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[0] Today's story is the remastered audio from This Nudest Terrified a Country, which is a very popular video on my YouTube channel.
[1] The ending to this story is quite graphic and highly distressing.
[2] It is based entirely on a very detailed confession given to police by the guilty party.
[3] As such, listener discretion is advised.
[4] But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, and you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
[5] So, if that's of interest to you, please give the five -star review button a gift certificate for their birthday.
[6] Tell them it's to Alfredo's Pizza Cafe, but in reality, it's to Pizza by Alfredo, a much lesser pizza establishment.
[7] Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
[8] I'm Dan Tiberski.
[9] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school.
[10] school in upstate New York.
[11] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.
[12] What's the answer?
[13] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?
[14] Hysterical.
[15] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.
[16] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.
[17] Okay, let's get into today's story.
[18] On February 12, 1999, 42 -year -old Carol Sund, along with her 15 -year -old Julie and Julie's longtime friend Sylvina Poloso, who was 16 years old, boarded a plane in Eureka, California.
[19] After a quick, one -hour -long flight, they landed in San Francisco and then got their bags from baggage claim and then walked over to the airport's car rental center.
[20] After Carol signed some rental agreement paperwork with the person at the front desk, they were given car keys, and then the three women walked out of the airport into the parking lot where they saw their car.
[21] It was a 1999 red Pontiac Grand Prix sedan.
[22] After the women had put their luggage in the trunk, they all climbed inside, and then Carol began driving east towards the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
[23] Julie was competing in a cheerleading competition the following day at that university, and Julie was considering going to the school after she graduated high school, and so this cheerleading competition was a great excuse for her and her mom to check out the campus, and since Sylvina was already visiting Julie at her home in Eureka, she just tagged along for the trip.
[24] After an hour and a half long drive, the trio arrived in Stockton, California, and they checked into a hotel, and then the next day, which was the 13th, Julie competed in this cheerleading competition, and then afterwards her, her mom and Sylvina spent the rest of the day checking out the campus and the surrounding town.
[25] Early the next morning, which was the 14th, the women checked out of their hotel and then drove three hours southeast to the sprawling motel complex called Cedar Lodge that was located just outside of Yosemite National Parks, Western Enter.
[26] Their plan was to spend a couple of days sightseeing inside of Yosemite before heading back to the San Francisco airport where they were going to meet Carol's husband and Julie's father, Jens, and then the four of them would continue their journey and fly to Arizona where they would explore the Grand Canyon before finally heading back home to Eureka, California.
[27] So midday on the 14th, these three women arrive at the Cedar Lodge, and the lot would have been nearly empty because it was the wintertime and not that many people were visiting the park at that time.
[28] So they pull into the lot, they parked their car, they go into the front desk where they checked in and they got their keys.
[29] And then they left the office and walked along the row of first floor rooms all the way to the very corner of the building to room 509, which was their room.
[30] Carol used her key.
[31] She opened the door.
[32] They went inside and dropped their luggage.
[33] And then they decided that they were just too tired to actually go in the park and go sightseeing that day.
[34] So instead they kind of had a low key afternoon and evening, mostly in their hotel room.
[35] The next morning, which was the 15th, the women got up early, they hopped in their red rental car, and they drove to the western entrance of Yosemite.
[36] They went inside, they parked their car, and they have this wonderful day looking at these astonishing cliff sides and snow -covered mountains and these huge sequoia trees and these beautiful meadows that stretched out in front of them.
[37] And then towards the end of the day, Julie and Sylvina actually went ice skating on a frozen pond.
[38] So it was just this totally magical day at the park.
[39] And then finally, as the sun was starting to go down, the trio finally left the park, got in their rental car, and drove back to the Cedar Lodge.
[40] There, they ate dinner at the Lodge's 1950 -style diner.
[41] They ate hamburgers, and then afterwards, they swung by the front desk and rented some VHS movie tapes that they brought back to their room.
[42] Once they were inside room 509, the women changed into their pajamas, and then sat on the bed and watched one of their movies, and then when it was over, they brushed their teeth, and then they got in bed, turned out the light, and tried to go to sleep.
[43] But a few minutes after their lights were out.
[44] They heard a knock on their door.
[45] The following day, which was the 16th, Jens, Carol's husband and Julie's father, was anxiously waiting at the San Francisco airport for his wife and his daughter and his daughter's friend.
[46] And he's looking at his watch and he knows they don't have that much time before their flight is going to take off.
[47] And he's just hoping they're going to come running around a corner and they're going to barely make this flight.
[48] But they don't.
[49] And finally, Jens, who does not have a cell phone and neither does Carol, he decides there must have been some sort of miscommunication and that Carol and the girls must have flown on ahead.
[50] And so he decides at the last minute to just board the flight himself and fly to Arizona and hopes his family will be there.
[51] But when he touches down in Arizona, his family is not there.
[52] And so he rushed to the hotel hoping that maybe they were there.
[53] They weren't.
[54] He spoke to the hotel's front desk and said, hey, you know, has my wife Carol contacted you?
[55] And they said, no, she hasn't contacted us and we have no record of her being here.
[56] And so Jen's obviously very upset.
[57] He's very worried.
[58] And he spends the rest of the day calling around to friends and family and acquaintances and anybody who might know where Carol and the girls are.
[59] But nobody has heard from them and nobody knows where they are.
[60] And so that night, as Jens is about to go to bed, he convinces himself that they are probably just fine.
[61] This is just some screw up.
[62] Carol is an unbelievably fierce woman.
[63] She's incredibly competent.
[64] She will take care of those girls and I'm sure I will see them tomorrow morning.
[65] But when he woke up the next morning and Carol had not made any contact with the hotel or reached out to him in any way and there was just no sign of her or the girls, Jens finally contacted police.
[66] That day, after the police spoke with Jens, the first call they made was to the Cedar Lodge, which is the last place they knew Carol, Julie, and Sylvina had been.
[67] The manager of the lodge would tell police that he had not seen Carol or the girls on the day they were supposed to check out, which was the 16th.
[68] But Carol had checked out in advance, so the manager would not have seen her anyways.
[69] She would not have had to go by the front desk on the way out.
[70] So that was not an anomaly.
[71] The manager also told police, that on the 16th, after the three women should have been out of their room, the cleaners went by room 509, and when they went inside, it was vacant, and nothing seemed to miss. It was relatively clean, minus some wet towels that have been left on the floor of the bathroom.
[72] The keys to the room were left on the desk, as they should be.
[73] It just looked like the women had left.
[74] And so the police reached out to the car rental company at the San Francisco airport to see if Carol had made it to the airport and dropped off her car.
[75] But when they spoke to the manager of this rental company, they would say, no, Carol has not dropped off her car and she hasn't called about extending her lease, which is now overdue.
[76] Based on the information the police gathered from the lodge and from the rental car company, they began operating on the theory that the three women left their lodge motel room on the 16th and then either got into a car accident somewhere and had just not been found yet, or they had driven somewhere, gotten out of their car and gotten lost, perhaps inside of Yosemite National Park or some other trail somewhere, or they had fallen victim to some crime.
[77] But at this point, the police were not taking seriously the idea that foul play was involved.
[78] A massive search was launched in and around the Cedar Lodge complex, as well as around the western entrance of Yosemite, but absolutely nothing was found.
[79] A number of workers from Cedar Lodge were interviewed by police and subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.
[80] Also, a number of friends and family of the three women were also interviewed by police and cleared as well.
[81] Then, a few days after this search has started, there was a break in the case.
[82] Carol's wallet, with her ID and credit cards inside of it, was found lying on the ground in Modesto, California, which was a suburb that was located about two hours west of Cedar Lodge.
[83] Some high school students saw it on the ground and gave it to a police officer.
[84] There was no reason for Carol and the girls to be in Modesto, California, and so if this signaled to police that a third party had to have been involved in their disappearance.
[85] And so if that was the case, then almost certainly these three women had fallen victim to some sort of crime.
[86] Over the next several weeks, police continued to search the roads and trails in and around Cedar Lodge and the western entrance to Yosemite, and they looked all over Modesto.
[87] But besides this wallet being found, there were no further developments with the case.
[88] Then on March 18th, which is about a month after the three women originally went missing, a hiker was way off in the middle of this forest, about two hours north of Cedar Lodge and about an hour and a half northeast of Modesto, California, when he turned on to this logging road that no person.
[89] really ever went down and as he's walking down this road he sees up ahead the skeleton of a car it looks like a car had been set on fire and so he calls it into police not really knowing what he's looking at the police come out and they're able to identify this car the shell of a car is the red rental car that carol and the girls have been using when they searched the car the inside the main cabin of the car there really was nothing left there looked to be some remnants of some suitcases and maybe some clothing but mostly it was just the frame of the car and some springs But when they opened the trunk of the car, they made a grisly discovery.
[90] Inside were two very badly burned bodies, with their hands still bound behind their backs.
[91] Using dental records, they were able to confirm the bodies belonged to Carol and Sylvina.
[92] But there was no sign of Carol's daughter, Julie, the 15 -year -old.
[93] She was not in the car, around the car, or in the surrounding areas.
[94] And so there was this glimmer of hope that maybe if law enforcement acts fast enough, they can find Julie and save her before it's too late.
[95] But all hope was lost when just a couple of days into this search around the car, when they still hadn't found anything, the police received an anonymous handwritten letter.
[96] And on this letter was this crude map that showed this very specific spot overlooking a lake.
[97] It was Don Pedro Lake, which was located about an hour to the south of where the car was.
[98] And then on this note as well was a phrase.
[99] It just said, we had fun with this one.
[100] Using this crude map, the police went to Don Pedro Lake.
[101] They went up to the overlook as marked on this map, and there they looked down and they saw the crumpled and badly decomposed remains of Julie.
[102] At this point, police already had several suspects they had picked up in Modesto, California, that they believed were connected in some way to what happened to these three women.
[103] Of these suspects, two were of particular interest to the police.
[104] They were half -brothers, Eugene Dykes, and Michael Lorwick.
[105] They had been arrested shortly after Carol's Wallet had been found for shooting at a Modesto police officer, and for several drug charges, and for violating their parole.
[106] Once these half -brothers were in custody, Eugene made several self -incriminating remarks, basically insinuating that he and Michael had been involved in what happened to these three women.
[107] And then after Carol, Sylvina, and Julie's bodies had been found, these synthetic fibers that were found all over Carol matched the synthetic fibers that were pulled off of Michael and Eugene on their clothing and from their vehicle when they were arrested.
[108] And so the police were very confident that they had their killers and they had them behind bars already, but they still needed to compile evidence before they could formally charge them and make their names public to the media.
[109] And so when the news broke about the women's bodies being found and the public began panicking about a killer or killers on the loose, the police came out and said, everybody calmed down, we have the people responsible, we just can't tell you who they are yet, you need to be patient, we're building the case, but everybody's safe, there's nothing to worry about.
[110] But four months went by, and the police still had not come out and publicly charged anyone, with these murders, but they continued to assure the public that they had their killers behind bars and so nobody has anything to worry about.
[111] On the afternoon of July 22nd, roughly four months after the discovery of the three bodies, Dr. Desmond Kidd, who was the medical director for Yosemite, had just finished a long 24 -hour shift in the clinic and he had just gotten back to his cabin, which was inside of Yosemite when his pager went off.
[112] And so he went to a phone, he dialed the number that was on his pager, and the park dispatcher picked up and said, hey, Dr. Kidd, can you be a part of a search for a missing person?
[113] And Dr. Kidd said, sure, you know, I'd love to help.
[114] And then there was a pause, and the park dispatcher said, hey, just so you know, there are law enforcement implications with this one.
[115] And then before he could clarify, he hung up the phone.
[116] So Dr. Kidd is really confused what he meant about these implications, because in the past three years he had worked at this park, he had unfortunately been involved in many searches for missing people in the park, but they were never tied to any sort of criminal activity.
[117] They were always because the person got lost or fell or something, which was fairly common inside of the park.
[118] And so as soon as this convoy of other Yosemite staff members that are part of the search rolled up in front of his cabin, Dr. Kidd ran outside, he hopped in one of the vehicles, and he asked the driver, you know, what's going on?
[119] What are these law enforcement implications with regards to this missing person?
[120] And the driver would explain to him that, you know, hey, four months earlier, we had those three Yosemite tourists go missing, Carol, Julie, and Sylvina, and they were found murdered outside of Yosemite.
[121] And while the police have said they have their killers behind bars, the police still have not come out and actually named who their killers are or charged anyone in their murders.
[122] And so that's made many of us think that maybe they don't have the killer or killers behind bars.
[123] Maybe there's a killer or killer still on the loose.
[124] And unfortunately, tonight, we have another person who's gone missing inside of the park.
[125] and she's gone missing under very mysterious circumstances, which has led many of us to think that it's possible, if there really is a killer out there, they've struck again tonight.
[126] Dr. Kidd was totally shocked at this news, but he was even more shocked when he discovered who it was that was missing.
[127] It was somebody he knew.
[128] Her name was Joey Armstrong, and she was a 26 -year -old naturalist employed by Yosemite.
[129] A naturalist is like an expert tour guide that knows everything about the park.
[130] Dr. Kidd and the rest of the convoy of Yosemite staff that were going to be a part of the search, sped around the corner and went down this unmarked road with huge trees on either side.
[131] And then eventually they came out of this heavily forested road and they entered into this unbelievably beautiful meadow.
[132] And on the very far end across this huge meadow is this one green cabin sitting at the base of this mountain with a forest on the other side of it.
[133] This totally secluded cabin in the middle of Yosemite was where Joey was living.
[134] As Dr. Kidd and the convoy went across this meadow and got closer to this cabin, Dr. Kidd could see Park Rangers walking around the perimeter of the cabin marking it off with yellow police tape.
[135] When Dr. Kidd and his vehicle came to a stop right outside of the marked off area, they got out and they could see parked right next to the cabin was this white pickup truck.
[136] It was Joey's pickup truck, and inside of it was a bunch of luggage, and it looked like there was luggage that it spilled out onto the ground, and some of the doors were still open.
[137] And so it gave Dr. Kidd and the rest of the searchers the impression that Joey must have either been loading things into her truck or unloading things out of her truck at the time she went missing.
[138] Dr. Kidd and the rest of the searchers kind of huddled up with the park rangers, and the rangers explained that Joey's friends that were living in San Francisco were expecting Joey to arrive at their house the day before, but when she didn't and they couldn't get in touch with her, they had called it in, and that's why they were there looking for her.
[139] And so after talking about these circumstances of the case, they all decided they would break into five different search groups and they would begin searching the immediate area.
[140] Dr. Kidd and four other searchers began walking behind the cabin towards the tree line and then once they got into that forest they started walking towards this creek and as they walked up along this creek they suddenly noticed a whole bunch of trampled ferns and saplings and it looked like someone had come running through there and perhaps the person who was running was Joey and so they begin following these tracks that go right alongside this creek and then at some point one of the searchers yells out hey what's that up there And about 10 feet ahead of them, where the ground kind of sloped down into a ditch out of view, right before the ditch, hanging on a little tree on the ground, was a set of car keys glinting in the sunlight.
[141] And so Dr. Kidd, who was at the front of his small search party, he began walking towards these keys, and as he got closer and closer, he began to be able to see down into this ditch right on the other side of these keys.
[142] And as soon as he could actually see what was at the bottom, he immediately began to gag and he turned around and quickly walked away.
[143] The other four searchers, they walked up and they had a look down, and they too had a similar reaction.
[144] And before long, the group was running back to the cabin to tell the park rangers what they had just discovered.
[145] When the rangers heard about what was in the forest, they immediately contacted the police, and the police sent a police officer to Joey Armstrong's mother's house, which was just outside of San Francisco.
[146] When the mother opened the door, the officer told her that they had just gotten a call from Yosemite and they need her to call them.
[147] And then he handed her a piece of paper with a phone number on it.
[148] Joey's mother was immediately concerned and confused and tried to get more information from this officer, but the officer just said, look, you're just going to have to call that phone number.
[149] I really don't know anything.
[150] And so eventually she thanked him, she shut the door and she went into the kitchen and she dials this number.
[151] After someone picked up, she introduced herself as Joey's mother.
[152] And at that point, the person who picked up quickly handed the phone off to someone who sounded much more senior.
[153] And this person asked Joey's mother, are you aware that your daughter is missing?
[154] And so Joey's mother says, no, I was not aware of that.
[155] And then this person very delicately says, Ma 'am, we believe we found your daughter's body near her cabin.
[156] Joey's mother's reaction was instant.
[157] She said, well, did you check her hair?
[158] She has red hair.
[159] Can you confirm it's really her because she's got bright red hair?
[160] Can you make sure it's really her?
[161] And the person on the other side of the line hesitated for a minute, and then just said, ma 'am, we're not sure if she has red hair or not.
[162] We'll get back to you.
[163] And so after this call finally ended, Joey's mother was confused.
[164] How could they not know what color her daughter's hair was?
[165] That seems like such an easy way to potentially identify whether or not this was really her daughter.
[166] Why would they make her wait for something like that?
[167] And so she was horribly distraught.
[168] She didn't know what else to do.
[169] She was told to just kind of wait for more news, but she couldn't do that.
[170] And so she began planning a trip out to Yosemite to actually get out there and see what was going on.
[171] But the earliest flight she could possibly get was not until very early the next morning.
[172] And so she has this very restless night's sleep where she's just praying that this person was not actually her daughter, and then the next morning she gets up, she rushes to the airport, and as she's waiting to board her plane, she grabs a newspaper from a nearby kiosk, and the headline reads, Naturalist Beheaded at Yosemite.
[173] And that's when she understood why that person could not tell her whether or not this was her daughter based on hair color.
[174] It's because this body did not have a head.
[175] But from the time she got that phone call to this headline running in the paper, these searchers had found the head.
[176] It was located 27 feet away.
[177] under some brush, and they were able to confirm that it was the body of Joey Armstrong.
[178] I'm Dan Tibersky.
[179] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.
[180] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.
[181] I'm like, stop around.
[182] She's like, I can't.
[183] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.
[184] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.
[185] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.
[186] Everybody thought I was holding something back.
[187] Well, you were holding something back.
[188] Intentionally.
[189] Yeah, well, yeah.
[190] No, it's hysteria.
[191] It's all in your head.
[192] It's not physical.
[193] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.
[194] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?
[195] Or is it something else entirely?
[196] Something's wrong here.
[197] Something's not right.
[198] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.
[199] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.
[200] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
[201] You can binge all episodes of hysterical.
[202] early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
[203] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.
[204] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.
[205] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.
[206] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.
[207] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.
[208] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new.
[209] terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms because we created them specifically for this first book.
[210] Each of these stories in the book are feature length, Mr. Ballen's stories that really needed to be told visually.
[211] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it and it's just absolutely stunning.
[212] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollandstudios .com.
[213] Again, that's book.
[214] joey's death was immediately treated like a homicide and right away the public began to openly suggest that maybe joey's murder is connected to the murders of carol julie and sylvina from four months earlier even though the police were still saying we have our killers behind bars for those murders joey's murder is completely unconnected luckily the public and the police did not have to argue for very long about who was right about this because there was a break in joe's case almost immediately.
[215] On the night that Joey went missing, another Yosemite staff member had happened to drive by her cabin and they noticed a distinctive SUV parked outside of her cabin that they didn't recognize.
[216] It was a blue 1979 international scout.
[217] And as it happened, there were only two of these particular types of vehicles registered in Yosemite Valley.
[218] And so within 24 hours, the police had tracked down one of these two vehicles.
[219] It was located about 12 miles away from the western entrance of Yosemite and was pulled off the side of this highway.
[220] The police pulled up alongside it and parked.
[221] They walked up.
[222] There was no one inside of this vehicle.
[223] But then down this embankment off the highway led down to this forest where there was a river kind of out of sight that people like to swim and fish in.
[224] And so these two officers decide to head down and see if maybe the driver is down there.
[225] So they make their way down.
[226] And sure enough, they come in contact with the driver.
[227] He was laying on this rock, completely nude, smoking marijuana.
[228] And so the two officers, they come up to him and announce themselves and this very well -built good -looking guy stands up and he calmly covers himself and he takes the marijuana out of his mouth and he says hey what can i do for you guys and so over the course of their conversation the police would learn this guy's name was carrie stainer he was 38 years old and he was the handyman at cedar lodge motel he would tell police that he was not anywhere near joey's cabin on the night she went missing and the police ultimately bought it and said okay nearly confiscated his marijuana and then they walked back up the hill leaving him down there and they took some pictures of his car and the tires on his car and then they left a couple of days later some FBI investigators that had been called in for this case they analyzed those pictures those officers had taken of the tires of Carrie's car and they compared them to pictures of the tire tracks at Joey's cabin and they determined they were a perfect match so later that day which was July 24th police officers went back out and tracked Carrie down again This time he was having lunch at one of his favorite spots.
[229] It was a nudist resort, about three hours northwest of the Cedar Lodge.
[230] There, he was arrested on the suspicion of murdering Joey Armstrong, and he was brought in for questioning.
[231] As soon as he was walked into the police station and was booked, Carrie dropped a bombshell.
[232] He confessed to not only murdering Joey Armstrong, but also he confessed to murdering Carol Sund, along with her daughter, Julie Sund, and Sylvina Pelosi, the friend of Julie Sund.
[233] And he did all of this on his own.
[234] He had no other accomplices, which means the police never had the killer or killers behind bars.
[235] It would turn out Eugene Dykes, who was one of their primary suspects, was lying when he made those self -incriminating remarks about he and his half -brother Michael.
[236] And as for those synthetic fibers that were found on Eugene and Michael, those fibers belonged to a very commonly sold blanket.
[237] And so they did not definitively tie Michael and Eugene to the crime.
[238] So for half a year in 1999, there really was.
[239] a serial killer just roaming free in Yosemite National Park, just like many people who lived in that area and like some people in the media had speculated.
[240] Carrie would go on to give a very detailed and graphic six -hour -long confession of how he went about killing all four women.
[241] This is his awful story.
[242] On February 14th, 1999, so the day that Carol, Julie, and Sylvina arrived at Cedar Lodge, Carrie was on his way to his girlfriend's house.
[243] His girlfriend, like Carrie, were at the Cedar Lodge.
[244] She was a waitress at their 1950 -style diner.
[245] That night, as Carrie walked up her front walkway towards her front door, he made up his mind that he was going to act on a fantasy he had had since he was seven years old.
[246] And that fantasy was to kill a young woman.
[247] And so his plan that night was he would go inside and he would not only kill his girlfriend, but he would also kill her two daughters who were 10 and 11 years old at the time.
[248] But when he went inside the house and was about to carry out this plan, he noticed out one of their windows, there was a man in their backyard.
[249] And he asked his girlfriend, who's that guy out there?
[250] And she would say, oh, you know, I hired someone to take care of our property.
[251] So he's going to be cutting the grass and, you know, doing some things with our garden.
[252] He's going to be here for a little bit, but he'll stay outside.
[253] And so this totally screwed up Carrie's plan because he was not expecting there to be anybody there that night.
[254] And so for several hours, Carrie anxiously sat there constantly looking out the window, waiting for this guy to leave so he could kill these three people.
[255] But the worker was just taken a lot of time and it didn't seem like he was even close to being done.
[256] And so finally, Carrie left without any explanation.
[257] Angry and frustrated, he began driving back to Cedar Lodge where he had an apartment on the second floor.
[258] And when he pulled into the parking lot, he noticed there was a car he had not seen earlier in the day.
[259] It was a 1999 Red Pontiac Grand Prix.
[260] And suddenly, Carrie had this urge to find out who owned that car.
[261] And maybe if he was lucky, it was a woman who owned that car and she was potentially alone.
[262] And if that was the case, he could fulfill his fantasy on this woman and not worry about the fact that he couldn't kill his girlfriend and her two kids.
[263] And so Carrie parked his car a little bit away from this red car and he walked over to the room that was right in front of this red car.
[264] And it was room 509, and he peeked behind one of the curtains into the room, which was all lit up.
[265] And he couldn't believe his luck.
[266] There were three women inside of this room.
[267] It was Carol, Julie, and Sylvina.
[268] And so Carrie stayed back and continued looking through the window just to make sure there wasn't a man inside of this room.
[269] And after a while of watching them go in and out of the bathroom and nobody coming into the room but these three women and no men coming into the room from the outside, he was certain they were alone.
[270] And so when Carrie finally turned around and left to go back to his room, he made the decision that he was going to come back the next day and kill them.
[271] The next day, which was February 15th, Carrie secretly followed the three women when they hopped in their rental and drove to Yose.
[272] He followed them to the parking lot, and then he waited in the parking lot until the women had finished going through the park and having this wonderful time.
[273] He trailed them from the parking lot back to the Cedar Lodge, and then he secretly followed them when they went to that diner, and they had hamburgers for dinner.
[274] And he continued to follow them from a distance and watched them rent movies from the front desk, and he followed them all the way back to their room.
[275] And once he knew they were inside their room and he watched them long enough to confirm they were not going to leave again, he went back to his room and he got his toolbox.
[276] In his toolbox was rope, duct tape, a knife, and a gun.
[277] And then around 11 p .m., he left his apartment and went downstairs and walked all the way back over to that corner room, room 509, where the women were.
[278] And he looked in the window and it was totally dark inside, so he assumed they must be sleeping, and he knocked on the door.
[279] A few minutes later, Carol came to the door and very cautiously opened it up just a crack, leaving that chain link lock still attached.
[280] And so she looked through at Carrie and said, hi, can I help you?
[281] And Carrie, who held up his handyman toolbox and pointed to his name tag that said he was the Cedar Lodge Handyman, he said, Hi, ma 'am, sorry to disturb you so late, but there is a leak in the room right above yours, and I need to make sure the leak is not coming down into your room.
[282] So can I come in and just have a quick look, and then I'll be out of here?
[283] And Carol apparently was just not buying it, and she said, look, I haven't seen any leaks in this room.
[284] I don't think there is one, but even if there is, can it please wait until tomorrow, because we're all trying to sleep.
[285] But Carrie was very persistent, and Carrie was known to be very charming and very disarming, and eventually he talked his way into the room.
[286] And so he walks inside, he walks past the bed where the other two teen girls are still sleeping.
[287] He goes into the bathroom, and for a few minutes, he kind of pretends to fiddle around inside of the bathroom while Carol is standing right outside looking in at him.
[288] And then at some point, Carrie reached into his toolbox, pulled out the gun, and he aimed it at Carol, and he said, stay calm, I'm not going to hurt you.
[289] This is just a robbery.
[290] Carol most likely believed their best chance at getting out of this situation was just to comply and do what he says.
[291] He'll rob us and then he'll leave and we'll be okay.
[292] And so Carol very dutifully went back into the room and she quietly woke up her daughter and her daughter's friend and before long Carrie had tied up all three of them.
[293] He put the two teenagers in the bathroom and shut the door and then he put Carol on the bed.
[294] And then he proceeded to assault Carol before strangling her to death with more rope.
[295] And then after she was dead, he carried her body outside of the motel room and put her in the trunk of her own rental car.
[296] And then after he shut the trunk, he went back inside the motel room.
[297] He went to the bathroom.
[298] He opened it up.
[299] He grabbed Sylvina, who was crying and pulled her out, and he left Julie alone cowering inside the bathroom by herself.
[300] He shut the door behind her, and then he brought Sylvina over to the bed, where he assaulted her before strangling her as well to death with some additional rope.
[301] And then after Sylvina was dead, he carried her body outside of the motel and put her in the trunk of the rental car along with carol's body and then after that he went back inside the motel room and then once again he opened up the bathroom door he grabbed julie pulled her out and proceeded to assault her as well but then afterwards he did not strangle her to death instead he walked her back into the bathroom and shut and locked the door and while she was in there wondering what's going to happen to her mom what happened to her friend he proceeded to clean up the room and hide it up, and he moved all of their luggage out of their room and put it into the rental car.
[302] And then after he was satisfied, he went back inside the motel room.
[303] He opened up the bathroom door.
[304] He pulled Julie out and had her stand right outside the bathroom.
[305] And then Carrie proceeded to clean up the bathroom, but left a couple of wet towels on the ground to give the impression that the women had left in a bit of a hurry.
[306] And so after that, he grabbed Julie and he walked her out to the car and he sat her down in the front seat.
[307] She only had a blanket on at this point.
[308] Everything else had been taken off of her.
[309] and then Carrie hopped in the front seat and he began driving off.
[310] Julie must have been beyond terrified.
[311] She has no idea where her mom is.
[312] She has no idea where her friend is.
[313] She has no idea they're actually dead locked in the trunk right behind her.
[314] And the man that had just assaulted her for hours is now driving her into the darkness.
[315] She has no idea where she's going and all she's got is this blanket around her.
[316] It's just beyond brutal what's happening to this poor girl.
[317] And so for two hours, Carrie drove them west along the highway in the middle of the night and the whole time he's trying to make small talk with this poor girl, trying to tell her that she's going to be okay and that her mom and her friend, they're going to be okay.
[318] And then finally, he pulls off the highway down some switchbacks into this big parking lot of the Don Pedro Lake.
[319] And then once he parks the car, there's no other cars around.
[320] It's still dark out.
[321] The sun hasn't come up.
[322] He gets out and he tells Julie to get out of the car.
[323] But Julie is so scared, she can't move, so she can't even get out of the car.
[324] And so Carrie gets out, he walks around to her side, he opens the door, and he scoops.
[325] her up like you might hold a baby.
[326] And he walked with her up the trail all the way to this overlook that was well away from any prying eyes in the parking lot.
[327] And once he was out of sight, he took her blanket off and he laid it down and then he proceeded to assault her again.
[328] And then as the sun began to come up over the lake, Carrie realized that he had to end his fantasy and begin to cover his tracks.
[329] And so Carrie stops what he's doing.
[330] He stands up.
[331] He reaches down and pulls Julie up to her feet.
[332] And so she's standing with her back to the lake.
[333] And as he's looking at her, he says, I love you.
[334] And then he pulls out his knife and begins hacking her throat.
[335] And then he pushes her down the hillside where she tumbles and finally comes to a stop underneath some bushes where she dies.
[336] Carrie grabbed the blanket on the ground and he walked back to the rental car in the lot.
[337] There was nobody out there.
[338] So he hopped inside.
[339] He drove out of the lot and drove one hour north until he was well into this forest.
[340] And he pulled down a logging road where he abandoned this car.
[341] After he ditched it, he walked back up to the highway and caught a cab back to Cedar Lodge, he would come back to the car and torch it two days later.
[342] He would also make a special trip to Modesto, California, where he would drop Carol's wallet in the middle of the road near high school in order to confuse investigators.
[343] A month later, when Carol and Sylvina's body were found in the back of the burned -out car, Carrie would send that handwritten note to police that had the map of where Julie's body was and that horrible message of, we had fun with this one referencing Julie.
[344] he sent that to police in order to further confuse them.
[345] He wanted them to believe that there really was more than one person perpetrating these murders, hence the we had fun with this one.
[346] Months would go by, and the police, despite questioning Kerry, along with the other Cedar Lodge staff members, never considered him a suspect.
[347] And that was because, one, they really thought he was just a nice, normal guy, and couldn't be capable of committing violence against these three women.
[348] And two, probably most importantly, the police discovered when Kerry was a child, his younger brother was kidnapped by a pedophile and held for seven years.
[349] And although his brother was ultimately returned to the family alive, that experience was incredibly traumatic and devastating to Carrie.
[350] And so the police figured there's no way this guy would ever abduct or harm other people because he knows how traumatic and awful that is for the victim and the victim's family.
[351] If anything, Carrie seemed like the type of guy who would go out of his way to protect and save these three women from being abducted or from being harmed.
[352] In July of that year, so four months after the three women's bodies were discovered, Carrie, who believed he had completely gotten away with murder, and to that point he really had, he was just driving around Yosemite kind of reveling in the fact that he had gotten to live out this fantasy and not get punished for it, when he noticed there was this woman way off in the distance walking in and out of this cabin that was.
[353] was fairly isolated.
[354] And so he drove his 1979 International Scout Blue SUV down this forested road and he reaches this meadow and he looks across this meadow and now that this woman is even closer, he can tell she's clearly loading things into her truck.
[355] And she's going back and forth, back and forth and he's watching wondering if there's anybody else helping her because this cabin is very secluded and he's thinking if she's alone, I might be able to kill her too.
[356] And so after a while when he only sees her loading things into her white pickup truck, he decides he's going to go kill her.
[357] And so he drives across the meadow and he pulls up right next to a truck and he gets out and he introduces himself.
[358] And the woman is so completely caught off guard by this random strange man showing up in the middle of the night, suddenly acting so friendly that kind of reflexively in an effort not to be rude, she says, hi, you know, I'm Joey Armstrong.
[359] Nice to meet you.
[360] What are you doing down here?
[361] And Kerry would proceed to spark up some small talk.
[362] He asked her if she believed in Bigfoot and they kind of got on this tangent about Bigfoot.
[363] And then at some point, Carrie drew a pistol and he aimed it at her and said, go inside your cabin.
[364] And so Joey put her hands up and she went inside the cabin like she was told and Carrie followed her inside.
[365] And then he bound her wrists and he bound her mouth with duct tape.
[366] And then he ordered her to get back inside of his SUV.
[367] And then once she was sitting inside the front passenger seat, Carrie got in the driver's seat and he began leaving the cabin headed back out away towards that road he came in on.
[368] And as he's bombing across the meadow, Joey leaps head first out of the window of this moving car and smashes onto the ground, and she immediately jumps up and just starts running back towards the cabin.
[369] Carrie jams on the brakes, he hops out and he starts chasing after Joey, but Joey manages to get fairly close to that tree line right behind the cabin before Carrie ultimately grabs her and tackles her to the ground.
[370] And then Joey is viciously trying to fight Carrie off of her, and Carrie kind of in a panic, draws his knife, and he tries to slash a Joey, but Joey tucks her chin, protecting her neck from being stabbed.
[371] And, and he's just a So frustrated, Carrie just stands up and he grabs Joey by the hair and he begins hauling her towards the forest behind her cabin.
[372] And the whole time, Joey's doing everything in her power to try to escape, but she just can't.
[373] And finally, they get inside the woods and Carrie drags her into this ditch.
[374] And once she's down at the bottom, he puts his foot on the top of her head and forces it back, forcibly exposing her throat.
[375] And then at that point, he pulls out his knife and he begins to cut.
[376] Afterwards, Carrie considered keeping Joey's head, but ultimately he we try to hide it in some bushes nearby.
[377] After Carrie attempted to cover up some of the blood in the area with some branches and leaves, he left the forest and went back to his SUV.
[378] He didn't even attempt to tidy up the scene.
[379] He left her truck as is.
[380] He left her cabin as his.
[381] He just hopped in his SUV and drove back to Cedar Lodge.
[382] Carrie would tell police that as soon as he killed Joey Armstrong, all he wanted to do was go kill his girlfriend and her two young daughters, the 10 and 11 year old, but police caught him before he could carry out the attack.
[383] Carrie Stainer, who never showed any remorse for his victims, was ultimately sentenced to death and is currently awaiting execution in San Quentin Prison in Northern California.
[384] One of the more distressing aspects of this case was Carol's camera that was found intact near the burned out car in the woods.
[385] The police would develop the pictures on this camera in hopes there would be some clue as to who murdered them, but it would turn out there wasn't any usable evidence on the camera.
[386] It was just pictures of Carol, her daughter, and Sylvina having this wonderful time in Yosemite, and that was it.
[387] But after Carrie confessed to what he did to these poor women, those pictures take on a whole new, much darker meaning.
[388] In the final eight images of the camera roll, we know Carrie Stainer was either literally watching these women secretly at the time the picture was taken, or he was patiently waiting nearby for them to return.
[389] The final image that was taken on this camera, was taken by Julie of her mother sitting on the bed and her friend Silvina sitting on the other bed as they're getting ready to turn out the lights and go to sleep.
[390] That picture was taken just moments before Carrie knocked on their door.
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[408] She struck him with her motor vehicle.
[409] She had been under the influence and that she left him there.
[410] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.
[411] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.
[412] What happens next?
[413] Depends on who you ask.
[414] Was it a crime of passion?
[415] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.
[416] This was clearly an intentional act.
[417] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.
[418] Or a corrupt police cover -up.
[419] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.
[420] Everyone had an opinion.
[421] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.
[422] To end in a mistrial, it's just a, confirmation of just how complicated this case is.
[423] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.
[424] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.
[425] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.