SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – A business associate was arrested in the murders of a family of four, including two young boys, whose disappearance from their San Diego County home in 2010 was a mystery until their remains were discovered in graves in the California desert last year, officials said Friday.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon identified the suspect as Charles Merritt, 57, who was due in court later in the day to face four counts of murder.
The lengthy investigation revealed that Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their sons, 4-year-old Gianni and 3-year-old Joseph, were killed in their home in Fallbrook and all were victims of blunt-force trauma, the sheriff said.
Authorities refused to discuss a motive or any details of how the family was killed or evidence found at the home or the shallow desert gravesite.
“Our job is to look at everyone and eliminate who we could and see where this was going to take us and it led us to him,” San Bernardino sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Fisher said of Merritt.