McStay Family Case - Chase Merritt - Hearing postponed

The 'bludgeoned to death in the house' thing has always bothered me. I'm not saying it COULDN'T happen, just that it seems so incredibly UNLIKELY when there are four victims and only one perpetrator. Unless they were knocked out somehow, first...but how would Merritt have pulled that off? He'd have to have physical access to the house and/or garage, for example, if he did something like carbon monoxide poisoning. Or he'd have to physically approach EACH of the four victims with something like chloroform...and I just don't see that happening. Putting something in their drinks? Perhaps, but, again he'd need physical access AND have to not raise anyone's suspicions. See the problem? No matter what method he could've used, every one of them requires physical access to the four victims and/or the house. I don't know how he did that.

Now, if he had at least one accomplice, the whole scenario changes. Let's say they both went into the house and had guns pointed at the parents, and told them to get the kids and obey what they were told, and the parents complied, thinking nothing would happen as long as they obeyed them. I don't know...this doesn't seem likely to me. I think he acted alone. But how?


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It wouldn't necessarily take Dexter-amounts of plastic to guard against blood. I've seen bludgeoning cases where the offender simply drapes a blanket/pillow/etc. over or around the head of their victim, and you'd be surprised how much that can reduce spatter. A careful killer would still be concerned about pooling and castoff, and that may be where a tarp or plastic come into play. You wouldn't need to cover a whole room in it, just the area where you're committing the act. It does seem incredible that NO blood was found at all though, which is why I'm expecting that to be proven untrue at trial. If something like chloroform was used on some or all of the victims it's possible they may not have been conscious for the bludgeoning or in the case of the kids may have even overdosed on the chemical. If you're already willing to beat 4 people to death I doubt you'd worry too much about how much chloroform you used on them beforehand.

In terms of transportation - and all of what I'm about to say is really macabre, I know - it would be easier to bundle the children together so that you would only have to carry 3 bundles of bodies, and they would still be fairly light. Depending on how much a killer is willing to manipulate body positions, you can compress a corpse into quite a tight space. If bedding or plastic wrap was used to contain blood that would make another load to carry, unless you disposed of it simultaneously along with one or more of the bodies. Using some really grim creativity, it would be possible for someone to minimize the amount of trips they'd need to make to a vehicle this way. I do have a hard time imagining CM using that much foresight and still being stupid enough to do the job himself and risk being seen going back and forth to the vehicle carrying that much though.

There are a number of ways a single person could get control of a large number of victims, but all of them are risky, which makes me wonder if he began this at a time when someone (Joey, most likely) was not home. If it was just Summer with the kids it might have been as easy as threatening their lives to get her to comply, and then ambushing Joey when he returned home. I can't imagine a scenario where they were not bound before being killed, but you'd think once it became clear to them that they would be murdered those parents would've been fighting like hell for the sake of their children. Once again I'm going to stray into the realm of the really awful and suggest that one of the children may have been harmed, as a "see what I can do if you don't comply?" thing. Common sense dictates that any killer would want to neutralize the threat posed by the man first though, to eliminate the strongest physical threat and force compliance from the remaining family. I can never stop myself from wondering if the children were forced to watch or listen as their parents were murdered near them. What a terrible, pointless crime. :(

I think it's very possible that there was at least one accomplice, if not during the murders then at least in the disposal process. Since no one has come forward that we know of I'm inclined to think it may be someone with experience doing this kind of thing, giving them reason not to snitch. Either way CM could have had access to the house by something as simple as having a copy of the house key made. I need to go refresh my memory of the timeline of this case, this thread has got me all riled up again.

I'm SO FREAKING BEYOND READY to hear the damn evidence in this case! This was one of the most baffling missing persons cases and has become one of the most horrific murders, and the person or people who did this need to be exposed for the POS they are. I just hope prosecution actually has a strong case without too many gaps, I'd hate to see anyone walk for this. There has to be something tying CM to the actual bludgeoning, or someone that he hired to do it. I'm very curious who he's going to point the finger at, if anyone. In the statement he gave it seems like he's gearing up to present an alternate suspect. And I swear if he dies of heart failure before this is over... [insert expletives here.] Ugh, I'm nervous about the whole thing.