S3 Ep321: Update in the Crystal Rogers Case

Crystal Rogers, a Kentucky mother of five who vanished in July 2015, was a true-crime mystery for years, until recently. On July 8, 2025, former boyfriend Brooks Houck was found guilty of murder and evidence tampering, while his accomplices Joseph Lawson and his father Steven Lawson were convicted of conspiracy and tampering, bringing renewed hope for justice despite Rogers’ remains still being missing. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:18Derrick Levasseur?

  And as you can tell from the title of this episode, we're going to be doing an update on the Crystal Rogers case. This is a case that we covered on Crime Weekly as a series. Fascinating case. We had a lot of engagement on it. I can't remember how many parts we did, but it was extensive.

• 0:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, we definitely, we covered a lot because we had so much footage from

• 0:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 0:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Brooke Houck's interviews, his brother's interviews.

• 0:40Derrick Levasseur?

  You loved, you loved the detective there. What was his name?

• 0:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  John Snow.

• 0:43Derrick Levasseur?

  John Snow.

• 0:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Detective John Snow, he was a badass.

• 0:47Derrick Levasseur?

  He, he.

• 0:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, he, he testified during the trial that we're going to talk about, but so his, his name came back up and I was like, yes.

• 0:54Derrick Levasseur?

  John Snow, still there. So after nearly a decade of unanswered questions, there's finally been a major breakthrough in the Crystal Rogers case. Her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, who we've talked about extensively, was found guilty of murder alongside Joseph Lawson, who was also convicted for his role in the crime. The jury has recommended life in prison and the Rogers family may finally be getting the justice they deserve. We're going to give you a recap because for some of you, you may not know the Crystal Rogers case, but we're going to talk about how we got here today and where we go from here.

• 1:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. So we're going to give it, give it kind of a little quick recap because it's been a little while since we talked about it. So it was a warm summer evening in Bardstown, Kentucky, July 3rd, 2015, when 35-year-old Crystal Rogers seemingly vanished without a trace. A devoted mother of five, Crystal had spent that evening at home with her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, and their young son. But by the morning of July 5th, her red Chevy Impala was found abandoned on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway. She still had the keys to the car inside, her phone, her purse. Crystal was gone. She'd never be seen again. Now for nearly a decade, her family never stopped searching. They walked fields, handed out flyers, they held vigils, they demanded answers from law enforcement.

• 2:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  And her case was covered in a lot of big places. We talked about it, obviously Oxygen did a series on it. And this is Crystal Rogers' family and loved ones pushing because they're like, hey, something happened here. And also, uh, from Brooks, the man who was last known to see her alive, the family wanted answers from him. Now, as suspicions mounted and investigators dug deeper, a troubling web of secrecy, lies, and potential conspiracy began to unfold, culminating in the tragic death of Crystal's father, Tommy Ballard. Remember, that was another kind of plot twist to this case. He was shot and killed while hunting less than two years after his daughter disappeared. And he was the one who was really spearheading the investigation, and he was collecting documents and talking to people. And he

• 2:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  was very vocal about this. Yeah, he shot in the chest, right? Yeah, he was on, he was on the trail, and he was uncovering things, and he was telling people this. And then all of a sudden, he's dead too. So this case was, been long considered one of Kentucky's most haunting cold cases, has been far from forgotten. And then nearly eight years after Crystal's disappearance in September of 2023, Brooks Haug was arrested and charged with her murder. And in July of 2025, after a tense trial and emotional testimony, a jury found him guilty, not just of taking Crystal's life, but of trying to cover it up. So now for the first time since 2015, there's accountability. And yet, one thing remains that we don't have any answers to is Crystal's body has never been found. Yeah, where is she?

• 3:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, so she's been missing, presumed dead. He's been now, you know, charged and convicted of murdering her. But we don't know where she is. And that's kind of where we're at. There's a few things that came out in the trial. First of all, this, this guy, Joseph Lawson, he was the son of one of Brooks' employees. That's right. Steven Lawson. Yep. And so the prosecution said he kind of helped plan this, he helped carry it out, and he helped, you know, hide the truth in the aftermath. And so obviously, um, This has been something the prosecutor, the prosecution has fought for and several witnesses

• 4:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  for the prosecution did testify about incriminating comments made by people close to Joseph Lawson and Brooks Houck. For instance, Charlie Gordley, who used to work for Brooks Houck's construction business, he claimed that Steve Lawson told him that Houck was looking for someone to get rid of his old lady, which he understood, obviously, to be a reference to Crystal Rogers. And he also testified that he saw Brooks Houck give Joseph Lawson Rogers car keys on July 3rd, 2015, and heard Lawson mention moving Crystal's body with a skid steer, though the timing of that conversation is unclear. So, obviously, we

• 4:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  have people who are hearing things, who are seeing things. Another employee of Brooks Houck, her name was Ashley Nally, she testified that, you know, it was kind of well-known, Brooks and Crystal had a tumultuous kind of relationship. And she asked Brooks why he stayed with Crystal despite their frequent arguments, and he replied, "Because I won't lose Eli," which was the son that they shared. So, Crystal had, you know, several children, but Eli was the son that she shared with Brooks. And so, the motivation, well, the prosecution is saying the motivation for Crystal's death was Brooks Houck knowing, like, they weren't going to stay together, he and Crystal, whether she was going to leave him, or he wanted to leave her. But he wanted to make sure that there wasn't

• 5:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  going to be a custody battle, that there wasn't going to be any issue where he did not have access or custody of his son, Eli. And so, this is what the prosecution is basically saying. The motive was Eli. And another, oh, there's this blanket that there was audio of Brooks Houck talking to his mother, Rosemary Houck, because apparently, Rosemary did not like the fact that Crystal Rogers had children before she started dating Brooks. And if you remember, the Houck family, like... Very prevalent in the area. They own businesses. They own lots of land. They're wealthy. They're kind of like very, I guess, the royalty of Bardstown. And so they, they thought quite a lot of themselves and Rosemary, I suppose, thought that Brooks could have done better.

• 6:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  And Danny Singleton, who was another employee of Brooks Howke, he testified that Rosemary once told him she was looking for someone to kill Crystal Rogers. And obviously, the defense countered this and they're saying these are not reliable witnesses, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty concerning. Now, I do want to talk about the blanket conversation. So if you remember, after Crystal disappeared, police searched the cruiser of Brooks' brother, Nick Howke, who at that time had worked for the Bardstown Police Department. A blanket was found in the trunk. And there's audio accidentally recorded by Brooks of him and his mother, Rosemary, talking about the search. And it showed she was really worried. She asked Brooke, what about the blanket? And we, we

• 7:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  came to find in the trial, nothing of evidentiary value was found on the blanket. But the fact that this blanket was found in Nick's trunk, and then Rosemary was, you know, worried about the blanket, it kind of shows that there's a lot of people involved in this. Besides Joseph Lawson, besides Brooks Howke, obviously, we know that, we know that we believe and that law enforcement believes and lots of people believe that Brooks' brother, Nick, who was a police officer, is involved in some way. And that also Rosemary, the mother of both of these boys, men, knew kind of what was going on and was in the same mind state, at least, that Crystal had to go, allegedly. Don't come for me. But yeah, that's pretty much where we're at. Now, whatever the jury heard, they found to be compelling

• 7:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  enough to find Brooks Howke guilty. And they did suggest or give the judge their, their belief that he should serve life in prison, plus another five years for tampering with evidence. And, and this Joseph Lawson guy, he's been, they, they've suggested that he gets sentenced to 25 years. So yeah, it's, it's pretty good. I mean, we also know the cellphone data showed. That Steve Lawson, who's Joseph Lawson's father, was near where Crystal Rogers' vehicle was found after she disappeared. It proved he was on a parallel road, trying to get a vehicle back from an ex-girlfriend, allegedly. That's what the defense is saying, basically. They basically said this whole case is a convoluted mess.

• 8:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  And all of these pieces of evidence that the police have showing people who were connected to Brooks Houck and how they were in certain areas, it doesn't matter because they have reasons for being in those areas. They have excuses, they have alibis, things like that. But regardless, Steve Lawson was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence on May 3rd. So Joseph Lawson's father, Steve, he's already been

• 8:58Derrick Levasseur?

  He was, he was, he was Brooks' right-hand guy.

• 9:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, that was the guy he was on the phone with that night several times. He got a sentence, well, he faces a recommended sentence of 17 years. So this is the jury's recommendation. His sentencing comes on August 6th. Obviously, Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson haven't formally been sentenced yet, but I do believe that the judge usually follows the recommendation of the jury.

• 9:23Derrick Levasseur?

  Unless there's any other, unless there's a reason not to, no, I would agree with that. There's a lot here and we're, and it's, there's so many layers to this onion. We have some justice, as I kind of opened the show where I said, you know, some answers for Crystal's family, but there's still more questions than answers, in my opinion. You talked about Nick a little bit, being a former police officer. I don't remember the exact details, but if my memory serves me right, he had a rifle. And he sold that rifle to a, I believe it was like a private citizen, or it might have been a pawn shop. But the interesting thing about that rifle, and if I'm wrong, you guys can correct me, I'm sure you will, he sold it under an alias. He didn't sell it under his own name, which right there, that's, that's a problem.

• 10:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Why, why would you do that, right? But he sold it under a different name, and I don't believe law enforcement has ever disclosed the exact weapon that was used, the make, the model, et cetera. But I do believe they've come out and said that they believe that the same rifle that was used to kill Tommy Ballard was, was this rifle. The question is can they can connect the dots? So there's a lot more people involved with this more than likely. And the, and the question for me, as I sit here now with Brooks going to jail, Joseph going to jail, Steve going to jail, depending on how much they were involved. I mean, if they were out there actually burying her body, there's not much they can do to offer a deal. But I would see

• 10:47Derrick Levasseur?

  a small opening for law enforcement to go back to Joseph, to go back to Stephen and say, listen, you got called after the fact. You did not kill her. You were helping a friend. You made a mistake.

• 11:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, they don't actually know. Now that's the problem is.

• 11:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, that's why I'm saying this is how I would pitch it.

• 11:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Killed her. The, the prosecution has acknowledged during this trial. We don't know who killed Crystal. He's just, the prosecutor was like, the head prosecutor was like, I'm just telling you who's involved.

• 11:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Who's one of these three or all of them?

• 11:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, and he's specifically speaking about the Houks. So he, you know, it's also known that Rosemary and Nick Houck are considered co-conspirators, but they haven't been arrested yet. So he's like saying, I know all of the, yeah, yet. I know all of these people were involved and the Lawson's, Steve and Joe, I know they were involved. I don't know who did it. So these two individuals, Steve and Joe Lawson, could have actually been involved in the actual murder.

• 11:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Which would explain why they haven't snitched on anybody.

• 11:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, explain why they're not trying to get better deals, right?

• 11:47Derrick Levasseur?

  That's my point.

• 11:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Let me throw Rosemary under the bus here. Let me throw Nick under the bus. Let me give you a bigger fish. They could be far more involved and actually be more hands on, which is why they're taking these 17 year sentences, 25 year sentences, and not doing a thing to help themselves because they can't.

• 12:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, so, so that's where, again, how I would approach it. You go in there, you offer them that type of deal where you say you were a friend, you were helping out. See what they have to say. See if they take the bait. They may not be able to take the bait because if they say something, then Brooks can implicate them. Because he's going to say, I didn't do it, they did it, and this is how they did it. And as far as Nick, that's also the same situation where not everybody killed Crystal. Some people were involved after the fact, and so there's less culpability there. They still did something wrong, but those are the people where if you can pin them down, you get them charged, you get them convicted, and now they're in prison for a crime they didn't commit, they're more inclined to help law enforcement. And the really, the only piece of this puzzle that I would

• 12:45Derrick Levasseur?

  like at this point for the family would be Crystal. To find her wherever she is and what condition she's in, bring her home, reunite her with her family, with her children, so that they can, whatever they believe in, have a proper burial, or whatever it might be, in order to know once and for all, she's back home with us. That's the really, the last thing that we need to figure out here, because this is a fascinating case from the sense of, we've had cases where there's no body, right? You have a no body homicide and you get a conviction, but this is a no body homicide and not definitively knowing who quote unquote pulled the trigger, right? They know the people involved, they know these guys did it, but they can't tell you which one of them did it, which was

• 13:27Derrick Levasseur?

  similar to the Aaron Rodgers murder. If you remember that one night when he killed Odin Lloyd, or allegedly killed Odin Lloyd, but there was a group of people there. They couldn't put the gun in Aaron Hernandez's hand, they couldn't, didn't have anything physical to put it there, but based on the other witness testimony, that's how they got him. So this is a complete, this is a complete stretch for prosecution to get this conviction, and yet, they got it.

• 13:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  I agree, actually, and they didn't have a ton of evidence. I was not hopeful. I'm really glad, because in my bones, I know, and I think you're on the same page, based on how Brooks and Nick acted, based on all of what we do.

• 14:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Crystal was in the house. She was playing video games, according to Brooks. Nobody broke into the house.

• 14:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, like I said, a very circumstantial, very circumstantial case, because there's no fingerprints found in her car, there's nothing on the blanket, you know, so it was gonna be difficult to get the conviction, but I think they acted so suspiciously and so dumbly in the aftermath, that it was so dumbly.

• 14:26Derrick Levasseur?

  The irony of it.

• 14:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  I know, but, but I literally, how do you refer to dumb people's behavior, other than to use a dumb word? Yeah, it's dumb. They behave dumbly, stupidly. And so I think based on that, the jury was like, well, I mean, although the other possible or potential things that could have happened to Crystal don't make any sense. This is the only thing that makes sense. Now, Brooks may reveal, maybe, you know, they maybe use the sentencing. To sort of try to get him to to give the location of Crystal's remains. It's like, hey, you're going to prison. You got a life in you got a life in prison. But hey, we'll give you, you know, 75 years or whatever. We know how important Brooke's son is to him.

• 15:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, that's according to the prosecution. And really, all we can tell, that's his motive. He wanted to make sure that he would be with his son and his son wouldn't be taken from him. So maybe if he thinks there's a potential that he can get out and still have some life with his son and meet his grandkids and stuff, he may be willing to reveal the location of her body. Would Crystal's family members be OK with that, knowing that this man could have served life in prison? I don't know. That's going to have to be something that they figure they figure out. I personally would not like to I would like to not see him ever see the light of day again.

• 15:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I don't I don't think he'll make that deal. And I'll tell you why. He's not going to make this deal because I'm just being honest with you guys. I believe he did it. I believe Brooks is actually the one who killed her.

• 15:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  You think that he thinks he might have a chance on appeal?

• 15:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, of course. That's where I was going with this. I think there's a real strong case for him to make where he will go to his grave saying he didn't do it. This is Scott Peterson 2.0.

• 16:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Scott Peterson even better because there's more evidence against Scott Peterson. Technical, more physical evidence against Scott Peterson than there is against Brooke's house.

• 16:11Derrick Levasseur?

  Correct. So he's already planning his appeal, depending on what defense attorney comes in. He does have money. There's a chance he could beat this.

• 16:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 16:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep, there's a chance he could beat this. So he is going to stick to the story of I didn't do this until he dies. So I don't think you'll ever get him to make a deal because I personally believe he is the one responsible for killing her. And I think he called his buddies after the fact and they were just loyal. They were just loyal and they got in the mix.

• 16:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, no, I mean, Steve and Joe Lawson allegedly were talking to people before Crystal died, saying, you know, that he wanted to get rid of her. So there's there's a lot of evidence that.

• 16:49Derrick Levasseur?

  So when he made the call finally.

• 16:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, there's a lot of evidence that they were more far more involved and maybe even involved the night of hiding her car.

• 16:56Derrick Levasseur?

  And that's what the answers we won't have was this a premeditated thing where it was planned throughout the day and they knew this was going down that night?

• 17:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  It looks like it was planned for weeks.

• 17:03Derrick Levasseur?

  It could have been.

• 17:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was planned for a while, yeah.

• 17:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Or Brooks had been saying right along that I'm gonna take this, you know what, out eventually. And then to on this particular night, he called them and said, yep, I did it. She's done. She's gone. I need your help get over here. Let's do it. And they were like, yep, we're all in. So regardless, they're still guilty. So that's, that's, that's the bottom line here. But yes, I think for everybody involved, we'd like to have Crystal back. If for no other reason than to reunite her with her family. But I do think if we found her from an investigatory perspective, we'd know more about what actually happened. How was she killed? Where was she killed? What's her condition now? There's a lot of information we can obtain from her body and figure out maybe exactly who is the person responsible. At this point, you're not going to have any, you're not going to have any skin. You're not going to have any of the muscles.

• 17:48Derrick Levasseur?

  So you're not going to have any signs of strangulation, but you may have, you may have a fractured hyoid bone. You may have something there to indicate how she was killed. Not, not a guarantee, but I would like to have that opportunity at least. But that is the latest update, although I do think this is not the last we're going to hear about this case. Either it's going to be an appeal or there's going to be more heads to roll. More people will be arrested. Either way, we're going to be covering this again on Crime Weekly News at some point.

• 18:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I agree. He's definitely going to appeal and it may be this thing where you just see him put appeal like Scott Peterson. Appeal after appeal after appeal. And in a decade is something, you know, sticks, something works and he might be out. That's just.

• 18:29Derrick Levasseur?

  And there's going to be people who come forward for him. There's going to be a group of people who, and I'm not even necessarily saying I don't agree with this. There's, there's a group of people out there who say, listen, yes, we want to get people responsible for the crimes. But it's also equally important, if not more important, to make sure everyone gets due process. Gets a fair trial because we can't have these rogue police officers and prosecutors doing things in order to get convictions. Because what if the person's innocent? So there is a, a faction of people who will come to Brooks defense saying, listen, he may be guilty. He may not be, but based on what you have. He should have been found not guilty. And that's the problem here. So we'll see how it goes. And if there's a major update, we'll absolutely let you guys know. Anything else to add?

• 19:12Derrick Levasseur?

  I know we're going to be going into Titan Part Two later this week. We're also going to be announcing the winner of the Crime Con giveaway. Anything you'd like to add before I wrap it up?

• 19:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I'm actually good. I mean, yeah, I, we gotta wait and see what happens here. That's all we can do.

• 19:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, well, we're thinking of Crystal's family. Obviously, this is a small win. Someone's being held accountable for what they did to your loved one. Not everybody gets that. But we'll see how it develops and where it goes from here. But until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you later this week with Titan Part Two.

• 19:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.