5 Minute Mystery - The Bardstown Murders - Are They Connected?

Bardstown Kentucky is known as the most beautiful small town in America. It is also home to a string of unsolved murders that may or may not be connected.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One crime at a time presents five minute mystery. The
Bardstown murders. Bardstown, Kentucky, is known as the most beautiful
small town in America. It is also home to a
string of unsolved murders that may or may not be connected.
The first murder happened on May twenty fifth, two thousand thirteen,

(00:20):
at around two thirty a m. Jason Ellis, who was
a Bardstown police officer, turned on to Exit thirty four
on the Bluegrass Parkway, which is near Bardstown. Ellis was
just finishing his shift and he was taking his usual
route home when he turned on to the exit ramp.
He saw that there were some branches lying across the road,

(00:41):
so he parked his cruiser, turned on his police lights,
and started to move the branches. As he moved the branches,
some one armed with a twelve gage shotgun ambushed Ellis
and shot him three times. Ellis was just thirty three
years old. He was a seven year veteran on the
force and a husband and a father of two. His
dead body was found a short time later by commuters,

(01:03):
and his gun was still in his holster. Since one
of their own was murdered in cold blood, the Bardstown
Police Department worked around the clock to find the shooter.
The police determined that it was a premeditated murder and
the killer placed the debris in the road. What's interesting
about the debris is that it didn't come from the
area where the shooting happened, meaning that the killer brought

(01:24):
it with them. Police didn't know was if Ellis was
the target or just random victim. In the days after
the shooting, the police received many tips, but they had
no solid leads and the case went cold. Nearly eleven
months later. On April twenty second, two thousand fourteen, the
staff at Bardstown Elementary School became worried because one of

(01:45):
their special education teachers, forty eight year old Kathy Netherland,
didn't come into work. When someone went to check on
their house, they found her body, along with the body
of her sixteen year old daughter, Samantha Netherland. The medical
examiner determined that the mother and daughter were killed the
night before at about eight p m. Cathy was shot

(02:07):
multiple times, while her daughter died from blunt force trauma
to the head. Both victims also had cuts on their necks.
When investigating the brutal double homicide, what puzzled the police
was that there was no motive to the murders. Neither
the mother nor the daughter had any enemies, and there
was no reason why any one would want them dead.

(02:28):
Cathy's husband had died a year before the murders, and
the Netherlands other daughter, the only surviving member of the family,
was away at college on the night of the murders.
The police did have one lead, though, A surveillance camera
saw black two thousand six to two thousand thirteen Chevrolet
and Paala near the Netherlands home shortly after eight p m.
The Netherlands lived just outside of Bardstown, and the car

(02:50):
in the surveillance video is heading in the direction of Bardstown.
The police interviewed hundreds of people and saw hundreds of
Black Impalas, but it didn't lead to any succle. In
twenty twenty four, it was revealed that a video of
the killer walking into the Netherlands home does exist. However,
it is not clear enough to determine the killer's identity.

(03:12):
On July fourth, twenty fifteen, just fourteen months after the
double murder, thirty five year old mother of five, Crystal
Rogers of Bardstown, was reported missing by her living boyfriend,
Brooks Howck Brooks said that he last saw Rogers the
night before at about ten pm. He said that's when
he went to bed while Rogers was still awake and
on her phone. Rogers two thousand seven maroon Chevy Impaula

(03:36):
was found two days later on the Bluegrass Parkway. It
had a flat tire and inside the car was Roger's
keys and her purse, but Rogers was nowhere to be found.
In October twenty fifteen, Roger's boyfriend was identified as the
prime suspect in her disappearance. Later that month, Brook's brother,
Nick Hook, who was an officer with the Bardstown Police Department,

(03:57):
was fired from his job after failing a poly graft
test regarding the whereabouts of Rogers. The Hoax family's property
was searched, but it didn't turn up any traces of Rogers.
One person who actively searched for Rogers was her father,
Tommy Ballard. On the morning of November nineteenth, twenty sixteen,
Ballard was hunting with his grandson on his property just

(04:18):
outside of Bardstown. His grandson was on a different part
of the property when he heard a gunshot. He walked
towards the sound of the gunshot and he found his
grandfather lying on the ground.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Ballard had been killed by a shot to the chest.
Ballard's family says that in the month before he was killed,
he said that he was being followed. In twenty twenty three,
Brooks Hawk was indicted on charges of murder and evidence tampering,
while Stephen and Joseph Lawson, a father and son, were
indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit murder and

(04:50):
to tampering with physical evidence in the murder of Crystal Rogers.
It was revealed in a pre trial hearing that the
prosecutor of the case believes they had the murder weapon
that killed Tommy Ballard, a weapon they obtained from none
other than Nick Hock. All three defendants have pleaded not
guilty and will go to trial in February twenty twenty five.

(05:13):
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