Timmy White, second kidnap victim in “I Know My First Name is Steven” case dies

If you were a child in the 1980s, you may be familiar with Timmy White as the second child kidnapped by pedophile Kenneth Parnell in the incident that inspired the popular TV movie I Know My First Name is Steven.

It was White’s kidnapping at the age of five that inspired Stayner to escape with the boy and seek help, fearing another child would suffer the same fate as he had. White was taken by Parnell on February 14th, 1980, and Stayner hitchhiked to safety with the younger boy, returning him to his home in Ukiah on March 2nd of that year. Stayner later died in a motorcycle crash at the age of 24 in 1989. His brother Cary currently sits on death row in California for a series of unrelated murders in Yellowstone National Park.

Thirty years later, tragedy has again struck those involved in the kidnap case. White, 35, who had gone on to become a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy, died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism on April 1st. White is survived by a wife, Dena, two children, his parents and a sister.