Crime Junkie - CONSPIRACY: Bardstown, Kentucky

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

A 35-year-old woman named Crystal Rogers went missing from Bardstown, KY back in 2015. Her car was found on the side of a busy parkway with a flat tire, keys, wallet, and phone still inside. Just 16 months later, while searching for answers, Crystal's father is murdered in cold blood. Now, people are wondering if these two crimes are connected to a bigger conspiracy that started with the murder of a police officer in 2013. Could all of these seemingly different attacks be related? For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-bardstown-kentucky/    

Hi, Crime Junkies! Before we get into our episode, I have two really special announcements that I think you're going to want to hear. The first is that everyone keeps letting Britt and I know that you want more content. You wish Crime Junkie was a daily show, I wish it was too, but we have full-time jobs and can't make that happen. So instead, what we've done is we have partnered with Audible to give you guys some more great content. I don't know if you know this, but they actually just released an amazing true crime podcast that's only available on their platform. It's called the West Quark, and you can get it for free for a limited time if you go to AudibleTrial.com slash Crime Junkie. That's A-U-D-I-B-L-E

Trial.com slash Crime Junkie. And look for West Quark, two words. And it is a three-year investigation into an unsolved case that is probably the best thing I have heard since Serial, and anyone who's into true crime is going to love this. So make sure you go to Audible, AudibleTrial.com slash Crime Junkie, and listen there. Our second announcement is we are hearing you guys. You guys love puppets. A girl named Kristen started a thread in our Facebook discussion group, and it is all pictures of our listeners' dogs, and we are obsessed. So what we decided is at the end of every episode, starting with this episode, we are going to feature a Preput of the Week, where we talk about one of our

listeners' puppets, how they were adopted, how they're best friends now, and we'll post pictures on our blog of the dogs, post pictures on our social media of them as well. So make sure to stay tuned after if you love puppets and want to hear a short story about a great adoption. That was a lot of talking. So with that said, I think we should just jump into the episode. And this episode was actually a listener's suggestion from- Oh, great! Yeah, I got it on Instagram from either Kaley or Kali is how you say your name, and I'm

so torn because on the one side, like, thank you so much. It's really hard for me to pick cases because I want to make sure that I'm doing something that's like engaging, like great content that you guys are going to like, something that hasn't been done a thousand times before. So it's really hard for me to pick stuff that I think you guys are going to like. So I love when you give me suggestions. On the other hand, I had no idea what like a minefield I was stepping into with this case that she suggested. So she suggested that I do the case of Crystal Rogers, who went missing back in 2016. And it's presented to me as a missing person case. And when I read online, everyone says it's the Crystal Rogers case.

I'm going to call it the Bartstown conspiracy. And to try and best explain this huge story to you, what I need to do is I'm going to tell you the story of five murders or disappearances within five within three very distinct and separate stories. And at the end, I'll talk to you a little bit about how they all fit together. Before I jump in, I just need you to know a little bit about Bartstown, Kentucky. It's a quiet Midwest town. Nothing bad happens there. It's even been on like lists of greatest places to live or best places to visit. So it's super home towny, like off the Bourbon Trail, like quaint little middle of nowhere beautiful town. So things start getting weird in Bartstown in May of 2013. There's a police

officer named Jason Ellis, and he's married to Amy Ellis, and they have two kids together Hunter and Parker. Amy works during the days as a substitute teacher. And Jason works at night as a police officer. He's played semi professional baseball for a long time. But once they had a family, he really wanted to kind of be in one place, have a steady gig. So he could be with his wife and kids and be an engaged dad. So he switched careers. And Jason is like, you know, one of us because he was actually a canine officer. And he had a partner who was half Husky, half shepherd named Figo, whose pictures I will obviously post everywhere. He's the cutest prophet. Yeah, that sounds exactly like Charlie. Yeah.

So he's so Charlie's lab shepherd Husky. So he didn't have the lab, but yeah, a lot of what Charlie is. So he's got Figo, his partner. And in late May, his partner is actually left at home because his canine equipped cruiser is in the shop getting repainted. So he's working solo. And his normal routine is to patrol. And at about 2am, he'll dispatch in to call off duty. And he's usually home by 230. He takes the same route almost every single day he gets on the bluegrass parkway and gets off on exit 34. And again, he's normally home by 230 in the morning where Figo waits for him in the front yard. So cute. So on May 24, Jason starts a normal shift. He makes a couple of traffic stops. He stops by his

kids tball game. And actually, while he's at the tball game, he gets a call about a domestic disturbance. So he ends up going there, writing a ticket, and he tries to return to the tball game within like 30 minutes, but it's already ended. So he just goes back into his car, goes back on duty. That evening, he responds to a call about a drunken disorderly. And there's a man named Joseph William Hamilton, who's like got one arm and a head wound and he's like a hot mess causing a ruckus in town. So one, one arm and a head wound is the worst my Monday morning. So Jason gets him to the hospital. And while he's there, this guy just like threatens Jason, he hates his guts, probably for no reason other than he's drunk and has

an arm like one arm, who knows, but this guy is like totally out of it. And he gets checked out at the hospital. Jason actually ends up taking him from the hospital to the county jail and books him. And Jason at this point is still acting totally normal. It's not weird for a police officer to get threatened by somebody who they're arresting like not abnormal at all. Totally. And so he's joking with the woman at the intake seems like everything's fine. He's in a good mood. And about this time is 2am. And Jason calls off for the last time. So he gets in his car, calls off his shift, and he gets on the bluegrass parkway and takes exit 34. And from this point, when he gets off on exit 34, he's only a couple

of minutes from home. As he's exiting the freeway, he spots something strange in the middle of the road. And he's a good guy. And even though he's off duty, he's truly a good cop deep down and he's not going to leave something in the middle of the road that could potentially cause an accident at 2 30 in the morning. So he parks his cruiser and he like goes to the middle of the road and he realizes that it's this pile of branches and tree limbs. But what Jason doesn't realize is that these branches didn't get there by accident. As he grabs a bundle of the branches, shots start ringing out and he's hit multiple times in the chest and the abdomen, the arm and his head. And he is dead within minutes. And

shortly after Jason Ellis is hit, a group of citizens actually come upon his body. There's a farmer named Chad who actually works at a distillery at night and he had just gotten off of work. And then there's a couple like two drunk people, parents who were using their teenage son as like an Uber driver coming home. And Chad comes across the body and he actually tells the woman like go in his police cruiser, get his radio and call in man down. Oh my God. Hello, hello. Officer Dale, Officer Dale, Bluefield Road. Station. Officer Dale. Wow. You need to give us a location. Blue, old Bluefield, old Bluefield Road by the way. There's

been a trailer or something. Officer Dale, Officer Dale, please emergency. Yes, sir. Hey, this is Chad Monroe. I know my park personally. I mean, I can tell him exactly where I'm at. We're on the BG Parkway. We're coming off, we're coming from Marsh Town, getting off on the Bluefield Springfield exit. I mean, is this going to be a car accident? Is there another vehicle involved or is it just one vehicle versus a tree or what? I've come home from the Heaven Hill distillery. I've just got off work and there was a police car is sitting in the middle of the road with the lights on and we didn't know what it was. It's a tree across the road and I didn't

know what it was and I got out and I went up there and looked and it's him. I believe somebody's hitting him. Okay, can you tell if he is breathing? No, sir, he is not breathing. Body temperature is cold. Get back. Have you already got EMS toned down that way? That's correct. We've got EMS started. 44, 46, I'm sorry. 44, 46, I'm sorry. Officer Ellis was dead at the scene and his investigation actually went cold very quickly. It was clear that he was ambushed and he was shot with two kinds of ammunition, which could mean multiple attackers, but it was a gunshot with ammunition that's normally used to hunt small game, so it was super weird. It's not even like a normal gun or rifle or whatever. To this day, they haven't

named anyone as suspects in the case and the family is just begging for answers. Can I tell you something awful? Of course. Do you have tissue? I don't, but I'm going to brace myself. Okay, so I was in tears reading this, so Ellis was buried near his home where his widow and sons live and his canine partner Figo attended the funeral. Wait, maybe you should stop. I can't. I'm telling you. Figo attended the funeral. He laid his paw on top of the flag draped casket amid more than 1000 law enforcement officers from across Kentucky and the Barzo Police Department actually retired Figo after this and he now lives with the Ellis widow and their two boys. I couldn't. This might be the first episode where I cried.

There's nothing that makes me weep like a funeral where there's a police dog. Oh my god. Either a funeral where there's a service dog who you just know they miss their best friend or vice versa. I've seen dog funerals where they're being put down and they get the same funeral. I think it's in 2-1-1 time where they were like, this dog was a police dog for 15 years and then he got really bad cancer and we tried everything. Yeah. There's one specific video. I'm putting this on the website so everyone can cry with us because Eric came home one night, my husband, and I was in bed weeping. I'm on the microphone weeping right now like talking about these things. He almost maybe go see a therapist

over this. It was bad. So that is the story of Jason Ellis. Literally after that, there is no new information. It has not gone anywhere. We know he was ambushed. He was obviously set up but there are no answers. So the next story I'm going to tell you is of Kathy and Samantha, Netherlands. Okay. Are you ready? I think so. There's no more no more puppets so we can move on. No more puppets? We can move on. Be strong. So they also lived in Bartsown, Kentucky and their story takes place in April of 2014 about one year after Jason Ellis was killed. Kathy was 48 years old and a special education teacher and she was a mother to two daughters, Holly and Samantha. Kathy and her girls had actually just lost

their dad to cancer eight months before this. So it was just the three of them now and when Holly went off to college, that just left 16 year old Samantha and her mom, Kathy in the home. Samantha was like crazy smart. She had everything going for her. She had actually gotten into a new school and was planning on transferring for like, I don't even know. I didn't look deep into this, but like some super smart school for some super smart thing. The girl was a genius. But she was also like every other girl. She had loving life. She was just about to go to her first prom and she was like texting her sister pictures of her prom dress that she had found. And a few days after these text messages specifically,

Samantha and Holly's aunt actually calls Holly and ask if she's heard from either one of them because she hasn't been able to get ahold of Kathy or Samantha for a while. When she finds out that Holly hasn't heard from them either and she hasn't gotten ahold of them, she goes over with her dad. And when Samantha's grandfather goes into the house, he finds that Samantha and Kathy are both dead. Kathy had been shot multiple times and Samantha had actually been beaten to death over the head. And then both women had their throats cut. They didn't say who died first if they could even tell that or they may have been so close together. They don't know. But there was nothing missing from the home. Their keys, their purses,

electronics, everything was still there with him. Absolutely nothing was taken. So whatever the motive was for this, it was just to kill these women. I would say somehow that seems so much worse. Like they were just in it to kill them. It's not even like they needed something or you know what I mean? Like to kill just to kill. I don't know why that's worse. Like I agree with you, but it feels just so much worse. In this case, they don't even know if there was one or two assailants or what the motive was. They both died so differently. You would almost think that Samantha was the target since hers was so much more violent than her mother's. But like who would have

been in the mother and her mother's was like a result or something. Yeah, or like to just to like get her out of the way or who knows. But like what would the motive have been to like go after Samantha? Like she was this young girl smart in school. Like she wasn't like out causing trouble. She didn't have any enemies. The only thing that cops had to go on was they pulled some surveillance video from stores in the area around the time of the crime. And I don't know how they zeroed in on this, but they found a black Chevy Impala that they feel pretty confident either had something to do with the crime or saw the crime, but they're pretty sure that whoever was driving that was involved in some way.

But it's just like literally this drive by still so you can see that it's a black sedan, but it's so fuzzy and blur. You can't even tell if there's one person in the car. If there's two people in the car. So forget trying to decide like who actually is in the car. If you can't even tell how many people are in there. And there was no picture of the license plate, nothing like that. They put this picture out everywhere begging for people to come forward. But I mean, they basically said it's something like a make and model is the Chevy Impala sometime between like 2003 and 2012. So it's this huge window and everyone in the area says like this is such a common car. Like everyone's driving this

around. Yeah, definitely. So they weren't able to get anything from that. And like more sad funeral stuff. It's not about dogs, but still so tragic. They ended up burying Samantha in her prom dress because they felt that she should at least be able to wear it once. Oh my God. I know. I know. And so I'm thinking of my prom dress right now. What are you talking about? You were homeschooled. I went to prom just once his senior year. I had a prom dress. It's still so sad. So to this day, again, they have nothing. They all they have is this picture of like a drive by Impala and nothing else. Like no evidence from the crime scene, no motive. And the family is just left with so many questions. All right. So are you ready

to move on to our third and final case before we kind of piecemeal this together? I don't know. I still have so many questions. I guess just keep going. So this is the one of Crystal Rogers who I think is most often how people find out about this rabbit hole. Her name has been tied to this whole conspiracy the most because I think her parents worked really hard to keep her story in the media. And also hers is the most recent. So people find it faster, I think. Okay. Crystal is 35 year old mother of five. And in 2016, she's living with her boyfriend, Brooks Hauke. Brooks is the father of Crystal's youngest, who's about two years old, two and a half years old in 2016. On July 5th of 2016, the family of Crystal

realizes that they can't get in touch with her. They haven't heard from her in a little while. And when they reach out to Brooks, he says that he hasn't seen her since July 3rd. And he tells them that on July 3rd, late in the evening, he and Crystal were home together. And he decided to go to bed and she stayed up to play games on her phone. I'm assuming Candy Crush, but can't confirm this. It's just what I play when I'm up late at night. But he says when he wakes up that she's not there. And he doesn't think anything of it or try to contact her. And the family's like red flag, red flag. This is strange as hell. Call the police. So the family reports her missing on the 5th. And literally shortly

after they make the missing persons call, they actually come across her car and they call back the police to report that they found her car. It was abandoned at mile 14 on the Blue Grass Parkway, which is the same freeway that Officer Ellis drove all the time. So again, we're talking the same small town, same short distance. The car had a flat tire, which police later found out was from a rusty nail that was still in the tire. And whoever left the car there had driven it flat for at least a little bit of ways because there was evidence that the rim had been driven on. So most likely the flat wasn't staged. It was something that happened to whoever was driving the car unexpectedly. The car was

unlocked with the keys still in the ignition and her purse and uncharged cell phone were found inside the vehicle. So immediately they're suspecting foul play. She has nothing with her. She doesn't have her phone. She doesn't have her keys. Her car's in the middle of the freeway. Something's wrong. Family says that even if Crystal was driving, like beyond all that stuff being a red flag, she would have never pulled the car over on the side of the road. Her dad said that she'd gotten flats before and she would always get off on an exit just because it was way less dangerous. So they're like, okay, let's say Crystal was in this car. Like we don't even believe that she was in it and had an accident and

something happened to her there because we don't believe she would have pulled over here. As people start investigating more, it gets even fishier. Police had a press conference and said that Brooks was totally cooperating, but the family was so suspicious of him. His story that he told family and police about why he wasn't concerned when she was gone was that they had a air quotes stressed relationship. And the way she dealt with that was by going to her cousin's house to spend the night and he actually was on our favorite person, Nancy Grace. And like Nancy, of course, like thinks always a boyfriend did it. And so she's like interrogating him and she's like, well, why didn't you report her missing? And he's like,

you know what Nancy? I'm so glad you asked me that, like just a total weirdo. And so he says they have a stress relationship. It's totally normal for her to just like up and leave and go to her cousins to spend the night. Well, obviously, they fact check this with the cousin. And she's like, you know what, in the three plus years that they've been together, she came to my house one time to stay the night. And that one time she brought her baby with her. And that was the other huge red flag for the family. They like, okay, she may have stayed the night somewhere else. But even the one time she did that, or even if she was going to do it again, she always took her two year old with her and she definitely

wouldn't leave her two year old alone. She would have taken her baby with her. The family pointed out that Brooks didn't participate in any searches for her either. But he said that all of his search efforts were done behind the scenes with law enforcement. Because wouldn't you know it? His brother was actually a police officer. Oh, okay. So this is when police start to become more and more suspicious of Brooks. And they asked him to take a polygraph and his results come back inconclusive. They also do an interview with him for two hours. And during this police interview, there's a part where he's like about to do a written statement. It's just him and Lieutenant Snow in this room. And his phone starts ringing. He asks

if he can take the call. The detective says, yeah, sure. And he picks up the phone. And it's a super weird conversation. It feels really staged. And it's just him just being like, yeah, I'm just I'm just here at the police station. I'm just about to give them a statement. Like you can hear someone else talking. And then he's like, well, you know, I want to cooperate as best I can because I'm innocent. And I have nothing to hide. Like it's very staged, terrible acting agreement where that's what they did. That's just what they did. I never really struggled with it, you know. Yeah. Well, okay. So I guess where I go from here, we're still getting video from different places along that route.

Can I get this? Sure. No. I'm up here. I know that you didn't know I'm up here in this interview with the detective, Detective Snow. I've been up here a good little while. I'm feeling not just the statement here and everything. Do you tell me that's there? You tell me that's what I need to do. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know that the way that I look at it is I'm innocent. I ain't done nothing wrong. Well, you know, I know you told me innocent people got jammed up. But if you're telling me to leave, I'll get up and leave. If you want me, if you want me to, I know I'm going to do a lot, but I'm trying to get this guy to help me. I don't think, I don't think she's ran off with some other guy. I don't, I don't

believe that. You can't make me think that. No. Yeah, I mean, I mean, so, so do I. I'll do exactly what you're telling me to do right now. Do you want me to get up and leave? Man, I don't think he's got, I don't think these people got him addicted just to skin me for no reason. Man, no, this is not their family. This is not. All right, thank you. He thinks y'all will fuck with what he thinks. I don't know who he is. Nick, my brother. No, I know that I'm not, he just said, just to keep sitting up here to give a statement, do an interview, whatever I've got to do, do it. But he said, I'm just to keep just letting them just beat you to death over this right here. Just ask what you got to ask and look, you know, and

you tell me, you see what I'm, you see, I mean, he knows more about this than I do. You see, and have I, listen, have I told you that I'm for you? Yes, you have. What did I say? My job is to find Chris. And I'll put a link, this, and he's actually in his entire interview is online. They'll at least link out to the part where he gets this call. And what they find out is that this call is from his brother, Nick, who is a police officer on the same force. And this actually puts Nick on police's radar, and they feel like he is obstructing their investigation. So they asked Nick then to take a polygraph, and he refuses. And he doesn't take one until the FBI comes in and administers it. And it doesn't come back as

inconclusive. It shows that he is like flat out lying his pants off. Oh, good. Right. Like, and again, like, I know we just talked about polygraphs and like, in a couple episodes ago and take them with a grain of salt. But that's like a pretty big percentage. Yeah. But like lying his pants off, they said like every single question relating to crystal, everything came back as he was being deceptive. On September 10, Nick is suspended from the police department for undisclosed reasons. Then in October, a month later, police finally named Brooks as a suspect, an official suspect. And the same day he's named as a suspect, his brother Nick is fired from the police department. And it's revealed that he's fired

because he wasn't cooperative and he failed the lie detector. The force said that all of this was against their code of ethics. A police officer should assist in any investigation. And they definitely shouldn't be a hindrance to one. And they shouldn't have to be like, it shouldn't be like pulling teeth to get them to cooperate. Right. Yeah. As police are gathering information on crystals case, they learned that a white sedan was seen in the area of crystals abandoned car. And they find out that Nick and Brooks grandmother has a white car that matches the description. But by the time the police have connected the dots, she's already sold the car and they can't even track it down. And they try to

interview grandma about this, but she's also invoked her fifth amendment rights and refuses to talk. So again, like just fishy, fishy, fishy, this whole family is throwing up red flags right and left. Totally. It's likely that she didn't commit a crime. I mean, she's like a little old lady and I like to think little old ladies are nice, but she probably found out that her grandsons had done something or used her vehicle or something had happened. She found out something. There's a reason she doesn't want to talk and she's either protecting them or she's been advised by a lawyer that if any of her property was used, she could be culpable or like charged as an accessory. So she shut down. They can't find

the car. So they can't prove anything with the car. And side note, while all of this is going on, like this saga happens over the course of like three or four months, five days after Crystal's disappearance, the home that Crystal and book shared burns to the ground. What? Yes. So if there was any evidence in that home of a crime, it's gone totally gone and police went in and sifted through the ashes and it said that they took some stuff away, but we don't know what they took. We don't know if they found anything. Oh my God. Because of this, like obviously he started looking really fishy then. That's what led them to do like the polygraphs and the interviews and the grandma's car. I mean, that's what

started all of this. And they also did searches of his like family farms, like all the properties that his family owned and they collected some items. Like I think there was even like some larger like tractors or like farm equipment that they collected, but they never said if they found anything that could directly tie him or Nick to the disappearance, I assume no or they would be under arrest. But to make things even a little muddier, Brooks and Nick had friends who were actually charged with perjury for lying to the police and making false statements. And Crystal's family was hopeful that this meant that they were getting closer to the truth and soon Brooks and Nick would be charged. But this never happened.

And it didn't stop Crystal's family though. They were super vocal, like nonstop in the media pointing their finger at Brooks and his brother. And they were super upset because they didn't know if they were getting special treatment because of Nick's relationships with the police or even though he was fired or they didn't know if like there really just was nothing to go off of. They were just super frustrated and knowing that they're not getting answers. So to this day, no one has seen Crystal. They've never found her remains. And to make things weirder, so that was number four of the crimes that we're talking about. The fifth crime is on November 16th, just a few months after Crystal's disappearance. Her dad went

hunting on his property the first day that the hunting season opened. And he wasn't actually far from where Crystal's car had been found. And while he was out, he shot in the chest. And initially it kind of got reported as a hunting accident. But police and everyone else now realize that he was shot directly in the chest and it's clear that it was a homicide. It said it's being investigated as a homicide. But that was November 2016 and no one's been arrested since. No. So over three years, there's this string of brutal murders and disappearances in a town that was otherwise free of violent crime. And it always starts with Crystal because everyone can so clearly link her case to her dad's case. The theory is that her dad was

getting close to answers and someone had to take him out because shortly before his death, he was actually telling people that he was concerned that he was being watched and he was being followed. And he actually placed a camera on his truck to see if someone was following him. And police have that video, but they've never released any of the footage and they've never said if it actually shows anything or proves that someone was following him. So we know these two are probably linked. How did the others fit in? To be honest, I don't know if they do. But here's the theory that everyone has. They say that it starts with Officer Ellis and they think that Jason Ellis likely found out about something drug

related and possibly involving corruption within the police department. And because he got too close and knew something he wasn't supposed to know, he was taken out. Whoever killed him had to have known his schedule, the fact that he didn't have his dog with him that day. People think it was likely done by police. But why would police kill him unless there was some kind of corruption inside the force? So if the police killed him, if it was someone who was so close to him that knew his schedule and we're saying that person is police, then whatever he knew had to have involved police. Like police aren't gonna kill Jason Ellis because he found out about some gang related stuff. You know what I mean?

Like they're all on the same team. Right. Yeah, totally. So that's the theory with him. The murder, the murders of Kathy and Samantha are, I think, a lot harder to tie to this. The only thing people speculate is that somehow Kathy or Samantha saw or heard something they weren't supposed to and then someone had to silence them. And it would explain why nothing was taken. The sole motive literally was to go in there and take these two women out. But often people speculate online. I think you'll see this a lot. And so Kathy was a special education teacher. Amy, Jason Ellis's wife was a substitute teacher. So people will say like, Oh, well, maybe they knew each other from the school, or maybe Kathy was a teacher

for one of Amy's sons because Amy had a special needs son, or maybe Samantha was a babysitter. And this like goes on and on. There's so many places that like make this connection. But on the family's Facebook page for Kathy and Samantha, Kathy's sister, Samantha's aunt, adamantly says like, we know of no connection at all. So anything that people are making it up or if it did happen, we have no idea, but we can't connect these two people in any way. So the only way that Kathy and Samantha would be connected is I believe if they would have seen something or heard something like shortly before they were murdered. And it was something that they didn't even realize they had seen because they didn't tell anyone

they saw anything weird, you know what I mean? Right, totally. And okay, so finally, the case of Crystal, people also think that she could have gotten too close to something. She either overheard or found out something because of her close proximity to Brooks and Nick, who was on the force. And clearly, we already know Nick is kind of a shady character when it comes to like his police morals. So the theory, I believe, is that Nick was involved in something, maybe got Brooks involved in something. And not necessarily that they're the ones that killed Jason Ellis, but they're involved in this bigger police corruption conspiracy. And it's the same machine. And because Crystal was so close to them, she

somehow found out about either what was going on or something about Jason Ellis or she heard something she wasn't supposed to. And they decided to make her go missing. And who knows if we were even supposed to find her car, like that flat tire again was totally unplanned. And maybe they were trying to make it look like she just totally ran off. And all of this is super tenuous, but it has legs because right before Crystal went missing, there was a big shake up in the police department there. When a new mayor comes in and he actually fired the assistant chief because of allegations of corruption, the mayor said that the assistant chief was actually shredding a bunch of documents related to drug task force and internal affairs.

Of course. So that is like the fuel to the fire and why so many people believe that something dirty was happening within the police department. And people who are finding out were basically getting just like picked off one by one. So what do you like? What do you think? Do you think it's a conspiracy? Do you think it's all totally unrelated? I mean, if you know me, you know I'm a conspiracy theorist. So of course I'm gonna side on that. It is an inside job. It's a conspiracy theory. And that's the theory I'm subscribing to. But there's a chance that it's not. I know. I think the scarier thing almost is to think that it's not related. Like I too like I love a good conspiracy theory. I did my senior

thesis on how I think the Kennedys killed Marilyn Monroe. Like I love it. But the crimes are all so different. And other than living in the same town, most of them don't seem like at all connected or they don't even seem to have known each other other than Crystal and her dad. But what I keep coming back to and like why I can't let it go and I think why so many people can't let it go is what was the motive for all of these? Like literally none of these people had things stolen from them. They didn't have rocky relationships. They didn't have enemies. So it's literally like what are the odds that all of these there's this rash of these violent crimes with no motive? Yeah, with the only motive to be to silent

to not science, but like to take these people out. And like, you know, the conspiracy theorist in me says, Well, gosh, if I were a sophisticated person and I'm going to kill multiple people, I'm not going to kill them the same way. Like that is super obvious that they're connected. Definitely. I'm going to do it in different ways. So they do look unrelated or at least gives people some doubt. Right. So Brit, you and I heard a little rumor about this case this summer. Do you think we should tell everyone else the rumor we heard? Um, I don't know. What do you think? I mean, it's not a super rumor about the case per say, but it is a room about the coverage of this podcasting rumor. I feel like if we

don't talk about podcasting rumors like what are we here? Okay, so we have to tell you while at crime con this summer, Brit and I heard that this case might actually be the topic for season two of up and vanished. This is before they had a TV show and all that stuff. So I don't know how that might have changed their plans, but they say that it's coming out in 2018. So who knows? We might get like a way bigger story on this expanded and like a deeper dive into all of that if they actually do decide to follow through and cover this, like they said, which would be super exciting. So although it's a rumor and something completely unfounded, we would definitely look forward to it. Right. Absolutely.

And I mean, like the stuff that's going on, I mean, as recently as late in 2016, I mean trials were going on depositions in 2017. This is very much ongoing. So if anything happens if crystals ever found, like obviously any of the cases we cover, we'll give you an update, but maybe you'll be getting a more in depth update from someone else. All right, guys. So that was a lot of murder. That was a lot of sad puppet stuff. So I think we should remedy that with our first prepped of the week story. This week's prepped of the week comes to us from Paul in New Jersey. Paul says that his sister actually got him into our show, but now he has gotten all of the guys at his work. Oh my God. I know in every

single Monday morning, they all gather around his wireless speaker at work and have story time and listen to both of us. So hi to all of the guys at United Fire Systems in New Jersey. We're so happy that you're listening. Thank you for listening. Oh my God. I hope you like the story about Paul's puppet Cooper. So when I reached out to Paul, I had no idea what a touching adoption story he had with his dog Cooper. One day Cooper mysteriously shows up in his friend's front yard. He has a collar, but no tag. And Paul says that he was like full tailwags, happiness, even though he looked really unhealthy. He was super skinny. He had bad skin. And none of his friends, including him, were in a position to take

a dog at that time. Paul had just broken up with his girlfriend and he was actually staying at his sister's house. His other friend had just adopted a dog as well, but you can't ignore a puppy. I mean, I guess you can, but that makes you a monster and our listeners aren't monsters. Exactly. Oh my God. So they all decide to kind of pitch in and see if they can find out where he came from or if they can't see if they can find him a forever home. Well, they're in this hunt and they kind of have this realization. So the friend that just got the puppy, well, the puppy was from a breeder and this puppy looked almost exactly like Cooper. So they decide to reach out to the breeder to see if anyone else in the area

had adopted one of their dogs. And sure enough, she had sold a dog to a family that was just down the street from them. And it turns out that Cooper and that dog are from the exact same litter, Brit. Oh my God. I have full body chills and I'm not even joking. This is magical. Right. Cooper. Cooper found his brother. This, this is cheesy, but it reminds me of like our friendship story and I'm about to cry. I know I have all the tears. Oh my God. I was literally the first time I read this. I was definitely crying. So they get the information from this breeder about who Cooper was sold to and they go to this house and it is a total dump. It's boarded up. It's totally unkempt. And they can tell when they

pulled up that Cooper's been living in this little enclosed area on the front porch. There's no food in his bowl. His water bowl is bone dry. And they said as soon as they pulled up, like Cooper was visibly upset and scared and he wouldn't even get out of the car. So Paul's friend who's making this trip goes to the front door, knocks on the windows, knocks on the side door, like trying to get someone's attention. And finally someone comes out to the front door and it's a middle-aged guy like tweaking out of his mind. And she asked him about Cooper and he's like, Oh yeah, we have a dog. Like he's mine. I don't even, didn't even know he was gone. And mind you, he's been with them for like hours at this

point. So Paul's friend starts laying into him and finally like halfway through, she's like, what am I even doing? Like this isn't, you don't care. This isn't worth it. Yeah. I don't have to be doing this. I can walk away and just keep. Yeah. And she goes, you know what? You can't have him back. And all this guy does is shrug his shoulders and close the door monster, monster. And this is when she called Paul on her way home and she is just weeping and she begs Paul to keep the dog. She had Cooper's brother and she wanted them to always have each other and be close. So Paul agree. I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna cry. I know. So Paul agreed to take him in, but he had no idea like how it was going to work.

Like I said, it was a really rough time for him. He was like living with his sister and he thought though, you know, Cooper's come into my life for a reason. So I am going to do this. And he took Cooper to his sister's house where he was staying and when he got there, he gave him some food and water, but he wouldn't eat or drink. He just sat there and stared at him. And what Paul realizes is like, Oh my God, he's waiting for permission. So Paul like rubs his head and he's like, you know, it's okay now. You can have some food buddy. And he without missing a beat totally understands everything he said and goes for the food. And Paul's just like giving him love while he's eating and like letting

him know everything's going to be okay. And Cooper's going to have a better life. And he finishes off all of his food goes to Paul because it's like the middle of the night at this point and Paul's to work in the morning. And he goes to Paul's bed and he sits right on the side of Paul's bed and like lays his head down on the bed. And Paul's like, Oh, it's okay buddy, you can get up here. And he jumps on the bed. And he's like, I have never seen a dog so happy in my whole life. And he's like licking his face. And he curls up right in his nook, you know, like under your armpit. Oh my God. And he slept there all night. And I'm so glad that podcasts aren't visual because I have tears. Oh my God, I

am like so touched because it reminds me so much of how my rescue dog Niles is with me. Like he just curls up and it's just like the happiest guy in the world. Oh my God. So they they're together every day since that they do absolutely everything together. And Paul says he's looking like a brand new dog. Now he's like gained weight, his skin's healthy, all of his infections have cleared up. And Paul said, you know, even though he might have saved Cooper, he really thinks that Cooper has given more to him. He's was going through a really rough time. He was in a bad place and he needed that best friend and unconditional love more than even Cooper might have. So I have pictures on our blog that you can see

of Cooper getting his first bath when Paul brought him home and pictures of Cooper cuddling with his best dog friend named Abby. So those will be up on the website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. I'll also post them on Instagram at Crime Junkie podcast. So I hope you guys have enjoyed this new little segment. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy to know that even though there are monsters in the world who would just let their dog go away, there are also wonderful people who will take in a puppet and, you know, find a new best friend. It's amazing to me like all the bad stuff that Cooper had gone through. Like dogs are truly just like want to give love. I mean, we don't deserve them. We don't really don't know. I mean,

he has every right in the world to hate humans and to be like angry or mean, but all he wants is love and oh, and to love. And that's why prophets are the best always. If you want your prophet to be featured as prophet of the week, tag us on social media, either post it in our crime junkie discussion group, post a picture of your dog, tag us in a picture of your dog on Instagram, tweet at us, send us an email crimejunkiepodcast at gmail.com. We're taking submissions all these different ways. The more profits that we see, the better. Thank you all so much for listening to another episode. As a reminder, we always want to plug our favorite nonprofit crime staffers. Make sure to find out more about your local.

If you want more information on crime staffers of central Indiana, you can go to crimetips.org and please keep all of the wonderful feedback coming our way. It really helps us get through each week planning and recording and editing these episodes. Definitely. And if everyone wants to find pictures and the audio and video from this episode, you want to tell them where to go? Definitely check out our website, which is crimejunkiepodcast.com. We will see you guys next week.