Crystal Howell case: Teen kills dad, throws house party with body in shed

a loving father is murdered you could see like this part of his head was blown off his cold blooded killer is someone close to home she looked like she had no soul and when he's dead some say his own house becomes party central complete with a new stripper pole never a dull moment from the minute you wake up till the minute you go to sleep but where is his body and was money or drugs the motive for murder did something else just make this killer snap i know exactly why she killed him now family and friends are speaking out for the first time about the father who is murdered and the twisted teen who pulled the trigger the howell family of augusta georgia michael a sports editor mother christina and eldest daughter sierra all agreed youngest daughter crystal was a spitfire how is crystal as a daughter and raising her crystal she was a lot of fun she could be a lot of challenges she would you know if there was trouble to be found she would find it just a lot of mischief but soon the seemingly harmless mischief turned to serious misconduct crystal started lying stealing and vandalizing other people's property even setting the neighbor's pool cushion on fire but there were very strange things that would happen with her when she was younger that kind of convinced most of the world that knew the howls that crystal had some problems eventually crystal was put on medication michael didn't want her on that medicine but he allowed it he really did not want her to be on it he thought it changed her personality michael's friend austin rhodes said crystal's parents were deeply divided on this issue and he was saying that christie's way of dealing with crystal was to medicate her basically put a theoretical pillow over her face to keep her quiet and keep her in line and he just didn't agree with that he thought it was the cheap and easy way out doctors suggested counseling for crystal but michael said no he had been bullied as a child for going himself he didn't want crystal to be stigmatized correct he was constantly at odds with his wife about you know the approach they should be taking with crystal after 19 years of marriage mike and christina decided to split largely due to the disagreements over crystal and a bombshell confession from christina oldest daughter sierra wasn't his biological child we didn't have a good relationship he didn't want me around i wasn't his kid it was a life-changing family revelation crystal and her dad packed up and moved to picturesque maggie valley north carolina and with the large inheritance michael got from his grandparents bought an eight bedroom home on sheep back mountain but despite the beautiful calm setting crystal's issues escalated to hard drugs frequent shoplifting self-harm and running away she'd be gone two three weeks at a time sometimes michael confided in his friend about his serious concerns he said sometimes it's like she has no conscience and i said you mean like a sociopath and you said yeah like that a few years later crystal met summer ramsay and taylor metz at an alternative high school all becoming fast friends she was very charismatic always funny she was really weird about her feelings she tried to keep them in and make other people happy i was really good in school i never really had experience with anyone who had like a history of trouble or anything and when i met crystal it was just like oh there's like that teenage rebellion i'm supposed to have and that so-called rebellion caused michael to be an even stricter father despite that he and crystal were exceptionally close when i looked at their relationship that's what i wanted to have they were best friends he loved her she loved him even though he was strict on her she still adored her father but that adoration would soon be annihilated reportedly it was a cold february day when crystal and her father were out at a local store he was shopping she was once again stealing and he caught her shoplifting and made her apologize and they went back home back at home crystal took a shower and mike took a nap it would be his last one the next day crystal told friends her father went on a business trip to georgia she asked to stay at taylor's house for a couple of weeks until he returned then a phone call that crystal tells her friends has changed everything and it was about two or three days into her being over there when we came home from the school and her mom called her and that was when her mom told her that her dad had killed himself she's like crying hysterically and she's trembling and she's my dad killed himself what do i do what do i do he killed himself summer and taylor took care of their friend that night then a light bulb went off they made a plan to move into crystal's house to live with the now fatherless teen she was like yeah that worked out perfect and like everyone was excited is she grieving at all i mean i guess in her own weird crystal way she seemed a little bit messed up about it but apparently not for long reportedly life for the teens on sheep back mountain turned into a never-ending wild party crystal even installed a stripper pole in the kitchen and all the newfound fun was being paid for by crystal's dad she did have his bank card so he would she would pay the bills and like the lights and her phone bill and stuff like that and she would buy everybody food summer says reports of a party house are greatly exaggerated she claims the stripper pole was just for fun and exercise and the parties well it was just one big party but that party was a doozy there was like 50 people there more than what we ever wanted and friends say crystal had drugs for everyone she brought drugs into the house what kind of drugs are we talking it was meth summer says crystal did drugs that night but during the party things got strange and summer believes someone also slipped her something more potent she was acting crazy she was out of the world not the crystal that i know she was just kind of hallucinating there was just kind of like smoke drifting in the air sometimes and she would see smoke clouds and she would say oh my gosh that's my dad summer says she and taylor took care of strange and dysfunctional crystal after the party she sat in a chair for two weeks and did not move for two solid weeks yes crystal eventually recovered and informed her friends she was going to her mom's and would be back in six months she told her friends they could stay but while she was away there was one very important rule in the house don't go near the shed she just asked us to stay away from it this is her exact words that's where me and my dad went to hang out and that's special to me so we just kind of stayed away from it crystal howell was suddenly alone the year 17-year-old moved her friends into her dad's north carolina mountainside cabin many say it was a non-stop party zone complete with a newly installed stripper pole never a dull moment not a dream but like a like something you wouldn't imagine and where was her dad michael crystal first told friends he was away on business then she said he committed suicide but three weeks after her friends moved in crystal made a move of her own to her mother's house in augusta georgia so when she took off did she say you guys can still live here yes she told me we could stay up there and that she would pay for the electric and that if we needed help with food or anything to contact her she said i'll be back after my birthday but before she left crystal made one perplexing demand asking her friends to follow one rule while she was gone do not go in the shed crystal packed her belongings into a u-haul withdrew at least 3 000 from her dad's bank account and drove off in his orange land rover the very next day crystal's friend summer broke that one important rule and walked right into a nightmare she had this pinball machine downstairs and she had told us that we could sell it we were bringing it back because we didn't end up selling it so we were bringing it back and i was like why would we move it all the way back downstairs so we just popped the lock off of the shed you could smell it as soon as you open the door it was awful you opened it and you said the smell was the first thing yeah the smell was the first thing i just opened it like this and i was standing right about here and there was one blue bin in this corner and i just walked in and i looked and that was all i needed to know he was like folded like this down in it like that and you could see like this part of his head was blown off horrified summer says she thought the body may have been a party goer from the blowout they had two weeks before then quickly realized no it was crystal's father and so at that point you guys just ran we immediately left terrified summer went directly to the hagwood county sheriff's office in those moments did you think she had done that yes i did i thought she was trying to frame me you yes that was initially what i thought i was scared because she's nowhere to be found and you're on the property yeah it looked bad did she have access to a gun her father owned a gun she had told me that she gave he gave her the gun so that she could have protections and she sold it to my dad for twenty dollars that's another reason that made me think she's trying to frame me so where was crystal the north carolina authorities were looking for her but she was long gone crystal had made it to her hometown in georgia i was on my way to work and actually saw the the car in the parking lot and i pulled over talked to her but she wasn't her normal self she was not wanting to be touched when you tried to hug her it was weird it was really uncomfortable she looked like she had no soul she looked like there was nobody in there in the conversation no conversation really she said hello that was basically it christina and sierra said their goodbyes to crystal little did they know what had been done and what was to come just hours later the authorities found crystal howell sleeping at a local motel and took her into custody what was the scenario when you first rolled up she was very quiet to begin with and was acting and when i say acting i do mean acting because you could tell she was trying to act like she didn't know what was going on and that she was just innocent i could tell she was it was put on investigators soon interrogated crystal i was able to watch live as they were talking to her and just her demeanor the way she was just nonchalant about everything it would send chills to your spine and it just very cold hearted crystal howell was charged with first degree murder when christina learned what her youngest daughter had done she went right to the station did you get to talk to her in the police station she gave me a hug and she said i didn't mean to do it it's the only thing she said crystal soon confessed to the murder she tells police as her father slept on the sofa she shot him in the head with his own gun she then moved his body into the shed and moved her friends into the house she took approximately 12 thousand dollars from her father's bank account and used a cell phone to search how long a body takes to decompose that's all i could see is her blowing itself that's all i could see i didn't think that she was capable of that so the how was clear but what about the why she was the kind of person that you could easily predict at one point was going to be in serious trouble if you just had no idea she could turn a gun on her own father while in custody crystal was diagnosed with several mental disorders many believed it was her untreated mental issues a subject her parents had always been on opposite sides of that caused her to snap he wanted a solution that didn't involve drugging her and it is wonderful a thought as that was and unfortunately i think cost him his life could it have been prevented i think had she been treated and medicated from eight nine ten years old maybe her brain may have functioned in a different way she was not given that opportunity so as a parent i failed in in that aspect crystal howell took a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in prison family and friends are now left to pick up the pieces and try to make sense of the senseless do you have any anger or resentments toward her i do have a little resentment i was working on fixing my relationship and then she just took him away what would crystal want people to know about her she's not a monster no she's not a monster but she needed help that she didn't get i need to know why she did it because she not only ruined her father's life by killing him she ruined a lot of people that loved her life just something everybody has to live with not fair

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,501,236

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Id: 7ue8NzZPQtg

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Tue May 04 2021