Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 25 - McDowell - Full Episode | Forensic Files

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

Steven McDowell refused to accept that his marriage to Crystal was over. When she disappeared during a hurricane, efforts to uncover foul play were hampered.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Crystal McDowell's disappearance during Hurricane Harvey leads to the shocking revelation of her murder by ex-husband Steve McDowell.

Key points

Unraveling Marriage. The cracks in Steve and Crystal's marriage became apparent soon after their wedding.
Crystal's Ambitious Spirit. Crystal was a top seller in real estate, known for her work ethic and charm.
Dangerous Threats. After their divorce, Steve's behavior escalated to threats of violence against Crystal.
A New Relationship. Crystal finds happiness with Paul Hargrave, a local jeweler, after her divorce.
The Troubling Call. Aunt Cindy learns from her son that Crystal is missing, sparking concern.
The Investigation Begins. Hurricane Harvey complicates the search for Crystal, leading to chaotic conditions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She never let anything get her down.

Cindy Seratte reflects on Crystal's resilient spirit.

3:12WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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