Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Crystal Rogers' Boyfriend Arrested In Connection to Her Death, FBI Confirms
Brooks Houck lived with Crystal Rogers and their child at the time of her 2015 disappearance.
The FBI announced that Crystal Rogers' boyfriend has been arrested in connection to her murder, more than eight years after the Kentucky mother went missing.
In a statement, the FBI's Louisville field office confirmed that Brooks Houck, 41, was arrested by Kentucky State Police on Wednesday, September 27. He has been booked into the Nelson County Correctional Center on charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to booking records. His bail has been set at $10 million.
"In coordination with the Kentucky State Police, other local and federal law enforcement partners, FBI Louisville has been laser-focused on our commitment to hold accountable those that were responsible for the disappearance of Crystal Rogers. Today, we take the first step in making good on that promise. FBI Louisville and the Kentucky State Police have arrested Brooks Houck without incident on charges stemming from the Crystal Rogers investigation," the statement read.
Houck had long been considered a suspect in the disappearance of Rogers, a mother of five living in Bardstown, Kentucky, whose case was covered in the Oxygen series The Disappearance of Crystal Rogers. Houck was Rogers' partner and the father to one of her five children. The pair lived together at the time and Houck was one of the last people to see Rogers on the night of July 3, 2015. She's never be seen or heard from again and is presumed dead.
Houck was officially named a suspect by police in October 2015, but it remains unclear how he has been linked to Rogers' murder. "The Houck indictment remains sealed and additional details will be revealed during Houck’s arraignment in early October in the Nelson County Circuit Court," according to the FBI's statement.
The arrest comes just weeks after the FBI arrested 32-year-old Joseph L. Lawson on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit murder and complicity in tampering with physical evidence, Oxygen.com previously reported. Though the indictment didn't explicitly mention Rogers' name, the details of the case matched those mentioned in the documents. Additionally, the Rogers family told local outlets that they were notified of Lawson's arrest. The court entered a not guilty plea of Lawson's behalf.
The FBI took over the investigation in 2020, executing search warrants on multiple properties connected to the Houck family. One such search warrant was executed on a subdivision built by Houck's construction company, after which the FBI "recovered an item of interest." The FBI had this and other evidence tested at their laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
Amid those developments, Rogers' mother Sherry Ballard told Oxygen.com that she was "very confident" the investigation would lead to answers. "I pray the items of interest will be connected to my daughter so we can bring her home to rest in peace beside her daddy," Ballard said, referencing the shooting of her husband, Tommy Ballard.
Tommy was mysteriously shot while prepping for a hunting trip on his property in 2016. The investigation into Tommy's death remains open, with the FBI offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
