About This Episode
Bardstown, Kentucky—a small town in Nelson County—has become synonymous with an unsettling string of homicides that have left investigators puzzled and residents searching for answers. Since 2013, five murders have gone unresolved, marking what local authorities have termed a "deadly decade" that challenges the image of safety in rural America.
One of the most prominent cases involves Crystal Rogers, whose disappearance on July 3 or 4, 2015, captured national attention. Despite an intensive investigation, Rogers' body has never been found. In September 2023, a breakthrough emerged when her former boyfriend, Brooks Houck, was indicted on murder and tampering with physical evidence charges. The case remains ongoing, with prosecutors pursuing justice in the absence of the victim's remains—a rare but not unprecedented legal scenario.
Yet Rogers' case represents only one chapter in Bardstown's grim narrative. On April 21, 2014, Kathy Netherland, a 48-year-old special education teacher at Bardstown Elementary School, and her daughter Samantha, a 16-year-old sophomore at Bardstown High School, were discovered bound and murdered in their Botland home. The brutal nature of their deaths shocked the close-knit community. Nearly a decade later, no suspects have been named, and investigators remain without a clear direction in the case.