The State - News from Sept. 19, 1989

Law enforcement officers in Merced pressed a search for a hit-run driver responsible for the death of former child kidnap victim Steven Stayner. The California Highway Patrol was searching for Antonio Loera, 28, a Merced tomato packing company employee. “We have some good clues we’re checking out, but we haven’t located him yet,” CHP Sgt. Jim Balestra said. “It’s just a matter of time.” Stayner, 24, of Atwater, was riding his motorcycle home after work Saturday when a car sturck him, Balestra said. An NBC television movie was made about Stayner’s seven-year ordeal, which began at the age of 7, when he was abducted in in Merced. He escaped when he was 14, bringing with him Timmy White, 5, who his abductor, Kenneth Parnell, had taken just a few days earlier. Parnell, 57, is free on parole.