Every Town - Bardstown, KY - Dark Side Of The Beautiful Town

Episode Date: October 16, 2021

Even a quaint town with a small population can be filled with the biggest pride just like Bardstown in Nelson County, Kentucky. In 2012, Bardstown was voted as "The Most Beautiful Small Town in America" in the Destination Marketing Association International's "Best of the Road" competition. It gave credence to the Visit Bardstown website’s description of Kentucky’s second oldest town as ”An atmosphere that seems to have magically leaped from the paintings of Norman Rockwell and the pages of Mark Twain.” So how does one reconcile the signs saying “Solve these Murders” sprouting within Bardstown in recent years? Simply remember that even the most beautiful places are plagued with mysteries -- and Bardstown is no exception. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we head to Bardstown, which is in Nelson County, Kentucky, where we check out the scary truth behind the most beautiful small town in America.

Even a quaint town with a small population can be filled with the biggest pride, just like Bardstown in Nelson County, Kentucky. In 2012, it was voted as the most beautiful small town in America in the Destination Marketing Association International's Best of the Road competition. It gave credence to the Visit Bardstown website's description of Kentucky's second oldest town as an atmosphere that seems to have magically leaped

from the paintings of Norman Rockwell and the pages of Mark Twain. So how does one reconcile the signs saying, solve these murders, sprouting within Bardstown in recent years. Simply remember that even the most beautiful places are plagued with mysteries, and Bardstown is no exception. Hi, I'm Ander Fitzgerald, and welcome to this week's episode of Everytown,

which will explore four murders and one disappearance in Bardstown, Kentucky, that to this day are still seeking justice. In the span of roughly four years between 2013 and 2016, a police officer was ambushed, a special education teacher, and her teenage daughter were murdered. A mother of five vanished and her father shot to death. This string of unsolved crimes has been collectively known as the Bardstown Murders, which begs for the answers to the questions, who did them, and what's the their connection. Bardstown was indeed honored to be named the most beautiful small town in America

in 2012 as it boosted its tourism viability. It was an addition to the town's long-held title of being the bourbon capital of the world due to the presence of six major whiskey distilleries in town. While the accolade may have upped Bardstown's status, from a different and dark perspective, It strangely brought a curse to the town If the succeeding occurrences were to be analyzed. Fear blanketed the residents of Bardstown, touted as a place where neighbors still borrow cups of sugar, when gruesome killings and a puzzling disappearance took place in four successive years.

The chain of unfortunate events started just a year after the signs of Named Most Beautiful Small Town in America were erected in Bardsteads, Bardstown's strategic areas. What changed forever wasn't just the lives of the victim's families, but also those of the 13,000-plus population of Bardstown. Memorial Day weekend in 2013 fell on a Saturday. It was May 25th. At a time of honoring and mourning the military personnel who have died while serving the United

States Armed Forces, one police officer who had served the Bardstown, P.D. died in a senseless shooting in the earliest hours that May morning. Jason Ellis, a 33-year-old husband and father of two sons as well, was the first victim of the Bardstown murders, which has challenged his colleagues to solve for seven years now. Prior to joining Bardstown's police force, Jason was a college baseball star who eventually turned pro and played for the Cincinnati Reds minor league club for a few years in the early 2000s. His sisters, Lacey Young and Kelly Eastman, attested that their brother's first love was baseball, and it was only outmatched by the love he had for his family. When Jason married his college sweetheart Amy, they settled down in Bardsdown to

raise a family. In 2006, he became a part of the Bardstown PD that assigned him as a canine officer, Jason's dedication to his job earned him two governor's awards and an officer of the year award in 2008. Outside of his work, Jason was coaching his son's baseball team, so why on earth would an active and productive member of the community and a respected police officer and family men be killed out of the blue for no apparent reason? Jason clocked out of his shift at 2 a.m. on May 25th. 2013 and started his normal 15-mile drive home on the bluegrass parkway. He could be heard signing off over the radio. He then took exit 34, a narrow ramp bounded on either side by steep stone walls, which he noticed were blocked by a pile of branches while approaching it. As a dutiful officer, Jason wanted to ensure the safety of the public. So he stopped, turned on his blue light,

and got out of his cruiser to clear the branches. Then, like a thief in the night, someone perched on top of the stone cliff above Jason and fired a shotgun. He was hit multiple times with a 12-gauge shotgun and died on the side of that road. There were no witnesses, and Jason's sister Kelly said, We know for certain that somebody was waiting.

It was when he bent down to pick up the debris and came back up that they shot. In August of 2013, Grant Shekels, a member of the Bardstown Money Gang and nephew of them Bardstown Mayor Bill Sheckles, claimed the street gang was responsible for Officer Ellis's murder. However, Bardstown PD dismissed the group's claims, calling them a bunch of punks who were trying to empower themselves by making that claim, intimidating people and using the fear factor that I'm so bad I killed a cop.

Despite aggressive efforts by the local law enforcement and the FBI through the years, Officer Ellis's murder still remains unsolved. His wife, Amy, has only one wish. I don't want people to forget how amazing he was as a person and as a husband, brother, son, and officer. April 21st, 2014 was a day after Easter Sunday, and it signifies a new beginning, but on that day, the people in Bardstown were rocked by the news of a mother and daughter who were killed.

Eleven months after police officer Jason Ellis was fatally shot, the Bardstown murders added two victims to the list. 48-year-old widow, Kathy Netherland, and her 16-year-old youngest daughter, Samantha. It was a case of a brutal double homicide that took a child. took place right inside their white tin-roofed home at 5120 Springfield Road and Botland, just outside the Bardstown City limits near the intersection of State Route 150 and 605. It was an out-of-the-way, secluded and quiet spot, the perfect setting for a perfect murder

with a still imperfect answer as to why it happened. Both Kathy and Samantha were the least of the people who deserved to be a perfect murder. suffer such a tragic fate. Kathy worked as a special education teacher at the Bardstown Elementary School, while Samantha was a sophomore at Bardstown High, where she was a member of the school chorus, Adventure Club, and the Young Leaders Program. Stacey Hibbard, Kathy's sister, describes the murdered mom as a selfless person. I don't ever remember a time in her life where her life was focused just on her. And clearly the bright, motivated, and studious Samantha would have made real contributions to society Stacy had believed. But on the night of April 21st, 2014, the Netherlands mom and daughter duo

was robbed of a chance to live a brighter future. Both Kathy and Samantha had been tied up, tortured, and viciously murdered. Kathy had suffered both knife and multiple gunshot wounds. Samantha had been stabbed and her throat was cut when they failed to show up at their respective schools the next day. Kathy's father went to their botland house and discovered his daughter and granddaughter's bloody lifeless bodies. Samantha died just a few days before her prom, so she was buried wearing her prom dress. Investigators seemed stumped from the beginning, and sadly no suspect and motive for the homicides has been identified by the Kentucky State Police. The only clue they have at their disposal is a grainy surveillance photo of a black

Chevrolet Impala, which had been filmed at a gas station near the crime scene on the night Kathy and Samantha were murdered. Police suspect the driver of that car may have information about the case, and the blurry photo of the black Impala is possibly connected to the Netherlands murders. More than 90 cars in the area that matched the vehicle description have been searched and surveilled, but police haven't found any luck. The Netherlands family has increased the monetary reward for information about the homicides, from $2,500 to $50,000, yet still no one has come forward.

Thus, the cases of Kathy and Samantha are still far from achieving closure, suffering the deep this pain from this tragedy is Holly, the surviving orphaned, Netherlands daughter. My sister will never be my maid of honor. I will never get to share another secret with her. Samantha will never be able to live her dreams. My mom will never get to meet her grandkids. She will never help me plan a wedding. Holly lamented. The chain of horrendous events in Bardstown following the ambush of police officer Jason Ellis in 2013. and the double murder of Kathy and Samantha in 2014 extended and intensified in the subsequent years.

It victimized a five-time mother and her father in separate circumstances. 35-year-old Crystal Rogers disappeared in a bizarre manner on July 3rd, 2015, while her 54-year-old father Tommy Ballard was shot dead 16 months later on November 19, 2016. Let's first get into the details of how the mother vanished and has been speculated to be dead ever since. Crystal had four children from her previous marriage and was living with her boyfriend, Brooks Hoke, who fathered her youngest two-year-old son when she disappeared on a Fourth of July weekend in 2015. They shared a house on Glenview Drive in Bardstown. earlier that day on July 3rd

Crystal was reported to have been seen by her cousin walking out of Walmart while her ex-husband said she dropped off two of their children at his house according to her family members Crystal had a date night with Brooks that evening at his mother's farm Brooks said they spent the night feeding the cattle

and then went home while he went to bed and slept with their son Crystal stayed up. Brooke said, She's just on her phone playing. I don't know what game, but she normally plays a game. When he woke up in the morning, their son was still beside him,

but Crystal was gone, and her car wasn't in the driveway. Crystal didn't answer the calls coming from her boyfriend and mother, Sherry Ballard. Her family began to worry after multiple attempts to contact her that day failed, so they started to look for Crystal around town. everyone that is except for Brooks

In an interview Crystal's sister revealed Brooks has not offered once to search or help or do anything for the family this gave rise to the suspicion of Crystal's family that Brooks was involved in her disappearance somehow there was a swift development

the next day when someone spotted the missing mother's marooned Chevy sedan on the side of the bluegrass parkway Crystal's dad Tommy was notified and he went to the site immediately. There he found the vehicle parked with a flat tire by mile marker 14. The car keys were still in the ignition and Crystal's purse and cell phone were also found inside the vehicle. In support to the Ballard's, dozens of friends and relatives spent the rest of the day searching the highway and surrounding areas. Then on July 5th, Sherry officially reported her daughter Crystal missing to the Nelson County Sheriff's Office.

The Ballard family offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts. A search party comprised of volunteers continued searching using all-terrain vehicles to access hard-to-reach areas, yet no one was able to find anything. Since Brooks was the last person, Crystal Rogers was seen. with prior to her vanishing, he was automatically a suspect. On July 8th, he was brought in by the Nelson County Sheriff's Office for questioning about the last few days he and Crystal spent together. He told investigators of a disagreement they had about her children, but said it was not an argument. However, the interview abruptly ended when Brooks's older brother Nick, also a Bardstown

police officer, called and warned him again speaking. to Nelson County Sheriff's Detective Jonathan Snow. Brooks then left at around 7.10 p.m. But investigators got video evidence of what happened next. The brothers were seen arriving together at the family farm on Paschal Ballard Lane and left the farm together around 1122 p.m. The next day, Nick was called to testify in front of a grand jury as police were starting to suspect that he also played a part in Crystal's disappearance.

appearance. It was at that point that Nick stopped cooperating with the sheriff's office. A week later, Nick underwent a grueling 104-minute interview with the Kentucky State Police detectives, who told Nick they did not believe his or his brother Brooks' claims of coincidence and amnesia surrounding the days immediately following the report of Crystal missing. They also laid out to Nick their theory of what happened on the night of July 3rd and how Nick got caught up in the mess. Detectives theorized that Brooks confronted Crystal about her having an affair while the two of them were at his family's farm.

Then Brooks overreacted, killed Crystal, and then called Nick to help dispose of the evidence. Detective John Vaughn then told Nick, when it went a little bit too far, he couldn't turn back time, and when he couldn't turn back time, who's he going to reach out to? But the one person he trusts and knows will help him out, and that would be you. The detectives also thought Nick was dragged into a cover-up by his brother, initially by asking for his advice, but he later became more involved and used his police cruiser to move Crystal's dead body. As evidence, investigators claim the Kentucky State Police Forensics Lab, discovered bodily fluids on a blanket found in Nick's police cruiser, after it was seized by the Nelson County Sheriff's Office, which was conducting

the investigation. When asked about this, Nick said he had placed the blanket in his cruiser when he was using it to protect furniture while moving into a new home, and had left it in his car until he could return it. Throughout the interview, Nick maintained he and Brooks, where he and innocent, saying several times that they had not discussed Crystal's disappearance extensively, and he had never asked Brooks if he killed his living girlfriend. Nick stated, I'm not going to cover something like this up for him. I'm just not that kind of guy. Furthermore, there's no way he had anything to do with this. If something has happened to her, it wasn't because of something he did. Nick initially declined to take a polygraph.

draft test, but eventually took it on July 24th. That result indicated he was lying on several of his responses to the test. The examiner expressed grave concerns about the results with Bardstown Police Chief McCubbin. Thus, on October 16, 2015, Nick was fired from the Bardstown Police Department. Then Sheriff Ed Mattingly announced that Crystal Rogers was was officially presumed dead, saying, there's certain things that people do when they're on this earth, and she has vanished from Earth. I think it's safe to say that she's dead. Later that day, Sheriff Mattingly also named Brooks as the prime suspect in Crystal's disappearance. One piece of evidence found by a private investigator was a white Buick parked at Brooks's family farm the night

Crystal disappeared. Allegedly, it was owned by the Hawks' 82-year-old grandmother Anna White Sides, who sold it weeks after Crystal disappeared. Authorities issued a subpoena for Anne to testify in front of a grand jury, stating that Buick may have been used to dispose of a body, cleaned, and sold in an attempt to prevent discovery of evidence. However, Anna refused to testify, so a judge later ruled to keep all future proceedings involving her confidential. Meanwhile, Crystal's family increased the reward up to $100,000 for any information that may help solve a case. Despite this and more search efforts, though,

Crystal's case didn't move forward. All throughout the Ballad family's ordeal, Crystal's father Tommy was the driving force behind Team Crystal, a group comprised of Bardstown community members, members dedicated to finding and bringing her home. I love my kids and grandkids more than anything, and I will give everything I have in me till Crystal is brought home to my family, and we have closure, Tommy said. But who would have thought that a father relentlessly seeking justice for his missing and

declared dead daughter would himself end up a victim of an unjust killing? In the early morning of November 19, 2016, Tommy was preparing for a hunting trip with his 12-year-old grandson on family property in Bardstown next to the Bluegrass Parkway. At one point his grandson walked back to the car to retrieve something they had forgotten leaving Tommy alone in the field. An unknown gunman then took advantage of the situation and fired one shot hitting Tommy in the chest that instantly killed him. Police initially treated the Ballard Patriarch's death as a possible hunting accident, but it eventually became clear that it wasn't. Police ruled out his grandson as the

shooter. Neither was it a case of suicide as Tommy's gun was never fired. Police said Tommy, I believed he was being followed prior to his death and even installed a camera in his truck to catch anyone on his tail. But without any strong leads, the search is still on for his killer. Two successive deaths in the family within a year and a half was too traumatic for the Ballard family. Sherry now left without her husband of 36 years, has vowed to continue his mission to find their daughter. She said, I definitely 100% believe my husband's case is related to my daughters.

I have no doubt about it whatsoever. What happened to him is just something I can't accept. I will do this for my family. I will do this for him and for my daughter. The FBI has taken over the investigation now and is launching a new search for Crystal while working with the IRS, Kentucky State Police, and the U.S. Attorney's Office to bring a fresh perspective to the case. The connection between the cases of the father and daughter seems obvious and makes sense, but are they likewise tied with the prior unresolved deaths in Bardsen? Aside from taking place and consequently staining the most beautiful small town reputation of Bardstown,

another common thread that binds all these crimes is that no one has been arrested and formally charged. This makes the town rife with conspiracy theories trying to connect the dots among the mysterious unsolved crimes. In March of 2017, Sherry Ballard deduced that Crystal disappeared because she overheard, overheard something, maybe she shouldn't have, about the 2013 ambush of Jason Ellis. She also said her husband Tommy was never going to give up for my daughter, and he was going to push, and I think people knew that. I definitely think it was all connected. But Sherry's claims have never been proven, or perhaps just not yet. Then where did the 2014 murders of Kathy and Samantha the Netherlands fit into the puzzle.

Those crimes remain unsolved as well. And Nelson County Sheriff Ray Pinaura said it is mind-boggling to have so many unsolved cases and his county and reward money offered isn't bringing anyone forward. He wouldn't discuss the possibility of a connection among the cases, but added that rumors of ties among the crimes frustrates investigators. Meanwhile, Kentucky State Trooper Scarty Sharp said, I have no reason at this time to believe they're connected, but it's not something that we're discarding either.

Clearly, everything is at a standstill. But when the Bardstown murders are finally solved, that's the only time beauty in this Kentucky town will be fully restored. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories because who knows? Maybe your town will be next.