Killing Dad: The Crystal Howell Story - 8: A Party, a Stripper Pole, and a Dead Body

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Crystal is keeping a deadly secret when she moves her friends into the mountain house and the impact of her secret accomplice will spiral into headline making events. 

My name is Jason Alexander, the star of bedtime stories of the Ingle Side-In, a brand-new scripted comedy podcast in which I play Palm Springs Hotelier, Mel Haiber, who in the 1970s turned the rundown Ingle Side-In into the best-kept secret getaway for Hollywood's elite, thieves, and mobsters. The series also stars Brian Jordan Alvarez, Michael McKean, Richard Kind, Lance Bass, and Moira. You can find bedtime stories of the Ingle Side-In on Sirius XM, Pandora, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. The following episode contains graphic material, distressing themes, and talks of suicide. If you or someone you know is in distress, please call the National Suicide Prevention

Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. It's free, confidential, and you'll be connected to a skilled and trained counselor in your area. She was on the front. What? My car. I'm going to go blue. I'm just going to go blue. Crystal Howell had just moved in a few of her friends into the eight-bedroom Maggi Valley North Carolina home that belonged to her dad, Michael Howell. His body, still in a bin, in the storage shed. Crystal was trying to forget shooting her dad. She was trying to forget all the dark memories that led up to this point,

but an unexpected house guest would chilt her back to reality. The return of Lan Z. I was thinking, you know, a lot of the people that I hung out with were older people. So my friends didn't know a lot of my other friend group. Like the people I hung out with in school didn't know the other people I hung out with on regular basis. So I didn't even think like maybe they know each other. It is just not down, but I'm still not thinking that.

And it just surprised me. And I guess I was kind of like, oh shit, when you got in the car, I was just like, my name's Fritz Goldberg, I believe like I just pretended that I didn't know him. And on the drive to the house, he was kind of acting troncingly, I guess, like, kind of petty. Like he was making like a little comment. Like when we went up the mountain, I remember he had said,

somebody said, really, get lost out here. Nobody would ever know, huh? And it's really gone under my skin, like, it's been in maybe paranoid, like, I was scared, like, what would you tell somebody? What was going to happen? And I remember, he was like, what did you say, your name was again?

And I told him, my name again. And I just felt like he was talking, what did you say your name was again? And I told him my name again. And I just felt like he was talking to me, I guess. Like he had his power over me. And I didn't like it. And we got the out. And I just kind of went my separate way. Like I was frustrated. I was like, how did I do my selfless situation?

I can't really undo it. I can't tell my friend like, hey, your boyfriend can't see you because he helped me commit crime. So I'm just kind of having to accept it." Crystal soon realized the reason Lanzi helped her that day. They were living under the same roof, and now he wanted to collect what he felt Crystal owed him for helping cover up her dad's murder.

Crystal owed him for helping cover up her dad's murder. 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, Bristol is telling her story. We bring you the exclusive series Killing Dad, a first degree mistake. on the skin and his bones. After probably that, we should sell them in the living fair. I say, he noticed that I wasn't having a hard time paying for groceries.

I pulled that money out of the bank. He didn't know that I just did though, but he saw like, I've got money, like everything's okay. And it started out with him to pass any rent and money, like $50 here, $100 there. And then he got to a point where he told me basically, like, this is the amount of money I want to stay quiet. And if not, then it's over for you. What did he ask for? How much? Yeah, I had $15,000. I'm like, kind of 50, and I start selling stuff at first like brand things throughout the house.

And then it gets to point where I'm like, well, I can run another check. Because he found, I'm lazy, it's found to receive red cash at first check. It was like a bank receipt, it's just $5,000. When she first moved back into the house,

Crystal found her dad's checkbook. She was able to cash a check for $5,000. Money she used to pay the bills and buy food. I went back to the bank again, and I cashed another $5,000 check. And that money went to him and He put my name like when he called the bank And put my name on my dad to thank me out So that whenever I went in there, they wouldn't really ask questions that he could get my own credit card

And all they had for was a social security number and the last four digits and they put my name on the big couch. So he was hustling you, bribing you, you gave him 5,000 and he continued to live there as well. Yeah, and after I gave him that amount of cash, like every time I would go out, there's a ATM, like you can only get $300 now, I think a day. And so every time I would go out, there's a ATM like you can only get $300 out I think a day and so every time I would go out I would get in that money and bring it to him and he'd come like that for a while.

Summer and Taylor didn't know that Crystal and Lanzi knew each other prior. He was the one buying all of his alcohol. None of us were 21. And he was also one of the ones driving and calling and pretending to be Crystal's dad to get cable and money out of the bank and everything else. Well, what happened was whenever I went into the bank, they called the cell phone and he answered it. And then whatever he had called the bank, it was like a 1-800-sempor,

like an automated service. Gotcha. And yet people are representative about putting my name on the account, who will money out. So we had a whole plan. Both Summer and Taylor saw Lanzie impersonating Michael Howell and aiding Crystal to get money out of his account.

I mean, I don't really know who was the mastermind behind it, but she would write checks from her dad's checkbook and sign it in his name, and then she had Michael's phone. Or, I guess, he had Michael's phone. And the bank would call to verify that it was written by him and signed by him. Well verify that it was written by him and signed by him. Well, I think it was kind of running the show.

A lot like anything that he asked me for, I was giving him like, I remember he asked for a flat screen TV and gaming system. And just all this modern stuff, I remember he said something that was cheerful and I was just like, this one just like whatever,

like I'm not really caring what happens. I'm in my own world. So I'm just kind of allowing things to happen. And by taking four of these, he put it up and so there, it kind of like, there's a bunch of teenagers living in the house, but I was thinking, even before party out, there was one party.

It was the party that grabbed headlines and made Crystal out to be a callous killer, celebrating after her dad's murder. Crystal was nubbed, lost, and mindlessly following the request of all the friends she moved in hoping her facade did it break open so I mean with Teenagers living in a pretty much mansion. I'm not gonna lie and say that you know there weren't like like drugs and drinking But it wasn't we weren't like

and drinking, but it wasn't, we weren't like shooting up or snorting lines off the table or anything. We were smoking weed and had like a beer or two here and maybe like a shot or two there. And then there was one party that Crystal had said was like a housewarming party and she invited maybe 10, I don't even know who's 10 people. 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. And a lot of people that had previously gone in trouble with the law and had been in like drugs and things like that. It was supposed to be like maybe a group of 10 to 15 people. It ended up being 50 to 60, maybe even 100 people at this at her house. Like and there was some really messed up stuff that happened that night. So that night like got really weird. Like at first it was the night of the party. It was okay. We

had gone in the land rover and picked up like a couple of people and we had all gotten back to the house and Crystal, she had to have a fake ID and she got alcohol with her fake ID. And so we were all like drinking and stuff like that and then like more people started coming and then more people started coming and then people started like drinking way too much and then like we found out that and then people started like drinking way too much, and then like we found out that there was meth, and like I was really fucking pissed at that,

and then like I didn't know Crystal was like, when I got there I was like there's something wrong with her. There's something wrong with her, and someone was like yeah, she didn't know. And I was like oh fuck, she had brought home what we thought was cocaine, and it turned out to be meth. She had done a bunch of that. Didn't know what it was until afterwards.

And then somebody else slipped her something else. I think it was Molly. I think somebody either gave her Molly, or maybe she took it, not knowing, or whatever the case may be. It got really crazy out of control. I did not drink at all because I'm not a drinking person. I would just rather stick to the marijuana. Summer became the house watchdog that night trying to tame the chaos.

There are people, there was somebody overdosing and I literally had my hand up to my elbow down the road trying to get them to gag. I saved them, they're good. The submarine moment of the night came when summer found crystal who had fallen prey to two guys hunting or flush. She was raped that night. I don't know if she even knew that. She was raped by two men that night that forced her

into the bedroom and where I found her. And I walked in and he had his dick in her mouth. And she came up to me and was like, I don't want to do this. And she was obviously slurred. And she was like, I asked what was going on. And she's like, he put his dick in my mouth, both of them. That's all I got from that conversation. And I had to make them leave.

They were all drunk as shit and made me feel terrible for making them leave. But I was like, no, you get the fuck out. You leave right now. You're lucky, you don't beat the shit out of you. But that night, that did happen. So I'm sure that probably affected her as well with everything else going on. And it seems like at that party,

whenever she did all those drugs, she never came down from that. Crystal doesn't remember the assault. She says she blocked out, but the after effects were now visible to everyone close to her. There is a point where she had gotten so upset that like I took her outside and just held a pillow

for her to punch. Cause she like was so upset, like she was getting so angry and she was like I don't wanna hurt anyone but I'm getting so mad. And so we went outside and then held a pillow and let her punch it. 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. Despite the one-time rager, the mounted house in Maggie Valley was not a party house, as everyone still went about their business and attended school each week. But another incident sucked the media in and they latched on. It was the purchase of a stripper pole. There was no internet service up there. There was no TV. There was no Wi-Fi. There was not really anything besides each other.

We just kind of hung out and we talked and we danced. Dancing was one of the big things that we did together. That's why there was a stripper pole in the house. It wasn't because we were hores, it was because we used as a form of exercise. The girls tried to make a home out of extraordinary circumstances. But aside from going to school, it may be. Maybe once a week we would go out to Asheville and do just go to the mall or something.

We would never do anything else besides stay at home. It was kind of like a really tight family, family type environment of just kids, obviously, but she definitely struggled with it. Only two people in the house knew the haunting reminder just feed away. Crystal slowly started to mentally deteriorate. Taylor says she reverted to a childlike state. A mix of grieving and a mix of desperately trying to distract herself.

So like there were times like she she wouldn't sleep by herself. She had a the big bedroom downstairs but she didn't want to sleep down there because it was dark and there was no one else down there. She didn't want to take showers alone. She didn't want to go to the bathroom alone, even if it was something personal. She had us clip her toenails and treat her like a child, really, we would cook her food. She would sleep in the bed with us. We would take turns on who was sleeping with crystal tonight.

Stuff like that. There was even one point where she would sleep with my mom and my mom was up there. And that was just really weird for us because she was always very independent and kind of took care of shit herself. And then all of a sudden, it was like she wasn't capable of doing anything for herself anymore.

And we, of course, were just like this is, how can we expect her to want to do anything when she's grieving like this? We need to do whatever we can to help her. So we just kind of went along with it. I didn't met, I think, quite. I tried to drove, but I'm so hurt at this point. I'm not drinking.

I'm not on med. And I start having these hallucinations that just feel real like being possessed. Maybe we had what walls of the house, so there's like that weird twist really pattern on wooden walls. And I remember just seeing faces of people and feeling like they were people in hell

and that they were coming to get me for what I had done. I remember just, I was walking past the fireplace one day and I saw the shadow behind me and I turned around like expecting to see somebody and there was no one there. I was too afraid to get up out of the chair to me when I got into the sitting. I sat there for probably a few weeks' time. I did not move. I was this recliner that we had sitting in the corner and I think that might have been the chair that her and her dad sat in together to watch movies all the time because it was right next to the entertainment center.

But she sat in that chair for literally the entirety of the two weeks. We didn't go to school or nothing because she would not move. I couldn't get her to eat. I couldn't get her to go to the bathroom. Nothing. Is that a psychotic break? Or how would you describe that?

It was absolutely because she would just sit and stare at break or what? Why would you describe that? It was absolutely because she would just sit and stare at the ceiling and say, do you see that? Do you see that? Is it ghost? Do you see that? They're coming for me. So yes, supposed to be completely sober after this.

She hadn't done anything else. There was no weed. There was no alcohol. There was no pills. There was no meth. There was nothing else in the house. I felt like my dad was there and I felt like I was being washed. I felt like something bad was going to happen to me.

I just felt disconnected from reality. And it felt so real. Press talk had feel something was about to happen. She knew this life wouldn't sustain itself. One day, she dressed in all white and headed up to the mountains where she and her dad would always camp. I was looking for clothes. You're clearly there was not a funeral.

Like nobody knew my dad was dead. It might sound stupid, but I guess the one in the talk to the money you would hear me, but I was hoping maybe he would, like, maybe the hire I got on the mountain, maybe the hire I think it has been, maybe he's here, and there's something. But I remember just kind of, I guess, apologizing out loud. I remember how easy it was, okay, like what's it like on the other side? Like, because you know, you think like whenever somebody dies, like maybe they're hurting the

top. But you don't know. So I guess I wanted to know that like I think better for you now. Like, or then I think it's more, where are you? What do I do? What do I do there? You're going? I don't know. Really? Where's it going? Why don't you know? How do they build that? Do you have any text? I don't know how to survive. I don't know. Anything is like that. I don't know how to be an adult. I don't know. Really even how to live without a used to how do I learn that? Even the one to be around my whole life. So how do you just move on from something like that to you?

How do you pretend it never happened? Crystal could no longer live in her dad's house as it was a constant reminder of what she had done. So like all the other times she ran away, she once again would flee. Her explanation for that was that her mom had contacted her. And so in our mind, her mom of course is the one who told her that Michael committed suicide. So she knows about all of this. So when Crystal tells us that her mom says

that Crystal needs to come down to Georgia and stay with her until she turns 18 until she can be an illegal adult, and then she'll come back. And that's what she told us. She was gonna help some her pay for bills and everything like that. And yeah, so we were just like, okay, well, I mean, I guess we get that

because you're technically not a legal adult. Before leaving, she gave away a few items to Somers Dad, including the murder weapon. I like it even though it looked at me more and I was kind of having like, do it so hot a lot and I was afraid that maybe something would happen and I might shoot myself and I just didn't want to run anymore. So I got rid of it.

She sold my dad a gun for $20 and left summer with a few rules for the house. The only thing was you know, to make a building that I didn't say, I said don't go to shed and they never really asked why. I told them he did it, just like stuff in there that is valuable. Okay, so I'm just gonna let you guys know I am a nosy as fuck person. I want to know everything, I need to know everything. I want to know why, I want to know how, I want to know straight down to the very way you wipe your butt basically. Like I want to know straight down to the very way you wipe your butt, basically, like, I want to know. So being the person that I am, whenever the opportunity arose, I definitely took it because she

had a made 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 was there when she like actually left and packed up the the you hall and left for Georgia. Any parting words? Just I love you. I mean, just usual like I love you. I'll call you all to be updated. How did you feel when you were driving away? Um, I felt like maybe maybe I could just start a new chapter. My life may have to figure out what to do. Um, I felt like maybe we can just start a new chapter of my life and maybe I could figure out what to do.

She was in too deep at this point. In a mental fog, Crystal drives to Augusta, Georgia, and to the house of then 21-year-old Austin Arthur. The two had met online, weeks prior. But I just like, I think she was cute and pretty and stuff. It was just, I feel like she was fun to talk to you, you know, outside of the very serious, you know, situation with which the story she was telling me, we worked our own her dad. It was just fun to talk to her and, you know, uh, just to get to know each other and,

you know, we'd make each other laugh here and there and, you know, it seemed like we'd get along great in person, so that's what we're looking forward to. Crystal knew she had a ticking clock on her freedom, but she was trying to live as though that was not the case. I was seeing out with the guy and then he said he had to go to a baby shower for somebody in his family and ask me if I wanted to go with him. And that's kind of weird to me because you know people that say because that's when Tyler like they bring me around their family or do you like to do it just we would go hang out if it would be whatever.

So I guess it kind of made me feel special. Maybe. I was looking with my parents at the time and my aunt and my grandmother had come to visit at the same time. And it wasn't really like a party or anything. We just showed up there and then we just left together after a while and went to stay at a hotel after that. While pulling into a gas station parking lot,

Crystal had a random encounter with her mom, Christina. She had yet to tell her mom she was in town. Now, I'm left in the car and was just like, hey, what are you doing here? Now it's like, oh, you know, I'm trying to find my place. Hey, not very much question, Brad, not much with that. I'm just like, okay, answer it all. Wait a minute.

Hold on. Did she get away in a minute? Did she get out of the car and hug you? I mean, was it like, oh my god, my daughter's here. No, no, it didn't happen. I mean, that had to have sucked, Crystal. I mean, you hadn't seen your mother for months, right? And you see her in the parking lot.

The parking lot I was parking was basically like a year where she worked or on a wake up or something. And you know, I was driving as car with a orange lane or over. So I really noticed what... I was driving a car with a orange leaner over. So it really does look. Crystal knew deep down moving to Georgia at 17, lying to her mom and driving her dad's car would jeopardize her freedom.

I'm not going to say I wanted to eat hot because those are the ones that, but I just felt like I was tired of running like this and lying every woman. I felt like, you know, this has been a recent question that I knew that coming to Georgia. Like, my mom's not going to let something go. Like, she's going to look into it and find out what's going on. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina at the mountaintop house filled with teens a day after a crystal left.

Summer had a feeling she couldn't shake. She needed to see what was inside the shed. So there was no key. Popted 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 guess, I don't know. But we go inside, or I go inside at first, and everybody's kind of like on the right moving things around to put the pinball machine, I go over, I touch what I think is a mannequin, and I'm like, what the hell is this? And then I realize it's skinned and then I think back to the party. I was like, well, did somebody

like actually die and then it's gotten here somehow, got trapped in here? I was, I was concerned, somebody got too drunk and died at this party that we had. 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. Obviously we went inside and told everybody else

that it was going on. And everybody that the rest of the people that were inside was my mother and Elijah. Those were the only other two people that were at home at the time. Everybody else was gone. It's a chilling discovery seared into her mind. And my immediate thing was leaf. I got everything that I owned.

I got my dog and my cat and I put it in my dad's car. Every piece of clothing that I could fit in there and I went home. I went home and then I came to the police department in Wainsville on Main Street and reported it, and they did not believe me. I sat in the waiting room for two hours waiting on a disc, like an officer to come and actually talked to me about it before they would even go up there. Whenever I saw him, I knew. I connected the pieces right there.

I was like, nope, she's killed him. While summer and her parents sat at the Sheriff's Station, a call goes out to Crystal. The other couple that was living up there, the girl, had called Crystal and told her that there was police all in her house. And she called me and asked me if I knew what was going on. And I said, no, I have no idea what we were talking about.

I'm an Asheville. And she was like, okay. And then I didn't hear from her after that. And that was the night like I stayed with Joey and the investigators called my mom or no, they came and knocked on my mom's door. I still didn't know what was going on. Like no one had told me like they asked me like to just crystal know how to like use a gun. What was her relationship like with her dad.

I was like, oh God, I didn't know what was going on. And then the next, I think the next morning, I remember getting home, I was like, I understand you've been through a lot. We'll talk about this in the morning. And I was like, okay. And then I got up and summer called me. And she was like, don't talk to Crystal, don't text Crystal.

And I was like, what? She was like Crystal, because her dad. And I was like what? She was like crystal-coded dad. And I was like, what? Like, it was so shocking to me that I chuckled, which sounds really messed up because it was so just like a mind-fuck that I was like, no. No. No way.

This is the shit we were watching on TV. What do you know? And then she was like, no, this is like real. And I was like, oh fuck. And that's like when the realization came. And it was like a snap of a finger and everything fucking changed. Now in the last three hours of her young life in Augusta, with Austin, the life altering call comes in from Lansing.

I'm talking to him and he's just basically like, there's always cops in front of your house flying the job out there and I hear a hardware of him and he's basically just like, you know what it is, like don't tell them that anything to do with it. And he told me that he had a daughter and that he needed to be in her life. I kind of are freaking out a little bit and this guy's clearly like what's wrong. So I lied to him and I said well he's pleased with my house and I told him that he's growing weed in the house and it was something to do with that. You know, there's probably nothing, it's probably fine, but they might come rest, we don't know.

I didn't want it to be like, call out guardiers. So, then I went inside and looked over my office for taking a shower and I knew, like, this is my last night. I know there could come get me, but I'm not gonna call the ambulance and I'm waiting. They're gonna know where I am and they can check my phone. They can see the car outside.

Saturday night, when she got the call about former friends, we're guarding the police, we're at the house in North Carolina. And she definitely changed the stretch levels. We're definitely higher at that point. And when you were thinking, it's only a matter of time they're coming,

what was that like living in that? It was all kind of a relief honestly. For all of us. I was just right, it's not weird, but I was ready. I was just right for the interview, right? In North Carolina, Michael Howell's body had been discovered by Crystal's friend Summer and Summer's father. Police surrounded the house and were combing through every inch of it.

Sheriff's then put out a Bolo alert, big, big, big, big big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big And I believe we got a call from the FBI. Griff Garrison was one of two units put on alert. Then there was a disease mail. And then there was a person of interest. They feel pretty confident that she's the one who did it. But they don't know for sure yet, at this point. But she's definitely a person of interest,

perceived with Carlson. An unsuspecting Austin was making plans for the next morning, not knowing how much his life was about to change. I had already asked her if it was okay if I'd take her father's car, if I drive her father's car to work in the morning. And it was only like I think four or five hours shift when I would be back around like 11 a.m. 10 or 11 a.m. And she agreed to do that. And you know, I took the car that

morning and on the way back, stopped at the store. I grabbed a few things and then I continued back to the hotel we're staying at. And as I pull into the parking lot at the hotel, I noticed there was a police officer behind me pulling up behind me. Patrol officer Dennis West pulled up. It was shortly after we received a bill for the land over

passing the vehicle drive into the gas station parking lot. And I just followed it equal to the motel parking lot, which was probably about quarter mile away. And it was driven by a male, not a female. As I went to Unbuckle, my seatbelt, I hear him scream at me to put my hands in the air. And I'm just like, whoa, okay, and I go ahead and do that. And he's yelling at me to unbuckle, get out the car and then lay on the ground. And I obliged, I do all that.

They get me into the car and I ask him, what is this about? And he said it's a murder investigation. And at that point, I was just like, I didn't believe it. But first off, I totally, I just didn't believe what they were saying at that point, because I was a part of this story at this point where I believed the story I was given. I want to remember, he really didn't say much is like, what's going on. We asked him one question where, you know, what room they were staying in.

But his whole, I mean, he just was just, he cooperated. I mean, he had no clue. He had no idea what was going on. Austin told them what room Crystal was in. They first went to the motel's front desk. My big partner and he was a column of show. He went to the front desk, got a master key. From there, we wait, wait for another deputy shop to secure.

The other guy in the parking lot and me and Colin up to the ring. And the ring and with the massacre we entered and you know we found her. The officers quietly opened the door to Crystal's motel room early on a Sunday morning. Austin was still being held got in my room and I woke up with a huge runway. I don't know. I was just a little caught up on like a ship with something to have. But I never been around to black pants like I did to show. So I just woke up like, what is my face? Start all this in. I'm not wearing clothes, so I have my hands up,

and I'm just basically like, I'm under age. I'm not wearing clothes, but do you want to handcuff me like this? But I don't, I can't get dressed. And the office told me that I'm going to go outside the door to see if I ran. I think they said to me, take these, what they said. They had a teaser. And I said, OK, why not put it right?

The room was dark. I want the blackout shades of food for this point. So there was no lights. We hear what the flashlights, she was unclowed, I've heard some sheets of blanket. I got dressed. And I wasn't wearing these shoes, so I just put on a dress that I didn't wear before.

And I knocked on the door and the A&C. She cooperated the whole time, you know what I mean? I mean, she never, besides saying that, she never caused a fuss or anything. It was almost too cordial. I remember her making while we were in New Orleans. I guess they found them. That was a working hour, I remember. Her saying to us in while we were in New Orleans.

When I first came into contact with Christmas, just not, you know, I don't know. It just, everything about the whole appearance kind of, it didn't add up. And I just let her know, hey, you know, I'm a spitter garrison. We'd share it's office. We've got some stuff we're gonna talk to you about. We're gonna take you down to the station.

Throughout all the cases that I've ever worked, there's only been a couple times where, you know, the hair on back of my neck would stand up. And I wasn't expecting that with this, you know, walking up. Okay, yes, she probably killed her father, you know, or lids had to have done it. She just wasn't there. The moment Austin will never forget

after spending an intimate night with a new love interest. I'm sitting in the car, handcuffed. Eventually, I see her come out of the hotel with handcuffed ons and they get her and take her away. Well, she looked very sad. I don't know if she could see me or anything. I just, I could just see her out. We didn't make eye contact. I just could, I could see her being taken away and I just had to watch.

Austin still reeling from the memory is left with an impression many have thought. She's definitely lost to have to do that and there's definitely I think maybe afterwards the sort of coldness to try to move on and sort of get away with it. Whenever I was going to Georgia I wasn't talking to my dad as much like prior you know what I'd be busy go to Georgia, I wouldn't talk to my dad as much, like prior, you know, when I'd be visiting my mom, the communication wouldn't be all the way off with, but it would kind of stagger itself a little bit. So me leading North Carolina and going to Georgia, it felt like maybe I would just leave him

behind. And like, he would feel a lot maybe. I do it to be easier to pretend I had something to say. Like hard to explain to a person, where somebody who hasn't been there will understand what it sounds like. Maybe I go into the left everything behind and try to move on. But I wanted it just sounds like me. Maybe I go in and splet everything behind and try to move on. But I wanted it to not be real.

Coming up on the next episode of Killing Dad, Crystal gets a shocking message while in custody. At one point when I was in Galee-Jale, I don't know if he was locked up or he knew somebody else that was locked up. But somebody, the girls in my spot would go to court with the guys. So they would always bring back a note and messages from the guys. And I remember one time somebody brought the message and said if I were to tell on Ramsey that he would have me stand at places. And we've uncovered a disturbing move made by crystals, court-appointed defense attorney. When I was reviewing the material that this is very confusing to me. I have not seen anything like that before. I just want to know

I will, I gotta be But put me in the chair, sir I don't even care now Run as I can rest and get my peace Look me so lonely And like the only one in the world Which I was like me, so I could go home When you hold your hands, when you hold your hands You run on the amnesty on this endless road you