Found Deceased TX - Crystal Seratte McDowell, 38, Baytown, 25 Aug 2017 #1 *Arrest*

[lonetraveler]

I personally believe they have some major leads in this case and can't afford to be loose lipped about it. I would imagine anyone who is a potential suspect is being watched closely in case they decide to flee. I do have a question though? Is it unusual not to have had a press conference at this point? What could be the reason? Not enough evidence to bother or overwhelming amounts of evidence (even circumstantial) that doesn't need to leak??

Exactly! I'm also interested in why the search was terminated so soon.

 

[SuperTmo]

Here's a link to the transcripts from the show. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1708/31/ptab.01.html
Ooops...I fail at quoting...



The sheriff states in this interview that he did not have the full video only the stills. He says he will go get the video the following day, which would have been 9/1.

MOO but I think the boyfriend met with the detectives, not the sheriff. I think he gave the videos. He said he gave all his footage, and Banfield asked the sheriff if there were any discrepancies in his interview and the sheriff said no. The sheriff may not have realized that the video was turned over.

 

[cluciano63]

I hope LE is working behind the scenes. They may think people just don't have the time or energy to focus on one specific missing person in the midst of a natural disaster. Which may be true.

 

[SuperTmo]

So when did the boyfriend actually give LE everything they needed?

The day he was interviewed. He took the initiative of going to the detectives before they asked him to come in. At that time he gave them everything. If you read the transcript carefully you'll see it all.

 

[totesmagoat]

They are absolutely different dresses and I hope LE got the video footage because that is shady as heck. I also think the bags she is carrying are different.

Could the black dress actually be a robe?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SuperTmo]

We can not comment. Once someone becomes a suspect or POI then we can start discussing.

I could have sworn the sheriff said in some interview or another that they have "no suspects, just people of interest." Would that count? I desperately wish we could sleuth these guys!

 

[lonetraveler]

Personally, if I was seeing a BF and I was currently living with my EX, who did not know about BF and this BF had security video inside his home recording whatever was going on in the home, maybe even the bedroom, and BF was deeply in love with me, I would be really concerned about possible extortion opportunities if things went south. JMO

 

[SuperTmo]

Could the black dress actually be a robe?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe! It seems like a coat wouldn't be appropriate given the warm temps. Maybe a robe.

Could the pink dress actually be a slip or body slimmer sort of thing?? It seemed awfully snug, if I remember right.

Eta- I remembered wrong. Not snug most likely not a slip.

 

[DatelineFan]

Why is LE being so tight lipped about all of this? I get that it still being investigated, but a lot of the time LE will at least have a presser to say what's going on. At the very least, say they are working hard on it. Especially with a case that has become this high profile. Is it odd that there are not more organized searches? That they have not told us about getting camera footage from places between the BFs house and the EXs house? BF has cameras at the jewelry store - they would be able to see if she drove by and took a photo of the sign, and if so - what time.

It's all very strange.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think they are being tight-lipped because they have a good idea of who did this, and they are busy trying to put the pieces together, and find her.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[gregjrichards]

Hargrave, who is offering a $5,000 reward for information on McDowell himself, said she had no reason to go to the Motel 6 and has no ties to the park service area.

“She was excited to see her kids,” he said. “That is where she told me was going. I don’t think she made it there. It is not like her to do this, and we think foul play was involved at this point in time. There is no question.”

Hargrave said he was somewhat frustrated with police, saying they were treating the case “very nonchalantly” at first.

“We tried to plead with them, and they just wanted to wait and see,” he said. “ I know a lot of officers had water in their own homes. This was a bad time, not that there ever is a good time. The storm has definitely complicated things.”

However, Hawthorne said he has been using every resource possible to solve the case despite difficulties associated with Harvey and its aftermath.

“We have been actively working on this case since it came to our attention just before the storm hit,” Hawthorne said. “All the way through the storm, I had an investigator doing nothing but working on this case. I have expanded the resources and now have a team of about four investigators on it. The flood duties and responsibilities of high water rescue and securing people is slowing down. As the need is reducing, I am adding resources to the investigation. We’ve always been on this.”

Hawthorne said he welcomes any professional resource to come in and help, but was frustrated himself with the makeshift search at the parks service area Friday night.

“The private investigating help, whoever they hired, was not professional by putting that on Facebook,” Hawthorne said.

The sheriff cited potential evidence being inadvertently destroyed as a main reason he wanted professionals to handle the search.

“We are bringing in the Texas Rangers,” Hawthorne said. “And we are asking for assistance from the FBI. We are in tune. Once things calm down, I plan on asking for an investigator from Baytown police, but I know they are as hamstrung as we are.”

http://baytownsun.com/news/article_25c21cdc-9078-11e7-b28a-af9d402fb63b.html?mode=jqm

 

[tara83]

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but does the uncle have an alibi?Nothing surprises me anymore about family members killing each other.You never know.

 

[SuperTmo]

Now that I tracked down and saw the actual video of her walking around the boyfriend's house, I'm more inclined to think it's the same dress just bad lighting. She had the same thing in the same hand in both shots, like she walked in to a room (maybe looking for something?) and then walked back out.

Boyfriend needs to get some higher quality cameras if he expects them to be beneficial in the event he is robbed.

 

[SuperTmo]

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but does the uncle have an alibi?Nothing surprises me anymore about family members killing each other.You never know.

Not that I know of, except maybe he was at work? None of them have an alibi. I'm wondering about the ex. He SHOULD have an alibi if he showed up to his work and waited for her, since he told her to go there. He told her to go there while she was en route, right? So presumably he should have went there before realizing she was a no-show. But as far as I am aware, nobody has mentioned if he actually went there. Did anyone see him? Is his car on any security footage of the parking lot or the building?

When she didn't show up, what happened? Did he bring his kids into the office and tell his boss he has them? Did they stay? Did they go home with another person so he could work. We REALLY need to hear the ex's first person account of what happened.

 

[FlossyMay]

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but does the uncle have an alibi?Nothing surprises me anymore about family members killing each other.You never know.

The sheriff said he would be investigating everyone close to her. So that is comforting.

 

[FlossyMay]

I wonder what time the dishwasher was delivered. Was this a face to face thing? That could be part of an alibi depending on how it fits into the timeline.

 

[luckystar01]

I'm wondering about the ex. He SHOULD have an alibi if he showed up to his work and waited for her, since he told her to go there. He told her to go there while she was en route, right? So presumably he should have went there before realizing she was a no-show. But as far as I am aware, nobody has mentioned if he actually went there. Did anyone see him? Is his car on any security footage of the parking lot or the building?

I can't remember if I read this here or somewhere else, but someone who seemed to know him said that he ended up calling his boss to say he was going to be late. Then the boss told him to just stay home because lots of people weren't going in because of the hurricane.

So, that could be true or untrue, who knows. If it's true it could just be that he knew he'd be late because he was still waiting for Crystal, though that doesn't explain why there is no follow-up text to her saying "nevermind, I'm not going in." There is obviously a lot of hearsay going around. I'd love to know if they had an actual phone conversation other than texts.

 

[BethAnn777]

Hate to ask, but can someone link the video in question where she may or may not be wearing two different dresses? I have scrolled through several pages and can't find it myself. Thanks in advance.

 

[robertjacksonjr]

Is it weird to anyone else that the BF has cameras inside his house? And then he's like "oh. I have video of her from the day she went missing but I'm only going to give you stills because it's not important and they don't show anything." Isn't that odd? Is it just me?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone mentioned in another post that because of his job "jeweler", he had a pretty significant security system in place.

 

[SuperTmo]

The video footage is on this link.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/search-for-houston-area-realtor-who-vanished-before-hurricane-harvey/

 

[Betty P]

Hate to ask, but can someone link the video in question where she may or may not be wearing two different dresses? I have scrolled through several pages and can't find it myself. Thanks in advance.

If you go back to the first several pages of this thread, you'll find 2 photos taken from the security video by the owner. Actual video is not yet available to the public.