Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing Ebby Steppach: Why did police wait to look?

Episode Date: September 11, 2017

For weeks after Ebby Steppach disappeared after a party in October 2015, Little Rock, Arkansas, police treated her case as if the 18-year-old high school senior had just run away from home. Detectives now investigating the cold case acknowledge mistakes were made early. Nancy Grace talks to Ebby's mother Laurie Jernigan and Doc Washburn of Little Rock's NewsRadio 102.9 about renewed efforts to find Ebby. Nancy also updates the Crystal McDowell probe. The Texas realtor was found dead and her husband has been charged with murder. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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of independent lawyers without being billed by the hour. Since LegalZoom is not a law firm, hurry to LegalZoom.com now for your free estate planning kit. No obligation, just great resources to help you protect what you care about, your family. For special savings, be sure to enter code NANCY, N-A-N-C-Y at checkout. LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. Abby Steppa disappeared in October 2015, but no one has come forward with information. Well, she is still missing, and that is why her family announced today they're increasing the reward to $50,000. We believe there are people out there that were with her day or day or two prior to her disappearance that may have information about what happened to her or who she was with. The

case moved to a cold case squad with four retired homicide detectives. A lot of mistakes were made, things were missed and when the homicide squad got the case they had to start all over start over from day one they're following new leads working in conjunction with the fbi i'm 100 confident that it's being worked it's being worked hard missing but not forgotten missing but not forgotten i'm forgotten. I'm talking about a beautiful young girl, Ebi Stepak. Ebi Stepak, now gone, vanishing with me, her mother. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

Straight out to our special guest, Ebby's mother, Laurie Jernigan. Also with me, Little Rock radio host, Doc Washburn. To both of you, welcome to SiriusXM 132. I want to hear all about Ebby. First to you, Laurie Jernigan. Tell me what happened when Ebi went missing. Start at the beginning for our listeners that don't know Ebi. This is so overwhelming.

I'm sorry if I start crying. Ebi was a senior, had just started high school, had started a new school by her choice. And she went to a party. She was staying with my son, her brother. She went to a party on Friday night, October 23rd, and was assaulted, sexually assaulted. She found out that it was being recorded. So she left the party. She contacted my husband Saturday evening and told him about it. She didn't want me to know about it. Told him that she wanted, that she did call the police. They were not helpful.

She told my husband exactly what happened. She mentioned she had also text other friends and told them what happened. So this guy that raped her, she knew him, correct? From school. From school. And is that one of the guys that went on to get a scholarship to school exactly okay uh so that happens that night she doesn't tell you because she doesn't want you upset she tells her dad instead did they report the rape no he did not e Ebby called the police before she told my husband, which is Ebby's stepdad.

She did not get any answers from the police what to do. They did not give her any answers of coming downtown, reporting it. So after she told my husband in text message everything that happened, he was going to meet her and go to police station with her. Before they met, Abby disappeared. Oh, my stars. I did not understand that timeline because what I thought happened was the night before, she was raped by a guy that she knew.

She's still in high school. That she called police. Nothing was ever done about it. She disappears and he goes on to get a sports scholarship. It's my understanding of what happened. And then the next morning she goes with her brother. She's supposed to go with her brother to visit the grandma in West Little Rock. Your husband, her stepfather, was supposed to meet her there. But when he gets there, she's gone. Her family never saw Ebby again. Is that correct?

That's correct. She was at her grandmother's house around 7 p.m. She texted my husband, told him everything that happened. He said, I'll meet you. She didn't want him to come to my parents' house. She didn't want them upset. So she said, yes, we'll meet. He left, called her to get a place to meet. He never heard from her. He couldn't get in touch with her. He verified with my parents that she was there,

that she left. She actually told my parents, I'll be back later. Love you, was not upset and left. We don't know where she went or who she met or what happened to her until 5.30 Sunday afternoon the next day, 5.30 the next afternoon. After all of us trying to reach her, she finally answered the phone. My son called her. She finally answered the phone. My son called her. She finally answered the

phone. He said, where are you? And she said, I'm in front of your house. So my son Trevor hung up and said, okay, I'm on my way out. He went out there. She wasn't there. He called her back. He said, you're not here. Where are you? And she said, I don't know. I'm with my car. Isn't it true that in that conversation, your son says, Abby sounded very disoriented, that she didn't seem to know what was going on? What do you mean by that?

What do you mean by she sounded disoriented? She didn't sound drunk or slurring, but she did not know where she was. She didn't know who was with her. All she could say to him was, I'm in my car. I'm with my car. And the more he tried to question her, that's all he could get from her was, and this conversation went on four minutes and all she could say over is, I'm with my car. I don't know who I'm with. I don't know where I am. That's all I could get from her. He called my husband to get her phone ping to find out where she was.

That's what was going on. He called my husband. That's what they were trying to do. At the same time, my husband's driving everywhere looking for her. And when Trevor called her back, she never answered again. We've never heard from her again since that phone call. To Doc Washburn, Little Rock radio host joining us, isn't it true that a few days after she disappears,

her car, it was a silver Volkswagen, and her belongings, including her cell phone, her contact lenses, were found in West Little Rock? What do we know, Doc? Yeah, the car was found, and the guy who found it was, I guess, the security guy there at the development, the neighborhood there in West Little Rock, and he contacted the police saying, I don't know why this car is out here. I guess the keys are still in ignition.

The battery was dead. It was out of gas. And it took several days for the police to respond. Why did it take several days for the police to respond. Why did it take several days for the police to respond? Ebby had already been reported missing. And this is her car. Yeah, sure. Well, the guy didn't know it was Ebby's car, apparently.

But when the police finally went out there and got the car, you know, Ebby's name is on the title, and her birth father's name is on the title. And even though everybody in town knows she's missing, the police call the birth father and say, Hey, we finally car out here. What's what's going on.

As if they didn't. That just seems unimaginable to me that this girl, this young girl, a high schooler for Pete's sake, goes missing in a relatively small town. I mean, I mean, we compare it to New York or L.A., San Francisco. This is a small town. Everybody knows she's missing and there's her car.

And it takes days for police to get there. And then they call the day and go oh hey we found your car the thing that that always has mystified me is the way that the people who were assigned to her case with little rock police department uh seemed to be intent on not getting to the bottom of what happened to her why do you say that because of everything that I have been told, the way that they treated Ebi's mother and stepfather. And for that matter, the guy who finds the car, you know, Ebi's family was told, oh, yeah, we interviewed him and everything, etc., etc. Months later to find out, they didn't months later to find out that uh apparently this guy had a video on a thumb drive um that they never bothered messing with for that matter um the

refusal to try to find out much about the people she was hanging out with. Nobody with the police department, with a crew that was investigating this at first, was interested in trying to get cell phones of people that she was with. I mean, it's just one thing after another. And the verbal abuse, I believe, and of course, Laurie can speak to this better than I can, that she and her husband experienced

from people who are still on the force with Little Rock Police Department. Hold on. Hold on. Verbal abuse on a victim's mom? With me is Ebby's mom. And if you could see the photos of this girl, she is absolutely stunning. She's just precious. And in a few short years, my little Lucy would be her age, and my John David, too.

Lori Jernigan, who is Ebby's mom, what is Doc Washburn saying about verbal abuse? This is the first time hearing of this. I've not read this or learned this from my research. What verbal abuse is Doc talking about? Lori? It happened during the whole case. These officers, this lieutenant, the sergeant, the detective, no one would investigate this. No one.

It went on, and I would show up at the police station. I brought, I can't tell you how many copies of phone records I brought. Every time I would show up, it would be ugly. And they got mad because I would come down and confront them. They got mad because I would show where they were lying to me. It got so bad that the prosecutor here in Little Rock sent one of his ex-employees with me so she could take notes, just to have some when they're taking notes that's a third party. When I asked them for the phones, the boys' phones, they said, no, we didn't get them. And I was just just I couldn't believe it another one of Abby's friends had Abby's

original phone and had been sharing the cloud with Abby I asked if they got her phone no we didn't get them I asked them are they no we're not we don't have probable cause I I was just outraged. I can't even describe how I felt, how I still feel about it. I'm so angry. When I got so angry that the whole police force, like the captain, all the lieutenants, everyone met with me. I went over reason after reason after reason to get these boys phones, to get subpoenas for them. And that captain looked at me and said, there's no probable

cause. And I looked at him and said, what does it take for probable cause. I can't even express what that did to my family over and over. It got to be so bad. I had the lieutenant, well, the sergeant that was head of this case at the time. We were very angry at each other and we had text messages back and forth. They took my husband. They didn't ask for polygraph tests for us from the beginning, which we were absolutely would have done in a second. This sergeant, for whatever reason, was hell bent on putting this on my husband. There's no rec, I mean, everything, there's nothing that would suggest my husband had anything involved.

Well, the last person to talk to her was her brother. Right. And your husband's whereabouts have been verified at the time of that conversation he was not with her right i'm nancy grace this is crime stories and we are investigating the disappearance of a beautiful young high school girl out of little rock her name is ebby ebby jane stepak and her Jane Stepak. And her face and so many of her pictures just seem to say, her face just seems to say, help me. Are you through looking for me?

Have you forgotten about me? I'm looking at so many pictures of her right now as I'm talking. Beautiful girl, blonde hair, green eyes. She wears contact lens, but her contact lenses were left behind in her car along with her cell phone. Why? Why? Take a listen to a recent announcement regarding the reward for information leading to the discovery of Ebi Stepik. Today, Lori and I are announcing an increased reward in Ebi's case. The reward amount for information leading to Ebi's whereabouts is now $50,000.

Joining me right now, very special guest, Ebi's mother, Lori Jernigan, and Little Rock Radio host, Doc Washburn. To you, Doc, again, thank you to both of you for being with us in the search for Ebby. It's really hard for me to believe coming from being part of the criminal justice system, relying on cops every day, investigators, medical examiners, to take the stand and help me prove a crime occurred. It's really hard for me to hear that police in Little Rock were stonewalling Abby's mom. What do you, and I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I mean, it does happen. All you got to do is Google police bad cops and you'll see

a million videos. For me, that's always hard to take. But I want to hear what you think happened. I have no reason to disbelieve Abby's mom. I have every reason to believe her

because she wants to find her daughter. I want to find her daughter. So what is she talking about, Doc? Well, ever since I sat down with Laurie and her husband and they told me the story of what they had been through, this was months before they came on the radio with me, and I said, let me know when I can help. I just got the impression that there are some bad apples in every bunch, and that would include the Little Rock Police Department. And I just wonder who knows who and who may have been trying to protect somebody.

I mean, when I mentioned earlier the verbal abuse, Lori's only scratched the surface. There was a lot more, and in my opinion, a lot worse. Lori, tell Nancy Grace what happened when you apparently committed the unpardonable sin of referring to some of the guys that Evie had been hanging out with as thugs. Yeah, I want to hear exactly what happened, Lori, because you confronted the police about the guys that were at that party that night, and they didn't want to hear anything about it. They did not want to hear one word about it. So, Lori, my question is, what has become of those guys that you believe raped Abby?

Nothing. They've gone to school. They're on with their lives. They've not been questioned again. They were questioned at the very beginning, briefly. The guy said, no, you're not getting our phones. And they were left. I mean, so they've gone on with their lives.

You know, we're left looking for our daughter. Ebby Stepak. Ebby Stepak was a senior at Central High School at the time she vanished. She had previously attended Little Scholars of Arkansas Academy, which is a charter school there for smart kids that focuses on math, science, engineering, computer technology. Her family fears she may have even become the victim of human trafficking. To Lori Jernigan, why do you think that is a possibility, that Ebby's been human trafficked? At first, I thought that theory is far-fetched.

The more I find out about human trafficking, I don't believe it's far-fetched anymore. No, I don't either. You know, that's part of the devastating things we've had to delve into. The fact that her car, their dogs, she's been searched, it's been searched and searched. There's been no evidence of her being in that park. And also, Ebby was not using drugs. She wasn't drinking. For her to be that disoriented speaks to somebody gave her drugs.

Wait a minute. You said a park. Did I hear you say there's no evidence she was in a park? Why do you say that? Well, the dogs have not picked up on a scent. That area's been searched three or four times. There's no trace of her there. Well, I'm saying why do you even suspect the park?

Her phone was pinged when she was talking to my son. Her phone was pinged when she was talking to my son. Her phone was pinged in that park. Ah, but wasn't her phone found in her car? Yes, the phone was found in her car. But it was pinged just before that in the park. Who pinged it? Little Rock Police Department pinged it.

Their original ping was wrong. They put in the wrong phone number and got a different ping. That went on for about three months. So when we finally realized where the correct ping was, it was from her phone in that park. Now, Abby had a very unusual tattoo. What did it say, Lisa? With every darker night becomes a brighter day. And is that on her arm? That's on her torso, on her right torso.

With every darker night, there comes a brighter day. Yes. And that was her heart. This is just so perplexing to me. Doc Washburn, Little Rock radio host. What do you believe became of Abby because see, I find it too much of coincidence that she was raped the night before and it was videoed by the creep that did it. And then the next, within, you know, 48 hours, she goes missing.

Her car is found abandoned in an unrelated upscale suburban home housing development. I find that very, I mean, there is no coincidence in criminal law, I very often say. So it's hard for me to think that one night she's raped, she calls the police, she tells her stepdad, there's an outcry witness, two of them, and then suddenly she's gone. I'm just not buying it, Doc. No, I'm not either, Nancy. And obviously you're thinking like a prosecutor, and I've never had any law courses, but I've talked to plenty of lawyers, and usually I think the most reasonable explanation is the correct one and the fact that

the people at the little rock police department who are supposed to be investigating are telling laurie and her husband right off the bat well don't go to the media don't publicize this and the fact that they told this family for months yes we we interviewed the custodian there at the residential area where the car was found. And then months later, when Ebi gets a hold of a private investigator, he finds out, no, they didn't interview the guy. And the guy had video on the thumb drive for months. It might have helped, but now the thumb drive is gone. And the fact that they're refusing to follow up with these guys that that Evie was hanging out with. I mean, the whole crew that was handling supposedly this investigation for the first eight months seemed determined to not want to know what happened to her.

We hope and we pray that she's still alive, but I think that if they had actually conducted a competent investigation from the start, then we would have found out. And now we here at SiriusXM 132 and CrimeOnline.com are joining the hunt for the missing Little Rock girl, Abby Stepak. The missing teen, whose parents now fear she may have been kidnapped or worse. Joining us now, Ebby was planning to go to the Little Rock PD to report a sex assault, a rape. But before she could actually talk to police, before she could get to the police station, she disappears. Why? She's become famous within the Little Rock, Arkansas community, but for what? For going missing. Ebby goes to a house party. That was the end of the trail for Abby, for all intents and purposes.

She goes to a party on a Friday night. She is sex assaulted there. It was videotaped. Police never got that video. To her mom joining me, Lori Jernigan. Lori, when you wake up in the morning and you put your feet on the floor and you think of your girl, Abby, what goes through your mind? I'm devastated. I miss her so much. I have so much anger towards the police that were involved in this in the beginning.

I have so much gratitude for the detectives that have it now. I miss her so much. I miss her so much. I miss her so much. I don't know what happened to her. I want her back. I want her body back. For me to think that someone kidnapped her, which is a very real possibility from somebody she knows or somebody she doesn't know. Human trafficking in our area is so prominent. From what I know about it, being groomed by guys that you meet, by employers, by boyfriends,

all those things are possibilities. That's where sex trafficking came into this. As you start searching for her and the people around her, the next thing is that she's killed. Where is she? If she was in her car at the park, there should be some trace of her somewhere. There was no trace of her. There was no smells.

NetMet came in. National Centers for Exploited Children came in. And what became of that? What became of that when they entered the scene, Lori? They entered the scene. Colleen Nick, who is a huge advocate for missing children, invited me to a round table with the national centers. And in, when I went to that round table,

I told them what was going on and the officers and detectives were horrified that that happened. They, they asked me if Abby was registered with Nick Mick. And I said, surely she is. They checked and they, they came to say, no, she's not.

You know, you can imagine the emotions I had with that. I called the detectives in Little Rock and said, you've got to get her registered today. I want an email today telling me she's registered. They called me back the next day. They registered in the system, in this national database, that they're required to register missing persons immediately. The law requires them to do that. It's been almost a year and a half they hadn't. I got her registered, and they contacted our Little Rock Police Department and asked if they could come up there, meet with them, and go over this case. They have resources, the best in the world, Nipmuc does.

Little Rock had never heard of them. They had never heard of them. Well, I'm going back over all the evidence in my mind. I mean, what teen girl, he's behind her cell phone or clothing or makeup, contact lenses and her cell phone? I mean, that's their world. Why would she willingly leave that behind? There was a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to the discovery of the whereabouts of Ebi. We are joining the search here at SiriusXM 132 and CrimeOnline.com, the search for a Little Rock teen girl, Ebi Stepak. Where is Ebi?

She was last seen at her grandmother's house. Her parents are desperate to find her. She made one mystery call to her brother, but was disoriented and was clearly asking for help, but couldn't seem to be able to say where she was or who had her. Days later, her car turns up in an upscale area near Little Rock. It was sitting there. It took police three days to come get her car. In the car, her cell phone, her makeup, her contact lenses. No teen girl wants to be separated from her cell phone. I can tell you that much. So let me go to our special guest, Duck Washburn, Little Rock radio host and Ebby's mother, Lori Jernigan.

Lori, have there been any sightings of her at all since she went missing? No, she's completely off the grid. She's not on social media. She hasn't been seen anywhere. No one has talked to her. Our detective said she's literally vanished off the face of the earth. Abby was all about social media. She was on social media all the time, as kids are. She's not been on anything, anywhere. The FBI are involved in this. They can't find any trace of her on social media anywhere. I'm reading a post that you, Laurie Jernigan, posted.

It says, Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, I ask boldly, give me Ebby today. Tell me what was going through your mind

when you wrote that, Lori? You know, I write that, I feel that every day. I pray to have her every day. I have very strong faith, but this will sure make you question it. And I plead. We have Abby's Facebook page and we have so many followers that pray for her and pray for us every day. I don't even know most of these people, but Eddie has touched their heart. And the mystery, you can't just disappear. You just can't disappear. And I don't understand FBI, you know, law enforcement. No one can find what happened to her, can't find her or find what happened to her. You know, it's amazing to me. It's amazing to me.

Washburn police told the parents not to go public. Yeah. Why? You know, that's a $64,000 question, Nancy. I wish I knew, but again, the way they treated this family, at least the police with the Little Rock Police Department who were supposed to be doing the investigation for the first eight months, it's an outrage. The people who picked up the ball after the first eight months

seem to have been doing a good job, but so much was lost in that initial time period that you can't go back and get. Well, what's amazing to me is that the rape was never investigated, and the alleged rapist has now gone off to college with a scholarship. The alleged rapist, I can't outright say rape because it was never even investigated. So nobody's a suspect, nobody's a perpetrator, nobody's a person of interest,

because it was never investigated. And then the videotape, as I understand it, was on a hard drive, and that's been lost? Explain that to me, Doc. The thumb drive that i was talking about was was the video of where the car was found the security guy at the development wait wait there's surveillance video of her car being driven what do we know about that video is it real is that her car well you know if the little Police Department, if the people at the Little Rock Police Department hadn't lied and said, yeah, we interviewed the security guy out at the development. And months later, the P.I. found out, well, no, that's not true.

They didn't interview him. And he had a thumb drive with video of that area for several months before he got rid of it. You know, there's so much like that that has been missed by people who seem to be determined to not find out what happened to this young lady. I have no doubt in my mind that this is not a case of a runaway. So many times police will label a case as, ah, she's a runaway, she'll turn up. Yes. There is no way, no way that Abby would have stayed gone this long. Absolutely no way that she would leave behind her cell phone, that she would not have turned up.

There would be no sightings of her whatsoever. Lori Jernigan, you're convinced this is not a runaway scenario, and I agree with you. Why do you say that? Abby is so close to her family. We're very close. She would spend the night out, but she would come home. She wanted to be at home.

She wanted her friends to be at our home. She was more comfortable at home. There's not a day that has gone by in her life that we haven't been in contact or with her. There was no question. She would never do this. If she was mad at us or mad at someone, she would still never stay out of contact with us. Let's talk about the facts. Let's talk about her cell phone. What evidence, if any, was recovered from her cell phone? What were her last phone calls and texts? Do you know that?

No, I don't. Why? I've not been told that. Where's the phone? The FBI has it. The FBI. Would they allow you to see it? We first got the phone in the very beginning. The Little Rock Police Department gave

us the phone and asked us if we knew how to unlock it. Oh boy, that's not a good sign. No, and they couldn't get it unlocked. Well, I don't know her passcode. I assumed police officers knew how to do that. Well, ours didn't. They didn't know how to get into her Snapchat, her Instagram, her Facebook. I literally had to download and copy the directions for law enforcement to get information from apps. I had to download that. That's what you agree to when you download any app. I had to copy that and give that to them so they could figure out how to contact Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. So the FBI has it now. It's amazing to me that you don't know,

they haven't told you her last text, her last voicemails, who spoke to her last. And you can definitely triangulate or figure out where her cell phone had been prior to finding it and where it had been prior to those last pings. If anybody contacted her, said, hey, meet me, anything like that. And why do you think, Doc Washburn, that her car turned up in this upscale housing development that she has no connection to. It looks like somebody dumped the car to me. I mean, look, if they had the search done out there and they couldn't find any trace that she had been in that development outside that car, you know, even if she was abducted, it doesn't look like she was abducted there. That's the one thing. And the other thing as to what Laurie

was talking about, about how it seemed to be like pulling teeth to get the Little Rock Police Department interested in checking out social media. My understanding is, and I don't know if it's changed since Ebby disappeared, but the Little Rock Police Department didn't have an IT guy. They didn't know anything about social media. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, for Pete's sake. Every force has an IT guy. This is what we know.

Abby Stepak disappears October 2015. No one has come forward with any information to help find her. She's missing as of right now. The reward has increased for information leading to Ebby's whereabouts. It is now $50,000. That's a lot of money. Lori Jernigan, her mom, now has a little more hope because we now know that a new team has been assembled to help in the

investigation. They are four retired homicide detectives. Listen to what Detective Tommy Hudson says. There are still leads being followed up on Evie Stovick's disappearance. Not all the leads have been exhausted yet. It's a long drawn out case. I can tell you that we have resources from the FBI and the agents from the Little Rock Field FBI office here that are assisting us in the case. I'm happy that the family has agreed to raise the reward to $50,000. Any temp that can come in, we investigate. The one thing we do ask the public is we're looking for information in regards to Miss Devick's disappearance or what happened to Miss

Devick. We're not so much looking for information about opinions of how the investigation should proceed. Because what happens is when people start sending information about how the investigation should proceed, it bogs the investigation down. So we want the active information that's out there that we believe somebody in the public has about the disappearance, particularly in Ms. Stebbick's friends and the people that she ran around with, especially in her social media contacts,

that could help us, the timeline we have established in her disappearance. They may have something that we can add to our initial timeline that may help us look in a certain direction that may help us try to find where it was at. Back to Lori Jernigan, mother of missing Abby Jane. Lori, tell me, how do you keep your hope alive that you will see her again? Faith. My belief in God. That's the only thing that keeps me going. And when I don't have it as other prayers that keep me going, that's the only way I can keep going. I will fight whoever I need to fight until I find her, until I find her body, until I find her, I will fight till my last breath.

I have made so many enemies in our law enforcement here in Arkansas, and I've also had advocates show up in our police department. That's where my hope lies, is our detective right now, Tommy Hudson, he's obsessed with this. He came out of retirement for this case. This is a case he works on full-time. We had an assistant chief, Wayne Buley,

that when he removed the case from our original group, he apologized to me over and over of how we were treated, how the case was mishandled. We had files falsified. We had our original group investigators get into her Google account and manipulate her account. There are so many things that were done to, like Doc said, prevent us from finding our daughter. They wanted to stick with their theory. She's a runaway. She'll come home. Of course, police always look at those closest to a victim, and that would include her stepfather.

Police investigated him, and he has totally been cleared. There was even no suggestion that he was involved in this, and I want to put that in the listener's minds right now, because there was nothing at all to suggest her brother or stepfather or bio dad had anything to do with her disappearance. And I'm saying that because that's the first place all homicide or kidnap investigations start. With those family members and then it goes out to love objects, romantic interests, exes. It goes from there. I'm going to put it on the record right now. The stepfather, the bio dad, the brother, have absolutely nothing to do with

Ebby's disappearance. To Ebby's mom, Lori Jernigan. Lori, when you think of Ebby, what is your most vivid memory? How happy she is. Her love of people, animals, and her happiness. Her affection. She loved, loved, loved. And she helped others. That gave her so much joy to help others. Her friends, the constant theme is she would do anything for you. And she would.

I don't have that anymore. I don't have that anymore. I don't have her here. I don't get to see that face, hear her funny stories. I don't have that anymore. And those that have come to know her through this investigation, she's touched so many lives. She's touched so many lives she's touched so many lives through all this I have to fight for her because Abby's a fighter and I have to share everything that I have searched through if it's human trafficking if it's corruption I search and search and I share

everything I search and that's what Abby would I search. And that's what Ebi would do for me. If you are listening now, as we join forces to help find Ebi, if you have information, please call 501-371-4660. Repeat, 501-371-4660 or email to T, as in toy, T. Hudson, T-H-U-D-S-O-N at LittleRock.gov. T. Hudson at LittleRock.gov, 501-371-4660. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of Abby Stepak. Breaking news now. regarding the beautiful Texas realtor, the mother, who mysteriously goes missing just before Harvey hits Texas. Before all the bedlam, the flooding, the evacuation, before Harvey hits, she goes missing. And using Harvey as a cover, it remains a mystery. What happened to Crystal?

Crystal McDowell, a mother of two who vanishes the day, just hours before Harvey lands in the Gulf Coast area in Southeast Texas. We're learning all of this from Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne. Crystal's body, against all of our hopes and prayers has been found. This gorgeous mom has been found slain. Repeat, the body of a Texas realtor has been found in a marshy wooded area. This is over two weeks after she disappears the day Hurricane Harvey makes landfall just before it hits. It was not Harvey related. Joining me, three special guests, Paul Chambers, investigative reporter out of Texas, crime stories contributor, Karen Stark, renowned psychologist out of New York, and Paul Hargrave, Crystal's boyfriend, who was one of the last people to see her

and has been zealously seeking the truth regarding her disappearance. Paul Hargrave, thank you so much for being with us. When did you learn that Crystal's body had been found? I received a phone call from the Texas Ranger. I thought that was very kind of him to call me and notify me. You know, Nancy, it's been a roller coaster of emotions these past few days. I don't even recall. It was sometime in the afternoon around 2 p.m. and from that point forward, I left work and got in the car and just drove. So my day is kind of washing together right now, but I got a call around 2 o'clock from the Texas range.

To Paul Chambers, Texas-based investigative reporter. Paul, the narrow question, where was her body found and in what condition? We don't know much about the crime scene, but her body was discovered in a wooded area of West Chambers County. They're not getting very specific, but they did tell us that the body was found by the Texas Rangers and detectives from the Chambers County Sheriff's Department. You know, what's disturbing, Paul Chambers, is her body out there all this time in these horrible, horrible weather conditions as Harvey hits Texas. But to Paul Hargrave, her boyfriend, grieving now. Paul, I want you to know, I know what you're going through. I know exactly what you're going through. And I am so sorry. And another thing that is upsetting me greatly, as it is you, I'm sure, our children probably don't know enough to understand this yet. But all of her friends said when she went missing, they knew what happened.

It was not Harvey. It was not a failed evacuation attempt. They knew what happened, Paul Hargrave. Is that true? That is true, Nancy. We all had our suspicions. I voiced my concerns as deeply and as profoundly as I could to the detectives, to the Texas Ranger. However, because of my position in this all, being a person of interest, I'm sure it didn't hold much water. The sheriff thought probably it was just animosity between boyfriend and ex-husband and ex-husband and boyfriend. I tried to plead my case. This is what we know now regarding the disappearance and now the death of this beautiful mother, Texas realtor, Crystal McDowell. We know that there is foul play. We know there is a suspect in custody. We'll bring you the full

story as we dig deep tomorrow. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.