The McStay Family /// Part 1 /// 581 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True crab garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for
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more place we can go get away we can take the long way home you want to no place we can
go get away we can take Fallbrook California February 2010 most of the following comes from an
article written written by Robert jablin for the Associated Press the article headline says what
everyone was thinking disappearance of family of four is all a mystery and that was the truth the
article was just days after a very normal and happy family of four disappeared by the looks of it they just
vanished in fact given the state of their home it would appear that the family was here one minute and then the
next poof they were gone the home was found empty of people but everything still very much in an
everyday living mode with rooms freshly painted blue painters tape still covering the ceiling
corners and woodwork eggs sitting out on the kitchen counter bowls of half eaten food and the
family's two dogs out in the backyard so so yeah by the looks of it they just vanished and now for the aformentioned
news article which states the details of The Disappearance clearly and concisely and reads the MC haven't been
seen since February 4th their car was found at a mall 70 mi from home a middle class family of four
vanishes leaving their dogs unattended and rotting food in their San Diego C home their abandoned car is later found
near the Mexico border it might sound like a TV mystery but the reality has relatives of the MC family pleading for
help and law enforcement searching both sides of the border for Clues Joseph m 40 his wife summer 43 and
their sons Giani 4 and Joseph Jr 3 are the missing the family has not been seen or heard from since February 4th their
white 1996 Isuzu Trooper was found 4 days later in a strip mall about 70 mi from their home San Diego County Sheriff
Lieutenant bgos says it's all a mystery is the vehicle down by the border a ploy
were they voluntarily missing were they taken against their will just for a family of four to disappear I've never
seen anything like it Joseph's brother Michael went to the home on February 14th to check on the family but only
found the dogs he called authorities the next day and investigators found no signs of a
struggle still Michael M said he fears for the lives of his family members and feels
helpless neighbors said they had been feeding the animals but had heard nothing from the family acquaintances
told investigators the mday never would have left on vacation for any other reason without telling someone relatives
have set up a website seeking information about the family's whereabouts at ww. mixay
family.com this week's True Crime Story is about the miay family's disappearance
and the investigation to locate them this is true crime garage more place we can
go get away we can take the long way you want to go no place we can go get away we
can as you heard it was February of 2010 when a family of four went missing this
is the mstay family from Fallbrook California now what I would like to do here Captain is start off by going
through a timeline this is a timeline of the general events that were taking place before and after their
disappearance and this is considered to be agreed upon as a factual timeline and
we will kind of read these as bullet points here captain and fill in the blanks as we go along but like the
sheriff's office said in that article it was all a mystery a family of four to go
missing all at once with no leads as to potentially where they could have gone or what could have happened to them was
all a mystery let's start off with late 2009 so this would be November before they went missing we have the whole
family the miay family of four they move from San Clemente to Fall Brook this is
around Thanksgiving weekend now keep in mind they will go missing in February the following year so the home home that
they were living in at the time of their disappearance they're relatively new to
this home and from my understanding this was a property or home that was once foreclosed on which makes sense when you
see the year 2009 remember we had the market crash the housing market crash around that same time this is a home
that had been foreclosed on that the mstay family moved into for their growing family into a nice area a very
quiet safe neighborhood but also they're going to be doing some Renovations and cleaning up the place and updating the
place probably in hopes to make a little bit of money right we have Joseph M who
is an entrepreneur at the time of his disappearance he is 40 years old he owns his own company and the company has had
some success so that takes us to February of 2010 on February 3rd we have a friend
that comes over to the m family home this friend comes by to help paint and help do some general remodeling inside
the home this is believed to be the last or one of the last known face-to-face interactions with Summer Mix day and the
two young boys the two young sons of the family so this is someone that they knew
a personal friend that comes over and is physically there at the mix Day family home and like you said this house is
under construction they're doing painting they're going to be replacing the flooring they don't have a lot of
furniture in the house and they don't have it decorated that's correct now that takes us to the next day which is
Thursday February 4th 2010 on this morning we have summer who speaks with her sister and they are
making plans for a future visit and I underline that part in our timeline because we know at some point based off
of our trailer that this whole family is going to go missing and when they go missing the Sheriff's
Office labels the case or the investigation as an voluntary missing investigation which I think is a mistake
it is a mistake but there's reasons why they would label it or categorize it as such now for this portion though it's
key to know that we do have a situation that's leading up to their disappearance where we have someone
saying I'm making future plans with one of the members of the family her sister is saying hey I have a newborn Summer's
got two young Sons we were planning a visit to so that so that my newborn child could meet their aunt so that
summer can meet my newborn child so they're making plans for a future visit together now around noon on that same
day on the 4th Joseph the Father Joseph M he leaves the family home in his Isuzu
Trooper this is for a meeting with his business associate Charles Chase Merritt so we need to kind of fill in everybody
on what it is that Joseph M does for a living and his company so he owns he's the owner operator of a company that is
called Earth inspired products and they make these custom waterfalls and if you were to go into a law office or a fancy
business or a business building that houses multiple businesses yeah fancy hotel fancy hotel you may have seen one
of their products and this is the the products that I've seen and I'm sure that they make all kinds of different
products being that they are in the custom water feature custom waterfall business but the ones that I have seen
are these fancy glass kind of sealing to floor straight down waterfalls where the
water falls and Cascades down the glass and on the glass you may have your company logo right looks very impressive
when you walk into the lobby of a building we have one in the lobby of the garage of the garage that's right and
the the lobby which leads to the West and East wing of the garage Studio here we'd be lucky if we could afford a
chicken wing so around noon Joseph leaves his home in his vehicle which is an Isuzu Trooper to meet his business
associate Charles Chase Merritt now for simplification purposes as we continue along we will just refer to him as Chase
Meritt or chase now Chase works for Joseph M right Joseph he's the owner and operator of this business he's the sales
guy he's also in the designing portion of what the business does but we also have Chase who is the Builder the
manufacturer of these custommade waterfalls so he works with Joseph in the designing stages but he's the one
that's in charge of actually constructing these custommade water features everybody would say that chase is
Joseph's right-hand man they become friends some would say best friends through the process of working together
and growing this business and again the business has had some success it doesn't
sound to me like they were just a complete success you know falling over each other successful with just success
month after month after month but we also have a third assoc it and I'm not going to sit here captain and pretend to
know all of the ins and outs and everything about Joseph M's business there could have been other individuals
that worked with them maybe as a contractor or maybe even part-time or full-time seasonal employee that I don't
know but there's going to be three major figures in this earth inspired Products
company and again it's Joseph M owner operator Chase Merritt who is the Builder SL manufacturer but then we also
have a third individual and his name is Dan Kavanaugh and he is involved more behind the scenes and we'll get into Dan
Kavanaugh as we go a little bit further down the road here this meeting with Joseph mstay and his business associate
Charles Chase Merritt is in Rancho Cucamonga now later what we are told is this meeting is going to take place at a
Chick-fil-A and it's going to be an hours long meeting several hours long a casual meeting checks are going to be
exchanged plans are going to be made they're going to be working and discussing business related items at
this Chick-fil-A at this Rancho Cucamonga location this brings us to about 4:25 p.m. when we have an outgoing
call from the home phone to Joseph's cell phone which pings from a Fall Brook cell tower this is reported as the last
outgoing call from the home phone around 5 and up to about 6:00 p.m. there are several text messages that take place
between Joseph and his wife summers cell phones and just so we can get a better picture of what's going on Joseph is the
bread winner at this moment in their lives they have a young family a three and a four-year-old and summer is
Raising her kids yeah she's a stay-at-home mother at this time while Joseph is running his company now we
have 8:28 p.m. that evening Joseph calls or his cell phone calls Chase's cell phone and Joseph's cell phone pings off
of a Fallbrook Tower cell phone tower that's important because remember their home is in Fallbrook and this to me
would indic that either a Joseph M's phone is at his home at this time or near his home at this time rather than
being in Rancho kukamonga at the Chick-fil-A right this activity and these phone calls will all be very
important because it's generally believed that February 4th may be the day when the mixe family vanished when
something happened to change the events of their life and their timeline and they essentially go missing there's
going to be a little confusion on exactly when this family went missing if we all knew exactly when they went
missing well this probably would not have been such a mystery and they probably would have
been a better investigation to take place what we have next on our timeline Captain is February 10th and this is the
San Diego County Sheriff's office that is doing a welfare check on the M family there's a little confusion as to
how the San Diego County Sheriff's Office was notified that there could be something wrong at the mstay family home
we would later hear from Joseph M's Father Patrick who would say that I received an email from business
partner Dan Kavanaugh who says hey I can't get a hold of Joseph I've been trying to reach him via phone via email
I can't get a hold of him and this Dan Kavanaugh tries to call Patrick Joseph's Father Patrick doesn't answer the phone
for whatever reason and then ultimately gets an email telling him hey I can't get a hold of your son so Patrick has a
son that lives in the area this is Mike M or Michael M who is Joseph's brother he asked his brother Mike would you go
by and check on your brother I can't get a hold of him myself his business partner says he can't get a hold of him
to which Mike gives a little push back he's too busy to go over there so what we have happened is actually a couple
days go by before Mike mstay is at the home checking in on his brother now he's also checking in on his brother at the
request of his other business associate Chase Merritt right and Chase Merritt is
actually there with him for one of these visits this takes place prior to anyone
calling and notifying San Diego County Sheriff's Office and Chase Merritt says that when me and Mike m were there Mike
climbed through a window this would be the office Joseph's office window in the home to enter the home enter the
premises and goes to the front door unlocks the front door allowing Chase to come in the two of them walk the home
together they don't see any obvious signs of a struggle or a Breakin but the other thing is they don't see any of the
miay either the family of four poof gone no blood no sign of a struggle there's some debate on this
conversation the way that it has been told and reported is that chase Merritt says to Michael M day we need to call
the police we need to call the authorities and report them missing this doesn't feel right something feels wrong
here right again we have Mike mstay who offers a little more push back and says no it looks like everything's fine they
probably just took off for a few days I'm sure they'll be back so we have some people that are on kind of high alert at
this point Dan Kavanagh Patrick Joseph's father and the other business associate Chase Merritt they seem to be
on high alert but Mike mstay he's pretty casual about this and we don't know I don't know personally a
lot of his personality Mike M's personality but his brother Joseph is described as super casual guy super nice
very laidback doesn't get stressed easily so maybe the maybe this is just how it is
in their family and they share a similar personality and Mike is going well maybe
they took off for a few days on an adventure to have some fun as a family I don't see a big deal here well I think
there's a couple issues when you're in the house you have food left out but one of the other issues is that the house
has never been put together they never made the house a home yet so everything looks a little out of place and
everything looks a little disorganized so one can make the argument of well doesn't seem like there
was a struggle here the other person could make an argument well this house was never really put together at this
time their dogs are outside when the brother is sitting there when Michael is saying well I'm hopeful that they just
went on vacation you just went on vacation for 7 to 10 days or or maybe even 2 weeks and you're going to leave
your dogs outside that doesn't make a lot of sense to me no and in fact being a dog guy I get furious at people that I
hear tell me oh you know they're out staying the night somewhere they go straight from work out with their
friends and then stay the night somewhere and never went home to let the dog out or never went home to feed the
dog I get furious when I hear that I would have been on high alert I'm with you the the the home to me I don't know
that any regular person or even somebody that knows them well could walk through
the home and decide if there's been a struggle or if things are out of place or disturbed or disrupted what have you
but the dog thing would really put me on high alert and the other thing too that
that rubbed me the wrong way about Michael M's thoughts and feelings was I get what you're saying maybe they took
off for a couple days okay maybe they're being negligent with their dogs for whatever reason or made arrangements
with neighbors to feed the dogs and we'll just leave them out back right not being able to get a hold of them not
being able to get touch with them is what would concern me Heck on the way here I text my brother-in-law said hey I
think I just saw you down the street wanted to say hello he goes nope that's not me I'm in Louisville so it's it I
think that it's odd that that someone's gone and you can't get in touch with them and that's what would put me on
high alert now these other individuals convinced Mike mstay to contact the Sheriff's Office and this will lead to a
visit on February 15th when we have Mike m there with deputies from the Sheriff's
Office to do a quick sweep inside the home now note here that Mike miay once again has to climb in the window and go
and unlock the front door of the home because technically the Sheriff's Office does not have a search warrant at this
time they're just going to Simply go in take a look around see if they see any obvious signs of a
crime and if they do not they're going to live leave but officially the mix family is reported missing by this time
note the date February 15th later we would be told that we believe that they went missing or something happened to
the mix family on the fourth I can't say with 100% certainty when Mike m was notified of this we do have several
family members who are aware that something is wrong we do have several business associates that are aware that
something is wrong but to me that seems like a lot of time that has passed from when authorities later believe something
happened to the mix Day family to When anybody is actually reporting this and people are on scene looking for the
family looking to see if there's any obvious signs of a crime place we can go get away can take way
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anywh you want to go and we are back to the windows to the walls cheers mimes cheers K like you were stating the
mcstay family they rule it involuntary disappearance I think this is a huge mistake you hear law enforcement state
that when we get to a scene of a crime if we have bodies and we don't know what happened we assume the worst why not in
this situation why wouldn't law enforcement assume the worst and then work backwards that's a good question
and I'm not going to go down the road of of what a job what kind of job that they
did on this case early on I don't really have a strong opinion either way I'm pretty down the- middle on on my
thoughts on that whether they did a good job or a bad job what I will say is this
though is a good detective should be working off of fact and factual information and unfortunately at this
time when deputies go to the home and detectives get involved what they have here is missing people that's the fact
they see nothing at their home that would indicate to them that there was Foul Play or an abduction or a Breakin
or anything of that going on and so they have to categorize it something so that
is the category that was given to it based off of the facts that were known to law enforcement at that time now we
do have the detective who is on record saying yes when I saw the home I only knew one thing that I had
four missing people now in my mind because of my job and because of my experience I am always concerned with a
potential homicide so while he he can categorize it as voluntary missing because there's no other indication that
it is anything other than that he also states that the thing he was majorly concerned with is not so much the
missing adults we have missing children here and they're young children with no explanation from anybody in the family
as to why they may be missing or even hints as to what was going on with the family as to why the kids would be
missing you know he says that often in his line of work what he sees when we have missing children is a parent may
take off that there's some kind of fight and one parent leaves and the other parent takes the children and goes
looking for them however in this situation they have everybody on summer side of the family and everybody on
Joseph's side of the family saying everything's great they loved each other the family was great business was
wonderful their home was great their lives were great you know everything's great so he has no explanation or even
no hint as to why the children would be missing now we talked a little bit about
the home and you gave a good description of that but I think that we should go a
little more in depth with that to take a look at what the police what the authorities were seeing when they walk
through the home for the first time and this is from a San Diego news out let this is NBC San
diego.com where in March okay so they're Officially Missing by February 15th according to the timeline that we just
went through but this is from an article from March of 2010 this is Mike m Joseph's brother who is going through
the events as well as what the home situation was like when they found it with reporters they lived in the 3 400
block of avocado Vista Lane the brother says that the home had been cleaned and vacuumed since the family had
disappeared cleaned by his mother Susan Susan Blake who is no longer with Patrick cleaned the home after the
family had disappeared and before this interview took place and I'll read directly from the interview it says
inside the house is a moderate level of disarray mostly because the home was in the process of being remodeled according
to Mike four upstairs bedrooms are for the most part empty several children's toys including a large Playhouse remain
in the home the master bedroom is empty Furniture had yet to be delivered said Mike mstay in a walk-in closet Mike m
said several purses were found but not but did not appear to be currently being used downstairs strips of masking tape
protect the edging of several walls the kitchen was being repainted two sets of sunglasses one of which has prescription
lenses were found on a counter in the garage a double stroller sits with several wet suits resting on top of it
Mike mstay said his brother would always take the stroller on planned trips I don't want to throw the mother under the
bus but this is another huge mistake and and probably what happened and what she
was thinking in her mind is they're gone they went on vacation I came over to their house
it's in a little bit of a disarray I'm worried about my son I'm worried about my daughter-in-law I'm worried about my
grandchilden so to keep myself occupied instead of worrying I'm going to go over
there and and she cleans and not only cleans but she deep cleans using bleach in the kitchen and using bleach in the
bathrooms whatever happened to this family whether it happened at the home or otherwise this house does not look
the same when police are able to get a search warrant to officially search the home and I'm with you Captain I get it
it's a very motherly thing to do she's probably just over there doing what she thinks she can do trying to stay busy in
the time of being nervous and worried about the family but this is yes this is a misstep by her mother or sorry this is
a misstep by the mother another thing that I found that was odd too was Mike mstay took Joseph's comp computer around
the same time that the house was being cleaned and the Sheriff's Office basically says that you know this family
yeah they're nervous they're concerned I'm not in a position where I'm going to tell you what you cannot do what you
should not do don't you dare do this I'm in the process of trying to get a search
warrant so I can look through the home as quickly as possible before they disrupt what could be a potential crime
scene but at this point in the investigation they didn't feel that they needed to instruct the family what to do
other than asking them for help help us to help you tell us everything about the
family about their home give us everything that you got so we can create some kind of investigation and try to
locate this family of four well in the process of that they learn something that is very interesting and is going to
be a kind of a strange part in this case they locate the USU Trooper so this is Joseph M's vehicle and we know that he
was driving that vehicle on the 4th but it's on February 8th this is before that
they are officially missing on February 8th around 11:00 p.m. the family's trooper that vehicle was towed from a
parking lot which was about two blocks away from the US Mexico border and no one by this point has reported the
family missing yet the detective then says that knowing this area and knowing that people often will park their
vehicles there illegally and then leave and go across the border that became their number one
concern we found their vehicle in an area where that's typical Behavior so we must investigate that Avenue and see if
there is any evidence to back that thought up again my eyebrows rais when you hear about the computer being
removed from the home but it could be a situation just like the mother cleaning the house that there's a easy
explanation for it I just don't know what that is other than there is a business that needs to be run and now at
this point Michael has said that he's worried that his brother and his family is not going to return so there is talk
within the family on how or if they're going to try to continue his business because he has contracts for 6 months to
a year out yes and I'm glad that you went back to that Captain because that is correct right and that is something
where I look at it and go wow I think it's a little fishy that one would take one's computer but what we do know by
this point in the investigation is Chase Merritt has access to Michael M we know
that because they are at the home together they go through the mix family home together at some point it's a
little blurry to me right if Mike m is involved Loosely or in some form or fashion with his brother's
company but you're exactly right we have a company that needs to be run and now we have Dan Kavanaugh who's saying hey
I'm trying to do my thing and Chase Merritt who is saying I'm trying to do my thing to keep this company going
while Joseph is gone and hopefully he returns soon and we'll be it'll be business as usual but
in the meantime somebody needs needs to access that computer and someone needs to be able to relay information or do
things for us we need someone that we can get it in touch with that can act as Joseph in the meantime so I guess when
you look at it that way you go okay Mike mstay has two options either he takes the computer and helps out Dan and helps
out Chase and return he's obviously helping his brother while his brother's gone run his business Earth inspired
products or he could give it to one of the business associates and be hands off and
let them take take the Reigns and so I guess given those two options if I'm Mike I'm taking the computer myself well
the other reason that he might have taken this computer Joseph which is missing has a very close relationship
with Patrick his father and so Patrick knows that Dan Kavanagh has made some threats before
they actually call him the hacker and so it is possible that they have some kind
of conversation about well we might need to take his computer because we don't want one of his business associates to
hack into the system yes and so a little clarification on Dan Kavanagh from my understanding he's a partner at one
point in this business now what his role was exactly is not clearly defined however what we do know is he did set up
the website for the company for their products and that is one method that they use to sell their products to gain
potential customers and he also figured out some kind of search engine algorithm
that he tapped into to make it so that when you search for custom water features or water features or water
fountains that Earth inspired products may be the first one or one of the first ones that come up in your search it's
the same as back when we were little kids and everybody relied on the Yellow Pages or the phone book for a lot of
business or to find vendors that could do work at their home or at their business and so a lot of businesses
would call themselves double a concrete or triaa woodworking or my favorite ABC Liquor it makes it puts at the top of
the list when people go looking for you and then likely would drum up more business like you said it's not very
clear what his role was defined as but from the information I gathered like you said he set up this website now business
websites can cost a lot of money and maybe the thought process is I'm not going to give you this money upfront but
based on sales I'll pay you and so maybe in the long run you would make more money but at some point this is not the
typical situation when you have a website built for a company they build the website they get paid for it bye-bye
you don't get a check every time an order comes in and it seems like for years that Dan Kavanagh was getting a
check when he possibly shouldn't have but a guy makes agreement with a business owner I put some of this onus
on the owner of the business because it's up to the he should have done his research to say well this is not how it
normally works and also when you buy a domain name you as the business owner should own that domain name so that
domain name in the website could have been completely owned by Kavanagh and that's what he would be holding hostage
over Joseph's head and you're exactly right it we should point out that these are all moves that Joseph mcstay either
made or created or was reacting to in reaction to what Dan Kavanagh is saying to him and their dealings together
because the way that it's been explained to me and the way I understand it is that at one point Dan Kavanaugh was an
actual partner again not clearly Define what his role was it could just be maintaining and running the website but
at some point the two start to part ways at the time of Joseph's disappearance they were ready to part
way so much so that Joseph was buying Dan Kavanagh out as a partner and he had already paid him thousands of dollars to
buy him out and they were taking on a new role and Dan kavanagh's future role will be to receive a monthly check for
simply running and maintaining the website going forward he will no longer be a partner he will now become
basically a vendor for Earth inspired products this discovery of the Isuzu Trooper being towed on February 8th this
is going to be a breadcrumb trail that is going to lead detectives right to the border of Mexico and they want to know
could we have a situation where one two or all four of the family members pared illegally and just walked off into the
sunset right into Mexico never to be seen again to live happily ever after they want to figure out is this a
possibility here in this case this will be at the Sedro Border Crossing into the
Tijana area on February 8th the same day that the vehicle was towed that's the day that they're going to start
reviewing surveillance footage at the border and they're going to look at that surveillance footage from that day
leading up to this point in their investigation when they know that the mix Day family is officially reported
missing this is quite the task because there's like thousands if not 100,000 people that cross to and from that
border at that point daily yeah so you're going to be reviewing this and let's talk about this for a second we've
already kind of pointed out that it's a bit of a needle and a hstack situation right you're looking for four people
crossing the border on that day or subsequent days afterwards however we need to point out something that makes
it even much more difficult you don't have to be looking for four people you could be looking for a situation where
it's Joseph and the two boys maybe he did something to Summer you could be looking for summer and the two boys
maybe she fled or maybe she did something to Joseph or maybe the parents did something to the children and
they're fleeing the area and now you're just looking for Joseph and summer right
so out of all these people we have a needle and a hay stack it's kind of a needle in a stack of needles at this
point in my opinion so the sheriff's office they get the national Center for missing and exploited children that come
to their aid and provide volunteers to help them watch and put Eagle Eye volunteers on this surveillance footage
looking for Joseph for summer for either of the boys or all four this is going to
take some time for them to sort through this but in fact what they end up saying
is hey on the same day that the vehicle was parked on February 8th on the same day that the ve vehicle was towed from
that parking lot two blocks away from the border we did spot something at a portion of the surveillance footage that
called into question if we were seeing the family crossing the border and the description is at the bottom left corner
of the video of their video screen they say that they can see a man walking hand
in hand with a child following him is a woman in a white jacket holding the hand
of another child and they wondered if this could possibly be Joseph Summer and the two boys have you seen this video
yourself I've seen stills of it 100% recently actually but when this case was fairly new in 2010 2011 and so on I had
seen quite a bit of news media that was on this case from Jump Street and I believe that I had seen an actual video
clip back then but leading up to our coverage of it Captain I've only seen stills of this picture I've seen the
Stills and I've seen the video itself if somebody said to me we believe that this
is the family I would say yeah makes sense I think you could make an argument it's not them because you can't see any
of their features in the video is kind of grainy when you put two and two together well you have this vehicle
that's close to the Border where people Park to then cross the border and then we have what we believe is a
representation of this family my little garage brain says it's very possible that's them going across the border I
agree with you 100% here captain now law enforcement was upfront about this stating that they thought the video was
terrible they thought that yes could potentially be them but the video itself the quality of the video they thought
was terrible so they would not say definitively that they thought they were seeing the mix Day family they just said
it was a possibility when they showed it to people that knew the mixs in fact we
have Michael M the brother who says that's not my brother uh on that video I know you can't see pH facial features
but Mike says that's not how Joseph carries himself that's not how he walks I don't believe that to be my brother
and his family and I just want to reiterate not to be Mr noall Mr Captain knows it pants how about Mr
knows it most or knows most of it but it was a mistake I think by law enforcement
to rule this voluntary disappearance it's a mistake to wait as long as they did to call law enforcement it's a
mistake to clean the house it's a mistake to disturb things in the house it's a mistake to take the computer
away there's just a lot of mistakes that happen and again I just don't understand
if somebody called me from one of my siblings work like work relations and said I can't get a hold of your brother
I can't get a hold of your sister whatever I'm I'm driving over there that day even if they live an hour away or
even if they live two hours away I'm texting them I'm calling them and by the time I get to their house and they're
not answering their door police are being called that's how I operate but I'm also a host of a true crime podcast
I agree with what you're saying there Captain I share a lot of those same feelings I do want to point out though
that to stay water that those are all mistakes in sight and if we're sitting in a situation where February 16th 2010
the mxe family shows up alive and well then none of these were mistakes but when we have a situation where months
and months and months go by and they don't come home and nobody can get in touch with them then yes these are all
obvious mistakes now as for the ruling or determination of what we're going to categorize a case all of those things
are are very fluid situations too it doesn't stay uh etched in stone that that's always going to be a
voluntary disappearance it it's only that until they have reason to suspect or evidence of a a different situation
now one thing here that I want to point out is as I said when this case was pretty new and fresh in 2010 and 2011 it
did get a lot of media attention even on a national level so this was a case that
I was aware of and I was following Loosely and when there was something to be watched on TV or something to read on
the internet about it I was tuning in I remember just thinking this would be late 2010 after they had been gone for
several months I I even after seeing the still or the video of what could potentially be the mstay at the border
and even with their vehicle being found near the border the way that their home was left
never once made me think that they just up and left in fact I couldn't find anything or was never presented with any
reason of why they would want to leave unless they just took a Fly by Night two-day vacation to Mexico decided not
to tell anybody and then something terrible happened to them there but the state of the home didn't make any sense
I you go back to the dogs being left outside un there's no preparations made for them to be taken care of and then
the state of the home like you said half eaten food is found laying out around the house there's there's like an apple
core there's uh half bowls of popcorn there's eggs that are sitting on the counter that doesn't look to me like
they up and went somewhere voluntarily so that's where we kind of circle back to the idea of well there must be
something else going on here and in 2010 man I was very concerned about the movements the statements and the lack of
the lack of effort on the behalf of Michael M of his brother he seemed kind of tuned out like I don't see any
problem here I don't want to raise any red flags don't want to make any waves don't want to report him missing don't
want to swing by the home to check on him oh I took the computer my mom cleaned the house and then let's factor
in something else if somebody wanted to to do something terrible to this family or to one member of the family what
happened on at least two occasions that we are aware of when Chase Merritt is with him at the home and then again when
deputies are with him at the mixay home he clearly shows that he has access to the locked and secured home by climbing
through that office window on two occasions that's almost like that to me is a bit of a red flag going this guy
knows how to access the home when other people clearly do not yeah or maybe he just used his brain when he got to the
house maybe that was not something that he was privy to before he got there agreed but as an outsider looking in
that is something that I'm going to call into question that's also something that's going to be put on my page and
it's not going to leave there until I'm given a reasonable explanation as to why
he knows how to do that or was able to do that unfortunately that is going to wrap up our timeline pretty much for
2010 there's a lot of things that happen but there's nothing really in the investigation itself that is known to
the public to carry us further down the road here or give us any kind of breadcrumb Trail as to where the family
may be or what may have happened to them in February of 2010 in 2011 what we end
up having here Captain is pretty much more deadend leads these continue when photos were sent to the San Diego County
Sheriff's department and to the m family extended family Michael M these photos were of what was thought
could possibly be Summer Mix day and a child that were sent to Michael mday and the San Diego County Sheriff's
Department of course rather quickly it's ruled or determined that that in fact is
not summer in the photo and again these are just more deadend leads in 2012 this is when we have all of the
rumors that are still going around that the mix family may be alive and well in Mexico there was even one point where we
almost had breaking news where it came out that the mix family was found but this time found in New Mexico in the
state of New Mexico and this obviously turns out not to be the mix Day family this is going to take take us to near
the end of 2013 on November 11th 2013 we have two off-road motorcyclists is what they're referred to in this
article that I'm referencing however I believe that they were on dirt bikes one of them discovers what he
believes to be a bone and in fact it turns out to be a skull he he notices this in a desert area of
Victorville California this would be about 70 mil from the mix home this will kick off a 30-hour excavation project at
this location at this site on November 13th we still have workers Excavating an area that is
approximately 10t by 10t they are sifting through dirt they are looking for bones they are finding bones and
they are also finding other evidence in this area now 2 days later on the 15th we have the San Bernardino County
Sheriff's Department which holds a news conference at which Sheriff John McMahon
confirms the identity of two of the bodies recovered from this site and those two bodies are confirmed by the
Sheriff's Office to be that of Joseph M day age 40 and his wife Summer Mix day age
43 thank you so much for joining us here in the GR gar it's official True Crime garage listeners are the smartest and
sexiest listeners in the history of podcasting if you need more True Crime garage for your earballs check out our
bonus show called off the record you can find a link on our website at True Crime
garage.com and until tomorrow be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]
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must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare up front prices book a service
instantly and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than
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The McStay Family /// Part 1 /// 581

Part 1 of 2

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It was all a mystery. A very normal and happy family of four disappeared. By the looks of it, they just vanished. In February of 2010 the McStay family of four seemingly vanished from their home in Fallbrook California. This week in the Garage we review this strange and bizarre disappearance and the investigation that followed.

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Brief Summary

The McStay family vanished in 2010; their remains were found in 2013, raising questions about their disappearance and investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of the MC Family. A family of four mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind their home in disarray.
Timeline of Events. A detailed timeline outlines the events leading up to the family's disappearance.
Last Known Interactions. The last known interactions with the family raise questions about their sudden disappearance.
Confusion Over Missing Persons Report. The investigation into the family's disappearance is complicated by miscommunication.
Welfare Check Initiated. A welfare check on the MC family reveals their home empty and unsettling signs.
The Missing Mix Family. Authorities conduct a search of the Mix family's home amid growing concerns for their safety.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

A family of four just vanished.

Describing the mysterious disappearance of the MC family.

4:10WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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