The McStay Murders

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Many people wonder what I think of the recent developments in the case of the McStay family murders. We have video footage of Chase Merritt speaking to CNN as well as other footage of family members, etc.

When I watch Chase Merritt speak, from the interviews I’ve seen on CNN last night, I can say that I do not see anything that sets me off as “hot” regarding deception.  He actually says a couple of things that lean towards honesty in these videos. He says and does things that are more consistent with honesty than deception, though I have chosen to remain neutral on him.  I remain neutral when I don’t believe I have strong enough behavioral evidence to be conclusive from what I have seen.  With that, if people have interviews of Chase Merritt that they believe reveal hot spots, please post links to them below with time markers and I will look at them.

I want to clarify that I saw Chase in the interview on CNN in Buried Secrets: Who Murdered the McStay Family.  I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, but saw the rest of it. I tried to find links to the show in full this morning, but was unable to. I wanted to watch the first 15 minutes I missed.

There is a person in this case, however, that deeply troubles me in this investigation, and it is Michael McStay, the brother Joseph McStay, who was murdered along with his family.  He has pinged me in every single interview he has done to date.

Michael McStay concerns me on multiple levels.

Chase Merritt was the one who pointed out that the family seemed to be missing, and it was Michael who just wrote it off and ignored it.  Merritt kept asking the family to stop by, to take a look and to take it seriously, and it took Michael 9 days to get to his brother’s house. Michael said he just believed his brother and family were on vacation, and yet the dogs were left outside with no food or water?  How does that make sense?

I am troubled by how Michael behaves in the interview with Tim Miller from Equusearch when they first searched the house.  He shows no concern whatsoever when strangers seem to know something is very off. Michael McStay laughs and jokes as if all is well–very odd.  Michael says very boldly, “The detectives told me this is not a crime scene and I can do whatever I want to.”  His statement there is so full of arrogance and lack of concern for his brother that it is staggering. If you found food rotting on the counters and it appeared your family left quickly, wouldn’t you want to treat everything as a crime scene to preserve evidence?  Why didn’t Michael?

How could have been sure it wasn’t a crime scene?  It defies logic.

In the video inside the McStay house with Tim Miller, someone off film says to Michael, “They didn’t get abducted or forcibly removed from the house…” and Michael responds “No, well no,  …no, somebody could have said hey man, just like happened before Chase said ‘oh my shop got broken into, I can’t finish your jobs, I’ve got thousands of dollars to get out”…it could have been, ‘hey Joe, I’m coming over, I’m almost there, I’m almost there’, he got five calls…uh, ‘hey, I’m here, I’ll meet you at the bank or whatever’. My brother was going to give him money again, who knows, it could have been that….I…that’s….a possibility, too.  But I can tell you one thing, they got pulled away from the house by somebody that was comfortable to them.”

I find it odd that Michael immediately points the finger towards Chase so early on. If he was suspicious of Chase, why didn’t he wonder why his brother and his family were gone for 9 days? Why didn’t he respond to Chase’s earlier phone calls the day after Chase was suspicious something went wrong? Chase had to call Michael’s mom to get Michael to come out. These seem inconsistent to me. In that entire video, Micheal’s demeanor and behavior is off.

When the bodies of the McStay family were found in November 2013, we see Michael again acting odd. You can read my post here.  He is crying tears, but shows every indication his crying is fake.  And worse, he says at the end of his speech which is riddled with oddities and extreme discomfort, “I know everyone in America loves the McStays, and we’re going to find this individual…or individuals…I know the sheriffs, the FBI, ….everybody wants to bring this to justice, and if its the last thing I do, I just…..I just wanna know, you know… when its over (laugh).”  He then buries his face!! He comes back up to the microphone and says, “That’s all” as he gives an expression of contempt.

Really? 

What is making him laugh?  It’s not nervous laughter in the slightest.  He finds something funny and he wants to hide it in nearly every interview we see of him. It doesn’t add up at all. Is he hiding a huge whopper?  It sure makes you think.  Add to this, he went into his brothers house multiple times because the police didn’t make it a crime scene, and he freely admits he took his brother’s computer, too.  Why was his brother’s computer of interest to him, if it wasn’t of interest to the police? And he asked that if anyone found any secure digital cards from his sister-in-laws camera lying around the house to give them directly to him.  I found that very odd.

In that post above when the McStay’s bodies were found, I also mention that I happened upon a statement by Michael McStay reported by People Magazine in 2010 where Michael was quoted as saying, “My fear is that I’m looking for two adult shallow graves and … my two nephews’ crosses.”

WHAT??  What the hell is going on?  He seems to have predicted how we’d find his relatives to a tee — three years before they were found. How does this happen?  This is no coincidence.

And last, after hearing that Chase Merritt has been arrest, Michael McStay’s behavior clearly jumps out at me again.  Look at this video below at the six minute time marker.

Watch as Michael walks to the microphone–he has to hide his face!! Why?

Because his emotions are flat out inappropriate. He is holding back laughter again. He starts out by saying, “I said I wasn’t going to cry (smiling the whole time) but um, they did a great job.”

Michael is TRYING TO ACT sad, but he cannot pull it off.  There are no scientific markers of sadness whatsoever.  Instead, he keeps trying to shake off his happiness and shows lots of signs of discomfort doing so.  I have no doubt that Michael is faking his emotions here, and why in the world would he have to fake his emotions unless he feels differently?

People are pointing the motive of jealousy with Merritt. The one I have to wonder about who might have been jealous is Michael.

While I am open to continue exploring this case through behavioral evidence and interviews, I cannot get Michael McStay out of my mind. He is haunting, to say the least.  He is hiding something and it doesn’t make me feel good on any level.

Remember Shanesha Taylor?

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In July, I wrote about Shanesha Taylor. She was a mom who left her two young children in the car when she went for a job interview in Arizona on an 83 degree day. People found her children and called for help. Shanesha was arrested.

When Shanesha’s mugshot got into the press, her tears caused a strong reaction from the public. People ended up donating more than $115K in donations (source). They believed Shanesha deserved a second chance and the prosecutor in this case gave it to her.

The court took her apology and desire for a second chance and said that she must deposit $60K into a trust fund account for the children by a certain date.

I didn’t believe Shanesha was sincere at all and wrote about it in July. You can read my thoughts here.

As suspected, Shanesha didn’t put any money aside for her kids, and when asked for show proof that she still had the funds, she was unable to do so.

She is now facing child abuse charges for leaving her kids unattended in the car, and will be tried in December!

I am all about giving people a second chance, but this woman was way to flippant in the media to deserve it, and I suspect prosecutors watched closely as well and weren’t about to let her slip through the cracks!

Dateline: Secret Lives

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Did you catch Dateline this past weekend?   They profiled the story of Jennifer and Ganesh Ramsaran.  Jennifer went missing two weeks before Christmas in 2012.  Her body was found several months later along side the road.

I remember when this case was active and Ganesh was talking to the media. I found his interviews very challenging to review.  In one review, I wrote, “I see nothing positive or negative in this video upon which to draw conclusions outside of his “happy demeanor” which is odd.”  And another video I didn’t see any flags. I wasn’t comfortable saying I trusted him or distrusted him. I remained neutral on the sideline.  He was definitely a hard read in those media interviews he did, and I think he was challenging on Dateline, too.

Dateline gave us more footage of Ganesh, and I now have a strong opinion having watched him.

Before I share it with you, what did you think when you watched Ganesh?

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Christina Morris

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Link to Video

Christina Morris went missing two months ago in Texas and the last person she was seen with was Enrique Arochi, an acquaintance, at 4 a.m. in a parking garage. Arochi says, “So we walked and we split and after I saw my car, I went to my car. I don’t know where she went, or if she went to her car. I just went to my car and left.” Arochi doesn’t remember parting words, or if Morris got to her car. This is certainly a red flag. Furthermore, he is very intensely focused and concentrating in this video so much so that you can’t miss it. Why does he feel he has to do that? Why isn’t he himself? He is absolutely deadpanning his emotions too, which is a flag. He shows no stress or any emotions, except a slight positive glow. I am troubled that he shows no concern whatsoever, or lack of regret that he didn’t walk her to her car or look after her. This video is enough to cause me to want to see more of Arochi. If anyone sees him talk again, please provide me with a link.

Are you a walking target?

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Wherever you go in life, you are being watched by people whether you are aware of it or not. Most people are harmless, but statistics show us not all people are. Do you pay attention to your surroundings when you are out and about?  Or do you only do it when you are alone? When I walk on the street in some of the cities I train, I am amazed at how many people send off an unconscious message that they are a good target, if someone has bad intentions.

How do you send off a message that you are a good target?  There are hundreds of ways I can think of, and I couldn’t possibly explain them all to you, but most boil down to appearing soft: distracted, unsure, not confident, showing fear, unaware of one’s surroundings, talking on cell phone, reading a tablet, listening to iPod, staring at the ground or not orienting yourself to the movement around you for a period of time.  You get the idea.

When you are out in a public place, it is important to convey the message you are rock solid and confident, and aware of your surroundings. Never appear lost. If you are, step off the street and into a quiet business where you can ask a friendly looking clerk where to go.  Don’t stand out in the open and query people on the street. You are giving them free information and an invitation!

When I am alone and in an unfamiliar place, I also put on my game face.  I put my shoulder back, lock my purse lightly under my arm and body, stand tall and walk with purpose.  And I have a purpose! Touch me and I’ll draw more attention to me than you’ve seen in 10 years!  I guarantee you I will be screaming FIRE at the top of my lungs (thanks JJ Bittenbinder), and I want anyone who has bad intentions to see that, too. I am not a soft target!  Alert! Alert!   Be on notice, Mister!

I often will do a 360 when walking or I will look over my shoulder to survey who is behind me.  I will acknowledge with glances who is nearby and if I see someone threatening, I will either stop, pause and let them walk by, or I will stop in at a business for a minute to get in a better position behind the suspicious person!

I take notice of alleyways and recessed entrances, and if I am alone, I won’t walk close to those. I will purposefully position myself toward the center of openness. And if my gut screams that someone walking towards me looks ominous, I will trust it. I will cross the street, if possible or again, stop into a business for a second.  I trust my gut instinct implicitly.

Many times I walk, however, I don’t spot anyone who has any intention to do harm, but I do see it from time-to-time and more than most people.

And I have spotted quite a few people over the years  looking to target soft people in my presence. I have watched pick-pocketers try to hone in on my friends and family, and people I fear had the intent to cause havoc of some sort.  More often than not when I see it, I will say, “Hey stop a minute” to the people I am with, corral them with my arm to position their backs to a wall, and then look the would-be troublemaker in the eye and politely say “Go ahead” as in find your next target–this game’s over!  And when I debriefed the people I have been with, none of them saw what I saw, hence that is why they were a “soft target”.  And I am most amazed that 90% of the time the people in my company did not even notice my dramatic change in my behavior when I noticed someone sizing them up!  I often will do a 360, start glancing backwards more, or even start walking sideways to keep an eye on the situation as I continue my conversation in which I often get distracted and can’t continue.  That’s most surprising to me.

We can never be guaranteed we won’t be a victim, but we certainly can take steps to lower the odds. What steps do you take?