'At some point, Parnell and Steven together realized that Steven was growing up and that he was no longer going to be controlled by Parnell,' Lunney said. And it wasn't that he was just a loner, he was a bit of a creepy loner,' Flynn said.īy the time Steven was 14, he had been abused and manipulated by Parnell for seven years.

Had no interest in girls, had no interest in people. You have the other brother who's left at home. 'You have one brother who's been subjected to just unspeakable horror for years, but by all appearances he's a happy-go-lucky, jovial kid with a girlfriend. The contrast between the two brothers is 'surreal,' Flynn said. 'But he was unable to develop any sort of interpersonal relationships with any women.' 'It seemed as though he had a compulsion with trying to get close to women or be sexual with them,' Rowlands said.

Emotionally, Cary Stayner had a tough time during his childhood.'īut Cary Stayner also exhibited some behaviors that made others uncomfortable, including, as he later admitted, exposing himself to his sister's friend. According to Rowlands, 'He was wearing a hat because he was compulsively pulling his hair out. Purdy said Cary Stayner always wore a hat. There was a 'pall over' Cary, because he was 'the kid who had his brother kidnapped,' said Bungart.Ĭary Stayner 'was a very, very good cartoonist,' and was voted 'most creative' at school, according to Purdy. While Steven was a freshman at Mendocino High School, some 300 miles to the south, his older brother Cary was an upperclassman at Merced High School. You could see that he wanted to play and be with kids and be normal.' 'He had a great personality,' said Lori Duke, who dated Steven in high school but knew him as Dennis. Steven was told his new name was Dennis Parnell and was enrolled in school. 'Steven Stayner had a new father figure, and it was Kenneth Parnell - who by day, was his father, and by night, was his rapist,' Rowlands said. 'I heard stories about him going out and wishing on a star, that his brother would come home.'įor years, Parnell traveled around California with Steven. 'Cary was very upset,' childhood friend Mike Marchese told ABC News in a 1999 interview. And there was just nothing there,' said Pat Lunney, an investigator assigned to Steven Stayner’s case. 'Merced was the lead police department, and so they really mounted a large effort to search. When Steven didn’t make it home from school, his parents sounded the alarm. They no longer want you,'' investigative journalist Pat LaLama said. 'Kenneth Parnell stops the car and goes to a payphone, he comes back and tells Steven, 'Your parents, I just spoke to them. MORE: March 14, 1980: An interview with Steven Stayner

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