Growing up in the Stayner home was traumatizing in light of Steven’s abduction, seven years missing, his subsequent escape, and the media spectacle that followed. As one of the Stayner sisters describes in the aftermath, “A lot of attention went to Steven — we all got a little jealous … My older brother, Cary, he was off,” per Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story,” a Hulu documentary (via People). A childhood friend of the Stayner’s said Cary felt he might be responsible for what happened to Steven, and that he should have been with his brother when he was kidnapped.
Layering tragedy upon tragedy, Steven Stayner sadly died in a motorcycle accident at age 24 in 1989, as People Magazine reports. It was the same year a dramatized film based on his abduction story, called “I Know My Name is Steven,” enthralled TV audiences (per IMDb). Then, in 1990 Cary Stayner’s uncle, Jesse Stayner, was also fatally shot in the home that he shared with Cary, per ABC News.
By the time he was in his late 30s, Stayner was a person of interest in the Yosemite killings but it took authorities some time to narrow their sights on him. Once they did, Cary Stayner quickly confessed to all four killings in detail.
