The Trouble in Bardstown

Speaker 1 Grand Canyon University is one of the largest universities in the country.

Speaker 1 Praised for its community and impact, GCU integrates a welcoming Christian worldview and open discourse into over 300 online programs.

Speaker 1 Redefine your online education through GCU's industry-driven, academically rigorous programs. In 2024, online students received over $161 million in institutional scholarships.
Find your purpose.

Speaker 1 Private, Christian, affordable. Discover available scholarships at gcu.edu/slash slash myoffer.

Speaker 2 It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technologies' biggest sale of the year. Enjoy huge savings on select PCs like the Dell 16 Plus, featuring Intel Core ultra processors.

Speaker 2 Plus, earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, price match guarantee, and expert support.

Speaker 2 They also have huge deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC and make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop now at dell.com slash deals.

Speaker 3 Tonight on dateline.

Speaker 6 The minute my daughter wouldn't answer that phone, I knew. I said something's wrong.
I feel it.

Speaker 7 Crystal Rogers was reported missing.

Speaker 7 She wasn't with her car with her phone. This is really bad.
Crystal's dad, Tommy, started his own investigation.

Speaker 5 Very early. Yep.

Speaker 6 He's killing himself.

Speaker 7 Trying to solve the disappearance of his daughter.

Speaker 7 There is a massive twist coming that will shake this community to its core.

Speaker 10 Yeah, it was hard to believe.

Speaker 6 He told me Tommy had been shot.

Speaker 7 Did the same people who wanted Crystal gone take care of Tommy as well? Who's involved here?

Speaker 7 Have you and Crystal ever talked about breaking up?

Speaker 11 It's mentioned, but it's never happened.

Speaker 12 This guy, he was a silver-tongued devil.

Speaker 7 How did he do in the polygraph?

Speaker 3 He didn't do well at all.

Speaker 13 I don't like it when people call me a liar.

Speaker 6 They said you're dealing with some very serious people here.

Speaker 13 How much more do y'all want me to tell you?

Speaker 5 Everything.

Speaker 7 This is good versus evil.

Speaker 12 You couldn't have described it any better.

Speaker 14 A string of murders rocks a small town. Coincidence or conspiracy.

Speaker 5 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Date Live.

Speaker 17 Here's Andrea Canning with The Trouble in Bardstown.

Speaker 7 It's been called America's most beautiful small town. Bardstown is kind of like Mayberry, right?

Speaker 18 It is.

Speaker 3 It's always been a beautiful town.

Speaker 7 A close-knit community nestled in the heart of Kentucky's bourbon country. The last place you'd expect anything like this.

Speaker 7 This area just kept getting hit by murder after murder after murder. Yep.
Now you have to look over your shoulder constantly. America's most beautiful small town.

Speaker 7 Now, people are wondering what is going on here.

Speaker 7 A mystery that would pit two families against each other. There's a lot of evil in his family.

Speaker 6 It's like everything they do, they don't get in trouble for.

Speaker 7 And leave the whole town asking: How far would you go for the ones you love?

Speaker 6 I think any mother would do this for their daughter.

Speaker 20 Take me, this is

Speaker 10 it will literally tear Bargetown apart.

Speaker 7 For the family of Crystal Rogers, it all started on the 4th of July weekend, 2015. A holiday usually marked by backyard barbecues and playtime for the kids.

Speaker 7 Just the kind of thing Crystal loved, says her mother, Sherry Ballard. It seems to me that Crystal was born to be a mom.

Speaker 6 Yes, she was a very good mom. She had five children and she even took care of some other kids that weren't hers.

Speaker 7 Despite a rainy forecast, Crystal's oldest daughter, Ashley, was looking forward to spending the holiday with her mom. Did she have any specific plans for the holiday?

Speaker 7 Usually we go and do fireworks together. You know, like everybody comes to my mama's house and we'll do like a little bit of fireworks or like have a little cookout.

Speaker 7 But Saturday the 4th came without word. So Ashley, who was staying with Sherry at the time, sent her mom a text.
It's like, hey, what's going on? You know, come get me. Yeah.
It's 4th of July. Yeah.

Speaker 7 But you don't hear anything. No.
And what do you think about that? Is it just, oh, she's probably busy?

Speaker 7 Maybe she was busy with Eli.

Speaker 7 Two and a half year old Eli was Crystal's youngest and never left her side. That evening, Crystal didn't reply to Sherry either.
Is that out of the ordinary for Crystal to not respond?

Speaker 6 Yes, Crystal always responded to my text messages, always.

Speaker 7 So are you starting to worry then?

Speaker 6 I did kind of get a little worried, but

Speaker 6 I talked myself out of it thinking, well, you know, she's probably her phone might have died or something.

Speaker 7 The next morning, Sunday, Crystal's Aunt Barbara got a text from Crystal's boyfriend, Brooks Helk. He also hadn't heard from her.

Speaker 7 He asked me if I could get a hoe to Crystal, or I told him that I had tried to get in touch with Crystal and didn't have any love. How are you feeling, though, that now Brooks is looking for her?

Speaker 7 I thought, well, that's that's kind of odd.

Speaker 7 It had been nearly 36 hours since Crystal had communicated with anyone.

Speaker 6 Me and my husband were talking and I said, I'm telling you, Tommy, something's wrong. I know, I feel it.
I can just tell you it's wrong. And then I started crying, getting upset.

Speaker 7 Crystal's dad, Tommy, headed out to search while Sherry and then 15-year-old Ashley headed to the sheriff's department. Along the way, they spotted Brooks' truck.
Do you stop to talk to each other?

Speaker 6 I told my granddaughter, I said, call him and ask him to pull over.

Speaker 6 I asked him, I said, Brooks, have you seen Crystal?

Speaker 6 And he said, no.

Speaker 7 Brooks said he hadn't seen Crystal since Friday night. And then Sherry saw something that sent her pulse racing.
Sitting in the back seat was Eli, Crystal and Brooks' son.

Speaker 6 The minute I saw that baby, there was no doubt in my mind at all.

Speaker 7 Mom never left that little boy anywheres, not even with his daddy. This is a very bad sign.
Yes, very, very bad sign. Brooks agreed it was time to alert the police.

Speaker 7 Sherry and Ashley continued to the sheriff's department. But when they got there, Sherry received some news.

Speaker 6 My son and my husband got a phone call from actually a family member. They found her car on the BG.

Speaker 7 The BG is the bluegrass parkway.

Speaker 6 The Bluegrass Parkway, yes, ma'am. So they found her car just parked on the side, and my husband was gonna go out there.

Speaker 7 Sherry and Ashley went too. They found Crystal's maroon and palace sitting on the shoulder, but no Crystal.
I was confused. Like, mom would have never left her car just on the side of the road.

Speaker 7 Why was Crystal's car abandoned here? Where was she? The questions were mounting. This is a really horrible moment.
Yes. And what's shaping up to be a nightmare?

Speaker 8 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 7 One that would engulf the entire town. Were people locking their doors? Were they afraid to go out?

Speaker 10 Well, I think people were scared.

Speaker 7 And shatter lives. Kelly's at my front door, and she's just screaming, He's dead, he's dead.
Five murders in four years in a really small town.

Speaker 3 We kept thinking, Are we missing something?

Speaker 13 I told you, I don't recall.

Speaker 20 So, why are you getting so animated? Because you're calm.

Speaker 7 You are. This is good versus evil.

Speaker 12 You couldn't have described it any better.

Speaker 7 crystal rogers family was frantic they'd found her car sitting on the side of the busy bluegrass parkway

Speaker 6 she just disappeared and nobody had seen her and

Speaker 7 detective jon snow with the nelson county sheriff's department responded to the scene. So what are you looking for when you go to a scene like this and you know that this person's car is there?

Speaker 10 It depends on

Speaker 10 what facts you get when you get there. At that point, I didn't really have any facts.
So if you want to know why and how the car ends up on the bluegrass parkway,

Speaker 10 what condition is the car in?

Speaker 7 This is a potential crime scene you're driving to.

Speaker 7 As he arrived, he noted one reason the car might have been abandoned.

Speaker 10 One of the rear tires is is flat.

Speaker 7 I mean, that seems reasonable that that could happen to someone on a highway like this, but this is a missing woman.

Speaker 10 Well, and what's unusual is there was no signs of anybody trying to change the tire.

Speaker 7 Even stranger, Crystal's car keys were still in the ignition, her phone and purse on the front seat. Is that like the biggest red flag for you right there, seeing that purse?

Speaker 10 Well, the purse and the cell phone because everybody's carrying their phones everywhere with them.

Speaker 7 Do you get that bad feeling when you see all that? Like we could be heading down a dark path here.

Speaker 10 You try not to make assumptions, but it becomes very evident that this is not going to be just your run-of-the-mill missing person's case.

Speaker 7 Detective Snow had the car towed to a secure location where crime scene investigators could take a closer look.

Speaker 10 I went back to the sheriff's department to start talking to the family to try to get some background on Crystal and her family dynamics.

Speaker 7 The detective learned that Crystal and her four youngest kids lived with her boyfriend, 33-year-old Brooks Hauck.

Speaker 10 They had begun to date maybe like

Speaker 10 not quite a year before she got pregnant with Eli.

Speaker 7 Brooks was from the area and had made a name for himself in construction and property management. The night Crystal's car was found, Detective Snow called Brooks and asked to meet.

Speaker 7 Brooks seemed more than happy to come in.

Speaker 10 He came in for an interview, came in willingly, sat down with me.

Speaker 22 Well, obviously, it's been a busy day. Yes, is.

Speaker 7 Does he provide you with any useful information or have any idea where she might be?

Speaker 10 Well, he starts the timeline for us.

Speaker 24 I thought it would be good for us to start with a conversation about what's going on the last week or so and then move forward from there in case we can't find her.

Speaker 27 Absolutely. That's what I want you to do.

Speaker 7 Brooks told the detective everything was fine when they were together Friday night. They'd taken their toddler, Eli, on a family outing.

Speaker 10 They had gone to the family farm on Friday evening after he got off work and they had stayed out there for a pretty considerable period of time walking around in the fields.

Speaker 28 How long do you think you were there?

Speaker 24 Probably around 7.45 or so to

Speaker 30 maybe 11.

Speaker 7 Brooks said they drove back to their house and were home by 11.30. He went to bed first.
He says Crystal was still awake.

Speaker 32 She goes to bed later than what I do, right?

Speaker 30 Because I meet up earlier than her.

Speaker 25 More often than not, usually at night time, she's usually playing

Speaker 28 one of those,

Speaker 33 and it's not Tetris, it's one of them bubble games on the phone.

Speaker 7 The next morning, Brooks said he woke up to find Crystal gone and Eli next to him. Did he find that strange?

Speaker 10 Well, he didn't say that he did.

Speaker 7 Because he said it wasn't the first time Crystal had taken off.

Speaker 31 She's done done this about four or five times. It just has never went this period of time.
And she usually sent me, you know, text messages in that period.

Speaker 7 He said Crystal sometimes needed her space and would visit family for a day or so. But this time was different.

Speaker 11 Immediately thought, you know, I wondered where she was.

Speaker 32 You know, I've...

Speaker 28 Called her phone, I sent her a text message, but I still haven't got any reply back.

Speaker 35 When you called her phone, did it ring at all Saturday morning or did it go? That's what you know.

Speaker 28 That's already went to the voicemail.

Speaker 29 So I thought she had it turned off.

Speaker 35 And I just thought, give her a little bit of time.

Speaker 30 It'll be,

Speaker 30 it'll be, it'll be fine.

Speaker 7 Detective Snow probed a bit about their relationship.

Speaker 35 You all didn't have a fight Friday night or she didn't say anything Friday about being upset.

Speaker 34 No.

Speaker 24 She dating somebody else, going out with her girlfriends.

Speaker 29 been

Speaker 30 not to my mind you know something's going on behind my back that i don't know about that's a different situation but I do not believe that at all.

Speaker 29 What do you think, Catherine?

Speaker 30 I'm shocked.

Speaker 35 I do not know.

Speaker 24 I want the answer to the.

Speaker 33 Thanks, sir. I appreciate it.

Speaker 7 Investigators did, too. But first, they needed to check out Brooks' story.
They found this.

Speaker 7 Security video from a neighbor's place showed Brooks' truck driving to and from his family farm, just like he told the detective.

Speaker 7 This video is, for the most part, backing up the time that he's giving you coming to the farm and leaving the farm. Yeah.

Speaker 7 So investigators return to the biggest clue they had, Crystal's car, and a question.

Speaker 7 Who was really behind the wheel that night?

Speaker 10 We felt like the positioning of the seat was not proper for where she would have had it.

Speaker 7 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 7 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 7 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 7 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 36 Hey, this is Will Arnett, host of Smartless. Smartless is a podcast with myself and Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman, where each week one of us reveals a mystery guest to the other two.

Speaker 36 We dive deep with guests that you love, like Bill Hayter, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Kristen Stewart, and tons more.

Speaker 36 So join us for a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the smartless mind. Listen to Smartless Now on the Sirius XM app.

Speaker 36 Download it today.

Speaker 38 Dermatologists have long highlighted the benefits of indoor humidity for healthy, glowing skin. Dry air can start damaging your skin in just 30 minutes.
That's where Canopy Humidifier comes in.

Speaker 38 Recommended by leading dermatologists, the Canopy Humidifier is a completely reimagined humidifier with invisible, clean moisture, the best kind for your skin.

Speaker 38 Go to getcanopy.co to save $25 on your purchase today with Canopy's filter subscription. Even better, use code Sirius to save an additional 10% off your Canopy purchase.
Your skin will thank you.

Speaker 7 News of Crystal's disappearance was spreading fast, and local journalists poured into town. Dateline consultant Shane McAllister was a rookie reporter out of Louisville then.

Speaker 7 She covered the story for her podcast series, Bardstown. I'm Shane McAllister.
I want to tell you a story about a town in Kentucky.

Speaker 7 What are the initial things you're hearing as a reporter about this disappearance? This disappearance was different because, you know, people go missing every single day.

Speaker 7 But in a small town, a mother who's in constant contact with her kids, that was getting everyone's attention. The day after Crystal's car was found, the Sheriff's Department held a press conference.

Speaker 40 If the public saw anything on the Bluegrass Parkway near the 14-mile marker involving the Varoon Chevrolet and Palau, we would like to hear from them.

Speaker 7 Did the phone start ringing after that press conference?

Speaker 10 We got so many tips.

Speaker 7 What kinds of tips?

Speaker 10 Just everything from

Speaker 10 we saw the car on the parkway at this time and this day, people were calling in.

Speaker 4 We had one that spotted her in Rhode Island.

Speaker 7 As investigators sifted through all those tips, they also continued to take a closer look at Crystal's life. They learned she was born and raised in Bardstown, the oldest of three.

Speaker 7 What was Crystal like as a little girl?

Speaker 6 Very shy. You know, she was my first, so

Speaker 6 very spoiled.

Speaker 7 The whole family adored her, especially her aunt and uncle, Barbara and Tom Roby. We talked just about every day on the phone.

Speaker 7 If we went on the phone, either she was at my house or I'd go to her house. Crystal was almost more like a best friend to you than a niece, it sounds like.
Yes. She was.

Speaker 25 She was a very giving person. You know, she had a heart of gold.

Speaker 22 She truly did.

Speaker 7 Crystal grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her family had lived in Bardstown for decades and often gathered at her parents' farm for weekends and holidays.

Speaker 7 At 19, she took a job at a bank and had her first child. Motherhood came naturally to Crystal.
Her love life was more complicated.

Speaker 7 She'd eventually have more relationships, more kids, and even marry once before separating. Did you feel like Crystal was searching kind of for that the perfect man?

Speaker 6 I did. You know, she thought she found that in her marriage, but just didn't work out with them being married.

Speaker 7 Then Crystal met Brooks.

Speaker 6 She started renting a house from him and then he asked her out on a date.

Speaker 7 Crystal was excited to be with a man who had his life together.

Speaker 6 She finally felt like, you know, she might be headed in the right direction to get her life in order too and find somebody to love and settle down with.

Speaker 7 Brooks also came from a close-knit family who'd put down roots in Bardstown. He'd even go on to run for sheriff.

Speaker 42 My name is Brooks Hauk, and I look forward to becoming your next Nelson County Sheriff.

Speaker 7 Forrest Berkshire was the editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Standard and covered the campaign.

Speaker 27 He had no law enforcement background.

Speaker 14 He talked a lot about his business background.

Speaker 17 It was a very unique campaign.

Speaker 7 Like the Ballards, the Hauks had a sprawling family farm. Ashley enjoyed going there.
We would go out and ride foolers around the farm.

Speaker 7 I remember one time that he took us riding and he went up this really big hill that was like really steep, which was kind of scary, but it was fun, you know, that's what us kids like to do.

Speaker 7 Sherry says Brooks's mom, Rosemary, a daycare owner, also seemed to welcome Crystal and her kids into the family.

Speaker 6 They had a good relationship. She actually brought crayons and coloring book to the kids once when she came over.

Speaker 6 So I thought, well, you know, at least his mom's nice to the other kids. So that's a good sign.

Speaker 7 Soon, Crystal was pregnant with her youngest, Eli. She moved in with Brooks and started working for him.
She managed his rental properties, interviewing applicants and collecting rent.

Speaker 7 Barbara says dealing with tenant problems was also part of Crystal's job. The hard side of working for a landlord is evictions.

Speaker 5 Right.

Speaker 7 So she had to go to court for that for some of the tenants.

Speaker 7 She would go for him all the time. She would always get the rent and take care of all that for him.

Speaker 7 When Detective Snow learned those details, he wondered if Brooks' business was somehow connected to Crystal's disappearance.

Speaker 10 Did she have an argument with a renter over an eviction or something?

Speaker 7 When Brooks next spoke to the detective, he told him there were times when things got heated.

Speaker 26 I know that she's done a few evictions with some folks, got a few people upset, but were they just seen evictions?

Speaker 22 I mean, like threatening.

Speaker 8 I mean, there's never a good eviction.

Speaker 7 Detectives followed up, but when they tracked some of the renters down, Were there any disgruntled tenants? Anyone that, you know, didn't want to pay the rent or was unhappy?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, there were normal kinds of things with that.

Speaker 10 Nobody really stood out to us as having really had a battle with them over being evicted.

Speaker 7 Investigators moved on. They learned that the day before she disappeared, Crystal had met with the father of two of her children, Keith Rogers.
Here's Crystal at Walmart shortly before.

Speaker 7 Anything come out of the interview with Keith Rogers that was eye-opening? Not really.

Speaker 10 He was able to confirm the timeline that we were building that she had dropped the children off to him in the afternoon on that Friday.

Speaker 7 As for Crystal's other exes. Did she have any issues with any of the other dads

Speaker 7 that gave you pause?

Speaker 4 No.

Speaker 7 Another dead end. Then, Detective Snow got the forensic results from Crystal's car.
There was no blood, no evidence of a struggle. But there was one thing that caught the investigators' attention.

Speaker 10 We felt like the positioning of the seat was not proper for where she would have had it.

Speaker 7 Too far back or too far back?

Speaker 10 It was too far back for her to have been driving the vehicle when it was left on the parkway.

Speaker 7 So you're like, it looks like a taller person has been driving and just didn't readjust the seat. Yeah.
It may not seem like a big deal, but it very well could be. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Certainly left open the possibility that someone else had been driving that vehicle when it was abandoned on the parkway.

Speaker 7 Someone who may know where Crystal is. Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Who was it?

Speaker 7 The summer of 2015 was sweltering in Bardstown, Kentucky, but Tommy Ballard was undeterred. Day after day, he searched for his missing daughter, Crystal.

Speaker 7 Sadly, it wasn't the first time Tommy and his family had been in a situation like this. Your sister, Sherry,

Speaker 7 also went missing.

Speaker 21 Yes.

Speaker 7 And that happened a long time ago, 1979.

Speaker 7 And she was found murdered.

Speaker 21 Yes.

Speaker 7 And she was seven and a half months pregnant.

Speaker 6 They couldn't find her for probably two, two and a half years.

Speaker 7 And they finally did.

Speaker 6 Tommy, yes, they did find her. They did find her.

Speaker 6 It was a very very hard time for the family. Very hard time.

Speaker 7 She had been murdered by her husband. And now Tommy's reliving that experience, but with his own daughter.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 7 This time, Tommy wasn't waiting for answers. He and Sherry organized regular searches for Crystal.

Speaker 45 We'll come out every day.

Speaker 8 Hoping we'll find something.

Speaker 7 The people of Bardstown and beyond showed up to help. A small army, all wearing Crystal's favorite color, pink.

Speaker 7 They started what's called Team Crystal, which was just a group on social media, and they would, every weekend, they would plan a search. But one person was notably absent, her boyfriend Brooks.

Speaker 7 Brooks was just not there. And that was the top question.
Why aren't you searching for her? At a press conference, law enforcement didn't seem that concerned.

Speaker 7 In fact, they insisted Brooks was doing what he could.

Speaker 18 I want everyone to know that he has been completely cooperative with our investigation and has tried to assist us in any way that he can.

Speaker 7 Still, the town was talking and pointing fingers straight at Brooks. Five days after Crystal's disappearance, he went on national television to defend himself.
Brooks Hauk is with us.

Speaker 7 Brooks called into the HLN show, Nancy Grace. So Brooks, you go to bed and she's still playing games on her phone.
The next morning, around eight o'clock, you notice that she's missing.

Speaker 7 Did you report her missing?

Speaker 32 No, ma'am.

Speaker 30 Why?

Speaker 32 That is a great question and one that I definitely want to hit the other public and the media.

Speaker 32 I was not in the least little bit alarmed in any way, shape, or form.

Speaker 7 Brooks repeated what he told investigators, that Crystal sometimes took off to spend time with family. Detective Snow called Brooks back down to the sheriff's office.

Speaker 23 Are you home up?

Speaker 28 Not very good.

Speaker 24 My son's going through a terrible, I'm sure a terrible time.

Speaker 22 Now one of the very most important people in his life he's going to grow up without.

Speaker 19 What else do you want to know?

Speaker 29 Examined.

Speaker 7 Again, Brooks was cooperative. He even gave Detective Snow his cell phone.

Speaker 9 Whatever you ask me, I'll be more happy to do.

Speaker 7 He also wrote out a timeline of events, including more about that trip to the family farm the night before Crystal went missing. Something about that account didn't sit right with Detective Snow.

Speaker 10 You're there from roughly 7.30 until almost midnight.

Speaker 24 So it's pretty close to four and a half hours.

Speaker 24 Four and a half hours is a long time to be outside in the rain, in the mud with a two and a half year old.

Speaker 25 Does that make sense?

Speaker 24 How are you available?

Speaker 10 Why would you have a two and a half year old child out out walking around in a cow field at 1130 at night?

Speaker 4 Which is strange, right?

Speaker 7 Detective Snow asked about something he'd noticed in Brooks's phone records, a 13-second call with a man named Steve Lawson.

Speaker 11 Okay, who is Steve Lawson?

Speaker 27 He's someone that works for me.

Speaker 7 Brooks said he couldn't remember what it was about, so he gave Steve a call. Hey, Steve.

Speaker 29 Hey, I can't hear you real good.

Speaker 22 I'm going to let you speak up a little bit, okay? The other night you called me really, really late, and

Speaker 22 I forgot what you asked me.

Speaker 29 Can you remember what you asked me or what you were after? I can't remember.

Speaker 22 Oh, for a rental house.

Speaker 10 It seems to have been a pre-planned phone call.

Speaker 5 Between them.

Speaker 10 So my antennas are going up.

Speaker 5 Going up.

Speaker 7 Brooks insisted it was just a call with an employee.

Speaker 47 And he made it clear he didn't like where the conversation was going swelling do what you got to do i'll i'll do whatever i can but this is this is starting to get silly i don't need an attorney i haven't asked for an attorney i don't think know that i'm innocent the conversation continued then brooks's phone rang it rings and he he kind of gives me a look like can i answer it i'm sure answer it you know

Speaker 30 no

Speaker 29 I'm up here. I know that you didn't.

Speaker 22 I'm up here in this interview with

Speaker 22 the detective, Detective Snow.

Speaker 7 It was his brother, Nick. He was an officer with neighboring Bardstown Police Department, and he seemed to be giving Brooks advice.

Speaker 10 It's clear that he's pretty animated. He's a little excited about the fact that Mr.
Howe is still there.

Speaker 22 Told me innocent people have got jammed up, but if you're telling me to leave, I'll get up and leave.

Speaker 7 You can see a brother wanting to protect his brother, and the brother's in law enforcement, and he knows how this goes.

Speaker 7 And on the other hand, this is a really critical investigation that's happening here. A woman is missing, and maybe you should leave it alone.

Speaker 10 It's not a woman, it's your significant brother. It's the person that you claim to love.

Speaker 7 That you should be wanting to find.

Speaker 10 He thinks y'all

Speaker 19 is what he thinks.

Speaker 9 My job is to work for Crystal.

Speaker 11 Plain and simple.

Speaker 9 It's just that simple.

Speaker 9 If that means that I have to interrogate you, then that's what I have to do.

Speaker 7 The interview was over. Brooks was free to go.

Speaker 10 But it's definitely becoming clear that there's more to the story than what he's telling us.

Speaker 7 Maybe his brother Nick would have some answers.

Speaker 34 You're talking crazy.

Speaker 31 What's crazy about it, 2020?

Speaker 7 Big accusations you're making.

Speaker 7 It was time for law enforcement to talk to one of their own.

Speaker 7 Sherry and Tommy Ballard felt helpless.

Speaker 6 She's got little kids, you know, and they miss their mama.

Speaker 7 Crystal's disappearance was making national headlines. Datelines Missing in America, among others, began covering her case.

Speaker 7 But no amount of news coverage or searches or flyers turned up any sign of the missing mom. Four days in, her family gathered for a vigil.
Brooks wasn't there.

Speaker 7 Instead, he was across town facing police questions.

Speaker 10 That's when he got that call from his brother nick if you're telling me to leave i'll get up and leave shortly after he left and drove straight to see his brother immediately after leaving me both of them are going to the family farm they're having a meeting it seems it seems like that there's something more going on there than just going to the family farm detective snow called nick houck hello nick Yeah, hey, it's John Snow over at the Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 5 What's going on?

Speaker 10 Oh, well, you know, still trying to find Crystal.

Speaker 46 Yeah.

Speaker 43 Hey, do you mind? Are you busy right now? Do you mind to come down and talk to me?

Speaker 46 Man, I am. I mean, I really don't have any information to give you.
I mean, you know, I think Brooks has been completely cooperative.

Speaker 46 If I have anything at all to give you, may not be the first one to be there.

Speaker 4 So you're not going to come down here and talk to me?

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 7 Nick's refusal to cooperate didn't sit well with his boss, Rick McCubbin, who was the Bardstown police chief at the time.

Speaker 3 He said, well, I don't want to. And I said, well, we're the police, first of all.
We took a note. We don't get to not.

Speaker 3 You know, we don't take the fifth. You're going to cooperate.
And I said, so you need to march over there. And more, he and I got to talking.
I was getting madder at him.

Speaker 3 I got to the point, my exact quote, I said, you're going to unask that chair.

Speaker 10 You're going to cooperate.

Speaker 4 And that's a direct order.

Speaker 3 And I said, get your ass over there now.

Speaker 33 Well, all right. Hey, Nassau.
Fine, how are you?

Speaker 7 Nick followed orders. Six days after Detective Snow called him, he sat down with investigators.

Speaker 17 How do you know Crystal Rogers?

Speaker 33 She's my brother's girlfriend.

Speaker 7 Nick said he barely knew Crystal and rarely saw Brooks.

Speaker 35 When did you find out Crystal was missing?

Speaker 35 When do you remember finding out?

Speaker 30 Within a couple of days.

Speaker 29 How did you find out?

Speaker 28 I don't know if Brooks had mentioned her.

Speaker 24 I saw her on TV.

Speaker 28 It was all over Facebook and everything. You know, she's everywhere.
It's on the national news.

Speaker 24 I mean, this is, for all intents and purposes, your sister-in-law.

Speaker 35 And she's missing. I mean,

Speaker 24 do you and your brother just not talk to that extent?

Speaker 28 You know,

Speaker 7 Nick assured the investigators that his brother would never hurt Crystal.

Speaker 33 I know he's a good guy, that he wouldn't have anything to do with something like this.

Speaker 7 Investigators asked him about that meeting he had with Brooks at the family farm a week earlier.

Speaker 50 You all came together and you left after dark.

Speaker 22 Do you remember that night?

Speaker 33 He's like that. I'm sorry.
I I mean, do you remember it? No, really, I don't.

Speaker 7 Then they asked about that call he'd made to Brooks while he was being interviewed by Detective Snow.

Speaker 29 You look at the fact that you call him and you raise your voice to him, like you said, to tell him that he needs to be careful. You know, I'm big, brother.

Speaker 29 I'm going to kind of, you know, try to pursue him at the same time.

Speaker 34 I mean, I'm not going to cover something like this up for him. I'm just not that kind of guy.

Speaker 33 And furthermore, I mean, there's no way he had anything to do with this.

Speaker 7 Then they asked him, point blank, if he was involved in Crystal's disappearance.

Speaker 41 So you never helped him move a body?

Speaker 30 I did not.

Speaker 35 Never helped him move any evidence.

Speaker 29 Never.

Speaker 7 Investigators told Nick he had one chance to tell the truth.

Speaker 35 Listen, Nick, this is the only opportunity that we have to sit here and find out if you're the actual honest person that we think that you are.

Speaker 29 I'm 100% honest.

Speaker 22 But he Sam Brooks did it, and I was in on it.

Speaker 33 I mean, there's no way.

Speaker 7 Nick was resolute and even agreed to take a polygraph. How did he do on the polygraph?

Speaker 17 He didn't do well at all.

Speaker 7 He spoke to the examiner after the test. It didn't go well.

Speaker 20 You did not pass the test, and it's pretty clear to me that you never told me the complete truth today.

Speaker 7 The examiner told Nick he'd failed on key questions about Crystal's disappearance.

Speaker 30 What are the questions?

Speaker 24 Do you know where Crystal is right now? Are you hiding any information about what happened to Crystal?

Speaker 31 You didn't tell me the truth on both of those questions.

Speaker 7 Nick listened for a while and then.

Speaker 33 Let me just cut you off. I mean, do we need to take this any further?

Speaker 22 I would like to take it to the truth.

Speaker 24 That's the whole reason.

Speaker 29 It is a test though.

Speaker 28 I mean man this I mean you're talking crazy.

Speaker 7 What's crazy about it? Explain it to me.

Speaker 24 The accusations you're making

Speaker 29 that you're not involved in this.

Speaker 28 I absolutely know it.

Speaker 7 The examiner pressed him further.

Speaker 33 And I'm going to 100% honest the truth.

Speaker 29 With you, the grand jury, and everybody else I've spoken about.

Speaker 47 Here's what I'm getting. We just said.
Yes, I have.

Speaker 30 No, you haven't.

Speaker 28 I most definitely have. And if you don't want to believe it, that's your issue.
It's not mine.

Speaker 30 It's not just me. I showed you.

Speaker 29 Dude, I don't give a what your computer said. Okay? I think you do.
I'm telling you that I have been 100% honest with you.

Speaker 47 Is this how you act? Did you just act this way towards Crystal?

Speaker 22 Is this how I told Crystal? I act

Speaker 29 toward people that accuse me of lying when I'm not lying.

Speaker 29 No, I didn't know Crystal.

Speaker 47 Well, why are you getting insane?

Speaker 29 Because you're calling me a liar. No, I'm just how you liar.
Okay.

Speaker 29 I don't like it when people call me a liar.

Speaker 28 I'm being 100% truthful with you.

Speaker 7 Nick denied any involvement in Crystal's disappearance and left the office.

Speaker 3 I brought him back in my office for the third and time and

Speaker 3 that's what I told him.

Speaker 45 I said, I'm going to fire you.

Speaker 44 I'm going to be a police officer as long as I'm chief.

Speaker 7 McCubbin believed Nick had not cooperated with the investigation and therefore had no place at the Bardstown Police Department anymore.

Speaker 3 I said, I'm going to write it up.

Speaker 4 I'm going to go see the mayor.

Speaker 7 What did he say to that when you fired him?

Speaker 3 He just basically okay. He never argued back.

Speaker 7 Fired, though, like his brother, not charged in Crystal's disappearance. That didn't sit well with Tommy Ballard.
He would take matters into his own hands and soon find his own evidence.

Speaker 7 He made it his life's mission. But would that mission lead him down a dark and dangerous path?

Speaker 37 Today's forecast: high chance of brain fog that lasts all day and a pileup of excessive daytime sleepiness causing a massive slowdown.

Speaker 27 That's how every day feels with idiopathic hypersomnia.

Speaker 52 Waking up groggy, walking through brain fog.

Speaker 51 But there is an option specifically for this condition.

Speaker 9 It's all at testyourtiredness.com.

Speaker 37 Looks like things are clearing up already.

Speaker 51 Discover more about a treatment option for idiopathic hypersomnia at testyourtiredness.com.

Speaker 53 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

Speaker 54 But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 50 Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.

Speaker 41 Plus, Zin offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 50 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zen.

Speaker 57 Check out Zen.com/slash find to find Zen at a store near you.

Speaker 56 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 58 New Dove Holiday Treats are now available at Target.

Speaker 58 This limited edition collection of body wash, deodorants, scrubs, bar soaps, and body mists are made with Dove 24-Hour Renewing Micro-Moisture and come in delicious scents like frosted plumberry, gingerbread delight, hot cocoa swirl, and sugar cookie sprinkle.

Speaker 58 Shop Dove Holiday Treats at Target, in-store or online. Treat yourself before it's gone.

Speaker 7 Investigators had a feeling that Brooks Houck and his brother Nick were involved in Crystal's disappearance, but they had little proof.

Speaker 7 They searched Brooks' house and the family farm several times, but found no evidence of a crime.

Speaker 10 There's no pool of blood, there's no body, there's no murder weapon.

Speaker 7 Even so, three and a half months after Crystal disappeared, the sheriff told reporters that he believed Crystal wasn't coming home.

Speaker 18 She has vanished from Earth, and I think it's safe to say that she's dead.

Speaker 7 And he went public with police suspicions.

Speaker 23 I would label Brooks Howe a suspect, yes. What about Nick?

Speaker 18 He has knowledge of what has happened.

Speaker 7 Huge, huge news in this community, something that everyone was waiting for. Not only that, Brooks and Nick's police interviews were released to the press.

Speaker 7 You can only imagine how his life changes in that instant of being publicly named. And as far as we could tell, the media, the whole family withdrew.

Speaker 7 And while they were still very much participants in the town doing business, living their lives, they weren't coming out to things where we might be.

Speaker 7 They weren't interested in being recorded on camera.

Speaker 7 On the other side, Crystal's family was just as vocal as ever about their suspicions.

Speaker 6 I've always thought he's been a prime suspect. Just that someone else acknowledges it is huge to me.

Speaker 7 Sherry had been telling investigators to look at Brooks from the start.

Speaker 6 There's something about Brooks how I didn't like the way he treated my daughter. The relationship was not where it should have been.

Speaker 7 While Brooks seemed to have made Crystal happy at first, Sherry says it didn't last, in part because of how he acted towards Crystal's kids.

Speaker 6 We went out to eat with them one time, and he would not pay for the other kids' meals. He only paid for his and Eli's.

Speaker 7 At home, Ashley says Brooks would sometimes shut down the utility so the kids wouldn't run up the bill. He just started like turning the water off at the house and like just little mean things.

Speaker 6 Sherry says an added strain to the relationship was brooks's close relationship to his mother rosemary when crystal saw the kind of control rosemary had over brooks that's when it started going downhill sherry got the distinct sense that rosemary thought neither she nor crystal were good enough for her son One time, Crystal came over and she was kind of upset and she's like, mom, she said, Rosemary just dropped in one day and there was toys everywhere.

Speaker 6 And she's like, this house is a mess. And she said, I'd hate to to see how your mother keeps her house.

Speaker 6 You know, I'm like, how rude. You know, she's never been to my home.

Speaker 7 More than anything, Crystal's family just didn't trust Brooks.

Speaker 12 He was a silver-tongued devil.

Speaker 42 Sometimes Tommy and Cherry, after we would have family get-togethers,

Speaker 25 we would leave Texas Holdem.

Speaker 25 And most Texas hold them games, you can get a feel as a man. You couldn't read this guy.
He had zero emotion.

Speaker 7 Of course, none of that was proof that Brooks was responsible for Crystal's disappearance. As October turned to November with no break in the investigation, Sherry kept up the heat.

Speaker 6 I reached out to anybody that would listen to me. I begged.
I pretty much begged people to listen to me because I just felt like I was getting nowhere with the Sheriff's Department.

Speaker 7 Crystal's father, Tommy, was fed up too. He went a step further and launched his own investigation.
Tommy, who was a homebuilder by trade, had no police or investigative experience,

Speaker 7 was determined to find his daughter. And he made it his life's mission.

Speaker 6 Here are some tips that we had in.

Speaker 6 We had a big whiteboard that we wrote a timeline on from the beginning of when Crystal went missing to all the vehicles we saw on every, all the tapes that we watched.

Speaker 7 You just see so clearly the love that Sherry and Tommy had for Crystal. She was there everything.

Speaker 7 and when she went missing, their lives revolved around finding her. About nine months after Crystal disappeared, Tommy's hard work seemed to pay off.

Speaker 7 He got a tip that on the night Crystal disappeared, hunters saw a suspiciously parked car near the Hauk farm, a white Buick. He told detectives about it.

Speaker 10 The white Buick is important because it's in that area. It's odd that it's there.
There's no reason for it to be parked in the woods there.

Speaker 7 Tommy posted a message on Facebook hoping someone would recognize the car.

Speaker 10 Just a few days later, lo and behold, he gets some information back that Brooks' grandmother, Anna Whitesides, owns a white Buick.

Speaker 8 Hmm.

Speaker 10 So we're like, oh, this is very interesting.

Speaker 7 Did you find the White Buick?

Speaker 5 Well, we did.

Speaker 10 Right after the Facebook post was posted, Nick and Anna Whitesides, his grandmother, go to Louisville trying to get rid of the vehicle.

Speaker 7 Here are images of Nick trying to sell the car at a dealership. After it was sold, Detective Snow seized it and had the trunk tested.

Speaker 10 There were some hairs found in the vehicle that

Speaker 10 they could say

Speaker 10 could have been a match.

Speaker 7 To Crystal.

Speaker 10 Physically, not DNA-wise, but physically a match to Crystal.

Speaker 7 The quality wasn't good enough to get a DNA profile. No proof that Crystal had ever been in the car.
It was a major letdown for Tommy and Sherry, but the setback only fueled them more.

Speaker 6 We just had to go hope every day a new tip came in that would take us where we needed to be.

Speaker 7 I'm not. Tommy was relentless.
He did more interviews, kept following leads, not caring whose toes he stepped on.

Speaker 15 People were talking to Tommy, and people were getting nervous.

Speaker 6 I told him, I said, y'all be careful.

Speaker 7 There is a massive twist coming in this case that will just shake this community to its core.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it will literally tear Barge Town apart.

Speaker 7 On the one-year anniversary of Crystal Rogers' disappearance, her parents and children gathered with supporters to release balloons. Her father, Tommy, couldn't believe how much time had passed.

Speaker 23 I figured I'd find her in four or five days. I never dreamed.

Speaker 6 Can it be a year and we still don't know where she's at

Speaker 7 during that time sherry says she'd sometimes have awkward run-ins with brooks in town every encounter only adding to her frustration do you say to the police again and again we know who did this i made it very clear who we thought did this very clear there was no doubt in their mind at all how me and tommy felt zero doubt they were so sure they bought this billboard reminding everyone that brooks was the main suspect in Crystal's disappearance.

Speaker 7 You put that billboard up, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 6 We wanted to be very blunt because we knew in our hearts he knows where my daughter is.

Speaker 7 The billboard was also near the sheriff's department, a not-so-subtle reminder to law enforcement that the case was far from over.

Speaker 23 I just want to bring Crystal home.

Speaker 6 I remember looking at him, he was sitting there, and I was like, he's totally exhausted.

Speaker 6 He's killing himself, you know.

Speaker 7 Trying to solve the disappearance of his daughter.

Speaker 7 Exhausted and on edge. Tommy thought someone was following him to work.

Speaker 6 And I was real nervous about that. And one time he had a job to do

Speaker 6 and he had to go back. this big long wooded area and I wouldn't let him go by himself.
I said, I'm going with you. You're not going by yourself.
And he said, Sherry, I have to work.

Speaker 6 You know, that's my job. He said, I have a gun in the truck.

Speaker 7 On top of all that, Tommy and Sherry were also looking after four of Crystal's five kids. Brooks had custody of the youngest, Eli.
Tell us about your grandpa, Tommy.

Speaker 7 Oh, I looked up to him. Like anytime, like he was home,

Speaker 7 Even if he was working, like I would get up early in the mornings, go to work with him for a few hours. Like he taught all of us how to be a role model in life.

Speaker 7 Tommy tried to keep their spirits up with family outings. That's what he was doing on November 19th, 2016.
In the early morning hours, he set out on a hunting trip with Crystal's 11-year-old son.

Speaker 6 I told him, I said, y'all be careful.

Speaker 7 Sherry was still in bed when her phone rang 30 minutes later. It was her grandson.
He was hysterical.

Speaker 6 And he told me, Tommy, you'd been shot.

Speaker 19 I just panicked.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I said, I'm coming.

Speaker 7 Police and an ambulance were already on the scene when she got there.

Speaker 6 And I jump out of the car. And,

Speaker 6 you know, I don't know. I didn't.

Speaker 6 I didn't know. And I just sat there and I shook Tommy.

Speaker 6 And I told him, I said, please get up.

Speaker 6 And I kept shaking him.

Speaker 6 And I kept telling him to get up.

Speaker 7 Could you see where it had happened?

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 6 He had no blood on him at all. Nothing.
Just like he was just laying there, but.

Speaker 7 He wasn't waking up.

Speaker 6 No, and his eyes were open, but I didn't know.

Speaker 6 I was just begging him to get up.

Speaker 6 But he was gone when I got there.

Speaker 7 Tommy had been shot in the chest. He died within minutes.
Sherry, this is too much for one person to bear.

Speaker 6 It was very hard.

Speaker 6 My whole life was laying there.

Speaker 7 They had him covered up with a white sheet.

Speaker 7 For you to have to see that.

Speaker 7 That was very, very hard for me.

Speaker 7 And I still didn't feel like it was real.

Speaker 7 Yeah. Your grandfather was so special to you.

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 7 It took a lot to actually come to terms with like it actually being him. Like, I just wanted it not to be him.

Speaker 7 It seemed like all of Bartstown came out for Tommy's funeral.

Speaker 8 There was a lot of people.

Speaker 39 One in the streets.

Speaker 7 You see how much he was left when you get a turnout like that.

Speaker 16 Right.

Speaker 7 Sherry says at first, investigators suggested Tommy's death could have been a hunting accident.

Speaker 6 I thought over my dead body, are you going to tell me this is a hunting accident? You know it's not.

Speaker 7 Tommy's sister Barbara and her husband Tom agreed. This is no hunting accident.

Speaker 48 No, I knew right off the bat, I said there's no way there's a hunting accident.

Speaker 7 This is murder.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 7 Tom, a retired captain with the Bardstown PD, went back to the field to survey the scene himself. Tell us what was happening that morning and how this all unfolded.

Speaker 15 Well, Well, Tommy and his grandson were going to hunt the family farm.

Speaker 7 He believes the shooter was lying in wait when Tommy arrived.

Speaker 15 I think someone was dropped off the Bluegrass Parkway from the eastbound lane, got out of the vehicle, and just staged right in the wood line and waited.

Speaker 7 Tom says he later searched the area and found a clue that he believes backs up his theory.

Speaker 10 And then right there of that tree, where

Speaker 15 a small notch out of the bark, it looked like someone to me just was braced right there. And they fired a weapon and just a little bit of recoil just took a chunk of the bark off.

Speaker 15 And it was a dead, 100% straight line to where Tommy was killed.

Speaker 7 And they took their shot and they made it.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 7 Tommy was a target.

Speaker 10 Absolutely.

Speaker 15 This was obviously premeditated.

Speaker 7 You believe that Tommy's investigation into Crystal's disappearance cost him his life?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 15 He was invested. This is his family.
This is his blood. A lot of people may not want to talk to law enforcement, you know, but people were talking to Tommy and people were getting nervous.

Speaker 10 There was chatter.

Speaker 15 There was a rumor mill was crazy. The shooters were more concerned about Tommy getting them than law enforcement at that particular time.

Speaker 7 This hit hard.

Speaker 4 It scared the community.

Speaker 7 Because this wasn't just about Tommy or Crystal. They were just the latest victims in a string of unsolved killings, plaguing this once peaceful town.

Speaker 7 And now the whispers, the fear, the suspicion were all about to boil over. Five murders in four years

Speaker 7 in a really small town.

Speaker 37 Today's forecast, high chance of brain fog that lasts all day and a pileup of excessive nighttime sleepiness causing a massive slowdown.

Speaker 27 That's how every day feels with idiopathic hypersomnia.

Speaker 52 Waking up groggy, walking through brain fog.

Speaker 51 But there is an option specifically for this condition.

Speaker 51 It's all at testyourtiredness.com looks like things are clearing up already discover more about a treatment option for idiopathic hypersomnia at testyourtiredness.com

Speaker 54 if you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change you really only need one good reason but with zin nicotine pouches you'll discover many good reasons zinn is america's number one nicotine pouch brand Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 50 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zin.

Speaker 57 Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zin at a store near you.

Speaker 56 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 58 New Dove Holiday Treats are now available at Target.

Speaker 58 This limited edition collection of body wash, deodorants, scrubs, bar soaps, and body mists are made with Dove 24-Hour Renewing Micro-Moisture and come in delicious scents like frosted plumberry, gingerbread delight, hot cocoa swirl, and sugar cookie sprinkle.

Speaker 58 Shop the holiday treats at Target, in store or online. Treat yourself before it's gone.

Speaker 7 Tommy Ballard's killing had upended Bardstown. In the town of just 14,000 people, his was the fifth unsolved murder.

Speaker 7 The pressure was on law enforcement.

Speaker 10 We were just as frustrated as the community. I think it only added to the distrust that these things weren't getting solved.

Speaker 7 Almost a year before Crystal's disappearance, Kathy Netherland, a special education teacher, and her 16-year-old daughter, Samantha, were murdered. Their killer never caught.

Speaker 7 That seemed like an isolated incident to investigators. But a year before that, there was a crime that was similar to Tommy's, a targeted shooting under the cover of darkness.

Speaker 7 The victim's name was Jason Ellis. What was Jason's personality like?

Speaker 39 Larger than life.

Speaker 7 He was always the life of the party. He always was up for an adventure.
Lacey Young and Kelly Eastman are Jason's sisters. Jason was always, even from a young age, very, very family-oriented.
Family.

Speaker 7 There was nothing more important to Jason.

Speaker 7 Close second? The game he lived to play. He was an incredible baseball player.

Speaker 7 He loved it for the game. Jason played in the minor leagues for the Cincinnati Reds.

Speaker 7 But after learning his first son was going to be born with special needs, Jason's mom, Pam, says Jason shifted his priorities. They found out Hunter was going to be Down syndrome.

Speaker 7 He changed his career so he can be with his family. So he gave up baseball to be the best dad he could be.

Speaker 7 He traded his days with the Reds for a new team, the Bardstown Police Department.

Speaker 3 I always called him a Chiefs, a Chiefs cop.

Speaker 7 Rick McCubbin was Jason's boss.

Speaker 3 He enjoyed policing. He loved his career.
Never got a complaint on him from any citizens.

Speaker 7 You know, he's living the dream, right? He's got the job as the police officer. He's got two little boys, a great wife.
Did everything just seem great?

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yeah, there was no reason to believe that there was anything else going on. I mean, they were making plans to come and camp.

Speaker 7 Then came May 25th, 2013, Memorial Day weekend.

Speaker 13 A quiet night, a full moon.

Speaker 7 You're at home, and you get a very disturbing call that something has happened to one of your officers.

Speaker 10 I did.

Speaker 3 They called me just before 3 a.m.

Speaker 5 And,

Speaker 3 you know, when I looked at my phone at that time, it said Nelson County Dispatch.

Speaker 32 Officer, they called

Speaker 3 The officer was found on an exit ramp, and there were trees around.

Speaker 7 The officer was Jason. He had just signed off for the night.
When Chief McCubbin got there, he saw him lying in a pool of blood.

Speaker 3 I just remember lifting up the police tape and walking up to Officer Ellis, and I just thought, what in the hell?

Speaker 7 Jason had been shot. It appeared he had been clearing some debris.
How was he positioned on the road? What did you see?

Speaker 3 He was on his back.

Speaker 3 His right knee was up, and in his left hand, he had a large tree branch.

Speaker 3 And I remember I knelt down beside him, and I remember kind of said a prayer and just thought, you know,

Speaker 3 I wish you could tell me what happened, Jason.

Speaker 7 Jason's sisters were two hours away when they got the news. He goes, Jason was just shot and he's dead.

Speaker 39 And I just remember screaming.

Speaker 7 And I'm like, what? And like, he repeated it. And I was like, I need to get to Lacey.
Kelly's at my front door. And she's just screaming, he's dead.
He's dead. He's dead.

Speaker 7 It's like you almost have like an outer body experience. Like you're hearing it, but you're not believing it.

Speaker 7 Just like Crystal's family, Jason's was desperate for answers.

Speaker 7 Chief McCubbin spoke to the press after the shooting.

Speaker 22 We won't give up on

Speaker 44 this person until we have them either in custody or in the front front sight of one of our weapons.

Speaker 24 And I personally hope the latter is the choice.

Speaker 7 Bardstown gathered together to say goodbye to Officer Ellis. The question that lingered over every salute, every tear, how could this have happened?

Speaker 7 Investigators determined Jason had pulled over to clear the tree limbs. Debris, they believed, was intentionally placed there by the killer.

Speaker 7 Why were you thinking so quickly that someone placed these tree limbs in the road, as opposed to, you know, just debris that the wind blew.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, there were no trees along that ramp.

Speaker 7 McCubbin says clues from the crime scene suggested the shooter was watching Jason from above when he struck him.

Speaker 3 They found evidence at the top of that rock wall where someone had obviously been there waiting. Grass had already been growing, so it was kind of mashed down where somebody had sat there, laid there.

Speaker 7 The killer was lying in wait.

Speaker 46 Yes.

Speaker 7 The case was still unsolved when Tommy was shot three and a half years later, Also in the dark by someone from a distance.

Speaker 7 Jason was on the Bluegrass Parkway, and now Tommy was shot adjacent to the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 3 Common denominator is the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 7 Also where Crystal's car was found. That stretch of blacktop would soon yield a big clue.
Another name. Someone who was there the night Crystal vanished.

Speaker 17 He said, hey, you're never going to believe this. He's on the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 7 The Ballard and Ellis families didn't know each other, but they were living the same nightmare. Their loved ones murdered.
Rumors rippled through Bardstown.

Speaker 17 People start asking, how does this happen?

Speaker 17 And people start trying to make connections.

Speaker 7 There was a connection between the victims, Brooks's brother, Nick Hauk. Jason Ellis and Nick worked together at the Bardstown PD.

Speaker 7 No one knew what, if anything, to make of that. No evidence has been shared linking the two cases.

Speaker 7 But Sherry was convinced that Brooks and Nick were involved in Crystal's and Tommy's murders, though neither had been charged. She worried for her family.
You had to think to yourself, who's next?

Speaker 6 It made me nervous a little bit,

Speaker 6 you know, but

Speaker 6 it didn't make me not want to fight for my daughter. It made me mad,

Speaker 6 you know,

Speaker 6 hurt, devastated.

Speaker 7 Did it make you want to fight even harder?

Speaker 6 Yes. You know, Tommy was.

Speaker 6 I always thought I could never live without that man.

Speaker 7 You kept marching on. And you were a lot stronger than you thought.

Speaker 6 I think you just do what you have to do for your family.

Speaker 7 As for the Hauk brothers, they stayed put in town. What were Brooks and Nick doing? They stayed visible.
They stayed doing business. And Brooks got more and more successful.

Speaker 7 Brooks had done phenomenally well with his rental properties and building homes. A self-made multi-millionaire.
And he got a new girlfriend, also named Crystal. Crystal Moppin.

Speaker 7 She starts managing rental properties, much like Crystal did. She even kind of looked like Crystal.
She's a beautiful blonde woman, just like Crystal Rogers.

Speaker 7 And this Crystal stood firmly behind the house, so much so that she was arrested for taking down one of those lawn signs in support of Crystal. A judge ordered her to apologize to Sherry.

Speaker 6 I knew somebody had personally took those down on purpose.

Speaker 6 It didn't really surprise me when I found out who did it.

Speaker 7 Over the years, Brooks remained largely silent about Crystal's disappearance, but he did talk to someone. Hey, Brooks, Forrest Berkshire here from Nikita Standards.

Speaker 7 Forrest Berkshire heard Brooks might be selling some of his rental properties, so he called him.

Speaker 19 But as far as me going anywhere or certain businesses,

Speaker 19 my business has never been stronger. So

Speaker 7 they never spoke directly about Crystal. But when Forrest said Brooks had been under some pressure lately, Brooks had this to say.
You're right.

Speaker 30 I do have a lot of pressure, but whenever the pressure gets up, hey, it excites me. I get strengthed up.
I love it. I love the pressure.
I'm operating well under it.

Speaker 44 People have told me before that

Speaker 14 he was a little cocky.

Speaker 17 And it seemed like some of that cockiness came through.

Speaker 7 If Brooks liked pressure, he was about to get a whole lot more. In 2019, Detective Snow retired, and the FBI, which had helped with the investigation since the beginning, was now put in charge.

Speaker 17 So when we took over the case,

Speaker 17 I had said, I'm not going to focus on finding the body. I'm going to focus on the elements of the crime and proving the crime.

Speaker 7 FBI agent Steve Ceary knew the community was fed up and scared.

Speaker 17 There had been five murders over,

Speaker 17 you know, a couple of years and not a single person was handcuffs. So there was just this massive distrust and people were afraid.

Speaker 7 After reviewing the cases, Agent Keary believed Crystal's, Tommy's, and Jason Ellis's murders were connected. Seeking justice for all was the inspiration behind the operation's name.

Speaker 17 The operation was OJR, Operation Justice Rising, because not only were we bringing justice to the Ballard family, the goal of this case was that this would turn into a snowball that would gain momentum and that we'd get justice for Jason, justice for Tommy.

Speaker 7 Kieri worked the case with everything he had.

Speaker 3 When we got involved, I wanted to like utilize the full, full 800-pound gorilla of the FBI, right?

Speaker 7 It was the summer of 2020 when the FBI flooded Bardstown. The big guns are now here.
They've come to Bardstown area.

Speaker 7 I started getting calls and texts that people were seeing FBI vehicles in Bardstown, giant evidence trucks.

Speaker 7 What's that moment like when the FBI calls and you've just been hitting dead end after dead end and now you're getting, I sat in the flowing car?

Speaker 6 I'm like, family.

Speaker 7 For five days, the FBI searched the Hauk properties. They used dogs and divers, collected boxes of evidence, and spoke with neighbors.

Speaker 7 And they combed the family farm again, the same property long whispered about in connection to Crystal's disappearance. This time, investigators found something.

Speaker 17 Little Olympus digital recorders. They were found in the master bedroom.

Speaker 17 in the closet, in a pair of Rosemary Hauk's back pocket jeans, and then one was found in a drawer.

Speaker 7 It seemed the Haukes had been recording something. Investigators seized the devices, and when they searched Brooks's house, he was front and center.

Speaker 7 So interesting. But he put himself there in front of the cameras.

Speaker 7 Most people would just be cowering in a corner, freaking out. He always acted like he had nothing to hide.
like he wasn't involved. Brooks remained front and center for Agent Keary, too.

Speaker 7 He had taken a deep dive into Brooks' cell phone data and that 13-second call Brooks got the night Crystal disappeared, the one from his employee, Steve Lawson. Hey, Steve.

Speaker 7 Police still had Steve's phone collected during the initial investigation. Keary sent it off for a new FBI analysis.
Weeks later, he got the results. It was a game changer.

Speaker 17 And they said, hey, you're never going to believe this. He's on the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 3 And I just never, like, I remember, what?

Speaker 17 Like, this is crazy.

Speaker 7 The Bluegrass Parkway near the spot Crystal's car had been found on the same night she disappeared. And his cell phone records revealed more.
Steve got calls from his adult son, Joey.

Speaker 17 Joey tries calling Steve a few times, right? They're missed calls to Steve. And then Joey finally does get a hold of Steve, and it's a little bit over a minute call.

Speaker 7 And right after that, Steve made that 13-second call to Brooks.

Speaker 17 That paints a really good story of collaboration, right? It's like Joey needs his dad, and then

Speaker 17 dad immediately calls the next guy up the chain.

Speaker 7 It was time to turn up the heat on the Lawsons.

Speaker 13 I mean, how much more do y'all want me to tell you? Everything!

Speaker 7 How many times do we have to tell you that?

Speaker 37 Today's forecast, high chance of brain fog that lasts all day and a pileup of excessive daytime sleepiness causing a massive slowdown.

Speaker 52 That's how every every day feels with idiopathic hypersomnia, waking up groggy, walking through brain fog.

Speaker 51 But there is an option specifically for this condition.

Speaker 9 It's all at testyourtiredness.com.

Speaker 37 Looks like things are clearing up already.

Speaker 51 Learn more about your condition at testyourtiredness.com.

Speaker 53 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

Speaker 54 But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 44 Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.

Speaker 41 Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 50 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zin.

Speaker 57 Check out zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.

Speaker 56 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 58 New Dove holiday treats are now available at Target.

Speaker 58 This limited edition collection of body wash, deodorants, scrubs, bar soaps, and body mists are made with Dove 24-hour renewing micro-moisture and come in delicious scents like frosted plumberry, gingerbread delight, hot cocoa swirl, and sugar cookie sprinkle.

Speaker 58 Shop Dove holiday treats at Target, in store or online. Treat yourself before it's gone.

Speaker 7 The FBI had been been methodically gathering everything they could in the case of Crystal Rogers for several years.

Speaker 7 Then, in 2022, the investigation got an even bigger boost.

Speaker 45 I was approached by someone from the Attorney General's office.

Speaker 7 Special Prosecutor Shane Young.

Speaker 45 They were looking for somebody to take over the Crystal Rogers case and a couple other cases as well.

Speaker 7 Tommy's case and Jason Ellis's, the officer gunned down on the off-ramp of the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 7 Did you believe, once you started looking into everything, that all three of these murders could be connected?

Speaker 21 We, no.

Speaker 45 I mean, we didn't close that door, but we looked at all three cases, figured out which one we believed that we could get in court the fastest, and we decided that we were going to focus in on Crystal's case.

Speaker 7 He teamed up with fellow attorneys, Teresa Young, his wife, and Jim Lasowski. They poured over the evidence.
What are your first impressions as you start digging in?

Speaker 45 I was like, holy sht.

Speaker 21 Because

Speaker 45 it was like four terabytes of stuff.

Speaker 7 The case file was more like an archive, thousands of pages, years of investigation without a breakthrough. The prosecutors began building their case on a whiteboard.
What's on your whiteboard?

Speaker 45 It's basically, if we have no witnesses, okay, what do we have?

Speaker 45 And I knew we had phone evidence showing that Steve drove down to the Bluegrass Parkway.

Speaker 7 On the night Crystal was killed. They also knew Steve Lawson spoke to his son Joey that night.
They talked, and then Steve hangs up the phone and immediately calls Brooke's house.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors developed a working theory. It was Joey who was driving Crystal's car, and he called his dad Steve when he got the flat tire.
When the FBI had questioned Steve, he had been evasive.

Speaker 7 So Prosecutor Young put him in front of a grand jury under oath, and Steve admitted to something he'd always denied.

Speaker 45 Steve Lawson confirmed to us in the grand jury that he was on the bluegrass that night.

Speaker 7 That's all it took.

Speaker 7 They arrested him and brought him in for an interview.

Speaker 26 So the deal here is

Speaker 19 you

Speaker 31 are in some serious trouble.

Speaker 7 Prosecutor Young enlisted the help of Kentucky State Police Detectives Tony Hardin and Brian Luckett.

Speaker 7 They spoke to Steve and told him they believed he and Joey were involved in Crystal's disappearance. What they wanted to know, how did Crystal's car get to the parkway?

Speaker 43 I didn't put a car.

Speaker 19 That's a fact.

Speaker 23 I'm going to ask you right now, Steve.

Speaker 5 Do you know who did?

Speaker 49 No, I don't. Be honest.

Speaker 43 No, sir.

Speaker 15 I swear to God, the only person who was in my car with me was my son, and that is the facts. Steve, do the right thing.

Speaker 23 We're here for a reason. Do the right thing.

Speaker 23 Do the right thing for you and your family.

Speaker 23 at me.

Speaker 28 I don't like that, sir.

Speaker 7 They interviewed him many times

Speaker 7 over months.

Speaker 62 It's exhausting, I guess is probably a good word for it, knowing that this person can help you and that this person knows more than what they are telling you, but yet, you know,

Speaker 26 we can't force it.

Speaker 49 We can't make them say anything at this point.

Speaker 63 So we had gone round and round in the interview room, and finally he kind of had a breakthrough.

Speaker 15 All right, you're telling the truth, okay?

Speaker 7 Prosecutor Young came into the room.

Speaker 44 Joey calls you.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 49 Tells you what?

Speaker 29 Come again.

Speaker 5 All right.

Speaker 7 Steve finally admitted that Joey had called him that night, asking to be picked up on the Bluegrass Parkway. And Steve picked him up.

Speaker 63 And that was the first time that he had ever admitted to that. And so then we knew, you know, that we were moving forward.

Speaker 13 Why was I sitting in there?

Speaker 7 Steve told them Crystal's car was there. He opened the driver's door and got in.

Speaker 5 I didn't drive the car.

Speaker 43 I'm going to tell you straight up I didn't drive.

Speaker 15 Why did you jump into the seat?

Speaker 14 I'm going to say it was back too far.

Speaker 43 My son's tall.

Speaker 35 What do y'all want me to tell you now?

Speaker 50 Is that that?

Speaker 40 Well, I apologize.

Speaker 50 Does that not make you happy now?

Speaker 26 The seat is scooted all the way back because Joey was tall.

Speaker 26 He says that he scooted the seat forward to try to match her height.

Speaker 7 Steve said he was worried Joey was tied up with something bad, so he tried to cover it up.

Speaker 62 There were certain things that Steve just didn't want to hear himself say. There was a lot that, even in his own mind and heart, that Steve hadn't dealt with yet.

Speaker 31 Yeah, where was we at certain?

Speaker 7 Now that he was talking, Steve didn't stop. He told investigators that before Crystal disappeared, Brooks confided in him that they were having problems.

Speaker 40 I think his exact words were exact.

Speaker 28 Well, not just like your gal.

Speaker 40 Well, to me,

Speaker 40 gown means

Speaker 4 gown.

Speaker 49 He admitted at that point that in Steve's mind, Brooks wanted her dead.

Speaker 7 It was a huge turning point in the case after seven years. And now prosecutors had a dilemma.
You had no body,

Speaker 7 no crime scene. No weapon, no witness directly turning on any of these people.

Speaker 7 Were you concerned?

Speaker 21 No, you know, I'm skeptical as anybody.

Speaker 26 I'm Mr. Downer.

Speaker 5 All right, I always think we're going to lose.

Speaker 7 But this time, he felt armed with a mountain of circumstantial evidence. They were ready.
So the call was made.

Speaker 45 Call was made.

Speaker 5 Let's we're going to roll. It's go time.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 They arrested Joey first.

Speaker 7 Then a few months later, Brooks. Where's Crystal Rogers?

Speaker 63 I mean, he was shocked. I think he knew that that day was coming and he had prepared somewhat for it, but I don't think that he actually ever thought it would come.

Speaker 7 Brooks Hauck was arrested for murder.

Speaker 6 Best day of my life.

Speaker 6 I sat at home and watched it on the TV and, oh my gosh, it was like a weight lifted off of me, you know.

Speaker 7 That's where you want a rewind button, right? You keep watching it over and over again. It's real.

Speaker 6 We wanted to arrest him in pink handcuffs, but they wouldn't let us.

Speaker 7 Their wait was finally over. Suspects arrested.

Speaker 7 Charges filed.

Speaker 7 Steve, Joey, and Brooks all pleaded not guilty. There would soon be a showdown in court about truth, loyalty, and two families divided.

Speaker 7 Sherry Ballard waited years for a shot at justice. You are a patient woman.

Speaker 6 It was not easy.

Speaker 7 Finally, in June 2025, Brooks Hauk and Joey Lawson went on trial. Brooks on a murder charge, Joey on conspiracy and tampering with physical evidence charges.

Speaker 7 Sherry felt her whole life depended on the outcome.

Speaker 6 I can't live in this town if he's not convicted. There's no way I could look at him in this town.

Speaker 7 There was no avoiding Brooks at trial, though. Sherry sat just feet from him.
Sometimes Brooks' family was there too, including his mother Rosemary.

Speaker 7 What was it like seeing the two families that just despise each other walking shoulder to shoulder?

Speaker 39 The courtroom was small.

Speaker 7 So this was two families who have done everything they can to avoid each other over the last decade being forced to be in this place together.

Speaker 7 And they were doing everything they could to not touch shoulders, to not make eye contact.

Speaker 7 This was a tough case for the state. They had no body, no crime scene, and no murder weapon.

Speaker 13 That's important.

Speaker 7 So they would have to rely on their circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 7 You told the jury this is about common sense.

Speaker 45 It is about common sense.

Speaker 11 What I'm going to tell you is, if Crystal Rogers did not come home late July 3rd, early morning of July 4th, if she does not come home, this man is guilty of murder.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors argued that Brooks and Crystal were both unhappy in their relationship and Rosemary Hauck wasn't helping. Crystal's friend Christina Hawley told the jury all about it.

Speaker 7 There was comments about Crystal's hair and how she's a mother and mama don't like that.

Speaker 10 Who's that guy?

Speaker 16 Brooks though.

Speaker 7 Sherry says shortly before Crystal disappeared, her daughter was ready to leave Brooks, but was scared.

Speaker 6 She says, Mom, I can't leave. She said, because he'll take Eli away from me.
I said, Crystal, he can't do that. You're not an unfit mother.
You're an excellent mother.

Speaker 7 The state believed it was actually Brooks who was terrified of losing custody of Eli. So he hatched a plan to murder Crystal.
And they said he didn't do it alone.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors thought his mom, Rosemary, did a lot more than metal this time, and they argued his brother Nick was involved, too.

Speaker 48 I believe he and their mother, Rosemary, were both involved as co-conspirators in this murder of this young woman.

Speaker 7 You've called them unindicted co-conspirators publicly.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 7 And they said so in court.

Speaker 43 How did you come to be caught in the Rosemary hell?

Speaker 7 One of Brooks' former employees testified about a conversation he had with Rosemary days before Crystal disappeared.

Speaker 30 It was over Crystal and

Speaker 43 wanting to find someone to help get rid of her.

Speaker 3 She asked you to do that?

Speaker 43 No, she didn't ask me to do it, but she asked me if I know any way of getting it done.

Speaker 7 As for Nick, his phone was off on Friday, July 3rd. And his former girlfriend testified that he said he needed to help Brooks with something.

Speaker 7 Later that night, the state said, Brooks lured Crystal out to the Hauk property.

Speaker 16 She had told me that that night, her and Brooks was going on a surprise date.

Speaker 7 Crystal's cousin, Amanda Greenwell, ran into Crystal earlier that day.

Speaker 16 She was very excited.

Speaker 7 Crystal is so excited because in a time where her relationship is crumbling, she's getting this little glimmer of hope that, no, wait, he's giving us another chance.

Speaker 26 That's not date night.

Speaker 7 But prosecutor Shane Young said that date night wasn't Dinner and Roses. It was a drive to the family farm with Eli at around 7.30 p.m.

Speaker 7 Crystal is killed, you believe, at the farm.

Speaker 5 Don't know.

Speaker 49 It could be.

Speaker 26 I mean, do I believe there's a good chance she was killed at the farm?

Speaker 61 Yes, I do.

Speaker 7 Then, he said, Crystal's body was somehow disposed of.

Speaker 45 It was almost the perfect crime.

Speaker 7 Perfect, because there was no trace of Crystal left behind. And after the murder, prosecutors believe the Houck family orchestrated a cover-up.

Speaker 7 Remember those recorders investigators found on the farm? Prosecutors said the tapes revealed the family recorded their conversations.

Speaker 29 It's recording right now. Are you sure? Yeah.

Speaker 7 It becomes kind of obvious to us that the recording is when you interact with the police is so you remember what the heck you told them.

Speaker 34 And then at 7.30, three of us, Crystal.

Speaker 29 Eli, and myself, went to the farm.

Speaker 7 And the cover-up might have worked, said the state, had Brooks not made a pivotal mistake, trusting Steve and Joey Lawson to get rid of Crystal's car.

Speaker 45 I think the plan was to make it look like she left and just her car to disappear, whether they were going to drive the car into a lake or a river or whatever.

Speaker 61 But they got a flat tire. But they got a flat tire.

Speaker 7 That, said prosecutors, prompted Steve Lawson to make the 13-second call to Brooks.

Speaker 45 That phone call is what did it.

Speaker 5 This whole case. Yes.

Speaker 45 If they had not gotten a flat tire,

Speaker 7 we probably wouldn't have solved this case if that phone call had not been made while the house kept the murder secret prosecutors argued the lawsons couldn't keep their mouths shut they seemed to talk about the crime all over town within earshot of steve's ex-wife i heard them talking about

Speaker 16 moving a car and steve's ex-girlfriend i overheard them talking about moving a body at the house farm

Speaker 7 after about a week, the prosecution rested. It was the defense's turn, and Brooks had an ace up his sleeve.
Mr. Butler, proceed when you're ready.

Speaker 7 He'd hired this man, Brian Butler, one of the best defense attorneys in Kentucky, and he seemed to have an explanation for everything.

Speaker 64 It is time to find him not guilty. It's time to send him home to his son.

Speaker 7 Brooks Howe could listen to all the testimony against him. Prosecutors called him a practiced liar and a calculated killer.
How is Brooks in the courtroom? He kept his head looking forward.

Speaker 7 You didn't get that air of confidence that we had in the years past.

Speaker 7 But in jailhouse calls, Brooks seemed hopeful.

Speaker 19 This is not the end of me.

Speaker 29 This is all going to work out.

Speaker 7 Brooks put his faith in his defense team, which included well-known attorney Brian Butler.

Speaker 7 Butler argued the state had knitted together a story of what happened to Crystal Rogers, but they were really just pulling at loose threads, starting with that theory about Brooks's family helping him.

Speaker 64 His mother didn't like her hair.

Speaker 64 So, a very successful, well-off property developer,

Speaker 64 a retired daycare owner, a police officer, all get together, risk

Speaker 23 everything

Speaker 64 to kill somebody

Speaker 64 because they don't like her hair.

Speaker 7 The defense argued the Hauks were a normal family whose actions were innocent. Nick's phone was off on July 3rd, they said, because he was fighting with his girlfriend.

Speaker 7 Brooks and Crystal's relationship was great. They'd just gotten back from a trip to the beach.

Speaker 7 And police were the ones who told Brooks to avoid the searches for Crystal. Brooks' sister Rhonda said as far as she knew, there were no big problems between her mom and Crystal.

Speaker 7 I never witnessed like a huge blowup or anything of that sort. But everything changed the moment Crystal disappeared.

Speaker 64 They have gone from a normal

Speaker 64 middle-class family to the villains of the entire community.

Speaker 7 I had switched my children's schools two times,

Speaker 7 but there continued to be threats, people following at me.

Speaker 7 The Hauks only taped their conversations, the defense said, to keep their own record of what was going on because they were being unfairly targeted by police.

Speaker 7 How many times did they search the Hauk farm?

Speaker 64 They searched Brooks' house and truck. Nothing.
They searched Nick's house. Nothing.
If it was there,

Speaker 42 if he did it,

Speaker 64 they would have found it.

Speaker 7 A lot of missing pieces. The defense laid out this incomplete case.
No body, no murder weapon, no crime scene, no motive.

Speaker 7 The defense argued at some point investigators got desperate and leaned on witnesses to change their stories to fit a narrative.

Speaker 14 What do y'all want me to tell you now?

Speaker 7 Especially Steve Lawson, said his son Joey's attorneys, Kevin Coleman and Robert Boyd.

Speaker 26 Steve Lawson was interviewed somewhere between 20 and 30 hours, and I don't believe Steve knows anything about what happened.

Speaker 7 Some witnesses, like Steve Lawson's ex-girlfriend, were pushed to an emotional edge.

Speaker 23 At this point, I want to leave.

Speaker 23 Period. I don't found anything.

Speaker 7 An expert hired by Brooks' defense said none of this witness testimony could be trusted.

Speaker 31 These are some of the most coercive interrogation tactics, injury tactics that I've seen.

Speaker 20 I'm trying to help you.

Speaker 20 Why do I have to pull this out of you?

Speaker 7 The attorneys pointed out some of these witnesses already had run-ins with the law, making them especially vulnerable.

Speaker 10 It's like the Barstown Inquisition, right? Once you are under their microscope in that small town,

Speaker 5 you are bullied, pressured.

Speaker 61 The statements were good statements, and they can talk about how they were coerced or not coerced or whatever.

Speaker 45 But Steve Lawson come, we released Steve Lawson that night. He came back voluntary on his own.

Speaker 49 But what we were able to do is take stuff he told us and go verify.

Speaker 7 The defense teams argued, coerced or not, the Lawsons were the last people capable of carrying out the perfect murder.

Speaker 26 You've got Joey Lawson, who's severely addicted to methamphetamine, and he doesn't deposit one single item of trace evidence.

Speaker 26 He doesn't deposit any sweat or perspiration, doesn't even leave a fingerprint. And he was certainly no criminal mastermind of any sort.

Speaker 7 And they said investigators failed to follow up on other leads, ones that possibly pointed to an entirely different killer.

Speaker 60 There's a fingerprint that is on Crystal Rogers' phone that does not belong to Joey Lawson, doesn't belong to Steve Lawson, doesn't belong to Brooks Howck or anybody in their family or anybody related to this case.

Speaker 7 They also challenged the state's cell phone evidence.

Speaker 7 The data from Steve Lawson's phone, they said, actually showed him traveling on a road that ran parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway, not the parkway itself, where Crystal's car was found.

Speaker 5 Sounds like an alibi.

Speaker 7 It all amounted to a case so thin, they said. It wasn't worthy of a response.

Speaker 26 We were going to put Joey on the stand, and the only reason that we chose to not put him on the stand was because the evidence was so

Speaker 60 flimsy.

Speaker 26 I didn't believe any of it had landed with the jury.

Speaker 7 How's everyone feeling when the case goes to the jury? There was a lot of nerves.

Speaker 7 Deliberations continued for one hour. Then, two.

Speaker 7 That afternoon, everyone was called back to the courtroom.

Speaker 49 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder principles.

Speaker 6 The jury saw what kind of person Brooks Hack really is.

Speaker 7 Did you feel like Tommy was with you when the verdict was being read?

Speaker 6 Me and my son held each other's hands, and I wanted my kids beside me. I know him and Crystal was up there together, happy, so.

Speaker 7 Ashley, who was now married with kids, thought of her grandfather Tommy as the verdict was read. He worked so hard, fought so hard to get justice for your mom.

Speaker 7 He might not have been here for the justice to be served, but he was here within our hearts.

Speaker 7 Joey Lawson was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence. Those were the same charges his father Steve was convicted of at a separate trial.

Speaker 7 Steve was sentenced to 17 years.

Speaker 7 At Brooks House sentencing hearing, Sherry called out his arrogance.

Speaker 6 I guess you're not as smart as you think you are. He underestimated the love me and my husband had for our daughter

Speaker 6 and what we would go through to find justice for her.

Speaker 7 He sure did.

Speaker 7 Brooks was sentenced to life in prison, but not before Sherry asked him one last question.

Speaker 6 Tell me where my daughter's at so we can find her and bring her home.

Speaker 7 You need that.

Speaker 6 Yes, my whole family needs that. It's so hard to heal without that.

Speaker 7 And hard to heal without answers in Tommy's case, too. The the ellis family is also waiting ultimately

Speaker 7 truth will win out and good will win out and we just have to wait it out yep we just have to wait it out will there be charges brought in jason ellis's case don't know tommy ballard don't know we're working on them

Speaker 7 prosecutor shane young did offer this something possibly linking nick to tommy's murder nick howek had advertised a gun that we believed was very either close or the exact caliber that killed Tommy Ballard.

Speaker 21 And we bought it using an undercover officer.

Speaker 45 And we believe that to be the gun that killed Tommy.

Speaker 7 Nick Hauck hasn't been charged in connection with any of these cases. And even though he and his mother were called unindicted co-conspirators by the prosecution, they haven't been arrested.

Speaker 7 Rosemary and Nick Houck declined to be interviewed for our broadcast. Is there an active investigation into the two?

Speaker 5 We haven't closed it. No,

Speaker 5 we haven't closed it.

Speaker 7 Brooks also declined our request for an interview. He and the Lawsons have filed appeals.

Speaker 7 One thing is for sure: Sherry will keep fighting. She'll never give up on finding the truth.

Speaker 6 My biggest thing for my daughter and husband, I will do everything in my power to keep their name out there. It's a daily thing and it's very hard, but you can't give up on that.

Speaker 7 You're not done.

Speaker 6 No, I'm not done.

Speaker 6 And they know I'm not done.

Speaker 14 That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our Talking Dateline podcast, which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.

Speaker 14 Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9:8 Central.
I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News.

Speaker 5 Good night.

Speaker 65 That was Foggy Mornings.

Speaker 7 Up next is Let It Sleep on Back to Bed Radio.

Speaker 66 If you have idiopathic hypersomnia, it could be time to remix the playlist of your day. That epic struggle to wake up, the endless sleepiness.
It's time to raise your expectations.

Speaker 66 Learn about a treatment for idiopathic hypersomnia. Visit testyourtiredness.com.

Speaker 65 That is more like it and more your style. Learn more about your condition at testyourtiredness.com so you can remix your day.