Lucy Letby- Killer Nurse? But in the spring of 2011, Rebecca was never seen again. In 2020, more than 150 state and federal law enforcement officers were deployed to Bardstown and on the first day, they executed at least nine federal search warrants and conducted more than 50. Its something that they dont get over. A massive search for her turned up more questions than answers, frustrating the authorities and loved ones alike. It was Crystals mother, Sherry, who went to the authorities. "As humans we don't have enough kindness and compassion for strangers," added McAlister. Their bodies were discovered by a family member. As an aside, and perhaps strangely for such a small town (13,094 in 2019), there are other unsolved murders in Bardstown. Family members hoped they would get answers when the FBI started a new search for evidence in her case. Shockingly, they did not belong to Crystal. It's been five years since Tommy Ballard of Bardstown was gunned down while hunting with his grandson. He helped form Team Crystal, according to the FBI. She knows now that just because someone is smiling doesn't mean there's not tragedy or grief just beneath that smile. They were discovered on a farm close to where Rogers car was found. They focused on multiple houses before they eventually dug up a front yard and driveway at one property on North Howard Street. Kyleigh Fenwick was 14 when Crystal disappeared and was 19 at the time of the anniversary. Nobody could get a hold of her.. Rogers has been missing more than six years. His murder would be the first. . Although she was brand new to the job, McAlister said the Rogers case immediately stood out. He joined the paper in 2020, and is originally from Erlanger, Ky. At first, he thought the radio had picked up a signal from a neighboring townbut eventually realized it was closeby. It did not take them long to become worried. Ballard reported Rogers missing on July 5, 2015. Her remains were found buried in the woods in 1983. In July 2017, Brooks new girlfriend, Crystal Maupin was arrested. Sharenes child wouldve been Till and Bettys first grandchild, Betty said. All rights reserved. Searches have still been undertaken the Louisville Metro Police searched several waterways to no avail. The Bardstown people continued their attempts to help. The Nelson County Sheriff released this statement: Today, we received word from the FBI that the human remains, which were located at the Washington County/Nelson County line were not those of Crystal Rogers. A Dead Cop Was The First Unsolved Murder. Five years and a month after the disappearance of Crystal Rogers,the FBIhas taken overthe investigation and is launching a new search for the35-year-old Kentucky mother of five. A 35 year old woman named Crystal Rogers went missing from Bardstown, Kentucky back in 2015. Kathy Netherland taught special education at Bardstown Elementary School. Crystal Rogers disappeared on July 3, 2015 and weeks later McAlister would begin to cover the case. On the morning of November 19, 2016, sixteen months after Crystals disappearance, Ballard was preparing for a hunting trip with his 12-year-old grandson on family property next to Bluegrass Parkway in Bardstown, Kentucky. Cloudy skies. When he stopped to pick up debris in the road (that is said to have been intentionally put there,) a gunman shot and killed him. He drove to the Exit 24 ramp and was one of the first responding officers to see Ellis lying dead in the road. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for the death of Bardstown, Kentucky Police Officer Jason Ellis. There were a dozen. Email Email. Rogers was from the small, tight-knit town of Bardstown, about 40 miles south of Louisville. Compartilhar isto . Tommys murder is still unsolved to this day and the FBI are involved in his death: After his daughter, Crystal Rogers, disappeared in July 2015, Tommy Ballard created Team Crystal, a group of Bardstown, Kentucky, community members dedicated to finding Crystal and bringing her home. Bardstown was named after its pioneering founders Davis Bard and William Bard. "It's definitely put me in a different position to cover tragedy - I think in a way with more empathy and compassion.". In November 2018, a court ruled Sherry Ballard could no longer see her grandson, Eli. On August 15, Crystals parents Sherry and Tommy started a fight to get custody of Eli, the son that Crystal and Brooks shared. In a statement, the agency reiterated that "several items of. James Kelly Moss, 1962 Moss was a career criminal, who served his first prison term in 1933, at age 19, having been convicted of trying to steal bags of coffee and car tires from an L&N Railroad boxcar. She appealed the decision. Buy HD $2.99 More purchase options 3. On May 25, Ellis, a husband and father of two young boys, clocked out of his shift at 2 a.m. and started his normal, 15-mile drive home on the Bluegrass Parkway. Her purse, keys, and uncharged phone remained inside the unlocked . An arrest slip says witnesses told detectives Tate admitted to killing Unseld. If he liked you, hed give you the shirt off his back.. was fired after interfering in the investigation. The agents went through boxes of belongings at the storage unit, piling items outside, including clothes, toys, diapers, TVs and furniture. The second search took place in the Woodlawn Springs subdivision, where Brooks Houck's construction company built several houses shortly after the disappearance of Crystal Rogers. Thats the way Tommy was. James and Michelle Butler: The Senseless Murder of 21-Year-Navy Veteran and Wife. My whole familys name is trashed for something completely not even tied to me. During Police Week, the FBI is intensifying its efforts to identify and arrest fugitives believed to be involved in the assault or murder of law enforcement officers. On the 5 year anniversary of Crystals disappearance, one of her children spoke to the media. The keys were in the ignition and her personal belongings (keys, cellphone and purse) were found inside and scattered around the vehicle. When he answered it, it was his brother, Nick Houck, telling him not to talk to investigators. Mother of five, Crystal Rogers has been missing from Bardstown, KY since July 3, 2015. Tommy didnt like being in photos, Ballard said. Their daughter, Freda Sharene Sherry Ballard was killed in 1979 and her car was submerged in the Ohio River, according to multiple reports. ), Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children with exercise bands, The mysterious vanishing of Nicola Bulley, Murder by Neglect - the deaths of Lacey Fletcher and Valerie Wallach, Missing men - Bryce Borca, Dr Bolek Payan, George Musser and Teddy Egge, The Missing, Murdered and Reunited of Runaway Train, Jennifer Fairgate and her briefcase of bullets, An Instagram murder - Brandon Clark and Bianca Devins. We should just be giving it out because it's so true, you have no idea what someone is facing.". The relationship with these friends and family members has evolved over time to one where McAlister said she used to just keep in touch to get updates on the case, to one where now she's keeping in touch, making sure they are ok. "As a human it's difficult to draw a boundary and keep a boundary especially in a case like this where we've known each other for five years," McAlister said. The skeletal remains were discovered Thursday evening, and investigators called in an FBI team to help with recovery and identification. Waking up every day and not being able to wake up and be like Hey mom and What are you going to do today? Just like normal little things. Tommy was a kind of quiet man who built houses for a living, Sherry Ballard said. By Sunday afternoon, the news had spread by word of mouth that the FBI was in town investigating something.. I honestly do believe were in the right direction. In a social media post, FBI Louisville said the items are potentially relevant to the investigation. Since McAlister's first weeks at WHAS 11, she's put together an unsolved series covering missing and murdered loved ones from around Kentucky. New Details On The Unsolved Murder Of The Buffalo Man Who Was Shot Dead In His Car, Woman Gets 'Hate' For Sharing How Her Current Husband Is Supporting Her Ex After He Served 7 Years In Prison, Man Shares Bizarre Story Of Touring A House While The Owner Was 'Tied Up In A CarpetIn the Basement', How The Brutal Murder Of My Father-In-Law Saved My Husband's Life, Who Is Carla Walker? Best known for the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings, a perfectly solved crime, but there's also the subsequent disappearance of Robert Hoagland, and the prior Newtown Wives trilogy: the Helle Craft woodchipper murders, the other woman whose husband wasn't prosecuted until they found her body a few years ago, and Regina Brown, still . The FBI started its investigation into Rogers disappearance by sending 150 law enforcement officers into Bardstown last year to conduct interviews and execute search warrants. "My mom is a very special woman," Rogers' daughter, K., wrote on a new website dedicated to the investigation. But one thing is for sure: the person who killed Ellis seemed to know the route he took home and when hed be traveling on it. - The FBI has found an "item of interest" during a property search for missing Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers. With a new crew asking different questions that she hadn't thought of, it set forth the perfect combination for a podcast to really work. The young woman was living with her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, who was the father of her youngest child. In Bardstown, the FBI has stepped in to help with the Crystal Rogers case and McAlister would like to think that the attention the murders received from the Bardstown podcast along with the determination of Crystal Rogers' family is to credit. On July 23, 2020, Nelson County Sheriffs Office investigators became aware of the existence of human remains in a remote area near the Washington County line. Were glad the FBI finally has took over the case, Ballard said. After more than five years of waiting for answers in the 2015 disappearance of Rogers, Ballard finally saw action over the summer. An official website of the United States government. Feb 21, 2023. Crystal Rogers' family knows the Bardstown Kentucky missing mother is dead after she disappeared 6 years ago. They're reportedly searching three properties owned by Rogers' ex-boyfriend, Brooks Houck, in addition to properties owned by his brother, former Bardstown police officer Nick Houck, and their mother, Rosemary Houck. On June 3, 2016, someone shot Unseld above what used to be the Broken Tee Nite Club on West Stephen Foster Avenue in Bardstown. In the days after Crystal vanished, searches conducted by the authorities with the help of volunteers and family didnt turn up anything. "Out of respect for family members of multiple missing persons in these areas, we will not be commenting on this until we have more information from the lab," the office said in a statement. His wife spoke at the dedication, saying, I have spent the last five years trying to find myself again, trying to climb out of the fog of grief and PTSD that comes with having your husband murdered, trying to raise two boys the best that I can.. According to Medley, It was a hard time there for about a year, year and a half. The brother of Crystal's boyfriend, Nick Houck, a Bardstown Police Officer is grilled by the FBI. Im innocent. Im 100 percent completely innocent in this, and I have exhausted my efforts with the law enforcement agencies to gather all the facts necessary to allow me to have a clean name again, Houck said on Graces show. The FBI returned to the subdivision every day before suspending the search on Monday due to bad weather. The agency planned to resume the search once the weather improved. There is a great post on reddit about Crystals case and this information comes from there:In December 2015, Louisvilles WDRB reported the arrest of Danny Singleton on 38 counts of false swearing after he allegedly lied under oath to a grand jury in relation to the investigation of Crystal Rogers disappearance. Outside of work, he was heavily involved in the community including coaching youth baseball. A part of me wants to hold back on that because I dont know Im scared of the let down. The FBI is investigating Rogers' disappearance and four unsolved Bardstown murders, including the shooting of Tommy Ballard. She was born and raised in Bardstown and was a very shy little girl when she was younger, Sherry said. But there are still unanswered questions. August 2015 and Crystal is still missing. Mostly cloudy. We want to solve this case for them and bring this person to justice and find out why they did this. Days after Rogers disappearance, he told Nancy Grace in a television interview that he was not in the least little bit alarmed when he woke up on July 4 to find Rogers wasnt home. The same day she was reported missing, her car was found abandoned on the Bluegrass Parkway near mile marker 14, roughly 6 miles from the Bardstown exit. There has been a string of unsolved murders and an unsolved disappearance in Nelson County. Rogers had five children. Just like our community we were hopeful it would assist in answers and closure in Crystal Rogers case. They had taken over the investigation into Crystals disappearance once the human remains were found. Vanished: Heidi Broussard (33) and Margot Carey (2wks). September 8, 2018, 8:02 PM ET Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis Murdered For Burglary Investigation, Says Anonymous Inmate The inmate claims Ellis was shot because "he was close to an investigation of a ring of storage shed burglaries and business burglaries." By Aly Vander Hayden Tommys dad said his son was very charitable. We dont have anything against the state police or the sheriffs department; theyve been good, too. Moving into 2016, things slowed down in Crystals case but there were some interesting things that happened. There are always flowers at the exit ramp, laminated photos of Ellis on the front doors of the Bardstown Police Department, his uniform lays on a black bourbon barrel, and a long corridor wall was dedicated to him, which includes photos. Features. He was building the houses around the same time Rogers went missing, Sherry Ballard said. True Crime Society - True Crime Society Podcast Episode Its always the husband (allegedly! "It was my bosses who told me to stay home as long as I wanted. Some eight months later he and two other inmates were unloading a truck outside the prison walls at Eddyville Her estranged husband, Edsel Barnes, was found guilty of murder by a jury, according to court records. "A hallmark of the FBI is we never give up," FBI Louisville Special Agent in Charge Robert Brown said in the release. It cost him his life. Houck said that he had been 100 percent completely honest with everyone and cooperative. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. backlog intangible asset; west metro fire union contract. Her estranged husband, Edsel Eddie Barnes, and another man, George Weir, were eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison for her murder. In the middle of the interview, Brooks phone rang. If you have information concerning this case, please call 1-800-CALLFBI. 1:37 The FBI's latest search related to the disappearance of Bardstown mom Crystal Rogers has ended, the agency announced Tuesday. RELATED: Who Killed Cordy Simmons? I have eight pages of circumstances that lead me to look in their direction, Mattingly said. Whileattempting to remove thedebris,hewasshotseveral times and died shortly after. Bauer and Stanton asked him why this information wasnt revealed soonerand he said the men involved were eliminated and someone had tied up loose ends to keep the investigation quiet. Both Bauer and Stanton were unable to verify the inmates claims. Hill and her brother Michael Unseld have waited and wondered for three years who killed their father and why. No immediate answers came out of the searches as Rogers family dealt with the six-year anniversary of her disappearance. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to anidentification, arrest or conviction in the Rogers case. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Updated: Lexington woman charged with murder 1 year after investigators find body wrapped in plastic, Officers at Kentucky prison admit to assaulting inmates, lying about the attacks, Juvenile injured in shooting outside Lexington store, Updated: 1 man convicted of murder in trial for suspects accused of Lexington killing. Could the Cats still play in Louisville? All previous homicides of Kentucky law enforcement officers in the decade before Ellis' killing were solved within 24 hours, according to a Courier-Journal review of cases. He didnt mind doing that. Till and Sherry Ballard said they believe the cases are connected and Tommys death investigation will be solved quickly after Rogers case is solved. They filed for grandparents right and partial custody. All of my efforts in searching for her have been done behind the scenes with the Nelson County sheriffs office, Houck said on Nancy Graces show. Starting in August 2021, the authorities excavated a property in Bardstown built by Brooks around the time of Crystal's disappearance. Nick was accused of warning his brother that detectives planned to interview him and advised him not to speak with them. Second arrest made in 2016 Bardstown murder. Nick was not cooperative with the police, and as per the show, Nick was later seen following Brooks to the family farm in his police cruiser. They cant hold it against me that my daughter was murdered and just assume that Im going to speak badly of the father. The mayor of Bardstown said Nick Houck interfered with the investigation by phoning his brother on July 8 when he knew Brooks was being interviewed by detectives, warning that his brother "should protect himself," and that investigators "might be trying to trip him up," the Kentucky Standard reported at the time. "The FBI is committed to bringing those responsible to justice, but we are going to need the communitys assistance.". I knew my mom was proud, but like just wanting her to be there physically, it was very hard to see other moms there, Fenwick said. On May252013, Officer Jason Ellis waskilledafter finishing his shift for the Bardstown, Kentucky Police Department. We are now at 2021 and Crystal will have been missing for 6 years this July. Jason Ellis, a 33-year-old police officer and father of two, was. But he was unrelenting in his efforts to find his daughter. Read More: How Did Taylor Robinson Die? Investigators had conducted numerous searches on Houck family property, including the home of Anna Whitesides, the grandmother of Brooks Houck. Winds light and variable.. Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. High 64F. Scotty Sharp, a spokesman for the police, said they continue to receive tips, but Our main focus is Officer Ellis family. Stephanie and Dwayne follow a search of a lake where cadaver dogs pick up a scent. On July 2, 2015, Crystal Rogers, 35, vanished from her Bardstown home off of Glenview Drive. "The memory that will forever be in my heart is going to DQ and buying my momma lunch. If you have any information on this case, call Kentucky State Police. Going over to mamaw Martins and playing phase 10 and aggravation over and over while eating snacks. According to an arrest warrant, the video shows Maupin getting out of her car and taking the sign., Why wouldnt she help us? All rights reserved. Police say the debris was deliberately placed there, and that 33-year-old Ellis may have been a planned target. what did stefan moon say to amber smith what did stefan moon say to amber smith Ellis had signed off on the radio and was driving home when he. I just want to see my grandson. The case is still unsolved. I believe Brooks and Crystal Lite are still together (based on her social media). || Photo contributed. It was early enough in the morning that it was still dark when Tommy was shot, Ballard said. Tragedy or grief just beneath that smile south of Louisville waited and wondered three... $ 25,000 for information leading to anidentification, arrest or conviction in the road in... 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