The search for Houston-area realtor and mother of two young children, Crystal McDowell, ended Saturday, September 9 — more than two weeks after she disappeared. The Chambers County Sheriff's Office says detectives and Texas Rangers discovered Crystal's body in a marshy wooded area near Needlepoint Road. According to the CCSO, Crystal's ex-husband Steven Wayne McDowell, 44, confessed to killing his ex-wife and has been charged with murder. The couple's children, 5 and 8, are now with Crystal's family, KTRK reports. Below is surveillance video of Crystal McDowell leaving her boyfriend's home the morning of August 25 - the day she vanished and before Hurricane Harvey made landfall. They are the last images of the 37-year-old realtor and former flight attendant as she headed to Steven McDowell's place to pick up their children. Crystal's boyfriend, Paul Hargrave, was kind enough to share the video clips. According to the CCSO, Crystal and Steven McDowell were divorced earlier this year but were still living together while her place was being remodeled.
The motive behind Crystal's death has not been released.
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Update: An arrest was made in this gruesome case. The victim identified as Steven Coleman was shot and dismembered by his girlfriend, 30-year-old Cierra Sutton, according to Baytown Police. Sutton was arrested in New Orleans and charged with murder. He was somebody's son and possibly somebody's father, husband, brother, friend. His torso was found among the piles of trash dumped at the Waste Management Baytown Landfill in Chambers County, Texas, on Aug. 22. Few details are available, but preliminary autopsy results indicate the remains are of a male between 13 and 50 years old. His identity and cause of death are still unknown. Who was he? What happened to him? How did he end up in the trash? According to the Chambers County Sheriff's Office, a machine operator at the facility spotted the human remains on Aug. 22. The remains, investigators say, came from solid waste collected in Harris, Liberty or Chambers County that same day. With help from Texas Rangers and Texas Department of Criminal Justice cadaver dogs, Chambers County detectives spent several days searching the landfill, but it's unclear if anything else related to this case was found. Detectives are looking at missing persons reports and are asking for the public's help to solve this case. Anyone with information is asked to call the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office at 409-267-2500 or Chambers County Crime Stoppers at 844-860-8477.
By: Claudia Rivero As Texas braced for Hurricane Harvey's arrival, one Houston-area family desperately searched for their loved one who mysteriously vanished right before the storm. 37-year-old realtor Crystal Seratte McDowell was last seen on surveillance video leaving her boyfriend's apartment the morning of Aug. 25, hours before Hurricane Harvey made landfall. According to local and national media reports, Crystal was headed to pick up her children, 5 and 8, at the home she shared with her ex-husband in Baytown - a suburb east of Houston. She hasn't been seen or heard from since. Crystal's uncle Jeff Walters told reporters that his niece was scheduled to meet clients that afternoon but never showed up. Walters filed a missing person report the next day, but by then Hurricane Harvey was pounding the region, stretching resources thin and making it difficult for investigators to conduct a search. Walters went on to say that Crystal's ex-husband showed him a text message, reportedly from Crystal, stating that she would be picking up the kids and heading to Dallas to ride out the storm. Walters told CBS News he doubts the text was sent by his niece. According to reports, Crystal's black 2013 Mercedes Benz was found partially submerged in flood water at a Motel 6 parking lot in Mont Belvieu, 12 miles away from the ex-husband's home. Two people were questioned but have since been released. According to media reports, Crystal — a realtor at Virginia Malone & Associates, LLC, in Baytown, — texted her boyfriend the morning of Aug. 25 saying that road conditions looked good. That was the last time he heard from her. Crystal's last post on social media was on Aug. 24. In addition to local coverage, the story was also picked up by the national media — CBS, NBC, along with Inside Edition, HLN, and People Magazine. In an interview with HLN, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said: "I personally think that there is some wrong doing in this. I think there's some suspicious nature. I don't think she left on her own. I think there's obviously some foul play at this time." In another interview with CBS This Morning Hawthorne said he is "very, very confident" that McDowell is not a victim of the storm. According to court records, Crystal and her ex-husband's divorce was finalized earlier this year. Crystal's boyfriend, Paul Hargrave, has been vocal about Crystal's disappearance - speaking with news outlets and contributing to a reward that now stands at $15,000 for information that leads to Crystal's whereabouts. I've reached out to her uncle Jeff Walters, her boyfriend Paul Hargrave, and her ex-husband Steven McDowell and will update if they respond. Crystal's family has hired a private investigator from Unlimited Investigations and Research Services. Anyone with information on Crystal McDowell is asked to call the Chamber's County Sheriff's Office at 409-267-2500.
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Claudia Rivero Investigative Reporter/ProducerArchives
July 2024
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