The McStay family disappearance felt like a ghost story for years. Four people—Joseph, Summer, and their two tiny boys—just vanished from their California home, popcorn still in bowls, dogs left behind. It was the kind of mystery that kept true crime junkies up at night. Then came the desert graves. Then came the arrest of Charles "Chase" Merritt.
So, let's get right to the point. Is Charles Merritt still alive? Yeah, he is. As of early 2026, Charles Ray Merritt remains incarcerated within the California prison system. He isn't a free man, and he isn't dead. He’s currently sitting in a cell, likely still obsessing over the same legal technicalities he’s been shouting about since his arrest in 2014. If you've been following the recent updates or saw the 20/20 special that aired late last year, you know the drama surrounding his "innocence" hasn't exactly cooled off.
Where is Charles Merritt now?
Merritt is currently housed at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. It’s a place that houses some of the state's most high-profile inmates. He’s not on the traditional "Death Row" at San Quentin anymore because California has been shuffling things around.
In 2020, he was sentenced to death. That sounds final, right? But in California, "death penalty" usually just means "life in prison with a different label." Governor Gavin Newsom instituted a moratorium on executions back in 2019. This means that while Merritt is technically a condemned man, the state isn't actually executing anyone.
He’s basically living out his days in a high-security environment, far from the custom water fountains he used to build with Joseph McStay.
The health scares and the "short life" claims
Funny thing about Merritt—back in 2015, he tried to represent himself in court. His reasoning? He claimed he had congestive heart failure and didn't have much time left. He basically told the judge he wanted to get the trial moving because he was dying.
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That was over a decade ago.
Despite those claims of failing health, Merritt has survived the grueling years of a four-month trial, the stress of a death sentence, and the general wear and tear of prison life. He’s now in his mid-60s. He looks older, sure. The hair is thinner, the face more lined. But he’s still very much here, participating in interviews and working on his appeals.
Why the question of his survival keeps coming up
People keep searching for his status because the case refuses to stay buried. In late 2025, a new book titled Down to the Bone by Caitlin Rother hit the shelves. It tore open the old wounds of the 2019 trial. True crime fans started questioning the "circumstantial" nature of the evidence again.
Did he do it? The jury said yes.
The evidence was pretty damning, even if there wasn't a "smoking gun" inside the McStay house.
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- The Sledgehammer: A 3-pound sledgehammer was found in the graves. Prosecutors argued Merritt used it to blunt-force the family to death.
- The Checks: Merritt wrote checks totaling over $21,000 on Joseph’s business account after the family vanished. He backdated them to Feb. 4th.
- The Cell Towers: His phone pinged near the desert burial site in Victorville just days after the disappearance.
Despite this, Merritt has a small but vocal group of supporters who think he was framed. He even did a prison call interview for a 20/20 episode in October 2025 where he sounded as defiant as ever. He still says he loved Joseph. He still says he’d never hurt a child.
The current state of his appeals (2026 update)
Merritt isn't just sitting quietly. He’s working on a massive appeal.
In California, death penalty cases get an automatic appeal to the State Supreme Court. It’s a slow, agonizingly long process. His legal team is currently poking holes in the DNA evidence found on the steering wheel of the McStays' abandoned Isuzu Trooper. They’re also complaining about the "flawed" cell tower data, claiming one of the towers had a malfunctioning antenna that gave a false location.
Honestly, the chances of him getting a new trial are slim, but in the American legal system, "slim" is enough to keep a case alive for decades.
Life inside Donovan State Prison
Donovan isn't a vacation. But for Merritt, it's a place where he can still communicate with the outside world. He’s reportedly still writing. Before his arrest, he was actually working on a book about the McStays called Afraid of the Light. He had this wild theory that Summer McStay was poisoning Joseph.
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It’s that kind of bizarre finger-pointing that made the trial so sensational.
What most people get wrong about the sentence
There's a big misconception that because he was sentenced to "death," he's in imminent danger of being executed.
Not in California.
The state is actually in the process of dismantling death row and moving inmates into the general population at various prisons. Merritt is essentially a "Life Without Parole" inmate in practice. Unless a new governor comes in with a very different agenda and lifts the moratorium, Charles Merritt will likely die of natural causes behind bars rather than by lethal injection.
Actionable insights for following the case
If you're looking to stay updated on the legal status of the McStay case, here's what you should actually watch:
- California Appellate Courts Portal: This is where the actual filings for his automatic appeal show up. It's dry, but it's the only place for facts.
- The DNA Challenges: Keep an eye on any news regarding "TrueAllele" software. Merritt's team is trying to use new interpretations of DNA mixtures to say he wasn't the one in the car.
- San Bernardino County Records: Any new motions for a retrial usually start with the original court, though they rarely go anywhere.
The McStay family—Joseph, Summer, Joey Jr., and Gianni—never got to see 2026. Merritt is still here, breathing and fighting his conviction. For the family of the victims, his survival is a constant reminder of the tragedy in the Mojave. For Merritt, it's another day in a cell, waiting for a legal miracle that probably isn't coming.