Parolee Held as Police Seek Clues in Yosemite Killings

A man linked to the group of prison parolees under investigation for the slayings of three Yosemite sightseers last winter was arrested by Modesto police Monday on suspicion of attempted murder in an unrelated case.

Kenneth Alan Stewart, 24, was taken into custody during a scheduled meeting with his parole agent, a police spokesman said.

Stewart was held on two counts of attempted murder and a parole violation, said Kelly Huston of the Modesto police.

Police suspect Stewart of stabbing and then trying to shoot a 37-year-old man over a disagreement that began in prison. The victim at first refused to cooperate with police after the confrontation, but relented during a follow-up interview.

Stewart confronted the man Feb. 6 along with friend and former prison cellmate Eugene “Rufus” Dykes, one of several men at the center of an FBI investigation of the Yosemite killings. Dykes is already in state prison on a parole violation.

Authorities hope Stewart’s arrest will “step up the pressure” for him to tell anything he might know about the slayings of three women who disappeared during a February visit to Yosemite, Huston said.

The FBI has focused on Dykes, 32, and a small group of parolees as they try to crack the Yosemite case. Carole Sund, her daughter Juliana and family friend Silvina Pelosso disappeared Feb. 15 while on a vacation. Their bodies were found in Tuolumne County a month later.