The Teen Who Secretly Survived a Family Annihilator | Stay Family Murders

Serialously with Annie Elise

This episode of Serialously with Annie Elise explores the harrowing true crime case of Cassidy Stay, a 15-year-old who survived a mass murder in her

Key takeaways

• Cassidy Stay survived a targeted family massacre by hiding during the attack and calling emergency services despite being critically wounded.
• The perpetrator, Ronald Johnson, was later convicted and sentenced to death for the murders, highlighting the importance of reporting violent behavior patterns.

Main topics

• Family mass murder
• Survivor trauma

Notable quotes

"She spoke to multiple dispatchers and one of them asked who's been shot and she said my whole family."

"No kid should have to go through what Cassidy went through. It's not fair."

Conclusion

Cassidy Stay's survival and her journey through grief, justice, and healing serve as both a testament

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:00) A Texas family murdered last week in their home is being remembered this morning as kind and loving. Speaker 7 (0:05) She spoke to multiple dispatchers and one of them asked who's been shot and she said my whole family. Speaker 1 (0:11) Seeing this war unfold, can't believe her eyes. It's Speaker 7 (0:16) terrifying. No kid should have to go through what Cassidy went through. It's not fair. Speaker 6 (0:20) Their family just included love and respect for each other. He pulled the trigger and he shot Kate in the face. Speaker 8 (0:30) Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Speaker 2 (0:53) Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, your host and your true crime bestie. Annie Elise. I hope you had a fantastic weekend and you're having a good start to your week so far, whether you're driving into the office, maybe you're at home cleaning, maybe you're working out, maybe you're at the office already and you're listening or watching this with your true crime bestie coworker. Because look, I know a lot of you guys do that. You've told me out on tour. You've told me when I've seen you in the wild how in the office you guys will listen together or you'll watch together, which... you know, I'm not going to tell your boss. It's not my job to narc on people. I mean, unless you're like, well, I don't want to say breaking the law because I guess that could technically be considered like payroll fraud. Look, I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole. What I'm just saying is I'm here for it. I used to do the same thing when I had an office job. I would watch Sons of Anarchy in my office in secret. If you're one of my old co-workers, don't tell and don't judge. But my point is wherever you are right now, whatever you're doing, Thank you for spending your morning or your afternoon or your night with me. Now, instead of giving you a little bit of context around what this case is that we're going to be talking about today together, instead, I'm going to play for you a 911 call. So let me just go ahead and play that for you now. Speaker 4 (2:17) What is your name? Speaker 2 (2:35) Now, that 911 call that you just heard, it came into dispatchers in Harris County, Texas, around 5 p.m. The caller was 15-year-old Cassidy Stay, and she told them something that no dispatcher ever wants to hear. Her entire family had been shot. Now, when first responders arrived at 711 Leaflet Lane, they rushed into the home, expecting the absolute worst. But even then, honestly, I don't know that they could have prepared themselves for what they were about to walk into. Because the first thing that they realized was that Cassidy herself had been shot as well. She was just there, lying on the floor, bleeding out from the head, barely even conscious. Yet somehow, through all of that, she had still managed to call 911, which that alone is just unbelievable to me. And despite everything that Cassidy had just endured, she still was able to tell first responders, that the rest of her family was over in the kitchen. So the officers made their way over there, and sure enough, what they found was devastating. Lying face down on the kitchen floor, surrounded by blood, were the rest of the Stay family. 39-year-old Stephen Stay, 33-year-old Katie Stay, and their children, 13-year-old Brian, 9-year-old Emily, 7-year-old Rebecca, and 4-year-old Zachary. They had all been tied up. and none of them were moving. Now, honestly, this is one of those cases where the reality of it is so much worse than anything that you could imagine or cook up in some sort of like fiction horror thriller. Entire families don't just get executed in their own home in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the day, especially not families like the Stays. So as they're taking all of this in, trying to reconcile what they are witnessing, the first responders notice something else. One other person in that kitchen was still breathing. Barely, but breathing. So let's go back to the beginning and let's talk about what happened inside this home. July 9th, 2014 had actually started out like any other regular boring ass normal day in the Stay family home. The five stay children came downstairs that morning while their mom Katie made them breakfast. Then, after they ate, they split off into their usual little groups. Emily, who was nine, and Rebecca, who was just seven, they paired off together. They started planning out their day of games, playing around the house, just typical girl stuff. Speaker 3 (5:10) Meanwhile, some of the older kids, Cassidy, who's 15, and Brian, 13, Speaker 2 (5:15) they stepped into more, not caretaker type of roles, but a little bit more older kid type roles where there's chores, there's things to do. They were also taking turns helping keeping the four-year-old Zachary entertained. And they were all kind of just like breaking off into their little silos. And each of their kids, they had their own very distinct personality. Cassidy, at 15 years old, was incredibly smart and mature for her age. People said she was a lot like her mom, Katie, always looking out for other people and always trying to help. Brian, the 13-year-old, he had cerebral palsy, but by all accounts, he never let it slow him down. Emily, who was nine, was described as very fierce and protective, especially when it came to her older brother, Brian. Even though he was older than her, she looked out for him constantly. And then there were the two youngest, seven-year-old Rebecca and four-year-old Zachary. These two were basically like the energetic little siblings of the house, just running around, having fun, super, you know, just like walking sunshine. Loud, playful, full of energy. Exactly what you would expect in a home with five kids just running around during summer break. And I should mention. It also wasn't unusual for Stephen and Katie to leave the older kids in charge for short periods of time during the summer. They were on summer break. Cassidy and Brian were very responsible. They were mature. They were trusted. The stay kids were all good students. So if the parents had to step out for a quick minute or go run an errand or even like work a few hours, it wasn't unheard of that they would help out and watch the younger siblings. All of them were very active in church youth groups and Speaker 3 (6:52) by all accounts, just genuinely. very kind kids. The parents, Stephen and Katie, Speaker 2 (6:57) trusted these kids to follow the rules, to work through any sibling disagreements, and to really just take care of one another whenever they were out. And the neighborhood that they lived in itself, it really did add to that sense of security. The family lived in Spring, Texas, in the Enchanted Oaks subdivision, which is Speaker 3 (7:14) about 25 miles north of downtown Houston. By all accounts, it was considered a very safe, Speaker 2 (7:20) family-oriented neighborhood. Where kids were playing outside and neighbors knew each other, people generally looked out for one another. So Stephen and Katie had absolutely no reason to think that leaving the kids home for a couple of hours this afternoon would ever be dangerous. Now let's talk about the parents for a moment. Stephen worked as a real estate broker. And Speaker 3 (7:40) outside of work, he was heavily involved with his kids, especially coaching baseball. His wife Katie and their mother, she Speaker 2 (7:47) was really the heartbeat of the family. and the center of everything at home. She was the kind of person who people describe as just like having the ability to tell that someone else needed help before they ever even asked for it. She organized neighborhood events, holidays, church activities, all of it. And from everything that I was able to find in my research, Stephen and Katie really seemed aligned in how they approached family life. Family first, that's what matters. That is like the core of everything. Faith was also extremely important to them. They went to church. They spent intentional time with each of their children. I mean, their marriage and their family seemed solid. Now, of course, no family is perfect. We all know that. But by all appearances, they had built a really happy life together. The Speaker 7 (8:35) Stay family was, I like to refer to them as an anchor family. They're that family in the neighborhood where all the kids go to their house to play. Our families experienced a great loss at this because there's not a day that will go by where we won't somehow miss them, some experience where we'll miss them. Speaker 6 (8:54) Stephen was very, you know, patient and quiet and happy, smiling all the time and just really mellow, kind of a peacemaker kind of guy. Speaker 6 (9:07) And Katie was a lot more talkative. She was also happy, also very caring and loving. A little bit sarcastic, which I think a lot of people appreciated because it kind of lightens the mood. She was a great motivator. She was a great cheerleader. She loved to serve, as did Steven. Speaker 6 (9:34) They were always doing something for somebody else. We Speaker 1 (9:37) were devastated when we found out. We were in shock. It took a while to realize that this had really happened. We've had the chance to mourn with our friends, and it's one day at a time getting through. But focusing on the good lives that they led and thinking about what we can learn from them, and that is to live a good life, to be good people, to have faith, and to serve others. Speaker 2 (9:58) Now, this is exactly why what happened next felt so impossible to everyone who knew them. Before Stephen and Katie left the house that day, they reminded the kids of the usual rules. You know, don't use the stove, don't leave the house, don't leave the backyard, check in with each other, be kind, and of course, above everything else, don't open the door for strangers. Cassidy and Brian gave the typical teenage eye roll responses like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, but we're doing our thing. They went back to whatever they were doing in the house that day. The house was loud, chaotic, normal for this family. Kids were running around, toys were everywhere, snacks were being left out. And during all of this, Cassidy was really taking on her role of big sister and caretaker. She was cleaning up around the house, picking things up, trying to make things not as messy. when suddenly there was a knock at the door. She told the younger kids, like, hey, quiet down, quiet down, somebody's at the door, I'm going to go check it out. But there wasn't a car parked outside of the house. There also wasn't one in the driveway. So she looked through the peephole, the little hole on the front door, to see if she could see who was out there, and it was a FedEx delivery driver dropping off a package. So not a stranger, not a random, just somebody delivering mail. Once she got the door open, she saw this man standing in front of her. full FedEx uniform, pretty heavy beard as well. But what stood out immediately was that he didn't actually have a package with him. Instead, he was asking for her parents, Stephen and Katie. So Cassidy told him, oh, you know, they're not home right now, but they'll be back later. So he left. And at the time, she really didn't think much more of it. But then, a short time later, there was another knock. So Cassidy went back to the door, looked through the peephole, And it was this same man again. She opened the door once again, only this time, everything changed. Instead of asking questions and asking where her parents were, this man forced his way inside. Cassie immediately tried to slam the door shut, but think about it, she was a 15-year-old girl trying to stop this grown man who was now barreling in through her front door into her home. He overpowered her almost immediately and shoved his way inside. And then once he got in, He pulled out a gun and a knife. He immediately started restraining all of the other children. And he was threatening them and keeping them quiet by holding them at gunpoint and knife point all while he was waiting for Stephen and Katie to come back home. Now this detail, it really gets me because you may have heard in previous true crime coverage or just statistics and things like that, that if you're ever abducted or ever in a compromising situation, That you're supposed to start rattling off facts to this person. The fact that you're a mother or you're a sister or that you have family or things about yourself, things about your family members, trying to make them humanize you in a way. Now, Cassidy was only 15 years old, but she knew this. And instinctively, she started trying to reason with him. She started telling him the names of all of her siblings, their ages, trying to humanize them to him somehow. Almost like she had hoped that if he saw them as real kids instead of these obstacles or targets, maybe he would stop whatever he was doing. Maybe he would snap out of whatever this was. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all. And honestly, it is heartbreaking because you can hear just how innocent her thinking was in that moment. Just hoping that by talking about her siblings' ages, their names, what they like to do, that... He would somehow change his mind in all of this. Yet the truth was, she couldn't even begin to understand the level of evil that she was facing against right now. Eventually, her parents, Stephen and Katie, came Speaker 3 (13:47) home. However, they were overpowered as well. The man restrained them right alongside the children, while the entire family Speaker 2 (13:55) just kept pleading with him, begging him not to hurt them. They told him like, look, hey, we will cooperate. We will do whatever you want us to do. Please just let everyone go. And for a moment, it did seem like he almost was going to listen. Because eventually, he did make a request. The request that he wanted was information. Specifically, he wanted information about Katie's sister, the kid's aunt. He wanted to know where she was, how he could find her. And this is where this entire case really starts to shift. Because suddenly, this doesn't seem so random anymore. This isn't some FedEx driver lunatic like in Athena Strand's situation, this is something more targeted, something intentional. These questions were deeply personal, specific, and again, just very direct. But Stephen and Katie, they were protective of their family. They weren't going to throw her sister under the bus, and so they refused to tell him what he wanted to know. But that refusal made him absolutely furious. So furious, in fact, that he began just going down the line of restrained family members and executing them one by one, just point blank in the back of the head. Adults, children, boys, girls, the entire family, just single file one by one, and then he left. But somehow, through all of that, Cassidy survived. The bullet that was meant for the back of Cassidy's head somehow struck her hand first because at the very last minute, instinctively, she had raised her hand up almost trying to block it. So the bullet hit one of her fingers before grazing her head instead. And what Cassidy did next is honestly the reason that she's alive. Instead of screaming or instead of moving and panicking, she stayed completely still. and she pretended to be dead. And I know that a lot of people will say fight or flight, but sometimes survival really is about staying quiet and waiting for the danger to pass. And the fact that this 15-year-old girl was able to think that clearly in the middle of something this horrific is incredible to me. Not only did she initially try to reason with him and humanize her siblings to him, but now she had the wherewithal to play dead, to try to think like, oh, he's going to leave. I just need to hang on a few moments longer. I need to just stay still, not move. Because the truth was, she's a 15-year-old girl. She was injured. She was terrified, just lying there, surrounded by her family, knowing that they had all just been shot. Yet somehow, she stayed still through all of it. She stayed quiet. And that decision, it saved her life. Because if the killer had realized that she was still alive, I have no doubt in my mind that he would have shot her again. And the reason I know that is because, sadly, that's exactly what happened to four-year-old Zachary. Zach had been shot in the shoulder instead of the head. But because he was only four years old, he didn't understand what Cassie understood. He didn't understand that he shouldn't move and that he needed to stay quiet. Instead, little four-year-old Zachary started moving toward his dad, Stephen, who was already deceased at this point. And honestly, this is just so incredibly devastating Speaker 3 (17:14) to think about. I have a four-year-old myself, and I Speaker 2 (17:17) just can't even begin to