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I Know My First Name Is Steven · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Kenneth Parnell kidnapped Stephen Stayiner in nineteen seventy two and
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  Timmy White in nineteen eighty. After serving only five years
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  in prison for these offenses, he attempted to purchase another
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  child for five hundred dollars. In two thousand three, law
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  enforcement in Berkeley, California apprehended Kenneth Parnell for attempting to
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  buy a four year old boy. This incident was not
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  his first encounter with the legal system. The seventy one
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  year old had a history of convictions for the abduction
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  of two other boys. A prosecutor remarked during Parnell's two
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  thousand four trial, he has been a danger to children
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  his entire life. By that time, Parnell had already faced
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  legal consequences for various offenses. He had been convicted of
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  child stealing in the nineteen fifties, as well as for
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  the kidnappings of Stephen Stainer in l nineteen seventy two
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  and Timmy White in nineteen eighty. Stephen Stainer's story was
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  recently featured in the Hulu documentary Captive Audience, A Real
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  American Horror Story twenty twenty two. But who was the
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  man who kidnapped him and abused him for seven years.
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  Kenneth Parnell's troubled early life. Kenneth Parnell born on September
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  twenty sixth, nineteen thirty one, faced significant challenges from an
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  early age. In his book I Know My First Name
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  Is Stephen nineteen ninety nine, author Mike eccles notes that
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  Parnell's father abandoned the family during his childhood. In response
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  to this trauma, Parnell reportedly extracted four of his own
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  teeth using pliers. During his teenage years, Parnell is said
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  to have experienced a coercive sexual encounter with a border
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  in his mother's home, who compelled him to engage in
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  oral sex. It was around nineteen forty five that he
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  began his criminal activities, which included vehicle theft and participating
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  in public sexual acts. Over the following years, Parnell frequently
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  cycled through youth detention centres and mental health facilities. In
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  nineteen fifty one, he was convicted of kidnapping and molesting
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  a nine year old boy, resulting in a prison sentence
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  of approximately three years. Despite his ongoing legal troubles, which
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  included charges for parole violations and armed robbery. Parnell married
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  his childhood sweetheart and fathered a daughter. However, the marriage
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  ultimately ended when his wife left him for another man.
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  In nineteen seventy two, Kenneth Parnell committed the crime of
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  kidnapping se Stephen Stayner. The kidnapping of Stephen Stayner on
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  December fourth, nineteen seventy two, seven year old Stephen Stayner
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  was on his way home from school when he encountered
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  a man named Irvin Edward Murphy. Murphy claimed to be
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  raising funds for his church and offered Stephen a ride home,
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  to which the boy consented. However, Kenneth Parnell was waiting
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  in the vehicle. Murphy later claimed he believed Parnell was
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  a minister. He was ultimately convicted of kidnapping and received
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  a five year prison sentence. Parnell transported Stephen to a
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  cabin in Catheys Valley, where it is reported that he
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  molested the boy that very night and began to sexually
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  assault him. Two weeks later, Parnell deceived the seven year
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  old by asserting that his family no longer wanted him
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  and that he Parnell was adopting him To further the deception,
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  Parnell allegedly pretended to receive a phone call from Stephen's
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  mother in the boy's presence, claiming that a judge had
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  granted him custody. He also changed Stephen's name to Denis
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  Parnell and enrolled him in school. Stephen Stainer seemed to
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  lead a typical life among his peers. However, he was
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  in reality a psychological prisoner. Kenneth Parnell oscillated between periods
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  of sexual abuse and moments of kindness, leading Stephen to
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  believe that any attempt to flee would result in physical
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  harm from Parnell. Additionally, he felt that his family, whose
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  memory was rapidly diminishing, no longer cared for him. This
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  situation took a turn in nineteen eighty when Kenneth Parnell
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  informed Stephen Stainer that he was becoming too old and
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  that he intended to abduct a younger child the kidnapping
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  and escape of Timmy White. Kenneth Parnell initiated his scheme
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  on February fourteenth, nineteen eighty, with the assistance of a
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  teenager named Randal Shorn Porman, whom Parnell compensated with fifty
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  dollars marijuana and alcohol, he abducted five year old Timmy White.
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  Parnell took Timmy to the one room cabin where he
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  resided with Stephen, and altered the younger boy's hair color
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  to brown. However, Stephen, then fourteen years old, resolved that
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  he could not passively allow Parnell to harm another child.
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  I couldn't bear to see Timmy suffer, Stephen later recounted
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  to Newsweek. As reported by the Seattle Times, it was
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  my doer die moment, and I would also be returning
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  home after doing something good. On March first, nineteen eighty,
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  Stephen stealthily left Parnell's cabin with Timmy and hitch hiked
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  forty miles to a police station. He had successfully he
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  rescued Timmy, but Stephen was not yet prepared to save himself.
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  He left Timmy at the police station and attempted to
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  walk away, only for the younger boy to chase after him.
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  Even while conversing with the police, Stephen fluctuated between defending
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  his captor and expressing a desire to never see Kenneth
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  Parnell again. In two thousand three, under California's three strikes law.
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  Kenneth Parnell was sentenced to twenty five years