Speaker 1: Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya? How are you doing pretty good?
Speaker 1: How are you today?
Speaker 2: I am loving my hair growth that I've had with
Speaker 2: my hair vitamins, as you can tell.
Speaker 1: Oh, it looks.
Speaker 2: Long, thank you. It is so sick. It is really
Speaker 2: sick in my occipital bone. That's right, it's my occipital
Speaker 2: bone because I know a little cranial anatomy from beauty school.
Speaker 2: You got any plans this weekend? Oh?
Speaker 1: Just visiting family? I'm easy.
Speaker 2: Yes? Is today Holy Week? Passover week?
Speaker 1: How about you?
Speaker 2: Same? Same? Going over to Mispass and having a nice brunch.
Speaker 2: Nice maybe have a mimosa Ooh I like that, celebrating
Speaker 2: the Risen Lord.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Well, I have a story this week. It
Speaker 1: is part one of two. They're not like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you half the story though, but it's about brothers. Okay,
Speaker 1: one brother's story, and then part two will be the
Speaker 1: other brother's story.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: And before I get into it, I just would like
Speaker 1: to remind everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button
Speaker 1: on whatever app you're listening to. And Shannon, have you
Speaker 1: ever heard of the Stainer Brothers?
Speaker 2: I have not.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you are in for a wild ride. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm a popcorn.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: So on December fourth, nineteen seventy two, Kay Stainer stopped
Speaker 1: at the pharmacy to get a prescription on the way
Speaker 1: to picking up her seven year old son, Stephen from school.
Speaker 1: The step took longer than she expected, and by the
Speaker 1: time she made it to the school, Stephen wasn't there
Speaker 1: waiting for her. She followed the route she thought that
Speaker 1: he would take to walk home, but she didn't see him.
Speaker 1: Stephen had been known to just dilly dally like on
Speaker 1: his way home, so it was a couple hours after
Speaker 1: he was expected to arrive that Kay and Stephen's father,
Speaker 1: Delbert began to worry. You know, it's nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1: At the time, the Stainer family lived in merced, California.
Speaker 1: I think I'm saying that right, And in nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: Mercid was a secluded farming town. The fields of almonds
Speaker 1: and peaches the farmers tended grew only seventy miles from
Speaker 1: Yosemite National Park. Stainers had five children. There were three
Speaker 1: girls and two boys. Stephen was the third, right in
Speaker 1: the middle. He was a quiet boy who enjoyed riding
Speaker 1: on his Dan's tractor on their almond ranch. How about
Speaker 1: that an almond ranch.
Speaker 2: No, that's so quaint. Sounds fun right.
Speaker 1: He'd once helped heal an owl, so they haven't all
Speaker 1: on their property.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Stephen and Dell, his father, had a very close relationship.
Speaker 1: He was known for being quite sensitive and somewhat of
Speaker 1: a loner, but he had started getting into trouble at home.
Speaker 1: Dell was going to be the one to have to
Speaker 1: punish Stephen for writing his name on the garage door
Speaker 1: when Stephen came home. But Stephen never came through their
Speaker 1: front door, and his parents never painted over that spot
Speaker 1: on their garage. The flyers that would paper Mercid and
Speaker 1: the surrounding areas said quote. Missing juvenile Stephen Gregory Stainer
Speaker 1: mail Caucasian, age seven, date of birth four, eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: He was four foot eight sixty pounds, light brown hair.
Speaker 1: The hair is shaggy and collar length brown eyes missing
Speaker 1: since twelve, four seventy two from this city. Poster said,
Speaker 1: And today, crazy enough, is the eighteenth of dying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just thinking it's the last day of aries. Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 1: So Stephen was on his way home, like I said,
Speaker 1: from school, when he was last seen. He was last
Speaker 1: seen wearing a tan coat, blue jeans, multicolored flower shirt
Speaker 1: with a zipper in the front. Stephen had never ran
Speaker 1: away in the past. This may be a case of
Speaker 1: foul player kidnapping. Any information on the above juvenile please
Speaker 1: contact Sergeant Moore Murci the police department quote. The family
Speaker 1: heard nothing from these posters, so on the afternoon of
Speaker 1: December fourth, Stephen was walking home along Highway one pin forty.
Speaker 1: He was just a few blocks from his house when
Speaker 1: he was approached by a man named Edward Irving Murphy,
Speaker 1: who said he was a church minister. Murphy was passing
Speaker 1: out religious flyers and asking for donations. The boy agreed
Speaker 1: that his mom would probably want to give something to
Speaker 1: their church, so the minister asked Stephen if he would
Speaker 1: take him to his house to speak to his mother.
Speaker 1: Stephen agreed, and a white buick with another man inside
Speaker 1: named Kenneth Parnell pulled up. In a televised ABC interview,
Speaker 1: Stephen said that he had declined the ride several times,
Speaker 1: but after being pressured by the two men, he gave
Speaker 1: in and climbed in the car. Kenneth Eugene Parnell was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen thirty one in Amarillo, Texas. Growing up
Speaker 1: in the dustball era of the Great Depression and having
Speaker 1: been abandoned by his father at a young age, his
Speaker 1: mother moved him and his three half siblings to Bakersfield, California,
Speaker 1: where she began running a boarding house. Known to the police.
Speaker 1: As a juvenile delinquent, he would be in and out
Speaker 1: of their custody for different crimes, from arson to car theft.
Speaker 1: At eighteen years old, he married fifteen year old Patsy
Speaker 1: Joe Dorton in nineteen forty nine. Not two years later,
Speaker 1: she had given birth to a daughter. Within that same year,
Speaker 1: Parnell acquired a sheriff's deputy's badge. At a military surplus store,
Speaker 1: he approached an eight year old boy who he took
Speaker 1: to a remote area where sexually assaulted and raped the child.
Speaker 1: So he's a child moluster, obviously. The following year, he
Speaker 1: was arrested and sentenced to four years at San Quentin Prison.
Speaker 1: In a later interview, which took place in the year
Speaker 1: two thousand, during another run in with the law, Parnell
Speaker 1: attempted to excuse the nineteen fifty one crime, saying he
Speaker 1: needed to quote find another outlet end quote because his
Speaker 1: wife had been pregnant at the time.
Speaker 2: I can't fucking believe that he you know, yes, y
Speaker 2: know what. Thank you, yeah, thank you for showing your cards.
Speaker 2: You don't fuck you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pig, just an absolute pig right. In nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 1: his divorce from Patsy Joe being finalized, he married again,
Speaker 1: so these Lucky Ladies. Shortly after, however, he found himself
Speaker 1: in prison again, serving six years for armed robbery and
Speaker 1: grand larceny in Utah. While he was serving time for
Speaker 1: these crimes, his second wife filed for divorce. When Parnell
Speaker 1: was hired at Yusemite National Park in the early seventies,
Speaker 1: he met janitor Edward Irvin Murphy. So Edward Murphy was
Speaker 1: described as naive and quote unquote simple minded, possibly having
Speaker 1: a learning disability or a low IQ. Murphy said that
Speaker 1: Parnell told him he was an aspiring minister and thought
Speaker 1: that he was simply helping Parnell find and save a
Speaker 1: little boy. He said, Parnell told him he wanted to
Speaker 1: raise the child in a religious home, So when Parnell
Speaker 1: asked him to go hand out gospel pamphlets. It was
Speaker 1: not out of the question in his mind. According to Stephen,
Speaker 1: Murphy had been kind to him. Stephen believed Murphy was
Speaker 1: also being manipulated by Parnell. It appears that Parnell and
Speaker 1: Murphy didn't have much contact after the nineteen seventy two kidnap,
Speaker 1: so after hopping in the car, Stephen thought that they
Speaker 1: were taking him home, but they continued driving past the turns,
Speaker 1: eventually stopping where Parnell got out of the car and
Speaker 1: went to a pay phone. When he returned to the car,
Speaker 1: he told Stephen he'd spoken to his parents and they
Speaker 1: had given permission for Stephen to stay the night with
Speaker 1: the men.
Speaker 2: And I hate him, you know, I'm just thinking of
Speaker 2: the naivete of just the decade of nineteen and seventy two.
Speaker 2: And if an adult told you that this happened, you
Speaker 2: are well inclined to believe, like, oh, why would anyone
Speaker 2: lie to you?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Why would anyone harm you?
Speaker 1: And you wouldn't think like, well, how'd they get my
Speaker 1: phone number?
Speaker 2: Adults just know things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, adults are to be trusted, right, terrible, Yes. Parnell
Speaker 1: took Stephen back to his small cabin in mcathy's valley.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, just twenty five miles away from his home
Speaker 1: and only several hundred feet away from his maternal grandfather's house.
Speaker 1: That first night, Stephen was molested. In that first week,
Speaker 1: Stephen asked many times to go back to his family,
Speaker 1: but Parnell told Stephen that he'd contacted his mom and
Speaker 1: dad and they couldn't afford so many kids. They didn't
Speaker 1: want him anymore.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: Days later, he told Stephen he'd been granted legal custody
Speaker 1: of him by the courts. Parnell told the boy he
Speaker 1: was no longer Stephen Stainer. His name was Dennis Gregory Parnell.
Speaker 1: He was to call Parnell dad. Two weeks into his abduction,
Speaker 1: Parnell began raping the seven year old boy.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: The Merced Police Department took the lead on the investigation.
Speaker 1: There was a large search effort that took place, but
Speaker 1: there was no evidence to speak of, no witness sightings,
Speaker 1: no tracks to follow. A street by street canvas was conducted,
Speaker 1: roadblocks were set up, people were interviewed, all to no avail.
Speaker 1: It was as though Stephen had just disappeared into thin air.
Speaker 1: Over the following seven and a half years, even when
Speaker 1: he enrolled in several schools in Mendocino County and Santa
Speaker 1: Rosa as Dennis using his real date of birth. The
Speaker 1: first school he enrolled in, Kawana Elementar in Santa Rosa,
Speaker 1: failed to request his records, missing a chance to identify
Speaker 1: Dennis as the boy that, at the time all of
Speaker 1: California was looking for. Stephen was publicly raised as Parnell's
Speaker 1: son while perpetrating horrific sexual abuse on the boy within
Speaker 1: whatever shack, cabin, cheat motel, or trailer they were living
Speaker 1: in at the time. Stephen never spoke a word about
Speaker 1: the regular abuse he was suffering. Around nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: Kenneth Parnell began a relationship with a woman named Barbara Mathis.
Speaker 1: The relationship lasted eighteen months, and she eventually moved in
Speaker 1: with Parnell and Stephen at age nine. Stephen was raped
Speaker 1: on nine occasions by Parnell and Mathis together. Oh, people
Speaker 1: are so fucking sick they are. Mathis claimed to have
Speaker 1: not known that Stephen had been kidnapped, but during their
Speaker 1: time together, claiming it was on Parnell's direction, she attempted
Speaker 1: to lure another young boy into a vehicle. This attempt
Speaker 1: wasn't a success. By the time he reached the sixth grade,
Speaker 1: Stephen had been beaten, regularly smoked marijuana, gotten drunk on whiskey,
Speaker 1: came and went from home as he pleased, and had
Speaker 1: been thoroughly swayed into believing his family in Merced didn't
Speaker 1: want him. His attendance at school were sporadic, but he
Speaker 1: enjoyed being part of the football team. It was said
Speaker 1: that Stephen had a great personality and desired to make friends.
Speaker 1: He was described as spunky by Lorie Duke, a high
Speaker 1: school girlfriend. Friends of Stephen said he wouldn't invite them
Speaker 1: into his home, but they would come by some time,
Speaker 1: staying outside. At one point, he got drunk and complained
Speaker 1: that he wanted to go back to his family. When
Speaker 1: friend suggested he go home to his dad, he said, no,
Speaker 1: my real family and they just didn't understand what he meant.
Speaker 1: Parnel would often have jobs that required him to leave
Speaker 1: Stephen at home alone for long periods of time. As
Speaker 1: an adult, Stephen stated he knew he could have used
Speaker 1: the long absences to run, but he didn't know how
Speaker 1: to go about reach help. Later, it would be learned
Speaker 1: that Stephen's family had sent missing Persons flyers to some
Speaker 1: of the schools Stephen attended, but no one recognized him.
Speaker 1: Parnell had dyed his hair when he first took the boy,
Speaker 1: but over time, as Stephen got older, he simply didn't
Speaker 1: look the same. Stephen had sporadically questioned what he'd been
Speaker 1: told about his parents not wanting him during the years
Speaker 1: he spent is Dennis Parnell. He would sometimes look through
Speaker 1: newspaper articles and TV reports to see if his family
Speaker 1: was looking for him, but when he didn't find anything,
Speaker 1: he felt it reinforced the lie he'd been told by
Speaker 1: Parnell that he wasn't wanted. For all the horrors Parnell
Speaker 1: inflicted upon Stephen during his relative captivity, the one grace
Speaker 1: he provided the boy was a little Manchester Terrier puppy
Speaker 1: Stephen named Queenie. The dog was a gift from Parnell's
Speaker 1: mother to Parnell. According to all accounts, she had no
Speaker 1: idea Stephen existed during the time he was being held
Speaker 1: all those years.
Speaker 2: I can't believe that I know. I can't I know.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, fourteen year old Stephen was a
Speaker 1: freshman at Mendocino High School. His older brother, Carrie was
Speaker 1: an upperclassman three hundred miles away at Merced High School.
Speaker 1: And we will talk about Carrie in our next episode.
Speaker 1: So Stephen was growing up, he was becoming more difficult
Speaker 1: for Parnell to control, and he was going through puberty.
Speaker 1: His shoulders were broadening, his voice was getting deeper, and
Speaker 1: Parnell decided he wanted another kid he could have control over,
Speaker 1: and attraction to Stephen kind of waned like Stephen was
Speaker 1: just no longer as tight, probably because he wasn't a
Speaker 1: little boy right right. Parnell had tried to use Stephen
Speaker 1: in attempts to kidnap other children on multiple occasions, but
Speaker 1: all those attempts were unsuccessful. While Parnell believed that Stephen
Speaker 1: lacked what he needed in an accomplice, Stephen later said
Speaker 1: he purposefully sabotaged the attempts. On February thirteenth, nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: Parnell enlisted the hell of fourteen year old Sean Porman,
Speaker 1: an acquaintance of Stevens from high school. Porman was promised
Speaker 1: marijuana in cash in exchange for being a willing accomplice
Speaker 1: in scouting a male child for Parnell to kidnap. During testimony,
Speaker 1: Porman said on that day, Parnell had driven into Yukaia, California,
Speaker 1: about an hour away. The teenager noticed a small boy
Speaker 1: playing outside his home. Porman approached the boy and grabbed him.
Speaker 1: Although the boy struggled and fought, the teen drug him
Speaker 1: to a waiting car with Parnell inside. The boy was
Speaker 1: five year old Timmy White. Returning home. Parnell died Timmy's
Speaker 1: blonde hair a dark brown and told him his new
Speaker 1: name was Tommy. The following day, Valentine's Day, Stephen walked
Speaker 1: into his home and found Parnell waiting there for him
Speaker 1: to introduce him to his new younger brother. Timmy was
Speaker 1: crying and asking to go home. Parnell had began grooming
Speaker 1: the boy the way he did to Stephen, telling him
Speaker 1: his parents didn't want him anymore, reminding the teenager of
Speaker 1: his own experience of feeling alone with no one to
Speaker 1: protect him. Stephen later said quote, I couldn't see Timmy suffer.
Speaker 1: I just didn't think it was right for him to
Speaker 1: have to go through the same thing that I did.
Speaker 1: He really didn't have to there was someone there who
Speaker 1: could stop it. End quote. I think he was talking
Speaker 1: about himself.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow. Confiding in his girlfriend, Lorie Duke, he told her
Speaker 1: everything that had happened. In a later interview, she stated
Speaker 1: quote he literally said quote I was not going to
Speaker 1: let that child go through what I had already been through,
Speaker 1: and if I didn't take care of it now, it
Speaker 1: would just get worse.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: In March nineteen eighty, Parnell was working as a night
Speaker 1: clerk at the Palace Hotel in Yukaya, planning to begin
Speaker 1: training and working security for the hotel. He had also
Speaker 1: taken on a second job working as a caretaker on
Speaker 1: a ranch, and he was provided free housing living in
Speaker 1: a one shack in a remote and isolated area of
Speaker 1: Port Arena. Timmy had been with them for sixteen days
Speaker 1: when on March first, fourteen year old Stephen finally saw
Speaker 1: the opportunity to escape while Parnell was away at work.
Speaker 1: In a nineteen eighty four interview with Newsweek, Stephen said, quote,
Speaker 1: it was my do or die chance, and I also
Speaker 1: would be coming home for doing something positive. End quote.
Speaker 1: Parnell left for work the evening of March first, after
Speaker 1: he had gone, Stephen and Timmy walked hand in hand
Speaker 1: out of the shack and hitchhiked forty miles into Yakaiah.
Speaker 1: Stephen had wanted to return Timmy home, but it was
Speaker 1: dark and the young boy couldn't remember where he lived.
Speaker 1: When he realized they weren't going to find Timmy's house,
Speaker 1: Stephen took the boy into the Yukaia police station. Initially,
Speaker 1: Stephen had no intention of walking into the station with Timmy.
Speaker 1: He wanted to send the boy in and just run away,
Speaker 1: still partially convinced that he wasn't wanted by his family
Speaker 1: back in Mercid, The scared little boy convinced the teenager
Speaker 1: to walk up to the authorities with him. Sitting down
Speaker 1: to write a statement. Stephen would explain the kidnapping of
Speaker 1: both him and Timmy, telling the police quote, I know
Speaker 1: my first name is Stephen end quote. This moment became
Speaker 1: what was considered one of the most remarkable moments of
Speaker 1: the story, becoming the title for an eventual book and
Speaker 1: made for TV movie. He stated quote, I think my
Speaker 1: last name is Stainer end quote. At this point, Stephen
Speaker 1: did not detail the sexual abuse he suffered at the
Speaker 1: hand of his captor By sunrise on March second, Parnell
Speaker 1: had been arrested on suspicion of abducting both boys. At
Speaker 1: one am, before Parnell had even been arrested, Stephen was
Speaker 1: reunited with his parents, surrounded by hundreds of neighbors, media,
Speaker 1: and law enforcement. Dell approached Stephen in a big hug.
Speaker 1: Kay was close behind. Media coverage of that moment included
Speaker 1: Stephen holding his Manchester Terrier Queeney, and his parents embraced him. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, I don't even remember this story.
Speaker 2: But when you said it was probably a made for
Speaker 2: TV movie, I'm sure I saw it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. In the title I think my name is Stephen,
Speaker 1: I think I kind of remember that.
Speaker 2: That does ring bells. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He became a national hero. Appearing on Good Morning America
Speaker 1: within days of coming home. He told the host that
Speaker 1: it felt great to be back with his family, although
Speaker 1: he didn't recognize his siblings much after being gone for
Speaker 1: the long seven and a half years. While the media
Speaker 1: was painting the family reunion in a heartwarming glow, the
Speaker 1: reality was far different. While Stephen kept the sexual abuse
Speaker 1: private while writing his statement, the police had run a
Speaker 1: background check on Parnell and came across his nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: one sodomy conviction. Stephen continued to deny anything had happened
Speaker 1: to him until a search of Parnell's things uncovered Lewde
Speaker 1: pictures of a young Stephen in his possession. Upon being questioned,
Speaker 1: and the truth came out, and shortly after the media
Speaker 1: became informed. Stephen parents had enrolled him in high school
Speaker 1: within days of his return, and as news of the
Speaker 1: abuse began to circulate, the teenagers of the school began
Speaker 1: to bully the victim, asking questions about why he wouldn't
Speaker 1: run away earlier, did he enjoy it?
Speaker 2: Was he gay?
Speaker 1: Being teased about the molestation and rape led him to
Speaker 1: eventually drop out of school and set him into an
Speaker 1: ever deepening depression. The transition home was also very difficult.
Speaker 1: Far from being the seven year old who went missing,
Speaker 1: the five foot ten teenager barely resembled the boy who
Speaker 1: was taken. He had gone from having no rules and
Speaker 1: no siblings to living with four siblings, sharing a room
Speaker 1: with his older brother who he didn't recognize and who
Speaker 1: didn't recognize him. Being expected to respect the authority of
Speaker 1: people who cared was difficult, as was no longer being
Speaker 1: allowed to smoke, drink, do drugs, stay out late, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Regarding the changes, he said, quote, I returned almost a
Speaker 1: grown man, and yet my parents saw me first as
Speaker 1: their seven year old boy. After they stopped trying to
Speaker 1: teach me the fundamentals all over again. It got better.
Speaker 1: But why doesn't my dad hug me anymore? I guess
Speaker 1: seven years changed him too. Everything has changed. I blame myself.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Sometimes if I should have come home,
Speaker 1: would I have been better off if I didn't? End
Speaker 1: quote it's so sad.
Speaker 2: This is heartbreaking, and you know, in the eighties and
Speaker 2: like there's no therapy to even set him up to
Speaker 2: go back to school after being gone for seven fucking years.
Speaker 2: I hope we're doing better as a people.
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: I don't know how mental health is not your first
Speaker 2: and foremost, because that's the filter that I'm going to
Speaker 2: live my life through. Right, Healthier My filter is my
Speaker 2: mental health. That's your first priority, not fucking math.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: I'm just yeah, I know. I'm surprised we're not all
Speaker 1: fucking serial killers. Okay, honestly, I'm just surprised any of
Speaker 1: us came out. I don't know it's just you know.
Speaker 2: Through to my fifties. Yeah, maybe I'm hoping well, you know,
Speaker 2: till the end whenever. That might be never that much.
Speaker 1: But I have no prison term. I know, dificult. I've
Speaker 1: never been arrested, I never served.
Speaker 2: Time, right, I want to keep it that way. Yes,
Speaker 2: Now I have to prove myself in the yard ship
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: You know. Oh this poor guy, Oh.
Speaker 2: My gosh, that is just crazy for everybody involved, his parents,
Speaker 2: his siblings, him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a horrible all those years seven years, yes,
Speaker 1: years like those.
Speaker 2: Are nightmare years for him. That he's in survival mode.
Speaker 2: And it's absolutely it's going to be different for whatever
Speaker 2: you're surviving.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so his sister Corey said, quote he got
Speaker 1: on with his life, but he was pretty messed up
Speaker 1: and he never got any counseling. My dad said he
Speaker 1: didn't need any end quote. So yeah, that's the those eighties, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my mom, just be happy. What's the problem. Just
Speaker 1: be happy? Why are you depressed? Aren't you happy?
Speaker 2: Just be happy?
Speaker 1: Just be Oh okay, oh there it is, thank you mom.
Speaker 2: Thanks. I had no idea. It was so simple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, the epiphany, Wo if.
Speaker 2: I am a drama queen? Apparently all right?
Speaker 1: Uh so? Stephen refused to disclose all the details of
Speaker 1: the sexual abuse he endured from Parnell. Eventually, he was
Speaker 1: kicked out of the family home and his relationship with
Speaker 1: his father would remain damaged for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: I never reached out to talk about it with my parents,
Speaker 1: and they never pushed to find out. And yeah, thinking back,
Speaker 1: a close relative said he was lucky to survive his
Speaker 1: teen saying there was times he spoke of suicide, and yeah.
Speaker 1: In June nineteen eighty one, Parnell was convicted of the
Speaker 1: abduction of Timmy White and sentenced to seven years seven
Speaker 1: whole years for that. In December of nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: almost nine years to the day after Stephen had been taken,
Speaker 1: Kenneth Parnell was put on trial for the abduction of Stephen.
Speaker 1: Stephen would testify against his captor, and the entire trial
Speaker 1: was televised, including his testimony. Though he was regularly sexually abused,
Speaker 1: molestation charges against Parnell were dropped when a court ruled
Speaker 1: the statute of limitations had expired. While he was sentenced
Speaker 1: to another seven years for Stephen's kidnapping. The laws in
Speaker 1: California at the time allowed sentences for multiple convictions to
Speaker 1: be served concurrently rather than consecutively. Due to the concurrent
Speaker 1: sentencing laws, Parnell would only serve an additional twenty months
Speaker 1: in prison for the kidnapping and false imprisonment of Stephen,
Speaker 1: in addition to the sentence he was serving for the
Speaker 1: crimes against Timmy, and he was paroled in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: That is just such a groucharable. Yes, yeah, of justice,
Speaker 2: miscatriage of justice very much. Yes.
Speaker 1: Murphy and Poorman, remember Poorman was the kid that was
Speaker 1: one of Stephen's friends at high school that helped him
Speaker 1: kidnap Timmy, and Murphy was the guy that lured Stephen.
Speaker 1: We were convicted of lesser charges, both claiming they knew
Speaker 1: nothing of the sexual assaults on Stephen. Murphy was sentenced
Speaker 1: to five years, of which he served just two before
Speaker 1: being released. Porman served his time in a juvenile work
Speaker 1: camp and I don't know how much time he served.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find that information. At twenty years old, in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Stephen married seventeen year old Jody Edmondson
Speaker 1: Jody stated, quote, he was very proud of who he was.
Speaker 1: He was just very well grounded for a person that
Speaker 1: had gone through what he had gone through.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: The couple went on to have two children, a daughter
Speaker 1: named Ashley and a son named Stephen Junior. Although he
Speaker 1: continued to blame himself for what happened in some ways,
Speaker 1: he seemed to have found peace. Having a family helped,
Speaker 1: and his mom Case said he was a great father.
Speaker 1: Stephen did work with child abduction groups, worked with groups
Speaker 1: that searched for missing children, and spoke to kids about
Speaker 1: personal safety, along with giving interviews about his kidnapping. With
Speaker 1: a growing family, he and his wife had some financial struggles,
Speaker 1: and so he began working as a consultant for the
Speaker 1: mini series I Know My Name is Stephen to make
Speaker 1: some money. He also made a cameo appearance in the show,
Speaker 1: which was watched by forty million people in May nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine. While Stephen never seemed to get the help
Speaker 1: he needed, he used to say, quote, why pay a
Speaker 1: psychologist one hundred dollars an hour to sit and talk
Speaker 1: out a problem when I've been talking to reporters for
Speaker 1: nine years. It's a good substitute end quote. Media also
Speaker 1: seemed to be part of the problem, though the story
Speaker 1: was regurgitated incessantly. He expressed the belief that repeating the
Speaker 1: story would sustain awareness of child objections, and he never
Speaker 1: refused an interview. But he seemed to believe that eventually
Speaker 1: the reporters would just get everything they wanted and that
Speaker 1: he could finally be left alone. But they never did.
Speaker 1: They just kept pounding him.
Speaker 2: Animals I know.
Speaker 1: September sixteen, nineteen eighty nine, was a particularly rainy night.
Speaker 1: As he was leaving work to drive home from his
Speaker 1: job at Pizza Hut, his manager suggested that he drive
Speaker 1: the company truck home that night to be safer. Stephen
Speaker 1: reminded the manager that he had a suspended license and
Speaker 1: if he were to get into an accident, it might
Speaker 1: not look good for the franchise. He declined the offer
Speaker 1: and got on his motorcycle to head home. Just three
Speaker 1: miles down the road, he collided with a driver coming
Speaker 1: out of a nearby migrant camp. Stephen was not wearing
Speaker 1: a helmet and died within an hour of head injuries.
Speaker 1: He was only twenty four.
Speaker 3: YEO you know, oh my gosh, so ye Corey right,
Speaker 3: the driver Antonio Loera loyerra Maybe fled the scene in
Speaker 3: the hit and run and was later identified by witnesses.
Speaker 1: Found later he surrendered in Tijuana, Mexico. He was sentenced
Speaker 1: to three months in prison for the accident, but was
Speaker 1: found not guilty of vehicular manslaughter. Five hundred people attended
Speaker 1: Stephen Stainer's funeral on September twentieth. Fourteen year old Timmy
Speaker 1: White was pallbearer. Oh gosh no, His sister Corey said,
Speaker 1: you can say he had a rough life, but it
Speaker 1: didn't even last long enough to see where it would
Speaker 1: have gone.
Speaker 2: End.
Speaker 1: Quote Jody Stainer, a young twenty year old widow, remembering
Speaker 1: his pain, said he's not hurting anymore. Nobody can hurt
Speaker 1: him now. In what a prosecutor described as the would
Speaker 1: be last hurrah of an aging pedophile, Kenneth Parnell in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, at over seventy years old and
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair, attempted to convince his former caretaker sister
Speaker 1: to deliver a four year old boy to his Berkeley
Speaker 1: apartment for five hundred dollars no ancestry. She went to
Speaker 1: the police instead. Parnell was arrested and charged with conspiracy
Speaker 1: to steal a child. Timothy White, now a grown man,
Speaker 1: was subpoena to testify at his criminal trial, and although
Speaker 1: Stephen was dead, his prior testimony was read to the
Speaker 1: jurors as evidence in this case. The prosecutor said that
Speaker 1: with the three strikes law, Parnell could face life in prison.
Speaker 1: While his criminal history was focused on by the prosecution,
Speaker 1: the defense tried to convince the jury to not focus
Speaker 1: on the past, saying, quote, what happened thirty some years
Speaker 1: ago doesn't help us here today, end quote, claiming his
Speaker 1: past history of abducting other children was somehow irrelevant. His
Speaker 1: lawyer stated that Parnell would never consider what he did
Speaker 1: a kidnap. He simply wanted to raise an abandoned boy.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they'll praise it anyway.
Speaker 1: God ah God, lawyers sometimes, right, you're hilarious those lawyers,
Speaker 1: because lawyers spinning that pile of shit bullshit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one's a fucking punch in the throat sometimes the
Speaker 2: shit that comes out of their mouth, Like, what does
Speaker 2: this have to do with the answer is everything, And
Speaker 2: we all know the answer is fucking everything. Just because
Speaker 2: you pose it as a question doesn't make how dare you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's a child molester and he's gonna always
Speaker 1: be a child molester.
Speaker 2: Absolute yes, why yes?
Speaker 1: So? Pushing back, the prosecution warned that Parnell had been
Speaker 1: a lifelong predator, noting that Parnell asked the woman for
Speaker 1: a child quote with a clean bottom end quote, indicating
Speaker 1: a disturbing purpose. They stated, quote the defendant is a
Speaker 1: danger at any age, is a threat to children of
Speaker 1: any age.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 1: The following year, Parnell was convicted and sentenced to twenty
Speaker 1: five years to life in prison by a judge who
Speaker 1: called him quote a poster child for the three strikes
Speaker 1: law end quote. Kenneth Eugene Parnell died in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight at the age of seventy six at the
Speaker 1: California Medical Facility in Vaccaville of natural causes. Timothy White
Speaker 1: would later become a deputy in the Los Angeles County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department. However, he died on April first, twenty ten,
Speaker 1: at the age of thirty five from a pulmonary embolism.
Speaker 1: Nearly five months later, in late August, a statue of
Speaker 1: Stainer and White was dedicated in Applegate Park in Mercid.
Speaker 1: The residents of Yukaya carved a statue showing a teenage
Speaker 1: stainer with a young white in hand while escaping their captivity.
Speaker 1: And that's the end of the story.
Speaker 2: Tanya, that is more bitter than sweet.
Speaker 1: I know what a heartbreak it is.
Speaker 2: What no matter who you are in the story, Steven,
Speaker 2: except fucking for Kenneth that pig right, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: I was like, I hope this motherfucker is gone. I
Speaker 2: know it's the eighties, and when I kind of jumped
Speaker 2: ahead when I saw that he had died, I.
Speaker 1: Was like, good, yeah, good. I feel like, why did
Speaker 1: he get to live for seventy six years while Stephen
Speaker 1: got twenty four seventy six and poor Timmy got thirty five.
Speaker 1: It's like I don't know life, I don't know. Or
Speaker 1: sometimes this fucking nasty s child molester got to live
Speaker 1: for seventy six years, and you know, yeah, some of
Speaker 1: it was in prison where he belonged, but him.
Speaker 2: Only getting seven years, I don't understand that, just as
Speaker 2: a moral compass for the laws, seven years for what
Speaker 2: you've done to that boy. We've all been children, you
Speaker 2: know what, you know the scar you don't maybe know,
Speaker 2: but you know it was awful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to tell him like not only molest him, okay,
Speaker 1: like that's horrific, but to tell him his family didn't
Speaker 1: want him, and they, oh, they just can't afford you anymore.
Speaker 1: So you know they just said fuck you. I guess right.
Speaker 1: That's more emotional scars on top of the emotional scars
Speaker 1: that you're in nexting. It's just fucking evil to do
Speaker 1: that to a child with your ill.
Speaker 2: Intentioned Why else do you The sad part is why
Speaker 2: else do kids get taken? Yeah, so if they've been gone, yes,
Speaker 2: check out the back or he's establishing it right now,
Speaker 2: right right.
Speaker 1: It's a sad, sad said, but.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you brought it because now part two
Speaker 2: has got me wondering because this seems to wrap everything up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Carrie Stainer just a boiler alert, Yeah about
Speaker 1: Carrie Stainer. So if you heard of him, you know
Speaker 1: it's coming. So anyway, my friend, Well, thank you all
Speaker 1: for listening to this week's US and thank you Shannon,
Speaker 1: And if you could please before you stop listening this week,
Speaker 1: hit the subscriber follow button on whatever app you're listening to.
Speaker 1: It really helps us out. If you would like more
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Speaker 1: NT crimes like Dynamite, T and T. You can also
Speaker 1: go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. You can
Speaker 1: find out information in there. You could also subscribe through
Speaker 1: the Apple Podcast app if you have an iPhone. I
Speaker 1: think that's everything I've covered, really all the business. So
Speaker 1: until our next episode, my friend.
Speaker 2: All right, you have a wonderful weekend. Happy holidays everybody anywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great one. So I will see you
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 2: See you. Bye,