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This-nudist-terrified-a-country-MATURE-AUDIENCES-ONLY · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today's story includes several very distressing and at times graphic segments,
0:05
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0:07
Speaker 1: several pictures that on the surface may seem fairly benign,
0:11
Speaker 1: but once you understand their context, they are quite disturbing
0:14
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0:17
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Speaker 3: All right, let's get into today's story.
1:00
Speaker 1: February twelfth, nineteen ninety nine, forty two Carols Sound along
1:04
Speaker 1: with her fifteen year old daughter Julie, and Julie's longtime
1:07
Speaker 1: friend Silvina Paloso, who was sixteen years old, boarded a
1:10
Speaker 1: plane in Eureka, California. After a quick one hour long flight,
1:14
Speaker 1: they landed in San Francisco and then got their bags
1:16
Speaker 1: from baggage claim and then walked over to the airport's
1:19
Speaker 1: car rental center. After Carol signed some rental agreement paperwork
1:22
Speaker 1: with the person at the front desk, they were given
1:24
Speaker 1: car keys, and then the three women walked out of
1:26
Speaker 1: the airport into the parking lot, where they saw their car.
1:29
Speaker 1: It was a nineteen ninety nine red Pontiac Grand Prix sedan.
1:33
Speaker 1: After the women had put their luggage in the trunk,
1:34
Speaker 1: they all climbed inside and then Carol began driving east
1:38
Speaker 1: towards the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Julie
1:41
Speaker 1: was competing in a cheerleading competition the following day at
1:45
Speaker 1: that university, and Julie was considering going to the school
1:48
Speaker 1: after she graduated high school, and so this cheerleading competition
1:52
Speaker 1: was a great excuse for her and her mom to.
1:54
Speaker 2: Check out the campus.
1:55
Speaker 1: And since Sylvina was already visiting Julie at her home
1:58
Speaker 1: in Eureka, she.
1:59
Speaker 2: Just tagged along for the trip. After an hour and
2:01
Speaker 2: a half long drive.
2:02
Speaker 1: The trio arrived in Stockton, California, and they checked into
2:05
Speaker 1: a hotel, and then the next day, which was the thirteenth,
2:08
Speaker 1: Julie competed in this cheerleading competition and then afterwards her,
2:12
Speaker 1: her mom, and Slvena spent the rest of the day
2:14
Speaker 1: checking out the campus and the surrounding town.
2:16
Speaker 2: Early the next morning, which was the fourteenth, the women.
2:19
Speaker 1: Checked out of their hotel and then drove three hours
2:22
Speaker 1: southeast to the sprawling motel complex called Cedar Lodge that
2:27
Speaker 1: was located just outside of Yosemite National Park's western entrance.
2:31
Speaker 1: Their plan was to spend a couple of days sightseeing
2:33
Speaker 1: inside of the Yosemite before heading back to the San
2:36
Speaker 1: Francisco Airport, where they were going to meet Carol's husband
2:39
Speaker 1: and Julie's father, Jens, and then the four of them
2:42
Speaker 1: would continue their journey and fly to Arizona, where they
2:45
Speaker 1: would explore the Grand Canyon before finally heading back home
2:48
Speaker 1: to Eureka, California. So midday on the fourteenth, these three
2:52
Speaker 1: women arrived at the Cedar Lodge and the lot would
2:55
Speaker 1: have been nearly empty because it was the wintertime and
2:57
Speaker 1: not that many people were visiting the park.
2:59
Speaker 2: At that time.
3:00
Speaker 1: So they pull into the lot, they park their car,
3:02
Speaker 1: they go into the front desk where they checked in,
3:04
Speaker 1: and they got their keys, and then they left the
3:05
Speaker 1: office and walked along the row of first floor rooms
3:08
Speaker 1: all the way to the very corner of the building
3:11
Speaker 1: to room five zero nine, which was their room. Carol
3:13
Speaker 1: used her key, she opened the door, they went inside
3:16
Speaker 1: and dropped their luggage, and then they decided that they
3:18
Speaker 1: were just too tired to actually go in the park
3:20
Speaker 1: and go sightseeing that day, so instead they kind of
3:23
Speaker 1: had a low key afternoon and evening mostly in their
3:25
Speaker 1: hotel room. The next morning, which was the fifteenth, the
3:28
Speaker 1: women got up early. They hopped in their red rental car,
3:31
Speaker 1: and they drove to the western entrance of Yosemite and
3:34
Speaker 1: they went inside, they parked their car, and they have
3:36
Speaker 1: this wonderful day looking at these astonishing cliff sides and
3:40
Speaker 1: snow covered mountains and these huge Secoia trees and these
3:43
Speaker 1: beautiful meadows that stretched out in front of them. And
3:46
Speaker 1: then towards the end of the day, Julie and Salvena
3:48
Speaker 1: actually went ice skating on a frozen pond. So it
3:51
Speaker 1: was just this totally magical day at the park, and
3:53
Speaker 1: then finally, as the sun was starting to go down,
3:55
Speaker 1: the trio finally left the park, got in their rental car,
3:58
Speaker 1: and drove back to the Cedar Lodge.
4:00
Speaker 2: There they ate dinner at.
4:01
Speaker 1: The lodge's nineteen fifty style diner. They ate hamburgers, and
4:05
Speaker 1: then afterwards they swung by the front desk and rented
4:07
Speaker 1: some VHS movie tapes that they brought back to their room.
4:10
Speaker 2: Once they were inside.
4:11
Speaker 1: Room five zero nine, the women changed into their pajamas
4:14
Speaker 1: and then sat on the bed and watched one of
4:16
Speaker 1: their movies, and then when it was over, they brushed
4:18
Speaker 1: their teeth and then they got in bed, turned out
4:20
Speaker 1: the light, and tried to go to sleep. But a
4:22
Speaker 1: few minutes after their lights were out, they heard a
4:24
Speaker 1: knock on their door.
4:26
Speaker 2: The following day, which.
4:27
Speaker 1: Was the sixteenth gens, Carol's husband and Julie's father was
4:31
Speaker 1: anxiously waiting at the San Francisco airport for his wife
4:34
Speaker 1: and his daughter and his daughter's friend. And he's looking
4:37
Speaker 1: at his watch and he knows they don't have that
4:38
Speaker 1: much time before their flight is going to take off,
4:41
Speaker 1: and he's just hoping they're going to come running around
4:43
Speaker 1: a corner and they're going to barely.
4:44
Speaker 2: Make this flight, but they don't.
4:46
Speaker 1: And finally Gens, who does not have a cell phone
4:48
Speaker 1: and needed a Carol, he decides there must have been
4:51
Speaker 1: some sort of miscommunication and that Carol and the girls
4:54
Speaker 1: must have flown on ahead, and so he decides at
4:56
Speaker 1: the last minute to just board the flight himself and
4:59
Speaker 1: fly to Arizona and hopes his family will be there.
5:02
Speaker 1: But when he touches down in Arizona, his family is
5:05
Speaker 1: not there, and so he rushed to the hotel, hoping
5:07
Speaker 1: that maybe they were there.
5:08
Speaker 2: They weren't.
5:09
Speaker 1: He spoke to the hotel's front desk and said, hey,
5:11
Speaker 1: you know, has my wife Carol contacted you? And they said, no,
5:13
Speaker 1: she hasn't contacted us, and we have no record of
5:16
Speaker 1: her being here.
5:16
Speaker 2: And so Jens is obviously very upset. He's very worried, and.
5:19
Speaker 1: He spends the rest of the day calling around to
5:22
Speaker 1: friends and family and acquaintances and anybody who might know
5:25
Speaker 1: where Carol and the girls are. But nobody has heard
5:28
Speaker 1: from them, and nobody knows where they are. And so
5:30
Speaker 1: that night, as Jens is about to go to bed,
5:32
Speaker 1: he convinces himself that they are probably just fine. The
5:35
Speaker 1: suggests some screw up. Carol is an unbelievably fierce woman.
5:39
Speaker 1: She's incredibly competent. She will take care of those girls,
5:42
Speaker 1: and I'm sure I will see.
5:43
Speaker 2: Them tomorrow morning.
5:44
Speaker 1: But when he woke up the next morning and Carol
5:46
Speaker 1: had not made any contact with the hotel or reached
5:49
Speaker 1: out to him in any way, and there was just
5:51
Speaker 1: no sign of her or the girls, Jen's finally contacted
5:54
Speaker 1: police that day. After the police spoke with Gens, the
5:57
Speaker 1: first call they made was to the Cedar Life, which
6:00
Speaker 1: is the last place they knew Carol, Julie and.
6:03
Speaker 2: Sabina had been.
6:04
Speaker 1: The manager of the lodge would tell police that he
6:07
Speaker 1: had not seen Carol or the girls on the day
6:09
Speaker 1: they were supposed to check out, which was the sixteenth,
6:11
Speaker 1: but Carol had checked out in advance, so the manager
6:14
Speaker 1: would not have seen her anyway. She would not have
6:17
Speaker 1: had to go buy the front desk on the way out,
6:19
Speaker 1: so that was not an anomaly. The manager also told
6:22
Speaker 1: police that on the sixteenth, after the three women should
6:24
Speaker 1: have been out of their room, the cleaners went by
6:27
Speaker 1: room five zero nine, and when they went inside, it
6:29
Speaker 1: was vacant and nothing seemed to miss it.
6:32
Speaker 2: Was relatively clean, minus some wet.
6:33
Speaker 1: Towels that have been left on the floor of the bathroom.
6:36
Speaker 1: The keys to the room were left on the desk,
6:38
Speaker 1: as they should be. It just looked like the women
6:40
Speaker 1: had left, and so the police reached out to the
6:42
Speaker 1: car rental company at the San Francisco Airport to see
6:45
Speaker 1: if Carol had made it to the airport and dropped
6:48
Speaker 1: off her car. But when they spoke to the manager
6:50
Speaker 1: of this rental company, they would say, no.
6:52
Speaker 2: Carol has not dropped off her car, and she hasn't
6:54
Speaker 2: called about extending her lease, which is now overdue.
6:57
Speaker 1: Based on the information the police gathered from the law
7:00
Speaker 1: and from the rental car company, they began operating on
7:03
Speaker 1: the theory that the three women left their Lodge motel
7:06
Speaker 1: room on the sixteenth and then either got into a
7:09
Speaker 1: car accident somewhere and had just not been found yet,
7:12
Speaker 1: or they had driven somewhere, gotten out of their car
7:14
Speaker 1: and gotten lost, perhaps inside of Yosemite National Park or
7:18
Speaker 1: some other trail somewhere, or they had fallen victim to
7:21
Speaker 1: some crime. But at this point the police were not
7:23
Speaker 1: taking seriously the idea that foul play was involved.
7:26
Speaker 2: A massive search.
7:27
Speaker 1: Was launched in and around the Cedar Lodge complex as
7:30
Speaker 1: well as around the western entrance of Yosemite, but absolutely
7:34
Speaker 1: nothing was found. A number of workers from Cedar Lodge
7:37
Speaker 1: were interviewed by police and subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. Also,
7:41
Speaker 1: a number of friends and family of the three women
7:44
Speaker 1: were also interviewed by police and cleared as well. Then
7:47
Speaker 1: a few days after the search had started, there was
7:50
Speaker 1: a break in the case. Carol's wallet, with her ID
7:53
Speaker 1: and credit cards inside of it, was found lying on
7:56
Speaker 1: the ground in Modesto, California, which was a suburb that
7:59
Speaker 1: was located about two hours west of Cedar Lodge. Some
8:02
Speaker 1: high school students saw it on the ground and gave
8:04
Speaker 1: it to a police officer. There was no reason for
8:07
Speaker 1: Carol and the girls to be in Modesto, California, and
8:10
Speaker 1: so this signaled to police that a.
8:12
Speaker 2: Third party had to have been involved.
8:14
Speaker 1: In their disappearance, and so if that was the case,
8:16
Speaker 1: then almost certainly these three women had fallen victim to
8:19
Speaker 1: some sort of crime. Over the next several weeks, police
8:21
Speaker 1: continued to search the roads and trails in and around
8:24
Speaker 1: Cedar Lodge and the western entrance to Yosemite, and they
8:28
Speaker 1: looked all over Modesto, but besides this wallet being found,
8:31
Speaker 1: there were no further developments with the case. Then on
8:34
Speaker 1: March eighteenth, which is about a month after the three
8:37
Speaker 1: women originally went missing, a hiker was way off in
8:40
Speaker 1: the middle of this forest about two hours north of
8:43
Speaker 1: Cedar Lodge, in about an hour and a half northeast
8:46
Speaker 1: of Modesto, California, when he turned onto this logging road
8:49
Speaker 1: that nobody really ever went down. And as he's walking
8:52
Speaker 1: down this road, he sees up ahead the skeleton of
8:55
Speaker 1: a car. It looks like a car had been set
8:57
Speaker 1: on fire, and so he calls it into police, not
9:00
Speaker 1: knowing what he's looking at. The police come out and
9:02
Speaker 1: they're able to identify this car.
9:04
Speaker 2: The shell of a car.
9:06
Speaker 1: Is the red rental car that Carol and the girls
9:08
Speaker 1: had been using. When they searched the car, the inside
9:11
Speaker 1: the main cabin of the car, there really was nothing left.
9:14
Speaker 1: There looked to be some remnants of some suitcases and
9:16
Speaker 1: maybe some clothing, but mostly it was just the frame
9:19
Speaker 1: of the car and some springs. But when they opened
9:21
Speaker 1: the trunk of the car, they made a grizzly discovery.
9:24
Speaker 1: Inside were two very badly burned bodies with their hands
9:28
Speaker 1: still bound behind their backs. Using dental records, they were
9:31
Speaker 1: able to confirm the bodies belonged to Carol and Sabina,
9:35
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of Carol's daughter, Julie, the
9:38
Speaker 1: fifteen year old.
9:39
Speaker 2: She was not in the car, around the car, or
9:41
Speaker 2: in the surrounding.
9:41
Speaker 1: Areas, and so there was this glimmer of hope that
9:44
Speaker 1: maybe if law enforcement acts fast enough, they can find
9:47
Speaker 1: Julie and save her before it's too late.
9:50
Speaker 2: But all hope was lost.
9:51
Speaker 1: When just a couple of days into the search around
9:53
Speaker 1: the car, when they still hadn't found anything, the police
9:56
Speaker 1: received an anonymous handwritten letter, and on this letter was
9:59
Speaker 1: this crude map that showed this very specific spot overlooking
10:03
Speaker 1: a lake. It was Don Pedro Lake, which was located
10:05
Speaker 1: about an hour to the south of where the car was.
10:08
Speaker 1: And then on this note as well was a phrase
10:10
Speaker 1: it just said, we had fun with this one. Using
10:13
Speaker 1: this crude map, the police went to Don Pedro Lake.
10:16
Speaker 1: They went up to the overlook as marked on this map,
10:19
Speaker 1: and there they looked down and they saw the crumpled
10:22
Speaker 1: and badly decomposed remains of Julie. At this point, police
10:25
Speaker 1: already had several suspects they had picked up in Modesto, California,
10:29
Speaker 1: that they believed were connected in some way to what
10:32
Speaker 1: happened to these three women. Of these suspects, two were
10:35
Speaker 1: of particular interest to the police.
10:37
Speaker 2: They were half brothers, Eugene Dykes and Michael Larwick. They
10:40
Speaker 2: had been.
10:41
Speaker 1: Arrested shortly after Carol's Wallett had been found for shooting
10:44
Speaker 1: at a Modesto police officer and for several drug charges
10:47
Speaker 1: and for violating their parole. Once these half brothers were
10:50
Speaker 1: in custody, Eugene made several self incriminating remarks basically insinuating
10:55
Speaker 1: that he and Michael had been involved in what happened
10:59
Speaker 1: to these three women. And then, after Carol, Slvina, and
11:01
Speaker 1: Julie's bodies had been found, the synthetic fibers that were
11:05
Speaker 1: found all over Carol matched the synthetic fibers that were
11:08
Speaker 1: pulled off of Michael and Eugene on their clothing and
11:11
Speaker 1: from their vehicle when they were arrested. And so the
11:13
Speaker 1: police were very confident that they had their killers, and
11:17
Speaker 1: they had them behind bars already, but they still needed
11:20
Speaker 1: to compile evidence before they could formally charge them and
11:23
Speaker 1: make their names public to the media. And so when
11:25
Speaker 1: the news broke about the women's bodies being found and
11:28
Speaker 1: the public began panicking about a killer or killers on
11:30
Speaker 1: the loose, the police came out and said, everybody calmed down.
11:34
Speaker 1: We have the people responsible. We just can't tell you
11:37
Speaker 1: who they are yet. You need to be patient. We're
11:39
Speaker 1: building the case. But everybody's safe.
11:41
Speaker 2: There's nothing to worry about.
11:42
Speaker 1: But four months went by and the police still had
11:44
Speaker 1: not come out and publicly charged anyone with these murders,
11:48
Speaker 1: but they continued to assure the public that they had
11:50
Speaker 1: their killers behind bars, and so nobody has anything to
11:53
Speaker 1: worry about. On the afternoon of July twenty second, roughly
11:56
Speaker 1: four months after the discovery of the three bodies, or
12:00
Speaker 1: Desmond Kidd, who was the medical director for Yosemite, had
12:04
Speaker 1: just finished a long twenty four hour shift in the clinic,
12:06
Speaker 1: and he had just gotten back to his cabin which
12:08
Speaker 1: was inside of Yosemite, when his pager went off, and
12:11
Speaker 1: so he went to a phone. He dialed the number
12:13
Speaker 1: that was on his pager and the park dispatcher picked
12:16
Speaker 1: up and said, hey, doctor Kid, can you be a
12:18
Speaker 1: part of a search for a missing person?
12:20
Speaker 2: And doctor Kidd said, sure, you know, I'd.
12:22
Speaker 1: Love to help, and then there was a pause and
12:24
Speaker 1: the park dispatcher said, hey, just so you know, there
12:27
Speaker 1: are law enforcement implications with this one, and then before
12:30
Speaker 1: he could clarify, he hung up the phone. And so
12:32
Speaker 1: doctor Kidd is really confused what he meant about these
12:35
Speaker 1: implications because in the past three years he had worked
12:38
Speaker 1: at this park, he had unfortunately been involved in many
12:41
Speaker 1: searches for missing people in the park, but they were
12:44
Speaker 1: never tied to any sort of criminal activity. They were
12:46
Speaker 1: always because the person got lost or fell or something,
12:49
Speaker 1: which was fairly common inside of the park. And so
12:51
Speaker 1: as soon as this convoy of other Yosemite staff members
12:55
Speaker 1: that are part of the search rolled up in front
12:57
Speaker 1: of his cabin, doctor Kidd ran outside. He hopped up
13:00
Speaker 1: one of the vehicles and he asked the driver, you know,
13:01
Speaker 1: what's going on? What are these law enforcement implications with
13:05
Speaker 1: regards to this missing person, And the driver would explain
13:07
Speaker 1: to him that, you know, hey, four months earlier, we
13:10
Speaker 1: had those three Yosemite tourists go missing, Carol, Julie and Sylvina,
13:14
Speaker 1: and they were found murdered outside of Yosemite. And while
13:17
Speaker 1: the police have said they have their killers behind bars.
13:20
Speaker 1: The police still have not come out and actually named
13:23
Speaker 1: who their killers are or charged anyone in their murders,
13:26
Speaker 1: and so that's made many of us think that maybe
13:29
Speaker 1: they don't have the killer or killers behind bars. Maybe
13:32
Speaker 1: there's a killer or killers still on the loose. And unfortunately,
13:36
Speaker 1: tonight we have another person who's gone missing inside of
13:39
Speaker 1: the park, and she's gone missing under very mysterious circumstances,
13:43
Speaker 1: which has led many of us to think that it's
13:45
Speaker 1: possible if there really is a killer out there, they've
13:47
Speaker 1: struck again.
13:48
Speaker 2: Tonight. Doctor Kidd was totally shocked at this news, but
13:51
Speaker 2: he was even more shocked when he discovered who it
13:54
Speaker 2: was that was missing. It was somebody he knew.
13:56
Speaker 1: Her name was Joey Armstrong and she was a twenty
13:59
Speaker 1: six year old natural employed by Yosemite. A naturalist is
14:03
Speaker 1: like an expert tour guide that knows everything about the park.
14:05
Speaker 1: Doctor Kidd and the rest of the convoy of Yosemite
14:08
Speaker 1: staff that were going to be a part of the
14:10
Speaker 1: search sped around the corner and went down this unmarked
14:13
Speaker 1: road with huge trees on either side, and then eventually
14:16
Speaker 1: they came out of this heavily forested road, and they
14:19
Speaker 1: entered into this unbelievably beautiful meadow, and on the very
14:22
Speaker 1: far end across this huge meadow is this one green
14:26
Speaker 1: cabin sitting at the base of this mountain with a
14:28
Speaker 1: forest on the other.
14:29
Speaker 2: Side of it.
14:30
Speaker 1: This totally secluded cabin in the middle of Yosemite was
14:33
Speaker 1: where Joey was living. As doctor Kidd and the convoy
14:36
Speaker 1: went across this meadow and got closer to this cabin,
14:39
Speaker 1: doctor Kidd could see park rangers walking around the perimeter
14:42
Speaker 1: of the cabin, marking it off with yellow police tape.
14:45
Speaker 1: When doctor Kidd and his vehicle came to a stop
14:48
Speaker 1: right outside of the marked op area, they got out
14:51
Speaker 1: and they could see parked right next to the cabin
14:53
Speaker 1: was this white pickup truck. It was Joey's pickup truck,
14:56
Speaker 1: and inside of it was a bunch of luggage, and
14:58
Speaker 1: it looked like there was luggage that had spilled out
15:00
Speaker 1: onto the ground and some of the doors were still open,
15:02
Speaker 1: and so it gave doctor Kidd and the rest of
15:04
Speaker 1: the searchers the impression that Joey must have either been
15:07
Speaker 1: loading things into her truck or unloading things out of
15:10
Speaker 1: her truck at the time she went missing. Doctor Kid
15:12
Speaker 1: and the rest of the searchers kind of huddled up
15:14
Speaker 1: with the park rangers, and the rangers explained that Joey's
15:18
Speaker 1: friends that were living in San Francisco were expecting Joey
15:21
Speaker 1: to arrive at their house the day before, but when
15:23
Speaker 1: she didn't and they couldn't get in touch with her,
15:25
Speaker 1: they had called it in and that's why they were
15:27
Speaker 1: there looking for her. And so after talking about these
15:30
Speaker 1: circumstances of the case, they all decided they would break
15:32
Speaker 1: into five different search groups and they would begin searching
15:35
Speaker 1: the immediate area. Doctor Kidd and four other searchers began
15:39
Speaker 1: walking behind the cabin towards the tree line, and then
15:42
Speaker 1: once they got into that.
15:43
Speaker 2: Forest, they started walking towards this creek. And as they
15:45
Speaker 2: walked up.
15:46
Speaker 1: Along this creek, they suddenly noticed a whole bunch of
15:48
Speaker 1: trampled ferns and saplings, and it looked like someone had
15:52
Speaker 1: come running through there, and perhaps the person who was
15:54
Speaker 1: running was Joey. And so they began following these tracks
15:57
Speaker 1: that go right alongside this creek, and at some point
16:00
Speaker 1: one of the searchers yells out, hey, what's that up there?
16:03
Speaker 1: And about ten feet ahead of them, where the ground
16:05
Speaker 1: kind of sloped down into a.
16:06
Speaker 2: Ditch out of view.
16:08
Speaker 1: Right before the ditch, hanging on a little tree on
16:10
Speaker 1: the ground, was a set of car keys glinting in
16:12
Speaker 1: the sunlight. And so doctor Kid, who was at the
16:15
Speaker 1: front of his small search party, he began walking towards
16:18
Speaker 1: these keys, and as he got closer and closer, he
16:21
Speaker 1: began to be able to see down into this ditch
16:23
Speaker 1: right on the other side of these keys, and as
16:25
Speaker 1: soon as he could actually see what was at the bottom,
16:28
Speaker 1: he immediately began to gag and he turned around and
16:31
Speaker 1: quickly walked away. The other four searchers they walked up
16:34
Speaker 1: and they had to look down, and they too had
16:36
Speaker 1: a similar reaction, and before long the group was running
16:39
Speaker 1: back to the cabin to tell the park rangers what
16:41
Speaker 1: they had just discovered. When the rangers heard about what
16:44
Speaker 1: was in the forest, they immediately contacted the police, and
16:47
Speaker 1: the police sent a police officer to Joey Armstrong's mother's house,
16:52
Speaker 1: which was just outside of San Francisco. When the mother
16:54
Speaker 1: opened the door, the officer told her that they had
16:57
Speaker 1: just gotten a call from Yosemite and they need her
16:59
Speaker 1: to call them, and then he handed her a piece
17:01
Speaker 1: of paper with a phone number on it. Joey's mother
17:04
Speaker 1: was immediately concerned and confused and tried to get more
17:07
Speaker 1: information from this officer, but the officer just said, look,
17:09
Speaker 1: you're just gonna have to call that phone number. I
17:11
Speaker 1: really don't know anything, and so eventually she thanked him.
17:14
Speaker 1: She shut the door, and she went into the kitchen
17:16
Speaker 1: and she dials this number. After someone picked up, she
17:19
Speaker 1: introduced herself as Joey's mother, and at that point, the
17:22
Speaker 1: person who picked up quickly handed the phone off to
17:24
Speaker 1: someone who sounded much more senior, and this person asked,
17:27
Speaker 1: Joey's mother.
17:28
Speaker 2: Are you aware that your daughter is missing?
17:31
Speaker 1: So Joey's mother says, no, I was not aware of that,
17:33
Speaker 1: and then this person very delicately says, ma'am, we believe
17:37
Speaker 1: we've found your daughter's body near her cabin. Joey's mother's
17:40
Speaker 1: reaction was instant. She said, well, did you check her hair?
17:43
Speaker 1: She has red hair. Can you confirm it's really her?
17:45
Speaker 1: Because she's got bright red hair. Can you make sure
17:47
Speaker 1: it's really her? And the person on the other side
17:49
Speaker 1: of the line hesitated for a minute and then just
17:52
Speaker 1: said ma'am, we're not sure if she has read hair
17:55
Speaker 1: or not.
17:55
Speaker 2: We'll get back to you.
17:56
Speaker 1: And so, after this call finally ended, Joey's mother was confused.
17:59
Speaker 1: How could they not know what color her daughter's hair was.
18:02
Speaker 1: That seems like such an easy way to potentially identify
18:05
Speaker 1: whether or not this was really her daughter. Why would
18:07
Speaker 1: they make her wait for something like that? And so
18:09
Speaker 1: she was horribly distraught. She didn't know what else to do.
18:12
Speaker 1: She was told to just kind of wait for more news,
18:14
Speaker 1: but she couldn't do that, and so she began planning
18:16
Speaker 1: a trip out to Yosemite to actually get out there
18:18
Speaker 1: and see.
18:19
Speaker 2: What was going on.
18:20
Speaker 1: But the earliest flight she could possibly get was not
18:22
Speaker 1: until very early the next morning, and so she has
18:25
Speaker 1: this very restless night's sleep where she's just praying that
18:28
Speaker 1: this person was not actually her daughter. And then the
18:31
Speaker 1: next morning she gets up, she rushes to the airport
18:33
Speaker 1: and as she's waiting to board her plane, she grabs
18:36
Speaker 1: a newspaper from a nearby kiosk and the headline reads
18:40
Speaker 1: naturalist beheaded at Yosemite. And that's when she understood why
18:44
Speaker 1: that person could not tell her whether or not this
18:47
Speaker 1: was her daughter based on hair color. It's because this
18:49
Speaker 1: body did not have a head. But from the time
18:51
Speaker 1: she got that phone call to this headline running in
18:54
Speaker 1: the paper, these searchers had found the head. It was
18:57
Speaker 1: located twenty seven feet away under some brush, and they
19:00
Speaker 1: were able to confirm that it was the body of
19:02
Speaker 1: Joey Armstrong. Joey's death was immediately treated like a homicide,
19:05
Speaker 1: and right away the public began to openly suggest that
19:09
Speaker 1: maybe Joey's murder is connected to the murders of Carol,
19:13
Speaker 1: Julie and Silvina from four months earlier, even though the
19:16
Speaker 1: police were still saying we have our killers behind bars
19:20
Speaker 1: for those murders, Joey's murder.
19:22
Speaker 2: Is completely unconnected.
19:23
Speaker 1: Luckily, the public and the police did not have to
19:26
Speaker 1: argue for very long about who was right about this,
19:28
Speaker 1: because there was a break in Joey's case almost immediately.
19:31
Speaker 1: On the night that Joey went missing, another Yosemite staff
19:35
Speaker 1: member had happened to drive by her cabin and they
19:38
Speaker 1: noticed a distinctive SUV parked outside of her cabin that
19:42
Speaker 1: they didn't recognize. It was a blue nineteen seventy nine
19:45
Speaker 1: International Scout, and as it happened, there were only two
19:48
Speaker 1: of these particular types of vehicles registered in Yosemite Valley,
19:52
Speaker 1: and so within twenty four hours the police had tracked
19:54
Speaker 1: down one of these two vehicles. It was located about
19:57
Speaker 1: twelve miles away from the western entry of Yosemite and
20:01
Speaker 1: was pulled off the side of this highway. The police
20:03
Speaker 1: pulled up alongside it and parked.
20:05
Speaker 2: They walked up.
20:05
Speaker 1: There was no one inside of this vehicle. But then
20:08
Speaker 1: down this embankment off the highway led down to this
20:10
Speaker 1: forest where there was a river kind of out of
20:12
Speaker 1: sight that people liked to swim and fish in. And
20:15
Speaker 1: so these two officers decided to head down and see
20:17
Speaker 1: if maybe the drivers down there. So they make their
20:20
Speaker 1: way down and sure enough they come in contact with
20:22
Speaker 1: the driver. He was laying on this rock completely nude,
20:25
Speaker 1: smoking marijuana.
20:26
Speaker 2: And so the two officers they come up.
20:28
Speaker 1: To him and announce themselves, and this very well built,
20:31
Speaker 1: good looking guy stands up, and he calmly covers himself
20:34
Speaker 1: and he takes the marijuana out of his mouth, and
20:36
Speaker 1: he says.
20:36
Speaker 2: Hey, what can I do for you guys?
20:37
Speaker 1: And so over the course of their conversation, the police
20:40
Speaker 1: would learn this guy's name was Carrie Stainer. He was
20:43
Speaker 1: thirty eight years old and he was the handyman at
20:46
Speaker 1: Cedar Lodge motel. He would tell police that he was
20:48
Speaker 1: not anywhere near Joey's cabin on the night she went missing,
20:51
Speaker 1: and the police ultimately bought it and said, okay, you know,
20:54
Speaker 1: they confiscated his marijuana, and then they walked back up
20:56
Speaker 1: the hill, leaving him down there, and they took some
20:59
Speaker 1: pictures of his car and the tires on his car,
21:01
Speaker 1: and then they left. A couple of days later, some
21:04
Speaker 1: FBI investigators that had been called in for this case,
21:07
Speaker 1: they analyzed those pictures those officers had taken of the
21:10
Speaker 1: tires of Carrie's car, and they compared them to pictures
21:13
Speaker 1: of the tire tracks at Joey's cabin and they determined.
21:17
Speaker 2: They were a perfect match.
21:18
Speaker 1: So later that day, which was July twenty fourth, police
21:21
Speaker 1: officers went back out and tracked Carrie down again.
21:25
Speaker 2: This time he was having lunch at one of his
21:26
Speaker 2: favorite spots.
21:27
Speaker 1: It was a nudest resort about three hours northwest of
21:31
Speaker 1: the Cedar Lodge. There he was arrested on the suspicion
21:34
Speaker 1: of murdering Joey Armstrong, and he was brought in for questioning.
21:37
Speaker 1: As soon as he was walked into the police station
21:40
Speaker 1: and was booked, Carrie dropped a bombshell. He confessed to
21:43
Speaker 1: not only murdering Joey Armstrong, but also he confessed to
21:47
Speaker 1: murdering Carol Sund along with her daughter Julie Sound and
21:51
Speaker 1: Silbina Peloso, the friend of Julie Sund. And he did
21:54
Speaker 1: all of this on his own. He had no other accomplices,
21:56
Speaker 1: which means the police never had the killer or killer
22:00
Speaker 1: behind bars. It would turn out Eugene Dykes, who was
22:02
Speaker 1: one of their primary suspects, was lying when he made
22:05
Speaker 1: those self incriminating remarks about he and his half brother Michael.
22:09
Speaker 1: And as for those synthetic fibers that were found on
22:11
Speaker 1: Eugene and Michael, those fibers belonged to a very commonly
22:15
Speaker 1: sold blanket, and so they did not definitively tie Michael.
22:18
Speaker 2: And Eugene to the crime.
22:19
Speaker 1: So for half a year in nineteen ninety nine, there
22:22
Speaker 1: really was a serial killer just roaming free in Yosemite
22:26
Speaker 1: National Park, just like many people who lived in that area,
22:29
Speaker 1: and like some people in the media had speculated. Carrie
22:32
Speaker 1: would go on to give a very detailed and graphic
22:36
Speaker 1: six hour long confession of how he went about killing
22:39
Speaker 1: all four women.
22:40
Speaker 2: This is his awful story.
22:41
Speaker 1: On February fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine, so the day that Carol,
22:45
Speaker 1: Julie and Selvena arrived at Cedar Lodge, Carrie was on
22:49
Speaker 1: his way to his girlfriend's house. His girlfriend, like Carrie,
22:52
Speaker 1: worked at the Cedar Lodge. She was a waitress at
22:54
Speaker 1: their nineteen fifty style diner. That night, as Carrie walked
22:57
Speaker 1: up her front walkway towards her front door, he made
23:00
Speaker 1: up his mind that he was going to act on
23:02
Speaker 1: a fantasy he had had since he was seven years old,
23:05
Speaker 1: and that fantasy was to kill a young woman. And
23:08
Speaker 1: so his plan that night was he would go inside
23:10
Speaker 1: and he would not only kill his girlfriend, but he
23:12
Speaker 1: would also kill her two daughters, who were ten and
23:15
Speaker 1: eleven years old.
23:16
Speaker 2: At the time. But when he went inside the.
23:17
Speaker 1: House and was about to carry out this plan, he
23:20
Speaker 1: noticed how one of their windows there was a man
23:23
Speaker 1: in their backyard, and he asked his girlfriend, who's that
23:25
Speaker 1: guy out there? And she would say, oh, you know,
23:27
Speaker 1: I hired someone to take care of our property. So
23:29
Speaker 1: he's going to be cut in the grass and you know,
23:31
Speaker 1: doing some things with our garden. He's going to be
23:33
Speaker 1: here for a little bit, but he'll stay outside. And
23:35
Speaker 1: so this totally screwed up Carrie's plan because he was
23:37
Speaker 1: not expecting there to be anybody there that night. And
23:40
Speaker 1: so for several hours, Carrie anxiously sat there, constantly looking
23:44
Speaker 1: out the window, waiting for this guy to leave so
23:46
Speaker 1: he could kill these three people. But the worker was
23:49
Speaker 1: just taken a lot of time and it didn't seem
23:51
Speaker 1: like he was even close to being done, and so
23:53
Speaker 1: finally Carrie left without any explanation. Angry and frustrated. He
23:57
Speaker 1: began driving back to Cedar Lodge, where he had an
24:00
Speaker 1: apartment on the second floor, and when he pulled into
24:03
Speaker 1: the parking lot, he noticed there was a car he
24:05
Speaker 1: had not seen earlier in the day. It was a
24:07
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine red Pontiac Grand Prix, and suddenly Carrie
24:11
Speaker 1: had this urge to find out who owned that car,
24:14
Speaker 1: and maybe, if he was lucky, it was a woman
24:17
Speaker 1: who owned that car and she was potentially alone, and
24:20
Speaker 1: if that was the case, he could fulfill his fantasy
24:23
Speaker 1: on this woman and not worry about the fact that
24:26
Speaker 1: he couldn't kill his girlfriend and her two kids, And
24:28
Speaker 1: so carry parked his car a little bit aways from
24:31
Speaker 1: this red car, and he walked over to the room
24:33
Speaker 1: that was right in front of this red car, and
24:36
Speaker 1: it was room five zero nine, And he peeked behind
24:38
Speaker 1: one of the curtains into the room which was all
24:40
Speaker 1: lit up, and he couldn't believe his luck. There were
24:43
Speaker 1: three women inside of this room. It was Carol, Julie,
24:46
Speaker 1: and Sylvina. And so Carrie stayed back and continued looking
24:49
Speaker 1: through the window just to make sure there wasn't a
24:51
Speaker 1: man inside of this room. And after a while of
24:54
Speaker 1: watching them go in and out of the bathroom and
24:56
Speaker 1: nobody coming into the room.
24:58
Speaker 2: But these three.
24:58
Speaker 1: Women and no men come coming into the room from
25:00
Speaker 1: the outside, he was certain they were alone. And so
25:03
Speaker 1: when Carrie finally turned around and left to go back
25:06
Speaker 1: to his room, he made the decision that he was
25:08
Speaker 1: going to come back the next day and kill them.
25:10
Speaker 1: The next day, which was February fifteenth, Carrie secretly followed
25:14
Speaker 1: the three women when they hopped in the rental and
25:16
Speaker 1: drove to Yosemite. He followed them to the parking lot,
25:19
Speaker 1: and then he waited in the parking lot until the
25:21
Speaker 1: women had finished going through the park and having this
25:23
Speaker 1: wonderful time. He trailed them from the parking lot back
25:26
Speaker 1: to the Cedar Lodge, and then he secretly followed them
25:29
Speaker 1: when they went to that diner and they had hamburgers
25:31
Speaker 1: for dinner, and he continued to follow them from a
25:33
Speaker 1: distance and watched them rent movies from the front desk,
25:36
Speaker 1: and he followed them all the way back to their room,
25:39
Speaker 1: and once he knew they were inside their room, and
25:41
Speaker 1: he watched them long enough to confirm they were not
25:43
Speaker 1: going to leave again.
25:44
Speaker 2: He went back to his room and he got his toolbox.
25:47
Speaker 1: In his toolbox was rope, duct taped, a knife, and
25:49
Speaker 1: a gun. And then around eleven pm, he left his
25:52
Speaker 1: apartment and went downstairs and walked all the way back
25:55
Speaker 1: over to that corner room, room five zero nine, where
25:57
Speaker 1: the women were, and he looked in the window and
25:59
Speaker 1: it was totally dark inside, so he assumed they must
26:02
Speaker 1: be sleeping, and he knocked on the door.
26:04
Speaker 2: A few minutes later, Carol came to the door and.
26:06
Speaker 1: Very cautiously opened it up just a crack, leaving that
26:09
Speaker 1: chained link lock still attached. And so she looked through
26:13
Speaker 1: at Carrie and said, Hi, can I help you. And Carrie,
26:15
Speaker 1: who held up his handyman toolbox and pointed to his
26:18
Speaker 1: name tag that said he was the Cedar Lodge Handyman.
26:21
Speaker 1: He said, hi, ma'am, sorry to disturb you so late,
26:23
Speaker 1: but there is a leak in the room right above yours,
26:25
Speaker 1: and I need to make sure the leak is not
26:27
Speaker 1: coming down into your room. So can I come in
26:30
Speaker 1: and just have a quick look and then I'll be
26:31
Speaker 1: out of here. And Carol apparently was just not buying it,
26:34
Speaker 1: and she said, look, I haven't seen any leaks in
26:36
Speaker 1: this room. I don't think there is one, but even
26:38
Speaker 1: if there is, can it please wait until tomorrow because
26:41
Speaker 1: we're all trying to sleep.
26:42
Speaker 2: But Carrie was very persistent.
26:43
Speaker 1: And Carrie was known to be very charming and very disarming,
26:46
Speaker 1: and eventually he talked his way into the room, and
26:49
Speaker 1: so he walks inside, He walks past the bed where
26:51
Speaker 1: the other.
26:52
Speaker 2: Two teen girls are still sleeping.
26:53
Speaker 1: He goes into the bathroom and for a few minutes
26:56
Speaker 1: he kind of pretends to fiddle around inside of the
26:57
Speaker 1: bathroom while Carol is standing right outside looking in at him.
27:01
Speaker 1: And then at some point Carrie reached into his toolbox,
27:03
Speaker 1: pulled out the gun and he aimed it at Carol,
27:05
Speaker 1: and he said, stay come, I'm not going to hurt you.
27:08
Speaker 1: This is just a robbery. Carol most likely believed their
27:11
Speaker 1: best chance at getting out of this situation was just
27:14
Speaker 1: to comply and do what he says.
27:16
Speaker 2: He'll rob us and then he'll leave and we'll be okay.
27:18
Speaker 1: And so Carol very dutifully went back into the room,
27:21
Speaker 1: and she quietly woke up her daughter and her daughter's friend,
27:24
Speaker 1: and before long Carrie had tied up all three of them.
27:26
Speaker 1: He put the two teenagers in the bathroom and shut
27:29
Speaker 1: the door, and then he put Carol on the bed,
27:31
Speaker 1: and then he proceeded to assault Carol before strangling her
27:34
Speaker 1: to death with more rope.
27:36
Speaker 2: And then after she was dead.
27:37
Speaker 1: He carried her body outside at the motel room and
27:40
Speaker 1: put her in the trunk of her own rental car.
27:42
Speaker 1: And then after he shut the trunk, he went back
27:44
Speaker 1: inside the motel room. He went to the bathroom, he
27:46
Speaker 1: opened it up, he grabbed Sylvina, who was crying, and
27:49
Speaker 1: pulled her out, and he left Julie alone cowering inside
27:53
Speaker 1: the bathroom by herself. He shut the door behind her,
27:55
Speaker 1: and then he brought Sylvina over to the bed where
27:57
Speaker 1: he assaulted her before strangling her as we well, to
28:00
Speaker 1: death with some additional rope. And then after Silvina was dead,
28:03
Speaker 1: he carried her body outside of the motel and put
28:06
Speaker 1: her in the trunk of the rental car along with
28:08
Speaker 1: Carol's body.
28:09
Speaker 2: And then after that he went.
28:10
Speaker 1: Back inside the motel room, and then once again he
28:12
Speaker 1: opened up the bathroom door. He grabbed Julie, pulled her out,
28:15
Speaker 1: and proceeded to assault her as well, But then afterwards
28:19
Speaker 1: he did not strangle her to death. Instead, he walked
28:22
Speaker 1: her back into the bathroom and shut and locked the door.
28:24
Speaker 1: And while she was in there wondering what's going to
28:26
Speaker 1: happen to her, what happened to her mom, what happened
28:28
Speaker 1: to her friend, he proceeded to clean up the room
28:31
Speaker 1: and tidy it up, and he moved all of their
28:33
Speaker 1: luggage out of their room and put it into the
28:35
Speaker 1: rental car. And then after he was satisfied, he went
28:38
Speaker 1: back inside the motel room. He opened up the bathroom door,
28:41
Speaker 1: he pulled Julie out and had her stand right outside
28:43
Speaker 1: the bathroom, and then Carrie proceeded to clean up the bathroom,
28:46
Speaker 1: but left a couple of wet towels on the ground
28:48
Speaker 1: to give the impression that the women had left in
28:51
Speaker 1: a bit.
28:51
Speaker 2: Of a hurry.
28:52
Speaker 1: And so after that, he grabbed Julie and he walked
28:54
Speaker 1: her out to the car and he sat her down
28:56
Speaker 1: in the front seat. She only had a blanket on
28:59
Speaker 1: at this point, everything else have been taken off of her.
29:01
Speaker 1: And then Carrie hopped in the front seat and he
29:03
Speaker 1: began driving off. Julie must have been beyond terrified. She
29:07
Speaker 1: has no idea where her mom is, she has no
29:09
Speaker 1: idea where her friend is. She has no idea they're
29:12
Speaker 1: actually dead locked in the trunk right behind her, and
29:15
Speaker 1: the man that had just assaulted her for hours is
29:17
Speaker 1: now driving her into the darkness. She has no idea
29:20
Speaker 1: where she's going, and all she's got is this blanket
29:22
Speaker 1: around her.
29:23
Speaker 2: It's just beyond brutal. What's happening to this poor girl.
29:26
Speaker 1: And so for two hours Carrie drove them west along
29:29
Speaker 1: the highway in the middle of the night, and the
29:31
Speaker 1: whole time he's trying to make small talk with this
29:33
Speaker 1: poor girl, trying to tell her that she's going to
29:35
Speaker 1: be okay, and that her mom and her friend they're
29:37
Speaker 1: going to be okay, And then finally he pulls off
29:40
Speaker 1: the highway down some switchbacks into this big parking lot
29:44
Speaker 1: of the Don Pedro Lake. And then once he parks
29:46
Speaker 1: the car, there's no other cars around. It's still dark out,
29:49
Speaker 1: the sun hasn't come up. He gets out and he
29:51
Speaker 1: tells Julie to get out of the car, but Julie
29:53
Speaker 1: is so scared she can't move, so she can't even
29:56
Speaker 1: get out of the car, and so Carrie gets out.
29:58
Speaker 1: He walks around to her side, open the door, and
30:00
Speaker 1: he scoops her up like you might hold a baby,
30:03
Speaker 1: and he walked with her up the trail all the
30:05
Speaker 1: way to this overlook that was well away from any
30:07
Speaker 1: prying eyes in the parking lot.
30:09
Speaker 2: And once he was out of sight, he took her.
30:11
Speaker 1: Blanket off and he laid it down, and then he
30:13
Speaker 1: proceeded to assault her again. And then as the sun
30:16
Speaker 1: began to come up over the lake, Carrie realized that
30:20
Speaker 1: he had to end his fantasy and begin to cover
30:23
Speaker 1: his tracks, and so Carrie stops what he's doing. He
30:25
Speaker 1: stands up, he reaches down and pulls Julie up to
30:27
Speaker 1: her feet, and so she's standing with her back to
30:30
Speaker 1: the lake and as he's looking at her, he says,
30:32
Speaker 1: I love you, and then he pulls out his knife
30:34
Speaker 1: and begins hacking her throat, and then he pushes her
30:37
Speaker 1: down the hillside where she tumbles and finally comes to
30:39
Speaker 1: a stop underneath some bushes where she does Carrie grabbed
30:42
Speaker 1: the blanket on the ground and he walked back to
30:44
Speaker 1: the rental car in the lot.
30:46
Speaker 2: There was nobody out there, so he hopped inside.
30:48
Speaker 1: He drove out of the lot and drove one hour
30:51
Speaker 1: north until he was well into this forest, and he
30:53
Speaker 1: pulled down a logging road where he abandoned this car.
30:56
Speaker 1: After he ditched it, he walked back up to the
30:58
Speaker 1: highway and caught a cab back to Cedar Lodge. He
31:01
Speaker 1: would come back to the car and torch it two
31:03
Speaker 1: days later. He would also make a special trip to Modesto, California,
31:07
Speaker 1: where he would drop Carol's wallet in the middle of
31:09
Speaker 1: the road near high school in order.
31:11
Speaker 2: To confuse investigators.
31:13
Speaker 1: A month later, when Carol and Sylvina's body were found
31:16
Speaker 1: in the back of the burned out car, Carrie would
31:18
Speaker 1: send that handwritten note to police that had the map
31:22
Speaker 1: of where Julie's body was and that horrible message of
31:25
Speaker 1: we had fun with this one, referencing Julie. He sent
31:29
Speaker 1: that to police in order to further confuse them. He
31:32
Speaker 1: wanted them to believe that there really was more than
31:34
Speaker 1: one person perpetrating these murders.
31:36
Speaker 2: Hence the we had fun with this one.
31:39
Speaker 1: Months would go by and the police, despite questioning Carrie
31:43
Speaker 1: along with the other Cedar Lodge staff members, never considered
31:46
Speaker 1: him a suspect. And that was because one, they really
31:49
Speaker 1: thought he was just a nice, normal guy and couldn't
31:52
Speaker 1: be capable of committing violence against these three women. And two,
31:56
Speaker 1: probably most importantly, the police discovered when, when Carrie was
32:00
Speaker 1: a child, his younger brother was kidnapped by a pedophile
32:04
Speaker 1: and held for seven years, and although his brother was
32:08
Speaker 1: ultimately returned to the family alive, that experience was incredibly
32:12
Speaker 1: traumatic and devastating to Carrie, and so the police figured
32:15
Speaker 1: there's no way this guy would ever abduct or harm
32:19
Speaker 1: other people, because he knows how traumatic and awful that
32:22
Speaker 1: is for the victim and the victim's family. If anything,
32:25
Speaker 1: Carrie seemed like the type of guy who would go
32:28
Speaker 1: out of his way to protect and save these three
32:31
Speaker 1: women from being abducted or from being harmed.
32:33
Speaker 2: In July of that year, so four months after the.
32:36
Speaker 1: Three women's bodies were discovered, Carrie, who believed he had
32:39
Speaker 1: completely gotten away with murder, and to that point he
32:42
Speaker 1: really had. He was just driving around Yosemite, kind of
32:45
Speaker 1: reveling in the fact that he had gotten to live
32:47
Speaker 1: out this fantasy and not get punished for it, when
32:50
Speaker 1: he noticed there was this woman way off in the distance,
32:52
Speaker 1: walking in and out of this cabin that was fairly isolated,
32:55
Speaker 1: and so he drove his nineteen seventy nine International Scout
32:59
Speaker 1: Blue suv down this forested road and he reaches this
33:02
Speaker 1: meadow and he looks across this meadow, and now that
33:04
Speaker 1: this woman is even closer, he can tell she's clearly
33:07
Speaker 1: loading things into her truck, and she's going back and forth,
33:10
Speaker 1: back and forth, and he's watching, wondering if there's anybody
33:13
Speaker 1: else helping her, because this.
33:14
Speaker 2: Cabin is very secluded, and he's.
33:16
Speaker 1: Thinking, if she's alone, I might be able to kill
33:18
Speaker 1: her too. And so after a while, when he only
33:20
Speaker 1: sees her loading things into her white pickup truck, he
33:24
Speaker 1: decides he's going to go kill her, and so he
33:26
Speaker 1: drives across the meadow and he pulls up right next
33:28
Speaker 1: to her truck, and he gets out and he introduces himself,
33:31
Speaker 1: and the woman is so completely caught off guard by
33:33
Speaker 1: this random, strange man showing up in the middle of
33:36
Speaker 1: the night suddenly acting so friendly that kind of reflexively,
33:39
Speaker 1: in an effort not to be rude, she says, Hi,
33:41
Speaker 1: you know, I'm Joey Armstrong.
33:43
Speaker 2: Nice to meet you.
33:43
Speaker 1: What are you doing down here? And Carrie would proceed
33:45
Speaker 1: to spark up some small talk. He asked her if
33:48
Speaker 1: she believed in Bigfoot, and they kind of got on
33:50
Speaker 1: this tangent about Bigfoot, and then at some point Carrie
33:52
Speaker 1: drew a pistol and he aimed it at her and said,
33:54
Speaker 1: go inside your cabin. And so Joey put her hands
33:56
Speaker 1: up and she went inside the cabin like she was told,
33:58
Speaker 1: and Carrie followed her and said and then he bound
34:01
Speaker 1: her wrists, and he bound her mouth with duct tape,
34:04
Speaker 1: and then he ordered her to get back inside of
34:06
Speaker 1: his suv. And then once she was sitting inside the
34:09
Speaker 1: front passenger seat, Cary got in the driver's seat and
34:11
Speaker 1: he began leaving the cabin, headed back out away towards
34:14
Speaker 1: that road he came in on, and as he's bombing
34:17
Speaker 1: across the meadow. Joey leaps head first out of the
34:20
Speaker 1: window of this moving car and smashes onto the ground,
34:24
Speaker 1: and she immediately jumps up and just starts running back
34:26
Speaker 1: towards the cabin. Carrie jams on the brakes, he hops out,
34:29
Speaker 1: and he starts chasing after Joey, but Joey manages to
34:32
Speaker 1: get fairly close to that tree line right behind the
34:35
Speaker 1: cabin before Carrie ultimately grabs her and tackles her to
34:38
Speaker 1: the ground. And then Joey is viciously trying to fight
34:40
Speaker 1: Carry off of her, and Carrie kind of in a panic,
34:43
Speaker 1: draws his knife and he tries to slash at Joey,
34:46
Speaker 1: but Joey tucks her chin, protecting her neck from being stabbed,
34:50
Speaker 1: and so frustrated, Carry just stands up and he grabs
34:52
Speaker 1: Joey by the hair and he begins hauling her towards
34:55
Speaker 1: the forest behind her cabin, and the whole time, Joey's
34:58
Speaker 1: doing everything in her power to try to escape.
35:00
Speaker 2: But she just can't. And finally they get inside the
35:02
Speaker 2: woods and Carrie drags her into the ditch, and once
35:05
Speaker 2: she's down at the bottom, he puts his foot on
35:07
Speaker 2: the top of her head and forces it back forcibly
35:10
Speaker 2: exposing her throat, and then at that point he pulls
35:13
Speaker 2: out his knife and he begins to cut.
35:15
Speaker 1: Afterwards, Carrie considered keeping Joey's head, but ultimately he would
35:18
Speaker 1: try to hide it in some bushes nearby. After Carrie
35:21
Speaker 1: attempted to cover up some of the blood in the
35:23
Speaker 1: area with some branches and leaves, he left the forest
35:26
Speaker 1: and went back to his suv. He didn't even attempt
35:29
Speaker 1: to tidy up the scene. He left her truck as his,
35:31
Speaker 1: he left her cabin as his. He just hopped in
35:33
Speaker 1: his suv and drove back to Cedar Lodge. Carrie would
35:36
Speaker 1: tell police that as soon as he killed Joey Armstrong,
35:38
Speaker 1: all he wanted to do was go kill his girlfriend
35:42
Speaker 1: and her two young daughters, the ten and eleven year old,
35:44
Speaker 1: but police caught him before he could carry out the attack.
35:47
Speaker 1: Carrie Stainer, who never showed any remorse for his victims,
35:50
Speaker 1: was ultimately sentenced to death and is currently awaiting execution
35:54
Speaker 1: in San Quentin Prison in northern California.
35:56
Speaker 2: One of the more.
35:57
Speaker 1: Distressing aspects of this case was Carol's camera that was
36:01
Speaker 1: found intact near the burned out car in the woods.
36:04
Speaker 1: The police would develop the pictures on this camera in
36:07
Speaker 1: hopes there would be some clue as to who murdered them,
36:11
Speaker 1: but it would turn out there wasn't any usable evidence
36:13
Speaker 1: on the camera. It was just pictures of Carol, her daughter,
36:16
Speaker 1: and Sylvina having this wonderful time in Yosemite, and that
36:20
Speaker 1: was it. But after Carrie confessed to what he did
36:23
Speaker 1: to these poor women, those pictures take on a whole new,
36:27
Speaker 1: much darker meaning. In the final eight images of the
36:30
Speaker 1: camera roll, we know Carrie Stainer was either literally watching
36:34
Speaker 1: these women secretly at the time the picture was taken,
36:38
Speaker 1: or he was patiently waiting nearby for them to return.
36:41
Speaker 1: The final image that was taken on this camera was
36:44
Speaker 1: taken by Julie of her mother sitting on the bed
36:46
Speaker 1: and her friend Silvina sitting on the other bed as
36:49
Speaker 1: they're getting ready to turn out the lights and go
36:51
Speaker 1: to sleep. That picture was taken just moments before Carrie.
36:54
Speaker 2: Knocked on their door. So that's going to do it. Guys.
37:15
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37:27
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37:30
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38:24
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