Arrest in McStay killings 'like a boulder falling on me,' father says

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Charles Merritt is led out of the courtroom after his arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty in the slayings of the McStay family. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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A San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy escorts defendant Charles Merritt into court for his arraignment in the alleged murder of Joseph McStay and McStay’s wife and two boys in Victorville, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Susan Blake, center, mother of Joseph McStay, with family and friends as she addresses the media outside the courthouse where defendant Charles Merritt was arraigned. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Photographs of the McStay family displayed at a November 2013 news conference, where San Bernardino County authorities announced that remains found in desert graves had been identified as the McStays’. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Kyla Cummins, daughter of a McStay family friend, plays with a stuffed toy left at a memorial for the McStays, whose bodies were found buried in shallow desert graves. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Family members and friends gather at the site where four crosses were installed in memory of the McStay family, found buried in shallow graves in Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Workers from Victor Valley News Group install four crosses at a memorial for Joseph and Summer McStay and their two children, whose remains were found in shallow graves near Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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“It’s not really the outcome we were looking for,” Michael McStay said during a news conference in November 2013 after the remains of his brother, sister-in-law and nephews were identified. “But it gives us courage to know they’re together and they’re in a better place.” (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Erin McStay, left, and Susan Blake at a news conference in November 2013 at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department headquarters, where authorities announced the remains of Blake’s son, Joseph McStay, and his family had been identified. Erin McStay is Joseph McStay’s sister-in-law. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators excavate a grave on the outskirts of Victorville in November 2013. Human remains found in two graves at the site were determined to be those of the McStay family, who went missing in 2010. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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The McStays’ former house on Avocado Vista Lane in Fallbrook. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

By Joseph Serna

Nov. 11, 2014 7:11 AM PT

People typically may feel relief to learn of an arrest in a family member’s death, but Patrick McStay, whose son, daughter-in-law and two young grandchildren were killed in 2010, instead felt a crushing weight.

“A lot of people will say it’s like lifting a ton off your shoulders. I said, no, it was more to me like a boulder falling on me,” McStay told CNN Monday.

In an interview with CNN’s Randi Kaye that aired Monday night, McStay said he’s uncertain whether his son’s business partner, Charles “Chase” Merritt, was capable of killing the family.

“I still can’t say yes, but I can say I still wonder,” McStay said.

Last week, four years after Joseph McStay, his wife, Summer, and their two sons -- Joseph Jr., 3, and Gianni, 4 -- mysteriously vanished from their Fallbrook, Calif., home, authorities arrested Merritt and charged him with four counts of murder.

The arrest came roughly one year after the family’s remains were found in a remote patch of desert off the 15 Freeway in Victorville. Coroner officials determined the McStays died of blunt-force trauma.

Charges were filed against Merritt in San Bernardino County because that’s where the remains were found, officials said.

Speaking to reporters after the arrest was announced last week, Dist. Atty. Mike Ramos said Merritt will be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

“I don’t need to tell you this is a cold and callous murder on an entire family,” Ramos said.

Merritt’s arrest also comes nearly a year after he gave an interview to the British tabloid Daily Mail in which he said he spent more than an hour with Joseph McStay the day he and his family went missing from their suburban San Diego County home.

Merritt, who said he was the last person Joseph McStay called from his cellphone before disappearing, claimed he did not know anything that could help solve the crime.

He said he was questioned by police and submitted to a polygraph examination.

The two worked together as part of McStay’s custom fountain business.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.