Silvina Pelosso, a 16-year-old female exchange student from Argentina, was tragically murdered on February 15, 1999, during a sightseeing trip near Yosemite National Park in California. She had been staying with the Sund family in Eureka, California, and was traveling with 42-year-old Carole Sund and her 15-year-old daughter, Juli Sund. The group had checked into the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, California, on February 14, 1999, as part of their vacation.
That evening, they were last seen alive after renting videos to watch in their room.
When the group failed to meet Carole's husband at the airport as planned, a missing persons report was filed. A massive search effort ensued, involving local authorities and park rangers. For over a month, there were no leads until March 18, 1999, when the charred remains of a car were discovered in a remote area. Inside the trunk were the burned bodies of 42-year-old Carole Sund and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso, both female. Dental records were used to confirm their identities. The body of 15-year-old Juli Sund was found a week later, on March 25, near Lake Don Pedro. Her throat had been slashed.
The investigation took a major turn in July 1999 when 37-year-old Cary Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge where the victims had stayed, was arrested. Stayner confessed to the murders of all three females—42-year-old Carole Sund, 15-year-old Juli Sund, and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso—as well as the separate murder of 26-year-old Joie Ruth Armstrong, a naturalist who was killed in July 1999. Stayner admitted to gaining access to the Sunds' room under the pretense of fixing a leak, then sexually assaulting and murdering the victims. He was later convicted and sentenced to death.
The case shocked the nation, not only for its brutality but also because Stayner was the brother of Steven Stayner, a well-known kidnapping survivor. The murders of 16-year-old female Argentine national Silvina Pelosso and her companions remain one of the most harrowing crimes in the history of U.S. national parks.
