PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "One of the final witnesses on Friday also testified to the Houcks strange behavior in the week after Rogers disappearance. Mary Mattingly, who lived across the street from Rogers and Houck's home on Glenview Drive, said Rosemary and Nick Houck were at the home nearly every day. She noted how it was strange because prior to Rogers' disappearance, she hadn't seen Rosemary at the house before. During that week, Mattingly said she saw Rosemary and Nick Houck enter the home but then turn around to move their cars. The Houcks allegedly backed their cars up to the house, with the trunks facing the basement. She then testified that Nick Houck carried four bags out of the trunks, describing the bags as "white, but not like trash bags." She also claims to have witnessed Rosemary digging up purple flowers Rogers had planted that year
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.STORY: "RECAP: First week of testimony in 2nd Crystal Rogers murder trial," by Reporter Joseph Garcia, published by WHAS11abc, on June 28, 2025. (Joseph Garcia focuses heavily on local news, particularly crime-related stories and breaking news in the Louisville area. He covers a variety of topics including accidents, missing persons, legal proceedings, and government announcements related to crime.)
SUB-HEADING: "Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson's trial in the Bardstown mom's disappearance and death began Tuesday."
GIST: "A jury in Warren County return to court Monday morning for more testimony in the second trial of the Crystal Rogers case.
Rogers, a Bardstown mom, went missing over the Fourth of July weekend in 2015.
Nearly a decade later, Brooks Houck, Rogers’ ex-boyfriend, and Joseph Lawson’s combined trial began Tuesday, June 24.
Houck is charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence. Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
In May, a jury convicted Steve Lawson, Joseph Lawson’s father and co-defendant, on similar charges.
Daily trial updates in Crystal Rogers case on free WHAS11+ app: Join Shay McAlister, Alexandra Goldberg, and Doug Proffitt for special coverage breaking down each day's testimony, as well as insight from WHAS11 legal analyst Nick Mudd.
Witnesses, cell data contradict Brooks Houck's alibi
Former Nelson County Detective Jon Snow, who led the police investigation for the first few years after Rogers' disappearance, said Houck wrote an 8-page statement with everything he did on July 3, 2015.
It took him an hour-and-a-half to write, the detective said. And Houck read it out to himself afterwards.
Prosecutors said Houck talked about doing work with several people that day in his statement.
"As you can tell when you look at that list, I've got so much stuff to do, I don't have any unaccounted for time," he told Snow at the time.
In a series of rapid-fire testimonies, many of those people who Houck named said they didn't meet with him that day.
An LMPD digital forensics expert, Tim O'Daniel, also testified that cell records didn't match what Houck said he did.
Using Google location data, which O'Daniel said provides "very accurate" information, investigators determined Houck was at the family farm between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on July 3, 2015.
According to O'Daniel, Houck left the farm for a hardware store and returned to the house he shared with Rogers on Glenview Drive around 4:45 p.m.
Houck’s phone was then tracked leaving his house around 7:05 p.m. before arriving at the farm just before 7:30 p.m.
Between 7:30 p.m. and 11:57 p.m., prosecutors said Houck’s phone moved between various locations on the more than 200-acre property. Houck then left the farm around midnight.
In his written statement, Houck claimed that he, Rogers and their son went straight home after leaving the farm. However, O’Daniel said his phone pinged at a parking lot in the Old Kentucky Home campgrounds just before 12:15 a.m.
Houck's defense argued his phone was pinging off Wi-Fi spots on his way home, calling the allegation a "stopover theory."
Rosemary and Nick Houck tied to unsolved case
Two of Houck's family members keep getting attention as prosecutors argue there was a conspiracy to kill Crystal Rogers.
In a fiery opening statement, Prosecutor Jim Lesousky said Houck's mom Rosemary had a strained relationship with Rogers and viewed her as "beneath them" and "not to their standard."
He said Rosemary spoke to Danny Singleton weeks prior to Rogers' disappearance about wanting to "get rid" of her.
Singleton testified Thursday about that conversation, which he said happened at a jobsite.
"I told her, around this town and with money, you can get anything done," Singleton testified on Thursday, adding that he didn't tell Brooks Houck about the conversation. "It's the truth that she wanted someone to do it, not me to do it."
One of the final witnesses on Friday also testified to the Houcks strange behavior in the week after Rogers disappearance.
Mary Mattingly, who lived across the street from Rogers and Houck's home on Glenview Drive, said Rosemary and Nick Houck were at the home nearly every day.
She noted how it was strange because prior to Rogers' disappearance, she hadn't seen Rosemary at the house before.
During that week, Mattingly said she saw Rosemary and Nick Houck enter the home but then turn around to move their cars.
The Houcks allegedly backed their cars up to the house, with the trunks facing the basement. She then testified that Nick Houck carried four bags out of the trunks, describing the bags as "white, but not like trash bags."
She also claims to have witnessed Rosemary digging up purple flowers Rogers had planted that year.
Tim O'Daniel, the prosecution's digital forensics expert, also testified that Nick Houck's phone had been turned off on July 2 through July 4. However, the defense argued that's because he was ignoring his girlfriend who he was arguing with.
During opening statements, prosecutors said the jury would later hear a conversation between Houck and his mother in which she asks him what they should do about a blanket in the trunk of Nick's car.
Rosemary and Nick Houck have been called “unindicted coconspirators” still under investigation in Rogers’ case. Neither have ever been arrested or charged.
Rosemary Houck has been noticeably absent during the first week of her son's murder trial. Back in Bardstown, during Houck's pre-trial hearings, she was often found behind him in the gallery.
Steve Lawson's ex-girlfriend testifies
Despite being tried alongside Brooks Houck, Joseph Lawson has only come up a few times in the first few days of the trial.
His attorney, Kevin Coleman, didn't provide an opening statement on Wednesday, and has only spoken up at times to clarify that a witness was testifying about Joseph's father Steve Lawson.
Shocking testimony Friday morning brought new accusations against Joseph Lawson, however.
Heather Snellen was Steve Lawson’s ex-girlfriend, who defense attorneys accused of hiding the couple’s shared car on a road that runs parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway. It’s part of the defense’s alternate theory explaining why the Lawsons’ phones pinged near Rogers’ car.
According to Snellen, she had custody of the car after they broke up but it was taken from her without her knowledge.
On July 3, 2015, she found it and had a spare key, so she took it and left it at a relative’s house on Boston Road. She said the next day, she went back to it and cleaned it out, finding needles, a bag of soured clothes, and a little Louisville Slugger bat.
Snellen also testified that in 2017, she overheard Steve and Joseph Lawson talk about moving a body on the Houck family farm with a skid steer. A skid steer is a very maneuverable machine which usually has a bucket on the front. Skid steers are used for digging, moving things, landscaping and construction.
She said she never told the police about the comment until years later. "I wanted to distance myself; I didn't want to be involved. I'm a single mother," she explained. "The truth is I overheard Steve Lawson and Joseph Lawson moving a body at the Houck farm with a skid steer."
The testimony struck members of Rogers’ family, who could be seen in the courtroom wiping tears from their eyes and consoling one another.
Police have not found Crystal Rogers body
The prosecution admits police have not found Rogers' body, saying their case relies on circumstantial evidence.
“This is what we call a no-body homicide,” Prosecutor Shane Young said during jury selection. “We have not located the victim.”
Without a body, prosecutors will need to use phone records, surveillance video, witness testimony or other tools to prove their case. Circumstantial evidence cases are one of the hardest to build, according to WHAS11 legal analyst Nick Mudd.
Brooks Houck's attorney, Steve Schroeing, argued the case presented by the prosecution is built on pressure from family and the media to solve Crystal Rogers' disappearance.v"Her family was panicked," he argued. "There was an explosion of publicity on this case like Kentucky had never seen."
According to his attorneys, Houck was the answer to a mystery authorities couldn't figure out.
The defense argued in the first four years of investigating there was no body, no evidence of her death, no murder weapon, and not a single eyewitness who could say she was harmed.
Schroeing said a change in the dynamic of the investigation came in 2023 when Kentucky State Police investigators allegedly switched from "approved police tactics to manipulation." He argued the massive dig on Thompson Hill Road was an effort to find evidence to match the prosecution's new theory.
"Nothing is found," Schroeing said. "They were wrong again."
What Brooks Houck did after Rogers vanished
The first few days of the trial have shed new light on what Houck did in the days after Rogers vanished.
His attorneys said Houck didn't search for Rogers after her disappearance because the Nelson County Sheriff's Office advised him not to and to stay away from search parties because of the animosity that had built up between the families.
During cross-examination of former Nelson County detective Jon Snow, Schroeing talked about Houck's phone records which show he tried calling Rogers twice on July 4 and once on July 5, 2015.
The jury asked Snow if Houck left voicemails when she didn't pick up, but Snow said investigators don't believe he did.
Houck then texted Barbara Roby, a relative of Rogers' and a former Bardstown police officer, asking if she's been able to reach Rogers. She said she also hadn't heard from her.
He then asked Roby for another relative's phone number, Sabrina Ballard, to again try to locate Rogers, but to no luck.
"Everyone is worried sick...please call me back," Houck texted Rogers after being unable to contact her, according to screenshots shown in court.
The prosecution said records show Rogers' phone was turned off by 9:30 p.m. on July 3, 2015."
Get trial updates in the Crystal Rogers case on the WHAS11+ app: Join Shay McAlister, Alexandra Goldberg, and Doug Proffitt for special coverage breaking down each day's testimony, as well as insight from WHAS11 legal analyst Nick Mudd.
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
