Mother murdered by ex-husband as Hurricane Harvey hits Houston

In this episode of Crime Watch Daily Updates: Hurricane Harvey barreled down on Houston and the surrounding areas in August 2017, and that disastrous storm would coincide with one family’s tragedy.

Thirty-seven-year-old Crystal McDowell was a beloved mom of two and a real estate agent. Though her marriage to husband Stephen McDowell ended quickly, she found new love with a local jeweler named Paul Hargrave.

On the morning of August 25, 2017, Crystal left her boyfriend’s home and drove to ex-husband Stephen’s house to pick up her kids. That was the last time anyone saw her alive.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall around the same time, wreaking havoc on the infrastructure, and flooding the city. Then, on August 29th, officials found Crystal’s Mercedes submerged in hurricane water in a motel parking lot. The keys were still in the car and the doors had been left unlocked.

Detectives spoke with both Stephen and Paul and hooked them each up to a polygraph machine. Stephen failed the polygraph test and later confessed to killing his wife by strangling her while their children were in the next room.

Investigators eventually discovered Crystal’s decomposing body in a wooded area September 9, 2017, and Stephen was subsequently charged.

He pleaded not guilty, but was convicted of murder in June 2019, and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Let’s look back at the case of a missing mother and the murder that coincided with the deadly Hurricane Harvey.