information. they quickly became seasoned investigators, scouring the internet, tracking down leads. evidence that gina believed poked holes in the theory that the family voluntarily went to mexico. and there was more. like all of their craig s list purchases, if a family was planning to disappear, why were they buying so much on craig s list? countertops, microwaves, things for the new house, going on all the way up to the disappearance. and then there s this. hey, don t go anywhere without the double stroller. what would be the need to walk across the border, why not just bring your car, what would be the need to go at that time of night? did you ever believe they disappeared intentionally on their own. no immediately i felt like something terrible happened to them. but what and by whom? what s up, dudes? early on, friend and business associate chase merritt was top
his truck was in the driveway. dogs were in the backyard with no food, no water. i walked around the house. i didn t see anything suspicious. did it surprise you that the dogs were outside? very much so. so much so that i called susan, joseph s mother and tolder and told her there s something amiss. i said, go down, the dogs are there, move the dog bowls, the food and the water and then we can see if maybe they hired someone to feed the animals. well, then go back two days later and could tell the bowls were moved, obviously fed. so this is why we thought they were out of town. finally, eight days after anyone had heard from joseph, michael mcstay went to his brother s house with chase. who knew exactly how to get inside the locked home.
from joseph mcstay? yes. we have the evidence to prove that, yes. how strong is that proof? how reliable is the evidence gathered at the mcstay house weeks after investigators say they were murdered there? tons of critical evidence could have been lost in those first 15 days. 15 days in which people were in and out of the house. so many things in there that could have been relevant to the case. investigative journalist s steph watts. we don t know if somebody in that house was related to or had knowledge of the crime could have removed items that could have been significant to solving this case. could have removed items that could have indicted them in this case. i don t think that you can seal a home for that long unless you are actually investigating a murder, and at that time, it wasn t. we know that the family members went in and out and susan mcstay went in and cleaned the counters. she couldn t stand the house was dirty, she went in and threw out dirty diapers. an
to call the sheriff s department. investigators came to the house. immediately alerted homicide. but chose not to seal off the scene. they don t put any tape, crime scene tape, notices on the door, nothing. they just lock the house back up and they leave to get warrants. you ve got a family that s missing for a week and they re still not going to call it a crime scene? it was mistakenly not a crime scene. this investigative journalist said he s never seen a case like this one. it took san diego investigators three days to get the warrants. three days where anyone could come and go. detectives just told me this is not a crime scene and i can do whatever i want. certain items that might have been really key to the big mystery of why they left the house are gone.
i thought she thought her didn t stink and joseph could do better. but joseph and summer were committed to a life together with their two boys and that meant moving out of their cramped apartment. they had been looking for houses for several years. thanksgiving weekend 2009, the mcstays finally purchased a new home outside san diego in fallbrook, california. chase merritt helped them move in. is this the house? with a brand new home and a booming new business, 2010 looked to be a promising new year for the mcstays. until suddenly the unimaginable happened. february 4th, 2010, the entire mcstay family vanished. i just knew. something told me i wasn t going