Hunted in a Hurricane | The Case of Crystal McDowell

hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this whole video what we're gonna do is um we're gonna look at you know just a big old hurricane you know you know one of those big old hurricanes as you do uh we're gonna look at one of those but more specifically what happened during one crystal mcdowell was a realtor in texas canada better watch its back by the way texas is quickly climbing the ranks of uh crazy case locations in 2017 hurricane harvey hit texas like well like a hurricane and in the midst of this disaster crystal mcdowell disappeared you know if you wanted to do something uh a bit naughty wouldn't uh during a hurricane be like the best the best time to do it um so wouldn't it be interesting that she would disappear during one was this a cover-up much kinda maybe let's give it a go on friday the 25th of august 2017 crystal mcdell got up for another day on the rig she didn't actually work in an oil rig but uh well this is texas though so that morning she was leaving her boyfriend's home hopping in the car at about 7 35 to get to the office in baytown hoping to lash out a few houses as you do bad time to be a realtor though as the number of uh houses in baytown it's about to be reduced like by a shitload for the past week there had been a nasty hurricane forming in the gulf of mexico however that day the 25th of august crystal mcdowell never made it into work in fact nobody heard heard from her at all that day since she left her boyfriends [Music] that evening when her family were all gathered up for a fight no they weren't beating the [ __ ] out of each other it was mayweather and mcgregor that's when her family started to become concerned nobody had spoken to her all day they couldn't get true to her she wasn't answering her phone and it's a bit like huh crystal mcdowell was 38 years old she had two kids a boy and a girl with her husband well ex-husband stephen mcdell they had divorced after 10 years of marriage however as her home was being remodeled she was still living with her ex-husband [Music] awkward uh yet very awkward because crystal had a new boyfriend and her ex-husband steve who she was sharing a home with still uh still wore the l ringing his finger he uh he was taking taking a bit of time to get over the el divorce he didn't take it well and he made sure she knew it so early on the 26th of august crystal's family reported her missing and the police popped by crystal's home the home she shared with stephen mcdowell he was asking them you know what's wrong what happened i haven't seen her at all is she okay i didn't see her at all yesterday i was in walmart shopping that morning at times you know she spends the nights with her new boyfriend so maybe you should uh give him a cue too however when speaking to old stevie the police got you know the usual something off suspicion about him you know ex-husband maybe a little bit jealous something so next up the investigators went to speak with crystal's new boy toy who was also off one thing was that neither her husband nor boyfriend reported her missing and her boyfriend was the last person to see her uh oh she leaving his house that morning so it was weird that he never reported her missing and it was also weird that her ex-husband she lived with and shared a home with two children he never reported her missing either her boyfriend was paul hargrave of robson's jewelers that means more beautiful diamonds at attractive prices hi i'm paul from robson's jewelers come in now to have us hand pick your special diamond on our upcoming antwerp trip looking to buy a ring he's your fella no better buckle with paul crystal was happier than she'd ever been the night before crystal had gone missing she'd gone on a date with her with paul her new boyfriend and then spent the night at his gaffe and then was out the door the next morning two places unknown he saw her the morning she was caught on his home cctv last time he spoke to her he was getting ready for a wash when she was out the door so in these cases you know where a woman goes missing it's nearly always the man in her life who's there who's the ella who's the l baba ganoush and in crystal's life she had two so it was kind of complicated and in fact her life was quite complicated and all those complications you know multiply them by even more complexity when you factor in a friggin hurricane that landed right in the middle of a missing person's investigation morning the national weather service says they've not seen anything quite like this there is drama there is misery there is bravery here as you noted at least two people have lost their lives thousands here are stranded and with the rain expected to continue well into the week this could turn out to be the worst flooding disaster in u.s history hurricane harvey was a category 4 storm that slap bang walt texas making landfall on august 25th 2017. the day crystal went missing it was the biggest hurricane to hit the united states and other nations in 12 years something that meteorologists said was a matter of not if but when it would come harvey had begun as a tropical wave off the coast of africa on the 13th of august and was slowly building and building initially it was thought to be a category 1 but quickly intensified to be a category 4. on the 24th of august people were bracing for devastation tides would rise by 12 feet we have a two-story home and on the first floor it's up to here it would eventually cost 125 billion dollars in damage i'm devastated that everybody's lost so much and it still keeps continuing to rain and lead to 103 deaths direct and indirect in the u.s alone and it was in this that crystal mcdowell disappeared crystal mcdowell was born in 1979 named crystal after hey crystal meth lovely stuff yeah uh both of crystal's parents died when she was 11 within six months of each other uh they both died from well they did name her at age 13 crystal was abducted by a predator held in a chicken coop assaulted until she managed to escape she eventually moved in with her family her uncle jeff raising her so not an easy start for poor crystal she would eventually meet stephen mcdowell who was a friend of her uncle jeff's she would fall head over heels for him and they would they would marry and have two kids together hey crystal how are you doing great how are you i'm doing fantastic what are you doing today to jump out of the perfect job get here out of a plane making your first skydive whose idea was this steve steve your idea so if she gets hurt i'm blaming you all right buddy is a really good laughing church oh cool perfect are you covered in that policy you're looking a little shaky there you feeling okay think so uh-oh i think master broke your harness happy birthday to you happy birthday to you so it's so fun what was the best part the whole thing was the whole thing yeah shortly after their marriage crystal got herself a job as a flight attendant with express jet she would fly around the country join the mile high club not with her husband yeah crystal had lads and lassies by the way all over the country uh and would continue to be romantically involved with both men and women throughout her marriage as you can imagine steve um when he learned she would eventually divorce stephen as i said the divorce was mainly from her side steven wasn't too keen on it and she started dating paul in fact shortly before she vanished she was supposed to go on a cruise with her two kids and stephen and then poor steven he got the boot and she invited paul instead so when she went missing there were so many like the investigators essentially had to go through like a blender full of [ __ ] in the middle of a hurricane so by the 27th of august the investigators you know they had their cork boards out and their red strings ah yeah ready to go ready to rockin and rare to go unfortunately going was not an option overwhelmed emergency responders were forced to triage tens of thousands of calls taking care of only those who needed help urgently i know people are trying to reach 9-1-1 may not be getting a response i understand that the system there are a lot of people who are calling but let me ask for a gift let's give preference to the life threatening cause bayton where all this was happening was soon underwater the police had to join the emergency services in rescuing people a missing person's case was soon off the list of priorities so with the cops not having the resources her family started posting as much as possible on social media and then something quite strange happened one of crystal's family members who was obviously posting as much [ __ ] you know twitter facebook and all that she got a message from a complete randomer saying crystal's car has been missing since she was last seen driving out of her boyfriend's driveway i think i think i know where crystal's car is she just sent this random message with a picture saying crystal's car is at a motel see this random person had received this snapchat and sent it on to the people looking for crystal this was at a motel 6. however as the roads were rivers the family and the police when they were able to had to arrive by airboat the car wasn't exactly well parked doors open keys inside it became pretty clear someone was hoping the car wouldn't be there for very long if you catch my drift see this black car right here this mercedes two people got out of it and it doesn't belong to them in fact if it wasn't for the hurricane the car would have been long gone so when the car was able to be towed to the cop shop and examined well nothing was found no traces no evidence no forensic whatchamacallits and so a week past the storm receded the place was in shambles this morning police are searching for a texas mother who mysteriously disappeared before harvey hit crystal mcdowell's last facebook post was stay safe out there she wrote it the day before harvey made landfall crystal mcdowell's family says she was scheduled to pick up her two children from her ex-husband's home but never showed that was the day before hurricane harvey flooded streets in her neighborhood and with law enforcement trying desperately to keep people out of harm's way this storm may have provided the ideal climate to cover a crime how confident are you that she was not a victim of this storm i'm very confident she is not a victim of the storm we we feel very very confident that she's not a victim of this storm these are the last known images of crystal taken from security cameras in her boyfriend's home and a day before the hurricane she was leaving for two appointments as a real estate agent crystal's uncle jeff walters works in the same real estate office what do you think happened to her i don't know but i know that she's not one to leave and she's she would always be in contact with us and her children but there was little to nothing you know to go on as far as what happened to crystal they they were still [ __ ] out of luck and so a texas ranger came in he started from scratch stephen mcdell was brought in hadn't seen crystal since she left for her date with her new fella he took a lie detector test he failed with flying colours however the family you know we're like we've known stephen for donkey's years she's he's a good skin he's a good developer but you know maybe you should look at a her new fella don't know much about him don't like him personally i told her my health he reminded me of him and he creeped me out really bad what about him don't know i mean she liked him she loved it i don't trust him you know what this paul have gained by hurry i don't know [Music] what does steve have to gain money i honestly believe he loved her to the point of no return you know i mean he really didn't do this and i'm gonna tell you i'll be up truthfully i don't believe it i don't think i believe someone killed him i believe i'm working a murder right now yeah and so paul hargrave was also brought in and he too failed miserably so over a week since crystal's disappearance the search began in earnest to try and find any clues as to where she could have gone unfortunately those clues and maybe a possible body were more than likely swept out to sea by you know the receding the receding waters and so good luck finding anything over 100 people would take part in the search but it wasn't looking too good so the lead detective texas ranger went back and needed to decide on who to focus on ex-husband or new boyfriend both equally suspect come on it's gotta be one of the gruesome twosome and so what do we like to see that my friends is cc tv the motel where the car was found well didn't cameras show the car being backed in to where it was found the day after she went missing the 26th as the rain began pouring down then five hours later at a gas station right beside the motel a security camera caught who would it be oh stevie mcdell they saw his car and it appeared to show steven parking his car but not getting any petrol instead he leaves his car and walks over to the motel it became clear pretty quickly that he probably ditched her car there hoping it would be stolen but you know they didn't know how he left her car there and then got home because it was quite a distance so if he ditched her car at the motel headed to get home that morning and so more footage was discovered showing a lad having a grand old time biking through the storm stevie owned that bike the investigators noticed it when they went to interview him when crystal was reported missing he also said he was in a walmart the morning she disappeared there just so happened to be a walmart across from where her car was left and he was buying a bike so he dropped off the car walked across the road bought a bike then came back hours later popped the head in stolen bollocks still there and so steven was brought in again hey stevie that's that's you in the camera right we can we can clearly see it's you no it isn't [Music] there's no doubt my mind that that's you i want to show you that and guess what you'd like to see that he eventually admitted it was kind of some of it was some of it wasn't but he was still adamant he had nothing to do with the disappearance and you know the investigators had no body then interestingly the police speaking to friends and family as they had been through doing the entire time they learned that shortly after the divorce crystal and steven's divorce which had taken place about six months prior to all of this steven took it not well in fact he took it really really badly so much so that people said he had more than once mentioned murder-suicide of his wife and two kids ex-wife so there's that and then also around the time of the divorce stephen one day steven just took the two kids and just left just disappeared crystal obviously freaked out she called 9-1-1 and he eventually returned with the two kids you know charges charges weren't filed at all about him abducting his own children but um the police began to become worried that he might do something a little bit drastic and so the kids were quickly put into child protective services steven he didn't want a divorce and he definitely didn't want to know that his wife was flying around the country having affairs all over the place and he definitely didn't want to see her with her new boyfriend so wasn't too happy about it so the police basically saying you're not going to see your kids again if you don't talk he began to spill the beans bad beans real bad beans he eventually admitted to the police she arrived home after she left her boyfriends that morning to see her kids crystal and steven ended up fighting and he strangled her to death wrapped her body in bags put her into the boot and dumped her and you've confronted her at different times about those affairs confronted her and then she told me to stay in her business she says that i'm not dominant enough in the bedroom that's what she says were you fighting when that happened yeah that when she told you that she didn't love you anymore yeah and did you snap did you name the suffocator no it just happened nothing either love her and how did you suffocate squeeze her like this okay like i did choke hold or something did you say anything when that was going on or did you fight or what what happened it's just a little scarier how did you eventually know that she was no longer alive [Music] but he wouldn't say where not until he got a sweet deal no death penalty which was agreed to steven led them to where crystal was it was way out in the boonies a place that was five feet underwater about a week before and there wasn't much left so steven was charged with the murder of his ex-wife though you know when it was gonna come to trial stephen had one card left to play sudden passion sudden passion is a lawn texas and it means passion directly caused by and arising out of provocation by the individual killed or another acting with the person killed which passion arises at the time of the offense and is not solely the result of former provocation basically if you were provoked into killing somebody let's get a little slap in behind no harm done so what was steven gonna say she provoked me into killing her she killed herself really i mean it was suicide he hoped you know this would lead to a uh slap on the wrist then he'd be scot-free maximum 20 years maybe even out in two i mean look at the interview she made him her [ __ ] and one day he snapped had enough was mad as hell and wasn't gonna take it anymore is that when she told you she didn't love you anymore yeah did it fly did it [ __ ] in june 2019 he went on trial when he took the stand in his own defense he said you know she came home that morning she was hysterical women were she started fighting with him she was going mad and stephen just tried to camera down you know gentle gentle husband you know he just tried to calm her down give her a hug give her a big hug and she eventually she eventually went limp and uh she died so he hugged her to death which of course happens all the time the jury in fact didn't think that happened all the time and found his story to be unbelievable he was lying it was premeditation from an angry jealous ex-husband and he was found guilty it's 50 years for you boyo funnily enough the hurricane which added so much to this case so much complexity also helped crack it as it prevented her car from being stolen and led to stephen mcdowell a man who was bitter and jealous crystal didn't love him anymore a woman who was seemingly loved by everyone she met crystal mcdowell's life began and ended with unimaginable hardships hurricane harvey caused widespread devastation in texas and in the surrounding countries in the gulf of mexico but i bet nobody was more pissed off at it than steve you know the guy who's just hugging his wife you know and then had this little plan to uh maybe get away with it scot-free you know and he would have he would have gotten away with it too scot-free if it wasn't for that meddling category 4 hurricane bloody hurricanes thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it i will see you as always real soon in the next video take care of yourselves mike out you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,338,119

Keywords: that chapter, Crystal mcdowell, Baytown texas, hurricane harvey, steven mcdowell, crystal mcdowell disappearance

Id: ScO08AMNN6w

Length: 23min 37sec (1417 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/daytrippern7]

Does anyone know the music used around 4.40? Been looking for it for ages.

[u/JennyCole03]

Horrible story.... She seriously deserved better than this. However - MIKE!!! I don't get it - was her body found????

[u/SunnyDee429]

This one was well timed for hurricane season!

[u/MSchmidt8080]

She seems to be such a gentle soul. Deserved so much better.....

[u/river4205150]

If only the car was stolen like he hoped for. Next to time he will plan around the hurricane. I give them credit it was kind of a good idea.. just didn’t work .