Small Town, Big Trouble: The Bardstown Conspiracy and Blue Wall of Silence
In July 2015, Bardstown resident and mother Crystal Rogers vanished. Shockingly, her case appears to be part of a larger conspiracy involving criminals, drug traffickers, and even police officers
Background
On the Fourth of July weekend in 2015, Crystal Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five and resident of Bardstown, KY, mysteriously vanished. Progress in her case has been slow over the last ten years; however, recent developments in her case led to arrests in late 2024.
The attention garnered by Crystal’s case led to several podcasts and documentaries, which shined a light not only on Crystal Rogers’s disappearance but also on the dark underbelly of potential misconduct, corruption, and organized drug trafficking in Bardstown.
Crystal’s case is just one of four strange and shocking cases to come out of Bardstown in the span of just four years. Until the recent breaks in Crystal’s case, all four were unsolved.
For a town of only about 13,000 people, having such horrific acts of violence definitely merits questioning. Were these all random, tragic-but-isolated incidents, or is it possible that these cases could be connected?
Murder of Jason Ellis
The first such case is that of Officer Jason Ellis, for whom a stretch of the Bluegrass Parkway where Crystal’s car was found is named. On May 25th, 2013, Officer Ellis finished his shift with the Bardstown Police Department, where he worked as an officer in the K-9 unit.
He radioed to dispatch around 2 a.m. EST, letting them know he was clocking out for the night. He took the Bluegrass Parkway towards his home, getting off at exit 34 as he always did. However, as Officer Ellis exited, he noticed branches and debris strewn across the road.
The road was partially blocked by the tree limbs, and Ellis feared it might cause a crash if an unsuspecting driver happened upon it. Being the upstanding officer and person that he was, Officer Ellis pulled over and exited his vehicle to clear the roadway.
As he was clearing the debris, Officer Ellis was shot multiple times. He collapsed on the road and died shortly after. A driver taking exit 34 found Officer Ellis’s body a short time later.
That night, Officer Ellis was not driving his usual police vehicle, as it was in the shop having work done. Instead, he had taken a car from the motorpool. Since he didn’t have his K-9 cruiser, he was also without his K-9 partner, Figo.
The car he was driving did not have the standard police dash camera installed. Investigations revealed that Officer Ellis never fired his weapon, indicating he was fatally wounded before he knew he was in danger.
In addition, he had been wearing a police-issue Kevlar vest at the time of his murder. He was shot in the neck, head, and between the seams of his vest. It’s clear that Ellis was ambushed, and it appears that he was shot by someone who knew exactly where to aim.
Murders of Kathy and Samantha Netherland
The next horrific event in Bardstown occurred on April 21st, 2014. Kathy Netherland, aged 48, was a special education teacher at Bardstown Elementary School. Her daughter, 16-year-old Samantha Netherland, was a sophomore at Bardstown High School and a member of the school’s Academic Team and chorus.
The Netherlands were beloved by their friends, neighbors, and community. Kathy and Samantha lived by themselves, with Samantha’s older sister Holly being away at college and husband and father Robert (Bob) Netherland having passed away approximately a year prior after his battle with cancer.
Samantha had been eagerly preparing for the upcoming high school prom, and there was no indication that she or her mother had made enemies of any kind.
When Holly Netherland could not reach her sister, and neither Kathy nor Samantha showed up to work or school, police responded to their home for a wellness check. Inside, they found a nightmarish scene. Kathy had been shot multiple times and stabbed. Samantha had been brutalized, with numerous stab wounds and her throat slit.
The two were beaten so severely that there was blood spattered on the walls and ceilings. Law enforcement officers believed the level of violence indicated the crime was “personal” and not a random act.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Scotty Sharp, a detective at the time, was one of the first to arrive on the scene. When asked about the murders nine years later, he said,
“When you're talking how brutal … it's disturbing any case you work that you see that violence. Evil is evil.”
Upon further investigation, police obtained security footage of a black Chevrolet Impala near the home. The video depicts a dark figure walking across the porch and entering the home, and the car is shown leaving the area approximately fifteen minutes later.