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McStay Family Murdered · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. In February of twenty ten,
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the Xtay family's relatives were becoming more and more worried. No one had heard
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from the mix days since the fourth of February, when the family's father,
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forty year old Joseph, tried to call one of his business associates at about
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eight thirty pm. It was outside the normal business hours, and the associate,
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Charles Merritt, later said that he was busy watching a movie, meaning
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that Joseph's call had gone straight to his voicemail. Joseph McStay lived in Falbrook,
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a California community with a population of about thirty thousand people. He and
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his wife, forty three year old Summer, had two sons, three year
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old Joseph Junior and four year old Gianni. Both of the mcstaye parents had
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successful careers, with Summer working in real estate and Joseph owning a company that
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produced a range of decorative fountains. Both Joseph and Summer were close with their
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family, and it wasn't like them to stop communicating without any explanation, even
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if they were busy or not feeling well. They always kept in touch,
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so after a week of trying to contact Joseph and Summer without any response,
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Joseph's brother, Michael, drove to their house. When nobody came to the
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door, Michael went around the back. He saw an open window, which
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he uns used to get inside the house. Even with both of the family
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dogs still in the yard, there were no signs of Joseph, Summer or
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the children inside the house. Two days later, Michael called the San Diego
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County Sheriff's Department and officially reported the family as missing. Officers requested a search
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warrant to allow them to search the house, which was executed another four days
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later, on the nineteenth of February. The initial search of the house didn't
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reveal anything that officers found especially alarming. It was tidy and clean, without
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any signs that the family had been harmed. However, it was clear that
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the Micstays had left home without much warning. There were two small bowls of
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popcorns still on the couch, as if the children had been watching a movie
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there. The family's car, a nineteen ninety six Isuzu Trooper, was located.
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It had been left in the parking lot of a strip mall close to
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the Mexican border, and on the eighth of February, it was towed away.
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However, the car was only believed to have been in that parking lot
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for around an hour and a half, and there were no clues as to
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where the car had been during the previous four days, when the mix Stays
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had already been missing. The car being abandoned by the Mexican border added to
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the speculation that the family had left home willingly. Investigators found multiple searches on
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Joseph in Summer's computers about learning to speak Spanish, as well as a Google
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search that asked what documents do children need for traveling to Mexico. Painstakingly,
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the police looked through hours of footage of people crossing the border into Mexico and
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finally found surveillance of a family of four crossing the border on the eighth of
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February at around the same time the car was towed. Although they couldn't confirm
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the identity of the four people in the video, investigators believed that they had
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a strong resemblance to the McStay family. In April of twenty thirteen, after
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the mix Stays had been missing for more than three years, the Sheriff's department
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released a statement saying that they had a reason to believe that the missing family
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had voluntarily left the country. Several tips came in from people who believed that
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they had seen the mix Stays in Mexico, although none of the sightings were
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ever confirmed. Despite the authorities believing in this theory, the family's relatives were
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not convinced. They didn't believe that Joseph and Summer would voluntarily bring the kids
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to Mexico because they had been too worried about the dangers of the country's drug
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wars. According to Summer's sister, her passport had also expired at the time
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she disappeared. Financially, the theory that the mix Stays had simply traveled to
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Mexico didn't make sense. Although Joseph in Summer's bank accounts held a combined total
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of more than one hundred thousand dollars, neither of them had made any large
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withdrawals in the time before they went missing. In fact, after February fourth,
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their bank accounts were never used again. Despite the widespread theory that the
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mix Stays had left voluntarily, the investigation uncovered that the family had an astonishing
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number of enemies. Joseph's ex wife's new husband, for example, was a
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violent man who had threatened to beat Joseph up. Summer's ex boyfriend had emailed
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her only a few months before her disappearance, telling her quote, I will
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love you forever. This X, by the way, also had a history
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of threatening behavior towards others. One of Joseph's business associates had sent him threatening
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messages telling him that he would ruin his business. But despite all of these
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threats, there was absolutely no evidence that any of these people had been involved
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in the family's disappearance. There was one more person who came under suspicion in
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the case, Charles Merritt, the business associate whom Joseph had tried to call
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on February fourth. Charles, who was known by the nickname Chase, was
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the last person who had seen or heard from the McStay family. Eventually,
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in twenty thirteen, Chase also revealed that he had visited Joseph on them the
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same day, and the two of them had spent more than an hour together.
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The suspicion surrounding Chase Merit was amplified by the fact that he had a
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criminal record in fact, he had been convicted on several felonies for burglary.
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One of Chase's friends spoke to the media about the mix Stay case, saying,
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quote, I think the police should look at him and anyone associated with
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him. Based on Chase's behavior in the police interviews, it was clear that
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he did not believe the theory that the mcstays were alive and well in Mexico.
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Only two weeks after the family went missing, Chase told a detective,
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Joseph was my best friend. With no evidence that the mcstays had been harmed,
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Chase was already referring to them in the past tense. When Joseph's father,
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Patrick, was asked whether he believed that Chase was involved in the case,
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he responded, I have to have faith in Chase because I have faith
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in my son. I believe that Joseph trusted Chase, and I believed in
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Chase. Do I think Chase is involved. I don't think so, and
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I truly hope not. On the eleventh of November twenty thirteen, a motorcyclist
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was riding through the Mohave Desert when he saw what he believed to be human
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remains. The police arrived at the scene and found two shallow graves which contained
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four sets of skeletal remains, including the skeletons of two young children. One
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of the children had a length of electrical cord wrapped around their neck, and
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the other one had been hit in the head with a heavy object at least
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seven times. Within a few days. The adult skeletons were identified with dental
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records they belonged to Joseph and Summer mic Stay. DNA testing was used to
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confirm the identities of the two smaller skeletons as four year old Jianni and three
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year old Joseph Junior. Summer and the two children had all been buried in
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the same grave, while the killer had dug a separate grave for Joseph.
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All four victims had died of blunt force trauma, and the murder weapon was
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believed to be a sledge hammer, which had been buried alongside the bodies.
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Later investigators revealed that they believed the Micstays had been tortured shortly before their deaths.
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Almost exactly one year later, Chase Merritt was arrested for the murders of
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the McStay family. After forensic testing revealed that his DNA had been found on
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the steering wheel of their abandoned vehicle. Investigators believed that Chase had been the
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one to drive the car to the parking lot where it was later found,
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and his cell phone location data also revealed that he had been at the McStay
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burial site a few days later. Chase's trial was repeatedly delayed because he kept
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firing each of his attorneys or trying to represent himself at his own murder trial.
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Three years later, he'd gone through a total of five different attorneys,
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and finally the McStay family murder case went to trial in January of twenty nineteen.
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The prosecution alleged that the motive for the murders had been financial. They
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stated that Chase had an addiction to gambling, and that after the family disappeared,
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he had used Joseph's business account to write checks worth more than twenty thousand
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dollars, which he had then used to gamble even more. He had backdated
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the checks, trying to make it appear as if Joseph had written them before
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he vanished, when in reality they had been written after Joseph was already dead.
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The jury found Chase guilty of killing all four members of the McStay family
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and recommended that he face the death penalty. Patrick McStay, who had tried
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to believe that Chase was trustworthy, agreed with the verdict. He's a scumback,
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he's a creep. He doesn't deserve to walk the earth or take a
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breath. Patrick said, he killed somebody that trusted him and gave him a
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chance, when a lot of other people knew he was a crook, and
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then he killed my grandson's brutally. How do you do that? That is
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