CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010

[katydid23]

I think you bring up excellent points, and if you consider only the prosecution's accusations, it makes sense that Chase is guilty. Here's the thing....many of us have been following this case since the family went missing almost 10 years ago, an immense amount of research and sleuthing has been done over the years. Chase is not the only shady character with shady behavior before and after the family went missing. I fear that the Chase Merritt bug was planted in LE's ear and they developed tunnel vision, not because they had it in for Chase, but because he was the "obvious suspect" with a lengthy criminal record and known pieces of the puzzle fit well enough together. My problem with this case is that I don't think enough investigation was done on others that might have been involved in some way. A silly example: 5 kids grab a cookie out of the cookie jar, only ONE gets punished for it, because he's the problem kid that is usually in trouble and mom is just too busy and tired to deal with punishing all of them.

Another silly example but bear with me: when people meet me and my son, I always get "awww....he looks so much like you!" Until later when they meet my husband, it's always "oh I thought he looked like you, but wow he REALLY looks like his dad!" I feel like I haven't been given the chance to see the "Dad" in this case. IOW, yes Chase looks guilty, but I don't feel like I can completely be comfortable that he is the guy and he is the ONLY guy unless I am 100% sure that EVERY possible suspect was completely and thoroughly investigated and cleared. And right now I'm not convinced that that was done.

At the very least, Merritt knew that something had gone down. Did he do it? Or did he just take advantage of that and stick his hand in the cookie jar? I just want to be sure that the right person(s) are punished for this crime. And I realize that I am owed nothing, and it will be the jury that decides, and I can't control what LE or how LE does or doesn't investigate. These are just my random thoughts, I have no horse in this race.

I totally get what you are saying and I have similar feelings. I have wondered if CM knew Joey wasn't coming back, not because he did it, but because he knew something else happened. And I totally believe he would have tried to steal from the account, if so.

But there are 2 problems with this for me. One, why did he write that check on the 2nd? Joey was still around.

And 2, once he was under suspicion, and then arrested, why didn't he telll them what happened?

 

[Tortoise]

I am now thinking that Joseph was killed that afternoon away from the home. CM would have had no trouble getting Summer to comply while threatening the little boys. Terrifying to think of how this all went down and how horrifying this was for them.

I do too. I've only just heard about a storage unit. Can anyone tell me the location of that? Is it part of the case?

 

[katydid23]

Yes they did and the defense are going to argue that Joey wrote them. As they claim the family was alive until the following morning.

I am not saying it’s true but with the time frame being so small I think it can be argued that Chase had a accomplish as that would explain away some of the inconsistencies.

But why would Joey write those checks and back date them? And how would one get into Chase's hand so he could deposit it?

 

[katydid23]

what if Chase sent Joey on a wild goosechase to the lunch date and actually went to the house to lie in wait for summer and the kids, knowing it would take a good deal of time for joey to make it back to the house..

or did we already rule this out?

mOO

IIRC, both of their cells ping at the same time near the restaurant. Right, anyone else remember?

 

[asyousay]

But why would Joey write those checks and back date them? And how would one get into Chase's hand so he could deposit it?

The cheque on the 4th wasn’t back dated, in the McStay home at 7.59pm somebody went on the computer and wrote a cheque and then deleted it.

 

[missy1974]

Are they done for the day or on break?

Break. But they will be done at noon today

 

[Funky funky]

It’s surreal that the trial is finally happening and also incomprehensible why the whole family had to be killed. I just don’t get how someone could do that.

 

[Texas Red]

But those are all connected. They could tell that someone was logged in regardless of where it was, the computer, the laptop, the phone, elsewhere. If they aren't connected, they are useless IMO

The old legacy Quickbooks, which I had at one time, was for a PC only and it made no difference if the computer had internet access, even if logged into the PC the Quickbooks account still required its own password.


Eventually Quickbooks for the cloud was introduced and all data with that version was stored on the QB’s server in the cloud instead of on the PC hard drive. I then bought the new cloud version but retained and continue to use the desktop version they were two programs and required separate passwords.


I would mostly use the PC version and then periodically upload the data to the cloud so it could be accessed by other devices. I’m thinking this may have been the case with JM, hopefully, the prosecution did an analysis of the PC in order to determine this.

 

[katydid23]

The cheque on the 4th wasn’t back dated, in the McStay home at 7.59pm somebody went on the computer and wrote a cheque and then deleted it.

Ok right. But I just refreshed my memory, and it will be impossible for the defense to convince a jury that Joey wrote that check on the 4th, imo. It was made out to chase merritt. And written in small letters, and is the exact same check as was written and printed out and cashed the next day:



On February 4th, at 7:59, someone (Chase) writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” in the amount of $4,000 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell”. At 8:05 he deletes it. He does not print it. This check was a “dry run” or practice for an almost identical check that was written by Chase the following day.

On February 5th, at 12:06 p.m. Chase Merritt writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” for $4,500 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell” and prints it out then deletes it from Quickbooks. This check is cashed by Chase Merritt at a Union Bank at 12:38 p.m. Since Chase’s phone has been identified as pinging in Rancho Cucamonga during this time, we know that the Union Bank was the one in Rancho Cucamonga very near Chase’s home. This indicates that Chase is the one that wrote those checks in his home on Church Street in Rancho Cucamonga, the check could not have been created in Fallbrook.

Chase Merritt: Conclusive Evidence

 

[SuziQ]

IIRC, both of their cells ping at the same time near the restaurant. Right, anyone else remember?

Yes. But I have no links.

 

[ehenson88]

I can't see it either.

they are working on getting it uploaded. technical difficulties

 

[SuziQ]

I'm in the middle of something. A lot of info is in the probable cause statement. I am going to look it up for a refresher. I will come back and link it.

 

[Texas Red]

So we have the mother who cleaned away evidence and we have a brother who stole property from the house for days where he could of done anything to it??

The mind just boggles as what they were playing at.

I can just hear the defense’s closing argument now, they’ll ask the jury why would anyone do such a thing and then lie to others about it, unless they were attempting to conceal or destroy evidence.

 

[Tortoise]

Ok right. But I just refreshed my memory, and it will be impossible for the defense to convince a jury that Joey wrote that check on the 4th, imo. It was made out to chase merritt. And written in small letters, and is the exact same check as was written and printed out and cashed the next day:



On February 4th, at 7:59, someone (Chase) writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” in the amount of $4,000 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell”. At 8:05 he deletes it. He does not print it. This check was a “dry run” or practice for an almost identical check that was written by Chase the following day.

On February 5th, at 12:06 p.m. Chase Merritt writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” for $4,500 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell” and prints it out then deletes it from Quickbooks. This check is cashed by Chase Merritt at a Union Bank at 12:38 p.m. Since Chase’s phone has been identified as pinging in Rancho Cucamonga during this time, we know that the Union Bank was the one in Rancho Cucamonga very near Chase’s home. This indicates that Chase is the one that wrote those checks in his home on Church Street in Rancho Cucamonga, the check could not have been created in Fallbrook.

Chase Merritt: Conclusive Evidence

This is why he needs the Quickbooks account deleted and phones them pretending to be Joey.

 

[missy1974]

If all their 15 minute breaks are this long, we will be here until next Christmas

 

[asyousay]

Ok right. But I just refreshed my memory, and it will be impossible for the defense to convince a jury that Joey wrote that check on the 4th, imo. It was made out to chase merritt. And written in small letters, and is the exact same check as was written and printed out and cashed the next day:



On February 4th, at 7:59, someone (Chase) writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” in the amount of $4,000 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell”. At 8:05 he deletes it. He does not print it. This check was a “dry run” or practice for an almost identical check that was written by Chase the following day.

On February 5th, at 12:06 p.m. Chase Merritt writes a check to (lower case) “chase merritt” for $4,500 using Joseph’s Quickbooks account. In the memo line he writes “re Paul Mitchell” and prints it out then deletes it from Quickbooks. This check is cashed by Chase Merritt at a Union Bank at 12:38 p.m. Since Chase’s phone has been identified as pinging in Rancho Cucamonga during this time, we know that the Union Bank was the one in Rancho Cucamonga very near Chase’s home. This indicates that Chase is the one that wrote those checks in his home on Church Street in Rancho Cucamonga, the check could not have been created in Fallbrook.

Chase Merritt: Conclusive Evidence

My question is why does Chase need to do a dry run as he had already done this on the 2nd so it seems strange he would need a dry run?

 

[missy1974]

uh oh...

Cathy Russon‏ @cathyrusson
#McStay - The public/media have been kicked out of the courtroom. There's something going on in there. A member of the gallery that's been attending was brought into the courtroom from the hallway where I am. He is now back in the hallway. Judge/attorneys in locked courtroom

 

[Emi]

Cathy Russon on Twitter
Cathy Russon‏ @cathyrusson 1m1 minute ago
#McStay - The public/media have been kicked out of the courtroom. There's something going on in there. A member of the gallery that's been attending was brought into the courtroom from the hallway where I am. He is now back in the hallway. Judge/attorneys in locked courtroom

 

[missy1974]

I sure hope we don't have a jury issue already

 

[missy1974]

and we are back