Investigators may have finally found the location of the body of Kentucky mom of five Crystal Rogers, who vanished nine years ago.
In November last year, suspect Steven Lawson told the police that he saw his son, Joey Lawson, and another man digging at a site near Cox’s Creek in Nelson county within a few of when Rogers disappeared on July 3, 2015, according to a newly-unsealed court document.
Joey – who was arrested and charged in connection with Rogers’ murder in September 2023 – and the other man, Jeremy Thompson, were using an excavator and “burning large amounts of wood in the hole” they dug, Steven told the cops.
They were instructed to dig at the site by Jeremy’s father, David Thompson, Steven alleged.
WAVE News crews spotted authorities digging at the Cox’s Creek site in December, and prosecutors confirmed that they were excavating as part of a “murder investigation,” the outlet said.
The authorities have not confirmed whether any evidence was found at the location.
Crystal Rogers, 35, was supposedly last seen alive when she and her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, visited his family’s farm over the Fourth of July weekend in 2015.
On July 5, Rogers’ Chevrolet Impala was found abandoned with a flat tire along the Bluegrass Parkway and her keys, phone and purse were still inside the vehicle.
Four months after Rogers vanished, the local sheriff said he believed the Bardstown woman was dead, but her body was never recovered.
A little more than a year later, in November 2016, Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, was shot dead on his property as he prepared to go hunting. His murder remains unsolved.
Brooks Houck – who is also the father of Rogers’ youngest child – was long considered the prime suspect in her alleged murder.
He was finally arrested and charged in late September last year, a couple weeks after Joey Lawson pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Rogers was not mentioned in the indictment against Lawson, but the latter’s attorney confirmed to local news outlet WDRB that the charges were connected to her disappearance.
Steven Lawson was collared on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in December, WDRB reported.
The elder Lawson appeared in court on Thursday and demanded that the charges against him be dismissed on the grounds that he was verbally promised immunity in exchange for information, Spectrum News said.
David Thompson – the man who Steven Lawson said had told Joey and Jeremy Thompson to dig at the suspected dump site – died in 2022, WAVE News noted.
