Postmortem: Summer McStay

We explored in detail about what may have occurred in Joseph McStay’s brutal attack, and lightly touched upon how Summer and the children could have been murdered. Murder, it’s an ugly word I know. This is a pretty ugly case. These people were not just killed, they were pummeled until death. That’s a cold hard fact. There is no doubt that the DA is going to cover this fact in much greater detail.

I envision Summer being murdered as much I did with Joseph. It’s hard to determine whether Summer (and Joseph) were standing, sitting or laying down when they received their hits. Without knowing exactly how the bones were fractured or broken, it’s simply impossible. However it doesn’t make it wrong, as some has suggested, to theorize based on what we do know. I do have a “moral compass”, I just don’t choose to see things through rose colored glasses.

Preliminary Hearing, pg 24

Q Can you please describe what she told you in regards to
the adult remains taken from gravesite B, that Detective Avila
assisted in its excavation?
A So, at that point the remains weren’t identified yet.
But they were later determined to be Summer McStay, through DNA.
She received the set of remains and she performed the autopsy in
conjunction with Dr. Alexis Gray, the forensic anthropologist.
During that autopsy she inventoried the remains and noted
several injuries she identified as being antemortem, or prior to
death.
Q And what were those injuries?
A To quote Dr. Changsri, she had multiple fractures of the
jaw, a fracture of the left parietal bone, two fractures of the
right frontal bone, the fracture to the parietal bone with hair
embedded in it, and the fracture of the left frontal bone.
Q You’re referring to the identification — to the remains
identified as Summer McStay?                                                                                                                                  A That’s correct.

Let’s get right to it. Summer McStay hated Chase Merritt. Summer could have been seen by Chase as the person to his (possible) firing. Summer was someone who would stand her ground. Summer on more than one occasion expressed fear about Merritt.

Summer McStay was beaten savagely.

 

Summer received two separate fractures to her skull on the right frontal bone. This means her attacker was most likely facing her, and, was left handed. She did have a fracture to left portion of the same bone but I contend that this was most likely due to frantic movement. As she just received two hits to the right side of her head, she would have held her head down and to the right in her hand. Then Chase hits the left side of her head. This would have been the third blow. The fact that there are two fractures on the right front side of the head points to a left handed individual.

“She had multiple fractures to the jaw”.

Multiple is a broad term. Since he didn’t say two or three, I would assume it would be more than three and less than a dozen. The jaw bone is a very fragile bone. People can get broken jaws in a simple fall to the ground or a fist fight. Summer could have suffered multiple blows to receive multiple fractures. It’s my belief that Summer’s jaw was shattered with one single blow with the sledge hammer. It would be a very powerful strike, mostly likely spinning her around and sending her to the floor.

Chase would do this as the fourth hit. His last two hits would be to the back of her head, on the left and right. Then, he would turn her on her side to ensure she was dead.

Paint

Preliminary Hearing, pg 42

18 Q In comparison to items that were found in or near the
19 graves, was there any indication of paint-type supplies or
20 painting activities consistent in those graves?
21 A Yes.
22 Q What?
23 A There was blue painter’s tape in the graves, in a white
24 shop towel. There was paint on Summer McStay’s brassiere. And
25 paint on the sledgehammer.
26 Q Was there something unique about the paint on the
27 brassiere?
28 A Yes, it was horizontal across the brassiere, consistent
49
1 with either Summer McStay painting sideways, lying sideways, or
2 incapacitated, or a drip falling on her brassiere.
3 Q So had she been wearing the brassiere it would have gone
4 from left to right or right to left across the body, is what
5 you’re referring to as horizontal?
6 A Correct.

It seems every time I read the transcripts, I find something new. Or something to ponder. So, the paint on the bra is more revealing than just the color or the trajectory of the paint. They did determine she had to be laying on her side while this transference occurred. I mean, nobody believes that she was painting just wearing her bra while laying down. Although, given the outlandish theories out there right now, some probably do.

Let’s think about environment. The murders took place sometime between 7ish and 7:45. It was a cool night with rain in the forecast for that weekend. With these conditions it would take a while for paint to dry. When, in that 45-50 minute time frame, did Chase have time to effectively murder 4 people AND paint? It could have been done, but not that night. He would have to clean off the blood first and then dry. Then paint.

Chase could not paint that night and here is the piece pointing to why.

The detectives were able to determine the trajectory of the paint on Summer’s bra. So, the paint dried on the bra. There is no way they could do that if Chase moved the bodies in that narrow time frame with the paint on the bra because it would still be wet. That paint drop would have been smeared. Moving a dead body would be very difficult, even for Chase.

Try doing that without smearing a drop of wet paint.

The painting was done on another day and Summer, at least, was left in the home.

True Crime Addiction

From The New Yorker – “TRUE CRIME ADDICT” AND THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF INTERNET SLEUTHS, an article on author James Renner and his book.

“Cold cases have long attracted hangers-on like Renner, who work for years on “solving” the crime but never do. In cases that broke before the advent of Internet sleuthing, they often called themselves “private investigators,” which represented a shockingly diverse category. Now many of these people gather on the Internet, posting on sites like Renner’s. The result is a complicated morass of uncontrolled speculation. It certainly isn’t justice, not for Murray or for her family. I’m frankly surprised that a major publishing house decided to release Renner’s book.

After all, crime “addicts” such as James Renner rarely, if ever, solve crimes. They are drawn to the most dramatic possibilities and ignore more tedious solutions. For all that Renner has written on Maura Murray’s case, both in his book and online, I’ve never seen him seriously investigate the most plausible theory: that, fearing a D.U.I. arrest, Murray walked away from her car in the New Hampshire cold, got lost, and died.”