BARDSTOWN, Kentucky — Jason Ellis. Kathy and Samantha Netherland. Crystal Rogers. Tommy Ballard.
Over three years, they each went missing or were murdered in a small Kentucky town. Their cases remain unsolved, and they continue to plague “The Most Beautiful Small Town in America.”
Now the investigative journalists behind the hit podcast "Bardstown" are giving you the opportunity to help find answers.
WHAS reporter Shay McAlister and Vault Studios journalist and producer Jessica Noll have shared interviews, photos and more information related to the investigations at BardstownPodcast.com. You can dig deep into the evidence, watch never-before-seen interviews and go behind the scenes of the small town of Bardstown.
You can listen to the "Bardstown" podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcast platform. You can also listen in the player at the bottom of this story.
Who is responsible for killing a cop, a mother and daughter, a young mother and then her father? Could the cases be connected?
Should the residents in the most beautiful small town be afraid?
And if so, of what?
What is going on in Bardstown?
The first murder occurred in 2013, when Ellis, a 33-year-old husband, father, and Bardstown police officer, was ambushed after ending a shift on Memorial Day weekend. He was shot after he stopped to clear debris from an exit ramp off of the Bluegrass Parkway.; that debris was likely placed in the road by the killer.
The following year, Kathy Netherland, 48, and her 16-year-old daughter Samantha were found brutally murdered inside their home just outside the Bardstown city limits.
Then Rogers, 35, vanished on Fourth of July weekend 2015. Her car, with her belongings inside, was discovered with a flat tire along the Bluegrass Parkway. She is a mother of five.
Ballard was her father; he more than a year searching for her. By Thanksgiving 2016, he was dead — shot and killed while hunting with his grandson on their private property.
Bardstown is like a lot of small, tight-knit communities all across the country. It’s beautiful and rustic. It’s about family. It’s home.
It is also a community crippled by fear and violence and one with buried secret — where towns folk sometimes whisper about who might be to blame.
Do you know what happened? Maybe you have the clue that can help solve these murders.
LISTEN TO "BARDSTOWN"