to raise him. So not only is this baby torn away from his family at seven years old, but this piece of shit manages to make him believe that his family didn't love him anymore and weren't going to look for him. It's just absolutely monstrous. It's almost as bad as the sexual abuse, that kind of psychological violation. Parnell cut Stephen's hair in a new style to disguise him and told him that his new name was Dennis. He should refer to Ken as dad.

Meanwhile, the stainers continued to follow up on any and every lead that came in. They even checked out all the clemen. claims of the psychics who'd contact them, even though that's not a thing they really believed in. That's how desperate they were to find their lost boy. Key and Delbert Stainer continued contacting every news outlet they could, but as the months rolled on, the media slowly lost interest in the story. Many, many families of missing people have to confront this exact same pattern, and I can only imagine how frustrating and just heart-wrenching it is. But the family enlisted the help of all their supporters to raise money for a $5,000 reward for any information

leading to Stevens' return. They also asked the ever-helpful Yosemite National Park for a list of all their employees to check for themselves if anyone had a suspicious record. And wouldn't you know it? They mistakenly left off about half of their workers, including one Kenneth Parnell. Anybody else want to smack the shit out of Yosemite management? It's like they were trying to do everything humanly possible to make sure this kid stayed captive. I'm so mad. I can't even talk. People talk about wanting to go back to the good old days between the 70-style racism, sexism, and flat-out bureaucratic negligence. I think we're doing better now, okay? I appreciate national parks. I think they're cool now. I think they're doing

a better job. But to be like, eh, I think missing person's posters would like make us look bad. And then also like, you can have some of our employee names. Like, what are you fucking doing? It's just ridiculous. The Stainer's house was full of painful daily reminders of Stephen's absence, but they refused to move on the off chance that Stephen would find his way home one day. If this miracle were ever to happen, they wanted to make sure it was them he came home to. They wrote his name on items all over the house, refusing to forget him even for a minute. And although they tried to stay as positive as possible, their hopes and fears seemed to ebb and flow at different times. One day, Key confidently told a reporter,

we know that someday we will be family again. On a less optimistic day, she pleaded with Stephen's potential killer. If he's dead, please let us know. This not knowing is enough to drive you insane. Despite all the love that fueled this relentless search for Stephen, the stainer house was becoming increasingly tense. Del was irritable, hostile, and severely depressed. He was obsessive in his search for Stephen and would load the whole family into the car at a moment's notice to track down an alleged sighting,

no matter how far away or how far-fetched. One time, with family in tow, Del slammed on the brakes of the car and pulled over to the side of the road. He'd noticed a suspicious-looking man standing on a random mound of dirt and staring off into space. Del began to obsess over the idea

that Stephen was buried there. He begged the police to dig, but was told there was no evidence or reason to believe anything was there. Both parents later admitted that they probably neglected their four other children in Stephen's absence. Can you really blame them, though?

Though they obviously could have used it, the stainers weren't the type to seek professional help for their constant emotional stress or to talk about their feelings with each other. Yeah, most people didn't back then. And this is just beyond the pale Kay's own father even told her

that she should be glad with one less child to feed and clothe Apparently he'd always thought she was irresponsible to have so many children Wow, thanks dad, that's helpful To say that out loud to somebody is... It's unreal, I can't even believe it. Unconscionable, I can't, I can't.

Steven's disappearance hit his older brother Carrie extra hard. He'd walk the streets of their neighborhood at night and wish on the stars for his little brother's return. Carrie had trichotillomania, an anxiety-driven compulsion to pull out your own hair before Stephen was kidnapped, and the stress of the situation made it even worse. Drawing cartoons was one of the ways he dealt with it, and he was good, contributing illustrations to his high school newspaper. He was even voted most artistic in the yearbook.

As months turned into years, the leads slowed down but never stopped. And even as the media coverage waned, they still received several tips a week. There was even a false confession at one point, but none of them led anywhere. It was like Stephen had vanished into thin air. And yet, the stainers continued to take comfort in the fact that a body never turned up. As long as this was the case, there was still hope. As all this pain, hope, searching, and praying went on and merced. Stephen was still a shockingly short distance from home.

Unbeknownst to them, Stephen and his family were separated by a quick drive up Route 140. Eventually, though, Kenneth Parnell, Irvin Murphy, and Stephen, going by Dennis now, moved from the trailer park to another cabin in Yosemite. Time went on. When he was eight, Stephen got really sick, and Parnell had no choice but to take him to the doctor. He must have been shitting his pants, thinking he was. he was about to get caught. If the doctor recognized Stephen from the news or noticed any signs of abuse or if Stephen said the wrong thing or forgot to call himself Dennis, it would all

be over for Ken. But unfortunately for Stephen slash Dennis, the doctor was fine with letting the boy's father do most of the talking. He sent the two on their way with a diagnosis of the mumps and a prescription for antibiotics. Realizing he should probably move further away than Yosemite National Park if he wanted to not get caught, Parnell moved them again to Santa Rosa. Irvin Murphy wasn't invited this time. There, Ken enrolled Stephen in school, and much to his relief, they didn't ask for any of Dennis's school records or a birth certificate. Though the missing persons flyers his parents sent everywhere had reached the elementary school he was now attending, they'd long been thrown out without being passed around. So were they just not wasting enough

paper. They thought they could just waste a little more by throwing it out by not looking at it twice. Good. Good. Cool, cool, cool. Glad the school has the kids' best interest in mine. It's so upsetting. There were so many missed opportunities in this case. Despite all he was going through, Stephen was still likable and optimistic. He made friends easily wherever they moved, and he was a good student, too. Which says a lot about the inner strength of this kid. My God, to be going through what he was going through behind closed doors. and still managed to have a sort of normal school life, like having to hold in all that horror. It's just amazing to me that he was able to hold on to his spirit.

After his Yosemite job, Parnell worked the front desk at a holiday inn and sold Bibles door to door, which just adds a whole other layer of creepy to this story for me, imagining this fucking weirdo showing up at my door and asking if he could come in and talk to me about the Lord. Ugh. Later that year, Ken's cruel lies about Stephen's family got another update. Your dad died, he told Stephen one morning.

Just that casual. Ken said Stephen's mom and siblings had moved away right after the death to a new city. Stephen felt hopeless. He'd come to believe that Ken was the only one who wanted anything to do with him. And that is a powerful chain to put around a person's neck, especially a young person. Stephen had a lot of chances to escape over the years, and though he thought about it all the time, he never really tried. Kenneth Parnell had warped his mind, shrunk his world down to just the two of them. He had the temporary escape of school, but he'd come to accept that this was his life now.

And it wasn't just the psychological manipulation that kept the invisible leash on Stephen. There was also the very real threat of getting beaten by Parnell who could get violent whenever he felt like it. he realized early on he could stay on ken's good side and be rewarded with toys and later on drugs or he could act out and get a whipping stephen quickly learned to stay in line as much as possible though he once got caught shoplifting and was driven home by the cops imagine that parnell berated him told him how ashamed he was that his son had become a criminal this asshole is not acquainted with the concept of irony is he just think about that Ride home in the squad car. Like, imagine how badly you would want to cry out for help. Ugh. Despite all the violence and brainwashing, Stephen once found the courage to sneak out of the trailer

and walk into the pitch black night in hopes of finding his real family. Sadly, he only made it a few blocks before he got scared, turned around, and went back. Thankfully, Parnell had slept through the whole thing and never even knew it happened. In 1974, two years into the abduction, Parnell quit his job at the Holiday Inn. Want to know why? Because they stopped letting employees smoke at the front desk.

Ken was just outrage. What is this commie bullshit? So he flounced and took up the time-honored tradition for 43-year-old men everywhere. He became a paper boy. Also that year, Parnell attempted for the first time to try and get Stephen to help him kid nap an even younger boy to join the two of them. He took nine-year-old Stephen to a shopping mall and instructed him to try and get a kid to come out to the parking lot with him. Stephen just wandered around the mall for a while and later lied to Ken,

telling him he tried, but he was unsuccessful. Hell yes, Stephen, you're awesome. As the years passed by, the two continued to move around a lot, though never leaving the state of California. They bounced from cabins to hotel rooms to trailer parks. Starting as early as fifth grade, Parnell openly encouraged Stephen to drink, smoke, and get high. They often did it together. At one point, while living in Fort Bragg, Parnell's mom gave him money to open a Bible store called AAA Bibles, Books, and Gifts, which quickly failed.

Get out. I can't imagine why that wasn't a roaring success. I think maybe it had anything to do with the freaking creep lurking behind the counter, because I don't know if y'all have seen picks of kids. Kenneth, but just picture John Wayne Gacy's like creepier cousin. Yeah, he's got like a Kubrick stare and he's just staring at you chain smoking, trying to sell you fucking like smoke, cigarette smoke-scented Bibles, stained yellow. Like, are you kidding me? In 1975, Ken Parnell got bit by the lovebug again and started dating Steven's friend Kenny's mom,

Barbara Matthews. But if Stephen held out any hope that Kenneth might stop abusing him now that he had a wife, no. Barbara joined in on the abuse. Now Stephen had two tormentors. It was horrible, but Stephen later said that this arrangement was actually slightly better for him, that there was less abuse overall after Barbara. I guess she curbed some of Ken's perverted sex drive. In May 1975, Kenneth requested Barbara get him a boy from the boys' club Stephen Belonged to.

She tried, but the kid she targeted was creeped out by her and ran the hell away. Good for him. Ken was furious when Barbara came home empty-handed. In spring of 1976, Barbara got custody of her four kids and they came to stay with the Parnells. By this point, they were living in an old, broken-down school bus full of bunk beds. What? A fucking nightmare. Oh, my God.

Even worse, Parnell abused several of Barbara's kids. This latest incarnation of the Parnell household didn't last long, though. By June, Barbara had met another man and moved her family in with him. Aw. Kenneth, will he ever find his soulmate? Is love in the cards? I hope not. Yeah.

By this point, Stephen was in the seventh grade, and every now and then, when he was with his closest friend, Damon, a little of the truth would trickle out. One day, Damon approached their teacher after class and said, Dennis says he was taken away when he was real young, and his parents said they didn't want him anymore. If you're driving, you might want to pull over so you can take a moment to scream because the teacher didn't pursue this, nor did she tell anybody else in authority. Yeah, and I have no idea why. I mean, if Damon put it exactly like that, then maybe she just thought, like, CPS had taken the kid away, not like a kidnapper. But I wonder how she felt when the truth came out years later. My God, what does it hurt to say something?

At least question the boy about it. Yeah, that's why we have mandated reporter loss now. Like, if you even get a st- if you can get a scent, even if you have a bad feeling, you got to report it. Like, Jesus, lady, come on. Stephen continued to have an active social life, playing football for his high school team and dating girls. Once he got drunk with a girlfriend and told her he missed his real family. She thought he was just wasted, making stuff up. In July of 1979, Parnell moved yet again to Mendocino County to work as a guard on a cannabis farm.

Believe it or not, growing cannabis in the 70s and 80s was considered maybe just a notch and a half below manufacturing meth on society's list of evils. Hell, Kenneth probably would have gotten more jail time for that than he did for his abuse of children. Like, how fucked up is that? If you ever watch, like, any 1970s, like, school scare films of, like, marijuana, they really make it seem like marijuana will, like, melt your face. It's crazy. This was actually one of the better living situations for Stephen, all things considered. He had his own room and there was a beautiful garden with rabbits and chickens. Stephen and his beloved dog, Queenie, always loved running around outside.

While on guard duty, Parnell would, of course, steal as much weed as he could get away with. So really, he was the one that the farm needed guarding from. As Stephen was now into his teenage years and going through puberty, Parnell found himself less and less attracted to the young man. Ugh. The good news was he was abusing Stephen less often. The bad news was he became more determined than ever to kidnap a son. second child, and he wanted Stephen to help him do his dirty work. Unsurprisingly, Stephen

wanted no part of it. He intentionally flubbed several more attempts at grabbing a kid, and Parnell bitched at him for his incompetence as a criminal. He must have been really disappointed in his son for being a decent human being. Parnell then decided to enlist one of Stephen's classmates and fellow stoner, a guy named Sean Porman. Stephen was sort of friends with Sean, though they weren't close. They kind of just hung out every now and again and got high. Sean, in fact, seemed to have hit it off better with Ken, mainly because of the booze and weed he provided and let the kids use at his house.

Did you ever have that friend as a teenager whose parents would let you drink, smoke, get high, whatever, as long as you did it, like, at their house under their watch. I had a friend like that. I thought it was pretty damn cool at the time, but it's kind of weird if you think about it. I had a friend, yeah, who, like, hosted a party. I was so freaked out by it. Because, like, my parents were, like, pretty, like, oh, do you want a sip of my drink? Like, it wasn't ever, like, taboo or, like, I would get in trouble.

So it was very, like, uncool to me to, like, get hammered. So, like, for her to be like, yeah, if you kids want to smoke weed, just do it outside. I left ashtrays. I was like, what the fuck is your mom doing? Like, what are you doing? It was weird. I didn't like it. Ken convinced poor men he merely wanted to adopt a kid from a troubled home.

but the adoption process was such a pain in the ass. He needed Sean to help him. Help a child have a better life. He's an angel in human shape, Arkenny. He offered Sean $50 and some drugs to help him out, which is a lot of money back then, and Sean initially got on board, probably while stoned off his nuts.

When Sean tried to back out later, realizing the complete insanity of what he was actually being asked to do, Parnell did what he did best and manipulated, this time using physical threat. On Valentine's Day, 1980, in Ukiah, California, five-year-old kindergartner, Timmy White, was walking the short distance from his school to his babysitter's house. He was carrying a lunchbox full of valentines he'd made with his class that day. Parnell and Sean Porman pulled up just ahead of Timmy,

and Sean got out and pretended to check a damaged tire. Hey, kid, Sean said to Timmy, can you help me out? I think I've got a flat. Timmy was only five, but he was old enough to know that two grown-ass dudes don't need automotive assistance from a kindergartner. He said, uh, no, and kept on walking. Sean rushed him and quickly overpowered this poor little guy as he screamed bloody murder. Timmy still wasn't going to go without a fight. Sean ended up having to pry him off a chain-link fence. He and Parnell forced the little boy into the car where they shoved a sleeping pill down his throat and wrapped him in a blanket.

Once the pill kicked in, they redressed Timmy in little girl's clothes they bought just before the abduction and headed back to the cannabis farm. God, just picturing these two idiots shopping in the kids section of a clothing store for a cute little dress is just, no, please, it's nightmare fuel. Timmy's babysitter immediately contacted his parents when the little boy didn't show, and the police quickly began an investigation. As was Stephen, the police assured the family he was probably in the area somewhere playing, though as the hours wore on, the terrifying idea that maybe he had fallen into a nearby creek

began being whispered around. Search dogs were sent out but didn't turn up anything, partially because it was raining really hard that day. Looking back, I wonder if Parnell intentionally chose rainy days for both of his kidnappings just for this very reason. As the hours and eventually days passed, Timmy's terrified family quickly scrounged up a $15,000 reward, but found not a shred of evidence pointing in any direction.

Panic began to set in. Later that afternoon, and many miles away, Stephen was absolutely appalled when a drugged Timmy White was brought to their cabin home. Stephen had put up with years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse from this monster, and he'd managed to survive by immersing himself in school and sports, but now, seeing this captive little boy, something in Stephen snapped. Once Timmy came to and met Stephen, they immediately bonded.

Stephen tried his best to soften the shock of what he was going through. He understood better than anybody else on earth what Timmy was feeling. He read him comic books and showed him all the farm animals on the property. At one point, the little boy looked up at 14-year-old Stephen and said, I want to go home. And that was it. Stephen decided then and there that Parnell was not going to hurt this child the way he'd hurt him. He looked into Timmy's eyes and promised him he would get him home, and he meant it.

But they had to bide their time and do this the right way. He knew Parnell would do anything to stop his disgusting secrets from being revealed, and he could be a very dangerous man. Stephen started secretly brainstorming how to pull off and escape. Meanwhile, Parnell started with his old tricks on Timmy, dyeing his hair, dark brown, renaming him Tommy, and convincing him he was his new dad. Stephen did everything he could to put a healthy distance between Ken and Timmy and made it a point to keep them from being alone together. Kenneth's latest job was working third shift on another hotel, so Stephen knew they'd have to escape at night. The scary part was the hotel was in Yucaya, the exact place Timmy was from and right where they needed to go.

They gave up the first attempt after making it a few blocks. It was pouring rain and Timmy started crying. Stephen tried carrying Timmy as long as he could, but he was too heavy to carry for long. Stephen soon got tired and they had to go home for the night. Thankfully, they made it back before Parnell did. They waited until the weather was clear on March 1st, two weeks. after Timmy's abduction. Before he and Timmy left, Stephen knelt down in front of his beloved dog, Queenie. I'll come back for you, he whispered. I promise. Then, the two boys ran off into the darkness.

Stephen knew they had to hitch a ride to get Timmy back to his hometown, and just in case Parnell somehow caught up with them, Stephen kept his sharpened buckknife tucked into his waistband. Whatever happened, he was not going to let Kenneth get to Timmy. Thankfully, they happened upon a friendly truck driver. The guy didn't speak much English, but he was happy to let them ride with him the 40 miles to Yucaya. He was going that way anyway. Though they couldn't communicate much, the driver could tell something was wrong. These kids needed help.

He let them off in town. Stephen quickly realized that Timmy didn't remember his home address, but for some reason he could remember his babysitters. So Stephen let him lead the way. But when they knocked on the door, nobody answered. Stephen decided his best bet was to drop Timmy off at the police station, which meant they'd have to walk right by the hotel where Ken Parnell was working. Oh, Lord. Stephen didn't really know what he was planning to do with himself.

Later, he said he thought he'd probably go back to Parnell at some point, which may seem strange, but think about it. Parnell had been the only home he'd known for seven years. When you can brainwash a kid that young for all those years, it's going to distort his sense of reality. For me, this really shows what an incredible person, Stephen was. I mean, he was willing to do all of this for the sole purpose of saving this kid that he just met from abuse. He's not even trying to save himself. Stephen said his goodbyes to Timmy in front of the police station.

Just go inside and tell them what happened, he said. He watched the little boy walk to the front door of the building. then started to walk away, considering what he should do himself. But he didn't get far. Timmy got as far as the glass door of the police station, but then he got scared and ran back to Stephen. And as Stephen was deciding what to do next, an officer who had noticed the young kid outside approached them

and asked what was going on. He took both kids into the station. For a minute there, they actually thought Stephen was the kidnapper and detained him accordingly, but soon things began to unfold. during the interview, and the mystery of what happened to Stephen Stainer and Timmy White slowly began to unravel. I know my first name is Stephen, he famously told the cops.

I think my last name is Stainer. He could remember his parents' names, but not all of his siblings, and he wasn't sure of his old address. Timmy's folks were over the moon to get that phone call in the middle of the night, and they rushed to the police station to see their son for the first time in two terrifying weeks. For a moment, his mom thought the cops had made a mistake. The little boy huddled in a chair didn't look like their son. Timmy was filthy, his hair died dark brown. But when she looked closer, yeah, it was her baby.

She hugged him for 20 minutes straight. Not long after, Kenneth was arrested at work. The hotel was literally within walking distance of the police station. Ken's shocked co-workers said they'd always accepted that Stephen slash Dennis was his son and they all remembered him saying he wanted to adopt another one. At the station, Stephen spotted Parnell through glass and identified him immediately. But for some bizarre reason, the cop he was with decided he needed to go into the room with Parnell, stand face to face with him to do a proper identification.

Stephen had been holding it together with supernatural strength up to this point, but as this cop pressured him to go into that room, he lost it. Let me out, he screamed over and over. again. And I hope that cop got his entire ass handed him for that. And I hope the whole police force got their asses kick for this too. Before they would even let him see his family, the investigators insisted that Stephen go with them to Parnell's pigsty of a cabin to show them the place. What the fuck? For God's sake, really? This kid hasn't been through enough. Now you won't even let him get a shower and a hug from his mom before you make him help you collect evidence. Jeez and

crackers. The one good thing about this was that Stephen got to keep his promise to Queenie, the dog who had been his comfort and best friend through this whole ordeal. Over the years, Stephen's family had been handed a lot of false leads. A lot of hopes had come crashing back down. It's not that unusual for a random person to turn up at a police station and claim to be a missing person. It actually happened just recently in the Timothy Pitson case. So when they got the phone call that their son had walked into the police station and asked for their help, Stephen's parents were cautious at first. But it didn't take long for them to realize this was the real deal. By the time the police drove Stephen to his childhood home in Merced at midnight, the whole town

seemed to have shown up at the Stainer's house, celebrating a homecoming that most people had never expected to see. Lots of reporters and cameras were there to capture Stephen's first hugs with his parents and siblings. It was like the whole community had just won the lottery 20 times over. And of course, Stephen joined in the celebration. He even finally got to open the presents that had been waiting for him since Christmas of 1972. But that night was a preview of the bonkers media circus that was soon to follow him around as if he'd just started dating Kim Kardashian. That much attention probably isn't super helpful when you're a teenage boy trying to get back to normal after years of trauma. Stephen was excited, but overwhelmed too.

Big Brother Carrie later said, I had a hard time trying to get to sleep that night. I stayed up a long time just looking at Steve as he slept and listening to him breathe. I just couldn't believe that my brother was home again. I walked outside that night and walked several blocks away and looked up at the stars and started to wish on one again, but then remembered that Steve was back home,

and so I thanked the star instead. The next morning, it became clear that this media circus was not going to go away anytime soon. The story spread all over the world, and soon Stephen was being constantly hounded by reporters. Book deals were offered, interviews were begged for. Stephen was a national hero. He'd selflessly risked his own life to save Timmy.

In an early press conference, Timmy sat on Stephen's lap and told everybody that Stephen was his friend. It's really cute. You can look it up on YouTube. When the reporters asked him about Parnell, a lot of people were surprised to hear Stephen say he felt bad for his abductor and that he probably would have gone back to him if the cops hadn't brought him in for questioning. Stephen had been through something very few people can relate to.

Children often feel love for their parents despite them doing terrible things, and let's face it, for better or worse, Parnell was Stephen's only father figure for seven of his most formative years. I can't imagine that kind of emotional confusion. Timmy White, on the other hand, was able to get back to normal life pretty quickly. Thanks to Stephen, Parnell hadn't had time to manipulate him the way he'd intended. He seemed to enjoy the media attention. So by early March of 1980, Timmy and Stephen were both back with their families.

Stephen was a national treasure for his rescuing of Timmy. He was even given the $15,000 reward for bringing Timmy home to be put in a trust for his 18th birthday. and Kenneth Parnell was securely locked away in a prison cell. Happy endings, at least as much as you can have in a story like this. Everybody thought the Stainer family had come through the worst nightmare our family could go through. But the worst was still to come. Next week, we'll look at the second half of the Stainer saga, where basically everything that could go wrong does.

Once the thrill of Stevens' return wears off, the reality of what he'd been through begins. to spread its poison. Secrets begin to emerge, and the aftermath will shatter not just the Stainer family, but many others, too. So that was a wild one. Right, campers? You know, we'll have part two for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire.

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