Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Boyfriend talks about missing Texas realtor & Did cold medicine make a man kill his wife?

Episode Date: September 6, 2017

Crystal McDowell is still missing nearly 2 weeks after she vanished just before Hurricane Harvey hitting her Texas town. The last person known to have seen the 37-year-old realtor and mom of 2 -- boyfriend Paul Hargrave -- talks to Nancy Grace about her disappearance. Baytown, Texas, newspaper reporter Matt Hollis, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober and radio host David Mack also join the discussion. Nancy and guests also ask: Did too much cold medicine cause a husband to murder his wife in his sleep? A North Carolina man says he woke up to find his wife stabbed to death and he thinks the medicine made him kill her. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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shortly before Harvey hit Houston. Crystal McDowell's last Facebook post was, Stay safe out there. Investigators do believe foul play may be involved here. McDowell's family says she was scheduled to pick up her two children from her ex-husband's home, but never showed. What do you think happened to her? I don't know, but I know that she's not one to leave. With law enforcement trying desperately to keep people out of harm's

way, this storm may have provided the ideal climate to cover a crime. And our main objective is just to get Crystal back home. A gorgeous mom, a successful realtor, goes missing just before Harvey hits Texas. And in all of the confusion and the evacuation, she still remains gone. No answers. We are talking about Crystal McDowell, 38 years old, of Texas, disappears just before Harvey hits with talk of evacuating her two children. Now, her uncle, who is like a father to her, says that never happened. So where is Crystal? I'm Nancy Grace.

This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Joining me, Matt Hollis from the Baytown Sun newspapers. Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist. Joining me out of Florida, Paul Hargrave. This is Crystal McDowell's boyfriend. Also with me, syndicated talk show host, Dave Mack. First to you, Matt Hollis with the Baytown Sun newspapers.

Thank you for being with us. What happened? Can we take it from the beginning before we get to the new developments? Crystal McDowell, a Baytown real estate agent, as you said, disappeared right before Hurricane Harvey hit our area. As I've been told, she was en route to pick up her two children from her ex-husband, Stephen McDowell, and she never showed up. Of course, the storm started hitting this area, and sometime after that, her car was found at a Motel 6 on Interstate 10 and 146, and the flooding was starting to happen at this time. This is what I was told by Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne,

but she was not found with the car. There were a couple of people of interest, Sheriff said, but they were identified and cleared. Friday night, I actually was just trying to do some research and just looked on Facebook and saw Mr. Hargrave's post about a cell phone ping belonging to Crystal McDowell was found within a three-mile radius of a city park service center, which actually wasn't far from our offices, so I just hopped on down there and saw a lot of family and friends prepared to do a search. Anyway, I talked to Sheriff later that night. He said they already knew about this cell phone thing. And no one has seen or heard from Crystal at this moment, up until this moment.

Guys, joining me is Matt Hollis, Baytown Sun Newspapers. Now to Paul Hargrave. This is Crystal's boyfriend, Paul. Yes. I am so sorry with what you are going through and her children. I want to take you back to the last time you spoke to her. What happened? That was Friday morning, early Friday morning.

She got up early to go pick up her kids before Steve went to work. So when she got up, I went in and got up, took a shower and she seemed happy. She seemed excited to go pick up the kiddos. And we had kind of tentatively, you know, trying to figure out what we were going to do for the weekend because the storm was coming in and we were thinking we'd stay home and watch a TV show, Game of Thrones, which she hadn't seen. So we're going to catch her up on it. And so she was, that morning she was happy. She was excited to see the kids. With me is Paul Hargrave.

And this is Crystal's boyfriend who saw her the morning she disappears. Now, the uncle has said that she never told him she was going to go get the children and evacuate. Was that what's being thrown around now, Paul? I've never heard of that. We had dinner the night before at a steakhouse in Baybrook Mall, which was about 40 minutes from Baytown. And we had talked about, you know, tentatively making plans for the weekend on whether we're going to stay or go, but we both agreed that we were going to stay in town. So, you know, I've heard of rumors of her going to Dallas and whatnot, but if she was planning on doing that, she certainly didn't say anything

to me about that. Well, and she didn't take her children. Yeah, that was really unusual. I mean, Crystal wouldn't leave her kids. And we, you know, text messages all day long, every day. I mean, she would have said something to me about that if she was leaving. So that day, you see her that morning, everything's fine. You're talking about what you're going to do that evening. She's going to go pick up the children. How are crystal's children i believe they're five and eight now was she going to bring them back over and y'all all four were going to be together no i was going to i was going to work for the day so um she was going to either stay at the house um at the ex-husband's house with them there, or depending on what conditions and road conditions were, weather conditions were, she was going to take

them out. And we had talked about that that morning. And then she sent me a text message right when she left saying road conditions were good, weather conditions were good, that she might end up taking them out if they wanted to go out. When was the last time you texted with her? I sent her, oh gosh, she sent me a text message early that morning of a picture of, at my business, we have an LED sign and I was advertising her realtor company with a picture of her on there. So she snapped a photo of that, and she sent me a message saying, you're so sweet with a little heart. And then I sent her one right back that said, I love you and I want to support you. It's in my phone right now, but I think it was sometime in the early mornings, 7, 7-ish sometime. Crystal McDowell, just 38 years old, of Texas, disappears after she leaves her boyfriend,

who is with us right now, Paul Hargrave's home, to pick up her two children that were at the ex-husband's. After 7.30 that morning, as Paul Hargrave is telling you, she's never heard from again. Now keep in mind this is before Harvey hits. Everybody knows Hurricane Harvey is coming. So whatever happened to her, whoever did this knew that Harvey was coming. Now, her Mercedes was then found submerged in water in a Motel 6 parking lot. But again, she goes missing before the hurricane hits. The mystery surrounding this missing realtor has really taken a life of its own. At first, many people were chalking it off to she was going to evacuate and somehow was harmed or lost or died in the evacuation.

That is not what happened. So the last thing she told you, Paul Hargrave, is that the road conditions were good. Okay, that's 7.30, 8.30 in the morning, correct? Yes, ma'am. 24 hours later, the catastrophic storm hit. I do have a time stamp on that. At 7.25, she stated there was no traffic with a little happy face. I may end up taking the kids out if they want to go somewhere, have an amazing day, and then that's when she sent me a screenshot of the picture, the LED sign, as well as you are

so sweet. I sent her a text message saying, I love you. I'll always support you. It does show that that message was read. And I didn't get a reply. And I didn't think anything of it because it seemed like we were kind of finished with that conversation. I did enter another text message that afternoon, just checking on you. Please let me know if you need anything at all. I did enter another text message that afternoon. I just checking on you. Please let me know if you need anything at all. I miss you. That doesn't show that it was read or delivered for that matter. Just just shows the what time was that? That was exactly 1pm. Okay, and the hurricane the water had not started yet, right? No, ma'am. That happened, I believe later on that evening or early Saturday morning. So based on her track record, you know, when you don't know a horse, look at his track record.

Did she normally read your text and write back? Immediately. I mean, I have correspondence going back, you know, three weeks with her. And they're always immediate. We texted a lot because we had just met each other. So we were both really excited. And just we were just met each other, so we were both really excited. We were always texting each other.

So question, that was at 725 in the morning, and you sent the next text at what time? At 1 p.m. So in my mind, she goes missing between 725 and 1 p.m., or she would have written back. Now, this is what else we know. She missed an appointment to meet with clients that afternoon and she had never done that before. She was bringing in tens of thousand dollars for the realty company. She had never missed an appointment. Her uncle is Jeff Walters and he works at the family's realty company. He is the one that reported her missing. Is that correct? Matt Hollis, who's joining me from Baytown Sun Newspapers?

Yes. Sheriff Hawthorne from Chambers County told me that he did, and that was actually why Chambers County is leading the investigation on this, because that missing persons report was filed in their county. Matt Hollis, do you believe whatever happened to Crystal McDowell occurred between 725 and 1 p.m.? Well, it would seem so. If you add everything up here, just, you know, talking to Mr. Hargrave and some people out there that the other night, it does not seem like this is uh something crystal would do normally especially with her you know her two children i was told uh she loved her kids uh a lot

it was very caring so to uh just on a whim take off right before a storm and park your car at a motel and take off and leave uh you know, judging from what I've been told by family and friends who know her, it's very out of character. That would not, doesn't add up. Also joining me, syndicated talk show host Dave Mack. Dave, after the

1 o'clock text that Paul sends her and she does not write back, do we have any evidence that she was seen or heard from the phone text email in person anything after one o'clock nope the one thing we do have is that ping on her cell phone uh near the parks and recreation area but that's it nancy and nothing else i think you're dead on between 7 25 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. There's nothing after that. Well, to me, that's where you start every investigation is with a timeline.

Because then once you have that block of time when the person goes missing, then you start retracing and figuring out who, if anyone, they came in contact and where they may have gone. Her car parked in a Motel 6. That's where it was found submerged. Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist joining me out of Florida. Dr. Bober, it seems very clear to me. Okay, number one, you always look at the boyfriend first. Well, the boyfriend, Paul Hargrave, is right here subjecting himself to questions. And I think that's pretty brave.

That's a good sign. Yeah. His text and his emails, his phone records can easily be reviewed to determine if this is true, to determine if the text messages were actually sent from her and where they were pinged. And it checks out. What do you make of her car being found at a motel six because the motel six was then searched she wasn't there yes nancy you know more questions than answers here unfortunately i mean i totally agree with your timeline i mean whether you know this was

a crime of opportunity or whether this was planned in advance, it does seem like something nefarious happened here based on everything that we know circumstantially. The fact that, as you said, looking at her track record, that all this behavior is totally out of character for her. She would never neglect her children. She would never miss an appointment. I mean, all these are signs that something was obviously done that, you know, control was taken out of her hands. So it's very concerning. You know, to Matt Hollis, Baytown Sun Newspapers, does the Motel 6 have surveillance video of the parking lot? Usually these hotels do have. Okay, come on.

Dave Mack, it's the Motel 6. Yeah. They've got to have parking lot surveillance. They're going to have that, and it'll come out eventually. Nancy, she never made it to her ex-husband's house where she was headed to get the kids. The boyfriend, Mr. Hargrave, is the one that's out here saying, help me help find this woman. Meanwhile, the ex-husband is the one who actually positioned us looking in Dallas while, you know, nobody else suggested that she was going to grab the kids to go to Dallas. He's the one that has said that. So Mr. Hargrave is the last person to see her, last person to talk to her. And all the other stuff, the extraneous stuff about Dallas and

everything else comes from the ex-husband, who we know for a fact she never got there. Right now, there are no named suspects. There are no formal suspects at all. Right now, Matt Hollis is joining me, Baytown Sun Newspapers. Has any formal suspect been named? No, not at this time. I do know, according to what Sheriff Hawthorne told me, there were two people of interest interviewed. They were somehow associated with the motel, Motel 6. But he says they were interviewed

by detectives, and he said that detectives do not believe they have anything to do with her disappearance. Outside of that, no suspects named. To Paul Hargrave, this is Crystal's boyfriend. Now, it's my understanding that your surveillance video at your home shows her leaving with what appears to be a big black overnight bag. But that's not uncommon. What do you make of that? She carried that overnight bag with her most of the time when she came over. And since that information has come out, I was able to get my IT guy over at the house who installed my camera system at my business. And we have since extracted more information off that DVR system.

The pictures and the video that has come out on the inside of the house were what they call IT cameras, excuse me, that are just kind of uploaded to a cloud. So the quality is not that great. I do have a DVR system that has recorded Crystal leaving outside of the garage and getting into the car and then exiting the neighborhood at our intersection. It also shows me leaving later on that morning as well. So that's going to be released. The police should already have that information and that will be released as well. You know, another issue to Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist, joining me out of Florida. According to her family, Crystal also keeps a real estate bag. It contains all of her paperwork.

It's a black briefcase in her car. That's what her family has said. Now, the sheriff in that jurisdiction, Sheriff Hawthorne, has said that there was a black bag found next to the computer at her ex-husband's home. Now, it had real estate documents and items in it. It was a black briefcase. It was not an overnight bag. I find that very intriguing because that would suggest that she did make it to the ex-husband's house. If she keeps that briefcase in her car and the briefcase is at the ex-husband's house, maybe she made it there before she went missing. But that would indicate she was there. Is the only information that she didn't make it to his

house based on his report or someone else's report? What about that, Matt? Sheriff Hawthorne has not mentioned this detail to me. Dave Mack, what do you know about this black briefcase? Hold on, Dave. Paul Hargrave, what do you know about the black briefcase? Did she bring that into your house that night? Did she have it with her? Was it in her car? I don't recall a black briefcase, actually. I just, usually she uses this large black bag, and she puts all her real estate stuff in. And I, her computer was going out, or she was having some issues with it the week before she went missing. And I gave her, I had an extra Surface Pro computer.

So she came over to the store and I gave her that. And I remember her putting that in that black bag. I mean, she carried it with her kind of everywhere she went. But she also used it, you know, to put clothes in and whatnot. So I've never seen the briefcase. And I'm not saying it's not in existence. I just, I haven't seen it. A Texas family is desperate right now for answers after a mom of two little children, a successful realtor mysteriously disappears as the entire region

prepares for Hurricane Harvey to hit. Crystal McDowell is a 38-year-old realtor in the Houston area. She wrote, stay safe out there on her Facebook as the storm approached that Thursday night. But the next morning, she was seen on security cameras in her boyfriend's home as she left, reportedly heading to her ex's home to pick up their two children. Her plan was to drive inland to Dallas where she would wait out the storm. But you disagree with that, Paul Hargrave. You knew nothing about her driving to Dallas to wait out the storm with her children and that you were going to watch Game of Thrones that night. We were. I mean, she'd never mentioned Dallas to me.

We decided to stay in We were just, we decided to stay in town tentatively, depending on how bad weather conditions got. And we were just going to, I wasn't going to open the store Saturday and we're closed Sunday. So I figured we'd just stay in the house and catch up on Game of Thrones or something. Now, relatives, the uncle, report her missing just as Harvey was beginning to attack the Houston area. Paul, was she getting along with the ex? In the past week, no. She seemed pretty upset about a few things that came up recently with him not allowing the kids to go on this cruise.

And she was buying furniture for his house and he was getting a little, I guess, particular on the type of furniture or something. So she seems a little upset about those two issues. What was the cruise you're talking about? They had planned, from my understanding, they had planned to go on a cruise line that left out of the Port of Galveston many months ago. So they were all going to go. I think Jeff was going to go as well. Jeff Walters, the uncle. And she had asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to go.

And I said I would love to go, but I didn't think it would be. I thought it would be awkward if he went. So she asked him not to go, and then she ended up buying me a ticket on the cruise line. I was kind of shocked. I didn't know she did that until I got an email from Carnival. Wait, who was going to go, the ex-husband? Yes, the ex-husband was originally going.

Uh-oh, I bet that caused some friction. She tells him, no, don't come, and invites you. Okay, so then what happened? I got an email from Carnival saying that I'm going on a cruise. So I thought it was just really nice of her to do that. So at the time, she told me that he did not know I was going and that he was giving her a hard time about taking the kids if he wasn't going to be able to go.

Now, I know that you immediately took to social media to spread the word about Crystal going missing. And you put her photo and a description of her Mercedes on Facebook. But pretty soon, you were flooded with posts from various people. You had several false alarms, even an extortion attempt. And finally, somebody spotted her car partially submerged outside of Motel 6. Tell me about that.

I know you immediately tried to get there, but the floodwaters were getting higher and higher. What happened after you put the photo of her out there and described the black Mercedes? What happened? Well, it was a cooperative effort with the entire family. All the friends and family have been sharing posts. And I have a personal Facebook page and I also have a business Facebook page. And on a business page, you can actually boost the post and hit certain demographics.

And so I could hit up to 20,000, 30,000 people in a span of 24 hours if I wanted to. So we all started just putting out posts and sharing. Finally, someone saw the post and that's when it was, I guess, sent to the Chambers County Police Department. I have some good contacts with the Baytown Police Department. I started calling all my friends

and trying to find out what's going on. I tried to get there. Unfortunately, I drive a small BMW sedan, so I wasn't able to get there through I-10 or Massey-Thompson's or any direction to go out that direction because the floodwaters were way too high. The uncle has made a statement that he because the floodwaters were way too high. The uncle has made a statement that he approached the ex and was given an explanation for her disappearance. The uncle says the ex shows him a message on his phone, the ex's phone, where Crystal said she was going to get the children

and go to Dallas. The uncle also says he doesn't know if that's what really happened. Matt Hollis is with me, Baytown Sun newspaper. Does such a text exist where she texted the ex saying, I'm going to get the children and wait it out in Dallas? Mr. Walters has claimed that it does. I have not seen it myself. And just like you said, he's also, just like whatever that text said, it's not what happened.

Right now, no persons of interest or suspects have been named. Everybody's innocent and everybody is being looked at all at the same time. Crystal McDowell is 5'4". She weighs about 110 pounds. She's got blonde hair, green eyes. She's a realtor in the Baytown area, last seen wearing a black dress. And somehow, in all the confusion and the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, she's gone missing.

Important clue. She was missing before Harvey ever struck. If you have information, dial Chambers County Sheriff's Office 409-267-2500. Repeat, 409-267-2500. And now, on Crime Stories. This young aspiring pastor charged with murdering his Sunday school teacher wife. I think I killed my wife. What do you mean by that? What happened? 28-year-old Matthew Phelps arrested after a detailed and disturbing call to 911. I had a dream and then I turned on the lights and she stood on the floor.

How? How? How? I'm Nancy Grace and you are listening to the Triumph Channel Sirius XM 132. A man wakes up and calls 911. He claims he wakes up from a dream to find his 29-year-old wife dead with blood all over him. He has no idea what happened to his 29-year-old wife, Lauren Ashley Nicole Phelps. Mm-hmm. She's found dead in his bed from stab wounds. Joining me, syndicated talk show host Dave Mack, also with me, forensic psychiatrist,

and boy, do I need one, Dr. Daniel Bober. Okay, what cough medicine is that, Dr. Bober, that you take and you sleep through a stabbing of your wife right beside you in bed? And I find that, P.S., very hard to believe that an intruder comes in and says, oh, I'll stab her dead and leave him alive. But what cough medicine could that possibly be, Dr. Bober? Well, Nancy, I can almost imagine what you're going to say to me when I tell you this. But this medicine that they're talking about is called Coristidin. It's an antihistamine, but there's also another drug in there called dextromethorphan,

which is chemically. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow it down. Slow it down, big guy. I know you have a lot more letters after your name, like PhD, but wait a minute. Is this something over the counter? This is something over the counter. But the drug dextromethorphan is an anti-coughing or anti-tussive agent which is actually chemically related to ketamine and to pcp and works on a system in the brain called the glutamate system and there actually have been some isolated case reports of people becoming violent hallucinating and having manic-like episodes on this particular medication. Now, granted, it's... It's an over-the-counter cough syrup. That is a yes, no, Dr. Boone.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. An over-the-counter cough syrup. And this guy drinks it. He must have had a whole bottle because he seemingly... I should go get him the champagne glasses and just pour a little cough syrup in there. He doesn't remember a single thing about what happened. His wife is brutally stabbed dead in the bed beside him. Everything, including him, is covered in blood. Did I get that part right, Dave Mack?

You did. You got all of this right. I actually had to look up what this cough medicine is. And when I did, I looked at his comment. He said, I know it can make you feel good. And I'm thinking, well, all right. I thought you had trouble sleeping or you had a cough or cold. This is an extremely crazy story.

And it is over the counter. And kids take it on a regular basis and have for years. There's more to the story also. Now, if he was taking it. Okay, hold on. Wait a minute. Wait. Let's take a listen to the 911 call.

I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights, and she's dead on the floor. How? How? Dr. Bober. Dr. Daniel Bober. I had a dream. A dream. I had a dream.

And then I turned on the lights and she's dead on the floor. Nancy, I think you're going to. I had a dream. I turned on the lights and she's dead on the floor. Nancy, I think you're going to... I had a dream. I turned on the lights. She's dead on the floor. You know, OJ had a dream like that, didn't he? So did Amanda Knox. OJ didn't say he was sleeping.

Nancy, you know, in 1987, there was also a famous case out of Toronto, or sorry, out of Canada, called the Parks case, which is a guy who stated that he committed murder in his sleep and he drove 15 miles to his mother-in-law's house and killed his mother-in-law and severely injured his father-in-law and he was acquitted of the crime and it's that's Canada that's their problem and you mean to tell me, Dr. Bober, I am so happy you brought up the Parks case because a it was 30 years ago in another country.

So you're telling me, Dr. Bober, I can see it right now. I think you want to get hired as an expert on this case. That's what that's what you're saying. I can just smell it because you're digging up. You're digging up the old bones of a 30 year old case that happened what that's what you're saying i can just smell it because you're digging up you're digging up the old bones of a 30 year old case that happened in canada i'm only speaking about it from the psychiatric standpoint nancy that that the the biology of sleep is very complex and people have been known to do very complex things in sleep including driving a car having sex eating and committing murder so i'm not saying that this

is what's happening but i am or happened rather but i'm saying it is possible sorry i fell asleep during that because um you want a jury you would suggest a jury could believe that this guy slept through stabbing his wife because he was on an otTC cough syrup. I'm not saying it's likely, but I'm saying it's possible. Mm-hmm. Okay. You know what, Dave Mack, have I lost my mind? Because before this moment, I've always respected Dr. Daniel Bober. I mean, have you looked at his credentials?

He's no idiot. Okay? He's pretty darn sharp. All right? Now he's jumping up, as I like to say, jumping up, claiming, because of an incident in Canada. Dave, can you just throw me a bone here? Help me out. I can.

Let me tell you this. Kids call it DXing. You know, it's got DMX in it. It's one of those things that has gone back for many years. But you're talking, it comes in tablet and liquid form, Nancy. And the guy took it to cop a buzz. If you actually look at what he said, he said he took it to make him feel better. He added in that he had trouble sleeping. So I'm looking at a guy who is, granted, this is a guy that graduated Bible college six years ago. He's only been married for 10 months. And now his wife, you know, he falls asleep and kills his wife. I'm not buying

it at all. Let's take a listen to the entire 911 call. We only played you a tiny snip. Listen to this. September 1, 2017. 0, 1, 12, and 16 seconds. 9-1-1, what's the address of the emergency? Patuxent Drive. Okay, just repeat that address and make sure we have it right. Patuxent Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina. Okay, and what is your first and last name? Phone number you calling from?

Phone number? Yes, sir. Tell me exactly what happened. I think I killed my wife. What do you mean by that? What happened? I had a dream and then I turn on the lights and she's dead on the floor. How? How? I have blood all over me and there's a bloody knife on the bed and I think I did it. Okay, you need to stay on the phone with me. I'm getting her ambulance, okay? I can't believe this. I can't believe this. When did you wake up to find this?

I don't even know what time it is. Alright, stay on the phone with me sir. I just got to ask you a few questions, okay? I'm getting some help to you. Are you with the patient now? Yeah, I can see her. Okay, alright, how old is the patient? She's 29. Okay, is she awake at all right now? What makes you think she's dead? Is she awake? She's not breathing.

Okay. Oh my God. Okay, do you think she is beyond any help? I don't know. I'm too scared to get too close to her. Okay, just stay on the phone with me, sir. I'm here with you. I'm here with you. I'm too scared to get too close to her. Okay, just stay on the phone with me, sir. I'm here with you. I'm here with you. I'm so scared. All right, I've already sent the paramedics to help you, okay?

I'm sending someone to assist you. Just please leave everything as you found it. Is there anything else we can do for you? Sir, where's the knife right now? It's on the bed. I'm not next to it. So I don't have a weapon on me or anything like that. Okay. When did you wake up? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I took more medicine than I should have. What medicine did you take? I took horse eating, coughing cold, horse eating, HPT coughing cold, because I know it can make you feel good, so a lot of times I can't sleep at night. Okay. And I took some. All right, so what, are you sure she's not breathing? She's not breathing. Oh my God.

Okay, I'm going to stay here with you, okay? She's not moving. Oh my God. Okay, I'm going to stay here with you, okay? Just at least see if she's breathing, okay? All right. Can you see her from where you're at? Yeah, it's so bad. Okay. Okay, all right. It's so bad. There's so much blood. Okay. All right.

I'm going to stay here on the phone with you until help gets there, okay? Just don't touch anything. Just look at if she's breathing at all. Is her chest moving? Is anything going on with her? No. Okay. We're going to leave you.

Water's dried on me. It's dried? The blood's not wet on me. The blood is dry. Okay. I don't know what I... Oh, my God. All right, well, we're gonna at least try to help her, okay? All right, just give me this. Alright, I've already sent the paramedics to help you.

Just stand by and I'm gonna tell you exactly what to do next, okay? Are you right by her? Oh my God. How did I can see her? Oh my God. Stay with me, sir. I know this is upsetting, but we're gonna try to do as much for her as we can. If you're not sure that she's gone, we're going to try to help her.

Okay, so just listen carefully. Oh, God. Just listen. Okay, sir. First, just look at her right now. Tell me what you see. Is she using the chest moving? Is she breathing?

Anything at all? No, she's stop moving at all. Oh my God. I'm sorry. I hope you didn't deserve this. I don't know why. I understand, sir. I understand.

But right now, we just want to make sure we're doing as much as possible. Is there anyone else at all in the home with you? Or is it just you and her? No, it's just me and her. Where are you in the house? Where are you in the house, sir? I'm in the back of the house. There's a white on. There's a light on. There's a light on.

There's a light on. Okay, well... Okay, well... Alright, is the door unlocked? I don't know. Can you go do that for me, sir? That way the paramedics can get in? Are you able to do that? No.

Okay, go ahead and stay on the phone with me. Go ahead and unlock the door, okay? I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry, sir. What did you say, sir? I'm sorry, buddy. Go ahead and unlock the door. Let me know once you've done that, okay?

Let me know when the door's unlocked. Okay. You said officers are there? No. Okay, I'm going to let you go. I'm going to let you go. Okay, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Did you just hear that, Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host?

Did you hear this? He goes, do you think she's beyond help? Dispatch. Husband, I think so. I'm too scared to get close to her. Yeah. What? You know, this is not going to play well for him when he gets into the prison cafeteria and they say, what are you in for?

Guy's too afraid to touch a woman who he's been married to for 10 months because the blood's dried on him already. This is so jacked up. I can't figure out where he made this story up. What do we know about this guy, Dave? We know that he went to Bible college in Kentucky, to a Southern Baptist Bible college, and that he graduated in 2011. They call him a pastor wannabe, maybe. I mean, he's been out of school for six years, and he basically works for a lawn mowing service. His wife actually posted a video the night before she died of a home product selling candles, and she looked happy in that.

So obviously this is a guy who's frustrated into Star Wars and apparently over-the-counter cough medicine. So just before her death, his wife is a gorgeous young girl, posted a video on Facebook where she was selling a product for Scentsy. It's S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T. S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T, S-C-E-N-T. It's a candle company. It's something new.

She was selling it online. And Dave Mack's right. This guy was working at a lawn service, but he had graduated from Kentucky's Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, 2011. He studied evangelism and mission. Okay, so back to you, Dr. Daniel Boebert. Is this chorosedent? Is this what we're talking about?

Is that it? No, chorosedent, Nancy, is an antihistamine just like Benadryl is. We're talking about dextromethorphan which oh you just love throwing around those big words because you know i'm just a jd what did you say dex what dextromethorphan which as your other guest pointed out is a drug of abuse it is what's classified as a dissociative meaning it produces an out-of-body experience and is often abused recreationally. So it sounds like this man was probably using it in that fashion when this crime occurred. So the 911 operator says, what happened? I had a dream, then I turned on the lights, and she's dead on the floor.

All right, where is the guy now, Dave Mack? Where is the husband now? Matthew Phelps. He's being held in Wake County Jail without any bond. Being held without bond. What were the charges on which he was arrested? Actually, he's being charged with first-degree murder at this point. Dr. Bober, why is it that all these people that are connected to a dead body have dreams?

You remember, I mean, unless Amanda Knox was clairvoyant, you know, then she very likely had something to do with the death of her roommate. And yes, I know. I know about the acquittal. O.J. Simpson had a dream about Nicole's death. And in those dreams, they're on the scene. Isn't that quite the coincidence, Dr. Bober? It is a coincidence. And, you know, this could obviously be something that he cooked up or his attorney cooked up.

But there have been documented cases of this occurring. And again, I'm not saying that it's likely or that it's probable, but it is possible. And it is something that maybe could be put in front of a jury if it had if it came to that. You say cases. You tell me about one case there's about seven cases of this sort of sleepwalking or what's called an automatism defense where people have committed homicides during sleep about 10 percent of americans nancy suffer from something called parasomnias which are disturbances in sleep so they that might be what's been one way the defense may want to go on this, or they may want to use this drug and say that that was involved in some way, causing him to have some altered state of consciousness or wakefulness, which, sleepwalking defense. Now, one was Massachusetts v. Terrell. That was 1846, and I'm pretty sure they're not going to be able to dig that one up.

Terrell slit the woman's throat and almost decapitated her. Okay. Then there was Fane v. Commonwealth. That was in the 1870s. A guy fell asleep in the lobby of a Kentucky hotel, and when the porter tried to shake him awake, he drew a gun and shot the porter three times. Okay, the porter held him down on the floor, and the man repeatedly yelled, whoo-wee, and left the room and told a witness he shot somebody. Okay, I don't think that's going to compare to this. State V. Bradley,

a Texas man, Isom Bradley, that was in the 1920s that he and his mistress were getting ready for bed. He became alarmed about an enemy who once made a threat against him. Fearing a secret attack, he goes to bed with a pistol under his pillow. And then, guess what? He kills his girlfriend. Okay. How many more do I have? Yeah, you're right.

There's just seven. Regina v. Parks. That's the Canada case you told me about. And there's Pennsylvania v. Rixers. Oh, he was convicted in the murder of his wife. You know, it's funny how so many married men take cough syrup. Hmm. I'm going to have to hide my husband's cough syrup.

Maybe it was cold and flu season, Nancy. You know, in 2003, there was a case that came down to this where a guy blamed a murder on the choricetin that he was taking in tablet form. That was in 2003.

It didn't work for him there. Well, this is actually the best from the Coruscant. I'm looking at these cases, and almost every single one of them, there was conviction. Now, I do recall an arson case where a guy claimed he had on a sleep apnea machine and had no idea what was going on around him. So out of these seven cases, it looks like most of them got convicted. We'll see. And we'll find out if Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist,

is listed on the defense witness list because he sounds pretty serious about this. Never going to happen. You almost had me convinced. You almost had me convinced for about a half a second, Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist joining me out of Florida. Dr. Bober, I love arguing with you. And Dave Mack, buddy, thank you for being with us. We're on the case.

But as we are kidding around about the sleepwalking defense and its lack of success. Another thing to remember is this girl's family is preparing a funeral. So we'll keep that in mind as we keep our eye on the prize of justice. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.