The evening of July 3, 2015, was much like any other, according to Crystal Rogers‘ boyfriend, Brooks Houck. Houck said the 35-year-old mother of five played games on her phone that night, but when he woke up the next morning, Rogers and her car were gone. She was never seen again.
In January 2024, however, there was a major break when Houck and two other men, father and son, Steven and Joseph Lawson, were charged with Rogers’ murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and tampering with physical evidence, WHAS11 reported. Investigators think Houck’s brother, Nick Houck, a former Bardstown police officer, might also be involved in the case.
Between 2015 and those recent arrests, Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, was also shot and killed near Bardstown, Kentucky, where Rogers lived. Authorities now suspect the Rogers’ case could be connected to the 2013 unsolved shooting death of Bardstown police officer Jason Ellis. None of those cases have gone to trial.
Crystal Rogers was reported missing on July 5
Brooks Houck said the last time he saw Crystal Rogers was July 3. Rogers’ family reported her missing two days later when they hadn’t heard from her. That same day, Rogers’ car and her belongings were found parked, the keys still in the ignition, near Kentucky’s Bluegrass Parkway.
Two years earlier, Bardstown police officer Jason Ellis was shot and killed near the Bluegrass Parkway when, after his shift, he pulled over to remove branches from an exit ramp sign. Authorities now think it was an ambush attack and that Rogers’ disappearance and Ellis’s murder might be connected. Investigators have revealed few details about either case.
“It’s hard to not go there, too,” said Kelly Eastman, Ellis’ sister, referring to her brother’s unsolved murder and Rogers’ disappearance. “Because there seem to be similar people connected to each case, in some ways, without saying too much.”
The 2016 shooting death of Crystal Rogers’ father
Land near Bluegrass Parkway close to Bardstown was the scene of yet another tragedy, when, in 2016, Crystal Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, who never stopped searching for answers related to his daughter’s disappearance, was shot and killed on a hunting trip with Crystal Rogers’ eldest son, Ballard’s grandson. Ballard’s murder has never been solved. His gun was never fired.
Sherry Ballard, Crystal’s mother, however, thinks that Nick Houck, Brooks’ brother, who was fired from the Bardstown Police Force shortly before his brother was named a suspect in the case, may have pulled the trigger. ” … I’ve always thought Nick Houck did this to my husband. From the minute I got that phone call,” Sherry told WDRB.
Did Brooks Houck commission Crystal Rogers’ murder?
Details are scarce as to what may have motivated the murders of Jason Ellis and the presumed murder of Crystal Rogers, but with three men now charged in connection with Rogers’ death, answers could soon be coming. A 2023 WDRB report, however, says evidence suggests that Brooks Houck may have hired Steven Lawson, Houck’s employee at rental properties Houck owned, and Lawson’s son, Joseph, to kill Rogers and dispose of her body.
But as of March 2024, prosecutors and defense attorneys sought to move Houck and Lawson’s trial out of Nelson County, where Bardstown is located. “Too many people know too much about [the case]. It’s all over the media, it’s constantly discussed there. But I question, can they get a fair trial in the state of Kentucky?” attorney Nick Mudd said.
The unsolved murders of Kathy and Samantha Netherland
In 2014, Kathy and Samantha Netherland were also brutally murdered in their Bardstown home. That case, too, has never been solved, leading some to think Rogers, Ellis, and Ballard’s deaths might be connected, and with the recent arrests, justice for the Netherlands might be coming. But to date, authorities have not yet said the Netherlands and those other cases are linked.