228: The Questionable Death of Crystal McCrory Jones | USA

USA: The Suspicious Death of Crystal McCrory Jones Evidence Locker True Crime Podcast NOEL On the afternoon of February 9, 2023, 43-year-old Crystal McCrory Jones was scheduled for a doctor's appointment at the East Carroll Medical Clinic in Lake Providence, Louisiana. When she failed to arrive and did not respond to calls or messages, her husband, Tony Jones, contacted his neighbor, who happened to be a Deputy, requesting a welfare check at their home. When Deputy Harris arrived, he noticed Crystal's vehicle parked in the driveway. After receiving no answer at the door, he contacted Tony, who provided instructions to enter the house. Inside the bedroom, Harris discovered Crystal lying on the bed with a pillow covering her face. She had sustained a gunshot wound through the pillow, and a semi-automatic handgun was found in her right hand. The initial assessment suggested suicide. However, as details emerged, questions arose about the circumstances surrounding her death.
Was Crystal's death a tragic act of self-inflicted harm, or is there more beneath the surface? This is her story. You are listening to: The Evidence Locker. Thanks for listening to our podcast. This episode is made possible by our sponsors—be sure to check them out for exclusive deals. For an ad-free experience, join us on Patreon, starting at just $2 a month, with 25% of proceeds supporting The Doe Network, helping to bring closure to international cold cases. Links are in the show notes. Our episodes cover true crimes involving real people, and some content may be graphic in nature. Listener discretion is advised. We produce each episode with the utmost respect for the victims, their families, and loved ones. Crystal McCrory was born on May 17, 1979, in Bastrop, Louisiana to parents Janey McGilton and Doyle Dwayne McCrory. She grew up in a close-knit family with two brothers and a sister. Her brother, Dane, was four years older than her, and when Crystal was ten years old, her younger twin siblings, Jana and Josh, were born. As the older sister, she doted on them – Jana recalls that she and Josh were like Crystal’s baby dolls, always under her care and protection. After school, Crystal married her high school sweetheart, Jeremy, and soon after, they had their first son. She also began working at Olive Garden in Monroe, Louisiana, where her warm and outgoing personality helped her form lifelong friendships. But Crystal wanted more – she had dreams of living in a big city and experiencing life beyond her small Louisiana hometown. Not long after, with Jeremy and their son, she made a bold move, leaving Louisiana for New York City. While she was there, she embraced the fast-paced lifestyle and enjoyed the independence the city offered. However, Louisiana was always home, and after her divorce from Jeremy in the early 2000s, she returned. Her family was thrilled to have her back. By that time, her younger siblings and cousins had grown up, and she loved spending time with them. Those who knew Crystal described her as impeccably organized – she always kept a tidy home, dressed immaculately, and had an eye for detail. If there was a party to plan, she was the first to volunteer, ensuring every guest looked the part and that the event was perfectly executed. Even the family dogs had birthday parties. JANA Crystal was the most organized person on the face of this earth. She organized everything from her clothes, her socks, her um, pa, her pantry. Um, she organized everything. Uh, she was an amazing mom. She was hilarious. We became really close as adults. She gave me a key to her house one time, and I was a schoolteacher. I, I taught elementary school for 10 years, and so I would have the summers off. Well, she was an insurance agent, so she had to work every day, and one day I was just bored and this is the type of relationship we had. I went to her house and I took all of her clothes off of these white clothes hangers because she had to have white clothes hangers. And I took all of her clothes off and I put 'em on colored clothes hangers, like different colors. And she came in like the that day and she came in that afternoon and went to her closet and saw it, and she immediately knew it was me. She was so angry. And she calls me and she's just so angry, and then she can't do anything but laugh. She took my key, she took my key for about a week, and then she gave it back. So, um, that was the relationship that we had. Um, some of the videos I have of her are her voice, her voice is distorted, her face is distorted. And, um, she's making these silly monkey noises to make my18-month-old. Daughter that's in the hospital… She's making her laugh with these monkey noises she recorded. She was just the most outgoing, personable person that you could ever, ever meet. And, um, she was a giver. She gave little gifts. If you lost a tooth, you got a gift. If you graduated college, you got a gift, you had a baby, you got a gift. A new car? She's giving you a gift. She was just a gifter. She gave everything that she had to everybody that she knew. NOEL But beneath her bright personality and seemingly happy life, Crystal carried deep pain. In her twenties, she was in a devastating car accident. An energy truck ran a stop sign and T-boned her vehicle, leaving her with serious injuries. She had to wear a "turtle brace" for her spine during her recovery and suffered from chronic pain for the rest of her life. That same year, she attempted suicide during a difficult period in her life, still recovering from her divorce. She had tried to overdose, in a moment of despair. But Crystal healed and built herself back up, marrying her second husband, Neal and they had a son together. As a Marine wife, Crystal faced the challenges of raising two young boys alone while her husband was deployed to Iraq. Sadly, this marriage did not last and Crystal moved back home once more, where she reconnected with a lifelong friend, Damon Wade, eventually marrying him and embracing his young daughter as her own. For a while, it seemed like Crystal had finally found her place. In 2015, Crystal began working for State Farm Insurance in Monroe, where she built strong friendships and enjoyed helping people with their insurance needs. A year later, she transferred to the Oak Grove office, where she continued working for four years. In January 2017, Crystal met Tony Jones under unexpected circumstances. At the time, she was still married to Damon, but the furnace had gone out in their home. Tony was the maintenance man for their apartment complex, and when he came to fix the furnace, he made an immediate impression. He promised her the world – and ultimately, she left her husband for him. Not long after, Crystal left everything behind to move with Tony to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her family felt she had disappeared into his world. However, the move didn’t last long – after a couple of months, the couple returned to Louisiana. But instead of moving back to Bastrop, where Crystal’s family was, they settled in Oak Grove, a 40-minute drive away. Oak Grove is a quiet, rural town with a population of just over 1,400 people. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows each other, and life moves at a slower pace. With its small businesses, farmlands, and tight-knit community, it’s not the kind of town where crime dominates the headlines. In late 2020, Crystal quit her job at State Farm to help Tony run the karate studio they owned together. However, towards the end of 2022, a large number of parents withdrew their kids from the studio, causing a dire financial situation for Crystal and Tony. Desperate, Tony called Crystal’s former supervisor at State Farm and asked if she could have her job back. So, in January 2023, Crystal was back at the office, but her colleagues noticed that she was not quite herself. Crystal admitted to her friend, Anna Lewis, that her anti-depressant medication made her feel like a zombie, and that she wanted to go off them. With the karate studio in dire straits, Tony had to take on any handyman job he could get. Tony was also employed by the West Carroll Parish Sheriff’s Office at the time, as a reserve officer. On the morning of February 9, 2023, Crystal did not go to work, as she was not feeling well. She made a doctor’s appointment for 2:30 PM, hoping to address her depression medication. However, she would never make it there. When Tony could not reach Crystal on her cell phone all afternoon, he called the doctor’s rooms to hear if she was still there. They told him that she never showed up for her appointment. He then called a neighbor, West Carrol Parish Sheriff Deputy Chuck Harris, and asked him to go to their house and check if Crystal was okay. Harris kept Tony on the line as he entered the home and called out for her. As he reached the bedroom, he dropped his voice and broke the sad news to Tony: his wife was no longer alive. He had found her body in the bedroom, and she had a fatal injury to her head. JANA: Around 4:40 PM I had just gotten off work and my oldest brother Dane called and, asked if I was sitting down and I told him no and asked him what was wrong. He then proceeded to tell me that he had received a phone call from Crystal's husband, Tony, that, Crystal was found deceased in their home. First, I was shocked, and then I immediately told my brother, does mom know? Because I wasn't quite sure if our mom had gotten a call or not. And he said no. So, I told him just to stay where he was in case my mom found out, so he could be there for her. And because my sister lived in a, a small town about 30 minutes away from where I, where we lived. And so on my way, I called my twin brother, told him what was going on, told him to stay where he was at, and what should have taken me about 32 minutes to drive, it only took me 16 minutes to get there, so I met by her husband, who tells me you know, it says single self-inflicted gunshot wound. NOEL It took police less than two hours to rule Crystal's death a suicide – a decision made at the scene, before her body had even been examined by the coroner. Crystal's family was taken aback by the swift conclusion of suicide. They believed this determination was inconsistent with Crystal's character and state of mind. No one asked her family members to make statements about Crystal’s mental health leading up to her death. JANA I was there for about 47 minutes and I was never spoken to by any law enforcement officers or the coroner or any, no one ever spoke to me except for Tony and Tony's family that was already there at the scene. Um. I stayed until they brought Crystal's body out, until it was became real. And then I got in my car and I left. Um, I left and I came back to the town where I lived and I met my brothers, um, to, in a, in a convenience store parking lot so that we could all go together to my mom's house to tell our mom, because that was gonna be the hardest thing to do, um, was to tell a mom that her daughter's no longer here. So we pulled up to my mom's driveway. It was around seven 30 that afternoon. And when we all got out of the vehicle, it was, uh, myself, uh, both of my brothers and then my sister-in-law. Um, as soon as we pulled up, my mom was outside walking her dog, and she goes, where's Crystal? Because she knew that something had to have been wrong. So, we didn't say anything. We got outta the car. We walked towards her and she just keeps saying, where's Crystal? Over and over again. And so, um, my twin brother goes up and grabs her and then we tell her and she just collapses. Um, because we didn't know what to tell her. We, we could tell her that, um, that she's gone. But at that point in time, there was no investigation done yet. It had just happened. So we didn't wanna tell her about what means or anything like that. NOEL If investigators had asked the family about Crystal’s state of mind, they would have been able to say that Crystal sent inspirational messages and memes to them, just the week before. She had a lot to look forward to and to live for. JANA On January the 27th, so just a little short shy of two weeks before this happened. She found out she was gonna be a grandma for the first time. Her oldest son in New York and his wife were pregnant and she was elated. She, she text me and then I called her and we talked. Um, I was telling her it's gonna be twins because I have a twin. And I was like, it runs in the family, they're gonna have twins. She was so full of joy just waiting for a grandchild to be born. Um, that was, that was just huge for her. NOEL Crystal was open and frank about her mental health. She told a close friend from work, Anna Lewis, that she was sad, but not suicidal. Anna believed that if Crystal was contemplating ending her life, she would have spoken about it to someone, as she was loved and supported by her family and friends. And after her previous suicide attempt, she was more knowledgeable about the subject. Also, having supported her sister through a similar experience, they made a promise to each other never to go down that path again. As we mentioned earlier: the purpose of Crystal’s doctor’s appointment that day was to address the effects of weaning off her antidepressants. She had been struggling with sleeplessness and feeling unwell, but she was self-aware and proactive – she recognized the need to adjust her prescription and took steps to manage it. These are not the actions of someone who had lost hope. Deputy Harris reported that there were no signs of forced entry at the scene, and he determined that there were no signs of a struggle. When he found Crystal, she was lying on the bed, on her left side, a pillow covering her face. She was wearing a robe, and she had already done her hair and make-up for the day. The bullet wound was to her right temple and her face was covered in blood. The firearm was in her right hand. Investigators were unable to locate the spent casing in the firearm or at the scene. Chief Deputy Irby noted that the firearm malfunctioned, failing to eject the spent casing. He explained that this was consistent with a "limp wrist" scenario, where improper grip leads to such issues. They assumed the shell casing would be found during the post-mortem examination. Approximately a week later, Crystal’s husband, Tony, reported finding the casing, a detail that raised concerns about the thoroughness of the investigation. JANA On February the 17th, we got a, my brother got a phone call from her husband, Tony, that he had found the missing spent shell casing, um, from the bullet that that killed her. And we didn't know that the casing was missing. He said, well, as a favor to me, don't tell Detective Allen Irby because he's already upset that they didn't find the casing. So that was an immediate red flag. Um, that was seven days later. How did you find this casing and why didn't they find it before they left? NOEL Five sets of law enforcement officers’ eyes were in that room, and the casing can be seen, lying out in the open, on the make-up table, in the initial crime scene photos. Why did no one notice it? Jana couldn’t help but feel that something about the police’s approach was off. When the autopsy was finally conducted, the report was riddled with inaccuracies, starting with basic details such as misspelling Crystal’s name and listing incorrect birth and death dates. Even more troubling, it documented health conditions Crystal never had, including pneumonia and seizures. It also failed to recognize the spinal injuries she had suffered in the motor vehicle accident. JANA We're still finding things in these reports, the inconsistencies, um, the shell casings, the, um, issues with the autopsy report with her hair color, her eye color being wrong, her name being spelled wrong. The coroner's report that lists that she had atrial fibrillation and seizures. My sister didn't have any of those diseases. They got her date of birth wrong. Her date of death wrong. In the time that her body was found, um, had typed, typed in 10:35 AM someone had taken a black marker, marked it out and put 5:05 PM as the time that she was found. So, so many just discrepancies that just didn't make sense to us. NOEL The absence of gunshot residue testing and DNA analysis further reinforced the family's belief that a proper investigation had not been conducted. Tony told investigators that Crystal had carried a 9mm in her purse, but that there was also a .45 caliber handgun on the nightstand. The Ruger EC9 was registered in Tony’s name, but he claimed that Crystal always carried it for protection. To add to confusion, the ballistics report misidentified the firearm found in Crystal’s hand. While the report listed it as a Ruger LC9, checking the serial number revealed that it was an EC9. Although these two types are closely related, one does not expect an official ballistics report to get it wrong. Also, key procedural steps were skipped. Police did not conduct gunshot residue testing or DNA analysis. Nor did they interview any neighbors, and fewer than 40 photographs were taken at the scene. Some of these images showed the family dog, Rocket, lying on the bed next to Crystal’s body – an unsettling detail, given the need to preserve evidence. When simple details are missed, it calls the credibility of the investigation into question. When Crystal's family formally requested access to information regarding the West Carroll Parish Sheriff's Department's policies and procedures for handling homicides, suicides, and gunshot deaths, as well as their guidelines for securing and photographing crime scenes, Sheriff Scott Matthews' response was alarming. Via email, he stated: "We did not deny your request; we simply did not have that information to provide to you." Without clear policies in place, how could investigations be carried out consistently or credibly? Standard police procedure dictates that officers collect gunshot residue, conduct DNA testing, and thoroughly document crime scenes. Yet in Crystal’s case, none of these steps were followed. 
Determined to find answers, Crystal’s family enlisted the help of private investigator Sheila Wysocki. Wysocki, an esteemed private investigator specializing in cold cases, is known for her dedication to seeking justice for overlooked victims. Her podcast, Without Warning, Bayo Secrets has covered Crystal McCrory Jones’ case extensively, highlighting the inconsistencies in the investigation and amplifying Crystal’s family’s fight for answers. If you want to explore some recorded interviews and such, you can follow the link in our show notes. Further investigation by the family also revealed troubling behavior by Crystal’s husband, Tony Jones. Jana recalls that her first red flag came while she was still at the crime scene. Before Crystal’s body had even been removed, Tony asked her where she wanted the funeral services to be held, since Crystal’s family lived in the neighboring town of Bastrop while Crystal and Tony lived in Oak Grove. In that moment, Jana wasn’t thinking about funeral arrangements, she was still trying to process the fact that her sister’s body had been found less than an hour before. JANA So the following days, we, um, met with the funeral director. Um, found out that her husband wanted her cremated. That was against our wishes. We, we wished for a normal, uh, regular burial, but that didn't happen. Um, we discussed some of the financial aspects of it, and [we discussed that we wanted a viewing, even though she was being cremated, we still wanted an open casket viewing. Um, so we arranged for that. Uh, and then my sister-in-law and I, um, were called upon to do Crystal's, hair and makeup because her, to her husband Tony, wanted to see her first before anyone else could go in and see her. He wanted, he was rushing to see her first. Well, the, um, hair and the makeup artist that works for the funeral home was busy, um, doing other clients. And so it wasn't, basically wasn't my sister's turn yet. And so, um, to appease her husband, my sister-in-law, and I went to the funeral home to do her hair and makeup. That's when we noticed the, um, the same amount of bruising on her body. And we took our, the funeral director guided us to take photos because it just wasn't normal bruising after an autopsy. NOEL They took as many photos as they could, adamant to follow up. Once Crystal’s body was ready for viewing, Tony went to see her by himself. Or rather, that is what her family assumed. In fact, he took a female friend along. The funeral director told him that it was unethical, as the woman was not family. Of course, everybody grieves in their own way, but something in his demeanor did not quite sit well with Crystal’s family. After the funeral, Jana referred to Crystal’s autopsy report. Toxicology results confirmed the presence of caffeine in Crystal’s system, suggesting that she had already started her morning routine. The medications detected were all within therapeutic ranges – there was no indication of an overdose or an attempt to end her life. Strangely, though, the autopsy report failed to mention the bruising observed on her hands and thighs. JANA They missed the bruising altogether. And when you go back to the autopsy photos to try to, um, look at the bruising, you [00:22:00] can't see it because there's no pictures of her left arm. There's no pictures of the inside of her legs. It's like they were purposely left out. She was cremated on February the 20th – against our wishes. I tried to, I tried to stop it and I couldn't. So I had done everything that I could to make sure it was investigated properly. Um. But apparently it, it wasn't, it, you know, there were so many discrepancies and they didn't find the casing. Um, but because I live in the state of Louisiana, um, the siblings have no right to, um, a deceased person. So, um, he actually had full rights to have her cremated and I couldn't get an injunction filed. NOEL During initial text exchanges between Tony and Jana, Jana asks questions, and Tony answers as best he could. Jana expresses her regret for not calling her sister more often and assures Tony of her love for him and their daughter. Crystal’s family did not want to suspect the man she loved of anything. However, his actions after Crystal’s death left a bad taste… They felt it was time to take a closer look at their brother-in-law… JANA I obtained a laptop from her husband Tony, because I was looking for a suicide note. My sister wrote notes for everything. Um, if she was angry at you, she wrote a note. If she was happy about something, she wrote a note. Um, she wrote notes to remind herself about notes. Um. And I was under the impression when they said they, they didn't find a suicide note and she hadn't text anybody in the family. She hadn't text her own two sons. I was even under the impression, well, maybe she mailed them, maybe she mailed a note to us and we'd get it a week later because that was just the person that she was. So I asked for this laptop because it hadn't been checked for a suicide note, and he gave it to me without any, any, any issues and he gave me the password to log into it. Then when I logged into it, my sister was logged into her husband's Google account and not hers. So that's where a bunch of the information and the data that we have, that's where it was obtained from, was that laptop, from that Google account, the Google searches, the timeline history, things like that. NOEL One detail that stood out was that on February 7, two days before Crystal’s death, their shared Ring account had gone offline. While it was unclear whether Tony or Crystal had deactivated it, the timing was strange. Financial records showed concerning patterns: credit card debts that had gone unpaid for months were suddenly scheduled to be paid on February 12, suggesting to the family that someone may have anticipated an influx of money. Given the circumstances, her family couldn't help but wonder about potential life insurance payouts. Crystal potentially had a $63,000 life insurance policy through her work at State Farm. According to Anna Lewis, Crystal's colleague, Tony contacted her the day after Crystal's death to inquire about it. Anna said that she told him the policy was conditional on length of employment, and Crystal's recent return to work meant she might not qualify. According to State Farm staff, Tony appeared to dispute this information and visited the offices on Monday, February 13, though his efforts were unsuccessful. Based on abundant digital evidence from Crystal's laptop, Jana was able to compare Tony's official account of his movements on the morning of February 9 with Google location data. According to police statements, Tony claimed that he left home shortly after 8:00 and went to Bastrop to Darrin Billings' house where he did some repairs. Darrin confirmed to a private investigator hired by Crystal’s family that Tony was there, but that he was running late and arrived somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30. Darrin who had known Tony for about 10 years, but had never met Crystal said that he asked Tony about Crystal and wondered if she still worked for State Farm. Tony told him that she had to quit, due to severe depression. According to Darrin, Tony elaborated, saying that Crystal struggled after her youngest son left home to go to the Naval Academy. It must be noted that Crystal did not quit her job, in fact she had only recently passed a certification exam. Shortly after leaving Darrin’s house, Tony called Crystal on her cell phone and they talked for about 15 – 20 minutes. The call started at 10:06. Tony claims he told her he had another handyman job at Forest High School, and that she seemed normal. Back in Oak Grove, Tony stopped to bank a check (the receipt indicates it was 10:51 a.m.) and then had something to eat at Bakery Barn. From Google tracking evidence on Crystal’s laptop, it was confirmed that Tony was at Bakery Barn from 11:11 till 11:53. Disconcertingly, something that was never mentioned in the interview or noted by police, was the fact that Google placed his location at the Sheriff’s Office for about 20 minutes – in the time between going to the bank and going to Bakery Barn. What was he doing there? And why didn’t anyone mention it? According to Tony in his police statement, he said he went straight to Forest High School from Bakery Barn, arriving at noon. School records confirm he checked his daughter out early at 2:43, which was unusual as she typically took the bus home. While police reports mention that Tony got a haircut that day, this detail was missing from his recorded interview, suggesting that there may have been other information discussed off-record. Delivery records show that a FedEx package was delivered to Crystal and Tony's house at 1:16 PM, with no answer at the door. According to Tony, after checking their daughter out of school, he took her to Sonic for a bite to eat, and then they went to the Karate Studio across the street to prepare for the evening’s classes. When Tony called Dane to inform him about Crystal’s passing, he said that he had asked a Deputy to do a welfare check, because he was at the studio. However, Google location data appears to tell a different story. The records show that after leaving the school, Tony's movements through Oak Grove were unusually slow. A journey that typically takes nine minutes stretched to 35 minutes, with an unexplained seven-minute stop at an unmarked location. According to the location data, he arrived at Sonic at 3:25, followed by a visit to Walmart Supercenter until 4:11, then remained at an undetermined address until 4:37, moments before Deputy Harris informed him about Crystal's death. Piecing together what they knew about Tony and Crystal’s marriage, her family and friends had to come to terms with what was going on behind closed doors. In the months leading up to her death Crystal became increasingly concerned about her husband’s infidelity. On the 13th of February, four days after Crystal died, Tony’s Google account shows he conducted an online search: “What is the appropriate time to date after the death of a spouse?” Crystal’s family had to educate themselves in the chain of command in the police force and research the legal rights of victims’ families before they could take matters any further. They also struggled to find lawyers who were willing to go up against law enforcement and were even swindled by a non-profit organization who promised to get to the bottom of the case but never followed up. JANA So then we reached out to the House of Representative Senate, things like that, and we found out just recently that we were missing a page in her toxicology report. Um, we have page one and three, but we don't have page two. And so we did public records request. Um, the attorney did public records request. The local news anchor did public records request, and there's no page two. I took her off our toxicology report because in her toxicology report, it just has the drugs listed and the levels that were found. So there were no, out of the ordinary drugs, it was just drugs she'd been prescribed, and then Benadryl, um, over the counter, Benadryl. Well, when I looked at the levels, I ran it through an AI system. We found that the Benadryl levels were at toxic level, along with, um, another drug that was in her system was at toxic levels. So we looked at page two of some similar autopsy reports, and page two would've told us that those were at toxic levels. So I don't know if that's why we're missing page two. Um, we don't know yet. So. Just last week we filed a complaint against the pathologist that did her autopsy report because he did her original autopsy report February the 22nd. Um, she was cremated February the 20th, two days before the autopsy came back, and then he amended it December the 28th of 20 23, 10 months later. Because I, I raised questions and concerns about, um. The autopsy report, um, the, you know, the fact that she had had a hysterectomy, but they had listed her internal organs as being remarkable as being there. Um, her hair color, her eye color, the spelling of her name. I had questioned all these things just through an email account, through a Gmail account. And three days later he responds. Well, these were just transcription errors and he changed her entire autopsy, including her liver mortis status because the original liver mortis status was, f ixed anterior and posterior torso given the indication that her body was moved after death. 10 months later, he changes it and the wording makes it sound like it was a natural, you know, natural and that her body wasn't moved. So we have no answers as to why those things were changed when she was cremated. We don't have a body for a second autopsy.
NOEL Despite their efforts, including public campaigns and appeals to higher authorities, the family continues to face resistance. As Jana said: the harder you push, the harder they push back. JANA We tried to reach out to the sheriff's department, um, just recently back in December for a status of Crystal's case. Is it opened or is it closed? Because we were under the impression it was closed since we were able to access public records in her case. And, you know, in the United States, if a case is closed, you can get public records. So June 17th, 2024, the sheriff's attorney, um, released a letter saying that my sister's case was open without formal disposition. So we don't know what that means. Um, and then even more recently, a behavioral criminologist reached out to the West Carroll Sheriff's Department. Usually if you reach out to them because of the billboards or whatever, they'll hang up on you. If you mention Crystal's name, they won't talk about it. But she was able to get through and she had a six-minute-long conversation with the lead detective Alan Irby, where she recorded it. And, um, she asked where her case stands and he said, well, it's open, but it's complete. I don't know what that means. Um, how can you have an open but complete case? Because it's either open or closed. You can't have it both ways. And so right now, the, the biggest hurdle is just knowing is her case open? And if it's open, who's actively investigating it? And if no one's actively investigating it, why is it not closed? NOEL The handling of Crystal's case makes one feel uneasy about how law enforcement investigates deaths involving their own. Despite Tony's position as a reserve officer, no special protocols were implemented to ensure an unbiased investigation. No outside agency was called in to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Instead, Tony bypassed standard procedures and called Deputy Harris – his neighbor and fellow officer – who then took charge of the initial investigation, creating a clear conflict of interest. If evidence proves that Crystal’s death was self -inflicted, her family will accept that reality. But without a proper, impartial investigation, they will continue to have doubts. Crystal had so much to live for – she was about to become a grandmother, a role she was deeply excited about. She had also completed a certification exam at work and was looking forward to resuming her career.   Crystal’s family refuses to give up. They continue to push for a thorough, independent investigation into her death. JANA So there's a Facebook page called Justice Forry McCrory Jones, and McCrory is spelled M-C-C-R-O-R-Y. Um, or you can just Google her name and then the petitions will pop up. Up the Facebook group. Um, the same uh, thing, justice for Crystal MCC Jones is on TikTok and YouTube. And on my TikTok and my YouTube and my Facebook, there's a link tree. And if you go to that link tree, all of the petitions that we have to reopen her case to sign the petition for Crystal's law, um, the. Links to the book. I just recently published a book about the first two years of her case. All of those links are in there, so if you want, uh, the full story of, of everything that's happened, everything that I'm able to share, um, it's in that book from the very beginning up until the two-year mark. NOEL  We would like to thank Crystal's sister Jana Guyewski-Lautigar for the information and her insights regarding this episode.