FBI Says Yosemite Slaying May Have Link to 3 Tourists

Last week’s slaying of a 26-year-old naturalist might be linked to the murders of three women tourists who disappeared outside the park in February, investigators said Saturday.

Federal agents began discussing a possible tie after they detained and questioned a motel maintenance man Saturday in the slaying of Joie Ruth Armstrong, whose beheaded body was found Thursday.

FBI Special Agent James Maddock backed away from statements he made Friday that there appeared to be no connection between the slayings of Armstrong and Carol Sund, Sund’s 15-year-old daughter, Juliana, and family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16.

“I have information over the last 24 hours that may cause me to modify my statement, but I am not prepared to go beyond that at this time,” Maddock said.

Carey Stayner, 37, was taken into custody by federal authorities at Laguna del Sol, a 100-acre clothing optional resort hidden amid the farms of Sacramento County’s rural southern edge.

Stayner was last seen Thursday night by friends and co-workers at Cedar Lodge in El Portal, the motel where the Sunds and Pelosso were last seen alive in February. Stayner rents a room above the lodge’s restaurant.

Maddock said he expects “a significant announcement” today at a noon news conference planned in Sacramento.

He said officials have made tremendous progress and have gathered “substantial evidence” in the Armstrong case.

Authorities said they detained Stayner about 9 a.m. at the Laguna del Sol resort, where a member had tipped off authorities. Stayner was still in custody Saturday evening.

Patty Sailors, who manages Laguna del Sol with her husband, said a member of the resort had met Stayner on Friday evening, then heard reports on TV that he was wanted by authorities.

While authorities rushed to the scene, the resort staff kept a watchful eye on Stayner, who had visited on three previous occasions in the past few years, Sailors said.

Though Stayner seemed wary after seeing a newspaper story about the Yosemite slaying, she said, he stayed for breakfast. Deputies took him into custody without resistance.

Stayner is the brother of Steven Stayner, a kidnap victim who made national headlines in 1980 after he escaped from Kenneth Parnell, a convicted child molester. Steven Stayner, who was held and sexually abused for seven years, died in a 1989 motorcycle crash.

Delbert Stayner, the father of Steven and Carey, said Saturday that Carey is not connected to the Yosemite area slayings.

“My son is a hell of a nice person,” Delbert Stayner said. “He could never have done such terrible things to anyone.”

The father said that during a two-hour interview with FBI agents Saturday, he provided investigators with details about his son. Among other things, he said, investigators were interested in Carey’s background and activities.

Delbert Stayner lives in Atwater, just north of Merced. He said his son has worked as a window installer at an Atwater glass company since he graduated from Merced High School.

In August 1997, he said, his son moved to Cedar Lodge in El Portal and began work in the maintenance department.

“I would never dream this guy would do something like this,” said Jesse Houtz, manager of the Cedar Lodge bar. “He knew everybody, seemed nice and never got into fights.”

Armstrong, an environmental educator with the nonprofit Yosemite Institute, was last seen alive when she left her office in Yosemite Valley on Wednesday after work. She was supposed to make the long drive to visit friends in the Bay Area that night, but never showed up.

Rangers began a search the next day around her home in Foresta, a little-traveled enclave of private residences about 20 miles west of the valley. Armstrong’s body was found a few hundred feet from her home. Her car was loaded with belongings for the trip.

The discovery came just a few miles from El Portal, the small town where the three murdered tourists were last seen alive. They disappeared Feb. 15.

The bodies of Carol Sund and Pelosso were discovered a month later. Authorities found the body of Juliana Sund a week after that.

Friends of Armstrong remembered her Saturday as a dedicated educator with a glowing smile and an outgoing personality.

“We will remember her as so full of laughter and love, and as a committed and gifted teacher,” said Mike Lee, the Yosemite Institute’s national director. “Her passion for teaching and her creativeness were an inspiration for all of us.”