Widow of slain Bardstown officer reflects on 10 year anniversary

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Spring time is the hardest for Amy Ellis Brown. As the weather warms, and baseball begins, she knows the anniversary of her husband’s murder nears.

“They know it’s coming, they know how to support me and give me the room and grace to feel whatever I need to feel, and just get through it,” Ellis Brown said.

Her husband, Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis was driving home from work on May 25, 10 years ago. He stopped on an off ramp on the Blue Grass Parkway to clear tree debris blocking the road around 3 a.m.

He was gunned down. No video, no witnesses. No answers for a decade.

“Early on, I wanted to give up, I didn’t want to live anymore, but I knew that that’s not what Jason would have wanted,” Ellis Brown said.

She said her faith, family and friends have helped guide her. She can now let the occasional wave of grief wash over her and then pass.

“That hurt, that wound, it’s never going to leave, it will always be there with us,” Ellis Brown said. “And there’s nothing you can do to replace or fix, you just continue to move forward.”

She said Kentucky State Police still call her with updates, although less often now. She believes deeply Jason’s murder will be solved.

“I do know that they will solve it,” Ellis Brown said. “I always believe that is God’s perfect timing, and I believe in those that are working on this case.”

She remembers her boys in the back seat of Jason’s new Jeep a week before his murder. They were all laughing. No one knew what was coming, or the time that would pass.

“Never did we dream that we’d be here 10 years later, no answers,” Ellis Brown said.

Ellis Brown said she’s been able to hold on to the good memories of Jason.

She hopes anyone with information will come forward to police, although she doesn’t believe whoever killed him will ever come forward willingly.

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