McStay Family Murdered

WEBVTT

1
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:45.920
Discretion advice. This is ten minute
murder. In February of twenty ten,

2
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:50.799
the Xtay family's relatives were becoming more
and more worried. No one had heard

3
00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:54.560
from the mix days since the fourth
of February, when the family's father,

4
00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:58.600
forty year old Joseph, tried to
call one of his business associates at about

5
00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:03.399
eight thirty pm. It was outside
the normal business hours, and the associate,

6
00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.239
Charles Merritt, later said that he
was busy watching a movie, meaning

7
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.799
that Joseph's call had gone straight to
his voicemail. Joseph McStay lived in Falbrook,

8
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:17.920
a California community with a population of
about thirty thousand people. He and

9
00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:22.000
his wife, forty three year old
Summer, had two sons, three year

10
00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.159
old Joseph Junior and four year old
Gianni. Both of the mcstaye parents had

11
00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:32.439
successful careers, with Summer working in
real estate and Joseph owning a company that

12
00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:37.840
produced a range of decorative fountains.
Both Joseph and Summer were close with their

13
00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:42.159
family, and it wasn't like them
to stop communicating without any explanation, even

14
00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:46.560
if they were busy or not feeling
well. They always kept in touch,

15
00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:51.519
so after a week of trying to
contact Joseph and Summer without any response,

16
00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:56.280
Joseph's brother, Michael, drove to
their house. When nobody came to the

17
00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.680
door, Michael went around the back. He saw an open window, which

18
00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:02.640
he uns used to get inside the
house. Even with both of the family

19
00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:07.879
dogs still in the yard, there
were no signs of Joseph, Summer or

20
00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:13.400
the children inside the house. Two
days later, Michael called the San Diego

21
00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:19.319
County Sheriff's Department and officially reported the
family as missing. Officers requested a search

22
00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:23.960
warrant to allow them to search the
house, which was executed another four days

23
00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:28.560
later, on the nineteenth of February. The initial search of the house didn't

24
00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:34.360
reveal anything that officers found especially alarming. It was tidy and clean, without

25
00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:38.159
any signs that the family had been
harmed. However, it was clear that

26
00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:42.360
the Micstays had left home without much
warning. There were two small bowls of

27
00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:46.039
popcorns still on the couch, as
if the children had been watching a movie

28
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:51.400
there. The family's car, a
nineteen ninety six Isuzu Trooper, was located.

29
00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:53.680
It had been left in the parking
lot of a strip mall close to

30
00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.879
the Mexican border, and on the
eighth of February, it was towed away.

31
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:01.599
However, the car was only believed
to have been in that parking lot

32
00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:06.439
for around an hour and a half, and there were no clues as to

33
00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.240
where the car had been during the
previous four days, when the mix Stays

34
00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:15.439
had already been missing. The car
being abandoned by the Mexican border added to

35
00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:21.280
the speculation that the family had left
home willingly. Investigators found multiple searches on

36
00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:25.400
Joseph in Summer's computers about learning to
speak Spanish, as well as a Google

37
00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:31.159
search that asked what documents do children
need for traveling to Mexico. Painstakingly,

38
00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:37.560
the police looked through hours of footage
of people crossing the border into Mexico and

39
00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.800
finally found surveillance of a family of
four crossing the border on the eighth of

40
00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:46.719
February at around the same time the
car was towed. Although they couldn't confirm

41
00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:51.000
the identity of the four people in
the video, investigators believed that they had

42
00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.719
a strong resemblance to the McStay family. In April of twenty thirteen, after

43
00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:00.960
the mix Stays had been missing for
more than three years, the Sheriff's department

44
00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.360
released a statement saying that they had
a reason to believe that the missing family

45
00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:10.520
had voluntarily left the country. Several
tips came in from people who believed that

46
00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.719
they had seen the mix Stays in
Mexico, although none of the sightings were

47
00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:19.079
ever confirmed. Despite the authorities believing
in this theory, the family's relatives were

48
00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:24.839
not convinced. They didn't believe that
Joseph and Summer would voluntarily bring the kids

49
00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:29.279
to Mexico because they had been too
worried about the dangers of the country's drug

50
00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:33.160
wars. According to Summer's sister,
her passport had also expired at the time

51
00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:39.079
she disappeared. Financially, the theory
that the mix Stays had simply traveled to

52
00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:44.639
Mexico didn't make sense. Although Joseph
in Summer's bank accounts held a combined total

53
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.639
of more than one hundred thousand dollars, neither of them had made any large

54
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:53.560
withdrawals in the time before they went
missing. In fact, after February fourth,

55
00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:59.160
their bank accounts were never used again. Despite the widespread theory that the

56
00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:03.319
mix Stays had left voluntarily, the
investigation uncovered that the family had an astonishing

57
00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:09.680
number of enemies. Joseph's ex wife's
new husband, for example, was a

58
00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:14.720
violent man who had threatened to beat
Joseph up. Summer's ex boyfriend had emailed

59
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:18.079
her only a few months before her
disappearance, telling her quote, I will

60
00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.759
love you forever. This X,
by the way, also had a history

61
00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:27.639
of threatening behavior towards others. One
of Joseph's business associates had sent him threatening

62
00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:30.800
messages telling him that he would ruin
his business. But despite all of these

63
00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:35.319
threats, there was absolutely no evidence
that any of these people had been involved

64
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:41.079
in the family's disappearance. There was
one more person who came under suspicion in

65
00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:46.199
the case, Charles Merritt, the
business associate whom Joseph had tried to call

66
00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:50.199
on February fourth. Charles, who
was known by the nickname Chase, was

67
00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:55.680
the last person who had seen or
heard from the McStay family. Eventually,

68
00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:00.160
in twenty thirteen, Chase also revealed
that he had visited Joseph on them the

69
00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:02.879
same day, and the two of
them had spent more than an hour together.

70
00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:08.720
The suspicion surrounding Chase Merit was amplified
by the fact that he had a

71
00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:13.279
criminal record in fact, he had
been convicted on several felonies for burglary.

72
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.680
One of Chase's friends spoke to the
media about the mix Stay case, saying,

73
00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.759
quote, I think the police should
look at him and anyone associated with

74
00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:26.519
him. Based on Chase's behavior in
the police interviews, it was clear that

75
00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.000
he did not believe the theory that
the mcstays were alive and well in Mexico.

76
00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:34.360
Only two weeks after the family went
missing, Chase told a detective,

77
00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:40.439
Joseph was my best friend. With
no evidence that the mcstays had been harmed,

78
00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:45.199
Chase was already referring to them in
the past tense. When Joseph's father,

79
00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:47.639
Patrick, was asked whether he believed
that Chase was involved in the case,

80
00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:51.439
he responded, I have to have
faith in Chase because I have faith

81
00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:56.680
in my son. I believe that
Joseph trusted Chase, and I believed in

82
00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:00.839
Chase. Do I think Chase is
involved. I don't think so, and

83
00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:06.279
I truly hope not. On the
eleventh of November twenty thirteen, a motorcyclist

84
00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:11.399
was riding through the Mohave Desert when
he saw what he believed to be human

85
00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:16.240
remains. The police arrived at the
scene and found two shallow graves which contained

86
00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:23.560
four sets of skeletal remains, including
the skeletons of two young children. One

87
00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.639
of the children had a length of
electrical cord wrapped around their neck, and

88
00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.079
the other one had been hit in
the head with a heavy object at least

89
00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:35.160
seven times. Within a few days. The adult skeletons were identified with dental

90
00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:41.879
records they belonged to Joseph and Summer
mic Stay. DNA testing was used to

91
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:46.839
confirm the identities of the two smaller
skeletons as four year old Jianni and three

92
00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:50.720
year old Joseph Junior. Summer and
the two children had all been buried in

93
00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:55.959
the same grave, while the killer
had dug a separate grave for Joseph.

94
00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:00.600
All four victims had died of blunt
force trauma, and the murder weapon was

95
00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.680
believed to be a sledge hammer,
which had been buried alongside the bodies.

96
00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:09.959
Later investigators revealed that they believed the
Micstays had been tortured shortly before their deaths.

97
00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:16.519
Almost exactly one year later, Chase
Merritt was arrested for the murders of

98
00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.720
the McStay family. After forensic testing
revealed that his DNA had been found on

99
00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:26.560
the steering wheel of their abandoned vehicle. Investigators believed that Chase had been the

100
00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:28.759
one to drive the car to the
parking lot where it was later found,

101
00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.120
and his cell phone location data also
revealed that he had been at the McStay

102
00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:39.120
burial site a few days later.
Chase's trial was repeatedly delayed because he kept

103
00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:45.120
firing each of his attorneys or trying
to represent himself at his own murder trial.

104
00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:48.360
Three years later, he'd gone through
a total of five different attorneys,

105
00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:54.200
and finally the McStay family murder case
went to trial in January of twenty nineteen.

106
00:08:54.919 --> 00:09:00.200
The prosecution alleged that the motive for
the murders had been financial. They

107
00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:03.440
stated that Chase had an addiction to
gambling, and that after the family disappeared,

108
00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:07.759
he had used Joseph's business account to
write checks worth more than twenty thousand

109
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:13.080
dollars, which he had then used
to gamble even more. He had backdated

110
00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.200
the checks, trying to make it
appear as if Joseph had written them before

111
00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.879
he vanished, when in reality they
had been written after Joseph was already dead.

112
00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:26.320
The jury found Chase guilty of killing
all four members of the McStay family

113
00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:31.399
and recommended that he face the death
penalty. Patrick McStay, who had tried

114
00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:35.399
to believe that Chase was trustworthy,
agreed with the verdict. He's a scumback,

115
00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.879
he's a creep. He doesn't deserve
to walk the earth or take a

116
00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:43.720
breath. Patrick said, he killed
somebody that trusted him and gave him a

117
00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:46.080
chance, when a lot of other
people knew he was a crook, and

118
00:09:46.120 --> 00:10:03.679
then he killed my grandson's brutally.
How do you do that? That is

119
00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:09.600
ten minute murder for today Brief and
binge Able True Crime. My name is

120
00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:11.799
Joe, I'm the host, and
I really appreciate you taking the time to

121
00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:16.720
listen to my podcast today. A
special thank you and welcome to any new

122
00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:18.919
listeners that are checking it out for
the first time today. If you would

123
00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:24.799
please stand up and make yourself known
so the rest of us can introduce ourselves

124
00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.240
to you. Isn't that the worst
part of church? If you're a new

125
00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.960
person at a church and they embarrass
you in front of everyone. Yeah,

126
00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.159
go ahead and stand up from all
these people that you don't know. Let's

127
00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:39.399
shine the spotlight right on you.
It's an introverts nightmare. Anyway, if

128
00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:43.399
you're new to Ten Minute Murder,
don't stand up, just keep sitting down.

129
00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:46.919
But do make sure you subscribe to
ten Minute Murder wherever you're listening to

130
00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:52.159
this right now. Being a subscriber
more easily helps you catch up on all

131
00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:56.320
the back episodes and not miss any
of the new episodes. Connect with the

132
00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:01.279
podcast on social media. You'll see
the pictures and the places faces of the

133
00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:03.519
topics that we're talking about here in
the podcast never grows in graphic stuff.

134
00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.799
And also it's not just that.
On the social media pages, you'll know

135
00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.559
when the new episodes come out because
I post that, and then I also

136
00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:16.000
post true crime news, like different
things that are happening in the true crime

137
00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:18.279
world. I'll throw that up there
as well. And if you happen to

138
00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:24.279
like this episode this podcast in general, make sure you leave a rating and

139
00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:28.279
review an Apple, Spotify, Audible, any place that you can do that.

140
00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:31.440
And somehow, I don't know,
maybe it's magic. I don't know

141
00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:33.679
how it works, but the algorithm
of the internet. If you leave that

142
00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:39.399
positive feedback, other people can then
see that and they'll know, hey,

143
00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.639
this is a cool podcast. This
is something that people like to listen to.

144
00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.080
Maybe I'll check it out as well, and it kind of funnels it

145
00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:48.960
to more and more people. I
think maybe it doesn't do that. That

146
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.279
could be in my head. Anyway, I do appreciate reading your positive feedback.

147
00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:56.679
Nonetheless, if all of that was
too much to gather, I've got

148
00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.759
a website ten minute murder dot com. You can go there for all the

149
00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:03.960
things. All right, that's gonna
do it. That's another Ten Minute Murder

150
00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:09.480
podcast episode. I will see you
in the next one. Goodbye.