Killing Dad: The Crystal Howell Story - 1: Family Betrayal

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Crystal recounts her childhood of what was once a loving family of four, but an unexpected and hidden secret is revealed, resulting in a divorce sending dad Michael into a downward spiral. 

Verano, verano, reciclar es tan tu mano Es la lata de aceitunas que te tomas a la una, la crema que se termina cuando estás en la piscina El en base de ese polo que no se recicla solo y una lata de caballa que te coves en la playa A usar el aspatatací del refresco la lata un en base de paya y del agua The rain is falling and the water is flowing. The water is flowing. How can you be very simple? The most important thing is the summer. The yellow one always goes to the yellow one. Let's go! February of 2014 There's a bunch of teenagers living in the house, but you kind of how it's made to even party out.

There was one party. Crystal's best friends, Taylor and Summer, say it turned into an unwanted house. They were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, a lot of people were like, you know, already out, there is one party. Crystal's best friends, Taylor and Summer, say it turned into an unwanted out of control, Rachel. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Less than 15 people was who she invited. And another bad thing about small towns is when you tell one person one thing, everyone finds out.

So that one party ended up being like 50 or 60 people. Maybe even 100 people at this at her house like. And there was some really messed up stuff that happened that night. I don't really remember much the party because immediately he had seen his people starting

coming over. I was right. A lot. And I was like, out. She had brought home what we thought was cocaine and it turned out to be a mess. And then like, that's when things got like really weird. I guess it stopped being like any kind of fun. It just started being weird. I wasn't really able to stay there.

I was really going crazy. I felt like I'm from R able to stay there. I was really going crazy. I felt like I was putting my reality into hell. Maybe it's the house. Maybe I need to go. I was there when she left and packed up the U-Haul and left in Georgia. Just usually, like I love y'all, y'all keep y'all updated. She had a made it a point to say hey don't go in that shed don't do this don't do that. I was like okay I won't while you're here. I am a nosy as fuck person. I want to know everything so there there was no key. Plopped it off, broke the lock. I smell something that is...

I don't know, there's nothing. There's nothing that can describe it. It wasn't as strong. I don't know why, but maybe it was just because of how cold it was. I go over, I touch what I think is a mannequin, I'm like what the hell is this? And then I looked down and realized he was wearing the same jacket that her crystal's father was wearing in the picture that's literally sitting above the mantle in the house. And it clicked for me. So I started screaming and crying immediately whenever I saw him, I knew. I'm Melissa McCarty, and I'm Kelly McLear.

We are Emmy nominated investigative journalists and we've been talking to Crystal Howell since her dad's murder in 2014. Eight years after Michael Howell's murder at 25 years old, Crystal is telling her story. I wanted to believe the words I wanted to believe is for money or someone to go out and hang out with my bloody. It's like they wanted to believe the words they wanted to believe. It's for money or someone to go out and hang out with a buddy. It's like they wanted to believe that because it makes it easier to put a child in prison for their life if it's for something like that. They don't want to believe that I tried to reach out

for help unless he was listening. Over the next 10 episodes, you'll go inside the mind of a team killer. In the next ten episodes, you'll go inside the mind of a teen killer. I didn't have any sort of plan or I didn't. I've never sat there and thought about killing anyone or hurting anyone. It happened so fast that there was no thinking, there was no... It was basically like an impulse. Here, her growing pains that led to the murder of her father. I looked out of his bedroom door and I saw him and I heard like his last breath. The elaborate cover up in the aftermath and will reveal for the first time her secret accomplice. I'm a little bit nervous and scared because a party does think like what kind of retaliation

could there be because whenever I was in county jail I didn't receive a fever I mean that's just from him. An evidence never seen or heard before. Quote, some people just made killing. Quote, I have felt that intensely underlying. I have worked to suppress it, but that hate, that feeling of having a mortal enemy can come out. Yes, I have plenty of deficiencies as a person,

and parent, but have done not best with Crystal. Crystal Howell endured a childhood riddled with pain and parent, but have done not best with Crystal. Crystal Howell endured a childhood riddled with pain and lived a life of fear and instability. Her cries for help when I noticed and ignored. I felt like he was in a abusive situation. I know the police came out and spoke with them. I want help, and tell my dad to get in the Like, I don't want to see him back in jail.

It's a car. He drove down the driveway, and when he sees our house, I hear him laugh. Like, kind of under his foot. Like, I just don't like, kind of, it's not like, is this girl more real? So when the unimaginable happens, does culpability fall solely on the team?? Like, if nobody cares what's going on, nobody is willing to listen, so what's the point

they didn't see enough? When it comes to the sentencing of teens who commit murder, there is no nationwide standard. Some receive life sentences while others walk away with only probation. So when it comes to Crystal Howell in the case of Kins turn, does she deserve the life sentence or a second chance? and feel like that my kids, my daughter, I've already turned like a moment where I can make them proud and now I feel like where's the moment I'm living in the right small life and where is it?

And I don't just don't know where the moment is going to be. at the end of the series you decide. We bring you the exclusive series killing dad a first degree mistake. What was found in the shed inside a storage bin that cold winter day would cause a ripple effect through the small mountain town of Maggi Valley, North Carolina, one that even the mountain winds can't seem to shake loops. The headlines were plastered across the world. Teen kills father, hides body, host parties, installs a stripper pole in the kitchen. A mountain teenager is charged with first-degree murder.

Deputies say 17-year-old Crystal Howe shot her father, then hit his body in Maggie Valley. Crystal was 17 at the time when she shot her dad while he was sleeping. Friends found his body hidden in their family shed and culture. She would count 18 confess to killing her father with a shot to done. A 17 year old crystal how remains in jail tonight in Augusta, Georgia. She's charged with first degree. Deputies say she also tried to cover up his death by hiding his body in a shed behind his home in Maggi Valley. There's more to this story, though,

what seems like an open and shut case is anything but. And for the first time, Crystal Howell is telling her story from behind prison walls. To understand how a father ended up murdered, stuffed in a storage bin, and left to rot inside of a shed on the side of a mountain, we have to start at the beginning with just who was the Howell family. Michael Howell stood at 5'9", with a youthful face, blue eyes that were shielded by large, framed glasses and an awkward smile.

But behind his unique look was a matured and soft-spoken man with an intellect that commanded attention. Brenda NS was Michael Zant. Michael was very eccentric. And, you know, I was okay with him, but he was, you might say a little odd. His grandpa racing him. He seemed like an old man in a lot of ways.

He smoked a pie. You know, he just wore those glasses and smoked his pie. Michael was a sports writer in the southeast and his love of writing matched his love of golf. Michael's friends, James and Mike were longtime golfing buddies. I've never knew him really to be a jovial guy, but he never lacked for anything. Michael didn't have a traditional family upbringing. Brenda says his family was torn apart at a young age. His dad was my brother and he committed suicide

when he was about 23. He had lost his job and had a very tragic, bad divorce. So this is sort of karma and passed down. Michael would fill that void with a family of his own. He met a woman named Christina and the couple quickly started growing their family. First, it was Doe-I daughter Sierra, and three years later, Crystal, a name fitting for her dazzling blue eyes. I kind of was more like my dad's in my mom, and my sister kind of walked to my mom's side. He loved Crystal to death, you know. They were like two peas and a pod together. Michael would start a long-standing trend of pulling pranks on his youngest. One time, I watched the TV TV movie and he'd know it's about to crown and all that. And we're all sitting around my dad and I'm already in dear five at the dark least. I can't even, why don't you go out and start to get some firewood?

I'm like, all right, okay, I'm trying to get it all tough. I'm like, it's not that big of a deal. I'm like, keeping myself up. I'm like, all right, just go out and get the firewood. And now the bush comes to the ground. And I'm like, you know, I'm running, and I'm running, and it's up to me, my dad, except when my mom church out,

it was like, it was like a crown out because she had worn her church of it. He was super proud of both of his daughters and happy. Mildred Hans, Michael's grandmother, operated a franchise of the mega-popular Merrill Norman Cosmetic Company. Shortly after, it was passed down to the couple, Michael decides to step away and pursue his dream of being a sports writer full-time. Running a franchise of this magnitude on her own proved to be difficult for Christina.

She just probably did not have business aunts. I would say because it had been here forever. And then she branched out one thing I think she built too many stores, jumping up three and they sort of closed. And I believe she loves the house, that she, they lived in. So, you know, it's been a downhill spiral. The family of four that lived the literal white-pickett fence stream, a start cry from Michael's own upbringing,

started to weaken with the burden of financial stress, culminating in a decision that would divide the family. Crystal and her sister, Sierra's lives, were about to take a dramatic turn. We came home and they were like, we're shooting a divorce. It just kind of rocked my world, I guess. Like, I'm just sitting there like, what's going on? Like, just confused and unable to grasp it, I guess, because as an 11-year-old, you don't understand love and you don't understand the way that it falls apart. So in your mind, you're just like kind of self centered like why is it happening to me?

Where are my parents gonna go? I was just kind of standing there and staring at them like in shock and just reading to the ground. I know my sister, she had a random physical health, 60 seconds remaining. She just, I'm sure she's called back. Crystal is housed at a prison facility in North Carolina. She's only allowed phone calls in 15-minute increments. Difficult at times, when Crystal's in the middle of a traumatic story. We'd pause and wait for her to call back.

I think I was talking about my sister. She ran up to stairs and she was crying. She was very loud. And I remember her screaming that she hated them. And I'm so sitting there just confused. Like, what am I supposed to do? Like, my dad's crying. I don't think I'm seriously going to cry.

I'm just confused. And I'm just looking to my mom and she just kind of sitting there, like, telling face. She's sitting in her decision, I guess. My mom had told my dad and she said that she just wasn't happy anymore. And that's really the only explanation that we've received. James and Mike have known Michael since they were teenagers. Michael met the two on the golf course as guys do. They stayed golfing buddies for decades, even through Michael's divorce.

It was like a whirlwind, really. Yeah. It was just all of a sudden. Just, they went from, hey, this guy's got a great life, great family to, bam, it was just done. Yeah, yep. The trio would gather for standing rounds of golf on the sacred fairways in greens where bonds last a lifetime.

It was there they'd witnessed the shattering of a family of their friend and where family secrets would see maybe we should work things out. But at the time, I've been coming home. I don't think he knew about this. He just thought, okay, my wife wants me to come back home. I'm gonna do what I need to, because he probably did love us as a family and his intentions were pure. Yeah, but he just came home and I'm happy because I'm like, okay, great.

Like, everything's putting itself back in place. Christina's infidelity and real reason for wanting a divorce from Michael was still hiding in the shadows. And Michael's second chance at reconciliation in salvaging the family he'd always dreamed of wouldn't last long. Like many young teens,

Crystal also began taking an interest in boys, but a chance encounter with a schoolmate would unravel the 18-year marriage of her parents. Well, it was all fine until I began talking to this boy from school, his name is Mack. And I would have been sleepover party, these girls were just talking to this guy on the phone and I never really talked to guys. I just kind of was off on my own like, you know, I'm in sixth grade at this point.

And they're talking to him and they're kind of throwing each other away and I like him. And I'm like, what are y'all doing? Like, I don't even know this guy. But even I'm already talking online and then that turned into the house on call and with that comes call ready. So it's clearly not in that thing because he didn't pay the phone bill. It was in his mom's name. So it had her name in the last name, Rector on it. And my mom, she's pretty diligent about kind of keeping track of who our program was

and who I hung out with. So she's checking the calloff and she's like, who's this person with the last name right there? I was like, oh, that's just my friend, you know, like, cut it down. I'm like, and she's like, what's the dad name? I was like, uh, I don't know. What is that name is back then? So I asked about a dad and he told me, he told her, he made peace.

And she was like, oh, well maybe even back should go to the movie here something. I'm like, okay, cool. Like my mom was in the paper, and she got in the shade, whatever. So she takes this to the movies, and it was like some action movie. I was like, so all of a sudden I'm just like, God, why? And we're beating back up in his house, taking him home and dead in the front yard. And my mom's talking to him and I'm like, oh, parents stuff, you know, I'm just sitting in the front and see

playing with the radio. My mom's been in the car and is like, this is her ex-Christopher beyond Sam like, what? You know, it's just weird to think about your mom ever being with anybody but your dad I guess. And so we get home and we're just laughing about it over and around. I'm like, man, I'm not a shmere. You can just get lying like he's bad. And Bob will be like, and I'm just like, I believe he is. I'm just kind of talking trash, like whatever.

Because I'm not like, you know, my mom might start something else with this guy. And a few weeks later, probably, it was back to, I wanted to bore, this is a decision I want to make after all. And then that time, what's really What we would final is she didn't go back. Christina immediately started dating her old high school sweetheart. Michael tried to release the grasp of a love he so desperately wanted. His heartache was about to reach its tipping point when yet another deeply rooted secret is unearthed. deeply rooted secret is unearthed. She was pissed off to say the least, but I knew at first, she didn't realize about the affair at first.

She's giving my mom half of everything, and she's coming, coming off pretty good and I'm starting to divorce, you know? I mean, coming off pretty good, she's been to house, ask the cars, stuff like that. And amid this happening, somebody on my mom's side of family told him, you know, here is not your kid, right? When the divorce came up, I think the aunt felt sorry for Mike because he was giving everything

he had pretty much to sign it over to Christy and she told him that Sierra is not your child, so that's how that came out. And you know, that was devastating to him. And so he ended up having a DNA test done. So apparently, everybody is known on her side of the family except for me, my sister and my dad were the only ones in the dark still. I personally, I didn't want to hurt any children. Like that's not the stir.

Like blood doesn't matter. You're even finding my whole life like that's my sister. But I think she showed the life out what she felt. I think maybe she internalized it because I mean, it's got her like not telling this person on top of that, and not wanting to be around. And then it's far down that we've done our whole life kind of disappearing.

And then you've got a man in the picture like, so you have three different options like who you choose. Christy started it. You know, she won the divorce. And I'm sure it's because she had somebody on the back burner. It was a betrayal that would rewire Michael's brain into everything he thought to be real. He just kind of wished he got a program crazy, I guess. Like, angry because not only is his child that he's been written for 14 years and that's when

he's not his biological child, but another man's coming into our home and kind of stepping in to his old position. When Mike was married, he loved his wife deeply. I think he was very hurt by the loss of that love and that relationship. of that love and that relationship. We've reached out to Crystal's mom, Christina and Sister Sierra, but they never responded to our request for an interview. Michael did his best to hold his role as dad to both of his girls, even after the bombshell news that another man was now

raising his daughters. I don't think that there was anything you went above and beyond crystal after everything happened, you know, after the divorce. We went above and beyond her, but I don't think he ever lacked for compassion or appreciation or pride for his other dog. He never expressed an animosity, not at all. Jaily animosity expressed was towards his ex-wife. Unsurve where to go, Michael moved in with his aunt Brenda for a few months. It was depressed during all that time.

You know, when he did go on about that divorce, and you know, so when you hear somebody after so long, you're like, okay, let it go, let it go. So you know, it was brutal. He didn't hold back on what he thought. And he definitely hated Christy. You know, there was no doubt that you knew he hated. And for just throwing his whole world, you know,

now he's a odd pig. Where is it gonna fit? No longer able to endure the constant reminders of his old life, he moved from Augusta, Georgia to the family's vacation home in Maggi Valley, North Carolina. He and Crystal still talked to daily. Her dad would frequently ask for information on what's happening in the house. No, no secrets. I was telling them everything. Anytime you ask me a question, you know, specifically, I'd be like, oh, if I didn't know, I'd be like, well, I'll find out.

Although I'll go figure it out for you. It's kind of like a spy. Because that was the one thing I could do. Like, I couldn't put back our family. I couldn't figure out why it had happened, but I could do this one thing. And maybe he'll have a perfect target. When they came, my dad were talking on the phone. And my sister was talking about, she adopted my keys, this probably a month or so after my dad's gone, maybe a month and a half. And so he could talk about becoming my dad's gone maybe, maybe he's month and a half. And so he just talked about becoming my sister's

like legal dad like about being her. And I sold my dad because I was telling my dad everything. I heard him scream and he dropped his phone. And what I heard I believed was him hitting something possibly like a wall. And I was just like, oh, what have I done? Like I didn't fix that reaction, because she held on my dad's stuff.

And he would make comments or stuff like that, but I never see him react like that. And I guess it hurt him to know, like, he's kind of losing not only his yachts' lives, but now he's losing other parts of his family as well. Michael was left a pit of emotions. Fueled by a broken heart, Michael decides to drive in the middle of the night for nearly four hours

to the home of his ex-wife Christina, her new husband, and his daughters. The betrayals went really, the fire, but then my, you know, he wouldn't leave well enough alone. He wouldn't, I think he rests, Christie, you know, it was like that's all he thought about period. The police were called. Michael Howell was arrested and charged with stalking and disorderly conduct.

Also on his record from the year before, was a battery charge, where he allegedly grabbed and strong armed his ex. But this time, Michael would do jail time. She outcharges against him for stalking, and that's how he ended up in jail in Columbia County. When he was convicted, Michael relied on his lifelong friends for help. He went to jail and I kept his dog for several months and I would go visit him and take notes

and do things for him and pay his bill. This was the start of emotional warfare that plays out in millions of divorced homes. Crystal was being recruited and needed to choose an allegiance. At the time, I was only listening to what my dad told me because my dad told me it basically choose an allegiance. to like things that are going on. And I'm like feeling small things like trying to stand out. I'm like, hey, I'm still here. Crystal wanted attention from her mom, whether good or bad. At school one day, she decides she wants to change.

It was an act of rebellion that backfired. I got drunk like a little like, there was a thing that everybody was drunk on. They were just vinders and notebook for the time it was called Ziggy's Obama's, what everybody was calling it. So like there's a thing that everybody is drawing on those binders and notebooks that the driver's call the city's bomb is what everybody is calling it. And it was just a little bomb and it had access for eyes and like a little tongue that was sticking out.

So I put that out fast and wall and I signed my name to it and I put the day and I get a couple years before, like a year before me. I think you got a full pervomter. So we putting this on the lot and like maybe just so haven't taken me somewhere else. Maybe this will give me out. I'm not really sure. I didn't feel like getting in my life was changing and I just wanted to be in control of one thing that I can make different. But at the time I'm not really thinking, really I'm just thinking I want something new, I want something different.

She got something different. Crystal was arrested and sent to juvenile hall for her doodle on the bathroom wall. She was held for over a week, suspended from school and placed in an alternative school. Dad and daughter cuffed and arrested weeks apart. Their cries for help cemented their solidarity. Coming up on the next episode of Killing Dad,

in the midst of the Howell Family War, Crystal finds love. I looked back at it now and I thought I was in love with her. But an unforeseen enemy would tear the family apart even further. He had touched me like under my sword and he had touched under my top as well. Yeah, I'll be coming home And I'll be on my knees And I just wanna know I'm where I gotta be

Up in the middle of the chair, sir I don't even care now Run as I go west and get my peace Look me so lonely Like the only one in the world Which I was like me So how you going home? Which are those like me, so I can go home And I'll be on my knees

Where you hold, hold, shut, turn to round Behind my sea on this endless road. Thank you.