McSTAY FAMILY - Found Dead 4 Years After Vanishing

[Duchess]

I've never been angry enough or wanted something bad enough to kill someone. How the hell do you get to that place in your mind FFS and to kill little kids. Jesus. This is all so awful  :(

[HairOfTheDog]

GUILTY

Today, a jury found Chase Merritt guilty of killing his self-proclaimed best friend and ex business partner Josephy (Joey) McStay, Joey's wife Summer, and the couple's two small boys.

The family was reported missing 9 years ago and their bodies were found in shallow desert graves 6 years ago.



Merritt (pictured left, no jacket) is eligible for the death penalty for the premeditated quadruple murder.  The sentencing trial begins tomorrow.

Prosecutors say Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when he owed Joey McStay money and was being cut out of the victim's business of making and selling custom water fountains.

More:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/charles-cha...019-06-10/

[Duchess]

Man. It takes a special kind of fucked-up-ness to kill little kids with a sledgehammer, anyone really...but little kids, Jesus.

[Fry Guy]

I've never been angry enough or wanted something bad enough to kill someone. How the hell do you get to that place in your mind FFS and to kill little kids. Jesus. This is all so awful  :(

You have to kill the witnesses.

[HairOfTheDog]

Man. It takes a special kind of fucked-up-ness to kill little kids with a sledgehammer, anyone really...but little kids, Jesus.

Yeah, it was most definitely a monstrous and personal crime all the way around.  

Killing kids is bottom of the barrel, no matter how it's done, of course.

But, for a perpetrator to beat to death small children he's  known most their lives with a sledgehammer was especially barbaric and unnecessary.  A lot of killers wouldn't have the stomach for it and would have elected to kill/silence the boys in a less brutal fashion.  Chase Merritt is the worst of the worst.

[Fry Guy]

Man. It takes a special kind of fucked-up-ness to kill little kids with a sledgehammer, anyone really...but little kids, Jesus.

Yeah, it was most definitely a monstrous and personal crime all the way around.  

Killing kids is bottom of the barrel, no matter how it's done, of course.

But, for a perpetrator to beat to death small children he's  known all their lives with a sledgehammer was especially barbaric and unnecessary.  A lot of killers wouldn't have the stomach for it and would have elected to kill/silence the boys in a less brutal fashion.  Chase Merritt is the worst of the worst.

I am betting on psychopathy

[HairOfTheDog]

Jury Recommends Death Penalty for Chase Merritt

A jury recommended death for the man convicted of killing Joseph and Summer McStay and their two children. 

Jurors in San Bernardino deliberated for several hours over three days before reaching a verdict on June 24^th in the penalty phase of the five-month trial of Charles “Chase” Merritt.

The same panel earlier in June 2019 found Merritt, 62, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the McStays, and their two young sons Joey Jr., 3, and Gianni, 4. 

As a Superior Court clerk first uttered the word death while reading the verdict, a McStay relative gasped: “Yes.” Another wiped away tears.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

The jury’s recommendation marked a victory for prosecutors who built their case almost entirely on circumstantial evidence which pointed towards greed and self-interest as the motive. 

After more than nine years, it was an emotional end to a case that drew national attention, serving as the subject of documentaries and a book.

The details were brutal: 
--Joseph McStay's skull was shattered.  
--His wife Summer, who was buried with a sledgehammer, sustained a blow to the jaw. 
--Both little boys, who prosecutors say were killed because they could have identified the attacker, had skull fractures.

Despite the verdict, it is unlikely Merritt will actually be executed anytime soon, seeing as California Governor  Gavin Newsom has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, vowing that no prisoner will be executed while he is in office because of a belief that capital punishment is discriminatory, unjust and “inconsistent with our bedrock values.”

Even so, prosecutors across the state have continued to try capital cases and Chase Merritt will be living in virtual isolation on death row for the rest of his days.  

Ref: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m...story.html

[Fry Guy]

How the hell do you get to that place in your mind FFS and to kill little kids. Jesus. This is all so awful  :(

You have to kill the witnesses.

--Both little boys, who prosecutors say were killed because they could have identified the attacker, had skull fractures.

Called it

[HairOfTheDog]

Captain Obvious strikes again and takes a bow.

Once it was revealed that the suspected killer was the father's business associate, who was part of the family's inner circle, and that the motive was greed........ it wasn't exactly a big mystery why the little boys who were present at the murder scene were killed.

The brutal manner by which the little boys were killed is understandably still hard to imagine for many good-hearted people who have a difficult time understanding the mindsets of soulless remorseless killers.

[Fry Guy]

How the hell do you get to that place in your mind FFS and to kill little kids. Jesus. This is all so awful  :(

You have to kill the witnesses.

--Both little boys, who prosecutors say were killed because they could have identified the attacker, had skull fractures.

Called it

Captain Contradiction says

Captain Obvious strikes again and takes a bow................understandably still hard to imagine for many good-hearted people who have a difficult time understanding the mindsets of soulless remorseless killers.

So yea, is it obvious or hard to understand. (Hint the answer is not "Yes", Snowflake).

[HairOfTheDog]

There is no contradiction between an 'obvious' why  (motivation for the crime) and a 'hard to understand' how could anyone do THAT? (regarding manner/execution of the crime).  The two often go hand in hand.

It's obvious to most people why killers don't want to leave behind witnesses to their crimes, especially witnesses (including very young ones) who know their identities.

However, even when the motive is obvious and easy to understand, it's hard for a lot of good-hearted people to understand and wrap their heads around how any adult could beat and bash to death small children.

If you don't get that, fine. Fathom yourself superior and give it a rest.

This thread is about a very sad case of a young family being brutally murdered, not about poster posturing.  

Fortunately, the victims' families got some degree of justice after almost a decade of waiting.  Case closed.

[Fry Guy]

Its pretty easy to understand these people are fucked in the head. The same way people who do all manner of terrible things that no decent people do. They psychologically flawed.

[Duchess]

  Case closed.

That's been such a long time coming. I'm glad it's over for everyone who cared about that family.

[BigMark]

They were found/buried about an half hour northeast from here.

[Duchess]

All these old cases are so sad. I still think about the missing little boy from Oregon I think it was and I still think about Dr. Petit's murdered family. There's more but you get the idea. It's one thing to skim by them while reading the news, it's quite another when one has all the details  :(

[aussiefriend]

All these old cases are so sad. I still think about the missing little boy from Oregon I think it was and I still think about Dr. Petit's murdered family. There's more but you get the idea. It's one thing to skim by them while reading the news, it's quite another when one has all the details  :(

I didn't read all of the Petit thread once, and I asked a question and LC got mad with me. It's hard to read all that stuff, especially involving young girls. It affects me and stays with me. Like little Zara. That's what brought me to Mock. I will never forget her.