The Death of Marcus Merritt, Sr.

Another Louisiana family has doubts about the manner of death of their loved one due to the quality of the initial investigation.

The website created by Marc's mother:
http://marcusmerrittsr.com/?fbclid=IwAR2RHhMJ9K5Z2h6PlvTDDMbUwJrb4scsz2cbyhBfQYMScwZiaaW5QGXjdrU

The Justice for Marcus A. Merritt Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/justice4marcus

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1 (800) 273-8255

Transcript

• Hey, y’all! I’m your host, Peyton, and the story I’m going to tell you today sounds a lot like the one discussed in my most recent episode. Just like in the case of George Normand, the quality of the investigation done by officers has left another family wondering if their beloved son really took his own life. This is The Crimes-Picayune. 
•  Our story takes place in south Louisiana, specifically in a small town called Leonville. 
• The 2.75 square mile town is located within St. Landry Parish. 
• Leonville is about a 30 minute drive to Lafayette and only 15 or so to Opelousas (and if you’re nonnative, we measure distance by time, not miles, down here). 
• Around 6:20 PM on the evening of Friday, January 4th 2013, a woman named Royce received a call from her son, Marcus’, wife. 
• This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary - Royce spoke with her son’s wife, who I’m going to call Asia, everyday after Asia got off of work. According to Royce, they would text throughout the day and pretty much stayed in constant communication. They had the kind of relationship every girl dreams of having with their mother-in-law. 
• Asia was still at work when she called Royce from her cell phone. She stated to her mother-in-law that she thought Marcus (who the family called “Marc”) had done something to himself. Royce, confused, asked Asia all of the “w” questions: what happened, why would she think that, where was Marc, etc. 
• Asia told Royce that the two had been texting back and forth when he suddenly stopped responding. Still on the phone with her mother-in-law, it was then that Asia told Royce she was heading home and she had already called her parents to go check on Marc. And I believe this was because she worked about 15 minutes away from their home in Leonville and her parents could get there faster and maybe give her some peace of mind a little bit sooner. 
• As Asia is beginning to drive home, Royce put her on hold and tried to call Marc herself. But when she didn’t get a response from him she didn’t really think much of it - I mean, he’s in a tiff with his wife and she’s been trying to call and now his mom is trying to call, and y’all probably know how that goes. 
• Royce continued talking on the phone with Asia as she drove home. 
• According to Royce, once Asia made it home, the first thing she said, “they’re still not coming out.” According to the website Royce created in honor of her son’s death (which I’ll have linked on my Facebook page) Asia was referring to her parents that had gone inside the house to check on Marc. 
• The next thing Royce heard Asia say was, “he did,” and she began to cry. 
• Asia’s step-mother grabbed the phone and said, “Royce, I’m sorry.” 
• The next day Royce drove from her home in Texas to Asia’s parents’ house in Leonville. 
• Royce and Asia began to talk, eventually discussing the events that occurred the previous night. According to Asia, she and Marc had been on the phone when she heard a loud noise. She said she heard him make an “uh” sound before the line went quiet. 
• Royce also spoke with Asia’s parents - the ones who were said to have found Marc at the Merritt home. 
• The pair stated that when they entered the room, Marc was lying on the floor of his bedroom next to the bed. Her stepmother said that she checked him for a pulse and when she wasn’t able to find one she closed his eyes. 
• Asia’s father stated that he believed Marc had been reading a Bible before he died.
• That night, Royce also spoke with Asia’s 15 year-old son. 
• Marc and Asia each had a child from a previous relationship and also had two kids together. Their two kids and the 15 year old boy lived in the home with them. 
• During their conversation, Marc’s stepson - the 15 year old, stated that that afternoon he and Marc played a game before he was brought to his maternal grandmother’s house for a tutoring session. 
•  Marc’s family finally laid him to rest the following Saturday. 
•  A couple of weeks had gone by when Royce started to notice that Asia hadn’t reached out to her, not even once. 
• And remember what I told you earlier about their relationship - they talked everyday, oftentimes throughout the day. So for Royce not to hear from Asia was odd, especially given the circumstances. 
• This is when Royce said she started to question her son’s death. 
• So now I’m going to go back through the story and provide you with some more details and point out some inconsistencies. 
• I’m going to start with the call that Marc’s mom, Royce, received the night of his death - and if you were listening closely you might’ve already picked up on the first of many inconsistencies. 
• When Asia called Royce just before 6:20, she told her MIL that she and Marcus had been texting when he all of a sudden stopped and that she tried to call him but he didn’t answer. 
• But when she and Royce spoke just that very next day her story had changed. Now she’s saying that they were on the phone and she heard a loud noise before hearing an “uh” sound and the call went quiet. 
• These are two very different accounts of what happened. How do you mix up texting with actually hearing the shot that killed your husband? 
• Something else that I think I should mention about the phone call between Royce and Asia while Asia supposedly drove home from work, Royce didn’t hear any, what she called, “extraneous noises,” meaning she didn’t hear any dinging from the car or the door shutting or noises of the car being on the road. On her website she writes, “Once Asia was at the house, I did not hear her talking to her parents. I still did not hear any extraneous noises: her car door, keys jingling, house doors opening. I heard nothing until Asia said, “They’re still not coming out,” referring to her parents who had gone inside the house to check on Marcus.”  
• The day after Marcus died - which was Saturday - remember I told you that Royce, Marc’s mom, had spoken with Asia and her parents. Royce believes it was that evening that Asia told her that they “did a good job cleaning the house.” 
• I’m sorry, what?! Your husband of 8 years just supposedly took his own life and you’re worried about the clean up?! But wait, it gets better. 
• In that same conversation Asia told her MIL that they burned the mattress. When asked why she said it was because it had blood on it. 
• I know that we all grieve differently and maybe trash day wasn’t till Monday, but to burn the mattress your husband lost his life on less than 24 hours after he died is just freaking odd. 
• I really try and keep my episodes PG but this woman is making me want to throw an explicit label on this thing. 
• The following Monday, Royce, her cousin, Asia, and Asia’s step-mother all went to the funeral home to bring some clothes for Marcus to wear during the service. It was there that Royce was finally able to see her son for the first time. All she could see was from the neck up and the rest of his body was covered by a sheet. She notes on her website “it seemed to me that his hair was a little longer than he normally wore it. However, I did not see any wounds to his head.” 
• It wasn’t until weeks after the funeral that Royce was finally able to speak to the coroner and would learn where Marcus was said to have been shot. He returned her call on February 4th (mind you, she’d been trying to reach him from January 15 until the 28th) and that’s when he told her that a gun had been put to his head. 
• Royce had been told (by an unknown source to me) that Marc had bled from his mouth. She hadn’t seen this herself because the first time she saw him was that Monday at the funeral home after he’d already been cleaned up, but when she questioned the coroner about the blood from his mouth as well as the lack of wounds on Marc’s body, he told her that if the tip of the gun had been placed against the head, the wound might not be obvious or noticeable. 
• And, spoiler alert, Marc’s death would eventually be reinvestigated in 2016 and when the coroner - who, mind you, didn’t ever see the body but signed off on the death certificate - was questioned about his findings, he stated that he documented the GSW as being to his head because technically one’s mouth is apart of their head. Okay, true. But if I were to just tell you that Marcus was shot in the head, what do you picture? Probably an injury to his temple, right? Well, during this conversation between the investigator and the coroner in 2016, the coroner conveniently didn’t remember telling Royce the statement about the wound to his head potentially not being obvious. 
• Before the service, a guy - who I’ll call J - went to the funeral home to give Marcus his last haircut. According to Royce, J was a barber that had been cutting Marc’s hair for over 10 years. When he was finished, J inquired about Marcus’ cause of death and that’s when he was told that Marcus had shot himself in the head. 
• So this guy, J, spent however long it took to cut Marcus’ hair, paying close attention to his head, and saw nothing that would indicate a gunshot wound? 
• The pastor that presided over the service shared with Royce that he too didn’t see any evidence of a gunshot wound. 
• I’ve unfortunately attended several funerals that were the result of individuals taking their lives the way Marcus was said to have, but each of them had to have extensive reconstruction done with makeup and other products in order to cover up their wounds and the pastor said that no reconstruction had to be done to Marcus’ head, face, or body before his funeral. 
• Royce is unsure of the exact date but it was around the time she had made contact with J that she spoke with one of the officers that was at the Merritt home the night Marcus died - his name is Chief Joseph Noel. When Royce requested a copy of the police report, Chief Noel told her that she’d have to get it from Asia, Marcus’ wife. Well, we know that Asia wasn’t speaking to Royce at this time so Royce wasn’t able to get a copy from her. Royce actually wasn’t able to get a copy of the report until a captain at the department called Chief Noel and told him to send her one because she was his mother and wouldn’t need permission. Royce finally received a copy of the report on May 17th 2013, over 4 months after her son had died. 

• When a group called MJA Investigations that looked into Marcus’ case, they found that, allegedly, Chief Noel and Marcus’ wife, Asia, knew each other very well, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. 
• You see, unbeknownst to Royce, Marcus and his wife had actually split and were said to have been living separately at the time of his death. I’m not sure exactly where she was living or even how long they had been apart, I just know that the two weren’t living together and had recently discussed divorce. These living conditions were mentioned in a report that was written by a detective with the sheriff’s office who had interviewed Asia at the scene. The detective, who I’ll call Det. S, wrote, “Asia told me that she and her husband were separated and she was living in Opelousas because she had found out Marcus was seeing another woman.” 
• And before I go any further, I do want to mention that Marcus wasn’t exactly faithful to his wife, either, and had been engaging in an affair with Asia’s cousin. She, being the cousin, and Marcus had recently gotten into an altercation that resulted in Marcus’ arrest for domestic abuse. And again, I don’t have many details about this relationship either, but I wanted to be transparent with the information that I do have. 
• Now I would like to give you a little more information about this officer, Chief Noel. 
• Chief Noel, as far as I could find, has worked for at least 3 departments in south Louisiana, first being for the Sunset Police Department in St. Landry Parish. He left that department after being indicted on battery charges from two separate arrests in September of 1997 and March of 98. 
• According to an article from the Daily World, the Opelousas-based newspaper writes that the Attorney General’s office dropped the charges a year later as well as “two civil suits also filed against Noel alleging excessive use of force were dismissed.” 
• He then began working for the Grand Coteau Police Department - also in St. Landry Parish. It was in September of 2000 that Noel was involved in the shooting death of a civilian. Basically, according to Noel, he responded to a domestic disturbance where a man (named Patrick Walker) had entered the home of his estranged wife and threatened her. Noel attempted to remove Walker from the home, he resisted, and after 2 failed attempts at macing him, Walker grabbed an object from the kitchen and hit Noel, knocking him to the ground. Walker then put Noel into a chokehold and Noel drew his weapon and fired at him, ultimately killing him. 
• I wasn’t able to find the outcome of the subsequent investigation done by the Louisiana State Police regarding Walker’s death, but just a year later, by October of 2001, Noel had transferred to the Leonville Police Department and was already being accused of using excessive force after he arrested a woman for driving while intoxicated. I also wasn’t able to find an outcome for that arrest/incident either. 
• MJA Investigations, the group I mentioned earlier that has really dug deep into Marcus’ death, actually has their own podcast and I’ll have it linked with the episode notes on my Facebook page, but according to an episode they did about Marcus, Asia’s family and Chief Noel were allegedly close family friends.

• *pause* 
• In May of 2016, as a part of the reinvestigation into Marcus’ death, Asia would find herself sitting in the State Police’s office in Breaux Bridge, LA after having voluntarily agreed to taking a polygraph test. 
• During this exam, she was asked questions directly relating to her involvement and participation in the death of her late husband. 
• The results came back inconclusive due to the “irregular and erratic reactions to the test questions” as stated by the polygraphist that administered the exam. 
• She returned almost two weeks later and, to no surprise, the polygraphist was, yet again, unable to conclude whether or not Asia was telling the truth, leading to another inconclusive result. 
• In his letter to the Louisiana State Police regarding his findings, the polygraphist concludes by stating that the reactions he got from Asia during the exams could not allow him to form an opinion about the truthfulness of her statements. 
•  And, I mean, I’m not surprised that he wasn’t able to come to a conclusion. Between all of the inconsistencies there were in her stories, who knows if she even remembers what really happened?! 

•  Marcus’ body was exhumed just a couple of weeks after Asia’s second polygraph test and he was finally granted the autopsy he should’ve received back in 2013. 
• Oh yeah, I should mention that, until the summer of 2016, an autopsy had never been conducted on Marcus. 
• In that interview I talked about earlier between the investigator and the coroner, the coroner states that he didn’t examine Marc’s body because he relied on the documentation from his investigator that was at the scene. 
• Thanks to the dispatch log from the sheriff’s office, we know that the coroner’s investigator spent no more than 35 minutes with Marcus’ body before the funeral home took him away. So in those 35 minutes, you’re telling me he took adequate, detailed notes of Marcus’ wounds (or according to them, his lack of wounds) that allowed him to determine the cause and manner of death? 
• You can’t even thoroughly bake a lasagna in 35 minutes and you’re saying that’s enough time to do a thorough examination of a body?! 

• I haven’t personally seen the video that was taken during the examination of Marcus’ body but Marc Harper with MJA Investigations has so I’m going to recount some of his thoughts about the video and his assessment of the autopsy as a whole. 
• To put it nicely, Marc Harper was not satisfied with how the autopsy was conducted. The camera was so far back that you can’t clearly see what’s being done, specifically when something, supposedly the bullet, is being removed from his head and placed onto a tray. Marc Harper also said that there wasn’t any audio. Now, I’m not familiar with autopsy procedures, but Harper states that there should always be audio and there should also be someone taking notes throughout the examination, and both of those were absent from the recording. 
• There were so many more issues that Marc Harper had with not only the autopsy itself but also with the behavior of the individuals conducting the autopsy. He’s got more years of experience doing this than years I’ve been alive, so like I said earlier, I’m going to link his episodes on my Facebook page if you want a much deeper dive into the exhumation of Marc’s body. 

• The reinvestigation into Marcus Merritt’s death was completed in the fall of 2016 and a 25 page report was given to Royce that detailed the investigating officer’s exploration into the case. 

• One of the first contacts made when Investigator Fournet was assigned to the case was with Asia via telephone. 
• During this call, she told the investigator that she and Marcus were married and living together at the time of his death. Yeah, that’s been disputed but I’ll come back to that later. 
• She also gave the investigator both her and Marcus’ cell phone numbers that they were using during January of 2013 so their phone records could be used to determine their locations at different times of the evening.  

• About 2 months later, investigators discovered that the number Asia had given them as belonging to her was actually invalid and not the one she was using at the time of Marc’s death. But they were eventually able to get the correct number, trace its locations, and found that Asia was where she said she’d been. 
• The next few interviews that were conducted during the reinvestigation were with coworkers that were working alongside Asia the night Marcus died. 
• I’m not going to go too far into detail, honestly because I’m not sure how much can be shared legally, but each of the three women described the odd behavior that Asia was portraying, beginning earlier in the day on January 4th 2013. 
• One woman said that Asia said her husband had locked himself either in the bedroom or the bathroom and I’m not sure how Asia would’ve known that without being home but you’ll learn later that when her parents arrived the door to his bedroom was open, not locked. 
• Another woman explained how one of her patients was able to hear Asia and Marcus on the phone arguing. The patient also told her she heard Asia say something to the effect of “the best thing he could do for her was to kill himself” and after that the phone went dead. 
• And, sidenote, but this expression about the phone “going dead” comes up several times throughout the investigation. I’m not sure if Asia means it went quiet or if the call ended but how likely is it that Marcus ended the call after “taking his life?” 
• Anyway, the third coworker that was interviewed stated how her patient was actually scared of Asia because of the things she was heard saying to her husband. 
• This same coworker also said that Asia told her that Marcus was face down in a Bible when he killed himself. 
• I’m going to leave out my opinion about Asia’s behavior being utterly unprofessional and just tell you to remember that last part about him being “face down” in the Bible. 

• Four months after her coworkers were interviewed by detectives, Asia, herself, was finally visited at her home in Leonville for an in-person interview. 
• After denying that she told Marcus “the best thing he could do for her was to kill himself,” Asia said she believes that she and her son were the last two people to see Marcus alive. 
• Remember earlier when I talked about her 15-year-old son going to his grandparents’ for a tutoring session the afternoon that Marc died? 
• Well the kids were still out on Christmas break. And you’re trying to tell me that a 15 year old boy is going to go to his grandparents house to tutor on the last Friday night of Christmas break? Give me a break. I just find it very convenient that their son had to tutor on this specific night and no one else was home when Marcus died. Could Marcus have used the empty house as an opportunity to take his life? Sure. I’m just saying it’s pretty convenient. 
• I also wanted to add that I’ve read through the 2016 case report multiple times, and nowhere does it mention where any of their children were that night. 
• During this interview, she again states that she and Marcus were living together at the time of his death. 
• You might be wondering why I keep coming back to this specific inconsistency and here’s why: during her 2016 interview, Asia told investigators that on the morning of the day Marcus died, she claims that she was reading her Bible and Marcus was insistent that they stay in the back part of the house. 
• If Marcus and Asia were separated and she was living in a whole other town, why was she there that morning? 
• Anyway, moving on. 
• Asia then told investigators, “She got ready for work and Marcus had the gun in his pocket. She asked him what he was going to do with the gun and he said “nothing.” She asked him to give her the gun, be he refused. He kept going into the bathroom and was acting strange.” 
• After seeing this odd behavior displayed by her husband, Asia went to work. 
• Also, where were the kids? Was the 15 year old still in the home? And if he was, why would you leave your child there, alone, with an individual that’s acting strangely, that’s also armed?! 
• *breathe* Keep it PG Peyton, keep it PG
• It was there, while at work, that Asia says Marcus was blowing up her phone, asking to talk. Asia claims that she told Marcus she’d call him when she went on her lunch break, which we know happened thanks to their phone records. And here’s what the report says happened next: “Asia called him on break and during the conversation, Marcus made the statement that things would never be the same and she agreed. That is when she heard a strange “whooshing” sound, however it did not sound like a gunshot.” 
• But according to the report written by the first officer on-scene, who I’ll call Officer D, he writes that when he spoke with Asia the night Marcus died, “she said he told her that he was going to kill himself. She then heard the gunshot.” 
• And then in the interview I mentioned earlier with the detective from the sheriff’s office, Det. S, which was also on the night of Marcus’ death, she said Marcus sounded frustrated and spoke about wanting to kill himself before hearing what sounded like a gunshot.
• Why would Asia change her story to say she heard a “strange whooshing sound” instead of a gunshot like she said 3 years earlier?!
• The report continued, stating “She hung up the phone, attempted to call back several times and also texted him.” 
• This is the first we’re hearing about her hanging up the phone - every other report or statement says that either the phone went dead or he didn’t respond. We know that she tried to call back several times because of the phone records, but why mention it now? 
• When Asia wasn’t able to reach Marcus by phone, we know that she called her parents to go check on him. 
• And, side-note/lightbulb moment, this might’ve been why her story changed about the kind of sound she heard over the phone - I know that Asia got a lot of flack for calling her parents before calling the police, so maybe she thought she’d come off a little less villainy if she claimed that she heard less than she really did? 
• But anyway, now I’m going to take you through the timeline of events from that night (and I’ll eventually pick back up from where I left off with Asia’s 2016 interview with investigators. Just bear with me, I promise it’ll make sense.) 
• According to her timecard provided from her place of employment, on the day Marc died Asia clocked in at 1:58 PM. Looking at the previous time punches, this seemed to be typical. She clocked out for “lunch” at 5:15 PM - and this also seemed pretty typical that she would work for about 3 hours and take her lunch break. 
• She called Marcus at 5:16. This call with him ended at 5:30.
• I don’t have this time exactly documented, but Asia called her parents around 5:35 - this was when she was said to have ask them to go check on Marcus. So we can assume for that approximate 4 minute window, she tried calling and texting Marcus. 
• Then at 5:42, she returned from her break and clocked back into work. 
• 11 minutes after hearing her husband of 8 years taking his life, she clocks back into work.. let that sink in for a second. 
• It’s believed that Asia’s parents arrived at the Merritt home around 5:55 pm. 
• The pair tried to enter the home through the front door but it was unfortunately locked. They said that they checked the other doors and windows around the house but, those too, were all locked. According to Margaret, the spare key that was attached to the mailbox that they typically used was conveniently missing and couldn’t be found. But in Asia’s father’s statement to police, he wasn’t aware of any spare key ever being outside. But regardless if there was ever a spare key outside, the two just waited around until Margaret finally decided to call 911 at 6:12. 42 minutes went by from the time the gunshot was supposedly heard until 911 was called. And for almost half of that time Mike and Margaret just waited outside their daughter’s home, not knowing if their son-in-law was safe, let alone alive. 
• I wasn’t sure if I wanted to mention this, but, I myself am currently going through a separation. And, not to make this about me, but I know for a fact that if my parents knew my former spouse was inside and possibly harmed themself, they’d do everything in their power to get inside the home. Even if it meant breaking a window, nothing would stop them from trying to save a life. 
• The timecard from her work shows that Asia clocked out at 6:10 - so just a couple of minutes before her step-mother made the call to 911. 
• At 6:17, Asia called her mother-in-law as she drove home from work. And Royce recalls this phone call with Asia as serious but also restrained, if that makes sense? Like Asia told her mother-in-law that she thought Marcus had hurt himself, but the gravity of the situation hadn’t been conveyed? 
• The exact time that Asia arrived home isn’t known but we know that she arrived just a few minutes before Officer D did. 
• And this is where I’ll pick back up where I left off with Asia’s 2016 interview with detectives: the last thing I relayed from the case report was about Asia calling her parents to go check on Marcus. She then mentions the thing about them not being able to find their spare key so when she got home she gave her key to her dad and step-mom who were said to be waiting outside. She says that both Mike and Margaret went into the home while she waited outside and remained on the phone with Marcus’ mother. That’s when Officer D arrived and entered the home. Then, both Mike and Margaret exited the home and told Asia what happened. 
• Okay, cue the inconsistencies. 
• In Margaret’s report from 2013, she wrote that Mike had stayed outside with his daughter while she went into the home, alone. She said that she felt for a pulse and that’s when Officer D came into the bedroom and “gasped because he knew Marcus personally.” 
• However, in Mike’s report, he claims that Asia gave the key to his wife and the two went into the house together, just like Asia said they did in 2016. He said that Margaret felt for a pulse and when she didn’t find one that’s when they went outside and the police came up. But in his 2016 interview with police, Mike said that he and his wife entered the house together, she checked for a pulse, and shortly after they went in an unnamed officer came in and told them to get out of the house. And, of course, Margaret’s recollection of events when interviewed in 2016 vary from Asia and Mike’s.. and even her own from 3 years prior. Margaret now says that she and Mike went in together and told Asia to stay outside by herself. They walked around the house, eventually finding Marcus in his room. She felt for a pulse and when she stepped back, Officer D was standing in between her and her husband. She and the officer exchanged a few words before leaving the house but Margaret doesn’t mention if the two were told to leave or if they left without prompting. 
• Now that I’ve told you 5 different versions of what happened that night, I’m going to go over how the responding officer, Officer D, remembers the moment he arrive at the Merritt home. 
• Officer D said that as he walked up to the residence, he could see that the back door was open, which I assume that to mean that someone, or multiple someones, had already entered the home, but Officer D said he didn’t know if anyone already had. Before he went into the home, though, he says that he spoke with Asia briefly about what happened - and she said that they were on the phone when she heard a noise and then Marcus stopped responding. Officer D then states that he went into the home with Margaret while Mike stayed outside. He said he watched her take Marcus’ pulse but was unsuccessful. He continues on, explaining what he observed of the scene but never mentions in this report if he asked Margaret to leave, but in his 2013 report he states that he did. 
• The inconsistencies don’t just start and stop with who went into the home, either. 
• Mike said that when he entered the room, he saw Marcus in a seated position on the floor. He notes that there was a Bible on the bed, but didn’t recall a phone or a weapon. When Officer D was asked about the positioning of Marcus’ body, he said that Marcus was “sitting on the floor against the nightstand” and saw a weapon on the bed but didn’t remember a phone or a Bible. And then according to Margaret, when she entered the bedroom she saw Marcus “on the floor, sitting up against the wall, next to the bed” and on it she remembers a gun and a phone but no Bible. Another investigator recalled seeing just a handgun on the bed but he remembers the Bible being on the floor next to Marcus’ body. Chief Noel recalled Marcus “lying on the floor and saw blood and a pistol on the bed.” 
• And, not to be “that” girl because it was probably just a mistake, but Marcus was killed with a revolver, not a pistol. I’m no gun expert but I do know that a revolver isn’t a pistol and vice versa. BUT, you would think that the guy who washed the gun before putting it into evidence would identify it correctly in an interview. 
• So why am I so fixated on these seemingly small, minute details? Like, why does it matter if Mike went in the house or stayed outside? Well, the officers on-scene gathered information about what happened leading up to Marcus’ death and about his mental/general health history from only these three individuals. If their stories just about who went into the home that evening don’t even correspond, how can you trust whatever else they have to say?

• One of the last civilians that was interviewed in 2016 was Asia’s nephew, who I’ll call “Ray.” Ray was interviewed by detectives because Asia told them Ray told her that when he went over to the Merritt home to help clean the room where Marcus died, Ray picked up Marcus’ phone which had been laying on the blood-soaked mattress. The screen was on, and a webpage was displayed that featured a search for “how to kill yourself with a gunshot wound to the mouth” or something like that. Ray said that he knows he told Mike about it and might’ve also shown it to him, but he wasn’t sure. Royce explained to me that Marcus was incredibly familiar with guns - he wouldn’t have had to do a Google search asking if a gunshot to the mouth would kill him. Had Marcus’ phone been taken into evidence, which it wasn’t, we’d know if Marcus was actually the one to search that, or if someone had searched it for him to help set the scene. 
• Investigator Mark Fournet, the man that led the second investigation into Marcus’ death, determined - again - that Marcus died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the night of January 4th, 2013, citing “his recent arrests, marital difficulties, and loss of his job” as the grounds for his suicide. 
• Marcus’ mom has a hard time believing that her son took his own life. There wasn’t a note left behind, and Marcus knew that his mom was a sentimental person - which leads me to my next point. The gun that’s believed to have been used in Marcus’ death belonged to his grandfather. Why would Marcus use this gun (that was given to him by his mom, that he knew would cause her so much grief) when he also had a rifle or a 9 mil. in his possession that he could’ve used? 
• As of the day of this release, May 24th, tomorrow would be Marcus’ 46th birthday. 
• His mother still comments on his website that she created for him about how much she misses and loves him. Marcus would be expecting his first grandchild this year but that baby will have to grow up without the pleasure of knowing the man that was Marcus Merritt. 

Please join the Justice for Marcus Merritt Facebook page to stay updated on Marcus’ case and help the family find the answers they’ve been searching for for over 8 years.