The Suspicious Death of Krystal Lee Higgins (Maine) Part 1

It’s been 20 years since 17-year old Krystal Lee Higgins disappeared from her downeast Maine 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.

Circumstances of Krystal’s Life

Krystal Lee Higgins is Jessica Worcester’s big sister, but even from a young age Krystal took on an even greater role in her life.

“Krystal was not only just a sister, but she was also like a mother figure to me,” Jessica began. “Our childhood wasn’t the best. Our biological mother left us when we were seven and eight.”

For part of their childhood, Jessica, Krystal and their brother lived with their father and step-mother in Downeast Maine. However, things at home 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 step-mother. Krystal and her step-mom didn’t get along and as Jessica explained to me, their step-mother 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 Krystal, 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. Krystal 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,” Jessica continued, “She’d check in on me. I’d call her when things changed, didn’t go right or something went wrong and she’d always talk me through it.”

Krystal 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 highschool class work. She was also paying the mortgage on her dad’s place while he was in jail so that the bank wouldn’t foreclose and they’d all have a place to reunite when it was released. It was a lot for a teenager.

“Krystal didn’t let it fully weigh her down,” Jessica explained. “She had her head on her shoulders. She kept going. She kept doing what she believed was right.”

In August of 2004, Krystal was 17-years old and getting ready for her senior year of high school and talking about applying for colleges. She wanted to become a family lawyer.

“She had her life goals,” Jessica said. “She had a full life ahead of her.”

August 7, 2004

It was 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 7, 2004 and Krystal 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.

Krystal stopped home after work to wash up and change out of her work clothes. She’d been living with her best friend Tara Skeate’s family, including Tara’s mother Debbie and brother Justin for a while. Tara was at home with her boyfriend when Krystal stopped in to change that night and when she left again around 9 o’clock, Tara could tell Krystal was excited to meet up with her crush, Mitchell.

Note: For privacy reasons, I’ll be using first names only for most people in this case.

I’m about to give you a lot of information to process – the details of that evening and Krystal’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 Krystal’s night on Saturday, August 7 is pieced together from numerous witness interviews contained in the case file. After Krystal left home, she headed towards a common meetup point for teenagers in the small-town Downeast Maine area: the Harrington Irving gas station.

There, Krystal called Mitchell and he met her there with his cousin who was visiting for the weekend. Mitchell told Krystal they were on their way to visit a friend so Krystal followed them there in her own car. When they got there, the friend wasn’t home so they were all supposed to 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.

Krystal returned to the Irving alone, but since the gas station was a rendezvous spot, she soon met up with another group of friends: Brandon, Jason, Nick and Randy. They told Krystal they all planned to hang out at Nick’s house after they left the gas station and invited her along. Krystal met up with them at Nick’s house around 10:30 p.m. but it sounds like it wasn’t a very eventful gathering. Krystal’s best friend Tara Skeate texted her sometime around 10:45 p.m. to check in and Krystal texted back that she was bored and would call if she wasn’t planning to come home that night.

The group hung out at Nick’s for a short time before all five of them loaded into Krystal’s 1996 two-door gold Chevy Cavalier, deeming it the most reliable of the cars they had among them that night, and set off to find some fun. They cruised around the rural roads of Columbia Falls and Harrington for a while. The details in the casefile vary on this point, but either Mitchell called Krystal 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. Krystal 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.

Krystal 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 Coricidin, an over the counter cold and flu medicine. At some point that night though, Krystal 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.

Krystal drove the group of guys back to Nick’s house after that and she quickly used the bathroom before announcing she was leaving. One of the guys later said he expressed his concern for Krystal being on the road at that hour, but she assured him she was headed right home to the Skeate’s house in Columbia. Another of the guys she was with that night said Krystal 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 co-worker Krystal hadn’t arrived on time for her shift. In the last two summers she’d worked at the Takeout, Krystal never missed a day of work. Even when she was sick, Krystal showed up (only to be sent home by her boss).

According to case file documents, Justin Skeate walked into the restaurant later that afternoon. Knowing Krystal lived with Justin’s family, Krystal’s boss asked him why Krystal 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 Krystal was.

When Justin got back to his house and found it empty, he assumed Krystal had just gone out with friends, not thinking anything of it. It wasn’t until his mother Debbie Skeate got home around 7:30 p.m. that everything clicked. No one had heard from Krystal since the night before.

Krystal Lee Higgins’ story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Part 2 of the Krystal Lee Higgins case will be out next week on Dark Downeast.