BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (Scripps News Lexington/Court TV) — Ten years after Crystal Rogers disappeared, prosecutors are showing a Kentucky jury a wide range of evidence that led them to her boyfriend.
Brooks Houck is seen listening to testimony in a courtroom sketch. (Sketch by Sydney Young)
Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson are standing trial on charges connected to Rogers’ disappearance and murder, though her body has never been found. Rogers, who was dating Houck when she disappeared on July 3, 2015, was last seen on Houck’s family farm.
No cameras are permitted in Houck and Lawson’s trial, limiting the information to reporter notes and sketches.
Houck’s movements on the day Rogers disappeared were shown to the jury via Google location records, which indicated that he traveled only to his home and his family’s farm on July 3. Prosecutors noted this was a direct contradiction to Houck’s written statement to police, which included details about evictions and placing work orders at the electric company. No witnesses were able to corroborate any of Houck’s activities that day.
Prosecutors have focused much of their case so far on evidence implicating not only Houck but also his family, including his brother, Nick Houck, who was a Bardstown police officer at the time of Rogers’ disappearance. While Brooks’ location data showed his whereabouts on July 3, prosecutors said Nick disappeared for the 24 hours when Rogers went missing.
MORE | Prosecutors: Crystal Rogers went on ‘surprise date’ before disappearing
Amber Bowman, Nick’s girlfriend at the time, said that she tried calling him approximately 15 times over July 3-4, but his phone went directly to voicemail. Bowman characterized this as highly unusual. Nick later claimed that he had been doing work at Brooks’ rental properties, but prosecutors say it’s more likely that he was helping his brother kill Rogers and dispose of her body.
Prosecutors say Nick also helped Brooks by helping to dispose of their grandmother’s white Buick after Rogers disappeared. Two men, out raccoon hunting on July 3 near the Houck family farm, testified that they saw the Buick, which they thought was odd, given the time of night and poor weather.
Days after Rogers’ father posted on social media asking for information about the white vehicle, prosecutors say Nick and his grandmother took the Buick to Louisville, where they sold it to a dealership. Four days later, a police K-9 detected human remains in the rear passenger side of the vehicle. A hair similar to Rogers’ was also found in the Buick’s trunk. Houck’s defense countered that the K-9 was “cross-trained” to find both living people and remains.
Steven Lawson, the father of Joseph Lawson and a former employee of Houck’s, was convicted in May on the same charges his son currently faces in the case. In Joseph’s trial, construction worker Charlie Girdley said that Steven told him Brooks wanted to “get rid of his old lady,” and that Joseph said if they buried Rogers with a skid steer, nobody would be able to find her. A skid steer is a construction vehicle designed for loading and excavating.
At one point during testimony, Rogers’ sister left the courtroom in tears. Her mother was seen consoling her in the courthouse hallway.
