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Bye.
What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today we have yet another Florida case for you guys. You guys getting sick of Florida yet? Yeah, it also involves a boat. But this one has resolution, and it was found by our very own Heath Daphne.
So thank you, Heath, for finding this one. This one has a bunch of 911 call recordings that really help piece this tragic story together. And we also have photos posted on our socials for all of you guys to see, which you can find at Going West Podcast on Instagram. And we're also on Facebook. Yes. And if somebody did recommend this case, which I'm sure somebody did,
Thank you so much for doing so. Yeah, I know we say it sporadically, but we only look at recommendations that are sent to our email, which is goingwestpodcast at gmail.com. I still sometimes will notice we get some on our socials, but it's hard for us to keep track of those because we don't really check our messages. So email is the best place to do it. All right, guys, without further ado, this is episode 402 of Going West. So let's get into it.
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In August of 2015, a 28-year-old woman was enjoying a lovely summer evening out on a boat when she supposedly jumped into the dangerous waters below and disappeared.
When her body was found floating in the same Florida river the following morning, police compiled numerous 911 calls and questioned the last person who had seen her, uncovering the tragic details that unfolded. This is the story of Crystal Pfeiffer. ♪
Crystal Pfeiffer was born Crystal Guest on December 23rd, 1982 to parents Lori and Fred in Barnstable, Massachusetts, which is the largest town on beautiful Cape Cod. Although she was born on the East Coast, Crystal moved down south with her mother while she was still young and spent most of her life in central Florida.
Crystal was described by all those who knew her as a beautiful, kind girl, and friends called her warm, loving, and very family-oriented. She attended New Smyrna Beach High School and was known to be a popular girl with a thriving friend group. Crystal and her parents had countless fond memories of going out on the water and enjoying themselves in the ocean, whether it was on boats, jet skis, or just swimming together.
Crystal lived in many different cities in Florida before eventually settling in beautiful Daytona Beach. Now, Daytona Beach is known for its gorgeous beaches, the iconic Daytona 500, and for being a great spring break location for college students from across the country. It was here in Daytona Beach that Crystal eventually settled in the early 2000s when she met her first real love, Ron Pfeiffer.
And they both really felt like they had found the one in each other. So they took the next steps and got married. And then Crystal got pregnant with their son, Dominic, who was born in June of 2005. And he was the perfect addition to their little beach family in Florida.
But sadly, on October 1st, so just a few months after he was born, Dominic suffered a horrible tragedy while he was sitting in his bouncy chair. Because suddenly, without warning, a piece of furniture fell over and caused serious injuries to him. Little Dominic suffered a fractured jaw and palate, on top of some mid-facial trauma at the hands of a piece of furniture.
So Crystal, in a panic, rushed him to the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida, where surgeons worked tirelessly to treat his injuries. While his emergency surgery was a success, he would have to undergo an extensive, long-winded recovery process. But thankfully, Dominic's injuries did heal, and after a grueling 16-day stay at Arnold Palmer Hospital, baby Dominic was finally discharged.
So, while Dominic made a full recovery from his childhood accident, he was still plagued by some chronic issues as a result of his injuries. This meant that he would need an extensive amount of medical attention throughout his life, which is something that Crystal made her number one priority.
In order to fund and provide her son's medical treatments, Crystal took her job extremely seriously and worked as an office manager at a local automotive business, coincidentally named Dominic's Automotive in Holly Hill, Florida, and she was doing this job for over a decade.
And as though Dominic's health issues were not enough tragedy for one lifetime, Crystal also suffered through various difficult experiences like, in 2009, her marriage to Ron Pfeiffer came to an end in what was described as a rough divorce by friends and family.
But Crystal quickly found love again and remarried, although that too ended in separation, with Crystal filing for a dissolution of her marriage in 2012, which turned into a lengthy process that concluded in March of 2013. Her second marriage was reportedly much more turbulent than her first one to Ron.
It was apparently so bad that the dissolution wasn't enough, and eventually resulted in her having to file an order of protection from her second husband only 16 months after the dissolution of their marriage. So it's safe to say that at the young age of 28, Crystal Pfeiffer had been through more troubles than most, and was understandably very tentative about getting back into dating, let alone finding love again.
But then she met 42-year-old Thomas Prinz. And let's talk about this guy. So Thomas Prinz was an entrepreneur from New Jersey who ran a tree trimming business in Daytona Beach, Florida, which again is where Crystal lived.
He was described by Crystal's brother as, quote, not the most appealing looking guy, but he noted that he was, quote, very articulate, had his own business, had his own house, a stable house, and he genuinely believed that he was, quote, a good guy.
Well, he definitely was not a good guy, and we're going to get into that. Oh, yes. And don't let me forget, there's a photo that I don't think you've seen, Heath, that I want to go over and describe to everybody later, but I don't want to spoil anything, so let's put a pin in that. So, despite their age gap, Thomas was 42 and Crystal was 28, the two of them felt a connection and started dating.
Now, this crooked-toothed, blonde, short, scruffy-bearded Thomas was a bit older, yes. But to Crystal and her family, he kind of represented something that she wanted in a relationship. He had this air of stability and maturity. He owned a business. He was a little bit more seasoned. And Crystal felt like this would be great for herself and for her son, Dominic.
So her family warmly embraced Thomas, with the two of them quickly moving in together into Thomas' home in Daytona Beach. But sadly, it seems that once again, Crystal had gotten with yet another unstable partner, with multiple warnings of danger surfacing only seven months into their relationship.
Now, basically, their Daytona Beach home was a frequent location on the police's radar, often being called there by neighbors, notifying them of loud, drawn-out arguments between the two. According to police records, police visited their home a minimum of 12 times for domestic disturbance calls throughout their relationship.
On March 21st, 2015, a serious incident happened at Crystal and Thomas' home as police were called in for domestic assault at their Daytona Beach property. According to the arrest affidavit, Thomas said that the argument stemmed from Crystal arriving late to their house, after which he told her, quote,
Thomas then alleged that this questioning angered Crystal so much that she immediately threw a dinner plate in his direction, hitting him in the head with it. He said he then left the house to call 911 to report this incident. Also called were Crystal's father and brother, most likely by her, and when they arrived, they quickly became physical with Thomas.
And despite them being there and knowing Thomas fairly well by that point, Thomas said that he could not remember their names when questioned by the police at the scene. He didn't press charges and did not leave a written statement to police as he said he was uninjured and declined medical attention.
Crystal, however, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. But these charges were later dropped since the witnesses refused to cooperate with police. And this was Crystal's first ever recorded incident of violent behavior.
Thomas, however, was no stranger to run-ins with the law, and he had an extensive criminal history, with over eight charges including domestic violence and child abuse going as far back as 2006. And remember, this case takes place in 2015. Now, it's unclear whether or not this was known to Crystal or any of the family members, but she found herself yet again in the hands of a dangerous partner.
And Crystal kept the abuse mostly a secret because she was desperate to keep up any semblance of a normal relationship to protect not only herself but her son Dominic. So after yet another day in their turbulent relationship, they decided that they needed some kind of reset. So Crystal and Thomas decided to take a day for themselves.
First, they were going to go to a nice dinner. Then, they'd go out on the water on Thomas' boat to end their romantic evening together. Sounds like a perfect night. It does, but it definitely would not turn out that way. So on August 11th, 2015, the two of them made their way to a Riverside restaurant in Daytona Beach where they just hoped to have a nice, intimate night together.
And to describe this a little bit better, since I said "riverside," Daytona Beach is on the ocean, but it's also on a river because the city is split in half by the Halifax River. And then in between the river and the ocean is like this long sliver of Daytona Beach as well that is known as the Intracoastal Waterway. So the river does have saltwater in it as it connects to the ocean via a creek, lagoon, and inlet.
So we're gonna say technically they were out on the river going to this restaurant at 7:00 p.m. But it seems that the night started to take a turn for the worse almost immediately. Crystal wore denim shorts and a bikini top to this Riverside restaurant date, and once the two were there, customers at the restaurant quickly became very uncomfortable with their overt public display of affection.
So much so that the restaurant staff had no other choice but to kick them out of this restaurant. Yeah, it was weird though because they were arguing outside before going into the restaurant and a bunch of customers saw them fighting while they were on the boat, like approaching the shore.
And then they went inside and were seen happy and dancing together, like packing on the PDA. And reportedly, Thomas tried to get different waitstaff to touch and kiss Crystal. Yeah, this sounds like, it sounds like Thomas is really drunk. Yeah. But also it's just like,
super inappropriate to try and force waitstaff to kiss your girlfriend. Like, what a weirdo. Yeah, like, they are definitely making a scene, so a lot of things stood out to customers about them, and there was a lot of eyes on them. And then after they left, someone at the restaurant started filming them on their cell phone because...
They felt like something was off between them and like something was going on. And like you said, that Thomas was wasted and that he shouldn't be driving a boat. Well, explain this a little bit further because we're about to get into what this person recorded on their cell phone. Okay, so they boarded Thomas's boat, Crystal and Thomas did, and
and he sloppily readied it to leave the dock. And the guy filming them can be heard on the video saying, quote, this guy's going to plow into every boat on this dock. Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't start. Something's going to happen here. There we go. There we go. And here's a clip of that recording, but we'll also post the video on our socials. It's obviously really dark. It's night. There is limited light out on the water.
And as they're leaving, you can see both of them in the boat, but not super well. But here is the clip.
This guy's going to plow into every boat on this dock. Maybe we're lucky it won't start. Something's going to happen here. Oh, there it goes. Here we go. Here we go. This anonymous man was seemingly insinuating that Thomas was drunk or at the very least in no condition to pilot his boat out of the marina. But in the pitch black of night, the two of them successfully left the dock with the man recording screaming at Thomas, pleading with him to turn his lights on.
But Thomas did not. Little did the man recording know that the video he was taking would be some of Crystal's last moments alive. Around midnight, a Daytona Beach 911 dispatcher received a call. It was from Thomas.
On the phone, he said, quote,
That's complete bullshit. She's such a good swimmer. She spent her entire life swimming. Yeah, she grew up on the water. She loved swimming. But I will say I read this Facebook post of a bunch of locals talking about the Halifax River.
And there are apparently known to be bull sharks in the Halifax River. And the water is pretty gross and murky. So although people do jet ski and boat and fish there...
It's just not really a swimming destination. And in fact, it's not even approved for swimming. So if she did jump off the boat, which we're going to get into, she must have been very, very desperate to get off that boat. Like a bull shark, a bull shark will attack you no matter what. Yeah, I think that's a dangerous shark. Aren't they like one of the most dangerous sharks? Like, yes, like I think it's like tiger sharks, great whites and bull sharks are like the three. I don't even know if
great whites are as aggressive as bull sharks. No, bull sharks are extremely aggressive. They will attack humans and they are in freshwater and in saltwater. So this is like not a shark you want to be around. So Daphne definitely wants to go swimming on the Halifax River is what she's telling you guys right now. Bull sharks are my biggest fear. I mean, I actually think they are the most dangerous shark out there. So again, her jumping into the water would have been a very big deal.
So on this call, Thomas then said, "'I keep on jumping in the water to see if I could find her, and I can't find her anywhere.'"
He's heard on the recording very flatly calling out her name into the water, seemingly hoping for a response. Like he's just like, Crystal. And I'm going to play the recording in a second, but it's super flat. There is no desperation. No emotion. Thomas then said, quote, she took my keys, said, I hate you and jumped into the water. I'm just praying that she's okay. And here is that recording.
Just go!
Immediately after the call, police sent out an emergency search and rescue team to Thomas' boat.
He was taken back to shore, safe and sound. But Crystal, however, was nowhere to be found. Despite their best efforts, police were not able to find her at all that night.
One hour after his call, Thomas called Crystal's mother to tell her what happened. And according to Crystal's mom, Thomas' tone of voice was remarkably dull, seemingly unaffected by this horrible situation that he was reporting to her. So alarm bells started ringing in her head, and she immediately called not only her family, but her local police to tell them what had happened, and what she knew about their relationship, because...
You know, she was obviously very suspicious of Thomas from the get-go, since she knew for a fact that he had previously hurt her daughter before, and sounded completely stoic on what should have been the worst phone call of his entire life. So, when police arrived, she told them what she and her family knew of Thomas, and the investigation finally began. At 7 a.m., around seven hours after Crystal had gone missing...
a local group of men were getting ready for another day of fishing at the Seven Seas Marina and Boatyard in Port Orange, Florida, when they saw something extremely disturbing. Floating in the dock's waters was a body. A body wearing denim shorts. Now obviously shaken, one of the fishermen called 911 to report what he had seen, saying, quote, "There's a body floating out off the dock here. We just came up on it when we were fishing.
and looks like it's got bruises on it, like the shoulders and stuff. Given the seriousness of the call, Port Orange police rushed over to locate the body and hopefully identify it. By now, they had already been made aware that Crystal Pfeiffer was missing, thanks to her mother calling the police. So they, of course, wondered if this was her body that had already been found.
So they scheduled an autopsy for the following day to figure it out. Now, the autopsy painted a horrific scene. The body belonged to a woman in her late 20s to early 30s. And remember, Crystal was 28, and she was absolutely covered in bruises. On the official coroner's report, over 30 injuries were listed.
Several things made it clear that this person had been murdered and did not simply tragically drown in the river. For one, there was zero evidence of any signs of drowning, like there was no water in her lungs. And most obvious of all was the clear evidence of a strong ligature mark around her neck. This woman had been mercilessly beaten before being strangled to death and thrown into the river.
After an extremely thorough examination, the official cause of death for Crystal Pfeiffer was listed as asphyxiation by ligature, with the manner of death being homicide.
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After establishing a cause of death and identifying the body, police took the logical next step to contact the last known person to see her, Thomas Prins, her boyfriend.
He was summoned by police to come to the station and answer some questions, and when he arrived, he waived his Miranda rights, including not only his right to remain silent, but his right to an attorney. And he began to tell his side of the story voluntarily without any legal counsel.
In the interrogation video, Thomas is seen in a bright neon yellowish green shirt. He looks visibly shaken and is often bearing his head in his hands, showing clear signs of anxiety and fear.
The two detectives on the case sat down and Thomas began to spill part of his story. Now, as he put it, he and Crystal argued and went back and forth before ultimately making out. And then Thomas warned Crystal that they were in danger because of the boat stalling. According to Thomas, Crystal then replied, I don't want to deal with this no more. Took his keys and then jumped into the water on her own accord.
Several times during the interview, Thomas contradicted himself or went back on his word. In the video, one detective can be heard saying, quote, I have a feeling the argument on the boat was a little more elaborate than you're describing.
He claimed the two of them would argue like any other couple, but that their arguments never once got physical, which is a blatant lie. I mean, there was literal police record of their arguments being physical in the past, which is something that the detectives were obviously aware of. Thomas then said that perhaps there was some physical contact during the argument, but only, quote, grabbing each other.
He then explained that the reason he waited around 10 minutes to call 911 was because he wanted to see if she would swim to shore, which is a detail that made no sense because surely if his girlfriend, whom he claimed was not a good swimmer, jumped in that murky body of water where there are amoebas and bull sharks in the dead of night,
Yeah, you're not just going to sit around and wait that out. So at one point during his interrogation, one detective asked if Thomas would consent to both detectives taking a look at his body to see if there were any marks that would indicate a physical struggle had taken place.
He consented, seemingly eager to cooperate, so he took off his bright neon shirt and let the detectives examine him. But before detectives could say anything, he reminded them that he worked in tree trimming and often got scratched up, which would explain any marks that they would find on his hands and body. One detective noticed large bruises on his body and the fact that his knuckles were swollen.
In the video, he clearly asked, quote: "Are you sure this argument didn't get physical? Those look pretty fresh." Referring to Thomas' many bruises and scratches. But once again, Thomas denied that any violence took place. He also mentioned that the only things he took off the boat were clothes and towels, and that he washed them that night.
This detail was noticed by the detective who asked him to clarify that he had indeed done laundry when he got home that night. And Thomas confirmed that he did in fact do his laundry. But by that point, detectives had seen and heard more than enough and decided to break the news to Thomas. They finally informed him that they had gone to the scene of the crime where a body was found in the river earlier that day.
One detective plainly and bluntly asked him, quote, "Who do you think it was?" Thomas unconvincingly said, "I don't know. I'm just hoping and praying it's not Crystal." The detective once again, in a blunt and matter-of-fact tone, said to him, quote, "Well, I hate to break it to you, but it is Crystal."
Thomas then immediately started to cry, but his performative crying quickly stopped as soon as the detective said his very next sentence. And he said, quote, I think you already knew that, though. It is crystal. There's a little more that happened on that boat last night than what you're telling me.
The detective then told Thomas that there were injuries on her body. Now, he specifically mentioned that there were not a couple, but a bunch of injuries. Thomas just continued to feign ignorance and said he didn't know what happened on the boat that could lead to that.
The detective then pointed out how Thomas had scratches on his right arm, forearm, bruises on his left arm, scratches on his back, and was bleeding from his leg. And in a graphic description of Crystal's injuries, clearly meant to elicit a response from Thomas, one detective said, quote,
In another strange defense, clearly scrambling for some kind of answer, Thomas said that he and Crystal had sex three times on the boat, which may have gotten a little rough, but never to the point of hurting her. That's, I feel like that's such, we've seen that defense so many times that like, oh yeah, we had a little bit rough sex and that explains why, you know, she had strangulation marks on her neck.
And she had bruises all over her body. Yeah, right, man. Come on. But then just before this, he was like, oh, I don't know how she could have gotten injured. And then he's saying, well, now that I think of it. So he's he's just making shit up. Moving the goalposts as far as he possibly can. Exactly. So the detective then asked, quote, did you grab her by her neck last night? Did you put anything around her neck?
Thomas immediately denied both of these questions and accusations, saying that while they did, quote, grab each other, he did not grab her neck that night. So he is saying, no, I didn't grab her neck. But it's very clear that he did. Yeah, because then seconds after that, once again contradicting himself, he said that at one point he did indeed grab her neck and shoulders.
One detail that the detectives pointed out was the fact that her, when she was found, she was found topless. And they had asked Thomas if he had taken her bikini top home to wash in the laundry alongside her other clothes that night. And Thomas said no, that she was wearing her bikini top the entire time that they were in each other's company. The detectives then showed Thomas pictures of Crystal's body, presumably from the autopsy.
Thomas' voice began to falter upon seeing them as he teared up in disbelief at the bruises on her face, still acting like he didn't do it himself. The detective then asked Thomas if he knew what the marks around her neck were called, ligature marks. While Thomas was thinking of something to say, the detective to his left pressed on by saying, quote,
When Thomas denied any involvement in her attack, the detective replied, quote, "Your knuckles are swollen." The detectives made their suspicions clear, saying that they believed Thomas had killed Crystal. Thomas immediately responded with, "Am I being charged with anything?" And after being told that he was not being charged at that moment, he was released from questioning.
Now, it was pretty obvious that Thomas had killed Crystal, but police still needed to go through all the proper motions of a murder investigation in order to strengthen their case for when it inevitably went to court. They interviewed several witnesses, including workers at the restaurant that they visited, patrons of the restaurant, and even the man who recorded the video of Thomas and Crystal on the boat right before it left the dock.
And while conducting the investigation, they came across a vital lead. One fisherman had witnessed a confrontation between a man and a woman on the night of the incident, around 10:45 p.m., and he had called 911. On the call, the local fisherman is heard saying that a girl jumped from a boat that she was in and swam towards him, saying that someone was "beating on her in the other boat."
The caller mistakenly believed that there were multiple people on the other boat and was heard on the call asking Crystal if she wanted to, quote, go with those people. After she said no, he's heard screaming out at Thomas' boat saying, guys, she ain't going with you. She's going to meet the police. And here is the clip from that 911 recording. Hi, this is 911. You have an emergency? Okay, I'm on a sailboat out off of, uh,
South Daytona. And a boat just floated by me and a girl jumped out of it and swam over and crawled in my ding. He said people had been beaten on her. Okay, how long? Wait a minute. A boat is coming. Just a minute. There's a boat. Do you want to go with these people or not? Okay. Hey, guys. She ain't going with you. She's going into the park to meet the police.
In the fishing boat alongside this man was his daughter, but the man got into his dinghy where Crystal was and started rowing her to shore, leaving his daughter in this fishing boat. When Thomas's boat approached the fisherman, he kept calling Crystal back over and unfortunately, she relented and jumped back into the water, swimming over to Thomas's boat.
In the call, the fisherman is heard asking Crystal if she's going to go back to the boat, just seemingly in disbelief. Crystal and Thomas can then be heard screaming in the background of the call, after which they both go eerily quiet. The fisherman even remarked that detail to the 911 dispatcher, saying that, quote, all of a sudden they're being really quiet right now.
Just over an hour after this incident, Thomas made his 911 call. With the fisherman's 911 call, police were able to put together a concrete timeline of the events from that night. Thomas violently assaulted Crystal inside his boat, after which she fled, jumping in the water and successfully escaping into the fisherman's boat.
The fisherman then called 911 and attempted to help her, but when Crystal was told by the fisherman that he would have to go back to his boat to pick up his daughter because he didn't want to leave his daughter alone, Crystal jumped back into the water and swam back towards Thomas, possibly worried that she was putting he and his daughter in danger.
She allegedly told the fisherman, quote, if you help me, he'll kill you too, before jumping off. When Crystal arrived back on Thomas's boat, he turned off all the lights on their boat, then continued his cowardly, brutal attack on her. The final blow was when Thomas strangled Crystal to death with her own bikini top.
After she died, he threw her body into the Halifax River, waited 10 minutes, and called 911.
Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to talk about that picture. So we're going to post it, but there is a picture of Thomas Prince after his arrest. Have you seen this picture? Oh, God. What a weirdo. So he's just like, there's two photos of him, like mug shots. One of them, he is like smiling super wide. He looks really happy. Yeah. And then the other one, he's like sticking out his tongue, like,
Like, almost like he's amused at getting his picture taken. Yeah, his eyebrows are raised. His eyes look like he's smizing. And is that what it's called? Smizing? Smizing? I don't know. Like smiling with your eyes. Anyway, whatever. His eyebrows are raised. Yeah, his tongue is stuck out. He looks like he's...
Having a good old time. There are other ones where he does not look quite as pleased, but these are just really weird pictures. Yeah, those two, like, does he know that he's being arrested and charged with murder? It's weird, but anyway. So strange. So on October 27th, 2015, Thomas Prince was arrested and held without bond pending trial.
The charge against him was first-degree premeditated murder. And after a lengthy trial, Thomas Prince was found guilty of the first-degree premeditated murder of his girlfriend, 28-year-old Crystal Pfeiffer, in June of 2016, after a six-hour jury deliberation.
After his sentencing, Thomas immediately collapsed upon hearing his sentence and was taken to a medical office for a checkup, which led to the judge delaying his sentencing. Five days later, justice was finally served when Thomas Prince was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Upon the news of the sentencing, Crystal's family made their statements to the media while wearing their Justice for Crystal t-shirts. Heartbreaking stories were shared about how the reason she continued to get back together with Thomas was because her son Dominic liked him.
Her father, Fred, told the media that at one point, Dominic asked him point blank if Tommy was hurting his mom. And when his grandfather said no, he said, good, because I like him. Everything Crystal ever did was for her son. Her mission in life was to protect and provide for him. The importance of family was paramount in her life, and she, more than most, knew just how fragile the life of a child could be.
And it's perhaps because of that, that even in her darkest hour, faced with the choice of saving herself and potentially hurting a defenseless child like the fisherman's daughter or swimming back into certain death, she didn't even think twice. Crystal Pfeiffer died as she lived, putting others first and protecting a child. ♪♪
Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for checking out this episode. And if you want to see video, that cell phone footage from the guy at the restaurant, we will be posting that on our socials. So go check that out. Again, we're on Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we're also on Facebook. Yes, go check that out. Appreciate everybody tuning in, and we will see you on Tuesday.
All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.
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