YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- A motel handyman described in detail for the FBI and a television reporter how he killed a naturalist and three sightseers, saying he had dreamed of such crimes since childhood.
Cary Stayner told a reporter from KNTV of San Jose in an off-camera jailhouse interview Monday how he killed Joie Ruth Armstrong last week and Carole Sund, her daughter Juli Sund and family friend Silvina Pelosso last winter."I am guilty," the station quoted Stayner as saying. "I did murder Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong. . . . None of the women were sexually abused in any way."
Earlier, he gave the FBI details only the killer would know, in such specificity that agents were able to recover evidence confirming his confession, the Los Angeles Times quoted sources as saying.
Knives were used in the slayings, and the weapon suspected in Armstrong's death was recovered, the Times reported.
The stunning admission was the latest twist in a strange case dating to mid-February, when the sightseers vanished.
Only days ago, authorities had said they believed those responsible for the high-profile slayings near one of the nation's premier national parks were already behind bars. Stayner, who had worked and lived at the lodge where the three were last seen alive, was questioned months ago and ruled out as a suspect.
Stayner, 37, told KNTV that he had fantasized about killing women for 30 years before acting on his dreams.
He said he strangled Carole Sund, 42, and Pelosso, 16, in their rented cabin at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, just outside Yosemite's western boundary. He said he then took 15-year-old Juli Sund to a lake, where he killed her the next morning.
The women were reported missing on Feb. 17. It was more than a month before their bodies were found.
Stayner told KNTV he abandoned the group's rental car with the bodies of Carole Sund and Pelosso inside, returning two days later to burn evidence and to retrieve Carole Sund's wallet, which he dumped in Modesto to confuse authorities.
Stayner said he was the person who tipped the FBI to the whereabouts of Juli Sund's body by sending an anonymous letter.
The suspect also said he thought he had gotten away with the crimes and did not leave the area for fear of drawing attention to himself. Everything changed when he struck up a chance conversation with Armstrong last week and was unable to resist killing her when he realized she was alone, he said.
Her decapitated body was found last Thursday.
To the victims' families, Stayner said, "I am sorry their loved ones were where they were when they were. I wish I could have controlled myself and not done what I did."
FBI agent Nick Rossi said he could not say whether Stayner's statements were consistent with what he has told investigators.