Amelia Markson was only three years old in December 1995 when serial child rapist David Allen Funston appeared at the Sacramento apartment complex where she lived – and lured her into his car by promising her a Barbie doll.

Her memory is spotty but what she does recall is chilling.

The depraved sex offender kidnapped her by taking her to his house where police said he sexually assaulted her.

‘I remember him putting me in the house. I remember being in a bathtub,’ Markson, now 33, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. ‘I can remember seeing his fireplace and stuff.’

One image has never left her:

‘Then when he put me on the bed, he was getting dressed up, like in some fishnets and like a little tutu with makeup,’ she told the Daily Mail.

Funston drove her to his home, assaulted her, and later abandoned her in an unfamiliar neighborhood, telling her to knock on a stranger’s door for help.

Like at least six other children Funston targeted during a six-month spree in the Sacramento area, Markson was not notified that her abuser was granted parole on February 24 and was scheduled to walk free at the end of last month – despite being sentenced in 1999 to three life terms for kidnapping and child molestation.

David Allen Funston, 64, was granted parole after being convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation in 1999, under a controversial California law 

In 2020, with Governor Gavin Newsom’s approval, the legislature lowered the eligibility threshold to convicts who are 50 years old with 20 years served

At Funston’s original sentencing hearing, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jack Sapunor called him ‘the monster parents fear most’.

‘I was like, what the f***?’ Markson said, apologizing for her language.

‘I’m like, f*** that. You don’t need to be out. You need to stay where you’re at. 

‘He doesn’t deserve no freedom. 

‘It makes me want to cry. I’m still afraid of him. I’m not going to feel safe if he gets out.’

Funston was originally sentenced to three life terms after he carried out a series of abductions in the Sacramento area, targeting very young children he encountered outside apartment complexes and residential neighborhoods.

But under California’s Elderly Parole Program, Funston, now 64, was deemed suitable for release.

In 2018, while Governor Gavin Newsom was serving as lieutenant governor and preparing to take office, California lawmakers passed legislation allowing inmates who were 60 years old and had served at least 25 years to be considered for parole.

After Newsom became governor in 2019, his administration supported and signed additional criminal justice reforms. In 2020, the legislature – with Newsom’s approval – lowered the eligibility threshold to 50 years old with 20 years served.

Amelia Markson, now 33, was just three when she was abducted and sexually assault by serial rapist David Allen Funston

The law did not exclude sex offenders serving life terms for crimes against children.

The Daily Mail can reveal that court documents show that Funston told a parole board in 2022 that he still masturbated to fantasies about children.

‘The primary one was a fantasy involving a young girl that lived across the street from where I lived with my daughter,’ he testified. ‘She was an eight-year-old girl so I had a fantasy involving her.’

At his 2025 hearing, he said his fantasies now involved ‘adult women,’ though he acknowledged they sometimes included ‘teenage women’ and ‘children.’

The parole board granted release.

But just as Funston was preparing to walk free, amid mounting public outcry, the Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire filed new charges stemming from a 1996 sexual assault of a child in Roseville, a northern suburb of Sacramento.

Funston was arrested February 26 and booked without bail.

He pleaded not guilty March 9 to a felony charge of committing lewd or lascivious acts on a child younger than 14 years old.

The Daily Mail can reveal that court documents show that Funston told a parole board in 2022 that he still masturbated to fantasies about children

His next court hearing is April 6 – and while many are relieved that he is back behind bars again, they say it was a travesty he was ever paroled and worry that he could beat the new charges.

‘I was horrified when I found out he was getting out,’ former Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who prosecuted the original case, told the Daily Mail.

‘I applaud the Placer County DA for doing this but let’s not forget that he was released from prison. They let him out. So while he’s back in jail for now he won’t be back in prison until convicted of these new charges.’

And Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper called the decision to release Funston ‘dead wrong’ and asked ‘what the hell is happening’ in California.

‘You’ve seen some of the things he did,’ Cooper said. ‘There’s no explanation.

‘Someone that does these type of things, they don’t deserve a second chance in life.’

Because Funston had been sentenced to three life terms in prison for his crimes in Sacramento County, the Placer County DA decided it did not need to prosecute on behalf of the Roseville victim.

But the DA’s office had a warrant out for him at the time which it revived this month.

Schubert said her case has never left her.

Funston was known to lure children into his car with offers of Skittles, Tootsie Rolls or dolls.

Funston, 64, was sentenced to three life terms in 1999 but his release was approved under California’s elderly parole program before he was arrested again 

‘A stranger kidnapping very very young children, toddlers, was jaw-dropping. He hunted these children,’ Schubert said. ‘It’s not like he did it over 20 years. He did it in a six-month period of time.’

She said several victims were recent Ukrainian immigrants who barely spoke English.

‘He was picking these little kids because they’re little,’ she said.

Funston was ultimately identified after a neighbor, Nansey Honeycutt, spotted him attempting to lure two young Ukrainian sisters into his car and wrote down his license plate.

Honeycutt, now 65, spotted him from her upstairs window attempting to take two little Ukrainian sisters who were walking home from their grandmother’s apartment to their parents’ unit.

‘I yelled, I’m on the phone with the Sheriff’s Department,’ she told the Daily Mail.

As he pulled away, Honeycutt stayed on the line with 911, tracking his exit from the complex.

‘I watched him pull away, and that’s when I’m on 911 saying he’s driving away and giving them his license plate number,’ she said.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said that Funston being granted parole was ‘dead wrong’

Funston was apparently spooked enough by Honeycutt’s actions that he stopped the car not far from the complex and let the sisters out.

One of those two sisters, Martha Romaso, now 34, told the Daily Mail that she considers Honeycutt ‘our angel’.

‘I think we were the only two that were unharmed,’ Romaso said. ‘He just grabbed us, but nothing worse than that. 

‘He lured us with candy. I think it was a Tootsie Roll. And then he said something about giving us a ride home.’

The offer didn’t make sense, she remembered.

‘We were already home. We were in our apartment complex… we were almost home. And so it didn’t make sense to us. But I was four, and I was with my sister, who was only five.’

Honeycutt was reduced to tears on the phone with the Daily Mail several times during an interview.

‘It is a travesty that this animal was going to be released,’ she said. ‘I saw it on the news and I literally was sickened.’

Though the Romaso sisters were unharmed, Martha said her mother remains traumatized to this day and her older sister suffered with night terrors for years.

‘She’d wake up screaming,’ Martha said.