of the largest religions in the world but the catholic church has struggled for decades to produce new priests. lisaling travels to michigan where hundreds of men are rebuilding their religion one priest at a time. right now, the mcstay murder mystery, in cnn's exclusive report. >> the following is a cnn special report. >> there's the house. >> once a cold case. >> whoever did this to the family had this well planned out. >> a family of four vanished from their home in suburban san diego. no signs of a struggle. >> they don't go anywhere without their double stroller. >> or any apparent plans to flee. gone without a trace. >> there was no way they left willingly and it's been said

since day one. >> then, four years later, 100 miles from their home -- >> 911, what are you reporting? >> i found what looks like part of a human skull. >> we're able to identify the adult victims as summer and joseph mcstay. >> who brutally murdered the mcstays? a year ago, we followed a tragic trail gone cold. >> who's so cold-blooded that they killed children? >> missed opportunities. dead-end clues. interviews with those closest to the family. like this man, chase merritt. then a concerned family friend -- >> i mean, in your gut, what do you think happened? >> i have absolutely no clue. >> now, arrested for their murder. >> the cause of death was determined to be blunt force

trauma. >> he's in custody. >> tonight, his exclusive interview. and haunting words. you were the last person he saw. >> i'm definitely the last person he saw. >> who is this man? and why do police say he killed an entire family? we take you inside this chilling case. "buries secrets: who murdered the mcstay family?" >> from day one, i just had this gut feeling that i was never going to see them again. i just -- i just knew. something told me i wasn't going to see them again. >> four years ago patrick mcstay lost everything he loved.

four years ago his son, joseph, daughter-in-law, summer, and boys 2-year-old gee yawney and 3-year-old joseph jr. vanished. >> i don't think they knew what was coming. i really don't. >> how did you find out that they had done missing? >> friday i tried calling him, couldn't get him. sunday i tried calling him, couldn't reach him noup i'm getting worried. >> worried since patrick says he rarely went a day without a phone call to his son. >> every time i talked to him, the last words out of my mouth before we hang up the phone, i love you, son. >> if he was in trouble and had the ability to reach out to you, do you think he would have called you? do you think he would have. >> absolutely. >> this case is unique. i've never seen anything like it. >> freelance investigative journalist steph watts has following the case closely from

the beginning. >> they literally disappeared and nobody noticed for days. >> thursday, february 4th, 2010, began as an ordinary day in the mcstay home. >> that morning i spoke to joey on the phone. >> he didn't let anything was on? in the last conversation? >> no, nothing was wrong, everything's fine. >> he was planning on having a lunch meeting with a business associate around noon, so he had to quickly wrap up and get out of the house. >> summer spent the day caring for the kids, overseeing their home renovation. did they have any plans for that weekend? >> yeah. they had joey's birthday party scheduled for that saturday the 6th. ♪ >> go! >> but little joey jr. never made it to his third birthday party. instead, the family of four left their house after dark that thursday evening. two days before the party. the doors locked. the family car gone.

>> 7:47 p.m., the neighbors' video surveillance catches the suv leaving the home. it appears from what we learn about what was in the home that they left quickly. >> their two beloved dogs, bear and digger, left outside without food or water. >> i know bear. the big one. and let me tell you something, that dog is like family. summer, that's like a kid, one of her kids. and there is no way -- >> they would never have abandoned them like that? >> oh, god, no. >> food was also left out. eggs rotting on the kitchen counter. coffee grinds scattered about. as if you took off really fast but were coming back. >> susan blake is joseph mcstay's mother. >> your thoughts are going wild. why would they be missing? something's not right here. >> it's a mystery that has baffled investigators. san bernardino sheriff john mcmann and his team of

detectives are in charge of the investigation. did you have any thoughts on what would have made the mcstays leave their home on february 4th in such a rush? >> at this point, no. why would they take their children, who are 4 and 3, out of the home at 8:00 at night? it's dark. what was it that got all four of them out of that house and out of that house in a hurry? >> were they forced to leave, or did they leave on their own? early evidence pointed the investigation south to mexico. >> law enforcement was convinced that the family had gone over to mexico willingly at this point. >> but patrick mcstay was not. so he launched his own investigation. from his living room in texas. is how many hours a day are you investigating this? >> whenever i'm awake. >> which is most of the time. patrick hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in nearly five

years. do you think if he was having a problem or if somebody had been threatening him, he would have told you? >> i thought he would have, but i found out later that apparently he didn't. >> was this random, or was this extremely orchestrated? and as the to come together, it's looking to me like it was extremely orchestrated. so we have to ask ourselves, why? >> why did the mcstays leave their home on a moment's notice? and why would anyone want this beautiful young family to vanish without a trace? shocking clues that police say connect this man to the mystery, when we come back. so, your site gave me this "credit report card" thing. can i get my experian credit report... like, the one the bank sees. sheesh, i feel like i'm being interrogated over here. she's onto us. dump her. (phone ringing) ...hello?

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and the boys are on a swing. >> you've got to see these little monkeys. >> in the months before they disappeared, summer and joseph mcstay's lives appeared picture perfect. they certainly didn't look like they had any plans to vanish. >> i'm having so much fun. >> joseph's younger brother michael says they had it all. >> everything is going good. they've got these two beautiful boys, they hang out at the peach. >> wow, that's pumping, guys. >> everybody loved joey. the boys were full of life. summer was a great mom. >> they were living the american dream. joseph worked from home building his custom water feature

business, chase merritt worked with him an considered him a close friend. >> he was incredible. joseph was probably one of the nicest people i've ever met. he loved summer to death. he'd do just about anything for her. >> while joseph worked hard, summer raised their sons. >> taking the cruise on the beach. we live up there on the cliff. >> they love the beach. summer loved the beach, joey loved the beach. >> joseph's father, patrick. >> they had problems just like everybody else. the thing it came down to was they loved each other. >> macgyver, joseph's close friend and former roommate. he knew summer through husband work in real estate and introduced her to joseph in 2004. >> love at first sight for joseph. my joke with them was, okay, pace yourself. i didn't want anybody hurt here.

>> gianni, their first son, was born in 2005. less than two years later, joseph jr. arrived. >> summer was a mama bear. she wanted the best for her kids. she was very protective. >> let me tell you, don't mess with those kids. she was a very protective woman. not afraid of anybody. >> shortly after joey jr. was born, joseph and summer got married in a small intimate ceremony in orange county, california. melissa geller was one of summer's bridesmaids. >> she looked so beautiful. it was a great day. she really was. >> but there was something >> i know summer was very jealous, obviously of the first wife. >> in his early 20s joseph married a woman named heather. they had a son together. >> she was the love of his life. when they broke up, it broke his heart. >> heather and joseph's young romance broke down after six

years of marriage. she filed for divorce in august of 1998. citing irreconcilable differences. >> he would have done anything and everything, but you know, things happen. and out of it, you know, the decision was made that, you know, they're going to be good parents together. >> yeah. playing with your brother? >> joseph and hannah agreed to share custody of their son, jonah. >> he loved jonah. he wanted to be as much of a father as he could. >> friends say when joseph married summer, she welcomed jonah into their new family with open arms. >> i remember her helping him make a lemonade stand, you know, and so she was totally embracing it. >> chase merritt remembers something very different. we first spoke to him exclusively in january of 2014. now accused by authorities of murdering the mcstay family, then he was pointing fingers in

other directions. >> summer hated the idea of joseph spending time with jonah and taking time away from her other two boys and her. >> did she like jonah? >> she didn't act like it. >> merritt claims joseph simply put up with summer's controlling behavior. >> joseph loved her to death. he thought she walked on water, >> he also thought she may be the route of his health issues. >> extreme dizziness, nausea. went to the doctors several times and couldn't find anything wrong. >> merritt said joseph wondered if his own wife may have potentially been poisoning him. >> somebody had told hip that maybe he should stop eating at home. >> did he truly believe she was trying to poison him? >> his statement to me was, you know, maybe i should take heed. >> what would be the reason or the motive that summer would ever consider poisoning him? >> we never talked about that.

>> do you believe that summer may have been looking to poison your son? >> i suspected the same thing in the beginning because of joey's illness and everything else. so i went down that same road, you know, and no, i don't believe it. up next, exclusive insights into the day joseph mcstay and his family went missing. you were the last person who saw -- >> i'm definitely the last person who saw him. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night,nd. and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24, a circadian rhythm disorder that affects up to 70 percent of people who are totally blind. talk to your doctor about your symptoms and learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. don't let non-24 get in the way of your pursuit of happiness.

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we got together, we had a lot to talk about. >> you were the last person who saw him. >> i most definitely was hat person who saw him. >> chase merritt has never talked on camera before about that day. he met with joseph on february 4 th, 2010, to talk business, and business was booming. >> we had 500 waterfalls coming up. that would be the biggest project we've ever done. >> a project in all worth about $9 million. after lunch, merritt says they spoke on the phone a handful more times. records show that joseph's phone called merritt's at 8:28 p.m. >> i had already talked to joseph 12, 13 times that day. and we'd already met for a couple of hours, you know, and i was tired. >> do you regret not picking up that call? >> hindsight is 20/20.

>> it was the last known call from joseph's cell phone. the call was made 41 minutes after a neighbor's security camera captured the mcstay's white izuzu pulling out of the mcstay's cul-de-sac. >> did joseph actually make that call from his phone or did somebody else take joseph's phone and make that call? or was he trying to call for help? >> next day i called, he didn't answer. i got concerned the next day. >> i put the initial friends cas friends and family he had not been communicating online or via phone and couldn't get ahold of summer either. >> dan cavanaugh who worked with joseph managing his company's website, contacted patrick. >> my gut instinct was not really a good one. >> patrick called his younger son, michael, who lived near joseph. >> need you to go down and check

on your brother. again, i get, i'm too busy. i didn't want to overreact. we thought that maybe they did a little ten-day vacay. >> finally, on february 10th, 6 days since the family went missing, law enforcement was notified. [ sirens ] >> they don't go into the house. they only check outside the house. at that point, they thought there was nothing suspicious. >> chase merritt told us he was the first person to go to the house to check things out for himself. >> he wasn't there. dogs were in the backyard with no food, no water. there was a shed to the left of his house that i built for him just a few weeks before. and it was closed. so i ended up opening the door and held it open with a bucket

or something. and i took the dogs dog food and ripped open the bag and put the bag inside the shed so they could get in. >> and did you look around the house? did you see anything suspicious? >> i walked around the house. i didn't see anything suspicious. you know, down -- they just weren't there. you know? they didn't answer the phone. >> did it surprise you that the dogs were outside? >> very much so. so much so that i called joseph's mother, susan. and told her. there's something amiss. >> my mom said chase just left here, he just left by joey's house. i'm talking with chase every day. >> you felt like you had eyeballs on the house. >> i felt like i had eyeballs on the house. >> he was more alarmed than mcstay family members. >> i was more concerned they weren't more concerned. >> what seems to be missing for me is any sort of ursy, find out where they were, get inside that house. >> that's exactly -- exactly

what i thought also. i don't even know if i called the sheriff department if they would do anything, anyway. you know, to them, i'm just a friend. >> then on february 13th, 9 days had passed and still no word from the mcstays. that's when michael decided he needed to drive to his brother's house, himself. chase met him there and together they climbed inside through unan unlocked window. utter disarray. food on the counter, popcorn on the futon. clothes thrown all over the place. >> i don't remember a great deal of it because i was in the house for maybe three minutes, i think. i mean, not very long. i told michael at the time, you should probably call the sheriff department. and his response was simply, you know what, let's wait until the end of the weekend. >> san diego sheriff, they have a rule anyway. after ten days, it's automatically they send out

homicide. >> could you have reported them missing and gotten some police action before those ten days? >> i don't know. maybe. >> monday, february 15th, 11 days after the family went missing, michael called the sheriffs department who came to the house to investigate. they immediately alerted homicide. then investigators did something patrick mcstay finds unbelievable. >> they don't put any tape on it, crime scene tape, notices on the door, nothing. they just lock the house back up and they leave to get warrants. >> it took san diego investigators four days to obtain the warrants they needed to complete a full search of the home, but during those four days, the mcstay's home remained unsealed. which allowed joseph's brother and mother access in and out of the house. >> i wouldn't go in there unless i called, you knows, the

sheriffs department. they said i could. so i had permission. i cleaned up the kitchen because it was disgusting and the trash can from diapers sitting there all that time. >> no, it was not deemed a crime scene because there was no sign of forced entry. there was no signs of foul play at the house. >> michael says investigators gave them the okay to remove some items from the home. >> with their permission, i grabbed his computer, what would be joey's computer, and the sd card. i got the pictures off of it, got that downloaded. then i had to put that back prior to them issuing the warrant. >> back in texas, patrick could hardly believe what was going on. >> first thing i'm thinking is, like, you're going to destroy evidence? i was just stunned. certain items that might have been really key to the big mystery of why they left that

house are gone. touched. moved. cleaned up. it's ridiculous. >> and as you'll see, more road blocks will soon hamper the investigation. coming up, mysterious surveillance footage. and a trail of clues that lead investigators in the wrong direction. ♪ all around the world the dedicated people of united airlines ♪ are there to support you. ♪ that's got your back friendly. ♪

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there's the house. >> the house. >> november 2009. just months before they vanished, the mcstays moved into a new house. >> there's the entrance. >> it was a new beginning. >> light colors. hi, you like all this big room in here? >> for them to be able to run and play outside, it was perfect. >> i know how these work. >> but by february 15th, 2010, that once perfect house was now shrouded in mystery. the mcstay family was still missing, and so was their truck. detectives send out a be on

lookout, bolo. what did they discover? >> instantly, randi, they get a hit on the truck. impounded from a shopping mall near the mexican border. >> detectives say four days after the mcstays disappeared, they white izuzu trooper was parked and subsequently towed from a parking lot steps away from the mexican border. >> there was nothing in that car to indicate that anything bad had happened. >> no apparent foul play. investigators and loved ones had to consider the possibility. did the mcstays park their car at the border and then vanish into mexico? >> summer was afraid of mexico. would summer take her two children in there? heck no. >> but the truck wasn't the only evidence leading investigators south of the border.

soon after they found the izuzu, detectives uncovered another clue. a search on the mcstay's home computer from a week before they disappeared. >> somebody at the mcstay home had searched for getting passports to mexico. >> then just weeks later, what appeared to be a major break in the case. >> authorities are poring over security tapes from border checkpoints. >> new video could show the family crossing the mexican border. is it the mcstays? >> this surveillance footage showing what appeared to be a family of four crossing on foot into mexico on february 8th. the very same night the mcstay's izuzu trooper was found near the border. >> we're getting a story that we found the car at the border, and we've got a family that looks like them walking over the border. so we think they may have left voluntarily. >> but while detectives pursued

that theory, those who knew the mcstays insisted those people in that video were not the mcstays. >> i told the detectives, under in uncertain terms, that was not joseph. >> why do you think that is not them? >> joseph has a distinct walk, number one. he walked like a duck. and the man walking across the border was walking normally. >> so they're up there meeting with detectives. >> fearful that detectives were chasing dead end clues, patrick called tim miller, a fellow tex texan, who he hoped could refocus the search for his family. >> family. >> patrick sounded pretty distraught. >> miller founded the non-profit search and rescue organization, texas equusearch. he traveled to california weeks after the family disappeared. >> you know, it was basically a

recon trip to look at the area, kind of map things out. >> miller needed some help, so he called investigative journalist steph watts. the two had worked together on previous missing persons cases. >> oh, no, he's got one now. >> their first stop, inside the mcstay home. joseph's brother, michael, let them in. >> i thought we were going to get in trouble for interfering in a police investigation, for contaminating some evidence, but michael said no problem, you can be here. >> the detective just told me that this is not a crime scene and i can do whatever i want. >> baffled me that this was not a crime scene. it baffled me that they even let me in there. >> there's no clues here, is there? >> none. >> though miller and watts fail to find any evidence of foul play, what they did find

suggested the mcstays never planned to run away. >> still here. they don't go anywhere without their double stroller. >> and the kids' two little laptops. >> miller and watts left the house that day more convinced than ever that something very bad had happened to the mcstays. so the following day, they drove to the border looking for areas along the way that appeared suspicious. >> going up that path. >> we retrace that same drive with miller. when you look at such a vast area, did you realize what a challenge you had ahead? >> i today michael, i said, michael, we have a real challenge. i said, it's only going to be a miracle. >> we did believe for a while we had a strong reason to believe that they had traveled to mexico. >> jan caldwell is with the san diego county sheriffs department. >> we have a guy in mexico that

thought he served them. somebody else down there actually had brought them cocktails and we did have the sightings. were they still there? we didn't know. >> and as more time went by, detectives say the leads dried up, and the case went cold. >> it's almost impossible to work a case without information flowing in. >> the san diego sheriff eventually handed the case over to the fbi in april of 2013. but still, no answers. >> there's some real problems. there's some things that were really missed. up next the mystery only deepens. a tragic discovery in the mojave desert. were you surprised that the remains were found in this desert in victorville? >> yeah, actually, because i live nearby. >> nearby? >> yeah, probably 20 miles or so. >> would you ever expect this is how it would end, in the desert

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911, emergency? what are you reporting? >> hi. i found what looks like part of a human skull. >> the call came in at 9:58 a.m. november 11th, 2013. a motorcyclist offroading in the

mojave desert. >> what's the location? >> i believe 811 park -- >> so you're in victorville? >> yes, yes. >> a remote area. 100 miles north of the mcstay home. and over 150 miles from the mexico border. >> it's not an area where we would generally patrol. >> the local sheriffs department found two shallow graves and four skeletons. >> through the use of dental records, we're able to identify the adult victims as summer and joseph mcstay. we believe the other two sets of remains are that of the boys, their sons. >> it gives us courage to kn know -- that they're together. >> who did it?

who is so cold-blooded that they killed children? >> it was a spot not far from where chase merritt lives. were you surprised that the remains were found in this desert in victorville? >> yeah, actually, because i love in -- >> nearby. >> anyway, probably 20 miles or so. >> i mean, is this ever -- would you ever expect that this is how it would end? in the desert like that? >> in the desert? i had no clue. >> but the police might. the remains might provide crucial leads. >> now we have a scene. >> we met jan caldwell of the san diego sheriffs department just days after the remains were discovered. >> hopefully now that we have a scene, that's going to tell us the answers to the mystery. >> a mystery once considered a missing persons case, now officially a murder investigation. almost four years since the

disappearance, grieving family and friends criticize the initial investigators, san dieg overlooking evidence that might have helped them find the mcstays sooner. >> i could have probably hired some boy scouts and done a better job. >> allegations that we put to the san diego sheriffs department in one of the rare interviews they gave on the case. this is an incredibly thorough investigation. thumbing through it, i can see phone records. i see photographs. i see communication. and to have done all of this, to compile this kind of a massive file and still not know the answer, enormously frustrating. >> investigative journalist steph watts and others believe law enforcement was so convinced the family went to mexico that they mised clues that might have had them searching in another direction. an allegation the san diego sheriff would not comment on. >> common sense didn't come into play here with the investigators. why would they have parked a car and walk over?

why would they not drive over the border to enjoy a day in mexico? why would they walk over the border in the dark at night when there's really nothing on the other side at that time of night to do with small children? >> consider the timing. according to the sheriff, the empty mcstay izuzu was found between 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the mall. yet the surveillance video at the border is time stamped 7:00 p.m. >> tell me something. where were they for an hour and a half? now, with all these cameras in the parking lot, in the mall stores, and on top of the bank right in front of where the izuzu was parked, there's no video. >> of them. >> of them. anything. no video, period. any of it. that's amazing. >> whoever put that car there fooled us all. it's exactly what they wanted us to believe. park it close to the border end believe that they went over to mexico.

>> even days after the bodies were found, san diego sheriffs department stood by their belief that the mcstays went to mexico. did they actually cross into mexico? we still think that there's a strong possibility that they did. >> on november 15th, 2013, the san bernardino sheriff, law enforcement for the county where the remains were found, took over the investigation. >> the first step is getting up to speed on what was done in san diego. it was nearly 3,000 pages of typed material. >> patrick mcstay still hopes to find answers. >> i'll give san bernardino all the opportunities in the world to solve this case. >> he's been in contact with the new investigative team to help find out who did this and why. >> it has to be somebody that hated them for a reason. some crazy reason.

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this is the first time patrick mcstay has seen the shallow graves, where his family was buried. it's april, 2014. >> when we hit the dirt off the pavement -- >> yeah. >> first thoughts in my head, was what were they thinking coming up that road. they had to know it wasn't good. and that's the part that i don't to want think about. >> all he can think about, how his family was killed and who did it. there have been so many theories, a drug cartel, a random intruder, or even a lover scorned as chase merit told us back in january of 2014. >> joseph was a little bit

concerned about a possible affair that summer may be having. >> then there were still no official suspects. have you ruled anyone out? >> we have not ruled anybody out at this point. >> almost every we spoke to over the past year told us they met with investigators at one point or the other. including the last person to see joseph mcstay a live, chase merit. >> do i know anything about them disappearing. did i have anything to do with it. >> you took a polygraph test, what did it show? >> i don't know. >> you passed the polygraph. >> apparently. after i took the polygraph test, law enforcement has not contacted me. >> do you think you were a person of interest? >> well, i was the last person who saw him, so of course i was a person of interest. >> did detective asks you if you killed joseph mcstay and his

family? >> i don't recall them asking me that. >> that was then. this is now. >> merit was arrested on wednesday, november 5th, without incident. charles chase merit was identified as the suspect responsible for the death of joseph, summer, jianni, and joseph mcstay. >> reporter: merit has not been arraigned, selected a lawyer, or entered a plea, but he has been charged with four counts of murder. >> to me it looked like a broken man. >> we met patrick at his home just days after he received a call from the sheriff that merit was in custody. he'd been waiting nearly five years for that call. >> a lot of people will say it's like lifting a ton off your shoulders, and i said no, it was more to me like a boulder falling on me. >> over the last year, patrick

had grown suspicious of merit. >> it really didn't shock me at all. >> because you had suspected him? >> yeah, especially the last year, since january of this year. we discovered some things that we already had that we didn't put together, and we finally put them together, and it was like the light bulbs went off. >> it certainly hadn't started off that way. >> i was fooled like a lot of people at first because i remember my first conversation with joe about chase merit. and he said, dad, you got to meet chase. he said you'll like him. >> and so you trusted him. >> i trusted him because my son believed in him. >> and he was definitely a good friend of mine. we talked constantly. we played paintball together all the time. we came down and had dinner with me and my family once or twice a week. virtually every week. we got pretty close. >> but as patrick started investigated his family's

disappearance, his views on merit began to change. >> that's when we found his record and we started finding more out abouted him, and i don't remember all offhand, but there was burglary i think, theft, nothing violent. >> chase handled much of the custom welding work for joseph's booming water fall business. here's what merit told us earlier this year. >> we were anticipating probably a million and a half in sales for 2010, that's joseph's total sales. i was probably going to be doing well over half of those water falls because the majority of his water falls were actually custom. >> and that was just the beginning. another potential contract of joseph's would bring in about $9 million. merit stood to make a lot of money. that is if he kept working for joseph. something that patrick says was in jeopardy.

>> the last year joey hadn't talked about the quality of some of the fountains that slipped. and joey wasn't happy with that. >> blaming chase at that point. >> absolutely because he was getting complaints. >> was he considering not doing business with chase merit anymore? >> joey discussed with me about getting a warehouse of his own. and getting another welder. >> cutting chase out? >> well, not virtually cutting him out, giving him some competition. >> could it be that simple? could money be the motive? investigative journalist steph watts. >> motives are sometimessimplis jealousy, love, lust, it's not that complicated. >> and if merit did do it, how could he have covered up the brutality. >> the cause of death was determined to be blunt force

trauma. investigators believe these murders occurred at their residence in fallbrook. >> blunt force trauma is extensive blood splatter. there's no way you could have blunt force trauma, where is the blood? where is the blood in that house? >> merit told us in january that he was at the house days before anyone else went in. and merit told us, he made sure the shed door was open so the dogs could get to the food inside. seemed innocent then, but now patrick thinks it was far from it. >> he wanted to keep the dogs quiet, he wanted to feed them food. he doesn't want attention brought to the house. he wants time to go by, which is exactly what happened. >> and remember that phone call from joseph's cell to merit's cell? the one he told us he was too tired to answer? >> how do we know where joey's phone was? >> are you suggesting that it was chase calling? >> maybe he was calling himself.

i don't know. >> what would be the reason for that? >> nice way to form an alibi. >> but could he have really done it on his own? killing four people and then burying all four bodies in the desert? while law enforcement believes merit acted alone, patrick is not so sure. do you believe that one person could have committed this crime? >> honestly, no. i don't believe that. >> why not? >> it's just too much there. >> so as he's done for nearly five years, patrick still waits and hopes. waits for answers, and hopes for justice at last for his family. how did you keep up the hope? >> i told you in the first interview we did that i had a gut feeling the first day that i'd never see my son again. that never changed.

>> first bike ride ever. >> why did i keep going? why did i fight? one word, joey. >> come on, let's do it. you are not very patient, are you? >> my son -- >> i got you. i'm going to get you. >> i love him. and he loved me. and i know you're doing the right thing, dad. i know you'll do it, dad.

this is where i bought my first bag of heroin. it was 1980, i was 24 years old. but in a lot of ways, my whole life up to that point was leading to this address. western massachusetts, the unlikely new frontier of america's war on drugs where heroin has become an exploding problem that's begun to touch nearly every family. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪