Kentucky Justice: Brooks Houck Found Guilty of Crystal Rogers' Murder
In July 2025, Brooks Houck was found guilty of murdering his former girlfriend Crystal Rogers more than ten years after she disappeared from his family's farm in Bardstown, Kentucky
For more than a decade, Bardstown, Kentucky, has remained under a dark cloud of secrecy and deceit. Beginning in May 2013, the idyllic Bluegrass State town, known well for its bourbon and small-town charm, became entangled in a web of suspicion, corruption, conspiracy, and murder.
Four murders and a suspicious disappearance within three and a half years have left many seeking answers and wondering if these crimes may be related. Those answers may soon be revealed, as just recently, in July 2025, two men were convicted of murder and conspiracy charges in the death of Crystal Rogers.
In March 2025, Tales From the Underworld covered the story of Crysal Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five who disappeared under suspicious circumstances in July 2015. Crystal’s case was one of several unusual and disturbing events to occur in this otherwise safe and quiet town, leading some to question if these cases may be connected.
Bardstown’s Dark History
In April 2025, Tales From the Underworld wrote about the Bardstown Conspiracy and how the disappearance and murder of Crystal Rogers fit into a larger framework of murder and corruption. Here is a brief rundown of the events:
In May of 2013, Bardstown Police officer Jason Ellis had just finished his shift and was heading home around 2 a.m. when tragedy struck. Officer Ellis took Exit 34 off the Bluegrass Parkway, and upon doing so, he noticed branches and debris blocking the roadway. Officer Ellis stopped his car, which he’d borrowed from the motorpool while his regular vehicle was in the shop.
As Officer Ellis went to clear the roadway, he was shot multiple times in an ambush attack. Despite wearing a Kevlar vest, he was fatally wounded, with bullets striking him in the head, neck, and between the seams of his vest. Officer Jason Ellis, one of Bardstown’s finest officers and a devoted husband and father, was dead.
Less than a year later, in April of 2014, tragedy struck yet again. Kathy Netherland, a special education teacher at Bardstown Elementary, and her daughter, 16-year-old Samantha Netherland, a sophomore at Bardstown High School, were brutally attacked in their home. These two women, who were beloved by their community and all who knew them, had been murdered in a scene investigators could only describe as “evil.”
Kathy was shot numerous times and stabbed. Samantha had been stabbed multiple times and had her throat cut. The level of violence was shocking, with no apparent motive to be found. Security footage revealed a black car near the home and a shadowy figure strolling across the porch, but this information led police nowhere. Just like that of Officer Jason Ellis, the case of Kathy and Samantha Netherland quickly went cold.
Then came the case that would draw national attention and bring the FBI to Bardstown: Crystal Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five, mysteriously vanished during the 4th of July weekend in 2015. Her car was found abandoned on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway, her phone and purse still sitting inside. Crystal’s parents, Sherry and Tommy Ballard, wasted no time in searching for their daughter.
Tommy organized a group known as Team Crystal, comprised of locals dedicated to finding Crystal and seeking answers. Extensive searches were done, and many suspected Crystal’s boyfriend, Brooks Houck, of being involved in her disappearance.
Despite this, it took nine years for an arrest to be made in connection with Crystal’s disappearance. Her parents were not content to sit by and leave the investigation solely to law enforcement- and, in 2016, Tommy shared with those close to him that he was close to uncovering a major revelation concerning what happened to his daughter.
Then, in November of 2016, Tommy Ballard took his grandson out for a hunting trip on family land just off the Bluegrass Parkway. While out in the woods, Tommy was fatally shot by an unidentified male subject.
Tommy Ballard’s murder marked the fifth in a span of less than four years- five victims, four cases, and zero answers.
Crimes Connected?
It was impossible to deny the connection between the disappearance of Crystal Rogers and the murder of her father, who had dedicated his life to pursuing justice for his daughter. However, many believe that the other cases may also be connected, and with good cause; as deep as the conspiracy may run, the corruption and collusion in Bardstown runs even deeper.
Brooks Houck, Crystal Rogers' boyfriend and father of her youngest son, Eli, was the last known person to see Crystal alive. After her disappearance, Brooks found himself in an interview room speaking with a detective at the Bardstown Police Department. Brooks was there voluntarily, insisting that he had nothing to do with whatever had happened to Crystal, and cooperating with questions asked by investigators.
Then, Brooks suddenly shut down after receiving a phone call in the interview room. That phone call, one side of which can be heard in released recordings, came from Brooks’ brother, Nick Houck, an officer with the Bardstown Police Department. Nick seemed to be advising Brooks to stop answering questions and leave the interview room, which Brooks immediately did following the call.
This barely scratches the surface of the corruption within the local police force in Bardstown. In the summer of 2016, Captain Tom Roby was fired after he’d been seen shredding documents and wiping his computer hard drive. According to the report from a city employee, Captain Roby had been disposing of documents that included Drug Task Force case files.
Recently, in 2025, Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa and Chief Deputy Brandon Bryan were indicted on charges of misconduct and wrongdoing, the prosecution alleging they had sold off vehicles held in evidence. Detectives with Nelson County spoke out about the rampant corruption, saying they had been punished financially and socially for attempting to expose and report misconduct.
Within this established pattern of corruption lies a key backbone of the Bardstown conspiracy: Officer Jason Ellis worked with the Drug Enforcement Team, and sources have stated that he was in the process of unraveling a major breakthrough that pointed to some Bardstown Police officers being involved in drug trafficking operations.
