Original subtitles

There are no new clues tonight in a case

that has police baffled

and an entire community wondering

if a killer is on the loose.

I was called in by our special agent in charge

and sent down to Yosemite

because three women went missing.

I had a hiker bring me in a license plate of a car.

And that license plate matches the car you're looking for.

The paint had rolled off the car.

All the tires had burned and melted.

Everything was gone.

At this point, hair must be going up on everyone's neck.

The FBI knows we have a murderer on the loose.

And then four months later, another missing woman

from Yosemite National Park.

And then he said, "I cut her head off."

Wow.

And I said, you know,

"What do you mean, you cut her head off?"

But then he says, "And there's more."

In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

Get down! Get down!

We understand why people want to tell stories about us.

Mark it.

- Freeze! - FBI.

- FBI! - Action!

But they don't know the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking agent to agent.

This is "FBI True."

Kristy Kottis is a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked gangs, crimes against children,

as well as human and drug trafficking.

Kottis was the supervisor

of the FBI's threat response squad

overseeing the Bureau's response

to terrorism threats in New York City.

So, Jeff, I want to talk

about the Yosemite serial killer case.

I know that you had a lot of participation in that.

- Right. - Take me into that.

How does the FBI get involved in that case?

I was called in by our special agent in charge

and advised that I was going to be sent down to Yosemite

because Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli Sund,

and their friend from Argentina,

Silvina Pelosso, went missing.

Jeffrey Rinek is a certified criminal profiler

who worked at the FBI for 30 years

on cases involving crimes against children,

sexual assault, violent crime, and serial homicide.

In 1999, Rinek was a special agent

at the FBI's Sacramento field office.

So let me understand this.

Why were Carole, Juli, and Silvina

in the Yosemite area?

Their game plan was to see a school in Stockton called

the University of the Pacific

and check it out for Juli to attend there.

And when they got done, they were going

to go to see Yosemite.

There's a town called El Portal,

which borders Yosemite.

It's actually 7 miles from the Yosemite gate.

There's several lodges that are down there

to accommodate visitors when they want

to travel to see Yosemite.

And what we learned was that they drove down to El Portal

and stayed at the Cedar Lodge.

That was the last day they were seen alive.

Close to a thousand friends, supporters, and family

of three missing women marched

in downtown Modesto, California today.

This mysterious disappearance is a clear evidence

of how vulnerable a mother and two girls

can be in this society.

We hold hope that someone will come forward soon

and lead us to them.

It was the biggest search and rescue effort in Yosemite

in California history.

Check both sides in case something has blown...

It was so extensive they actually flew an airplane

up and down Yosemite, looking for anything

that could give any kind of indication.

And the search and rescue workers were on foot,

on horse everywhere.

And at this time, when we're down there,

it's February, so it's cold.

It's drizzly.

It's very dangerous driving conditions.

And there was a lot of thought being given to the potential

that they had had a car accident,

or driven off a cliff, or something.

So who do you decide to go to first, family?

The first person we interviewed

was Carole's husband.

And he was fine.

I mean, we didn't think he had any culpability.

So once we get done going through the family,

the next thing we want to do is find out

who were the last people to see our victims.

So they bring in a employee from the Cedar Lodge.

And in his belongings, his locker, his van,

it was full of this dark red stuff

that looked like dried blood.

And the presumptive test came back positive.

So what we learned the hard way is that,

when it comes back positive,

it doesn't necessarily mean it's blood.

It means it's got oxygen in it.

And the lab came back and said it wasn't blood.

It was just rust.

A California mother and two teens

disappeared last month in a case

that has an entire community wondering

if a killer is on the loose.

After they'd been missing for three or four weeks,

the California Highway Patrol contacts our office.

And he says to him, I had a hiker bring me in

a license plate of a car.

And that license plate matches the car you're looking for.

But the car's been in a little bit of a fire.

The car was completely burned out.

The paint had rolled off the car.

All the tires had burned and melted.

Everything was gone.

Now, they found in the trunk two sets of skeletal remains.

And one turned out to be Carole.

And the other skeletal remains were--

it turned out to be Silvina, but we're missing Juli.

And we think she's alive.

And we think that her survival is based on us finding her.

So you've identified the two in the trunk.

Investigation now is all assets looking for Juli.

About a week later,

the Modesto resident agency supervisor

receives a letter.

And when he opens it, it's a picture of a map.

And on the top of it,

it says, "We had fun with this one."

So we brought up a dog from LA.

And based on the map, the dog located Juli's remains,

like, within seconds.

And what was the state of her remains?

Her remains were in the area of what's

called Don Pedro Reservoir, and her body was located

at the bottom of a hill.

And it had been covered up by brush.

And they found that Juli had been killed

through a cut to her neck.

The victims have finally been buried,

and investigators are now plowing

through all their leads.

I don't know how to explain the intense emotional drive

when you think you have a victim who's alive,

and their survival is based on you finding them.

There was nothing we wouldn't have done.

That summer, about four months after Carole and the girls,

there's a missing person reported

from Yosemite National Park.

Her name was Joie Armstrong.

She was in her mid 20s.

And she was part of a park program

to live in a cabin in a meadow with others

who had the same arrangement.

And they would teach nature in Yosemite.

Now, who reported her missing?

And how did she come up on law enforcement's radar

as a missing person, period?

Joie planned to go to the Central California coast

to meet friends.

They were going to camp out on the beach

and do what friends do.

She didn't show up.

And when she didn't show up, her friends called back

to the park service and told them

that Joie did not show up and they were concerned about her.

At that point, a park service ranger

did a welfare check on Joie's cabin.

When he first drives down it, he sensed something was wrong.

And so they start an investigation.

And within a few hours,

they discovered Joie's body

in a nearby creek.

And her body had been pushed up into some weeds and covered.

She had been beheaded.

Wow.

About 30 feet away,

they were able to recover her head.

So they know they're dealing with an abduction and a murder.

What happens next, Jeff?

You start looking at who they're supposed to be with.

And what they discovered in this instance was

that on the day that Joie went missing,

there was a person coming up a road from where

Joie's cabin was located.

The person was driving

a light blue International Harvester truck.

And he had a flat tire, and he needed help.

So a passing park ranger helped him out,

and his name was Cary Stayner.

Everybody sort of remembered that name

because Cary Stayner's brother was named Steven.

And in 1973, Steven was abducted,

and the nation was fixated on it.

In 1980, Steven Stayner became famous

as the victim of a high-profile crime.

He escaped from a child molester

who'd held him captive for seven years.

And so Cary was his older brother.

I didn't like what was happening.

What happens next is they're now looking at Cary Stayner

as if he's a good suspect.

They start conducting investigations,

see where he lives.

And they determine that he lives at the Cedar Lodge...

Where Carole, Juli, and Silvina

were abducted and murdered.

So, at this point,

hair must be going up on everyone's neck.

Oh, yeah, and so now they start

looking very heavily at this guy.

And when they start conducting the forensic examination,

in front of Joie's cabin, there were prints.

There were prints of another car,

prints of sandals.

And the evidence technicians from the FBI

in Sacramento came down.

And through their photography, which was remarkable,

enabled the analysts to determine

that they had tire tracks and sandal tracks

in front of Joie's cabin that matched the tire tracks

from Cary Stayner's vehicle, and that the sandal tracks

matched the chevrons on Cary Stayner's sandals.

- In front of Joie's cabin. - In front of Joie's cabin.

Are we looking for him at this point?

They are looking for him at this point.

On Saturday morning, an individual

from a nudist colony named the Laguna Del Sol,

just south of Sacramento, called in to say

that Cary Stayner was there.

I was the first one to arrive.

And the manager of Laguna Del Sol

was waiting for me at the entrance.

And he was fired up because he said that Cary was clothed.

And he thought that meant he was hiding a weapon.

And when Cary Stayner became aware of our presence,

he immediately stood up and put his hands

on top of his head like he was--

And what are you thinking at this point?

Not normal behavior for a citizen.

Absolutely not.

So we're like, what in the wide, wide world of sports

is this guy doing?

And then I said, if you would, I'd be more than happy

to give you a ride back to our office

and then bring you back here when you're done.

And he said, "That's fine. That's OK."

So as you're rolling back to the office,

is Cary chatting with you, is he quiet?

Does he want to talk about the weather?

Like, what's happening in the car?

I told him I knew who his brother was,

and could I ask him about his brother.

And he said I could.

And I explained to him that that's what I did.

That was the work I did, dealing with abducted,

murdered, sexually assaulted children.

And I had also experienced the pain of these cases,

not only on the victim, but on the victims' families.

And I said, "How are you doing with that?

How is your family doing with that?"

And he became emotional.

And he said Steven was never the same.

And Steven began living a life of risk.

And it finally ended when he was riding a motorcycle--

he was 22 years old-- where he was killed.

And this really broke him up.

The best way I can explain it to you,

Kris, is that he knew somehow

that I understood how he felt and how his family felt.

So, Jeff, at this point, you've brought Cary Stayner

into the FBI building.

Right, and we sat him in a interview room

outside the security area of our office.

We left them there.

And then, eventually, without real direction

or knowing what we were going to do

and trying to figure out what we could do,

Cary looked at me and said, "I want to see Jeff alone."

Wow.

At this point, are you a little nervous?

Because someone says, "I want to see you alone,"

you know, FBI policy, you always have

to have two agents there.

What are you thinking?

I'm scared shitless because when I went back in

after he asked to see me alone,

he was sitting in a very hunched over position,

looking in the corner of the room.

And he said to me, "Jeff, I've done bad things.

I've done really bad things. And I'm not proud of it."

So let me ask you a question.

At that point, were you thinking,

OK, he's manipulative?

At this point, I'm thinking he's testing me.

And I said, "Cary, good people do bad things.

"It doesn't mean they're bad people.

Let's talk about it."

At that point, he made some indications

that he might have had something to do

with the death of Joie.

So tell me, how do you start?

I said to him...

He starts off saying, "I was up in Foresta."

And he said, "I saw this girl that was going out

and back to her truck and a cabin."

And I said, "Tell me what the girl looked like to you."

And then at one point, when she turns her back to him,

he pulls the revolver on her.

He says, "Well, when I got her into the back room,

and I started duct taping her, she fought and fought."

And this is hard for me emotionally,

but she wanted to live.

So she started fighting for her life at that point.

Yeah.

And he says that once he gets her under control,

he walks her out of the cabin.

And then he takes her back to his truck.

What's in my mind is, now we're going through it

from his perspective, but also,

that was the last face the victim saw.

Yes.

After he successfully took her life,

he calmly went back and parked his truck and turned it off.

And then he came back to her,

and he said, "And I cut her head off."

And I said, you know,

"What do you mean, you cut her head off?"

He goes, "Well, you know, it seemed like a job.

I just had to do it."

But then he says, "And there's more."

Oh, wow.

I said, "Cary, are you talking

about the three women out of Cedar Lodge?"

And he kind of nods.

So now I'm like, what do you--

And what does he tell you at this point?

You know, we had a lot of people

coming forward claiming that.

People confess to things all the time.

I mean, you're a pretender to the throne.

We've got to figure out if you are the guy or not.

Silvina, he eventually took her back to the bathroom

and strangled her.

He confessed to killing Joie Armstrong.

He confessed in detail to killing Carole,

to killing Silvina, to killing Juli.

He also confessed to burning the car

that contained the bodies of Carole and Silvina.

A jury convicted former motel handyman Cary Stayner

Monday of murdering three Yosemite National Park

tourists in 1999.

He now could get the death penalty.

Do you ever see him again?

Yes.

I see him again during the trial.

And that was it?

And then I saw him when he was sentenced to death.

Well, you did a fantastic job.

I mean, you got this person who was clearly troubled

in a very dark way to feel safe enough with you

to say some of the most hideous and heinous things

abut himself to you.

I appreciate you saying that.

But then when you think what it's about,

these four women died,

and the fact that you're finding something

to be happy about,

I don't know how to feel about myself.

No, our job is to get the evidence.

Our job is to get the facts,

bring forward the truthful narrative

so that justice can be served.

So this friend of mine from the office,

when I was telling him about this incident, he said,

"As FBI agents, we're expected to find the truth.

And you did that."