Former agent speaks about what may have led FBI to arrest Brooks Houck in Crystal Rogers case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Eight years after Crystal Rogers disappeared and three years since the FBI took over her case, the primary suspect is behind bars.

Brooks Houck, Rogers' former boyfriend, was arrested Wednesday after being charged with complicity to murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to an indictment in Nelson County Circuit Court.

Houck was arrested "without incident," the FBI wrote in a news release. He was indicted by a grand jury Sept. 20, and the indictment was unsealed Wednesday morning with certain portions redacted.

Just before 11 a.m., Houck was escorted into the Nelson County jail in handcuffs. His bond was set at $10 million, and his arraignment was set for 1 p.m. Oct. 5.

His arrest leads to these questions: Why now? What led the FBI to Wednesday's arrest?

Rogers was last seen on July 3, 2015. The next day, her car was found on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway with her purse, phone and keys still inside. But there was no sign of the mother of five. Houck was quickly named the main person of interest because he was the last known person to see her alive when they were at his family farm the night of July 3.

When the FBI took over the investigation, Rogers had been missing for five years, which means any evidence is that much harder to find.

A retired FBI agent who spoke with WDRB News on Wednesday said the agency must have found something to warrant Houck's arrest.

Over the years, the Houck family farm, the homes of Brooks Houck and his brother, Nick, have been searched multiple times, along with a storage unit belonging to Rogers. And, most recently, in 2022, the FBI was back a t the Houck farm for a five-day search.

In 2021, the driveway of a home built by Houck in the Woodlawn Springs neighborhood was ripped up by the FBI, using SONAR equipment, backhoes and K-9s to search the property.

"When you have to go over every square inch of that with a fine-tooth comb, literally," retired FBI agent Doug Kouns said. "It appears that they found items of significance that they sent off to the (FBI) lab in Quantico (Virginia)."

Kouns retired from the FBI in 2018 and is now the CEO of Veracity IIR, an investigative firm. He said in cases like Rogers' involving cold evidence, results take a long time to process.

"And it's possible that something from that search led to the next step," he said.

At this point, it's still unknown what the FBI uncovered from their searches. But earlier this month, police arrested Joseph Lawson. Lawson pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in Rogers' case.

The Lawson indictment, which does not mention Rogers by name, says the crime was committed in Nelson County on July 3 and/or July 4, 2015, when Lawson "agreed to aid one or more persons in the planning or commission of the crime or an attempt or solicitation to commit the crime when he, and/or, a co-conspirator intentionally caused the death of another." The maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge is 10-20 years in prison.

In addition, the indictment charges Lawson with complicity to tampering with physical evidence when he "destroyed, mutilates, concealed, removed or alters physical evidence." The maximum penalty for that charge is one to five years in prison.

Kouns speculates that a previously missing piece, plus additional interviews and advances in technology, led to the charges against Houck.

"So the investigators have to come up with enough pieces of the puzzle," he said. "It doesn't have to be the full puzzle, but it has to have enough to it that a judge is going to say 'Yeah, I think you've got enough here, I'm gonna sign off on it,' and then the arrest is made."

As the case heads to the courtroom, more details are expected about what the FBI recovered. But Kouns cautions that just because there's been an arrest, the case is far from over.

While the case involves federal agents, it remains a state case. Kouns said the FBI jumps in if asked by the state or agency working on it, where more resources are needed. He said it's something you may see in high-profile cases such as this.

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