Field Work: A Visit To Ground Zero

I had the opportunity this past week to visit Victorville and the McStay family graves site. That sounds quite chilling as I write that – family graves site. The first thing you should know is just how confusing it is to get to the location. I’m pretty good at direction and finding my way around. I wasn’t using GPS, just orientation of landmarks I was familiar with. As much as I studied maps, I almost got lost. I first ended up on the road to the dump. So I turned around and wound up on a dirt road that could not be it as I knew the first part of Quarry Road to be paved. Mind you, there’s no street signs.

Entrance to Quarry Road on the right. Confusing, huh.

 

Once on the right road I did use GPS as I didn’t want to pass the site and I wasn’t about to drive through the wash. I stopped once I knew I was close, got out and hoofed it over the little hill. The crosses quickly came into view.

 

 

I was surprised by just how many tire tracks and ‘roads’ was at this spot, in front and all around. No way to know if they were here before the family but most looked pretty fresh and some looked like they were done when it was wet.

I was also shocked that I was close enough to the dump to hear the beeping of the tractors moving debris. It wasn’t faint at all. If Chase Merritt buried the family there on the 6th, it might have been very risky thing to do as the dump is open on Saturdays. However, the position of Merritt’s truck, if someone were to look in the direction from the dump, they would only see the top of his truck. That might even require binoculars.

Viewing pictures verses actually being there do not provide the best perspective. I couldn’t get over just how close the cell towers were to the graves site. That mountain and antennae seemed to loom over like some gigantic boom.

 

 

The proximity of the tracks and the graves site were a lot closer than I imagined. I think that being over-exposed to seeing the pictures with the canopies made the area seem larger than it was. The site and the gully was incredibly small. But I could see how perfect a spot it was. It was totally concealing.

 

This amazed me as it was quite stunning to see the town of Victorville in the distance.

 

After some meditation it was time to scout around. I was eager to get to the “Third grave site”. If you remember when the family was discovered, there was another ground disturbance just over the rise from the initial graves site.

 

 

This really wasn’t far from the graves site. If you recall, there were tire tracks leading to here. However I discovered that this was not done by a standard vehicle like Merritt’s truck. They were made by – surprise – a dirt bike.

 

 

Take away from that what you will as it has been stated elsewhere there were no bike tracks. There were actually a multitude of tracks made by a dirt bike but these were the more prominent. Merritt’s truck really wouldn’t have been able to navigate the wash here either as it was choked with brush all the way from the mouth.

Here are some other things I found of interest.

 

Empty bag of dog food. It looked like it could have been out there for 6 years. I imagined how maybe Chase had replaced the old food with a new bag, took it with him. However the expiration date was for July 2017. I doubted dog food would be good for 6 years. So I checked the dates on one in the store just to be sure. It was dated for August 2017.

Part of a rental agreement.

This was kind of near the third ‘site’. There were other random impressions around this, almost as if someone was wrestling or in a scuffle. I put my foot in and it was slightly larger than my 11 1/2 shoe. Obviously made during muddy conditions.

Wider view.

 

It was right next to this sort of road that I believe lead to Gas Line.

 

This appeared to be some casting material. It was in the wash.

This intrigued me. It was to the left of the crosses, behind a bush. It looked like it was made recently.

 

I said earlier that I went out to pay my respects to the family. Once I was there, that seemed wrong. I mean, they weren’t there. This place of dread no longer held onto these people. It was just an empty gully now. I imagine that is how Mike or Patrick McStay may have felt, this ground no longer holds them, we’ve found them. Unfortunately, so many other family members of the missing are not afforded even that.

This family has been brought home and it’s only a matter of time before the wheels of justice trucks Chase Merritt off to his destiny.