Anatomy of Lies: Statement Analysis

 

“Three or four days went by and I called Joseph several times a day, but couldn’t get hold of him. “

Dailymail November 2013 http://tinyurl.com/maf8lp7

Buried Secrets: Who Murdered the McStay Family?

15:02

Pertaining to the lunch meeting:

Kaye: So it sounded like he was planning for the future.

Merritt: Oh [waving his hand, dismissing her] he was definitely planning for the future.

Here, Merritt also is shaking his head. People don’t shake their head if they are in agreement with you.They will do it if they don’t believe what they are telling.

15:24

Kaye: Do you regret not taking that call?

Merritt: Hindsight’s 20/20.

Again, shaking head.

Maybe because there was no call for Merritt to decide not to take.

16:04

Merritt: The next day I called him, he didn’t answer. I started getting concerned by the end of the second day.

Nods, shakes head.

 

0:29

Kaye: What do you think happened?

Merritt: I have absolutely no clue.

This is probably the most telling moment that indicates Merritt knows more than he is saying. Merritt has a long, almost awkward pause before answering. This is a common trait for people when lying. They think about answering the question.

Merritt, pauses, looks away and down, thinking and then raises back up to look at Kaye but doesn’t really look at her. Instead he blinks repeatedly through his answer, also a common trait of deceptiveness.

Why would he need time to think about that when the family had been missing  for 4 years at that point? It should have been a quick “I have absolutely no clue”. Also the use of “Absolutely” is curious as it is a defensive clause. Why not “No idea” or “Wish I knew”?

Merritt’s voice, already reserved, drops in tone to a barely audible end, another show of deceptiveness.

 

3:58

Blinking through answer. Maybe because Chase did not design and build them?

4:26

Blinking and shaking head through answer.

4:44

Shaking head.

6:26

Shaking head. “I can’t believe he loved that bitch”.

6:31

This is where the real Chase Merritt seems reveals himself. His face lights up as he holds Summer in contempt. It’s almost as if he is reminiscing about killing her “She deserved just what she got”.

Merritt: Honestly? [Chuckles] I thought she was egotistical and she thought her _ didn’t stink.

What a nice thing to say about your Best Friend’s murdered wife.

9:29

Kaye: What time did Joey leave lunch?

Merritt: Exactly what time, I’m, I don’t remember. I mean I wish I did but, um, it was just, you know, fairly blurry.

[Merritt laughs]

Blinks repeatedly and stumbles through answering. Merritt’s tone again lowers to an almost whisper, finishing off his answer with a nervous chuckle, as though thinking I blew that answer. But again, Merritt has had 4 years to think about the last day he saw his “best friend” and business associate. The typical person would go back and retrace every minute up to the last time they saw them. But he also blinks through his now famous statement “I was definitely the last person who saw him”. This is probably one of the few times Merritt is nodding through the statement.

10:24

Kaye: Chase says he tried to reach Joseph the next morning.

Merritt: I left a few messages and then the voicemail ended up being full. I got really concerned.

“Chase started getting worried the next day after he didn’t get a response back from Joey“.

– Close family friend.

“Three or four days went by and I tried to call Joseph several times but could not get ahold of him”. – Chase Merritt, Dailymail, Nov 2013

So which is it? Was is the next day? 3 or 4 days? Voicemails?

Chase did call McStay 3 times on February 5.

Subsequent investigating by SBSD revealed that Merritt never left messages. Not one.

Kaye: Finally 8 days after anyone had heard from Joseph, Michael McStay went to his brother’s house with Chase, who knew exactly how to get inside the locked home.

Merritt: Joey had very serious allergies, so he always kept his window open, always.

Very ominous statement. For one, people with allergies will close all their windows up, not leave them open. Second, all reports say that the window was found by Michael McStay and he ‘broke in’ to the house. Nothing about the window being wide open. If Merritt was there earlier in the week (on the 9th) and he fed the dogs, he would have saw the open window. With the recent rains that weekend, wouldn’t he have the forethought to close it if were wide open?

Did Merritt lead Mike right to the window?

But it seems that Merritt was offering a bit too much information, which is always typical of someone trying sell a story. Always.

Merritt told Mike that he didn’t want to be the one to break in because he had a “History”. Nice info to find out from someone you just met who also happens to be a business associate of your brother who is missing. According to testimony at the preliminary hearing, once inside Chase didn’t touch anything and insisted on remaining downstairs.

Here he is again, providing a little too much information:

“Joseph’s family are the ones who lost the most from all this, no question. But financially I lost everything. I was manufacturing all the waterfalls he was selling and I lost my entire business. Without his sales, I had nothing. I went bankrupt very soon after he disappeared, It killed me financially. I even split up with the mother of my three kids because of the stress.”

– Merritt, Dailymail

True, in hindsight, Merritt had already lost everything and had nothing if we consider that Joseph caught onto Chase trying to defraud him.

Some other signs Merritt was lying in the CNN interview:

Here Merritt covers his mouth as his voice changes to a brief high pitch as he makes a comment about Summer possibly poisoning Joseph.

Here @ 12:30 https://youtu.be/NEdmMDFIhnE?t=750

Here is Merritt just after Kaye asks him a follow up question. There is one thing that interviewers know, when a person looks up or down before answering, they are searching for an answer (lie) to give. Also notice the placement of Merritt’s arm and hand. Some people will place an object between them and the other person as a sort of barrier. Chase has his legs open as if to show he’s comfortable but he’s not. He is protecting his assets so-to-speak. Notice also the fingers outstretched. A sign of anxiety perhaps.

There is also something about the hat. Who wears a hat to an interview? With CNN even. It’s really bugging me and I have thought about it a lot since the interview.

The only conclusion I can come to is: Dominance. He wanted to be the rugged guy but once Randi Kaye got to talking to him, he wasn’t rugged and ‘tough’ after all. He disarmed her from the beginning. Putty in his hands.

One thing is for certain though, Chase Merritt was really adamant to get Mike McStay out to the house. I wonder if he was wearing the hat then.

Here is some further Need-to-read material from real experts on Merritt’s statements:

http://www.statementanalysis.com/mcstay-family/

http://statement-analysis.blogspot.com/2013/12/mcstay-suspect-in-mcstay-murder-speaks.html