Murder, Greed and the Mojave Desert: The Mystery Behind the McStay Family Murder
The murders were as gruesome as they were shocking.
The bodies of 40-year-old California businessman Joseph McStay, his 43-year-old wife, Summer, and sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, were found in November 2013 in a shallow grave by a motorcyclist who had stumbled across a skull in the Mojave Desert, north of Victorville.
According to detectives, Joseph’s body was found with a white extension cord wrapped around his neck. Summer’s skull was fractured and one of their sons’ heads was bludgeoned seven times.
A three-pound sledgehammer was also found buried at the site.
The family vanished without a trace three years earlier in February 2010 from their Fallbrook home – four months after they moved in. Their two beloved dogs, Bear and Digger, were left behind in the backyard and nearly $100,000 remained untouched in Joseph’s bank accounts.
There were no signs of forced entry so their disappearance was largely treated as a missing-persons case until their bodies were discovered in 2013.
In 2014, a year after their remains were uncovered, prosecutors filed murder charges against Charles “Chase” Merritt, alleging that Joseph’s onetime business associate was in debt and had a gambling problem when he killed the family of four for financial gain.
Merritt, who is now 61, is currently on trial for the quadruple slayings and faces the death penalty if convicted. He has maintained his innocence.
During opening statements Monday, San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty said the case was all about “greed, and greed’s child, fraud,” according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
“We can’t answer all of the questions,” Daugherty said. “But we can answer the ‘who.’ The ‘who’ is the defendant who was ripping off his best friend and got caught.”
Daugherty alleged that Merritt forged $21,000 from his partner’s online bookkeeping account business after the murders and then attempted to cover his tracks.
Merritt “desperately tried to cover his tracks after the murders,” Daugherty told jurors, according to the Associated Press.
In addition, prosecutors said they traced Merritt’s cellphone to the shallow desert graves and found Merritt’s DNA on the steering wheel and gearshift of McStay’s SUV, which was found near the Mexican border after the family disappeared, the AP reported.
Prosecutors also said that during police interviews days after the family disappeared Merritt referred to the McStays in the past tense, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
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On Monday, Merritt’s defense attorney said Merritt wouldn’t have killed McStay because his livelihood depended on him. The attorney said prosecutors had the wrong man and pointed to another business acquaintance of McStay’s as the real killer, according to Press-Enterprise.
Merritt’s defense team also argued that their client’s DNA was not found at the burial site but DNA from unidentified individuals were.