https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploa...ience-steven-stayner.jpg?quality=75&strip=all
Never heard of this story
*7 yr old kid Steven kidnapped for 7 years
Raised and molested by man that made him pretend he was the kid's father
The man kidnapped another kid 5yrs old when Steven Stayner was 14
Steven takes the 5yr old and escapes
And gets to cops
And both reunited with family
A mini series made about the story in 1989
****Steven had an older brother that was jealous of all the attention Steven got....
Then later that older brother raped & killed 4 women/girls
----
Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story
In 1972, seven-year-old Steven vanishes from Merced, CA. When he heroically returns 7 years later, the media can’t get enough of the story. But this isn’t the Hollywood ending it appears to be.
In Captive Audience, the Stayner Family Opens Up About Navigating an Impossible Reality in the Spotlight
In Captive Audience, the Stayner Family Opens Up About Navigating an Impossible Reality in the Spotlight
The new Hulu docuseries pulls back the curtain on how one of the most prominent true crime families — complete with a child kidnapping victim and his serial killer brother — navigated trauma under a microscope
By Kyler AlvordApril 22, 2022 12:03 PM
Decades after the Stayner family dominated the news cycle, they are back in headlines once more following the release of Hulu's newest true crime docuseries. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story rehashes the series of horrific events spanning the '70s, '80s and '90s that captivated a nation — and destroyed a family.
Before the Stayners became one of the most recognizable names in the true crime genre, they were a modest family based out of Merced, Calif. At the helm were Delbert and Kay Stayner, with three daughters and two sons in tow.
But in 1972, the family would begin a traumatizing and highly publicized journey that spanned 30 years. "This family captured the imagination of the public for decades," newscaster Ted Rowlands, who covered the Stayners throughout his career, recalls in Captive Audience.
"You can't make a movie about something like this happening," Kay says in the first episode. "It doesn't."
Steven Stayner's Abduction
On Dec. 4, 1972, the Stayner family's low profile permanently changed when 7-year-old Steven Stayner, the middle child, was abducted walking home from school. He was given a new identity — Dennis Parnell — and for seven years endured sexual abuse at the hands of his captor.
During that time, Delbert and Kay struggled to move on without answers about what happened to their son. "It affects every aspect of your life," Kay recalls in the show. For the first two or three years of his absence, she refused to leave the house unattended in case Steven called. Delbert, she says, would drive through the hills looking for makeshift graves and follow suspicious vehicles with hopes of locating Steven.
"The only good part about him being missing," Kay says, "is there was always hope that he would be found."
In March of 1980, her hopes came true. Steven, then 14, unexpectedly turned up at a police station in Ukiah — several hours north of Merced — alongside another missing boy, 5-year-old Timmy White.
Hero Is Born
An investigation into Steven's reappearance uncovered that he was motivated to plan an escape after his captor abducted Timmy. He was reportedly troubled by Timmy's distress and unwilling to watch an innocent young boy undergo the same abuse he suffered.
One night, he and Timmy snuck out while their abductor was working and they hitchhiked to Ukiah. When authorities realized who Steven was the Stayners were called to come see him, and the grand reunion was met with fanfare.
"What more could you ask for?" Kay says. "He came home."
But from that moment on, Steven would never escape the spotlight.
Even outside of press conferences he held with family members and Timmy, the cameras didn't turn off. Television crews followed him through the school hallways, watched him at home and looked for any update on his current state as he assimilated back into his life as Steven Stayner.
"He was scared spitless. All the TV cameras," Kay says. "We had news people up on our roof, shooting pictures through the windows, and it was mayhem."
"There's a lot of things I wish we'd done differently," adds Kay, struggling to decide if they should have done more to protect his privacy. "I wanted to share Steve's homecoming with the world. I wanted to share the happiness we had, the good outcome, but then that had a bad side too."
Kay reveals that she thought her son needed therapy so he would have a place to privately process his traumatic experiences, but the idea was shut down by her husband.
"We wanted to go back to our normal lives," Steven's younger sister, Cory Stayner, tells the Captive Audience producers. "Kind of hard to do that when you got the cameras everywhere though."
Steven's Final Years
Amid the mayhem, Steven learned to live with the publicity, for better or worse. By 19, he had wed Jody Edmondson — a girl whom he met at the butcher shop where he worked — and started a family. Soon, the couple had two children: Ashley and Steven Jr., both of whom weigh in throughout the docuseries.
"He was a good dad, he was a good family man," Jody remembers. "It came natural to him."
"He became a husband and a father and then he had to knuckle down and decide what he was going to do with his life," Kay says. Soon enough, an opportunity presented itself: Screenwriter JP Miller wanted to write a made-for-television movie about his life.
Never heard of this story
*7 yr old kid Steven kidnapped for 7 years
Raised and molested by man that made him pretend he was the kid's father
The man kidnapped another kid 5yrs old when Steven Stayner was 14
Steven takes the 5yr old and escapes
And gets to cops
And both reunited with family
A mini series made about the story in 1989
****Steven had an older brother that was jealous of all the attention Steven got....
Then later that older brother raped & killed 4 women/girls
----
Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story
In 1972, seven-year-old Steven vanishes from Merced, CA. When he heroically returns 7 years later, the media can’t get enough of the story. But this isn’t the Hollywood ending it appears to be.
In Captive Audience, the Stayner Family Opens Up About Navigating an Impossible Reality in the Spotlight
In Captive Audience, the Stayner Family Opens Up About Navigating an Impossible Reality in the Spotlight
The new Hulu docuseries pulls back the curtain on how one of the most prominent true crime families — complete with a child kidnapping victim and his serial killer brother — navigated trauma under a microscope
By Kyler AlvordApril 22, 2022 12:03 PM
Decades after the Stayner family dominated the news cycle, they are back in headlines once more following the release of Hulu's newest true crime docuseries. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story rehashes the series of horrific events spanning the '70s, '80s and '90s that captivated a nation — and destroyed a family.
Before the Stayners became one of the most recognizable names in the true crime genre, they were a modest family based out of Merced, Calif. At the helm were Delbert and Kay Stayner, with three daughters and two sons in tow.
But in 1972, the family would begin a traumatizing and highly publicized journey that spanned 30 years. "This family captured the imagination of the public for decades," newscaster Ted Rowlands, who covered the Stayners throughout his career, recalls in Captive Audience.
"You can't make a movie about something like this happening," Kay says in the first episode. "It doesn't."
Steven Stayner's Abduction
On Dec. 4, 1972, the Stayner family's low profile permanently changed when 7-year-old Steven Stayner, the middle child, was abducted walking home from school. He was given a new identity — Dennis Parnell — and for seven years endured sexual abuse at the hands of his captor.
During that time, Delbert and Kay struggled to move on without answers about what happened to their son. "It affects every aspect of your life," Kay recalls in the show. For the first two or three years of his absence, she refused to leave the house unattended in case Steven called. Delbert, she says, would drive through the hills looking for makeshift graves and follow suspicious vehicles with hopes of locating Steven.
"The only good part about him being missing," Kay says, "is there was always hope that he would be found."
In March of 1980, her hopes came true. Steven, then 14, unexpectedly turned up at a police station in Ukiah — several hours north of Merced — alongside another missing boy, 5-year-old Timmy White.
Hero Is Born
An investigation into Steven's reappearance uncovered that he was motivated to plan an escape after his captor abducted Timmy. He was reportedly troubled by Timmy's distress and unwilling to watch an innocent young boy undergo the same abuse he suffered.
One night, he and Timmy snuck out while their abductor was working and they hitchhiked to Ukiah. When authorities realized who Steven was the Stayners were called to come see him, and the grand reunion was met with fanfare.
"What more could you ask for?" Kay says. "He came home."
But from that moment on, Steven would never escape the spotlight.
Even outside of press conferences he held with family members and Timmy, the cameras didn't turn off. Television crews followed him through the school hallways, watched him at home and looked for any update on his current state as he assimilated back into his life as Steven Stayner.
"He was scared spitless. All the TV cameras," Kay says. "We had news people up on our roof, shooting pictures through the windows, and it was mayhem."
"There's a lot of things I wish we'd done differently," adds Kay, struggling to decide if they should have done more to protect his privacy. "I wanted to share Steve's homecoming with the world. I wanted to share the happiness we had, the good outcome, but then that had a bad side too."
Kay reveals that she thought her son needed therapy so he would have a place to privately process his traumatic experiences, but the idea was shut down by her husband.
"We wanted to go back to our normal lives," Steven's younger sister, Cory Stayner, tells the Captive Audience producers. "Kind of hard to do that when you got the cameras everywhere though."
Steven's Final Years
Amid the mayhem, Steven learned to live with the publicity, for better or worse. By 19, he had wed Jody Edmondson — a girl whom he met at the butcher shop where he worked — and started a family. Soon, the couple had two children: Ashley and Steven Jr., both of whom weigh in throughout the docuseries.
"He was a good dad, he was a good family man," Jody remembers. "It came natural to him."
"He became a husband and a father and then he had to knuckle down and decide what he was going to do with his life," Kay says. Soon enough, an opportunity presented itself: Screenwriter JP Miller wanted to write a made-for-television movie about his life.
