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Dateline returns to Bardstown, Kentucky, where a quiet town has seen more tragedy than most true-crime stories all put together. In its new two-hour special, The Trouble in Bardstown, the show revisits the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, a mother of five who vanished in 2015 without a single trace.
What started off only as a missing-person case slowly twisted and turned itself into one of the most complex criminal investigations the state had ever seen, stretching across years and years of suspects and terrifying twists.
The episode breaks down the puzzle of this missing person piece by piece by revealing how a flat tire, a phone call, and a web of small-town secrets all played important roles in finding out the truth. Prosecutor Shane Young, reporter Andrea Canning, and Rogers’ mother, Sherry Ballard, each of these people brings their voices to a story that has both horrified and captivated America.
So, what really happened to Crystal Rogers? Here are five of the most harrowing details uncovered about the case that shook Bardstown to its very core.
Dateline: The Trouble in Bardstown - 5 harrowing details about Crystal Rogers' disappearance
1. The phone call that cracked open the case
When prosecutor Shane Young spoke to Dateline, he made one thing extremely clear. This case may never have been solved if not for one random phone call. Young told Dateline.
“If they had not gotten a flat tire, we probably wouldn’t have solved this case...”
It sounds almost too small to matter, but that small moment, a 13-second call, is what turned out to be the thread that eventually opened up the mystery at hand.
According to the NBC show, the car Crystal Rogers had been driving, a maroon Chevrolet Impala, was found abandoned on the Bluegrass Parkway with a flat tire two days after she vanished. Prosecutors believe that Joey Lawson was driving the vehicle that night as part of an attempt to stage her disappearance.
When he got a flat tire, Joey reportedly called his father, Steve Lawson, who then called Rogers’ boyfriend, Brooks Houck. That 13-second call, captured by investigators, was never supposed to happen.
Houck told detectives during a recorded interview that he didn’t recall what was discussed. But Dateline revealed that an FBI analysis later placed both Lawsons near the exact stretch of highway where Rogers’ car was found. It was that piece of evidence, which was seemingly minor, that prosecutors said tore apart the cover story.
As Young told Dateline,
“That phone call was the one hiccup in the plan because that phone call was not supposed to be made.”
In a story full of gaps and guesses, this one tiny call on a dark highway became the key to justice.
2. A relationship that turned dangerous
By the time Crystal Rogers vanished on July 3, 2015, her relationship with Brooks Houck was already falling apart. Dateline reported that Young and his team built their case around a theory that Houck killed Rogers out of fear, fear that she would leave him and take their young son with her.
In court, prosecutors argued that Rogers was likely killed on the Houck family farm. A cousin of Rogers even testified that on the night she disappeared, Rogers told her she and Houck were going on a “surprise date.” That night would be her last.
During police interviews shown on the NBC true crime show, Houck said they had gone to the farm with their toddler and spent hours walking in the rain. Detective Jon Snow, who questioned him, pointed out how strange that sounded:
“Four and a half hours is a long time to be outside in the rain, in the mud, with a 2 1/2-year-old.”
Houck simply replied,
“I understand what you’re saying.”
Dateline revealed that despite the lack of a body or murder weapon, Young convinced the jury that the evidence, i.e., the phone data, witness accounts, and Houck’s inconsistent statements, all helped to paint a picture as clear as day. After nearly ten years of uncertainty, Houck was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in September.
Young said that it was one of the most complex cases he’d ever had his hands on. Still, the motives he presented, control, fear, and anger, were all just too heartbreakingly simple.
3. The Lawsons’ role and the night everything went wrong
One of the most interesting parts of The Trouble in Bardstown focuses on Steve and Joey Lawson, a father and son who prosecutors say helped Houck cover up Crystal Rogers’ murder. Both were later convicted of conspiracy and tampering with evidence.
The NBC true crime show detailed how the Lawsons allegedly got rid of Rogers’ car, trying to make it seem like she’d simply left town. Steve Lawson initially denied even being near the Bluegrass Parkway. But after the FBI phone analysis placed him right by the site, he changed his story to a grand jury. He later admitted that his son had called him from the parkway that night and that he went to pick him up.
In interviews shown on the NBC show, Steve said that when he arrived, he found Rogers’ Impala and got in to move the driver’s seat forward, and was apparently trying to hide that Joey had driven it. He also told investigators that Houck had previously said he wanted Rogers “gone.” Then, in his own words, Steve said,
“To me, ‘gone’ means gone.”
Even with no direct evidence linking them to the killing, the father and son were convicted based on circumstantial evidence and their own contradictory accounts. Young later said that he believed the Lawsons’ actions that night, i.e., the flat tire, the phone call, the attempt to hide the car, were the biggest mistakes in what had nearly been “the perfect crime.”
4. The tragedy that struck twice
Just when the Rogers family thought things couldn’t get worse, tragedy hit again. Sixteen months after Crystal vanished, her father, Tommy Ballard, was shot and killed while on a hunting trip with his grandson. It was reported that Tommy had been one of the most vocal advocates for justice in his daughter’s case, tirelessly pushing for answers when the investigation felt stalled.
Shane Young went on to mention that prosecutors have identified a possible connection between Tommy Ballard’s death and the same circle of suspects involved in Crystal’s disappearance.
He revealed in his interview that former Bardstown police officer Nick Houck, Brooks Houck’s brother, sold a gun to an undercover officer using the name “Nick Ballard.” Investigators believe that the gun was the same or similar caliber as the weapon used to kill Tommy Ballard.
Nick Houck has denied any role in either case and has never been charged. But as the NBC true crime show showed, this eerie coincidence only deepened the shadow hanging over Bardstown. The Ballard family, already living through one nightmare, was forced to face another.
Reporter Andrea Canning told Dateline that Sherry Ballard, Crystal’s mother, remains unbreakable despite it all. Canning said;
“She is an incredible woman and deserves so much credit for how she’s handled this...”
For us as outside watchers, this moment in the NBC episode wasn’t just about a crime, but it was about grief passed from one generation to another, and the quiet strength that refused to fade.
5. Bardstown’s dark legacy and the unanswered questions
What makes The Trouble in Bardstown so powerful isn’t just Crystal Rogers’ case, but rather it is the bigger story of a town that has seen far too much violence. Over the years, Bardstown has been known for a string of mysterious deaths, including that of police officer Jason Ellis in 2013.
Ellis was shot while clearing branches from a road, branches that investigators believe were deliberately placed there to lure him out of his vehicle.
As the NBC show revealed, Shane Young now oversees both the Rogers and Ellis cases. When asked if he expects more charges in either case, Young told Dateline,
“Don’t know. We’re working on them.”
Former Bardstown police chief Rick McCubbin also told Dateline he fired Nick Houck because he believed Houck hadn’t fully cooperated with the investigation into Crystal’s disappearance. The case has long raised questions about local corruption and divided loyalties within the small Kentucky town.
Andrea Canning said during the episode that she’d
“never covered a story this involved”
in her years with Dateline. The level of secrecy, emotion, and unanswered questions in Bardstown made it unlike any other case she’s reported on. Canning says;
“It’s amazing we were even able to break it down into two hours...”
Through all its twists, Dateline manages to pull the focus back to the human cost. A mother who never came home, a family still fighting for justice, and a town still haunted by its past.
More than ten years later, Dateline’s The Trouble in Bardstown proves that even the smallest clue, like a single phone call, can bring light to the darkest corners of a mystery.
The episode isn’t just about Crystal Rogers’ disappearance; it’s about persistence, loss, and the strange ways truth surfaces over time. Through detailed reporting and emotional interviews, the NBC true crime show gives us a full-circle look at how justice finally caught up with Bardstown’s long-held secrets.
And as prosecutor Shane Young told Dateline,
“We’re still not done.”
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