Looking back at Crystal Rogers’ disappearance, presumed murder nearly 10 years later
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Imagine not knowing for almost ten years what happened to someone you loved. They disappear, and all you know is that whatever did happen to them wasn’t good.
Since 2015, the Crystal Rogers case has weighed heavy on the Nelson County community. Questions remain about what exactly happened to her.
To this day, her body has not been found, but prosecutors in her case believe there are three men who know.
WAVE crews poured through our archives looking at past interviews, scripts and video. As trial is set to begin Tuesday, May 27, WAVE is taking a look back at how the case got to this point.
It all seemed odd from the beginning.
July 3, 2015, was the last day 35-year-old Crystal Rogers, a mother of five, was seen alive by her boyfriend, Brooks Houck.
Two days later, she’s reported missing by her parents. That same day, July 5, Rogers’ car is found along the Bluegrass Parkway with her things still inside.
“Her purse was in there, her cell phone was in there, her keys were in the ignition,” Crystal Rogers’ mother, Sherry Ballard, said. “She don’t ever leave her cell phone, ever. She would have not gotten out of that car and left her cell phone in that car.”
People looked for clues. Police asked for help.
“If Crystal can hear our voice, we love you, want know where you are at. Contact us and let us know you are okay,” Bardstown Police Department Captain Tom Roby said.
Call it a parents’ intuition, Sherry and Tommy Ballard knew whatever happened to their daughter was not good.
“I’m just trying to hold it together,” Tommy Ballard said.
Crystal’s family was very vocal about their suspicion of her then-boyfriend, Brooks Houck, having some sort of involvement in her disappearance.
“I specifically told him, ‘I think you did something to my daughter.’ I made that very clear,” Sherry Ballard said.
The signs went up. The searches continued on land and in water, with canines and horses, and no shortage of prayers.
On July 8, Brooks Houck was brought in by the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office for questioning. Nick Houck, Brooks’ brother and a Bardstown Police officer, called mid-interview and told him not to speak with police.
July 9, Houck spoke with Nancy Grace and told her, “I’m 100% completely innocent in this.”
That same month, Brooks Houck fails a polygraph test.
In October, a big development came from the Nelson County Sheriff.
”I would label Brooks Houck a suspect, yes,” Sheriff Ed Mattingly said.
But he wasn’t arrested, at least not yet.
Crystal Rogers was presumed dead.
Houck’s brother, Nick, was fired from the Bardstown Police Department for interfering with the criminal investigation into the case.
”That’s just not how we do it as police officers,” Rick McCubbin, Bardstown Police Chief, said.
In 2016, Houck’s grandmother, Anna Whitesides, home is searched along with the farm of Rosemary Houck, Houck’s mother.
There was a custody battle. Tommy and Sherry Ballard say Brooks Houck stripped them of their privileges to see their grandson Eli after Crystal went missing.
Then, a turn of events that shocked everyone sixteen months after Crystal disappeared.
In November of 2016, Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, who had been investigating his daughter’s disappearance, was shot and killed while hunting with his grandson on family property.
Tommy Ballard’s father, Till Ballard, spoke with WAVE.
“They were two good human beings, and they didn’t deserve what they got,” Till Ballard said. “It’s just hard to put it behind us. It’s just, Tommy will always be there and Crystal.”
“He wanted to find his daughter,” Till continued. “That’s all he wanted. Evidently, he was getting too close to finding her. It wasn’t no deer hunter. They had to get rid of Tommy cause he was finding out too much.”
In August of 2018, the case captured national attention from NBC’s Oxygen Network to the Today Show and Dr. Phil, and others.
In August of 2020, the FBI stepped in and took over the investigation.
Over the year, there were searches at Brooks Houck’s home, their family farm, Crystal’s storage unit, including one in 2021 in the Woodlawn Springs subdivision, where Brooks Houck’s construction company built several houses shortly after Rogers disappeared.
“There’s a lot of police presence in the backyards, cutting grass, using shovels, using chainsaws,” a Woodlawn Springs resident told WAVE News.
After a multi-day search, federal agents find an “item of interest” under a driveway.
In October of 2022, the FBI was back at Houck’s 245-acre family farm. The FBI spent days combing through it, and did confiscate an item there too.
Then in January of 2023, a special prosecutor was appointed to Crystal Rogers’ case and two other high-profile Nelson County death investigations, including Rogers’ father’s.
A big development months later in August, 32-year-old Joseph Lawson is arrested on two charges: conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Then, the arrest that many had waited for for more than 8 years. Sept. 27, 2023, the FBI arrested Brooks Houck.
“This is a giant step in the answer of what happened to Crystal Rogers,” former Bardstown Mayor Dixie Hibbs said.
He is charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence.
In October, Houck was arraigned. During the proceedings, the prosecution revealed they believe they are in possession of the firearm used to kill Tommy Ballard.
And in December, a third man, Steven Lawson, is arrested and charged in the case. Steve Lawson is Joseph Lawson’s father.
”If I can get close to him, there better be some law to hold me back because, the son of a bitch don’t need to be on this earth if he had anything to do with Crystal and I know he did,” Till Ballard said.
All three have pleaded not guilty.
Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. in Steve Lawson’s trial. He’s charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence.
No cameras are allowed in court, but the WAVE news team will be in Bowling Green to bring you coverage of this high-profile case.
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