The McStay Family Murders: Part Three
Sources:
https://coronadotimes.com/event/down-to-the-bone-caitlin-rother-and-the-mcstay-family-murders/
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/judge-unseals-court-records-in-mcstay-murder-case/509-5297be95-2f41-4ce7-931e-8c3dc98e0918
https://allthatsinteresting.com/mcstay-family-murders
https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/missing-mcstay-family-cross-mexico/story?id=10042816
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/mcstay-family-murder-trial-charles-merritt-closing-arguments-jury/159073/
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mcstay-family-deaths-20190120-story.html
https://www.sbsun.com/2019/03/11/key-prosecution-evidence-flopped-in-mcstay-family-murder-case-defense-contends/
https://www.sbsun.com/2019/03/11/key-prosecution-evidence-flopped-in-mcstay-family-murder-case-defense-contends/
<a href="https://abc7.com/post/mcstay-murders-merritt-attorneys-poke-holes-in-timeline/5190475/"...
Speaker 1: Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic. A podcast that's about
Speaker 2: more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension,
Speaker 2: home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories,
Speaker 2: the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it
Speaker 2: all just so long as it's kind of murdery. Hello everyone.
Speaker 2: If you recognize my voice, it means you've been here before,
Speaker 2: for which I very much thank you. And if you
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Speaker 2: time here, for which I also very much thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm Zevan Odelberg and this is Murdery. We're in the
Speaker 2: middle of a slow burn true life story of mystery
Speaker 2: and murder, and it's a hell of a story, so
Speaker 2: I don't want to get in the way. This is
Speaker 2: part three of the Mixed Day Family Murders, though, if
Speaker 2: you haven't heard parts one and two yet, go listen
Speaker 2: to them and then hurry back. We'll save you a seat.
Speaker 2: If you're all caught up, let's get down to it.
Speaker 2: Part three of kind of Murderies The Mixday Family Murders
Speaker 2: starts now. On November eleventh, twenty thirteen, a motorcyclist riding
Speaker 2: in a remote stretch of the Mohave Desert came across
Speaker 2: something that did not belong to the landscape. The area
Speaker 2: lay north of Victorville, not far from Interstate fifteen, but
Speaker 2: far enough that engine noise fades and the wind carries
Speaker 2: most of the sound. The ground was hard and pay
Speaker 2: broken by scrub and scattered rock. In that dirt, the
Speaker 2: rider saw what appeared to be a human skull. He stopped.
Speaker 2: He called authorities. Deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Speaker 2: Department responded. The location was isolated but accessible by dirt road.
Speaker 2: The initial discovery was small, a skull partially exposed in
Speaker 2: desert soil, but the scene widened quickly. Deputies secured the
Speaker 2: area and began a systematic search. Within hours, investigators realized
Speaker 2: the find was not a single set of remains. Two
Speaker 2: burial sites were identified. They were shallow, the soil was
Speaker 2: loose compared to the surrounding terrain. Disturbed and then pressed
Speaker 2: back down. The graves would later be referred to in
Speaker 2: reports as Grave A and Grave B. In total, four
Speaker 2: sets of human remains were recovered. The desert does not
Speaker 2: preserve in the way one might imagine. Exposure. Temperature, swings, scavengers,
Speaker 2: and time altered everything. The remains were skeletal, clothing fragments
Speaker 2: were present, personal effects were limited. The Sheriff's department began
Speaker 2: the standard process recovery, documentation, and transport to the corner.
Speaker 2: At that point, the identity of the deceased was unknown.
Speaker 2: Within days, word of the discovery reached beyond San Bernardino County.
Speaker 2: The fact that four bodies had been located in shallow graves,
Speaker 2: including what appeared to be the remains of children, circulated
Speaker 2: quickly through law enforcement channels in southern California. There were
Speaker 2: missing persons cases. There were other unresolved files. The desert
Speaker 2: is vast, and its pervasive isolation makes it a go
Speaker 2: to dumping ground for murderers. Dental records became central to
Speaker 2: this discovery. Immediately, the San Bernardino County Corner coordinated with
Speaker 2: outside agencies to compare available dental charts against the remains.
Speaker 2: Age estimates were conducted. Forensic anthropologists assessed bone structure, growth plates,
Speaker 2: and size. The process was methodical. On November fifteenth, twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon addressed the media. He
Speaker 2: confirmed that the remains recovered in the desert had been
Speaker 2: identified as belonging to Joseph McStay, age forty, his wife,
Speaker 2: Summer mic Stay, age forty three, and their two sons, Johnny,
Speaker 2: age four and Joseph Junior, age three. The McStay family
Speaker 2: had been missing since February fourth, twenty ten. For nearly
Speaker 2: four years, their case had lived in a different category
Speaker 2: missing persons disappearance, possible voluntary departure, international travel theory, Mexico speculation.
Speaker 2: The discovery in Victorville ended that ambiguity. The Micstays had
Speaker 2: not relocated, They had not started over, They had not
Speaker 2: walked across a border and vanished into another country. They
Speaker 2: had been killed. Sheriff McMahon stated at the press conference
Speaker 2: that the cause of death had been determined to be
Speaker 2: blunt forced trauma. He did not elaborate beyond that description.
Speaker 2: The investigation, he said, was active and ongoing. He asked
Speaker 2: for the public's patients and assistants. Family members were notified
Speaker 2: before the public announcement. Joseph's brother, Michael McStay attended the
Speaker 2: press conference after confirmation of the identification. He addressed reporters briefly.
Speaker 2: He said, it gives us courage to know that they're
Speaker 2: together and that they're in a better place. It's been
Speaker 2: a tough road. The shift in classification from missing persons
Speaker 2: to homicide was immediate and formal. San Bernardino County assumed
Speaker 2: lead investigative authority because the remains were found within its jurisdiction.
Speaker 2: The San Diego Sheriff's Department, which had handled the original
Speaker 2: disappearance in Falbrook, would coordinate and provide records, but the
Speaker 2: case was now anchored in the Mojave Desert. The original
Speaker 2: file from twenty ten was reopened in full. The Fallbrook
Speaker 2: house on Avocado Lane, which had once been processed as
Speaker 2: a possible site of voluntary departure, was now reinterpret through
Speaker 2: a different lens, a homicidal lens. The Azuzu trooper found
Speaker 2: near the Sanyasidra border in February twenty ten would be
Speaker 2: reviewed again. The surveillance footage from the pedestrian crossing would
Speaker 2: be revisited. The phone records from February four, twenty ten
Speaker 2: would be pulled back out and examined. With the knowledge
Speaker 2: that the family had been dead since that date, the
Speaker 2: investigation's frame changed fundamentally in a single week. Blunt force
Speaker 2: trauma indicated direct physical violence. The burial location, more than
Speaker 2: one hundred miles from the Mixed Day home, suggested transportation.
Speaker 2: The presence of two graves, not one, suggested either more
Speaker 2: than one perpetrator or a methodical process, a process undertaken
Speaker 2: by a killer determined to hide the bodies. During recovery
Speaker 2: of the remains, investigators also located a three pound sledge
Speaker 2: hammer buried at the site. It was recovered as evidence.
Speaker 2: It would later be described by prosecutors as the suspected
Speaker 2: murder weapon. At this stage, it was cataloged and sent
Speaker 2: for forensic testing. The extension cord found around Joseph mcstay's
Speaker 2: neck was documented. Injuries to Summer Mixtay, including a fractured jaw,
Speaker 2: were noted in reports. Four year old Johnny was determined
Speaker 2: to have suffered multiple blows to the head. The cause
Speaker 2: of death for Joseph Junior was listed as blunt force trauma,
Speaker 2: though the skeletal remains did not allow for the same specificity.
Speaker 2: These were not public details immediately, but they entered the
Speaker 2: case file as part of the forensic record. Media coverage intensified.
Speaker 2: The mix Stad disappearance had drawn national attention in twenty
Speaker 2: ten because of the surveillance footage near the Mexico border
Speaker 2: and the unusual circumstances of their vanishing. Now in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: the case returned to the headlines under a different description,
Speaker 2: A family of four missing for years found buried in
Speaker 2: shallow graves in the Mojave Desert. The transformation of the
Speaker 2: case was not emotional. Inside the sheriff's apartment, it was procedural.
Speaker 2: Detectives who had previously worked property crimes and narcotics were
Speaker 2: reassigned to assist homicide investigators. Evidence from twenty ten was
Speaker 2: requested from San Diego County. Digital archives were reopened, search
Speaker 2: warrant affidavits were reviewed. The timeline of February fourth, twenty ten, calls, texts,
Speaker 2: credit card activity, vehicle movement was printed and reassembled. The
Speaker 2: Mexico theory, once treated as plausible, became secondary worse than secondary. Really,
Speaker 2: it had been a distraction, a red herring the means
Speaker 2: by which justice was so long delayed. The border footage
Speaker 2: from February eighth, twenty ten, showing a family of four
Speaker 2: walking into Mexico had been interpreted for years as a
Speaker 2: potential explanation. Now investigators had to ask whether the footage
Speaker 2: had ever depicted the Mix Days at all. Joseph's father,
Speaker 2: Patrick McStay, had publicly stated in twenty ten that he
Speaker 2: did not believe the family in the video was his.
Speaker 2: I said right up front the first time I saw it,
Speaker 2: it wasn't them, he had said. That assessment now carried
Speaker 2: more weight. The credit card purchase made in Vista on
Speaker 2: February fourth, twenty five, minutes after Summer Mixday placed a
Speaker 2: call regarding herbal medicine, was revisited. Who had made that purchase?
Speaker 2: Was it Summer? Was it someone else using her card?
Speaker 2: The eight twenty eight phone call from Joseph mcstay's cell
Speaker 2: phone to Charles Chase Merritt on February fourth, twenty ten
Speaker 2: was revisited. The call had gone unanswered. At the time,
Speaker 2: it had been described as an ordinary mist call. With
Speaker 2: the identification of the remains, it became something else. The
Speaker 2: last outgoing call placed from Joseph's phone. Investigators did not
Speaker 2: yet draw conclusions publicly, but the tone of the case
Speaker 2: was forever shifted. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department confirmed that
Speaker 2: a homicide investigation was under way. They did not name suspects.
Speaker 2: They did not release theories. They requested that anyone with
Speaker 2: information contact investigators behind the scenes. The reclassification changed everything.
Speaker 2: Missing persons cases often operate under uncertainty. Homicide cases operate
Speaker 2: under assumption a crime occurred, someone committed it, evidence therefore
Speaker 2: must exist. Four years of ambiguity were replaced with a
Speaker 2: singular question. Who killed the mic Stay family and transported
Speaker 2: their bodies into the desert. By the end of November
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, the identification was complete, the case file was unified,
Speaker 2: and the investigative direction had altered permanently. The Mixtays were
Speaker 2: no longer a family who had disappeared. They were victims
Speaker 2: of homicide. The burial site lay an open desert north
Speaker 2: of Victorville, far enough from residential areas that a person
Speaker 2: could stand at the edge of the graves and see
Speaker 2: nothing but scrub dirt and horizon. Interstate fifteen was miles away,
Speaker 2: close enough that the corridor connected Los Angeles to Las Vegas,
Speaker 2: but distant enough that traffic noise did not reach the site.
Speaker 2: Investigators marked two separate depressions in the ground. They would
Speaker 2: later refer to them in reports as Grave A and
Speaker 2: Grave B. The soil in that region is compacted and
Speaker 2: hard layered with sand and rock. Digging even in a
Speaker 2: shallow grave requires effort. The earth did not give easily.
Speaker 2: Deputies documented the disturbed ground and measured the depth. The
Speaker 2: graves were not deep. They were sufficient to conceal the
Speaker 2: bodies from casual view, but not engineered for permanence. Grave
Speaker 2: A contained the remains of Joseph Summer and Johnny. The
Speaker 2: bodies had been placed together. Grave B contained the remains
Speaker 2: of Joseph Junior alone, a short distance away. The separation
Speaker 2: was noted in official diagrams. Photographs were taken before and
Speaker 2: during excavation. Evidence markers were placed carefully around the perimeter
Speaker 2: as the forensic team worked. Clothing fragments were recovered along
Speaker 2: with skeletal remains. A child's pants and diaper were documented
Speaker 2: among the items at the site. Near one of the
Speaker 2: graves partially buried in the same soil, deputies located a
Speaker 2: three pound sledge hammer. It was collected, bagged, and logged
Speaker 2: into evidence. The hammer showed signs of exposure consistent with
Speaker 2: time in the desert. The remains were transported to the
Speaker 2: San Bernardino County Coroner for further examination. Autopsies were conducted
Speaker 2: under conditions limited by the state of decomposition. Even so,
Speaker 2: investigators were able to determine that the cause of death
Speaker 2: for Joseph in Summer Mixed Day, as well as their
Speaker 2: son Johnny, was blunt force trauma. Fractures to the skull
Speaker 2: were documented. Joseph was also found with an extension cord
Speaker 2: around his neck. Summer's jaw was fractured. Four year old
Speaker 2: Janni had sustained multiple blows to the head. For Joseph Junior,
Speaker 2: the cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma,
Speaker 2: though the exact mechanism could not be determined with the
Speaker 2: same degree of precision. The placement of the bodies, the
Speaker 2: shallow depth of the graves in the presence of a
Speaker 2: potential murder weapon at the site became considerations. Detectives documented
Speaker 2: tire tracks in the vicinity, though desert, wind and time
Speaker 2: had degraded the impressions. They canvassed the area for any
Speaker 2: additional objects, footprints, or discarded items that might connect the
Speaker 2: site to a vehicle or individual. The location itself was
Speaker 2: examined for significance. It was not a random roadside pull out.
Speaker 2: It required leaving the paved highway and traveling into a
Speaker 2: sparsely populated area. Investigators considered access routes, visibility from nearby roads,
Speaker 2: and the likelihood of witnesses. No immediate reports surfaced of
Speaker 2: suspicious activity in the area. In early February twenty ten,
Speaker 2: the desert had yielded four bodies and a hammer. The
Speaker 2: rest remained unanswered. Files were requested immediately. Detectives in Victorville
Speaker 2: asked for the complete case archive from San Diego County,
Speaker 2: original reports, welfare check documentation, search warrant affidavits, photographs from
Speaker 2: the Fallbrook residents, digital evidence logs, and interview transcripts. The
Speaker 2: original investigative decisions made in February twenty ten were no
Speaker 2: longer being reviewed as procedural responses to a disappearance. They
Speaker 2: were being re examined as potential early stages of a
Speaker 2: merger case. The physical evidence collected in twenty ten was
Speaker 2: inventoried and where possible retested. The white nineteen ninety six
Speaker 2: A Zuzu trooper that had been found near the Sanya
Speaker 2: Sidra border in February twenty ten was re evaluated. With
Speaker 2: the knowledge that the family had not left voluntarily. Detectives
Speaker 2: revisited the vehicle's chain of custody and the forensic processing
Speaker 2: that had been conducted at the time. Photographs of the
Speaker 2: interior were reviewed. Reports describing the condition of the car seats,
Speaker 2: the absence of luggage, and the placement of personal items
Speaker 2: were pulled from storage and re read in full. The
Speaker 2: Fallbrook home on Avocado Vista Lane also returned to focus
Speaker 2: in twenty ten. Deputies responding to the welfare check had
Speaker 2: not found signs of forced injury homicide. Detectives now asked
Speaker 2: a different set of questions. Was anything in the house
Speaker 2: incann assistant with the family's known habits? Had any detail
Speaker 2: been overlooked because the working assumption at the time was
Speaker 2: that the Micdays might have traveled to Mexico. Detective Troy
Speaker 2: Dugal of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, who had
Speaker 2: handled the missing persons case in twenty ten, had written
Speaker 2: in one of his affidavits that he found no evidence
Speaker 2: of foul play inside the residents. He later testified. I
Speaker 2: still state that to this moment that statement recorded during
Speaker 2: trial years later would reflect his position at the time.
Speaker 2: In late twenty thirteen, however, San Bernardino investigators were not
Speaker 2: evaluating his conclusion as an error. They were evaluating it
Speaker 2: as a data point within a new framework. The Mexico theory,
Speaker 2: which had been publicly advanced and later reinforced by surveillance
Speaker 2: footage of a family walking across the Sanya Sidra Port
Speaker 2: of Injury on February eighth, twenty ten, was no longer
Speaker 2: treated as a leading explanation. It was reclassified as a
Speaker 2: lead that had failed to resolve the disappearance. San Bernardino
Speaker 2: detectives requested listed full access to the surveillance video. They
Speaker 2: examined still frames in compared clothing, posture, and gait to
Speaker 2: known photographs of the Mixday family. The footage had never
Speaker 2: provided positive identification. It had been described at the time
Speaker 2: as a possible match. Investigators also coordinated with the Federal
Speaker 2: Bureau of Investigation, which had joined the case in twenty ten,
Speaker 2: when the possibility of international travel had emerged. The FBI's
Speaker 2: involvement had brought resources across the border, including inquiries into
Speaker 2: Mexico and review of travel documentation. Now the FBI's file
Speaker 2: was folded back into the homicide case, communication between counties
Speaker 2: was formalized through case meetings. Detectives from San Bernardino traveled
Speaker 2: to San Diego to meet with original investigators. They walked
Speaker 2: through the timeline from February four, twenty ten, hour by hour.
Speaker 2: They reviewed the two eleven PM home phone call placed
Speaker 2: by Summer mixtay regarding herbal medicine. They examined the eight
Speaker 2: twenty eight pm outgoing call from Joseph mcstay's phone to
Speaker 2: Charles Chase Merritt. They revisited the use of Summer's credit
Speaker 2: card at a store in Vista, approximately twenty five minutes
Speaker 2: after her phone call. Every piece of evidence that had
Speaker 2: once existed in isolation was now examined in aggregate. The
Speaker 2: burial site's distance from Fallbrook more than one hundred miles,
Speaker 2: introduced logistical questions. Detectives mapped potential routes between the mix
Speaker 2: stay home and the Victorville Desert location. They considered travel time,
Speaker 2: fuel stops, and the possibility of surveillance cameras along the interstate.
Speaker 2: Records from toll booths and traffic cameras were reviewed where available.
Speaker 2: They examined whether the burial site lay in proximity to
Speaker 2: any individual connected to the family. Search warrants were drafted quietly.
Speaker 2: Subpoenas were prepared for financial records, phone data, and business accounts.
Speaker 2: Investigators sought full access to Joseph mcstay's company records, including
Speaker 2: earth inspired products and any related ventures. Bank statements were
Speaker 2: re quested for multiple years preceding the disappearance. Credit reports
Speaker 2: were obtained Publicly, The Sheriff's department remained measured. Officials confirmed
Speaker 2: that the case was active and the detectives were pursuing
Speaker 2: all leads. They did not name suspects. They did not
Speaker 2: speculate on motive. They emphasized that the transition from missing
Speaker 2: persons to homicide altered the trajectory of the investigation. Privately,
Speaker 2: the effect was immediate. Homicide investigators operate with an assumption
Speaker 2: that evidence, however faint, exists somewhere within the record. Four
Speaker 2: years had passed, but documents endure, e mails persist, financial
Speaker 2: transactions leave trails, phone tower's log connections. The mix Stay
Speaker 2: case dormant for a period of time was now under
Speaker 2: systemic re examination by a different team with a different mandate.
Speaker 2: By the end of November twenty thirteen, the investigation had
Speaker 2: reconstituted under San Bernardino County authority. The graves had been processed,
Speaker 2: the remains identified, the cause of death documented, the fire
Speaker 2: ales reopened. Detectives began working through the record not as
Speaker 2: a question of where the family had gone, but as
Speaker 2: a question of who had taken them there. With the
Speaker 2: desert scene processed and jurisdiction firmly in San Bernardino County,
Speaker 2: investigators turned their attention back to Falbrook. The house on
Speaker 2: Avocado Vista Lane had not been preserved as a crime
Speaker 2: scene in twenty ten. At the time of the disappearance.
Speaker 2: Deputies responding to the welfare check saw no signs of
Speaker 2: forced jury and no visible evidence of violence. The working
Speaker 2: assumption had been that the family might have left voluntarily.
Speaker 2: As a result, the home had not been sealed immediately
Speaker 2: under homicide protocols. Eleven days after the family was last
Speaker 2: heard from, Joseph's brother, Michael McStay entered the residence through
Speaker 2: an open window. He later said he had waited because
Speaker 2: he did not want to overreact and believed the family
Speaker 2: might have been on vacation. Inside, he found the dogs
Speaker 2: in the back yard, unfed and food left out in
Speaker 2: the kitchen. He contacted authorities it would take several days
Speaker 2: to obtain the warrants necessary to conduct a full forensic search.
Speaker 2: During that window, the house was not secured in the
Speaker 2: way a homicide scene would have been. Friends and family
Speaker 2: moved in and out. Joseph's mother, Susan Blake, went inside
Speaker 2: and cleaned portions of the kitchen, discarding food that had
Speaker 2: begun to rot. She later said the smell was overwhelming.
Speaker 2: Michael removed a computer and an SD card from the home,
Speaker 2: stating that he did so with investigator's permission. Those actions
Speaker 2: were not illegal. At the time, the house was not
Speaker 2: classified as a crime scene, but with the discovery of
Speaker 2: the graves in twenty thirteen, detectives had to evaluate whether
Speaker 2: any physical evidence that might have existed inside the residence
Speaker 2: in February twenty ten had been altered or destroyed inadvertently,
Speaker 2: or perhaps otherwise. Search warrant affidavits from twenty ten were
Speaker 2: reviewed in detail. In one affidavit, San Diego Sheriff Homicide
Speaker 2: Detective Troy Dougal wrote that he found no evidence of
Speaker 2: foul play inside the home. During later testimony, he would
Speaker 2: say I still state that to this moment, his assessment
Speaker 2: was based on what he observed at the time. No
Speaker 2: visible blood, no signs of struggle, no forced injury. San
Speaker 2: Bernardino investigators were not second guessing that conclusion without cause.
Speaker 2: They were instead asking whether trace evidence might have existed
Speaker 2: that was not visible to the naked eye, and whether
Speaker 2: subsequent foot traffic in the home could have compromised its preservation.
Speaker 2: An inventory list from February nineteenth, twenty ten documented items
Speaker 2: seized from the house computers, hard drives, cell phones, cameras,
Speaker 2: power cords, documents, and letters. There was no documentation indicating
Speaker 2: the investigator's recovered fingerprints, bloodstains, or other forensic evidence during
Speaker 2: the search. With the case now a confirmed homicide, San
Speaker 2: Bernardino County detectives sought to reconstruct the condition of the
Speaker 2: residents as precisely as possible. Photographs taken during the original
Speaker 2: search were enlarged and re examined. Rooms were reviewed for inconsistencies,
Speaker 2: the location of furniture, the presence of open suitcases with
Speaker 2: folded clothing, and the tall land lamp found lying on
Speaker 2: the floor were all reassessed. Detectives revisited the question of
Speaker 2: forced injury. The home showed no signs of a break
Speaker 2: in in twenty ten, doors and windows appeared intact. The
Speaker 2: absence of forced injury suggested either that the family had
Speaker 2: left willingly or that whoever entered had done so with access.
Speaker 2: Investigators also examined the timeline of access after February fourth,
Speaker 2: who had keys, who had entered the home before the
Speaker 2: warrants were obtained, who had moved items? Each name was documented.
Speaker 2: Interviews were conducted again with family members to clarify their
Speaker 2: movements in the days following the disappearance. The goal was
Speaker 2: not to assign blame for the condition of the house.
Speaker 2: The goal was to understand whether the physical scene in
Speaker 2: Falbrook had ever contained evidence of violence, and if so,
Speaker 2: whether it had been lost before the case was treated
Speaker 2: as a homicide. The re examination did not immediately produce
Speaker 2: a revelation. There was still no confirmed blood evidence documented
Speaker 2: at the residence. No clear sign of struggle had been photographed,
Speaker 2: but investigators now approached the house with a different premise.
Speaker 2: The mix days had been killed on or around February four,
Speaker 2: twenty ten, The question was whether the killings had occurred
Speaker 2: inside the house or somewhere else. If murders had taken
Speaker 2: place in the residence, trace evidence might have remained even
Speaker 2: years later. San Bernardino detective sought additional warrants in twenty
Speaker 2: fourteen to re enter the home. That search warrant would
Speaker 2: remain sealed. The contents of what was recovered during that
Speaker 2: later search were not immediately disclosed. What was clear by
Speaker 2: the end of this renewed review was that the original
Speaker 2: missing persons investigation had operated under assumptions that no longer applied.
Speaker 2: The home in Falbrook was no longer just the last
Speaker 2: place the McStay family had been seen. It was now
Speaker 2: a potential primary crime scene. Whether it had been treated
Speaker 2: as such in time to help catch the Micsday's killer
Speaker 2: would become part of the broader examination of the case.
Speaker 2: When San Bernardino County detectives began pulling financial records again,
Speaker 2: they were not looking for a single anomaly. They were
Speaker 2: reconstructing an ecosystem business accounts, personal accounts, vendors, payroll, incoming payments,
Speaker 2: outgoing checks. What had once been reviewed in twenty ten
Speaker 2: as part of a disappearance inquiry was now re examined
Speaker 2: as potential motive leverage or concealment. Joseph mcsday operated Earth
Speaker 2: Inspired Products, an online decorative fountain company. The business had
Speaker 2: a digital footprint and a physical workflow. Orders were processed online.
Speaker 2: Custom fabrication work was outsourced to contractors. Payments moved through
Speaker 2: business accounts tied to Joseph. Investigator's subpoenaed bank statements covering
Speaker 2: the months leading up to February twenty ten and the
Speaker 2: weeks immediately after. They reviewed deposits, withdraws and check images.
Speaker 2: They examined whether any unusual transactions occurred around the date
Speaker 2: of disappearance. One line of scrutiny involved checks issued through
Speaker 2: Joseph's quick Books accounting system. During trial years later, San
Speaker 2: Bernardino County Detective Dan Hankey testified that when investigators examined
Speaker 2: metadata inside the Quickbook's account, they found that certain checks
Speaker 2: dated February four, twenty ten, had not actually been created
Speaker 2: on that date. The digital time stamp indicated they were
Speaker 2: generated days later and backdated. At this stage in the investigation,
Speaker 2: detectives were not publicly disclosing conclusions. They were isolating injuries
Speaker 2: and identifying patterns. They examined who had access to Joseph's
Speaker 2: accounting software, who knew log incredentials, and who had authority
Speaker 2: to generate vendor payments. Prosecutors would later allege that nine
Speaker 2: checks totaling nearly fifteen thousand dollars were written to either
Speaker 2: a business associate or vendors connected to Joseph shortly after
Speaker 2: the mixtays disappeared. Investigators traced those payments and compared them
Speaker 2: against outstanding debts and invoices. They also pulled email correspondence
Speaker 2: between Joseph and individuals connected to his business. Among the
Speaker 2: communications was an email dated February first, twenty ten, three
Speaker 2: days before the disappearance, in which Joseph referenced that a
Speaker 2: business associate owed him nearly forty three thousand dollars. That
Speaker 2: figure would later surface repeatedly during trial. As part of
Speaker 2: the prosecution's theory of financial motive, Detectives examined not only
Speaker 2: whether money was owed, but whether there were active disputes,
Speaker 2: missed deadlines, or strained partnerships. They requested documentation related to
Speaker 2: a potential large scale deal Joseph was reportedly negotiating won
Speaker 2: his father, Patrick McStay later described as being worth nine
Speaker 2: million dollars. The existence and structure of that deal were
Speaker 2: reviewed to determine whether it had created tension with any collaborators.
Speaker 2: Dan Cavanagh, who managed aspects of the company's website and
Speaker 2: search engine optimization, came under scrutiny in connection with ownership
Speaker 2: claims after Joseph's disappearance. Kavanaugh maintained that he and Joseph
Speaker 2: had shared ownership from the beginning. Patrick mcstade disputed that claim,
Speaker 2: publicly stating he owned nothing of any part or any
Speaker 2: share of anything. Investigators obtained in corporation documents, partnership agreements,
Speaker 2: and tax filings to verify who held legal ownership of
Speaker 2: Earth inspired products and any affiliate adventures. They also examined
Speaker 2: what happened to the business after February twenty ten, who
Speaker 2: controlled it, who profited from it, and who authorized changes
Speaker 2: parallel to the business. Audit detectives reviewed personal financial records
Speaker 2: for Joseph and Summer. They examined credit card statements, mortgage payments,
Speaker 2: and household expenses. They looked for signs of financial distress,
Speaker 2: secret withdrawals, or sudden liquidation of assets. No large scale
Speaker 2: depletion of funds appeared in the immediate days after the disappearance.
Speaker 2: Summer's credit card transaction in Vista on February fourth remained
Speaker 2: an unresolved data point. Investigators sought surveillance footage from the
Speaker 2: store if it still existed, though years had passed. They
Speaker 2: asked whether receipts, merchant logs, or archived data might identify
Speaker 2: who physically used the card. Phone records were cross referenced
Speaker 2: with financial activity. Detectives charted the eight twenty eight pm
Speaker 2: call from Joseph's phone to a business associate. They identified
Speaker 2: subsequent activity from devices connected to the company. They analyzed
Speaker 2: whether attempts had been made to alter or delete financial records.
Speaker 2: One particularly notable detail emerged in connections with a call
Speaker 2: to Quickbook's customer service. A representative later told investigators that
Speaker 2: he remembered a man claiming to be Joseph McStay who
Speaker 2: wanted to completely delete his account and all associated information.
Speaker 2: The caller did not have the required pass code, and
Speaker 2: the request was denied. Phone records later indicated that the
Speaker 2: number used to contact customer service did not belong to
Speaker 2: Joseph Stay. That detail would become central later. At this stage,
Speaker 2: it was logged as an anomaly, requiring further corroboration. The
Speaker 2: re examination of digital evidence also included the computer that
Speaker 2: had been removed from the Mixtay home in February twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Investigators sought to determine whether its hard drive had been altered, wiped,
Speaker 2: or accessed after the disappearance. They documented file creation dates,
Speaker 2: log in activity, and email drafts if someone had searched
Speaker 2: for information about traveling to Mexico in the week prior
Speaker 2: to the disappearance. As earlier reports indicated, detectives wanted to
Speaker 2: know who had been logged in at the time. Throughout
Speaker 2: this financial and digital audit, investigators avoided narrowing publicly to
Speaker 2: a single theory. The presence of disputed debts, backdated checks,
Speaker 2: contested ownership, and attempted account deletion did not by itself
Speaker 2: establish guilt. It established complexity. By the end of this
Speaker 2: phase of review, detectives had reconstr structed a clearer financial
Speaker 2: picture of Joseph Micday's business and the individuals connected to it.
Speaker 2: They had identified discrepancies in accounting, time stamps, unresolved debts,
Speaker 2: and claims of shared ownership. They had confirmed that someone
Speaker 2: attempted to erase digital financial records shortly after the mix
Speaker 2: Day's disappearance. What those elements meant in the broader timeline
Speaker 2: remained under evaluation, but the business side of Joseph's life,
Speaker 2: once treated as background, was now part of the homicide file.
Speaker 2: In reassembling February four, twenty ten, investigators laid out the
Speaker 2: day in increments. They started with the confirmed communications. Summer
Speaker 2: mix Day spoke with her sister that morning and made
Speaker 2: plans to visit her and her newborn child. Joseph left
Speaker 2: the house around noon for a meeting in Rancho Cucamonga.
Speaker 2: That meeting was later confirmed by both parties. It lasted
Speaker 2: a couple of hours. At two eleven PM, a call
Speaker 2: was placed from the mix Stay home regarding the purchase
Speaker 2: of herban Um medicine. Financial records show that twenty five
Speaker 2: minutes later, Summer's credit card was used at a store
Speaker 2: in Vista, approximately twenty minutes from the Fallbrook residence. Whether
Speaker 2: Summer herself made that purchase was never definitively established. At
Speaker 2: four twenty five PM, an outgoing call was placed from
Speaker 2: the home phone to Joseph's cell phone. The cell phone
Speaker 2: pinged off a Fallbrook tower between five pm and five
Speaker 2: forty seven pm, text messages were exchanged between Joseph and Summer.
Speaker 2: Those messages were the last confirmed communications between them. At
Speaker 2: seven forty seven pm, a neighbour's security camera captured the
Speaker 2: lower portion of a vehicle leaving the cul de sac
Speaker 2: on Avocado Vista Lane. The footage did not show the
Speaker 2: driver or passengers, Only the lower edge of the vehicle
Speaker 2: was visible in frame. Years later, prosecutors in defense would
Speaker 2: dispute the identity of that vehicle. At this stage in
Speaker 2: the renewed investigation, detectives simply marked it as the last
Speaker 2: known outbound vehicle movement from the street. At eight twenty
Speaker 2: eight pm, Joseph mcstay's phone placed an outgoing call to
Speaker 2: Charles Chase Merit. Merritt later told CNN that he saw
Speaker 2: the call come in but did not answer it. I
Speaker 2: had a bunch of other things I was doing, and
Speaker 2: I was just tired, he said. He added, of course
Speaker 2: I regret not picking up the phone. That a twenty
Speaker 2: eight phone call was the final outgoing call from Joseph's phone.
Speaker 2: After that point, there was no further phone activity, internet usage,
Speaker 2: bank transactions, or confirmed credit card purchases linked directly to
Speaker 2: Joseph or Summer. Four days later, on February eight, twenty ten,
Speaker 2: the family's white Isuzu Trooper was discovered parked in a
Speaker 2: lot in Sanya Sidro. The vehicle had not yet been
Speaker 2: reported stolen or missing. It was towed at approximately eleven
Speaker 2: PM after sitting unattended. Security guards later told investigators that
Speaker 2: it may have been parked there sometime between five thirty
Speaker 2: PM and seven pm. The trooper contained the children's car seats.
Speaker 2: There was no luggage documented inside. There was no indication
Speaker 2: at the time that the vehicle had been forced open.
Speaker 2: Its presence at the border became one of the central
Speaker 2: pillars of the Mexico theory that would shape the early
Speaker 2: years of the case. Surveillance footage from the pedestrian crossing,
Speaker 2: dated February eighth, around seven p m showed a family
Speaker 2: of four walking into Mexico. Authorities said the group matched
Speaker 2: the mix Stay family's description. Each adult was holding the
Speaker 2: hand of a child. The figures in the video appeared
Speaker 2: to be walking calmly. There was no visible distress. The
Speaker 2: footage was grainy and did not provide positive identification. Joseph's father,
Speaker 2: Patrick said publicly I said right up front, the first
Speaker 2: time I saw it, it wasn't them. Joseph's mother, Susan Blake,
Speaker 2: initially said that she thought perhaps they had taken off
Speaker 2: for Mexico, but the disagreement within the family over the
Speaker 2: footage underscored its ambiguity with the identification of the remains.
Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, investigators revisited the border time line. They
Speaker 2: compared time stamps between the surveillance video and the estimated
Speaker 2: parking window of the trooper. They examined whether the vehicle's
Speaker 2: presence at Sanya Cedro was consistent with the seven forty
Speaker 2: seven pm departure from the Fallbrook cul de Sac on
Speaker 2: February fourth, or whether it required separate travel. Days later,
Speaker 2: cell tower data was reviewed again, not to pinpoint precise locations,
Speaker 2: but to establish general movement. FBI Special Agent Kevin Bowles
Speaker 2: would later testify that cell data can provide a general
Speaker 2: idea of where a phone was located, but that it's
Speaker 2: not very precise. Detectives reconstructed which towers Joseph's phone connected
Speaker 2: to on February fourth, and whether the phone showed any
Speaker 2: activity on February fifth or sixth. The question investigators faced
Speaker 2: in reconstructing this timeline was not simply when the Mixed
Speaker 2: Days disappeared. It was whether the events of February fourth
Speaker 2: and February eighth were connected by the family's own actions
Speaker 2: or by someone else's. If the family had driven to
Speaker 2: Saniya Cedro themselves, there would be a continuous chain of
Speaker 2: evidence from Fallbrook to the border. If the vehicle had
Speaker 2: been transported and staged there a after February fourth, that
Speaker 2: would suggest intervention. The trooper's chain of custody from the
Speaker 2: moment it was towed in twenty ten was re examined.
Speaker 2: Detectives reviewed who processed it, what was photographed, and what
Speaker 2: evidence was collected at the time. They noted the absence
Speaker 2: of luggage and the intact car seats as fixed points
Speaker 2: in the record. By the time investigators completed this renewed
Speaker 2: timeline review, February fourth stood as the last confirmed day
Speaker 2: of contact with the mix Day family. February eighth stood
Speaker 2: as the day their vehicle appeared at the border. Between
Speaker 2: those two days lay a gap that no single piece
Speaker 2: of data, no single piece of evidence or clue, could close.
Speaker 2: The timeline did not yet answer who was responsible. It did, however,
Speaker 2: establish the sequence that any explanation would have to account
Speaker 2: for afternoon communications, evening departure from the cul de Sac,
Speaker 2: an unanswered eight twenty eight pm phone call, and a
Speaker 2: vehicle parked near the Mexican border four days later. By
Speaker 2: early twenty fourteen, investigators began mapping the people who had
Speaker 2: been inside the Mix Day's orbit in the months before
Speaker 2: February twenty ten, not as a list of villains, but
Speaker 2: as proximity, access, dispute, emotion, money history. They started with
Speaker 2: the obvious question who in the Mixed Day's orbit had motive,
Speaker 2: opportunity or unresolved conflict. The first place detectives looked was
Speaker 2: Summer mix Day's world. Summer mix Day's life before Joseph
Speaker 2: included a serious relationship with another man. The relationship had
Speaker 2: ended before her marriage, but as is often the case
Speaker 2: with love, its history remained part of her story. Investigators
Speaker 2: reviewed communications between them. One e mail, sent months before
Speaker 2: the disappearance contained a declaration of enduring affection. The tone
Speaker 2: was emotional, it was not violent, It did not threaten,
Speaker 2: but it minded detectives that unfinished attachments sometimes linger beneath
Speaker 2: the surface of apparently settled lives. The former boyfriend was interviewed.
Speaker 2: His whereabouts during early February twenty ten were verified. Employment
Speaker 2: records and witness statements placed him away from Falbrook during
Speaker 2: the critical period. There was no evidence tying him to
Speaker 2: the home, the vehicle, or the desert. Still, his name
Speaker 2: remained in the file because proximity once existed. Investigators do
Speaker 2: not remove a name because it feels unlikely. They remove
Speaker 2: it when it is disproven. Beyond romantic history, detectives examined
Speaker 2: Summer's professional and social circles. She had been working in
Speaker 2: real estate. That meant clients open houses, negotiations, and occasionally disputes.
Speaker 2: Real estate transactions can generate friction, especially when deals fall
Speaker 2: apart or commissions are contested. Investigators reviewed her recent listings,
Speaker 2: ESCRO documents, and client communications. They searched for conflicts that
Speaker 2: escalated beyond routine frustration. None surfaced his credible threats. Family
Speaker 2: dynamics were also reviewed. Summer had spoken to her sister
Speaker 2: the morning of February fourth, Plans had been discussed for
Speaker 2: a visit. The tone of that conversation, as described by
Speaker 2: her sister, was normal, no alarm, no urgency, no coded language.
Speaker 2: Detectives listened carefully for nuance and recollections. They found none
Speaker 2: that pointed towards fear. From there, the lens widened to
Speaker 2: Joseph's professional world. Chase Merritt was part of that world.
Speaker 2: A fabricator by trade, he worked closely with Joseph on
Speaker 2: custom water features. Their collaboration required regular meetings, design adjustments,
Speaker 2: and material coordination. On February fourth, they met for luncheon
Speaker 2: Rancho Cucamonga. Phone records show they spoke multiple times that day.
Speaker 2: That frequency was consistent with their working relationship. It was
Speaker 2: not unusual for them to exchange calls about specifications or payments.
Speaker 2: Merrit was interviewed in the early stages of the disappearance,
Speaker 2: described the lunch meeting in detail. He described the miscall
Speaker 2: at a twenty eight PM. He stated publicly that he
Speaker 2: regretted not answering at that stage of the investigation. Those
Speaker 2: details placed him in Joseph's timeline, but did not place
Speaker 2: him in the home or the desert. Proximity in communication
Speaker 2: is not the same as proximity to violence. Investigators examined
Speaker 2: the business structure between the two men. Merit had access
Speaker 2: to fabrication designs and project timelines. He would have known
Speaker 2: what builds were pending and which clients were waiting on delivery.
Speaker 2: That knowledge could create tension if payments were delayed or
Speaker 2: expectations were unmet, but business disagreements are common in contract
Speaker 2: or relationships. Detectives looked for documented disputes, emails expressing anger,
Speaker 2: threats of termination, demands for repayment. They cataloged what they found,
Speaker 2: but they didn't draw any conclusions Prematurely. Joseph's earlier marriage
Speaker 2: introduced another figure into the review, his ex wife's husband.
Speaker 2: The man's relationship with Joseph had been strained at times.
Speaker 2: Any history of threats or confrontation would require documentation. Investigators
Speaker 2: sought statements from both sides. They reviewed whether any protective
Speaker 2: orders had been filed, whether police had been called to
Speaker 2: mediate disputes, whether financial disagreements existed over custody or support.
Speaker 2: Records did not reveal active litigation or recent escalation. The
Speaker 2: ex wife's husband was interviewed. His alibi during the key
Speaker 2: time frame was examined, as with every name. Detective's cross check,
Speaker 2: travel work, and phone data. No evidence surface tying him
Speaker 2: physically to Fallbrook on the night of February fourth, But
Speaker 2: like the others. He remained in the universe of possibility
Speaker 2: until ruled out through verification. Joseph's business itself created a
Speaker 2: broader suspect field. Earth inspired products operated online, which meant
Speaker 2: administrative control over website access and digital marketing. One individual
Speaker 2: associated with that aspect of the business was Dan Kavanaugh.
Speaker 2: His role involved search optimization and web presence management. In
Speaker 2: the years leading up to twenty ten, the company's visibility
Speaker 2: online had grown significantly. Kavanaugh's location during early February twenty
Speaker 2: ten was reported to be Hawaii. He had publicly stated
Speaker 2: that he was there for an extended period before Joseph disappeared.
Speaker 2: Travel documentation examined by reporters suggest that his claim was
Speaker 2: consistent with airline and lodging records. Physical absence, however, did
Speaker 2: not eliminate digital connection. Investigators examined log in histories and
Speaker 2: access privileges tied to company systems. Kavanaugh was interviewed. Detectives
Speaker 2: reviewed communications between him and Joseph in the weeks before
Speaker 2: February fourth. They analyzed the volume and tone of exchanges.
Speaker 2: Were their disputes, were their financial disagreements, were their abrupt
Speaker 2: changes in communication? The answers were not immediately conclusive. Business
Speaker 2: partners argue they also collaborate. Distinguishing bead between normal friction
Speaker 2: and motive requires pattern recognition. Other contractors and vendors were questioned.
Speaker 2: Who had keys to the house, who had access to vehicles,
Speaker 2: who knew the family's schedule. Detectives reconstructed February fourth, hour
Speaker 2: by hour. They reviewed surveillance footage from nearby homes. They
Speaker 2: cataloged vehicle traffic entering and leaving the cul de sac.
Speaker 2: They examined delivery records and service appointments. Every person with
Speaker 2: routine access was identified and interviewed. Joseph's brother, Michael, entered
Speaker 2: the home on February thirteenth through an open window after
Speaker 2: deputies had conducted a welfare check days earlier. He later
Speaker 2: said he removed a computer and an SD card because
Speaker 2: he believed they might contain clues to the family's whereabouts.
Speaker 2: He stated publicly that he believed he had law enforcement's
Speaker 2: permission to retrieve them. Investigators documented what was taken and
Speaker 2: when any removal of property from a potential crime scene
Speaker 2: invites scrutiny, even if done with good abstentions. Detectives had
Speaker 2: to account for a chain of custody and possible loss
Speaker 2: of digital evidence. As detectives layered these names against financial
Speaker 2: records and phone logs, they focused increasingly on access rather
Speaker 2: than personality. Who could move money, who could log into accounts,
Speaker 2: who could alter digital records. The desert had established homicide,
Speaker 2: the house had yielded no visible signs of struggle. That
Speaker 2: absence suggested either a controlled departure or a carefully managed scene.
Speaker 2: In reviewing system access, investigators noted overlapping privileges, more than
Speaker 2: one person associated with the business had the technical ability
Speaker 2: to view or modify financial information. That fact did not
Speaker 2: implicate anyone directly, but it did establish possibility. In complex
Speaker 2: financial systems, authority is often shared for efficiency. Detectives needed
Speaker 2: to determine whether that authority had been misused. The suspect
Speaker 2: universe did not collapse neatly. It expanded. Summer's past relationship
Speaker 2: was examined and largely discounted through alibi confirmation. Professional contacts
Speaker 2: were reviewed and cataloged. Merritt's proximity on February fourth was documented,
Speaker 2: but not yet weighted. The ex wife's husband's history was scrutinized,
Speaker 2: without conclusive evidence of escalation. Kavanaugh's digital role was logged
Speaker 2: and preserved for further analysis. By the time investigators closed
Speaker 2: this phase of review, they had not identified a singular suspect. Instead,
Speaker 2: they had identified intersecting points of control. Control over time,
Speaker 2: control over access, control over information. The investigation was beginning
Speaker 2: to shift from who was physically present to who understood
Speaker 2: the architecture of Joseph mcstay's life. Names began appearing in
Speaker 2: more than one category. Business relationships overlapped with personal familiarity.
Speaker 2: Digital access overlapped with financial authority. The investigation's next phase
Speaker 2: would require narrowing those overlaps carefully, methodically, and without assumption.
Speaker 2: For now, the file remained open across multiple fronts. Each
Speaker 2: name carried history, each connection carried context, and each context
Speaker 2: would need to withstand the weight of scrutiny. As detectives
Speaker 2: moved forward, the Mojave Desert had revealed the crime. The
Speaker 2: suspect pool would reveal the investigations direction. And if you've
Speaker 2: enjoyed this examination of the case so far, then please
Speaker 2: join me next Thursday, February twelfth for Part four of
Speaker 2: the Mixtay Family Murders. And hey, if you've been enjoying
Speaker 2: the show, Please tell your friends, tell your family, tell
Speaker 2: random acquaintances. Anyone you know who likes a true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: I sure would appreciate it. Until next time, I'm Zevan
Speaker 2: Odelberg and this has been kind of murdery.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: Kinamurdery or email at Kinomurderie at gmail dot com
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