FBI searches in Nelson County based on tips in Crystal Rogers homicide case

The FBI said Wednesday that agents are conducting another search in the case involving the killing of Crystal Rogers.

The agency said in a post on X , formerly known as Twitter, that it was “conducting a search in Cox’s Creek, KY, as a follow-up to tips received related to the Crystal Rogers investigation.”

Sara Anderson, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Kentucky, said the search is expected to continue Thursday, but that the agency would not release any further information yet.

Louisville television station WDRB reported that the search Wednesday was at property on Whitesides Road in rural Nelson County, and that family members of a man charged in Roger’s death formerly owned property on the road.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting the search on Whitesides Road, a rural residential road between Fairfield and Highgrove in Nelson County.

Rogers, 35, of Bardstown, went missing in July 2015. Her body has never been found, though she is presumed dead.

Police found her car on the Bluegrass Parkway with her phone, keys and wallet inside. Investigators previously conducted several searches related to her death, including on a farm owned by ex-boyfriend’s family.

And sixteen months after Rogers’ disappearance, her father, Tommy Ballard, was killed too.

Ballard had searched for his daughter and created a community group to try to find her. He was killed by someone while hunting with his grandson.

The incidents drew national attention, including a television show on the true crime network Oxygen .

After years of investigation, a grand jury indicted Rogers’ former boyfriend, Brooks Houck, last year on charges of murder and tampering with evidence in Rogers’ death.

Stephen and Joseph Lawson, a father and son, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and complicity to tampering with evidence.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

No one has been charged in Ballard’s death. A prosecutor said the gun used to shoot him had been owned at one time by Houck’s brother .

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