Blood Ties: Tommy Ballard’s Fight for Justice—and the Price He Paid

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to Chillworthy.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
A podcast where two best friends discuss mysteries, murders, and
anything in between for your enjoyment.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So if you're ready to hear some chilling and unsettling cases,
you're in the right place, happy listening. Hello, Hello, everyone,
Welcome back to another episode of Chillworthy with Brent and Talia.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi everybody, how.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm good? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm doing good?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
We're both very demure.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, yes, it is like not winter, I guess, but
it's kind of feeling like a fall day today.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
It is so chilly and it.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is very super cold.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
To say, we're in our sweatsuits one of us is,
the other is dressed huff for summer.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Right, half and half?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Do you have any books to talk about?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Okay, go for it.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
A bit of a rule, thank you. Do you have
fish facts?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, then I think we should talk about other animals.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I don't have any fish.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Know what we could do?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
We could be like we could ask each other what
our favorite not that we're pro zoo, but zoo animal
like what you would stereotypically, I'm sorry, think of in
a zoo or like our favorite aquarium animal or you know,

(01:47):
let's do that.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Fine, But why don't you tell me about your books?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
First?

Speaker 5 (01:53):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:54):
You want books too, I know you do. We talked
about it last week.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, but this is going to be it. Wait what
but you had too? Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, I do?

Speaker 1 (02:01):
I do? Well? Should I just go then? Because okay?
And I'm keeping an eye on the fifteen minute marker
because because we do it's not a book podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Actually goes to me, do you have books to talk
about this week?

Speaker 4 (02:16):
I said, I absolutely do.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
She goes like, how many? And I said four? And
she goes, you.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Should probably just do two. I think, excuse me, I
need to do them.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I'll only do two.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Get out of here, both of you.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well that's fine, but just when we get to fifteen minutes,
we get to fifteen.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Minutes, and then we have to do our animal question.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's all in the fifteen minutes now, So all right?
I yes, you're right. I did tell you I finished Witchcraft.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
For Wayward Girls, I remember by.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Grady Hendrix, which was very good, four point five out
of five.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
You know, I don't really do stars.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Right, but for you to even put that out there,
that's freaking high.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yes, and I think it was primarily because I I
think I was expecting a different kind of book, more
that like a book that's a little bit more up
my alley, and it wasn't as much. Well, I just
felt like it would be a little heavier on the
witchcraft and a little a little more like thrilling maybe,

(03:18):
but it was just I'm not even saying it. There
was certainly witchcraft, but it was just different and I
but I liked it, so you'd highly recommend, I would
recommend it.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, that author is male, correct, Grady, Yeah, I'm almost
certain there's another book floating around by him at the moment,
like a mirror.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Two that I know of.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, did you read the other.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
One, how to Sell a Haunted House?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
And that other one that I have on my shelf.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
The it's like a Southern.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh yeah, that's exactly the vampire Yeah, but I forget
Southern book. It's a vampire slang.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's exactly what I'm thinking of, scratch.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Vampire Slang something of that, sure,
which I also I think I liked this one more,
but the other one was more horror based. So but yeah,
I haven't read the Haunted House one, because again I
don't care for haunted houses, ghosts. I don't give a shit.

(04:25):
So and then, and this is why I'm probably not
going to talk about books for quite a while, because
I'm diving into an entire fantasy series as I told you,
which came out, I want to say, in two thousand
and six. But he's still writing it now, miss Born.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
I don't think when you told me about this that
I realized he was still writing.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
I didn't know that either.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, really, but he's just extremely extremely popular in the
fantasy franchise, and people have been talking about these books
for as long as I can remember, obviously since they
came out, and just how incredible the fantasy world is
and the world building and the magic system and all

(05:10):
of this stuff. But like, right off the bat, there's
at least seven books just in this storyline. But he
has an entire universe of books, so I'm sure he
has fifteen, sixteen books maybe, and he's still going so
like I'm not saying I'm going past the seventh book

(05:32):
at the moment, maybe not even past the third until
I want to, because it's like it's like a trilogy
and then a quartet or whatever they call it. So
but anyway, so we'll see. But it's the premise of
the book is basically he basically wrote a world where
the bad guy did win instead of the good guy.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Sounds nice and different, a unique storyline.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Right, So it's like if Voltimore won at the end
of Harry Potter instead, and like what the world looks like.
And now there's sort of like a you know, a
rebellion that's happening and they want to take back the
world and stuff. But he's been in power for like
hundreds of years at this point. And the people in

(06:18):
this world some of them have no powers. Most of
them have no powers. But then there are people who
can control some things, and then there's people who can
control all things. And the way, right, and the way
that the magic system works is like you have to

(06:39):
drink metals, like you'll put like lead shavings or steel shavings,
tiny little shavings in your water and you drink it,
and then each different metal gives you a different ability.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Amethyst no, but so it's just like that.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
It's like one will give you like superior strength, but
you only have enough of it with in terms of
how much you drank and once it's gone, it's gone.
So the magic isn't innately just in the people where
it's like it's just an endless supply. It's like that's
why it's like there's there's very strict rules, which you know,
so it's like soft magic is like Harry Potter, you

(07:23):
can just do shit and it just works right, and
hard magic is where it's like the rules are pretty
fixed in place.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
So it sounds a little complicated a little.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
But I mean I'm like halfway through the first book now,
and it's you I you know. I mean the main
character is learning about it as she's going, so it's like.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
It as the reader.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Right, So anyway, okay, what are your books?

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, real quick, I didn't read these, but speaking of
what just like series and sort of like magic and
fantasy world. I was just talking to someone and they
recommended the way words.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Oh I did look that up?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, yeah, which you and I when we were talking
about it and neither of us had heard of it,
and I guess you know, there's several of them, but
they are smaller size books, like you know, length wise,
But when I had looked them up, it sounds what
did I say that it's like children who have special
powers but then are then like thrust.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Oh, I thought it was then there.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
You told me it was the world. You told me
it was kids that fell into a fantasy world. And
we talked about, right, they don't have powers, thought like
Alice in Wonderland. Yes, yes, right, So you said it's
about kids that go to a place like that, come
back and then they're having problems readjusting to the world

(08:48):
after they've been to the other world.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, understand correctly.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, so it's like Alice comes back and she doesn't
she's having trouble adjusting to being in the normal world
after she left Wonderland.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
I think that's the point.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
And Narnia Edmund Lucy God I loved that. Oh goodness. Yeah,
so I want to check that out. I'm very very
curious about that. And I feel like I don't read
a lot of fantasy, like very very minimal. One of
the ones I'm reading right now is considered fantasy. But
I so, and maybe I even talked about it. Do

(09:25):
you remember it was Legends and Lattes and it was
like a sapphic fantasy read and like I want to say,
she opens up.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
A coffee shop, and so this is the prequel to that,
and it's called Bookshops and bone Dust.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
I want to say, yes. So it's good, very light read.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
I've been reading other stuff while I'm reading it, so
I just renewed it through Libby for like I should
be finishing up soon though. I mean it's like a
very easy, cozy read. And this one is set in
like a co stole town, so it has like beechy
vibes kind of, so it's, you know, it's cute. I'm
also reading Lone Women by Victor Laval la Vale. It's

(10:11):
one of the books of the month that I got
like two three years ago, never read it. I think
it's like nineteen twelve possibly, and it's about a girl,
well a black family who has what did I tell
you plums? They have a plan to get yeah, And
the book starts with this girl's parents, and I don't

(10:35):
think we know how old she is yet, or maybe
we do either like late late teens or early twenties,
I would say, And it doesn't sound like there were
any other children. I think it's just her. She's an
only child. And the book starts out with like her
parents are deceased and she's pouring gasolene on them. Oh right,
in the family home. They're like in bed and she's

(10:55):
lighting it on fire and like leaving town. But the
vibe that I'm getting from the description is not that
she killed them, but she's like whispering weird stuff into
the moth's ears. And so she ends up relocating. I
believe this is in California. I might be mixing books up,
and she relocates to Montana. So I'm very very early

(11:16):
on in it, like I'm not far at all, but
it's it was in the horror section, but I don't
see how we're going to be getting there, but who knows.
So I was going to suggest it to you, but
I feel like, you know, hold on to your hat
for now. I'm not sure if you'll be particularly into it.
So I read Private Rights, which was one of the
climate change ones by Julia Armfield. She's the author that

(11:40):
wrote Our Wives under the Sea that I had read
Horror with the Underwater Some monstery thing Happened No one knew, excellent,
excellent book. So same author. This one is basically like
a king Lear Spin, which I knew nothing about king Lear.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
Do you know that story only by name?

Speaker 2 (12:00):
It's like this father who has I believe three daughters,
and I want to say it's like the ones who
were like wonderful and selfless to him, he basically screws over.
If I understood it correctly, this is kind of like
a loose adaptation of King Lear.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
So this super successful.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Engineer man who's the father of these three girls dies
and it's basically the aftermath of his death, and like
they don't get along with each other, and they have
different mothers and like it's a very kind of complicated,
like emotional story. But climate change is like it's futuristic

(12:40):
and it rains constantly now in the world, like and
it just shows how that has affected the world and
how like things are breaking down because everything.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Is so saturated.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
They've had to like housing and public housing in the
communities is just a mess because there's nowhere for people
to live. They're constantly having to leave their homes. Our
homes are getting.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
Destroyed, Like the power grid.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Is taking it. It's taking a huge toll in.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
The power grid.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
It's just it's it's so well written and so fascinating,
extremely bleak, very sad, but I loved it and it
gave that four stars. I also just finished The Night
We Lost Him by Laura Dave gave that four stars
as well. That one was a super quick read, good mystery.
This man has.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Pushed off a cliff. That's how the book starts.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
You don't know what exactly happened, but you know he
was pushed based off like the little tidbit it gives
you in the first few pages, and then the rest of.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
The book is like basically two of his.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Children trying to figure out, like what happened because it
looks as though he fell, but they don't believe that
that's what happens.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
You're not sure, all right, seventeen minutes.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Thank you for your Thank you for giving me creative freedom.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
You're welcome.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Okay, we're gonna start now.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Fine, just so you know, good, no animal questions, not
right now. We can do that in the next episode.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
You sure can, all right. So today's case I am doing.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
It is the case of the I'm gonna call it
the case of the Ballard Family b A lll ar D.
All Right, So with the Ballard family. This case starts
in July of twenty fifteen.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Very recent.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
So a woman by the name of Crystal Rogers who
was Tommy's Tommy's boy right, Tommy Ballard's daughter.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Tommy Ballard's daughter was Crystal.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Right, got it? So father daughter, right, and of course
there was so there was a mother also, like it was.
It was a family, but like the daughter was was
an adult. Okay, So she was a mother of five
and she was last seen by her boyfriend Brooks Hoke

(15:16):
ho u c K Hawk?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
I would say, how Hawk, but Hoke is a male name.
I've never heard of Hawke as a male. Oh no,
is that that was not the last name? Oh yeah, then.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Definitely hal Heck.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Okay, did you ever see.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
The movie Driving Miss Daisy Hope? No is It's It's
a freaking fantastic movie. It's beautiful eighties. I want to
say you wouldn't like it.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
But.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
I love it. Loved it as a child, love it.
Still very heartwarming story. Jessica Tandy anyway.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
All right?

Speaker 1 (15:51):
So yeah, all right, So July twenty fifteen, Like I said,
Crystal Rogers, she vanishes without a trace. She's the mother five.
Last scene with her boyfriend or by her boyfriend Brooks
howk the night of July third, and so she goes
missing and it looks as if she had just disappeared.

(16:13):
And from day one, her parents suspected foul play. They
just felt like something was very, very off, and you know,
they just could not shake this feeling. So one of
the things was that Crystal's family was not very fond
of Brooks, who was Crystal's boyfriend. Now they lived together,

(16:35):
they had one son together, but Cristel had four kids already, so.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
The child she shared with him was the youngest.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yes, got it, and I believe he was two years old.
So Crystal's family wasn't very fond of Brooks because he
seemed to treat her four other children differently than he
treated the one that was biologically hit in terms of
like monetarily, like if they would go to the grocery store,
he would buy food for that one for his child,

(17:09):
but then like hers would have to go on a
separate kind of bill. And from researching this and from
listening to different podcasts, people kept making the same point,
which is because some people were saying, like they understand,
you know, when you're in a blended family, like money,
things can get a little complicated sometimes, and especially if
it's like four kids coming in to you know, to

(17:31):
a new marriage or well this wasn't even a marriage
but a shared home or whatever. But Brooks was from
a very affluent family, so like money wasn't necessarily any
type of issue.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
So I guess, you.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Know, a lot of people made that point where it
was like they weren't like struggling to get by, and
so he was really pinching every penny. It was just
it seemed more like a choice of what he was doing. Yeah,
So anyway, it was just a very hard just action
like drawn between the four previous children and then his
one biological son. So from what I gathered, the day

(18:09):
or night that Crystal disappears, Brooks says that they were, uh,
they drove out to his family's farm. And this happened
in Kentucky. I don't know if I said that or not.
It didn't Okay, Kentucky. So he says they drove out there.
I guess they fed the cows, which sounds very nice
to me. They made a bonfire, and then they basically

(18:31):
just hung out. Before that they had before they went home.
But this is like ten eleven at night, and they
also had their two year old with them, which is
an odd time. I feel like to be just hanging
out with a two year old.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Like I I mean, he could have been put down
to sleep and then slept the rest of the way
in the car. Maybe they needed him to sleep in
the car. I mean, I feel like.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
And I know nothing about that lifestyle. Same but I'm
just saying, I don't know. I picture children going to
bed at like seven, not eleven. But maybe I'm wrong.
I don't know, But so anyway, this is what he says.
Then he says they get home. Brooks then reported that
he and the Sun had gone to bed and Crystal
stayed up to play a game on her phone, and

(19:12):
that was the last time he saw her. So the
next day when she's not there. He says that in
the past, it wasn't completely unusual that if Crystal was
angry about something or whatever, she would spend the night
at one of her cousin's houses, whose name was Sabrina.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
How often was she getting mad because she's.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Not too often, Because Sabrina came forward and said, like,
this is completely not factual, Like she's come over twice
and she stayed for a few hours overnight.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
No, but liar, liar pants on fire, right.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
But Brooks is saying that this is like a normal
thing anyway. So Brooks is making it sound like, you know,
this is a normal thing, and oh yeah, like she'll disappear,
not disappear, but she'll go to this cousin's house her
for a little while and you know, like so not
a big deal, right. So I guess he hadn't alluded
to any big type of argument.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
At first, but then he created one.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I mean he just like whatever, Yeah, it was just like, oh, yeah,
she's probably over there.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
The other thing that was very odd was that he
wasn't the one to report her missing.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
I was just going to ask you, when did he
report her missing? Finally, Well he.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Didn't, right, So basically what happened was Cristel's oldest daughter,
how old I don't know actually how old she was,
but old enough to realize her mom was missing. Call yes,
well she called her grandmother. So she called Cristel's mom
and said, hey, I can't find mom. Have you heard
from her? The grandmother said no. But it was pretty

(20:46):
unusual for Crystal not to respond to text messages or
phone calls, so a few hours went by, and then
the daughter called the grandmother again and was still like,
I don't know, you know, she's not answering, she's not responding,
blah blah blah. And that's when Crystal's mom knew that
something was not right, and between her and her husband,

(21:08):
Christal's father, you know, they were the ones that decided
that they were going to get the police involved because
they had contacted Brooks and like I said, he seemed
pretty unphased about the situation, and they were like, well,
we should, right, we should report her missing because I
think at this point it had been over twenty four
hours then.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So even with what he said, if it was true,
she still should according to him, she should have been
back by then and was not well.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
According to Sabrina, the cousin, she only stayed a few hours.
He was saying she would spend days there, oh days,
And that's when the cousin said like, no.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
That's not true, right, yeah, But he.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Seemed unphased by it and was like, Okay, well, if
that's what you think you should do, then, yeah, like
go report her missing.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Right, So that's what they did.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Fine, we will so now, which if I could just stop,
which if you think about it, though, is still like
obviously this whole thing is strange, but like it's like
if you and I went on a trip and you leave,
whatever the circumstances, you're not there, you don't come back.

(22:17):
I'm the one on the trip with you. I call
your parents and or not even I guess they would
have had to call it me and be like he's
not responding to anything, and I'd be like, oh, yeah,
well he didn't come back, but I'm not worried. And
then they're the ones like, Okay, well we're gonna call
it in though, like they're not even.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
With you, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Like her parents weren't even the ones there. He was
the last one to be with her, and he's not
the one freaking even right there.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
The parents did live in the same town though they
all lived in this tiny little town.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Just so you know, Okay, okay, but still.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, no, I agree.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
So, like I said, she disappears on the third or
the last time. Brooks says he saw her on the third,
the evening of the third. Now we're at July fifth,
so two days later, Crystal's car is now found and
along the Bluegrass Parkway in Bardstown, Kentucky, which is the
town that they lived in, specifically located near mile marker fourteen.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I imagine that's important.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Well not necessarily, but I said that because of how
you thought that all the automotive places kept car trackers
everyone's car.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
We went on a recent trip, and how we called
nine one one. Did I tell you about this?

Speaker 1 (23:28):
No?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
And they asked about the mile markers during the nine
to one one oh, and I was like, oh my god,
here we ef and go.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
God love Ashley. She freaking riddled it right off.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
She remembered in the seven seconds of what we saw.
She remembered everything. I got the color of the car wrong.
I got pretty much everything wrong, or I just didn't know.
So yeah, anyway.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
But anyway, so she had a red Chevrolet and Paula
and they noticed that, you know, like one of the
tires was flat. No, well sorry, almost flat, but still drivable.
So one of those tires, like I said, was specifically.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Low on air.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
There was in the car, her keys, her perse, and
her cell phone were all still inside, all things that
nobody is just leaving their car, even if they had
to walk somewhere to get help. They're not not taking
their keys, their purse or their cell phone.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
So nice though for what year this was in twenty fifteen,
Like I'm.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Hoping you're about to say, well.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Probably not because the phone was sitting there, but I was, well,
maybe before I was going to say, at least with
the phone still left behind, they could hopefully see any
recent messages, any incoming outgoing calls. Where did her phone ping?
Obviously we know where it ended up with the car,
but I'm thinking prior to the car coming to a stop, like,
where did it ping? Maybe hopefully they can find all

(24:53):
that out.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Maybe hopefully so. Her brother, I think, was the one
that came across the car like when he was driving
around looking for it. So his name was Casey, and
he had noted something that the driver's seat was positioned
really far back then she would typically have had it,

(25:16):
suggesting that somebody else might have been driving the car,
somebody taller perhaps, And Casey also really found it hard
to believe that she would have pulled over on the parkway,
which is like the highway, and wouldn't have waited like
to get off the highway to stop the car, because
like I said, it was still drivable and I think
she's actually been in that situation once or twice before

(25:38):
and had done that, like she had driven until she
was off the highway with a flat or semi flat
tire and then calls for help. So he just found
this odd that he basically stated she didn't drive this
car here like that was his quote.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Do we know the height difference between Brooks and her I.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Don't, yeah, but from the pictures, he seemed to be
quite taller. Yeah. So Crystal's family is very troubled by
this discovery, and her mom, whose name is Sherry, you know,
she believed that the car with this kind of like
semi flat tire was sort of staged just to throw
off investigators completely, because again, nobody believes that she would

(26:24):
just leave all of these items, like if all of
that happened in real life, that she would just get
out of the car and leave all these items there.
Now things get stranger because Okay, so now her car
is found, and now the police are involved in people
are being interviewed and all this stuff, and including Brooks

(26:45):
is being interviewed. So Brooks is being interviewed, and the
thing that was very alarming, not only to Crystal's family,
but I think to like most people in general, is that.
So Brooks he had a brother, Nick, and Nick was
a Bardstown police officer at the time that this occurred,

(27:10):
and Nick did something that raised a huge, huge red flag.
So when Brooks is being interviewed at the police station
by detectives, Brooks gets a phone call from Nick and literally,
you know, you can see this on the video because

(27:31):
they were taping Brooks being interviewed. When he gets his
phone call from his brother, he's talking on the phone
to his brother and basically Nick says to Brooks, don't
answer any of their questions, just leave. Like now I
don't know that word for word, but the point of
because we couldn't hear what Nick said on the phone.

(27:53):
But Brooks was responding like, oh, well, look, if you
think I should just leave, then I will. I was
just trying to help them out here, like that.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
He's a saint, so and I guess Brooks repeated back
to Nick. He's like, yeah, I know you've told me
this before that innocent people go to jail sometimes too,
So just like weird sound bites that are coming from
this phone call, and basically he does Brooks does end
up leaving, and like I said, this is like a

(28:22):
crazy ass thing for another police officer to do, to
call mid detective interview to say, don't answer any of
their questions and leave, like that's pretty damn suspicious.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I mean, I don't know if you were about to
tell us like Nick was involved in this, but I'm
thinking Nick is still a human. He's trying to protect
his brother if he doesn't for sure know what happened,
and he wonders, like, shit, did Brooks do something to her?
Like he's trying to protect his brother. I'm not condoning it,
but I feel like he's a cop. He knows how
this works. What he told Nick or what I'm sorry,

(29:02):
what he told Brooks wasn't untrue like if they're not.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
No, none of it was untrue, but it was more
like I guess it was more just strange because Brooks
was not Like Brooks wasn't under arrest or something he was,
He should have been answering questions about his missing wife.
Absolutely so, like but right, so for this other police
officer to call and basically say, don't talk to them,
protect yourself.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
They're trying to trip you up.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
It's just it made the investigators pretty stunned that a
cop would do this, especially, like I said, mid interrogation,
I guess I don't know whatever. So, like I told you,
Brooks did abruptly just end the interview after receiving that call.
He basically shut up and left.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Was he nice and like I'm gonna have to actually
leave now or was he like you?

Speaker 1 (29:48):
I know, he was pretty pretty normal about it, just
like okay, I'm gonna go, right. So so then I
guess the detectives then called Nick to say like, all.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Right, well, you know law well.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Law enforcement to law enforcement, like you got to come
talk to us and tell us like like what do
you I mean, what is happening here that you're saying this?
And he said no, he wouldn't come and talk to no.
So then I guess, I guess the FBI gets involved
because the he was tampering, well, the police department didn't

(30:26):
want it to look like they were tampering with something,
so they wanted the FBI to come in separately from
them to interview Nick, like make him be interviewed right,
so that it didn't look like there was any weird
stuff going on. Yeah, so they did come in they
gave Nick a polygraph test and when he was at
like he was being asked about crystal disappearance and the

(30:47):
phone call that he made to his brother and stuff,
and one of the examiners did report that Nick was
being deceptive during the test. But again, I mean, right,
I don't even know why we'd do them, agreed, But anyway,
that's just that was just that. So but but if
your Crystal's family, I mean, this is gonna raise a
few red flags for you. So like they still are

(31:07):
like this is a complete cover up, like something is
not right here. And Crystal's father, Tommy Ballard, was like
very gung ho about, like we have got to find
out what happened, which of course is a normal reaction,
but like he was just kind of like leading the
charge on what are we gonna do? Like you know,
how are we going to continue to look into this?

(31:28):
Like blah blah blah. So Tommy quickly became the driving
force in this search for Crystal. So he organized volunteers,
he created a create a team Crystal community. So day
after day for sixteen months, Tommy and his family are
just scouring rural Nelson County, which is where they lived

(31:51):
for any sign of Crystal, and Tommy never gave up,
and sometimes he would physically be searching, like out in fields,
out in woodland and whatever. And if he wasn't, then
he was like at home, pouring over maps and looking
up tips on his computer and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yes, do we know if Brooks was also participating in
the searching.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I don't think too much. And I guess he had
promised his grandchildren that he would bring their mom home
and he never gave up on that. So Tommy's wife, Sherry, then,
you know, she said that it wasn't just talk. You know,
Tommy truly meant that he was going to solve his

(32:35):
daughter's disappearance himself, even if he had to. So they're
putting up flyers and billboards and even large roadside signs
pleading for any information, and they including like one a
sign that they put up was a large sign right
across the Bluegrass Parkway where her car had been found,
and it was displaying a photo of her and a

(32:56):
tip line number. So obviously they are heavily not intrigued,
heavily encompassed. What's what am I trying to say?

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Immersed?

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yes, heavily immersed in the search for Crystal.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, do you have any pictures? I want to see
what she looks like.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I mean, I've seen her, but I don't have any
rate here.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I just saw a picture.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
She's adorable. She looks like a little sweetye pie.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yes. So anyway, like I said, he's just refusing to
give up on this story. So now we are in
November of twenty sixteen, and it's actually November nineteenth to
be exact. So now we're sixteen months after Crystal. Crystal disappeared.

(33:44):
So Tommy is like, he just needs a freaking break. Now,
this was a family who enjoyed hunting, so he takes
one of Crystal's sons, a twelve year old grandson, out
on their property to go hunting.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
I'm nervous.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
So they were on this land. It was it was
adjacent to the Bluegrass Parkway, again, not totally far from
where Crystal's car had been found. So that morning, Tommy
and his grandson park their truck in a field and
they're preparing to meet They were going to meet other

(34:25):
relatives who were also into hunting, and they were gonna
go deer hunting, like for the day so fine, So
they're getting ready. Tommy is like scanning the tree line.
I get, you know, whatever I look in for, whatever
one does for this, markings on trees. I don't freaking know,
but he's looking for this, and in an instant, out

(34:48):
of nowhere, Tommy gets shot in the chest and dies
just instantly.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
What First of all, first of all, I thought you
were gonna say.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
I know what you thought I was gonna say.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Not Initially, first I was going to say. I was thinking,
oh my god, there's gonna be like this poor family
and everything that they just went through. Now there's gonna
be tragedy where like something goes wrong with one of
the guns and her son, the twelve year old, gets killed.
Then I'm like, no, with how where the location of
this is. They're gonna find her, like that's what it's

(35:25):
gonna be. They're gonna find her skeletal remains and this
poor boy and the trauma, and how is he ever
going to recover from this? Well, now, his freaking poor
grandfather was shot right in front of his space murdered,
I assume, because how interesting. Tommy won't let this go.
He's pushing as hard as he is and then he
magically gets freaking killed and a shot to the chest.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, so I assume, all right.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
So okay, So, like I said, one shot instantly dead,
Tommy falls down.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
The other relatives have arrived right now, they have way
Is alone.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
His terrified grandson obviously runs over to him. Tommy was
already unresponsive, killed immediately by this single mysterious gunshot.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
It also makes me wonder, you know, if Tommy and
Sherry were still having contact.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
With Brooks because of.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
The youngest grandson who.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Was Brook's child.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I'm just curious who knew that they were going to
be out there like these other family members, Who did
they speak to? How did whoever did this to Tommy
know that they were going to be out there at
that moment, you know, right?

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Well, And I don't think it was completely uncommon, Like
I mean, I think again, it was a small town.
I think people knew that they enjoyed hunting and stuff.
I know what you're saying, but I'm just saying, like,
I don't think it was an unusual thing for them
to be doing either. So I think the mixture, it's sure,
it falls somewhere in between of like, yes, it was
a specific thing you needed to know, but it also

(36:56):
wasn't too hard to figure out maybe, so yeah, it's
just I don't know how difficult that would be too,
you know, to get that information, but about when they'd
be out there. But anyway, poor Sherry. Yeah, so I
mean yes, And the scene was very shocking and heartbreaking
because now this is the second tragedy that has affected

(37:16):
this family in like what a year exactly. Yeah, you know,
one moment they're just out hunting, and then the next
Tommy is lying on the ground and his grandson is
like standing over him. So police and emergency responders arrive,
and they found Tommy's hunting rifle, which was still unloaded

(37:37):
and cold, so it wasn't like he he was he
accidentally shot himself or something. The grandson did not accidentally
shoot him because again the gun wasn't even loaded, So
it was immediately clear that this was no hunting accident,
just plain.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Devil's advocate, and I know nothing about hunting. I do
not think this was an accident at all. I definitely
think this was like I said, Tommy, you know, digging
too deep and someone not appreciating that and taking care
of Tommy. But the way hunting occidents accidents go. Technically, though,

(38:15):
it could have been another hunter who just misfired and
killed him, right, Yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I think technically, but I just I feel like I
don't know, and this could be completely wrong, but I
feel like the hunting community seems to try to be
pretty damn responsible with that d.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Call, good call, and that this was like a hunting town.
It's not like, right, you would expect such a thing.
It's all like it was this whole huge amount of
like out of towners or people who just weren't that familiar. Yeah, good,
And like I said, I do not think that's what happened.
I mean, just the timing of this and that Tommy
would not give up his search.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
And I also I think that you know, they were
dressed in proper attire like fluoresh since you know, orange
and things like that, so I think, but yeah, so,
I mean, it just seemed like it was definitely not
a hunting accident. So news of Tommy's death spread very
fast through Bardstown, and you know, it hit the community

(39:16):
pretty hard, especially because of how much of an advocate
he was for his daughter. So now it's like Tommy
is also gone and his death seems to be pretty suspicious.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Oh for sure that was a coincidence at all.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
And then they were trying to silence him, right, because
it's like, you know, who would have shot a guy
with his grandson, you know, I don't know, that's just
and just.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
The preciseness of that shot, right, I don't know. I mean,
obviously I was thinking like law enforcement, but I mean
really hunter, which could be one of the same. Yeah,
I don't know, So to their I'm so sorry real quick.

(40:07):
They also didn't kill the grandson, like you know what
I mean, Like I feel like they one had the
self control like almost made it more meaningful, if you will,
of like that's who they wanted, Like, no need to
kill the grandson.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
No, they certainly did.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
They certainly weren't worried about him being a witness either,
So whoever did this? I feel like they were carefully
tucked away that they weren't worried about being seen unless
someone did see them, right, we'll find out.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I don't know, You're correct, So you know, to the
rest of the family, now, this is still like unthinkable
that this has just happened. And almost immediately they voiced
what many people were thinking that this was an obvious
murder and that somebody did this to stop Tommy from
continuing to ask questions about Crystal and try to find her.

(40:55):
So in the weeks leading up to that day, Tommy
hi himself actually had an uneasy feeling that he couldn't shake,
and he had told this to Sherry, that he thought
that someone was following him.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
I'm so glad he said this to someone and that
it wasn't like it didn't die with him. You know, yes,
I'm serious.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, as he drove around the town.
So in hindsight, Sherry was convinced that those suspicions.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
Were very accurate.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Hell yeah, and she said, I think someone wanted my
husband out of the way because we were getting close
to Crystal and they knew he was the driving force
behind her.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Well, buckle up. I hope Sherry took right the hell over.
Or are they going to kill her next?

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Probably?

Speaker 1 (41:40):
So. Investigators now are digging into Tommy's death, and more
evidence began to support the family's fears. Not long after
the incident, a local witness came forward with a interesting detail.
She recalled driving to work early that same morning, around
six am and seeing a car pull over on the

(42:00):
side of the Bluegrass Parkway near an overpass, and this
car was parked in an emergency lane. The lights were
off in a spot that, it turns out was directly
adjacent to the Ballard's property where Tommy was shot. So
when Tommy's son, Casey heard the description, he immediately recognized
the area and he said that it backs up to

(42:22):
their farm. So basically, whoever was in that car would
have had a very good lookout point and escape route
if they were going to wait for Tommy to be
out hunting.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
So you're saying, whoever was in this car was the
lookout or who did it?

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Well, it could be both.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Yeah, I guess there could be multiple people.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
But so, but the location was close enough, Like they're.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Calling the location a lookout, meaning like it's a good
vantage point to see what's going on and to do
something about it. Yeah, especially with a hunting rifle, of course.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
I mean, just it's right right, right right, Wait, I'm sorry,
and we know that's what shot like, that's what killed him.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yes, So the witness said that she thought it was
odd because of just like I said, of the time
and where it was parked, but obviously she wasn't thinking
it was somebody waiting to murder someone else, of course,
but she was like, you know, I knew that I
saw something. If I had known, I would have stopped
that morning, you know, But I'm thinking stop she would

(43:28):
have been offt that doesn't sound like a good plan.
But she was like, I wish I could have prevented
that from happening.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
God lover probably haunted her forever.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
So this report fueled the theory that maybe a getaway
driver might have dropped off the shooter and was waiting
on the parkway to pick that person up, like after
they had made the shot. And there were also physical
clues at the scene that also pointed to an orchestrated,
intentional attack, So some law enforcement experts visited the Ballad

(44:01):
family farm later. They noticed that there was something pretty
strange at the edge of the woods. So a section
of the brush and the thicket had been sawed down
to create a clearing, almost like somebody had cut a
window through all of the foliage, and Casey Ballard suspected
that the killer might have done that to get an

(44:21):
unobstructed view of his father while his father was out
in the field with the grandson.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
So premeditated and that no one noticed this, Like even
the planning of having to do that to the brush,
they needed to make sure they were doing that when
nobody was around to see them they you know what
I mean, Like they carried that out fine and had
to put forth probably a lot of planning, multiple people
there on that property, making sure nobody was around nobody
would hear them see them.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
A veteran police officer, he had also agreed when he
looked at it, that this was a surveillance point, a
spot from which somebody could secretly observe Tommy's like routine,
which I know you had asked about that before. So
I'm kind of wondering, and I don't know if this
is something hunters do, but do they always take the
same kind of path, you know? Like I don't know,
but maybe this person knew that, Like let's pretend it

(45:15):
was somebody that was close to the family exactly and
knew that Tommy was going to be hunting that day,
Like would he have the same route that he always has,
and that he just happens to pass right in front
of this unobstructed view that somebody has now cut out
of the forest to see, like you know. So they
also discovered that not far from this, they saw a

(45:38):
rifles kickback mark on a tree, which I had no
idea what that was, but it was basically like a
scuff from the force. Yes, that might be left of
a shooter braced their gun against a tree trunk when
they fired.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I know what a kickback is. I didn't know that
that was a thing that like you musition yourself against
a tree to absorb that. Yeah, but your shoulders.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
The door of the air.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
I don't freaking know.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
So after finding this and seeing like this stuff like
this premeditated kind of area, right, they were thinking that
it was likely a sniper style ambush, and one of
the ballistics experts told Casey that it's not an accident,
it's an assassination of your dad. So early on, authorities

(46:31):
were somewhat tight lipped about officially labeling Tommy's death a
homicide because for a time they didn't completely rule out
the unlikely scenario of, like you had said, maybe a
free hunting accident. So as I was telling you, all
this evidence starts to continue to pile up, and it
became increasingly clear that Tommy Ballard was deliberately killed. The

(46:53):
why seemed obvious to the Ballards. Like I had said,
it had everything to do with Crystal, and Tommy's son
quoted saying, I feel like if they thought they got
rid of him, everything would get brushed under the table
because he was the main driving force. He was the
one out there pushing it, and they thought, well, if
I get rid of him, then everything's done. It'll shut

(47:13):
everybody up. So that was what they were, you know,
thinking happened. So now this is a little bit of
a switch up again, back to the Crystal part of
the story. But this part is freaking wild to me.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
All I thought we just hit wild, so well.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Wild in a way of being like making someone angry.
I would I would like, if you hear this, you'd
be like, I can't believe this person.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Get hearing this.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah. So now we're too So now we're in July
of twenty seventeen, so we're two years after Crystal has vanished.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
And a year almost a year from when Tommy was right.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
So Brooks now he has a new girlfriend all about him.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
I was so wrapped up in poor Tommy. I completely
forgot about Brooks. I'm sorry, a new girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
He has a new girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
With a child on the way.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Question, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Her name is also Crystal.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Oh god, classless, poor taste, man, poor taste.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
So this new Crystal, she's caught on camera tearing down
signs relating to the original Crystal about if information is
known or if anybody's seen her, you know, please call
this number. So she's caught on camera ripping these signs down, which.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
With how you've repeatedly said in the story that you've
emphasized how small of a town this is. I'd imagine
they knew each other.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
I don't know if they knew each other, but either way.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
She sure as hell knows it's Brooks's yeah, missing white
or girlfriend?

Speaker 1 (48:59):
O yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
So she gets arrested.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
They arrested her for.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
That and charged with theft by unlawful taking, and in
September of twenty seventeen, she pleads guilty to the charges,
and as part of her plea agreement, she was required
to write a letter of apology to Crystal's mother. Wowow,
so anyway, I just when I heard that, I thought, like,

(49:24):
you have to what like.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Did she say, like, could you find anything of like
what was her response.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
To Nope, I have no idea what So she.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Never once said like not that I saw me.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah, no, no, she acted on her oun So I
then I just wanted to like see you know, so
what was Tommy exactly doing that somebody was getting so
potentially upset about this that they needed to shoot him.
So some of the stuff that I researched that he
was doing was that he, like I think I said
this earlier, he was actively mapping out areas and gathering tips.

(50:00):
He was also checking out inconsistencies in different witness statements.
Like Tommy was talking to anybody who would speak to him,
and over time he began noticing discrepancies in people's stories,
particularly those surrounding Crystal's last known whereabouts and the days
that followed, and he was keeping notes and he was
beginning to build a picture of what didn't add up.

(50:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
The other thing that just struck me and that like
people thought he was getting too close. It still makes
me wonder if it was someone close to the family,
because even if he's noticing that stories are starting to
have inconsistencies, the people that he's talking to don't necessarily
know that, So I'm curious, like who was he talking
to and then who were they? Like I'm assuming he's

(50:44):
telling Sherry. I'm assuming he's telling Corey. Casey, Sorry, Casey.
It's just making me wonder, like who was that information
shared with that shouldn't have had it that they didn't
know that, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (51:01):
I do. He was also focusing heavily on where Crystal's
car was found, and you know what, like what about
that area was significant and like we had now discussed
a bunch of times, you know, where her car was
found was very close to their families, hunting land and
his death. Little did he know. So it was just

(51:22):
he was really he wasn't just like advocating, but actually
like doing the work, you know, not just saying, hey,
like I hope we find out what happened type of thing.
So the other thing that is a little strange about Bardstown,
Kentucky is that since twenty thirteen, there was like one
murder every year that happened in this very.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Small I'll say for this cutie little woman know what
it was, cutie, But I guess not if someone's getting murdered, yeah,
I don't think so. And did it say, like you know, hunting, accident, robbery,
home invasion, Well one of them only drama.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
One of them in twenty thirteen was a police officer,
Jason Ellis. He was ambushed on his way home from work.
He stopped on an exit ramp to clear a tree
branch from the road and an unknown assailant shot him
multiple times with a shotgun. So that was him. The
following year, in twenty fourteen, an elementary school teacher, Kathy Netherland,

(52:20):
and her sixteen year old daughter, Samantha, were found brutally
murdered in their home just outside of town.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
He never caught who did it, no, or the police
officer who was killed no.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
So it seems like a very specific, pretty scary place.
So the Kentucky State Police led this case initially, and
later the FBI became involved, and the FBI even put
Tommy's case on its seeking information list and they offered
a ten thousand dollars reward for tips leading to the killer.

(52:55):
They pointedly listed Crystal Rogers case as related on the
official poster because basically at this point, nobody's thinking they're unrelated.
So despite that, though for a long time there was
no public break in Tommy's murder, and it was just
sort of left out there as like this unanswered question.

(53:18):
So seven years though goes by, and now we're in
late twenty twenty three, and in October of twenty twenty three,
so now it's nearly eight years after Crystal Rogers went missing,
the authorities made a pretty big announcement. They announced that
Brooks was indicted and arrested for her murder.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
So they had the grand jury investigating, yes, yes, wow,
So that was all going on behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
So this was huge news obviously for the Ballard family.
Brooks had maintained his innocence since twenty fifteen, but a
grand jury had finally charged him and two other local men,
a father and son, who were unrelated to Brooks. They
were also indicted as co conspirators in Crystal's disappearance. So

(54:08):
as Brooks was arraigned in court, the prosecutor dropped an
unexpected bombshell about Tommy's case as well. So the Commonwealth's
attorney announced that investigators were actively examining a link between
Crystal's murder and Tommy's unsolved shooting. In fact, this attorney
revealed that they had recently obtained a firearm that might

(54:30):
be the very gun used to kill Tommy. So this
development was nothing short of jaw dropping. Obviously, according to
the prosecutors, an informant working with law enforcement managed to
purchase a rifle from none other.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Than Freakin' Brooks brother.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Yes, Nick, Uh Now, I forget if I told you this.
Nick had been fired as a cop. Oh well he
was fired for doing what he did. He was fired, yeah,
So okay, And by doing what he did, I mean
by impeding the investigation, not this other stuff I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Just that to this all coming out.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Yes, so Nick had sold this gun using a fake name,
but investigators did trace it back to him, and when
they analyzed the rifle, they found that it was the
same caliber as the one used in Tommy's killing, and
it met four out of the five criteria for the
ballistic match to the fatal bullet. So it was almost

(55:32):
a perfect match.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Now, the fact that it wasn't, though, is that a
leg for his defense to stand on, or was that
something that could have just been like damaged in the
process or like something that you know, rendered it inconclusive,
but like kind of like how a DNA match is
like ninety nine point nine percent. You know that means
it's a match, but like it's not necessarily one hundred.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Is that how this works?

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Well, I don't know, because it's still going on. Oh so,
by early twenty twenty four, court documents gave further insight
into this and in emotion for a change of venue.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Because such a small town, right.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Brooks's attorney was arguing that there was no way that
they were going to have a fair trial because of
just how much this had been in the public eye of.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
This small town.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Would you have yeah?

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Right?

Speaker 1 (56:22):
So then, as of now, the case still remains officially unsolved,
even though many feel the answer is getting within reach.
The FBI's reward offer still stands, and the Ballard family
continues to urge anyone with knowledge to come forward. So
the current status of the case as it stands right
now for Brooks is that he was indicted September twenty
twenty three on charges of murder and tampering with evidence.

(56:45):
His trial is scheduled to begin on June twenty fourth,
twenty twenty five, kilming up in Warren County, Kentucky. The
other man I told you there were two other men involved.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Picture that I commented on.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Yes, Joseph Lawson is one of those men. His trial
is also scheduled the same time as Brooks. The other man,
Steven Lawson, which is Joseph Joseph's father. He faces charges
of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence,

(57:19):
and his trial is set to commence on May twenty seventh,
twenty twenty five, also in Warren County.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Oh so even earlier, Yes.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
And these trials were moved from Nelson County to Warren
County due to what I said about those concerns. So
I guess in literally this month of twenty twenty five,
Stephen Lawson's defense requested additional DNA testing on two hairs
found in Crystal Rogers' car, arguing that the results could

(57:49):
be exculpatory.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
How do you though, prove that those weren't two hairs
from a coworkership.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Well, yes, you're completely right, because the judge denied it
and said, like, there's no point in doing that. It's
not going to prove anything, and it's just going to
cause unnecessary.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
Delays, absolutely, which is probably.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
What their plan was.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Yeah, probably.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Saying in terms of they knew themselves that those two
hairs could.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Right, Oh yeah, yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Now the last thing really to say about this is
and this was like I was getting a little confused
with this, but apparently a woman's bones or remains were
found in this county. Of course, people are dropping like flies.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
There, so.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Could be anyone, right right, and literally, going off of
what you just said, they never said it was crystal.
The closest they got was that it was a female
between the ages of twenty five and eighty two.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
And they gave like a height, a potential height of
like five two to five ten, So, like you just said,
pretty much literally anybody. So I kept going because like
it's it was just weird because they weren't and I
don't know if this is something like they're keeping close
to their because I don't I don't even know. I
was trying to look up what they were saying, like

(59:12):
Brooks had done, what evidence did he tamper with? I
can't find any of this stuff, So I don't know
if they're just keeping it really quiet because now we're
about to find out, like once.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
The trial begins, and to try to keep it away
from the public. Yeah, well, and even like the evidence
that the Grand Juri was able to indict him on
there were Oh also I was thinking with the remains,
like you think that there would be dental records obviously
maybe there was no skull found, but if.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
There was, yeah, I don't, Like I said, I didn't
get a lot of information, but because at first I
thought they had confirmed that it was her, but I don't,
but they haven't.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
So but anyway, so that I mean, that's the case
that's happening in real time, absolutely nuts and you know,
a tragedy with Crystal obviously and then pile on top
with Tommy just absolutely horrific for the family. Crazy and
hopefully maybe throughout, you know, throughout this trial, family will

(01:00:09):
get some type of closure. And but I guess, I
guess this will be one of those things where we'll
have to like put a Google alert out to keep
track of because we don't normally have them ongoing right
happening as we speak.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
But yeah, yeah, and especially like this isn't winter of
twenty twenty five, like this is coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Oh yeah, well yeah, May twenty seventh and June twenty fourth.
So so yeah, that is the case of the Ballard family.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Well you did a fantastic job. I was very sucked
into this case. I've never heard of it, and very sad.
This Yeah, was a doozy for sure. Yeah, poor family,
the Ballards.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
I don't actually know the answer to this, but I
hope the you know, the little kid is with the grandmother.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Now, that was crossing my mind too, Like, I don't
think up until Tommy being indicted, I feel like he
had that kid.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Yeah, no, he Yeah, the kid was with him up
until But I'm saying, like now with the legal stuff,
I don't know what happened after that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
But so anyway, and I wonder if he was even
letting Crystal's family see him. Were the siblings able to
see him, Like, I wonder if.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
He was, Who the hell knows how that interaction was going,
because I mean, I'm not saying that people don't have
the opportunity to move on after something like that happens.
But like when he has a new girlfriend who's ripping
down missing posters, missing people posters, you would imagine that
the family, you know, Crystal's family isn't overly chumming with

(01:01:46):
what's going on. But you know, who knows, right? So anyway, Okay, Well,
I guess we'll catch everybody later.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Absolutely so until then, as always, stay safe.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
All right until then, and as always stay safe and
stay chill. Bye everybody bye. You've just listened to Chilworthy.
Thank you for joining us on this latest episode. While

(01:02:24):
we strive to keep our discussions engaging and lighthearted, we
also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the real
lives and events that are at the heart of these stories.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
We try to approach each topic with a sense of
curiosity and respect fully aware of the impact these events
have had on the individuals and the reloved ones. Our
goal is to honor their memories by keeping their stories
alive and shedding light on the mysteries that surround them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate,
and leave a review, and don't forget to join us
on the next episode of Chillworthy.

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