Missing Baytown Realtor May Have Met With Foul Play: Sheriff

BAYTOWN, TX — A Baytown realtor who mysteriously vanished hours before Hurricane Harvey made landfall, may have met with foul play, according to Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne.

Crystal McDowell was last seen by her boyfriend, whom she told she was driving to her ex-husband’s home in Mont Belvieu to pick up her children.

But Crystal never arrived. (Want to get daily news updates and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Pasadena Patch morning newsletter.)

The next day, she was reported missing by a relative.

But heavy rain and flooding from Hurricane Harvey tied up law enforcement, whose focus was shifted to public safety and rescuing those trapped by high water.

The search for Crystal McDowell began four days after Harvey made landfall, and four days after she disappeared.

Not long after the search began, her submerged car was found in a Motel 6 parking lot near Interstate 10.

Law enforcement officers and crews from Texas EquuSearch looked for the missing woman in Baytown, and in areas along Cedar Bayou, with no luck.

With no sign of Crystal, Hawthorne believes it was foul play that led to her disappearance, not not a Category 4 storm, the Chronicle reported.

"I think that she would have surfaced because she has two lovely children and she seemed be falling for another man - and I feel she would have surfaced," Hawthorne told the Chronicle.

To read more of this story, log onto Chron.com

Image: Crystal McDowell Facebook Page

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