FBI searching home after receiving tips in Crystal Rogers case
NELSON COUNTY, Ky. (WLKY) — The FBI and several other agencies are searching and digging at a home in rural Nelson County after receiving tips in the Crystal Rogers investigation.
WLKY reports that records show the home has connections to the Houck family.
The FBI says the search began Tuesday and will go into at least Thursday. The home is on Whitesides Road between Mount Washington and Bardstown.
The Nelson County sheriff said late Wednesday afternoon that they have not found the body of Rogers.
According to records obtained by WLKY, that home and surrounding farmland was owned by family members of Brooks Houck, who is accused of murdering Rogers.
Rogers, a mother of five from Bardstown, disappeared in July 2015, and her body was never found.
The records say that the house being searched was sold a few years later by Brooks’ brother, Nick Houck, in 2018.
Since Rogers’ disappearance, there have been several massive searches of properties in the county, most, if not all, related to the Houck family, including Brooks and Nick.
WLKY reports this is the first time this particular property has been searched. It’s just minutes from where investigators searched last December on Thompson Hill Road.
Brooks Houck is Rogers’ former boyfriend and father of one of her children. He was charged with murder in 2023, eight years after she was last seen.
Nick Houck has been involved in the Rogers case from early on. He was a Bardstown police officer but was fired months after her disappearance for interfering with the criminal investigation.
Last year, a prosecutor dropped a bombshell during one of Brooks’ hearings saying Nick bought the firearm used to kill Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard.
Nick Houck does not currently face any charges.
Two other men are also facing charges in connection to the case: a father-son duo, Steven and Joseph Lawson.
The FBI says they plan to be at the home again on Thursday.
Anyone with information can call the FBI at 502-263-6000 or use tips.fbi.gov.
