Killing Dad: The Crystal Howell Story - 2: The Hidden Foe

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Crystal meets her first love while confronting an alleged predator and starts fresh in the mountain community of Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

The following episode contains graphic material and distressing themes that may be triggering to some audiences. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 to be connected with someone in your area. Augusta, Georgia, known around the world as the home of the master's golf tournament. It's also where the Howell family raised their daughter, Sierra and Crystal, until secrets carefully buried in the southern soil reached the light. And there was nothing good left in Augusta from Michael Howell. After a highly contentious divorce from his wife Christina,

the revelation that his oldest daughter Sierra was not his biological daughter, and being arrested and charged with stalking, it was time for Michael to pack up and go. He moved to his vacation home in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. The routine of talking to dad each day started to exhaust crystal and their conversations turned too dark for the team. He's been being more obsessive than the concern I guess is on a voice kind of switch. And one after he asked me, he was like, do you know what a vigilante is? And I was like, what?

And he's finding me like sometimes bad people deserve to die. And he told me like what my mom had done was bad. Like she had betrayed her family. She didn't love me. She didn't care about me. And he had said to me that sometimes they need to be taken care of. And I'm just like where is it going? And I'm like, so on the phone. Cause sometimes I can tell the things out of my day. I feel like where you going with this?

Like, because you just go on and on. And I'm like, OK, what's the point here? And he asked me, he was like, we've got your mom, and they could look like an accident. And I'm like, no, it's straight up. Like, no, I'm not doing that. But it's not me. To explain to me, like, you're a kid.

I'm an adult. If I do something, I'm going to go to the jail. And is that where you want to see me? We ever scared at what he was saying? Or did you just pass it off? For a long time, I kind of disbursed it off because I assumed he was angry and there for the divorce. But I just figured he was all talk.

Did you tell your mother about the things he was saying? No, because my dad told me that it was basically us versus him like, if I told her anything, then she's going to put him back in jail. And as soon as it will happen, you know, because he's making me seem like she's gonna put him back in jail. And as soon as it'll happen, she'll, you know, they make an insane life. She's not going to die basically. Crystal was still torn over living with her mom and felt unsettled with her new blended family. She was looking for comfort and a needed distraction.

That is until she met her first love. Then everything changed. 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,

Prestel is telling her story. We bring you the exclusive series, Killing Dad, that was no different. Hers was Tyler Lee. He was four years older than me at the time, so I'm 12, he's 16 whenever I meet him, and I met him on my space. You know, I was kind of socially awkward. So it's a lot easier to interact with people online at first.

He lied to me about her age in hard times. We, we sneak off and smoke, you know, physical, teenager stuff. We used to go to the mall. We used to go just kind of wherever we could go because of the bomb. You know, I met her wife before I turned six and got my wife. So once I got a car, you know, we just kind of went wherever we could. It's just like, I can't simply like, I just knew there was something about him.

Like he would just have this spark and I saw him and he's still like, I know him forever. Like, this sounds like Courtney, like, oh, okay, whatever. But there was something about him that was so familiar. She was giddy over her love interest and was feeling free to be herself. At home, Crystal was trying to click with her new stepdad Keith, who came with his own children.

It was a full house. Crystal would take moments to herself when she could, but her typical teenage mind was always swirling with insecurities and doubt. And soon, her life direction was about to go into another tailspin. I'd fallen asleep on the couch and I'd come and touch you, man. I wake up and I instantly breathe because I'm like, dude, who's touching me? Like what's going on?

And I'm just kind of laying there like in shock. And my first thought is, it's probably this new guy, like, you know clearly, I don't know Keith that well. So I'm like, is he some kind of weirdo? Like my eyes are so close, I don't know who it is. So I was then I opened my eyes and whoever it is, jumped down behind the couch. I was like, chasing after whoever it is. I'm just like, that was weird.

What's going on. So a few weeks later, I followed back and sleep on the couch and that's when I opened my eyes after it and I thought it was my uncle. I don't think he it and I saw it. It was my uncle. I don't think he realized that I saw him, but I realized that in that too it was. My sister still lived there and my mom of course. My uncle was with us.

He was going through a divorce. I believe that the Oronal troubles of some sort, because he hadn't lived in Pennsylvania. He had lived in this place before my dad had left, sleeping there a while. But it kind of came out of nowhere because we, my uncle, were pretty close. Like, we were always cool, so I'm like,

not really understanding what's going on. Crystal says the incidents with her uncle were sporadic, but his behaviors escalated each time. There was an incident where he had touched me like under my short and he had touched under my top as well. On another incident he had put his penis on my mouth. Um, and one of the incidents where he has been touching me under my short, it has, it's fingers, you know, I've penetrated me and that has taken my virginity here.

So did you, at the first or second time around, pretend like you were sleeping because you were afraid and then at one point you woke up to try to catch them in the act Crystal, how long did this go on for? Um, it occurred on and off for, I would say six months to hear because it was not, it was not something that was consistent. It happened maybe on three separate, three separate occasions as a lead was. And so did you ever within the three occasions, um, just debate within yourself to tell your mom. I just kind of wanted to let it go because I just didn't really want to do it, but I just felt like it just better than just let it go. It'll fade away. The only person Crystal confided in was her boyfriend Tyler. Well, we would draw us like I said, with just talented commonality that we had in some of the abuse.

I mean, she told me what she went through. I told her what I went through. And I guess it was kind of two people who had been through a lot that seemed like we could connect on that, you know, a level of that, of what we have been through. Tyler says he and Crystal bonded over enduring abuse in the home. My dad was a very abusive. My dad was crazy and he actually went to prison.

I would say divorce was a divorce city with prison, but my mom always wanted to get away from him. We had a very abusive child to know, child who's going on me and my brothers. Crystal and Tyler were connected by their trauma. They relied on each other for happiness and became each other's crutch to isolate their pain and enjoy their shared pleasures. I never had anybody hold my hand before. I'm just like, what's going on? He just seems so confident. So not. I'm just always unsure in everything I do.

And he just seemed to want to take control. And that first day, we didn't got to have him fix. You know, which is kind of crazy. Like, oh, you lose your forgetting to first time you meet somebody, but I'm with him and when we're about to have sex, I'm just like explaining to him like,

I don't have my opportunity anymore. And I told him the story about my uncle then, and he was very understanding about it and was very consider like are you sure you want to do this? Something like that. I thought I was in love with her, but at the time being you know it was just You know, honestly just love for the wrong reasons like we both had emotional problems that we just as a point is on a deal with I do remember her specifically telling me that he did break her And the thing is I kind of believe it at some point because there was a time when we were remember her specifically telling me that he did break her. And the thing is, I kind of believe it at some point, because there was a problem, we were pissed off out, you know, and we were often in hangout when I just knocked out the scene. And I

remember I left my car down the road and I came back and to find out that my car didn't work and into. On that night, Crystal and Tyler both snuck out after their parents went to bed. They were hanging out near the woods by the house when they saw her uncle walking around. I don't buy a bargaining job so maybe he is like

can't eat drinks before he came home because I can tell he's dumbled at his own car because me and Tyler were sleeping around so my mom doesn't know what I and Tyler, we're sneaking around so much. Mom doesn't know what I'm doing. So we're over here hiding and we're watching him. And we're just like, what is he doing?

And we're still hiding and we're watching him. And he's like, he's breaking into my car. Right? So first we're thinking, oh god, he knows he sees your car. He's kind of parked down the street. It's not in the yard. And he breaks in and he feels some petties, they're like some weed and a bowl.

That's a little bit of money. And since Tyler is obviously mad, if for one, he seems so impromptu, he notices that the man that's been molesting me, he's never seen him before. So his injury action was, I'm gonna smash up his car, I wanna smash him up, type stuff. Now I'm just like, no, going to smash it to the car, I want to smash them up and stuff.

And I'm just like, no, we just have to play cool, I'll talk to them, like I'll get your stuff back. So then they say, I'm going through my uncle's stuff, trying to find Tyler's things, and I just know we're in there. So I texted my uncle, I was like, it's crystal. I know what you did, and I'm going to send my mom, and she don't give my work and stuff back to you, so. And he takes it back to you,

so I don't know what you're talking about playing dumb. And so clearly, I can tell he's not going to get the stuff back, so we get home that night. And I basically call him out and find my mom. I was like, he's been molesting me. Like, you know what you're doing? And he's like still playing dumb. And my mom is just taking his sides.

A profound moment within the family. I mean, you're saying this, calling your uncle out. He's denying it. Your mom's in the middle, her child, her brother. You know, the stepfather's there. What was that room like? What was the emotion like? It was, this find sound weird, but it's like the room's got electric lights. I'm feeling angry and at the same time, her. And he's clearly, he's looking defensive, but at the same

time, he's looking like he really doesn't know what I'm talking about. His reaction is seeming pretty genuine, but for a child, a 12 year old, maybe around 15 to 16 points, to call someone out in front of her mom and be like, you're doing this to me and it's wrong. And I'm calling you out about it. I feel like something should have been done. She's not having the word.

And that was something that kind of picked me up in my mom because I'm like, how could you not protect me? Within that next couple of nights, and I'm just lying in there and I feel someone crawling as it was me and he told me me I knew no one would believe you. And he just smells like alcohol and it makes my stomach turn like I'm just dumbfounded like you're in my room. When you shouldn't eat jail, you shouldn't really eat somewhere else, not here. And he leaves and I just roll over and kind of cry. Like, who?

Crystal felt no one believed her, including her own mother. Crystal was left in a home with the uncle she claims abused her and a mother who didn't believe her. So, what does the team do? Crystal's dad was hours away in the mountains of North Carolina. She took a break from talking to him because of his brewing rage against her mom, and her mom disregarded her accusations of being molested by her uncle. After all, she was dubbed the trouble teen in the family. The only person crystal seemingly had by her side was Tyler. I felt like she just her mom didn't love her or she felt like her mom didn't

love her because her mom didn't believe her what it has happened to her. Did you believe her? I believe there, and the only reason why it's the time, like I said, is that the uncle think kind of screw very creepy for me. In fact, then I had an eye-pod and her crystal found the eye-pod in the uncle's room. It found out that her uncle had been watching us through the woods, when we were walking around and talking. And I kind of freaked out a little bit. Tyler dealing with his own issues ends up getting

in some trouble and is sent away for a bit, leaving Crystal once again feeling alone with the unforeseen foe still living under the same roof. I don't have this person that's helping me mentally come and get through the burden of daily life. I'm still seeing when my mom and my uncle is left awkward, like I'm just sitting there trying to pretend that everything was OK,

like, but inside it's not OK. So then I have my dad and I'm like, what I can always retreat back to him, like he'll be there for me. He wanted to bridge the gap with her father after a break from talking. He's telling me my mom doesn't care about me. He's telling me all this stuff

and I can't take it mentally. So, there was a point when I just kind of focused on more so much friendship than on him. So, there was a brief when I just kind of focused on more so my friendship and on him. So there was a pretty break in our closeness, but it began back up again. We had some similarities that it was almost like we were the same person sometimes. Like, you were hurt and it would hurt me. He would laugh and not be okay. You know, a lot of his emotions kind of

became my own. When Crystal approached her mom to go live with her dad in North Carolina, Christina didn't put up much of a fight. Something that Crystal's amprenda doesn't understand to this day. As a mother, I truly do not comprehend not being there, or you daughter no matter what. But by making the move to live with her dad, that meant Crystal had to move away from Tyler. She always,

always told me how much you love to that more. And I mean, I'm being dead serious. So the thing is, we dated for like, I think eight months for a year at first, when she first was here. And her mom actually moved her back to her dad's house. And at the time, I think she told me she was step by, like she was 14 or 15, you know, going on to be 15. And she was there for four months and we kept her relationship going up there because I had to go there and see her and sometimes you know we can move in the cabin with her dad. Michael's mountain retreat home nestled in Maggie Valley, North Carolina is a town dubbed as

where the Smoky Mountains meet the Blue Ridge Mountains. And like any small town in America, everyone knows each other, but not necessarily their secrets. Crystal's friend Summer grew up in the area. So Wayne'sville, Maggie Valley, all of the towns that are in this area, I would describe them as very small town. If you know one person, you probably know everybody because everybody is mostly related to each

other, aside from like, we have a lot of tourist attraction that comes through. This was a fresh start for Crystal, a new town and new friends. She soon met her best friends, Summer and Taylor at school. I met Crystal and the first thing I noticed was that she was the center of attention always usually. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a damn I wish I had that much confidence way. She was always making people laugh and always having fun and she just looked like someone you'd want to be around.

And the first thing that actually, like the first thing she ever said to me was, there was a certain way I smiled and she said I looked like a rat when I smiled like that. And she just like, do your rat face, do your rat face. And that's how we started to get to know each other. And then after that, it was kind of like a whirlwind from there, we just got really, really close, really fast.

This town is really small, so a lot of times that comes with a lot of closed mindedness and that really reflects in younger minds a whole lot. So there's a lot of different clicks. You know the book, the outsiders. I'm going to describe us as the greasers of the situation because we were absolutely outcasts. Michael's home in Maggie Valley was a family property that had been passed down to him.

The road that she lives on is probably 15 to 20 minutes back into the woods, and it's the very last house besides one other house on the top of the hill. You can see the entire Maggie Valley, the whole city. I would say that it's very isolated. And whenever I would go up there, every light in the house would be off, except for one bedroom light, her bedroom light would be on. And then an upstairs bedroom light would be on. Her dad was...

I don't want to like... Man, he was an interesting person. I'll say that. He was, I got a really strange vibe from him, but at the same time, I only knew what Crystal had told me, and she'd only ever told me that they had a good relationship. The home was grand at first glance, but it was a home that echoed in silence of the empty space from the absence of the other half of the family. The whole family would go,

so there'd be a bedroom for everybody. So it's a six-bedroom house. It's just a huge house for kids, people to be in. It's just a little bit overwhelming at first, like to go from this kind of kind of, I always say crowd house, but you know, all these kids running around and stepping down in the mom to miss if he has with a dad and a dog.

But her focus was to fit in at her new school, and she wanted nothing more than a clean slate. I'm at school and I'm going to stay by to my friends. And so I left with the car riders to go to stay by and her. And I'm looking across the crosswalk. And it's long walk all the way down the sidewalk. I'm like, why am I supposed to be able to make it down there? And then, don't just go across the street.

Some of the city walks down the street. I'm looking both ways, the road's clear. And then somebody called my name from the back and it's like, hey, Crystal, and it's just somebody saying by someone, oh, bye. And so I run down a hill and immediately I make a statement. I'm like, what? And I got hit by a car at school. And it was embarrassing. Everybody's watching people are taking their phones and taking pictures. And so I would end up at the latest park on my leg. So I can move and I'm just kind of stuck on the ground and I'm like, Hey, ladies, can you backstab? I'll be parked on my

leg and it's just crazy to woman and fish. She's like, she's standing over me and cranny tongues and I'm just like, Oh, God, what am I going to do this time? It's parked on my leg. But initially she bent it up and I was wearing shorts I'm just like, oh God, what am I going to do this time? I just parked on my leg. And if she'd actually stepped up and I was wearing shorts that day, like, I was securely in short and I had the phone stuck in the waist in my pants. So when I was hit, the phone fell out of my pants and hit the ground. So in my hand, I'm like, I need to call my dad, like, I'm freaking out. So I reached over after I had the phone and the rumor

that Fred's house at school was crystal-hours, hit by a car and then began texting immediately afterwards. That's kind of what I'm known for at that point. It really wasn't that bad but everyone after that called her road kill. When I'm on the phone my dad was like, they put me in the ambulance. I'm going to hospital. I didn't eat there. I don't know. I've never been in the hospital for anything. So I'm just like a don't really know the protocol for this.

So he's been in here. He rushes to the hospital. I just met a brainache. Well, it wasn't anything crazy. And I had like a road rash. A few weeks later, a routine afternoon pickup from school takes an unexpected turn after the bill for Crystal's ambulance ride comes in. So I went to the car and we actually he has a bill in his hand and he starts to

accuse and he's like it's really expensive bill because I don't know the fact that I'm like I don't remember but it's something I've created because before I left my mom had canceled my health insurance so I don't have insurance coverage so it's crazy Bill and he's immediately accused of working with my mom against him to basically make him look stupid. I'm just kind of blindsided by this. I'm like what are you talking about? I'm just confused, like, I don't know what's going on. And he just started hitting me out of nowhere.

And I don't know how to react. I'm not going to hit him back, like, that's my dad. I'm not going to hit you. So I'm just going to boil up, like, cover my face with my hands, and he's hitting me and pushing me. And I'm hitting the window. And that goes on for a little bit. And then I'm just like, what's wrong with you?

He's parking a different property usually. Like usually he's parked right next to him, so he pulls out immediately and will go home. But he's parked halfway across the parking lot. And so he just starts the car and he starts driving full speed across the parking lot. And it's why I'm really freaking out because there's these lights out of all the parking lot and he's driving directly towards one and at the last minute he just works. And I'm breathing heavy on looking at him like he's crazy like

what's going on man like what and, what? And he just laughing like, it's funny. Crystal says her dad laughed it off. Then drove them home. I just kind of wanted to get away. Like, I just felt like we need to separate ourselves because I'm not eating and acting like this so I don't really know how to react so my instinct is just for tree and it'll blow over to be fine. So I know in the back so I'm just so be my body like because I looked in the mirror, I'm

making it and I'm looking in the mirror and I see like this shape, they're not really well, but you can see red marks and they're like in the shape of fingers and it like on my torso and my collar and and nothing's burning yet so I'm like, okay, it's probably fine. So I'm just getting in the bathtub trying to relax and so I think down and like my head is is rested like against the edge of the toe and my eyes are closed and I'm just trying to sit there and think like, did I do something wrong to make him kind of go crazy? Did my mom tell me about this medical bill and I forgot to?

Okay, and then someone she's talking like, did I just overlook something or did she really not tell me? And so I'm just trying to, I guess, make excuse for him in my head like, because I'm not understanding what's going on like, what happened. And, and it's the thing I know I had to lock the bathroom door because I never had a reason to. Um, so I've seen my cats like feeling pushed me under and my eyes are open under the water. I'm just panicking. I don't take a breath in before they'll under. And they see and they're like on my neck.

So it's difficult to breathe. And it's just like that, where I was pushed under from. Like he didn't eat. He cut to talk to my head and pushed me. And they're like, it was my throat. And all of his body weight is just on top of me. And I'm clearly fighting for a breath. I can't breathe. My throat and all of his body weight is just on top of me and Clearly fighting for brand I can't breathe and I I'm inside the tub kind of struggling

Grand Now that's I need you to let me go and I throw up in the water and I'm just like looking around like what's going on? He He's out of the bathroom now, so I'm getting up. I don't drive off anything. I just go off the door and I just start freaking out like what just happened. Did he try to kill me? Like I can't even piece this puzzle together and I look in the mirror and like my cheekbone It's like shiny and red like it's not broken yet, but I can tell that something's gonna be there.

And I see like these little faint blue marks all popping up around my neck. My face has such a blood vessel on it. And I can see the bruising coming up. So I'm like, I don't know what to do. Like, I have a cell phone in my pocket on the floor. So I grabbed the phone and I take these pictures in my face, like from both angles and of my

neck. And there was this guy that I was friends with, his name's Donald. And I sent him the pictures and I didn't want to be like, hey, my dad just tried to kill me. Like, how did you even approach that subject? So I just climbed to him and I told him that I had a decent boyfriend and if anything ever happened to me he needed to send a place to my house. We found and reached out to Donald by email to

cooperate crystal story about the image she sent him he responded saying he was going through a tough time and wished us well on the podcast. I feel like it's just done with nothing to one of my friends. time and wished us well on the podcast. I mean, what is she going to do? So I just kind of let it go. And I walk out of the bathroom, and I'm going to pick my dad to freak out. And I'm like, I'm not going to look to expect to be sitting in the recliner with the dog. And he's like, come sit down with it.

It's like, what's some TV? I don't just, like, a burial? Like, I don't think it, but I'm just kind of conscious, like, is this a trap? But that just ended up being how it was. He would all freak out. And then immediately after everything would be fine again. It was an eggshell walk Crystal learned to navigate around her father with precision

to forgive quickly and carry on was a learned trait. She actually didn't tell me anything. She didn't tell me why she moved out here. She didn't tell me a whole lot about her. She actually stayed clear away from who she was completely. She was more about making people happy, making them laugh, experiences, having fun, stuff like that.

She was never really a Debbie downer, so to say. Her friend's only new crystal had a rocky relationship with her mom, as it was evident the two rarely talked. She was not there emotionally, she wasn't there physically, she wasn't there mentally and I mean I don't know how you can go your day-to-day life without at least calling and be like hey how you doing, like do you need anything? Even if you guys don't agree at least make sure your offspring is alive and doing well. Crystal was alive but was not doing well.

Crystal was alive, but was not doing well. Coming up on the next episode of Killing Dad, sext gate for the teen lovers. I didn't know if he was a poor not when she took the picture. And Crystal's dad, roost to be the ally, she always wanted. But how long would it last? I could tell from my dad's side of conversation he was talking to his lawyer.

So I didn't feel kind of happy because my dad was doing this thing for me that my mom had been done. I just want to know