McStay Family Murdered

0:13 Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. In February of twenty ten, the Xtay family's relatives were becoming more and more worried. No one had heard from the mix days since the fourth of February, when the family's father, forty year old Joseph, tried to call one of his business associates at about eight thirty pm. It was outside the normal business hours, and the associate, Charles Merritt, later said that he was busy watching a movie, meaning that Joseph's call had gone straight to his voicemail. Joseph McStay lived in Falbrook, a California community with a population of about thirty thousand people. He and his wife, forty three year old Summer, had two sons, three year old Joseph Junior and four year old Gianni. Both of the mcstaye parents had successful careers, with Summer working in real estate and Joseph owning a company that produced a range of decorative fountains. Both Joseph and Summer were close with their family, and it wasn't like them to stop communicating without any explanation, even if they were busy or not feeling well. They always kept in touch,

1:47 so after a week of trying to contact Joseph and Summer without any response, Joseph's brother, Michael, drove to their house. When nobody came to the door, Michael went around the back. He saw an open window, which he uns used to get inside the house. Even with both of the family dogs still in the yard, there were no signs of Joseph, Summer or the children inside the house. Two days later, Michael called the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and officially reported the family as missing. Officers requested a search warrant to allow them to search the house, which was executed another four days later, on the nineteenth of February. The initial search of the house didn't reveal anything that officers found especially alarming. It was tidy and clean, without any signs that the family had been harmed. However, it was clear that the Micstays had left home without much warning. There were two small bowls of popcorns still on the couch, as if the children had been watching a movie there. The family's car, a nineteen ninety six Isuzu Trooper, was located.

2:51 It had been left in the parking lot of a strip mall close to the Mexican border, and on the eighth of February, it was towed away. However, the car was only believed to have been in that parking lot for around an hour and a half, and there were no clues as to where the car had been during the previous four days, when the mix Stays had already been missing. The car being abandoned by the Mexican border added to the speculation that the family had left home willingly. Investigators found multiple searches on Joseph in Summer's computers about learning to speak Spanish, as well as a Google search that asked what documents do children need for traveling to Mexico. Painstakingly, the police looked through hours of footage of people crossing the border into Mexico and finally found surveillance of a family of four crossing the border on the eighth of February at around the same time the car was towed. Although they couldn't confirm the identity of the four people in the video, investigators believed that they had a strong resemblance to the McStay family. In April of twenty thirteen, after the mix Stays had been missing for more than three years, the Sheriff's department released a statement saying that they had a reason to believe that the missing family had voluntarily left the country. Several tips came in from people who believed that they had seen the mix Stays in Mexico, although none of the sightings were ever confirmed. Despite the authorities believing in this theory, the family's relatives were not convinced. They didn't believe that Joseph and Summer would voluntarily bring the kids

4:24 to Mexico because they had been too worried about the dangers of the country's drug wars. According to Summer's sister, her passport had also expired at the time she disappeared. Financially, the theory that the mix Stays had simply traveled to Mexico didn't make sense. Although Joseph in Summer's bank accounts held a combined total of more than one hundred thousand dollars, neither of them had made any large withdrawals in the time before they went missing. In fact, after February fourth, their bank accounts were never used again. Despite the widespread theory that the mix Stays had left voluntarily, the investigation uncovered that the family had an astonishing number of enemies. Joseph's ex wife's new husband, for example, was a violent man who had threatened to beat Joseph up. Summer's ex boyfriend had emailed her only a few months before her disappearance, telling her quote, I will love you forever. This X, by the way, also had a history of threatening behavior towards others. One of Joseph's business associates had sent him threatening messages telling him that he would ruin his business. But despite all of these threats, there was absolutely no evidence that any of these people had been involved in the family's disappearance. There was one more person who came under suspicion in the case, Charles Merritt, the business associate whom Joseph had tried to call on February fourth. Charles, who was known by the nickname Chase, was the last person who had seen or heard from the McStay family. Eventually,

5:55 in twenty thirteen, Chase also revealed that he had visited Joseph on them the same day, and the two of them had spent more than an hour together. The suspicion surrounding Chase Merit was amplified by the fact that he had a criminal record in fact, he had been convicted on several felonies for burglary. One of Chase's friends spoke to the media about the mix Stay case, saying, quote, I think the police should look at him and anyone associated with him. Based on Chase's behavior in the police interviews, it was clear that he did not believe the theory that the mcstays were alive and well in Mexico. Only two weeks after the family went missing, Chase told a detective, Joseph was my best friend. With no evidence that the mcstays had been harmed, Chase was already referring to them in the past tense. When Joseph's father, Patrick, was asked whether he believed that Chase was involved in the case, he responded, I have to have faith in Chase because I have faith in my son. I believe that Joseph trusted Chase, and I believed in Chase. Do I think Chase is involved. I don't think so, and I truly hope not. On the eleventh of November twenty thirteen, a motorcyclist was riding through the Mohave Desert when he saw what he believed to be human remains. The police arrived at the scene and found two shallow graves which contained four sets of skeletal remains, including the skeletons of two young children. One of the children had a length of electrical cord wrapped around their neck, and

7:27 the other one had been hit in the head with a heavy object at least seven times. Within a few days. The adult skeletons were identified with dental records they belonged to Joseph and Summer mic Stay. DNA testing was used to confirm the identities of the two smaller skeletons as four year old Jianni and three year old Joseph Junior. Summer and the two children had all been buried in the same grave, while the killer had dug a separate grave for Joseph. All four victims had died of blunt force trauma, and the murder weapon was believed to be a sledge hammer, which had been buried alongside the bodies. Later investigators revealed that they believed the Micstays had been tortured shortly before their deaths.

8:11 Almost exactly one year later, Chase Merritt was arrested for the murders of the McStay family. After forensic testing revealed that his DNA had been found on the steering wheel of their abandoned vehicle. Investigators believed that Chase had been the one to drive the car to the parking lot where it was later found, and his cell phone location data also revealed that he had been at the McStay burial site a few days later. Chase's trial was repeatedly delayed because he kept firing each of his attorneys or trying to represent himself at his own murder trial. Three years later, he'd gone through a total of five different attorneys, and finally the McStay family murder case went to trial in January of twenty nineteen.

8:54 The prosecution alleged that the motive for the murders had been financial. They stated that Chase had an addiction to gambling, and that after the family disappeared, he had used Joseph's business account to write checks worth more than twenty thousand dollars, which he had then used to gamble even more. He had backdated the checks, trying to make it appear as if Joseph had written them before he vanished, when in reality they had been written after Joseph was already dead. The jury found Chase guilty of killing all four members of the McStay family and recommended that he face the death penalty. Patrick McStay, who had tried to believe that Chase was trustworthy, agreed with the verdict. He's a scumback, he's a creep. He doesn't deserve to walk the earth or take a breath. Patrick said, he killed somebody that trusted him and gave him a chance, when a lot of other people knew he was a crook, and then he killed my grandson's brutally. How do you do that? That is ten minute murder for today Brief and binge Able True Crime. My name is Joe, I'm the host, and I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to my podcast today. A special thank you and welcome to any new listeners that are checking it out for the first time today. If you would please stand up and make yourself known so the rest of us can introduce ourselves to you. Isn't that the worst part of church? If you're a new

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