Inside Steven Stayner Kidnapping Story -Why Did Kenneth Parnell Abduct Him

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Steven Stayner was a kidnapping victim who child molester Kenneth Parnell kidnaped in Merced, California.

Steven Stayner was kidnapped and imprisoned for 200 miles in Mendocino County, California, until he was 14 when he escaped alongside Timothy White, another of Parnell’s victims.

I Know My First Name Is Steven, which was also known as The Missing Years was a television miniseries based on Steven’s experience in early 1989.

Steven Stayner Kidnapping Story Explored

On his walk home from school on December 4, 1972, Steven Stayner was contacted by a guy called Ervin Edward Murphy, who had met convicted child rapist Kenneth Parnell while they both worked at a lodge in Yosemite National Park.

Ervin, who was regarded as a trusting, naive, and simple-minded man by many who knew him, had been lured by Kenneth to assist him in abducting a young kid so that Kenneth could “raise him in a religious-type thing,” as Ervin subsequently recounted.

Steven readily stepped into the car with Ervin after agreeing to ride home with him in a white Buick driven by Kenneth.

Instead, Kenneth drove a befuddled Steven to his cottage in neighboring Catheys Valley. Steven had no idea that Kenneth’s cabin was only a few hundred feet away from his maternal grandfather’s house.

A woman called Barbara Mathias stayed with Kenneth and Steven for eighteen months. Barbara and Kenneth, according to Steven, raped him nine times when he was nine years old.

On Kenneth’s orders, Barbara tried to get another young child who was a Santa Rosa Boys’ Club member with Stayner into Parnell’s automobile in 1975. The endeavor was a failure.

Why Did Kenneth Parnell Abduct Steven Stayner?

Kenneth Parnell abducted Steven Stayner and planned to molest him. Steven was abused the first night in Parnell’s cabin. On December 17, 1972, Kenneth began rapping Steven thirteen days later.

After Steven told Kenneth several times that he wanted to go home during the first week, Kenneth informed him that he had been awarded legal custody of the youngster because his parents couldn’t afford so many children and no longer wanted him.

When enrolling Steven in several schools over the following several years, Kenneth began calling him Dennis Gregory Parnell while keeping his actual middle name and birth date.

Kenneth pretended to be Stayner’s father, and the two traveled throughout California a lot, residing in places like Santa Rosa and Comptche.

Kenneth began looking for a younger child to abduct as Steven approached adolescence. Kenneth had previously used Steven to attempt to abduct children, but all of the efforts had failed.

Details On Steven Stayner Parents and Siblings

Steven Stayner was born in Merced, California, to Delbert and Kay Stayner. Steven was born as the family’s third child.

Cary Stayner, Stayner’s oldest brother, has three sisters. Cary is a serial killer from the United States who was tried and sentenced to death in 1999 for the deaths of four women.

Cary was recruited as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, California, right outside the Yosemite National Park’s Highway 140 entrance, in 1997. Cause Armstrong’s murder took place on federal grounds, Cary was prosecuted in federal court.

Cary pled guilty to premeditated first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, and attempted aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death to escape a possible death sentence.

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