Former motel handyman Cary Stayner was convicted Monday, Aug. 26, 2002, of the 1999 slayings of the three Yosemite park tourists (Sund, Pelosso Families via Modesto Bee/AP). Stayner confessed to multiple murders, and had planned to kill his girlfriend and her daughter on the day after Valentine's Day, but an unexpected visitor force-changed those plans. He drove to Cedar Lodge where he noticed Carole, her daughter (Juli), and a family friend and foreign exchange student (Silvina Pelosso) who was accompanying the mother and daughter on a visit to Yosemite, and committed the crime.

Carole and Silvina were strangled, and Julie was raped. Carole's wallet, with her license and credit cards still inside, was found 80 miles from the Lodge; Stayner admitted to throwing the wallet in that location in an effort to throw off law enforcement. The charred bodies of Carole and Silvina were located in the trunk of Carole's red Pontiac in the mountains, and the body of Juli Sund was located after law enforcement followed a map left by Stayner indicating the location of the body (undisclosed location - presumably near Sierra Village, California).