Crystal Rogers: Signs pop up in Bardstown targeting suspect in her disappearance, murder

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WAVE) - Four years after Crystal Rogers was last seen, someone has posted signs throughout Bardstown directed at the suspect in her disappearance and suspected murder.

The missing mother was last seen by Brooks Houck, her boyfriend at the time and the father of her youngest child.

Brooks Houck was named a suspect months after Rogers disappeared, but he has never been charged. No other suspects have been named, but police did say they believe his brother, Nick Houck, was also involved.

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One of the signs that popped up in Bardstown reminds the public Brooks Houck is the only suspect Nelson County detectives have named.

Another states the fact that his brother Nick Houck, a former Bardstown Police Officer, failed a polygraph test. Nick Houck was fired from the department shortly after that test.

“I’ve had people make the comment to me, ‘It will get easier.’ It does not get easier,” Crystal’s mother, Sherry Ballard, said.

Ballard reported her daughter missing in early July 2015.

Police found Crystal’s car abandoned with a flat tire on the Bluegrass Parkway.

Nelson County detectives have said they suspect she is dead, but her body hasn’t been found.

“Four years is a long time to be wondering about something like that,” Bardstown resident Mark Hicks said. “I’d hate to be agonizing about a loved one lost.”

People who live in Bardstown still remember the case well.

“The community has never really bounced back fully,” Virginia Leezer said. “You don’t hear about it as much as you did four years ago, but, everybody still wants to know what happened.”

Ballard doesn’t know who posted the signs, but she said she’s grateful they did.

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“I hope when he sees those signs, he knows the nightmare that he’s put my family through,” Ballard said. “I hope he knows that my daughter was a very loving person and she did not deserve what happened to her. And I hope he sees that this community is behind me and he is going to pay for his crimes one day."

In November 2018, Brooks Houck filed a lawsuit to prevent the child he had with Crystal from seeing Ballard, denying her any type of visitation. Crystal’s other children live with Ballard.

Through the years of disagreements and suspicion, Ballard just wants justice.

“For me to see him going to jail for what he did to my daughter -- even though it won’t all bring her back -- but for me to see that... it would be one of the best days of my life,” Ballard said.

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