The Disappearance of Crystal Gayle Dittmeyer: Secrets, Lies, and a Life Cut Short

 

Today we’re talking about the disappearance of 12-year-old Crystal Gayle Dittmeyer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

On June 13, 1996, Crystal was last seen around 5:30 p.m. near the pool at her family’s apartment complex, the Pick Wick Apartments, off Interstate 240. She was wearing a white yin-yang t-shirt, jean shorts, and a yin-yang necklace. That was the last time anyone outside her family ever saw her.

Suspicion quickly turned to her stepfather, Benjamin Harry Crider Jr. The very next day, police noticed bite marks on his arm and bruises on his shoulder. He claimed the injuries came from fixing the brakes on his wife’s car. But investigators checked—there was nothing about the brake system that could have caused those kinds of wounds.

Then Crystal’s younger half-brother spoke up. Two weeks after she disappeared, he told investigators he had walked into his parents’ bedroom the night Crystal went missing. Inside, he saw Crystal lying motionless. His mother, Tammi, quickly ushered him out and took him shopping. When they returned, Crystal was gone. Tammi denied her son’s story.

Investigators built their case against Benjamin. He was a registered nurse at the time, and police believed he put Crystal’s body in a garment bag and carried it out using his state health department vehicle. DNA evidence—consistent with Crystal’s blood type—was later found in that vehicle. Bloodstains were also discovered inside the family’s apartment, along with an empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide, possibly used to clean up.

Tammi failed a polygraph test. Benjamin initially agreed to one, but later backed out. In 1998, Benjamin was charged and convicted of Crystal’s murder, receiving a life sentence. Prosecutors believed he snapped after finding her in the shower, something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. But the conviction didn’t stick. In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned it.

He was retried in 2004, but the case ended in a mistrial. Finally, in 2005, Benjamin admitted to causing Crystal’s death. He said he struck her in anger, killing her, but claimed it wasn’t intentional. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Because he had already served nine years, he was released shortly afterward.

In 2008, Benjamin Crider died of a heart attack at just 49 years old—without ever revealing what happened to Crystal’s body. To this day, she has never been found.

Crystal would be 41 years old today. And her case remains open, with foul play confirmed but her final resting place still unknown.

So here’s the question: Do you believe Benjamin’s confession was the full truth, or do you think there’s more to Crystal’s story that went to the grave with him?

Every parent’s worst fear is losing sight of their child

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