BARDSTOWN, Ky. — Every year when the season starts to change, Sherry Ballard sees the tree outside her kitchen window as a difficult reminder.
"We would stand at the counter together and we'd be like oh look the tree is doing its thing today," Ballard said through tears. "I miss him being at my kitchen counter."
She said she planted the tree not long after she and her husband Tommy Ballard moved into the home he built for them. The tree is different from the others on her property. She said when the leaves fall they look like rain.
It’s something she and Tommy would watch together. A sign that fall, a season he loved, was on the way.
"I don't have him, but I have those memories and that's something no one can take away from me,” Ballard said.
Hunting trip gone wrong
Tommy Ballard was shot and killed Nov. 19, 2016. This Sunday marks seven years since it happened.
That morning, he was on his property, hunting with his grandson. His grandson called Sherry, who was home, and told her what happened. “That's a very hard day for me to remember," she said.
Sherry Ballard has stayed tight-lipped since the two major arrests in her daughter Crystal Rogers’ case. Joseph Lawson was arrested in September, charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence. Weeks later, Brooks Houck, the man who has been the main suspect since 2015, was arrested and charged with murder.
Ballard has been told not to comment on those arrests, but she said she can’t stay quiet on her husband’s case. A case that is still unsolved years later.
"To think it’s been seven years since that happened to Tommy...it's, I feel like I haven't had him for a lifetime, but to think it’s really been seven years,” she said. "It’s unbelievable."
Bombshell developments
Though Tommy Ballard's case remains unsolved, there have been major developments in recent months.
During an October court hearing for Brooks Houck, Special Prosecutor Shane Young announced they are investigating the murder of Tommy Ballard and waiting for test results on a firearm they believe was used to murder Tommy Ballard.
"A firearm that we purchased from Nicholas Houck," Young said.
Ballard was in the front row of the courtroom when that bombshell was dropped. Her eyes welled with tears, hearing her husband’s name.
She said she was surprised that it came out in the courtroom when it did.
“Totally. Totally surprised. Totally," she said, but she wasn’t surprised by what prosecutors said. "It’s what I've always believed. I've said that from day one. I've never ever changed my mind on that. Ever."
Heading in the right direction
For 16 months after his daughter disappeared, Tommy Ballard led search parties, collected boxes of evidence, and mapped out possible scenarios of what could have happened to her.
He was so determined, Sherry believes someone killed him to shut him down.
"I think he would not have given up. He would not have given up, and certain people knew he would not give up,” she explained.
Ballard said she’s been suspicious of the man linked to her daughter's disappearance since the very beginning.
Nick Houck was fired from the Bardstown Police Department just months after Crystal Rogers was reported missing. The police chief accused him of interfering with the investigation and failing a polygraph. In a 2015 police interview Nick denied any connection to Rogers’ disappearance.
"Listen, I'll tell you, I had nothing to do with it,” Houck said to a detective.
Now, all eyes are on the firearm tests currently underway, according to Special Prosecutor Shane Young. He said four out five tests are already a match. Ballard said he has more confidence this year that she has had in previous years.
"A lot more confidence. A lot more," she said. "God is finally answering some of my prayers. It’s His time, not mine. And I'm very happy with that."
In a statement, Kentucky State Police spokesperson Scotty Sharp said the agency continues to work diligently on Tommy Ballard's case.
"We continue to work closely with our federal and local law enforcement partners as we have done over the course of the investigation. As been from the very beginning, our ultimate goal is to bring justice for Tommy and closure for the Ballard family."
Ballard said she’s happy and hopeful that next year, when the leaves start to fall with the change of the season, she isn't waiting for answers but instead starting to look toward the next chapter — one with justice on the front page.
“I think everyone has been working very, very hard on his investigation and I think things are coming together," she said. "And I think I'm heading in the right direction after eight, seven years, I'm finally, finally heading in the right direction."
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