Joseph and Summer McStay and their two young sons mysteriously disappeared in 2010, but when their bodies turned up in the Mojave Desert three years later, investigators discovered they'd been bludgeoned to death the very day they vanished.
Patrick McStayThe bodies of the McStay family were discovered in 2013.
On a February day in 2010, the McStay family vanished from their Fallbrook, California, home. It was as if the family — Joseph, Summer, and their young children Gianni and Joseph Jr. — had disappeared into thin air. Investigators found their dogs in the backyard, food rotting in the kitchen, and no signs of violence. But the family had not just disappeared. They had been killed. And the McStay family murders would take years to solve.
After the discovery of the McStay family’s bodies in the Mojave Desert in 2013, investigators found that there were multiple people who might bear the family ill will. Summer’s ex-boyfriend, the husband of Joseph’s ex-wife, and one of Joseph’s disgruntled former colleagues all seemed like possible suspects. Some people who knew the McStays pointed to possible discord between Summer and Joseph McStay as well.
But ultimately, investigators found that the McStay family murders had been committed by someone close to Joseph — his business associate, Charles “Chase” Merritt. At trial, Merritt was found guilty of bludgeoning the McStay family to death, allegedly because of a gambling problem.
That said, some still have questions about the McStay family murders. And Merritt maintains that he was wrongly convicted of the brutal crime.
The Disappearance Of A Young California Family
By all accounts, the Mcstays were an average family. Joseph ran a water fountain business, Summer was a real estate agent, and they shared two children, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr.
At first, it seemed that Feb. 4, 2010, would be a normal day for the family. According to a timeline compiled by The San Diego Union-Tribune, Summer spoke to her sister in the morning, and Joseph briefly left the house for a meeting with Charles Merritt, his business associate. Someone at the family home called Joseph around 4:25 p.m., and Joseph and Summer exchanged text messages between 5 p.m. and 5:47 p.m.
Then, the family seemed to disappear.
San Bernardino County CourtThe McStay family: Joseph, Summer, Gianni, and Joseph Jr.
After a couple of days, the McStay family’s loved ones started to get worried. On Feb. 10, a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy performed a wellness check. However, no one answered the door, and there was no sign of foul play. Three days later, on Feb. 13, Joseph’s brother Michael crawled through an open window. He found a disturbing scene.
It wasn’t that Michael found obvious signs of violence. Rather, it looked as if his brother’s family had just up and vanished. The family’s dogs were in the yard, unfed. There were popcorn bowls on the sofa, and eggs had been left out on the counter. There was no sign of Joseph, Summer, Gianni, or Joseph Jr. and no evidence of a struggle. The family had simply disappeared.
At first, investigators thought that the McStays might have gone to Mexico. Their car had been found near the border, Summer McStay had searched queries about Mexico and learning Spanish online, and there was even a possible sighting of the four members of the McStay family walking through a border gate into Mexico on Feb. 8.
Mike McStayA poster for the McStay family. They were missing for more than three years before their bodies were found.
After three years, the police decided in April 2013 that the McStay family had seemingly left home of their own free will. But a chance discovery of the family’s bodies in the desert 100 miles away from Fallbrook that November would change everything. It was no longer a missing persons case.
The mystery of the Mcstay family murder had begun.
Investigating The McStay Family Murders
On Nov. 11, 2013, a motorcyclist riding in the desert north of Victorville near Interstate 15 came across skeletal remains. They notified the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, who confirmed that the bodies belonged to Joseph, Summer, Gianni, and Joseph McStay Jr.
According to reporting from CBS 8, the family was found in two graves, dubbed Grave A and Grave B. Joseph, Summer, and Gianni had all been killed by blunt force trauma to the head, though the cause of death could not be determined for Joseph Jr. Joseph also had an extension cord around his neck, a broken rib, and a broken leg. Four-year-old Gianni had suffered at least seven blows to the head.
ZUMA Press Inc/Alamy Stock PhotoThe desert site where the McStay family was buried in two graves, marked Grave A and Grave B.
As the documentary Two Shallow Graves (2022) revealed, investigators had a glut of possible suspects in the McStay family murders. Summer’s ex-boyfriend had emailed her just months before the family disappeared to tell her that he’d “love her for ever.” Joseph’s ex-wife’s new husband had also threatened the McStay family. And one of Joseph McStay’s work associates had sent him messages threatening to destroy his water fountain business.
In the aftermath of the McStay family murders, Joseph’s business associate, Charles “Chase” Merritt, also told the media that he suspected that Summer had been poisoning her husband. Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2014, he claimed that Joseph had been suffering from a strange illness that caused extreme fatigue and that Joseph had told Merritt that he wanted to stop eating the food that Summer prepared. Merritt also claimed that Summer had an explosive temper and that the couple was having marital problems.
But then investigators started to zero in on Merritt himself. For starters, they noticed that he spoke about Joseph and Summer McStay in the past tense, even in the early days of their investigation. Then, in November 2014, a year after the bodies of the McStay family were found in the desert, Merritt was arrested. His DNA had been found on the steering wheel and gear shift of the McStays’ car, and investigators charged him with their murder.
At that point, investigators had to answer a question: Why would Charles Merritt kill Joseph McStay, a man whom he described as his “best friend,” as well as Joseph’s wife and two young children?
Did Charles Merritt Kill The McStays?
According to prosecutors in Charles Merritt’s trial, which took place in 2019, the McStay family murders were incited by Merritt’s greed.
Investigators found that Merritt had a gambling problem. They also found that he owed Joseph McStay $42,000 because of shoddy work that he had done in the past. Damningly, prosecutors also claimed that Merritt had used Joseph McStay’s QuickBooks account to write himself several checks for thousands of dollars in the weeks after the murders, some of which he backdated to Feb. 4, 2010.
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoCharles Merritt, Joseph McStay’s friend and business associate, was ultimately arrested and found guilty of the McStay family murders.
Merritt’s cell phone records also placed him near the McStay family’s burial site, and investigators came to believe that it was Merritt who had conducted online searches about Mexico and learning Spanish.
Prosecutors thus argued that Joseph McStay had been fairly lenient with Merritt in the past but that something had shifted on Feb. 4. In response, Merritt murdered Joseph and his entire family.
Though Charles Merritt denied that he’d hurt anyone, he was found guilty of the McStay family murders in June 2019. In 2020, Merritt was sentenced to death. Because of California’s moratorium on executions, however, he is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Today, four white crosses mark the place where the McStay family was buried. The quiet place, deep in the desert, offers little hint of the terrible tragedy that befell the family.
After reading about the McStay family murders, discover the chilling story of John List, the man who killed his family and then disappeared for 18 years. Or, learn about Erin Caffey, the 16-year-old who convinced her boyfriend to help her murder her entire family.
