Photo: McStay Family/ZUMAFor years, the case of themissing McStay familystumped detectives.In 2010, Det. Troy DuGal from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department conducted a welfare check on the two-story home near San Diego where Joseph, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph, 3, lived.He found no sign of foul play in the empty house, only evidence of a family’s everyday life: paint cans in the kitchen that they were renovating, a carton of eggs on the counter and two small bowls of popcorn on the futon in the living room.“That’s weird,” Detective DuGal recalls thinking. “It was like two kids were sitting there eating popcorn, and then they were just gone.”• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.Last week, Det. DuGal appeared in front of a San Bernardino jury and testified he suspected foul play had occurred inside the family’s Fallbrook, Calif., home, but he did not believe the McStay’s were killed inside their home.“There was no smoking gun,” he said in court, according to anarticle in theSan Diego Union-Tribune.For many years following their 2010 disappearance, friends and family could only guess what would make the young family want to leave behind a successful business, as well as their beloved dogs.In 2013, a motorcyclist stumbled upon a skull in the Mojave Desert and called investigators who — soon after — uncovered two shallow graves containing the remains of a man, a woman and two little boys.The missing McStay family had been found. They had been beaten to death with a sledgehammer found in one of the graves, authorities said.The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Jennifer Cappuccio Mahe/APA year later, prosecutors charged Charles “Chase” Merritt with murder. Two weeks ago, his trial began in San Bernardino County for the quadruple slaying of the McStay family. If convicted, the 61-year-old former business associate faces the death penalty. Merritt has maintained his innocence.Prosecutors believe the McStay family was killed inside their home and taken to the desert where they were buried, the paper reported.Merritt’s defense attorneys argue there was no blood found inside the McStay home, and nothing links their client to the family’s death, according to the paper.The trial is expected to last until April.
Photo: McStay Family/ZUMA
For years, the case of themissing McStay familystumped detectives.In 2010, Det. Troy DuGal from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department conducted a welfare check on the two-story home near San Diego where Joseph, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph, 3, lived.He found no sign of foul play in the empty house, only evidence of a family’s everyday life: paint cans in the kitchen that they were renovating, a carton of eggs on the counter and two small bowls of popcorn on the futon in the living room.“That’s weird,” Detective DuGal recalls thinking. “It was like two kids were sitting there eating popcorn, and then they were just gone.”• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.Last week, Det. DuGal appeared in front of a San Bernardino jury and testified he suspected foul play had occurred inside the family’s Fallbrook, Calif., home, but he did not believe the McStay’s were killed inside their home.“There was no smoking gun,” he said in court, according to anarticle in theSan Diego Union-Tribune.For many years following their 2010 disappearance, friends and family could only guess what would make the young family want to leave behind a successful business, as well as their beloved dogs.In 2013, a motorcyclist stumbled upon a skull in the Mojave Desert and called investigators who — soon after — uncovered two shallow graves containing the remains of a man, a woman and two little boys.The missing McStay family had been found. They had been beaten to death with a sledgehammer found in one of the graves, authorities said.The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Jennifer Cappuccio Mahe/APA year later, prosecutors charged Charles “Chase” Merritt with murder. Two weeks ago, his trial began in San Bernardino County for the quadruple slaying of the McStay family. If convicted, the 61-year-old former business associate faces the death penalty. Merritt has maintained his innocence.Prosecutors believe the McStay family was killed inside their home and taken to the desert where they were buried, the paper reported.Merritt’s defense attorneys argue there was no blood found inside the McStay home, and nothing links their client to the family’s death, according to the paper.The trial is expected to last until April.
For years, the case of themissing McStay familystumped detectives.
In 2010, Det. Troy DuGal from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department conducted a welfare check on the two-story home near San Diego where Joseph, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph, 3, lived.
He found no sign of foul play in the empty house, only evidence of a family’s everyday life: paint cans in the kitchen that they were renovating, a carton of eggs on the counter and two small bowls of popcorn on the futon in the living room.
“That’s weird,” Detective DuGal recalls thinking. “It was like two kids were sitting there eating popcorn, and then they were just gone.”
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Last week, Det. DuGal appeared in front of a San Bernardino jury and testified he suspected foul play had occurred inside the family’s Fallbrook, Calif., home, but he did not believe the McStay’s were killed inside their home.
“There was no smoking gun,” he said in court, according to anarticle in theSan Diego Union-Tribune.
For many years following their 2010 disappearance, friends and family could only guess what would make the young family want to leave behind a successful business, as well as their beloved dogs.
In 2013, a motorcyclist stumbled upon a skull in the Mojave Desert and called investigators who — soon after — uncovered two shallow graves containing the remains of a man, a woman and two little boys.
The missing McStay family had been found. They had been beaten to death with a sledgehammer found in one of the graves, authorities said.
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Jennifer Cappuccio Mahe/AP
A year later, prosecutors charged Charles “Chase” Merritt with murder. Two weeks ago, his trial began in San Bernardino County for the quadruple slaying of the McStay family. If convicted, the 61-year-old former business associate faces the death penalty. Merritt has maintained his innocence.
Prosecutors believe the McStay family was killed inside their home and taken to the desert where they were buried, the paper reported.
Merritt’s defense attorneys argue there was no blood found inside the McStay home, and nothing links their client to the family’s death, according to the paper.
The trial is expected to last until April.
source: people.com
