Pod Insights Criminology Steven Stayner About this episode On December 4th, 1972, 7-year-old Steven Stayner was abducted while walking home from school. Steven's abductor, Kenneth Parnell, manipulated Steven into thinking his family didn't want him and had made Kenneth his guardian. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the infamous abduction of Steven Stayner. Kenneth Parnell was a master manipulator and had previous convictions. He abused Steven for many years, moving around often and changing Steven's name. It wasn't until Parnell abducted another young boy that Steven made the decision, he could not let what happened to him happen to his boy. He got up the courage to take the boy to the police station and both were rescued. The story made headlines. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 347 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Morph, how are you doing this week?
0:47 Speaker 02 I'm doing good. A little bit chilly here in Florida and I've, you know, we're doing some football out there with my son and, you know, you don't know how to dress because at practice one day it's really warm, but then, you know, the game, two days later, it might be freezing, you know, freezing to me is like 60 degrees. So, um, yeah, a little bit of that going on. How about you?
1:07 Speaker 01 Yeah, meanwhile, we're stuck here in snow and ice. So don't tell me about your shorts weather on some days. I don't want to hear it. Now, I, I'm doing okay. My wife gave me her flu, I think is what it is. I don't, I don't know. She was sick for about a week and then as she was starting to get better, I, you know, inevitably caught it. And that's kind of how it goes in a lot of households. So.
1:35 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's going around, going around a lot right now. So hopefully you feel better quick.
1:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, I've talked to a lot of people who, uh, have something. They're not exactly sure what it is, but let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Kelly, Kathy Turner jumped out to highest level and also Debbie Cox. So it's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it.
1:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, thank you as always to the people that support the show. It really helps us out. For anyone else that would like to, you can do so by going to patreon.com/criminology.
2:07 Speaker 01 Right now that we have all of that out of the way, let's get into this week's case. And it's a pretty well-known and infamous child abduction story. And the events have been adapted multiple times for television and movies. It's technically multiple cases that are interwoven. We'll be talking about them all in this episode and over our next one. We're talking about the abduction of Steven Stainer at the hands of a monster named Kenneth Parnell. What he went through while being held by Parnell can only be described as pure hell. But this is also a survivor's story because Steven eventually broke free from his captor and lived to tell his story.
2:51 Speaker 01 But what happened to Steven may have played a major role in Steven's brother Kerry's life. Because as much as Steven Stayner is a hero and a survivor, his brother Kerry went on to become a brutal and sadistic serial killer. So we're covering Steven's story in this episode. And then next week, we'll dive into the terrible deeds that his brother Kerry committed.
3:17 Speaker 02 Before we get into Steven's story and what happened to him, it's probably important to give a bit of background on the main villain in this story. And that's Kenneth Parnell. Parnell was born in September, 1931 in Amarillo, Texas. His father left when he was just six years old. After this, he and his mother moved to Bakersfield, California. He got himself into trouble with the law often, finding himself in juvenile hall for things like stealing cars and committing arson. In 1949, when he was 18 or 19, Parnell married Patsy Jo Thornton, who at the time was just 15 years old. They had a daughter two years later when Parnell was 20 and Patsy Jo was 17. This, from what we know of, is the same year that his crimes really escalated.
4:01 Speaker 01 At this point, Parnell moved away from property crimes and theft and began harming people. This time, Parnell used a sheriff's badge he bought in an Army Navy surplus store to trick an eight-year-old boy, who he then sexually assaulted. He was convicted of rape and impersonation of an officer, but sentenced only four years in prison. Parnell would later claim that the lack of intimacy during his wife's pregnancy and the stress of dealing with the pregnancy and then having a newborn had driven him to assault the boy. Patsy Jo and Parnell divorced in 1957. He moved on rather quickly, marrying another woman the same year.
4:43 Speaker 01 But trouble continued to follow him as he moved around the country. Parnell was arrested again, this time for armed robbery in Utah. His second wife filed for divorce while he was serving time for those charges.
4:56 Speaker 02 Parnell's father died in July 1972, the same year he kidnapped another young boy. It's unclear whether Parnell knew about his father's death or even cared, but as stressful life events like a pregnancy and a new child caused him to act out and assault a young boy, as he once said, "It seems like the death of a parent could definitely fit the pattern of triggers or stressors." This time, Parnell had help seeking out his victim. He was able to talk one of his coworkers into helping him with his plan. The accomplice, Edward Irvin Murphy, worked with Parnell at the Yosemite Lodge. Murphy knew the plan called for abducting a child, but claims that he didn't know what Parnell was planning to do afterwards.
5:39 Speaker 02 According to Murphy, Parnell told him that he was starting a church and that he wanted to be able to raise a child right with religion, so they set off to find one.
5:48 Speaker 01 So obviously, Moore, if we have a guy here in...
5:53 Speaker 01 Kenneth Parnell, who starts off with more of what you would think of as property crimes, and then graduates into kidnapping and sexually assaulting young boys. But I do want to talk about, you know, this guy, Ed Murphy, for a minute. You know, he claims he didn't know what Parnell was planning to do afterwards. But he knew that he was helping him kidnap a child. I just don't understand that at all. It's almost as if, you know, he's making an excuse for what he did, but the excuse is terrible.
6:35 Speaker 02 It's almost like he's trying to dismiss the fact he kidnapped someone because it was for, in his mind, a good purpose, trying to raise this kid right with religion. So a very flimsy explanation for why he would help do this. I know if, you know, a friend or coworker of mine came up to me and says, hey, I want to kidnap a child, can you help me? That's going to raise a red flag. And I'm going to say, of course not.
7:03 Speaker 01 No, I think everybody listening is like, you know, I've been asked, okay, strange things, I guess, by coworkers, but nothing that rises to something like that. And if I was, it would be a heck no, and then a straight call to the police. I mean, hey, we might've worked together for 10, 15, 20 years, but the friendship, all of that only extends so far, and it doesn't extend that far. The victim that the two men would set their sights on was Stephen Stayner. Stephen was the third of five children, born to Delbert and Kay Stayner.
7:45 Speaker 01 Stephen had three sisters and an older brother, Carrie. The Stayner family lived in Merced, California. On December 4th, 1972, seven-year-old Stephen was walking home from school along Highway 140, not far from his home, when Murphy and Parnell spotted him while trolling for a potential victim. The two men pulled up alongside Stephen, driving a white Buick. And Murphy was able to lure Stephen into the car by showing him a religious pamphlet and claiming that he was collecting donations for a church. He asked Steven if his parents would donate and Steven agreed to show them where he lived
8:27 Speaker 01 so that he could ask. He got in the car with the two men and they quickly drove down the highway. But they didn't turn off to find Steven's house. They just kept driving.
8:39 Speaker 02 Steven was taken to Parnell's cabin in Kathy's Valley, California, about a half hour away from his hometown of Merced. During the drive, Parnell stopped alongside the road near a payphone. He got out and Steven, it looked like he made a phone call. When he got back into the car, Parnell told Steven that he had just spoken to his parents and they had confirmed they didn't want him anymore. If Steven had any instincts to fight back and run away, the news that he was no longer welcome at his own home may have changed his mind.
9:11 Speaker 01 And Morf, you know, we're talking about a young child here in Steven Stayner, who at the time was only seven years old. The one thing that we know is that these predators, they're very manipulative, especially when it comes to young children. And we've all heard the stories about predators luring kids into their car or van with candy or some type of ruse, right? And that's what happened here. Parnell acting as though, you know, he's with some religious organization. That might've put Steven off guard. Well, obviously this guy's okay. He's with the church
9:55 Speaker 01 or something along those lines. I mean, to a seven-year-old, that might've almost seemed authoritative.
10:03 Speaker 02 And it's frightening to know that these kinds of predators are just cruising around at any time trolling for victims, looking for kids on the side of the road that they can use these different tactics on. And, and they always seem to have the same playbook. It's always, can you help me find my puppy? Do you want some candy? You know, this one was a little bit different. This is talking about some religious stuff, but one way or another, they always seem to lure the child in in these cases and get them to let their guard down by talking about something that makes the child forget for a second that they, you know, stranger danger, that this person might not be a friend.
10:47 Speaker 01 And in a lot of the stories that we talk about, you know, we sometimes dissect, you know, well, okay, what's the person's mindset here? Or what would their ability be to fight, to run? What tactics would they use in a certain situation? I think that's much tougher to even hazard a guess on when you're talking about a seven year old. And then you have this, what was most likely a fake phone call, but Parnell telling Stephen that his parents didn't want him anymore.
11:26 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's a whole nother level of evil to make this young child feel like his parents have given him away essentially. And to an adult, that sounds ludicrous, but to a child that age, he didn't know any better. Maybe he thought, oh, oh my God, my parents are sending me away with this guy. So he had to be frightened, confused, and I think that's what Parnell counted on to help make this happen.
11:57 Speaker 01 Now, Parnell had no idea. And at seven years old, Stephen likely didn't either, but Parnell's cabin happened to be extremely close to the home of Stephen's maternal grandfather. It was so close, in fact, that had Stephen broken free and ran and knocked on nearby doors, he may have wound up at his grandfather's house. We're talking about a distance of a few hundred feet. Unfortunately, despite being so close, Stephen didn't run and his grandfather had no way of knowing that Stephen had been abducted and was so close. Once Stephen's family realized he was missing, they alerted police and that area of California
12:38 Speaker 01 was saturated with newspaper articles and TV news segments about the case and missing flyers with Stephen's photo were spread all over. While the Stayner family anxiously awaited news about their missing son, he was going through a terrible ordeal at the hands of Kenneth Parnell.
12:59 Speaker 02 We can't even know and don't want to know exactly for that matter, what Parnell did to Steven Stayner over the next week in that cabin. He reportedly was tortured, raped, and sodomized repeatedly for days. In between the attacks, Steven would cry and beg Parnell to let him go home to his parents. But Parnell planned on keeping Steven for the long haul. And Steven missed his family and was constantly anxious, waiting for the next assault by Parnell. After growing tired of telling Steven he wasn't going home, Parnell tried to break his spirit. He lied to Steven and told him that his parents made Parnell his legal guardian because they couldn't afford to raise him. He said a judge granted him custody. Thinking that he was an unwanted child,
13:42 Speaker 02 who was essentially just legally given to his captor, Steven sort of began to get used to his new life with Parnell as his forced father figure. He started going by a new name, Dennis Gregory Parnell, keeping only his real middle name. Parnell also used his real date of birth when he later enrolled him in school.
14:01 Speaker 01 We don't know everything that Parnell did to Steven to control him and get him to not run away or tell anyone that he had been abducted. But that's what happened. Steven never tried to leave or to alert anyone that he had been taken. Maybe at his age, he really thought his parents had abandoned him. Parnell was so sure that Steven wouldn't run or tell anyone who he really was, that he let him go to school. Steven fell into the role of Dennis Parnell so perfectly that no one, not teachers, not his friends or friends of Parnell's, ever thought that Dennis Parnell was really Steven Stayner. And more of this is a big case for a reason.
14:46 Speaker 01 You know, the details of it are shocking, some of which we haven't talked about yet. But, I mean, this case grabbed the attention of the nation and maybe the world for that matter. But it was in the early 70s. It was a little bit different time. The news cycle was not quite as robust back then. But this was a case that even then received a lot of attention. But I can't help but feel just so horrible for Steven Stayner.
15:21 Speaker 01 You try to put yourself in the mindset of a young boy like Steven Stayner. And it's hard to do because how can you imagine what it was like unless you really lived through it? But obviously, you know, he endured some of the most horrible acts perpetrated upon him that you can imagine. And this went on for, you know, a very long time. But then there's also kind of a separate thing, which is he's being victimized by this man,
16:00 Speaker 01 Kenneth Parnell, but also being made to believe that his family didn't want him. It's tough to even think about. It really is.
16:11 Speaker 02 And it's frightening how much control and influence and maybe brainwashing went on here that Kenneth Parnell felt comfortable enough to let Steven pose as his son and go out and go to school and have friends and interact with teachers, never once worried that he was going to say, hey, my name is Steven. I don't, I'm not really this kid, you know, call the police. He didn't have that fear. He had so much control over him. And I think that's really frightening that someone like him is able to do that with, with a child. Now, Parnell would move around a lot with Steven, enrolling him in different schools,
16:54 Speaker 02 which may have helped them fly under the radar and avoid any suspicion. On the surface, some of the things Parnell did were normal father-sum things, like giving Steven a pet dog. But Queenie, the Manchester Terrier, was a gift to Parnell from his own mother, who had no idea that his son had kidnapped the child. Other things, obviously, including the kidnapping and regular assaults, had no semblance of guidance or normalcy. Weeks turned into months and months to years. Parnell let Steven start drinking and smoking when he was very young. This likely helped Steven mentally escape his situation, but helped Parnell keep him compliant, too. Parnell went back and forth between showering Steven with
17:36 Speaker 02 gifts, the illusion of freedom through things like cigarettes and alcohol, and positive attention to threatening him and beating him.
17:44 Speaker 01 You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight loss by Hers offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight in 64 weeks in a clinical trial of Wegovy alongside diet and exercise. To get started with Wegovy, just go to forhers.com and complete an online consultation with a licensed provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. And Hers doesn't stop there. Nutrition and lifestyle guidance are part of the plan, along with access to 24/7 messaging with your care team.
18:29 Speaker 01 So, support is always in reach. Ready to reach your goals? Visit forhers.com/criminology to access personalized, affordable care for weight loss, hair, menopause, and more. Individual results may vary and stopping treatment may result in weight regain. Weight loss by Hers is not available in all 50 states. Wegovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovy clinical study information, and restrictions, visit forhers.com. When Steven was not, about two years into his captivity, a single mom named Barbara Mathias moved into Parnell's home.
19:10 Speaker 01 She had been babysitting Steven, who she knew as Dennis, for about two years. During the nine months that she lived with him, she, along with Parnell, jointly molested Steven at least nine different times. Now, she would later deny this allegation, though there is little reason, if no reason, for Steven to lie about this. Steven would also later tell authorities that he remembered a time that Barbara tried to lure a young boy into her car in 1975, so she could bring him back to Parnell. She denied this allegation as well. But assuming it's true, it would mean that Parnell was again able to find another adult.
19:54 Speaker 01 Willing to help abduct a child with him. Barbara Mathias moved out of the Parnell home in the spring of 1976 and later claimed to have no knowledge of Stephen's kidnapping. She thought that she was just a babysitter who was watching Parnell's son. According to her, Parnell even showed her a birth certificate for him, leaving her no reason to think there was anything suspicious going on. Articles from the time note that there was no explanation for why they ended up going their separate ways. Mathias was never charged with any crime in connection to Stephen's kidnapping or for any sexual assault, both of which she still denies knowledge of.
20:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, these things that Barbara allegedly did, according to Stephen, are disgusting. And it's so frightening that once again, Parnell was able to find somebody that would go along with these kinds of terrible crimes. And where does he get these people? Does he just move in circles with people that are doing, that are willing to do this kind of stuff? And you know, if those kinds of circles of people are out there, you know, as a parent, that's just frightening to think of.
21:10 Speaker 01 Well, and I think the other thought is, is this guy the ultimate master manipulator? Is he just so good at manipulating other people? Or is he good more at finding the right people who can be manipulated? And maybe it's a little bit of a combination of both. I'm sure this guy was a good manipulator, a good con man. But maybe part of that is also, you know, finding the right people who he believes will go along with his twisted plans.
21:48 Speaker 01 And again, this is at least on the, the part of Barbara Mathias, all alleged activities. These are claims that Steven made, but you gotta ask yourself, why, why would a kid who went through all this make this up?
22:05 Speaker 02 Years passed by and finally Steven entered high school. For his freshman year, Steven, known to everyone else as Dennis, attended Mendocino High School. He made friends, had a girlfriend and kept his grades up. To his schoolmates, everything seemed fine. Steven seemed like any other student. It seemed like he really made the best of a terrible situation and outside of the home was to some extent thriving. It was also at this time that things started getting a little better at home as Steven aged because Parnell gradually lost interest in sexually abusing him. But while Parnell may have lost interest in abusing Steven, the urges for a younger boy were still strong.
22:45 Speaker 02 Parnell wanted a replacement, a younger boy, and had tried multiple times to get Steven to help him lure another child back home. But something always went wrong. While Parnell thought Steven was just bad at that kind of thing, not really a smooth talker or an improviser, it was actually Steven doing his part to keep another child from growing up like he did. He made sure that none of the attempts were successful and always did something to thwart Parnell's plan.
23:13 Speaker 01 Eventually, Parnell grew tired of Steven's failures to help him lure a new victim. So he decided to repeat exactly what he had done with Steven without his help. He didn't really need him anyway, because Parnell was once again able to enlist someone to help him with the kidnapping on Valentine's Day, 1980. Randall Shawn Portman, who was actually one of Steven's friends and just a teen himself at the time, helped Parnell abduct five-year-old Timothy White from Ukiah, California. Portman, who was only in the seventh grade, had been friends with Steven for about a year and like everyone else who knew them, thought that Parnell was his real dad, while
23:57 Speaker 01 he was apparently all right with kidnapping a child. It was only because he didn't realize he would be handing him over for Parnell to sexually assault and hold in captivity. According to ABC News, Parnell, the night before they abducted Timothy, offered Portman alcohol, marijuana, and $50 in cash to help him find a boy so he could, quote, "build his family."
24:23 Speaker 02 Parnell and Portman acted the next day on the plan. First, Portman waited at the Palace Hotel in Ukiah where Parnell worked, the night shift. Once Parnell was finished with work, they went shopping. They bought a few things for the plan: orange juice, sleeping pills, and even a girl's outfit so they could dress their abductee as a girl in case anyone was looking for him. There was also a blanket in the backseat so they could cover their victim up in the car and keep him out of sight. They got everything they thought they needed for smooth abduction and getaway.
24:55 Speaker 01 Later that day, Timothy, a kindergartner at the time, was walking home from school, like he always did. Every day, he walked most of the way home with a classmate and only walked alone from the classmate's house to his own. The day Parnell and Portman found him, he was already on that second leg of the walk. He was alone and almost home. Parnell stayed in the driver's seat of the car, and Portman got out and pretended there was an issue with one of the tires. He asked Timothy to hold the valve stem for him, but Timothy got spooked and took off running and tried to climb a chain-linked fence to get away. He didn't make it very far. Later, he would tell the press Democrat, "I got a couple
25:40 Speaker 01 of steps. Then he grabbed me and threw me into the backseat." As soon as they had him in the car, he was forced to take sleeping pills with orange juice. He cried until they took effect and he fell asleep. After the abduction was complete, Parnell told Portman, "You've made me a very happy man," just before threatening him and his family, scaring the boy into secrecy.
26:05 Speaker 02 I think this is one more instance where Parnell was able to control someone, this time a child himself, with the lure of drugs, alcohol, and some cash. And, you know, for some kids that age, they can be influenced with things like that. And I think Parnell knew that. And being the master manipulator he seemed to be, was able to... Went over this kid and and make him an accessory to this abduction. And I think even being a child, he knew that it wasn't right to kidnap this kid. But he wasn't able to resist what Parnell was offering him.
26:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's a tough situation because, you know, he is is a young kid, but obviously what he's doing is very wrong. Horrible, in fact, but the one thing that keeps going through my mind, Morph, is you have this guy, Kenneth Parnell, who is able to get multiple people to help him abduct children. And it just floors me how someone is able to do this. You think about the risk that someone has taken, even broaching the subject with someone.
27:24 Speaker 01 And yet he never, you know, runs into anyone that goes to police and says, hey, this guy is trying to abduct children. He's trying to get me involved, trying to get me to help him. So just think about the selection process and what he must have gone through to get to the point where he was sure or relatively sure that, you know, he had a person who wouldn't rat him out. I mean, that's it's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around, to be honest with you.
27:59 Speaker 02 And part of me wonders if he even cared whether they would go to the police. Maybe he was so hell bent on getting a child for these terrible purposes that he didn't even think through whether they would go to the police or not. Maybe it was more of a an urge that he couldn't control and was willing to take a chance that the person wouldn't go to the police.
28:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, there's a part of that that could be true, but I actually think he was very calculating about it. I think he probably sized up a lot of different people, but only approached people once he was relatively sure that he could influence them, that they wouldn't, you know, rat him out. There's a, there's a lot that had to have gone into the thought process here. As bad as the ultimate thoughts were.
28:54 Speaker 02 Back at Parnell's home, a remote cabin in Mendocino County, Stephen came home and saw Timothy and knew exactly what he must have been feeling. Parnell told Timothy the same things he had once told Stephen about his parents. Timothy later told the press Democrat, "He told me I was given to him by my parents, and they couldn't afford me and didn't want me anymore." Timothy added that Parnell said he was going to be my new dad. It was almost exactly what he had told Stephen years before, word for word.
29:23 Speaker 01 Now, we talked a bit about how when he was first abducted at seven years old, Stephen may have believed what Parnell had told him about his parents not wanting him. But as Stephen grew up, he had started to realize that nothing about the situation or about what Parnell said made any sense. If his parents had given him up, why did he need to change his name? If this was a legal arrangement, why would his parents have ever chosen someone who would harm him to be his guardian? But by then, it felt too late to Stephen to do anything about it. They had moved around, and Stephen had forgotten details about his family.
30:08 Speaker 01 He knew that the whole situation wasn't right, but he also wondered that if he ever came forward to say who he really was, would anyone even believe that he was Stephen Stayner and not Dennis Parnell? How could he prove it? Although Stephen sensed that Parnell had lied to him about his parents giving him up and not wanting him, he always held back on trying to escape on the off chance that Parnell was telling the truth.
30:36 Speaker 02 But Steven knew that it wasn't too late for Timothy. People would still be actively looking for him. Steven was sure that he had been abducted and that this wasn't some kind of legal custody exchange. He saw the planning and the previous attempts. Now Steven saw the pattern beginning again. To help hide Timothy, who had very recognizable blonde hair, Parnell dyed it dark brown. He also took the clothes he had been wearing on Valentine's Day when he was abducted and gave him new clothes. Steven knew he had to act and help Timothy, or he might face a years-long ordeal like he had. Steven saw how Timothy was scared and confused, and he cried wanting to go home. Steven couldn't take that anymore, and he made a decision that he was going to help Timothy to escape.
31:21 Speaker 02 Steven Stayner later told Newsweek, "I couldn't see Timmy suffer. It was my do-or-die chance, and I also would be coming home for doing something positive." Steven determined that it was one thing not to fight for himself, but it was another thing altogether, something unacceptable to him, to stand by and do nothing while someone else went through hell.
31:43 Speaker 01 Parnell was very trusting of Steven, or very sure of himself and the brainwashing job he had done. Nothing changed after he kidnapped Timothy. Parnell was still working the night shift at the Palace Hotel in Ukiah, and he was regularly gone overnight, trusting 14-year-old Steven to watch over Timothy. On March 1, 1980, after Parnell left for work, Steven took Timothy and headed to Ukiah, over an hour away. He put Timothy on his back and carried the little boy walking until a passing driver picked him up. They hitchhiked the rest of the way. Once in Ukiah, in the dark and the chaos, Timothy couldn't help point Steven in the
32:28 Speaker 01 right direction of his home. So Steven decided to find the police station.
32:33 Speaker 02 Steven walked into the police station with Timothy and told investigators about Timothy's situation, but he also told them that he was a missing child too. At first, the officers didn't believe him, but they were able to find his missing poster and confirm his story. He wasn't able to tell them much about himself because he had forgotten so much, but he did tell the shocked officers, I know my first name is Steven. He wasn't sure if he even had a middle name, but he thought his last name was Stayner, spelled in a different way, spelled with an I instead of a Y. He gave them the birth date he said he used, unsure when he was actually born. Steven was now a hero after bringing Timothy home, less than a month after the boy was abducted.
33:14 Speaker 01 Now, obviously, police had a million questions for Steven. They wanted to know who had abducted him and how he was treated. According to E-Online, at first, Steven was adamant that he wasn't mistreated. Investigators noted that he clearly has conflicting thoughts about his capture. It seems that Steven didn't want to tell them, or couldn't tell them what he experienced, partially due to his shame and embarrassment, but also because he had been brainwashed by Parnell. And he thought of him in some way as, you know, kind of a father-like figure. Eventually, he admitted everything he had been through, though he didn't like to talk about it.
33:59 Speaker 01 Police alerted the Stayner family that Steven was alive and was safe. They were understandably shocked by the news, but obviously very happy. The news quickly caught wind of Steven's recovery, and the press converged on the scene, creating a media circus over the two boys being safely returned to their families. And more, to me, as terrible as it had been, you know, what, what Steven went through at the hands of Kenneth Parnell, this part of the story is absolutely amazing. You know, through all the brainwashing, and it had been years of it, through all the torture
34:41 Speaker 01 and sexual abuse, Steven was able to get the courage to put this boy on his back, get to the police station, and tell the police what had happened, you know, saving both of them.
34:55 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think it took a lot of courage to make that stand and make that decision. Knowing it was the right thing to do for both Timothy and himself. And then to have the courage to talk to police and tell them what he had gone through. You know, I think that must have been very hard, very difficult for him to talk about that stuff. He was probably humiliated by it and embarrassed to have to retell what had happened. But I think that the police needed to know all that stuff to know what charges they'd be bringing against Parnell and how to prosecute him.
35:31 Speaker 01 And to know exactly what type of monster this guy was.
35:36 Speaker 02 I think based on what Stephen was able to tell the police, they knew they needed to get Kenneth Parnell off the street.
35:44 Speaker 02 Parnell was arrested and charged with kidnapping both Stephen and Timothy, as well as false imprisonment. Because of the sexual assaults on Stephen had occurred in different jurisdictions. And also due to the statute of limitations expiring. Parnell wasn't charged for those offenses. He went on trial in 1981 and was convicted. But again, he received a light sentence, just seven years in prison. He was released on parole after serving only five. He served less years in prison than years of his life Stephen had lost being his captive. The law would later be changed to give people like Parnell more time behind bars. By allowing consecutive sentences for multiple abductions.
36:23 Speaker 02 Edward Irvin Murphy, who helped lure Stephen into the car for Parnell, was also arrested, went to trial and was found guilty. He was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He claimed to have believed that Parnell was a minister and that he had no idea of his plans to harm Stephen. Murphy was released after just two years in jail. Randall Poorman, the teen who helped abduct Timothy, was also convicted for his role. Since he was only 16 at the time, he served his time in juvenile hall.
36:56 Speaker 01 And I can only imagine more of the anger that is welling up inside everyone who's hearing this.
37:04 Speaker 01 Because it's welling up inside me. You know, Parnell gets seven years, serves only five years. I mean, there's no way around it. For what he did, that is just a slap on the wrist. It really is. It infuriates me that the laws were the way they were back then that would allow that to happen. And then you look at a guy like Edward Murphy. Yes, what he did was terrible, but nowhere near to the level of what Kenneth Parnell did. And he didn't receive, you know, that much less than Parnell did.
37:44 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think Parnell's sentence is especially late when you consider that he had a previous record for hurting a child and raping a child. So why that wasn't taken into consideration in sentencing is is kind of mind boggling to me.
38:01 Speaker 01 But that seems to be the case and and some of the older cases that we do. You know, it's like they didn't factor in as much. People's previous convictions, you know, the laws were written in a way that people couldn't even be prosecuted for some of the crimes because too much time had gone by. It's just, you know, almost like the the perfect storm of things that allowed him to only serve five years in prison. But it's maddening to think that a guy could get away with all of that and only do five years.
38:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, especially because that's the kind of person that needs to be off the streets and needs to be locked up.
38:48 Speaker 01 Although Stephen was free and safe and returned home to his family, back at home, he had a hard time adjusting. He described his first year back to ABC News as kind of hectic. He told Newsweek, I returned almost a grown man, yet my parents saw me at first as their seven year old. Despite Stephen being reunited with his family, it was clearly not an easy reunion. And in many ways, he felt like he didn't belong there. He told ABC News, for seven years, I have been supposedly an only child. Now I had to compete with a brother and three sisters. He also had to deal with other kids at school, knowing everything he had been through
39:31 Speaker 01 from the details in the media and then using those details to make fun of him, questioning his sexuality because a man had assaulted him. And although his parents were overjoyed to have him home, he was still a child and a part of the family. And like any household, there were rules and expectations. During his time with Parnell, Stephen didn't really have any of that. He was allowed to drink, smoke, pretty much do whatever he wanted. Once a good student, Stephen's grades tanked and he ended up dropping out of school.
40:08 Speaker 02 Sadly, Stephen expressed a tinge of regret when it came to returning to his family, telling Newsweek, "Everything has changed. Sometimes I blame myself. I don't know sometimes if I should have come home. Would I have been better off if I didn't?" Stephen tried as best as he could to come to terms with what had happened to him and to have his normal relationship he could with his family. In 1985, when he was 20 years old, he married 17-year-old Jody Edmiston. The couple went on to have two children, one son and one daughter. With the hardest and darkest part of his life behind him, it seemed that Stephen had a future to look forward to with the young family by his side. But tragically, Stephen's life would be cut short.
40:51 Speaker 01 On September 16th, 1989, at just 24 years old, Stephen Stayner lost his life in a motorcycle accident. He left his job at a pizza parlor and was riding home without his helmet on when a car turned in front of him and they collided. Stephen was rushed to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead from a skull fracture. The driver of the car that collided with Stephen, Anthony Laura, fled the scene but later turned himself into police. He was convicted of felony hit and run and sentenced to three months in prison. Steven's family was devastated by his loss. He had been brought back to them, but the time they had with him wasn't long enough.
41:36 Speaker 01 After the accident, Steven's young widow, Jody, told Knight Ritter News, "I'm very, very, very angry. I've never been this angry." Jody said that Steven had been very happy lately and was enjoying life with his young family.
41:53 Speaker 02 More than 450 people came to Steven's funeral, and Timothy White, the boy he saved, now 14 years old, was one of Steven's pallbearers. Steven once carried Timothy, and now Timothy was doing the same for Steven. Steven Stayner was laid to rest in Merced Cemetery. Those that knew Steven, and strangers alike, celebrated his life in memory. They once again remembered his bravery and heroism for getting himself and Timothy White out of a terrible situation. They also recalled that Steven had thwarted Kenneth Parnell's attempts to abduct other boys. If Steven was still alive today, he would be turning 60. Both of his children are now older than he lived to be.
42:34 Speaker 01 And more if there's no way around it, this is a very sad story. You have a kid who was abducted at the age of seven. We just talked about how, you know, he lost his life at the age of 24. But what I want to focus on is, you know, this reunion with his family, which, you know, should have been amazing, actually wasn't for Steven because of everything he had gone through. I mean, he actually, you know, told the, the paper at one point, "I don't know sometimes if I should have come home. Would I have been better off if I didn't?"
43:15 Speaker 01 That's just amazing that he even had those thoughts. But that's how messed up what happened to him was, and how devastating it was for him, what it did to him.
43:29 Speaker 02 It's very sad for sure for him and his family because... They can't make up for that lost time. And you know, once he was put back into that home, it just didn't feel natural, I think, to him a lot of the time. And there was maybe some kind of disconnect and just not that bond that should have been there, maybe. And I think it just proves, as you said, just how messed up this entire situation is that it forever altered Stephen's life and his family's lives. And they missed out on a lot of time together.
44:09 Speaker 01 And even the the short time that they had together before Stephen died, it just wasn't the same. And it couldn't be the same because Stephen was changed by his time with Kenneth Parnell. It's also very sad that, you know, he did get married, he did have children, but died so young that he never really got to, you know, live his life out. Just sad all the way around.
44:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, and he gets away from this monster only to, you know, his life to end early anyway. It's just very tragic.
44:47 Speaker 01 As for Kenneth Parnell, once free from prison after his very short sentence for what he did to Stephen and Timothy, he never changed his ways. He was arrested yet again in 2003, despite being in his 70s and needing the assistance of a caregiver, as he always had. He tried to get someone to help him find his next victim. This time, he offered the sister of his caregiver $500 to kidnap a four-year-old boy and also get a birth certificate for him. She reported his offer to the police. She helped them set up an undercover operation. There was never an
45:27 Speaker 01 actual specific child that Parnell was targeting, but she went along with the plan long enough to get the proof needed to put him back in prison and make sure he didn't have the chance to ask someone else who may have actually helped him. And I go back to something that that you said, Morf, when we were talking about the light sentence for Kenneth Parnell. This is the exact type of person that you need to keep off the streets. This is a person who Even by the time he was sentenced, had already demonstrated that going to prison, being incarcerated was not a deterrent.
46:10 Speaker 01 He'd already done it, gotten out, and then went right back to, you know, doing some of the same bad things he had done before. How could somebody not believe that when he got out this time, he was going to do it again?
46:26 Speaker 02 And I think this clearly supports the argument that people like Kenneth Parnell can't be changed, they can't be cured, they're always going to try and do this stuff, if not taken off the street. According to the Press Democrat, Kenneth Parnell was charged with solicitation to commit a crime, trying to buy a human being, and attempted child stealing. He claimed that he just wanted to raise a child. The 72-year-old sat in a wheelchair during his 2004 trial. Timothy White testified against him again. Though Stephen Stayner had been dead for over a decade, the jury heard his voice as his testimony from the first trial had been recorded and was now being played back.
47:10 Speaker 02 Randall Porman, the teenager who had helped Parnell kidnap Timothy, also testified against him. This trial was the first time Timothy and Porman had seen each other since the trial in 1981. The two hugged, and Timothy accepted Porman's apology. Due to California's three-strikes law, Parnell was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He died of natural causes in prison on January 21st, 2008. He was 76 years old.
47:37 Speaker 01 And I know the law wasn't written that way back then, but in my mind, more if that's what he should have gotten back in 1981, he should have gotten 25 years to life, at the very least. Because, you know, from my way of thinking, he did what, five years? And then he spent probably four years in prison the third time before he died? This is a man who, for all of the horrible things he did, didn't spend that much time in prison, and it's kind of infuriating.
48:14 Speaker 02 And I wonder at the end of the day if he had other victims that we don't even know about over the years.
48:21 Speaker 01 I think it's hard not to believe that he did. But I also want to talk about, you know, this woman who actually turned him in. Because we talked about it earlier, how he was able to get so many different people to go along with him. Thankfully, this woman, you know, wasn't going for it. She wasn't fooled by Kenneth Parnell and helped the police catch him before somebody else suffered the same fate as Steven Stayner and some of the other boys. Just one year after testifying against Parnell the second time, Timothy White became a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputy.
49:03 Speaker 01 He took pride in helping people and protecting them the way Steven Stayner had done for him. He served for five years. Sadly, Timothy White passed away on April 1st, 2010, at the age of 35, due to a pulmonary embolism. Like Steven Stayner, he was married with two children at the time of his death.
49:24 Speaker 02 A book about Steven's case was written by Mike Eccles called, I Know My First Name Is Steven. And in May 1989, not long before Steven was killed, a mini series of the same title debuted on TV, once again putting Steven's case back into the spotlight and reminding people just how much he had gone through. Over 35 million viewers tuned in to watch the program. And for many of them, it was their introduction to Steven's case.
49:51 Speaker 01 And I think if you're of a certain age, Morph, as you and I are, this is something that a lot of people will remember. I remember it. And I kind of remember being scared by it. Now also, there was, you know, the, the heroism and all of that that came through by what Stephen did, but I remember as, as, you know, a teenager thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe that this could happen to a child.
50:24 Speaker 02 That was very frightening. It was sort of sobering, a wake up call, that kind of stuff happened. And I remember watching this show clearly as well. And it was well done. And it actually won some, some different awards. It was done tastefully and it was pretty fact based. So if anyone wants to go back and check that out, it's probably worth the watch.
50:46 Speaker 01 But I also remember kind of the, the climactic moment being that phrase, right? I know my first name is Stephen. In 2003, when it was proposed that a park be named Stephen Stayner Park, it wasn't approved. The city council felt that Stephen's Park would be more appropriate because use of the last name Stayner would probably make the public think of Stephen's brother, Kerry Stayner first. Sadly, Stephen's bravery and heroism is often overshadowed by his brother Kerry's brutal and cold blooded crimes. And that's exactly
51:27 Speaker 01 what we'll be talking about next Saturday night in our episode, The Crimes of Kerry Stayner. And there's no doubt that Kerry Stayner was a cold blooded killer. But as we wrap up this episode on Stephen Stayner more, you know, there's a lot of emotions that have run through me as we've kind of gone through the episode. It's impossible not to feel for Stephen and, and what he went through. First, being kidnapped at the age of seven, being sexually abused for many, many years in unspeakable horrible ways. The
52:12 Speaker 01 thought that his family had given him up.
52:17 Speaker 01 And then you have the bravery of Stephen saying, you know what? I don't want this to happen to Timothy White and I'm not going to let it happen. So there's such a range of emotions, I think, to this story.
52:34 Speaker 02 It's hard not to be moved by everything that happened to Stephen, how he made it through it, how he survived, how he was able to help someone else escape. And there's definitely a real clear hero aspect to Stephen for making this out of it and for helping Timothy get out of the situation as well.
52:55 Speaker 01 But then more sadness, right? Because what should have been this unbelievable reunion with his family, it just didn't play out that way. I think in large part because of everything that had happened to him, it was hard for him to kind of reintegrate into the family life, a family that he hadn't been with for quite a long time.
53:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I think that was an unforeseen complication from all of this. He got away from Kenneth Parnell, but wasn't able to escape these other issues that came along later as a result of what he had gone through.
53:40 Speaker 01 And then getting married, starting his own family, but tragically losing his life young and not really, you know, ever seeing his kids grow up. And like I said, just, just a range of emotions in this one.
53:55 Speaker 02 And I think it was a reminder too, talking so much about Kenneth Parnell, that these kind of people are out there. They do this stuff, they did it back then, they still probably do it now, although probably harder to get away with it now with cameras all over the place and phone records and things like that. It seems like it wouldn't be as easy to do this now, but. Back then it was easier and it's just frightening that people could do it and still try and do it now. And I think tragically, sadly, in many of these kinds of cases where a child is abducted by a predator like this, you know, for the purpose of being raped,
54:38 Speaker 02 they usually in a lot of instances are dead within, what is it 12 hours? So it seems like Parnell wasn't looking to kill these children, but what he was looking for was an extended period to abuse them, which is a whole nother hell in itself. So, you know, there was no good outcome here for Stephen, I don't think in, in any scenario.
55:03 Speaker 01 But no doubt, you know, a very infamous case and would be if it was just Stephen and Kenneth Parnell and Timothy White. But when you add in Stephen's brother Kerry, which we're going to talk about next week, it just makes the, the whole thing even that much more bizarre and tragic. But that's it for our episode on Stephen Stainer. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, leave a review. Also keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way.
55:42 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at criminology pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans.
55:57 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike.
56:06 Speaker 02 And Morph.
56:07 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
56:08 Speaker 02 Take care everyone.
Previous Tracey Neilson Next Cary Stayner Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated