The murder of Tommy Ballard remains unsolved. Ballard, a 54-year-old Bardstown, Kentucky construction company owner and the father of missing woman Crystal Rogers, was shot once in the chest on November 19, 2016, while preparing for a hunting trip with his 12-year-old grandson on family land beside the Bluegrass Parkway.1FBI. Tommy Ballard – Seeking Information Nearly a decade later, no one has been charged. The FBI and Kentucky State Police continue to investigate, and prosecutors have publicly linked the killing to the case against the men now convicted of murdering his daughter.
What Happened on November 19, 2016
Ballard was on family property next to the Bluegrass Parkway that morning, getting ready to hunt with his grandson, when a single shot fired from a nearby wooded area struck him in the chest and killed him instantly. The same stretch of parkway was where Crystal Rogers’ abandoned red Chevrolet Impala had been found sixteen months earlier, with her keys, phone, and purse still inside.2FBI. Crystal Rogers – Seeking Information3WDRB. Tommy Ballard’s Brother Still “100% Certain” Houck Family Was Involved in His Murder
Law enforcement’s first public characterization was that the shooting looked like a hunting accident. That framing did not hold. Sources close to the investigation told the Kentucky Standard the day after the shooting that it was being treated as a possible homicide, noting that Ballard’s own weapon had not been fired.4WAVE 3 News. Report: Tommy Ballard Death Considered Possible Homicide The FBI later ruled the death a homicide. The Ballard family has said they never accepted the accident theory.
Why Investigators Believe It Wasn’t Random
At the time he was killed, Ballard was not simply grieving. He was investigating. After his daughter vanished on July 3, 2015, last seen with her boyfriend Brooks Houck, Ballard founded a search group called “Team Crystal” and looked for her nearly every day. He publicly questioned Houck’s shifting accounts, telling reporters, “I’m not accusing him. It’s just all the lies he’s told us. It just don’t add up.”5WLKY. Tommy Ballard Case Death Anniversary The week before his death, he told his wife he felt he was being followed.3WDRB. Tommy Ballard’s Brother Still “100% Certain” Houck Family Was Involved in His Murder
One thread Ballard pulled has proved lasting. On April 28, 2016, he posted on Facebook asking about a white Buick LeSabre two raccoon hunters had reported seeing on a gravel road near the Houck family farm the night Crystal disappeared. The car belonged to Anna Whitesides, Brooks Houck’s grandmother. Four days after Ballard’s post, surveillance footage captured Nick Houck (Brooks’s brother) and Whitesides at Sternberg Chevrolet in Louisville trying to sell the Buick. A sales manager testified that they refused to let anyone look inside before purchase, a demand he called “very, very unusual,” and the dealership passed. The car sold elsewhere. When investigators later tracked it down and impounded it, they found a hair in the trunk consistent in color and characteristics with a sample from Crystal Rogers, though the FBI lab could not extract a DNA profile. A cadaver dog also alerted to the scent of human remains near the trunk.6Lexington Herald-Leader. Hair Found in Houck Grandmother’s Car Consistent With Crystal Rogers7WDRB. Hair Similar to Crystal Rogers Was Found in Car Tied to Houck Family
Ballard’s family has been direct about what they believe. His brother Mike Ballard has told reporters he is “100% certain” the Houck family was involved and that Tommy was killed because he was “getting too close to answers.”3WDRB. Tommy Ballard’s Brother Still “100% Certain” Houck Family Was Involved in His Murder Special Prosecutor Shane Young, appointed in January 2023 to oversee both the Rogers and Ballard cases, has stated that the investigation into Crystal Rogers’ death is also an investigation into Tommy Ballard’s murder and that the two cases “could potentially be related.”8Fox 56 News. Who Killed Tommy Ballard in Bardstown? Question Lingers 9 Years Later
The Rifle and Nick Houck
The most significant piece of publicly known evidence in the Ballard case is a rifle. At an October 2023 court hearing, Young disclosed that undercover investigators had purchased a rifle from Nick Houck, who allegedly used a fake name during the sale. Young told the court the weapon was “the same caliber as the gun used in Tommy Ballard’s death” and matched four of the five criteria investigators were using for comparison. Prosecutors said at the time they were “waiting for testing to come back on the gun that we believe was used to murder Tommy Ballard.”9WDRB. Focus Shifts to Tommy Ballard Murder After Verdict in Crystal Rogers Case As of mid-2026, the results of that testing have not been publicly released.
Nick Houck, a former Bardstown police officer who was fired in October 2015 for interfering with the Crystal Rogers investigation and failing a polygraph, has been a recurring figure across both cases. Kentucky State Police searched his home in 2016, and federal agents searched his property again in 2020. During his brother’s murder trial, prosecutors labeled him an “unindicted co-conspirator.”10Spectrum News 1. Timeline: Nick Houck
On June 4, 2026, Kentucky State Police arrested Nick Houck on a charge of first-degree perjury, a Class D felony carrying one to five years in prison. A Nelson County grand jury indicted him on allegations that he made material false statements under oath between July 15, 2015, the date investigators first questioned him after Rogers vanished, and August 16, 2023, about a month before Brooks Houck was indicted for murder. He posted a $25,000 bond and was released the same day. At his June 18, 2026 arraignment, he pleaded not guilty through a public defender and told reporters he did not know why he had been charged.11WDRB. In Court Without an Attorney, Nick Houck Says He Doesn’t Know Why He Was Charged
The perjury indictment is not a murder charge. No one has been charged in Tommy Ballard’s death.
Where the Case Stands
Brooks Houck was convicted of murdering Crystal Rogers on July 8, 2025, and sentenced to life in prison on September 17, 2025. Joseph Lawson was convicted alongside him and sentenced to 30 years; Steven Lawson was tried separately and sentenced to 17 years.12Louisville Courier Journal. Brooks Houck, Joseph Lawson Sentenced in Crystal Rogers Disappearance None of those convictions concerns Tommy Ballard’s murder, which remains open.
After the Rogers verdicts, the Ballard family raised its privately funded reward for information in Tommy’s killing to $50,000. The FBI maintains a separate $10,000 reward and lists the case on its “Seeking Information” page.13WAVE 3 News. Family Not Giving Up Push for Justice for Tommy Ballard1FBI. Tommy Ballard – Seeking Information The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Brooks Houck in December 2023.14WLKY. Crystal Rogers Trial Timeline
Anyone with information about Tommy Ballard’s murder can call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Mike Ballard has urged even those with fragments to come forward: “Even if it seems small, something you saw, something you heard … just come forward. You never know what could be the piece that breaks it wide open.”3WDRB. Tommy Ballard’s Brother Still “100% Certain” Houck Family Was Involved in His Murder