Father says authorities ‘did virtually nothing’ after McStays vanished
The arrest this week of a suspect in the 2010 slaying of the McStay family has sparked criticism from a relative who said the initial investigation was poorly handled.
The family disappeared from their home in Fallbrook in northern San Diego County almost five years ago, and their bodies were found near Victorville last year.
Charles “Chase” Merritt, 57, was arrested this week on suspicion of killing Joseph and Summer McStay and their two young boys has been charged with four counts of murder. He is due to be arraigned on Wednesday. He was a business associate of Joseph McStay.
McStay family members have praised San Bernardino County officials, who annouced the arrest Friday.
But Joseph’s father, in an interview with KNBC-TV, criticized San Diego County authorities, claiming they were slow to investigate when the family originally disappeared.
“I knew they screwed things up,” Patrick McStay said. “All the rest was just sugarcoating to make it look like they really were interested in solving, doing something. They did virtually nothing.”
Meanwhile, more is being learned about Merritt.
In September 2001, he pleaded no contest to second-degree commercial burglary and grand theft after being accused of stealing items from San Gabriel Valley Ornamental Iron Works.
He was ordered to serve 180 days in county jail and three years’ probation, said Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. But it took Merritt nearly 10 years to complete probation because he didn’t pay required fees or show up for a court-ordered program, records show.
He finally completed probation on Sept. 14, 2010 -- about seven months after prosecutors say he bludgeoned the McStays to death.
Merritt received a contractor’s license to work with ornamental metals in 1982, state records show, but a website that reviews Inland Empire businesses shows two complaints against his company for failing to complete work after customers paid.
San Bernardino County authorities on Friday did not divulge a motive for the McStay killings, but by all accounts the fountain-making business Merritt and Joseph McStay ran together was doing well.
In an interview last year with the British tabloid Daily Mail, Merritt said business was better than ever and their company had just landed a lucrative foreign contract. He said he and Joseph McStay had lunch in Rancho Cucamonga the day the family went missing; they talked on the phone several times later in the day.
He added that he ignored a call from Joseph McStay about 8:30 p.m. because he was in the middle of watching a movie.
After concerned relatives reported the family missing, investigators who went to the McStays’ Fallbrook home found no sign of a struggle. Neighbors said they hadn’t seen them for days and started feeding the family dogs.
Four days after the McStays disappeared, their Isuzu Trooper turned up in the parking lot of a mini-mall near the Mexican border.
Almost four years after that, in November 2013, and about 100 miles to the north, an off-road motorcyclist noticed a few scattered bones near what turned out to be a pair of shallow graves on the edge of the desert off the 15 Freeway outside Victorville.
Days later, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies identified the skeletal remains of Joseph McStay, 40; Summer McStay, 43; and their boys, Joseph Jr., 3, and Gianni, 4.
Follow the reporters on Twitter: @JosephSerna and@VeronicaRochaLA
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