NELSON COUNTY, Ky. — Tommy Ballard was shot and killed while hunting with his grandson November 19, 2016. News of his death stunned the Nelson County community, who had watched him lead the search for his missing daughter for more than a year.
"I never dreamed in a hundred years that something like this would happen to us," Tommy said after his daughter, Crystal Rogers, disappeared in 2015.
He and Angie Bishoff, a member of 'Team Crystal', would organize search parties for the missing Bardstown mother, spending hours researching and investigating leads of their own.
"Even when he went to work, he is texting part of Team Crystal saying, 'Can you look up this? Can you look at that?' He would come home and get on the computer or my iPad and look up stuff," his wife, Sherry Ballard, said. "And then he would call all of Team Crystal, you know, and he would give them all a little certain thing to do to help us figure out where to search next."
Tommy led searches everywhere he could, looking through every inch of every acre, turning every single piece of trash just in case it gave him a lead.
"You would go out every single day with determination like this, 'Let's pray this is the day," Bishoff said. "And then you would go home and cry."
None of their searches panned out, but Tommy was convinced he was getting closer.
"He promised me and the kids...and I remember the kids saying, "Memaw, Papaw was gonna find our momma for us,'" Sherry said.
'No Hunting Accident'
Just days before Thanksgiving in 2016, Tommy Ballard took his grandson on an early morning hunting trip on their family property. His wife saw them out.
"I remember going back to my bedroom and on the way to the bed, you know, I just said, 'God look over them in the woods today,'" Sherry Ballard said. "I guess I was talking to God out loud...and I lay back down, and it was probably 25 minutes maybe [that] I got the phone call."
Ballard received a call from her grandson, terrified by what he had witnessed.
"He was so upset and he's like, 'Memaw, Papaw has been shot,'" she said. "I was panicking, you know, I was trying to throw my clothes on and get ready and I went in the bathroom. I told Trenton, I said, 'I'm going to call 911.'"
When she got to her husband, Ballard said everyone was sitting, staring.
"I ran over there to Tommy and I shook him, and I just begged him to get up. He was just laying there," Ballard said. "And the last time I shook him...blood come out of his nose. And it's when they pulled me off of him. I knew he was gone once I got there, but it didn't hit me. I didn't realize that."
Tommy was shot once in the chest, a single bullet ending his life in front of his young grandson. Police originally called it a hunting accident, and Ballard said the reason was so police would not get sued if it was an accidental shooting.
She said she was furious with police originally.
"This is my husband, and this is a murder and you know it," Ballard said. "And you're saying it's a hunting accident? No, I'm not okay with that."
Kentucky State Police said they were investigating Tommy's death as a murder, but in the six years since he was shot and killed, police have shared no updates.
"We treat Tommy Ballard's case as a murder, and that's the way we investigate it," Scotty Sharp with KSP said. "You know, I'd like to think that every day we get up and we're working on all of these cases that we're one days closer. We're one step closer."
Now, the FBI confirms they are actively working leads and tips on Ballard's case. They are the 'lead' investigating agency on Crystal Rogers' case but have said they believe solving one case could solve others.
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