Police in San Diego announced today their arrest of a suspect in the murder of Joseph McStay, his wife and two young boys, whose bodies were found in shallow graves in the California desert in 2013, four years after their mysterious disappearance.
Charles "Chase" Merritt, 57, described by authorities as a business associate of the family, was arrested on October 5 in Victorville, about 85 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border where the bodies were found on Nov. 11 of last year, police said.
The San Diego Union-Tribune says:
"The family mysteriously disappeared from their Fallbrook home Feb. 4, 2010. Four days later, their Isuzu Trooper was towed as an abandoned vehicle from a San Ysidro parking lot near the U.S.-Mexico border crossing. "Summer was a licensed real estate agent and her husband worked at a water-feature business. When their home was searched, a carton of eggs and a rotten banana were found on the kitchen counter and their dogs were in the backyard without food or water."
Sheriff John McMahon said an investigation shows that the parents and the two children were killed as a result of blunt force trauma at their home in the San Diego County community of Fallbrook.
McMahon gave few other details. He said Merritt is due in court later today to face four counts of murder.
The McStay case was the subject of national news reports as well as programs such as America's Most Wanted.
In December, CBS8.com reported that Merritt was being scrutinized by authorities and that he'd been interviewed by police shortly after the bodies of the McStay family were found last year.
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