Скачать или смотреть Father of missing Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers shot and killed while hunting

Father of missing Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers shot and killed while hunting.

Was it murder or a mistake? The question lingers after the father of a missing Bardstown woman was shot while hunting.

"I'm hoping it was an accident some way or another," said community member Betty Greenwell, who lives in a home Ballard built with his father in the 1990s. The small tight-knit community has been rocked by another tragedy.

"All these killings and murders and things going on here -- it makes you nervous," said Greenwell. "Very nervous."

The search for answers has turned to a section of the Bluegrass Parkway between mile marker 21 and 25. Detectives are asking anyone who was on that stretch of road on Saturday between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and who saw anything out of the ordinary -- a person or a car -- to contact investigators.

"Whether they think it's important, whether it's something they noticed and could not be anything to them, it may be huge to us," said Kentucky State Police Trooper Jeff Gregory.

Ballard was shot in the chest Saturday, just before 8 a.m. while hunting with his grandson on family property. On Monday, we learned the child did not pull the trigger and troopers are definitely looking for a shooter.

What's unclear is the intent: Was it an accident or murder?

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.