Man confesses to beheading

Authorities try to link suspect to other cases.

The Associated Press

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- The arrest of a motel handyman suspected of decapitating a naturalist and three Yosemite sightseers has brought relief to people who couldn't believe something so horrible could happen here.

Cary Stayner confessed to last week's beheading of naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong, according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday. He provided details about the killing that only police knew about, the affidavit said.

Stayner is also the prime suspect in the killings of park sightseers Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and family friend Silvina Pelosso, whose bodies were found earlier this year, police said.

"It's unbelievable that they can be connected and in such a beautiful place and under such tragic circumstances," said Kim Petersen, a volunteer for a foundation set up in memory of one of the sightseers.

"It's horrible, and I just hope that this is the end of it for all of them. That this can't happen anymore," Petersen said.

Stayner, 37, said nothing at a court appearance Monday in Sacramento, where a federal magistrate ordered him held pending arraignment in Fresno on Aug. 6. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, appearing husky and clean-cut, Stayner just nodded as he was asked if he understood the FBI's complaint.

Stayner, arrested Saturday, had been questioned months ago in the death of the sightseers but was ruled out as a suspect. An investigator acknowledged that the arrest had made him question whether Armstrong's murder could have been prevented.

"I struggled with that issue for the last 24 hours and I continue to do so," said James Maddock, agent in charge of the FBI office in Sacramento. "I'm confident we've done everything that reasonably could have been done."

Stayner worked and lived outside the park in El Portal at the Cedar Lodge where the sightseers were last seen and Armstrong was an occasional visitor.

He came under suspicion in Armstrong's death because his sport utility vehicle was spotted near her remote cabin an hour after she was last seen alive there Wednesday night.

Twice Thursday, park rangers and sheriff's deputies questioned Stayner and searched his car. Once, they grabbed his backpack to look for Armstrong's head, the FBI affidavit said. Nothing turned up -- Armstrong's head was later found near her body -- and Stayner was let go.

After Stayner failed to show up for work Friday -- his first absence in a year and a half -- FBI agents looked for him again. He was tracked down Saturday at Laguna del Sol, a nudist colony near Sacramento, after someone there recognized him from news reports and called authorities.

Stayner then confessed to the agents, the FBI said.

He didn't say anything at a court appearance Monday in Sacramento. He nodded yes when asked if he understood the murder charge against him, and a public defender was appointed for him.

Maddock said that agents now believe there is a connection between the murders. One possible connection is the way one of the sightseers was killed.

Juli Sund's throat was cut so deeply that she was nearly decapitated, the Modesto Bee reported Monday, citing law enforcement sources and an interview with Francis Carrington, Juli's grandfather.

"Like Mr. Maddock, I feel sad we couldn't resolve this sooner and saved someone," Carrington said.

Last week, after Armstrong's body was found along a stream near her home, authorities said they didn't believe there was a connection to the February slayings of the three sightseers. Maddock said at the time that he believed most of those responsible for the sightseers' deaths were behind bars on unrelated charges.

The Stayner name already is indelibly etched in the annals of California crime.

His younger brother Steven Stayner was kidnapped off a Merced street in 1972 and raised for seven years by a man who sexually abused him. Steven finally escaped and was reunited with his family. The story inspired a TV miniseries but had a tragic ending: In 1989 he died at age 24 in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident.

Stayner's uncle Jesse Stayner, died a year later after being shot by his own gun. The Merced County sheriff's office has reopened the case, considering Cary Stayner as a suspect.

People who knew Cary Stayner in El Portal said he was friendly but didn't seem to have close friends. He would often go to nude beaches and sunbathe naked in Yosemite, friends said.

Aaron Ludwig, 16, who works at the town's only gas station, said that despite Stayner's good looks, he never had dates or talked about any girlfriends.

"The last time I talked with him he said he was on a dry spell," he said.

Stayner was first hired at the Cedar Lodge in August 1997. He took care of mechanical and electrical breakdowns, and carried a radio so he could be contacted by the front desk should anyone ask for towels, an extra cot, or some other need.

Stayner rented a room above the restaurant and ate there regularly. He wasn't violent in any way, and his criminal record appears limited to drug charges, four of them filed in 1997.

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