I Know My First Name Is Steven

by Echols, Mike

  Once he had assembled the press, Finn led them and the assorted law enforcement officers through the cabin as he delivered a constant stream of comments for the reporters' benefit; as Lunney and Price commented later, Finn conducted a whirlwind, none-too-professional search. After less than an hour, Steven scooped up Queenie and everyone jumped back into their cars and helicopters for the return dash to Ukiah and the scheduled noon press conference.

  At the news conference—covered by reporters representing media organizations from as far away as London and Tokyo—Steven sat holding his tiny, trembling dog and apologized for her very apparent fright. Still dressed in the grimy gray sweatshirt and jeans he had worn when he'd left the remote cabin the night before, Steven spoke in a shy, quiet voice as he told the assembled reporters, "I got to like Timmy. I knew what Parnell was doing was wrong. I just gave him a whole life ahead of him with his parents."

  During the news conference Timmy alternately sat on his parents' and Steven's laps. Timmy said that the teenager had become his friend during the sixteen-day ordeal and that Steven had read comic books to him to while away the long hours in the tiny cabin.

  At the close of the news conference, photographers were allowed a few minutes to capture the two boys on film. Then Patrick Lunney, Jerry Price, and Steven got into the Merced Police cruiser for Steven's long-awaited trip home. As they headed south on U.S. 101, the long-lost boy settled into the rear seat, snuggled up to Queenie, and tried hard to remember what his father, mother, brother, and sisters looked like . . . and he prayed that they would still remember him, and love him, too.

  Chapter Ten

  The Boys Return Home

  "I always believed Stevie was alive. "

  At 2 A.M. in Ukiah, Timmy was preparing to go home with his family, but first a few final police matters had to be dealt with. During the officers' questioning, Timmy had said that Parnell had told him that he, Parnell, knew Angela, and further, that it was okay for Timmy to stay with him. Therefore, Ukiah police officers had Angela look through the booking-room window at Parnell to see if she knew him; but of course she did not.

  When confronted with this information, Timmy exclaimed to his mother, "He told me that you knew him, and you didn't! I didn't know big people lie!"

  Before leaving the station, Angela went into the room where Steven was being held, kissed him on the cheek, and told him, "Thank you for bringing my son back home safe." Then it was off to the local hospital to have Timmy examined by a doctor for signs of physical or sexual abuse . . . and Jim and Angela were thankful to learn that there were none.

  Even though it was nearly three in the morning when the White family arrived home, Angela asked Timmy what he wanted to do, and he responded that he wanted to eat some of her spaghetti and take a bath. Added Angela, "He wanted us to throw away the clothes that he was wearing because Parnell put them on him. He didn't want anything left around that would remind him of Parnell." Also, Angela recalled that when she tried to wash the dye from her son's hair, it wouldn't come out right away: "It took a few months because first it got red and then it turned a really strange color before it finally grew out blond again."

  Finished with his bath, Timmy was so excited that he never did eat the spaghetti his mother made for him. But the family reunion continued with the four of them sitting around the kitchen table drinking hot chocolate and playing Old Maid until dawn, when the phone began ringing off the wall. One of the first to contact them was Diane Crawford, who had been out having dinner with her husband when Steven and Timmy had come calling the night before.

  "The longest day in my life," is the way sixteen-year-old Cindy recalls her wait for her brother's return. "We learned that it was Steve at three in the morning, and then he didn't get home until seven or eight that night. And we made banners that morning with butcher's paper. And there was a big one in front of our house that said, 'Welcome Home Steve.' "

  Twenty miles north of Merced, as they passed through Turlock, Lunney and Price established two-way radio contact with the Merced police dispatcher and Chief Kulbeth asked that they began relaying their location minute-by-minute. When they exited onto Yosemite Parkway, Lunney asked Steve if he recognized anything, and slowly it all began to come back to the nearly fifteen-year-old boy as he first identified a familiar drive-in grocery, then the route he had walked home from school, and finally the Red Ball Gas Station where he had been kidnapped as a seven-year-old in 1972.

  Before he and Price left Ukiah, Lunney phoned Chief Kulbeth and filled him in on his and Price's interviews with Steve and their perceptions of him. "I told him, 'This kid is really almost self-sufficient, particularly because he was living up in the mountains.' And he carried his knife on him. In fact, he was wearing it when I first saw him, but then we took it into evidence."

  When Kulbeth and Bailey arrived at the Stayner home, they took Del and Kay aside and counseled them, Kulbeth remembering: "In his parents' minds, he was this little child coming home, so I told them, 'Your son is a very grown-up young man, and he is somewhat independent. He's a fourteen-year-old near-adult, and you'll just have to recognize that.' " But even though Del and Kay acknowledged to Kulbeth that they understood, their relationship with Steven after his return clearly showed that they never, ever internalized what the chief had told them.

  And Steve's impending homecoming caused then-twelve-year-old Jody to think back a few years, "I remembered when my Grandpa Tal [Del's father] died while Steve was gone. I prayed that God would take good care of him and, if Steve was up there, take good care of him, too. And I remembered those puff balls that are like flowers . . . that when you blow on them they go everywhere? Well, we used to blow them and make a wish that Steve would come back home. You know, you'd blow them and then clap your hands and make a wish? We'd always do that. But now Steve was really coming home!"

  Added Cindy, "One of the most emotional things to me was seeing Steve's signature on the side of the garage. In that way Steve was always still around in our mind, you know . . . even after five, six years. And that memory is why my dad would never move. He always thought that if Steve came home he would find us."

  It was dark when Jerry Price finally turned the police car onto Bette and saw the hundreds of people crowding the street from curb to curb, so thick that he had to halt several houses from the Stayner home. Lights from television cameras illuminated the area in front of 1655 Bette as Chief Kulbeth escorted Del and Kay to the reunion with their son. And at a little after seven in the evening of March 2, 1980, clutching his beloved dog, Queenie, Steve slowly emerged from the cruiser's backseat and stood motionless, staring in bewilderment at the crowd and his approaching family . . . 2,645 days after that cold, drizzly December day in 1972 when as a seven-year-old he had set out for home from Charles Wright Elementary School.

  Remembered Kulbeth about Steve's parents' first sight of their son: "There was no problems at all with their recognizing Steve or his recognizing his family. They were overjoyed, but Steve seemed a little bit shy. When we got them back into the house, you could really see the emotion start to pour out. There were tears of joy everywhere, and if you have ever seen thoroughly happy people, then these people were just that happy! Everybody—the neighbors and friends—wanted to be in the house. And the press people wanted to be in there, too, and the family very graciously allowed some of these people to come in, especially close friends, and even a couple of local reporters from the Merced Sun-Star. Then, after awhile, they wanted to be alone, so we asked all of the people to leave. And we left, too, but we did maintain surveillance of the home for a couple of weeks after that."

  Grinning ear-to-ear at the memory, Cindy recalled, "My parents took Steve to Cary's room so we could talk to him. And at first he remembered Mom and Dad's names and his name, but he didn't know our names. And we wanted to ask him about what happened when he was kidnapped, but we didn't want to upset him, and so we didn't. And there was one thing that I just never did want to ask him about, and that wa
s how he felt about Parnell. I just didn't . . . just didn't want to know anything about it."

  The initial excitement had hardly died down when an ecstatic Cary arrived home. He had first learned of his brother's return from a newscast on the radio in the family's pickup camper as he drove his buddies back to Merced from a weekend camping trip at Yosemite National Park. Exclaimed Cary, "I damn near drove off the highway when I heard that!"

  That first night back at home, Steve chose to sleep on a pallet on the living room floor and Cary bedded down beside his long-lost brother. "I had a hard time trying to get to sleep that night," said Cary. "I stayed up a long time just looking at Steve while he slept and listening to him breathe. I just couldn't believe that my brother was finally back home again." Then, with tears in his eyes, Steve's big brother added, "You know, I went outside that night and I walked several blocks away and then looked up at the stars and started to wish on one again . . . but then I remembered that Steve was back home, and so I thanked the star instead."

  Steve's return brought tremendous joy to Del, but the previous seven years had taken a serious toll on him. During his son's absence he had lost his deep faith in God and severely curtailed his practice of the Mormon faith. Explained Del, "I believe in God, but as a father I got mad at Him after four years. You're not supposed to, but He hadn't brought my son back!" Then Del angrily reflected on his son's years with Parnell. "It really affected our lives. We are not the same people we were before Stevie disappeared. After two or three years, Steve had accepted that kind of life"—with Parnell—"and he had a ball. He had a lot of friends. He had a lot of fun up there. This guy bought him funny books and all kinds of stuff, and Steve ate that up. When Steve was in the sixth grade, the damn guy even bought whiskey for him! So, Steve had a lot of stuff he would have never gotten if he was at home. But he would have had his family!" he cried.

  After regaining his composure, Del added: "But most of the time that Stevie was gone, I had this hurting. I guess I was just about half crazy or something. . . I don't know. I'd take my anger out on Kay, my children, and I couldn't get along with anybody. I was tore up inside. I can't explain it except that I hurt all the time, and I know when Stevie came home, the hurting stopped."

  A few blocks away that night, Ervin E. Murphy and his friend and fellow worker Pete Galessor registered at a motel. They were in Merced to enjoy their usual Sunday-Monday weekend, and early the next morning the pair walked down Yosemite Parkway to Carrows Restaurant for breakfast. On the way in, Pete bought a San Francisco Chronicle, and while they were eating he suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! Get this!"

  "Then," said Murph, "he read this article to me about Steve and Parnell and the whole bit. I didn't say anything to him . . . not even on the whole way back to the park."

  Based on their initial interview with Steve, Lunney and Price knew that there had been a second man involved in his abduction, but Steve had been reluctant to provide them with additional information. So, the next day, Monday, March 3, the two officers picked up Steve and drove him to the police station for an in-depth interrogation. It took several hours of questioning before the teenager told them that the mysterious second kidnapper's name was "Murphy," that he wore eyeglasses, worked "in Yosemite," and early on had stayed with Steve and Parnell "in a little red cabin on the road to Yosemite."

  With this information, Lunney telephoned Lee Shackleton—in 1980 still Yosemite National Park's Chief Law Enforcement Ranger—and asked that he research National Park Service and Curry Company employment files for anyone working there in December of 1972 with the first, middle, or last name of "Murphy." This time Shackleton cooperated promptly and within hours Lunney and Price had photographs of two Murphys.

  Late that afternoon Lunney and Price went by the Stayners' home and showed Steve the photographs they had received from Shackleton. With no hesitation Steve picked out Ervin Edward "Murph" Murphy, and the officers returned to the station to plan their arrest of the simple-minded kitchen worker.

  That evening, as Steve, Cory, and his parents drove to San Francisco for an overnight stay before their Tuesday, March 4, appearance nationwide on Good Morning America from ABC-TV affiliate KGO-TV, Lunney and Price departed for the two-hour drive to Yosemite. There, with backup from park rangers, they waited in Yosemite Lodge's kitchen for Murphy to arrive for his graveyard shift. Right on time at 10 P.M. Murphy showed up and was promptly arrested for what was the very first time in his life.

  But Murph was expecting them. "At five o'clock Tuesday morning I left my cabin and went over to the lodge and got a newspaper and read it myself. And the paper said that they were looking for an accomplice, so, more or less, I knew that they were looking for me. So I went on to work that night and I'm just starting to work when they came in and picked me up and I told them all about it. It was a relief to know where the kid was and that he was alive and not hurt or anything. He could have been dead! And I finally got it off my chest that I knew Parnell had kidnapped the kid, but at the same time I hadn't wanted to get myself involved."

  The short, friendly, yet lonely little man paused and reflected a minute or two before adding somewhat sadly, "One time, years before that, I tried to call up the Merced police department, and the phone just rang and rang, and then when the lady answered I was still a little scared, and so I just hung up and went over and got drunk instead."

  Before leaving Yosemite, Lunney and Price took Murph to his cabin one last time, where the dejected man sat on his glasses and broke them. With Murph's permission, they searched through his meager possessions. Among the things they found were science fiction novels and books on the occult. Lunney asked him if he read a lot, and Murph replied, "Yes, but a lot of it is way over my head. I had to quit the Book of the Month Club." Then they drove Murph to the Merced County Jail and booked him.

  The next day, Wednesday, March 5, Murph was arraigned in Merced County Court for conspiracy in the kidnapping of Steven Stayner, with bail set at $50,000 . . . much more than Parnell's $20,000 bail in Ukiah. The Curry Company offered to provide Murph with private defense counsel—an offer he did not accept—but The Palace Hotel in Ukiah made no such offer to Parnell.

  The arrest was a great shock to Murph's friends and fellow workers at Yosemite. They had always seen him as a little strange but perfectly harmless. Yosemite Lodge night auditor Nanette Ketterer—who, ironically, had Parnell's old job—recalled Murph telling a bizarre story to her in 1979 of how he befriended a runaway boy. He'd said that he'd lodged him in his employee cabin for several days, given him money for food, paid for phone calls to his parents, and, finally, bought the boy a bus ticket home. Then, Murph had told her, he was surprised to receive a "thank-you" letter from the parents with thirty dollars enclosed in appreciation for his help. But Murph had never told his cabinmate this story, and it was probably just his attempt to assuage his guilt for having helped Parnell kidnap Steven so many years before.

  Also on March 5, Lunney and Price drove Steve out of Merced along Yosemite Parkway and California 140 to retrace the route that Parnell took with Steven and Murphy to Cathy's Valley. They found the little red cabin where Steven had spent portions of his first two weeks with Parnell and the two officers talked with the teenager again about his life experiences with Parnell.

  Even though Steve continued to characterize his relationship with Parnell as a very normal one, Lunney and Price suspected Parnell had sexually abused Steve, for within hours of the kidnapper's arrest Ukiah Police had teletyped for and received Parnell's complete criminal history, including details of his 1951 arrest and conviction for kidnapping and sexually assaulting nine-year-old Bobby Green in Bakersfield. Ukiah Police had shared this information with the Merced officers, and so both jurisdictions knew from the start the potential crimes they were dealing with in Timmy's and Steven's kidnappings.

  With Steve's safe return to Merced, Chief Kulbeth reflected on his department's lengthy search for him: "Certainly, in that seven-year period of time we made thousands
of inquiries and arrests. There was always something you could do, even if it was just talking to people over and over and over. The case was kept alive.

  "The Stayners are stable, down-to-earth people . . . I think they are great people. Over the seven years I don't think Delbert ever lost the hope that someday Steve was going to turn up alive. And for a long period of time Kay believed that, too, but then I think she slowly started losing a little faith."

  He concluded pragmatically: "We didn't necessarily try to talk them into believing that Steve was dead, but in some way we wanted to condition them to the possibility that if he did turn up tomorrow in a grave someplace, for example, it would not be a total shock."

  The chief concluded, "In my twenty-nine years on the department we devoted more time, more energy, and more manpower to Steven's case than probably any other case I can recall."

  On Easter, April 6, Del, Kay, Steve, and his three sisters drove to Ukiah in their camper, their first trip to Mendocino County since Steve's return home. The trip's main purpose was for Steve to receive the $15,000 reward check from the Timmy White Fund for returning Timmy. A ceremony was held at two o'clock that afternoon in Ukiah's City Park, where Timmy was hoisted onto a chair to present the check to Steve. After brief remarks by Steve, the Stayners paid a short visit to Timmy's home before driving on to Comptche, where they met Steve's friends from his relatively happy three-year stay in the tiny backwoods community.

  Recalled Kay, "The area was beautiful. The people up there were nice people . . . they're just not city people. The Mitchells were real eye-openers. They use a Pacific Gas & Electric cable reel for a dining room table, and that's just not normal . . . just not ordinary."