The McStay Family, comprising of Joseph, Summer, and their two young kids, went missing in February 2010. Three years later, an off-road motorcyclist discovered their remains buried in shallow graves in the Mojave Desert. The killer had bludgeoned them to death using a sledgehammer, as per CBS News.
Relying on key evidence, detectives zeroed in on the family’s close friend and business associate, Charles “Chase” Merritt. They believed he murdered the family after finding out that Joseph was about to cut him out of their fountain business. In 2019, Merritt was convicted of the four murders and received the death penalty.
The McStay Family murders, explained
According to Sportskeeda, Joseph McStay’s father, Patrick, noticed the family’s disappearance after receiving a strange email from one of Joseph’s business partners on February 9, 2010. The email stated that they hadn’t heard from him. The following day, authorities started looking into the family’s disappearance, starting from their two-story house. The family’s two pet dogs were unattended at their house.
Three years later, on November 13, 2013, a motorcyclist found the remains of the McStay Family members in the Mojave Desert. A year later, police arrested Charles “Chase” Merritt, the family’s close friend and Joseph’s business associate. Prosecutors alleged he bludgeoned them to death using a sledgehammer.
NBC News reported that before disappearing, Joseph McStay had told friends about Merritt’s alleged shoddy work. The father-of-two also claimed that the business partner was stealing money from him. Cellphone records, among other evidence, incriminated Merritt in the matter. Authorities reportedly traced his phone to the area where the family’s bodies were buried, suggesting that he visited that location around the time they went missing.
The outlet further stated that nearly a decade after the disappearance, Merritt stood trial. A jury then convicted him of the murders, following which he received the death penalty in January 2020. Joseph’s mother, Susan Blake, called him “a despicable, evil monster.”
