The McStay Family Murders: The Family Who Vanished

A family of four vanished without a trace until their bodies were discovered years later, leaving detectives to piece together their last movements before they died brutal deaths.

Whenever something happens in the true crime world, it’s normal for amateur online crime detectives (like me) to come up with theories about what could have happened.

So, when a family of four went missing in 2010, it was only natural that people had opinions as to what could have happened.

Maybe they were fleeing debt or trying to start their lives over again. Perhaps they were running away from someone due to a business deal gone wrong.

Or, could it be they had fallen victim to a heinous crime? And, if so, why would someone drag their two young children into it?

Gone Without A Trace

The McStay family lived in Fallbrook, California. They were a successful couple, with Joseph owning and operating Earth Inspired Products, a company that built decorative fountains, and Summer working as a real estate agent.

Joseph and Summer had two children, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr.

To the outside world, they were a loving and doting young family with a solid inner circle that liked to go on trips and watch their children grow.

But that world was about to shatter.

On November 4th, 2010, the McStays disappeared. During his last conversation with his father, Joseph said he had a lunch meeting.

It was as though they’d run away. All credit card activity stopped, their phones were no longer active, and their house was empty.

But, it was normal for Joseph and Summer to take their children on small trips, so nothing seemed amiss for the first few days of their disappearance.

Joseph’s brother, Michael, grew suspicious after a week of no contact and called by the house to see if they were there.

He encountered rotting food, Summer’s prescription sunglasses, and the family dogs left unattended. There were no signs of forced entry or violence occurring in the home, indicating that the four family members left willingly.

Michael reported them missing on February 15th.

Investigators discovered the McStays’ white 1996 Isuzu Trooper had been towed from a parking lot near the Mexico border on February 8th.

Multiple searches about traveling to Mexico on the family’s computer prompted the authorities to believe that Joseph and Summer had taken their children across the border on vacation.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department even produced footage of a family resembling the McStays walking across the Mexico border.

However, Joseph’s mother said the man in the footage had a different walk to her son, and relatives doubted the young family would travel to Mexico as they were weary of crossing the border due to the drug wars.

In April 2010, the sheriff’s department handed the case to the FBI.

It took three years for a break in the case.

Red Herrings and Shallow Graves

In November 2013, an off-road motorcyclist stopped his vehicle when he found parts of a skull in the desert in Victorville, CA.

Detectives arrived on the scene and encountered two shallow graves, each containing one adult and one child.

Someone, likely the killer, left a sledgehammer at the scene, which was the believed murder weapon.

The remains had no useful DNA due to decomposition, but dental records identified the corpses as Joseph, Summer, Gianni, and Joseph Jr.

Their cause of death was blunt force trauma.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department took over the case. They conducted a second search of the McStays’ vehicle and discovered DNA on the steering column and gear shift that belonged to Charles ‘Chase’ Merritt.

Charles was Joseph’s business partner and was one of the last people to speak to him. He passed a lie detector test when the family first went missing, but when investigators reexamined interview footage, they came across a very concerning detail.

While other interviewees referred to the family in the present tense, Charles spoke in the past tense despite no bodies being found yet.

Charles already had a criminal past, having served time for burglary and receiving stolen property, but committing such a brutal murder seemed a stretch.

That was until law enforcement did a deep dive into his personal life.

The man was in dire financial straits due to his gambling problem and owed Joseph tens of thousands of dollars for botched work in 2009. Charles was also forging checks from Joseph’s account.

Joseph had been lenient with Charles in the past but had reached his breaking point.

Charles’s cell phone records revealed he was in the area where the bodies were discovered years later.

Investigators theorized that he killed the family and dumped them in the desert. Then, he drove the family’s vehicle to San Ysidro and abandoned it to throw detectives off the trail.

Then, he carried out multiple Mexico-related searches on Summer’s computer to mislead the investigation.

In January 2014, he announced that he was considering writing a book about the family, where he would dissect Summer’s anger issues and how they caused Joseph to suffer from an undisclosed illness.

While there may have been truth to the fact that Joseph may have been sick, those close to the family confirmed that Summer had nothing to do with his health issues.

The End Of The ‘Chase’

Police arrested Charles on November 5th, 2014, and charged him with four counts of murder.

It was believed that Charles tortured his victims before killing them, prompting the district attorney to seek the death penalty.

Charles couldn’t settle on an attorney, and the case was repeatedly delayed as he kept firing his defense. By February 2016, he had gone through five attorneys and even contemplated representing himself.

On July 10th, 2019, a San Bernardino County jury found Charles guilty of murdering each member of the McStay family.

He was sentenced to death on January 21st, 2020.