A Small Kentucky Town Searches for Answers After Sinister Killings

In one small Kentucky town, five young children had to say goodbye to their mother without ever knowing how she died—or who killed her. And before they could even begin to truly grieve for 35-year-old Crystal Rogers after she was presumed dead in 2015, they lost their grandfather as well. Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, was blown away by a gunshot to the chest as he began to get closer to finding answers about who killed his daughter more than a year after her death. The family’s suspicions have long fallen on Brooks Hauck, Rogers’ boyfriend and the last person to see her alive in July 2015. (He has never been arrested or charged with a crime.) Three years on, the Ballard family and hundreds of others in the town of Bardstown are still demanding justice, with posters of Crystal Rogers plastered on cars and businesses, a solid vow that they will not rest until the mother-of-five’s killer is behind bars. Join The Daily Beast as we put Rogers’ disappearance under the microscope for our three-part Beast Files series on the case. Sign up for Beast Inside to take a deep dive into the murky web of Bardstown killings that many believe point to a sinister secret in the town.