Stayner’s Confession Replayed

Cary Stayner had planned to kill for months before he acted on his fantasy and targeted three Yosemite National Park tourists staying at the motel where he worked.

Stayner blocked his ears and wept Wednesday as his taped confession was played at his preliminary hearing in Mariposa Superior Court.

After hearing the confession and other evidence over two days, Judge Thomas Hastings found there was enough evidence to warrant a trial for the three 1999 murders. Stayner will be arraigned July 16.

During the taped confession, Stayner described methodically killing Carole Sund, saying that he wrapped a rope around her neck, sat on her back and “just nonchalantly strangled her to death.”

He said he did the same to Silvina Pelosso, 16, a Sund family friend, and told of slashing the throat of Sund’s 15-year-old daughter, Juli, the next morning after repeatedly sexually assaulting her.