Still no answers in search for Tommy Ballard's killer

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) – People in Bardstown still have no answers in the death of Tommy Ballard, nearly a month after his death.

“It's terrible is what it is. Stuff like that never happened before,” Bardstown resident John Gilbert said.

Tommy Ballard, the father of missing Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers, was shot and killed Nov. 19.

Tommy's father, Till Ballard, said Tommy was shot in the chest around 8 a.m. while hunting with his 12-year-old grandson on the family's property along Ed Brent Lane near the Bluegrass Parkway.

Trooper Jeff Gregory with Kentucky State Police said Tommy Ballard's death was labeled as a "death investigation," but have offered little more in the way of information.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Gilbert said. “I'm sure the police are doing the best they can. I know the sheriff and state and highway patrol have all been working on it.”

The other question is whether Tommy Ballard's death is tied in any way to the disappearance of his daughter, Crystal Rogers. The mother of five vanished more than a year ago and is presumed dead.

Investigators called her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, the lead suspect in her disappearance, but he has never been charged.

Ballard marks the fourth unsolved death in the community in the past three years. Other cases include the murders of a local teacher and her daughter, and the ambush murder of Bardstown Police officer Jason Ellis.

“It just seems like somebody out there knows something and is not talking,” Gilbert said. “We're a strong community. We'll carry on. We'll overcome all of this and figure it out.”

DETECTIVE: 'Crime' involving Crystal Rogers believed to have happened at Houck farm