Dateline NBC: Who was Crystal McDowell and what happened to her?

The 2017 disappearance of the 37-year-old Texas realtor, Crystal McDowell, put the authorities in a fix as the event took place on the eve of Hurricane Harvey. As the storm wreaked havoc on the area, Crystal's sister Jade received information about Crystal's missing black Mercedes - crucial evidence.

The investigations led to surveillance footage incriminating Crystal's ex-husband, Steven McDowell, and his subsequent confession of strangling his ex-wife to death, which led the detectives to find her body in the woods two weeks later.

The upcoming episode of Dateline NBC, titled Before the Storm, chronicles the murder of Crystal McDowell. It airs on May 5, 2024, at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.

"A Texas mother of two vanishes as Hurricane Harvey barrels down on the Houston area. As Dennis Murphy reports, Crystal McDowell was not a victim of the storm, but something far more sinister."

---

Who was Crystal McDowell?

Crystal McDowell was born on October 26, 1979, to Pamela Sue Seratte and Anthony Paul Walters in Baytown. She had grown up with a difficult childhood, as both her parents were drug abusers. Crystal's parents passed away 11 months apart from one another when she was just 11 years old.

At the age of 13, Crystal was abducted by a man who would s*xually assault her by locking her in a chicken coop, per Chambers County District Attorney Cheryl Lieck. McDowell escaped the situation and began living with her uncle and aunt, Jeff Walters and Cindy Seratte.

McDowell had previously worked as a flight attendant and training instructor with ExpressJet Airlines for 15 years. She subsequently established herself as a successful realtor, working with the family business of Virginia Malone and Associates.

Crystal married Steven McDowell, with whom she had two children, Madden Alexander McDowell and Maui Lorelei McDowell. However, after 10 years of marriage, she filed for divorce from Steven in February 2017 and eventually finalized it in June of the same year. Despite their separation, Steven and Crystal shared custody of their children, while she began dating the local jeweler Paul Hargrave, per CBS News.

---

What happened to Crystal McDowell?

Crystal McDowell went missing on August 25, 2017, a day before Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the coast of Texas and Louisiana. Last seen around 7:30 a.m. local time, she was supposed to host an open house for a new property in Crosby, Texas.

While the appointment was canceled due to the incoming storm, Crystal stepped out of Hargrave's house to pick up her children from Steven's house before he left for work. Crystal's uncle, Jeff Walters, spoke to Dateline to share:

"He said she had sent him a message saying she was coming to pick up the kids to go to Dallas, but she didn’t show. We aren’t sure she sent those messages to him, though. She never told me of plans to go to Dallas for the storm."

While both Paul Hargrave and Steven McDowell were under suspicion, the investigation was hindered by the storm, as the Chambers County Sheriff's Office had to divert their resources to the rescue operations.

Meanwhile, Crystal's cousin Jade received information online about Crystal's black Mercedes found in the parking lot of the local Motel 6. The car was left with its keys inside but was not stolen due to the rain. However, detectives pieced together surveillance footage to find Steven McDowell at the bottom of Crystal's disappearance.

Steven McDowell confessed to choking Crystal McDowell to death in the middle of a heated argument. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison in June 2019, per ABC13 Houston.

---

The dateline episode titled Before the Storm is scheduled to air on May 5, 2024, at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.