Against Their Will

by Nigel Cawthorne

  Steven was asked to make a statement. In it he said he knew his first name was Steven, and he thought his last name was Stayner, though he could not remember how to spell it. It appears as “Stainer” throughout his statement. He denied that Parnell had sexually assaulted him, saying that his “dad” had been good to him and he did not know why he had kidnapped him or Timmy.

  A doctor examined Timmy for signs of sexual abuse. There were none. Timmy’s parents thanked Steven for bringing him back to them safely. Steven was then returned home.

  In his statement, Steven had mentioned that a second man was involved in his abduction, but had not named him. On March 3, officers took Steven to the Merced police station for a second interview. After several hours of questioning, he told them that the second man’s name was Murphy and he worked in Yosemite. Later, Ervin Edward Murphy was arrested.

  Although Steven continued to maintain that he had not been sexually abused, the police began to suspect that he was not telling the truth. They had Parnell’s record.

  In April, Steven’s parents took him to visit Timmy and then Steven’s friends in Comptche. But then it was time to return to school in Merced. This was hard for Steven. Guessing the nature of the relationship between him and Parnell, schoolmates called him gay and the question was asked repeatedly: Why hadn’t he run away from Parnell? He compensated by eschewing male companionship in favor of girls.

  As investigations continued, the police heard of Parnell’s alleged sexual assaults on Dennis’s male friends in Comptche. Steven was then confronted with nude pictures Parnell had taken of him, and he admitted that Parnell had sexually assaulted him—not once but hundreds of times since he had kidnapped him. However, there was a statute of limitations on sexual assaults of three years in California. That meant they could not prosecute the early assaults in Merced County and the assaults between 1977 and 1980 would have to be filed in Mendocino County. The authorities there decided not to proceed with these charges to save Steven from having to testify about them.

  There was also a three-year statute of limitations on kidnapping, but the Merced Country DA convinced a grand jury that the kidnapping did not just mean the original abduction. It also covered Steven’s continued captivity. They returned an indictment for second-degree kidnapping. In California, first-degree kidnapping had to result in death or bodily harm to the victim. Sexual assault was not considered bodily harm in California.

  On June 8, 1981, Parnell’s trial for the kidnapping of Timmy White began in Mendocino County. Sean Poorman had already been convicted of false imprisonment in a juvenile court and was offered immunity from prosecution for kidnapping if he turned state’s evidence. Both Steven and Timmy also testified. The jury took less than two hours to find Parnell guilty. He was sentenced to seven years, the maximum for second-degree kidnapping.

  Then on December 1, 1981, Parnell and Murphy went on trial for Steven’s kidnapping in Merced County. When Steven took the stand, he gave a detailed account of the sexual abuse he had suffered. Both Parnell and Murphy were found guilty of second-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap. Parnell was again given the maximum sentence of seven years, but it was to run concurrently with his other sentence, so it made little difference. Murphy got five years; it was a harsh sentence, as he was not the prime mover in the crime and had no prior criminal record. However, prosecutors pointed out that Murphy could have come forward at any time and rescued Steven from the clutches of Parnell.

  Steven Stayner married in 1985 and had two children. He worked hard to support them. On the afternoon of September 16, 1989, he was returning home from work on his motorcycle in the rain when a car pulled out from a side road. He skidded to avoid it and struck his head. His helmet had been stolen a few days before. He died of his injuries in Merced County Medical Center, aged just twenty-four. Fourteen-year-old Timmy White was a pallbearer at his funeral.

  More tragedy hit the Stayner family. The following year, Steven’s uncle Jerry Stayner was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in his home in Merced. Then in 2001, Steven’s older brother Cary was convicted for the murder of four women and sentenced to death. After his arrest, he claimed to have fantasized about killing women since he was seven, long before Steven’s abduction. He asked for child pornography in exchange for his confession.

  Kenneth Parnell served just five years before being paroled. By 2002, he had become a near invalid, requiring the assistance of social workers to deal with his everyday needs. Although he was in his seventies, Parnell had not changed. He offered one of his care workers $500 to get him a little African-American boy. The care worker did not take him seriously, at first. When he persisted, she reported him to the authorities, who told her to play along.

  On January 3, 2003, she arrived at Parnell’s home and told him she had the little boy he wanted outside in the car. Parnell gave her $100 for a forged birth certificate, and asked her to bring the boy in. When she went outside, police descended. They found the remaining $400 in Parnell’s pockets. A search of his residence unearthed toys for his new “son,” along with associated pornography and sex toys.

  Parnell was charged with soliciting a kidnapping, trying to steal a child, and attempting to purchase a person. Tim White and Kay Stayner, Steven’s mother, were called to testify at his trial to show that Parnell’s attempt to purchase a young boy was a continuation of his earlier criminal behavior, though no details of his sexual abuse of Steven were permitted as Parnell was not charged with sexual offenses.

  Parnell’s defense had tried to quash any mention of the kidnapping or Steven Stayner and Timmy White, telling the jury that Parnell merely wanted to provide a nice home to a disadvantaged young boy. Parnell, they maintained, was too old to be a threat to young children. He had not mentioned the word “kidnap.” He had merely asked the care worker to “get” him a child, though he admitted that it would be “risky.”

  The jury took just ninety minutes to find him guilty. He was sentenced to twenty-five years to life under California’s “three strikes” law. Parnell died of natural causes in California State Prison Hospital in Vacaville on January 21, 2008.

  Chapter 10

  Charlene Lunnon and Lisa Hoodless—The Theft of Innocence

  CHARLENE LUNNON AND LISA HOODLESS were best friends from school. But while Charlene had been in and out of foster care since she was young, Lisa came from a sheltered background. During their first sex education class, Lisa was shocked when she was told about the development of breasts and menstruation. Charlene, by contrast, had once woken up on her drug-addicted mother’s lap to see a man trying to push his penis into her mother’s mouth. Her mom had also watched pornographic movies with her friends when Charlene was in the room. For her there was no mystery. At ten, Charlene had already had her first period.

  “I could get pregnant now,” she said.

  Lisa still had no idea how babies were made.

  On the morning of January 19, 1999, the two friends were walking to school in the St. Leonards’ district of Hastings, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. When they met in the street, ten-year-old Lisa had said that she thought a car was following her, but Charlene did not believe her.

  A little way down the street, seagulls had ripped a trash bag open. Avoiding the spilled garbage, Lisa stepped onto the road. A turquoise car swerved and braked to avoid hitting her. The car stopped a little farther down the road. The driver got out and came back to speak to them. Charlene felt uneasy and made an excuse to hurry off, but the driver put his arms around their shoulders. His grip tightened.

  “Get in the car and do as I say,” he said in a menacing tone.

  Lisa screamed. He put his hand over her mouth and bundled her into the trunk of the car. Charlene could have run away right then but, in shock, she froze. She could not abandon her friend Lisa. So when he told her to get into the trunk, she did. Then he slammed it closed.

  In the darkness, Charlene could hear Lisa’s sobs. She was little comfort.


  “I know what he is going to do,” she said. “He is going to rape us and murder us.”

  Lisa did not even know what the word “rape” meant. But it was stuffy in the trunk and it smelled of gasoline, and the thought of being murdered made her panic.

  Charlene tried to take control of the situation. She told Lisa to keep quiet; everything would be okay. Then she started singing the Sade song “Your Love Is King.”

  To mask the sound, the kidnapper turned the stereo up.

  They seemed to have been driving for ages when the car suddenly stopped. The trunk opened and the kidnapper grabbed Charlene. Lisa was thrust back into the dark and the trunk lid closed.

  Charlene was shoved into the backseat of the car. They were in a remote spot and there was no chance of escape. The kidnapper got in too and sat her on his lap. He began asking her questions. What was her name? How old was she? What was her favorite color? What was her favorite subject at school? Charlene knew what he was playing at. At one of the foster homes she had been sent to after her mother died, there was a babysitter named Bert who took care of her when her foster parents were out. He liked to watch her having a bath. Then he played games with her, touching her, and doing things that he said she was not to tell her foster parents about—they would never believe her. He played mind games with her. The kidnapper was doing the same thing.

  However, the kidnapper said that he had taken her for a ransom and got her to give him her father’s phone number. He had kidnapped a girl before, he said. He had held her for just three hours and got a lot of money. But he had gotten caught and had gone to prison. This time things were going to work out better though, he said.

  Charlene could hear Lisa sobbing and asked to be returned to her. The kidnapper obliged and put Charlene back in the trunk.

  They were driven around some more. When they stopped, they were inside a garage. This time he wanted Lisa. The kidnapper produced a sports bag and told Lisa to get in. She refused, so he grabbed her and pushed her in. He zipped it shut and carried her into the adjoining house.

  When he opened the bag, Lisa found herself in a dingy living room. The curtains were drawn. He began taking her clothes off. When she asked him why he was doing it, he said he had already told Charlene that he was holding them for ransom. She said that her parents would give him any money he wanted, but he continued taking her clothes off.

  Once she was naked, she tried to cover herself with her hands, but he held her arms above her head, then bound her wrists behind her back with her panty hose. He picked her up and put her on his lap. She could feel him looking at her naked body. He began asking her questions; then he began stroking her between her legs with his fingers. She did not know why he was doing this, but it felt wrong and she asked him to stop. He took no notice. Behind his eyes, she said she saw an emptiness. It was as if there was not a real person there.

  In the garage, Charlene was kicking and screaming. The kidnapper then left Lisa inside and came to ask Charlene what all the noise was about. She said she needed to pee. He offered her a bucket. When she refused to use it, he closed the trunk again.

  Charlene not only knew about sex and what rape would entail, but she also knew about death. Her mother had died of a drug overdose two years before. Recently, Charlene had been reunited with her dad and had gone to live with him and his new wife. She was enjoying some sort of stability and happiness for the first time in her life, and this man was going to take it all away.

  Then she heard him coming back. She figured that he had killed Lisa already. Now it was her turn. When he opened the trunk, she asked what he had done with Lisa. He said she was not to worry. Lisa was fine.

  He got her out of the trunk and told her to take her pants off. Charlene, too, noticed his cold dead eyes. Then he told her to take her panties off as well. She knew what was going to happen next. She had been through it with Bert and she tried to cover herself with her coat. He pulled it off her and threw it in the trunk.

  Then he got her to sit in the backseat of the car with her legs open. He stared at her, but did not touch her. Bert had done the same thing, sometimes. But she was much more scared of this man than Bert. Bert had done terrible things to her, but he was not a danger. This man, she decided, was quite capable of killing both her and Lisa just to prevent them from telling anyone what he had done.

  After examining her private parts closely, he got her out of the car and told her to put her clothes back on. Then he returned her to the trunk. Lisa was then brought back to the car in the sports bag, but he took her out once she was in the trunk. In the trunk, the two girls told each other what had happened to them as the car drove off. After a while, the car stopped again and Lisa was returned to the sports bag while Charlene was left in the trunk. The man carried Lisa up the stairs to a small apartment and left her there while he went to get Charlene. He told her she was not to try to escape, as the man next door had a fierce dog that would tear her to pieces.

  Charlene was too big to fit into the sports bag, so he carried her up the stairs wrapped in the trash bag with holes cut for her nose and eyes. He took the girls over to the window and opened the curtain. He said they would never be able to escape from that height. The fall would break their legs at the very least. The only other way was out was the front door, and it was securely locked.

  They asked him his name. He wouldn’t tell them. Then they asked him to call their parents for the ransom. He said he would do it later. He said he was now not sure what he was going to do with them; he would have to decide.

  Lisa needed to pee. He took her to the bathroom, but would not leave and stood there watching.

  When they pressed him again to call their parents, he said his plans had backfired and he did not know what to do with them. He might have to let them go. That was all right, they said. He did not have to drop them outside their homes. He could leave them nearby and they would walk.

  Comforted by the prospect that they might be going home, they ate the packed lunches they had in their school bags. Charlene told Lisa what Bert had done to her. Soon they noticed it was getting dark outside.

  The kidnapper bound Lisa’s wrists and ankles with ladies’ panty hose and took Charlene into his bedroom. There he took off Charlene’s clothes. She quickly found it was pointless to struggle. He told her he was not going to hurt her and got her to lie on the bed. Then he took off his own clothes and lay down beside her.

  He began rubbing Vaseline between her legs. Charlene let her mind go blank and distant, just as she had with Bert. She tried to think of nicer things—her hamster, Fluffy, her new bedroom, her father’s wedding. The man got on top of her and tried to force his way inside her. The pain was unbearable. She screamed and begged him to stop. He put his hand over her mouth.

  After he had finished, he gave her a T-shirt to wear and took her back in the other room. He gave Lisa a T-shirt too and told them to sleep on the couch. Once they were alone, Charlene explained what had happened to her. This was Lisa’s brutal introduction into the facts of life. They tried their best to stay awake, but comforted by the thought that they might be going home, they drifted off.

  In the morning, their abductor appeared almost contrite. He apologized and said he should not have taken them. He had gotten himself into a big mess and did not know how to get out of it. He said his name was Alan. This was his apartment. The other house he had taken them to belonged to his parents who were away in Australia.

  The girls were eager to get going. Lisa suggested that he drop them off outside a police station then drive off.

  “They wouldn’t catch you,” she said.

  But he wanted to get caught, he said. He deserved to get caught. He should be in jail. He felt safe in jail. They gave him three meals a day and he did not have to worry about paying his bills.

  He explained that he had kidnapped girls twice before. One had got away. When he had taken the other, someone had seen his car and he got caught. He had been out of jail for four years. Everything
had been okay until his parents had gone away, now he had done this. It seemed he could not handle life outside jail. He was a bad person.

  He asked them to hit him. They refused. He begged them. Eventually Lisa plucked up the courage to slap him. He thanked her and said he deserved that.

  This gave her more courage. She asked him to promise to be nice to them and drop them off at the police station. He said he would and apologized to Charlene. He would not rape her again, he said.

  Charlene asked whether he had called her dad. He said he had, but her father would not pay the ransom. Lisa’s parents would not pay either. The girls were devastated. He told them not to worry. He needed to think and would leave them for a bit. Once he was gone, they agreed that their parents would have found the money if he had asked. They knew he had not called them and they hated him for sowing the tiniest seed of doubt in their minds.

  After that, they realized that they could not believe a word he said. He did not take them and drop them off outside a police station as they had asked. Nor was his promise not to rape Charlene again any good. That evening, he dragged Charlene back into the bedroom. Lisa could hear her screams.

  With Charlene, he pretended that he was being gentle and considerate. The man next door would not bother with the Vaseline, he said. He would tear her to pieces. It hurt Charlene more this time because she was sore. While he was raping her, Charlene wondered whether he would try and rape Lisa too. Or was he only doing it to her because she was bigger?

  Afterward, she would not talk and spurned his attempts to cuddle.

  “Be nice,” he begged. She wouldn’t.

  Then he went and got Lisa. He got her to lay down naked beside Charlene and tied their hands above their heads. He watched them for a bit, then he untied Charlene and told her to go in the other room and watch TV. Lisa begged her not to go. She had no choice.