A break in the case of missing Nelson County, KY woman Crystal Rogers has finally occurred as it was just announced that a man was arrested in Nelson County for alleged criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Joseph L. Lawson, 32, was arrested on Thursday, Sept. 7, entered a not-guilty plea to the charges brought against him, and was handed a $500,000 cash bond. The indictment is the first in Rogers’ case, and it’s a long-awaited moment as she went missing in 2015, and her body was never found.
Local news station WDRB first shared the update late Thursday evening, and the long-overdue step forward in the case is a dream come true for those following the story since it happened. While the indictment doesn’t mention Rogers’ name, the station says it reads as follows, listing that the event occurred “on or around July 3 or July 4 of 2015.” It is noted that Lawson:
“Agreed to aid one or more persons in the planning or commission of the crime or an attempt or solicitation to commit the crime when he, and/or, a co-conspirator intentionally caused the death of another.”
No one must feel more hope at this moment than Rogers’ mother, Sherry Ballard, who has been in the middle of a fight for justice for her daughter since the moment she was reported missing, never ceasing to use her platform to share Crystal’s story and to remind anyone who would listen that her daughter was important, she still is essential, and she deserves to rest in peace.
Just two months ago, Sherry interviewed WDRB regarding what the FBI first said to her when they began investigating the case of Crystal’s disappearance.
“The first thing the FBI told me when they got involved with this, and they’re like, ‘Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you know we’re not here to find your daughter. We’re here to find justice for her. And if we find her in the meantime, that’s a very, very good thing.”
Ballard has never given up on the FBI and never stopped believing in the power of law enforcement officials to find what happened to her daughter, but as those who follow the case know, things get tricky considering Brooks Hauck’s brother was a police officer for the Bardstown Police Department.
Why is Brooks Hauck an important name to bring up? Hauck was Crystal’s partner at the time, and anyone who knows anything about the case is convinced that he had something to do with her disappearance. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t believe that he was connected.
Brook’s brother, Nick, was fired from the department for interference in the case, and several agencies in the area and nationwide have gone above and beyond to help Sherry on her path to justice for Crystal and someone else very close to her heart.
Crystal wasn’t the only loss in the Ballard family
Of course, it’s not just the loss of Crystal that Sherry has to make sense of; it’s the death of her husband, Tommy, a year after Crystal’s disappearance.
Tommy Ballard was out hunting with his grandson when he was shot on land his family owned, and unfortunately, his grandson was there when it happened. Initially considered a hunting accident, Tommy’s death is now considered a murder. On the eight-year mark of Crystal’s disappearance, Sherry shared a note on Facebook that highlights the trouble in her heart, and it deserves to be seen by everyone, shared so that those responsible for the death of both Crystal and Tommy know that rest doesn’t come easy for the wicked.
“My mind can’t help but wonder if she suffered and what was going through her mind when she realized what they were gonna do to her. It’s more pain than a mother can take at times. My daughter may have been 35 but, to me she will always be the little 4lb 12oz baby that me and her daddy brought into this world. She will always be my baby. Someone you try to protect and watch over. I think at times how miserably I failed at that but, catch myself and realize that evil people made that impossible for me to do. I pray one day I get to bring her home. Then after you think nothing worse could ever happen to you, your husband is murdered a year later. The one person who loved you with every fiber of his being. The one person who searched for our daughter until he was totally exhausted. The one person who vowed to bring her home. How lucky me and Crystal was to have someone to love us so much. I should still be laying here next to him. I should still be able to call my daughter and ask her to come over, to go on vacation with us, to just ask how her day went. These are things I will never get to do again. Instead I’m trying to get my family through the most horrific things a family can go through. Now instead we have to find Tommy and Crystal in signs they try to leave us.”
In Crystal’s case, we hope this step forward is a sense of peace for Sherry Ballard, those who know and love her, and those impacted by Crystal’s life and her untimely death. We anticipate more news to follow in the coming days, and We Got This Covered will keep you updated.