Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20201004

The answer would have to wait. Hurricane harvey is moving this direction. Were stuck in the house. Immediately we went to social media. What kind of things did you put . Pictures of her. Her license plate. Someone knew who she was. Willing to trade one night of freedom. He said im ready to talk. Let me go home. Tomorrow morning i will tell you everything. In exchange for the terrible truth. He couldnt have her, nobody could. Hello, and welcome to dateline. Crystal mcdowell was a divorced mom itching to start a new life when she vanished. Then Hurricane Harvey decimated her texas town and brought the search for crystal to a halt. An elite investigator forged ahead, uncovering a series of clues. And as the floodwaters receded, he discovered the same deadly storm that slowed the investigation had also flushed out crystals killer. Here is Dennis Murphy with before the storm. The woman captured on Security Camera moving ghostlike from one room to the next is 37yearold crystal mcdowell, a Real Estate Agent from baytown, texas. Its thursday, august 25th, 2017. At 7 35 a. M. , crystal gets into her black mercedes coupe and backs out of the driveway. On her way to work, but crystal never makes it. Texts, phone calls, and emails go unanswered. When crystals extended family gathers later that evening to watch a pay per view boxing match, cousin jay cherry says they arent sure if they should be annoyed or concerned. It was the night of the mayweather and mcgregor fight. My whole family is here. My brother comes up to me and is like, crystals missing. But in my head im like, what . Like, you dont youre like, find her. That doesnt make sense. Yeah. Hes like, no, shes missing. No ones talked to her since 7 00 in the morning. Im like, that doesnt mean anything. Her phone could be broke, these busy, she works a lot. Crystals aunt, a local beautici beautician, was also dismissive when her son called to say crystal was missing. He said, mom, have you order cryst crystals missing . Im like, whatever, shes not missing. I text and ask hey, babe, how are you . Where you at . I waited, blew it off, started watching tv, tried to call her, no answer. Thats 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. Her main passion, though, was her two children. I love you. The love she had for them is obvious to see. The love for her husband, though, wasnt 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 crystals life story gets complicated. While she waited to get the keys to a place of her own, crystal continued to live with her nowexhusband. Like i said, complicated. Tell me about the divorce. Who wanted out . Which one of them . Crystal for sure. So she gave him his walking papers . Yes. How did he take it . Not well. So even though theyre divorced, theyre spending nights together. Right. Right. Now after 24 hours of silence, the family called the Chambers County Sheriffs Department to report crystal missing. Any time bwe get a call like that, take it seriously. Reporter first up was the mcdowell house to see if crystals exhusband had heard from her. His Immediate Response was, you know, did something happen . Is there . Ing i should know of . Then mcdowell threw 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 exhusband to share. But to deputy hamis, it wasnt so much what mcdowell said but how he said it. In a real kind of strange tone of voice. Im just asking a general question. My instincts were kicking off that this whole moment. That the husband had sort of a fishy story or response what that you were asking him . Just the whole mannerism. Didnt appear to be acting normal per se. Thats when deputy hamis asked for back up to help figure out this mess. Detective Donnie Walters got the call. The first thing that bothered me was they had been divorced for six months. Yet hes still wearing a wedding ring. Why . Thats not normal normal behavior. What was his demeanor like as youre talking to him . Almost cocky. He put himself out that he was a lot smarter than we were. And just like that, the search for crystal slingshotted from a simple wellbeing check to a possible homicide. Which meant looping in da cheryl lee. Early on in the investigation, hours into it, when you went around the table with all your investigators, who did you think the suspect was . A pissed off exhusband. When i heard that she was divorced but still living with her exhusband 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 crystals boyfriend who struck them as being as off kilter as the husband. He was coop ran cooperativ but had that air about him. The exhusband and boyfriend have given suspicion. It was cooperative to a point that it was almost questionable. You wondered why they were being so helpful. Yes, sir. So what was going on . It was certainly suspicious that crystals exhusband never reported crystal missing. But the boyfriend whose house crystal stayed at the night before she disappeared, the place where the surveillance videos were recorded, well, he never filed a missing person report either. Crystals boyfriend did Something Else that attracted the attention of investigators he gave those surveillance videos to the media before them. Coming up played on cable tv before your guys had seen it. That is correct. The bottom line is the jeweler was a prime suspect for me. And there could be many more. She had numerous lovers throughout her marriage, men and women. Women. Heres to the duers. To all the people who realize they can du more with less asthma thanks to dupixent, the addon treatment for specific types of moderatetosevere asthma. Dupixent isnt for sudden breathing problems. It can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. Its not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. Dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and dont change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. Are you ready to du more with less asthma . Talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. If your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. There he is. Oh, wow. Youre doing, uh, youre doing really great with the twirling. Dad, if you want to talk, i have a break at 3 00. Okay, okay. Im going. Im gone. Like like i wasnt here. [ horn honks ] keep keep doing it, buddy. Switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. You know, like the sign says. Baytown is a notch in texas bayou belt. Its a land of refineries the size of cities. Fortunes ebb and flow with the price of crude. In august, twec2017, the price barrel was on the rise. Banks were lending, houses were being flipped, luxury items like diamonds were in demand. Baytowns oldest and biggest Jewelry Store rob dozens sops. Paul hargrave managed the storement he was crystals date the night before she went missing. A casual dinner like any of us would have in a nice restaurant over there in houston. Chambers county sheriff Brian Hawthorne her companion, is he a new boyfriend . Yes, very new. Hes a guy with a wellknown name. Jeweller . The Jewelry Store has been there for 50plus years. Shes had dinner that night and goes home to spend the night at his place . That is correct. He told us the last time he had seen her as he was getting in the shower and show had gotten dressed and left. That makes him the last person to have seen her alive which puts him in an investigative jam, right . It puts him as a person of interest. The investigative status was soon upgraded. Remember the footage of crystal leaving for work . Those videos were recorded at hargraves home. We know that because he gave us and other news organizations the footage. The sheriff said hargrave didnt give the videos to his investigators, didnt tell them about it not at first. They released some of the video and pictures to the National Media before our detectives had it. Its being played on cable tv before your guys have seen it . That is correct. The bottom line is the jeweler was a prime suspect for me. But the d. A. Had the opposite take when it came to the successful footage. She thought the timestamped videos backed up the boyfriends alibi. All that was did confirm what i already thought. I didnt think he had anything to do with it. I didnt. You werent looking at the boyfriend . No. He wouldnt have had a motive. The motive is going to rest with the exhusband because any logical person is saying, okay, theyre divorced, she spend the night with new boyfriend, and she comes home the next morning . And exhusbands supposed to be okay with that . No. I dont care who you are, youre 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 crystals life was complicated . Her name is crystal because her parents named her after crystal meth. Youre kidding. No. And her parents both died when she was 11. They died within six months of each other from aids, from drug use. At one point around 13, she was abducted by a man. And he kept her hostage kept her in a chicken coop. Youre kidding. 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 jades 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. Was very, very loving, and a hard worker. Those are the two things i think of when i think of crystal. It was jades parents who introduced crystal to her eventual husband, steve. And my dad has been friends with steve since childhood friends since forever, through high school. Ive always grown up around steve. Tell me about steve, whos the guy you remember . Very childlike, 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. She was tell me that story. She was very smitten. I found somebody i love, aunt cindy. Hes perfect. Hes funny. We talk a lot. And i really thought she had met the man of her dreams. And then you met him . What did you think . I thought he was the nicest, most passionate, kind person id ever met. We were always at their house playing, all of us kids were over there. And theyre goofy and silly and 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 express jet. And with her outgoing personality, crystal was soon an airline favorite. And thats when her life became even more complicated. She had numerous lovers throughout her marriage, men and women. She was very social. And because she traveled all over the United States with express jet, she had Flight Attendant friends and pilots all over the country. So there were a lot of players and a lot of Different Directions that we found ourselves going in the first week. If shes been intimate with people here and there you got to wonder, we got an angry husband here, angry wife . That is correct. 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 Sheriffs Office uncovered promising leads to pursue. Suddenly, pursuing leads became next to impossible. As little baytown suffered a disaster of epic proportions. It was a difficult storm. It really was. I felt like i was on noahs ark. Coming up kept raining and kept raining. It just kind of changed everything. A hurricane puts a homicide case on hold, but not forever. Immediately we went to social media. What kind of things did you put up . We put pictures of her, her license plate. Ate. Recordbreaking, 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. Once it hit houston and baytown, it weirdly just stopped. Just kept raining and kept raining. Half of the county was under water. 5 00 in the morning and we were doing highwater rescues. It seemed no one was talking about a missing woman any longer. The whole community and everyone in it was fighting just to survive. What was the scariest moment for you in harvey . Well, when the water started coming down my walls and my house, and it was overflowing. And i was watching to see which way it was going come in first, the front door or back door. Ive never experienced that before. It just never stopped. There were boats actually traveling the roads. The only communication we had was through our phones. Thank god our phones were working. Crystals cousin, jade cherry, was stranded in her moms home with a pair of newborns. Intwo screaming twins i have two screaming twins, four months old, half breastfeeding, half formula. Wasnt making breast milk, scared to run out of formula. With the entirely county in peril, the search for crystal mcdowell was no longer an investigative priority for the Sheriffs Office. I had no other choice but to divert some of the resources to rescuing our citizens. You dont have the manpower, you just dont have the resources for an event like this. When you have this kind of a storm and devastation, you could never have enough manpower. 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 kind of things did you put up . We put pictures of her, her license plate. Because her car was missing. Yes. Nice car . Beautiful black mercedes. Were posting and sharing. And im just repeatedly like keep sharing it, 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 says, hey, jade, if they found your cousin or her car yet, but her car is at motel 6 off 146. Im like, how do you know that is 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. Jades friend then forwarded this picture of the car. Its just the car and water. And the water is right underneath the license plate. And its crystals . Its crystals car. I called my dad and tell him the car is at motel 6 on 146. He was like, what . How do you know . I sent him the picture while i was on the phone on and holy crap, this is her. With the roads and field flooded, the family could only get to the motel 6 by boat. Same with the detectives with the Sheriffs Department. An air boat was doing rescues to get up to the hotel. The motel 6 is going under, too . Out on i10 . Yes, sir. Get in the airboat, make a route around the hotel, and theres the car. Finding the car was a huge break, but one wrapped in a riddle. Did she leave the herself or someone les . The keys were in it come and get it. I want somebody to take this car because something happened. A taste i prize, steal me. Nobody seemed to have taken the bait. Well, there was a couple that tried, but the water was too high. Crystals car was later towed to a garage where a csi team went through it. Forensically what happens in the case . If the crime scene techs were going to process the vehicle, did they come up with anything . Nothing. Thats when dateline posted a missing in america report, viewed more than 100,000 on line. 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 hawthorne knew he needed an outside assist on the mcdowell case and put out a call for help. One answered by texas Ranger Steven jeter. So what do you do . Ground zero. Went back in like nothing had been done before. On day one of this investigative reboot, jeter had exhusband mcdowell sitting in a chair for his first form aal jud formal interview. Ive got to rule you out as suspect. Hes a cooperative guy . Yeah, very cooperative. He told jeter the same story he told deputies a week earlier. He hadnt seen crystal since thursday when she left for her date. According to him that was the last time he saw him alive. You woefully undermat a ranger if you see an elite figure in hat and boots. He went through training on how best to interview a suspect. Tell me about what youre seeing as much as what hes saying to you, ranger. Probably lack of concern or sincere concern. Even for what we know as an exwife. I asked him, lets take a lie detector test. Mcdowell said, sure, hed be happy to. And . He failed. How badly did he flunk the poly . He couldnt have failed any worse. Which naturally would have made mcdowell the prime suspect except that it didnt jibe with Everything Else jeter was hearing about him. From the family members that he had been talking to, you know, they were all in steves corner. They all thought that steve treated crystal right and was a good person for crystal. And all agreed that steven was an involved and loving dad. According to jeter, crystals boyfriend, paul hargrave, was the one the family pointed fingers at. They didnt know anything about him. He was the boogieman. 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. Thats a dilemma. You have the husband and the boyfriend failing the polys. Both on saturday. Im like, what the hell is going on . I just i couldnt believe it. And i thought, well, maybe theyre in it together. You know, that really threw us off. Really threw us off. The skies may have cleared, but that didnt 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. Coming up, caught on camera a rider in the storm. When we saw him riding a bike, we said, thats what he did. When dateline continues. Nup with the cooking. But she wanted someone who loves cats. So, we got griswalda. Dinners almost ready. But one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our renters insurance. Yeah, switching and saving was really easy drink it all up. Good could have used a little salt. Visit geico. Com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be. Youre not welcome here get out of my face hpv can cause certain cancers when your child grows up. Get in its way. Hpv can affect males and females. And theres no way to predict who will or wont clear the virus. But you can help protect your child by taking a first step. The cdc recommends hpv vaccination at age 11 or 12 to help protect against certain cancers. Hey cancer not. My. Child. Dont wait. Talk to your childs doctor about hpv vaccination today. Hello, im dara brown. Heres whats happening in south carolina, senator Lindsey Graham and his diabetemocratic challenger had a fiery debate. There was a divider as he criticized the white house response to covid19. On saturday, the preakness stakes. This years event was held with fans watching from home rather than in the stands. Swiss skydiver was the only female horse in the race and only the sixth to ever win the preakness stakes. Now back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline. Im natalie morales. After crystal mcdowell disappeared, investigators took a hard look at two of the men in her life. Crystals exhusband and her new boyfriend cooperated fully with police. Both agreed to take a lie detector test. And both failed miserably. Authorities were baffled, but a series of revealing clues would soon put the investigation into focus. Once again, heres 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 flow break in the hunt for no break in the hunt for crystal. Shed been missing for 11 days and was now presumed dead. Bodies become evidence. And she tells her story from the grave. You need the remains. Got to have the remains. But where were they . If crystals body had been dumped in one of the bayous, the receding floodwaters would have swept it out to the gulf of mexico. Nevertheless, a call went out for volunteers. A local group, texas equisearch took the lead. On wednesday, september 9th, more than 100 people worked grids lie foot, atv, and boat. As light waned on the first day, equisearch wasnt hopeful. It doesnt look good. It doesnt look good at all. While volunteers worked the wetlands in search of crystal, investigator jeter had two men in his cross hairs the exhusband and the new boyfriend. He needed to focus on one or the other. So you started asking questions, whos got a camera . Thats right. He had investigators check businesses near the motel 6 in search of surveillance footage. What it you come up with . Fortunatelily a lot of people had some. Almost too much. Hours upon hours of footage. But buried deep within this investigative ore, 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 crystals mercedes as its being backed into the hotel 6 parking lot. 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 its a rare mustang gt just like Steven Mcdowells. He couldnt have had a more distinctive car than a shelby. Hard to mistake that vehicle. Without a doubt. The driver who looks just like Steven Mcdowell, does something odd. Rather than pumping gas, he walks toward the motel 6. Appears to be looking at his wifes ditched car. Investigators were now certain mcdowell was the one who ditched crystals car and did so with the expectation it would conveniently disappear. And the thought no one stole it yet . I think thats what went in his head. Oh [ bleep ] the cars still here. Now they had a puzzle to solve. If mcdouwell was acting alone, once he left the car he would have been on foot, miles from his house. For two weeks we were like how in the hell did he do this . How did he get back home . They pulled footage along all the roads in the area. And they found this virginia of a man riding this video of a man riding a bike in the driving rain along the i10 feared road. The video was timestamped 25 minutes after crystals car was dropped off. Thats when the pieces all fell into place. When we got to his house, we saw a bicycle in the garage. The bike has unique mag wheels. Then jeter remembered mcdowells jalibi is he had bee shoppinga this walmart, across the freeway from the motel 6. Jeter had the 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. Its just minutes after crystals mercedes was abandoned. When we saw him riding a bike, we said thats 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 crystals car from being stolen, come in turn led detectives to focus on surveillance cameras near the hotel 6. Had that not happened, they never would have found these videos of mcdowling. He was a victim of Hurricane Harvey, too . Uhhuh. In more ways than one. But when confronted with all this evidence, mcdowell denied it was him. No out doubt thats you. Want to show you that. Im guessing youd like to see that. Doesnt really prove anything to me because i know it wasnt me. Mcdowell eventually admitted this footage at the gas station was him. But the walmart clips, no way, he said. By now, investigators were convinced mcdocument was crystals killer mcdowell was crystals killer. As for the boyfriend, an innocent man who had nothing to do with crystals disappearance. D. A. Leak 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 . Well, its important for a lot of reasons. Its easier to try a murder trial when youve got a dead body. It just is. But you know she deserved to be found. You know, she serve deserved to found. Her kids deserved for her body to be found. Her family deserved for her to be found. Investigators also believed mcdocument knwell knew where th was, but he steadfastly denied any involvement in crystals disappearance. After an hour of getting nowhere, mcdowell was allowed to go home to his children. But now District Attorney leak and ranger jeter had a whole new problem on their hands i had found some folks that i had interviewed who said he talked about murder suicide sometime earlier. Right after the divorce, mcdowell had reportedly threatened to destroy the entire family. It was like, im going to kill myself, im going to kill the kids youre going to be blamed for the ruination of my life. Yes. Now that he was again under stress, leak worried that mcdowell might finally decide to bring his whole world crumbling down around him. Coming up a prosecutor gets tough. You tell him were not letting him see his children until he takes us to the body. A gamble that pays off. He said im ready to talk. Dyk at carvana, no matter what car you buy from us, you get the freedom of a 7day return policy. This isnt some dealership test drive around the block. Its better. This is seven days to put your carvana car to the test and see if it fits your life. 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Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and dont change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. Are you ready to du more with less asthma . Talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. If your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. Special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressives home quote explorer. International hand model jonjon gets personal. Your wayward pinky is grotesque. Then a high stakes pattycake Battle Royale ends in triumph. You have the upper hands its a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. Only on the upper hands. Worried that Steven Mcdowell might snap and kill his children along with himself, District Attorney cheryl lee turned to an Old High School classmate for help. Crystals aunt cindy. Cindy, she was good enough to stay close. Cindy said she felt dutybound to watch over the kids, just 5 and 8 at the time, as the rangers closed in on steven. I told me husband i was going over. He said, i dont think thats a good idea. Im like, i feel hes going to kill the kids. Hes going to kill himself what was this metro station about . Protect the kids. I knew if i could stay close, talk to him, thats what hairdressers do best. I mean, keep him calm or try to get him to confess. Is he frightening you at that point . No. I carried a gun the whole time. You were at his house . Yeah. I had a gun on me at all time because i. Li i felt he was going to snap. The Texas Rangers were getting under his skin. Even though, mcdowell returned for further questioning. You could see literally hes losing weight before your eyes. The rangers laid out the evidence against him the polygraph, the votideos, the li, but mcdowell held tight, would not confess. I cant get these kids off my mind that something is going to happen. Leak put the kids into protective custody with child protective services. Once the children were safely secured, leak sent a message to their dad. You tell him that were not letting him see his children until he takes us to the body. And i said, im done. Im done. I said, hes dicking us around. Hes like, im not telling you where shes at if i can help it. You cant get away with that. You killed her, you dont have the right to do that. Now ouch the right you dont h right to leave her where nobodys going to know if shes going to wash up and everyone wondering where is she. That night, an exhausted mcdowell asked rangerer jeter and his partner, ranger james holland, to present a counteroffer to d. A. Leak. He told holland, let me go home, then tomorrow morning i will tell you everything. Ill take you to where crystal its at. With the verbal agreement, the District Attorney and ranger jeter allowed mcdowell to walk out of the Sheriffs Office knowing it was a risky decision. Did you feel at all awaweird ab letting him walk . Yes, i did. I thought he was going home to ultimately take himself out. On the morning of saturday, september the 9th, rangers jeter and holland went knocking on Steven Mcdowells door not sure what theyd find. But to jeters surprise, mcdowell answered the door. He said, im ready to talk. At 12 45 p. M. He was back in the chair and made good on his promise to talk. Mcdowell said he knew crystal had a long string of affairs. You confronted her at different times about those affairs. Yes. I confronted her. She told me it was none of my business. She thats im not dominant enough in the bedroom is what she says. Pretending to be sympathetic, Ranger Holland slowly teased out the details of crystals death. It was slow and brutal. Were you fighting when that happened . Yeah. Is that when she told you she didnt live anymore . Did you snap . Yeah. Did you mean to service indicate her . No. Suffocate her . I . No. It just happened . I love her. How did you suffocate her . Squeezed her okay. Like a choke hold or something . Did she say anything when that was going on . Did she fight . She was scared. How did you eventually know that she was no longer alive . She stopped breathing. He wrapped her in trashbags and hid her body in the trunk of the mercedes. He said he dumped the body the following morning. Before he revealed where, mcdowell said he wanted a deal. He want the Death Penalty off the table. Whats the calculus that your prosecutor has to go through, your d. A. . We dont find crystal without his help. Not going to happen. Its going to happen. This isnt a forensic case or a dna case, this is a whodunit. We know whodunit. Now take me to where shes at. District attorney leak was on the same page. With jeter as her gobetween, she agreed to foreknow it tgot penalty. Were not going to take the Death Penalty if you take us to her. He agreed to take us to crystals location. They retraced the route which led to a narrow strip of back bl bla blacktop. Would you ever have gone down that road . Never. That place was four to five foot under water 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 were the remains of crystal mcdowell. There was not much left of her. She was pretty much 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 in can claim sudden passion. That the victim somehow played a role in their own death by provoking the killer. Income dowel 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 leak 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, and he snapped . Uhhuh. And were really in manslaughter country here, and why are you going for the full ride . Because i dont care how henpecked somebody might be or how much they say they are, which in my opinion he was. That was a ploy. Its still no excuse to kill anybody. A popular prosecutor whos also a single mom. Leak has built a reputation as a fierce advocate for women and children. In this case, she was going to be the voice of crystal mcdowell. She was begging him, please stop fighting with me. Ive been in an unhappy marriage for ten years. Please stop using the kids as pawns. Youve used me long enough. Please, please, please. Im tired, im exhausted. I cant fight anymore. To leak, the killing of crystal mcdowell was a black and white case of premed dated murder. The big question, would all 12 members of a jury see it that way . Coming up two shockingly young witnesses take the stand. Why did you bring the kids in . They wanted to talk about it. And the jury makes a worrying request. Im like, oh, god, where are nay going with this . Wild thing, you make my heart sing wild thing i. Think i. You know what i think . I think you owe us 48. 50. Wild thing. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. As a single mother, my first job is to care for derek. Everything i do is for him. When i moved to this apartment after six months, we need to connect with the world. I use the internet to keep him in the language, because thats the way to connect to my familys traditions. He has to know where he comes from. We need internet essentials. Theres no excuse to not get connected. Welcome back. Steve mcdowell confessed to strangling his exwife crystal. As part of a plea deal, he showed detectives where he hid her body. There was not much doubt he was a killer but could prosecutors prove the murder was premeditated . They were ready to use everything in their arsenal, including stunning testimony from the most innocent of victims. Heres 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 exwife crystal in june 2019. D. A. Sheryl lee made sure she was well armed with evidence depicting the extent he tried to cover up the crime. And later checking on the car to see if it had been stolen. But, the video that really got the courts attention, prerecorded testimony of crystal and stevens two children. Why did you bring the kids in . I didnt want to. Tender age. I spoke to their guardian and said, look, if you dont think that this is going to be something that they can handle i will absolutely not put them on the stand. Its not worth it to me. They wanted to talk about it. It being their mothers murder. The daughter now 7 said she saw it happen. No cameras were allowed in court so we turned to the trial transcript on the daughters testimony. She told the court, they were arguing about her going with another man and she said, im going to take my children with me. Then he pushed her on the bed and said no, youre not. Then he started putting his hands like that, and demonstrated for the jury putting her own hands over her nose and mouth. The daughter continued. She tried to put her hands up and feet up so dad wouldnt have so much weight on it and then he glanced at me mad and mom glanced tried to say help when he was done he told me to go in my room and dont tell anyone. Damming testimony from a child. The defense tried to undercut contending the daughter had heard about the killing from relatives and 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 . No. Who did the jury meet. They met a conniving, manipulative cry baby. Through his tears he told a new and strange story about how he killed crystal, nothing more than a freak accident. In the midst of the argument crystal got hysterical and he put her in a bear hug. I just wanted to hug her, stop fighting. I wanted to quit going back and forth because it was going nowhere and i was frustrated, upset and madp his lawyer asked, xaepd next . Mcdowell responded she became limp and fell. D. A. Leak he hugged her to death. That had not been told before . No. We are googling it at dinner going how do you hug somebody to death. When the case went to the jury, leak thought an outright au quital seemed unlikely but a hung jury was a distinct possibility. Just one juror, thats all it needs. I thought if one believes his story, you know, were cooked. Sure enough during deliberations one of the jurors asked to see mcdowells confession tape again. Does it make you nervous . Always makes me nervous, where are they going with this. An hour after rewatching 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 you . It was real stressful. When you get 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, you worry about whats a jury going to think. Just rattle this thing, you know, forgive the thought, but its like, how do you not get scene as a hardass woman . I dont know. Because you could be judged absolutely. And i think i am seen like that with a lot of jurors. Theres nothing i can do about it. If i tried to be anything different than i am, it would come across as insincere. That authenticity apparently resonated with the jury in crystals case. They rejected the sudden passion argument and found that crystals murder was premeditated. They sentenced Steven Mcdowell to 50 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction. And cindy wasnt in court that day. Instead, she distracted the kids with a trip to the multiplex. We went to the movie and had a good day. The kids went to the movie and dads going away forever . Exactly. They never asked a question. He got 50 years and it was almost a relief. Im for the Death Penalty for this kind of stuff, but its better than 20 or 2. Crystals children are being raised by an old friend whose own parents had once given crystal a home. She makes them stay focussed in school, regiments, routines. She truly loves them. She is honored to raise them. They are, i mean theyre just phenomenal kids. As for crystal, leak hopes she will be remembered more as a loving mom than an up by the boot straps survivor of awful abuse. She wanted the family she never had, she wanted children, she wanted to love something unconditionally and have somebody love her unconditionally. I love you. She was still looking for that love right until the hours before the winds began howling and the waters rose. Thats all for this edition of dateline. Im natalie morales, thank you for watching. First up on msnbc, mixed messages. Donald trump, his doctors, and the white house chief of staff sorting through confused timelines, treatments and the condition of the president come from all sides. The rose garden super spreader event. More and more coming down with covid19 after a complete disregard for safety rules. The biden campaign, how its changing its tone or not, as the president remains hospitalized. 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