Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 1
Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 2
Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 3
Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 4
Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 5
Ret Criminalist Donald Jones Part 6
THE IMPENETRABLE PROGRAM TRANSFORMING HOW COURTS TREAT DNA EVIDENCE
The False Promise of DNA Testing
Justice Delayed: Will the McStay murders ever be solved? Is Chase Merritt a killer or an innocent man on California's Death Row? 
Here is a picture of Summer in the truck with the car seats, and right beside her it looks like the Trooper backed into it’s apparent usual spot.
I’ve said this before, but now after listening to even more DNA evidence I wish someone had given more consideration to the fact that the child seats were in the Trooper.
If the family is killed in the home (or even on the night of the 4th), why are those child seats in the Trooper not in the Dodge?
Summer was the primary care-giver. When Joseph was out on meetings she would need to be able to strap those kids in, in order to run errands, and on the 4th Joseph knew he’d be away for half the day. So why weren’t those child seats in the vehicle Summer used? The state’s theory is that the family is killed the evening of the 4th, so there would have been no reason to transfer the child seats from the Dodge to the Trooper that night. And if the family is killed in their home, child seats aren’t needed in the transport of the family and they are not needed in the Trooper for the transport of that vehicle by the killer/s.
This seems important. And the fact that the keys to the Trooper and the home are found in Joseph’s pocket, in the exact place one would expect if he was the last person to drive the Trooper, that needs more consideration too, I think.
Did you watch this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU29b5sW88Y
Yes. I’m including it on this page. That’s a good overview of True Allele. There are also videos with more in depth explanations given. Fascinating stuff.
This might be a complete insane theory, but what if the family did drive to the border on that morning and something happened to them there? Is there a reason to shop down at that mall? Would it be worth the trip?
Well if you follow “Occum’s Razor” reasoning, it’s not that farfetched at all. I don’t know why someone would drive an hour to got to the mall at San Ysidro, rather than shopping in San Diego or closer to Fallbrook.
But:
– no one seems to have been in the McStay home, aside form the McStays (until family enters)
– there are no indications that anyone but the McStays were in their Trooper
– child seats are in the Trooper, when they really should have been in the Dodge, so it looks like they were transferred to the Trooper after Joseph’s meeting with Merritt
– Joseph has keys in his pocket consistent with driving the Trooper, parking and placing the keys in his pocket (as opposed to entering his home and putting the keys away, and then being attacked)
– It’s always possible the parking lot attendees are wrong, or didn’t want to admit they let a vehicle remain in the parking lot over the weekend
Chase’s DNA is in the Trooper. Maybe he forced the family to drive to the border.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-why-san-ysidro-such-shopping-mecca-2012mar19-htmlstory.html
Maybe it’s one stop shopping.
So in keeping with the idea that things are as they seem, then maybe the McStays, after a very hard week decided to do exactly what Michael McStay thought-they took a little vaca, only it was a “stay-ca”. That Friday morning Joseph could have let things go a little. Chase was set up with checks, projects were in motion. meetings were had, finances sorted out. McGyver was due Sat or Sun.
Summer and Joseph turn their phones off, in order not to be bothered until they were ready.
That Friday the 5th it was going to rain. Maybe the kids were going crazy that morning. Summer tried to paint, but it was impossible to get much done. If they are going to get the kids exercised, they would have to do it before it poured down rain in the afternoon. They all don gear for rain. Move the child seats from the Dodge to the Trooper because with the chance of rain, they needed a place to put anything they bought, and the bed of the truck was exposed.
They drive to the mall at the San Ysidro border because the Ross near Fallbrook didn’t have what they were looking for (Summer had been there the day before) and buy the child’s kitchen, hiding it in the back of the Trooper, in ready for Joseph Jr.’s birthday the next day.
By this point they are hungry and go to the buffet to eat, or Summer wants to stop at the Pink Zone. They park And they are abducted from somewhere in that mall.
The parking attendants are either mistaken or lying about the Trooper.
Maybe if someone had checked the cameras in that area that Friday….
Why didn’t someone steal the Trooper. Wasn’t there a checkbook too. And Cameras? Why wouldn’t they force the McStays to take money out of their bank?
Maybe the reason the family was taken had nothing to do with their money.
What is the Pink Zone, pray tell?
Ha. The Pink Zone is right near where the McStay’s Trooper was parked. The Trooper might not have been planted there at all. Maybe the McStays left it there and were taken after parking. Maybe they were followed. Or maybe the killers wanted something else.
Ironic Could San Diego have been right all along.
Kind of right. But, yeah.
Regardless I believe the family was alive on the 5th. That they moved the child seats from the Dodge to the Trooper that day, and met with their fate away from their home. The killers were never in the home.
I think Chase’s DNA in the Trooper is completely consistent with transfer. More so than it is with direct contact, especially if the claim is that Chase drove that Trooper any great distance.
did you hear court was cancelled today?
This case has a lot of moving parts. Bound to happen.
Cameras are coming back.
Good Just in time for the full phone data to be presented. Yes! And there is some other really important forensic evidence to be presented, including blood spatter.or proof of the lack of this in the McStay home.
Didn’t Dugal ask Chase about the seats when he first interviewed him?
This Dateline involves ping evidence similar to this case, but they also mention the M-Vac.
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/video/the-girl-with-the-red-shoes-part-6-865961027865
https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2016/08/handheld-wet-vac-system-snags-decades-old-dna
And a little more about what Suzanna does.
The advancements in DNA are awe inspiring, and maybe a little terrifying…
https://www.nbc.com/dateline/video/evil-was-watching/3932665
So it turns out Chase’s DNA was on the passenger door!
Yes. Imagine that.
I am surprised, with the child seats found in the trooper, that there is so little of Summer’s DNA in that Trooper. She was the primary with the kids. And it seems unlikely that Joseph took the kids out on his own.
It might be that she washes her hands a lot, and for whatever reason doesn’t leave much DNA. But you’d also expect more of the kids DNA to be in there. Kind of odd.
Or maybe Joseph did take the kids out, so that mom could get painting done.