Trial Begins For Mont Bellvieu Man Accused Of Ex-Wife's Murder

ANAHUAC, TX — The murder trial of a Mont Bellvieu man accused of strangling his wife in August 2017 has begun in Chambers County. Stephen McDowell, who is charged with the murder of his ex-wife Crystal McDowell, has pleaded not guilty.

McDowell allegedly confessed to investigators in September 2017 that he strangled his ex-wife and led police to her decomposing remains in a wooded area near Baytown.

Crystal McDowell vanished the evening of Aug. 25, just hours before Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast.

She told her boyfriend she was going to pick up her children from her ex-husband’s home, and was never seen alive again.

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McDowell's family filed a missing person's report the next day with the Chambers County Sheriff's Office, but the search for the missing woman was hampered by severe flooding.

A week after she vanished, McDowell's black Mercedes Benz was found in a flooded motel parking lot along Interstate 10.

Steven McDowell has been in the Chambers County Jail with his bond set at $500,000 since Sept 10, 2017.

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