84 thoughts on “Overview of SBC SW”

1. You are going to cut off comments?

   1. Here. Not the other blog. Everyone who wants to join the private forum, post your interest and just make certain you give me your actual email address.

      1. Why not keep the public comments here?

         1. There’s no reason to for the moment. If this trial doesn’t happen for 7 months, there won’t be a whole lot more to discuss. I’ll have a public forum from time to time, but I’d rather take the discussion off line. Too much bother having to monitor.

            1. And eventually this blog is going to support the book that Lurker’s friend is writing. I want it to be a significant resource. I think we speculate pretty responsible, but it is still speculation.

               1. When is the book being published?

                  1. Once a trial date is set.

2. Do you think KABC will be covering the 6/3 hearing with video?

   1. This is the second time they’ve filed for coverage in the last few months. Last hearing they barely reported. Don’t know.

3. In a few weeks I’m going to be taking all discussions off-line. Leaving only the posts with relevant information up.

   1. Is this because THEY’RE back?

      1. I don’t know who you could mean!

         We can discuss on the other blog. I’m just going to leave this one up for the purpose of giving those interested in facts a place to start.

4. My favorite suspect was always DK.

   1. He was a lot of people’s favorite.

      1. Not for you?

         1. No.

            1. Why not?

               1. There were a number of reasons.

                  1) I believed and still do believe that whoever did this had to blend in enough to that cul de sac and the activities at the McStay home, to not stand out to neighbors.

                  (One thing that was consistent with statements made by neighbors, was that they saw “nothing unusual”. So whoever did this must have resembled the type of people most often visiting the McStays and all those we know about: Merritt, McGyver, painters, etc. had certain vehicles-trucks usually, they looked like they were doing renovations, etc. If the neighbors saw nothing unusual, the natural thing to assume is that someone who looked familiar to the neighbors did this. As far as I know, DK was never ever at that home. He would have stood out. He would have been noticed.)

                  2) What did DK have to gain? The area of EIP that seems to have been bringing in the big bucks wasn’t the resale of pre-fabricated fountains, but the custom work. DK didn’t know the first thing about how to do this. Merritt did.

                  3)I found the source of the DK info to be less than reliable

                  1. Yeah, but DK sold the business illegally.

                     1. I have a lot of computer geek friends, and I would beg to differ on that assessment of what happened. There is a skill to bringing traffic to a website. Joey closed deals, but I do believe it was DK who made the website itself successful. (I could be wrong, but this would make sense–I mean if Joey could have done it all on his own I’m sure he would have)

                        We don’t know what the agreement was between Joey and DK financially, but I’m going to guess that initially DK worked cheap with the idea that if the business grew, he would see some of that money.

                        That domain name only had value if it was getting hits to the site, and by 2011, with the business all but gone, if DK didn’t sell the domain name then, it would be worthless.

                        Should he have checked with the McStays first? Absolutely. But this was not the crime of the century it has been made out to be.

                        1. Who did you think did it?

                           1. Of the suspects we knew about, Merritt looked good for this. He had been to that home a lot, the neighbors would have thought nothing of his being there. And, though I didn’t know about the debt he had with Joey, I figured he might want Joey’s business.

                              Also, he was always a little off in his interviews. So were a lot of people. Merritt just said things that seemed inappropriate.

                              But I also thought, and still do, that this could have been a case of mistaken identity or someone thought the McStays had cash around the home.

                              They were bringing in strangers to work on their home, who knows what people walked through their lives close to the time of the murders?

5. Thanks for cleaning up the list Grav. Looks good.

   We’ve discussed all this a lot on the other blog, but I’ll make my point again. LE had many theories about this case. That’s very obvious by way of the search warrants. But if you think about it they didn’t get the results they wwere hoping for in many cases.

   No blood was found in either the mcstay home or Chase’s truck. Maybe they should have gone back to the chalk board one more time before making an arrest. I just feel that they went into prosecute this case too quickly.

   1. Gravitas,

      Thank you for all your hard work on this! Dn’t you find it interesting that they waited so long to look at Chase’s medical records?

      1. Why were they looking at Facebook?

         1. Kelly,

            The Facebook search was for “messaging” between Jarvis, Linker and Merritt. Apparently they were communicating this way.

            Wonder if they found anything.

            Sleuth,

            Though I believe Merritt did this, I tend to agree with you that they brought the case to trial prematurely. They were still executing Search Warrants when he was arrested.

            Maybe they were afraid he might flee the jurisdiction after all the home searches.

            1. Maybe Lurker

   2. I agree Sleuth, so why don’t we tear apart the state’s case one warrant as a time? Or support the state’s case one warrant at a time. Depending….

6. I cleaned up the warrant list. Let me know if it’s easier to read. I left a few of the warrants we didn’t receive or that we don’t even know what they were related to just to show the gaps in the information the public has.

   Not listed above are warrants that were referenced either in the prelim or by way of other warrants.

   Obviously there was a warrant for QuickBooks and there was a very early warrant for Joey and Summer’s cell phone records.

   1. One thing that pops out right off the bat (for me anyway) is the progression of the investigation. What investigators looked at first, and from those warrants, where they were next led.

      FYI the QuickBooks warrant (per the prelim) happened sometime in August.

      And you see a huge ramp up after this.

      1. Much better!

         1. You can really see that everything started with phone records. I can’t know this for certain, but it would appear that investigators noted the discrepancies in claims that Merritt and Jarvis made as to alibis, and from there they went deeper into things that I would have thought would have been the first things to look at.

            I can’t figure out why Merritt’s check writing didn’t create more of a stir earlier, with SDSO. It’s interesting.

            1. This is a good review. I’d forgotten how hard LE was looking for an accomplice. Didn’t find one.

               1. Either Merritt is innocent or wheover helped him didn’t have to talk to him by phone much. I have two thoughts on that, but I don’t want to go off the deep end of speculation here. You know, I’ve mentioned them on the other blog.

                  But investigators definitely believed Merritt got help.

                  1. As you recall, I’m sure, I agreed with you.

                     1. Wonder of wonders!!

                        1. Oh. Something else worth noting is that SWs related to the CPS reports were scattered. There was one warrant in Feb 2014 and one in August 2014.

                           You can see that as investigators are zeroing in on Merritt they are also excluding other known suspects.

                           The only individual that we see no warrants related to is DK. He must have been cleared early on. This really shows how off internet detectives can be.

                           1. Most people don’t discipline themselves when looking at cases. They just accept whatever flavor of kool-aid is being offfered at the moment.

                           2. Kool-aid? Not sure I would go quite that far. But, yes. There’s not a lot of reasoning and deduction methods applied.

                           3. What is CPS?

                           4. Kelly, the CPS issue involves a minor, so I’m going to be vague. There was a conflict between Summer and Joey and Joey’s first wife’s second husband-this related to accusations of some kind of abuse toward Joey’s first son.

                              The “husband’ in question had a history that included domestic violence and he was a favorite suspect among many, many bloggers on this case.

                              I personally never thought he was a viable suspect for three reasons:

                              1) Domestic abusers target those they are intimate with. Even if the husband was abusive to the child, it doesn’t necessarily translate that this abuse will go beyond the child and the partner.

                              2) CPS reports are different from criminal or civil cases. They don’t go away because the accuser goes away. You can report abuse anonymously and CPS is obligated to investigate. There was nothing to be gained by killing the family if all the beef was about was a CPS report. If anything, I’d guess the murder of the McStays actually made it more difficult for the husband.

                              3) The husband was cleared by CPS.

                              Nevertheless, SBC clearly looked into it. They did perform their due diligence on this, it would seem.

7. I just deleted a comment. Feel free A Mother to repost, I just ask that you stick to the guidelines. No more comments about….please.

   1. I understand. I’ll try again. I have three sons. All precious to me. There is no amount of money that I would trade them for. Blessings and prayers for Bryce Laspisa’s family. I can’t even imagine the kind of pain they must be in. He looks like such a sweet young man.

8. Also, from this point forward I’m going to delete any comments about Baker, period.

   I know it’s fun to make fun, but there are serious matters at stake and since it’s clear that this trial is in the far distance, there is only going to be more and more postings from this guy, all of which I would bet hard money on, have already been posted many times before.

   i don’t want this site to be about him. I want it to be about the issues.

   OK?

   Sorry I hate to curb freedom of speech, but in this instance I feel compelled.

   1. Fine with me boss.

9. Hey guys, my bad. I was so upset that this article didn’t fully report on the nature of DP cases I missed a few very salient points that were made:

   1) no trial until end of 2016, and this is likely going to be a 2017 trail
   2) Maline again reveals some stuff

   I’m working on a better presentation here but I will be commenting more on this article tonight. Interesting….

   http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/may/09/merritt-attorneys-say-trial-may-come-by-end-of/

10. By the way all, I really don’t want to bring that idiot into our discussions more than is necessary. However, in regard to Bryce Laspisa, it’s fine because it gets the word out there. And anyone with an IQ approaching the triple digits will know that this is a legitimate missing person’s case. And maybe there will be a sighting that helps the family.

    Other than this, lets look at Warrants!!!!!!!!

    You know I live for this anal type of analysis.

    1. I’m close to having a solid rundown on the warrants ready to publish.

11. I’m glad Baker posted the Bryce Laspisa stuff to twitter. I think this will show people who he really is. You just watch the Disappeared episode on Bryce and the pain is palpable. And obviously something happened to this child. I hope he’s alive. I have a son near his age. It’s a tough age for boys, especially if they are sensitive by nature. I hope that the post really turns people off to Baker and helps the Laspisas find their son. Prayers.

    1. If it’s any concillation, to date, the only people who have either liked or retweeted Baker on Twitter, must be paid-tweeters. They are always different and they never have any posts that aren’t a retweet.

       The guys a sham. If anyone actually cared what he had to say he’d have some legit likes. Or one actual retweet from a fan.

       1. Ha. You made me laugh out loud, thanks guys. Yes prayers to the family of Bryce Laspisa. I lost someone very dear. Probably why these cases capture my heart. It’s so, so painful. Why ever would anyone want to make it worse?

          I too hope that Bryce became confused and is being cared for and that eventually he finds his way home, ALIVE.

          1. Ah. The kinder gentler version. I’m sending prayers too.

12. Gravitas I respect what you are trying to do, but I think you are being a little hard on people. You are going to discourage folks from expressing themselves. Even a bad idea deserves some discussion. Just saying. Think about it.

    1. You’re right Clue. Some people need to chill a little. But Grav means well.

       Looked at the preliminary hearing, pg 100. The SW for the QuickBooks happened sometime in August 2014.

       1. Gravitas,

          I know you don’t want us bringing that blog over here, but I was suspicious about a few things and had those suspicions confirmed. I knew that some of the “new” posts on Baker’s blog looked familiar-those John C emails, those were posted on Baker’s blog in Feb 2014 and again in July of 2015. Don’t know why this guy is suddenly up in arms, but the emails have been out there for over 2 years. I did a Gravitas and copied them because at the time I had a theory about the sale of the home.

          And I’m now more certain than ever that Rose has to be Becky. She just happens to be able to get her hands right on that sales report. There’s only one person who would have this other than the parties directly involved and that is Baker.

          1. I know. I didn’t know you were archiving Baker as well. Yes. Everything old is new again.

             1. The person who posted that sales report before was one of the many Anons on Baker’s blog.

    2. Cluemore, I agree. I’ll really work on it.

13. I wonder why they waited to get a warrant for the McStay landline until Septmber 25. Any thoughts on that Grav? Lurk?

14. Touchy much?

    1. Yes Lurker. (Anon. Again, I don’t mean you.) I know where these theories originated and I was as disgusted about them then as I am now.

       1. Ahem. Regarding the warrants, do they show when exactly LE began to focus on Chase?

          1. The very first warrant in sequence (that was given to the public) was in Feb. And this was for Merritt’s phone records (which is odd, why didn’t SDSO get this back in 2010?)

             1. Then the next warrant isn’t until August 2014, and this is for the Merritt’s girlfriend’s phone records.

                I have to look back at the prelim, but it’s interesting that there is this huge gap, timewise in the warrants.

                1. So in answer to your question Lurker, I’d say they were looking at Merritt right off the bat.

                   1. In December 2013 they do get Joey and Summer’s records. SDSO did already get these, but maybe SBC needed different information?????

                      1. By August SBC gets a warrant to look at Merritt’s truck. Then they appear to be eliminating other suspects.

                         They get a warrant for a McStay friends phone (the guy who helped paint the week they went missing)

                         They get the brother’s phone records.

                         And they get a warrant for the McStay home.

                         Soon after this, Merritt fails to appear for a hearing on a probation violation and is deemed a fugitive (though it’s uncertain if he knows this.)

                         1. Later in August there is a tap put on Merritt’s cell and investigators request the home records for Merritt and his girlfriend.

                            1. I’ll map all this out. But you can see that with each record they get, they are focusing more and more just on Merritt.

                               By September 2014 they are looking into just about everyone he and his girlfriend spoke to around the time of the murders. There are 9 warrants for these records alone.

                            2. The real mystery remains though, as to what they found? There were a lot of warrants, but Chase’s truck and the McStay home didn’t turn up the evidnece that was hoped for, so what does that say about the investigation?

                            3. True. I have to run. Get back to you all later.

15. Are there 9 warrants that aren’t released?

    1. I had a pretty clear number a year ago. I need to go back and look again.

       There are definitely SBC search warrants that are not in the colllection given to the public, and for which the numbers and dates of those search warrants were redacted.

       And again, I do believe that for the sake of a fair trial this is OK. What I don’t understand is why SBC wasn’t more forthcoming about what they have and don’t have in search warrants.

       1. What was interesting to me is that there were warrants that would have seemed innocuous, like for example the warrant to get access to Joey’s QuickBooks. We know there was such a warrant because it’s mentioned in the Prelim, and yet we didn’t get a copy of that.

          1. Your suggestion was good. I’m going to write a list of all the warrants I’m aware of in chronological order, and list only what they were about.

             You really can see the evolvement of this investigation by way of the warrants.

             1. I couldn’t post on the other thread so I’m trying here. I don’t see whay everyone thinks the idea of the rape is so off. Seems like something that could have happned.

                1. Anon. There are lots of things about these murders that we will never know unless someone confesses. However you can look at the overall crime and see the pattern of the acts.

                   For example, whoever did this entered a home that had over $4,000 in very easy theft. Expensive camera’s computers, TV, brand new flooring. These are easy, easy things to steal and to resell. Even the vehicles could have been gotten rid of easily if you have the right connections.

                   Nothing is taken.

                   The Trooper is driven a hundred miles at least from the crime scene.

                   Nothing inside is disturbed.

                   The family is whisked from the home and buried.

                   No sign that this occurred.

                   It’s like one of those IQ tests. What doesn’t fit in with the above actions?

                   Answer: Impulsivity and wreckless behaviour.

                   The common thread in all the above actions is that whatever the purpose in these murders was, it wasn’t impulsive. And it was not wreckless.

                   Rape is an impulsive and wreckless and disorganized act.

                   Not saying that someone capable of the above isn’t capable of rape, it just doesn’t fit iwth all the other actions in the crime.

                   And because of time and degrading of biological evidence essental to proving rape, on top of it being unlikely, it is impossible to prove.

                   1. Think about what women go through to prove that they’ve been raped. It’s horrifying for the victim. Not only do you have to prove that you were violated, but you have to disprove consentual sex.

                      All indicators of rape are in soft tissue, so without getting graphic, if there is no soft tissue, rape can’t be proven.

                      And I know the original theory of the repe came from the fact that part of Summer’s bra was found in the grave part outside, but stop and think about this for a moment:

                      Over three years have passed by the time the graves are found. The material that bras are made of is very soft to begin with. It’s a small item of clothing. How easy would it be for an animal pulling from the grave to tear off part of this after it’s been in the ground for 3 years?

                      Just like the material covering Joey, decomposition, the elements all these erode fabric. It’s amazing the bra even survived in tact as long as it did.

                      1. I get that, but she had no shirt on. Don’t you find that odd?

                         1. I’m not so sure that I would agree that rape is an impulsive and disorganized act. Some rapists put a lot of effort and planning into rape.

                            1. Lurker,

                               There are rapists who are organized, like the East Side Rapist in Sacramento CA, decades ago. ANd i don’t think he was ever caught.

                               But there is nothing about these murders that points to rape itself as a motive. So the killer/s go to all this trouble to leave as little evidence of themselves as possible, and break with this to rape a woman–where? In the desert? In the home?

                               Where does this rape supposedly occur?

                               Remember if the killer/s are burying these bodies, at night, if they are caught, they are caught with four murdered people.

                               It’s not like the killer’s went way off into the mountains or further into the desert. They are not far at all from well traveled roads and an interstate.

                               Are they really going to add to their risk by stopping to rape someone? Nothing in the other aspects of this crime indicate that they would.

                               Dig deeper graves if you have that kind of time.

                               The shallowness of the graves does also seem to indicate that whoever did this was in a hurry. There was a time, or lack of time factor in play as well.

                            2. In addition, the graves are shallow. There has to be some awareness that they could be found sooner than later. Rape adds the possibility of DNA from the attacker being left, even if they used a condom. By 2010 the effectiveness of DNA testing was already well known.

                               These murders do not appear to have been comitted by someone under the influence. Whoever did this was on their game. They were focused. And they appear to have understood what evidence would link the crime to them.

                               Rape is a crazy risk.

                               Torture too. These are the imaginings of people who get off on this stuff. And that’s pretty sick if you think about it.

                         2. Anon, have you ever watched the videos that Joey McStay posted on YouTube. There are none with Summer not wearing a shirt, but the family at home did seem to dress very comfortably. If the attack on them came at around 7ish, or just before bed, I could imagine Summer in just her sweats, her bra, and maybe she did have that robe on that was thought to be missing and then found in the grave.

                            It may be that whoever did this surprised the family. They may have let them in, but were not expecting them.

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