SPEAKER_01 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Every family experiences a tragedy differently. Some witness it from the inside, while others see the ripple effects through the people they love. Those perspectives can provide important insight into who a person was before their life became defined by a single event. Today's guest is John Davis, Crystal McCrory's former brother-in-law. During that time he was part of the McCrory family, John came to know Crystal and witnessed the close bonds within the family. He also experienced the profound impact her death had on those left behind. Today we'll talk with John about his memories of Crystal, what he observed in the days and months following her death, and how this case has continued to affect the family over the years. John, thank you for being here and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Thank you for having me. Just a little bit about me. So I I I got to know Crystal pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I understand that you came into Jana's life, you know, when she was pretty young. And so I I'd like to know what your experiences were seeing Jana and Crystal as sisters.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Well, when I come into Jana's life, he was 18 years old. And Crystal had just moved back. So she Jana was trying to rationalize her being back from New York because it kind of that being her big sister, she was hurt that she moved to New York in the first place. So I kind of pushed her to to rekindle a relationship physically. They talk on the phone all the time. Typical sister relationship, they were talking text just about daily. And if it if it was a couple of days without them talking to each other, I heard about it and then there was a phone call or a text maybe.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

So when when she came back, did the nature of their relationship change? It sounds like you said you kind of pushed her to not necessarily re-engage, but maybe to um repair the relationship after she had left. So how did that look differently when she came back?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

When she came back, it was your typical teenager that was upset that somebody moved off and left them. And that's the way Jana felt is that Crystal had moved to New York and left her in Louisiana. But I mean, when I say I pushed, it it wasn't really a hard push. It was just us getting the time because they moved to Streetport when we were in Louisiana. Once they got to talking again, we planned trips together. I think our first trip that we had planned together, me and Jana took our two kids at the time, JC and Aubrey. I mean, JC and Alex, my son and and Jana and and my my daughter, JC, we took her up to the swim park in Streetport. We might have went to the state park and swim. Or both. I I really can't remember that 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

I think what you're describing is encouraging, right? Encouraging the relationship. And we in fact it happens to be when you and I, or when we are speaking today, happens to be um our anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Uh-huh. And one of the things that I have learned, which I think is what you're referring to, is that nature of being a sounding board, right, for your spouse. And when they ask for maybe advice, encouraging. And we all struggle with relationships, whether it's with siblings or moms or dads. And I think what you're describing is just encouraging that relationship and putting those pieces together, right? So that you can, you know, do things together as a family.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Mm-hmm. So what are some of the things that they enjoyed doing together? I hear you like to vacation together and get all the family together. What else did Jan and Crystal enjoy doing together?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Well, I know they they both love the crap book. And if you know what the the penny items are at the dollar store, um you do or don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I do not know that.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

All right. At the dollar at the dollar drinks for as Crystal would say, there was a website that would they would drop items to one penny. And Crystal and Jana would used to love to find the penny items. They would go in there and and they would dig through stuff just to find just to say I paid a penny for this. And they would uh at the time, me and Jana, we were young, and and we coupon we we for food, Jana would coupon with with Crystal. And they would figure out a way to use their coupons where we would they would get buggies full of stuff, food and and house household items, and it would be two and three dollars, and it would be a whole buggy full that they would sit in the the living room once crystal moves to to Bastro. They would sit in our living room for hours and figuring these coupons out.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

And now the couponing I I understand. Uh used to do that. We had a whole stockpile in the basement. We called it the zombie apocalypse.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Stockpiles. We had a whole whole room that was was a stockpile.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yes.

unknown 6:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

We never wanted for shampoo, deodorant, mustard, or conditioned, mustard ketchup. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yes, I totally understand. I used to take pictures, put them on Facebook, and I'm like, look, I got all these things. And then Michael would be like, Why do we have 15 jars of mustard? But I only paid $10 or whatever. So that I understand. I I would have enjoyed that. I don't have sisters or brothers, actually. So um hearing, you know, how siblings uh spend time with each other, I just I I, you know, obviously I don't have it. I don't understand it. Um, but I I think I could plug into that to that group pretty well. I also scrapbooked, so it feels like they're right up my alley. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Later on, Crystal would go mud riding with me and Jana. So we all love to get together and get on foiler and go get muddy. And then we would, like I said, we playing trips. I think we went to uh Hot Springs, Arkansas a few times. We went to Crystal's when she was in Freeport to the water park, and they there's a there's a national park up there that's got a swim swimming area. And the first time we went up there, Corbin, Crystal's oldest, he uh he was just learning to drive. And at the state park, I was like, I told him, I said, well just go grab my car, pull it around where we can load stuff up. Well, he actually ended up wrecking my car. And Crystal thought that me and Jana was gonna be upset, but I was just worried, more worried that that the little boy was okay. And I mean, a car is a car and it can be replaced. And it turned out it was only just a little bit of damage. It was a mirror and the side of the door. I remember Crystal offering to pay for my insurance deductible to get it fixed, and and me and Dana told her not to worry about it. I mean, I told the kid to go get the car, it was my responsibility. I should have walked up there with it. But she did she would offer if she felt responsible, she would offer to pay for what she thought she was responsible for.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

So I'd love for you to um keep going along those lines and and w what is your recollection of Crystal's personality? So I obviously will not have um the honor of meeting Crystal, but how would you describe her personality to someone like me who will not have the chance to meet her?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

She liked to be a jokester. One of the jokes that she had played on me was she took black shoe polish and the handle on my car was black. Well, she would take and rub it on the inside of my handle. That way, when I went to get in my car, if you she rubbed it thin enough, I wouldn't know that it was on my hand. And then if you ever touched yourself with shoe polish, it gets everywhere. And by the time you know it, you shouldn't wiped your face a couple times, you got black marks everywhere. I think I would like the screw.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I do. I think you would. That's why I'm Googleing Michaels that way too.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

I hunt, and she had actually bought me a pair of binoculars that that she had seen, and I had been talking to Jana about needing some binoculars. Well, I thought Crystal was being the good sister and wrong. She heard it overheard me and Jana talking, so she went and bought me some. Well, same black polish was rubbed on the inside of the binoculars. So I walked around for about two hours with circles around my eyes on Dana and Crystal wouldn't tell me about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

That sounds like a really fun group.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, they like to pick on the hundreds. I don't know. And uh and as far as Jana and Crystal, she was always writing her just little short text messages of um motivation, whether it would motivate you to get up off the butt and do something, or you know you're good enough to do this, because Jana had started college right after high school. And she was questioning herself if she was gonna be able to make it through college, and then Crystal would would always text her or call her and and and uplift her to to let her know that she was plenty smart enough to make it through college, and and and there were struggles where Dana was a young mom, and I mean she was a baby with a baby, because Jason Jr. our oldest was born when Jana was just about to turn 19 years old. So Jana would rely on Crystal for parenting advice. And uh so there was a bunch of conversations pertaining to what you should or shouldn't do with with a baby, and and so Jana leaned on her really hard for that.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I'm really glad you brought brought that up. One of the things that Jana has been um very clear with me is the nature of the relationship between Crystal and her nieces. So I just like you to continue to talk about like as um the children got older, you know, Crystal and her nieces were very, very close. So we'd like to hear some more about that.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

My two girls, JC and Aubrey, are are with me and Jana, and they they called her Aunt Tridle. She absolutely loved my daughters. She'd be going to Walmart or Dollar Tree or Dollar General and see something that she would think that they would like, and you could bet your bottom dollar she was fit and come to the house with a a trunk full of stuff. JC, she she would call Crystal once once she got her own cell phone, she called Jay, she called Crystal David. And the same as with Jana, she would talk to her Aunt Crystal about problems in school she was having, or she had something that she wanted to tell me and Jana, but she didn't know how to. Her Aunt Crystal was the person that she could call and talk to. And then Aubrey, I mean, that she just loved her Aunt Crystal. I mean, I've got videos of Crystal just popping up at the house, and there was there's very few people that can just pop up at my house. And I I I like a phone call to say, hey, I'm on my way over. And Crystal was one of those folks. Because even if I did say, hey, you need to call before you come over, she wasn't gonna call it her sister's house and come in when she wants to. But I've got pictures of and videos of Aubrey sitting at the the window and see her aunt Crystal drive up, and she just goes ballistic, happy. And she would run to the window and couldn't wait for her Aunt Crystal to come into the house. She loved being their aunt, and they loved her for being her their aunt.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about how all of those things changed after Crystal's death. And I would like to start with Jana. So how did you see Crystal's death impact Jana?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Really threw Jana into a a depression that I was scared she wasn't gonna be able to come out of. Before Crystal Pass, Jana was very outgoing. Uh we were always going somewhere, which me and Jana's been divorced for 10 years, almost 10 years, eight years on eight, between eight and ten years. And that's when she met Scott. And her and Scott would they would take my girls. I think they went to Mexico a couple of times to uh on vacations. They would go plan trips to go to Las Vegas and just they vacationed around the United States. Once Crystal passed, uh, that just all come to a screeching halt, and Jana won wanted to just be at home. She didn't want to leave. She used to, she used to like to get out and go to Walmart and shop, you just your typical wife stuff. And when Crystal passed, that all shut down and she wanted to stay at home, and she started doing the Walmart orders where they deliver it to the door, and and it just it really and short of a better word word, it it shut Jana down for a little while. She's not fully done grieving. I mean, which you never really are, and everybody grieves in their own way.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

What stands out to you, or can you talk about Jana's determination in seeking answers to what may or may not have happened with Crystal? We know that, you know, she is working very hard to get the lack of investigation investigated. And I'd just like you to talk about um her determination as she walks down that path.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

She has been steadfast on justice reform. Crystal's suicide was ruled a suicide in an hour and a half, and there's no possible way that an actual investigation can be concluded in 90 minutes. And she has fought for change on how remains are shipped to loved ones across the country. Uh, I do believe she went to Washington, D.C. for that one and got uh an act enacted to to collectively around the United States, this is the way that you uh the human remains should be treated with respect and and and accountability, which was not done in Crystal's case. I've made it no secret that I I don't believe Crystal killed herself. She had too much to live for. She was ecstatic that she had just found out maybe a week or two, no more than a month before that her first grandbaby was coming. In my mind, there's no doubt that she would have done that. Uh, but back to Jana's determination. The second Jana started talking, she called me after she had talked to Scott, I was her second phone call the day that that Crystal passed. And she was squalling on the phone and had she told me what had been told to her that it was a at the time a possible suicide. Later on, there's been a bunch of questions that there wasn't any gunshot residue test done on her hands, on Tony. The rush to judge Crystal's case of suicide is hard for us to understand. There was physical evidence of bruising on Crystal's body that shouldn't have been there if it was a self-inflicted wound. And Jana has dug and dug and dug and got pictures and report and filed freedom of information reports, and she has been stonewalled by Oak Grove's Sheriff's Department every step of the way. And along the way of fighting for her answers, she has branched out in the fighting for answers for other families. And I really applaud her for that because she he is tenacious like a dog with a bone when she's got a question.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, I think that tenacity word, it's not a word that we use lightly, but we know what you're speaking to in her fight to make sure that human remains are treated with dignity and not just mailed willy-nilly to people, and that she goes, you know, all the way to Washington, DC and it gets a bill passed that you know that really originated with her and others. And I mean, your average person doesn't just doesn't do that. Uh and so you the tenacity word I think is a perfect word for her for sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

I mean, and it's if you're one of the ones she loves, she's gonna fight for you too tonight. I know that's weird coming from an ex-husband, but when we decided to get divorced, one of the first things out of her mouth was we're getting a divorce. That doesn't mean you and your kids are getting a divorce. She made it extremely easy for me to see my my girls. With me being a construction worker, my my schedule coming into town, I will say very irregular. As of right now, I'm nine hours away from the house. So I can't just run back and forth and into the town to see my kids. So when I did get a chance to come in, all I ever had to do was was was tell her, hey, I'm on my way in, can I? And I wouldn't even get to can I get the girls? She would tell me to pick them up tomorrow because it was a 12-hour drive. And we'll see you at seven o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

So over the course of um our conversation, we've talked about Crystal's life and the impact of her loss. And as we close, can you share a memory of Crystal that always makes you smile?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Uh, we had gone on a trip, I believe it was the one to hot springs, and we had rented a hotel. All of us had rented a hotel, and there was a a pool area, and Corbin and Mason, Crystal's sons, they decided they wanted to have uh a towel war of popping each other with the towel. Well, I mean, I'm I'm a big old kid, and so I encouraged them. I mean, I had a towel war with them. Well, next thing I knew, Crystal was in the towel war with us. And all four of us was chasing each other around the swimming pool, in the swimming pool, out the swimming pool. That that's just one memory that really sticks out.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

You've been listening to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family, and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, Tragedy a True Crime Podcast, on X at Tragedy Podcast, by email at TragedyAt True Crime Podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website www.tragedyatrucrime podcast.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time.