All language subtitles for Captive.Audience.2022.S01E03_English

MAN: I want to thank Steve for
starting out as a victim himself

and becoming a hero.

-Steve?
-[ Applause ]

At first, it was smiles
and laughter.

MAN: All right!

STEVEN JR.: And talking about
everything my dad did,

it was a good feeling.

But when I got older...

...then it was traumatizing

to find out what my dad
actually went through.

I've been hoping
that people would just forget.

You don't want to believe it,
but it's hard not to.

It was on the news
every single evening.

MAN: Steven Stayner now...

You know, bad things happen to
everybody, but for our family...

...it's unreal.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

14-year-old Steven Stayner
had been missing since 1972.

REPORTER:
Cary Stayner was 17

when his brother Steven
suddenly reappeared.

-I'm your brother.
-Cary?

MILLER: Cary's reaction was,
you know, "I'm nothing."

It emphasized his pain.

I don't think they care.

"I don't think he cares."

ANDREWS:
Having all this fame

and notoriety happen
to your brother...

...how can you create a bigger
story than -- than that?

Well, he did.

[ Music continues ]

JODY: We've had things happen
in our family,

and we've dealt with the media.

But this was something...

...totally different.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

[ Beep ]

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

-MAN: Set.
-DIRECTOR: Okay.

Yeah.
Oh, I love it.

ASHLEY: I love true crime.
It intrigues me.

[ Music continues ]

What makes a person want to
actually harm somebody that way?

No matter how gruesome
or horrible it is,

we want to know.

The thought of not knowing
is worse than knowing.

NEWSCASTER: A mother, daughter,
and family friend

vacationing
near Yosemite National Park

in northern California
have vanished.

REPORTER:
42-year-old Carole Sund

and her 15-year-old daughter,
Juli,

were taking a family friend
from Argentina,

16-year-old Silvina Pelosso,

on a visit
to Yosemite National Park.

Okay. Like the whole thing?
Pretty much like...

-DIRECTOR: Yeah.
-Okay.

So, what I remember the most
about what happened

is that it was a big deal
in Merced...

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

...because Yosemite is so close
to us.

It's kind of like
it's at our front door.

I was in the seventh grade.

Three women who vanished...

ASHLEY: Every day after school,
I would come home.

The six o'clock news
would come on.

Investigators in California
are releasing few details.

ASHLEY:
I remember thinking,

"I hope nothing bad happened
to them.

Maybe they just went on a hike
and got lost."

You always kind of had
this little flutter of hope,

like, "Oh, maybe, you know,
they'll find them today."

Juli and Silvina,
they were young.

They were only
like three years older than me.

So I was connecting myself
to them

and then also
to how the parents were feeling.

If anybody knows anything
at all or saw anything,

please call the FBI hotline.

We'd sure appreciate it.

ASHLEY: I felt like
that could be any of us --

just like my dad,
just walking home from school

and going missing.

We feel he's been kidnapped

by someone who just
merely wanted a child.

ASHLEY:
I think that's what attracts us

to those type of stories --

the fact that they're
just normal people

just doing normal things,
like the same thing every day,

and something bad happens
to them.

[ Music continues ]

ROWLANDS: "Oh.
That could have happened to me."

"I've been to Yosemite.
That could have happened to me."

[ Music continues ]

One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Mic check.
One, two, three, four.

My name is Ted Rowlands.
I am a journalist.

I anchor a show on Court TV
and cover true crime.

DIRECTOR:
You can speak casually,

and you don't have to

do it on quite the level
that you would for your job.

-Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
-DIRECTOR: A lot of this

is also just about, like, you as
a person having this experience.

Yep.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

It was February 1999.

I was working
in the San Francisco Bay area

as a reporter.

Ted Rowlands,
KTVU Channel 2 News.

All right.
Thank you, Ted.

I was sent down to report

on what would be the beginning
of a yearslong odyssey.

The fact that they were
last seen in Yosemite,

that something nefarious
could have happened,

any little update is grabbing
readers' or viewers' attention

like no other story
during that period of time.

KING: James Maddock,
you're the FBI special agent.

Anything new you can report?

We're really no further
down the road

in making a conclusive
determination

about what happened
to the missing people.

It's the FBI case
that has all the elements

of a Hollywood thriller.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

SANZERI: This is a case
that shocked the nation.

What occurred with
this case here was something

that nobody in the area
of law enforcement

and anybody had ever seen.

My name is Stephen Sanzeri.

I was a private investigator for
Francis and Carole Carrington.

Carole and Francis Carrington,

the parents of Carole Sund,
one of the missing women.

They retained me to look into

the Yosemite sightseer
murder case.

Being that I'm a bail agent
and bounty hunter

and I work the area,
you discover the underbelly.

Bad guys don't want to talk
to cops.

Bad guys will talk
to bail bondsmen.

We talk the language,
and they trust us.

[ Music continues ]

It's a lonesome world out there.

To be a great bounty hunter.

[ Chuckles ]

Let's change that up
one more time.

MAN:
This is take two. Marker.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

SANZERI: When the three
sightseers went missing,

they were staying
at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal,

just outside Yosemite Park.

Eventually, law enforcement
found a burnt-out red Pontiac.

When they opened the trunk
of the car,

there were two burned bodies.

They were later identified

as Carole Sund
and Silvina Pelosso.

[ Music continues ]

[ Voice breaking ]
As a father, I feel terrible.

I'm supposed to die...

[ Coughs ]
Excuse me.

[ Music continues ]

ASHLEY: After they found
Silvina and Carole,

people wanted to know.

Like, now.
Not tomorrow.

It was like, "You better
find something out now."

I remember being one
of those people who were like,

"Well, they need to hurry up
and,

you know, catch who did this."

As a seventh grader, you know,
13 years old,

I've never really
been passionate

about something like that, ever.

REPORTER: Investigators
continued their search

for the third victim

and clues that may have been
left by the killer or killers.

ROWLANDS: There was a feeling
that maybe Juli's alive,

that whoever did this took her
for a reason and kidnapped her.

SANZERI: Shortly after
the bodies were discovered,

the FBI received a letter.

The letter said,
"We had fun with this one."

"We had fun with this one."

Along with that note
was a hand-drawn map

showing where Juli's body
was located.

She'd been missing
approximately six weeks.

Her body was discovered
down here about 150 yards.

[ Music continues ]

ROWLANDS: She was wrapped
in this pink blanket,

and they were able to determine
that it came from Cedar Lodge.

[ Insects chirping ]

The Cedar Lodge -- the place
where they were last seen,

staying the night,

just in the shadows
of the entrance to Yosemite.

It created a sense of pressure,
on law enforcement especially.

SANZERI:
The FBI and local authorities

started rounding up fugitives
and parolees in the area.

These guys all did prison time
for rape,

murder, attempted murder.

These guys are very, very, very
aggressive and dangerous people.

[ Music continues ]

ROWLANDS:
The FBI now thinks they have

the people responsible
in custody.

And they told the public,
"Don't worry. Don't worry.

You can come to Yosemite.
We -- We've got this."

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

GIBSON: We do continue
to cover that story

from northern California.

A fourth woman was killed
near Yosemite Park last week,

a young woman, 20 years old --
Joie Armstrong.

She was a naturalist,
a beautiful young woman.

I'm just gonna talk about her
if that's okay.

Absolutely.
That's perfectly fine.

What do you want people to know
about your daughter?

ARMSTRONG:
Everybody absolutely loved her.

I had the highest --
have the highest regard

and respect for her.

She was...

She -- She was exquisite.

SANZERI: When Joie Armstrong
was discovered --

her body was discovered --
she was decapitated.

You now have a serial killer
loose.

[ Music continues ]

ROWLANDS:
They find her body.

It is just behind her house,
in a stream.

There was a sighting of a car.

A 1972 powder-blue
International Scout

was seen driving in that area.

And a few of the people
that lived in that area

knew that that was
Cary Stayner's car.

[ Insects chirping ]

And this now focuses everything
on the Cedar Lodge.

Cary Stayner was
the handyman at the Cedar Lodge.

He's living above the restaurant
at the Cedar Lodge,

and he spends a lot of his time
in Yosemite.

Initially, the FBI did not think
there was a connection.

SANZERI: Cary didn't have
a criminal past.

He was very quiet.

But now the FBI focused in
on one person.

That was Cary Stayner.

[ Music continues ]

ASHLEY: My mom and my stepdad
sat us down,

and they said,
"We have to talk to you.

We have to tell you guys
something.

It's really important."

My mom said, "You know,
the girls that went missing,

they found out who did it."

I was really excited.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh.
Finally."

And then she told me
that it was my Uncle Cary.

To realize that the monster
that did that

was your own family...

Like, that's crazy.

Like, that's a crazy
realization,

because I hated the person
who did that.

DIRECTOR: Do you want to talk
about any of that,

or would you like
to leave that alone?

No.
Will not.

DIRECTOR: You got it.

I just wanted to make sure
I was asking --

Yeah. You're clear.
[ Laughs ]

-DIRECTOR: Okay. Good.
-You're clear.

It's like something
just smacked you in the face

and you don't know
where it came from, you know?

And that's what it --
I think that's how we all felt.

It was just --
We didn't know what to say.

There -- There was no answer
to anything, to any questions

because we didn't know
what -- what --

how to answer anything
like that.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

ASHLEY: What is it
about Yosemite and our family?

You're passing my street.
It's that way.

I know.

But isn't it a beautiful day
for a drive?

ASHLEY: You know,
it's a beautiful place,

and I've only been
a couple of times,

but after my dad got taken
from here,

he went up to Yosemite.

[ Music continues ]

Every time I hear
about Yosemite,

like, the first thing I think of
is, you know, my uncle.

It's always.
Always.

That will never change.

[ Music continues ]

ROWLANDS: Cary Stayner
confessed to the FBI.

They brought him to Joie's home.

He explained what he did,
how he did it.

The FBI did not make
that tape public.

I was told that Cary Stayner
has been arrested,

that he would be taken
to the jurisdiction

closest to Yosemite.

My feeling was he might not have
a lawyer yet.

So I went to the jail, and then
I asked for an interview.

And within minutes,

I'm face-to-face
with Cary Stayner.

[ Music continues ]

But they don't allow
any recording devices.

So the jailer grabs
these quarter-sheets of paper

and hands them to me.

And I wrote just little phrases

to remind me
of what he was saying.

Oh, and this is the condition.

It says, "Condition -- major
Los Angeles movie of the week."

He said, "Before I say anything,

I want you to contact producers
in Los Angeles,"

because he wants a movie of
the week made about his story.

C camera!
Mark!

ROWLANDS:
Well, this is 1999.

Movies of the week
were long gone,

but he wanted confirmation,
that, "We're good, right?

You're gonna make this movie
the week."

And after I somewhat agreed
to it --

said, "I'll do what I can" --

he kind of just took
a deep breath.

"All right. Here we go."

I wrote down, "I am guilty.

I did murder Carole Sund,
Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso,

and Joie Armstrong."

Full confession.

GIBSON: Joining us
from Sacramento this morning,

KNTV reporter Ted Rowlands,

who interviewed Stayner in jail
last evening.

ROWLANDS:
I was on "Good Morning America"

the next morning
at 4:00 a. m. Pacific time.

Did he confess to you
that he had committed

not just the one murder
but all four?

He confessed to
all four murders, the first --

VAN SUSTEREN: When you say
confessed, let me just --

Start me
from the very beginning.

He walks into the room.
I assume you introduce yourself.

You know,
take me through the dialogue.

ROWLANDS: The media
is begging for answers.

You keep feeding them details,
and they'll absorb them.

He sent law enforcement
an anonymous letter.

He said,
"I disguised my handwriting,

and I used someone else's DNA
to lick the envelope."

I asked him if he would have
kept killing

if he wasn't caught,
and he said, "Definitely.

I-I would've killed until I was
either caught or killed myself."

And that curiosity satisfied

is the ingredients
to hook somebody into a story.

They want to know
how it's gonna end.

GIBSON: All right. Thanks, Ted.
That's a very dramatic story.

COSSACK: That's all the time
we have for now.

Thanks to our guests,
and thank you for watching.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

ROWLANDS:
Now the public knew...

...courtesy of Cary Stayner,
what happened.

It took this
to a whole nother level.

Cary Stayner
has provided authorities

with new and chilling details.

REPORTER:
Cary Stayner told the FBI

he sexually assaulted
two of his teenage victims

before killing them.

REPORTER: As the media focuses
in on Stayner's every move,

many are trying to find answers
for the haunting question --

Why?

[ Music continues ]

I just didn't handle it at all.

I just kind of shut down

and decided that I didn't want
anything to do with it.

STEVEN JR.: I remember seeing
my uncle on the news.

And having to go to school
for the first time

after it all came out,
everybody looking at you.

And it was hard to keep friends
and to meet new people.

I just remember just staying
in my room most of the time.

[ Music continues ]

It's confusing for a child
having to answer for somebody

that you really never knew
in your life.

There was talk of me and Ashley
getting our name changed

to our stepdad's name,
and that made me and her mad.

ASHLEY: When people
are asking you questions

about somebody you don't know,

it's not good enough to say,
"I don't really know who he is."

You know, they don't
want to hear that.

They, "Well, that's your uncle.

How do you not, you know,
know him?"

Well, you know, my life was a
little bit different growing up.

[ Music continues ]

When my Uncle Cary got arrested,

it was always on the news
every evening.

The news media would first
initially talk about my dad.

VAN SUSTEREN:
The arrest has many Americans

recalling the story of
Cary's brother, Steven Stayner,

who was abducted when he was 7.

ASHLEY:
It's like a two-edged sword.

You know, you want to hear
about your dad

and the good things that he did.

MAN: Steven Stayner collected
a $15,000 reward

for bringing Timmy home,
and he was labeled a hero.

ASHLEY:
But now it's tainted.

It's not the pure hero,
you know?

Now it's, "Oh, yeah,
he did this thing,

but his brother did
this horrible, worse thing."

And it just got to a point
to where I was like,

"You know, just stop talking
about my dad,

because it has nothing
to do with it."

People do that
because it's a good story.

It's a great story,
so how do you not?

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

KAY: I try very hard to
remember it the way it happened.

[ Music continues ]

I lose track.

You're always living it.

You're always reliving it.

It does hurt.

Life takes a turn,
and that's it.

KROLL: Steven was taken

and absolutely disappeared
from the face of the earth.

Then, when Cary admitted
to murder,

that ripped another son
from her.

The second trauma,
which is, you know,

of a very different nature
but as much or more traumatic.

It's no longer the story
you thought it was.

And it's your own story.

My name is Michael Kroll,

and I acted
as the mitigation specialist

in the case of Cary Stayner.

As a mitigation specialist,
you are the storyteller.

And the story is designed
for the jury.

You've got the jury in mind.

What will make these 12 people

see your client
as a human being?

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

One of the things that made
the case quite difficult

was that the world already knew
the details.

To find a jury
who didn't know anything --

virtually impossible.

REPORTER:
Cary Stayner was 17

when his brother Steven
suddenly reappeared.

KROLL: And the media's objective
is very, very different

from the objective
of the mitigation expert.

Steven Stayner,
who died in 1989,

was considered a hero,

his brother considered something
altogether different.

Cary Stayner was always known
as "the other son."

For the media, it became
a very easy kind of focus.

Partly it was to remind
the audience --

"You already know this family,
you know?

We already have got a big story
about this family, remember?"

And so they'd always do
the "Remember?"

There's another twist
in that story.

In a bizarre twist
in this case...

There's a horrendous twist
in the Stayner case.

Cary Stayner was the brother
of Steven Stayner.

You may remember him.

KROLL: It creates a picture
for lots and lots of people,

far more than I can reach.

And so you have
sort of a double duty now.

You -- You have the duty
of trying to erase

what people think they know

and substitute
what we want them to know.

So how do you get that
in front of a jury?

[ Music continues ]

You investigate a person's life

as thoroughly
as you possibly can.

[ Music continues ]

You know, in Cary's case,
I had to familiarize myself

with all that was in
the public record already

about the Stayner family.

Oh, absolutely.

The screenwriter had interviewed

the same people
within the family

that I was going to interview.

So I wrote to him.

"Dear Mr. Miller,

Thank you for speaking to me
this morning

regarding the arrest
of Cary Stayner

for what the media have dubbed
'the Yosemite murders.'"

The Yosemite murders...

The Yosemite murders...

KROLL:
"I work as an investigator

for the federal defender.

My task is to provide

as comprehensive a picture as
I can of the forces in his life

that went into making
Cary Stayner who he is."

I'm your brother.

[ Voice echoing ] Cary?

KROLL: "Since I believe
that most human pathology

emerges from family dynamics,

I'm seeking copies of interviews
with his brother and sisters,

his parents, his aunts, uncles,
cousins, friends,

or any other person
who has shed some light

on the Stayner family..."

"...including Cary."

Okay.
[ Clears throat ]

This is kind of interesting.

Let's do this.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

"Yeah.

And all of a sudden, no longer.

It was just that...
'I'm Steven Stayner.'

His head was bloated out.

You couldn't tell him
what to do."

"Anybody would do it if they had
any moral fiber to them.

He was just a normal,
everyday kid,

and the media blew it out
of proportion with the 'hero.'"

[ Reporters shouting ]

"We never really got along
that well after he came back.

I guess it kind of upset
my dad."

"My dad accused me that I didn't
want to be part of the family

and -- and all stuff like that."

[ Music continues ]

It's -- It's interesting how the
writer distilled all this down

into, I mean, one or two lines.

I don't think they care.

"I don't think he cares
about me."

You kidding?

Everything changed
after you left.

Cary once told me, "I didn't
need to be loved that much,

but I often wondered
why I couldn't be loved

a little bit like that."

I was trying to relate
to this kid,

and I was trying to give him
a boost.

He seemed to already
have accepted

a kind of hopelessness
about his life.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

I got a hunch that the key

to all of the psychic storms
that are going on in this guy,

right there, is when he said,

"I think my life
ought to be a movie."

You know, "You think
Steven's life is something?

Wait till you hear my life."

[ Cheers and applause ]

ROWLANDS: Big brother Cary,
who had lost his brother,

now has him back.

But once again, Cary Stayner
is in the background.

He doesn't have the attention
even when Steven's back!

REPORTER:
At this news conference,

just days after Steven's return,
Cary watches his brother

bask in the glow
of the media's attention.

Finally, Cary just walks away.

ROWLANDS: I think Cary Stayner
wanted to be noticed.

And I think that the reason
he admitted it to me

was because on some level
he wanted the world to know.

He wanted the world to know
his story on his terms.

There was something inside
that really did want attention.

That's far from the truth
as you can get.

He is fame-averse.

He is not at all looking
for attention.

Never was.

Always was the shrinking violet
in -- in any group.

I mean, he had too many things
he wanted to hide about himself.

He has an awareness
that he needed to be stopped,

he needed some intervention.

News around the country.

A California newspaper
published a letter today

from Cary Stayner,

who's accused of killing
four women

in and around Yosemite Park.

ANDREWS: "Way too much attention
has been placed on me.

The media blitz to uncover
the how

and why someone like me
could become a murderer

is very unnerving.

As for my 'thirst
for notoriety,'

if anyone knows
the tainted picture of reality

that a made-for-TV movie paints,
it's me.

After my brother's movie aired,
I was disgusted.

I wish that it had never
been made."

I know my first name is Steven.

I mean, you know, "the media
blitz to uncover the how

and why someone like me
could become a murderer

is very unnerving" --

I don't think we can blame
the media for -- for this.

I mean, we -- we all want to
know the why and what and where

and how this happened.

It's -- It's intriguing.

It's interesting to understand.

It wasn't his story.

And it was his brother's story,
and it fucked up his life,

and he's angry about it.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

[ Indistinct conversations ]

[ Birds chirping ]

Losing your children --
That's just something

that I don't think anybody
could really get over.

MAN: Father, we stand
before You today

with a lot of questions
to be answered.

And those things that are
before us are confusing.

We gather today
not understanding very much

but ready to deal with
what we have to deal with

from this point on.

CORY: Cary doing what he did
came back so hard.

You wouldn't think
it would be something

that would happen
to -- to your family,

let alone to somebody else's
family being hurt

and their loved ones taken
from them from someone you love.

And it's just not fair
that they lost their loved ones.

It's not fair.

No, it doesn't feel like
it adds up.

It never has.

It's just so out of context
with his personality

and...what he has done
in the past.

You know, he doesn't --
He's not --

He wasn't like that.

He was real calm and serene.

He didn't have a temper.

He wasn't a drinker.

STEVEN JR.: People that actually
were raised around him,

hung out with him,
and were really close to him

said he's very creative.

CORY: He always was at
his art desk and always drawing.

He was very good at what he did,

but he didn't like doing it
other people's way.

Only his way.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

I think that art gave him
the opportunity to work alone

without being questioned about
isolating and working alone.

Everyone growing up with him,

including friends
in high school,

would comment on the tendencies
toward isolation,

discomfort in social situations,
particularly with females...

a series of jobs
that didn't lead anywhere,

potential that wasn't met.

[ Music continues ]

Uh...Hmm.

Cary was unwell, yes.

Since he was a toddler,
as far as I know.

He wasn't right up there.

Yes.

DIRECTOR:
Do you feel as though

he fell through the cracks
in some ways?

I see -- In some ways I see --
I'm asking

'cause I see it makes you
a little emotional, and I'm...

I wonder how you feel about it.

Well, um...
Hmm.

Cary, you know, he was off.

Anybody and everybody who've met
him will tell you that.

[ Music continues ]

You know, if you look
at a lot of spree killers

and serial killers,
they seem to be charming.

They seem to be harmless.

But then, when you get into
their background

and what they really are like,

they're very,
very bizarre people.

[ Music continues ]

KROLL:
I've spent many hours with Cary.

Some of Cary's
mental disabilities,

if you want to call them that,
came to the fore.

He has a condition called
trichotillomania,

which is sort of the compulsive
pulling of his hair.

That's something
he can't control.

I found a-a-a record
of when he was employed

of basically having
kind of a nervous breakdown

and seeking help --
getting none but seeking it.

[ Music continues ]

He was happier in the woods,
on the river,

away from people, just himself.

The problem with freedom
for Cary

was that he was also enduring
these intrusive

and ever more violent visions
in his head.

[ Voices echoing ]

ROWLANDS: It was something
that he had been struggling with

since he was a 7-year-old
in the front seat

of his parents' station wagon,
looking into the grocery store,

through the big glass panes
and seeing the female checkers

and fantasizing about
tying them up and killing them.

And the way he described
everything was clinical,

without remorse.

"And she stepped up on the porch
and, uh, was just talking to me.

Then she turned around.

That's when I pulled out the gun
and I put it to her head."

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

[ Voices echoing ]

[ Music continues ]

NEWSCASTER:
Motel handyman Cary Stayner

was sentenced to life
without parole today

for killing a 26-year-old woman
in Yosemite National Park.

He apologized in court to
the parents of Joie Armstrong.

REPORTER: Stayner still faces
the prospect

of the death penalty
when he stands trial on charges

of killing the three Yosemite
tourists in February of 1999.

[ Music continues ]

Three, two, one.

Reporters and camera crews

have descended on the little
mountain town of Mariposa,

near where the terrible tragedy

of the missing tourists
played out in 1999.

It is here that the next chapter
is being written

inside the oldest
continuously active courthouse

west of the Mississippi.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

Cary Stayner entered
the historic wooden courthouse

under heavy guard
through a back door

while loved ones of the people
he's accused of killing

went in the front.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

LOTHIAN: Stayner's attorney
argued he was psychotic.

Six mental-health experts
testified that he suffers

from brain damage that
could have led to delusions.

If Stayner is convicted
of first-degree murder,

he could get the death penalty.

If this doesn't deserve
the death penalty,

I don't know what does.

KROLL:
In death-penalty cases,

you're allowed
much wider latitude

to convince the jury that life
is the appropriate sentence

for this particular defendant.

You are building a story
of how this man, Cary Stayner,

ended up in front of this jury
facing a life-or-death decision.

[ Music continues ]

There were many failures
along the way of Cary's life

that might have resulted

in his getting some kind
of intervention and help.

He never got it.
It never was presented to him.

No one ever talked about it.

During the trial,

there were some very
particular revelations.

I discovered a variety

of debilitating issues
in this family

that repeat
through the generations.

Literally a family tree
dotted with alcoholism,

mental illness, sexual abuse,
abuse of all kinds,

which I thought was significant
and included in the record.

The jury certainly knew about it
and heard about it in the trial.

Particularly in
the death penalty,

it's the story that makes people
consider, reconsider, think.

[ Music continues ]

Lawyers for convicted killer
Cary Stayner

say they will try to prove
that the former motel handyman

was insane
when he killed three tourists

near Yosemite National Park
in 1999.

Stayner was found guilty
of first-degree murder on Monday

If found sane, Stayner could
face the death penalty.

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

KROLL:
In the end, it didn't help

that this was such a prominent,
media-focused case.

It didn't help at all.

NEWSCASTER: The jury
in the Yosemite murder case

has called for the death penalty
for Cary Stayner.

The jurors rejected
defense arguments

that Stayner was mentally ill
when he killed three tourists.

ASHLEY:
Everybody felt like, "Okay.

Maybe this can end now.
Maybe we can have some closure."

I even felt relieved that it was
finally coming to an end.

[ Music continues ]

People, the Internet, media

seems to think
that my dad's story

and the events
that he went through

contributed some way to
my Uncle Cary's mental illness.

Obviously there's something
wrong with my Uncle Cary

to actually do something
like that.

But what is the ultimate reason?

Nobody really can sit there
and say, "Yeah.

This is why this happened."

Condemning Cary Stayner to death

is not happy for anybody,

but it's justice.

A-A family can't, uh,
ever forget

losing a child
or a granddaughter.

That's with you
the rest of your life.

[ Music continues ]

Closure?
I think it stinks.

Even if you get the best verdict
in the world,

it's not closed.

Nothing ever closes, ever.

It stays with you forever.

CORY: My mom still struggles
every day.

I still don't think it's sunk in
that it's happened to us.

And, uh...

I-I don't know what else to say.
I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm done on that one.
I'm sorry.

Well, we're still seeking

answers to questions, you know?

I mean, I've wondered
what Cary Stayner thinks about.

I-I don't know if you share,
just from a human perspective,

why, wanting to understand.

I mean, you know, we even
go back to Kenneth Parnell.

What happened to that man
that created this monster?

[ Down-tempo music plays ]

[ Indistinct shouting,
camera shutters clicking ]

ROWLANDS: This family

captured the imagination
of the public

for decades.

I've covered a lot of cases.

This is one that I get asked
about probably the most.

What this family
has been through...

It's extraordinary.

[ Music continues ]

ASHLEY: The media are always
for that next big story.

They told this story
for their own benefit.

But I think they have
the world wrong.

I wanted to show people

that we're more than just what
you see and hear on the news.

We have our own stories.

Okay.

All done.

Well, if -- if you live --
live an experience

and it doesn't become a story,
then it dies.

So, uh, I don't regret that.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

I-I hope it's -- it's been okay,

I've, you know,
added something to it.

I'm gonna get up for just a sec.

[ Grunts ]
Take the pressure off.

I think we've covered...a lot.

Can you think of anything else?

Well, obviously you have
all the questions.

DIRECTOR:
Great. Thank you so much.

No problem.
Thank you.

So, how did I do?

-DIRECTOR: You did great.
-STEVEN JR.: Okay.

-DIRECTOR: Thank you so much.
-Okay. You're welcome.

[ Music continues ]

All right.

[ Exhales deeply ]

[ Music continues ]

[ Mid-tempo music plays ]

[ Music continues ]