FBI: Suspect said he sexually assaulted teen-age sightseers

The Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. -- A motel handyman who admitted beheading a Yosemite naturalist also confessed to sexually assaulting two teen- age sightseers before they were killed, the government said in court documents filed Monday.

Cary Stayner told the FBI he sexually assaulted Silvina Pelosso and Juli Sund in their room at the Cedar Lodge before killing them, according to a six-page affidavit to support a request for bodily fluid samples. A judge ordered Stayner to comply.

Stayner also led the FBI to the knives he says he used to decapitate Joie Armstrong and slash the throat of Juli Sund, the affidavit says. The weapons had dried blood and fingerprints on them.

The affidavit is the first public acknowledgment by investigators that the two teen-age victims were sexually assaulted before they and Juli Sund's mother, Carole Sund, were killed. Stayner is the prime suspect but hasn't been charged in their deaths.

Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the July 21 death of Armstrong, a naturalist who led outdoor education programs at the park. In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter, he claimed he didn't sexually assault any of the women.

Stayner has fought a request to give samples of his blood, hair and saliva to the FBI.

Stayner lived and worked at the Cedar Lodge, the last place the three sightseers were seen alive in February. Analysis by the FBI crime lab has yielded trace evidence including "hairs in vacuum sweepings" and "possible bodily fluid stains on a blanket seized in the room," the affidavit says.

The crime lab has also recovered two partial fingerprints from the anonymous letter that Stayner claims to have authored and mailed to the FBI's Modesto office in March, directing investigators to Juli Sund's body.

At Stayner's direction, investigators also seized the camouflage pants and black shorts he was wearing the night he says he killed the sightseers.

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