Plot Where a Family Disappears During a Storm
Produced by Chris Young Ritzen, Susan Mallie, Marc Goldbaum, Lourdes Aguiar, Josh Yager
[This story previously aired on September 7, 2019. It was updated on August 1, 2020.]
Equally Hurricane Harvey bore downwardly on the Houston expanse in August 2017, investigators were in the midst of a drastic search for a mother of two who vanished only earlier the tempest hit. Family — and sheriff's deputies — were convinced Crystal McDowell'south disappearance had nothing to practise with the raging storm, just a missing person's investigation was no easy feat amid the celebrated rains and flooding.
Every bit sheriff's deputies and emergency kickoff responders struggled to keep up with the tempest, a dedicated team of investigators gathered to track every inkling left behind in McDowell's disappearance. "48 Hours" gained unprecedented admission inside the command center in Baytown, Texas, a suburb of Houston, every bit investigators searched for a beautiful young mother.
But as persons of interest surfaced and a crucial clue was uncovered, at that place was still no sign of McDowell — did someone know where she was? Correspondent Maureen Maher and "48 Hours" follow the squad as they piece together the last known moments of McDowell's life, reveal how police constitute her body and the shocking arrest that left family members stunned.
SEARCHING FOR CRYSTAL
SUNDAY, AUG. 27
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING Two DAYS
District Attorney Cheryl Lieck says despite the horrific flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Baytown, Texas, investigators were determined to find Crystal McDowell.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Information technology was horrible. The pelting wouldn't end. It only would non stop. …Nosotros had deputies that were flooded out of their homes. One of our investigators lost his entire house. Our local Texas Ranger and his wife were flooded out of theirs.
Maureen Maher: And yet, they showed upwardly for piece of work.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Yeah.
Maureen Maher: Every day. All day looking for this woman.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: [shaking her head to affirm]: Everybody.
But weather was non their only challenge. If Crystal had met with foul play, the sheriff says at that place was a growing list of people to question.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: She was extremely social. She had lots of friends. …She had been a flight attendant for 10 years and then had become a real estate amanuensis.
On the top of the listing, Crystal's Uncle Jeff, who cared for Crystal later on her parents died when she was 11 years old.
Jeff Walters [in tears]: And our chief objective is simply to get Crystal back abode.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: He was the person that was extremely emotional and reported her missing, but then he kept getting in the way of the investigation.
Getting in the way, by going through Crystal'due south townhouse with other family members, potentially tainting important evidence.
Crystal'south family unit even hired a private investigator.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: This is not a game to us. This is not a hobby. This is what nosotros do. …But you don't bring on some amateur super sleuth wannabe when you lot are in the middle of a missing persons … investigation.
Also on the list, the men romantically linked to Crystal. There was Steve McDowell, Crystal'south ex-husband, a shipping manager. In June 2017, the couple went through what many described as an amicable divorce subsequently ten years of marriage and ii children: a boy, Madden, and a daughter, Maui.
Maureen Maher: And what was his story for Friday morning?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: That she never showed upwards. That she was supposed to show upwards and she never did.
That morning, at 7:01 a.thousand. on August 25, Steve, who had the kids, says he received a text message from Crystal. It read: "On my way. Do yous have h2o? Looks like I may stay here with the kids. Information technology seems just like rain."
But Jeff Walters, Crystal's uncle, says that Steve showed him some other text from Crystal allegedly sent around 9:30 a.m., maxim she inverse her mind and she planned to stop by, pick up the kids and take them to Dallas.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: They just said it didn't sound like her, and that nobody knew where she was, nobody had heard her phonation. They just knew something wasn't right.
Maureen Maher: What did he tell authorities about their marriage, their relationship?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: He told 'em … that he was fine and he didn't mind the divorce … and everything was just hunky-dory.
In fact, Crystal was living with Steve and the kids, in a house she helped him purchase, while her townhouse was being renovated.
Cindy Seratte is Crystal's aunt.
Cindy Seratte: He had such a passionate love for her. Information technology was almost unhealthy. …Similar if she wanted her anxiety rubbed, he would rub her feet. If she wanted her hair brushed, he would brush her hair.
Maureen Maher: Is information technology fair to say that she wore the pants in the family?
Cindy Seratte: Aye, about definitely.
But over time they grew apart.
Cindy Seratte: He didn't challenge her was the give-and-take. …She wanted to be the best she could possibly be. And Steve was OK with just stepping dorsum being the firm person.
Krysta McDowell, Steve'south daughter from a previous human relationship, was at Texas A&M Academy, when she heard the news Crystal was missing.
Krysta McDowell: He was the dad. She was more of the provider. …He loved being around the kids. They're his life. She was his life, and they were his life.
To the sheriff, information technology certainly didn't seem like Crystal's ex-husband knew annihilation about her disappearance.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: He was very cooperative with us. …Very kind. Very friendly. …And he immediately says that he wants to help.
It was Crystal's new beau, Paul Hargrave, who Sheriff Hawthorne really wanted to speak with. Hargrave owned a local jewelry store and had been dating Crystal for a few weeks.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: The terminal place that nosotros have her is in the Baytown area leaving Paul's house.
Jeff Walters: She seemed in love with him … They seemed perfect together. She was happy.
So happy that Crystal had posted on Facebook just two days before she disappeared … "I've never been happier in my whole life than I am correct at present … God is then good."
Paul Hargrave: We had talked near going to Europe. She got a ticket to go with me to Belgium next calendar month.
Investigators would learn Crystal had also invited Paul to become on a family unit prowl. The just caveat: Steve, her ex-husband, was going too.
Paul Hargrave: And I told her, "Well, gosh, I would love to become … Merely I retrieve information technology will be awkward for me to exist in that location with the ex husband." So she had asked him to refrain from going. And I know that didn't get well. She had stressed to me that he was pretty upset nearly that.
Which is why, Hargrave said, he was securely concerned when Crystal disappeared after she left his dwelling house in her black Mercedes, which was also missing.
Paul Hargrave: I hope and pray that she's OK. And she'due south gonna come up dorsum to to us.
And then he went on national Tv, and spoke with "CBS This Morning's" Michelle Miller:
Michelle Miller : What exercise you think happened to her?
Paul Hargrave : I'thou not sure. I simply am trying to focus on, on finding her. [Becomes emotional] And assisting with constabulary with whatever we tin can assist them with.
But Sheriff Hawthorne says he became suspicious subsequently Hargrave failed to tell authorities virtually security footage from his home showing the last fourth dimension Crystal was seen alive.
Paul Hargrave: She actually walked right through this living room at seven:09 when my camera's picked that upwardly. I think she was seen leaving the driveway at seven:x.
Paul Hargrave shared the tapes -- not with investigators, but with the media.
Sheriff Hawthorne: And so immediately nosotros're like, "Well why would he exist turning it over to the media, but even so my investigators don't accept those videos?"
Maureen Maher: Intentional or oversight on his function?
Sheriff Hawthorne: I don't know. …Crusade it took us a few days to get it. So obviously every hour that ticked off, he became the sheriff'due south person of involvement. That's for certain.
Surrounded by the chaos of both a natural disaster and suspicious characters, the example stalled … mostly, says the sheriff, considering investigators couldn't agree on which direction to go in.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Some of the investigators that were involved in this would say, "You lot know, I think its Steve." And some would say, "I still tin can't get over Jeff. He's likewise emotional. He'due south besides this, he'south too that." And so we'd had others, like myself, that I'm still looking at Paul.
Monday, AUGUST 28
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 3 DAYS
Merely so, at that place was finally a break in the example. Crystal's Mercedes was spotted past a friend.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: I volition give the family credit for finding that vehicle.
And then now they knew where the automobile was, simply who put information technology there and what would they find within?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Weather and time deteriorate prove, concrete prove.
PERSONS OF Involvement
Mon, Baronial 28
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 3 DAYS
Sheriff Hawthorne could non believe what he found when he arrived at the Motel 6 where Crystal's Mercedes was discovered.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Well you could get in the car because it was unlocked and the keys were sitting on the console.
Maureen Maher: Did that strike you as odd?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Oh, very odd. …My criminal investigation helm told me, "I feel similar it's been staged."
Maureen Maher: Set up for someone to accept information technology?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Correct.
But whoever had left the motorcar there to exist taken, did not anticipate the massive flooding in the backwash of Hurricane Harvey.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: The water had risen. You couldn't go it out of the parking lot.
Maureen Maher: And that was finally a suspension in your direction.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Correct.
Crystal'due south Mercedes was finally towed from the motel and candy, but flood waters in Houston made it impossible to get results back from the offense scene lab.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: A lot of their majors and captains and sergeants and investigators homes were going underwater … information technology was anarchy for everybody.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 9 DAYS
D.A. Cheryl Lieck [in war room]: At that place are a lot of moving parts correct now.
"48 Hours" was granted unprecedented access within the sheriff's war room. The investigation had taken a toll on D.A. Lieck, who had lost all hope.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: I know she's dead. There has been no activeness on whatever of her credit cards, debit cards, nothing. You know, she doesn't accept a cell phone. Nobody leaves anymore without a cell phone.
Sheriff Hawthorne, deputies and Texas Rangers expanded their focus from finding Crystal … to finding her killer.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck [in war room]: As of about midnight last dark the net has widened and its married man, young man, uncle.
Early in the investigation, the top persons of interest had been brought in for questioning. In his police interview, Paul Hargrave pointed the finger at Steve McDowell:
Paul Hargrave [to investigator]: She was actually concerned about her well-being. …She was concerned about him finding out most me.
Investigator: Did y'all have annihilation to exercise with the disappearance of Crystal?
Jeff Walters: Admittedly not. …I don't understand even -- that's been insinuated. And I don't like it.
Jeff Walters was no fan of Crystal'due south new boyfriend, Paul.
Jeff Walters [to investigator]: He reminds me of Hannibal Lecter and he creeps me out really bad.
And Steve stuck with his story that Crystal never showed up at his house.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Nosotros polygraphed 2 of 'em.
Maureen Maher: Steve and Paul.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Steve and Paul. That is correct.
Maureen Maher: And how did they do?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Steve failed. I'll let Paul tell you how he did.
Paul Hargrave: He insinuated, he didn't use those terms, only he called me a liar.
Only security cameras don't lie. Focusing on the location of the machine, deputies began gathering video from nearby businesses. A camera at a Shell gas station next door to the motel appears to have captured i of their three persons of interest.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: It looks similar he's getting out and he'south putting something in the trash can and he's stuffing information technology all the way down, like, to his elbow.
Maureen Maher: Like a bag or?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Yes. It looked like clothing is what information technology looked similar.
Deputies say it is Steve McDowell, and it'due south what he keeps glancing at that makes the investigators sit upward and take notice: the Motel 6.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Y'all could run across that he's looking over and he'south looking to meet if the motorcar is even so there and it was.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: We recovered the trash can and the trouble is all the contents had floated out of it.
Maureen Maher: Considering of the hurricane.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Because of the storm.
Then investigators receive different security video showing Steve McDowell in action -- right in the Motel 6 parking lot.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Yous only see somebody park the automobile. …And someone that resembles her ex-husband getting out of it.
Maureen Maher: And what does that say to you lot?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: It says that my person of interest has changed [laughs]. All right. Recall I'1000 the one that'south still looking at Paul.
The videos are purely circumstantial evidence. Only for the showtime time, investigators are all heading in the same management.
Inside the war room: "We accept to face up Steve and ask where she is."
Simply Steve was nonetheless insisting he had nothing to do with Crystal's disappearance.
So they turned to someone else in the family unit's inner circle for help, Crystal'south aunt, Cindy Seratte.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: I said, "Cindy, I need you to stay close to Steve." I said, "Nosotros demand communication. And he may non communicate with us. And he may communicate with y'all."
Cindy Serrate: Every 24-hour interval I was only praying every day that when I went that he would say something.
The investigators were becoming increasingly frustrated.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: When yous have no body, that's a huge hindrance. …The mode someone's killed, where they're institute, that generally can give you an idea of who killed 'em.
SEPTEMBER 6
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 12 DAYS
Deputies chosen upon an experienced volunteer search and rescue organization, Texas Equusearch, to help discover Crystal.
Tim Miller | Equusearch [to volunteers]: Let's think this place got flooded existent bad and she may exist caught in the tree line and not in the water.
Paul Hargrave joined the searchers and Crystal's uncle, Jeff Walters, pitched in.
Paul Hargrave: He's offered a $10,000 reward. And I offered a $5,000 reward.
The more investigators dug in, the more things didn't quite add up.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: This case is about secrets. Double lives on many people'southward parts. It's i of those cases … I think I've seen it all … just I haven't seen anything like this before.
A TROUBLED Relationship
Five years before her disappearance, information technology seemed like Crystal and Steve McDowell were on top of the world. A skydiving bound had been a 33rd birthday gift to Crystal from Steve.
Now, Crystal's ex-husband was the main person of involvement in her disappearance. There were those security tapes, and D.A. Cheryl Lieck says they had discovered Steve had lied about their so-chosen "friendly" divorce.
Maureen Maher: What did yous discover out as the investigation went along?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: That he didn't want the divorce … what we were getting from the family … is that he was distraught, had always been distraught every fourth dimension she tried to exit him.
50.J. Adams: It was early on when things started not going…well.
L.J. Adams, a bond bondsman and Crystal's good friend, says the relationship was troubled
correct from the start.
Fifty.J. Adams: Judging from the things that she said … Steve McDowell is a very, very self-centered, selfish -- manipulative person. …It just got to a indicate where he wanted things his way and he wanted it that way and right now. And if it didn't piece of work out or if she couldn't do it at that moment, information technology would be a temper tantrum.
In 2008, just one year after they married, Crystal filed for divorce. But Adams says she didn't get through with it back then because Steve had made threats.
L.J. Adams: It was always … [imitates Steve'southward voice] "Well if you leave me, I'm only gonna kill myself."
Maureen Maher: Emotional blackmail.
L.J. Adams: Yeah. And so he knew what to say and what to do.
But Krysta McDowell says her father is not that man. She knows him as a loving male parent with a playful side.
Krysta McDowell: He is a really goofy guy; similar that'south the best way I could describe him.
Maureen Maher: Fun guy?
Krysta McDowell: Fun guy.
And even though her father was in and out of her life for nearly of her babyhood, there was a brief period of fourth dimension when she lived with Steve and Crystal.
Krysta McDowell: I was in high school so -- information technology was similar eighth grade to sophomore year … I estimate I was 14 to about 16.
She admits the human relationship betwixt Crystal and her father was turbulent, but says he was not the only one at fault.
Krysta McDowell: Both weren't perfect, and they both had their bug. …I just think that they were very toxic for each other, and they made each other crazy. Whenever they were together, information technology was never a happy ending.
Krysta was hopeful things would get better once they finally got divorced. Just after Crystal officially filed the paperwork in February 2017, Krysta says her father began acting strangely.
Krysta McDowell: So in March … I noticed that my dad had, like, been interim weird on Facebook … he … changed his, like, contour pictures to, like -- it was a grave … and then it was like a grim reaper, similar, profile flick … and then he made it, like, a picture of him and Crystal. …And and so he took that off -- fabricated it say, like, "No contour picture."
Maureen Maher: In a curt flow of time?
Krysta McDowell: This was all in, like, a matter of, like two or 3 days.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne would learn that presently after Crystal filed for divorce, she had called 911 and told law that Steve had disappeared with their kids.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: She had given Steve the kids. …and he essentially did not bring the kids dorsum.
Maureen Maher: For a few days.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: For a few days.
Maureen Maher: And did he threaten to injure himself and the kids?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Kind of put out an allegation and a threat that you know he would impairment himself and Crystal and the kids.
Steve eventually returned the children unharmed and no charges were filed. He later explained to his daughter, Krysta, that he had become upset later on discovering that Crystal had numerous affairs while they were married.
Maureen Maher: Just he said he was still in beloved with her?
Krysta McDowell: Yeah. And -- he said, similar, "I love her with all my middle but I just can't allow her keep vehement me downwards similar this."
Maureen Maher: Then he was OK with getting a divorce at that betoken?
Krysta McDowell: He was accepting of it. He thought information technology was for the all-time. He thought perhaps he could, like, become his life in society then.
Merely Crystal'southward Aunt Cindy says Steve was just non ready to permit become. Remember that cruise they were supposed to go along? Cindy says Steve had really planned to propose to Crystal again, although the divorce had just become final in June.
Cindy Seratte: He literally bought some apparel for both of them. And so, a white dress and a white suit, and literally, he was gonna advise.
But Krysta says her father told her this was all his ex-wife'south idea.
Krysta McDowell: My dad told me only the other twenty-four hours that … that she had mentioned, "How would y'all experience about getting remarried on the cruise? …It's like a fresh start.
Maureen Maher: Do you lot think that'south true, that she said that to him?
Krysta McDowell: Yeah.
Cindy Seratte: I don't believe Crystal would always pb him to believe that. I actually don't.
Maureen Maher: This was a fantasy in his head?
Cindy Seratte: I believe that.
In early August, it seemed Crystal had moved on and was dating Paul Hargrave. Cindy Seratte says Crystal tried to continue the relationship undercover from Steve at start even though she was notwithstanding living with him.
Cindy Seratte: And she said, "Aunt Cindy, I have to go along this quiet. He will impale me."
But by August 23, just ii days earlier she disappeared, Crystal made that Facebook post -- "I've never been happier in my whole life than I am right now … God is so good" -- and had disinvited Steve from the cruise. D.A. Lieck thinks this might have been the start of Steve's final unraveling.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Steve was probably more upset near not going on the cruise because he
thought they were going to rekindle their romance somehow.
And there was more.
L.J. Adams: She was a financial meal ticket to him.
Fifty.J. Adams says Crystal had recently decided to cut Steve off financially.
50.J. Adams: Considering he was just spending coin, merely spending money…just ridiculously spending money. …And at that betoken, she but said, "I can't practice this anymore, Steve."
Maureen Maher: Was information technology just losing her, Cheryl? Or was it he was losing his whole life?
Someone else was sliding into his identify.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: His whole life, his whole lifestyle.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 14 DAYS
As the cleanup from Hurricane Harvey was underway, investigators had cleared Paul Hargrave and Crystal's uncle, Jeff Walters. They were convinced Steve McDowell had the motive to murder his ex-wife and that he had dumped her auto at the Motel 6. But how did he become home? A security video from a nearby Walmart would provide that reply.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: We spot a cycle on the service road, Interstate 10 service route.
Investigators were convinced it was Steve McDowell.
Maureen Maher: For you, the surveillance footage is the turning point in the case.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Admittedly. Absolutely.
Authorities were closing in on Steve McDowell and the stakes were just getting college -- he however had the children.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: We could potentially be minutes or hours abroad from somebody losing control.
Maureen Maher: Once again.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Again.
Maureen Maher: It'southward almost life and death for these kids?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Correct.
HONING IN
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: He kept coming in and talking … he'd come in every day and sit down at that place five hours or so and just, "No. Nope. Wasn't me, wasn't me…"
District Attorney Cheryl Lieck knew Steve McDowell had killed Crystal. But knowing information technology and proving it were 2 different things. And she says McDowell seemed to sympathize that.
DA Cheryl Lieck: We didn't have plenty to arrest him.
Maureen Maher: Was he … Big-headed? Helpful? Cooperative?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Arrogant and aristocratic … Information technology was a game. …He'south just -- he's just gaming us he thinks…
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: At this indicate, nosotros have no direct evidence. Nosotros but accept circumstantial evidence. …Circumstantial bear witness has every bit much weigh in a court as direct show, but you but need more of it.
Lieck says the evidence that finally brought the case domicile for her was that security video from the Walmart, showing how McDowell probably got domicile afterward ditching Crystal'due south car.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: We had him ownership the bike and riding it out.
Maureen Maher: What happens next?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: We bring him back in.
Day afterwards solar day, investigators were telling McDowell they were successfully gathering more than and more testify -- a ploy to wear him downward.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: He was just, like, melting, you know. You could run into that information technology -- was getting to him. He wasn't eating. He wasn't sleeping. His face had sunken in…
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne says investigators were nether pressure likewise, and deeply concerned about just how much might be too much for Steve McDowell.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: At the time when all this is taking place, he'due south got custody of his children.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: I kept thinking, he's gonna kill those kids, he's gonna kill those kids!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER viii
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL: MISSING 14 DAYS
Once once again, Steve voluntarily came in for questioning. Merely, Cheryl Lieck wasn't taking any more chances. She had been in touch with Family and Protective Services, and convinced the agency to remove the McDowell kids from his home that evening and place them with Crystal'southward Aunt Cindy.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: We knew psychologically that that would be the final straw for him, him -- his kids being gone.
Maureen Maher: He would accept nothing left.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Right.
Maureen Maher: And what was his response?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: He just most collapsed.
Exhausted, Steve McDowell said he wanted to go dwelling -- but promised he would return in the morning, ready to talk.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: And then that'due south when-- basically that's when he said, "I'll tell you lot everything."
Without plenty evidence to abort him, and knowing a full confession was their only real chance of finding Crystal'due south trunk, the sheriff allowed his prime suspect walk out the door.
Maureen Maher: That was a big risk that he wouldn't run or kill himself.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Information technology was a hazard.
Maureen Maher: I've been a crime reporter for 25 years. I have never heard of a department saying, "Go abode and become your affairs in order." …I mean, that'southward the part I become, "Actually? They let him go home?"
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Well, we … but come across, this is the matter. We had the kids.
And taking them was a moment Sheriff Hawthorne volition never forget.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: …we knew that these kids were probably never gonna see the mother again.
Maureen Maher: Or their male parent, every bit -- a free man.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Or their father as a costless man. Gimme a minute [pauses] …Both of the children came out and gave every one of usa conduct hugs. And that's when you lot realize the -- the totality and the impact that family unit violence has on children.
A few hours subsequently Steve McDowell'south youngest children were taken from him, he summoned his older daughter, Krysta, to come dwelling house from college immediately.
Krysta McDowell: I was at work, and I work at a bar, and so I work pretty late…
Krysta McDowell says she was confused when her begetter texted her in the middle of the nighttime.
Krysta McDowell: He said, "Your little brother and sister are gonna live somewhere else for a while."
Krysta was already planning to head abode later on that day.
Krysta McDowell: And he was like -- "Is in that location any way you can be here sooner? …You probably won't see me for a while unless you come see me in person earlier then." …And so I got in my car, iii:30 in the morning; drove all the way to Baytown.
Two hours later, information technology was the get-go of the finish of Krysta'southward life as she knew it.
Krysta McDowell: It was dark withal. I knocked on his door and he allow me in … He told me that, at 10:00 a.m., the Rangers were gonna come pick him upwards.
Krysta says, though clearly anxious, it mostly seemed similar her father was just trying to take intendance of concern -- giving her photo albums, financial statements, and fifty-fifty the keys to his beloved Mustang -- until the conversation took an abrupt plough.
Krysta McDowell: He looks at me and he says … "the Rangers told me that if I tell them where the torso is that … 'They'll lessen my punishment.'" And I said, "Well, y'all don't know where the trunk is. Similar, how would you know?" …And he was like, "What if it's truthful?"
Krysta McDowell: And I asked him, "Do you know where the body is?" And he but, like, looked abroad from me and -- just, similar, bawled his eyes out. And at that indicate I knew that he knew where it was.
Maureen Maher: What did y'all retrieve at that point?
Krysta McDowell: I don't know. What practice you lot think? [Emotional, her voice breaks] If someone y'all love and you've saturday here and defended the whole fourth dimension tells you they're guilty, what exercise y'all think?
Maureen Maher: Did yous call back he had actually confessed to you at that point? Even though he never said the actual words?
Krysta McDowell: [nods to affirm] 'Cause I asked him what he did over and over. I begged him to tell me. And he was merely like, "I but -- I can't tell you what I did."
Krysta McDowell: So of a sudden … we heard a noise and he stood up and was similar, "They're hither…"
Maureen Maher: And and then all all of a sudden, he'due south gone?
Krysta McDowell: Yeah. …I literally dropped to my knees and only cried.
Police force brought Steve McDowell dorsum to the station to deliver his much-anticipated confession. But the man who had kept them guessing virtually and so much, for so long, was about to make them guess once again.
Maureen Maher: He's, like, yanking your chain.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Yep. He is.
Maureen Maher: Back and along, back and forth.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: And I'd had it. At this signal I'd had information technology.
A CRIME OF PASSION?
Information technology was Saturday, September 9:
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: I didn't sleep much. I literally couldn't wait for daylight to come up upward.
Steve McDowell agreed to meet with Sheriff Hawthorne and the investigation team one more fourth dimension and finally provide an answer to the question -- what happened to Crystal?
RANGER HOLLAND: Okay. My agreement from our advice was that you were kind of ready to exist honest nigh some things.
STEVE MCDOWELL: [Nods head to affirm]
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: We needed a confession. Nosotros needed somebody to take usa to her body.
D.A. Lieck and Sheriff Hawthorne watched in a nearby room as McDowell shared the details of the morning Crystal came home after a night with her boyfriend:
STEVE MCDOWELL: I didn't mean to hurt her. I love her. I would do anything in my life to bring her dorsum.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: They got into an argument when she got home and I call up he was mad that she had stayed out all night.
RANGER The netherlands: Is that when she told you that she didn't honey you anymore?
STEVE MCDOWELL: Yeah.
RANGER Kingdom of the netherlands: That when she told you she didn't want to be with you or have anything to exercise with yous?
STEVE MCDOWELL: [Nods head to affirm]
And information technology seems that was enough for Steve McDowell to make a terrible choice.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: He describes and … he substantially shows that he … strangled her from behind.
Maureen Maher: So she had no idea he was coming?
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Aye.
STEVE MCDOWELL: I squeezed her. I put my arm around her like this [demonstrates].
RANGER Holland: "OK. Like a -- a choke hold or something?
STEVE MCDOWELL: [Nods head to affirm]
RANGER The netherlands: Did she say anything when this was going on? Or did she fight or what – what happened?
STEVE MCDOWELL: She said I was scaring her.
RANGER Kingdom of the netherlands: How did you eventually know that -- that she was no longer alive?
STEVE MCDOWELL: She stopped moving.
RANGER HOLLAND: And what did you exercise after that?
STEVE MCDOWELL: I covered her face with a bag.
RANGER The netherlands: And then y'all put her in the machine?
STEVE MCDOWELL: I tied her upward and put her in trash bags and put her in the car.
And and so, McDowell says, early the following morning, he drove off to dispose of Crystal's torso, leaving their two children home solitary.
McDowell leads investigators to a densely wooded area off an access road not far from his firm.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Steve drives the detectives and the investigators out here.
"48 Hours"' cameras were the only ones allowed at the crime scene as investigators began their arduous work.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
CRYSTAL MCDOWELL MISSING: fifteen days
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: … the terrain'southward pretty tough. It was a lotta work just tryin' to clear the trees and the limbs so that nosotros could bring the trunk out.
At the end of a long search, the sheriff and district chaser share an cover.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: It was a relief…
SHERIFF BRIAN HAWTHORNE [to reporters]: Today at ii:45 p.m., Crystal's body was discovered and Steven Wayne McDowell, 44, has been arrested and charged with murder…
Maureen Maher: If he had not told you exactly where the trunk was, would she have ever been institute?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck [shaking her head]: No.
Once Steve McDowell showed investigators where the torso was, he was brought to the Chambers Canton Jail. Even though he confessed to strangling Crystal, that may not exist the finish of it. In Texas, a defendant tin merits they killed someone out of sudden passion, which could hateful equally lilliputian equally 2 years in prison.
Which is exactly what Steve McDowell did in June 2019 during his trial for murder. McDowell testified that Crystal'south death was a consequence of a spontaneous hug that got out of command. But D.A. Lieck gave the jury a unlike point of view.
Maureen Maher: Do you think this was premeditated?
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Yeah. Without a doubt.
Maureen Maher: This was not just, "he snapped?"
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Well yous can snap and yet recall about it …I think he only decided, "if I can't have her, nobody tin."
After 5 days of testimony, prove and statement, it only took 3 ½ hours for the jury to attain a verdict: guilty.
One solar day later, the aforementioned jury sentenced Steven McDowell to l years in prison house for the murder of his ex-wife.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne: Nosotros've been very fortunate, the jury saw it the same way the law enforcement officers and Commune Chaser's Office did.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: It feels practiced, I retrieve they made the right decision. … With the 50 years, he will have to serve at least 25 earlier he's eligible for parole.
Jeff Walters: I hope he never makes information technology out of there, you lot know? … He deserves any he gets.
Cindy Serrate:For the kids it's just a sad situation all the fashion around.
D.A. Cheryl Lieck: Both parents are gone now. Basically those kids are motherless and fatherless just similar Crystal was.
Which brings us back to the other victims in this case -- the children. It was Aunt Cindy who was tasked with telling an 8-year-former male child and his 5-twelvemonth-old sis, the truth.
Cindy Serrate: And I just grabbed their hands and I said, "We found your mommy," I said, "and she's in sky … and your daddy's in jail for taking your mother'southward life." …And at that signal, Madden looked upwardly and he said [emotional] -- he said, "OK," he said, "I tin bargain with this."
Cindy Serrate: And Madden grabbed his sister and they hugged and he said, "I love you lot Maui." He said "I'll e'er have care of you lot."
The couple'south young children are living out of the country with a family friend who is in the process of obtaining full legal custody.
Steve McDowell will be eligible for parole in 2042.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-goes-inside-the-search-for-mom-who-vanished-ahead-of-hurricane-harvey/
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