Third person indicted in connection with Crystal Rogers disappearance, death

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Friday, Dec. 8, 2023 — Steven Eugene Lawson, 53, of Chaplin, was indicted Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2023, on charges connected with the July 2015 disappearance and death of Crystal Rogers.

Lawson is the third person indicted in the Rogers case. Lawson’s son, Joseph Lee Lawson, and Rogers’ boyfriend, Brooks Houck, were indicted in September for conspiracy to murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the Crystal Rogers case.

Steven Lawson was initially indicted in May 2023 on tampering with evidence in the Rogers case, but that indictment remained sealed until this week, when he was also indicted on the additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

According to the Dec. 6 indictment, Steven Lawson agreed to “aid one or more persons in the planning or commission” of the death of another and then “destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed” or altered physical evidence on the weekend Rogers disappeared.

Lawson’s bond is $500,000 cash. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Nelson Circuit Court on Dec; 21st. He is currently incarcerated in the Harrison County, Ind., jail.

The new indictment comes during the same week that law enforcement including the FBI were searching for evidence in the Thompson Hill Road area of Cox’s Creek.

Authorities confirmed the Thompson Hill Road search was related to either the Rogers case, the shooting death of Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, or the murder of Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis.

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