The Lost Family | Fatal Fraud | Forensic Files

[audio logo] [unsettling music] NARRATOR: Every fraud begins with a promise, but most don't end in a murder.
MAN (ON PHONE): I'm out here on a motorcycle, and I found what looks like a human skull.
NARRATOR: A quick fortune, easy money, or a life torn apart. - The killing of the McStay family was not an accident.
NARRATOR: But behind these illusions lie calculated deceptions. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): Why would your phone
show you at the gravesite? NARRATOR: Carefully hidden in plain sight. - I have no clue.
- How could something like this happen in a place like this? NARRATOR: Sometimes these criminals
are backed into a corner and feel their only way out is to kill. BRITT IMES: He went to that house that night,
and the worst of the worst got the best of him. He turned to violence. [exhilarating music]
[unsettling music] - My name is Britt Imes. I'm a chief deputy district attorney for the County
of San Bernardino. Fallbrook is a fairly rural, small town in Northern San Diego County.
It sits in the rolling hills east of the Pacific Ocean. Given that somewhat rural nature and small-town feel,
crime just didn't seem to be an issue. NARRATOR: For 40-year-old Joseph McStay and his wife
Summer, Fallbrook was the perfect place to raise their young family. - The McStay family was your typical young upstart family.
Summer and Joseph had originally lived over on the Coast, but when the kids started coming up,
they bought a house in which they could raise a family in Fallbrook. SUMMER MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): He can watch the movie, yeah.
- Yeah. SUMMER MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): Eastwood. BRITT IMES: With room enough for them to grow
and for him to run his business, and they chose a very sleepy neighborhood of Fallbrook that
was hundreds houses or so, nestled amongst avocado groves and the hills to the west of the busy freeway.
- I'm Scott Kraft, and I'm editor at large at the Los Angeles Times. Certainly, that neighborhood is quiet, middle class.
It feels fairly private, kind of a nice suburban community. BRITT IMES: Joseph McStay was a self-made businessman,
small entrepreneur. He focused initially in a drop-in ship company for desktop water features, like little fountains
you would put on your desk. And he slowly grew that business into custom-made features for businesses,
like a waterfall in a lobby of a doctor's office, or a restaurant, or a mall. In that, he grew to have a larger internet presence
utilizing a webmaster. Summer was a free spirit. - Oh, G. Come on, G. JOSEPH MCSTAY: Whew.
- She was a life force and energy in Joseph's life. When Gianni came along and then Joe Junior,
she really focused on being a stay-at-home mom, taking care of the boys and really
focusing on their family life. NARRATOR: The McStays story was a happy one of a successful family living the dream.
Until early February 2010, when that dream was shattered. - Starting on February 9 of 2010,
certain things occur that lead to the reporting of the McStay family is missing.
Joseph's mother, Susan, inquires about the fact that she's not been able to get a hold of Joseph.
Almost simultaneously, the other business partner, Dan Kavanaugh, who is in Hawaii,
has been trying to reach Joseph repeatedly. Mike McStay, Joseph's brother, gets involved.
Initially, his response was, well, give it a few days. Maybe they went surfing. Maybe they went to the mountains.
Summer had a house up in the mountain area. Maybe they just needed to get away for a few days.
At some point, Mike McStay ends up going into the house. And realizes something's not right here.
And that's when the Sheriff's Department is notified. Patrol deputy comes out and does kind of a welfare check,
and he takes the initial half dozen photographs of the condition of the house at the time.
They find the window to Joseph's office slightly ajar. There was no dead bodies.
There was no blood all over the place. And it just kind of looked like the house had
been empty for several days. SCOTT KRAFT: The way the house was left, it seemed like they were not intending to be gone long.
It also seemed that they had left in a bit of a hurry. - There's uneaten food, a bowl of popcorn,
some scrambled eggs. There's actually an apple on the stairs with a couple bites out of it.
SCOTT KRAFT: Leaving things behind like that, stuff on the counter that could spoil just seemed so unusual.
It felt like they must have left with a sense of urgency. BRITT IMES: When it came to the condition of the bedrooms or
the closets and clothing, it was quite disheveled and it looked a little out of place.
SCOTT KRAFT: It was very difficult to tell if there had been any kind of struggle
or any kind of violence in that house, because the house had just been purchased by Summer and
Joseph a few months before. There were open paint cans all over. The family seemed to be living out of suitcases.
BRITT IMES: Upon a first look, an investigator go, OK, they got up and left. Maybe they were in a hurry for an appointment
and didn't finish their breakfast and didn't have time to clean up. Mine goes, OK, let's give it a couple days.
Let's see what happens. Let's see if they just went on a quick getaway. So come the 15, Mike calls the Sheriff's Department
and officially reports them missing. NARRATOR: As the police began their investigation
into the missing family, the case made national headlines. - There was an outpouring of concern.
I mean, these were two young children and then their parents. No one had heard from them.
There was grave concern over where they had gone, what had happened to them. SCOTT KRAFT: No one really knew what happened.
It seemed to be from the stories that had been written that-- I mean, it's just so unusual for a family of four
to disappear into thin air. KERI NIXON: My name is Dr. Keri Nixon, and I'm a consultant forensic psychologist.
When somebody is missing, there's always a question mark and there's always an element of hope.
We know from many missing cases the psychological impact on families is horrific.
When it's unknown, it's utter daily hell to experience that. NARRATOR: Police began by looking
at their last known movements. - The initial investigation by San Diego developed a timeline of Joseph's kind of comings and
goings around the time or right before the time they were reported missing by the family.
NARRATOR: It was discovered that on the day he disappeared, Joseph McStay met one of his contractors for lunch,
a man known as Charles "Chase" Merritt. SCOTT KRAFT: Chase Merritt was the person
who did the construction. BRITT IMES: Charles Merritt was a fabricator of these water features.
He would do the plumbing, the glass work. It was learned that Charles Merritt was
kind of the last person maybe to have been in contact with him beyond the immediate family
of Summer and the boys. And that developed into what was believed to be a meeting between Charles Merritt
and Joseph McStay on February 4, roughly midday. NARRATOR: On February 17, 2010, 13 days
after the McStays were last seen alive, police interviewed Charles Merritt. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): Let's start with your name, Charles.
CHARLES RAY MERRITT (ON AUDIO): Charles Ray Merritt. BRITT IMES: During that interview,
Merritt puts forth a picture of the relationship in the business-- personal and business relationship
with Joseph as one of everything is all right. It's sunshine and rainbows. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): I mean, obviously you
have a business relationship, were you also friends or was it-- CHARLES RAY MERRITT (ON AUDIO): Joseph
was one of my best friends. I can't remember a day that I haven't talked to him.
Everybody loves Joseph. Everybody. He has no financial problems. I mean, over the last couple of months,
things have started picking up and everything was looking really promising. NARRATOR: During the interview, Merritt
described his warm relationship with Joseph and the successful state of the business.
BRITT IMES: So one of the documents that Merritt provides during the interview to San Diego Sheriff
is an email between him and Joseph, and it was from February 1. CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): He
had emailed me this on the first, and we were going over these numbers, but these are the last emails, the last few emails
that I got from Joseph. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): And your overpaid amount, this Chase paid $173,000.
CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): $173,000 is what he's paid me? $158,000 is what he owed me, so I owed him $15,000.
- In that email, Joseph lays out the fact that Merritt has not only been overpaid about $15,000, but in fact,
owes Joseph $42,000 based on several bad construction projects that occurred that were attributed
to Merritt's fault. So in the end, while he's telling investigators on the one hand,
you know, business is great, our relationship's great. He's showing them an email that on February 1,
it says, you owe me $42,000. The investigators did a forensic exam of a couple different computers that Joseph McStay had.
And towards the end of 2009, the spreadsheet indicated at one point that Merritt was indebted to Joseph
to the tune of it varied from $64,000 up to approximately $200,000. NARRATOR: During the interview, police also discovered
Charles Merritt had access to Joseph McStay's financial records through an accounting
software known as QuickBooks. CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): Joseph and I sat down and talked about QuickBooks because Summer
didn't know how much money Joseph actually made, and she never did. One of Summer biggest problems is credit cards.
She spends a lot of money. It become a big thing with Joseph. Not letting her know exactly how much money he's making.
BRITT IMES: Merritt contended in his interview that Joseph was delegating that authority to him in an attempt
to hide the business transactions from Summer. But that was the reason that Merritt gave.
So he at least conceded that he had the access. It didn't make sense for a small businessman
to actually turn over control to finances to a contractor. That just did not make sense.
So a lot of anecdotal examples of the financial mismanagement, possible embezzlement, or fraudulent activity by Merritt,
but nothing overly concrete. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: My name is Fiona Hotston Moore,
and I'm a forensic accountant and an expert witness. When we're looking at perhaps an employee fraud,
we would look at the history of the company's records and what sort of moneys had been spent by the company.
And then we will look for any unusual transactions, things that we might not have expected to have seen.
And we will look at those unusual transactions and see if actually they are legitimate transactions.
SCOTT KRAFT: Detective DuGal told me that he had looked at the bank accounts of the business.
He felt that the transactions that had taken place after Joseph and Summer and their family went missing
seemed to be in line with things that kind of business partners would do. The accounts weren't cleaned out or anything like that,
that the transactions that he saw in their QuickBooks and in their accounting seemed, at that time,
to be kind of normal-- they didn't raise too many suspicions with him. NARRATOR: There was, however, one
aspect of Merritt's interview that the police found intriguing. BRITT IMES: One of the investigators
noticed when Merritt was answering questions, he repeatedly said-- or referred to Joseph and Summer and the boys
in the past tense. And it was significant enough that the investigator even questioned him about it.
INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): Do you have any knowledge or information which indicates
to you that they're dead? CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): No. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): OK.
And the reason that I ask is because you have used the past tense about Joe a couple of times.
Any explanation as to why he may have done that? CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): I mean, I really--
I just want to know. INVESTIGATOR (ON AUDIO): Understand why I'm asking? CHARLES RAY MERRIT (ON AUDIO): Of course.
No, of course. I completely understand. - He had no explanation for that. He just claimed he didn't realize he was saying it.
NARRATOR: Police decided to take a closer look at Merritt and his finances. BRITT IMES: Merritt is a hard working, blue collar craftsman.
His confidence exceeded his ability to run a business, be financially stable. He regularly ran bank accounts into negative balances or
zero balances, incurred huge amounts of overdraft fees, all while apparently funding his love of being
a professional poker player. Merritt did come to the investigation with a criminal history.
He has a criminal history dating back to the early-- or late '70s. - Chase was not a reputable guy.
He had a history of small crimes. He had served time for petty theft and things like that.
And that it was Detective DuGal's understanding that Joseph knew who Chase was. He knew about his background when he hired him.
NARRATOR: During the initial investigation, police discover one of the McStay family vehicles
abandoned close to the Mexican border. - There's a parking lot in a kind of a strip mall within walking distance of the border.
A lot of people park there and walk in across the border, maybe go, you know, into Tijuana and shop a bit
and then come out. And what had happened was this vehicle had arrived between 5:00 and 9:00 PM.
And then they-- after 9:00, I think about 11:00 PM, they had ordered it to be towed.
Detective DuGal went and looked at the car, studied it. Everything seemed normal.
There was like a coffee cup. There was a bottle of water. There were two child seats in the back.
And he said, it appeared to him that if the four of them went, there really wasn't room for another person.
If someone had abducted them in some way, there didn't seem to be room back there for a fifth person
in that vehicle. NARRATOR: With no hard evidence suggesting foul play, police kept an open mind as to the family's whereabouts.
BRITT IMES: At some point, investigators uncover, with the help of the federal government,
evidence that fed into a story that it was possible the McStays had left for a Mexican vacation.
It was somewhat amplified by the fact that during a search of Summer's laptop, she had in her browser history a search
for vacationing in Mexico. SCOTT KRAFT: Joseph's father, Patrick, had done his own research, and he had somehow gotten
into Summer's email account. And he had found that she had purchased a Spanish language
course, another factor suggesting that they had wanted to visit Mexico. NARRATOR: With the case drawing national media attention,
police had to investigate hundreds of potential leads and sightings. - One 3 inch binder alone of tips where they were last seen,
who was last seen them. And just the public's theory of the case or what had happened,
but they had to run all of them down and dispel every single one of them, or prove them true.
SCOTT KRAFT: One, I remember was a waiter in a restaurant in Mexico had said that this family had come in.
They were looking at-- they had left a map on the table after eating-- a map of the area,
swore that was the family because had seen pictures and stuff. The investigators went down there.
They checked fingerprints on the map. None of the family's fingerprints were on it.
NARRATOR: After checking surveillance cameras on the US border, police discovered
further potential evidence that the family may have crossed into Mexico. BRITT IMES: Customs and border protection
after scanning hours and hours and hours of video within a time frame that they went missing,
discovered a video of what appeared to be a family of four roughly the same stature,
roughly the same age for the children crossing into Mexico. Wearing clothes that one could say
would be consistent with Summer, especially. Unfortunately, it was at night. It's not the clearest video.
You don't see their faces. And while investigators were willing to explore the possibility that it was them and had gone to Mexico,
there was no other evidence that they had. The family was not convinced it was them.
They believed strongly that there was no way Summer, the protective mama bear of that family
would take her kids into Mexico at such a young age. If it was, in fact, a surfing vacation,
it was the wrong time of year and no surfboards, and why wouldn't they just drive.
SCOTT KRAFT: I think the theory that they might have gone to Mexico was interesting to ordinary people,
but to the family, it seemed not very plausible. I mean, they did know that Summer searched for travel
documents to Mexico, but I think the family thought that they wouldn't do that. And one of the reasons was that Joseph
had a son from an earlier relationship, and he was very close to that boy. And his family said, there is no way
he would disappear voluntarily and lose touch completely with his son. BRITT IMES: A missing persons investigation
is a lot more difficult than a homicide investigation. With a homicide investigation, you know a crime occurred.
So you have certain legal tools available to you to get certain pieces of evidence.
You have the ability to actually get a search warrant. You have the ability to actually detain people and
interrogate them differently than you would if they were just witnesses and trying
to get background information on a disappearance. So San Diego faced an uphill battle,
even getting bank records, or phone records, or even a search warrant to search the house,
which they ultimately did. But that becomes a huge factor. The second factor is you're talking about 2010.
The technology that exists today did not necessarily exist then. The tools that law enforcement have now didn't exist then.
Nowadays, that data is much more in depth and complex, including geolocation data and more.
- It just seemed highly unlikely that four people could disappear like that and never be found.
I thought it was likely there would be an answer, but I also realized in doing stories like this
that it could be 10 years. It could be 20 years. - Three years, nine months and seven days after the McStays
were last seen alive. A motorcyclist was enjoying his three-day weekend-- Veterans Day, riding his dirt bike
through the Mojave Desert, which he's done dozens, if not hundreds of times. As he was driving, he noticed what
appeared to be initially like a desert tortoise shell, so he stopped. And he flipped it over with his boot
and realized it was actually the top of a human skull. So he calls 911. MAN (ON PHONE): I'm out here on a motorcycle,
and I found what looks like a human skull. BRITT IMES: A deputy responds, and it clearly
is the top of a human skull. And so they preserve the scene. A full forensic team, homicide investigators
descend on the area and begin a two-day excavation of what ends up being two shallow graves
located in the desert. NARRATOR: It was established that in the graves were the remains of Joseph, Summer, and their two children.
SCOTT KRAFT: I just learned about it through a news alert that these remains had been found.
And very quickly, I think, they were identified. And maybe the announcement came at the same time
that they were the McStay family. And I've got to say that probably most people who had covered that story did not expect that.
That's not where or how we expected them to be found. BRITT IMES: There was a quick belief
that it was the McStays because that was the most obvious conclusion based. You had a family of four, two adults and two kids missing,
and all of a sudden, they're found. It's consistent with it. It ultimately was determined through DNA testing
that the male remains were Joseph and the female remains were Summer. It was deduced from that that the other child remains
must be Gianni and Joseph. Unfortunately, of Joe Junior, there was insufficient remains left to do any type of testing.
SCOTT KRAFT: When you think about the logistics of that crime, you would think multiple people
would be involved. Like, how could that have happened? How could they be lured into a situation where
they would all be killed? How could they all be killed in this way together? NARRATOR: Now with multiple homicides to solve,
police began reviewing the evidence from the initial investigation three years earlier.
- It became apparent from Joseph's computer and phone activity that he was searching out
other fabricators, other supply companies, to not only expand his business, but what really became obvious is to eventually
get rid of Merritt. The investigation leads to a series of interviews and pieces
of evidence that shows that Merritt not only was a bad financial manager, but clearly
was taking advantage of the relationship with Joseph McStay. There was some untoward activity when it came to money,
cheques being delivered, cheques not being delivered, supplies going missing, or even Merritt not doing the work.
Joseph was becoming aware of it. - Normally, when we're investigating a business or employee fraud, we
talk about the fraud triangle. That is, the opportunity to commit that fraud is there,
the opportunity is there, the motivation. And quite often, the motivation to commit fraud
would be something like perhaps gambling, debts, and perhaps financial pressures that they're
under, perhaps some change in their personal circumstances. And then we talk about the rationalization.
So typically, when people are undertaking business fraud, they may try and rationalize that in their minds.
They may think that actually it's part of their package, perhaps they think they're actually due the money.
BRITT IMES: Merritt portrayed several times in interviews that he was the reason behind the success
of this part of the business, that it was his artistry and his craftsmanship that made Joseph successful.
And if you couple that ego perspective with wait a minute, now, I'm not getting paid as much.
Wait a minute, now, I'm getting paid extremely little. And, oh, he's shopping around using other people.
I'm about to be out of a job. That could create desperation in a lot of people. KERI NIXON: He was getting less work from the mixed days,
and this created resentment and anger in him. And he wanted to take that anger out.
It wouldn't be understandable, but it would be a little bit more understandable if he only
took out that anger and resentment on the man that he has the issue with. NARRATOR: After identifying a possible motive to murder,
police took a closer look at the activity on the accounting software around February 4, 2010, the day
the McStays disappeared. - When they dug into and did a forensic audit of QuickBooks,
that's where they found the concrete evidence of fraudulent activity being conducted.
They actually had checks. They could actually go to the banks and see which checks were cashed,
which checks were forged, which checks were mysteriously deleted from their accounting system.
That's where we moved from anecdotal Merritt was stealing from Joseph to actual provable evidence
that Merritt was stealing from Joseph. - We don't have checks anymore. I haven't written a check.
I haven't seen a check written by a client for many, many years. On the one hand, I think written checks
made a fraudster's life slightly easier. I think things have now changed and fraudsters try to do
things with electronic means. BRITT IMES: On February 8, several checks were written, edited to change that date back to the fourth,
and then printed and then attempted to be deleted from the audit trail. The user didn't realize that even though you delete it,
it actually still maintains a digital footprint and is still logged as activity.
One of those, in fact, was like a $6,500 check for a project that didn't appear to have been finalized.
So all of that, while it leaves some questions unanswered, like a lot of things, in this case,
it overwhelmingly established that it was Merritt who had access and forged checks to himself
and then deposited him in his own accounts. And then attempted to destroy evidence of such.
- Money typically now moves electronically. It is easier to hide money in a digital era.
However, forensic technology also means that it is very difficult to hide money forever,
but people try. NARRATOR: Police also discovered a call was made to QuickBooks customer services
on February 9, 2010. BRITT IMES: Someone asked the customer service rep to basically delete the QuickBooks account and
all record of it. And this caught the customer service rep off guard because in all of his experience,
no one had ever wanted an entire account deleted. So he made very detailed notes about that call.
And the process, though, was OK, Mr. McStay, I will send you a confirmatory email with a hyperlink in it
for you to then log in and confirm that that's the action you want to take. Until that's done, we can't delete the account.
And that ended the call. It also logged the phone number from which that call was made.
That call came from Charles Merritt's cell phone. NARRATOR: Police began focusing on Charles Merritt's cell
phone activity around the time of the family's murder. On October 22, 2014, Merritt was brought
back in for questioning. INVESTIGATOR (ON VIDEO): Where did you go February 6? - I don't remember.
- Where do your phone records show you're at on February 6? - Got no clue. INVESTIGATOR (ON VIDEO): High desert.
- OK. - Where are the key areas in the high desert that we've discussed? - Where Joseph was buried, you mean?
- Why would your phone show you at the gravesite on February 6? - Not possible.
I wasn't there. - Why would your phone records show you there? - Couldn't have.
- Oh, they do. NARRATOR: On November 5, 2014, police arrested Charles Merritt for the murder
of the McStay family. BRITT IMES: The killing of the McStay family was not an accident.
In California, to be guilty of first-degree murder, it has to be done willfully, deliberately,
and premeditatedly. It is not uncommon for any defendant, especially in a murder case, to not admit guilt,
so it was not surprising that Merritt did not. He's presumed innocent. He has to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
NARRATOR: While Charles "Chase" Merritt was not separately charged with financial crimes such as fraud, forgery,
or embezzlement, his fraudulent financial activity was central to the prosecution's murder case.
- You link these activities to Merritt multiple different ways. One, he had made an admission to having
access to the QuickBooks. Second, who would create a vendor account and write checks
to Charles Merritt, when they write checks to themselves. And then the QuickBooks call to delete the account
came from Merritt cell phone. Could it have been some co-conspirator of Merritt?
Sure. But it was still Merritt's phone. NARRATOR: In January 2019, after four years
of preliminary hearings, Charles Merritt's murder trial began in San Bernardino County.
SCOTT KRAFT: Defense tried to make the case that Dan Kavanaugh, the other partner who
was the web master effectively of the business, had more of an incentive to get rid of Joseph.
NARRATOR: The defense team maintained that as an employee of the McStays, Merritt had no reason to murder the family.
SCOTT KRAFT: The things that remain a bit of a mystery are why any of his business partners
would find it advantageous to themselves to kill an entire family. KERI NIXON: There was a high level of violence.
Violence that we usually see when there's a very personal reason. When we see that level of violence,
there's usually an interpersonal connection taking out the rage to do that on children
who had nothing to do with this, shows what this kind of man this was. NARRATOR: Despite a lack of forensic evidence at the murder
scene, police were able to build a strong case based on circumstantial evidence.
- The house, from a forensic standpoint for criminal investigators, was surprisingly clean.
11 days had passed from the time that we know that they were last known to exist on February 4.
We know that during that time, Merritt went to the house based on his cell phone pings, at least two to three times
by himself. And then ultimately, during San Diego's initial investigation, they were able to get a neighbor's surveillance camera
footage of a vehicle leaving the McStay's house on February 4 in the evening hours
that we contended was consistent with Merritt's truck. NARRATOR: Crucially, Charles Merritt's phone records also
showed his cell phone was switched off the night the McStay family disappeared.
- Merritt had left Fallbrook his phone on pinging on towers headed southbound on the interstate
to McStay's house suddenly goes off the grid, off the network, whether it's powered off, turned into airplane mode,
battery removed, whatever. Goes off the grid for several hours, and then mysteriously popping back
on the radar on the network after that several hours of disappearance. While it's circumstantial, it's a significantly
overwhelming circumstantial case that pointed only to Merritt. No other individual.
He had the motive, the loss of their cash cow. Some people would characterize jumping to murder
is a very far leap. However, when you look at an individual like Charles Merritt, one could imagine he went to that house
that night to confront Joseph McStay. And the worst of the worst got the best of him.
He turned to violence. NARRATOR: Despite the lack of incriminating DNA at the McStay's home, the prosecution
were able to present some forensic evidence to the jury. - What emerged in the trial was that the detectives
had found his DNA in the trooper that had been parked in the parking lot near the border.
BRITT IMES: When detectives seized the Isuzu Trooper from the tow yard, it's taken and
it's processed at the time for fingerprints, for DNA swabs, inventory of the contents.
San Marino County tested those and developed a DNA profile consistent with Merritt on a couple
different locations in the car, including the steering wheel and the gear shifter controls.
While it wasn't enough to say he was a usual driver, it was so overwhelming, it was there on the steering wheel.
He claimed to have never driven that vehicle, so why would his DNA be on the steering wheel?
- It was a circumstantial case, though. There was no blood in the house, no indication of where the actual killings took place.
Although, I guess they could have taken place at the site where the remains were found.
NARRATOR: While there was mounting evidence pointing to Charles Merritt being responsible for the killing,
one huge question still hung over the case. - How did they die? What had lured them out of the house that night
February 4, 2010? NARRATOR: Towards the end of the trial, the prosecution presented a picture of what they believed
happened that night. BRITT IMES: There is a theory, a hypothetical theory of what
happened in that house, that at least the initial killing of Joseph may have been in a heated dispute
about the business and being sidelined, and he lost his cool and disabled Joseph in some way.
But when it comes to Summer and Gianni and Joseph, there is no explanation or justification or mitigation
of why you would destroy the skulls of those three individuals other than they were witnesses
to your crime or crimes. A defenseless four-year-old and just turning three-year-old
bashed in the head with a purportedly with a sledgehammer. Summers face shattered into dozens of pieces,
is a lot of deliberate anger being taken out on that person. KERI NIXON: The fact that he was able to use a sledgehammer,
which is a weapon that he would have had to have been in close proximity, shows the level of anger involved.
He wants to take revenge on the man, but he takes his anger out on the entire family.
And that's the bit that's really difficult to understand here. BRITT IMES: If you interpret the evidence another way,
which was they were disabled, removed from the house, and then even killed at the burial site.
That's what 100 mile drive from Fallbrook to the high desert with four people being held captive
in some disabled state. And then to only be murdered at the gravesite inside of each other.
No matter how you looked at the evidence, those killings were willful, deliberate, and premeditated,
based on the nature-- just the nature of the injuries inflicted. NARRATOR: On June 10, 2019, a jury
found Charles "Chase" Merritt guilty on four counts of murder. Despite strong evidence of embezzlement,
he was not charged or convicted of any financial crimes. - Ultimately, Merritt is responsible
because he's the one with the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit these crimes.
No one else did. In fact, he boasted to local news reporters that he knows that he's the last person to see them alive.
Well, the last person to see them alive is the actual killer. It was an interesting turn of phrase,
just like when he referred to him in the past tense. KERI NIXON: He very nearly got away with murder.
It was only by a stroke of luck that the bodies were found. And in that time, the family had simply disappeared.
He left no trace. That shows that this was a man who was very, very experienced.
He was a professional criminal. He knew how to get rid of evidence. And he very, very nearly did get away with multiple murder.
SCOTT KRAFT: I think a case like this sort of makes you question whether a neighbor-- a quiet neighborhood
is really quiet, how could something like this happen in a place like this? I think that's what makes this case resonate.
NARRATOR: On January 21, 2020, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Michael Smith sentenced
Charles Merritt to death. Merritt maintained his innocence and continues to lobby appeals.
[somber music] SUMMER MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): What is it, Joe? Wow. Show us. JOSEPH MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): This is
Joe's first Christmas present ever in his life. SUMMER MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): Let me see, Joe.
What did you get? BRITT IMES: It's hard to determine what motivated Merritt to do what he did.
Whether it's his greed or desire to continue profiting off Joseph in the business,
or it's his greed and having to make up the debt that he found himself in, or even that it spun so out of control-- he lost control.
Only he can explain that to us. [joyful giggling] JOSEPH MCSTAY (ON VIDEO): All right, stay tuned.
NARRATOR: Despite the successful conviction of Charles Merritt, the McStay murders
cast a long shadow on many of those involved in the case. KERI NIXON: I work on a daily basis
with officers who suffer with PTSD, and there's many causes of that. But I see often when there is a particularly devastating case--
the impact that has on police. And in this case, you've got two children. And the way in which they were discarded and then found,
I imagine that the police on that scene would have really been impacted by that and probably
needed professional help. BRITT IMES: So I first realized the emotional impact of the case was in this case, and
I had their crime scene tech from San Diego on the stand. And we were just going through pictures,
and we were going through the processing of the Isuzu Trooper. And I went to show her a picture, and I almost
lost it and I couldn't-- I just-- I had to stop, take a deep breath, look away from the damn cameras in the courtroom.
And I realized what it was. I was showing her a picture of Joe Jr.'s car seat that was in the Trooper.
It was the exact same car seat that I had put my kids in. Same model, same color, same everything.
That personal connection was the first time ever, and it-- it was heart wrenching.
Because we're not supposed to make these things personal. They're never personal.
But sometimes they are. [somber music] [music playing]

When the McStay family vanishes from their California home, suspicion falls on a business partner.

This true crime series delves into cases where financial schemes spiral into betrayal, violence and murder, exposing the deadly cost of lies fueled by greed.

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Brief Summary

The McStay family was murdered by Charles Merritt over financial disputes, leading to his conviction in 2019.

Key points

The McStay Family's Disappearance. In February 2010, the McStay family mysteriously vanished, leading to a nationwide search.
Discovery of Human Remains. A motorcyclist finds a skull in the Mojave Desert, leading to the discovery of the McStay family remains.
Charles Merritt Arrested. On November 5, 2014, police arrested Charles Merritt for the murder of the McStay family.
Merritt Found Guilty. On June 10, 2019, a jury found Charles Merritt guilty on four counts of murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Every fraud begins with a promise,.

NARRATOR introduces the theme of fraud.

0:05WatchFeb 23, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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