Retired agent says FBI must have had new lead or clue to prompt Crystal Rogers search in Bardstown this week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The FBI had to have a new lead or a new clue to prompt this week's renewed search for missing Bardstown woman Crystal Rogers, according to a local retired federal agent.

Attorney David Beyer, who served as a special agent in the FBI for 26 years, is also an expert in federal search warrants.

"I would tell you that they're not going to spend three days out there and deploy the equipment and personnel if they don't have a reasonable belief that they're going to find something out there," said Beyer.

While he has not worked on the Rogers case, part of his job as chief division counsel was to review search warrant affidavits and requests for search warrants.

It's the first of a three-step process he says to get agents out in the field the way they've been this week in Bardstown.

Beyer said an assistant U.S. attorney and federal judge would also have to approve the warrant. He said that means agents had to have some kind of new information or clue to lead them back to the Houck Family Farm.

This week's search is at least the third at the farm since Rogers, a mother of five, disappeared in July 2015.

"It's more difficult as time goes on, but technology these days is amazing and the FBI has some incredible technology to do searches and develop evidence and our lab in Quantico, Virginia, is amazing at being able to take evidence that's been underground for a while and develop DNA or evidence to support a case," Beyer said. "So they wouldn't be out there if they didn't think they could find something valuable to solving this case."

The FBI has had cadaver dogs, digging equipment and UTVs at the scene in Nelson County this week.

The farm is owned by the family of Brooks Houck, the father of Rogers' youngest child and her boyfriend at the time she disappeared. He's the only suspect ever named in the case, but he's never been arrested or charged.

Rogers was reported missing by her mother, Sherry Ballard, on July 5, 2015. Her car was found abandoned with a flat tire on the Bluegrass Parkway with her keys, wallet and purse still inside.

Earlier this week, Ballard provided some context about why the search for her daughter has come back to the farm so many times.

"My daughter was always at the farm. They would go over there and take her little boy and the other kids and they would roast hot dogs and marshmallows on that farm," she said. "Brooks said that's the last place that they went. I don't even know if my daughter made it to that farm, honestly."

There is a reward and a website dedicated to tips on Rogers' case. The FBI originally planned to wrap up their search on Wednesday, but they will be back out on Thursday.

Related Stories: