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The mystery of a missing realtor mother of two has emerged from Hurricane Harvey, and it seems unlikely she disappeared in the storm, according to police.
Crystal McDowell, 38, left her boyfriend's house in Baytown, Texas on August 25 to pick her little boy and girl up from her ex-husband's home 18 miles away.
'She texted me to say road conditions were good around 8.30am,' her boyfriend Paul Hargrave told CBS. That was the last communication anyone would have with Crystal, 24 hours before the catastrophic storm would touch down with full force.
Crystal missed an appointment to meet with clients Friday afternoon. Her uncle Jeff Walters, who works at the family's realty company, reported her as a missing person on Saturday.
Her uncle says he spoke to Crystal's ex husband Steve McDowell searching for answers as to what could have possibly happened to her.
'He showed me a message on his phone where she said she was going to get the kids and go to Dallas. I have reservations about believing that she sent that message,' Walters said to CBS.
Walters, who says he's raised her as his own daughter, was heading to Dallas to be with their elderly aunt, and that if Crystal wanted to come along she would have said so.
'Our main objective is just to get Crystal back home,' Walters told Inside Edition.
Both Walters and Hargrave posted frantically on social media to see if anyone saw Crystal.
Meanwhile the storm was now ravaging Texas and police efforts were thwarted until the natural disaster had let up.
They caught a break when someone said they saw Crystal's Mercedes with the matching license plate, submerged in water at a Motel 6 in Mont Belvieu, located between her boyfriend and her ex-husband's home.
'I think that there was probably some animosity between boyfriend and the husband. The husband might think that the boyfriend had something to do with it,' Brian Hawthorne of the Chambers County Sheriffs Office told CBS News.
'The boyfriend might think that husband has something to do with it. Which is exactly what we are faced with right now.'
Speaking to HLN Sheriff Hawthorne got in depth as to two black bags Crystal had in her possession on that Friday.
Her boyfriend's surveillance video at his home shows Crystal leaving with what appears to be a large black overnight bag.
There are multiple vantage points at Hargrave's home as he is a jeweler and, he explains, the nature of his business requires security.
Crystal, her family says, keeps her real estate paperwork in a black briefcase in her car, according to HLN.
Sheriff Hawthorne tells HLN 'There was a black bag found next to the computer at her ex husbands house. That is correct. It had real estate documents and items, it was a black briefcase, it was not like a Coach clothing bag. It was not something a woman would use as an overnight bag.'
Hawthorne adds: 'As the Sheriff I will tell you personally think there is some wrong doing in this. I think there is a suspicious nature. I don't think she has left on her own. I think there has been foul play at this point.'
Crystal's family fears the very worst, that the natural disaster of Hurricane Harvey could have been used to cover up a sinister crime.
Crystal Seratte McDowell is 5'4" and weighs approximately 110 pounds with blonde hair and green eyes. Anyone with information should call the Chambers County Sheriff's Office at 409-267-2500.