A man is now the third defendant in a mother-of-five’s presumed murder, following his adult son and the victim’s boyfriend into the hands of law enforcement. Steven Lawson was detained in Indiana and is scheduled for a court appearance in Nelson County, Kentucky, on Dec. 21, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
Authorities have said that Crystal Rogers was last seen on July 3, 2015. It was on the family farm of her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, according to Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB. Her car turned up abandoned on Bluegrass Parkway with her purse, phone, and keys inside the vehicle.
Deputies think she’s dead, and now claim that Lawson, his adult son Joseph Lawson, and Houck each played a role in it.
Brooks Houck (top left) murdered his girlfriend Crystal Rogers., authorities said. Joseph Lawson (bottom left) and his father, Steven Lawson (middle), conspired in the murder, authorities said. (Mug shot of Houck: Hardin County (Ky.) Detention Center; mug shot: Joseph Lawson: YouTube screengrab/WHAS; mug shot: Steven Lawson: Harrison County Sheriff’s Department; image of Rogers: FBI)
The younger Lawson was arrested first, in early September of this year, for criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence. His father faces the same charges.
Houck is charged as Rogers’ alleged killer.
Authorities claim he and Steven Lawson spoke on the phone the night after Rogers disappeared.
Houck allegedly asked him in a phone call if he remembered calling him “really, really late” one night and to remember what it was about, according to to WDRB.
“I can’t remember,” Houck allegedly said.
“I sure can,” Steven Lawson allegedly said. “I asked you for numbers for the house.”
“Oh, for a rental house,” Houck allegedly said.
Prosecutors have said they suspect that Houck’s brother, fired Bardstown police officer Nick Houck, had possibly sold the gun that was eventually used to fatally shoot Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, in the chest on Nov. 19, 2016.
No one has been charged in Ballard’s shooting, however. In a Brooks Houck hearing in early October 2023, prosecutor Shane Young said the daughter’s and her father’s murder could be connected. He said, however, that they needed to test more to determine if it really was a gun that Nick Houck sold under a pseudonym.
“We are waiting for testing to come back on the firearm we believe was used to murder Tommy Ballard, the firearm that was purchased from Nicholas Houck, who was using a fake name when he sold the rifle.”
Young said that the rifle was the same caliber as that used to kill Ballard and that it matched four out of five criteria being considered by investigators.
Nick Houck was fired from the police department in October 2015 for allegedly interfering in the investigation into Rogers’ disappearance.
Him, his sister, brother-in-law, mother, and mother’s live-in boyfriend also “secretly brought in recorders and recorded the grand jury” in Brooks Houck’s case, Young said in October.
“The question is why,” Young said, before answering his own question. “I think everyone in this courtroom knows why: to make sure everyone’s story is consistent.”
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