cnn's randy kay spoke exclusively to merritt before any one knew he was a suspect. she covered this for years and joins me now. randy. >> reporter: michael, in his only television interview chase merritt talked to me about his final meeting with joseph mcstay, the day that mcstay and his wife and young sons suddenly vanished. the interview was january of this year, and the mcstays had disappeared nearly four years earlier on february 4, 2010. merritt was mcstay's business partner. he says a close family friend. the two had met for lunch that day and nobody ever heard from joseph mcstay again. merritted that attention of authorities because he was with mcstay just hours before he disappeared. listen. >> you were the last person he saw. >> definitely the last person he saw. >> did joey have any enemies you knew of? >> none. none. everybody loved joseph. >> any idea why someone would want to harm him and his family? >> no. there's nobody that i know of in his entire life that i'm aware of that would have any reason to hurt him. >> now police say chase merritt murdered t

randy kay in for carol costello. nice to see you this morning. have a great day. >> "newsroom" starts right now. >>> good morning everyone. i'm randi kaye in for carol costello. thanks for joining me. grab your winter coats. 200 million americans are in the path of a deep freeze striking too early for comfort this year. check out minneapolis, minnesota now. 28 degrees and snowing already. the brutal forecast calls for more than a foot of snow. cnn meteorologist indra peterson joins me with the latest. it is too early for this. >> it's literally the last thing people want to talk about. in minnesota, minneapolis, nine inches for the entire month normally. today they could exceed that with over awe a foot of snow. temperatures expected to be below freeze aing today and ent week. add the wind chill, feels like teens. winds ripping out there 25 miles per hour. let's look at the maps now. we're going to show you what they're expecting. here comes one of the biggest first snowfalls of the season. double digits in minnesota and in through wisconsin. what

randy kay joins us now. i've been following the story with you. had an exclusive opportunity to sit down with merritt. incredible access to him. >> two hours we spent with him. >> did you get a sense that he could have done this? and done it alone to get rid of a family of four? >> when we sat with him, he was very warm. he talked to our crew. >> you spent a long time with you. >> one thing he didn't show was any emotion. could he have done it alone against a family of four? it doesn't make sense. because he would, if they were killed at the house like the authorities are saying, then he would have had to have gone, so here's the house, he would have had to have been driven 100 miles north to bury them in the mojave desert and 250 miles south to drop their car at the border of mexico where it was found and somehow had to get back up north because he had to be in place 250 miles north to get the cell phone call that pinged off his phone that he says he got from joseph mcstay that night. >> and the family had a chance to look at this surveillance vi

randy kay has more on the big hunt for a big cat. >> one fuzzy photograph is all it took to set off ae frenzy. >> translator: we've spotted it in the woodland just behind me thanks to all the forces that have been mobilized. >> it all started thursday when a woman saw the big cat on this mound of grass east of paris near disney land. one of europe's most popular tourist attractions. her husband spoke to french tv. it's true that we're not used to running into a tiger when coming to work in the morning. the animal was in the middle of the mound so we can suppose that it was at five or six meters from her when she got out of her vehicle. immediately residents in nearby towns were advised to remain indoors out of fear the big cat may attack if threatened or hungry. >> i think he's more afraid than dangerous. >> if i saw the tiger in the street i would run away. >> french authorities are clearly ready for anything. some 140 soldiers now reportedly on the hunt. more than twice as many as the day before. the clever cat has been spotted in the brush and animal experts have identified paw pri

and an interview only on 360, the district attorney spoke with our randy kay on the details of the information the death of the mcstay family, allegedly killed by a friend. this man, chase merritt who was interviewed by cnn after the mcstay's disappearance. you will hear how investigators pieced together clues that led them to the killer. those stories and my story with mike rowe, like >>> it was a warm day in new york but you get hypothermia when you're that far up. >>> this is a probe called fillet, like fillet of fish. it's about the size of a washing machine. its landing spot was a comet less than three miles long and 311 million miles away from earth. by the way it was also moving at many thousands of miles an hour. do the math. you can't. unless you are an astrophysicist. it can run nine experiments on the comet. tom foreman has a look at the probe's journey. >> just even imagining there are human beings capable of doing this invigorates me with hope for the whole human race. this is incredible. >> it really is. this is speed dating like you've never seen it before. these things hooked u

we don't know the results but randy kay asked him about that.ntacted him after that polygraph test. so he assumed it was -- that he was in the clear. >> interesting to say i am definitely the last person he saw. how would you know that? >> it's chilling. for randy to have sat down with somebody who police are alleging lied to her. now four counts of murder and perhaps the death penalty. >> any indication what led them to him in the end? >> police were asked about that at a press conference yesterday. we don't know the details that led them to merritt but they believe they have the right guy. >> interesting to see. thanks. appreciate it. martin. >>> from good will hunting to aladdin to good morning vietnam. just didn't matter, the part, robin williams always knew how to make us laugh. his official autopsy results have been revealed. we'll have that, plus, president obama will announce loretta lynch as his pick for attorney general. so who is she? ain... and a choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. honey, you did it! bab

randy kay in for carol costello. nice to see you this morning. right now. >>> good morning everyone. i'm randi kaye in for carol costello. thanks for joining me. grab your winter coats. 200 million americans are in the path of a deep freeze striking too early for comfort this year. check out minneapolis, minnesota now. 28 degrees and snowing already. the brutal forecast calls for more than a foot of snow.