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Kenneth Parnell, kidnapper of Steven Stayner, dies at 76
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Kenneth Parnell, kidnapper of Steven Stayner, dies at 76
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Excerpt
(01-22) 15:10 PST VACAVILLE -- Convicted sex offender Kenneth Parnell, known for the 1972 kidnapping and seven-year-long confinement of Steven Stayner, died Monday in the state prison hospital at Vacaville.
Parnell, 76, died of natural causes, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. He had been on what the prison called hospice status.
A three-time inmate, Parnell had most recently been imprisoned since 2004 after being convicted of attempting to buy a 4-year-old child in Berkeley. He had been sentenced to 25 years to life under the "three strikes" law.
On Dec. 4, 1972, Parnell kidnapped 7-year-old Stayner in Merced. He kept him from running away by showering him with gifts and telling him his parents could no longer afford him.
The events that led to his arrest began when Parnell abducted another boy, 5-year-old Timmy White of Ukiah, in February 1980. Stayner, then 14, escaped with the boy two weeks later and hitchhiked 40 miles to the Ukiah police station, telling authorities that Parnell had molested him and that he didn't want Timmy to suffer the same abuse.
Parnell, a former motel clerk who served three years in prison for molesting an 8-year-old Bakersfield boy in 1952, denied he had abused Stayner.
Parnell was convicted of kidnapping, sent to state prison and was paroled in 1985. He was not charged with any sex crimes because under the law at that time, the additional charges would not have added any time to his sentence.
Stayner later died in a motorcycle accident. He was the younger brother of Cary Stayner, the motel handyman who was sentenced to death for killing three tourists and a Yosemite park naturalist in 1999.
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Comment:
Finally......How odd that I just made a post early this morning about meeting Steven Stayner. For years I have followed this. I couldn't help it. It was as if god was making me pay attention.
Meeting him the day he was returned sitting directly across from me at a donut shop on Main Street in Merced.
I was reading the News paper all about it. The Merced Sunstar had rushed out a paper for the morning edition. I had it held up as my ROP teacher (the class held outside of school) asked me what I was reading. I made the comment..."The only thing in the entire paper...all about Steven Stayner coming home". Then my teacher said. "Mark, put your paper down." There he was. Steven Stayner. He looked a little angry. I looked over to my teacher in disbelief and siting next to him was Carey Stayner.
Years later I went to work in Yosemite and worked for the Uniform Dept. for Personal. I discover the forms for the accomplice of Parnell. He was working in Yosemite at the time of the Kidnapping.
Of course then there my friends and my hang out. The Cedar Lodge bar. Cheaper drinks than any place in the park....that is where Carey killed his first victim.
So Kenneth Parnell is dead. Thank God....it took him fucking long enough. Good riddance.