The McStay Murders
Many people wonder what I think of the recent developments in the case of the McStay family murders. We have video footage of Chase Merritt speaking to CNN as well as other footage of family members, etc.
When I watch Chase Merritt speak, from the interviews I’ve seen on CNN last night, I can say that I do not see anything that sets me off as “hot” regarding deception. He actually says a couple of things that lean towards honesty in these videos. He says and does things that are more consistent with honesty than deception, though I have chosen to remain neutral on him. I remain neutral when I don’t believe I have strong enough behavioral evidence to be conclusive from what I have seen. With that, if people have interviews of Chase Merritt that they believe reveal hot spots, please post links to them below with time markers and I will look at them.
I want to clarify that I saw Chase in the interview on CNN in Buried Secrets: Who Murdered the McStay Family. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, but saw the rest of it. I tried to find links to the show in full this morning, but was unable to. I wanted to watch the first 15 minutes I missed.
There is a person in this case, however, that deeply troubles me in this investigation, and it is Michael McStay, the brother Joseph McStay, who was murdered along with his family. He has pinged me in every single interview he has done to date.
Michael McStay concerns me on multiple levels.
Chase Merritt was the one who pointed out that the family seemed to be missing, and it was Michael who just wrote it off and ignored it. Merritt kept asking the family to stop by, to take a look and to take it seriously, and it took Michael 9 days to get to his brother’s house. Michael said he just believed his brother and family were on vacation, and yet the dogs were left outside with no food or water? How does that make sense?
I am troubled by how Michael behaves in the interview with Tim Miller from Equusearch when they first searched the house. He shows no concern whatsoever when strangers seem to know something is very off. Michael McStay laughs and jokes as if all is well–very odd. Michael says very boldly, “The detectives told me this is not a crime scene and I can do whatever I want to.” His statement there is so full of arrogance and lack of concern for his brother that it is staggering. If you found food rotting on the counters and it appeared your family left quickly, wouldn’t you want to treat everything as a crime scene to preserve evidence? Why didn’t Michael?
How could have been sure it wasn’t a crime scene? It defies logic.
In the video inside the McStay house with Tim Miller, someone off film says to Michael, “They didn’t get abducted or forcibly removed from the house…” and Michael responds “No, well no, …no, somebody could have said hey man, just like happened before Chase said ‘oh my shop got broken into, I can’t finish your jobs, I’ve got thousands of dollars to get out”…it could have been, ‘hey Joe, I’m coming over, I’m almost there, I’m almost there’, he got five calls…uh, ‘hey, I’m here, I’ll meet you at the bank or whatever’. My brother was going to give him money again, who knows, it could have been that….I…that’s….a possibility, too. But I can tell you one thing, they got pulled away from the house by somebody that was comfortable to them.”
I find it odd that Michael immediately points the finger towards Chase so early on. If he was suspicious of Chase, why didn’t he wonder why his brother and his family were gone for 9 days? Why didn’t he respond to Chase’s earlier phone calls the day after Chase was suspicious something went wrong? Chase had to call Michael’s mom to get Michael to come out. These seem inconsistent to me. In that entire video, Micheal’s demeanor and behavior is off.
When the bodies of the McStay family were found in November 2013, we see Michael again acting odd. You can read my post here. He is crying tears, but shows every indication his crying is fake. And worse, he says at the end of his speech which is riddled with oddities and extreme discomfort, “I know everyone in America loves the McStays, and we’re going to find this individual…or individuals…I know the sheriffs, the FBI, ….everybody wants to bring this to justice, and if its the last thing I do, I just…..I just wanna know, you know… when its over (laugh).” He then buries his face!! He comes back up to the microphone and says, “That’s all” as he gives an expression of contempt.
Really?
What is making him laugh? It’s not nervous laughter in the slightest. He finds something funny and he wants to hide it in nearly every interview we see of him. It doesn’t add up at all. Is he hiding a huge whopper? It sure makes you think. Add to this, he went into his brothers house multiple times because the police didn’t make it a crime scene, and he freely admits he took his brother’s computer, too. Why was his brother’s computer of interest to him, if it wasn’t of interest to the police? And he asked that if anyone found any secure digital cards from his sister-in-laws camera lying around the house to give them directly to him. I found that very odd.
In that post above when the McStay’s bodies were found, I also mention that I happened upon a statement by Michael McStay reported by People Magazine in 2010 where Michael was quoted as saying, “My fear is that I’m looking for two adult shallow graves and … my two nephews’ crosses.”
WHAT?? What the hell is going on? He seems to have predicted how we’d find his relatives to a tee — three years before they were found. How does this happen? This is no coincidence.
And last, after hearing that Chase Merritt has been arrest, Michael McStay’s behavior clearly jumps out at me again. Look at this video below at the six minute time marker.
Watch as Michael walks to the microphone–he has to hide his face!! Why?
Because his emotions are flat out inappropriate. He is holding back laughter again. He starts out by saying, “I said I wasn’t going to cry (smiling the whole time) but um, they did a great job.”
Michael is TRYING TO ACT sad, but he cannot pull it off. There are no scientific markers of sadness whatsoever. Instead, he keeps trying to shake off his happiness and shows lots of signs of discomfort doing so. I have no doubt that Michael is faking his emotions here, and why in the world would he have to fake his emotions unless he feels differently?
People are pointing the motive of jealousy with Merritt. The one I have to wonder about who might have been jealous is Michael.
While I am open to continue exploring this case through behavioral evidence and interviews, I cannot get Michael McStay out of my mind. He is haunting, to say the least. He is hiding something and it doesn’t make me feel good on any level.
I will have to watch this episode this afternoon. I am running behind.
I was waiting for you to comment on this! I don’t find everything honest. He downplays his criminal record a lot. However like you, I didn’t see anything that is HOT enough to indicate coverup of a murder!!!
When he is eating his chuckles, it’s kind of interesting to see how supportive the police officer is of him. Looks like such a disconnect to an outside observer.
I watched at the 6 minute mark, haven’t watched the whole video yet. Michael repeatedly, literally puts his tongue in his cheek while praising the police officers.
I hope they noticed the insincerity of the flattery, but it looks like they ate it up.
I am terrified they are not going to get this guy. He ran all over the Steph Watts tim miller video saying “there’s no clues here right?” just over and over like an out of control toddler. Also he listed his brothers company as his own and had a 60K had to pay back and on his 2nd bankruptcy that loan was FRAUD, Joey would have had to testify against Mike…trust me there is SO much the public doesnt know about this little gem of family members. Tim miller was so freaked out by mikes actions he left and never looked back. Now Mike says he is going to treat the SBSD to a BBQ after the trial! Well I hope he is extending that invitation when they have him in shackles, His strutting around now is certainly in his element. He has horrible self esteem issues you can see it plainly, Joey was everyone’s buddy and the “golden boy” (adopted too by Mikes dad) Ill bet that has been a driving force in mikes jealous life as well a brother who has successful company soon to embark on millions, two beautiful boys (which MIke could never have) I say the brtoehr has lots of “splainin to do” and if LE hasnt caught on to him by now we are all in trouble. I pray they are just letting him hang himself and that Chase Merritts attorney can get some of this info for his client from det. Dugal.
sorry for the typos…small iphone
I had just assumed Merritt was a great liar, and couldn’t wait for you Eyes, to point out his subtleties 🙁
I felt shaken by Merritt’s words, “I definately was the last person to see him alive.”
To me that smacked of a guy who was flashing back to having looked right at Joseph as he was bludgeoning him.
I also thought that Michael’s ability to look out at people while he was grieving/trying to talk, made him look more believable (because I compared it to Susan Smith who couldn’t stop looking down at her ‘grocery list’)
EFL – FYI, I still can’t post here using I.E., so I’ve switched to FireFox 🙂
While it is interesting that CM says this, he is using reflected language and only repeats the interviewer’s words from her question and adds “definitely”. This may make it less significant.
I am with Eyes and can’t get past MM’s strange behavior. I think most strangers would be more affected by the situation than he seems to be when at the McStay’s empty home. It seems like it’s a game to him.
I’m on the fence about MM, I feel like even if he were uninvolved, that he somehow has ‘guilty knowledge’ related to the family, and that this may explain these strange behaviors of his. As for Chase, he was never the guy I thought had any motive. From an investigation standpoint, however, the last person to engage with the decedents has a high statistical likelyhood of being either a witness to something, or a perpetrator, so I see why the investigation targeted Merritt.
I’m not sold on him acting alone, but I’ll keep an open mind, and hope they have better than circumstantial evidence. The whole thing has been a messy business since day one, so it will be interesting how things play out.
Just a question for you: How do you determine someone has “guilty knowledge” and what that might be about (crime or non-crime related)?
Actually that’s been a topic I’d separately wanted to ask you for a long time, and never found an opportunity. With the McStay family, there’s been a lot of odd dealings regarding a business paypal account immediately following their disappearance, but long before they were found. Money and family always makes for strange dynamics, I’ve often wondered if MM’s personal relationship with Joey was complicated to the point that his disappearance created difficulties or opportunities for MM for entirely unrelated reasons, and that this makes MM’s responses to matters surrounding his brother complicated. Not guilty knowledge of a ‘crime’ per se, but something along the lines of “My brother and I had an argument no one knows about, and I’m ashamed” just before the family goes missing, and that this colors his emotional responses to questions surrounding his brother. I always wonder if MM gives off conflicting vibes about his grief in the matter, because he really is conflicted emotionally.
So you are saying that maybe he is happy his brother is possibly out of this life, but may have not had anything to do with it. Then I would have expected him to still treat the scene as a potential “crime scene”, to entertain any potential in the disappearance instead of just pointing to Chase, and other things. It’s the totality of behaviors that does not support what you are suggesting, if that makes sense.
Yes. I should say this is for me just a gut feeling, I don’t have good supporting reasons for thinking this. I agree with everything you’ve mentioned. While his behaviors are not sensible, I just can’t get a sense of _purposeful_ deceit… just that the MM is behaviorally all over the map, maybe he always has been since before this happened. The only read I can get is that he wants others to perceive him one way, yet can’t quite be consistent on the perception he wants to project, especially in front of the camera, and he comes off as unnatural. Maybe time will show us something that will tie his quirky behaviors to a reasonable explanation. He remains to be someone worth watching, even if out of curiosity.
Could you have emotional biases possibly affecting you? He is purposefully trying to make you think he is crying, but he truly isn’t showing scientific markers of it. That’s undeniable.
Definitely 🙂 I’ve had characters in my life who were odd ducks, so I could very well be biased. I’m not attempting to dismiss his odd behaviors, btw, just allowing that there could be more to his oddness than we are privy to know. I fdo eel like given his awkward nature, if he were guilty of real involvement in this, we’d know by now; he’s not good at deception nor convincing folks whatever it is he’s trying to project, hence our intrigue with him.
Actually I see him as having been very skilled at deceiving people, but he is on the biggest stage to date and can’t believe it.
His laughter could be a) am I getting away with this amazingly, but also I need to ventilate I am so stressed
His obvious discomfort could be b) I could still be found out and the world is watching me and I have to put on this act and stand right next to the officers who could eventually catch me
the video of him makes me extremely uncomfortable to watch, I felt sick watching him
He shows no signs of stress. He shows extreme discomfort. They are completely different.
Interesting. Have never thought about that. What is the difference?
If he shows no signs of stress does it mean the laughter is not nervous? Am so confused with the nuances. He simply sees some kind of private humor noone else does?
It’s not nervous laughter. There are markers. He sees something funny he doesn’t want anyone else to know about. Yes.
How unusual. In fact, if he is able to laugh during this press conference related to his murdered brother, um, it shows such a lack of focus on his brother. How strange. This behavior would not correlate much with fearing being caught I’d assume. This gives me the creeps. I wouldn’t be glad to know that my sibling would laugh during a press conference related to my murder.
Renee, what’s your opinion that Mikey Maracas is just flat out stoned? Stress’ll sent ya straight to the pipe….
IS he skilled? But he hasn’t fooled any of us, and unlike your good self, the majority of us are just amateurs.
I refuse to believe that the SBPD/FBI haven’t got him under surveillance and, as mentioned, apparently there is a warrant out for his phone records.
For example, if Michael and/or Joseph and/or Chase and/or Dan etc etc etc were involved in using the fountain business as a front for trafficking drugs. Ole Mikey Boy might not directly be involved with the actual murder act, but perhaps being an accessory, knowing who the perps were, AND being involved in shady business dealings, all contribute to his ‘guilty knowledge’. This is manifested in his bizarre physical behavior described by all of us in this thread.
If Merritt has not heard of anyone else who spoke to the family, he would be correct in assuming he was the last one who saw them. That would only be logical to say.
It sounds like you have a browser issue then and not a Disqus problem! At least you found a workaround.
Regarding Michael’s speach … I am unable to push my tongue into my cheek while pretending to grieve and have it feel germaine! It only fits/works when I’m trying to stop pretending to be laughing.
The only thing that really stands out to me about Merritt’s interview is when he is suddenly pressed if he was the last person that Joseph Mcstay saw, he said yes. The last person would have been the murderer. He could have said the one who murdered him would have been the last person that he saw. This could have just been a fluke, but it jumped out at me. His motive could have been to take Mcstay’s business from him by eliminating the owner. I will be glad to hear how he did on his lie detector test and, also, if Michael took and passed a lie detector test. Unless, there were a sudden quarrel and the children were present, It seems that a relative would have gotten Joseph off to himself to kill him. Unless, Charles is a psychopath, it seems as though the children would have been spared.
I know a lot of men are ashamed to be seen crying, but the effort Michael has to make to keep the smile off of his face bothers me. The happy smile as he leaves the stage also bothers me. If he felt like laughing that someone had been arrested in the murder of his brother and his brother’s family, he could have said something to that effect. I think everyone could have understood that he was torn between the desire to laugh or to cry. I will have to reserve my opinion until the facts come out. If there was much evidence, it seems there could have been an arrest much earlier.
You are right. It’s very strange to say he was definitey the last person to see him alive. It didn’t jump out at me, it has grown on me instead:) His manner is so relaxed but that sentence, on paper, is weird.
I think the interviewer was pretty good to ask him, again, suddenly. It took him off guard. His expression really tensed up, at that point, and he couldn’t think fast enough to get away from the question. This one thing doesn’t make him guilty, but it was certainly a red flag, to me.
Yes although shocking your interviewee doesn’t mean you’ll get honest answers. I tense up when people interrogate me. Even when I *think* people are fishing.
Greetings – I have just discovered your blog and work.
As someone untrained in this discipline, I can only say that I am struck by the disparity between Michael’s manner and demeanor when when he is “on stage,” at the press conferences, and that which he displays in the video made at the McStay home with Steph Watts and Tim Miller. At the conferences, he seems full of emotion for his brother and family, but at the home, matter-of-fact and unfeeling.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=itolO4KYOI0
Here is another video of Michael McStay taken today outside the Victorville Courthouse. I have to admit mother and son both seem “off” to me.
The mother is not off to me at all.
If Mike McStay is guilty and his mother has no notion of it yet, I feel really sorry for her if/when she finds out.
…and his wife also. She seems to be trying so hard to believe and support him.
Michael says, “One of my biggest fears was I didn’t want my mom, Summer’s mom to go to their graves.”
WHAT???
He continues, “I felt a big sense of relief…to turn a page.”
“I felt a little lighter. Finally someone HAS TO TAKE responsibility.”
At the 10 minute marker, he is enjoying the attention and laughing again. He talks about grilling and looks like he’s talking about a party and tries to give the guy a high five.
I can understand now what you were saying about Michael trying to contain his happiness during the press conference. It is like at this 10 minute point, we can finally see what he is really feeling.
The Cohen interview afterwards would be damaging in the court room. CM will have dozens of people testifying against him of that nature.
Yes, a strange thing to say ‘someone HAS TO TAKE responsibility’.
What about at 8.30– ‘First it was a missing persons case.. (he pulls in his chin – like I don’t know) you know trying to find our family.’ A weird head movement I thought, what else would they be doing in a missing person’s case? I mean they don’t know where the people or bodies are.
After the party invitation, another person talks about how dishonest Chase was. Hmm.
I understood him to be saying that he wanted the crime solved before the parents of the victims passed away. What’s the problem with that?
Eyes, Question for you. At about the 9:25 mark, Mike McStay says that someone will have to take responsibility for what THEY did to his loving family. Do you think this might indicate more then one person or do you think it is just his speech? Thank you for addressing these murders and all of the oddities surrounding them.
The word “they” can be referring to singular or plural.
At 5:47 someone asks the mother if she knew him.. you can notice how Michael gets a little uncomfortable(rubbing his chin, etc) and then at 6:06 he starts talking and it almost sounds as if he is defending him by sayng Merritt helped him somehow, they became friends.. I think he might be talking about himself and Merritt, because I suspect they murdered them together. Just my opinion
I watched Michael and saw nothing but grief. I’m probably wrong, but when Chase gets the death penalty, he will sing if Michael is involved.
That is only if they are in cahoots that he will sing.
Whomever he is in cahoots with, he won’t like going down alone. I just feel that it was too hard for one person to carry out.
Someone on CNN started the rumor its too hard for one person to do. A gun in people’s faces will make them go and do whatever you want. I don’t get that.
I took it to mean that burying four bodies in the desert seems like work for more than one person.
50 year old guy with advancing Congenital Heart Disease throws down four people, cleans up the bloody aftermath, stages an elaborate false trail and merrily goes about his way..?
He did not act alone!
whether 1 did it or not we don’t know yet but WHO profited from it??? we all do know that for sure!
The way he rubs his eyes around the 6.00 mark, followed by tongue in cheek and finger pointing up is so dishonest and arrogant.
Also I find disturbing what he says around 7.20, he looks at the crosses and says ‘He’ll get what he’s got coming to him’. To me there is ambiguity about who ‘he’ is in that statement. He could equally mean his dead brother I think. He appears somewhat happy after saying this.
When he finishes talking he says ‘You guys are amazing,’ then appears to smirk. It makes sense if he thinks he outsmarted the law and so doesn’t actually believe they are amazing. His praise of the law is just specious flattery and mockery.
To have arrested Chase, the evidence must have been pretty overwhelming. However, there is none against Michael? And if Chase was involved & Michael was involved, why isn’t Chase spilling the beans on Michael?
I’m confused.
yep, have had all the same thoughts as you!
You always have to keep all options open without evidence. That’s how our system works. One could have known without the other. It may not mean they were in cahoots.
People are arrested without always being guilty. That is WHY we have a court, judge and jury!!
Hey All, I found a couple of short clips with MM during the first few days and month. Take a look. He has aged a tremendous amount since Feb. 4, 2010. What do you think?
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Brother-Offer-Tour-of-Missing-Familys-Home-88462082.html
Thanks, Birger, for posting this link. It has some footage I hadn’t seen before and shows police putting tape in front of the McStay’s house, so at that time it was considered a potential crime scene. The neighbors certainly seemed concerned. i too would like to know what Eyes and others make of MM in this footage. He certainly seems more somber than he did touring the house.
When he looks up from the phone call log, and revisits the fact that they have not had cell activity since the 4th, that stressful fact has no visible effect on him, he actually smiles. Weird. You would think that just repeating that fact would make you show stress, because it would be a little nugget of info that challenges your wish that they never had vanished. It would be so hard to accept as truth, it must be so hard to face such reality.
Oh, that second video from when they first went missing is so disturbing. It looks like Michael sneers a little bit when he says his brother and family are nice people. Is that right, Eyes for Lies? He is openly chuckling at the end when he asks for information or their release. 🙁 Maybe this is just the way he is as a person. It is so strange that it’s hard to know what to think.
Something I’d like to ask also is could he have a problem with inappropriate laughter? He seems to laugh so often when most people would be crying. I guess we’d have to observe him in other situations to tell for sure. I tend to think he’s wired this way but keep flashing back to the smile he gave LE at the press conference. It seems truly evil, the kind of look a gangster would give his underlings.
No, there are behaviors for this and he has none of them.
I watched it….made me sick to my stomach. He chuckles at the end when he is asked if he has anything he wants to say to the public…he says “yeah”..”let them…”, then he trails off and changes it to “IF you have them let them go”…and chuckles….it is so flippin creepy.
eyes for lies, what do you suspect Mike of? something directly related to the execution of the murder or other crime after the murder?
I don’t guess why people lie. I just identify that they do or that I don’t trust them. It’s obviously related to the case. That we can be for sure and he wants us to think he is horribly sad when clearly he is not. He is happy.
Eyes for lies…I wanted to send you a pm…I know you are so right about your belief that MM is guilty..HE IS.
correction..you said he is Lying…HE IS. It is so obvious that he is not only a liar, he is a sociopath. And I believe not only was he involved, that others may be involved too. This is huge, much bigger than LE is letting on. They surely must see, if we see it, they MUST see it.
The thing about Michael waiting 9 days to go to check his brother’s house out, jumps out at me. This smacks of a strained relationship.
I am really bad at detecting liars, but in this case, the brother has always seemed so suspicious. His story does not make sense and he seems to love the attention. He comes across as a fast talking, finger-pointing con artist.
You should really learn how to take being wrong. You thought it was Micheal and put that opinion out there. Unfortunately you have none of the physical evidence the police have. They have evidence pointing to Merritt and no evidence pointing to Micheal. For you to decide that the evidence that the prosecutor has against Merritt is all irrelevant based only on watching videos of press conference is frankly stupid. If you had your way a murderer would probably walk and it’s based on one guy being a little wacky and the other being a really good liar.
It’s a good thing people like you aren’t brought in when someone’s life is on the line in a murder case. What you do is no different all the kiddies that watch 9/11 videos online and find a way to make them fit their idea of what happened that day.
I couldn’t pay attention to your content due to your tone. There is always a way to state how you feel without being disrespectful. It is really rare that “frankly stupid” enters into a respectful sentence.
LISTEN up..Eyes for lies is RIGHT!!!! Just watch the vid’s..”exclusive footage inside McStay family home”….pt 1 & 2…EVERYTHING that goes on in the vid’s especially the Vid #1….SCREAMS guilt…MM is so guilty ..it’s SO OBVIOUS, he is deceitful, defensive, bizarre behavior …totally nervous acting, inappropriate statements, reactions, body language…ALL you have to do is watch that Vid, and there will be NO DOUBT about his “being involved”…HE is the TRUE Sociopath….for sure. AND IF I CAN SEE IT…..SURELY LE CAN …THEY ARE PROFESSIONALS..I AM A NOVICE…but like Eyes for lies….I KNOW WHEN SOMEONE IS NOT TELLING THE TRUTH….AND MM IS NOT….I HOPE THAT CHASE SPILLS THE BEANS & RATS EVERYONE INVOLVED OUT…and I DO believe there are MORE INVOLVED. I may Call the Detectives and FBI Agent Kevin Bowels myself & share with them what I believe…LOCALS….young locals that helped assist in the murders & burial…MM jealous of his brother, didn’t like Summer, and in the Vid he refers to her as “she” several times. I believe he MM, knew some of the Local Fallbrook people that I believe “helped” to carry out this heinous crime…ITS all going to come out…Again I need to call the Detectives & FBI and share what I believe, and the oddities that I know of and have personally witnessed. I cannot say more right now, but It is time for me to speak about WHAT I DO KNOW. The brother MM is definitely involved in this crime in some capacity. NOT a DOUBT in my mind. Just as I have always believed that he had a hand in the murders, there are others that I believe may have also been involved. I cannot say anymore.
Interesting. Please do say more! You’ve said most of it already.
Between this website, the infamous RB blog and a couple of other ‘sleuthing’ sites, seems a majority of folk believe Mikey ‘”come on over for carne asada” McStay is complicitly involved.
Saga runs something like: Chase M, Dan K, Mikey M, Joey M, Patrick M et al were ALLEGEDLY (pains me to have to put that in there) involved in drug smuggling (pots, pills, god knows what else), using the fountain business as either a front or mode of transportation. Mikey, mentally challenged dumba*s that he is, pissed off the wrong people somehow. Joey and his family were ‘taken out’ to teach the rest of the Mcstays/associates a lesson.- as you say, a local Victorville/Fallbrook gang were probably paid off to do this (GREAT spot by the way…that desert area is punctuated by sketchy shanty towns) – and as soon as Chase/Dan/rest of the extended McStay family figure out whats happened, race over to Joeys house and spend 10 days (before reporting them missing) erasing incriminating records/moving around money to try and cover sketchy transactions, create distratctions etc, and plant red herring searches under Joey/Summer’s Google history. As dumb as SB, MM, CM come across, criminal minds can be unfailingly canny and shrewd.
CM is the patsy and hasn’t implicated anyone else because his own family has probably been threatened (or lets face it, were probably involved – anyone seen interviews with his meth head looking brother?); Mike, the idiot mom, and the other lovely cast of characters are keeping mouths hella shut for the same reason….this is why they all come off as nervous, contradictory and guilty every time they’re on film. They know they’re probably next on the hit-list if anything is said
I always thought the Mexico Crossing video was the coincidence of the century, or a set up (using similar-a-likes) either by the cartel or McStay family/cohorts, to create distance and distraction between Joey and everyone else. I think someone close to the family who wanted to whistleblow for whatever reason, was the ‘dirtbike 911’ caller…not a random dude.
Hopefully everything else will come out in court – if Chase really is sick and close to the end, hopefully he’ll leave us with the truth.
So many things Mikey has done disgust me like nothing else. The whole Tim Miller video, every interview, where he comes off as wholly inappropriate, his facebook antics…really, spending money on tattoos and adopting Ghanian orphans when you don’t have two cents to rub together?…posing next to McStay memorials and plaques that nobody in the McStay family has paid for, reveling in the sympathy that clueless folk show him. WHATS with all his highfiving, thumbs-upping and shoulder-rubbing, in like every photo and film? URGH.
RIP Joseph, Summer and the two little guys
in addition I would like to say my previous statement at this pt is speculation, however, I have very good reason to believe that others were involved in this crime…the brother MM, and it appears my comment has been deleted…that’s alright, I tried to edit, maybe I am the one that deleleted..I have had fears & concerns about paticular individuals possible involvement. I did not want to believe it for the longest time… things just DO NOT add up. Yes I believe that MM was involved, to me it is more than obvious. The Vid’s of the walk through with the interviewer, Steph, & MM along with an older man, who makes some very good pts in VId#2…YES I DO believe that MM was involved, up to his eyeballs. NO DOUBT for me. I think that there were others, Fallbrook locals that helped to carry out MM’s evil plan, with the murders & burial…yes I do. I Like Eyes for LIes…can spot a liar in a second. MM IS A LIAR. I hope that CM WILL TELL ALL…I myself do not believe that the bodies were taken out to the desert for YRS!! I believe their remains of the McStays….STAYED in Fallbrook….until right before they were discovered. I believe they were buried, right before they were found…LE IS SMART…THEY HAVE TO SEE THAT MM IS GUILTY…I KNOW THEY MUST..just waiting for a confession from CM so they can arrest the GUILTY AS ALL HELL..brother MM…and I really hope that he goes down…HE IS THE TRUE SOCIOPATH, and again I believe he had several accomplices…at least himself, & 2 others…
misskittyb: I keep trying in my mind to excuse Michael’s laughter but the problem is, there seem to be no emotions behind anything he says. It’s like he’s reading from a script when he talks about his family. When I watch the sheriff in the PC video, he looks totally supportive of M. They are patting him on the back and such. Then I watched it again and saw the deputy? on the left give a slight smile when Michael says “I said I wasn’t going to cry again.” I don’t know if it means anything. Wish there was a blog or page where we could watch and analyze all these videos. This could be a long trial.
Absolutely agree 100%. That whole ‘I promised I wasnt going to cry’ speech has me cringing so much. Did he just win an Oscar or something? What an insufferable attention seeker.
I, unlike many many others, seemingly, sort of have faith in the SBPD (I may have to eat my words!). I think they know exactly whats going on. Theyre calling Mikey’s bluff for sure, hoping he will convict himself through his own words/actions at some point, if he hasn’t already, and they are playing along. I refuse to believe they are not fooled by his ridiculous behavior, especially if noone else is….?
I found my previous post…thought it had been erased…it has not. I PRAY that CM reveals EVERYONE that was involved in this heinous crime…GOD saw it all, and LE is smart, I hope that they get the truth…THE REAL truth.
Totally agree, Miss KB. I have faith in LE! I think they know exactly what they’re doing and Im sure they’re continuing the surveillance…are the fbi still involved? Wonder if any phone tapping is going on….
“But I can tell you one thing…” Oh yeah? You can tell me ONE thing. So what can’t you tell me?
hahah. Well said Amy!
Merritt is charged with the crime. Hate to use the cliche but he’s innocent until proven guilty. It wouldn’t surprise me — given the ineptitude on display throughout this case by LE — if they arrested the wrong man. We must give CM the benefit of the doubt until we hear more.
Hi. I just recently started reading about this case. Before I read too much about it i watched an interview with Michael Mcstay. I immediately thought omg. This guy is guilty. Not sure how yet but he is guilty as hell. I just looked through michael mcstay facebook . Wow. When the family first went missing there is barely a mention of them. There is one post where he posts a pic of family and says they are missing but it’s kind of just a non chalant post. Like a token post. However, AFTER the bodies were found he is ALL ABOUT posting pics of the murdered family. And I mean post after post. He even went so far as to get a tattoo of him and his brother on his arm. Where was all this caring before? Why did he start going overboard after the bodies were found. He is guilty .
I’d also like to know his financial status since he had kids then adopted 2 from Ghana. One lady on apic that michael Mcstay posted said…I guess God paid for the airfare….that sounds like someone thought how in the heck are they affording all this.
Hi Lynn – totally agree. How the heck is Wacky Mikey affording his lifestyle….dude has money for tattoos and “throwin’ a little carne asada on the grill’, but is now bankrupt for like the fourth time and adopting kids from Ghana? I think those kids are better off in Ghana.
His behaviour seems odd. He is laughing and seems to love the attention.
Tongue pressed against the cheeck can indicate contempt and duper’s
delight (the secret pleasure when you deceive others..trick them.)
Psychopaths/sociopaths do this a lot. This somehow reminds me of the Van
Breda murders. 20 yo Henri killed his family, although his sister
survived..
I’m thinking Michael and Merritt did this together, but Michael was the mastermind behind all of this. They were greedy and jealous
I have not heard that a tongue in cheek indicates contempt or duper’s delight. Where did you hear this?
If Michael and Merritt did it together, believe me Merritt would turn on Michael in a heartbeat.
I can’t say, I mean I’ve read a lot from many different sources. But at
least he is enjoying all of this. At first Chase didn’t seem like a
killer to me, but he is involved somehow. He seems weird too. He’s
hiding something and knows the are other people involved too. Why say I
was definitely the last person to see him alive? He’s not helping himself at all..
And then there was Summer’s former boyfriend Vick Johansen who was stalking them. Lots of drama..
yeah – I think this is actually easy to dismiss. He would have just stabbed her in a crime of passion….wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of killing the others, binding them with rope, digging graves, staging and elaborate fake trail etc etc etc. He doesn’t seem like the smartest cookie in the jar….
Hoping that he has, and an arrest is imminent. I feel (hope) SBPD may be keeping a watchful eye on Mikey. According to Rick Baker’s blog, his telephone records have just been subpoenaed…
I disagree. I saw the interview Chase had with CNN and when asked if he did it it. He blinks more and touches his face which is a sign that you r lying. At no other time does he do this. Especially when he says he is last person Joey saw . Any other person would say obviously I am not last person. I noticed the smiles too long by Mike and I really think that he is an adrenaline and publicity junkie and that is all. Some of the comments you make here are taken out of context in regards to when they go through the house. I think Chase murdered the family because he owed Joey 90,000 and he hated, hated Summer. She probably told Joey she did not want him around house and maybe even wanted Joey to quit doing business with Chase. I would not ChAse around house as he is pretty creepy. I think Chase needed Joey for both friendship and business and really hated Summer and her children that much. Mike is just one of those people who like all of the attention.
I am not sure of your sources, but touching your nose and blinking are not signs of lying.
Thank you Renee. I have always thought this, mainly because I, myself, touch my nose and blink only when Im telling the truth 🙂 (the only lies I tell are the everyday latent ones that we all subscribe to “no, dear boss, that new suit absolutely does not make you look fat”, etc – when I tell them, I tend to look people straight in the eye, without breaking concentration. Go figure!)
And, Rilitto Gal, you would have had to see the video of the interview and how Chase was pressed, over and over again, until they got the reaction they wanted. Which is the very one you are speaking of.
Read this article on SPEECH PATTERNS…UMS……………..UMS……………..UMS……………http://www.livescience.com/16585-psychopaths-speech-language.html
How words give them away
To examine the emotional content of the murderers’ speech, Hancock and his colleagues looked at a number of factors, including how frequently they described their crimes using the past tense. The use of the past tense can be an indicator of psychological detachment, and the researchers found that the psychopaths used it more than the present tense when compared with the nonpsychopaths. They also found more dysfluencies — the “uhs” and “ums” that interrupt speech — among psychopaths. Nearly universal in speech, dysfluencies indicate that the speaker needs some time to think about what they are saying.
With regard to psychopaths, “We think the ‘uhs’ and ‘ums’ are about putting the mask of sanity on,” Hancock told LiveScience.
Psychopaths appear to view the world and others instrumentally, as theirs for the taking, the team, which also included Stephen Porter from the University of British Columbia, wrote.
As they expected, the psychopaths’ language contained more words known as subordinating conjunctions. These words, including “because” and “so that,” are associated with cause-and-effect statements.