The boyfriend killed her and his ex-cop brother (fired from the police force for his conduct regarding the case) helped him cover it up. It's tragic that there's not enough proof to indict, arrest, convict, and lock him up. The family's pain is heartbreaking and I hope their questions are answered and that they can bring Crystal home for burial.
18 Reviews
Sad story connected to a bigger conspiracy
allanmichael3026 February 2020
The whole story was king of leading you in the direction that they solved these crimes, only after 5-6 episode for just one lead a looser in jail who wants to talk. it seemed to be connected to heroin trade after Opioid- crisis which hit america, with netflix documentary (The Pharmacist 2020) explains It. There are cops involved and a dead police officer and two others victims which might be connected killed in a small town. Which cops the victims family's can trust is hard to say. The victims boyfriend may have been involved and his brother a police officer could be involved. The private investigators talked the talk but really found out nothing but one prisoners story,which is not very reliable.
Great series
WordtwisterMN18 June 2022
Enjoyed the series exposing small town crime, and how a community has been terrorized in the process. It's strange reading many of the reviews in that some of the reviewers think they're supposed to have an immediate answer within the series. Series are often done to bring light to a situation. Not everything on television is produced to answer all of the questions. Sometimes the series is produced to ask more questions, and that's what this one did. Also, not everyone has the time to keep up on all crime going on across the country. Most of us viewing will have no idea if there was 'new information', or not. We're not all sitting around watching shows like the Nancy Grace every night.
More like Reality show
brana_dragan1 January 2019
Well done
brookegallardo19 August 2018
Just the usual tease
zorro62044 September 2018
In spite of a very interesting story, this is just another one of those crime investigation teasers. As usual there's the reporter (with really white teeth), the ex detective (with really splashy ties) and the poor family, their interview snippets repeated over and over and over and . . .
The problem is first, nothing happens, of course. If they had actually found anything out, it would be on the news. It's like a bigfoot series, of course they didn't find bigfoot, you think wouldn't have leaked out before the show aired? Come on.
Still, one could live with that if the show was properly constructed, but it's not. They waste huge amounts of time with stock footage and bits of interviews hashed over endlessly. This could have been done in two hours, easy. The other four are pure filler. And of course, there's the usual red herrings that go nowhere - is that blood in her trunk? No. Have they found her remains? No. You know the drill, those are not spoilers!
That's too bad, a more talented crew might have done this story more justice. I feel bad for the family being used as infotainment.
The problem is first, nothing happens, of course. If they had actually found anything out, it would be on the news. It's like a bigfoot series, of course they didn't find bigfoot, you think wouldn't have leaked out before the show aired? Come on.
Still, one could live with that if the show was properly constructed, but it's not. They waste huge amounts of time with stock footage and bits of interviews hashed over endlessly. This could have been done in two hours, easy. The other four are pure filler. And of course, there's the usual red herrings that go nowhere - is that blood in her trunk? No. Have they found her remains? No. You know the drill, those are not spoilers!
That's too bad, a more talented crew might have done this story more justice. I feel bad for the family being used as infotainment.
The next Making a Murderer? Maybe!
puffmommynyc3 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS
Netflix has Making a Murderer, Evil Genius, and The Staircase. HBO had The Jinx. Nothing captures awards and viewers like a well crafted true crime docuseries. Now, Oxygen, a former Lifetime clone reborn as a cable channel devoted to crime 24/7, gets out of the programming basement and into the game with this must-see murder mystery docuseries.
Settled in the 1770's, Bardstown, Kentucky was voted the most beautiful small town in America in 2012. With 11,700 residents and bordering many distilleries like Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, it's known as the Bourbon Capital of the World. This is where Stephen Foster wrote the Southern anthem, My Old Kentucky Home. But a quick trip online to Reddit shows the rabbit hole of conspiracies, crimes, and murders that have turned this former rural paradise into a place of buried secrets. Located near potential drug smuggling roads, it turns out Bardstown just may be the epicenter of a drug network linked to...Mexican cartels? You might believe it after watching a seasoned investigator and a curious journalist try to solve the many connected unsolved crimes in this former (?) small town paradise.
Crystal Rogers, 35, was a well-liked mother living in Bardstown with lots of kids, a handsome boyfriend, and no enemies. Suddenly, in 2015 her car was found on the side of the road with her cell phone and purse inside and no trace of her anywhere. Her aunt had also disappeared in 1979. Her boyfriend Brooks Houck was and is under suspicion, but with little evidence the case has gone unsolved. Her father Tommy Ballard was one of the biggest supporters of community searches for his daughter and for evidence to find out who took her. But as Tommy got more vocal, complaining that local police hadn't found her, he was murdered in 2016. He was shot by a sniper hiding in the woods near those well known local roads as he was out hunting.
He wasn't the only one. A well-loved member of the Bardstown anti-drug K9 force, Officer Jason Ellis was assassinated by a sniper in 2013 as he moved possible staged debris from one of those local roads in the middle of the night. A co-worker of Jason's, Brooks' brother Nick Houck was a Bardstown police officer who refused to give information that might implicate his brother in Crystal's disappearance. He was let go from the force. The show's investigative team imply that there may have been traces of a bloody blanket in his patrol car trunk.
Possibly the most violent murders in Bardstown were those of a special education teacher and her teen daughter, Kathy and Samantha Netherland. They were brutally beaten, shot, and stabbed in a rare to Bardstown home invasion in 2014. There was no motive, and like all the other crimes, this one is unsolved. Near the end of the episodes, a jailhouse informant claims to have inside information about the planning and execution (and hopefully motivation) of this horror.
It seems inconceivable that so many tragedies could plague a place where doors used to go unlocked and the sweet smell of bourbon always haunts the air. It reminds one of Wind Gap, the fictional town of HBO's Sharp Objects, where small town secrets and murders permeate a sweet Southern hamlet.
This docuseries takes its time, meandering through clues, leads, and red herrings that the local police have neither time nor budget to investigate. Oxygen even buys a local car to examine potential remaining evidence that may be related to Crystal's disappearance. Sometimes the show's investigative team is a little hammy, but the sheer number of citizens with information that do not want to be interviewed or seen on camera brings up the nagging realization that many think these murders are a local cover up related to drug crimes. Bardstown is close to Louisville, a large city plagued by the American drug epidemic. The mysteries here may all be related and might never be solved. But the atmospheric sense of dread and sadness (Crystal's mom has a broken voice that will haunt you) of this docuseries will stick with you in your dreams...and your nightmares. You may the find yourself looking for clues online to help to find Crystal Rogers, and to figure out what happened to idyllic small-town America.
Netflix has Making a Murderer, Evil Genius, and The Staircase. HBO had The Jinx. Nothing captures awards and viewers like a well crafted true crime docuseries. Now, Oxygen, a former Lifetime clone reborn as a cable channel devoted to crime 24/7, gets out of the programming basement and into the game with this must-see murder mystery docuseries.
Settled in the 1770's, Bardstown, Kentucky was voted the most beautiful small town in America in 2012. With 11,700 residents and bordering many distilleries like Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, it's known as the Bourbon Capital of the World. This is where Stephen Foster wrote the Southern anthem, My Old Kentucky Home. But a quick trip online to Reddit shows the rabbit hole of conspiracies, crimes, and murders that have turned this former rural paradise into a place of buried secrets. Located near potential drug smuggling roads, it turns out Bardstown just may be the epicenter of a drug network linked to...Mexican cartels? You might believe it after watching a seasoned investigator and a curious journalist try to solve the many connected unsolved crimes in this former (?) small town paradise.
Crystal Rogers, 35, was a well-liked mother living in Bardstown with lots of kids, a handsome boyfriend, and no enemies. Suddenly, in 2015 her car was found on the side of the road with her cell phone and purse inside and no trace of her anywhere. Her aunt had also disappeared in 1979. Her boyfriend Brooks Houck was and is under suspicion, but with little evidence the case has gone unsolved. Her father Tommy Ballard was one of the biggest supporters of community searches for his daughter and for evidence to find out who took her. But as Tommy got more vocal, complaining that local police hadn't found her, he was murdered in 2016. He was shot by a sniper hiding in the woods near those well known local roads as he was out hunting.
He wasn't the only one. A well-loved member of the Bardstown anti-drug K9 force, Officer Jason Ellis was assassinated by a sniper in 2013 as he moved possible staged debris from one of those local roads in the middle of the night. A co-worker of Jason's, Brooks' brother Nick Houck was a Bardstown police officer who refused to give information that might implicate his brother in Crystal's disappearance. He was let go from the force. The show's investigative team imply that there may have been traces of a bloody blanket in his patrol car trunk.
Possibly the most violent murders in Bardstown were those of a special education teacher and her teen daughter, Kathy and Samantha Netherland. They were brutally beaten, shot, and stabbed in a rare to Bardstown home invasion in 2014. There was no motive, and like all the other crimes, this one is unsolved. Near the end of the episodes, a jailhouse informant claims to have inside information about the planning and execution (and hopefully motivation) of this horror.
It seems inconceivable that so many tragedies could plague a place where doors used to go unlocked and the sweet smell of bourbon always haunts the air. It reminds one of Wind Gap, the fictional town of HBO's Sharp Objects, where small town secrets and murders permeate a sweet Southern hamlet.
This docuseries takes its time, meandering through clues, leads, and red herrings that the local police have neither time nor budget to investigate. Oxygen even buys a local car to examine potential remaining evidence that may be related to Crystal's disappearance. Sometimes the show's investigative team is a little hammy, but the sheer number of citizens with information that do not want to be interviewed or seen on camera brings up the nagging realization that many think these murders are a local cover up related to drug crimes. Bardstown is close to Louisville, a large city plagued by the American drug epidemic. The mysteries here may all be related and might never be solved. But the atmospheric sense of dread and sadness (Crystal's mom has a broken voice that will haunt you) of this docuseries will stick with you in your dreams...and your nightmares. You may the find yourself looking for clues online to help to find Crystal Rogers, and to figure out what happened to idyllic small-town America.
Caused damage
mkhewitt-9611013 September 2018
What's so frustrating about this series is the fact that it gives no new information whatsoever, it seems exploitative if the suffering families, and the reporter has absolutely no idea how to question those involved. For instance, she asks very leading questions when interviewing an inmate. Because of the way she has formed these questions, there is really no way to know if he's telling the truth. Additionally, we don't know the evidence that the police already have, which gives the viewer an overwhelming sense of time wasted. This was overall an incredible disappointment, and I believe it was more damaging than anything to the case itself.
No New Information
serenity-9396322 December 2018
There is absolutely no information in this series that was not already available. The footage of the investigators joining the search party felt very unprofessional. And the subsequent digging rather than waiting for the police report made me wonder why they would be willing to disturb potential evidence. Just not good crime reporting.
Waste of time.
holchie25 May 2020
Since others have said it before me, I don't consider this a spoiler. It was good until you realize during the last episode that nothing is solved, or even comes close. The one thing for sure that I took from this is that law enforcement were really good at double-talking and not giving any information or clear response to most questions. So, I still think someone in law enforcement is involved with covering up this case.
Sad and pointless
bec-craft4 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Before I started watching the series I Googled to see if the case had been solved, to avoid disappointment at the end.
It is really frustrating how fake it is, continuously leading viewers to believe that something new or crucial has been found. Considering the journalist is not working with the police or has any of the police information it really does seem pointless, over dramatic and cruel for the family.
The family should seek the help of the Cold Justice team rather than some attention hungry reporter who clearly doesn't know what she's doing and just wants endless camera time.
I would suggest a quick Google, that will save you five hours of your life and give you the same amount of information 😊
The people that made this show should be ashamed!
itop19761 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This show was a waste of time. These people responsible for this show should be ashamed of themselves. Using all theses families pain and grief just to make a television show that served no purpose and had no real leads. This should have never made it to air. The 2 main investigators on the show seemed clueless and horribly insensitive. She was nothing but a glorified podcaster and he was just a sad retired detective or something that talked like he knew more than he probably knew. I will never get back these hours of my life.
My sister recommended this show to my wife. I will be talking to her about her taste in true crime because this was pointless. I'm ashamed that I watched the whole series.
My sister recommended this show to my wife. I will be talking to her about her taste in true crime because this was pointless. I'm ashamed that I watched the whole series.
spotlight's always on the journalist
tamarapopovicbg23 February 2020
This lady journalist says in the first episode: I'm not an investigator, I'm a journalist - so why do we have to watch her face all the time like she's an expert - while some policemen or investigators are talking about the case? She's not that pretty.
Absolutely the worst
samoanui13 January 2022
DONT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!
phempenstall-131 March 2021
All hype
pnwdhcjm8 November 2022
Ok here's the thing.. these episodes are FULL of supposedly new evidence that she digs up. However, they NEVER give us the results of all that evidence collected out of Crystals car supposedly missed by the police department, NEVER give us the results of the evidence taken from the burn pile, NEVER followed up on ANY evidence they supposedly come across. All the different locations, vehicles, people(witnesses), evidence and they do NOTHING with it. Like each episode has its own "new found" piece of evidence and very convincingly too but goes no where with no follow up especially for viewers. So there's suppose to be this building that's burnt down with Crystal's body cut up in it...told to us by an inmate that supposedly was there. HOWEVER again no focus or follow up. Now in another episode the dog finds ANOTHER spot she may be. Seems each episode the dog finds a new and totally different area she could be.
6 hours of speculation
kingmike_2731 January 2024
Poorly done "investigative" documentary. No evidence is revealed because the police didn't share it with the journalist.
She and her retired detective partner speculate on how 4 murders in 3 years are somehow connected. Only the disappearance of crystal and the death of her father make sense. The ambush murder of a police officer before the dissappear of crystal and the slying of a mother and daughter serve only as a red herring. The two of them spend needless hours talking about connections and interviewing family members who have no real knowledge of what police have in evidence.
This could've easily been summed up in a disappointing 2 hour Dateline.
She and her retired detective partner speculate on how 4 murders in 3 years are somehow connected. Only the disappearance of crystal and the death of her father make sense. The ambush murder of a police officer before the dissappear of crystal and the slying of a mother and daughter serve only as a red herring. The two of them spend needless hours talking about connections and interviewing family members who have no real knowledge of what police have in evidence.
This could've easily been summed up in a disappointing 2 hour Dateline.
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