All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S05E03_English

♪♪

Rowlands:
In one of the most beautiful,
safest places on Earth,

there was a sense
that something was amiss.

She was supposed
to meet her friends.

She was reported missing.

Investigators went to check
on Joie at her home,

and they could see
that something had happened,

and, immediately,
a search was on.

It was just one of those stories
where you think,

"God, life is, on some level,
so beautiful and,

on another,
just so horrible."

♪♪

♪♪

Hello, and welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

Yosemite National Park
is a national treasure

of stunning peaks
and picture-perfect valleys.

Each year, though, rangers
and medical personnel

jump to a variety
of expected 911 calls.

But the winter of 1999
brought something frightening

and shockingly out
of the ordinary.

Three vibrant women tourists
and their car

had suddenly disappeared
without a trace.

A massive search effort
combed the countryside,

an FBI task force
scrambled into action,

and the world anxiously watched
for a miraculous rescue.

This is part 1 of
"The Yosemite Murders,"

and this is how
it really happened.

♪♪

Rowlands: Carole Sund
and her daughter, Juli,

and Silvina Pelosso were
going to have this trip.

Hammer:
They were on a winter lark.

It was a winter holiday.

Hanley: In this absolutely
gorgeous landscape

of Yosemite National Park.

Carole Sund grew up in Eureka
in this sort of affluent home,

and she met Jens
when she was in high school.

They were high-school
sweethearts.

Juli was Carole and Jens'
first child.

Juli was a very smart girl.

She loved sports, and she
was busy all the time.

Hammer: And Juli's 16-year-old
friend, Silvina Pelosso,

a visitor from Argentina.

Silvina was the daughter
of an Argentine couple

sending their child
to California

to stay
with their close friends

in the Sund family.

Hanley:
Carole wanted to take Silvina

to one of the most
beautiful places in the world.

Jordan: This trio of tourists
had spent the entire day

going through Yosemite
and looking at El Capitan

and Half Dome,
all of these granite monoliths

that Yosemite is
really known for.

They had gone ice-skating
around Curry Village.

They took snapshots
everywhere they went.

At the end of the day,
they went back

to where they were staying,
at the Cedar Lodge.

Rinek: There's a wonderful
picture of Silvina

sitting on a barstool
in the restaurant,

smiling for the camera.

♪♪

From there, they simply
disappeared,

along with their
red Pontiac rental car.

These women seem to have
completely vanished

from the face of the Earth.

Gagliano: When Carole, Juli,
and Silvina failed to show up

for the next leg
of their sightseeing trip,

Carole's husband, Jens,

grew concerned
and called his in-laws.

We got a call from Jens.

And he said,
"Have you heard from Carole?

I can't find her."

That's when we all began
to worry.

King: In Modesto,
FBI Special Agent James Maddock.

James, they just what?

Disappeared?

Maddock: The last confirmed
sighting we have

is on Monday evening,

February 15th,
about 7:35 p.m.

♪♪

The missing women touched off
one of the biggest searches

in history
of the Sierra Nevada.

They combed all of Yosemite's
backcountry with dogs,

with helicopters.

They were actually flying a Navy
P-3 aircraft over the park,

looking for, you know, metal
that could have been the car.

And found nothing.

I packed
a four-wheel-drive vehicle,

and I went down there
looking for them.

Carole's a very
competent person.

She wouldn't take any chances.

This just came out of the blue.

It's devastating.

Rinek: Francis Carrington is
a very wealthy, influential,

powerful businessman
from Eureka, California.

They hold a news conference
offering $250,000

for the safe return
of all three girls.

Jens:
Please come forward.

We just want them back.

Rowlands: And they also offer
a $50,000 reward

for anybody who has information
about this missing car,

the red Pontiac,

which also seems
to have completely vanished.

We kept the press interested.

We kept the police interested.

And the public.

TV crews, reporters from all
over the country

descended on the Yosemite area.

This extraordinary
missing-persons case

has captured the attention
not only of the United States,

but spread around the world.

Jordan:
It was a media circus.

Hanley:
Silvina was from Argentina,

so there was a big international
interest, too, in the case.

I really feel, you know,
devastated.

I can't find an answer.

We still have great hopes
that they're alive.

Hanley:
The first theory was that
they crashed their rental car

somewhere along
a winding mountain road.

Rinek: God forbid they've gone
off a cliff.

I mean, the thing that was
eating me up

was the thought of them
being in need of help

and being alive somewhere,
and we don't know it.

I don't think I slept
those nights,

worrying about your loved ones

being in the icy water
or something.

Gagliano: As hopes for finding
the women alive began to fade,

the accident theory gave way
to the likelihood of foul play,

and an FBI task force
was created

to look into the disappearances.

The FBI assigned James Maddock
as the Special Agent in charge

to oversee
the entire investigation.

So he was the point.

He was making the decision,

he was holding
the press conference,

and he was really leading
this investigation,

from the FBI standpoint.

Rinek:
Since I was the case agent,

the way I always approached
these cases is,

you start where your victims
are last seen.

Man:
The Cedar Lodge in El Portal

is the center of
a renewed intensive search.

It's this rambling complex of
little cedar and pine bungalows.

Jackson:
During the warm-weather months,

Cedar Lodge is a popular and
thriving tourist destination.

But in the off-season,
Cedar Lodge is a frigid,

solitary, and, in many ways,
a scary place.

Very cold, very misty.

It's almost a ghost town.

There was kind of a vibe,
evil vibe,

up at the Cedar Lodge.

Gagliano: The FBI began
their criminal investigation

focusing on one suspicious male
employee of the Cedar Lodge.

He had an arrest record.

He had keys
to all the guest rooms.

And his name
was Billy Joe Strange.

Billy Joe is really
the number-one person

that the FBI is looking at.

And he failed his polygraph.

What's going on
in this national park?

♪♪

♪♪

Gagliano:
As the mysterious disappearance
of the three women sightseers

captured the attention
of the nation

and, actually, of the world,

the FBI investigation
began to ramp up

and target possible suspects.

We now have an indication

that there might have been
foul play involved.

Gagliano: You want to try to
interview anybody

that's going to have been
in contact with the victims

the last time
that they were actually seen.

The FBI began
the investigation there

with the employees
at the Cedar Lodge,

and one of the first
that came under their radar

was Billy Joe Strange.

The handyman
for the Cedar Lodge.

He had a criminal record,
and he was out on parole.

He had a key to every room,

access to the
entire Cedar Lodge.

Billy Joe Strange
was polygraphed,

and he failed his polygraph.

And at the moment of being told
that he failed his polygraph,

he had a violent reaction,

and there was fear that he would
attack the polygraph examiner.

This behavior was construed to
be behavior of a guilty person.

Then they took Billy Joe Strange
into custody

on a parole violation.

Then you add to this equation
Darrell Stephens,

who is also a roommate
to Billy Joe Strange,

and he is a sex offender.

Darrell Stephens was arrested

because he was in violation
of California penal code

for sex registration.

Hanley: Early on, it seemed
like investigators

were arresting
a lot of people.

They'd find a parole violation

or something
to get them off the streets.

Gagliano: That's what we do.

We figure out some reason
that we can lawfully detain you.

But Billy Joe Strange
and Darrell Stephens

were both eventually
eliminated as suspects.

Suddenly,
Yosemite National Park,

once known as a place
of peace and serenity,

all of a sudden became
more of an infamous hideaway

for drifters and outlaws looking
for shelter from the law.

Hanley: A lot of people
I interacted with

were actually registered
sex offenders

and other ex-cons
who were looking for a place

to go where nobody knew
who they were.

Some of the guys on the task
force would just kind of joke

that you couldn't throw a rock

without hitting
a registered sex offender.

Every time I left, I would check
the back of my S.U.V.

to make sure there was
nobody inside it.

Gagliano: FBI agents then became
interested

in talking to a second handyman

who had access to all the rooms
at the Cedar Lodge.

Jordan: Cary Stayner.

Cary's job was just doing
all of the maintenance

and caretaking,
odd jobs around the lodge.

Hammer: He got along well
with everybody,

was considered ordinary
and a likable guy.

Williams: Cary was very tan,
and he was good-looking,

very athletic,
outdoorsy-looking.

Hammer: And the police had,
of course,

interviewed Stayner
on repeated occasions.

Rowlands: But no red flags.

They always found him
completely normal, unflappable,

ruled him out
very quickly as a suspect,

because he just seemed
like a harmless, normal guy.

Jackson: Mary Ellen Geist,
a KGO Radio reporter

covering the Sund-Pelosso case,

met Cary Stayner
at the Cedar Lodge hot tub.

It was the kind
of chance meeting

that can happen
between a hotel guest

and a resident worker

who had permission
to use the facilities.

Geist: He sat on the edge
of the hot tub,

and he said right away, "Hi.

My name is Cary Stayner."

The name Stayner suddenly
jogged her memory

of a separate criminal tragedy
in his family's past.

And I just said,

"Are you related
in any way to Steven Stayner?"

And he said "Yes,
he was my brother."

Gagliano:
The infamous Steven Stayner
kidnapping, child-abuse,

and rescue story had consumed
the entire nation,

beginning back in 1972.

Rowlands: Steven was abducted by
a man named Kenneth Parnell.

Jackson:
Parnell sexually abused Steven.

Rowlands: Steven Stayner was
held captive for seven years.

And fast-forward --
Steven is in high school.

Hanley: Then Parnell wanted
another young boy

and managed to kidnap a
little kid named Timothy White.

Steven didn't want Timmy to go
through the same thing

that he had gone through and
decided he was gonna escape.

So one night when Parnell was
at work, he took off with Timmy.

Gagliano: The two boys then
stumbled into a police station,

where the 14-year-old
Stayner famously said,

"I know my first name
is Steven."

That began the unfolding
of an incredible story.

Woman:
This was the scene in 1980.

Seven years after Steven Stayner
was kidnapped

off a Merced street,

he was returned home
to his family.

When Steven came home,
no one could believe it.

I mean, it just seemed
too impossible to be true.

I got in front of a television,
and I watched it happening.

There were newspaper
and magazine articles.

Books written about it.

Man: The NBC miniseries
"I Know My First Name Is Steven"

told the story of Stayner's
adjustment to normal life.

I know my first name
is Steven.

I think
my last name is Stayner.

Bungart:
It was a huge story in Merced,

and they had live TV cameras.

I'll never forget seeing Cary
standing in the back

with a blank look on his face,

and it was really strange
and really kind of gripping.

Jackson: And now,
20 years later, in 1999,

Cary Stayner
is at the Cedar Lodge hot tub

talking to a reporter,
in measured terms,

about the impact
of his brother's ordeal.

Geist:
And he even talked a little bit

about what it had done
to the family dynamics.

And he seemed so evolved.

It's as if he spoke in a way
like someone

who's had a lot of therapy.

And he said, "It messed up
our whole family.

It messed up all of us."

And he seemed quite nice.

Jackson:
But when Mary Ellen changed
the subject of their friendly

talk to the ongoing
Sund-Pelosso case,

Cary Stayner's demeanor suddenly
turned dark and dangerous,

to the point that it made
her hair stand on end.

It was a physical change
in his face.

He turned to me like this,

and his eyes
just went black and flat.

That was like an animal
was gonna attack.

And I just said to Cary,
"I got to go."

And I just ran, and I ran up to
my room, and I closed the door,

and I just piled all this
furniture in front of the door.

I just felt like I saw
a moment of evil.

Gagliano: Mary Ellen's reaction
to the frightening encounter

with Stayner was so visceral,
so palpable,

and real, she called the police
and alerted the FBI

just to be certain that Cary
had been thoroughly checked out

as a suspect in the Sund-Pelosso
investigation.

Geist: Everybody assured me
that he'd been vetted,

he was a good guy.

He's actually helping with
the investigation.

Rowlands:
He's the one that actually shows

the FBI the different rooms
in the hotel.

He shows them the room where the
girls were staying, in room 509.

He just came across as calm,
collected,

and having nothing to do
with the disappearance

of Carole Sund
and Juli and Silvina.

Gagliano: And then,
in a stunning new development,

the FBI got the big break

that moved
the investigation miles away

from Yosemite
and onto a new set of suspects.

They were meth users.

Both of them were ex-cons.

Rinek:
They are great suspects.

♪♪

Gagliano:
FBI agents working the 1999
mysterious missing-persons case

of Carole Sund, Juli Sund,

and Silvina Pelosso
were following new evidence now,

which pointed to a gang
of career criminals

from Modesto, California.

Soon after the FBI began
their probe,

investigators got
the first break in the case.

On February 19th,
Carole's wallet insert

that contained her
identifying information

was located
at a busy intersection.

70-so miles away in Modesto.

Hudson: We know that they didn't
make it to the Modesto Airport,

they didn't turn in
their rental car,

and they didn't board
the flight.

We've put a dozen detectives out
in the neighborhood

surrounding the area
where the wallet was found,

going door-to-door.

Gagliano: The new theory was
that Carole and the kids

had departed Yosemite and driven
straight through to Modesto.

Once there, the women
were carjacked on the street,

abducted,
and taken by force.

Hanley: That's when the focus
shifted to a group of

methamphetamine-using ex-cons.

The FBI closed in
on the likely kidnappers.

Hammer: Michael Larwick and his
half brother, Rufus Dykes.

Rinek: They are great suspects.

We're not drawing
any conclusions

about how many people
may have been involved.

We have been operating
under the assumption

that this was
a very difficult crime

for one person to accomplish.

Jackson: Rufus Dykes was a
career criminal who had been in

and out of the California
prison system

since he was a teenager.

Larwick had been arrested
for shooting a police officer.

Rinek: They have histories
of false imprisonment,

of rape, suspected murder.

Hanley: It just seemed like that
was in their wheelhouse --

stealing a car and using credit
cards to get money for meth.

And that's not all.

Their recent movements
were tracked and determined

to be in close proximity

to where Carole's credit card
had been found.

Hanley:
The working theory seemed to be

that Rufus Dykes
was the mastermind.

His half brother, Mick Larwick,
was in on it.

Gagliano:
The FBI had Larwick and Dykes
in custody on unrelated charges

in order to interview them about
the three missing sightseers.

Eugene "Rufus" Dykes
is interviewed by an FBI agent.

He admitted involvement
in the missing

three women from Yosemite.

He had signed a confession.

But Dykes' confession story
had major holes throughout it.

His answers are not consistent.

Hanley: He would say something
that happened,

and the FBI would be like,
"Nope.

That's not the truth."

And he would change it
until it kind of fit

the evidence that they had.

He just went through
all this bullshit.

That bullshit he went through
was received as a confession.

You're always concerned about
going down a rabbit hole

or following a bad lead,
and it happens.

Dykes is either directly
involved in this case,

or he's stringing
investigators along

with a false confession
for inexplicable reasons.

Hanley: Why Jim Maddock was
so convinced it was Dykes?

♪♪

For the real answer,
you'd have to ask him.

♪♪

Jackson: In direct opposition
to his FBI boss,

Agent Jeff Rinek

firmly believed that Dykes
made a false confession,

and the two G-men clashed.

Personalities in law enforcement
get in the way of work,

just like they do
anywhere else.

Rossi:
We're bracing for a potentially
lengthy investigation,

but we are making progress,

and we're confident
about where we're going.

Gagliano:
You've got strong personalities,

and in high-stress
investigations,

they become combative.

I had been sent home because
they didn't want me there.

Gagliano: After the internal
conflict ended, months passed,

winter was turning to spring,

and the internal FBI conflict
was set aside the instant

another important tip
came into headquarters.

On March 19th, the call comes
in that the car's been located.

Carole:
We were in at a meeting with
the head of the Sacramento FBI,

and this guy who had answered
the phone came in and said,

"I think you should
take this call."

And that was when we found out
that they had found the car.

Van Susteren: The search for
a missing woman, her daughter,

and a visiting exchange student
who were sightseeing

in Yosemite National Park
has gone on for over a month.

Now their rented red
1999 Pontiac Grand Prix

has been found burned
and hidden in deep woods.

A tip yesterday
led a highway patrolman

to their rented car miles
from the motel

where they were staying.

Rowlands: A guy by the name of
Jim Powers is out hunting

or shooting his gun,

and he sees
the burned-out red Pontiac.

Powers:
I got out and took a look at it,

and the butterflies hit.

And I called CHP, and they said,
"Yeah, it's definitely the car."

Rowlands: That was the rental
car that Carole Sund rented

from the San Francisco Airport.

Finding the car was the biggest
break in the case.

The car itself was completely
destroyed by fire.

Everything on that car melted.

The fire was believed to have
reached a temperature

of 2,000 degrees.

It was devastating.

But maybe you're gonna
find out something.

Francis: The first question
Carole asked was,

"Did they look in the trunk?"

Carole: All of a sudden,
everything turned upside down.

When police arrived at the scene
and opened the trunk...

Rinek:
It wasn't, at first, obvious,

but when they looked closer,

you could see where there were
the remnants of two skeletons.

And then Maddock gets up
and announces...

We have recovered two bodies
from the trunk of the vehicle.

No identification has been made.

It took a few days to figure out

that it was Carole
and Silvina in the trunk.

♪♪

Francis: Of course...

...as a father,

I feel terrible.

I'm supposed to die...

♪♪

[ Sobs ]

[ Crying ] Excuse me.

When Francis Carrington found
out that Carole was dead,

I'll never forget it,
how he broke down on-camera.

You could really feel the pain

that this man
was now going through.

♪♪

Carole and Silvina
were identified

through dental records.

Their bodies were burned
beyond recognition.

It was very clear
that it was a murder.

It just was such a shame
to lose two people like this.

Jackson: But if only two bodies
had been recovered,

belonging to Carole and Silvina,

then 15-year-old Juli Sund
was still missing.

The search is on for Juli.

We worked on the basis
that she was still alive.

Where was Juli?

♪♪

Welcome back
to "How It Really Happened."

With the gruesome discovery
of two bodies,

the FBI investigation of the
three missing Yosemite tourists

was now officially
a homicide case.

Some of the agents working
the investigation

were certain
they had the men responsible

for the murders
locked away behind bars.

But had investigators
really cracked the case?

Could the FBI be on the wrong
track altogether?

But, first, there was a more
urgent question to answer --

Since agents had only recovered
the bodies of Carole Sund

and Silvina Pelosso,

then where in the world
was 15-year-old Juli Sund?

Williams: There was some hope
that Juli was alive.

Hanley: And being held
against her will somewhere.

Rinek:
It was up to us to locate her.

Today's search
was very extensive.

It covered approximately
a mile radius from the car.

A very exhaustive search.

However, no third victim has,
in fact, been found.

And then the letter arrives.

A letter is received at the
resident agency of the FBI

in the DoubleTree Hotel
in Modesto.

And it's basically a map.

With an arrow pointing
to a spot on the map.

Gagliano: The letter was clearly
from someone

with firsthand knowledge
of the case,

taunting investigators saying,
"We had fun with this one."

Criminals -- They believe

that they can pull off
the perfect crime.

They like the
cat-and-mouse game.

Immediately,
investigators go to this area.

They have cadaver dogs
with them.

And once there,
the worst outcome came true.

They did find her body
where the map said it would be.

Rogers:
The homicide victim that was
found in the Don Pedro area,

around Moccasin, at Vista Point,
has been positively identified

by dental records
as Juliana Sund.

You have a 15-year-old girl
laying on this hillside

with her throat slit
from one side to the other.

Maddock:
What this means is that we will
bring all available resources

to bear in order
to solve this horrible crime.

She was nearly decapitated.

I'm gonna miss her so much.

It was devastating.

But I can't imagine
just going on forever

not knowing what happened.

Jordan: Crimes such as this
really represent

everyone's worst
wilderness nightmare,

where some dark,

unknown predator
comes out of nature, strikes,

and then kind of disappears
back into the shadows.

Who did this?
A just pure evil person.

Hanley: This kind of mystery
just kind of struck

a chord of fear
through everyone.

That something like this
could be happening in an area

where I lived and
and where my children were --

That's pretty scary.

Everyone is now
looking over their shoulder.

There was just a great sense
of panic inside Yosemite.

I have
a 15-year-old daughter, too.

It could be me.

It was scary.

But the FBI assured the public
it had nothing to fear.

Why?

Because the agents said
they already had

the men responsible in custody.

Hanley: The FBI kept going back,
repeatedly, to interview Dykes,

convinced he did it
or he knew who did do it.

Rowlands: From the FBI's
standpoint, they have solved it.

It gave a real sense of relief
to this area

that had been petrified
since February.

Williams: There was a level of
relief as a community member.

There was a level of skepticism
as a journalist.

And the doubt was well-placed.

♪♪

Leslie:
She was my love child.

I really loved everything
about her.

She was a dancer
in high school --

tap, jazz, and ballet.

And then she was
a mountain climber.

Strong as an ox.

She was just
the coolest kid ever.

Rowlands: 26-year-old
Joie Armstrong was a naturalist.

Her job was to teach
young people

the beauties of Yosemite.

Leslie: She was touching kids
every year,

and they just thought she was
over-the-top wonderful.

She was doing what she loved,

and it just made her high.

A leaf was a living thing, the
flower, the animals, the trees.

I went down to visit her there,

and we're up on these granite
rocks overlooking the place.

We walked behind
the Yosemite Falls.

It was just awe-inspiring.

Dr. Kidd: I met Joie Armstrong

through her work
at the Yosemite Institute.

Joie Armstrong was unique

in that she just carried
a little more sunshine

than the average person.

Jordan:
Armstrong had a boyfriend,

and they lived together
in this little green cabin.

Dr. Kidd: In the middle of
this giant meadow.

It's perfection.

Jordan: They had to chop wood
to make their own fires

and even haul their water
up from Crane Creek.

He loved her to pieces.
She was crazy about him.

He was gonna propose to her.

♪♪

But at sunset on July 21, 1999,
Joie Armstrong was alone.

Jackson: Joie was supposed to
be away visiting friends,

but when she never showed up,
the friends called 911.

Uniformed officers rushed
to her cabin

and determined that they had
a crime scene on their hands.

Rangers had already cordoned
off the area

around Joie's little cabin
in the woods.

And when they went inside,
they realized...

Schwartz:
That something bad had happened.

There were signs of a struggle.

Rowlands: They find that the
cabin door is wide open.

Hanley: Her truck was still
parked outside.

There was some music on
in the house.

Jackson: And they couldn't
find Joie anywhere.

♪♪

[ Pager beeping ]

Hammer: Dr. Desmond Kidd,

the medical director
at Yosemite National Park,

received a page.

An old-fashioned page,
on a pager.

He just said, "This is a search

with law-enforcement
implications."

Jackson:
Dr. Kidd arrived at the cabin,

and suddenly realized
he had hung out

with the people
who lived there.

I've been to that house before.

I quickly had to go
to game-face mode,

because I'm searching
for someone that I know,

and, you know, I've been
to that house before.

Jordan:
Dr. Kidd and four other members

of the search party
start walking through the woods

along Crane Creek.

We were looking for evidence
of anything.

They come to a scene
of broken saplings

and footprints in the grass,

torn-up grass, torn-up branches,

what looks like an escape
through the woods.

Perhaps even a chase.

Maddock: Crime-scene searches
are now under way

and will continue
for most or all of the day.

Leslie:
I can remember crying.

I was a basket case.

It was rage and sorrow
and the unfairness of it all.

♪♪

Jackson: 26-year-old
Yosemite Park instructor

Joie Armstrong is missing.

Search-and-rescue teams
are out looking for her

when a volunteer searcher
yells out to the others.

"Hey, here's some car keys."

Just beyond the key ring...

I saw a body bobbing up
and down in the creek.

Rowlands: She has duct tape
on some of her body,

and there are obvious
signs of wounds.

Dr. Kidd:
We're no longer in a search.

Now we're on a crime scene.

I just remember looking down
and confirming

that what I was seeing was real
and that this wasn't something

I had created in my mind.

They found her body,
but her head was missing.

And it was Joie.

Maddock: The Park Service
did discover the body

at approximately 1:00 p.m.
yesterday afternoon.

Leslie:
I can remember crying.

I was a basket case.

It was rage and sorrow
and the unfairness of it all.

The FBI, with the assistance

of the National Park Service
and local authorities,

is investigating
the apparent murder

of a female employee
of the Yosemite Institute.

Crime-scene searches are now
under way

and will continue
for most or all of the day.

The victim was last seen
on Wednesday, July 21st,

and last spoken to on the early
evening of Wednesday, July 21st.

Jackson:
First, the Sund/Pelosso case,

and now Joie Armstrong.

Suddenly, the FBI had
two murder mysteries to solve.

And now Yosemite residents
wanted to know,

"How could the FBI possibly have
the right suspects behind bars

if the killer has struck again?"

Rowlands: July 22, 1999.

The body of Joie Armstrong

is found in
the Yosemite National Park,

and that changes
everything all over again.

Jordan: Armstrong's beheading
spread fear

throughout the entire
Yosemite community

that all four of these crimes
were connected.

But the FBI was adamant
that it was not related.

The question has been, "Is there
any relation between this crime

and the tragic homicides

which occurred involving the
sightseers earlier this year?"

And I can tell you,
at this time,

we have absolutely
no reason to believe,

no indication that
there is any linkage at all.

Jackson: But the way
the two women were killed

was eerily similar --

decapitation
or near decapitation.

And that's not all.

The two primary crime scenes --

the Cedar Lodge
and Joie's cabin --

were within walking distance
from each other.

If you look at a map,
you can hike down

to where that enclave
is from the Cedar Lodge.

Dr. Kidd: We had our own
law-enforcement force

in the park
and its national park rangers,

and they quickly put together
2 and 2 and thought,

"Oh, this is not just
some isolated event."

How could they not be connected?

Jackson:
If the FBI theory was wrong

and now there was a lone killer
for all four murders,

this was now
a serial-killer case.

And he's still on the loose.

There was just evidence
everywhere.

The killer left a lot of traces
behind.

♪♪

♪♪

Investigators
in the Yosemite murder case

were finally starting
to connect the dots.

Key evidence left behind at
the crime scene of Joie's murder

led to an
all-out manhunt for the culprit.

Maddock: The FBI have completed
a number of searches

of the crime-scene area,

and we've recovered
substantial evidence.

The killer left a lot of traces
behind.

There's a pair of broken
sunglasses on the ground.

Gagliano:
Investigators didn't know
who the sunglasses belonged to,

so the assumption
they went in with was,

they were left behind
by whoever committed the murder.

They find hair and fibers.

After a few minutes,
they come to footprints.

They also find what would be
a crucial piece of evidence --

tire tracks
outside of Joie's home.

Jordan: The murder of Joie
Armstrong was sloppy, at best.

There was just evidence
everywhere.

Officers were hot on the trail
of the Yosemite killer.

Hammer:
Within a few hours of the
discovery of Armstrong's body,

the police received a tip.

One of the park employees
remembered that there was

a blue-and-white
1979 International Scout

parked very close
to Joie's little green house

on the night
that she disappeared.

The International Scout
is a unique vehicle,

to say the least.

Gagliano: Investigators
desperately wanted to find out

who the owner of that
sports-utility vehicle was.

Not because they think
he's a suspect,

but because they think that,

"Oh, maybe
he has seen something."

Does he know anything?

Hanley: Then they ran a check of
all International Scouts

in a three-county area

The FBI puts out what's called
a BOLO, be on the lookout.

We found the vehicle
down by Cedar Lodge.

Hammer: A park ranger
and a Mariposa County detective

stepped out of their vehicle
and spotted a man by the river.

Schwartz: He was very casual,
very relaxed, very confident,

and we needed to just,
you know, talk to him.

The man calmly identified
himself as Cary Stayner.

Gagliano: Stayner's the same
handyman from the Cedar Lodge

who'd been interviewed
multiple times by officers

early on
during the investigation.

Schwartz: We're like,
"Okay, so, we're not --

We just need to, you know,
ask a few questions.

You know, we're investigating
an incident

that happened up in Foresta.

Have you been up there
in the past couple days?"

"No, no, no."
He denied ever being up there.

He said he knew nothing.

The officers did not have enough
on Stayner to make an arrest.

But the uniformed officers
were suspicious enough

to take photographs of all
four tires on Stayner's vehicle,

and before they left,
they also asked Stayner

for his consent
to check his knapsack.

Schwartz:
We wanted to search his backpack

to see what was in the backpack,

and he wouldn't let us
search the backpack.

Rowlands: And at this point,

Joie Armstrong's head
has not been found,

and a real fear
for these rangers is...

There could be a head
in that backpack.

With no consent from Stayner,
the knapsack could not be

legally opened
without a warrant,

but the officer was authorized
to confiscate the pack.

I told him that I was gonna take
the backpack.

Jackson:
Proper policy called for the FBI
to get a signed warrant

from a judge
before investigators could open

and learn the contents
of Stayner's knapsack.

Schwartz:
We weren't gonna lose the case

by doing something wrong,
law-enforcement-wise.

Hammer: FBI agents
compared the tire tracks

left outside Armstrong's cabin
on the night of her murder.

To photographs of the tire tread
on Cary Stayner's Scout.

Gagliano: Now the FBI urgently
wanted to bring him back in

for additional questioning,

but Stayner was nowhere
to be found.

That night, he went back
to the Cedar Lodge,

and he sold all his belongings.

And he didn't show up for work
the next day.

Rinek:
He's unaccounted for.

An APB is out.

Cary Stayner is the subject
of a manhunt.

Hammer: The disappearance
of Cary Stayner touched off

one of the most extensive
manhunts in the history

of Yosemite National Park and,

in fact,
the whole National Park System.

Destination?

♪♪

Would investigators finally
track Cary Stayner down?

Did he have innocent reasons

for driving his truck
near a crime scene,

or was he
the Yosemite serial killer?

The FBI wasn't sure.

What was certain --

Four unsuspecting women had been
attacked and viciously murdered,

and the families of the victims,
the nation,

and the world
cried out for justice.

The hunt for the killer
continues in part 2 of

"The Yosemite Murders."

Thanks for watching.

Good night.