Sun-Star Photo By Marci Stenberg
Kay and Delbert Stayner read a letter of support as they sit on their front porch in Winton.
Posted on 01/18/2003 4:23:18 AM PST by runningbear
Sun-Star Photo By Marci Stenberg
Kay and Delbert Stayner read a letter of support as they sit on their front porch in Winton.
Ripple effect of tragedy
Saturday, January 18, 2003
EDITOR'S NOTE:
At their Winton home last week, Delbert and Kay Stayner spoke candidly with a Sun-Star reporter about their family — especially their sons, Steven and Cary — and how tragedy has not shaken their belief that "everything happens for a purpose."
By Cynthia Neff
CNEFF@MERCEDSUN-STAR.COM
"Did you hear the news?"
These were the first words out of Delbert Stayner's mouth as he relaxed into a leather chair in the living room of his north Winton home.
Mike Echols, who wrote the novel-turned-blockbuster "I Know My First Name is Steven: The True Story of the Steven Stayner Abduction Case," died Jan. 10 in Monterey County Jail, where he was incarcerated for trespassing and related charges.
"That man was here as soon as Steven turned 18," said Delbert, 69.
Echols persuaded Steven to talk about his experiences, which soon became a book and later a made-for-TV movie in 1989, for which Echols made millions, while Steven only received about $2,000.
For Delbert Stayner and his wife Kay, 61, Echols' death is just part of the saga that has spanned four decades, that began, for them, a few weeks before Christmas in 1972.
By their own admission, the high-profile life the Stayners never sought has been mixed with anxiety and tragedy, balanced against a belief that everything happened for a definitive purpose and would ultimately work out in the end.
The following paragraphs chronicle the Stayners' story, as told to the Sun-Star during an exclusive interview.
Picture perfect
Delbert and Kay Stayner first met and married 42 years ago in Hyampon, a small town west of Redding. Delbert worked in the sawmills until a back injury brought him and his new bride to Merced on Nov. 11, 1961. Their first child, Cary, was born on Aug. 13, 1961. Delbert began to work as a maintenance mechanic for a local cannery, a job he had until his retirement in 1995.
Cary, his brother Steven and three girls were born over a seven-year period, and the family lived a normal life in Snelling and Merced. There was always some sibling rivalry, Kay said, but overall, the Stayner household was outgoing and happy.
The Stayners took their children on many trips: To New Mexico — Delbert's home state — in the wintertime, and on camping trips during the summer. The children were raised in the Mormon church. They didn't drink soda, and the girls weren't allowed to date until they turned 16. All in all, the children's early life was nothing out of the ordinary, Kay said.
Cary, Kay said, was as quiet and easygoing a child as he is today. He enjoyed television and artwork, and though he didn't need people around to entertain him, he had many friends. He was also an excellent student. While Kay remembered her other children often struggling with their schoolwork, Cary would finish his assignments without her help.
Steven, an exact opposite of Cary, had "oodles of friends," said Kay.
"He probably had never met a stranger before," she said. "Maybe that's how (the kidnapping) happened."
Loss of innocence
When Steven Stayner was abducted while walking home from Charles Wright Elementary School in Merced by Kenneth Parnell in 1972, it turned the stable, solid family inside out. Cary and his three sisters refused to talk about their missing brother. The family's equilibrium had been thrown off; they lived with a knot in their stomachs and a gap in their lives.
Delbert and Kay spent the first two years of Steven's disappearance following tips, looking at pictures of dead children to identify if one was Steven's body, even listening to leads from psychics who claimed to know their son's whereabouts.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercedsun-star.com ...
I want to say I feel sorry for the parents, but I know they have dealt with the good and evil, and somehow came out of it and realize that someone is giving them the strength and courage to keep moving on.
I don't feel sorry on Cary Stayner's outcome for what he did. A story book to remember how a serial molester changed the course of many lives to destruction.
|
|
|
 |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
|
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.