Captive Audience upcoming Hulu docuseries on Steven and Carey Stayner

I'll watch. This case fascinates me because there's compelling reason to believe the POS abusive father, enabling mother and uncle had something to do with Steven's disappearance. The way the parents behaved was just odd and they even refused to let Steven get therapy after he was returned and pushed him to do interviews with the public after for money. Kicked him out due to his "misbehavior" as a young adult which wasn't even that bad. Cary Stayner was also clearly abused and neglected. I think their sister admitted their father sexually abused her. And sexual abusive fathers also sometimes abuse their sons.

Kenneth Parnell clearly had other victims and likely was not only a serial rapist but serial killer too. Steven was likely going to be killed had he not chose to leave to return Tommy White to his family. Steven even admitted to sabotaging previous attempts at kidnapping for Parnell because he knew what getting replaced would entail. But the fact Steven even choose to still live with Parnell and believed his family abandoned him even into his teen years sorta points he was likely abused and neglected prior to being kidnapped. Some poster on another thread said there's a reasonable suspicion his father and uncle sold Steven to Parnell. The family is all kinds of fucked up..

Unfortunately, rural areas in California are infested with hard core trash like the Staynor family. Nothing would surprise me about them.

I googled this case and holy god. Was this family predestined for horror or what?

God, even the little boy he rescued died as a young man from a PE. There are no good endings here.

PE? What is that, r4?

Pulmonary embolism

Has anyone read ahold story about them? Please link.

*read a good

I remember Cary Stayner slayed that mom-daughter and the poor Argentinian exchange student up in Yosemite. I've passed by the forest lodge where Stayner worked as a handyman -- it is still in operation.

The three parts are out.

Cary was fucking beautiful.

Corin Nemic is a hot daddy.

I agree R12. He has aged well.

My name is Cheryl

[quote]PE? What is that, [R4]?

Pulmonary embolism

Is this a series? Will have to check it out. I was a kid when the tv movie came out and it still sticks in my mind.

r1 WTF?!? Stephen's mother and sister both seemed to want to be in denial about the negative stuff. I want to know more about that family.

r11 I knew DL would find him attractive

I'm usually not attracted to serial killers but, my goodness, that Cary man is/was sexxxxy. Woof.

Steven died in a car accident.

I almost died in PE too. I just stopped dressing out and a read a book instead.

r20 he was hit by a car, he was riding his motorcycle

With the release of this docu-series, handymen are certainly having a bad week.

I was expecting a fourth episode because they started talking about the secret alcoholism and sexual abuse that ran in the family, but then one by one each family member bring interviewed just sort of said “I think I’m done” and it ended.

Very unsatisfying. C+

Never heard of this story but how incredibly sad for those two families, and what an evil man Kenneth Parnell was. When Steven hit puberty, Parnell was no longer interested in Steven and looked to buy an even younger boy. I'll never understand why we can't have the death penalty.

You never heard of I Know My First Name Is Steven starring DL fave Corin Nemec?

^ “Corky” to his true fans!

Cary was a slightly more handsome version of Dominic Purcell.

I guess he finally got the TV show he wanted.

R21, I'm sitting here giggling. I had to read your reply three times before I got it. I'm kinda slow after sunrise...

He's one hot criminal!

I agree with the lukewarm reviews. The 20/20 episode had more substance and told the story better. I second the Cagemeat Cary dickpigs and Steven’s adult son was pretty hot too. Some great physical genes in this fucked up family.

Steven was a goodlooking guy. Looked like a teen heartthrob actually. Carey was also very handsome. What's interesting to me is how wildly different Carey and Steven ended up. Steven despite years of physical and sexual abuse and later parental neglect still came out as a decent guy with a good heart. Carey ended up a sociopath. It also goes to show that genetic factors can play a role than just environmental. Carey may have had more genetic predisposition to violence. While Steven had predisposition to self-harm.

It is a very interesting story but not a very well done documentary.

I thought it was fucked up how his parents clearly forced him to do this interview a few weeks away after he was rescued. For an abuse victim to be asked these questions, it's basically being raped all over again. And to exploit him on national TV like this. The dad is such a pedo and the mom is disgusting as an enabler. Typical "Christian" parents

The best parts of the documentary were the archival footage of Steven being reunited with his family and seeing Cary lurking and looking unhappy in the background. That gave me goosebumps.

As much as I enjoyed seeing grown up, handsome Corin Nemic, you know a documentary is in trouble when they have to resort to prominently featuring the actors who played the characters in a TV miniseries that aired 30 years ago! And Corin’s proclamation that it was as big a television event as the Super Bowl was just embarrassing.

r34, funny how I used to think David Hartman was so old but looking at him now he is probably younger than I am. I used to like him, back in the day before the perfectly groomed news anchor.

I don't know if I can watch it. I remember when it happened. The whole story makes me so profoundly sad, which is unusual for me.

What did you think of Steven's wife?

She looked a little blowsy with a little girl voice, but then again the woman has probably been through some shit.

They struck me as kind of a lower class messed up family, I personally would not want to marry into it. Stephen did turn out pretty cute but the poor guy had to have issues although he seems to have handled himself better than most of his family.

The 20/20 story of the brothers is here, click on the video, it will keep playing the episode

Somebody posted on Reddit that the father would not hug Steven or touch him after he found out he had been molested. The Uncle molested Cary when he was younger. And somebody said the father molested the daughters (that one is hearsay not sure about that).

This is a small thing but what bothered me is that he kept wearing the coat he was found in. I would have burned it and bought him a new one.

Steven was probably molested by relatives prior to being abducted if his sister and brother were. That could have explained why he was so cooperative with Parnell for years if he was groomed. There's a lot of weirdness in this family and I don't know if all the secrets will come out.

I am one year younger than Steven. We were taught to respect our elders and not to talk back to a teacher or our parents. It was a different time that people born in later decades might not understand.

The killer brother was hot AF! I feel so dirty and I'm full of shame.

I’m so sorry, but I’ll never look upon this man as being a human form again. Not after what he did to Joie Ruth Armstrong. The previous rape/murder of one the sisters was bad enough, but Ruth’s prolonged decapitation would top anything Manson ever did.

First, Ruth confronted this psycho killer bravely, stating the real murderers of the mother/sisters had been apprehended earlier that day by police. She was wrong, of course. Tragically wrong! The real rapist/killer Cary Staynor, was standing right before her. Ruth claimed no fear of him since the bad guys were caught!

What if they caught the wrong guys, Cary asked her. And she said it wasn’t likely since the men were a bunch of drunken hoodlums. In a taunting manner, Cary admitted to being the real killer. Ruth laughed…gee, such a funny guy. Cary then followed her into the cabin she was moving her stuff out of and of course took note that she was indeed alone.

Not too long after, Cary tried to kidnap and drive her off the premise. Ruth, scared for her life now, managed leap, hands bound, from the truck window while running toward a nearby house, screaming for help. All the while, Cary carrying a knife chased her while actively trying to decapitate her.

Ruth almost made it to the neighbor’s house when she suddenly stumbled and fell silent by a nearby river, falling completely silent. It appeared her neck being had nearly been decapitated. Subsequently, Cary was quietly apprehended at a nearby nudist colony. I’d love to have the creative job of re-fashion Cary’s thick dick into new stylings with a hot coiling brush.Yum!

Extremely sick man. This family has always fascinated me. I wonder if he was always a psycho or if the molestation and then trauma of his brother missing and then being the golden child really messed with his brain. I am guessing some of both.

R41, which sub were they talking about it on? I was looking for a Reddit discussion on the case since this thread is still new.

[R9]I stayed at Cedar Lodge in 2013. My husband and I booked a last minute trip to Yosemite in the June and it was the only accommodation available. Being from overseas, we hadn’t heard what had happened at that hotel until a couple of years later. We then were like oh that’s probably why we were “lucky” to get a booking in high season. The hotel hadn’t been updated in years and my husband spent the night worried that every sound he heard was bears that were going to break into our car because we left rubbish in it.

[quote] And Corin’s proclamation that it was as big a television event as the Super Bowl was just embarrassing.

I was in middle school when the miniseries originally aired in the spring of 1989 and remember it being a major event. It was definitely well-promoted and got big ratings, too.

Cary was smoking hot!

Cary Stayner sounds like such an '80s porn name!

It’s creepy what’s popular in America, R50. I’m imagining something like how they described Rhoda’s wedding to be. People closing restaurants, other people pulling over to a motel just so they don’t miss it.

It’s like how SVU is the longest running scripted procedural in television history. We sure like to hear about rape.

I've written about this before. My brother a single Dad took his kids, my niece and nephew to Yosemite to ski and stayed at the Cedar Lodge. One of the days my niece, who was 14, was having a migraine, and stayed in the room while her Dad and brother went skiing. Cary Stayner got access to rooms by simply knocking on the door claiming he had to fix something.

My niece was alone in that room while the maniac Stayner WAS THE HANDYMAN. When he was arrested and we realized the time overlap i literally thought i was going to pass out. I hate the death penalty but i think the victim's families should have the option of killing him themselves which I would enthusiastically do if that human garbage had harmed one hair on my niece's head. Will not watch the doc.

This really sucked. First, who gives a fuck about the actors in the TV mini-series, much of which was fictionalized anyway. Second, the third part where a lot of other family issues are casually mentioned but not explored? Did Hulu hire the writers from "Lost" to put this together? Third, who wants to see people doing mic checks or bloopers from the news from 30-40 years? This could have been a 90 minute piece.

Having the actors who played Cary and Steven in the miniseries do the voiceovers of the interviews would’ve been better than actually filming them. It was awkward to watch these out-of-practice actors do a cold reading. It felt like a bad audition. My boyfriend and I kept looking away from the screen because it was making us cringe so hard.

The TV movie was nominated for four Emmys: Best Miniseries, Writing, Director, and one for Nemec.

r41 here is the Reddit thread:

I read some True Crime thing that Cary admitted to fantasizing about hurting women before Steven's kidnapping. Of course, it can't have helped.

I'm assuming the father is dead?

This is what I was talking about from Reddit:

[quote]wow- they left A LOT out about the family and cary strayner. the father WAS ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING THE DAUGHTERS and was ordered by the state to attend therapy!! the uncle was arrested for sexual abuse of a minor and abused cary! that same uncle was murdered! why did they omit all of this fron the hulu doc?? source: (link below)

Wasn’t Cary living with the uncle at the time of his murder? Are they sure Cary didn’t kill him?

This is the 2020 episode from 2019 on the case, it's better than the documentary.

The 1989 TV movie was the first time I heard about this case.

If there's anyone out there who hasn't seen that movie, then they're going to be very confused when they watch this documentary because it has real-life TV news clips along with clips from the movie. (How many times did they show the movie clip of Steven hugging his family while being stunned and blinded by camera flashes....50? How many times did they show the movie clip of teenage Cary introducing himself to Steven...5?)

Like other posters above pointed out, there have been rumors about sexual abuse within the family, but this documentary avoided that completely. Until near the end of Part 3 (the last part), when a legal consultant mentioned that abuse and psychotic behavior had been issues in the family for generations. But does the documentary dig into that? No. Then why mention it?

And the mom? She talked, talked, talked about Steven. (She seemed to enjoy giving interviews back in the day, too.). But she had nothing to say about Cary? It's your son. You don't have to defend him. But you can say that you love him and you don't understand why he did what he did.

At the very beginning Steven's daughter says that she wanted the documentary to feature only people in the family instead of third-party people (journalists?). Then we see her brother saying "I don't remember my dad at all". Maybe that's why the 20/20 special was better. It was cool seeing Corin Nemec, but why the fuck was he there? They should have at least asked him about his interactions with Steven on the set of the movie. And why were we listing to the static-y recordings of the movie scriptwriter's meetings about the script...especially after multiple family members criticized the script for having too many fictional elements. (Though Steven's wife said Steven thought the movie did a good job in its depiction of him.)

And like someone above pointed out, it made no sense to show bloopers from the news reports of the story. Were they that desperate to fill time?

How did Parnell enroll Steven in school as "Dennis Parnell?" No birth certificate, no previous school records, etc. Even back in those days school officials would've needed some identification and the records from previous schools, right?

In the 70s, school records weren't computerized yet. I think he told them that he'd call the old school and have them mail the records. Then, perhaps the new school staff shelved the file and forgot. Or, he could have told them that a fire had destroyed the old school's records. It's not like the staff could get on a desktop computer and google the old schools name plus the word "fire".

They could've called the school, though. IIRC a birth certificate was definitely needed, as well as a vaccination record, for a child to be enrolled at any school.

So hard to watch. The trauma.

In the 20/20 story the FBI guys said Cary requested a big stack of child porn. SIcko

I finally placed the damn actor in the docu series!

The actor who played the title role in the My Name is Steven mini series was also the star in Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I loved that show when I was in grade school.

Oh, the murder and kidnapping stuff was tragic. Blah, blah, blah. Life sucks. Don't talk to strangers. Therapy. Bad dads. Yosemite.

Oh yeah, the hot criminal Cary Stayner! 🙄

The Stayner grandfather lived near Parnell.

Oops that was for r48 the Reddit link

R39 Knocking up his girlfriend at a young age was a good thing to do in Steven's case. After he got married, his wife and kids were the family that he needed.

I'm listening to the Casefile True Crime podcast episode and they mention that after Steven's disappearance, the investigators looked at every person with a sexual assault record. I wonder if that included Steven's family members (grandfather, uncle, father).

The actor who played Cary in the tv movie is the first guy killed in Friday the 13th Part 8. He find of reminds me of DL fave Mitchell Anderson.

[quote] I was in middle school when the miniseries originally aired in the spring of 1989 and remember it being a major event. It was definitely well-promoted and got big ratings, too.

I remember that too. TV movies and miniseries were heavily promoted back then especially if it was based on a true story. When NBC reaired the miniseries a year or so later, they heavily promoted it and I remember my mom and siblings tuning in again.

In the late 90s/early 2000s LMN used to air a lot of TV movies and miniseries from the 70s up until the 90s. I remember maybe a year or so after, Cary Stayner was arrested for the murders, I Know My First Name is Steven was airing on LMN one weekend and I tuned in because I was bored. It was weird how in one scene after Steven comes home they mention Cary camping in Yosemite.

The mother was more articulate than I expected.

[quote] This could have been a 90 minute piece.

Fuck off!

Such a sad family history. When Steven said “why won’t my Dad look at me?” it broke my heart. And I am not easy to break.

The TV movie was so popular (a total of like 70 million watched both parts), they released a novelization that became a bestseller. After Cary's atrocious murders, it was reissued with a supplement about his crimes.

Incidentally, Steven was killed in a hit & run accident on September 16, 1989, four months after the miniseries was first broadcast. The following day (September 17) was the Primetime Emmys. Imagine if Corin Nemec had won.

70 million people tuning in to watch one show on tv. Wow! That is unheard of now. I think a show these days qualifies as a huge hit if they get about 5 million viewers.

R79 lol. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Ryan Murphy or some other TV producer makes a scripted limited series or made for cable or streaming movie on this case. Some producers , networks, and streaming services are sort of into revisiting old true crime cases these days. The Candy Montgomery case was covered in a TV movie back in the 90s, but for some odd reason both HBO and Hulu have upcoming shows on the case. The Chippendales murder case involving Steve Banerjee was covered in a couple of movies years ago. There have been two recent documentaries on the case and Hulu has an upcoming scripted show.

One thing that wouldn't be surprise me is a miniseries or movie that focuses more on Carey with more focus on the family in the years Steven was gone. It's been years since I saw the 80s miniseries so I can't remember how much they showed of that time period.

Ryan Murphy likes snarky humor, I don't know if he could wring much from this sad case and sad sack family.

I wouldn't put past Ryan Murphy to briefly use Carey Stayner as a part of AHS episode like he's done with other serial killers.

I deleted this docuseries from my queue and watched the 20/20 episode instead, so thank you to the posters who posted the link. I knew I wasn’t going to like the format from the initial reviews, but wanted to explore the story because I don’t remember it, not even Cary and I was living in CA at the time. It’s completely bonkers that there was so much drama in one family in a single generation. I think Cary was always going to become a serial killer and, unfortunately, I think Steven would have been abused by his uncle eventually too. Both stories are tragic, but Cary needs to take his punishment. All those children were put through hell if the tales of the father sexually abusing the daughters is true as well. It’s unfathomable, but realistically that secret exists in many households and passed down many generations.

Entertainment Tonight covering the making of the movie. Also, features Steven and Corin together.

The TV movie was a star-studded affair! Ferris Bueller's mom, Crystal's son from Roseanne, Becky's boyfriend from Roseanne, Rick Moranis' daughter from Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Malcolm in the Middle's dad, Mr. Melissa Reeves. Insane.

Stephen Dorff was also in the TV movie. He did quite a bit of TV movies as a teenager. TV movies were a great launching pad for some actors in those days.

I miss the big event miniseries that networks used to do, they got tons of hype and everybody and their mother would tune in to watch.

R90 I do too.

I think these kidnappers have a 6th sense about who to abduct. They know the difference between an odedient zombie and someone who would chew through drywall if that's what it took to escape.

Like those girls kept prisoner in Cleveland for 10 YEARS. I would be plotting night and day of ways to escape. Here's one: start a fire. The smoke would summon the Fire Dept. and they would discover you.

[quote] Stephen Dorff was also in the TV movie.

That's who I was referring to when I said Becky's boyfriend on Roseanne.

I wonder if Parnell was planning to kill Stayner, since he was getting too old and wouldn't be able to be controlled. Maybe that's why Parnell moved out to that creepy cabin in the middle of nowhere.

I loved the In A Child's Name mini series with DL faves Valerie Bertinelli and Chris Meloni where Valerie's sister was murdered and the family was convinced the husband did it. This scene freaks me out and stays with me til this day.

[quote]The mother was more articulate than I expected.

She was even more so when she was married to Alan Spaulding.

I believe Parnell wanted to kill Steven. Steven knew it. Parnell tried to get Steven and a friend to kidnap younger boys and Steven would sabotage attempts. This makes me wonder if Parnell had previous victims and killed them too. Someone should look into this. If there were previous missing boys in the area, it's likely linked to Parnell.

[quote]I wonder if Parnell was planning to kill Stayner, since he was getting too old and wouldn't be able to be controlled. Maybe that's why Parnell moved out to that creepy cabin in the middle of nowhere.

I remember reading about the case in 1981 when Parnell was on trial. What I read explained how Stayner had become emotionally attached to Parnell. I realized at the time that Stayner had saved White because he didn't want to be replaced. I don't think there was any indication of Parnell being murderous. It's likely he would have let Stayner stay on. Besides sex, Parnell had stated that he wanted to put together a family.

Cary tried to imply Steven only saved Timmy because Steven knew with Timmy around Parnell would kill him since he aged out

Who names their kid Carey? I am around their age and back in high school there was a kid named Troy and people were like "what kind of a name is that?". Of course now that is a normal name. But seems like they were just asking for somebody to get messed with naming him that.

Sounds similar to the case of Shawn Hornbeck. He was kidnapped as a young kid and was brutally abused and raped. Like Steven, Shawn could have left as he gotten older and was given more free-range but grew so emotionally attached to his captor that he didn't leave. The creepy captor, Michael J Devlin kidnapped another boy to molest and torture as Shawn began aging. Shawn was only rescued when police were searching for the other boy.

I would like to know more about Shawn Hornbeck but I don't dare Google it, I have Googled so much true crime the authorities will think I am a psycho.

[quote]The creepy captor, Michael J Devlin kidnapped another boy to molest and torture as Shawn began aging.

I don't remember any allegations of torture.

[quote]I would like to know more about Shawn Hornbeck but I don't dare Google it

It has a happy ending.

Shawn said when Devlin captured him. He bound him to a bed and brutally raped him for an entire month before finally releasing him and gradually began treating him more like a son, giving him free range, putting him in school and buying him video games and a computer. Here's an article:

Among them, kidnapping then 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck at gunpoint, then submitting him to years of sexual abuse. "He bound Shawn Hornbeck, tied him to a futon or a couch inside the apartment and duct taped his mouth closed," assistant prosecutor Rob Livergood told the court.

Shawn stayed with Devlin for four and a half years and told the court why. He said he tried to kill Shawn, but the boy talked him out of it and agreed to pose as his son.

"This boy made ... this deal with the devil in order to save his own life. This in the throes of it when this guy had his hand around the little boy's throat," Washington County prosecutor John Rupp told the court. "If there is any doubt why this boy lived up to the agreement, it was because the defendant gave him one choice, this or death."

Devlin's lawyers said their client admitted guilt to spare Shawn and his other victim, Ben Ownby, the pain of a trial. Robert McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecutor, disputed that. "Devlin pled guilty for one reason and that was so the entire world wouldn't know the entire extent of the atrocities that he committed on these b

Thanks r105

Sexual abuse victims also deal with so much shame and disgust that they don't want to face their family and community again. In Steven's case, he was rejected by his family and bulled upon returning which makes it all the more tragic. Shawn Hornbeck benefited from being born much later where people have more sympathy and compassion for male CSA survivors, his family was protective and set up a foundation to find missing kids, he's still alive and is doing well for himself.

R100 Carey is an old Irish surname, I do not it particularly strange.

It's better than Archibald!

I watched the first section, although this thread was discouraging about the series overall. But what I’m getting is this is both about the case itself, but also the media coverage swirling around it including the TV adaptation of the story. I am worried they aren’t going to do the deep dive of the dissection of the media circus surrounding it as throughly as they should, because this documentary is just another component in the exploitation of this story and family.

Why only the mother and one sister? I assume the father is dead but what about the other sisters?

[quote]I was a kid when the tv movie came out and it still sticks in my mind.

[quote]I was in middle school when the miniseries originally aired in the spring of 1989 and remember it being a major event. It was definitely well-promoted and got big ratings, too.

[quote]I remember that too. TV movies and miniseries were heavily promoted back then especially if it was based on a true story. When NBC reaired the miniseries a year or so later, they heavily promoted it and I remember my mom and siblings tuning in again.

I remember watching it but I was 11 when it originally aired so it came on past my bedtime, I also remember watching it during the day so I must have seen it when it re-aired - it freaked me the fuck out. Like R16 I have ever forgotten it.

Talk about typecast. The actor who played Parnell so freaked me out as a kid that I never can warm up to Arliss Howard in other parts he plays. He is married to DL fave Debra Winger.

Did he have a dog when he was with Parnell that he brought back to his original home?

I’ve always remembered that scene too R95! It’s one of the most chilling things I’ve ever seen. And those bells

You must live in Mormontown R44 cuz I think the 70s were pretty wild.

r116 I was talking when I was 11 years old like Steven was when he was kidnapped

Steven was 7 when he was kidnapped.

Then I really would have felt that way at 7 years old. I notice it in my own family, we were raised so much stricter than my brother's children and my parents are so much looser with the grandkids. Back then we were taught to obey authority and respect our elders and not talk back. My parents are not as rigid as they were when I was a child. Maybe because I live in the midwest maybe things were more conservative than what r116 lived in? I am just saying I can understand why Steven complied, not saying it was right.

^^^^^ I was just reading about Shawn Hornbeck that's why 11 years old was on my mind

R77 LMN used to show it at least twice a year until about 2005, and when they did they Lifetime message boards always got a ton of posts.

R114 Yes. Paenell's mother gave the dog to Parnell, and Parnell gave her to Steven. The dog was named Queenie.

R86 Ugh. You're right. When I was a kid, my mom hated an old man that lived on our street. When I grew up, she told me that he tried to assault her.

I Googled him out of curiosity and he is currently in prison for molesting a little girl that he's related to, though the news article I found doesn't say how they're related. The creepiest thing is that his son and grandson are (or at least were at the time that I looked him up) also doing time for sex crimes. The son is in for statutory rape and the grandson for molesting a female relative (no idea if it's the same one that his grandfather molested). All three have the same name too.

I wonder if the Mormon religion is responsible for these kids' passivity (Elizabeth Smart)?

But Steven was also a bit dense. Died riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

i stayed in the isolated cabin in yosemite where the instructor was abducted. visiting friends who worked for yosemite institute.

R124 nobody rode without a helmet then, nevermind a motorcycle.

[quote] I remember reading about the case in 1981 when Parnell was on trial. What I read explained how Stayner had become emotionally attached to Parnell. I realized at the time that Stayner had saved White because he didn't want to be replaced. I don't think there was any indication of Parnell being murderous. It's likely he would have let Stayner stay on. Besides sex, Parnell had stated that he wanted to put together a family.

I also reading something that Parnell wanting to set up a family. I often wondered if the indie movie Gardens of the Night was largely inspired by the Steven Stayner case. The movie was about a little girl who gets kidnapped by a middle aged guy and guy in his 20s. It was pretty much implied that the younger kidnapper had been kidnapped by the older guy as a child and stayed with him and became an accomplice in kidnapping kids. The older kidnapper in that movie was similar to Parnell with references to God and religion similar to how Parnell tried to pass himself off as a minister.

One of many reasons it’s a bad idea for parents to hit their kids— teaches kids it’s ok for other people to do anything they want to kids’ bodies.

Religion is a creepy, fertile breeding ground for these beliefs, too.

When I was in 8th grade, a man in our church was accused of trying to molest two girls in our church. I never got the whole story, I don’t think. But I remember my mother sort of scoffing at the claims. A lot of people left the church, but our family stayed in the church with the alleged molester. (!)

I would need weeks to describe to you how stupid my parents were.

[quote] But Steven was also a bit dense. Died riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Straight guys loved not wearing helmets in the 80s. No one wants to look like a fag.

There are a few vids on YT about this family. One indicates that incest and alcoholism ran rampant in the Stayner family. The mother was a victim by way of her father, and Stevens father allegedly molested the girls in the family.

You still see guys on motorcycles without a helmet all the time.

Steven Staynor looked like Mike Lookinland

Spending so much time on the tv miniseries and the actors who appeared in it is really bizarre.

r133 for dramatization. The actor Corin Nemec looked a lot like Tom Holland when he was playing Steven Stayner in that mini series. I'm sure a lot of young girls and guys were into him when that came out in 1989.

I actually liked seeing Corin Nemec because I only knew this story through the tv movie I saw as a teen.

saw it....not very well done... alas

Dont like the way the parents were after he came home, a bit cold, the mom seems weird in interviews now.

Can see why netflix probably passed on it, its kind of amateurish.

(r134) "I'm sure a lot of young girls and guys were into him when that came out in 1989."

I was 14 in 1989. And yeah - had the hots for Corin Nemec bigtime. Yum.

He was very goodlooking and aged well. The guy who played Carey too.

Imo Corin has not aged well (per his own instagram pics): bloated booze face that is lined, an "m-shaped" receded hairline he did not get Hollywoodly restored, and a dad bod. As a kid he really had the Tom Holland twinkiness: same thin lips, big brown eyes, similarish bone structure and overall puppy dog face.

From the clips of the "I Know My First Name Is Steven" tv series, Nemec seemed like a good child actor too. Was he?

Nemec's career dried up fast.

Corin Nemec is a $cientologist.

R143 Who recruited him into the cult?

r144 I have no idea. I also used to watch him in that FOX show 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose' when I was a teen and thought he was kind of cute. But when I found out he was a Clam it turned me off to him.

r144, he could have been in it because of his parents, like Leah whatshername was. I think Giovanni and Marisa Ribisi were also born into it.

R146 Leah Remini. The Ribisis were born into the cult. IIRC, their mother is a high ranking cult member. Elisabeth Moss and Erika Christensen were also born into the cult.

I finally got around to watching this. It's such a fascinating story, but this docuseries was not good. I agree with the people that said it spent too much time talking about the TV movie and the people who said that not enough time was spent on the Stayner family background.

The 20/20 segment from a couple of years ago had more depth in a fraction of the time.

I don't understand the inference of sexual abuse within the family. Who abused whom? I liked the mom from the beginning, she was so calm and well-spoken but as the story progressed, I wondered if she wasn't in permanent shock from what had happened to her family.

I wish the mom had been forced to talk about how she and her husband created the monster that was Cary. Because of Steven, she's gotten off scot-free.

R150, it was very clear that the mom would only participate if she didn’t have to speak about Cary. There was a moment when the director makes sure that it’s on camera that she’s asked and the mother declined.

I understand the trade off as a filmmaker, but I wish her segments on Steven were more enlightening if she was going get immunity for the Cary bits.

R149 Carey claims that he was abused by an uncle. One of the Stayner sisters and a cousin said Carey peeped on them when they were in the bathroom. Delbert was also ordered to get therapy for molesting his daughters.