America met Steven Stayner twice. The first time, he was a seven-year-old child on a missing person poster, having disappeared without a trace on his way home from school. The second time, he was 14, freshly escaped from a seven-year captivity, his abductor’s other, five-year-old victim on his back.
Steven was abducted on 4 December 1972 just a few blocks from his house in Merced, California. His abductor, Kenneth Parnell, pretended to be collecting donations for a church and insisted on giving Steven a ride home. Instead, Parnell took Steven to his own residence. After a few days, he falsely claimed to have “gotten possession” of Steven in court. Throughout Steven’s captivity, Parnell referred to him as Dennis and passed himself off as his father. He sent him to school, albeit sporadically, where teachers and friends also knew him under that name. Parnell subjected Steven to mental, physical, and sexual abuse. His hold on Steven was such that the boy never revealed the truth about his circumstances.
