MERCED, Calif. -- A packing company worker was sought Sunday as a suspect in the hit-and-run death of Steven Stayner, whose tragic seven-year captivity by a child molester was the subject of a TV miniseries last May.
California Highway Patrol investigators believe Antonio Loera, 29, was the driver of a car that collided with Stayner, 24, on his motorcycle Saturday.
CHP Sgt. Gary Keller said a witness chased the fleeing car driver, who abandoned the damaged vehicle at a nearby shopping center where he was picked up by another person.
'We have two investigators looking for him,' CHP Sgt. Jim Balestra said. 'We've contacted his wife and his employer. It's just a matter of time.'
Stayner was returning to his home in Atwater when he was killed on a highway outside Merced Saturday. A car pulled out from a side road and Stayner's motorcyle skidded into the vehicle.
Stayner was traveling within the speed limit but was not wearing a helmet. He suffered fatal head and internal injuries. He was pronounced dead at Merced Community Hospital shortly after the accident.
'There is no evidence to show it was intentional at this time,' Keller said.
Stayner, 24, was the subject of the NBC TV miniseries 'I Know My First Name Is Steven' aired four months ago.
In 1972 at the age of 7, Stayner was kidnapped while walking home from school by Kenneth Parnell, a child sex offender who for the next seven years molested him and passed him off as his son.
Stayner finally escaped when he was 14 and Parnell kidnapped another boy, Timothy White, 5, in Ukiah. Stayner took the young boy to police in Mendocino County. Parnell was arrested.
Stayner married in 1985. He and his wife Jody had two children.
Parnell, 57, was convicted of two counts of kidnapping and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison in 1982 after an 18-day trial in Alameda County Superior Court.
He served five years at the California Training Facility in Soledad and two years on parole.
Parnell was charged with sex crimes, but they were thrown out because of the statute of limitations. The youngsters told authorities he had molested them.
Parnell was last reported living in a boarding house in Berkeley and working as a dishwasher.
