Houck trial witness overheard Lawsons discuss ‘moving a body’ at Houck farm

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Friday, June 27, 2025 — A woman who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Stephen Lawson testified today in the Brooks Houck murder trial that she overheard Stephen Lawson and his son, Houck co-defendant Joseph “Joey” Lawson talking about “moving a body” on the Houck family farm on Pascal Ballard Road.

Heather Snellen formerly dated — and lived with — Stephen Lawson around the time of Crystal Rogers’ disappearance.

She testified that she overheard the conversation while she was doing laundry in the basement of the home they shared.

Snellen testified that she was interviewed several times by both the FBI and Kentucky State Police, but never told investigators about the conversation she heard. She told the jury Friday she was afraid to get involved in the case. At the time she was a drug user.

She told the jury she was using methamphetamine, and that her supplier was Joseph Lawson.

In 2023 she contacted Kentucky State Police to let them know she had more information.

During an interview lasting more than four hours, she told KSP investigators about the conversation she overheard.

After giving them that information, she told the jury investigators badgered her, demanding she provide more information. After revealing she had deleted a number of text messages from her phone, they threatened her felony charges.

She testified that the KSP investigators yelled, and threatened to intervene in an ongoing child protective services case if she failed to tell them more information. Despite her claims she had told them all she knew, the continued to pressure her for more information.

During Snellen’s cross-examination by the defense counsel, she admitted KSP’s high-pressure tactics caused her to have a panic attack.

She finally was allowed to leave the KSP interview after nearly 4-1/2 hours of questioning.

PHONE DATA FORENSICS QUESTIONED. Tim O’Daniel, an expert in forensic analysis of cellphone data, provided prosecutors with location data from Brooks Houck’s cellphone, and provided the jury with a timeline of his whereabouts on July 3, 2015, the day Crystal Rogers disappeared.

In practice, cell phones generally use the cell tower closest to their location., O’Daniel explained Data from the cell carrier can determine which antenna the call was picked upon, giving a general direction of from where the call came.

O’Daniel also included location data from Google, which he noted provided far more accurate location data than the standard cell phone.

The data showed that Brooks Houck left his home at 7:24 p.m. on July 3, 2015 — presumably with Crystal Rogers — and drove to the Houck family farm. Houck’s phone data indicates he stayed there until just before midnight.

At this point, the location data shows him driving back to his home on Glenview Drive in Bardstown.

O’Daniel noted that it appeared that the phone belonging to Brooks Houck’s brother, Nick Houck, was powered off or in a location where it had no service, as there was no location data for his phone from July 2 thru July 4, 2015.

Following O’Daniel’s cell phone forensic data presentation, the defense attorneys raised questioned about presentation.

For example, a phone call that Stephen Lawson made at 12:07 a.m. July 4, 2015, after picking up his son from Crystal Rogers’ car on the Bluegrass Parkway did not go through the cell tower in visual range of Rogers’ car — it was captured by a north-facing antenna on a cell tower a greater distance away.

Defense attorneys also noted that while prosecutors presented location information on Stephen Lawson’s and Brooks Houck’s phones, the July 2015 call data did not capture any information on Joseph Lawson’s cellular phone — which he used to contact his father after Rogers’ car broke down.

HOUCK NEIGHBOR TESTIFIES. Mary Mattingly, a Glenview Drive neighbor of Houck’s told the jury that after Crystal Rogers’ disappearance she began to see Houck’s mother, Rosemary Houck, and his brother, Nick Houck visiting Brooks’ house on a near daily basis.

One day, she said she witnessed Rosemary Houck and Nick Houck back their vehicles into Brooks Houck’s driveway and watched as each loaded two large white bags into the back of their respective vehicles.

She said she also observed Rosemary Houck digging up flowers Crystal Rogers had planted outside the house and throwing them into a trash can.

The last witness to testify Friday was a former employee of Lowe’s in Bardstown. He testified that on his way home to Elizabethtown on July 3, 2015, he passed Crystal Rogers’ car on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway with its hazard lights flashing near the 14 mile marker.

The told the jury the next afternoon, he and his wife were driving to Lexington when they saw the car again with a number of police officers’ vehicles parked around it. When questioned by defense counsel, he confirmed that the car he saw Friday evening, July 3, 2015, was the same car he saw on Saturday, July 4, 2015.

WHAT’S NEXT. Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III did not sequester the jury of eight men and seven women hearing the case.

The trial resumes at 8:30 a.m. Central time in Courtroom D on the fourth floor of the Warren County Justice Center.

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