EP267: The Yosemite Killer

it's the good sticks. It's not the bad sticks brand. I think Satya and they have nineteen sixties pechuli. That's what it's called. Nineteen or sixties pachuli. Tanya. I can't help but I feel like my ankles get wings and I'm just like happily like, oh, my gosh, I can hear Mama's in the papas. I'm like, oh, my previous life is just coming through. So that's what I got going on. What about you? Nice?

like part one. It was part one of a two part series about the Stainer brothers, because Stephen not only had a crazy story, but his brother Carrie also had a crazy story. And Carrie is a little bit younger than Stephen, but they both went in very different directions. So before I get started, I would just like to remind everyone to hit the subscriber follow button on whatever

AF you're listening to. And my story begins. In February of nineteen ninety nine, forty two year old Carol's son and her fifteen year old daughter, Julie Taken, family friend and sixteen year old Sylvina Palazzo to a vacation at Yosemite National Park. Sylvina had come from Argentina as a foreign exchange student. Carol had participated in a student exchange program when she was young, and she met Sylvina's mother

during her time there. She rented a red Pontiert Grand Prix for three to four hour drive to Yosemite National Park, wanting to share the beautiful scenery and activities with the teenagers. They were going to stay the night and make the drive back the next day, where they planned to meet Carol's husband Gens. Well it's actually YenS, but it's spelled Gens. You know, Jay sounds like a why. They were going to meet him at the San Francisco airport to return

the rental car, but they never showed up. YenS made frantic calls to the airport, the hotel, and their neighbors. No one had seed them or had any information on where they could be. Eventually he called the sheriff and the police. He thought they possibly had gotten maybe into a car wreck while driving back. It was February and there was still a good amount of snow and ice lingering in Yosemite Park. He said, the thought of violence or other criminal activities hadn't really crossed his mind at

that point. Days turned into weeks with no new leads. The Palazzos family came from Argentina to join the search for their daughter. It was the largest search that had taken place in Yosemite history. Carol, Julie and Sylvina planned to stay near Yosemite at a rustic lodge in a prime location just seven miles outside the main entrance gate of the park called Cedar Lodge. The lodge was made of several buildings, an outdoor pool and hot tub, and

detached restaurant. When law enforcement arrived at Cedar Lodge to conduct interviews, you know, gathering information, they toured around the grounds and had all the rooms opened up for them to search by the properties maintenance man. Flyers with the women's pictures and a photo of the car were in

the news and hung up in the surrounding areas. On March eighteenth, nineteen ninety nine, so this is maybe like five weeks, a man named James Power stumbled upon a car, a Pontiac Grand Prix, while on a hike in Yosemite, about one hundred miles from the Cedar lodge in a secluded area about one hundred yards north of Highway one oh eight. The vehicle had been set on fire and had been burnt so thoroughly that there was no paint, rubber, plastic,

or upholstery left. The hiker called, yeah, I know, it's quite a thorough.

Photos of the ladies hiking through Yosemite ice, skating, and in their room at the lodge doing handstands and relaxing like those were all on the camera. When the bodies that were found in the trunk were eventually identified, they were found to be Carol's sunnd and Sylvina Palasso. Reports of the discovery of two of the three women being found spread across the country with one big question remaining, where was Julie. With so many unanswered questions and a

killer on the loose, everyone was afraid. Tourism at Yosemite dropped, with even locals no longer visiting the park, resort, and restaurant. While spring had always been a time when Yosemite began blooming with greenery and new life, the spring of nineteen ninety nine was different. Searchers were combing through the countryside roads, ditches and the rivers round where the vehicle had been found, with no sign of Julie. It was in late March

when the authorities finally received another clue. This one was in the form of a taunting letter. When it was opened, it showed a note that said, quote we had fun with this one end quote, with a crudely drawn map underneath. The map showed Highway one twenty, the Don Pedro Reservoir, and a place called Vista Point with an X marked close by. Searchers began feeling hope that with this clue they might find Julie alive. The investigation moved to the area shown on the map and a cadaver dog was

brought in. It was about forty miles from where the car was found. The dog only needed ten seconds to find Julie's body. Oh my gosh, she had been raped and her throat was slit. Over the course of several weeks, a task force made of FBI agents and other law enforcement officers was created to begin rounding up suspects consisting of sex offenders, drug users, and next convicts with a history of violent offenses, focusing on people that would have

been familiar with the area. It was stated in Newsweek quote, the FBI believes that the killer knows the area of abandoned gold mines well enough to hide the car off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars, and washing machines, and well enough to know that the smell of a burning car would likely not attract attention because the air often reeks from people burning their garbage end quote.

It was mid April when the FBI announced the key players in the Sightseer slings had been arrested and were in jail on unrelated charges. Forty two year old Michael mick Larwick had been a longtime matthewser who grew up near the area where the bodies of Carol and Sylvina had been found arrested on March sixteenth after he'd allegedly shot a Modesto police officer, which led to a fourteen hour standoff. His long criminal rine didn't vode well for

him during his lengthy FBI interview. Larwick's half brother, thirty two year old Eugene Rufus Dykes, had also been taken into custody due to an unrelated parole violation connected to one of his previous charges. Those previous charges included sex and weapons convictions. He was presumed to also have been

involved in the women's disappearances. Other ex convicts the FBI presumed to be key players included Billy Joe Strange, a thirty nine year old parole working at the Cedar Lodge restaurant who'd been arrested when his parole officer went to visit him and allegedly smelled alcohol on his breath. Many people actually rushed to his defense, calling the FBI's suspicion a travesty. So just to put that in there.

feeling safe, believing that the predators were in custody. About nineteen miles from the Cedar Lodge on the western side of the park is an area called Foresta. Looking from some of the mountainous ridges above, you will see a place the locals called Big Meadow, where an old house referred to as the Grand Cabin sits. At the time, the cabin was owned by the Park Service and leased for a dollar a year to the Yosemite Institute, which

runs educational programs throughout the park. During the summer of nineteen ninety nine, the cabin was occupied by twenty five six year old Joey Armstrong, employed as a naturalist at the park, Joey was responsible for educating children about the nature in Yosemite. Described as sensitive, loving, kind, and smart, she claimed to have not been afraid while she was employed there, while law enforcement was hunting for the killer

that spring. Her diary celebrated the day the FBI announced that they had detained the suspects, stating quote the monsters are gone end quote. On July twenty first, nineteen ninety nine, Joey was picking up her Toyota Tacoma for a trip with friends. She never arrived at their meeting spot. Her friends knew Joey well, so they knew something had to be wrong. When her friends called Yosemite, the search for

the young woman started immediately. Beginning in the cabin, investigators found debris on the floor of the bedroom, including broken sunglasses and a red mechanics hat. It wasn't until the next day, when the search of the grounds around the cabin began, that someone spotted what they thought was an inanimate object bobbing in the water. When they walked over for a closer look, they found Joey's decapitated body.

lived on around the time she was murdered. Following the trail, investigators began searching for the owner to interview as a possible witness. The man they were looking for was the helpful maintenance man that had toured law enforcement around the Cedar Ridge when Carol, Julie and Sylvina had gone missing, a man by the name of Carrie Stainer, the star

of our show Yes. Unfortunately, the FBI arrived at the restaurant of the Cedar Lodge announcing they were looking for the handyman, but he wasn't found a beyond the lookout. A BOLO alert was put out on the news for him, and they received a call from a woman named Janet DeMont. She informed them that she'd seen and had a conversation with the man they were looking for. When asked where, she told them he was at a resort called Laguna

dal Soul. Laguna Del Soul is around a two hour drive north of Yosemite, just like any other resort with camping cabins, shuffle board, volleyball, a restaurant and bar. What sets this resort apart is the fact that it's also a nudist colony.

in a separate vehicle. During the drive, sitting in the front seat next to agent Jeffrey Reinick, Carrie was soft spoken and cooperative, described in much the same way as he was when he was interviewed for information in the case from that spring. He was helpful. The drive was long enough that the two men began to talk. Rhyinick said about the time he spent with Stainer driving. He said this, during that time we got to know each other.

We were two guys that didn't know each other, that were stuck doing something that we really didn't want to be doing, and so we were making the best of it. We were just talking about us. The agent, recognizing Carrie's last name, asked him if he was related to Stephen Stainer, the childhood gone missing at seven years old. You know the story that I told you last week.

extremely distant, raising her children almost an autopilot. Both parents became colder to the children that they were still raising. Carrie felt abandoned and neglected through it all. Carrie said that he would go out for walks at night and look at the stars, wishing on one of them for Stephen to come home, and then Stephen came back. When his brother returned, Stephen was practically a stranger, being forced

to share a room. The teens didn't get along. Carrie felt he'd been put on the shelf when Stephen disappeared, but it was even more pronounced when Stephen returned, confirming his place in the background of his family, making him even more frustrated by the publicity surrounding his brother. After graduating high school in nineteen seventy nine, Carrie was lost.

When he was overwhelmed or needed space, he would drive out on Highway one oh four into Yosemite in his pale blue and white nineteen seventy two International Scout and disappeared into the woods and smoked weed.

sleeping in and reached up to touch her breasts. When she told him to go away, he left the room, only to reappear later fully nude, prompting her to tell him to leave a second time. When other boys age started dating, Carrie did not. He was believed to be the cliche, quiet, artistic type. Girls want to go out with the tall, dark, athletic boy who had brooding hazel eyes,

but Carrie would never oblige. In nineteen eighty nine, Stephen passed away and shortly after, in nineteen ninety, Carrie's uncle that he'd been living with was shot and killed in the home they shared together. And the family has.

many many moons ago, yes, long time ago. But how do you just have these thoughts of just like I'm seven, what'd you say? He was thinking about killing and raping women already already? I know, what do you watch? I don't eat. But it's hard what he was going through at that time. Who knows?

telling the owner he was thinking about moving. Struggling for decades to control his impulses, he ended up taking a job at the Cedar Lodge in nineteen ninety seven as a maintenance man. Yosemite had always provided him with serenity going up there to smoke pot and sun bathed naked. He was a highly regarded employee, to the extent that the owner would send his own kids out to help Carrie with the hotel maintenance and learn from him. With all the compliments that he got. Not all the people

he came across had the wold pulled over their eyes. However, Tricia Howtis and her husband ran the restaurant at the lodge. Their daughter enjoyed swimming in the pool during the summer months, and she described how Carrie would stand and stare at their daughter while she was swimming, to the point that it would freak the girl out. She described him as cold and hateful. Tricia once even confronted Carrie saying, quote, if you go toward my daughter ever, I will destroy you. End quote.

On the drive, Agent Ryanik kept looking over at Carrie and would say occasionally, quote, you look just like Billy Jack end quote, asking him if he ever saw the nineteen seventy one movie, Carrie would repeatedly deny having seen it. They also connected over a song in it called One

Tin Soldier. Eventually, Carrie, Jeff, and the agent that had been following behind reached the Sacramento office for an interview, and before they walked in the door, Carrie stopped and said this line from the movie quote, I'm gonna take this right foot and I'm gonna whoop you that side of your face. There's not a damn thing you can do about it.

life saving or something like that. Fucky love that show. But but the quoting and mm hmmm, it is a good window into the because I bet you he sent something like, come on, man, I know you saw it.

agents knew who they were bringing in. Carrie did, however, and while the agents were trying to decide where to start their interview, Carrie opened up and said, this is going to be my last meal as a free man. I can give you closure. The agents asked what closure, and he said, quote, I can answer questions for you about Joey and more dangling a confession. Carrie began his negotiation with three requests. First, a reward had been offered for information leading to the capture of the killer of

Joey Armstrong. Carrie wanted his family to receive the reward money. Second, he wanted to end up in federal prison near his family. And lastly, he wanted child pornography pictures of young girls. Just a couple of images, but a stack, is what he said.

This was something he regularly did. He genuinely enjoyed getting out into nature to relieve his stress. He got out of his truck and was walking, looking around and throwing rocks in the water. He wasn't hunting for anyone. An opportunity simply presented itself. He happened to look and notice a petite blonde girl moving in and out of the

grand cabin. It looked like she was probably alone. Joey, excited about the trip she had planned with her friends, was going in and out of the house, pecking up her truck and getting ready to leave. As Carrie watched, he decided to get a little closer to get a better look. He went back to his truck to pull a green backpack out of the back seat. This was Carrie's murder kit. Inside held a twenty two revolver, a

large knife, and a roll of duct tape. Approaching her, he began to make conversation, looking behind her and into the cabin. He wanted to make sure no one else was there. Quote. She stepped up on the porch and she was talking to me, and that's when I pulled out the gun and put it to her head. She turned around and freaked out, and I told her go inside. End quote. He used the gun to direct her into the house and into the bedroom, where he began binding her with the duct tape and stuffing a gag in

her mouth. The large athletic man had a difficult time subduing the petite woman. She fought back with everything in her and he barely was able to win the struggle, but in the end he was able to constrain her arms with the tape. Using the gun again, he guided her to his car, picking her up and tossing her into the back seat before he drove away. While he was driving, she continued to fight back, Carrie said, quote. She started going crazy, just jumping all over the place

in the back of the truck. I really couldn't control her end quote. She flung herself out through the window onto the road in front of a barn. I slammed the truck into park, and I jumped out, and she got up off the ground and started running. Carrie didn't expect this much of a fight. His fantasies never included any resistance. He gave chase, eventually catching up to her, after which he took the knife out of his back

pocket and slit her throat. At the end of this confession, and without giving the kiddy porn to the now confessed killer, the investigation gators still weren't sure what the quote and more end quote portion of Carrie's confession entailed, or if they would ever find out. Attempting to coax it out of him, Jeff told the man, quote, you look better. You need to get the rest off your chest.

The ladies had gone out to eat and went to the front desk to rent Jerry McGuire to watch in their room. It was determined that the final picture taken on the camera found in the woods of Carol and Sylvina sitting on the beds in the hotel room was taken about twenty minutes before Carrie knocked on the door. Carrie had been planning for years. He repeatedly played out

scenarios in his mind. When he was walking to his room that night above the restaurant, he noticed there was a red car in the parking lot of the five hundred building, all by itself. The curtains to the windows were open, and when he walked by he could see women inside, three women. Noting there were no men around, he knocked on the door and when Carol answered, he told her that there was a leak in a room upstairs and he needed to access their bathroom to make

the repair. Carol answered absolutely not right.

the leak probably would be. When I came out of the bathroom, I pulled my gun out and I told them I wanted the money and keys to the car, directed Julie and Sylvina into the bathroom and used the duct tape to bind Carol before he strangled her with a rope so he kills.

She did everything I told her to, no tears, know nothing, unquote. Knowing seeing the body of her young friend lifeless would panic Julie. Carrie moved her into the neighboring room, Room five ten while he wrapped Sylvina's body and put her in the trunk with Carol. Then he went back to collect Julie, telling her to get in the car. It was getting pretty late, probably five o'clock or so in the morning. I told Julie we had to get someplace to go and I wouldn't harm her, so I put

her in the car. Her hands were duct taped in front of her. I wrapped a pink blanket around her, and I just drove. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what I was going to do. I took Julie out of the car. I carried her down the pathway an agent Ryan had clarified that he was carrying her like a groom carries a bride, and I laid out the blanket. I guess I knew what I was going to do because I had the knife with me, and I slid her throat, saying after he killed her.

He stood on the mountain marveling at the beautiful view of the rising sun.

I was at my girlfriend's house, and I guess this girlfriend and her two daughters were my original intended victims. End quote. Okay, Carrie's girlfriend was a waitress in the restaurant at the Cedar Lodge in nineteen ninety eight. Her two daughters were in their preteens. They loved him and felt safe around him, describing him as handsome and warm. They said they felt he was like a big teddy bear.

The day after Valentine's Day was the day he planned to kill his girlfriend and rape and kill her daughters. But while he was at her house there was another person there too, so he had to abandon his plan. But he said he was really amped up, quote unquote. He got back to the resort late and thought that he could calm down if he soaked in hot tub. He went down to the hot tub and it was dirty, and he was frustrated and annoyed. So he was taking a walk around the property when he saw Carol and

the girls in the number five hundred building. The authorities arrested thirty seven year old Carrie Stainer in July nineteen ninety nine. Stainer accompanied law enforcement into Yosemite to help them find the murder weapon he used on Julie, as well as the duct tape. They also found his watch.

He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for Joey Armstrong's murder after pleading guilty to premeditated first degree murder, felony, first degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, and attempted aggravated sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murders of Carol, Julie and Sylvena, but he was victed a first degree murder with special circumstances in one count of kidnapping. It was sentenced to death on

August twenty seventh, two thousand and two. He is in San Quentin Prison right now.

than once? Yes, completely different, right, but newsworthy and horrific and mind blowing.

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