Missing Texas woman seen quickly leaving home on day of disappearance
Christina "Chrissy" Lee Powell, 39, is wearing dark pants and a long-sleeved shirt as she is seen hustling out of her San Antonio home shortly after 10:34 a.m. on July 5. (Video courtesy Lauren Leal)
Texas police have closed an investigation into the death of a woman seen hurrying from her San Antonio home and whose body was discovered weeks later as authorities reveal she died from hyperthermia with alcohol-related complications, officials said Friday.
Christina Lee Powell suffered an accidental death caused by hyperthermia with complications from ethanol intoxication, a spokesperson for the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s office told Fox News Digital. The determination was announced over a month after Powell’s lifeless body was discovered in her car, which was parked in a local mall lot.
The 39-year-old mom was discovered on the evening of July 23 – nearly three weeks after a family member reported her missing – in the front passenger seat of her 2020 Nissan Rogue. Investigators said at the time they believed her car had been parked there at least a week.
A San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) spokesperson said late Thursday it had closed the investigation, and noted: "We did not find any evidence leading to a criminal investigation."
The spokesperson did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions regarding what kinds of items were located in the vehicle, or whether investigators believe Powell went directly to the mall complex where she was later found.
Powell was a mother to two boys, ages 3 and 12. Loved ones called her "Chrissy."
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The SAPD announced in late July that a security guard at the Huebner Oaks Center mall complex had located the suspicious vehicle on July 23 and went to examine further.
The guard told police that he checked on the SUV while driving through the lot and noticed "a foul odor coming from the vehicle."
Screengrab from doorbell camera footage shows Christina "Chrissy" Powell leaving her San Antonio, Texas, home on July 5, 2022 (Courtesy Lauren Leal)
"He looked inside the vehicle and observed a body in the front passenger side seat and called 911," police said. The windows of the SUV were closed, a law enforcement source told Fox News Digital.
"It had been days," the source added.
The mall complex is located approximately four miles away – a 10-minute drive – from her Red Hill Place home.
There were no obvious signs of trauma to Powell’s body and her purse, which contained identifying information, was also inside.
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Temperatures in San Antonio reached the 90s, if not higher, during the approximate time Powell’s vehicle was believed to have been parked in the lot.
Photo provided by Lauren Leal shows missing Texas mom of two Christina "Chrissy" Lee Powell. (Photo courtesy Lauren Leal)
Powell vanished without a trace on the morning of July 5, after she was last seen hurrying out the front door of the San Antonio home she shared with her mother and her oldest son. On the morning of her disappearance, she told her mom she was running late for work.
She was then captured on doorbell camera footage leaving the house around 10:35 a.m. but was never seen again. She told colleagues at the office where she worked as a paralegal that she had overslept and would be late.
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But Powell left behind her cell phone — which had been placed on the bathroom counter — medication and possibly also her Apple Watch when she left.
Missing Texas mom Christina "Chrissy" Lee Powell, left, in this undated photo with longtime friend Lauren Leal. (Photo courtesy Lauren Leal)
She drove off in her Nissan SUV, but never made it the seven miles, or 15 minutes, to her office.
When Powell didn't show up, a colleague went to her home around lunchtime to check in on her, only to learn from her 12-year-old son that his mother had left that morning.
Claudia Mobley, Powell’s mother, reported her daughter missing the next day.
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Powell was described at the time as being "diagnosed with medical conditions that require a doctors (sic) care."
Mobley previously told Fox News Digital her daughter had previously disappeared, albeit for a shorter period of time, about four or five years ago. She said she threatened to call the police when she spoke to Powell’s boyfriend at the time, but never followed through.
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