Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Mom of 5 Vanishes After Quiet Night With Boyfriend

Episode Date: July 25, 2026

The small, tight-knit town of Bardstown, Kentucky, was forever changed on a summer night in 2015 when Crystal Rogers, a devoted mother of five, vanished without a trace. Her car was discovered abandoned along the Bluegrass Parkway with a flat tire, her keys, phone, and purse still inside, but Crystal was nowhere to be found. The mystery deepened just one year later when her father, Tommy Ballard, was shot and killed while preparing for a hunting trip, leaving a grieving family to wonder if their search for the truth had turned deadly. Find out how a missing person's case transformed into a sprawling web of secrets and betrayal on this episode of "Prime Crime with Jesse Weber." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thanks, Beth 365. Must be 19 or older Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsuntario.c.c.com. The Crystal Rogers case is unlike anything I've ever covered before because it truly affected an entire community. It changed Bardstown forever. We need everyone's help and everyone in the violent family and in the Brooks out family to come together to try and figure out where Crystal was at.

The fact that they're calling me out on a Sunday tells me that there's something that they have found that's unusual about it. It is quite literally a story years in the making, a missing young mother, and a case the world would wait a decade to see how it ends. I mean, as far as I know, she's a well-likable person. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't want to harm her. The theory was that the family was somehow involved. If something that happened to her, it wasn't because something he did. I was at home. It was July 4th weekend. I was not on call that day, but the detective that was on call on this way to the sheriff's

department to assist had a vehicle collision. And so they called me. By the time I'm on my way, they have discovered that her vehicle is abandoned. Crystal Rogers was a mother of five. And over Fourth of July weekend, 2015, suddenly she stopped answering calls. Her daughter was one of the first people who tried getting a hold of her and couldn't. So she contacted Sherry Ballard, who was Crystal Rogers' mother, asking if she'd heard from her, and Sherry hadn't. And initially, Sherry wasn't too concerned, but it was unlike Crystal to not be in constant contact with her children and her family members. The mother of Crystal Rogers then files a missing person's. At that point, there is really no evidence of any foul play.

It's unusual that they would call a detective on a missing person's case. So you'll most immediately understand that there's something about the case that isn't sitting right with the deputies that are there taking the report. Yesterday afternoon at approximately 3 o'clock, a family member came to the sheriff's office to report that they believed that Crystal Rogers was missing. Shortly thereafter, another family member found Crystal's car near the 14-mile marker on the Bluegrass Parkway. It raised a bunch of concern because a tire on the vehicle was flat. The keys are in the ignition. There's a cell phone and a purse in the passenger seat, which is very unusual. No woman that I know would leave her keys in her car and her purse in her seat if she's going to abandon her vehicle on the side of the road.

The last person that we know that Crystal was with was her boyfriend or a common law husband. They have a child together. They live here at Barshtown, and his name is Brooks Howe. And 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. Crystal's family was devastated. She was their pride and joy. they cared for all their children deeply.

And with Crystal missing, it was like a part of them left, and that part could never be healed. It becomes pretty obvious relatively quickly that this is not going to be our typical missing persons. But at that point, you really don't know what you don't know, so you don't know what's important and what's not. So it's a really dynamic investigation at this point because you don't know where you're headed next.

There's no body, there's no weapon, there's no blood. That's where it all begins, just with her missing and really nothing pointing to anyone at that particular time. Crystal was a loving mother of five. She had a huge network of family support in Bardstown. She was born and raised in Bardstown and she had so much family there who cared so deeply for her. She had made a life for herself in Bardstown. And so many people say that she was an exceptional mother. It was like she was born to do that.

One thing about Crystal is that relationships always seemed difficult for her. She had been married once before, and unfortunately that didn't work out. And for one reason or the other, she could never find that person who truly loved and respected her for who she was. Brooks, when he got together with Crystal, she already had four children. Brooks's family owns a 200-acre farm in Kentucky, and so they have a lot of property. He's obviously very close to his family members. His family and family members actually a police officer in that county. Investigators have to retrace Crystal steps over the last few days.

And with little to go on initially, they start looking for leads. The car being on the parkway pointed in the direction of E-Town, kind of alluding to the fact that she may have been going somewhere. We were tracking down some leads that her mother had told us about, and her kiddos had told us about where they had been that weekend. and that Friday they said, well, we went to Walmart, so I'm going to send somebody to Walmart to get video of them at Walmart. Who did she have interactions with when she was at Walmart? Did she talk to anybody? Did she appear to have an argument with anyone? I sent somebody else to go and try to find her estranged husband, whether she said anything that might be of importance to him.

Crystal Rogers family had deep roots in Bardstown. Her mother, Sherry and father Tommy Ballard, are very well known in the community. In order to really understand how this affected the community, you really have to go back to understand what Bardstown was dealing with at that time. There were already three unsolved murders leading up to Crystal's disappearance. But then all of a sudden, a mother of five disappears. People were scared. And every day, people were out searching. My focus becomes interviewing the person that lives with her, because by the account, accounts that we have thus far, he's the last person to see her. He agrees to come in and I

conduct an interview that Sunday evening with him. I knew who he was because he had filed to run for sheriff at the previous elections. He was the landlord, had multiple rental properties. One of the obvious question was she managed the rental properties. Did anybody have a complaint? Anybody threatened her? Initially, he kind of implied without as much saying that he thought maybe she had gone somewhere to cool off. That conversation that Brooks Hauk has with investigators on the night of July 5th, 2015, clearly struck a nerve with lead detective John Snow. He said essentially that Friday during the day was normal. She dropped two of the children off to their father. She had been to Walmart. He got home before she did. He says that they had been planning all along to go to the

farm that evening with Eli. That's their youngest son. So he said, he said, us that they leave their house and they make their way toward the farm. He tells me that they left there somewhere between 11 and midnight and they went home. He says when they got home, she and Eli stayed up while he went to bed. He said when he got up the next morning, she wasn't there. Eli was in the bed with him. Her car wasn't there, but he wasn't overly concerned because she had left before when they had been arguing. So naturally I asked. asked him if they had been arguing, and he said they had not. This begs the question, why would you offer that she would leave when you would argue if you weren't arguing?

This then leads to bringing Brooks Hauken again on July 8, 2015, and this is where things get interesting. I'll do whatever I can. I don't need an attorney. I haven't asked for an attorney. I'm innocent. I'm willing to talk to whoever. But this, this to me, is really starting to get, it's starting to get silly. This is your sign to go. Just get out there and go. This summer at Best Western, get 1,000 bonus points and a chance to win 250,000 bonus points. Life's a trip.

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Visit shell.ca. Slash loyalty for full details. I ask Mr. Hout to write out a statement about everything that he does that weekend, particularly that Friday. give me as much detail as you can. I'm going to take a minute here to read through your statements. That's all right. You know, I was trying to give as much that could have. If I'm asking you to write a statement about what you did three days ago and there's a very significant event around that date, I would expect you to be able to write to a pretty good degree what you did that day.

And none of what he wrote down really had anything to do with what we were asking him to write a statement about. about. It was really more about what he does every day. The neighbor says she got home around 515. You guys leave to go to the farm. You get to the farm about 19 minutes after set. When you got to the farm, do you know if anybody was there other than your mom? I don't know. We didn't stop up there.

We went straight down there to take the tail. And he said when they got to the farm, they saw his mother, Rosemary Howe, who lives at the farm. He said they didn't talk to her. He tells me that he and he and his family. that he and Crystal and Eli go walking around, which is kind of odd because it's been raining that night. It was pretty wet. So you guys, you've taken your walk and you're leaving. Looking at the video, looks like it's about five minutes till midnight.

All right. To me, it seems a little late to be out on the farm with a two and a half year old. It's still wide open and he'll bring. Any of anybody he's so used to sleeping so later in the morning. You said you went to bed first. She stays up. What's she doing? She's just on her phone playing, I don't know what game, but she normally plays a game. Later investigators would put a hole in that story.

We would later find out that her phone had been powered off for a while at that point. His information that he gives to the police about where he was during and after the incident is contradictory. It is not sequential. He is very much all over the place when he explains what he was doing that weekend. Saturday morning. He went to the farm. Any idea how long you were out there?

Yeah, usually on Saturday I'm not in any kind of a rush. Did you eat lunch out there? I don't make much there. I know I ain't supper out there at Fagian's house that night because he had everybody over there at his house at my mom's brother's house. Do you go home? I think we rode with my mother over there.

Then I went home after that. And it turns out, According to Brooks, you know, the day after she's missing, he's at some sort of Fourth of July party with his son. One would think that in this crisis situation, he would not be partying with fireworks and hot dogs. He would instead be looking for his girlfriend. Did you go anywhere else after you left mom's house before you went home? Not that I can remember. I'm not asking you to recall every detail of your life, bro.

And I realized that it wasn't a big deal for him. her to be going for you but you know most people can remember you know most of the things they did during the day I don't know if it was her mother I met her mother at the gas station somewhere one of them days her mother Sherry I pulled in there to in there to that Murphy station and then Sherry came up there to my window and asked me if I had seen Crystal and when you told her what I haven't seen her don't know where she is and she just said okay she said she's gonna go to the police station do you think it was this do you think you talk to Sherry the

same day they reported her missing you said she said yes yes she said yes the day that yes had you and Crystal ever talked about breaking up I mean obviously we have fought just like any other any other any other any other couple it has been at times of stress relationship. I'm not here telling you anything other than that. We loved each other very much. And that right there's the bottom end. And he admitted that they did have, you know,

some strains in their relationship. But he said that, you know, he loved her. That's something that people have pointed out before because he said loved in the past tense. What I've got to be faced with now is as good a mother's crystal's been. Now, Eli is an, atmosphere where I've got all the hope in the world but now I'm a single parent

it appears to me if something's not done where she's not brought back safely now one of the very most important people in his life he's got to grow up with Al and I've been here answering a bunch of bulls-hs-hs it's taking a lot of energy and effort away from the other efforts that could be out there trying to help and bring her back here safely I came even went on the side of the road that looking like a murder or something like it's wrong. I've been extremely honest with you all. Here, I've got a million things going on that I have to get done. And then who's going to suffer? He is. And it's not right. I'm ready to hire, hire auctioneer to sell all this stuff so I can,

so I can be there for him like Christ. And there was the question of, well, why would you sell off your things if you think she's coming back? Somewhat out of the blue, he goes on this tangent about Crystal's family. He's clearly upset, but it seems to be more about the impact this has on him and their young son Eli than Crystal's disappearance itself. I wasn't along. She'd done this before. Right. And I wasn't alarmed. That's all there is to it. And I can understand the family wanting to vent and stress, but these people know me better than what's going on. And before this is all over and done with, you all are too.

But it really, it bothers me because not only have I been a victim, my mind's not even where it should be because I'm trying to protect Eli from this. I don't care about them dragging my name through the mud right now because I'm going to keep the main focus on nemesis on bringing her back safely and as quickly. as possible. He didn't seem concerned at all at the fact that he was at the Sheriff's Department talking about the mother of his child being missing. That doesn't make sense. A couple things that I want to get into, it's intended to pry into what's going on in Crystal's mind so that I can rule out any possibility of intention to harm themselves

or things of that nature. Crystal is not that kind of person. I don't believe at all. I'll be honest with you. I have been all along, we'll continue to be. If I woke up on a Saturday morning and my wife wasn't with me in the bed, as is normal, which might not be normal for you. I don't know, but if she were not, probably the first thing I would do would be to call her to find out where she was.

He only had reached out to Crystal a couple of times in those first few days where she was missing. His explanation was not very convincing. And so his thought process was that, well, he would rather leave her alone rather than blow it up more. And although that seems like maybe an innocent explanation if somebody isn't answering your calls after a couple of hours, and also not there days later, it doesn't explain behavior when your girlfriend is literally missing out of nowhere. So the phones wouldn't really give us much on the end of their giving us a picture of their relationship. there would be a few text messages. Certainly it did not appear

that they had been fighting that night. For me, the biggest thing that is absent in the phones is the plan to go to the farm. So he says that it was all along the plan to go to the farm. She has been telling people all day that they are going out on a kid-free date night. Are you familiar with a woman named Christina Holly? Yes, I know who you're talking about.

There are some text messages between her, and Crystal on Friday. She tells her, well, we've got to sit her for the evening. It's our first time being kid-free for a while, so we don't want to, you know, we're kid-free. We're going to enjoy ourselves. Why would she lie to her about it? I don't know. I can't answer that question.

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No. The plan was all along for you guys to go to the farm. Yes. She is telling people that this is the first time they've had a date night in a long time, and she's really excited about it. He says to us that that wasn't true, that she only told them that so that the other children would not be jealous because they were going to spend time with Eli alone. That would make perfect sense, except for she told her best friend that, who wouldn't care one way or the other.

There's some discrepancies between what law enforcement is learning from Brooks versus what they already know from Crystal's family and friends. He is the only one around right now who's able to tell the story of what happened over the last few days. But with text messages and witness accounts, something's not adding up. So detectives, they build a timeline. And key to that timeline is cell phone records. One of the things that shows up as odd is a phone call around midnight on Saturday morning. I ask him about this, and he seems genuinely surprised. I can see him on your phone logs on Saturday morning.

There appears to be a phone call around midnight. Do you know who that person was that called me around midnight? Do you remember talking about taking a phone call? Yeah, look at my phone, but I don't remember that. remember getting a phone call on the way home? It was a pretty short phone conversation. It's kind of unusual to get a 13 second phone conversation at midnight.

It would just a second. I want to get your phone to look that phone number. I'm all right. So at the time, all I had was the phone number. So I said, who is this phone number? He said, I don't know. Let's call it. Just call it.

Oh, Steve Lawson. OK. Who is Steve Lawson? He's the best in what works, word. Hey, Steve. Hey, I've got some things going on next week. week. I'm going to need your help with you. When Steve Lawson picks up the phone, he immediately goes into what seems to be a rehearsed

story that he is supposed to say. I appreciate you saying that, but hey, the other night you called me really, really late. Can you remember what you asked me or what you were after? I can't remember. Yes, sir. Oh, for a rental house. Yes, sir. What did I tell you?

You know what? Crystal. Yeah. When Brooks hangs up the phone, I said, well, if Crystal's in the truck with you, why didn't you just give the phone to Crystal? And he gives me a really strange look. Like he doesn't know exactly what to say to that. So it's clear that this is not, this was not an anticipated question.

If she's in the truck next to you when he called, why would you need to call her about getting numbers for rental problems? Because being that way that not, she knows, is not going to deal stuff that way. I'm sure if I try to answer the phone really quickly, so that it wouldn't, a lot of times after I get moving, Eli goes to sleep, you know. Although he had just told me that Eli was wide awake, that is probably the moment when it becomes clear

that both Mr. Halk and Mr. Lawson have something to do with Crystal's disappearance. So now we find out there's more potential players here, Steve Lawson, an associate of Brooks, and not only him, but his son Joey Lawson could be involved. Steve and Joey Lawson were father and son. They worked for Brooks Halk. Steve Lawson would occasionally help Brooks Halk with some of his construction projects and do other odd jobs. Both of them had already had a criminal element to their background. It's already in their nature to not give us information.

I interviewed Stephen Lawson a couple of times to try to get him to bring in his phone because we had a search warrant for it. He would refuse to do that. Do you know of anybody that would want to hurt? I mean, as far as I know, she's a well-likable person. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't want to harm her. The interview takes a turn when Brooke's phone starts going off. Now remember, at this point in time, he's been at the station for hours.

This call is from his brother Nick Hauk, who's a local police officer in that area. We're still getting video from different places, you know, along that route. Can I get there? Sure, please. You go? No. I'm up here. I know that you didn't know.

I'm up here in this interview with the detective, Detective Snow. It's my habit to just let people take phone calls during the interview because you never know what they're going to blur it out. Are you tell me that's what I need to do? I know, I know, I know I know I'm not. I know that. But the way that I look at it, it is. I'm innocent, I ain't done nothing wrong. Well, you know, I know you've told me innocent people have got jammed up,

but if you're telling me to leave, I'll get up and lead. I don't think she's ran off of some other guy. I don't believe that. So when he gets off the phone, he says something that is very, very interesting and would prove to be very consequential to the case. He thinks y'all will f*** is what he thinks. Have I told you that I'm for you? Yes, you have.

I said, what did I say? My job is to find you. crystal right that's right well did I not tell you when you come in here and sit down today that right now you're the main person of in me yes that's right and the last person to see your life right there's and I went through your timeline with you and explain to you that there's gaps in your timeline if Nick thinks you should go and you want to take his advice go ahead now at this point Nick hadn't even entered into the picture aside from the phone call but when he says to me he thinks you're trying to screw us that's not that you're trying to

to screw me. He just put his brother somehow or another involved in this. And so now, knowing who his brother is, knowing that he's a city police officer, this case just got way more complicated. This case is getting more and more complicated by the hour. And Brooks Halk is becoming the prime suspect, but there's still so many unanswered questions. So now detectives have to verify or refute the things that Brooks is saying. And one way to do that is by administer. during a polygraph test. Investigators will sometimes use polygraph tests to kind of determine whether something somebody

is telling them is accurate or misleading or a flat-out lie. Brooks's polygraph test here was inconclusive. Sometimes investigators will deem an inconclusive polygraph test as evidence of lying in and of itself or an attempt to manipulate the machine. So an inconclusive test, sometimes can betray the person.

Meanwhile, this case is garnering national attention. And Brooks Hauke is hounded by the media for an interview, but he only grants one to Nancy Grace. Mr. Hauk, thank you for being with us. When did you realize Brooks Houtt that she was gone? The very next morning. So you slept through the whole night and did not realize that she was gone?

That's true. exhausted my efforts with the law enforcement agencies to gather all the facts necessary to allow me to have a clean name again. And that's very important to me. The appearance on Nancy Grace was really interesting. Brooks up to that point had largely avoided local media. Almost every news organization was trying to get his side of the story and had been unsuccessful. However, he continued to live his life. He went about Bardstown, by most accounts, acting like nothing was wrong.

Detectives move on to another member of the Halk family, Nick Halk. This is Brooks Police Officer Brother. So investigators need to find out what he knows, particularly given the odd remark after Nick's sudden call interrupted his interview with Detective Snow. How much interaction did you have with Crystal over the years? Almost nine. So when's the last time that you had seen Crystal? I'm sure it was sometime I saw her just driving around out on the road,

but I don't really remember where I was at. So you knew her enough to know where the car was? Oh, yeah. We had enlisted the help of the city police to help us gather up video and find potential witnesses. So now we have to rethink that because this person is potentially involved in this crime and he's employed at this agency.

So we have to be very careful. When do you find out, Crystal? was missing within a couple days how did you find out I don't know if Brooks had mentioned her I saw on TV I mean this is this is for all intents of purposes your sister-in-law and she she's missing I mean you do you and your brother just not talk to that extent that's kind of bad isn't it you would think if he was really you know concerned that he would hey my brother's police officer he knows what to do let me call him and see what's going on yes it's not like that

I see him on the road, that's about it. But it's kind of like pointing to finger at him. At this point, it doesn't matter what he does, you know, he looks like the bad one. So here's the problem. Days earlier, Nick called Brooks telling him to leave his police interview, and now he's saying we're not that close. I'm sure these investigators are confused and rightfully so. They're probably scratching their heads and saying, well, which is it?

This conversation with Nick Halk opens up a whole different can of worms. They want to figure out, was he involved? And if so, to what extent? Friday night to third, I think was the last time that anybody said they saw her, right? Where was that at? Do you know? I think someone said it was at Walmart. She goes missing on Friday. Saturday's four.

Sunday, Sunday's the fifth. Yeah. So that's when she gets reported missing. And he never called you for any advice I want to do. He's so busy. We just don't have much anymore. Nick is an interesting character. because he's both law enforcement and a potential co-conspirator.

Police obviously wanted to zero in on whether he was influencing the investigation. You remember when he was interviewed? Oh, yeah. Did you make a phone call to him when the SO was interviewing him? Yes, I knew. What, why did you come back? Well, you know, just basically, I mean, Brooks is a really cooperative guy, and, you know, obviously at this point, you want to be cooperative,

but you also want to protect yourself. Nick was also confronted about his own whereabouts and potential involvement. and potential involvement in the case. He, like his brother Brooks, gave inconsistent answers. So you all have said, you've been out to the farm and do you all go out there together to work or be you?

When was the last time, I guess you and him were out there together? We were in to each other out there. Did you go out there together? Did you meet him out there? No, I didn't know. He was just having to be out there. Do you remember going out to the farm,

the even the, even the, July the 8th. I don't. That was incidentally the same night that your brother was interviewed about police. What if the cameras would have caught your your car following Brooks? Wouldn't close out to the... It surprised me. Was there a time that you all both went out there at the same time for a specific reason? Not that I were felt. You remember that night? No well I don't. What went on while you're out there at the form? Yeah, if I knew I tell you, you arrived together and you left together. We know that.

When he said that he either was or was not in certain locations at certain times, police were able to retrieve surveillance video of Nick being in certain areas like the farm. Those types of inconsistencies are problematic for Nick. We took Nick's police car at the, at the behest of the city police department, and ultimately I would get a search warrant to have it processed. What do you normally keep in your trunk? I've got a carton of a box back there. There's many forms, there's a PBT fire extinguisher.

When the PD took your car from your house, what was in the trunk bed? All the stuff I just told you, but there was also just a regular blanket for moving. I got a blanket at the farm, I used it, and then I was gonna take it back in a few days. I forgot about it. The one part of the car that we had any interest in

forensically in the beginning was that blanket. Have you ever heard of aluminum? All right, you know what Luma is used for? It's fine blood. Okay. Or other bodily fluids. Okay. Why would your trunk look like a smurf if they sprayed it?

There's a couple spots in the trunk in that blanket. I mean, just lit up like you're old. There shouldn't be any body bodily fluids in the trunk. I mean, there's only one way bodily fluids can get into the trunk that if a body's near. Is there any reason that her DNA is going to come back in your trunk? I'm 100 percent serving it long. Ultimately, they said there was no evidence to be recovered from the blanket. Doesn't necessarily mean the blanket wasn't important.

Doesn't necessarily mean that the blanket wasn't used for something. It just means that now there's no longer any evidentiary value to it. Did your brother ever call you and say that he'd done something to Crystal? No, he did not. There is some reason why you all went out to that forum. She's got a kid, I mean, there's no way that I would cover this up for him. Who else would be responsible for this? I mean, I don't have any names to you if I did.

What do you think? What do you think that? You know, I don't know what happened, but I know books didn't have anything to do with it. So you never helped him move about him? I did not. And you're telling me you want to be cooperative. That's why you're here, right? Yes.

Okay. What about taking a polygraph exam? I've got nothing to hide. Now, days later, Nick Hauk is given a polygraph, and it sparks even more discussion about his alleged involvement. Well, Nick, I've had a chance to review your charts on my test, that first test, you did not have. test and it's pretty clear to me that you have told me the truth and the questions you're having a problem with are questions about Chris and in particular the one about whether or not you know or she was right that the time has come for you think real hard about the rest of your life

that's results on your test exception indicated 100 percent and it's at that point that he got really defensive whereas we saw Brooks Halk and his interrogation being calm and almost nonchalant Nick was the exact opposite. You can demonstrably point out through forensic evidence already that things that you told us about where you were at various times are demonstrably not true. You can deny deny and I. That's fine. That's what people do.

They immediately circle the wagons and start to, well, our self-preservation, we all... I mean, let me just catch you off. I mean, do we need to take this any further? I would like to take it to the truth. I mean, you're talking crazy. The accusations you're making. Yeah, I'm saying that you're involved in this.

Absolutely not. I'm talking to someone who's a family member, essentially, is missing and possibly dead. You've seen some interviews, where you haven't been completely truthful about things. I've been 100% truthful. Listen to what I'm saying. You listen to what I'm saying. I've been 100% truthful. Are you yelling at me?

Well, because you're telling me I'm lying and I know I'm not. I know the truth. And if you don't want to believe it, that's your issue. It's not mine. I showed you. Dude, I don't give a what your computer said, okay? you do. Then why are you getting surrounded me? Because you're calling me a liar.

That's why you're calling you a liar. He was not happy about being questioned by them. Pretty much kept running around in circles. What we would ultimately get out of that is the polygrapher would tell us that he believed that Nick was involved and that they had disposed of Crystal's body. It was enough for him to no longer have a job at the police department. We had an administrative hearing concerning the employment status of Officer Nick out. The mayor's been considering the evidence.

Earlier today, he issued a final order, and that order terminates Officer Hauke from the Barstown Police Department. In a case where you don't have a body and you don't have a murder weapon, you don't even really have a crime scene, I felt like we had a really good circumstantial case. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky,

the Commonwealth attorney would make the determination typically as to whether or not you're going to charge this individual, especially in a case this big. I felt like we had a good enough circumstantial case to prosecute it prior to my retirement. He did not. They weren't really able to charge Brooks or the Lawsons or any of those people.

There's nobody, there's no DNA evidence anywhere, really. There's no evidence that really a crime was committed at all. This case comes to a standstill for months. There's little to no updates, no movement. in the investigation. And about a year after Crystal's disappearance, there is an incident that raises a lot of questions. When Crystal disappeared, no one searched harder than her father, Tommy Ballard. November 19th, 2016 is a day in my career, I will never forget. When we learned that there have been an incident in Bardstown, our hearts sank. Tommy Ballard was going hunting with his

grandson. They were just getting out of the truck and all of a sudden a gunshot rang out. And that single shot went through Tommy Ballard's chest and killed him. It is still, as far as I know, still a very open case and being actively worked by the detectives at the Kentucky State Police Post. I think everyone believes that it's connected to Crystal's case. Naturally there was speculation that Crystal's father's murder could have been connected to her disappearance. Was he maybe onto something?

Through Tommy's efforts to try to find answers in Crystal's case, one of the things that he uncovered was a tip that proved to be really critical. People would go to the Ballards with information. We got the tip early from Crystal's brother. He says, hey, these guys saw this white Buick parked in the woods next to the farm the night that she goes missing. We don't really know how it fits into things in the beginning.

He puts out a Facebook post, hey, we need to know about this white Buick. So it doesn't become urgent until we find out kind of by happenstance, actually, that it belongs to a family member of the house. What we would later figure out is that Anna White Sides, who is their grandmother, owns a white Buick. Shortly after we find out about her owning the white Buick, Nick takes her to Louisville and gets rid of the car. And I know the community really wanted us to hurry up and charge someone. Calling someone a suspect is one thing. Accusing someone of homicide is another thing. Fast forward

several years, 2018, 2019, the investigation is still ongoing and Detective John Snow retires. And what comes next is nearly half a decade of silence. There is very little information that is publicly released as the FBI fully takes over. The FBI did one search in 2021 that took several days. It was in a subdivision in Bardstown. And their focus was a home that was being built by Brooks Halk. The items they recovered from that property were women's underwear and women's clothing. There was some that was found under the driveway and some that was found under the sidewalk.

However, the DNA did not match Crystal Rogers. Here we are. Years later, the FBI has the case in hand. Brooks Halk, his brother Nick, the Lawsons. They may be the prime suspects connected to the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, but none of them have faced any charges so far. But then you go to... My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink.

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Sign up now at Disneyplus.com. At 2020, and investigators with the help of another government agency, they make a discovery that no one saw coming. Even the IRS came in to conduct searches. If, for example, there were tax fraud issues, The FBI was looking obviously for other things to try to link the house to this crime. And by the time all of these years passed, the investigators have to start looking at a paper trail like that. The IRS had different resources than the FBI.

They had a legal avenue to conduct searches and electronics under the auspice of investigating tax crimes, which leads to finding hidden recording devices. All of them had been recorded. interactions with the police. They've been recording their conversations with each other. They've been recording conversations with their lawyers. It was just bizarre. They would they take his call in the jury? He was already. Is that anything else?

You know, they would find those recorders during a search warrant of the farm. There were recordings of Nick in the grand jury, his mother, Rosemary Howick in the grand jury, Some of those random conversations would become pretty important because they revealed information that they probably didn't intend to. And on one of the recordings, Rosemary Howe says to Brooks, she says, what about the blanket? And he says, it's fine. Ultimately, what we would figure out is the blanket that she's talking about is the blanket in the trunk of Nick's car. The FBI ends up conducting hundreds of new search warrants in interviews, retracing the steps of local law enforcement and creating new paths, but all following the same leads as laid out by Detective John Snow. They gather all the evidence collected by local law enforcement, combing through every inch of it

extensively. They pull out all the stops, including using new tech tools. Google at the time had this reverse location technology which showed Brooks' whereabouts, despite the fact that he seemingly turned off his location services on his phone and also told his family to do the same. They had no idea that Google was still tracking them. Early on, investigators were interested in Steve Lawson, largely because of that 13-second call, but they didn't have any crime or wrongdoing they could pin him for. But as time went on, they got more and more curious about why he made that call and just what his relationship was with workshawk. And what they would ultimately learn over the years is that,

Steve Lawson and Joey Lawson had a really hard time keeping their mouth shut. Eventually, investigators would hear from one of Steve Lawson's ex-girlfriends who said she overheard a conversation between Steve and Joey talking about moving a body when the FBI got involved. One of the things they revisited were phone records. They looked back into Brooks House phone records, the records of Stephen Lawson, and the records of Joey Lawson. And what they ended up finding was that Joey Lawson made two calls to Steve Lawson on the night of Crystal's disappearance.

And also, this goes back to Steve Lawson, his phone pinged on towers near where Crystal's car was abandoned. I'm not sure that we entirely understand their role. I don't know that we ever got the full story as to what they were involved. They were accused of being involved in the conspiracy. to murder her, meaning that they did things and agreed to do things in furtherance of that murder. And specifically, they were involved with tampering with physical evidence by moving her vehicle. They were both involved in removing her vehicle from her residence and ending up on the Bluegrass Parkway with it. And you know what's more incriminating? Stephen admitting that he picked up

Joseph from the Bluegrass Parkway and moved the driver seat in Crystal's car to make it look like someone shorter had been driving. They're also accused of giving the car a flat tire to stage the scene. Officials learned from another witness, a different employee of Brooks Halk, that Brooks said he wanted to, quote, get rid of Crystal and that Joseph Lawson said, quote, that he would pull her teeth and the hogs would do the rest. Now, while the evidence doesn't seem like the strongest admitting to all this implicates Brooks Hauk and Joey and Stephen Lawson. It isn't until eight years after Crystal's disappearance than anyone is criminally charged in connection with this case, and that's because of the efforts of federal agents to remove

the Nelson County prosecutor who wouldn't move forward with charges in this case if there was nobody. In late 2023, a series of grand juries are impaneled, and this is where Steve Lawson testifies about his involvement in Crystal's disappearance. Stephen Lawson, ultimately he would end up subpoenaed to the grand jury where I would confront him about the phone call. And he really kind of plays it off and tries to act like he doesn't know what phone called. And then he's like, oh, yeah, I remember talking to him about it. Without knowing it, he really kind of gives away his involvement in it

by trying to be cagey about the nature of the phone call. And then there is a special grand jury that's assembled for the sole purpose of indicting Brooks Hauk. In early September, of that same year, Joseph Lawson is arrested in charge with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence. Brooks Hauk is then indicted for murder and tampering with evidence. He's held on a whopping $10 million bond. Three months later, Stephen Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering

with evidence, but it is important to note that as of this recording, neither Nick Halk nor Rosemary Halk have been officially charged in connection to this case. You're glad of it, but it's also scary because you know now this begins what is either the beginning or the end of this case, right? You know that one way or the other, this case is going to come to a resolution and it may not be the way that you think that it should, which is obviously with the guilty verdict. A case 10 years in the making. It culminates with three men standing trial in the disappearance and presumed murder of Crystal Rogers. First, in May 2025, Stephen Lawson stands trial and is found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence.

But then, just a month later, comes the trial that so many people had been waiting for, that of Brooks Hauk and Joseph Lawson. This is a sad case. Very sick. A young woman, 35 years old, with five children, disappeared. They didn't go out. through a man who get together with 1215 1218 at night. Brooks Hauk is moving from the from the farm, his home that she wasn't in that truck.

She wasn't going home with them. We believe the evidence was showed from your God-given common sense that she's died and died at the hands of cruel murder. As long as this investigation took and as complicated as this case was, it was very important for the jurors to understand what are the different roles of the players here, Brooks Howk, his brother Nick Howk, and of course Joey and Stephen Lawson. Did you ever hear any conversation between Jones of Lawson and Steve Lawson as it relates to

Crystal Rogers? Yes. I overheard Steve Lawson and Joey Lawson talking about moving a body as a body as a at the house farm with a skids here. There was a lot of new information that came out during the trial. It was amazing to me to see how much investigators were able to keep close to chest.

I think the most heartbreaking was that Crystal went into that evening thinking that she was gonna have a kid-free romantic date night with Brooks. This is a woman who felt like her relationship was failing. And this date night that was promised to her felt like a glimmer of Hope. Prosecutors say that it was all part of his plot to lure her to his family farm. The whole time that I live there, I never seen Rosemary or Nick at the house.

And that weed, that Wheat Crystal went missing, did you see Nick at the defendant's house? Yeah, man, Rosemary. I've seen them there a lot. There was one day that I witnessed the Rosemary's car pulling the driveway. After that, the cop car pulled in. And they turned the car to cars around. Nick got in the back of the car. You got two bags and put them in Rosemary's car and then he went back and got two more. The neighbor who's very nosy, thankfully, tells us that Rosemary and Nick almost never come to Brooks's house because Rosemary did not get along with Crystal. We got information that Rosemary had gone to the house just a couple of days into this thing and she had pulled up and thrown away some flowers that Crystal had planted.

Did you see anything else with Rosemary that week? I can remember one day when I looked across the street, I've seen Rosemary with the shovel digging up the flowers and throwing them over in the trash can. You know, the first thing that comes to my mind is, if you think she's coming home, why are you pulling flowers up at her out? You don't think that's going to be upsetting to her. You don't think that's going to further hurt that relationship. She knows dagon good and well. Crystal ain't coming back. How does she know?

So do you remember the weekend of July 4th? Yes, sir. Do you remember any conversation with you had about Joey about Crystal's car that week? He said he was buried with us. I didn't find it. What about Steve? Steve had come up to me. And since it was up Brooks.

get rid of that lady. Now, this is when that white Buick that's owned by the grandmother of Brooks and Nick Halk, that comes back into the picture. Why? Because it is believed that that could have been used to transport crystals remains. Yeah, were you aware of anything collected out of the vehicle? I am. Was there a hair located in the vehicle?

Yes, so there was. The head hair with Caucasian characteristics in item 26. That would be the hair that was located in the vehicle. microscopically compared with the head hair standard collected from Crystal Rogers's hairbrush and determined to be in similar in color and limited microscopic characteristics was different from the head hair standard in item 63 which was in a white size now after the seizure of the vehicle and after it was processed did you arrange for a cadaver though yes sir a detective

by the name of Jamie Brooks, would be working off duty in Louisville and accidentally meet a guy who has a cadaver dog. This man would agree to come and take the cadaver dog and run it around the white duke, and the cadaver dog indicates on the trunk of the white Buick. We find a couple of hairs in it. They don't produce any real DNA,

but we're able to use those during the trial to kind of build that case. I was presented with a relatively small parking lot. He unlocked the parking lot and asked me to, to search that area. Ranger cleared the area of any live victims. Ranger gave his train final response at the right rear corner of that Buick LaSaber

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just a month before Crystal disappeared. But the defense, they focus on discrediting the state's witnesses, criticizing the police investigation and saying that law enforcement focused so narrowly on Brooks Houck that they may have ignored other leads. We certainly agree with Mr. Lasascoe on one critical point, and that is this is absolutely heartbreaking case.

From the early hours of this investigation, Brooks Halk became the sole focus that this pressure eventually caused the facts and truths that we look for in the justice system to be replaced with suspicions, assumptions, guesses, and theories. And it caused ultimately, in this case, case, these two men, Brooks have and Joey Lawson, just sit here before you today, charged with horrific crimes that they did not connect. We're all assuming that she was deceased, but there was no evidence of any kind of any cause or mechanism of her death. A circumstantial case like that still don't have a body, still don't have any other real hard evidence that anyone was even Kelt, let alone who did it.

There was testimony earlier that the dog involved in this case was cross-trained. Could you please explain to the jury what that means? A cross-trained dog, for this instance, is a dog was trained before live sent to find human live humans, as well as human remains detection. Do you personally, sir, recommend cross-training or cross-certification of canoes? No, sir, I do not. In this case, we hired you to look at police searches and laboratory reports, correct?

That's correct. Did they find, based on your review, the evidence that was collected, was any of Joey Loss's fingerprints found in the car? Not that I could find, no. Was there any DNA of Joey Lawson found in his car? Not that I could determine, no. What about Steve Lawson? Same? The same, yes.

There was one pair on the driver's seat that... could have been tested for DNA and one on the driver's side floorboard. Is that correct? Correct. Were those tested? They're not. Should they have tested those? Yes, they should have been.

Was there any DNA of Crystal Rogers was in formerly anobite-sized white Buick? There was not. The defense team, they tried to say that Joey and Steve Lawson were never on the Bluegrass Parkway. They said that the cell phone records that they had actually showed that they could have been on a road that ran parallel with the Bluegrass Parkway. Following 10 days of testimony and more than 50 witnesses, clearly, the jury has their work cut out for them. Early on, I got a pretty good feeling about it. You don't know what 12 individual people are going to do when they get behind closed doors and start talking. But I was very confident in the case that Mr. Young and his team laid out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, it's not understanding the bailiff indicated that you all have reached their verdict. But it took less than four hours for the 12-member jury to come back with their decision. In regard to Commonwealth versus Brooks William Howe, we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder, we the jury find the defending guilty of tampering with physical evidence in regard to Joseph Lawson. We the jury find the defending guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. We, the jury, find the defending guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. We, the jury, found the defendant guilty of tampering with physical evidence. The case is clearly a circumstantial case. There was no body found or recovered.

There was no witness to the actual event. But that being said, the evidence against Brooks, including the motive for him to kill Crystal, the fact that he was already having an affair, the fact that Crystal was looking to leave, all of the things that always make the boyfriend or the husband, the prime suspect, all of those ingredients were there,

with Brooks. If you saw the news footage of it, I cried like a baby. I don't even know how to describe it. It was very emotional when you get that result at the end of it, especially in a case when you quite frankly had your doubts as to whether it would ever go to trial. You know, it's just it's almost too much to bear, really. So at this time, it's the sentence of the court in regard to Mr. Lawson's case that he be confined in a penal institution. Therein to remain for a period of 20 years, it's a further order of this court that he be sentenced to five years for complicity to tampering with physical evidence for a total sentence of 25 years. In regard to Mr. Hauk's case, it's the sentence of the court that he be confined in a penal institution

therein to remain for a period of life and five years for complicity to tampering with physical evidence with those sentences running concurrently for life. You never cared about anybody but yourself. You say you love Eli so much, but if you really loved him, you wouldn't have murdered his mother. She was amazing mother. My mom didn't deserve any of this. When you thought you had pain the perfect murder, I guess you're not as smart as you think you are. For 10 years, I have suffered the pain of losing my daughter. Never once have I seen you shed one tear. This case is one that changed Barts Town forever. And the community became incredibly invested in it. And I think a lot of that had to do with Sherry and Tommy Ballard.

Everyone could look at them and see themselves as a parent, a sister, a brother, a loved one, and they felt their pain. I pray that one day you will grow a heart and have the decency to tell me where my daughter is. And now you will spend the rest of your miserable life in prison where you belong. Brooks Hauk is sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He's already appealing his sentence. Meanwhile, Joseph Lawson was given 25 years in prison, and Stephen Lawson will spend 17 years behind bars. But the most heartbreaking part, the most tragic part of this story is that Crystal's family may never get full closure. Crystal's body has still not been found.

And that remains the biggest mystery in this whole case. This is a case that had gone on for more than 10 years by the time that it got into a courtroom. And I think there are a lot of people in the community who worried that day would never come. Although there is some relief from the conviction in sentencing of Brooks Halk, Joseph Lawson, and Stephen Lawson, a lot of people would like to see investigators take this case further. The prosecution during the trial referred to Nick Halk and Rosemary Halk as unindicted co-conspirators. A lot of people wonder what's next. And then there's also the question of, what about Tommy Bucke?

Ballard? What happened to him? Will anyone ever be charged with his murder? I think that the community as a whole is healing from it since the convictions. I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions which may or may not ever get answered. And that's hard to face that we may never know. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Playo Joe. casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woohoo. Feel the fun. Play, Ojo. Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate. 19 plus Ontario

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