00:00:05
NARRATOR: 14,000 feet in
the air and Steve McDowell has arranged a special
gift for his wife Crystal.
00:00:11
ALL: (SINGING) Happy
birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Crystal.
00:00:22
Happy birthday to you. NARRATOR: Just a few years
later and the high flyer goes missing in a hurricane.
00:00:32
CINDY SERATTE: It wasn't just
that Crystal was missing, people were dying everywhere.
00:00:37
Detectives suspect foul play. NARRATOR: The glamorous
real estate agent was last
00:00:46
seen leaving her lover's
house and heading to her former husband's place. And she just did
not realize the danger
00:00:54
she was putting herself in. NARRATOR: Is this
the tale of a woman caught up in a deadly storm?
00:00:59
Or is it a murder story? The daughter said that she
saw, you know, her father-- saw Steve strangling Crystal.
00:01:10
[music playing] NARRATOR: Steve and Crystal
McDowell's relationship was never what most
would call traditional.
00:01:38
He was a little
bit of the Mr. Mom. She wore the pants
in the family, pretty-- pretty much.
00:01:44
Anything Crystal wanted,
he tried his best to do. NARRATOR: It was an arrangement
that worked for them.
00:01:49
Crystal was ambitious, while
Steve was more of a family man. He'd been married before
and had a daughter.
00:01:55
He just loved children. His role in the
marriage was to help take care of the children
because she had two jobs.
00:02:01
He was very much
into his kids. He spent a lot of time
with his children. In a lot of ways, he
probably spent more time
00:02:09
with the children
than Crystal did. NARRATOR: When
Crystal met Steve, it looked like she'd found
the stability that had been
00:02:15
denied her as a little girl. She did have a
rough childhood. Through the
investigation, we learned
00:02:20
that both of her parents
died early in life during her childhood. Both of them were
very recreational,
00:02:29
potentially addicted to drugs. She was moved around and raised
by a number of different people
00:02:36
in the family. CINDY SERATTE: My name is Cindy. And Crystal is my
niece by marriage.
00:02:44
My family was best
friends with their family on the grandparents' side. So we all just kind of grew up
knowing that the grandparents
00:02:52
were taking care of her. NARRATOR: Crystal's
aunt, Cindy Seratte, remembers a child who
didn't appear beaten
00:02:57
down by her tragic beginnings. She was a little
firecracker then. She was cute and
funny and outgoing.
00:03:05
Had a big personality. Sweet, sweet loving child. She was loved by everyone. She never let
anything get her down.
00:03:14
She was always fun
and rambunctious. NARRATOR: Crystal's grandparents
raised her in Baytown, Texas.
00:03:20
BRIAN HAWTHORNE: It's about 20
miles to the East of Houston. Baytown is more of a
suburban, very middle class.
00:03:28
Lots of petrochemical workers,
schoolteachers, some people are commuting to Houston.
00:03:34
NARRATOR: In her early 20s,
Crystal found her dream job based 35 miles
away at the George
00:03:39
Bush Intercontinental Airport. She, you know, kind of
started her career off in regards to her
successes as a flight
00:03:49
attendant for ExpressJet. I've never found a person
that did not like her. Very bubbly, very friendly.
00:03:57
No doubt outgoing. I mean, she-- she
never met a stranger. And ultimately, I
think that's the reason
00:04:04
she was successful as
a flight attendant. NARRATOR: By her
mid 20s, Crystal had met Steven McDowell.
00:04:09
Lively, good looking,
seven years her senior. CINDY SERATTE:
She was in a salon when she had told me
she had met Steve.
00:04:16
And that he was very
sweet and caring. And that he meant a lot to her
and things may be going forward
00:04:23
with their relationship. And I asked her,
basically, if she thought she was in love with him.
00:04:28
And she said, yes, ma'am,
Aunt Cindy, I think I am. NARRATOR: Stephen
McDowell was different
00:04:33
to his new girlfriend. Quieter, less driven. Steve, he doesn't have the-- the bubbly personality
like Crystal does.
00:04:42
He's pretty intelligent. I have found him to be
very engaging if you have a conversation with him.
00:04:48
CINDY SERATTE: When I
first met Steve, I-- I liked him. I thought he was
a pretty cool guy.
00:04:53
He was nice, he
was very laid back. You know, she was
always the wild and fun and eccentric and
live life on the edge.
00:05:01
And he always kind
of let her take the front seat of everything. He was a supervisor at one of
those warehouses that services
00:05:10
the chemical factories,
particularly dealing with ethylene and plastics. And I thought
that was a good pair
00:05:16
because, you know, as
much as she traveled, as much as she you know had
friends and wanted to go,
00:05:20
he just kind of went along. I liked him. I just thought you know she had
found her soul mate for life.
00:05:26
NARRATOR: The couple
married in 2007. But almost immediately,
cracks in their relationship
00:05:31
began to show. I think she just knew that
they weren't compatible. He was very
emotional, very needy.
00:05:39
They started arguing a lot. Basically, just growing
pains of marriage. But he was so emotional
that he would, you know,
00:05:49
throw out threats. She basically, within
the first year, noticed there was
just a lot of signs
00:05:59
that it just was
not going to work. NARRATOR: Carolyn
Canville is a crime reporter who's investigated
the McDowell marriage.
00:06:06
So she decides, it's
time to file for divorce. Steve kind of
manipulates the situation
00:06:12
and gets Crystal not to
go through with a divorce. So they continue trying
to make the marriage work.
00:06:20
NARRATOR: Stephen McDowell
didn't want a divorce. And he was incredibly
persuasive.
00:06:26
Anything he could do
literally to get her, he would. NARRATOR: The couple
worked at their marriage.
00:06:31
They had a baby boy and
two years later, a girl. Their children had kind
of interesting names.
00:06:37
Like one of them
was named after a-- a video game. And another one was named
after a pretty common type of--
00:06:48
of marijuana. NARRATOR: This wasn't
the only unconventional thing about their family life.
00:06:53
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne would
get to Steve and Crystal well. BRIAN HAWTHORNE: Crystal
and even Steve, I think,
00:06:59
dabbled with other relationships
while they were married. You know, to the best of our
knowledge in what we could see,
00:07:07
it was probably more
behind each other's backs. NARRATOR: Clearly,
there was discontent
00:07:13
inside the McDowell marriage. The reasons Crystal didn't
just leave were complications.
00:07:19
Crystal hadn't
really wanted to be married for a really long time. She was mainly staying
for the children.
00:07:26
She loved Steve as a person. She respected him as far
as a dad was concerned. She never spoke ill of him.
00:07:34
She just kind of fell
out of love with him. She had a hard time with
it because she wanted
00:07:39
her family to be together. She literally had spent her
whole life without her parents.
00:07:44
And he didn't have parents
that he had any contact with, for the most part. He revolved around
Crystal's family.
00:07:51
NARRATOR: As for Steve, month
after month, year after year, he did everything he could
to make Crystal stay.
00:07:59
I think he was living
in a fantasy land. And I do believe he
was being manipulative.
00:08:04
He wanted to do whatever
it took to keep her. Well, there's no doubt that
Steve is the type of person
00:08:10
that can be very manipulative. NARRATOR: It was five years
after their marriage in 2012
00:08:16
when Steve arranged Crystal's
big day out skydiving. ALL: (SINGING) Happy
birthday to you.
00:08:23
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Crystal. Happy birthday to you. [music playing]
00:08:45
Yay. That was so fun. NARRATOR: Dr. Judy Ho is
a forensic psychologist. She studies how
criminal minds work.
00:08:53
Even as Crystal grew
discontent, and no doubt, talked to him about
how unhappy she was
00:08:58
and how she'd like to probably
try to separate from him, he just kept coming up with
reason after reason for why
00:09:05
they had to stay together. And then, you know,
it'd get really bad. And then she would say
she was going to leave.
00:09:10
But then he would
threaten to kill the kids. He would threaten
to kill himself. He would threaten to kill her.
00:09:17
NARRATOR: As their 10th
wedding anniversary approached, it became clear that
Crystal and Steve's marriage
00:09:22
couldn't be saved. They just kind of grew apart. She went one way,
he went another.
00:09:26
Her dreams and visions were
going different places. NARRATOR: It was early
2017, by this time,
00:09:32
Crystal had embarked
upon a new career. She was selling homes. She was still early in
the real estate business,
00:09:38
but growing fast. And no doubt, was a top
seller her personality and her work ethic.
00:09:45
And she was definitely not lazy. She was not afraid to
put in a day's work. She was clearly being successful
in the real estate business.
00:09:53
Oh, she was an
amazing realtor. Everyone loved her. She reached out
to so many people.
00:09:59
And her whole motto is
that she just wanted to be a blessing to someone. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Steve was happy to let
00:10:05
his ambitious wife support him. I think there had
been times when he maybe didn't have as steady of a job.
00:10:12
She really is the
breadwinner for this family. She is really supporting
the whole family.
00:10:17
She would go and she'd
work and work and work. And it was never enough. Then the more that she did, it
was like, the more he expected.
00:10:27
NARRATOR: Eventually, Crystal
told friends that the marriage was more than she could take.
00:10:31
So in June of 2017, the
divorce becomes final. But it's amicable divorce. In fact, Crystal even helped
Steve to find a new home.
00:10:41
NARRATOR: Seemingly amicable. For Steven, the divorce
was devastating. He appeared in denial.
00:10:48
I think when a divorce is
being finalized or during the period of time the
divorce is-- is going through
00:10:54
is a very dangerous time. Because the desperate person
that doesn't want to let go
00:11:01
is at a point where they
may try or do anything. JUDY HO: And so, I
think, for Stephen,
00:11:06
as long as they were
still technically married, it would mean that
they weren't a failure.
00:11:11
But once that divorce
happened, that was the line he drew, that this
means that things are over.
00:11:16
That this means that I've
failed at my marriage. So I think he was happy
to keep the pretenses up
00:11:21
as long as Crystal
wasn't divorced on paper. I think he knew that they didn't
have much of a relationship.
00:11:27
But the hard line he drew was
when they finally divorced. NARRATOR: But there was no
dramatic severing of ties.
00:11:34
Crystal and Stephen vowed
to put their children first. She made it perfectly
clear that we would still
00:11:40
have something to do with him. And that if she got
divorced from him, that we would stay in
contact and that we
00:11:46
would accept him because that
was her children's father. So they're doing their best to
keep things civil and amicable
00:11:53
in front of the children. They don't want to upset them
any more than they need to.
00:11:58
NARRATOR: It was a
noble aim, but very quickly, Crystal had reason
to question her own judgment.
00:12:03
A few weeks after the
divorce, Crystal called 911. She said that her
husband refused
00:12:08
to give her the children
and he was threatening her. NARRATOR: The amicable
aspects of the divorce
00:12:15
was over as Steve had
introduced threats of violence into the relationship. Matters had escalated
in the wrong direction
00:12:23
for Mr. and Mrs. McDowell. And Steve was threatening to
harm himself and the children.
00:12:28
So it's pretty clear that while
Crystal was doing everything she could to maintain things,
keep things even and stable
00:12:35
for the children, that
Steve was exhibiting some pretty dangerous behavior. NARRATOR: Steve
McDowell eventually
00:12:46
returns the children unharmed. And Crystal chose not to
press charges against him.
00:12:51
Their lives remained
intertwined. She was renovating
her townhome. It was a townhome that
they had owned together
00:12:59
and she got it in the divorce. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Crystal had helped by Steve and the
children a family home
00:13:06
in the nearby suburb
of Mont Belvieu. The whole reason Crystal
bought a home in Mont Belvieu
00:13:12
is because it is a very
good school district. Mont Belvieu still has the warm
and cozy, kind of country feel,
00:13:20
know your neighbor to feel. The whole idea was to get
into the school district, get them set up into the home.
00:13:26
And then she was going to
live and her home in Baytown. NARRATOR: The arrangement
led to an unusual accord
00:13:32
struck between the
recently warring couple. While Crystal's
townhouse was fixed up,
00:13:38
Steve extended to his wife
a rather unusual invitation. He had asked her to
just stay with him.
00:13:47
That he would move out
of the master bedroom. She could have
the master bedroom if she would just stay
at the house with him
00:13:54
and the kids, which she did. NARRATOR: It was a set up
that suited both of them.
00:14:00
CINDY SERATTE: Crystal
thought, I'll just stay there. And that'll give me the
opportunity to spend
00:14:03
some time with the kids. And then that way,
when I am home, I can help get them to
school and, you know,
00:14:08
get them breakfast. She wanted to be a
part of their life. She was going to see
the kids more often.
00:14:13
But she also had a built
in babysitter with Steve. NARRATOR: Sheriff
Brian Hawthorne
00:14:18
believes that the
ex-couple's unusual living arrangements simply fed
Stephen McDowell's delusions.
00:14:25
BRIAN HAWTHORNE: Crystal
moving back into the house was just a manipulative
scenario that put Steve thinking
00:14:31
that he had an
opportunity to re-engage his relationship with her. When in fact, she
had no intentions.
00:14:38
And she just did not
realize the danger she was putting herself in. And I would tell
her, you know,
00:14:44
I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think you
need to stay there. Basically, he's
not in a position
00:14:50
where he is willing to
accept you as a friend. NARRATOR: But within
days, Crystal realized
00:14:55
her aunt could be right. Her ex-husband was not
ready to let her go. I seen a change in
Crystal when it come to, um,
00:15:06
her mannerisms toward Steve. Like, at first,
you know, she was very compassionate and kind.
00:15:12
And then it got to be where he
would start following her too much or calling her too much.
00:15:17
Steve would come in, and just
their body language, you know, they didn't make eye contact.
00:15:24
They would have a lot
of tense body language. Very one words. It was just very uncomfortable.
00:15:30
I think Crystal was starting
to see that perhaps even was quite erratic and
that perhaps maybe
00:15:38
his distress was morphing
him into a person she did not recognize. And so she was trying
to start drawing
00:15:43
a bit more of a boundary. And that was not
what Stephen wanted. That's the opposite of
what Stephen wanted.
00:15:49
And I think it just
aggravated him so much more. CINDY SERATTE: I told her
to move out of that house.
00:15:55
You know, to get
her place finished. And if she had to stay in
an apartment or in a hotel,
00:16:00
that's where she needed to stay. But she didn't need to be
living in that house with him
00:16:03
because he was delusional. And he would cry a lot. He would get mad a lot. His emotions were
all over the place.
00:16:10
NARRATOR: Steve was
convinced that Crystal was seeing other men. He was obsessed
with her every move.
00:16:16
CINDY SERATTE: He
started stalking her at the real estate business. Like, he had put
trackers on her car.
00:16:20
He was-- he was accusing
her of different things that was going on at work. NARRATOR: Nothing
was going on at work.
00:16:27
But Steve was right to suspect
that his former wife had met someone new. She has a new boyfriend.
00:16:32
She's met Paul Hargrave. He's a local jeweler. CINDY SERATTE: Paul
was adventurous.
00:16:37
From what she said,
he was very charming. And I think she was finally
ready to move forward.
00:16:44
Like, it was going
to be OK for her. She had met somebody that she
could enjoy their company.
00:16:48
I think she just felt
things falling in place. And she goes on Facebook
and she says, I have
00:16:53
never been happier in my life. NARRATOR: Did ex-husband Steve
know why Crystal suddenly
00:16:58
seemed so giddy with happiness? NARRATOR: Crystal wants
to keep her new man secret from her jealous ex.
00:17:17
There was a pressing reason. The family was going
on a family cruise. Kids and everybody.
00:17:23
And Steve was going
to be a part of it. I think she wanted Steve to
go so she would have a built
00:17:29
in babysitter on the cruise
ship with the children so she could enjoy
her family and enjoy
00:17:35
other people on the cruise. NARRATOR: Steve had other plans. Steve intended on hoping
to get remarried to Crystal
00:17:44
on the cruise. Yeah, I mean, I think he just
had thought so much stuff up in his mind about
renewing their vows
00:17:53
and just falling
back in love, he was just a little bit delusional. Because she never lead on that
she was going to remarry him.
00:18:00
NARRATOR: Crystal decides
to put Steve straight. It won't be him on the
cruise with her and the kids.
00:18:06
It will be the new
man in her life. And ultimately,
she wanted Paul to go on a cruise with her.
00:18:12
She wanted to go with her new
boyfriend, not her ex-husband. So she has to break the
news to Steve that he won't be
00:18:18
going on the cruise this time. That she's going to be
taking her boyfriend Paul.
00:18:23
NARRATOR: It was a crushing
blow to Steve McDowell. I think Steven had had a very
rich fantasy life in his head
00:18:30
for a very long time. From the time when their
marriage was truly not happy, but he was still pretending
that there was a marriage there
00:18:36
to salvage in the first place. I think it just
shows how removed Stephen had been from reality.
00:18:41
Steve was devastated
about being uninvited. She had told him
that she had met Paul
00:18:46
and that, you know, she was-- she was-- she was divorced. They were going to stay divorced
and she was moving forward.
00:18:52
And he didn't like that. NARRATOR: Crystal
broke the news to Steve on the 21st of August 2017.
00:19:00
Three days later, with the
rolling news channels reporting a category four hurricane
bearing down on the region,
00:19:05
Steve was enraged to find
himself rejected once again. He comes in the house and he
finds her dressed to the nines
00:19:13
to go out with
her new boyfriend. NARRATOR: On August
24, 2017, the whole of the South East of Texas was
preparing for Hurricane Harvey
00:19:21
to make landfall. BRIAN HAWTHORNE: Everybody was
in hurricane preparation mode. A number of people
had already evacuated
00:19:28
to Dallas or Austin,
different places, San Antonio trying to get away
from the coast.
00:19:34
So we'd gotten a lot of rain. You have a lot of
businesses that have a tendency to close up.
00:19:39
The highways, there's
very little traffic because nobody gets out in it. NARRATOR: Preparations
were made.
00:19:45
But on the night of
the 24th, the worst had not yet hit Mont Belvieu
where Steve was looking
00:19:50
forward to a family night in. Crystal had no intention
of being part of it. I called it the straw
that broke the camel's back.
00:19:58
She had come to the house,
he was out in the backyard playing with the kids. He thought it was going
to be a Steve and Crystal
00:20:06
and the kids evening,
instead, she left and went and got together with Paul. NARRATOR: Crystal
and Paul had arranged
00:20:15
to go to a local shopping
center and then out for dinner. BRIAN HAWTHORNE: During all
of this time, it's raining.
00:20:20
It's raining pretty
heavy at times. The storm was affecting
the Texas coast. And instead of actually
going back home,
00:20:27
she went and stayed the
night at Paul's house. And I think that also
definitely frustrated Steve.
00:20:37
NARRATOR: A divorced husband
had thought he had a real chance of winning back his ex.
00:20:40
But when she went
to Paul's house and not to see Steve
McDowell, did Crystal know her life was in danger?
00:20:47
[music playing] [crickets] [music playing] NARRATOR: The following
morning, August 25, Crystal
00:20:58
was captured on security
cameras leaving Paul's home. Moments earlier, she had
messaged her ex-husband Steve.
00:21:05
At one minute after 7:00,
she sends them a text message. On my way. Do you have water?
00:21:12
I may stay here with the kids. Seems like just rain. NARRATOR: In fact, the storm,
which had weakened overnight,
00:21:19
was about to get
much more ferocious. BRIAN HAWTHORNE: It
went ashore and stalled.
00:21:24
And then it started
moving back to the east. And then once it moved
back to the east,
00:21:29
then that's when we
started having the winds and the-- and the heavy rains. The hurricane was really bad.
00:21:35
I mean, people were
flooded out of their homes. I mean, they had
lost everything.
00:21:40
NARRATOR: Aunt Cindy had
hunkered down in her Belvieu home to wait out the storm.
00:21:44
Later that day, she got a
troubling call from her son. We were watching TV
actually and he had--
00:21:50
he was burning my phone up. And finally, I answered it. And he just told
me, he said, Mom,
00:21:55
did you know that
Crystal was missing? And I'm like-- I kind of really
chuckled at first.
00:22:00
I'm like, Crystal
is not missing, Son. He said, yes, Mom,
she's missing. Like, nobody can find her.
00:22:05
I said, Clenin,
Crystal didn't run off. She's not missing. She probably flew to Balize or
somewhere to escape the storm.
00:22:13
She's not missing. And he goes, Mom,
everybody's looking for her. Her friends, her family,
no one has heard from her.
00:22:20
She's not responding
to text messages. She's not responding
to phone calls. People are getting
really worried.
00:22:26
She was reported
missing by family members. I had called her several
times and texted her
00:22:34
and said, hey, babe,
where are you at? Everybody's looking for you. And I knew that when
she did not text
00:22:39
me back within an hour or so,
there was something wrong. And that's when I
started to get worried.
00:22:45
[music playing] NARRATOR: Cindy got in touch
with Crystal's Uncle, Jeff Walters, a man who had
helped raised her and was now
00:22:52
her boss at the
real estate agency. He filed the missing
persons report. But this wouldn't be a
standard missing persons
00:23:00
investigation for the
County Sheriff's Office. Hurricane Harvey
made sure of that.
00:23:06
Maybe she was a
victim of the weather. During the investigation
of a missing person,
00:23:12
there's usually a lot
of people involved. People are looking, searching
for this particular person.
00:23:19
However, when there is a
hurricane that's actively going on, it's chaotic. BRIAN HAWTHORNE:
There where Crystal
00:23:26
and Steve were residing-- that particular
area of our county got somewhere in between 55
and 60 inches of rain over,
00:23:37
you know, about a 72
to 48 hour period, just depending on how
you looked at it. So neighborhoods were
all going underwater.
00:23:46
So while all this is taking
place dealing with a missing person's case, at
the same time, we're
00:23:53
trying to do everything we
can to help our citizens, whether it's evacuate them
from their homes using
00:23:59
airboats or high water vehicles. Also trying to
secure their homes. NARRATOR: Cindy
Seratte, for one,
00:24:06
didn't believe
that her niece had simply got lost in the storm. She was very smart.
00:24:11
She wouldn't have drove
her car through high water or-- before she left, basically,
the roads were not flooded.
00:24:17
So she could have got out. When she came over that
morning to get the kids, she could have got out safely.
00:24:22
She would have never
jeopardized her kids. She wouldn't put herself
in the middle of that.
00:24:26
NARRATOR: In fact, Crystal's
closest family suspected immediately that something
much more sinister
00:24:32
had happened to her. They immediately
told us that we needed to be looking at Steve.
00:24:36
Basically, he was
just saying he don't know what happened to her. She just never come in.
00:24:40
It was odd. His body language
was very different. But at the first, you
don't know if they're
00:24:48
just distraught because they
do believe she's missing. Or if, you know, technically,
he did something.
00:24:53
But it definitely
crosses your mind. I never really thought
that he would kill her.
00:24:57
I figured he probably had her
somewhere was torturing her. NARRATOR: Homicide detective
Rod Demery is no stranger
00:25:02
to this kind of investigation. ROB DEMERY: You look
for immediate people that they may be
in contact with.
00:25:07
You look for the immediate area. You kind of expand that
as the worry and concern
00:25:11
grows to a large scale search. That includes searching
places, looking for vehicles.
00:25:19
It's pretty involved,
leaving no stone unturned until you
can find some sign or evidence of this person.
00:25:27
When we sat down
as a team and started looking at who we felt were
our persons of interest,
00:25:35
Steve was no doubt one of them. But we also had other
people of interest too. NARRATOR: Within 48 hours
of Crystal's disappearance,
00:25:43
storm waters engulfed huge
swathes of the county. Normally, the search
would be on in full force.
00:25:49
So the waters are rising
and homes are underwater. And entire neighborhoods
are flooded.
00:25:55
And police are doing
everything they can. But a lot of these deputies
and these police officers,
00:26:02
their homes are underwater. They can't get to scenes because
there's no way to get there.
00:26:07
Their Cars are underwater,
the streets are impassable. So a normal investigation
can't happen.
00:26:13
NARRATOR: Instead
Sheriff Hawthorne's team spoke to Crystal's
former husband, the man who had reported
her missing, Uncle Jeff and
00:26:20
Crystal's new boyfriend Paul. NARRATOR: Paul, Crystal's
boyfriend of just a month,
00:26:35
was quick to name
Steve as the man that the cops should
be looking at. NARRATOR: Uncle Jeff
also had his concerns
00:26:46
about the intensity of
Steve's feelings for crystal. NARRATOR: When detectives
interviewed Steve,
00:27:00
he was keen to help them
find the woman that he loved. Steve was very
willing to talk to us.
00:27:05
The individual that
immediately uses their right to not answer questions or not
give any kind of information,
00:27:16
sometimes that has
a tendency to make you even more of a suspect. Well, Steve, day after day
after day, all we'd have to do
00:27:24
is ask him if he'd
come to the Sheriff's office and answer questions. Steve will tell
police initially
00:27:30
that Crystal never showed up. He doesn't know where she is. She had sent some
texts and said she
00:27:35
was going to come get the kids. And that she never showed up. And he was sticking to it.
00:27:39
NARRATOR: Unsure
what to make of Steve McDowell's version
of events, detectives asked for Cindy's help.
00:27:45
As far as I was told,
just to hang out with him, talk to him and just to listen.
00:27:51
To be an ear for,
you know, the police. Steve was kind of sweaty,
he was kind of shaky,
00:27:58
he was all over the place. Very agitated, very emotional,
which could be expected
00:28:05
because his wife was missing. NARRATOR: Over the
course of several days, Cindy wants to get Steve
McDowell to trust her.
00:28:12
CINDY SERATTE: His
emotions were everywhere. He'd cry and he would talk
about how much he loved her
00:28:16
and how much he missed her. I would try to get
into his psyche. And it-- you know, at one point,
he screamed and raised his fist
00:28:22
and accused me of being
just like Crystal. I mean, he starts shaking
and got in my face.
00:28:27
NARRATOR: Was Steve McDowell
simply distressed and worried? Or was he struggling to
contain a dark secret?
00:28:32
As floodwaters from Hurricane
Harvey finally began to recede, searchers made a
troubling discovery.
00:28:39
August 29, three days after
she's been reported missing, Crystal's car is found.
00:28:45
A friend sees her
Mercedes parked outside of a Motel 6 in Baytown. The keys were still
inside the vehicle.
00:28:53
This is really strange. They can't even get the car out
because the waters are still
00:28:58
rising and the car submerged. So they have to
have it towed out. NARRATOR: Detectives
were left wondering
00:29:03
if Crystal had
left her car here, why hadn't she taken the keys? And where had she gone to next?
00:29:09
It would be days before
they got their answer. In the meantime, an interesting
piece of surveillance video
00:29:15
emerged. Steve is seen
dumping something into a trash can at this
local gas station and leaving.
00:29:25
But they were not able to
find out what those contents were because that
garbage can have
00:29:29
been swept away by floodwaters. Everything is washing away. So everything that
police are trying to do,
00:29:36
they're being hampered
by this crazy hurricane. NARRATOR: But as
the storm died down,
00:29:41
detectives were finally able
to start joining up the dots. The evidence just
continued to keep mounting.
00:29:46
And most of it was video
surveillance from business security cameras, whether
it was the service
00:29:56
station where we later found her
car at a Motel 6 parking lot. And the gas station caught
somebody parking the car.
00:30:07
And that person that got out
of the car resembled Steve. NARRATOR: Steve had
dumped Crystal's car.
00:30:13
The one she'd been seen leaving
Paul Hargrave's house in hours before. Suspicion was growing.
00:30:19
Detectives were more
and more certain that this was no longer
a missing persons case.
00:30:33
[music playing] NARRATOR: On the 8th
of September 2017, detectives have been
searching for Crystal
00:30:39
McDowell for 14 days. They believed Steven
McDowell was her killer, but they couldn't prove it.
00:30:46
But one of the things that
you learn from a detective's perspective and law enforcement
is you never rule out anybody
00:30:53
or anyone until you truly
have that physical evidence or a confession. NARRATOR: And all the while
police were building a case,
00:31:02
Steve McDowell had custody
of his two young children. Has he became more and
more of a person of interest?
00:31:11
Myself and the district
attorney were concerned that he had already
made a threat, you know,
00:31:18
in a previous year of
taking his own life and taking the kid's life. So we know that
somehow, some way
00:31:26
that was already in his mind. NARRATOR: Cindy began to fear
for the children's safety.
00:31:31
I would go over there. I would try to get
the kids to school. Help Steve, you know, with
the kids a little bit.
00:31:37
If I could keep him close to
me and keep the kids close, I could keep an eye on
him and maybe, you know,
00:31:43
somewhat protect the kids. So we took the
legal avenues, got the Child Protective
Services involved in it.
00:31:53
NARRATOR: As the Sheriff
waited for sign-off to get the children from the
hands of a suspected killer,
00:31:58
he uncovered evidence
that brought him one step closer to arresting McDowell. There was an interstate
highway and a state highway
00:32:06
where this Motel 6 was. And directly catty corner
of that was a Walmart. And we were able to get
video surveillance of Steve
00:32:15
buying a bicycle and a-- an energy drink and
a pack of cigarettes at very early in the
morning, like 5:45 6:00 AM.
00:32:25
Very-- very early. NARRATOR: This was a
day or two after Crystal was last seen alive.
00:32:30
The same day that Steve had
been seen on surveillance video dumping Crystal's car.
00:32:35
And then we got additional
security video surveillance of him riding that bicycle
down the interstate 10
00:32:43
service road towards his house. NARRATOR: Nothing about
this scenario looked right.
00:32:48
I would say it was
very unusual to be riding your bike home in the rain. And it really wasn't on
an adult bicycle either,
00:32:56
it was a kid's bicycle. And the detectives had seen
the bicycle in the garage on earlier searches.
00:33:07
But obviously, they just
assumed that that bicycle was one of the children's bikes.
00:33:14
And it wasn't until we
started putting all the-- the video-- when we
discovered the car then
00:33:21
the video of the
car being parked and then the video of
him buying the bicycle. And then the video of him
riding the bicycle home,
00:33:30
obviously, we went back and
did another search of the house and in the garage. And there was the bicycle.
00:33:37
And we were able to identify
that was the bicycle that he had purchased from the Walmart
shortly after parking the car
00:33:44
in the Motel 6 parking lot. NARRATOR: Finally, having linked
the bike purchased from Walmart
00:33:51
with the one Steve
was seen riding, investigators could
piece together Steve's movements that day.
00:33:57
When I got to see it
the very first time, I was personally
giddy because he was one of our persons of interest.
00:34:05
And he was becoming a
stronger and stronger person of interest. And those were the pieces of
the puzzle that we needed.
00:34:15
NARRATOR: The evidence
wasn't quite there to charge Steve McDowell with murder. But then came the incident
that would make him crack.
00:34:21
We were able to take the
kids and put them with an aunt. Steve was very willing
to let us take the kids.
00:34:31
Didn't want us to, but-- but did not fight us. Everything's pointing to him. He's not being very cooperative.
00:34:43
Police are zeroing in
on Steve at this point. Steve's getting nervous. The police are nervous enough
that they have had the children
00:34:50
taken away from him. Steve then confides in his
older daughter, the one from his previous
marriage, he admits
00:34:58
to her that he killed Crystal. NARRATOR: On September 9, 2017,
when his wife Crystal McDowell
00:35:05
had been missing for 15
days, Steven McDowell handed himself in. At this point, Steve must
realize that it's over.
00:35:14
He finally confesses to police. He ultimately, broke
down and told us that he would take us to the body.
00:35:23
It's a heavily wooded
area near Needle Point Road. BRIAN HAWTHORNE: We
would not have located it
00:35:33
if Steve hadn't taken us to it. It was very important
for us and very important to the prosecution
that we did locate
00:35:41
the body for two reasons. One, for prosecutorial reasons. And also, for the-- the ability for the family to--
00:35:51
to have some closure based upon
what had happened to Crystal. NARRATOR: Finding
Crystal may have both
00:35:57
the possibility of closure. But before that, came the horror
at what she had gone through.
00:36:03
The details of what
he did were disturbing. When we finally were
able to recover the body,
00:36:12
the body had a lot of
decomposition and-- and there had also been some,
um, wild animal activity.
00:36:23
Very difficult to identify
exactly how she died. He tells police
that they argued.
00:36:30
He strangled her
with his bare hands. Once she was dead, he covered
her face with plastic.
00:36:37
He tied her up. He stuffed her body
into a garbage bag. You know, it makes you wonder
how a person can do something
00:36:45
like that and not
have remorse or how a person can do something
like that and not snap
00:36:53
and go, oh, my God. What am I doing? The next morning, he
loaded that garbage bag
00:36:58
with his ex wife's body
in it into his vehicle and he drove it until
he got to this heavily
00:37:05
wooded area near
Needle Point Road and he dumped her body there. And for 15 days,
it's been there.
00:37:12
NARRATOR: Aunt Cindy
was left to tell the children what had happened. He destroyed so many lives.
00:37:16
He destroyed his
children's life. I mean, he destroyed
Crystal and, you know, her dreams and her goals and
her visions of, you know,
00:37:24
her family. And the kids will
grow up without a mom. NARRATOR: Would the children
grow up without a father too?
00:37:32
Stephen refused to
admit to murder. Instead, in June 2019,
he stood in court and claimed crystals death
had been a tragic accident.
00:37:41
In the trial, he tried
to say he squeezed her to death, as in hugging her. He testified that this
was a sudden passion crime
00:37:50
and that he never
intended on killing her. And in Texas, under the law,
a heat of the moment killing
00:37:56
could actually
get a defendant as little as two years in prison. NARRATOR: Stephen's behavior
disgusted Crystal's loved ones.
00:38:03
He was a coward to do it. So man up and at
least say you did it. If you snapped or
you premeditated
00:38:10
it or you went nuts, whatever
happened at that point, you own it. You know you did it.
00:38:19
You own it. NARRATOR: No matter Steve's
claims, unbeknown to him, the prosecution
had a star witness.
00:38:25
One who was just
seven years old. The daughter said that she
saw, you know, her father--
00:38:35
saw Steve strangling Crystal. NARRATOR: After leaving
her boyfriend's house on the morning of
the 25th of August,
00:38:44
Crystal had arrived at Steve's
Mont Belvieu home as planned. The children were
still asleep in bed.
00:38:51
Once she got there,
the two began to argue. This little girl
testifies that she actually woke up while her
mommy and daddy were arguing.
00:39:03
She'd gotten up to
go to the bathroom. The argument was about
Crystal having other man.
00:39:09
And she said that mommy
got mad and mommy said, I'm just going to take
my children and leave.
00:39:15
And that daddy said,
no, you're not. NARRATOR: Precisely what
happened next isn't clear.
00:39:19
The little girl testified
that her father had seen her and angrily sent her upstairs.
00:39:24
But Steve had already
admitted to police that he grabbed Crystal from
behind in a kind of hug,
00:39:30
he said. In fact, a choke hold. And that's what
it appears that he did to her was strangled her
till she ultimately passed out.
00:39:42
NARRATOR: Was this really
a crime of sudden passion? Had an uncontrollable
red mist descended?
00:39:47
Or had Stephen meant to
kill Crystal all along? That it takes four
minutes to smother someone,
00:39:54
I mean, at some point, you would
think he would have snapped and realized, what am I doing?
00:39:59
My child's watching
and my wife's dying. NARRATOR: The prosecution
argued that everything
00:40:03
Stephen did pointed
to a violent man who intended to kill his wife. If there's a violent history,
a threatening history where she
00:40:12
was afraid, then
that would cause him to believe that this is not
something that just happened.
00:40:18
It's something
that's been going on. NARRATOR: If this was
a tragic accident, why hadn't Stephen called
the emergency services?
00:40:25
Instead, he'd gone
to extreme lengths to cover up Crystal's death. The manufactured
text messages.
00:40:32
You know, the
consciousness of his guilt when he tries to hide the
body, throw the body away
00:40:36
or whatever the case may be. It just doesn't seem
like sudden passion. There is no heat of the
moment here for Stephen.
00:40:44
I think when he realized that
the relationship was truly coming to an end and that his
fantasy life could no longer
00:40:50
make sense of what was
actually happening, this was going to be the
natural step he would take.
00:40:55
I believe, sadly, that
as long as Stephen was continuing to
harbor these feelings
00:40:59
and thoughts, that
this was going to be the likely end for Crystal. NARRATOR: By June 12, 2019,
the jury had heard enough.
00:41:06
After three hours
of deliberations, they returned their
verdict, guilty. Stephen McDowell is convicted
of murder in the death
00:41:16
of his ex-wife Crystal. He's sentenced to
50 years in prison. The earliest he could be
paroled is the year 2042.
00:41:25
He will be 70 years
old at the time. He's currently serving
his time at the Texas
00:41:30
prison systems Coldfield
unit in Tennessee Colony. NARRATOR: Crystal's aunt Cindy
is trying to come to terms
00:41:36
with the loss of her niece. CINDY SERATTE: I
have pity for him. You know, he'll live the rest of
his life, or the majority of it
00:41:41
in prison. And he'll get what he deserves. I feel bad for him that
he made that choice.
00:41:45
NARRATOR: For Sheriff
Brian Hawthorne, the tragedy could
perhaps have been avoided if Crystal and Steve had
put some distance between them.
00:41:52
If you're leaving a
hostile relationship, you need to figure out how to
separate yourself and continue
00:41:59
to grow as two separate
people and raise your family in a healthy way. And moving back in
with your ex-husband
00:42:09
is not a healthy way to do it. [music playing]