Yosemite Case Generates Widespread Fear, Unease

Lisa Burrow was hundreds of miles away from where Carole Sund and the two teenagers disappeared, from where their missing rental car materialized and the charred bodies were found.

But like other residents in Sund’s hometown, the secretary was riven with sadness--and fear.

“I have a 7-year-old daughter, almost 8, and this just scares me to death,” Burrow, 29, said Tuesday. “I won’t let my daughter out of my sight.”

In communities throughout California and elsewhere this week, the highly publicized case has spawned a festering unease and bewilderment that so brutal an act could take place in such a seemingly incongruous place, amid the ethereal beauty of the pine-studded Sierra, at the front door of Yosemite National Park.

For many, the horror is rooted in the fact that the three sightseers were following all the obvious rules. By all appearances, they didn’t do anything the rest of us wouldn’t do.

The odds of it happening are astronomical, but it doesn’t keep the newly wary from a frightening conclusion: It could have been me; it could have been us.

After Sund vanished during a Yosemite trip more than a month ago, her charred body was discovered in the burned-out hulk of the rental car she shared with her 15-year-old daughter, Juliana, and Silvina Pelosso, 16, a family friend from Argentina. A second body, burned beyond recognition, hasn’t been identified, and a third victim has yet to be found.

No arrests have been made; the motive remains a mystery.

“They were innocent and kind,” said Pati Anderton, manager of an antique mall in Eureka. “They were like the sheep, and the wolves were out there waiting.”

The case has made the cover of People magazine and has been featured in publications nationwide, including the New York Times and Washington Post. On Monday evening, the grieving families appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” as they struggled to understand how anything so terrible could have happened.

At news conferences, law enforcement officials have faced scores of reporters and TV crews.

“On those days when we’ve had major breaking news, we’ve had literally hundreds of calls from media, not just those in the United States but also internationally,” said Nick Rossi, an FBI spokesman. “This case has struck a nerve with a large number of people, both in the media and the public at large.”

The Yosemite case is reminiscent of unthinkable crimes of the past. The murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993 became a national preoccupation after she was abducted by a repeat felon from her Petaluma bedroom during a slumber party.

In Southern California, 10-year-old Anthony Martinez was abducted at knifepoint in 1997 while playing with other children outside his family’s Beaumont home. The case spawned a nationwide hunt before the body was found in a ravine. The killer hasn’t been caught.

And the Sund case adds a new fear: Perhaps there is no safety in numbers.

“It’s just so easy for people to see themselves exactly in that position,” said Michael R. Mantell, a clinical psychologist in San Diego. “You’re talking about three people going on vacation, something easy to identify with. It brings it home and makes it so much more personally and individually distressing.”

Authorities say a typical crime year in America yields about 500 adult abduction cases. The FBI has 79,000 open files on missing people, from toddlers to octogenarians.

Stuart Fischoff, a Cal State L.A. psychology professor, said it isn’t unusual for horrible crimes to cause people to alter habits, albeit often temporarily.

“People reevaluate the way they live their lives in terms of risk taking, in terms of securing some kind of protection wherever they go,” Fischoff said. “It’s an unfortunate state of affairs in contemporary society.”

Christine Collins, 24, a preschool teacher in Sacramento, has been following the Sund case closely and says it strikes too close to home.

“It’s awful because I remember my mom and I going out with a couple of high school friends, just like they did,” Collins said. “We never would have thought about something like this happening. Now I’m going to think twice before going with my girlfriends to a place like Yosemite, that’s so serene and beautiful.”

Nancy Sinclair, a mother of two in West Los Angeles, has taken to staying up late to catch developments in the case on the 11 o’clock news. As a single woman, she sometimes went camping alone, enjoying the solitude of the forest. But no more.

“I’ve always refused to give in to the idea that a woman isn’t safe traveling in a remote area,” Sinclair said. “You never expect when you’re in God’s country up in the mountains that something this terrible is going to happen.”

In Tuolumne County, where the car and bodies were dumped a few hundred feet off busy California 108 between Long Barn and Sierra Village, many residents are making big changes. People who never locked doors are now latching them shut.

“I usually let my son walk home from the bus stop, but no more,” said Sandy Wohlken, who lives in nearby Twain Harte, a few miles down the road. “It could have been any of us. It could have been my daughter and I coming back from the store.”

Around Eureka, where Carole Sund, 42, is remembered as the consummate mom and a devoted patron of countless charities, teenagers and adults alike talked of changing their habits. They vow to be more careful even in their hometown. “I used to wonder why my mom didn’t want me to walk around at night, but now I know,” said Star Valentine, a classmate of Juliana Sund’s at Eureka High School.

Claire Lang, 15, said she and other students have cast about for some explanation for what happened. And they can find none.

“It’s something that hits so close to home,” Lang said. “I just don’t feel safe anymore and I guess that will change sometime, but I don’t know when. . . . This scares the living daylights out of me.”