True Crime
October 27- Gracie Stengel
Podcasts are very popular in society today. They can be listened to on your long drive to work or school. Podcasts are convenient to listen to during workouts or while cooking or cleaning. There are many types of podcasts for almost any topic you could think of. Sports, financial, and true crime are popular categories.
This week I decided to listen to a true-crime podcast. I listened to Murder Words "The Bardstown Murders" with Fran Gray and Anna Holley. Bardstown is a small town of about 13,000 people outside of Louisville. In this podcast, they tell the story of 5 unsolved murders that took place there between 2013 and 2016.
The first murder took place in 2013. A local police officer named Jason Ellis was killed while on duty. He was adored by the community and had been named "Officer of the Year" prior to his death. He was the only K-D officer within his department so his job was very important to the community. One night he was out driving down the highway when he came upon a tree branch in the road. Officer Ellis pulled over to move it to prevent an accident and he was shot. As the investigation went on there were not many leads. The police believe that he was targeted because the branch was very obviously placed there. But to this day his case remains unsolved.
Cathy Netherland was a special education teacher at an elementary school in the Bardstown. She had just lost her husband of cancer the year before. One day when she didn't show up for work her father went to her house to check on her. When he arrived he discovered that Cathy and her daughter Samantha were murdered. There were also not many leads in this case and it remains unsolved.
The third case involves a woman named Crystal Rogers, a loving mother of 5. She was reported missing July 3, 2016, when her boyfriend woke up and her car was gone. When she was not answering her phone and didn't show up for her family's 4th of July party her family began to worry. Later on, her car was found on the highway but she was nowhere to be found. The police suspected her boyfriend and the house they lived in together suspiciously burned down making it impossible to collect evidence.
In November of 2016 Crystal's Father, Tommy Ballard, was killed while hunting in a field. His death was originally reported as a hunting accident but was quickly ruled a homicide. The police found gun marks on a tree right off the highway. It was told that Tommy had been doing his own investigations and thought that he was getting close to the truth. He believed he was being followed and had taken precautions.
These cases were tragic and mysterious. Listening to them gave me chills and made my mind wonder how this could happen and how there were virtually no leads. These unsolved mysterious still haunt Bardstown today. I highly recommend listening to this podcast for more details or any other true-crime podcast. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible are popular places to find some.