Happy True Crime Thursday!
For this weeks story I'm going to take you on a mysterious roller coaster ride.
Today I'm talking about the bizarre disappearance of the McStay family.
The McStay family was a family of 4; Dad Joseph (40), Mom Summer (43) and their sons Gianni (4) and Joseph Jr. (3) They lived in San Diego, California and had just recently moved into a new home that they were renovating into their dream house. Joseph had a successful business in designing and installing decorative water fountains and Summer was a licensed real estate agent. On February 4, 2010 the happy family would disappear and their case would soon baffle everyone.
It was around February 9th that some family of the McStays along with a couple of Joseph's business partners grew a bit concerned that they hadn't heard from them in a few days. One of those partners went over to the house to see if the McStays were there. When he arrived there was no trace of the family, but their two dogs were there and they had food and water in their bowls. They figured the family must have just gone out of town and had someone caring for the dogs.
February 13th came around and the family was growing more concerned that it had been 9 days now with no word from Joseph or Summer. Joseph's brother went to the house this time. From the outside nothing looked suspicious and it didn't look like there were any signs of foul play. He found a partially opened window and he used this to go inside. Inside it was about the same, nothing out of the ordinary. The family had just moved in a couple months earlier so it had some boxes and signs of the renovations, he left a note for the person that was watching the dogs to call him because he was concerned. Later that night he received a call...from animal control. They told him that they were planning to take the animals in because they had been left outside for over a week without food. As it turns out there wasn't anyone that was watching the dogs, it had been animal control that had stopped by and fed the dogs, he was in complete shock, it was not like them to leave their dogs like that. Joseph's brother immediately called the police and reported the family missing.
On the 15th, the police conducted a search of the McStay home, to them it was difficult to determine if there was a struggle that had occurred because of the stuff everywhere due to the renovations. There was something that investigators thought was suspicious and that was raw food was left out, to them it either indicated that the family had the intention of coming back home soon or that they left in a hurry. Overall there weren't any signs of forced entry or foul play, and nothing that gave any clues as to why the family had left or where they possibly went.
They started to question family and friends of the McStays to get a better idea of what their activity was leading up to the disappearance. Summer had made plans to visit her sister and her newborn earlier in the week and they also made arrangements for a family friend to come and finish painting their house on February 6th. On February 4th Joseph had attended work meetings that day and then went home, he had made several phone calls after his meetings and into that evening. It was when they checked a neighbors security camera that they saw the McStays' car leaving their home on the evening of February 4th and it never returned.
Soon they discovered that the families car had been towed for a parking violation on February 8th, near the Mexican border. They checked out the security cameras from the parking lot where it was towed and found that the car didn't arrive until the afternoon of February 8th, so that is 4 days where the family was unaccounted for. When they obtained the car they searched it for evidence, they found that everything inside looked pretty normal. There were a number of new toys, the kids car seats were in place and the front seats were in the positions to fit Summer and Josephs sizes. No signs of foul play yet again. It was just bizarre to police why this stuff was left behind and why they had parked near the border. They checked if either one of the family cars had traveled into Mexico and discovered that it had been years since they had traveled in by car. No one could explain why the McStays would have been at the Mexican border, Summer had even said herself that she felt Mexico was too unsafe.
It was when investigators took a look at a new surveillance video that they saw a group of 4 people walking across the border that they believed they found the McStays walking across the border around 7 P.M on February 8th, less than 2 hours after parking the car at the nearby parking lot. The video showed a male adult and a child walking in front of a female adult with anther child. The sizes of the people in the video matched the McStay family. When family members were called in to look at the video and help with identification they received mixed reactions. Overall the general consensus was that it was the McStay family, but some believed that the man in the video wasn't Joseph.
It didn't appear that the family was in distress and it looked like they willingly walked across the border. Even more strange was that they discovered neither child had a passport, Summers passport was expired and Joseph did have a valid passport, but it hadn't been used before or after the disappearance. How would they have been able to cross without the proper paperwork? They also discovered something else about Summer..she had changed her name multiple times throughout her life, while not a crime it did peak their interest as to why she did it. They looked for records of passports under other names she had used and came up empty handed. Their bank accounts remained untouched. Investigators and the family were left with more questions than answers. There were several unconfirmed sightings of the family reported in Mexico and other places in the United States, this left their family hope that they were safe and had just left voluntarily.
It was on November 11, 2013 that the McStays were found, sadly not in the way their families were hoping. Their remains were recovered in the Mojave desert, the deaths were ruled a homicide. Autopsies concluded that all 4 family members had been beaten to death with a blunt object, investigators believed the murder weapon was a 3 pound sledge hammer that was found buried alongside Summer. They believed the victims were tortured before they were killed.
What in the world happened to the McStays?
A year later more information would be brought to light...enter in Chase Merritt.
Chase Merritt was a business associate of Josephs, Joseph would find the customers and Chase whose business was separate from Josephs would build the pieces. In the days leading up to the McStays disappearances Joseph had cut ties with Chase due to poor performance. On February 1st Joseph sent him an email stating he owed him $42,845.00, three days later the family went missing. He was also the last known person to have had contact with Joseph and coincidentally enough was also the first one to notice he was missing. Cell phone records indicated several phone calls between the 2 on the 4th. Mr Merritt had quite the history, according to records he had felony convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property, and the theft of $32,000 worth of welding and drilling equipment. He was the last person that Joseph had called from his cell phone before all activity stopped.
This is where things get even weirder...When Joseph's father Patrick was asked if he thought Chase was a suspect he stated "I have to have faith in Chase because I have to have faith in my son. I believe that he trusted Chase and believed in Chase. Do I think Chase is involved? I don't think so, and I truly hope not." In January of 2014, Chase said that he was interested in writing a book about the McStay family. He claimed he was innocent and that he even passed a lie detector test. He alleged that Summer had anger problems and that Joseph thought Summer might be poisoning him because he had been ill for some time with a mysterious ailment. Joseph's family did in fact confirm that he had an unexplained illness and that Summer could be possessive at times of her husband, but they said Chase's claims were unfounded and that Summer truly loved Joseph.
November 5. 2014 detectives arrested Chase Merritt in connection to the deaths of the McStay family. Chase's DNA was discovered in the family car and according to cellphone records, his cellphone pinged in the area the remains were found around the time they would have been buried. He was charged with 4 counts of murder and the DA was seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors allege that Chase had a gambling problem and he killed the McStay family for financial gain. They stated he had written checks totaling more than $21,000 on Joseph's business account in the days after the family was killed, then went on a gambling binge at local casinos. Where he ended up losing thousands of dollars. His trial was delayed several times due to him firing his attorneys or attempting to represent himself. By February 2016, he had gone through a total of 5 attorneys.
By January 2018, Chase's newest attorney filed a motion arguing that Joseph's business accounting records were hearsay evidence and should be inadmissible. On May 4th the case was scheduled to go to trial in July, but the trial didn't begin until January 7, 2019! By June 10, 2019 he was found guilty of murdering the McStay family. His sentencing is due next month on December 13th.
What a crazy story huh? The details of what happened that night and the days following aren't well known. The one person that could make it known claims he had nothing to do with it.
See you guys next week!
Resources:
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/mcstay-family/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McStay_family_murder
It was around February 9th that some family of the McStays along with a couple of Joseph's business partners grew a bit concerned that they hadn't heard from them in a few days. One of those partners went over to the house to see if the McStays were there. When he arrived there was no trace of the family, but their two dogs were there and they had food and water in their bowls. They figured the family must have just gone out of town and had someone caring for the dogs.
February 13th came around and the family was growing more concerned that it had been 9 days now with no word from Joseph or Summer. Joseph's brother went to the house this time. From the outside nothing looked suspicious and it didn't look like there were any signs of foul play. He found a partially opened window and he used this to go inside. Inside it was about the same, nothing out of the ordinary. The family had just moved in a couple months earlier so it had some boxes and signs of the renovations, he left a note for the person that was watching the dogs to call him because he was concerned. Later that night he received a call...from animal control. They told him that they were planning to take the animals in because they had been left outside for over a week without food. As it turns out there wasn't anyone that was watching the dogs, it had been animal control that had stopped by and fed the dogs, he was in complete shock, it was not like them to leave their dogs like that. Joseph's brother immediately called the police and reported the family missing.
On the 15th, the police conducted a search of the McStay home, to them it was difficult to determine if there was a struggle that had occurred because of the stuff everywhere due to the renovations. There was something that investigators thought was suspicious and that was raw food was left out, to them it either indicated that the family had the intention of coming back home soon or that they left in a hurry. Overall there weren't any signs of forced entry or foul play, and nothing that gave any clues as to why the family had left or where they possibly went.
They started to question family and friends of the McStays to get a better idea of what their activity was leading up to the disappearance. Summer had made plans to visit her sister and her newborn earlier in the week and they also made arrangements for a family friend to come and finish painting their house on February 6th. On February 4th Joseph had attended work meetings that day and then went home, he had made several phone calls after his meetings and into that evening. It was when they checked a neighbors security camera that they saw the McStays' car leaving their home on the evening of February 4th and it never returned.
Soon they discovered that the families car had been towed for a parking violation on February 8th, near the Mexican border. They checked out the security cameras from the parking lot where it was towed and found that the car didn't arrive until the afternoon of February 8th, so that is 4 days where the family was unaccounted for. When they obtained the car they searched it for evidence, they found that everything inside looked pretty normal. There were a number of new toys, the kids car seats were in place and the front seats were in the positions to fit Summer and Josephs sizes. No signs of foul play yet again. It was just bizarre to police why this stuff was left behind and why they had parked near the border. They checked if either one of the family cars had traveled into Mexico and discovered that it had been years since they had traveled in by car. No one could explain why the McStays would have been at the Mexican border, Summer had even said herself that she felt Mexico was too unsafe.
It was when investigators took a look at a new surveillance video that they saw a group of 4 people walking across the border that they believed they found the McStays walking across the border around 7 P.M on February 8th, less than 2 hours after parking the car at the nearby parking lot. The video showed a male adult and a child walking in front of a female adult with anther child. The sizes of the people in the video matched the McStay family. When family members were called in to look at the video and help with identification they received mixed reactions. Overall the general consensus was that it was the McStay family, but some believed that the man in the video wasn't Joseph.
It didn't appear that the family was in distress and it looked like they willingly walked across the border. Even more strange was that they discovered neither child had a passport, Summers passport was expired and Joseph did have a valid passport, but it hadn't been used before or after the disappearance. How would they have been able to cross without the proper paperwork? They also discovered something else about Summer..she had changed her name multiple times throughout her life, while not a crime it did peak their interest as to why she did it. They looked for records of passports under other names she had used and came up empty handed. Their bank accounts remained untouched. Investigators and the family were left with more questions than answers. There were several unconfirmed sightings of the family reported in Mexico and other places in the United States, this left their family hope that they were safe and had just left voluntarily.
It was on November 11, 2013 that the McStays were found, sadly not in the way their families were hoping. Their remains were recovered in the Mojave desert, the deaths were ruled a homicide. Autopsies concluded that all 4 family members had been beaten to death with a blunt object, investigators believed the murder weapon was a 3 pound sledge hammer that was found buried alongside Summer. They believed the victims were tortured before they were killed.
What in the world happened to the McStays?
A year later more information would be brought to light...enter in Chase Merritt.
Chase Merritt was a business associate of Josephs, Joseph would find the customers and Chase whose business was separate from Josephs would build the pieces. In the days leading up to the McStays disappearances Joseph had cut ties with Chase due to poor performance. On February 1st Joseph sent him an email stating he owed him $42,845.00, three days later the family went missing. He was also the last known person to have had contact with Joseph and coincidentally enough was also the first one to notice he was missing. Cell phone records indicated several phone calls between the 2 on the 4th. Mr Merritt had quite the history, according to records he had felony convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property, and the theft of $32,000 worth of welding and drilling equipment. He was the last person that Joseph had called from his cell phone before all activity stopped.This is where things get even weirder...When Joseph's father Patrick was asked if he thought Chase was a suspect he stated "I have to have faith in Chase because I have to have faith in my son. I believe that he trusted Chase and believed in Chase. Do I think Chase is involved? I don't think so, and I truly hope not." In January of 2014, Chase said that he was interested in writing a book about the McStay family. He claimed he was innocent and that he even passed a lie detector test. He alleged that Summer had anger problems and that Joseph thought Summer might be poisoning him because he had been ill for some time with a mysterious ailment. Joseph's family did in fact confirm that he had an unexplained illness and that Summer could be possessive at times of her husband, but they said Chase's claims were unfounded and that Summer truly loved Joseph.
November 5. 2014 detectives arrested Chase Merritt in connection to the deaths of the McStay family. Chase's DNA was discovered in the family car and according to cellphone records, his cellphone pinged in the area the remains were found around the time they would have been buried. He was charged with 4 counts of murder and the DA was seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors allege that Chase had a gambling problem and he killed the McStay family for financial gain. They stated he had written checks totaling more than $21,000 on Joseph's business account in the days after the family was killed, then went on a gambling binge at local casinos. Where he ended up losing thousands of dollars. His trial was delayed several times due to him firing his attorneys or attempting to represent himself. By February 2016, he had gone through a total of 5 attorneys.
By January 2018, Chase's newest attorney filed a motion arguing that Joseph's business accounting records were hearsay evidence and should be inadmissible. On May 4th the case was scheduled to go to trial in July, but the trial didn't begin until January 7, 2019! By June 10, 2019 he was found guilty of murdering the McStay family. His sentencing is due next month on December 13th.
What a crazy story huh? The details of what happened that night and the days following aren't well known. The one person that could make it known claims he had nothing to do with it.
See you guys next week!
Resources:
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/mcstay-family/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McStay_family_murder
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