Questions and Answers

add free and before they appear in our main feed, I subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus.

“Click the link in the episode description to learn more.”

You go down in his road, you won't get your soul killed. We want a real chance to do something. And that's it's the drop, a snowball saga, new series premier September 8 on FX and Hulu. October 22nd, 2014. Almost a year after the bodies of the McStay family were found brutally murdered in the Mojave Desert. We're throwing up on the McStay case. We were working at the end of the week.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Detectives called Chase Marit in for an interview. Detective Eddie Bachman and his colleague met Chase Marit in a small interview room at the

“San Bernardino headquarters. Chase wore a low white baseball cap and sat sideways on a hard”

chair. In first been interviewed by police almost four years ago, just days after the McStay

is won't missing. Back then, he told San Diego Detectives that he and Joseph were friends, best friends. And four years later, this story hadn't changed. Chase told San Bernardino Detectives that he and Joseph often played paintball together, and he had helped the family move into their new house in late 2009. Chase added that Joseph going missing hadn't just been an emotional loss for him.

His entire welding business had depended on Joseph.

“When he disappeared, my life went, it was too much time upside down.”

We lost everything, right now. That's just trying to make him meet time figure out where I was going to go.

To hear Chase tell it, he had lost his friend and his livelihood in one fell swoop. What I'm going to say, Chase, San Bernardino investigators felt that they had found evidence that told a different story. In reinteruying the McStay's family and friends, digging into old case files and uncovering new evidence, Detectives hadn't discovered reason to believe. There was more to the story

Chase was telling. And now, they were ready to ask him some difficult questions. Did you call him a safe family? From ABC Audio in 2020, how much insane? And this is what happens to the McStay's episode four. Questions and answers. Before San Bernardino detectives brought Chase married in for an interview,

they dug through the files they'd gotten from San Diego sheriffs. And they began to find new details that they say raised red flags about Chase. Among the things they looked at was the transcript of a 2010 police interview with Chase. And one thing in particular jumped out at San Bernardino detective Ryan Smith. When he interviewed with San Diego, he referenced the family in the past 10 several times,

saying, oh, he was my best friend. Like, that's people don't say that. San Diego detectives had questioned Chase about why he used the past 10s. Oh, I did. Chase replied. Chase told them that he didn't know why. And the detectives didn't push him on it. Back then, it was a missing person's investigation. And now, San Bernardino detectives were investigating multiple homicides.

San Bernardino investigators suspected this choice of words could mean that Chase knew, even in the immediate aftermath of their disappearance, that the McStay's were already dead. Another key moment that San Bernardino detective zeroed in on was the day the McStay's

of a vehicle leaving the driveway of the McStay's house in Fallbrook.

A San Diego detective who investigated the missing person's case in 2010 told ABC News that the vehicle had looked like the McStay's car. A white Susu trooper, though they couldn't be sure. But when detective Eddie Bachman and his team reviewed the footage, they spotted something

“interesting. When we looked, took a deeper dive into the video, we were able to find key markers”

on that video that it wasn't a trooper. The exhaust pipe on the McStay's cars stuck out on the back left side of the vehicle. But investigators thought that the vehicle on this video had an exhaust pipe on the back right side, to Bachman and his team of investigators. This looked more like the exhaust pipe of the utility truck. And at that time, Chase married trooper such a truck. Boxy white one. Why would Chase's vehicle be leaving the McStay residents on the night that they did

disappear? The McStay's home wasn't the only place that Chase was suspected to have been during

that crucial window of time. Three months after the McStay's bodies were found in the desert,

detectives pulled Chase's cell records, showed who he called, when he called them, and the cell towers his phone was pinging off around the time that McStay has disappeared. We were fortunate that Chase had a new iPhone. iPhones had just kind of come on the scene in 2010, and he had an iPhone with the AT&T service that provided cell sites. A lot of the other cell phones didn't do that. It would give us their city, it would give us a general location. But Chase's cell phone provided us

latitude and longitude, coordinates of where towers were, and where calls were being made. According to a police report, the phone records backed up Chase's claim that he and Joseph talked on the phone a lot. From February 1st to February 4th, the men spoke more than 15 times a day. Investigators determined that after the McStay's won missing, the volume of calls dropped off. Chase only called Joseph 11 times between February 5th and February 9th, and he made no calls

to Joseph after that. This struck Detective Markman as strange. He just stops calling him. That's not characteristic, especially if you're as close as friends as what you say. Then you would think

“that you would be more eager to try to help out and try to find the family and I think his activity”

proved otherwise. According to the detective's report, the location of Chase's phone in the days after their disappearance also revealed something notable. His phone had pinged off a cell tower and Victorville. In the area where the bodies had been buried on February 6th, two days after the McStay's won missing. Okay, is there a reason that he was here? Or, or is he here because he's buried in bodies? The phone records also revealed periods where Chase's phone showed no activity.

For detectives, these blackouts were also intriguing. In their report, detectives indicated that on February 8th, four days after the McStay's won missing. Chase's phone was turned off from 7.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and detectives developed a possible theory as to why. According to their report, detectives thought that Chase had driven the McStay's car.

“Their white Asuzu Trooper to the U.S. Mexico border. Remember, the McStay's car had been found on”

February 8th, in a shopping center parking lot near the McStay's border. We have this question how did the Trooper get down to the San Yessidra border? Obviously, we got to answer that question. In 2010, Chase had insisted to detectives. He couldn't have been him. During San Diego's investigation, Chase told them that he had been in the vehicle one time,

but only as a passenger had never driven the Trooper. It was all recorded.

The last time I was in it, we went to Camp Clinton, went to, we played, paintball, camped Hamilton. You're a friend of passenger, front passenger, the never-engineer. Never driven it. Back in 2010, San Diego investigators had swabbed the car, taking DNA samples from all over the interior.

documents, not only was Chase's DNA in the car, but it was found in places they felt the driver

“was likely to touch, like the steering wheel. And Detective Bachman and his team did some math.”

According to their report, it thought that the six-hour window when Chase's phone was turned off that day would have given him exactly the right amount of time to drive the McStays Trooper to the border. Get his DNA on the steering wheel in the process and make it back home before turning his phone back on again. So eventually you get four or five six things and it's more than a coincidence and then you start focusing in on, you realize that Chase had the opportunity to commit the crime.

By the summer of 2014, San Bernardino investigators were getting closer and closer to calling Chase in for an interview to answer their growing number of questions. And then, detectives found something else. Something that they said was a huge red flag.

“Today I want to tell you about an exciting new deal from our friends at Kozi Earth. Take a moment”

and close your eyes and think back to the best night of sleep you ever had. Did it feel like you'd

never sleep that well again? Well, good news. You can give yourself an amazing night of sleep every night

by upgrading your bedding to Kozi Earth. Kozi Earth offers luxury bedding at an incredible price. Their ultra-soft, temperature regulating sheets, coverlets, and duvet covers are the perfect companion for a night of uninterrupted relaxation. Their sheets come in all different colors and stripes so there's something for everyone, whether you're doing a big fall refresh of your master bedroom or updating a guest room in time for the holidays. And as comfy as they are on day one,

they only get better from there because they're designed to get softer with every wash. Best of all, with our limited time deal, the already great prices are even better. You can get 50 percent off of a wide assortment of bedding options by going to our unique link. That's right,

50 percent off. But hurry, this deal is only for a very limited time. Get yourself the bedding of your

dreams. Right now go to ABCSecretSavings.com/2020 for 50 percent off the best bedding you'll ever sleep on. That's ABCSecretSavings.com/2020. Hi I'm John Favre. We are launching the all new Star Wars the Mandalorian and Groguo official podcast. I'm sorry I can't focus at the moment. We're going behind the scenes, but the cast and crew sharing stories from the set, creative insights, and a few surprises from

“across the galaxy. I think he's earned a little snack. Watch and listen to Star Wars the Mandalorian”

and Groguo official podcast, premiering September 2nd on Disney Plus or wherever you get your podcast. And catch Star Wars the Mandalorian and Groguo on September 2nd on Disney Plus. Terms apply. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside a case that has captivated the nation. So many people, Luigi Mangione, is a modern-day Robin Hood. People were cheering

the demise of this person they'd never met. It was a father of two and a husband and had a life

and was just doing a job from the manhood, ending in a McDonald's in Altuna, Pennsylvania, to what authorities are saying about a possible motive. I'm ABC News legal analyst, Brian Buckmeyer, listen to Burning Up Proof, Luigi, Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. In August 2014, San Bernardino detectives got a warrant for a quick book's account used by Joseph McStay. Detective Ryan Smith said it showed how the money was flowing through the

fountain business. So to manage earth inspired projects, Joseph used QuickBooks which is a personal finance management, small business finance management and he used QuickBooks to process invoice print checks. It was his ledger to keep track of what had been paid, what was coming in, what was going out. The detective said when they looked at the QuickBooks account activity, they thought there was something unusual happening around the date of the McStay's disappearance.

Chacks had been written from Joseph McStay to Charles Marit and not for small amounts. There was over $30,000 spread over several checks. Some of them, according to police reports, were written just before Joseph was last seen. But there were others, written afterwards. Of particular interest to detectives or several checks that had been created on February 5th, but that someone had then changed the date in the log to February 4th.

They were back dated to February 4th and then they were deleted from the system. And that's a

huge red flag for us and that's important because we realized that nobody knew the family was

“missing yet. So why would someone go in, create a check and delete it, back dating it to the 4th?”

According to detectives, four days after the family went missing. A QuickBooks employee got a customer service in Craig. The person on the other end of the phone identified themselves as Joseph McStay and then told the employee that they needed to delete all of the QuickBooks records related

to the Earth inspired products account. If Joseph McStay had called QuickBooks on February 8th,

that would mean he was still alive at the time. Why would he need to edit and delete the records of his own account? Investigators spoke to the QuickBooks employee who'd taken that call.

“According to the detectives report, the employee remembered specifically how much urgency the”

person at the other end of the phone spoke with. Investigators had reason to believe that the person who made that call wasn't Joseph McStay. We determined that the phone call that was made into QuickBooks actually came from Charles Merit's phone number. Charles Merit, it was a name that kept appearing. On DNA results, on mysterious checks, and whose phone had pinged off a cell tower in the desert. But even though detectives thought the evidence was building against Chase,

they didn't think it was conclusive. When they called Chase Merit in for a voluntary interview in

“October 2014, it had been almost a year since the McStay's bodies were discovered. Detectives”

wanted to see if he'd had an explanation for some of the evidence they'd found.

In the first part of their long interview, they talked with Chase about his health. His new job,

his recent trip to the McStay's gravesite in the desert. He said it was for a project who was working on about the family. I had decided that I was under way to go. I was going to do the cover of the book where he's standing next to Joseph's cross. When Chase mentioned something about the day the McStay's disappeared, February 4, 2010, detectives began to narrow their line of questioning. Detectives asked Chase to tell them, from the morning of the fourth onwards, where he was,

and what he did. Chase said he got up and called Joseph to plan a meeting that day. The next few days after that, Chase said, weren't notable. But by the following week, he said he was so worried about Joseph that he decided to contact his family and visit the McStay home. So February 4, 2018 Joseph came a week after that to do anything that anyone would have seen you for your vehicle up in the height of the area. Jayce wasn't in the high desert in that time period,

he said. But if he was, he might have been visiting some of his family in the area. Detectives knew from Chase's phone records that his phone had been in this area. But detectives didn't reveal this. Not yet. They asked Chase about his access to the QuickBooks account that Joseph used for the business. Without being asked, Chase offered an explanation, saying that Joseph had asked him to switch the

QuickBooks account. He claimed that Joseph wanted a new account that summer couldn't access. He was making, and so his finances were, he tried to keep them away from his life. And it was a big thing. And that's from making checks that look like they were from Joseph to Chase. He said he'd written checks from Joseph's account, quote, dozens and dozens of times.

Again, the detectives gave no indication that they had any further questions to ask Chase about the checks.

They moved on. This time, to find out if Chase had an explanation for why his DNA was on the steering wheel of the mixed-day's trooper. So at that time, to take a step to ask you if you'd ever go to the trooper. And you said, no, you don't want to pass you to the trooper when you went painful.

“I just want to clarify that one. Actually, that isn't what I think,”

because I remember the conversation. The last time I had driven the trooper was the only one paying ball in.

Chase denied telling San Diego detectives that he'd only ever been a passenger in the mixed-day's car,

which, remember, was all caught on tape. And Chase told San Bernardino detectives, "Actually, he had driven the car when he and Joseph went painful." Detective Ryan Smith says that Chase's timeline didn't make any sense. The DNA was processed or collected from the trooper in, I want to say February 2010, they went paintballing in January.

After the day Chase said he'd driven the car, it would have seen over a month of other use.

Other journeys potentially other drivers. Smith claims that it would be very unlikely that Chase's

DNA would have still been there for San Diego detectives to collect in February. You wouldn't expect any if they had driven the car a month ago. The amount of Chase's DNA that was found in the car, Smith says, was consistent with more recent use. If Chase had driven the car to the Mexican border, would have been just a few days before the

“DNA was collected from it. That's what San Bernardino detectives believed had happened.”

Over the course of several hours, the detectives asked Chase about these key pieces of evidence that had stood out to them. And they told him, his answers didn't match what they'd found in their investigation. Now it was time for the detectives to show their hand and revealed that they knew more, much more than they'd been letting on. Two Poxicore. Now 30 years after he was gunned down in Vegas, a one-time reputed

gun leader stands trial for his murder, follow every detail, streaming live daily on ABC News Live wherever you stream and follow a burden of proof daily wherever you get your podcasts. There's a headline every 30 minutes for our show. I'm pretty sure.

“Welcome to Get Real. I'm your host Amanda Hirsch. This is the show for the reality TV Obsessed.”

You thought the show was crazy living it was crazy. By withdrawing sweat for even stops it. For the stars and stands of the Hulu reality birth. Do we think she's stirring the pot to secure a place on the show? Find and listen to Get Real wherever you get your podcasts and stream new episodes, Thursdays on Hulu and Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, Terms of the Puy. Oh, this is Chase. The Hulu original, Chad Powers. The Hulu obsessed with Chad Powers. He really

is a Master of disguise. Chad is hot. From Glenn Powell and the creator of Loki, I might be an over my head. Please, do not get caught. The Hulu original, Chad Powers. From the source, they're gonna happen. Coach, find out your breast holiday and actually murder as you. September 3rd, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundled subscribers, Terms of Puy. Four hours into their interview with Chase Married in October 2014. Detectives were ready to step

things up and up. There's a big dynamic shift throughout the interview when you transition from interview to interrogation. Detective Eddie Barkman was in the room that day. At the point where Chase continued to lie and we knew that there were certain portions of the interview that he was lying with. At that point, we transitioned into interrogation to confront him with some of the facts that we knew that there were things that Chase did that he wasn't being honest about.

So when you call back to us, I'm honored. Did you say this is Chase Married and I need a

“work with both. So did you represent yourself these officers? I don't know. I think I represent”

myself because of it. I don't think I represented myself as Joseph. I don't think I represented myself as Joseph, he said. Detectives pushed Chase. They told him that a story about writing dozens of checks from Joseph's account. They didn't believe it. They claimed that Chase didn't write checks on the half of Joseph on a regular basis. And the checks police found from the days right before and after

Joseph went missing. They said those checks were written by Chase without Joseph's knowledge.

Why we need you to be honest with us here because it doesn't mean murder and investigation.

“Chase kept saying that he knew how important the case was, but that he just didn't have another”

answer to offer. Detectives showed him the check created on February 6th. That was then backdated to the fourth. I have no clue, Chase said. And I can't remember. Detectives pressed Chase further. They asked him about the vehicle seen in the neighbor's video. The one leaving the mixed day's home on February 4th, 2010, that detectives now believed belonged to Chase. I'm sorry, I'm sorry you straight up, and we're not lying. I know you were

involved with a configuring course. Okay. All I want to know is what was the reason for it.

“February 6th, I don't think I was done there. Detectives told Chase, your phone record showed”

you were in the desert two days after this family went missing. Why would your phone show you at the great site on February 6th? Not possible, forward and back. It was just him denying. He was just going to deny it all the way. The detective spent hours confronting Chase with their claims about his role in the mixed day's murders. But Chase kept saying he didn't know or denying their allegations. Did you call him a safe family? Of course he was

my best friend. And I don't have any friends. Of course not, I would never go to him.

So what I need you to do is figure out what happened to you or anyone. Okay, this isn't something really a little D.S.K. or anything like that. That's man. So hot outside of four people. I know those people. Okay, people that were very close to you. You're self-applying to the best friend. It's family. Okay, two of those. All right. This is John for 30 years. Okay. I need to know what happened at my chase. Something happened. But Chase's story didn't

change. If investigators were hoping for a confession, they didn't get one. And after seven hours of interviewing, they let him go. But this wasn't the last time that the detective would talk to Chase married. Because with or without answers from Chase, they believed they knew what actually happened on February 4th, 2010. And about why the mix stage had been murdered. So begin with. What happens to the mix stage is a production of ABC audio in 2020.

hosted by me, Oceansing, produced by Madeline Wood, Vika Arenson, Audrey Moestek, and Kiara Powell. With help from Sabrina Fang and Camille Peterson, edited by Gianna Palmer, our supervising producer is Susie Luke, music by Evan Viola, mixing by Evan Viola and Bob Mallory. Thanks to Katie Dendos, Janice Johnson, Camille Peterson, Sabrina Fang, Chris Donovan, Joseph Rie, Sonny Andrew, Alyssa Stullard, Xander Samaras, Tom Birmingham, Indra Delisaha and Blue Browning.

Can't wait for more? Listen to the next episode ahead of everyone else,

“add free. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts.”

Click the link in the description to start your free trial today.

On Reddit, True Crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses,

“and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts”

out loud. I'm Sabrina Diano Roca, and I'm Alexis Lindglutter. One of us brings the story,

the other goes in blind, reacting in real time, just like you. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit, available now wherever you get your podcasts.