Naman Shrestha
Authorities were shocked to find Tiffiney Crawford dead in the driver seat of her van right outside her Cullman, Alabama, home. In CBS’ ’48 Hours: The Mysterious Death of Tiffiney Crawford,’ we get a detailed account of the tragic murder and the ensuing investigation. The viewers also hear about the case from the victim’s friends and family in interviews that helped the police bring the culprit to justice.
How Did Tiffiney Crawford Die?
A mother, stepmother, Preschool Teacher, and the Founder of a support group named Mothers Helping Mothers, Tiffiney Crawford was born on February 28, 1985, to Gary and Cheryl Webb. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Athens State University in 2009, although married, she met Jason Crawford, who had been divorced for several years. As the two grew closer, Tiffiney got divorced and married him. Apart from becoming a stepmother to Jason’s son Logan from his previous marriage, she soon gave birth to son Tristen and daughter Symphiney.
Just after 11 PM on May 2, 2017, Jason dialed 911 and asked the authorities for help after finding his wife dead. Upon rushing to the crime scene, the police found the 32-year-old Tiffiney in her van’s driver seat, holding a gun in her left hand, with a gunshot wound on the left side of her chin and a second one on her left temple. The authorities then looked around the crime scene for evidence before interviewing the people in the neighborhood, including her husband, Jack, who was the first to find her after she died.
Jason Crawford Was Convicted for the Murder of Tiffiney Crawford
As per Jason Crawford’s claims, on the night of May 2, 2017, he and Tiffiney got into an argument right outside their home in Cullman over the latter’s alleged extramarital affair. He said that the argument went on for an hour or so before he stepped inside the house to get his wife her work uniform to get her to leave. The next thing he said he heard was a gunshot, a scream, and another shot. The very next morning, the case was turned over to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation since Jason’s mother, Ronda Crawford, worked for Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry as an office manager, which was a potential conflict of interest.
Following this, State Investigator Joe Parrish took over the case and began his investigation. His first course of action was to check out the van or the crime scene himself, only to find out that the van had been scrubbed clean by a couple of family members, which raised suspicion in his mind. On the night of the crime, one of the Sherrif’s deputies believed it was a suicide case, but Parrish noticed several discrepancies. Firstly, the fact that the gun was found in the victim’s left hand, despite her being right-handed, was already quite odd.
Additionally, two shots to the head are considered very rare in suicide attempts. In conclusion, according to the lead investigator, it was nearly impossible that Tiffiney had used her nondominant hand to pull the trigger twice. It was only a week after the shooting that Jason was called in for questioning. That’s when he shared his side of the night with the authorities in detail, discussing their argument that sparked due to her alleged affair and how he heard the gunshots and the scream.
After getting the DNA results from the gun, the authorities only detected some trace amounts, which gave them the impression that there was a high possibility that the gun was wiped clean and then strategically placed in the victim’s hand to make it look like a suicide. Just like Parrish, the State Medical Examiner, Dr. Valerie Green, also doubted Jason’s story about the fateful night due to the gunshot wounds on the left side of Tiffiney’s head. All the evidence pointed out that the shot had been fired from at least 10 inches away, which was very unlikely because of how unnatural it sounded and because she was in her van, with just a tiny space to work with.
Almost ten months after Tiffiney’s shocking demise, on March 8, 2018, her death was declared a murder officially, supported by Dr. Green’s findings. Around two months later and a year after the murder, a Cullman County grand jury indicted the 38-year-old Jason Crawford on the murder charge of his late wife, Tiffiney Crawford. Following the indictment, he was held at the Cullman County Detention Center but only for about half an hour or so as he was released on a $100,000 property bond.
In November 2022, Jason Crawford’s trial for the murder of his wife, Tiffiney, commenced. The prosecution argued his anger over his wife’s affair to be his alleged motive for murder and played the 911 call for the jury and showed them some parts of the body camera footage to support their claims. Soon, the jury ruled Jason guilty of the act, and on March 10, 2023, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison, despite pleading innocence. According to official records, he is incarcerated at Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery, Alabama.
