you probably think i'm a littl crazy to keep that picture but it's a reminder of wha those horrible children did to her. can you imagine giving birth and then giving everything you have to these two kids and the k kill you >> the menendez brothers hav supporters, who hope they ge out of prison, one day when we last checked, lyle's facebook followers numbere more than 8,500. fair to say, pam bozanich is not one of them. >> life in prison for those tw is just fine i hope they live a long, lon life >> i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales >> this is "dateline. " i knew she would never leave her kids in the middle of a hurricane s i always knew it wasn't goin to be good

>> crystal was gone, and there were lots of reasons to worry. >> she had numerous lovers, me and women. >> you had the husband and boyfriend failing polys. >> on the same day >> the answer would have t wait >> hurricane harvey is movin in this direction and high water rescues. >> we're stuck in the house an immediately went to social media. >> what kind of things >> pictures of her and her license plate. >> someone knew where she was, someone that liked to play games. >> he thought he was smarter than we were >> willing to trade one nigh of freedom >> he said i'm ready to talk >> let me go home and tomorrow morning i'll tell yo everything >> in exchange for the terribl truth. >> if he couldn't have her nobody could. crystal was young mom and brought th

search for crystal to a halt >> - then hurricane harvey decimate her texas town and brought the search for krystal to a halt but in a lead investigator forged ahead, uncovering a series of clues and as the floodwaters receded, h discovered the same deadly storm that slowed th investigation had also flushed out crystals killer. here is dennis murphy with before the storm >> the woman captured on security camera moving ghost like from one room to the next is 37-year-old crystal mcdowell, a real else state agent from baytown, texas, it's thursday, august 25th, 2017. at 7:35 a m., crystal gets into her blac mercedes coupe and backs out o the driveway. looks like she's on her way to work, but crysta never makes it to the office that day. texts, phone calls and emails go unanswered. when crystal's extended famil

gathers later that evening t watch a paper view boxing match, cousin jade cherry says they w aren't sure if they should b annoyed or concerned >> it was the night of the mayweather and mcgregor figh and my whole family is here an my brother is like crystal i missing, but in my head, i'm like, what? like you don't think. find her. what do you mean >> that doesn't make sense >> he's like no, like, she's missing. no one has talked t her since 7:00 in the morning. i was like that doesn't mean anything. her phone is -- he phone could be broke. she' busy >> crystal's aunt a loca beautician was also dismissive when her son called to say crystal was missing. >> he calls me and said mom, mom, have you heard crystal is missing? i'm like whatever. i' like she's not missing. so i text her and ask her, hey, babe, how are you? where you at? i waited and blew it off and started watching tv. tried t call her. no answer and that's

when i started to worry. >> blessed with looks, smart and charm, crystal was a favorite with real estat clients and co-workers. he main passion was her two children and the love she ha for them was obvious to see. the love for her husband wasn' as strong. after ten years o marriage, crystal split with her husband but the remodel of her new home ended uptakin longer than the divorce. and this is where crystal's life story gets complicated. whil she waited to get the keys of place of her own, crysta continued to live with her new ex-husband. like i said, complicated. tell me about the divorce, jade. who wanted out? which one? >> crystal for sure. >> so she gave him his walking papers >> yes >> how did he take it? >> not well. >> so even though they'r divorced, they're spending nights together? >> right >> after 24 hours of silence the family calls the chamber county sheriff's department.

>> any time we get a call like that we take it serious. >> deputy cody was at th mcdowell house to see if crystal's ex-husband steve heard from her >> his immediate response wa did something happen? is there something i should know of >> then mcdowell through him a curve. he said crystal had a new boyfriend and there were nights when crystal just never came home. an awkward tail for any recent ex-husband but no what mcdowell said but how >> in a real kind of strange tone of voice and i'm just asking a general question. m instincts were really kickin off that whole moment. >> the husband had sort of a f fishy story. >> mannerism. didn't appear to be acting normal per se. >> that's what deputy hammis asked for backup to figure out the mess. detective donnie

walters got the call >> the first thing i notic that bothered me is they wer divorced for six months but yet, he's still wearing a wedding ring. why? that's not normal not normal behavior. >> what was his demeanor lik as you're talking to him >> almost cocky. he put hi self-out that he was a whole lot smarter than we were >> and just like that, the search for crystal slingshoted from a simple well being check to a possible homicide which meant looping in d. a. chery lieck. early on in thi investigation, hours into it when you went around the table with investigators, who did yo think the suspect ex-husband when i heard she was divorce but still living with an ex-husband and had a boyfriend my first thought is the husban did it >> those suspicions seemed les suspicious when they spoke t the boyfriend. >> he was corporative but ha that era about him also.

>> the husband has given suspicion and the new boyfrien even though they were both being very corporative, it was corporative to a point it wa almost questionable. >> you wonder why they wer being so helpful >> yes, sir. >> so what was going on? it wa certainly suspicious tha crystal's ex-husband never reported crystal missing, bu the boyfriend whose hous crystal stayed at the nigh before she disappeared, th place where the surveillance videos were recorded, well, he never filed a missing person report, either. crystal' boyfriend did something else that attracted the attention o investigators. he gave those surveillance videos to the media before them. coming up. >> it's being played on cabl tv before your guys have see it >> that is correct >> bottom line is the jewele is a prime suspect for me. >> and there could be many more >> she had numerous lovers

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texas'bayou belt. it's a lan of pump jacks and refineries the size of cities. fortunes ebb and flow with the price of crude and in august of 2017, the price per barrel was on th

rise. banks were lending and houses were being flipped an luxury items like diamonds wer in demand. baytown's oldest an biggest jewelry store robson's paul hargrave managed the stor and he was crystal's date th night before she went missing. >> seemed to be a causal dinne like any of us would have at a nice restaurant in houston >> chambers county sheriff rya hawthorne. >> her companion that night, a new boyfriend? >> yes, very knew bnew boyfrie >> well-known name, bi jeweller >> the store has been there fo 50 plus years. >> so she's had dinner tha night and then she goes home t spend the night at his place >> that is correct. he told us the last time he had seen he is he was getting in the shower, and she had gotten dressed and left >> that makes him the last person known to have seen he alive. >> correct >> which puts him in a investigative jam. >> it puts him as a person o interest, that's for sure. >> but hargrave's investigativ

status was soon upgraded remember that security camer footage of crystal leaving for work? those videos wer recorded at hargrave's home. w know that because he gave us and other news organizations the footage but the sherif said hargrave didn't give thos videos to his investigators, didn't even tell them about it not at first >> they released some of the video and pictures to th national media before ou detectives even had it >> it's being played on cabl tv before your guys have eve seen it? >> that's correct. >> that didn't sit well with the sheriff. >> the bottom line was the jeweler was a prime suspect fo me >> but d. a. leak had th opposite take when it came t the surveillance footage. sh thought the time stamped video backed up the boyfriend' alibi. >> all that did is confirm wha i thought, he didn't do it >> you weren't looking at th boyfriend? >> no, he didn't is a motive the motive rests with th ex-husband because any logical person is saying okay, they're divorced. she spends the night

with new boyfriend and she comes home the next morning? and ex-husband is supposed t be okay with that? no, i don't care who you are, you're not okay with that >> so the d. a. was lookin hard at the husband while th sheriff was betting on the boyfriend. it had to be one or the other, right? well, mayb not. did i mention tha crystal's life was complicated >> her name is crystal because her parents named her afte crystal meth >> you're kidding? >> no. her parents both died when she was 11. they died within six months of each othe from aids from drug use. at on point around 13 she wa abducted by a man and he kep her hostage, kept her in a chicken coop >> you're kidding. >> sexual assaulted her. >> how awful >> she managed to escape and eventually ended up down her in boy to baytown with her grandmother and a paternal aunt

>> crystal eventually bega living with jade's family an somehow clawed her way bac from the abuse she suffered as a child which could explain th photos and videos crystal took with her own daughter. she may have wanted the world to see how much her own little girl was loved, wanted an protected. >> when i think of crystal, think of loving. it 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 tha introduced crystal to he husband steve. >> my dad has been friends wit steve since childhood friend forever since high school so i've always grown up aroun steve. >> tell me about steve, first. who is the guy you remember? >> like a big kid. >> like a big kid he loved his toys, video games and muscle ford mustangs. >> i remember the day she told me she met him >> tell me that story. >> very smitten. i found somebody i love aunt cindy

he's perfect. he's funny. we talk a lot. i thought she me the man of her dreams. >> you met him. what did you think? >> the nicest, most kind hearted passionate person ever met >> all of us kids were there playing and goofy and silly an would go on trips and things like that. >> the trips were a job perk shortly after her marriage t steve, crystal landed a flight attendant position with expres jet and with her out going personality, kis l was soon an airline favorite. and that's when her life became even more complicated. >> she had numerous lovers throughout her marriage. men and women. >> she's very social and because she traveled all ove the united states with express jet, she had flight attendan friends and pilots all over th country. there were a lot of players and a lot of different directions we found ourselve

going in the first week. >> if she's been intimate with people there and there, do w have an angry husband, angry wife >> that is correct. that i some of the avenue we were looking at is other angr spouses. >> crystal mcdowell had been missing two days by the time the chambers county sheriff' office uncovered promising leads to pursue. but suddenly, pursuing leads became next t impossible. as little baytow suffered a disaster of epi proportions. >> it was a biblical storm. it really was. i felt like i wa on noah's ark. coming up. >> it just kept raining an kept raining. it changed everything >> a hurricane puts a homicide case on hold but not forever >> immediately, we went to social media >> what kinds of things did yo put on it? >> pictures of her, her licens plate. >> when "dateline" continues tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place

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that star... had one wish to grow on. play double time. ha, ha! i have to fine the wishing star. sniff him out. -all i can smell, is cats. oooh. good night. [ cheering ] you're still here? ok, one more number. puss in boots. only in theater, rated pg. >> record-breaking, epic biblical, all words to describ hurricane harvey, meaning it was a storm like few had eve seen. harvey was not onl massive but slow moving an once it hit usen and baytown it weirdly just stopped. >> it just kept raining an kept raining, half of th county was going under water a 5:00 in the morning and we wer already doing high-water rescues. >> it seemed like nobody was talking about a missing woma

any longer. the community an everyone in it was fighting to survive. what was the scariest moment for you in harvey >> when the water starte coming down my walls in my house and it was overflowing and i was watching to see whic way it was going to come i first, the front door or backdoor. i've never experienc that before. it just never stopped. >> there were boats actually traveling the roads and th only communication we have i through our phones. thank go our phones were working. >> crystal's husband jad cherry was stranded in her mom's home with a pair o newborns >> i have two screaming twins months old half breastfeeding, half formula. i wasn't makin milk, scared to run out of formula. >> the search for crystal wa no longer a priority for the chambers county instruct the sheriff's office >> i had no choice but t rescue citizens. >> you don't have the manpower and resources for an event lik

this >> when you have this kind o storm and devastation, you can never have enough manpower >> so jade picked up the slack house bound with twins she did the only thing she could think of to find kcrystal. >> immediately, we went to social media >> what did you put up >> pictures of her, her licens plate. >> because her car was missing >> yes >> nice car. >> beautiful black mercedes an we're posting and sharing an i'm repeatedly like keep sharing it, keep sharing it. >> jade was crowd sourcing 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 or her car yet but her car i at motel 6 off 146. i'm like how do you know that it's he car? do you have a picture o it? and she said my friend posted it on snapchat and wa like wow, like, this mercede is about to be flooded. i woul be so mad if this was my car >> jade's friend then forwarde 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. the first thing i did was call m dad and tell my dad crystal' car is at motel 6 on 146. he said how do you know? hi reaction is the same, this i her car. >> this is her car >> with the roads and fields flooded, jade's family could only get to the motel 6 by boat, same with the detectives fro the sheriffs deputy. >> we had a an airboat doing rescues to get up to the hotel >> so this motel 6 is goin under. >> it completely under >> out on i-10 >> get in the airboat and sure enough, there is the car >> finding crystal's car was a huge break, but one wrapped in

a riddle. did crystal leave he mercedes at the motel 6 or did someone else >> you can tell it had bee happen hazardly parked >> and the keys inside >> yes. come and get it, i wan somebody to take this ca because something happened >> this is a tasty prize >> absolutely. >> steal me. >> absolutely. >> nobody seemed to have taken the bait >> well, there was a coupl that tried but the problem i the water was too high >> crystal's car was later toeed to a garage where a cs team went through it forensically what happened. di they come up with anything >> nothing >> that's when "dateline" pose a missing in america report bu the story generated no usabl leads. by the time the las remanence of the storm howle out of texas, a week had gon by with this county in shambles, the sheriff knew he needed a outside assist on the mcdowell case and put out a call fo help. one answered by texa ranger steven jeter.

>> what do you do? >> ground zero. went back in like nothing had been done before >> on day one of thi investigation, jeter had ex-husband mcdowell sitting in a chair for his first formal interview. >> i told him, hey, look you're ex-husband. we're going to take your story and i got t rule you out as a suspect. >> so he's a co-rporative guy? >> oh, yeah, once you reache out to him very corporative. >> mcdowell told jeter the sam story he told sheriff' deputies a week earlier. h hadn't seen crystal sinc thursday night when she left for the date >> according to him, that wa the last time he saw her last. >> you under estimate a texa ranger if you see an elite gun slinger in hat and boots. jete has gone through extensive training how best to interview a suspect by reading behavio and body language. so tell m about his demeanor and wha you're seeing as much as wha he's saying to you, ranger >> probably lack of concern or sincere concern for what w

know as an ex-wife. i said hey let's take a lie detector test >> mcdowell said sure, he'd be happy to >> and he failed >> how badly did he flunk th poly >> you couldn't fail any worse >> which naturally would hav made him the prime suspect except it didn't jive with everything else jeter wa hearing about him. >> from the family members tha he had been talking to, yo know, they were all in steve's corner. they all thought tha steve treated crystal right an was a good person for crystal. >> and all agreed that steve was an involved and loving dad according to jeter, crystal' boyfriend paul hargrave was th one the family pointed fingers at >> they didn't know anything about him so he was the boogie man. >> the boyfriend cooperated, handed over videos, cell phone and agreed to be strapped to the polygraph. and >> failed miserably. >> he did, too >> yes, sir. >> the husband and boyfriend failing the same polys >> all in the same day >> what the hell is going on?

couldn't believe it. i thought maybe they're in it together so that really threw us off. really threw us off. >> the skies may have cleare but that didn't mean any new light was shed on th investigation. everythin seemed just as dark an confusing as before. it looked as though the only way to solv this mystery was to find crystal or her body. coming up -- caught on camera, a rider in the storm. >> when we saw him riding bike, we said that's what he did. >> when "dateline" continues

here's what's happening, why don't conditions in ohio or blame for a deadly pileup involving at least 46 vehicles the state highway patrol say several people were killed i the crash in erie county the bad weather and brutal col

is causing travel delays acros much of the u.s., and powe outages in several states. more than 200 million people under some sort of whether warning or advisory. wind chill alerts extendg into south florida. now, back to dateline. welcome back to "dateline. " i'm natalie morales. after crystal mcdowell disappeared incevestigatioors looked a crystal's new husband and he boyfriend operated with police and both agreed to take a li detector test and both faile miserably. authorities wer baffled but revealing clue would soon put the investigation into focus. once again, here is dennis murphy with "before the storm. >> by tuesday, september the 5th, the sky was clear and the water down. with the break i

weather, texans took to rippin up carpets, tearing out drywal and hauling flooded cars to th salvage yard but there was n break in the hunt for crystal. she'd been missing for 11 days and was now plresumed dead body has become evidence >> she tells her story from th grave. >> so you need remains >> have to have remains. >> but where were they? if crystal's body had been dumped in one of these bayous, th reseeding flood waters would have certainly swept it out to the gulf of mexico. neve theless, a call went out for volunteers for what many thought was a fruitsearch. texas equusearch took the lead wednesday, september 9th mor than 100 people worked grids b foot, atv and airboat but as light waned on that first day, equusearch tim miller wasn't hopeful. >> at this point, it doesn't look good. you know, it doesn' look good at all >> while volunteers work the

wetlands in search of kis crys ranger jeter looked to solve the dilemma of the investigation. he had two me in the cross hairs, th ex-husband and new boyfriend he needed to focus on one or the other. so you started to ask questions who has a camera around here. >> that's right. >> he had investigators chec businesses near the motel 6 in search of surveillance footage what did you come up with? >> fortunately, a lot of peopl had some >> almost too much. hours upon hours of footage but burie deep within this investigative or detectives caught images of the man they believed killed crystal mcdowell. the firs clip is this footage recorde saturday, august 26th at 6:3 a. m. the outer bands of hurricane harvey are startin to hit bayto baytown. near the top of your screen, you can se the taillights of crystal' mercedes as it's being backe into the motel 6 parking lot >> we can see somebody wal from the car >> five hours later, a

different security camera at a gas station next to the mote shows this blue car pullin next to a pump. this one caugh the eye of a watchfu investigator because it's rare mustang g. t. just like steven mcdowell's. he coun have had a more distinctive ca than a shelby. hard to mis that >> without a doubt >> the driver does something odd. rather than pumping gas he walks towards the motel six >> it appears to be looking at his wife's ditched car >> investigators were not zerw n certain mcdowell ditched the car and did so with th expectation it would conveniently disappear >> the thought ballooned nobod stole it yet >> that's exactly what wen through his head, oh [bleep] the scar is still here >> if mcdowell was acting alone, once he left the car he woul have been on foot miles from his house.

>> for two weeks we said how did he do this? how did he get back home? >> to find out they pulled footage along the roads in the area and found this video of a man riding a bike in the driving rain along the i-1 feeder road. the video was tim stamped at 7:05 a. m., 2 minutes after crystal's car wa 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 bik is it has unique mag wheels. >> jeter remembered mcdowell's alibi for that saturday mornin was that he'd been shopping at this walmart across the freewa from thejeter had the security a footage bulled. a guy lookin like steven mcdowell dressed i a sweatshirt with a hoodie u is paying cash for a bike with unique mag wheels minutes afte crystal's mercedes was abandoned. >> when we saw him riding bike, we said that's what he did. he walked across th

interstate to walmart an bought the bike, a red bull an a pack of cigarettes >> ironically, the storm tha brought the investigation to a halt also led to its biggest break. the flood water prevented crystal's car from being stolen, which in turn le detectives to focus on the surveillance cameras near th motel 6. had that not happened they never would have foun these videos of mcdowell >> his plan fell apart with th rain >> so he was a victim of hurricane harvey, too. >> in more ways than one >> when confronted with al this evidence, mcdowell denies it was him >> there is no doubt in my min that's you. i want to show you that >> mcdowell eventually admitte this footage at the gas statio was him. but the walmart clips no way he said. by now investigators were convinced mcdowell was crystal's kille and for the boyfriend, a

innocent man that had nothin to do with crystal's disappear ranls. d. a. leak by then ha enough evidence to charg mcdowell with murder but she believed she needed one more piece of evidence to ensure conviction >> i wanted that body. >> why is that important >> well, it's important for lot of reasons. it's easier to try a murder trial when you've got a dead body. it just is. but, you know, she deserved to be found. you know? sh deserved to be found. her kids deserved for her body to b found. her family deserved for her to be found. >> investigators all believe mcdowell knew where the body was but he staed fastly denied any involvement in crystal's disappearance. after an hour o getting nowhere, mcdowell wa allowed to go home to hi 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 throughout the week that had said he' actually talked about murder

suicide sometime earlier >> right after the divorce mcdowell had reportedl threatened to destroy th entire family. >> it was like i'm going t kill myself. i'm going to kill the kids >> you're going to be blamed for the ruining of my life >> yes >> now that he was once agai under stress, leak worried mcdowell might finally decid to bring his whole world crumbling down around him. coming up, a prosecutor gets tough. >> tell him we're not lettin him see his children until h takes us to the body >> a gamble that pays off. >> he said i'm ready to talk >> when "dateline" continues covid-19. some people get it, and some people can get it bad. and for those who do get it bad, it may be because they have a high-risk factor. such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking. even if symptoms feel mild, these factors can increase your risk of covid-19 turning severe. so, if you're at high risk and test positive, don't wait.

ask your healthcare provider right away if an authorized oral treatment is right for you. it's something about having that piece of paper. some people think that's worth more than my skills. ask your healthcare provider i've run this place for 20 years, but i still need to prove that i'm more than what you see on paper. you gotta be so good they can't ignore you. it's the way my mind works. i have a very mechanical brain. analytics and empathy. that's how i gain clients. i am more... i'm more than who i am on paper. steven mcdowell might snap and

kill his children along with himself. the distrit attorne turned to an old high school classmate for help. cindy wa good enough to stay close. >> cindy said she felt dut bound to watch over the kids just 5 and 8 at the time as th rangers closed in on steven. >> i had told my husband i was going over there. he said it's not a good idea. i said i trul feel he's going to kill th kids and himself >> what was your mission about this i've got to go to steve's idea >> protect the kids. i knew if i can stay close, talk to him, that's what hair dress so er do best. keep him calm. get hi to confess

>> is he frightening you a that point >> no, i carried a gun the whole time >> when you were at his house? >> oh, yeah, i had a gun on me all the time >> why >> because i felt he would snap. the texas rangers were getting under his skin >> even so, mcdowell returne for further questioning. >> you can see literally he' losing weight before your eyes >> the rangers laid out all th evidence against him. th polygraph, the videos, the lie they caught him in but mcdowel held tight, would not confess. and by evening time leak was getting nervous. >> i just can't get these kids off my mind something is going to happen. >> so leak decided to put th kids into protective custody with child protective services once the children were safel secure, leak sent a message to their dad. >> you tell limb that we're no letting him see his children until he take us to the body. said i'm done. he's messin with us and i'm sick of it he's not going to get away wit i'm not telling you where zest at. sorry, you're not gettin

away with that. you killed her and don't have the right to do that and you don't have th ligright to leav her somewhere and nobody knows if she'll was up somewhere and everyon wondering where is she >> that night an exhausted mcdowell asked the rangers t present a counter offer to d a. leak. >> he told holland let me go home and tomorrow morning i'll tell you everything. and i'l take you to where crystal is at >> with that verbal agreement, the district attorney an ranger jeter allowed mcdowel to walk out of the sheriff's office knowing it was a risk decision >> did you feel at all weird about letting him walk tha night? >> i did. i felt like he's fixing to break because thought he was going home fo probably to take himself out >> on the morning of saturday, september 9th, rangers jeter and holland went knocking on his door not sure what they' find. but to jeter's surprise, mcdowell answered the door

>> he said i'm ready to talk >> at 12:45 p. m., mcdowell wa back in the chair and made goo on his promise to talk mcdowell said he knew crysta had a long string of affairs >> and you've confronted her a different times about thos affairs. >> yes. i confronted her. an she told me to stay out of her business. she said i'm not dominant enough in the bedroom is what she says >> pretending to b sympathetic. ranger hollan teased out the details o crystal's death. it was slow and brutal >> were you fighting when that happened >> yeah. >> is that when she told you she didn't love you anymore. >> yeah. >> and did you snap? did you mean to suffocate her? >> no. >> did it just happen? >> i did not mean to hurt her. i love her >> and how did you suffocate

her? >> squeezed her. put my ar around her like this >> okay. like a choke hold o something? did she say anythin when that was going on or di she fight or what happened >> she said you're scaring me. >> how did you know she was no longer alive >> she stopped moving. >> mcdowell said he then wrapped her in trash bags an hid her body in the trunk of the mercedes. he said he dumpe her body the following morning but before he revealed where mcdowell said he wanted a deal >> he wents the death penalt off the table. >> what's the calculous your prosecutor has to go through >> we don't find crystal

without his help >> flat not going to happen. >> it not going to happen. thi isn't a forensic case or dna case. this is a who done it, w now know who done it now tak me to where she's at >> district attorney leak wa on the same page. and with jeter as her go between, she agreed to forgo the deat penalty. >> as long as you take us to the body we won't seek the death penalty. >> shortly thereafter he agree i'll take you to crystal's location >> they retraced mcdowell' route that led to the shor narrow strip of black to needle road. >> heavily wooded. >> ranger, would you have ever gone down a road >> no, that place was four t five foot under water two week earlier. >> at a seemingly random spot, mcdowell said stop, this is th place. jeter and holland set off on foot. >> within a short period o time we found what we believed to be the remains of crystal mcdowell. there wasn't muc left of her. she was prett much decomposed. >> steven mcdowell had not onl confessed but given up the body. case closed, right? no in texas because a murde defendant can claim sudden passion that the victim someho

played a role in their own death by provoking the killer. and mcdowell wanted to mak that argument before a jur hoping he could drasticall reduce his sentence. >> i can tell a jury look, i you find this story of sudde passion, then the only thing the maximum you can give him i 20. he can get out in as littl as two >> what worried district attorney leak was there were even some in law enforcement thought this was a sudde passion case. were you under courthouse pressure, law enforcement pressure from this take on the case this is a poo guy and he snapped and we're really in manslaughter country here and why are you guys goin for the full ride? >> because i don't care how he packed somebody might be or ho much they say they are, whic in my opinion, he was not, tha was a ploy. still no excuse to kill anybody

>> a popular prosecutor who is also a single mom. leak built reputation as a fierce advocat for women and children and o this case, she was going to be the voice of crystal mcdowell. >> she was begging him, please stop fighting with me. i'v been in an unhappy marriage fo ten years. please stop using the kids as pawns. you've used me long enough. please, please please, i'm tired. i'm exhausted. i can't fight wit you anymore. >> to leak, the killing of crystal mcdowell was a black and white case of premeditated murder and the big question, would all 12 members of a jury see it that way? coming up, two shockingly youn witnesses take the stand >> why did you bring the kid in >> they wanted to talk about it >> and the jury makes a they goin'with this? " when "dateline" continues mckenzie: being a first time parent is hard, you know? but then learning that your child has cancer is unbelievably hard. brennon: that's not something that we woke up that morning planning to hear. just hearing that she had cancer, it breaks you.

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deal to show detectives wher he hid her body. there was not much doubt he was a killer. bu could prosecutors prove th murder was premeditated? the were ready to use anything i their arsenal. here's th conclusion of before the storm >> after a year of court hearing and motions, steve mcdowell finally went on trial

for the murder of his ex-wif crystal. in june 2019, d. a. cheryl llieck made sure she wa well-armed with evidence depicting the extent to whic mcdowell tried to cover up the crime. she showed the jury mcdowell's confession, the video of him dumping crystal's mercedes, and buying tha bicycle at walmart and later checking on the car to see i had been stolen. but the video that really got the court' attention? pre-recorde testimony of crystal and steven's two children. >> why'd you bring the kids in >> well, i didn't want to. >> tender age. >> i spoke to their guardian and i said, "look, if -- if yo don't think that this is gonna be somethin'that they ca handle, i will absolutely no put them on the stand. it' just not worth it to me. " but they wanted to talk about it >> "it" being their mother's murder. the daughter, now 7, said she saw it happen. no cameras were allowed in cour so we turn to the tria transcripts on the daughter' testimony. she told the court. "they were arguing about her going with another man, and sh

said that'i'm gonna take my -- my children with me, ' and the he pushed her on the bed and said,'no, you're not. ' an then he started putting hi hands like that. " and the daughter demonstrated for th jury by putting her own hand over her nose and mouth. the daughter continued >> "and she -- she tried to pu her -- her hands up and he feet up and -- so dad wouldn't have -- 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 -- he was done. he told me to go i my room, don't tell anyone. damning testimony from a child the defense tried to undercu it, contending the daughter ha 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 wa on the stand, did he do himsel any good >> mm-mm. no >> who'd the jury meet >> they met a conniving, manipulative crybaby >> through his tears, mcdowell told an entirely new, an strange story about how he

killed crystal, that it wa nothing more than a frea accident. in the midst of thei argument, he said, crystal got hysterical so he put her in bear hug to calm her down. " just wanted to hug her. " he told the court. "i just wanted to stop fighting. i wanted t quit going back and fort because it was going nowhere and i was frustrated and i was upset and i was mad. " his lawyer asked, "what happened next? " mcdowell reponded, "sh became limp and she fell. " d. a. lieck couldn't believe what she was hearing. >> he hugged her to death. yeah, that's a new one on me >> that had not been tol before >> no, and there's no way. and then we were actually lookin'i 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 outrigh 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 the on believes his story, you know we're cooked >> and sure enough, during deliberations, one of th jurors asked to see mcdowell's

confession tape again. doe that make you nervous? >> it always makes me nervou because i'm, like, "oh god where are they goin'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 i this was a pre-meditated killing or one of "sudde passion. " how stressful was this case for you? >> oh, it was real stressful. mean, when you get a case like this where you have th 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 jury gonna think, you know? >> how do you straddle this -- this thing? and i -- you know, i -- forgive the -- the thought, but it's, like, how do you not get seen as a -- woman? do you -- assess i don't know >> -- know what i mean >> and i think that -- >>'cause it --'cause somebod -- you could be judged and - >> right, absolutely. and i -- i think i am seen like that by a lotta jurors, and there' nothin'i can do about it.

mean, if i tried to be anythin different than i am, it woul come across as -- as -- as insincere. >> that authenticity apparentl resonated with the jury in crystal's case. they rejecte the "sudden passion" argumen and found that crystal's murde was pre-meditated. the sentenced steven mcdowell to 5 years in prison. he's appealin his condition. aunt cind wasn't in court that day instead she distracted the kid with a trip to the multi-plex. >> and we went to the movie an just had a really good day >> so the kids are at the movi and dad's going away virtually forever? >> exactly. and they never asked a question, you know, he got 50 years and it was almost a relief. i mean, i'm actually for the death penalty for this kind of stuff, but i mean, it' better than 20 >> crystal's children are no being raised by an old frien whose own parents had once given crystal a home >> she makes him stay focuse in school. they have regimens. they have routines. she love '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 that family that she never had. she wante children. she wanted to love something unconditionally an have some -- somebody love her unconditionally. >> i love you. >> and she was still looking for that love right until th hours before the winds began howling and the waters rose. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline. welcome to the show, i