Sep 23, 2026 · 22 min · 20 segments
Ashan Singh and Start Here host Brad Mielke reflect on the McStay murders and dive deeper into the individuals close to the case. Plus, an ABC News-exclusive interview with Chase Merritt from prison…
Ashan SinghHost
Brad MielkeHost
I've had a, a, a few opportunities to kind of delve down the true crime path with Impact by Nightline.
... on some kinda current cases, right? The Delphi murders, the Gilgo Beach murders, and obviously the long-standing cold case of who, who killed Tupac Shakur.
But I think what made this one so fascinating for me is that this was a case that had lived on the minds and hearts of so many people back in 2010, and then for years nobody actually knew what happened.
And so for our team to be able to dig through this archival material that ABC had been collecting over the years and get a clearer picture of this case that almost feels like it couldn't happen in the year 2026, and then to get to sit down a- and work with our ABC audio team, uh, in a podcast, it really leaves no stone left uncovered.
Well, and this story about the McStay family, like you said, it's so fascinating and so heartbreaking.
As you start, like, turning those stones, I guess, what really stuck out to you? What grabbed your attention as you started examining this?
So 2010 doesn't actually feel like that far back, right? But in reality, there are advances in technology that investigators now have at their disposal that they really didn't have back then.
... how much technology has advanced since the first investigation, even though it really wasn't that long ago, it's almost like a crime of days past, but happening in the modern era.
So now smartphones have apps that show whereabouts, as opposed to only having a cell tower that was pinging back in 2010, and there are cameras everywhere.
But San Diego investigators, they were looking at footage from one neighbor's security camera, and at one point this grainy footage that was taken from the border-
Well, and you mentioned, like, the grainy surveillance vi- Like, even the idea that you'd have to look that closely to tell, like, which side of a car the exhaust pipe is at, like, all of that seems so far away, and yet, and yet so close.
Like you said, like, somebody's Ring doorbell cam probably gets you better footage at this point, but that's just not what they were dealing with.
I've had a, a, a few opportunities to kind of delve down the true crime path with Impact by Nightline.
... on some kinda current cases, right? The Delphi murders, the Gilgo Beach murders, and obviously the long-standing cold case of who, who killed Tupac Shakur.
But I think what made this one so fascinating for me is that this was a case that had lived on the minds and hearts of so many people back in 2010, and then for years nobody actually knew what happened.
And so for our team to be able to dig through this archival material that ABC had been collecting over the years and get a clearer picture of this case that almost feels like it couldn't happen in the year 2026, and then to get to sit down a- and work with our ABC audio team, uh, in a podcast, it really leaves no stone left uncovered.
Well, and this story about the McStay family, like you said, it's so fascinating and so heartbreaking.
As you start, like, turning those stones, I guess, what really stuck out to you? What grabbed your attention as you started examining this?
So 2010 doesn't actually feel like that far back, right? But in reality, there are advances in technology that investigators now have at their disposal that they really didn't have back then.
... how much technology has advanced since the first investigation, even though it really wasn't that long ago, it's almost like a crime of days past, but happening in the modern era.
So now smartphones have apps that show whereabouts, as opposed to only having a cell tower that was pinging back in 2010, and there are cameras everywhere.
But San Diego investigators, they were looking at footage from one neighbor's security camera, and at one point this grainy footage that was taken from the border-
Well, and you mentioned, like, the grainy surveillance vi- Like, even the idea that you'd have to look that closely to tell, like, which side of a car the exhaust pipe is at, like, all of that seems so far away, and yet, and yet so close.
Like you said, like, somebody's Ring doorbell cam probably gets you better footage at this point, but that's just not what they were dealing with.
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