Killing Dad: The Crystal Howell Story - 4: Dad and Daughter Shooting lesson

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

Michael Howell takes Crystal on a bizarre and disturbing shooting lesson in the woods, then another incident causes dad to send his daughter away. 

Verano, verano, reciclar es tan humano Esa lata de aceitunas que te tomas a la una La crema que se termina cuando estás en la piscina El enbase de ese polo que no se reficla Solo hay una lata de caballa que te coves en la playa La voy a usar en las patatas y del refresco la lata Un enbase de paella y del agua La botella, como ves es muy sencillo

Los enbases del verano Siempre van a la amarillo 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. Life was being turned upside down for Crystal Howell, which should have been fun teenage years, spent stressing over homework, sleepovers with girlfriends, and gossiping about the latest boy crush. For Crystal, it was a time of family term oil from a bitter divorce, alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her uncle,

and boiling rage coming at her from all angles that was beginning to devour and swallow the teen. Still living in Maggi Valley, North Carolina, Crystal had a scary incident when she was hit by a car at school. No injuries, but her dad was livid over the medical bills. On another incident, when she ran away, and asked police for help, she says her dad scolded her

by pouring boiling water down her throat for snitching. While Michael Howell's discipline tactics were frightening and abusive, his actions were about to take a drastic and alarming turn. sunglasses and these like little shirts and stuff. I'm like oh cool, but I'm probably not really sure where to go because it's kind of a big place like there's a lot of different sections so I'm following him and he seems like he's been here a lot like he knows where he's going so okay I'm gonna follow him and he goes it was a man he had a gun, a long shotgun. My dad gets in the money for it.

I feel like they had talked about it before, because my dad was looking at specific guns like it was his one gun. My dad buys it and the guy gets in the box of shotgun shell. I'm like, what do you got this gun for? I don't understand. I'm not hunting what is, what do you got this gun for? Like, I don't understand. And I'm not hunting it. That's what he thinks it is. Like, I'm not killing animals. It's not going down.

And so we're driving people to this party stand. And he's like, big three pumpkins. Now, there's only two of us. So why do we need three pumpkins? Like, I don't get it. We just don't ask you questions, just three pumpkins. So we put them in the car and I think you're going to go home, like, I don't know what's going on,

but he drives past the driveway. And that's when I realized we're going to the camping spot that we always go to at the top of the mountain. And it's not like an actual camping spot that people know about. It's just like a big meadow in there. It's like a little pond campus lot of people know about. It's just like a big meadow in there. It's like a little pond and it's just a pretty place.

Like it's beautiful. We're out of the car and we're at a top of the me. And he tells me I can tell something's up about you. But instantly after where he's like, I noticed stuff with your mom. It's hard and with this new guy moving into my house. And I'm not there anymore And I know it's probably difficult for you

You can see the kind of let the past go release the stress He's talking just like he sounded like he's reciting out of like itself health look It's not like my dad at all. It's I'm just like it's weird But I'm going with it because I'm like, okay cool, we have it released in stress and my dad was like, tell me how you feel about her and I was like, what? And he's like, like this, he needs to bring Bob and out and he's pretty fucking out of the mountain. And you know the kids, I'm thinking this is funny, like my dad doesn't cut it like that. So it's just, it's a weird hearing,

it's gonna have work. And I here in F word and I was like okay I'm gonna try like my dad's giving me permission to cut school. So I screamed about her, she's a homework and horror off the mountain and I'm laughing and my dad's like all right now time for part two and so he got his pumpkins set out in the meadow and he grabbed him to gun out the back seat got his pumpkins set out in the meadow and he grabbed him to gun out the back seat. And he's like, all right, I'm going to have a target for it. And I'm like, okay, cool. I've never shot a gun before. So I'm feeling like on the edge, like I'm doing something risky.

And he told me like, don't make sure you keep the gun going at the ground. Like don't ever want to kind of anything. You don't intend to shoot. So I'm just trying to, I'm nervous like I don't know what to do or at all this thing. And so we get everything situated and he told me, okay one pumpkin to your mom, one pumpkin you're set dead and one pumpkin to your sister. So each of these pumpkins and I'm just having these like specific areas play out in my head,

like, other things that I wouldn't say to my family if I was braver or if I knew they would listen or if I even knew how to say them in the first place. So you would say those things in your head and then just fire off at the pumpkins? Yeah, like, I'd ask my mom like just in my head, like I'm like, well, why didn't she protect me and to my stepdad, it was you're just as guilty as she is

because she used to there and heard me talk about what happened to me and you didn't do anything. And then the talk that I just sent out to my uncle through my great-name later, were more detailed because that's who I'm really because of that like, I trust these, these two extras, and mingle it. So like everything in my life, I'm beginning to get it

because I didn't realize that I was much of an impact on me because I'm thinking I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. And I kept telling myself that I'm not realizing these small things that the abuse that done to me. The impromptu shooting lesson in the woods wouldn't be the last time Crystal Howell picked up the shotgun the last time with Lantern in prison.

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. We bring you the exclusive series, Killing Dad, a first degree mistake. Michael Howell's mood swings were becoming more erratic, which was evident from the target

practice where he told Crystal to pretend the pumpkins were her family. Crystal was hoping a much needed heart to heart with her dad would change their relationship for the better, but the outcome was not what she was hoping for. Together on the porch amongst the shadow of the great Smoky Mountains, the sun was setting, almost as an omen for what was to come. I asked them like when did it stop being us, hearted them to us, hearted each other, and he didn't really say anything. Sometimes silence is almost as deafening as screams,

but instead, make a lead with action. He, um, in her own mission, it's a place that's called Borough Hill. It was like a... a group home. And he told me, like, I'm gonna put you here, just so you can work on yourself. We can figure it out. And on the

side I'm thinking maybe he knows what's going on. Maybe he wants to meet some space that's working on himself, like maybe this is the turning point. The Broe Hill Baptist Children's Home with the slogan of sharing hope, changing lives, is a faith-based treatment facility. Crystal remembers her time there. that were there, like, I got along with everybody. Well, it was definitely my dad and my relationship was definitely a different dynamic. Like, he started, I don't know, he was just a lot. He didn't know what healthier mentally

now that we were apart. The old saying absence makes the heart grow fonder was perhaps what Crystal and her dad needed to both work on themselves and the relationship. But it turns out those hopes would be fleeting. He's the cat of the I'm not a man. I'm always going to the neighborhood. I'm a man. Crystal had a lot of work to do while at the children's home and so did her dad. Was therapy the answer and the healing time apart they needed.

She wants to be with her parents, so they don't want to be in this place which feels kind of like a relationship. You know, like I said, it wasn't a bad place, but still to be kind of exiled, I guess. And you're trying to figure out what's wrong with me that my mom's not fighting for me to stay with her. My dad's not fighting for me to stay with him. I did more so. At this point, I'm blaming myself like, what's wrong with me? Because I'll angles in my life like like I said at this point I'm kind of doing some therapy and step-through school and the words I keep hearing are trouble teenagers she's trouble teenagers she just can't get right. So I'm viewing myself as this trouble teenager and I'm trying to figure out what I can do. I'm

wanting you to make that right and not the other hand, I'm kind of rebelling against that because in my mind I'm like, what are you saying? I'm this thing anyway, why don't I just become it? After months at the Brewer Hill Baptist Children's Home, Crystal had to make a tough decision. So I was there about eight months and I was a case worker, type person, and she's seeing a change in me, and I'm doing to work her type person and she's thinking to change me on doing better. I'm not.

My right heart's slipping. I'm kind of on the right side coming. So, earlier, I think we can transition her out. They're home. You have to go. And I'm even keeping the choice because my parents had joint custody. So, I chose to go to my mom at this point, because during the home business and stuff,

I had been in communication with Tyler, so that was my main reason for going back to Georgia, honestly, but I know all of this at home environment, it's going to be different. My uncle is not a fan with my mom anymore, so I'm thinking, well, maybe I can go here, see how this goes. If it doesn't work out, I can just come back. Because, like I said, my dad was showing the significant differences.

So I'm thinking that things could be different this time. Crystal leaves North Carolina with the hopes that her dad will continue to take care of his own mental health. In the meantime, she's looking forward to reconnecting with her mom Christina and reuniting with her boyfriend Tyler back in Augusta, Georgia. The member when she came back, he had the bag come back to live here. And I remember that, and her mom finally agreed and let her come back. So this is another fresh start for me.

So I'm trying to do things right this time. So I somehow, I'm actually like, about a boyfriend like I've been talking to him online like a lot of things on. And just the guy from before, I would like to see him. Like, it's just a stop offer to be older than me. I think I'm 15. It's my 19.

So as a mom, like clearing my mom's not very comfortable with it, but she's more stepping of it now that I am older in the age range as just a little bit less awkward. So I put my mom in my set at at Redraw Robin, which is where my sister was working at the time, and I checked him. So he comes to me because of the Red Robin and we have dinner and we're all laughing at the same time. My mom said that he's different than he was before on Tyler kind of takes back up his relationship. He's going to church and Bible studies and trying to get his GD and just work on himself

and doing good. So my mom sees this and so she's approving of him. And so that night I'm like, well, can he drive me home like, is that okay? And on all the proves of it, I'm like, well, I'm just surprised. Cause it's like my first night's back, I believe.

So that freedom was something I wasn't really used to. To feel my dad's great. More, I was kind of a lost guy I did. So me and Tyler got outside and people got this little box. And I'm in shock. I'm not, I'm in shock. I'm not really expecting anything like, oh, well, it's a coincidence. It was a dream. And it was like a promise. It wasn't an engagement ring. Clearly we're too young for that. But it basically put it on my finger and told

me, like, this is my promise that one day when I can get you something nicer and we're older, like, we're going to do it right and we get you something nicer and we're older like we're gonna do it right we're gonna get married and I think we're anything like that so I'm gonna over fall in with emotion like this guy just loves me for who I am and I can be myself around him and he's shooting at me around he's not my family he's a force to deal with me like he wants me to fly. And that's a good feeling when all the aspects you can't feel pushed away from people. Things were getting serious between Crystal and Tyler.

Maybe a little too serious. And so that night we ended up in a parking out in the backseat of the car. I mean, probably no it's going on back there, but he heard about the window and he ends up in a car, which is a satin set. And so I'm basically, I'm like, see, it's older than me, like what's gonna happen, so I'm gonna dress the dress and we're out there in the cold and the cop is running our name. I'm just sitting there and I'm not there religious like I said before. So I'm sitting there praying and like just don't take my voice and I'm right in the eye. This is the only good thing I have. Like I can't lose this.

The cop comes back and it's like, okay, y'all, it's not clear to go. I just don't want to see y'all again. So Tyler takes me home that night and drops me off. It's just a loose awkward because I can tell you, you're shaking by it like, who wouldn't be? So I'm nervous. You see, you gonna, is this gonna make him run away? Is this gonna be definitely next, make him leave?

And I think so that night and I'm just like, hey, so can I get a church on the on Sunday? Like maybe this is the change that I need. He's a little bit surprised at ours because he's usually my two children. But he was like, yeah, great. And so that started to get a thing we could get together. We would go to church and there was this Bible study in Disney where we started going to. But the bliss would soon come to an end for Crystal and Tyler.

It was about six months that I was in Georgia and Tyler was at my house and my mom was supposed to be going to work that day. And, you know, he's like, I, we're in the band together and he's like, I think I heard somebody come up to stairs. I'm like, no, that's probably just like step further, find like whatever my mom's gone for work. And my mom wasn't going for work and she comes in the room and I hear her voice before I see her like she was like it's a fuck off my daughter and I've never heard my mom say the F words I'm like I'm in trouble like this is not good and so you know he's just telling her like I love her we're in love's not, I'm not, in it for this, like we're just in love, we keep helping. And he's just keeping saying it over and over again,

like we're in love, we're in love. And he makes him leave, um, my mom takes my cell phone. And he's not just being like, sharing, like I'm watching him drive away and knowing like, my mom's not gonna let him come over anymore, like this is a big issue, like, my mom's not gonna be cool with that. I'm thinking well I'm not gonna be able to see him anymore, like this is gonna change the whole dynamic of our relationship, like, you know, are we gonna have to go back and sneaking around, I don't want to have to go back to keeping all these secrets

because I already have so many secrets that I'm keeping like, that starts to pile up on your conscience after a while. For a teenage crystal, the struggle of keeping secrets would overcome her. So whenever I had been in alternate school in seventh grade, there was this point and that he showed showed me like he was a cutter. So I knew that that was the same, like people cut themselves kind of to really their pain.

So I tried to admit, like I didn't know how to do it really or where to cut, like, the long cutting my arm, and it's the small edge of these branches, like it gone cutting my arm. It's the small, easy, pretty, pretty, very, very superficial. And my mom, I'm out about it, and she calls the police, and they take me to the hospital. And I'm committed to mental work. But I didn't remember wanting to die,

just feeling like it's over like This is the one good thing in my life like if he's gone what else do I have to live for like What else is there? On April 29th of 2011 when Crystal's mother checked her into University Hospital Crystal shared with us her medical reports. Her history with mental illness reads in part. This is a 14-year-old female with a history of ADHD. The patient states that she feels like her mother and father do not love her. The patient's mother reports that her daughter's

behavioral problems have been increasing for the last couple of months, with increased irritability. The patient reports that she had one prior suicide attempt, or possible suicide gesture, where she wrapped a belt around her neck, but did not pull it tight. Crystal's great aunt Brenda remembers having a conversation with Michael about Crystal's suicide attempts. He did tell me, you know, that he was tired of Crystal. He just gonna give up on her. He's done with her.

And I said, well, Mike, if she kills herself, what are you gonna say? You know, and I don't know whether that made a difference to him, but that's how I felt. This is a lost child and you're gonna give up on her. She'll all go down the drain. I've always had a feeling even before I was diagnosed with anything that something was kind of different

about me than other people, but it wasn't something I could really talk about because my family is so not open to discussion discussing their emotions emotions or what's going on. I don't know how I can come out and be like, hey, sometimes I feel like this or sometimes I feel like that. So instead I'm just bottling it all up and that's kind of making the issue worse than it already is. I had received a diagnosis of a personality disorder. I can feel unaware of like the full diagnosis that I was given because they can even aisle, they can tell me any of these things.

They gave my dad that they didn't work about it. And he kind of just took it away. I never saw him at the time. So I'm still not really understanding what's going on, like, what's wrong with me. I didn't find out so later, but they had diagnosed me with history on her personality disorder. According to the Cleveland Clinic, historyonic personality disorder, or HPD, is a mental health condition marked by unstable emotions, a distorted self-image, and an overwhelming desire to be noticed.

People with HPD often behave dramatically or inappropriately to get attention. It felt like an unfair diagnosis to me honestly because I never felt like anything that I did was to seek attention. Like they weren't really talking to me about what I was feeling or who I was. They always talk to my dad. So I felt like how can you diagnose me when you're not evaluating me

as a person, you're going off things and another person is telling you about me? Crystal spent five days in the child in adolescent psychiatric unit, but it was an incident between her parents during a family visit that made headlines in her medical reports. During a family session at the psychiatric unit, Crystal's dad would make a startling claim. There are like family bear me fishing and during that you know it's my mom's and sister's

dad on one side of the table and my dad on the other and the time when my dad was arrested for showing up to my court hearing all three of them had not been faced with it. So in my head I'm like what's going to happen? Like what is something bad happens and I'm just not really knowing what to expect for my dad because even though I had saw those changes in him while I was gone, the memory of who he was while I was staying with him did, kind of stick in my brain, she and the worry from that did appear. So I think they were like maybe like also towards each other but something went up to the therapist that's between them to say to my dad, well do you feel like you have unresolved emotions, torture, ex-wife and that's what you're

feeling this way. And my dad decided to meet the dumbly feelings I had toward our homicide of feelings. And that's why they did my dad different from the situation. And he is evaluated himself. He's not detained or kept overnight. It was a short evaluation. He just spoke with a therapist and I don't

know what he's been, but they let him go. Yeah, he's laughing about it afterwards, but I know. I know in my heart, like he was not, I feel like he's joking about it afterwards. Like when he's telling me about it, but I feel like him saying that was not a joke. Like I feel like he's sincerely. Did have homicidal pills. The incident is noted in Crystal's medical reports.

It says that Michael blamed Christina for Crystal's hospitalization and that it was because of Christina that they were not together. Michael then stated he was having homicidal thoughts towards his ex-wife and stated that she better hope that he and she never meet in a dark corner. He admitted to having had passed homicidal thoughts and he agreed to talk to a doctor where he again said he lost everything because of Christina, like was then escorted out by security. Crystal's great aunt Brenda remembers the troubling encounter. He never said he was wanted to do anything illegal now to me.

You know, he just was, you could tell he was so angry that he could. He told me when, you know, when he was in, when they were with the counselor and were over crystal, they were down in with the counselor and the counselor asked,, says, well, I think you still in love with your wife or something to that effect. How do you feel about her? He said, I could kill her. You know, and of course they locked him up right away. Well, then he gets out, you know, they put him in the psych ward.

Then he gets out and it comes up again. He's about to say the same thing, you know. It's like this is what he felt, this is what he thought. He won't hold it back. Even Crystal's boyfriend Tyler knew the push and pull. Crystal felt with her parents. The dad was very angry at the mom. The mom did not like the dad

and I think they just passed the curve back and forth as, you know, hey, it's your turn to take care of her. I hate you, you take care of her now. It's your fault, I have to deal with her. And then when her dad, I don't know, I guess I don't know how the dad felt, but I got to go, I know you ever just for a month, but maybe that's why he also felt that way to Crystal. And they were just, you know, more that he was angry at her mom, so he made it

cook stuff out on her. We reached out to Crystal's mother, Christina, multiple times. She has never responded to our request for an interview. After her release from the state facility, Crystal moves back to North Carolina with her dad, away again from Tyler and her mom. I told my dad before we left. And he told me he was like, you know, things are going to be different like I've seen down here because I love you.

Clearly, she doesn't care about me. She has a big issue. I work through these issues herself. I don't think she's fit to be the one to care of you. You can move downstairs to the bigger bedroom. The dog's missing you. I'm not the only one. When it's come home and the other things go, I'll show you that this time is going to be different.

I feel like home is out of the people year around and the feelings that you feel weird around them. So even though my dad's house is not where I grew up, it wasn't my childhood home. I always thought of home as wherever my dad went. When things weren't bad, he made me feel happy in the fact that anytime that I have a trouble like with the mental hospital, he's the one that's willing to drive to him get me. He's the one that shows up when I need him, the one that...

I'm sorry. He said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry when I'm gone. And I would always know if I call to me, but if I don't, I don't know. So to remember that as loyalty in that love kind of override, any thing that someone can show you because my mom, I believe she loved me, but she, she, her intention was on other things in life whereas my So all at a time and energy was kind of given to me. Yeah. Going back to North Carolina, though,

meant she'd be back with her best friend Summer. She did not go back to her mother's house because she apparently couldn't follow the rules there. But I think her mom's just lazy, just gonna be the point. She doesn't want anything. She doesn't want to deal with anything that's gonna be slightly more engaging or more difficult.

And I'm sorry, but raising a kid isn't easy. It's not supposed to be, there's not a handbook. Did Crystal see more pissed off about their relationship with her mom or more sad about it? I would say it was more sad, but it definitely came off as anger. She definitely portrayed it as anger. Back on the mountaintop, both fresh out of the psych ward, Dad and daughter fall back into their daily routines, which includes Michael's erratic mood swings. We had this big chandelier hanging from the ceiling

over a staircase. So my dad had to get a ladder to change the light bulb on the chandelier because it's higher up. And so I stand there on the ladder, and I'm in the light bulb. And all of a sudden, I guess I was a bank of tension or the ladder should, something happened, but he jumped down off the ladder. And it kind of startled me because I'm like, what is he doing?

And he started kissing me trying to kill him, trying to throw him of the stairs. And it's basically just yelling at me. And I'm just trying to hold on. Like I'm not really sure. But what made it pass? And like what's going on? Like I'm abused. And next thing you know, I'm falling. And I hit the out of the bottom of my hit bone. I remember I kind of hit it on the stairs.

I went through my stomach and all of my breath just like blew out of me. You know, I'm shocked. I'm like, he's really down the stairs. Like, what happened? I was like, it's done me a little bit. And next thing you know, he's running down the stairs. So I kind of crawl up defensively

because I'm thinking, who is gonna hit me? And I'm gonna get kicked like what's that happened and He's really down next to me trying to make sure I'm okay Like and I see his worry in his eyes, and I'm just like Throw it off like you sure me on the stairs and now you're worried about it and He told me He said it was an accident and I went in my room for a little while and I woke up in the middle of the night

with severe pains and I'm not understanding what's happening like is this period cramps because I see that there's blood on the sheet and I'm like, oh, I just started my period in the middle of the night, I guess. So I didn't know. So I never had any tears before but I'm glad there's a in the bathtub to kind of be that help the pain and kind of run the bathwater hot and it's easy to make it work so I'm like maybe I'll try cold water, so I try cold water,

and that's the way it works. So I go back to hot water. And then I'm like maybe I need to use bathroom. I don't know. So I go and sit on the toilet and I do, I don't want to be coroused, but it was like a mass of bullets. Like a... It didn't sound as good, but it looked like it came a cranberry sauce. And I see it as a toilet, and I'm like... At first, it just really registered in my mind like what it is. And I splashed it before I can even think about it like I don't know is that from where I got off my control, like you know,

had a period for a while, is that a baby? Like I don't really know it's going I got heart control, like you know, I had a fear for a while, is that a baby, like I don't really know, it's gone but it's fleshed. And then I realized, like, look, they might have been baby. On the next episode of Killing Dad, more violent mayhem on the mountain top. He just needs to be caught by a jaw with a piece of wood. And he's on top of me with his face over my throat like a bar. He's on his side and it's pressed against my neck and I'm into the ground like that.

And a runaway situation turns all too real. I get in the car with him and he stops by my back to the restaurant and gets me something to eat. And the next thing I know, I wake up in a trailer and another state. you