Drift

 

I know there was more than  one camera on the neighboring house. For the purpose of this post I will be discussing only the one that caught vehicle leaving the McStay driveway.

Can we believe that the time stamp on the neighbor’s surveillance video to be accurate? Could the time be off a few minutes, in either direction? We don’t know how old the camera was or if it was there with the house when the owner moved in. With age, technology can become faulty and often unreliable.

The video time stamp may be off. Even by a few minutes. It’s called “drift” and it’s very common. A surveillance video can drift up the several hours. If it’s off by 15 20 minutes it makes more sense with the check making activity on the home computer.

Fran

I know Fran has a mind like a steel trap and is arduous in her research. I was curious about this Drift thing and asked her to do some digging. Apparently, drift happens with audio as well. I know, there was no audio in the video but it helps in the theory.

“With timecode, unless the cameras or recorders are re-jam-synced frequently, their timecode will start to drift apart. The problem is that the quartz crystal (or other piezo-electric material) clocks used in many cameras and quite a few audio recorders are too imprecise for critical applications. This means that two different clocks may have two different opinions on how long a second is, causing recordings to drift apart over time. Depending on the camera or recorder, the timecode may drift as much as a field in a non-trivially short space of time (30 minutes in some cases). Even a field offset is enough that sound and picture will become visibly out of sync when combining the two elements later, in post.”           http://tinyurl.com/js5veby

“According to the FBI training video, Caught On Camera, more than half of all security camera systems have the wrong time stamped on their surveillance video by at least an hour because of daylight savings time or input error. This means that the recorded surveillance video that is brought into evidence immediately after an incident will be out of sync time wise with the chain of events. I’ve even seen video with several hours difference from the actual time or even the wrong date by a few days.”                                                                                                                    http://tinyurl.com/znhnuhd

 

As established in an earlier post, we believe Chase Merritt arrived at the Fallbrook home at approximately 7:15 pm. The next activity is the video capture with the time stamp of 7:47. So is it plausible to think he brutally murdered 4 people, semi-cleaned up, loaded the bodies in his truck and left?

As stated above, the 7:47 time stamp may not be totally accurate. The next activity we have is that pesky home computer login for someone making another check for chase merritt and deleting it. 8:05. Then the 8:28 phone call from Joseph’s phone to Merritt, which pinged in Fallbrook. Something to note here, a Body Glove phone cover was found In the grave with Summer. Was it Summer’s or Joseph’s?  Maybe they became separated in the scuffle? Also, why wasn’t Joseph’s phone on him? A call was made, obviously he wasn’t making the call himself if we believe he was wrapped up in the house, and dead.

So did Chase make the call?

Whatever the scenario, that phone call time stamp is more reliable than the video time for sure. And it pinged in Fallbrook.

The next activity is Merritt’s phone turning back on at 9:32 in Mira Loma. So, driving in traffic from Fallbrook to Mira Lona at that time of night would have not been light but not congested either. The only real congestion would have been at the 91/15 interchange and at that time of night it would be minimal.

The speed limit in California is 70 mph on the freeways. I learned years ago (then the speed limit was 65) from a guy who knew everything about traffic laws and many police officers, that the one speed to drive (max) without being pulled over is 72 mph. It really depends on the flow of traffic though. I typically will keep it under 80. The other day I passed a speedtrap doing 79 and the cop just sat there.

So, with all this we don’t have a clear image of that night. However there are still enough puzzle pieces. But take the time stamp out of the equation, it’s the wrong puzzle piece.

 

7:15

With the arrival of Merritt at the home he could have killed the the family in under 10 minutes. Maybe as much as 15.

7:30

Merritt is in crisis mode and quickly gathers cleaning supplies goes into action.

7:45 – 8:00

Merritt paints.

8:01 -8:05

Merritt goes onto the Quickbooks, prints and deletes check.

8:05 -8:25

Merritt returns to painting and cleaning.

8:25 – 8:28

In cleaning – or perhaps while wrapping Joseph – Chase comes across Joseph’s phone. It’s not locked. Chase activates it to see if Joseph called anyone else besides him, like the police. At this point Chase clumsily calls himself.

8:29-8:40

Chase loads the bodies, all four, into his truck. Most likely through the garage. He departs around this time, with the neighbors surveillance camera capturing his truck, picking up the unique markers.

7:15 – 8:40

Chase Merritt had successfully completed the murders, effectively cleaning and covering up his crime.

9:32

In or near Mira Loma, Chase turns on his phone. Further pings indicate he is driving away from Fallbrook.

I know the drive time I laid out to Mira Loma is tight. You would think he would have to be driving like a bat out of hell, on fire. But it’s really pretty simple.

From Fallbrook to Mira Loma is 60 miles. Let’s look at some calculations.

http://m.free-online-calculator-use.com/drive-time-calculator.html

Ok, so maybe 72 mph is too fast. Perhaps Chase played it safe and drove the speed limit. I put in 70 mph which calculated to 51 minutes.

Tips On How To Confess To Murder

If one was around to follow or remember the McStay case, should remember Chelsea King. On February 25, 2010, 21 days after the disappearance of the McStays and 20 miles south of Fallbrook, another horrific atrocity was being carried out.

17 year old Chelsea disappeared. A massive search ensued, the largest one ever conducted in San Diego county. Tim Miller and Texas Equisearch would leave the McStay case to assist. 5 days after she disappeared Chelsea’s remains were located in a shallow grave. She had been raped and strangled.

Chelsea King and Amber Dubois

Clothing found nearby a few days before had DNA on them from a man by the name John Albert Gardner. He was arrested on February 28. While in jail, Gardner admitted to murdering 14 year old Amber Dubois who disappeared a year prior. There was nothing to tie him the Dubois, he offered her up and led authorities to her remains.

This monster, destroyer of everything innocent and harbinger of evil, would go on to admit everything. Not out of pride, but out of shame.

Here is audio of Gardner telling his story. It’s astounding. There’s no gruesome details by the way.

 

Renegade:

adjective

having treacherously changed allegiance.

“The Jig is up”

 

“Oh mama, I’m in fear for my life from the long arm of the law                                                      Lawman has put an end to my running and I’m so far from my home
Oh mama, I can hear your crying you’re so scared and all alone
Hangman is coming down from the gallows and I don’t have very long
The jig is up the news is out they’ve finally found me
The renegade who had it made retrieved for a bounty
Never more to go astray
This will be the end today of the wanted man

Oh mama, I’ve been years on the lam and had a high price on my head
Lawman said get him dead or alive now it’s for sure he’ll see me dead
Dear mama, I can hear you crying you’re so scared and all alone
Hangman is coming down from the gallows and I don’t have very long
The jig is up, the news is out they finally found me
The renegade who had it made retrieved for a bounty
Never more to go astray
The judge’ll have revenge today on the wanted man”