Steven Parent
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Steven Earl Parent (February 12, 1951 - August 9, 1969) was a victim of the Charles Manson murders. He was born and raised in California. A recent graduate of Arroyo High School in El Monte, at the time of his death Parent held two jobs in order to save money for college. He was murdered at the residence of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski, in Beverly Hills, California, along with Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, and Wojciech Frykowski. Polanski was in Europe at the time.
Parent did not know any of the other victims, nor any of the killers. He was slightly acquainted with William Garretson, the caretaker at the Polanski residence who lived in a cottage behind the main house. On the night of his murder, Parent had visited briefly with Garretson and was leaving in his car when he was confronted by intruders entering the property. Charles 'Tex' Watson shot Parent four times, and afterwards entered the house with accomplices Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel. A fourth accomplice, Linda Kasabian, expressed shock at Parent's murder and refused to enter the house. The following morning the bodies of the five victims were discovered. The only survivor was William Garretson, who had escaped detection, and had apparently heard nothing from his cottage.
As Parent was carrying no identification when his body was found, for a short time he was known to authorities only as 'John Doe 85.' The body was identified later that afternoon by the Parent family's parish priest, who went to the coroner's office after the Parents had informed him that Steven was missing.
Funeral services for Steven Parent were held on August 13 at the Church of the Nativity in El Monte, after which he was interred at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in nearby Rowland Heights.
Parent's father, Wilfred Parent, was highly critical of the way his son's death was treated, and stated that he was told by phone of the murder by a Los Angeles Police Department detective. He also criticised the manner in which the media focused on the more famous victims while showing little interest in his son as a victim. In recent years several members of the Parent family have confronted the murderers at their parole hearings.
