Stayner Raped 2 Teenagers, Affidavit Says

FRESNO —  A motel handyman who admitted beheading a Yosemite naturalist also confessed to raping two teenage sightseers in their room at Cedar Lodge, according to the government’s request for the man’s body fluid samples.

Cary Stayner told the FBI he sexually assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juliana Sund before killing them, according to an affidavit filed in federal court Monday requesting fluid samples from Stayner.

The affidavit is the first public acknowledgment by investigators that the two teenage victims were sexually assaulted before they and Carole Sund were killed. Stayner has not yet been charged in the sightseers’ murders.

Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the July 21 death of naturalist Joie Armstrong. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he said he did not rape any of the women.

He also is the prime suspect in the sightseers’ slayings, but charges are pending while an FBI-led task force continues to investigate whether others might have been involved. The three disappeared during a trip in February.

Stayner had fought a request to give samples of his blood, hair and saliva to the FBI. But on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Lawrence J. O’Neill signed a warrant to obtain those samples and a full set of fingerprints from Stayner.

The affidavit says evidence was collected from the room where “Stayner claims to have sexually assaulted Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso and murdered both Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso.”

While Stayner was being interrogated by the FBI, he said that hair from his body was left on the bedspread in their motel room, but he returned later and changed the bedding.