And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- I knew she would never leave her kids
In the middle of a hurricane,
So I always knew it wasn't gonna be good.
- Crystal was gone,
And there were lots of reasons to worry.
- She had numerous lovers, men and women.
- You have both the husband and the boyfriend
Failing their polys.
- All in the same day, yes, sir.
- I'm like, what the hell is goin' on?
- But the answer would have to wait.
- Hurricane harvey is moving in this direction.
We were doin' high water rescues.
- We're stuck in the house.
Immediately, we went to social media.
- What kinds of things do you put up on it?
- Pictures of her, her license plate.
- Someone knew where she was,
Someone who liked to play games.
- He thought he was smarter than we were.
- Willing to trade one night of freedom.
- He said, "I'm ready to talk."
- "let me go home, and tomorrow morning,
"I will tell you everything."
- In exchange for the terrible truth.
- He couldn't have her, nobody could.
♪♪
- Hello and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
After a messy divorce,
Crystal mcdowell's life was finally moving
In the right direction.
She was devoted to her kids and dating a new man
When she vanished.
Then hurricane harvey swept through crystal's town
Threatening to wash away the clues to her disappearance,
But the same deadly storm that slowed the investigation
Would also flush out a killer's secrets.
Here's dennis murphy with "before the storm."
- The woman captured on security camera
Moving ghostlike from one room to the next
Is 37-year-old crystal mcdowell,
A real estate agent from baytown, texas.
It's Thursday, August 25, 2017.
At 7:35 a.M., crystal gets into her black mercedes coupe
And backs out of the driveway.
Looks like she's on her way to work,
But crystal never makes it to the office that day.
Texts, phone calls, and emails go unanswered.
When crystal's extended family gathers later that evening
To watch a pay-per-view boxing match,
Cousin jade cherry says they aren't sure
If they should be annoyed or concerned.
- It was the night
Of the mayweather and mcgregor fight,
And my whole family is here,
And my brother comes up to me immediately,
And he's like, "crystal is missing."
But in my head, I'm like, what?
Like, you don't think.
You know, you're like, well, find her.
Like, what do you mean? - Yeah, that doesn't--
That doesn't make sense. - Yeah.
And he's like, "no. Like, she's missing.
"no one has talked to her since 7:00 in the morning."
I was like, "well, that-- that doesn't mean anything.
Like, her phone is-- her phone could be broke.
"she's busy. She works a lot."
- Crystal's aunt, cindy seratte, a local beautician,
Was also dismissive when her son called to say
Crystal was missing.
- He calls me. He said, "mom, mom,
"have you heard crystal is missin'?"
And I'm like, "whatever."
I'm like, "she's not missin'."
And so, I text her and ask her.
I say, "hey, babe, how are you? Where are you at?"
I waited. Just kinda blew it off.
Started watchin' tv.
Tried to call her, no answer.
Then that's when I started to worry.
♪♪
- Blessed with a trifecta of looks, smarts, and charm,
Crystal was a favorite with both her real estate clients
And coworkers. - I had a lady one night,
Walked up, and told me, "your niece, your niece,
She sold my family several houses,"
And she said, "I want you to know I really loved her."
She said, "my dad was sick,
"and every day she took him lunch,"
And that was her. She loved people.
She didn't care about your money.
She didn't care about your status.
She just loved people and wanted to be a blessing.
Her main passion, though, was her two children.
- I love you. - I love you.
- The love she had for them is obvious to see.
The love for her husband, though, wasn't as strong.
After ten years of marriage,
Crystal split with husband steve mcdowell,
But the remodel of her new home ended up
Taking longer than the divorce,
And this is where crystal's life story
Gets complicated.
While she waited to get the keys to a place of her own,
Crystal continued to live with her now ex-husband.
Like I said, complicated.
Tell me about the divorce, jade.
Who wanted out? Which one of them?
- Crystal, for sure and--
- So, she gave him his walking papers.
- Yes. - And how did he take it?
- Not well.
- So, even though they're divorced,
They're spending nights together.
- Right, right.
- Now, after 24 hours of silence, the family called
The chambers county sheriff's department
To report crystal missing.
- Any time we get a call like that,
Automatically take it serious.
- First stop for deputy cody hammes
Was the mcdowell house to see if crystal's ex-husband, steve,
Had heard from her.
- And his-his immediate response was, you know,
"did something happen?
"uh, is there something I should know of?"
- Then mcdowell threw hammes a curve.
He said crystal had a new boyfriend,
And there were nights when crystal just never came home.
An awkward tale for any recent ex-husband to share,
But to deputy hammes, it wasn't so much
What mcdowell said but how he said it.
- Just in a real kinda strange tone of voice,
And I'm just asking a general question,
And my instincts were just really kickin' off
That-that whole moment.
- That the husband had sort of a fishy story or
Response to what you were askin' him?
- Just his whole mannerism.
Just didn't appear to be actin' normal per se.
- That's when deputy hammes asked for backup
To help figure out this mess.
Detective donny walters got the call.
- The first I noticed that bothered me
Was they had been divorced for six months.
- Yeah.
- But yet, he's still wearin' a wedding ring.
Why?
That's not normal-- normal behavior.
- What was his demeanor like as you're talkin' to him?
- Almost...
Cocky. - Ahh.
- He put his self out that he was a whole lot smarter
Than we were.
- And just like that, the search for crystal
Slingshotted from a simple well-being check
To a possible homicide,
Which meant looping d.A. Cheryl lieck.
Early on in this investigation, like hours into it,
When you went-- went around the table
With all your investigators-- - mm-hmm.
- Who did you think the suspect was?
- A pissed off ex-husband.
When I heard that she was divorced
But still living with her ex-husband
And that she had a boyfriend,
The first thing I thought was the husband did it.
- But those suspicions seemed less certain
After detectives spoke to crystal's boyfriend,
Who struck them as being as off kilter as the husband.
- He was cooperative,
But he just kinda had that air about him, also.
- You know, the husband has given us suspicion.
Now, the new boyfriend has given us suspicion.
Even though they were both bein' very cooperative,
It was cooperative to a point
That it was almost, uh, questionable.
I guess. - Hmm.
You wonder why they were bein' so helpful.
- Yes, sir.
- So, what was going on?
It was certainly suspicious that crystal's ex-husband
Never reported crystal missing,
But the boyfriend, whose house crystal stayed at
The night before she disappeared,
The place where these surveillance videos were recorded,
Well, he never filed a missing person report either.
- Crystal's boyfriend did something else
That attracted the attention of investigators.
He gave those surveillance videos
To the media before police.
- It's being played on cable tv
Before your guys have even seen it.
- That is correct.
Bottom line is, the jeweler was a--
Was a prime suspect for me.
- And there could be many more.
- She had numerous lovers
Throughout her marriage, men and women.
- And if she's been intimate with people here and there,
You gotta wonder.
We got an angry husband here, an angry wife, right?
- That-that is correct.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Baytown is a notch in texas' bayou belt.
It's a land of pumpjacks and refineries
The size of cities.
Fortunes ebb and flow with the price of crude,
And, in August 2017,
The price per barrel was on the rise.
Banks were lending, houses were being flipped,
And luxury items like diamonds were in demand.
Baytown's oldest and biggest jewelry store, robson's.
Paul hargrave managed the store.
He was crystal's date the night before she went missing.
- Seemed to be a casual dinner just like any of us would have
At a-- at a nice restaurant over there, uh, in houston.
- Chambers county sheriff brian hawthrone.
Her companion that night, how would you describe him?
Is he kind of a new boyfriend?
- Yes, very new boyfriend.
- And he's a guy who is a well-known name in the county.
- Correct. - Big jeweler.
- The jewelry store has been there
For probably 50-plus years.
- So, she's had dinner that night,
And then she goes home to spend the night at his place?
- That is correct.
He told us the last time he had seen her is,
He was getting in the shower,
And-and she had gotten dressed and left.
- That makes him the last person known to have seen her alive.
- That is correct.
- Which puts him in something of an investigative jam, right?
- Well, it obviously puts him as a person of interest.
That's for sure.
- But hargrave's investigative status was soon upgraded.
Remember that security camera footage of crystal
Leaving for work.
Those videos were recorded at hargrave's home.
We know that because he gave us
And other news organizations the footage,
But the sheriff said hargrave didn't give those videos
To his investigators.
Didn't even tell them about it, not at first.
- They released some of the video and pictures
To the national media
Before our detectives even had it.
So... - So, it's-it--
It's bein' played on cable tv
Before your guys have even seen it.
- That is correct.
- And that didn't sit well with the sheriff.
- The bottom line is, the jeweler was a--
Was a prime suspect for me.
- But d.A. Lieck had the opposite take
When it came to the surveillance footage.
She thought the timestamped videos
Backed up the boyfriend's alibi.
- All that did was really confirm what I already thought.
I really didn't think he had anything to do with it.
I really didn't.
- So, you weren't lookin' at the boyfriend that good.
- Nah, because he wouldn't have had a motive.
The-the motive is gonna rest with the ex-husband
Because any logical person is sayin', okay,
They're divorced.
She spends the night with new boyfriend,
And she comes home the next mornin',
And ex-husband is supposed to be okay with that?
No. I don't care who ya are.
You're not okay with that.
- So, the d.A. Was looking hard at the husband
While the sheriff was betting on the boyfriend.
It had to be one or the other, right?
Well, maybe not.
Did I mention that crystal's life was complicated?
- Her name is crystal because her parents named her
After crystal meth. - You're kidding.
- No.
And her parents both died when she was 11.
They died within six months of each other,
Um, from aids from, uh, drug use.
At one point, around 13, she was abducted,
Um, by a man, and he kept her hostage,
Kept her in a chicken coop. - Oh, you're kidding.
- Uh, sexually assaulted her. - How awful.
- She managed to escape and then eventually ended up
Down here in baytown with her grandmother
And a paternal aunt.
- Crystal eventually ended up living
With her cousin jade's family and somehow clawed her way
Back from the abuse she suffered as a child,
Which could explain all those photos and videos
Crystal took with her own daughter.
She may have wanted the world to see just how much
Her own little girl was loved, wanted, and protected.
- When I think of crystal, I think of loving.
She was very, very loving and a hard worker.
Those are the two things I think of when I think of crystal.
- It was jade's parents who introduced crystal
To her eventual husband, steve.
- And my dad has been friends with steve since,
You know, childhood friends, since forever,
From high school,
So I've always grown up around steve.
- Tell me about steve first.
Who was the guy that you remember?
- Very childlike-- he's like a big kid.
- And like a big kid, he loved his toys,
Video games, and muscled ford mustangs.
- I remember the day she told me she had met him.
- Okay, tell me that story. - And she was very smitten.
"I found somebody I love, aunt cindy.
"he's perfect. He's funny. We talk a lot."
And I really thought she had met the man of her dreams.
- And then you met him. - And then I met him.
- And what did you think?
- I thought he was the nicest,
Most passionate, kind person I'd ever met.
- We were always at their house playing.
All of us kids were over there,
And they're goofy and silly,
And they would go on trips and things like that.
- The trips were a job perk.
Shortly after her marriage to steve,
Crystal landed a flight attendant position
With expressjet, and with her outgoing personality,
Crystal was soon an airline favorite,
And that's when her life became even more complicated.
- She had, um, numerous lovers
Throughout her marriage,
Men and women.
- She was very social,
And because she had traveled all over the united states
With expressjet, she had flight attendant friends
And pilots all over the country.
So, there were a lotta players
And a-a lot of different directions
That we found ourselves going in the first week.
- And if she's been intimate with people here and there,
You gotta wonder.
Have we got an angry husband, an angry wife, right?
- That-that is correct. And in fact, that was--
Some of the avenue that we were looking at
Was other angry spouses.
- Crystal mcdowell had been missing just two days
By the time the chambers county sherrif's office
Had uncovered all of these promising leads to pursue.
But suddenly, pursuing leads became next to impossible
As little baytown suffered a disaster
Of epic proportions.
- It was a biblical storm. It really was.
I felt like I was on noah's ark.
- It just kept raining, and kept raining.
It just kinda changed everything.
- A hurricane puts a homicide case on hold,
But not forever.
- Immediately, we went to social media.
- What kinds of things do you put up on it?
- We put pictures of her, her license plate.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Record-breaking, epic, biblical,
All words to describe hurricane harvey,
Meaning it was a storm like few had ever seen.
Harvey was not only massive, but slow moving,
And once it hit houston and baytown,
It weirdly just stopped.
- It just kept raining, and kept raining.
Half of the county was going underwater.
Five o'clock in the morning
And we were already doin' high water rescues.
- It seemed no one was talking about
A missing woman any longer.
The whole community and everyone in it
Was now fighting just to survive.
What was the scariest moment for ya in harvey?
- Well, when the water started coming down my walls
In my house, and it was overflowing,
And I was watching to see if--
Which way it was gonna come in first,
Either the front door or the back door.
I've never experienced that before.
It just never stopped.
- There were boats actually traveling the roads,
And the only communication we had was through our phones.
Thank god our phones were working.
- Crystal's cousin, jade cherry,
Was stranded in her mom's home with a pair of newborns.
- I have two screaming twins.
They're four months old, half breastfeeding,
Half formula.
Wasn't makin' breast milk.
Scared to run out of formula.
- With the entire country in peril,
The search for crystal mcdowell
Was no longer an investigative priority
For the chambers county sheriff's office.
- I had no other choice but to, uh,
Divert some of the resources to rescuing our citizens.
- You don't have the manpower.
You just don't have the resources
For an event like this.
- When you have this kind of a storm
And this much devastation,
You could never have enough manpower.
- So jade picked up the slack.
Housebound with twins, she did the only thing
She could think of to find crystal.
- Immediately, we went to social media.
- What kinds of things do you put up on it?
- We put pictures of her, her license plate.
Anyone seen her? - 'cause her car was missing.
- Yes. - Nice car.
- Beautiful black mercedes, yeah.
And we're posting, and we're sharing,
And I'm just, you know, repeatedly,
Like, keep sharing it. Keep sharing it.
- Jade was crowdsourcing the search for crystal,
And what do you know?
- I get a text from someone,
And it said, "hey, jade,
"I don't know if they found your cousin,
"uh, or her car yet,
"but her car is at motel 6 off 146."
And I'm like, "how-how do you know that it's her car?
"do you have a picture of it?"
And she said, "my friend posted it on snapchat
"and was like, 'wow, like,
"'this mercedes about to be flooded.
"'I would be so mad if this was my car.'"
- Jade's friend then forwarded this picture of the car.
- It's just the car and water,
And the water is right underneath
The license plate.
- And it's crystal's. - And it's crystal's car.
So, the first thing I did was call my dad,
And I tell my dad, "crystal's car is at motel 6 on 146."
He's like, "what? Like, how do you know?"
So, I sent him the picture while I'm on the phone with him,
And his reaction was the same as mine.
Like, holy crap, this is her car.
- This is her. - Mm-hmm.
- But with the roads and fields flooded,
Jade's family could only get to the motel 6 by boat.
Same with the detectives from the sheriff's department.
- We had to commandeer an airboat
That was actually out in the neighborhoods
Doin' rescues to get up to the hotel.
- So, this motel 6 is goin' under, too.
- It's completely under.
- It's out on I-10.
- Yes, sir.
Get in the airboat, make a route around the motel,
And, sure enough, there's her car.
- Finding crystal's car was a huge break,
But one wrapped in a riddle.
Did crystal leave her mercedes at the motel 6
Or did someone else?
- You could tell that it had been haphazardly parked.
- And the keys were inside.
[chuckles] - yeah, it's--
- Connect the dots. What's-- what's goin' on?
- It's-- it's like, come and get it. This is--
I want somebody to take this car
Because somethin' happened. So--
- This is a tasty prize. Steal me, huh?
- Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
- But nobody seemed to have taken the bait.
- Uh, we-- well, there was a couple that tried,
But the problem is, the water was too high.
- Crystal's car was later towed to a garage
Where a csi team went through it.
Forensically, what happens in that case?
If the crime scene techs were gonna process that vehicle,
They gonna come up with anything?
- Uh-uh. Yeah, nothin'.
- That's when "dateline" posted a missing in america report
Viewed more than 100,000 times online,
But the story generated no usable leads.
By the time the last remnants of the storm
Howled out of texas, a week had gone by.
With his county in shambles, sheriff hawthrone knew
He needed an outside assist on the mcdowell case,
And he put out a call for help,
One answered by texas ranger steven jeter.
So, what do you do?
- Ground zero, um,
Went back in like nothin' had been done before.
- On day one of this investigative reboot,
Jeter had ex-husband, mcdowell, sitting in a chair
For his first formal interview.
- I told him, "hey, look, we're-- you're ex-husband.
"we're gonna take your story, and, uh,
"I gotta rule you out as a suspect."
- So, he's a cooperative guy, I think, right?
- Oh, yeah.
Once you reached out to him, he was very cooperative.
- Mcdowell told jeter the same story he told
The sheriff's deputies a week earlier.
He hadn't seen crystal since Thursday night
When she left for her date.
- According to him,
That was the last time he saw her alive.
- You woefully underestimate a texas ranger
If you see just an elite gunslinger
In hat and boots.
Jeter has gone through extensive training
On how best to interview a suspect
By reading both behavior and body language.
So, tell me about his demeanor.
Tell me about what you're seeing
As much as what he's saying to ya, ranger.
- Probably lack of concern or sincere concern,
Even for what we know is an ex-wife, so I asked him,
"hey, let's take a lie detector test."
- Mcdowell said, sure, he'd be happy to.
And?
- He failed.
- How badly did he flunk the poly?
- He couldn't have failed it any worse.
- Which naturally would have made mcdowell
The prime suspect except that it didn't jive
With everything else jeter was hearing about him.
- From the family members that he had been talkin' to,
You know, they were all in steve's corner.
Um, they all thought that steve treated crystal right
And was a good person for-for crystal.
- And all agreed that steven was an involved and loving dad.
According to jeter, crystal's boyfriend,
Paul hargrave, was the one the family pointed fingers at.
- This is a new guy on the block, you know,
A new romance, and doin' some different things, and--
And they didn't know anything about him,
So he was the boogeyman.
- Then the boyfriend was brought in for questioning,
And he, too, cooperated.
Handed over those videos, his cell phone,
And agreed to be strapped to the polygraph.
And? - Failed miserably.
- He did, too. - Yes, sir.
- So, that's a dilemma. You have both the husband
And the boyfriend failing the polys.
- On the same day, yes, sir.
Both of them on Saturday.
- I'm like, what the hell is goin' on?
I mean, I just-- I couldn't believe it,
And I thought, well, maybe they're in it together,
You know?
So, that really threw us off, really threw us off.
♪♪
- The skies may have cleared, but that didn't mean
Any new light was shed on the investigation.
Everything seemed just as dark and confusing as before.
It looked as though the only way to solve this mystery
Was to find crystal or her body.
- For two weeks, we were goin',
How in the hell did he do this?
How did he get back home?
- Caught on camera, a rider in the storm.
- When we saw him ridin' a bike, we said,
"ha, that's what he did."
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪ welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
Detectives investigating the disappearance
Of crystal mcdowell were dumbfounded
After her ex-husband, steven, and new boyfriend,
Paul hargrove, each failed a lie detector test.
They wondered if the men formed an unlikely bond
And a diabolical plot,
But a series of electronic clues captured
During hurricane harvey's blinding rains
Was about to pull this investigation into focus.
Once again, here's dennis murphy with "before the storm."
♪♪
- By Tuesday, September the 5th,
The sky was clear and the water down.
With the break in weather,
Texans took to ripping up carpets,
Tearing out drywall,
And hauling flooded cars to the salvage yard,
But there was no break in the hunt for crystal.
She'd been missing for 11 days and was now presumed dead.
Bodies become evidence, don't they?
- And she-and she tells her story from the grave.
- So, you need the remains. - Gotta have the remains.
- But where were they?
If crystal's body had been dumped in one of these bayous,
The receding floodwaters would almost certainly have
Swept it out to the gulf of mexico.
Nevertheless, a call went out for volunteers
For what many thought was a futile search.
A local group, texas equusearch, took the lead.
On the first day out, Wednesday, September the 9th,
More than 100 people systemically worked grids
By foot, atv, and airboat.
But as light waned on that first day,
Equusearch founder tim miller wasn't hopeful.
- You know, at this point, it-it doesn't look good.
You know, it doesn't look good at all.
- While volunteers worked the wetlands
In search of crystal, ranger jeter worked to solve
The central dilemma of his investigation.
He had two men in his crosshairs,
The ex-husband and the new boyfriend.
He needed to focus on one or the other.
So, you started to ask the question
Who's got a camera around here, huh?
- That's right.
- He had investigators check businesses near the motel 6
In search of surveillance footage.
What'd you come up with?
- Well, uh, fortunately, a lot of people had some.
- Almost too much, hours upon hours of footage,
But buried deep within this investigative chore,
Detectives uncovered gold, images of the man
They believed killed crystal mcdowell.
The first clip they found was this footage
Recorded Saturday, August 26th at 6:37 a.M.
The outer bands of hurricane harvey
Are starting to hit baytown.
Near the top of your screen,
You can see the taillights of crystal's mercedes
As its being backed into the motel 6 parking lot.
- And we can see somebody walk from the car.
- Five hours later, a different security camera
At a gas station next to the motel
Shows this blue car pull in next to a pump.
This one caught the eye of a watchful investigator
Because it's a rare mustang gt just like steven mcdowell's.
And he couldn't have had a more distinctive car
Than a shelby, but, boy,
It's hard to mistake that vehicle.
- Yeah, without a doubt.
- The driver, who looks just like steven mcdowell,
Does something odd.
Rather than pumping gas,
He instead walks towards the motel 6.
- And appears to be looking at his wife's ditch--
Ditched car.
- Investigators were now certain mcdowell was the one
Who ditched crystal's car
And did so with the expectation it would conveniently disappear.
In the thought balloon, nobody stole it yet.
- I think that's exactly what went through his head.
Oh, (bleep), the car is still here.
- But now they had a puzzle to solve.
If mcdowell was acting alone, once he left the car,
He would have been on foot miles from his house.
- For two weeks, we're goin' how in the hell did he do this?
How did he get back home?
- To find out, they pulled security camera footage
Along all the roads in the area, and they found this video of
A man riding a bike in the driving rain
Along the I-10 feeder road.
The video was timestamped at 7:05 a.M.,
25 minutes after crystal's car was dropped off,
And that's when the pieces all fell into place.
- When we were at his house, we saw a bicycle in the garage,
And the thing about this bike is,
It has unique mag wheels.
- Then jeter remembered mcdowell's alibi
For that Saturday morning was
That he'd been shopping at this walmart
Across the freeway from the motel 6.
So, jeter had the security camera footage pulled.
A guy looking like steven mcdowell,
Dressed in a sweatshirt with a hoodie up,
Is seen paying cash for a bike
With unique mag wheels.
It's just minutes after crystal's mercedes
Was abandoned.
- When we saw him ridin' a bike, we said,
"ha, that's what he did."
He walked across the interstate to walmart.
He bought the bike, a red bull,
And a pack of cigarettes.
- Ironically, the storm that brought
The investigation to a halt also led to its biggest break.
The floodwaters prevented crystal's car
From being stolen,
Which in turn led detectives
To focus on the surveillance cameras
Near the motel 6.
Had that not happened, they never would have found
These videos of mcdowell.
- His plan fell apart with the rain.
- So, he was a victim of hurricane harvey, too.
- Mm-hmm, in more ways than one.
- But when confronted with all this evidence,
Mcdowell denied it was him.
- Mcdowell eventually admitted this footage
At the gas station was him, but the walmart clips?
"no way," he said.
By now, investigators were convinced
Mcdowell was crystal's killer.
As for the boyfriend, an innocent man
Who had nothing to do with crystal's disappearance.
D.A. Lieck, by then, had enough evidence
To charge mcdowell with murder, but she believed
She needed one more piece of evidence
To ensure a conviction.
- I wanted that body.
- Why is that important? [sighs]
- Well, it's important for a lot of reasons.
It's easier to try a murder trial
When you've got a dead body. It just is.
But, you know... [sighs]
She deserved to be found, you know?
She deserved to be found.
Her kids deserved for her body to be found.
Her family deserved for her to be found.
- Investigators all believed
Mcdowell knew where the body was,
But he steadfastly denied any involvement
In crystal's disappearance.
After an hour of getting nowhere,
Mcdowell was allowed to go home to his children,
But now district attorney lieck and ranger jeter
Had a whole new problem on their hands.
- I had found some folks that I had
Interviewed throughout the week that had said
He'd actually talked about murder-suicide,
Um, sometime earlier.
- Right after the divorce, mcdowell had reportedly
Threatened to destroy the entire family.
- It was like, "I'm gonna kill myself.
"I'm gonna kill the kids."
- Him-- him to her. - Yeah.
- You're gonna be blamed for the ruination for my life.
- Yes, yes.
- Now that he was once again under stress,
Lieck worried that mcdowell might finally decide to
Bring his whole world crumbling down around him.
- But she was not going to let that happen.
The tough prosecutor was about to
Play hardball with steven mcdowell,
And the stakes could not have been higher.
Coming up...
- You tell him that we're not lettin' him
See his children until he takes us to the body.
- A gamble that pays off.
- He said, "I'm ready to talk."
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Worried that steven mcdowell might snap
And kill his children along with himself,
District attorney cheryl lieck turned to
An old high school classmate for help,
Crystal's aunt cindy.
- Cindy serrate, she was good enough to stay close.
- Cindy said she felt duty bound to watch over the kids,
Just five and eight at the time,
As the rangers closed in on steven.
- I had told my husband I was goin' over there,
And he said,
"I don't think that's a good idea,"
And I'm like, "well, I truly feel he's gonna kill the kids.
"I feel he's gonna kill himself.
"he's gonna kill the kids."
- What was in your head, cindy?
What was your mission about this--
This I've gotta go over to steve's idea?
- Protect the kids.
I just knew if I could stay close,
Talk to him, that's what hairdressers do best.
I mean, keep him calm or try to get him to confess.
- Yeah, you're-- is he frightening you at that point?
- No.
I mean, I carried a gun the whole time.
- When you were over to his house?
- Oh, yeah.
I had a gun on me at all times.
- Why?
- Because I really felt like he was gonna snap at any moment.
The texas rangers were really getting under his skin.
- Even so, mcdowell returned for further questioning.
- You could see literally
He's losin' weight before your eyes.
- The rangers laid out all the evidence against him,
The polygraph, the videos, the lies they caught him in,
But mcdowell held tight. Would not confess.
And by evening time, lieck was getting nervous.
I just can't get these kids off my mind
That somethin' is gonna happen.
So, lieck decided to put the kids
Into protective custody
With child protective services.
Once the children were safely secured,
Lieck sent a message to their dad.
- You tell him that
We're not lettin' him see his children
Until he takes us to the body,
And I said, "I'm done. I'm done."
I said, "he's dickin' us around,
"and I'm sick of it."
And he's not gonna get away with,
"I'm not telling you where she's at,"
If I can help it. I'm sorry.
You're just not gonna get-- get away with it.
You killed her,
You don't have the right to do that,
And now you don't have the right to leave her somewhere
Where nobody is ever gonna know
If she's gonna just wash up somewhere,
And everybody that loves her is sittin' around
Wonderin' where is she.
- That night, an exhausted mcdowell
Asked ranger jeter and his partner,
Ranger james holland, to present a counteroffer
To d.A. Lieck.
- He told holland, "let me go home,
"and then tomorrow morning, I will tell you everything,
"and I'll take--
"I'll take to where she-- crystal is at."
- With that verbal agreement, the district attorney
And ranger jeter allowed mcdowell
To walk out of the sheriff's office
Knowing it was a risky decision.
Did you feel at all weird about lettin' him walk that night?
- Yes, I did.
I felt like he's fixin' to break
'cause I thought he was goin' home
For probably to ultimately take himself out.
- On the morning of Saturday, September the 9th,
Rangers jeter and holland went knocking on
Steven mcdowell's door, not sure what they'd find.
But to jeter's surprise, mcdowell answered the door.
- He said, "I'm ready to talk."
- At 12:45 p.M., mcdowell was back in the chair
And made good on his promise to talk.
Mcdowell said he knew crystal had a long string of affairs.
- Pretending to be sympathetic, ranger holland slowly teased out
The details of crystal's death.
It was slow and brutal.
- Mcdowell said he then wrapped her in trash bags
And hid her body in the trunk of the mercedes.
He said he dumped her body the following morning,
But before he revealed where, mcdowell said he wanted a deal.
- He wants the death penalty off the table.
- What's the calculus that
Your prosecutor has to go through here, your d.A.?
- We don't find crystal without his help.
- That's just flat not gonna happen.
- It's not gonna happen. This isn't a forensic case.
This isn't a dna case. This is a whodunit.
We now know who done it.
Now, take me to where she's at.
- No arrest, so I think that's a--
- District attorney lieck was on the same page,
And with jeter as her go between,
She agreed to forgo the death penalty.
- Shortly thereafter, he agreed.
"all right, I'll take you to crystal's location."
- They retraced mcdowell's route,
Which eventually led to this short, narrow strip of blacktop
Known as needlepoint road.
- It's heavily wooded, next to a ravine.
- Ranger, would you ever have gone down that road?
- Never.
That place was four to five foot under water, uh,
Two weeks earlier.
- At a seemingly random spot, mcdowell said, "stop.
"this is the place."
- Jeter and holland then set off on foot
Into the thicket.
- Within a short period of time, we found what we believed
The remains of crystal mcdowell.
There was not much left of her.
She was pretty much, uh, decomposed.
- Steven mcdowell had not only confessed
But given up the body. So, case closed, right?
Well, not in texas because a murder defendant here
Can claim sudden passion, that the victim
Somehow played a role in their own death
By provoking the killer,
And mcdowell wanted to make that argument before a jury,
Hoping he could drastically reduce his sentence.
- I can tell a jury, look,
If you find this story of sudden passion,
Then the only thing--
The maximum you can give him is 20.
He can get out in as little as two.
- What worried district attorney lieck was
That there were even some in law enforcement
Who thought that this was a sudden passion case.
Were you under courthouse pressure,
Law enforcement pressure, from this take on the case
That this is a poor, henpecked guy?
- Mm-hmm.
- And he snapped. - Mm-hmm.
- And we're really in manslaughter country here.
- Mm-hmm.
- And-and why are you guys goin' for the full ride?
- Because I don't care how henpecked somebody might be
Or how much they say they are, which, in my opinion,
He was not-- that was a ploy--
It's still no excuse to kill anybody.
I mean, that's what divorce is for,
And they were already divorced.
Half of this country is divorced,
And you just don't go around killin' people
Because you're hurt. You just can't do that.
- A popular prosecutor who is also a single mom.
Lieck has built a reputation as a fierce advocate
For women and children, and on this case,
She was going to be the voice of crystal mcdowell.
- She was begging him, "please stop fighting with me.
"I've been in an unhappy marriage for ten years.
"please stop using the kids as pawns.
"you've used me long enough. Please, please, please.
"I don't-- I'm tired. I'm exhausted.
"I can't fight with you anymore."
- To lieck, the killing of crystal mcdowell
Was a black and white case of premeditated murder.
The big question, though, would all 12 members of a jury
See it that way? - Coming up...
- Two shockingly young witnesses take the stand.
- Why'd you bring the kids in?
- They wanted to talk about it.
- And the jury makes a worrying request.
- I'm like, oh, god, where are they going with this?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Welcome back.
Steven mcdowell was done keeping secrets.
He confessed to strangling his ex-wife, crystal,
And as part of a plea deal, led authorities to her body,
But if a jury believed
Crystal had somehow provoked him to kill,
He could receive a reduced sentence.
Prosecutors were convinced crystal was the victim of
Premeditated murder, and they had stunning proof,
An eyewitness who saw everything.
Here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of
"before the storm."
- After a year of court hearings and motions,
Steven mcdowell finally went on trial
For the murder of his ex-wife, crystal, in June 2019.
D.A. Cheryl lieck made sure she was well-armed with evidence
Depicting the extent to which mcdowell
Tried to cover up the crime.
She showed the jury mcdowell's confession,
The video of him dumping crystal's mercedes,
And buying that bicycle at walmart,
And later checking on the car to see if it had been stolen,
But the video that really got the court's attention,
Prerecorded testimony of crystal and steven's two children.
Why'd you bring the kids in? - Well, I didn't want to.
- Tender age. - Yes.
I spoke to their guardian, and I said,
"look, if-- if you don't think that this is gonna be somethin'
"that they can handle,
"I will absolutely not put them on the stand.
"it's just not worth it to me."
But they wanted to talk about it.
- It being their mother's murder.
The daughter, now seven, said she saw it happen.
No cameras were allowed in court,
So we turned to the trial transcript
On the daughter's testimony. She told the court,
"they were arguing about her going with another man,
"and she said, 'I'm going to take my children with me,'
"and then he pushed on the bed and said, 'no, you're not.'
"and then he started putting his hands like that."
The daughter demonstrated for the jury
By putting her own hands over her nose and mouth.
The daughter continued.
"and she tried to put her hands up and her feet up,
"so dad wouldn't have so much weight on her,
"and then he glanced at me, really mad at me,
"and then mom glanced at me and tried to say, 'help.'
"and then when he was done, he told me to go in my room.
"'don't tell anyone.'"
Damning testimony from a child.
The defense tried to undercut it,
Contending the daughter had heard about the killing
From relatives and just made up a story
To fill in the blanks. Then, in rebuttal,
The defense called their own star witness,
Steven mcdowell.
When he was on the stand, did he do himself any good?
- Uh-uh. No.
- Who did the jury meet? [sighs]
- They met a conniving, manipulative crybaby.
- Through his tears, mcdowell told an entirely new
And strange story about how he killed crystal.
It was nothing more than a freak accident.
In the midst of their argument, he said, crystal got hysterical,
So he put her in a bear hug to calm her down.
"I just wanted to hug her," he told the court.
"I just wanted to stop fighting.
"I wanted to quit going back and forth
"because it was going nowhere, and I was frustrated,
"and I was upset, and I was mad."
His lawyer asked, "what happened next?"
Mcdowell responded, "she became limp, and she fell."
D.A. Lieck couldn't believe what she was hearing.
- "I hugged her to death." yeah, that's a new one on me.
Yeah, that was-- that was fun.
- That-that had not been told before.
- No, and there's no way.
And then we were actually looking it up on--
You know, we're googlin' it, you know, at--
At dinner that night goin',
"how do you hug somebody to death?"
- When the case went to the jury,
Lieck thought an outright acquittal
Seemed unlikely,
But a hung jury was a distinct possibility.
- Just one, just one juror, that's all it needs,
And I thought, god, if one believes his story,
You know, we're cooked.
- And sure enough, during deliberations,
One of the jurors asked to see
Mcdowell's confession tape, again.
Does it make you nervous?
- It always makes me nervous because I'm like, "oh, god,
"where are they going with this?"
- An hour after re-watching the confession,
The jury came back with a verdict, guilty,
But now came the penalty phase when the jury would decide
If this was a premeditated killing
Or one of sudden passion.
How stressful was this case for ya?
- Oh, it was real stressful. I mean, when you get a--
A case like this where you have the perpetrator
Who can convince even some members of law enforcement
That he might have been the victim in all of this,
Then you worry about what's a jury gonna think,
You know?
- How do you straddle this-- this thing?
And, you know, forgive the-- the thought, but it's like,
"how do you not get seen as a hardass woman?"
Do you know what I mean?
- I don't know, and I think that--
- 'cause-- 'cause somebody-- you could be judged and--
- Right, absolutely, and I think I am seen like that
By a lot of jurors
And there's nothin' I can do about it.
I mean, if I tried to be anything different than I am,
It would come across as-- as-as insincere.
- That authenticity apparently resonated
With the jury in crystal's case.
They rejected the sudden passion argument
And found that crystal's murder was premeditated.
They sentenced steven mcdowell to 50 years in prison.
Aunt cindy wasn't in court that day.
Instead, she distracted the kids with a trip to the multiplex.
- Then we went to the movie and just had a really good day.
- So, the kids are at the movie,
And dad is goin' away virtually forever.
- Exactly and they never asked a question.
They know he had got 50 years, and it was almost a relief.
I mean, I'm actually for the death penalty
For this kinda stuff,
But, I mean, it's better than 20.
It's better than two.
- Crystal's children are now being raised
By an old friend
Whose own parents had once given crystal a home.
- She makes 'em stay focused in school.
They have regiments. They have routines.
She loves 'em.
She truly loves them and she is honored to raise them.
- They are, I mean, they're just--
They're phenomenal kids.
- As for crystal, lieck hopes she'll be remembered
More as a loving mom than an up by the bootstraps
Survivor of awful abuse.
- She wanted a family.
She wanted that family that she never had.
She wanted children.
She wanted to love something unconditionally
And have some-somebody love her unconditionally.
- I love you. - I love you.
- And she was still looking for that love
Right until the hours before the winds began howling
And the waters rose.
- That's all for this edition of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.