BARDSTOWN, Ky. — The FBI has been working in Bardstown for more than two years, but one search in August of 2021 seemed to bring the most promise. Now, one year later, Crystal Rogers' mom said she believes "justice is coming."
"I know they're in the last steps," Ballard told WHAS11. "I know they're getting close. Their close and my close is not the same thing. I'm wanting this done seven years ago."
This week last year, FBI special agents were digging below ground in a Bardstown neighborhood. They eventually narrowed in on a driveway, after a cadaver dog hit on the area.
Property records revealed Brooks Houck, the main suspect in Rogers' disappearance, was working on the property the same summer she went missing.
After seven days of digging, searching and collecting evidence, the FBI confirmed they found multiple items of interest.
Shay McAlister: A lot of people wonder- what was found under the driveway? We were told multiple items of interest. Were you ever told what they found?
Sherry Ballard: Yes mam. I was told the day that they found it. It was...it was very hard time for me because what they found could very well be evidence that they needed.
Ballard said she talks to the FBI about twice a month, and emphasized they always take her calls. She said she believes the team is working hard, but believes prosecutors are slowing the next step.
"The FBI guy who's doing this is excellent. He's doing an excellent job, I have no complaints about that," she said. "It's getting all of the prosecutors on board and getting them where they need to be that is the area I need to work on more than anything."
The FBI said told WHAS11 they were working with prosecutors late last year, explaining special agents are working with the Nelson County Prosecutor's Office in connection to Crystal Rogers' case.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen said, "they are working with the prosecutor's office to get this to a place where we can have a conclusion."
Ballard admits she is getting impatient.
"There's going to come a time where I say its time," she said. "It's time to move forward with what you've got and I just have to take my chances and move forward with that."
It's been seven years since Rogers disappeared and seven years since a main suspect was named in the case.
Former Nelson County Sheriff Ed Mattingly publicly named Brooks Houck, Rogers' boyfriend, as the main suspect in her disappearance in 2015.
His brother, Nick Houck, a Bardstown Police Officer at the time, was fired after then Chief Rick McCubbin said he interfered in the investigation.
Neither have been arrested or charged in connection to this investigation.
"Life just goes on for them like its nothing and my whole world has been crushed. I just want them to pay for what they did to my family. I just want justice," Ballard said.
The FBI declined to give a comment to WHAS11 about the status of the investigation right now.
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