Dark Down East is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment, and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home, or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started.
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new car, like a legendary Camry. Built for performance and available with all-wheel drive, you can count on your new Camry to get anywhere you need to go. Or check out an affordable and reliable Corolla with a trim for every lifestyle. From the hip sedan to the sporty hatchback, there's a Corolla built just for you. Visit
buy at toyota.com for more national sales event deals. Toyota, let's go places. The school is back and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. Shop the hottest styles from the best brands like Nike, Jordan, FP Movement, Adidas, and Stanley. Stop by your local store or visit dicks.com for fast shipping. Now you're ready to win your year.
It's been 20 years since 17-year-old Crystal Lee Higgins disappeared from her down-east main town, only to be found dead a week later. Her death was ruled an accident, but her sister has questioned that ruling since day one. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Crystal Lee Higgins, part one, on Dark Down East.
Crystal Lee Higgins is Jessica Wooster's big sister. But even from a young age, Crystal took on an even greater role in her life. Crystal was not only just a sister, but she was also like a mother figure to me. Our childhood wasn't the best. Our biological mother left us when we were seven and eight.
For part of their childhood, Jessica, Crystal, and their brother lived with their father and stepmother in Downeast Maine. However, things got rocky when in January of 2003, their father was charged, again, for driving without a license. Because he was a habitual offender, he was sentenced to about two years in state prison, which left the kids at home with their stepmother.
Crystal and her stepmom didn't get along, and as Jessica explained to me, their stepmother wasn't always able to take care of them, and she and their father were headed for divorce. These circumstances eventually landed Jessica and her brother in foster care, and Crystal, at almost 16 years old, filed for emancipation.
Emancipation is when a young person gains legal independence from their parents or guardians before reaching the age of adulthood. It means they can make their own decisions about things like where to live, medical care, and managing their finances. Emancipation is usually granted by a court after considering whether the child is able to handle these responsibilities on their own.
Crystal proved herself to be mature and capable enough, and she was granted emancipation around May of 2003. She left the home, but she never actually left my brothers and I. She was still in contact with me. She was always a phone call away. She'd check in on me. I'd call her when things didn't go right or something went wrong, and she'd always talk me through it.
Crystal lived with a few different friends and their families over the next few months. She worked multiple jobs and paid her own bills and checked in on her siblings and visited her father in prison every week, yet still managed to keep up with her high school classwork. She also helped pay the mortgage on dad's place during that time while he was in jail so that he had a place to go home to and try to get us all back together.
Crystal was keeping things afloat until they could all be reunited. It was a lot for a teenager. Crystal didn't let it fully weigh her down. She had her head on her shoulders. She kept going. She kept doing what she believed was right. In August of 2004, Crystal was 17 years old and getting ready for her senior year of high school. She had told me at our last visitation that she was getting ready to apply for colleges.
so that she could become, she wanted to be a family lawyer. She had her life goals. She had a full life ahead of her. It was 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 7th, 2004, and Crystal had just clocked out of an almost 12-hour day of work between both of her jobs. She closed up the Pleasant River takeout in Columbia Falls, Maine, knowing she'd be back for another shift the next day.
But at that moment, the night was finally hers, and she might get to see the guy she had a crush on later. It was going to be a good night. Crystal stopped home after work to wash up and change out of her work clothes. She'd been living with her best friend Tara Skate's family, including Tara's mother Debbie and brother Justin for a while.
Tara was at home with her boyfriend when Crystal stopped in to change that night. And when she left again around 9 o'clock, Tara could tell Crystal was excited to meet up with her crush, Mitchell. Just a note, for privacy reasons, I'll be using first names only for most of the individuals who have been mentioned in other public media coverage about this case, and no names or fake names for those whose names are included in reports in the case file.
I'm about to give you a lot of information to process. The details of that evening and Crystal's movements and a ton of the investigative findings. Because as you'll begin to understand, it's hard to discern exactly what was at play that night. Her family and loved ones have been questioning every piece of this case for the last 20 years. So I don't want to leave any potentially critical element out. So here we go.
The timeline of Crystal's night on Saturday, August 7th is pieced together from numerous witness interviews contained in the case file. After Crystal left home, she headed towards a common meetup point for teenagers in the small town down East Main area, the Harrington Irving gas station. There, Crystal called Mitchell and he met her there with his cousin who was visiting for the weekend.
Mitchell told Crystal they were on their way to visit a friend, so Crystal followed them there in her own car. When they got there, the friend wasn't home, so they were all supposed to go drive back to the Irving to continue hanging out. But Mitchell and his cousin ended up instead driving to the boat docks in Harrington off Marshfield Road so he could show his cousin where the lobster boats docked. Mitchell was working on a lobster boat that summer.
Crystal returned to the Irving alone, but since the gas station was a rendezvous spot, she soon met up with another group of friends, four guys. They told Crystal they all planned to hang out at one of the guys' houses on Webb District Road after they left the gas station and invited her along.
Crystal met up with them at the guy's house around 10.30 p.m., but it sounds like it wasn't a very eventful gathering. Crystal's best friend Tara Skeet texted her sometime around 10.45 p.m. to check in, and Crystal texted back that she was bored and would call if she wasn't planning to come home that night.
The group hung out at the house on Webb District Road for a short time before all five of them loaded into Crystal's 1996 two-door gold Chevy Cavalier, deeming it the most reliable of the cars they had among them that night. And they set off to find some fun. They cruised around the rural roads of Columbia Falls and Harrington for a while. The details in the case file vary on this point, but either Mitchell called Crystal or she called him to see where they ended up.
Mitchell told her he and his cousin were at the docks in Harrington, but were planning to head in for the night soon. Crystal said she wanted to meet up before they did, and when she hung up, she turned her car onto Marshfield Road and drove towards the Harrington docks. Crystal and the four guys who rode in her car, plus Mitchell and his cousin, all hung out at the docks together for about 15 or 20 minutes.
According to interviews with witnesses, a few of them were drinking alcohol and may have been taking chloracetin, an over-the-counter cold and flu medicine. At some point that night, though, Crystal and Mitchell held hands for the first time. He gave her a hug before he and his cousin called it a night around 11.30 p.m. Crystal drove the group of guys back to Webb District Road after that, and she quickly used the bathroom before announcing she was leaving.
One of the guys later said he expressed his concern for Crystal being on the road at that hour, but she assured him that she was headed right back to the Skeets house in Columbia. Another of the guys she was with that night said Crystal actually told him she was going to stop into the Harrington Irving to see if there was anyone else to hang out with first before going home.
She pulled out of the driveway around 12:10 or 12:15 a.m., now Sunday, August 8th. Around noon on Sunday, staff at the Pleasant River takeout began to wonder why their always reliable coworker Crystal hadn't arrived on time for her shift. In the last two summers she'd worked at the takeout, Crystal never missed a day of work. Even when she was sick, Crystal showed up, only to be sent home by her boss.
According to case file documents, Justin's skate walked into the restaurant later that afternoon. Knowing Crystal lived with Justin's family, Crystal's boss asked him why Crystal hadn't shown up to work that day. Justin told her he had no idea, but took down her phone number and said he'd call if he found out where Crystal was. When Justin got back to his house and found it empty, he assumed Crystal had just gone out with friends, not thinking anything of it.
It wasn't until his mother, Debbie Skate, got home around 7.30 p.m. that everything clicked. No one had heard from Crystal since the night before.
I've seen Factor all over my social media. Left and right, no matter where I swipe, everyone is talking about Factor's no-prep, no-mess meals. As someone who often drops the ball on nutrition in favor of quick and easy food, I'm so excited to try Factor for myself. Because not only will the chef-crafted, dietitian-approved dishes support my wellness goals, but they're also quick and easy.
ready in just two minutes. With options like Calorie Smart, Protein Plus, and Keto, Factor's fresh, never-frozen meals are nutritious, great-tasting, and don't eat into my already limited time. With 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from every week, you'll always have new flavors to explore. From breakfast to dessert, treat yourself to restaurant-quality meals that feature premium ingredients like filet mignon, shrimp, and blackened salmon.
Head to factormeals.com slash downeast50 and use code downeast50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That's code downeast50 at factormeals.com slash downeast50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. ♪
It's almost time for the closet changeover here in New England. Sundress is away, sweaters out on the shelves, but last year's wardrobe is lacking in some places, for sure. Good thing Quince offers timeless and high-quality items you'll adore to ensure your wardrobe stays fresh without blowing your budget. Quince has cashmere sweaters from $50,
pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, and so much more. The best part? All Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with Top Factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to you. I got this classic fit and flare mini dress from Quince a few weeks ago, and it's so easy to throw on and dress up or down. When the air gets a little chillier,
I'll throw on a cotton linen cardigan, also from Quince, and it's the perfect transitional outfit for a Maine late summer evening. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high-quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash downeast for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash downeast to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash downeast
Debbie Skate contacted police just after 10 p.m. on August 8th after not hearing from Crystal all day. Maine State Police put out an attempt to locate that night as Debbie called around to Crystal's friends, but none reported seeing her at all on Sunday. The next day, Monday, August 9th, with still no sign of Crystal, Debbie started calling news stations and putting up posters with Crystal's photo and description around town.
Crystal Lee Higgins, age 17, strawberry blonde, 5'4 to 5'5, 120 pounds. That Monday was the same day Jessica got the news too. I had just gotten out of the shower on Monday when my foster mother at the time came to me to inform me that
Well, she was asking me questions about Crystal and what we talked about during our visitation, who was the guy she mentioned, what else did she mention. Like, I was getting drilled hard with questions. And I asked her why she was asking me these questions, and she told me Crystal was missing. And I didn't believe her. I yelled at her, told her she needed to stop lying to me. And then I saw it in the paper.
This area, Columbia, Addison, Harrington, and surrounding towns is quintessential small-town Maine. Word spread fast that Crystal was missing, and the community showed up in droves to support the search effort alongside state police and Maine Warden Service. Together, they began surveying hundreds of miles of rural roads and acres of wooded land and blueberry barrens on foot and from the air.
Meanwhile, the detectives were also canvassing door to door and tracking down the last known people to be with Crystal on the night she disappeared. Interview summaries from conversations with the people Crystal drove around and saw late Saturday night into Sunday morning show that their stories mostly line up.
Although one of the guys she hung out with that night said Crystal planned to drive straight home, and another said she was going to stop at the Irving one more time to see if there was anyone else to hang out with. A detective reviewed CCTV footage from the Harrington Irving between 2 and 3 a.m. on August 8. That time frame was singled out based on a report that Crystal was there with someone at that time.
However, the footage from both inside and outside the gas station showed no indication that Crystal was there at that time. Another witness said she saw Crystal at the Irving sometime before midnight and that she bought a soda and said goodnight. It's unclear if that sighting was confirmed, but the guys she was hanging out with all said she left at 12:10 or 12:15 a.m., so it's possible this sighting wasn't Crystal.
I don't see any indication that the CCTV footage from this time frame was reviewed, so I can't be sure if Crystal made another stop after leaving the friend's house that night. From digging into the case file, it's clear that investigators were taking Crystal's disappearance very seriously from the start.
The main criminal investigation division was assisting, and investigators' decisions, methods, and interviews with witnesses gave the distinct impression that there was anticipation, or maybe just a fear that this case could involve foul play. On day two, Tuesday, August 10th, the case was officially updated from an attempt to locate to a missing persons file.
State police followed up on any lead that popped up, checking abandoned vehicles, inside old barns, and collecting items as potential evidence. They photographed the Skate residents and bagged Crystal's hairbrush and toothbrush. A state trooper responded to a local gravel pit on a tip that there were tire marks in the mud that looked like someone had gotten stuck. The trooper photographed the scene and collected two cigarette butts, in case they were significant to Crystal's disappearance in any way.
There's mention of several tips like this throughout the file, with items being collected around town that could mean nothing, but also could end up meaning everything. The small-town rumor mill wasted no time spreading what they heard about Crystal's disappearance, but police operated on the assumption that any rumor could contain a threat of truth.
They ran down reported sightings of Crystal in nearby towns and followed up on stories that Crystal was going to Raspberry Island, a tiny uninhabited patch of land off the coast of Addison. None of those efforts led to Crystal. Investigators were able to initiate a track on Crystal's cell phone that Tuesday, but they couldn't pick up a signal and assumed her phone was either turned off or the battery was dead.
However, case file documents show that they were able to determine that Crystal made several calls into the early morning hours of Sunday, August 8th, at least two to her friend Marnie a little after midnight and another after 1 a.m., and two calls to Mitchell. The last complete call Crystal made was at 1.48 a.m., and it went to the recipient's voicemail.
The approximate location of Crystal's phone at the time was in a 12 to 24 mile area northeast of the cell tower in Millbridge. She could have been anywhere along the Route 1 corridor in the towns of Cherryfield, Harrington and Addison, locations that were already being searched without any trace of Crystal.
On Wednesday, August 11th, as a warden service plane circled overhead, investigators on land collected several items they labeled as potential evidence in Crystal's disappearance. In a public restroom at Elmer's Food Mart, police bagged a pornographic magazine and missing persons flyer with Crystal's photo. In the Maile Hill Cemetery in Columbia, a trooper located a pair of white cotton athletic socks and also collected those as potential evidence.
In the midst of ongoing interviews with Crystal's friends, family, and acquaintances, police received a report from a witness about a strange incident that happened on Monday the 9th. According to an interview summary, the witness, a 19-year-old woman, told police she was driving down Webb District Road in Harrington when out of nowhere, a man threw a basketball at her car. He was waving his arms at her and clearly trying to get her attention, so she turned the car around.
She said that when she approached the man, he went off on her about driving too fast and too close. But then he also tried to get her to get out of the car. He kept beckoning to her to come closer, saying that he was her buddy, he was her friend. The situation made the woman uncomfortable, so she drove off, leaving the guy and his basketball behind.
She'd only caught the guy's last name during their conversation, but police were able to locate the man's residence on Webb District Road in Harrington, where he was staying with his parents. Only the man's father was home when a detective came knocking. He said his son, who I'll call Michael, was at a doctor's appointment. He explained that Michael's marriage had just hit a breaking point in the last week, and the whole situation was weighing heavily on Michael.
The detective asked the father if he knew where Michael was on Saturday night, and he said, to his knowledge, Michael had taken some medication to help him sleep and was in his room from 7.45 or 8.45 p.m. on. The following morning, the same detective returned to the residence, and this time he was able to speak with Michael directly.
During the hour and a half long interview, Michael wove between topics of his personal life and the events of the last few days, including sightings of a girl he believed to be Crystal Lee Higgins. Michael wasn't certain which day he saw her, either the 10th or the 11th, but it was apparently after missing persons posters were hung up around town.
He said he noticed a girl walking down Webb District Road, and later that day when he saw the photos of Crystal, he realized it looked like the same girl. He wondered if he should make a phone call to report the sighting, but didn't, not wanting to, quote, piss anybody off, end quote.
Michael told the detective about several other sightings of a girl he thought was Crystal over the previous few days. At the Irving, at the school, at the grocery store, sometimes with someone else, sometimes alone. But his recollections were admittedly hazy. Michael told the detective that he was on a new medication and it impacted his short-term memory. So he couldn't be sure when he saw the girl, but he thought it was in the last two days.
The detective asked Michael when he came to town and what happened that caused the blow-up in his marriage. Michael said it was probably August 3rd that he arrived at his parents' place, and his marriage fell apart for a whole host of reasons. Infidelity, substance use, financial problems, resentment, lack of intimacy. Michael focused on that last part. He told the detective he was, quote, going to get laid soon as it had been a long time, end quote.
As they spoke, Michael glanced again at Crystal's picture in the paper, remarking that she looked so familiar, and now thought he might have seen her the same day he threw a basketball at that girl's car. But again, he couldn't be sure.
Before the interview was over, the detective asked Michael where he was on Saturday night. And Michael grabbed a calendar and said that he wasn't driving. Either wasn't permitted to drive or didn't have access to a car or something like that. It's unclear what this means. So Michael said he must have been at home at his parents' house, battling insomnia.
He told the detective he often fell asleep for a few hours with the help of medication, but then woke up around 2 a.m. to do stuff like work on a new business or search online for a lawyer, presumably for his divorce. The detective asked Michael if they could take a walk around the property, and Michael agreed to show the detective around.
Michael pointed out a spot where either yesterday or the day before, he'd mowed over some tire tracks on the grass leading from Webb District Road to a pond. The detective noted in the interview summary that it was obvious that there was no car in the pond. Before they parted ways, the detective asked Michael to show him a camper parked on the property. When they opened the door, the detective saw a strand of reddish hair hanging from the top of the door opening.
Michael told the detective to take it, and he did, bagging it as evidence. Michael led the detective to a few more places, including an aqueduct. Michael commented, it would be a good place to hide a body. The end of the interview is timestamped at 11.03 a.m. on August 12th. The detective stopped at another residence along Webb District Road after talking to Michael that morning.
He showed the property owner a flyer with a photo of Crystal and description of her car. The man said he believed he saw that same car driving on Webb District Road around 8 a.m. on Sunday, August 8th, as he was getting ready to leave for church. He didn't see who was inside, though.
Just before 2 p.m. that day, the detective returned to Webb District Road to measure some tire tracks in the shoulder between Route 1 and the home of Michael's parents that appeared to end at a field a few feet from the edge of the west side of the road. The warden's service arrived in the area to conduct searches up and down Webb District Road.
But a few hours later, all attention was directed several miles away, in the waters of the Pleasant River in nearby Addison.
The National Sales Event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new car, like a legendary Camry. Built for performance and available with all-wheel drive, you can count on your new Camry to get anywhere you need to go. Or check out an affordable and reliable Corolla with a trim for every lifestyle. From the hip sedan to the sporty hatchback, there's a Corolla built just for you. Visit BuyAToyota.com for more National Sales Event deals.
Toyota, let's go places. What kind of day is it? It's a White Claw Day. Light and refreshing tasting. Uniquely cold-weight filtered. There's an iconic flavor for everyone. Come on, grab a pack. White Claw. Grab life by the claw. Please drink responsibly. Hearts also with flavor. White Claws also works Chicago, Illinois.
According to a summary of the case by Maine State Police Detective Jeffrey Ingemi, two Marine Patrol officers were launching their boat on the afternoon of August 12th, planning to use sonar to search for Crystal's car, when the propeller of the boat struck something. When one of the officers looked back, he could see that the prop had hit a car tire.
About 20 yards from the end of the boat ramp and about 10 feet from the end of the dock was a gold Chevy Cavalier resting upside down on its roof. The license plate confirmed it was Crystal's car. However, when a wrecker towed it from the water and righted it again and investigators searched the cab and trunk, they found that Crystal was not in it.
The car was photographed at the scene and then transported to the Maine State Police lab for processing. You can see photos of the car at darkdowneast.com. Reports in the case file state that the keys were in the ignition and it was shifted into reverse. The driver's side window was partway down, leaving about a one foot by three foot opening and the windshield wipers were activated.
The driver's side mirror was missing, though that was reportedly existing damage, and the windshield glass was pushed in. Other damage noted in the case file was three horizontal scratches and a dent on the passenger side and a broken rear window. The front passenger tire was mostly bald and showing wires.
Inside the car, investigators found Crystal's phone and purse, along with many personal items. Shoes and clothing in the trunk, CDs in the door panel, a beaded necklace hanging from the rearview mirror.
The Addison Public Boat Launch is located off Ridge Road through Addison. A flat paved area juts out about 75 yards into the Pleasant River, and then a ramp typically used for backing a trailer with a boat on it down into the water begins sloping for a roughly 100-foot distance, dipping below the waterline. The ramp did not have guardrails, but it is marked by signs. I have a photo of the area at darkdowneast.com.
After the discovery of Crystal's vehicle, the search effort was scaled back from the previous days. Josie Wong reports for the Portland Press-Herald that a single detective, down from dozens of law enforcement officials and game wardens, would remain on the case to field calls while one search boat stayed in the water to monitor the shoreline of the river.
Residents who lived in the immediate area of the boat landing told police they didn't see or hear anything suspicious on the night of Crystal's disappearance that seemed relevant to the case. One woman reported that she saw a man climb over the guardrails near the dock around 1130 on Wednesday morning and thought he looked like a guy who had just escaped from state prison.
But I looked into this, this escape story, and the timeline doesn't match. So it wasn't the same escaped inmate. There was also a guy who said his daughter's dog went down to the river sometime after Crystal's disappearance. And when the pup came back, it vomited several times, which was unusual. But no one reported seeing Crystal's car enter the water.
At this point, investigators were openly theorizing that Crystal had ended up in Addison, despite telling her friends she was on her way home to Columbia that night, because it was near Mitchell's house. The cell phone records had already shown that she'd called him at 1.15 a.m. and again around 1.25 a.m., but he didn't answer, and it went to voicemail. Mitchell later told investigators that Crystal would have typically left a message, but she didn't that night.
The condition of the car, with the driver's side window almost two-thirds of the way down, had investigators theorizing that Crystal was in the car when it somehow ended up in the water and she tried to escape through the window but was possibly dragged down by her clothes or was disoriented in the water and drowned. But until they found Crystal, they couldn't make any official conclusions as to why her car was in the water or how it ended up there.
On Saturday morning, August 14th, 2004, two people walking along the river down Ridge Road on their way to the post office spotted something in the water just about five feet from shore. Looking closer, they realized that it was a body floating face down. They ran to notify Marine Patrol officers nearby.
When investigators recovered the body from the Pleasant River about 500 feet west of the Addison boat launch, the clothing matched the outfit that Crystal was last seen wearing on the night she disappeared a week earlier. I honestly kept telling myself that it wasn't her. They found somebody else, not my sister. Even though that was cruel of me to say, but I didn't want to believe it. No one wanted to believe it.
The communities that had searched for Crystal, who knew Crystal and every hardship she managed to overcome in her life, still to remain a kind and happy young woman, were crushed by the news. Diana Grettinger reports for the Bangor Daily News that Debbie Skate, who had welcomed Crystal into her home as if she were her own daughter, stood across the water near the boat launch and watched as Crystal's body was loaded into the hearse.
Crystal's body was transported to Augusta for autopsy. But again, a Maine State Police spokesperson indicated that the theory remained the same. Crystal's car ended up in the water with her inside, and she tried to escape. The autopsy would give more information as to her cause of death, but following the recovery of her remains from the water, investigators had no reason to believe foul play was involved with her disappearance and death.
I received the medical examiner's report and autopsy findings, toxicology report, and supplemental certificate of death for Crystal Lee Higgins from her sister Jessica, and verified the authenticity of the documents with the medical examiner's office. Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Michael Joseph Ferencz performed the autopsy on August 16, 2004. He found that rigor mortis had passed, and decomposition was most pronounced in the upper portion of her body.
Crystal's head showed no significant trauma or scars. Damage to the soft tissue of her ears, nose, and eyes appeared to be caused by marine life after her death. Crystal had no trauma or scars to her neck, chest, or abdomen. Her arms were not scratched or injured in any way. The same for her legs.
The medical examiner did not identify any fractures or localized injury to Crystal's musculoskeletal system. Her scalp showed no hemorrhage or trauma. Her skull was not fractured. The superficial and deep muscles of her neck showed no hemorrhage or trauma. The hyoid bone, a small U-shaped bone located in the neck just below the jawbone and the larynx, and surrounding cartilages were all intact.
The epiglottic and laryngeal mucosa, which are two membranes that protect and aid the functions of the epiglottis and larynx, respectively, did not contain any significant aspirated material, and they were not swollen. As far as I can tell, and as far as Jessica can recall, a sexual assault test was not performed as part of the autopsy. A toxicology report was ordered, though, and Crystal's blood ethyl alcohol level was found to be 0.08%,
no other common substances were detected. In summary, the autopsy did not suggest any kind of foul play. Crystal had no head injuries, no wounds caused by a weapon, and with her high-eyed bone intact, that was a common indicator she had not been strangled.
With the totality of the circumstances, her car and body found in a river and no other trauma indicating foul play, the medical examiner ruled Crystal's cause of death to be drowning. Her manner of death was ruled an accident. Maine State Police closed Crystal's case in the fall of 2004 once all the reports and results of the post-mortem examination came back. Her death was the result of a motor vehicle accident. Case closed.
A document in the case file includes an official opinion of the investigator as to cause and general conclusions. It reads, quote, I believe that Crystal Higgins was parked at the Addison boat landing when she made phone calls to Mitchell, last name removed, and Marnie, last name removed, around 1.30 a.m. on August 8, 2004, possibly hoping that Mitchell would come back out during the night and meet with her.
I believe she fell asleep with the vehicle on, the lights off, and the windshield wipers on. I believe she had the car in neutral and her foot on the brake. I believe she may have fallen asleep and her foot lifted off the brake causing the car to roll down the Addison boat ramp and into the Pleasant River.
I believe this probably happened at approximately 3.30 a.m. when her cellular phone made two calls that were only partial numbers, possibly because of the salt water touching the cellular phone. I believe that Crystal Higgins attempted to put the vehicle in reverse, but this did not work. I believe that she then probably rolled down her window most of the way until water started to come inside because of the tide pushing against the passenger side of the vehicle.
I believe that she kicked off her shoes and attempted to climb out the window, making it out of the window. I believe that because of the foggy and stormy conditions, her impairment by alcohol and possibly impairment from quercetin caused her to swallow too much water and drown."
Although her death was ruled accidental, the report states that court actions were pending review by the Machias District Attorney's Office. This may have been in reference to charges filed against Justin Skate the following spring of 2005. Justin Skate, the brother of Crystal's best friend, who she also lived with before her death, and who was, by all accounts, like a brother to Crystal, was charged with furnishing liquor to a minor.
The investigation found that Crystal obtained alcohol from Justin, who was 21 years old, the legal drinking age in Maine. The charge could result in a sentence of up to 364 days in jail. However, Catherine Cassidy reports for the Bangor Daily News that a judge instead chose to impose only a $1,000 fine following Justin changing his plea to no contest.
The judge and prosecutor were emphatic that just because Justin had purchased the alcohol for Crystal, it did not mean he was in any way responsible for her death. They were sympathetic to the fact that Justin lost someone too, and they did not intend to make an example out of him. He had lost enough himself already. That is where the criminal charges, any charges, stopped when it came to the death of Crystal Lee Higgins.
But if you think it stopped the questions in her case, you'd be dead wrong. They claimed it, told me that it was an accidental drowning. But my gut, I didn't believe it. I didn't believe that she actually drowned. I didn't believe that she was in the water that entire time or that her car was. I drive by there regularly. To this day, I still don't believe her car would have been in there for those four days without anybody noticing.
This year marks two decades since the death of Crystal Lee Higgins. For all 20 of those years, her sister and others who knew and loved Crystal have questioned the conclusions that investigators reached in her case. From the evidence in Crystal's car, to the condition of her body, to the timeline of disappearance, to discovery, Jessica feels that things don't quite add up.
And then, long after the case was closed, a bizarre letter surfaced in town. The message scrawled on the page only strengthened Jessica's every suspicion. That it's exactly what I thought it was all along. That somebody knows more of what happened that night. That somebody else is involved. Jessica just wants to know, once and for all, what really happened that night.
In the next episode of Dark Down East, you'll hear about the strange letter and the other red flags that have been waving in Jessica's mind since day one. You'll also hear from two medical legal death investigators, one who specializes in forensic aquatic death investigations, and the original lead detective on Crystal's case.
Part two of the Crystal Lee Higgins case will be out next week on Dark Down East. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time.
I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audiocheck. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
The National Sales Event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new car, like a legendary Camry. Built for performance and available with all-wheel drive, you can count on your new Camry to get anywhere you need to go. Or check out an affordable and reliable Corolla with a trim for every lifestyle. From the hip sedan to the sporty hatchback, there's a Corolla built just for you. Visit BuyAToyota.com for more National Sales Event deals.
Toyota. Let's go places.
Yeah, it's another day, but what kind of day is it really? A day of doom scrolling? Laundry day? Nah, it's a White Claw day. Light and refreshing tasting. Uniquely cold-weight filtered. There's an iconic flavor for everyone. So grab a pack, grab your friends. Make the most of each day with those who matter most. When you're together with White Claw, every day is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You just gotta grab it. White Claw. Grab life by the claw. Please drink responsibly. Hearts also with flavors. White Claws also works Chicago, Illinois.