Put up on it . Pictures of her, her License Plate. By the time they find the car, its halfway underwater. When we saw him riding a bike, we said, oh, thats what he did. He thought he was smarter than we were. If he couldnt have her, nobody could. Hello, welcome to dateline. Crystal mcdowell was a new Mom Itching to start a new life before she vanished. Then Hurricane Harvey came to town and a Lead Investigator forged ahead, uncovering a series of clues, as the Flood Waters receded, he discovered the same deadly storm that slowed the investigation had flushed out crystals killer. Heres 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 the driveway. Looks like shes on her way to work. But crystal never makes it to the office that day. Texts, Phone Calls and emails go unanswered. When crystals extended family gathers later that evening to watch a payperview boxing match, Cousin Jade Cherry says they arent 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 hes like, crystals missing. But in my head im like, what . Like, you dont think you know, youre like, well, find her. Like, what do you mean . Yeah. That doesnt make sense. Hes like, no, shes missing. No ones talked to her since 7 00 in the morning. I was like, well, that that doesnt mean anything. Like, her phone is her phone could be broke. Shes busy. She works a lot. Crystals 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 crystals missing . And im like, whatever. Im like, shes not missing. And he said, mom, shes missing. Im like, shes not missing. And so, i text her. And i said, hey, babe, how are ya . Where you at . I waited, just kinda blew it off, started watching tv. Tried to call her, no answer, then thats when i started to worry. Blessed with the 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 and the love she had for them is obvious to see. The love for her husband, though, was not 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 now exhusband. Like i said, complicated. Tell me about the divorce, jade. Who wanted out . Which one of them . Crystal for sure. So she gave him his walking papers. Yes. And 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. Anytime we get a call like that, automatically take it serious. First stop for Deputy Cody hammes was the Mcdowell House to see if Crystals Exhusband Steve had heard from her. And his his immediate response was, you know, did something happen . 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 exhusband to share. But to deputy hammes, it wasnt so much what mcdowell said but how he said it. Just in a real kinda strange tone of voice, and i was just asking a general question. And my instincts were just really kicking 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 didnt appear to be actin normal, per se. Thats when deputy hammes asked for backup to help figure out this mess. Detective Donny Walters got the call. The first thing i noticed that bothered me was they had been divorced for six months. But yet, hes still wearing a wedding ring. Why . Thats thats not normal normal behavior. What was his demeanor like as youre talking to him . Almost cocky. He put hisself out that he was a whole 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 d. A. Cheryl lieck. Early on in this investigation, like, hours into it, when you run went around the table with all your investigators, who did you think the suspect was . A piss off exubd. 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 offkilter as the husband. He was cooperative. But he just kinda had that air about him, also. The husband has given us suspicion. Now, the new boyfriend has given us suspicion. Even though they were both being very cooperative, it was cooperative to a point that it was almost questionable, i guess. You wonder 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 these Surveillance Videos were recorded, well, he never filed a missing 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. Its bein played on Cable Tv before your guys have even 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. When dateline continues. When dateline continues except now you have uncontrollable Body Movements called tardive dyskinesia td. And it can seem like thats all people see. Some meds for Mental Health can cause abnormal Dopamine Signaling in the brain. While how it works is not fully understood, ingrezza is thought to reduce that signaling. Ingrezza is a Prescription Medicine used to treat adults with Td Movements in the face and body. People taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most Mental Health meds. Dont take ingrezza if youre allergic to any of its ingredients. Ingrezza may cause serious Side Effects, including sleepiness. Dont drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you. 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Baytown is a notch in texass bayou belt. Its a land of Pump Jacks 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. Baytowns oldest and biggest Jewelry Store, robsons. Paul hargrave managed the store. Paul hargrave managed the store and appeared frequently in commercials like this one. He was crystals date the night before she went missing. Seemed to be a casual dinner, just like any of us would have at at a nice restaurant over there in houston. Chambers County Sheriff brian hawthorne. Her companion that night, how would you describe it . Is he kind of a new boyfriend . Yes, very new boyfriend. And hes a guy whos a well known name in the county . Correct. Big jeweler . The the Jewelry Store has been there for probably 50plus years. So shes 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. Thats for sure. But hargraves Investigative Status was soon upgraded. Remember that Security Camera 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. But the sheriff said hargrave didnt give those videos to his investigators. Didnt 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 its its its bein played on Cable Tv before your guys have even seen it . That is correct. And that didnt sit well with the sheriff. So the Bottom Line is the jeweler 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 boyfriends alibi. All that did was really confirm what i already thought. I really didnt think he had anything to do with it. I really didnt. So you werent you werent looking at the boyfriend at that point . No, because he wouldnt have had a motive. The motive is gonna rest with the exhusband because any logical person is saying, okay, theyre divorced. She spends the night with a new boyfriend, and she comes home the next morning and the 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 oh, youre kidding. Sexually assaulted her. How awful. But 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 just wanted the world to see 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. My dad has been friends with steve since high you know, childhood friends since forever, for high school. So ive always grown up around steve. Tell me about steve first. Whos the guy that you remember . Very childlike. Hes 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 and she was okay. Tell me that story. 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 . And then i met him. And 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 they were 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 thats when her life became even more complicated. She had numerous lovers throughout her marriage. Men and women. She was very social, and because shed 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 lot of different directions that we found ourselves goin in the first week. And if shes been intimate with people here and there, you got to wonder, we got an angry husband here, 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 Sheriffs 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 noahs ark. Coming up it just kept raining and kept raining. It just kinda changed everything. A hurricane puts a Homicide Case put on hold. But not forever. Immediately, we went to social media. What kinds of things did you put up on it . We put pictures of her, her License Plate. When dateline continues. It even kills the covid19 virus. Science supports these simple facts. Theres only one true lysol. Lysol. What it takes to protect. This fall and every season, the Exclusive Kitchenaid appliances you want are within reach. Like this exclusive 5element rage. Get up to 500 off now on select appliances. Only at lowes. Youve been taking Mental Health meds, and your mind is finally in a better place. Except now you have uncontrollable Body Movements called tardive dyskinesia td. And it can seem like thats all people see. Some meds for Mental Health can cause abnormal Dopamine Signaling in the brain. While how it works is not fully understood, ingrezza is thought to reduce that signaling. Ingrezza is a Prescription Medicine used to treat adults with Td Movements in the face and body. People taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most Mental Health meds. Dont take ingrezza if youre allergic to any of its ingredients. Ingrezza may cause serious Side Effects, including sleepiness. Dont drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you. Other serious Side Effects include potential Heart Rhythm problems and abnormal movements. Shift the focus more on you. Ask your doctor about ingrezza. Its simple. One pill, oncedaily. 1 prescribed for td. Learn how you could pay as little as 0 at ingrezza. Com age before beauty . Why not both . Visibly diminish wrinkled skin in. Crepe corrector lotion. Only from gold bond. 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 in the morning, and we were already doing 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 you in harvey . Oh, 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 going to come in first, either the front door or the back door. And it just ive 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. Crystals cousin, jade cherry, was stranded in her moms home with a pair of newborns. I i have two screaming twins. Theyre four months old. Half breastfeeding, half formula. Wasnt making breast milk. Scared to run out of formula. With the entire county in peril, the search for Crystal Mcdowell was no longer an investigative priority for the Chambers County 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 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 did you put up on it . We put pictures of her, her License Plate if anyone had seen her. Because her car was missing. Yes. Nice car. Beautiful black mercedes, yeah. And were posting and were sharing. And im just, you know, 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 said, hey, jade. I dont know if they found your cousin or her car yet. But her car is at Motel 6 off 146. Im like, how 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. And its Crystals Car. So the first thing i did was call my dad. And and i tell my dad im like, dad, Crystals Car is at Motel 6 on 146. Hes like, what . Like, how do you know . I sent him the picture, while im on the phone with him. And his reaction was the same as mine like, holy crap. This is her car. This is her. Uhhuh. But with the roads and fields flooded, Jades Family could only get to the Motel 6 by boat. Same with detectives from the Sheriffs Department. We had to commandeer an airboat that was actually out in the neighborhood, that was doing rescues, to get up to the hotel. So this Motel 6 is going under, too. Is completely under. Its out on i10. Yes, sir. Get in the airboat, make a route around the motel, and sure enough, theres the car. Finding Crystals 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. Yeah. Its Connect The Dots here. Whats whats going on . Its like come and get it. This is i want somebody to take this car because something happened. So this is a tasty prize. Steal me, huh . Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But nobody seemed to have taken the bait. We well, there was a couple that tried. But the problem is the water was too high. Crystals 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 going to process that vehicle, are they going to come up with anything . No. Nothing. Thats when dateline posted a missinginamerica 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 Hawthorne 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. 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 formal interview. And i told him, hey, look, were youre exhusband, were gonna take your story. And i got to rule you out as a suspect. So hes a cooperative guy i think, right . Oh yeah. One of the once you reached out to him, was very cooperative. Mcdowell told jeter the same story he told the Sheriff Deputies a week earlier. He hadnt 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 hats and boots. Jeterss 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 youre seeing as much as what hes saying to you, ranger. Probably lack of concern or sincere concern even for what we now know is an exwife. So i asked him, hey, lets take a lie detector test. Mcdowell said sure, hed be happy to. And he failed. How badly did he flunk the poly . You couldnt have failed it 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 we 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 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. So he was the boogeyman. Then the boyfriend was brought in for questioning. And he too cooperated. Handed over those videos, his cellphone and agreed to be strapped to the polygraph. And . Failed miserably. He did too . Yes, sir. So thats a dilemma. You have both the husband and the boyfriend failing their polies. All in the same day. Yes, sir. Both of them on saturday. Im like what the hell is going on . I mean, i just i couldnt believe it. And, i thought, well, maybe theyre in it together. You know, so that really threw us off, really threw us off. The skies may have cleared but that didnt mean 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, oh, thats what he did. When dateline continues. Hello, im door ra brown. Heres whats happening ahead of next weeks meet, france has sent ambassadors from u. S. And australia. President biden agreed to provide nuclearpowered submarines to centraliasm. The all civilian Space Mission is expected to splash down off the coast of florida. The historic mission launched on wednesday, the crew has been orbiting 360 miles from earth. Now, back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline. Im senate my morales. After Crystal Mcdowell disappeared, investigators took a hard look at the two men, her exhusband and new boyfriend cooperated actually with police. Both agreed to take a lie detector test. Both failed miserably. Authorities were baffled. But a series would soon put the investigation into focus. Once again, Heres Dennis Murphy with before the storm. By tuesday, september 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. Shed been missing for 11 days and was now presumed dead. Bodies. Bodies become evidence, dont they . She and she tells her story from the grave. So you need the remains . Got to have her remains. But where were they . If Crystals Body had been dumped in one of these bayous, the receding Flood Waters 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 9th more than A Hundred people systematically worked grids by foot, atv, and airboat. But as light waned on that first day, equusearch founder tim miller wasnt hopeful. You know at this point it doesnt look good. It doesnt 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 exhusband and the new boyfriend. He needed to focus on one or the other. So you started to ask the question, whos got a camera around here, huh . Thats right. He had investigators check businesses near the Motel 6 in search of surveillance footage. Whatd you come up with . Well well, fortunately, a lotta 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 crystals 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 its a rare mustang gt, just like Steven Mcdowells. And he couldnt of have a more distinctive car than a shelby but, boy, thats thats its hard to mistake that vehicle. Yeah, without a doubt. The driver who looks just like Steven Mcdowell does something odd. Rather than pump gas, he instead walks towards the Motel 6. And appears to be lookin at his wifes ditched 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 balloon, nobody stole it yet . And i think thats exactly what went through his head. Oh [ bleep}, the cars 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, were going how in the hell did he do this . How did he get back home, you know . 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 i10 feeder road. The video was timestamped at 7 05 a. M. 25 minutes after Crystals Car was dropped off. And thats 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 has unique Mag Wheels. Then jeter remembered Mcdowells Alibi for that Saturday Morning was that hed 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 just minutes after crystals mercedes was abandoned. When we saw him riding a bike, we said, oh, 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, 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. And his plan fell apart with the rain. So 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. Theres No Doubt in my mind that thats you. I want to show you that. Im guessing youd like to see that. I mean, it 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 mcdowell was crystals killer. As for the boyfriend . An innocent man who had nothing to do with crystals 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. 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 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 crystals 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 hed actually talked about murdersuicide sometime earlier. Right after the divorce, mcdowell had reportedly threatened to destroy the entire family. It was like, im gonna kill myself. Im gonna kill The Kids. Him him to her . Yeah. Youre gonna be youre blamed for the ruination of my life, huh . 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. Coming up a prosecutor gets tough. You tell him that 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. When dateline continues. Dont take ingrezza if youre allergic to any of its ingredients. Ingrezza may cause serious Side Effects, including sleepiness. Dont drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you. Other serious Side Effects include potential Heart Rhythm problems and abnormal movements. Shift the focus more on you. Ask your doctor about ingrezza. Its simple. One pill, oncedaily. 1 prescribed for td. Learn how you could pay as little as 0 at ingrezza. Com [swords clashing] had enough . No. Arthritis. Here. New aspercreme arthritis. Full prescriptionstrength . Reduces inflammation . Thank the gods. Dont thank them too soon. Kick pain in the aspercreme. 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, crystals Aunt Cindy. Cindy seratte, 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 had told my husband i was going over there. And he said, i dont think this is a good idea. And im like, well, i truly feel hes gonna kill The Kids. I feel like hes gonna kill himself. Hes gonna kill The Kids. What was in your head, cindy . What was your mission about this this ive got to go over to Steves Idea . Protect The Kids. I just 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 mean, i carried a gun the whole time. When you were over at his house . Oh, yeah. I had a gun on me at all times. Why . cause 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 was 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. And i just cant get these kids off my mind that something 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 were not letting him see his children until he takes us to the body. And and i said, im done. Im done. I said, hes us around. And im sick of it. And hes not gonna get away with, im not telling you where shes at if i can help it. im sorry. Youre just not gonna get get away with that. You dont have the right. You killed her. You dont have the right to do that. And now you dont have the right to leave her somewhere where nobodys ever gonna know if shes gonna just wash up somewhere. And everybody that loves her is sitting around wondering, where is she . That night, an exhausted mcdowell asked Ranger Jeter and his Partner Ranger James Holland to present a Counter Offer to d. A. Lieck. He told holland, let me go home. And then tomorrow morning, i will tell you everything. And ill take ill take you to where crystals at. With that 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 weird about lettin Him Walk that night . Yes, i did. I felt like Hes Fixin to break. cause i thought he was goin home for probably to ultimately take himself out. On the morning of saturday, September 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. , 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. And youve confronted her at different times about those affairs . Yes. I confronted her and she told me to stay out of her business. She says that im not dominant enough in the bedroom with the sex. 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 . Yes. Is that when she told you that she didnt love you anymore . Yeah. And did you snap . Did you mean to suffocate her . No. Did it just happened . I didnt meant to hurt her. I love her. Okay. And how did you suffocate her . I put my arm around her like this. Okay. Like a a choke Hold Or Something . Did she say anything when this was going on . Or did she fight or what what happened . She said i was scaring her. How did you eventually know that that she was no longer alive . She stopped moving. 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. Whats the calculus that your prosecutor has to go through here, your d. A. . We dont find crystal without his help. Thats just flat not gonna happen . Its not gonna happen. This isnt a forensics case, a dna case. This is a whodunnit. We know whodunnit, now take me to where she was at. District Attorney Lieck was on the same page, and with jeter as a gobetween, she agreed to forego the Death Penalty. As long as she gets the body today, okay . Were not going to seek the Death Penalty if you take her to us today. Shortly thereafter, he agreed, all right, ill take you to crystals location. They retraced Mcdowells Route which eventually led to this short, narrow strip of blacktop known as needlepoint road. Thats heavily wooded next to a ravine. Ranger, would you ever have gone down that road . Never. That place was four to five foot underwater 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. And 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 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 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 . Uhhuh. And he snapped. Uhhuh. And were really in Manslaughter Country here. Uhhuh. And and why are you Guys Goin for the full 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 not. That was a ploy is still no excuse to kill anybody. A popular prosecutor whos 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. Ive been in an unhappy marriage for 10 years. Please stop usin The Kids as pawns. Youve used me long enough. Please, please, please, i dont im tired. Im exhausted. I Cant 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. Whyd you bring The Kids in . They wanted to talk about it. And the jury makes a worrying request. Im, like, oh god, where are they goin with this . From the most innocent of victims. Heres Dennis Murphy with a conclusion of before the storm. After a year of Court Hearings and motions, Steven Mcdowell finally went on trial for the murder of his wife in 2019. She made sure she was well armed with evidence depicting the extent to which she tried to cover up the crime. She showed the jury Mcdowells Confession, the video of him dumping crystals mercedes and buying that bicycle at walmart and later checking on the car to see if it had been stolen. But the video that goutd her attention was the prerecording of stevens two children. Why didnt you bring them in . I didnt want to. Tender age. Yes. I said, look, if this is something you dont think they can handle, i will not put them on the stand. Its not worth it to me. But they wanted to talk about it. It being their mothers murder. The daughter now 7 says she saw it happen. No cameras roll out in court, so we turn to the transcript. She told the court they were arguing about her going with another man and she said, im going to take my children with me and then he pushed her on the bed and said, no, youre 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. She continued. She tried to put her hands and feet up so Dad Wouldnt have so much weight on her. Then he glanced at me really mad at me and mom glanced at me and tried to say help. Then when it was done, he told me to go In My Room and dont tell anyone. Damning testimony from a child. In rebuttal the defense called their own star witness, Steven Mcdowell. When he was on the stand, did he do himself any good . Hmmmm. What do they think . They met a crying, manipulative, crybaby. He told a new and strange story about how he killed crystal. It was an accident. In the midst of an argument she got hysterical and he put her in a bear hug. I wanted to quit fighting. It was back and forth and it was going nowhere and i was frustrated and mad. His lawyer asked what happened next. He responds, she became limp and fell. Hugged her to death. Thats a new one on me. That had not bun told before. Yeah. There was no way. We were looking it up, googling it at dinner, how do you Hug Somebody to death. When the case went to the jury, lee thought an outright acquittal seemed unlikely, but a Hung Jury was a distinct possibility. Just one, one juror is 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 tapes again. Does it make you nervous . It always makes me nervous because like where are they going with this . After an hour, 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 . 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, then you worry about what the jurys going to think, you know. How do you straddle this thing . Forgive the thought, but its like how do you not get seen as a hardass woman . I dont know. You could be judged. Right, absolutely. And i think im seen like that with a lot of jurors. Theres nothing i can do about it. I mean, if i try 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, and Cindy Wasnt in court that day. Instead she distracted The Kids with a multiplex. The kids went to a movie. And dad got sent away. He got 50 years. Its a relief. Im actually for the Death Penalty in this kind of stuff, but its better than 20, better than two. Crystals children are raised by an old friend. She keeps them in school. She truly loves them and is honored to raise them. Theyre phenomenal kids. As for crystal, lee hopes shell be remembered more like a loving mom and a Bootstraps Survivor of unwanted abuse. She wanted a family, children, she wanted to love something unconditionally and have Somebody Love her unconditionally. And 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, Capitol Hill Police on high alert ahead of a far right rally with crowds expected to come out in support of the rioters charged in connection with the January 6th insurrection. Law enforcement says theyre ready for anything. The chatter that we heard prior to January 6th obviously turned out to be many of those threats turned out to be, in fact, credible, and so were not taking any chances