many of our questions are answered here:
The Case in Chief
[from June 15, 2015 Preliminary Hearing]
Monday, February 1, 2010
-On February 1, the Monday before the McStay family of four vanishes, defendant Charles (Chase) Merritt accesses (for the very first time) one of Joseph McStay’s on-line Intuit QuickBooks accounts.
–Merritt enters this on-line database utilizing Joseph McStay’s log-in and password, and does this from a computer located somewhere other than in the McStay home.
-The QuickBooks Intuit account accessed is titled: “Custom.”
–A “new” vendor is added by Merritt (or it is assumed by Merritt) to the “Custom” QB account: “charles merritt” all lower case. “Charles Merritt” already exists in Joseph McStay’s other, older, account “Contacts“. In the Contacts account, the vendor is listed as “Charles Merritt” with the formal capitalization of the name.
-After this “new” vendor, “charles merritt” is added to the Custom account, at 12:34 pm two checks are written to “charles merritt”, for $2,500, ref. “deposit” (again only lower case letters are used).
-These two checks are printed, then deleted from the ledger. Yet, neither check is ever cashed.
[Joseph McStay had two Intuit On-Line QuickBooks accounts. His first and primary account was created in 2004 and he titled it “Contacts“. The Contacts account was used to keep record of receivables and payables for McStay’s on-line company Earth Inspired Products (EIP), and also tracked his personal finances.
His second account, Custom, was created in 2008 after he had begun working with Charles Merritt. And from all reports the Custom account was created solely to track money owed to Merritt (minus advances or loans made to Merritt by McStay).
McStay was not known to draft checks from either the Contacts or Custom accounts by way of his computer. He would instead hand-write checks and later add the details to the Contacts Account as a matter of record keeping.
Prior to February 1, 2010 the Custom account was never used for check writing at all, but instead tallied McStay’s work with Merritt.
Each account, Contacts and Custom had their own separate login IDs and passwords.]
To date law enforcement has not stated where they believe Merritt was when he accessed McStay’s account, or what computer he was using.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
-Again, Joseph’s Custom QuickBooks/Inuit account is accessed from a computer or device located outside of the McStay residence.
–On this day at around 11:30 am, a check is created for “chase merritt”. It is in the amount of $2,495.00. It is printed, then deleted from the ledger.
-This check is cashed at a branch of Joseph McStay’s bank–Union Bank—the person cashing this check: Charles Ray Merritt.
-This same day a handwritten check from Joseph McStay to “Charles Merritt” for $200.00 is also deposited by Charles Merri
tt. $100 of this check is deposited to open a brand new account for Merritt at Bank of America.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
-Both Joseph and Summer McStay speak with family and friends in the morning.
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At around noon, Joseph logs into one of his Intuit QuickBooks accounts.
-Which account McStay logs into, whether it is the Contacts or the Custom account, is not made clear in the prelim, but given that a mention is made of this, it might well have been the Custom account.
-Shortly after logging into the QuickBooks Intuit account, Joseph McStay calls his bank.
-At some point after making this call, it is believed that Joseph drives to a Chik Fil A in Rancho Cucamonga for a business lunch with Chase Merritt.
-Investigators track Joseph McStay’s phone calls later in the afternoon, post-meeting. McStay’s phone pings have him returning directly home after this lunch meeting.
-Chase Merrit’s phone pings in Rancho Cucamonga until 5:47 pm, when Merritt speaks to Joseph McStay for just under three minutes.
Then for whatever reason, Merritt’s phone is out of reach of cell towers until 9:32 pm.
-Merritt’s cell phone does register 6 incoming calls during this time period, so it can be assumed that Chase’s phone was likely off or in airplane mode, because though the calls register as missed, there was no ping activity found.