Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Five unsolved murders in 'The Most Beautiful Small Town in America,' Bardstown

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Five unsolved murders in 'The Most Beautiful Small Town in America,' Bardstown · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:04
Speaker 1: But the hay is going on in Bardstown. I'm telling
0:07
Speaker 1: you people drop white flies there. How can it still
0:11
Speaker 1: be unsolved? I don't understand this. And here's another conundrum.
0:18
Speaker 1: Typically you find serial killers used the same mo modus operandi,
0:22
Speaker 1: met of operation, but here the murderers are entirely different.
0:27
Speaker 1: Is it the same person? If it's not the same person,
0:31
Speaker 1: how many killers are in this small town? And how
0:35
Speaker 1: is it they've never been caught? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm Shan McAllister. I'm a reporter at WHS eleven in Louisville.
0:56
Speaker 1: I want to tell you a story about a town
0:58
Speaker 1: in Kentucky, a beautiful, close knit town where some truly
1:01
Speaker 1: horrible things have happened. I know everybody, so it's hard
1:05
Speaker 1: to also to think that somebody here in my town
1:08
Speaker 1: could would do such a thing. A police officer with
1:11
Speaker 1: a wife and two young sons, a teacher and her
1:14
Speaker 1: teenage daughter, a thirty five year old mother, and eighteen
1:18
Speaker 1: months later her father. Four of them murdered, one of
1:22
Speaker 1: them missing, considered dead. All of the cases are unsolved.
1:27
Speaker 1: It makes me fearful to even speak of it. So
1:30
Speaker 1: that kind of gives you a little insight. We'll tell
1:34
Speaker 1: you about those victims and not only how they died,
1:37
Speaker 1: but how they lived, and delve into the lives turned
1:40
Speaker 1: upside down by these horrific crimes, growing up here and
1:44
Speaker 1: dealing with everything that's going on. Now it's Lloydross's towns
1:48
Speaker 1: even standing. I mean, see, Grace, this is crime Stories.
1:51
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. You were just hearing
1:52
Speaker 1: Shane McCalister, investigative reporter w h AS Louisville. Also with
1:57
Speaker 1: me right now, Jessica Noll, investigative journalists, podcast producer with
2:00
Speaker 1: Vault Studios. They have dug in and managed to find
2:07
Speaker 1: evidence that seemingly police didn't know anything about. Now, how
2:12
Speaker 1: is that? Why aren't police solving this? And you know,
2:14
Speaker 1: I don't like bashing the cops, but I don't understand this.
2:19
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. He sees something in the
2:22
Speaker 1: middle of the road. There are freshly cut and purposely
2:26
Speaker 1: placed tree limbs in the middle of the exit ramp.
2:33
Speaker 1: He pulls his cruiser across the ramp to block any
2:36
Speaker 1: oncoming traffic, puts on his flashing lights and steps out
2:40
Speaker 1: of his cruiser to remove the debris. But someone is
2:43
Speaker 1: hiding among the lavender spring flowers just off the slanted pavement.
2:48
Speaker 1: When Jason bends down to grab an armful of branches,
2:51
Speaker 1: he's ambushed, booming twelve gage shotgun blasts ring out. He's
2:55
Speaker 1: struck in his kevlar vest and under his arm. More
2:59
Speaker 1: shots penetrate the darkness and the officer. He's sprayed with pellets,
3:03
Speaker 1: striking his right upper arm, forearm, and right elbow, more
3:07
Speaker 1: plowing to his scalp, his forehead, his temple, and his
3:10
Speaker 1: right jaw. He doesn't have time to react or to
3:12
Speaker 1: grab his gun from his holster. His body collapses to
3:15
Speaker 1: the pavement and the tree limbs fall onto his legs.
3:18
Speaker 1: Blood steeps onto the asphalt below him, leaving a trail
3:22
Speaker 1: of red. Sorry, no apt Hello, Hello, Did you hear
3:33
Speaker 1: the way that they juxtaposed lavender flowers against dead bodies? Okay,
3:39
Speaker 1: that's a brain twister as well. Welcome back everybody with
3:42
Speaker 1: me right now. Shay McCalister, investigative reporter, whs Jessica Nol
3:46
Speaker 1: investigative journalist, podcast producer, Vault Studios, And they've got a
3:50
Speaker 1: big surprise for everybody. They now have the investigation into
3:55
Speaker 1: the Bardstown murderers in digital form and I am loving it.
4:01
Speaker 1: You can see it, hear it, read it over and
4:05
Speaker 1: over and over with behind the scenes info that didn't
4:08
Speaker 1: make it into the podcast. And as I always say,
4:12
Speaker 1: people would would comment when I try the murder case,
4:15
Speaker 1: talk about overkill. You're overdoing it. I would bring in
4:18
Speaker 1: every sintilla or shred of evidence for the jury because
4:22
Speaker 1: you only get one swing at the ball, one bite
4:24
Speaker 1: of the apple. Don't leave anything out. And now we're
4:27
Speaker 1: finding out about behind the scenes information and evidence that
4:31
Speaker 1: did not make it into the podcast. Jessica Noles, Shaman callister,
4:34
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. First to you, Shaman callister.
4:37
Speaker 1: I don't understand how so many dead people can be
4:41
Speaker 1: going in and out of the local funeral home and
4:44
Speaker 1: it's still not solved. How many dead bodies are we
4:47
Speaker 1: talking about, Shay Well at this point, Nancie, we're talking
4:51
Speaker 1: about five different people, and it is unbelievable, especially to
4:55
Speaker 1: those who lived there, a tount of thirteen thousand. Biche.
4:58
Speaker 1: When you say everyone knows everyone, but in this case,
5:01
Speaker 1: everyone is familiar with every family. So every time something happens,
5:05
Speaker 1: you know someone who knows someone who's connected. Well, it's
5:08
Speaker 1: not hard for me to relate to that, Jessica Nol.
5:11
Speaker 1: As you know, I grew up not in Making Georgia,
5:15
Speaker 1: in Middle Georgia, rural Georgia. I grew up outside the
5:19
Speaker 1: city limits in unincorporated Bibb County. We literally did know
5:23
Speaker 1: everybody by sight and name. At the school, our public school,
5:27
Speaker 1: doctor John H. Chart Elementary, at our church, Liberty Methodist,
5:31
Speaker 1: we knew everybody. There weren't that many people to know
5:35
Speaker 1: same thing in Barnstown. I don't understand, Jessica ol at
5:38
Speaker 1: the get go, it's got to be someone, you know,
5:43
Speaker 1: it has to be because the population is so small, Jessica,
5:48
Speaker 1: it is very personal to the folks in both town.
5:51
Speaker 1: I mean, and they believe that they know who's responsible
5:55
Speaker 1: for at least some of these crimes. But you know,
6:00
Speaker 1: we're still looking at unsolved cases. Here five dead bodies
6:04
Speaker 1: and counting. Take a listen to shay McAlister. He frantically
6:10
Speaker 1: grabs the officers radio on his uniform. Out of breath,
6:13
Speaker 1: he calls over to dispatch. We we I'll come home
6:17
Speaker 1: from still I'm working, and there was the police car
6:22
Speaker 1: is sitting in the middle of the road with a
6:23
Speaker 1: life on and we didn't know what it was as
6:27
Speaker 1: a career across the road and I didn't know what
6:30
Speaker 1: it was and I got out know what I look
6:32
Speaker 1: didn't deal I believe. I'm like, okay, can you tell
6:36
Speaker 1: if he is breathing? Oh, sir, he is not breathing.
6:41
Speaker 1: Body's damagery and being about the setus of the officer.
6:45
Speaker 1: Is he consciousness? I'm believe you. Then soon a flood
6:50
Speaker 1: of blue lights light up the night sky, dancing off
6:52
Speaker 1: of treetops and illuminating the horror. Jason's fellow officers are
6:56
Speaker 1: about to drive up to one by one as they
6:59
Speaker 1: received the call from dispatch to exit thirty four. Fond
7:04
Speaker 1: to how a fifty five are healthful? Officer down an
7:11
Speaker 1: officer and rude or what kind of go or where
7:14
Speaker 1: we're going on, Authorina, We're not sure. We have officers
7:19
Speaker 1: responding from Marktown. We had a passer bought on the
7:25
Speaker 1: officers radio. We're not sure what's going on to Shaye
7:28
Speaker 1: McAllister whis tell me about the Officer of the Year,
7:33
Speaker 1: Jason Ellis? How was he murdered? Because this took a
7:37
Speaker 1: lot of planning, thinking, conniving, and scheming. Officer of the
7:42
Speaker 1: Year Jason Ellis He was a family man who was
7:45
Speaker 1: very beloved in the community. He was a drug officer
7:48
Speaker 1: who typically worked with his key nine partner, Figo. On
7:51
Speaker 1: this night, though he was working alone. He had called
7:54
Speaker 1: off for the night. He was on his way home,
7:56
Speaker 1: driving up the Bluegrass Parkway and exiting on the X
8:00
Speaker 1: that he used every night to get home Bloomfield Road.
8:03
Speaker 1: As he was driving off the exit, he saw some
8:06
Speaker 1: tree limbs placed in the roadway, and because he is
8:09
Speaker 1: a good officer who even though he was off duty,
8:13
Speaker 1: he decided to stop, turn on his lights and get
8:16
Speaker 1: out to move the tree limbs. When he did, he
8:19
Speaker 1: was ambushed. He was shot multiple times. You heard it
8:23
Speaker 1: there from the podcast, in this graphic description of how
8:27
Speaker 1: these bullets just tore through his body and he was
8:30
Speaker 1: killed right there on the exit ramp alone. You know, Jessica,
8:38
Speaker 1: that reminds me so much of the murder of my
8:40
Speaker 1: fiance Keith. He had been at the workplace that day,
8:45
Speaker 1: which is in a very remote area. He's work in
8:48
Speaker 1: a construction crew during the summer. Before he finished up
8:52
Speaker 1: yet I think one or two classes left already had
8:55
Speaker 1: a job lined up as a geologist at Colorado. At
8:59
Speaker 1: the work and he left the construction site to go
9:05
Speaker 1: get sodas or drinks for everybody at lunch. And when
9:09
Speaker 1: he came back, he was driving the company vehicle and
9:13
Speaker 1: a guy who had been fired before Keith came on
9:17
Speaker 1: to the job was standing there, saw the truck, went
9:20
Speaker 1: crazy and ambushed him and shot him five times. And
9:23
Speaker 1: I've often thought about him his last moments alone out
9:29
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere, and I wasn't there, And
9:33
Speaker 1: I wonder what Officer Ellis's family, how they consider this
9:40
Speaker 1: about him, their dad, their husband dying two am out alone,
9:48
Speaker 1: bleeding out, trying to help other people. Now, this took
9:52
Speaker 1: a lot of thinking to do, because what the purp
9:56
Speaker 1: did was get several freshly cut trees and kind of
10:00
Speaker 1: block off the road. Also interesting, Shane McAllister, I mean,
10:04
Speaker 1: can you imagine the person dragging the trees down. That
10:07
Speaker 1: took a lot of thinking and a lot of work.
10:11
Speaker 1: But then the murder was affected with a twelve gauge shotgun.
10:15
Speaker 1: Now that gives me a whole another take on who
10:20
Speaker 1: did this. I can tell you right now, with a
10:21
Speaker 1: twelve gauge it's a man. Killer is a man. The
10:26
Speaker 1: killer is not missed. At two am, in the morning,
10:30
Speaker 1: and the killer doesn't have a problem skulking in the
10:32
Speaker 1: forest dragging trees down. That's what all that tells me, Shay.
10:36
Speaker 1: So that cuts about fifty one of your population of
10:39
Speaker 1: who's the killer right there, So we're down to about
10:42
Speaker 1: sixty five hundred people. Yeah, there's all kinds of theories
10:45
Speaker 1: and conspiracies about who actually killed Jason. Wait are you
10:49
Speaker 1: calling me a conspiracy theorist? Because that's not a conspiracy
10:52
Speaker 1: because I only think one person did that. And true
10:55
Speaker 1: they're a nut, but not legally in same because they've
10:57
Speaker 1: certainly outfought the Bardstown police so far. Can't you agree
11:00
Speaker 1: with that shit? Yeah, I can't agree with that. Crime
11:12
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace Richard Calledwell grew up visiting his
11:23
Speaker 1: grandparents in Bardstown. Citizen journalist the Jason Ellis murderer really
11:28
Speaker 1: slammed on the brakes for a lot of people. It
11:30
Speaker 1: made people locally and beyond stop and really pay attention.
11:36
Speaker 1: And I think eventsive happened since then. Just add to that.
11:42
Speaker 1: In his blog and now with us, he shares his
11:45
Speaker 1: thoughts on what he believes happened to the Bartstown police
11:48
Speaker 1: officer Well. The hot Gossip at the time, was that
11:52
Speaker 1: a local gang called the BMGs or the Big Money Gang.
11:56
Speaker 1: They're big on drug trafficking, that they had some sort
11:59
Speaker 1: of involvement in it. And I have cousins who consider
12:03
Speaker 1: themselves parts of the BMG And from everything I've gathered,
12:08
Speaker 1: I think there are a bunch of kids that watch
12:10
Speaker 1: entirely too much television. I don't think that they would
12:13
Speaker 1: have the brains or the resources to execute the execution
12:18
Speaker 1: of a law enforcement officer. I mean, just considering the
12:23
Speaker 1: planning that had to go into it, I think it's
12:25
Speaker 1: an easy cop out to try to pin it on,
12:27
Speaker 1: you know, some gang banger wannabes. The angle was funny
12:31
Speaker 1: enough that it wasn't just some random idiot with a gun,
12:34
Speaker 1: and it probably wasn't even a hobbyist hunter. It was
12:37
Speaker 1: someone who knew how to use a long range assault rifle. Okay,
12:41
Speaker 1: this is not just a cop, This is not just
12:44
Speaker 1: a police officer. This is a dad, a dad of
12:48
Speaker 1: two little boys, two minor sons. He was a youth
12:55
Speaker 1: baseball coach, he was a K nine handlers, all around
13:02
Speaker 1: good guy, and he lays all that behind because of
13:04
Speaker 1: what I believe is a serial killer to Jessica Noll,
13:08
Speaker 1: tell me about your knew venture, your digital version. Now
13:11
Speaker 1: what exactly does that mean? So at Bartstown podcast dot com,
13:15
Speaker 1: we have put together a full narrative written story that
13:22
Speaker 1: takes you through the timeline of these cases and takes
13:27
Speaker 1: the podcast in a different way for our listeners and readers,
13:33
Speaker 1: And it walks through step by step my Enshay's journey
13:38
Speaker 1: through Bartown and through the our investigations into these cases,
13:43
Speaker 1: and it takes you in each case. It actually brings
13:45
Speaker 1: in some new voices that you don't hear on the podcast,
13:49
Speaker 1: and you get to go through documents that we have
13:52
Speaker 1: and photos and videos and timelines and maps. So if
13:55
Speaker 1: you have listened to the podcast, it gives you the
13:58
Speaker 1: opportunity to really immerse this into everything we uncovered and
14:03
Speaker 1: go through everything for yourself and dig as deep as
14:06
Speaker 1: you can. And for those who haven't listened to the podcast,
14:09
Speaker 1: it's a great way to read the story, understand these folks,
14:14
Speaker 1: and then listen to a podcast. Also, it's not just
14:18
Speaker 1: a cop a cop leaving behind a wife and two
14:21
Speaker 1: little children. There is a mother and a daughter. Kathy
14:26
Speaker 1: Netherland at the prime of her life and teen daughter
14:29
Speaker 1: Samantha Netherland also murdered in their homes in Bardstown. And
14:37
Speaker 1: what's so odd about this is that typically serial killers
14:44
Speaker 1: have an m O. They have a type like if
14:46
Speaker 1: you look at many serial killer victims, they look similar.
14:52
Speaker 1: And I was thinking of Ted Bundy, how many of
14:55
Speaker 1: his victims. They're all white, females, generally same a, generally
15:00
Speaker 1: generally with long, straight hair, dark hair, usually use the
15:04
Speaker 1: same EMO, sometimes sometimes deviated. But now you've got a
15:09
Speaker 1: mother and a daughter dead. How can that be? What
15:12
Speaker 1: about it, Jessica Nole? You know, looking at these cases,
15:16
Speaker 1: it's undeniably connected in the fact that they're all in
15:22
Speaker 1: the same general area, they're all in the small Pound.
15:25
Speaker 1: But um, you know, in talking to folks and talking
15:30
Speaker 1: to law enforcement, there's there's not a lot of details.
15:37
Speaker 1: First of all, for Catheine Samantha's case, given whoa whoa,
15:42
Speaker 1: whoa whoa whoa. I know you're the investigative journalist, Jessica Noel,
15:45
Speaker 1: there's a ton of details as far as I'm concerned.
15:47
Speaker 1: Let's start at the beginning. When, who what, where when,
15:51
Speaker 1: and we don't know why yet. But let's talk about
15:54
Speaker 1: who they are, where they were found dead, How were
15:57
Speaker 1: they murdered? What are the circumstances surrounding their death. Let's
16:00
Speaker 1: start at the get go. How were they found murdered?
16:04
Speaker 1: Jessica so Kavie Netherland was a special education teacher at
16:10
Speaker 1: bart Elementary and she didn't shop for work. And Samantha,
16:14
Speaker 1: a student at the high school, didn't show up for school,
16:17
Speaker 1: and so a family member went and checked on them.
16:19
Speaker 1: This is April twenty first, twenty fourteen, just after Easter,
16:24
Speaker 1: and they were found inside their home. They've been shot
16:27
Speaker 1: several times, staffs and bludgeons. They were also both of
16:31
Speaker 1: their necks had been slat. Who and the hey murders?
16:35
Speaker 1: A special ed teacher and her daughter listen, Forty eight
16:40
Speaker 1: year old Kathy Netherland doesn't show up for work. She's
16:44
Speaker 1: a special education teacher at Bartstown Elementary and the mother
16:47
Speaker 1: of two daughters. Her teenage daughter is also absent from school.
16:52
Speaker 1: Neither mother or daughter could be painted as you know,
16:56
Speaker 1: doing sketchy things and hanging out with the wrong people.
17:01
Speaker 1: The mother was very respected, very well liked by her students.
17:05
Speaker 1: Cathy's father goes to check on her. What he discovers
17:09
Speaker 1: is a scene of horror. I think I read in
17:11
Speaker 1: the reports that the daughter's skull was smashed in. Maybe
17:16
Speaker 1: there was something emotional in there that would cause a
17:18
Speaker 1: person to be more violent, more brutal, but I think
17:22
Speaker 1: it was sending some sort of a statement. And the
17:24
Speaker 1: fact that they died so gruesomely, the fact that that
17:28
Speaker 1: kind of thing could happen right here in this area,
17:33
Speaker 1: it shocked a lot of people. I hope no other
17:36
Speaker 1: family ever has to stand outside their loves one's house
17:40
Speaker 1: knowing that their sister and their nieces are lying dead inside,
17:45
Speaker 1: just steps away, but completely unreachable. I'm Shay McAllister. This
17:52
Speaker 1: is Bardstown. Not a lot of details have been given
17:57
Speaker 1: out about the Netherlands murder case over the year, and
18:00
Speaker 1: no one seems to know a lot. So, Shay, we're
18:05
Speaker 1: in Bardstown and I covered the Jason Ellis case pretty
18:10
Speaker 1: extensively back in twenty thirteen. Can you kind of catch
18:14
Speaker 1: me up, like where things have gone and what's happened
18:19
Speaker 1: since Jason Ellis was ambushed? Yeah, definitely, so, of course,
18:25
Speaker 1: the Netherland family was murdered violently one year later, April
18:30
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Not a lot
18:56
Speaker 1: of details have been given out about the Netherlands murder
18:58
Speaker 1: case over the years, and no one seems to know
19:01
Speaker 1: a lot. So Shay were in Bardstown and I covered
19:09
Speaker 1: the Jason Ellis case pretty extensively back in twenty thirteen.
19:14
Speaker 1: Can you kind of catch me up like where things
19:17
Speaker 1: have gone and what's happened since Jason Ellis was ambushed? Yeah, definitely.
19:25
Speaker 1: So of course, the Netherland family was murdered violently one
19:31
Speaker 1: year later, April twenty fourteen. And that was a mother
19:35
Speaker 1: and daughter, a mother and daughter. And this mother was
19:39
Speaker 1: so well known, she was a widow, she had another daughter,
19:43
Speaker 1: she had lost her husband years earlier, and she was
19:46
Speaker 1: a teacher at a local school and everybody just loved her.
19:50
Speaker 1: So that was devastating to the community. A mother and
19:53
Speaker 1: a daughter both dead at the hand of a Bardstown killer.
19:58
Speaker 1: I mean, it's he graces his crime story site. We're
20:00
Speaker 1: being with us, we're talking about the Bardstown podcast and
20:03
Speaker 1: now they've released the entire investigation in new digital format
20:09
Speaker 1: with me Jessica Nol investigative journalist, Shae McAllister, investigative reporter.
20:14
Speaker 1: Wh A s. That's a very very different modus operandi.
20:21
Speaker 1: Pulling trees down in the interstate to block a cop
20:24
Speaker 1: and then shoot them dead at two am, and then
20:28
Speaker 1: going into the home of a mother and daughter and
20:31
Speaker 1: shooting them both dead. The similarity, both gunshot victims. Another similarity,
20:39
Speaker 1: both in the same small town. Can't be too many
20:43
Speaker 1: miles apart to shape. McAlister Back to the death of
20:47
Speaker 1: this mother and daughter. Tell me about the mo What
20:52
Speaker 1: type of weapon was used? Were they shot in the
20:56
Speaker 1: middle of the night, were they getting ready to go
20:58
Speaker 1: to school in the morning? What happened exactly? In a nutshell? Sure?
21:01
Speaker 1: So what we know happened was Kathy and Samantha were
21:05
Speaker 1: at home at the end of their day and neither
21:09
Speaker 1: one showed up to school the next day, which along
21:13
Speaker 1: to family members. So Kathy's dad, Samantha's grandfather went to
21:18
Speaker 1: the house to check on them and found they were
21:21
Speaker 1: both dead inside. We know that they both had their
21:26
Speaker 1: throats slashed. We know that Kathy had been shot and
21:30
Speaker 1: Samantha had been bludgeoned in the head traumatically. Just hit
21:35
Speaker 1: in the head, okay, stopped just to MoMA, stopped just
21:37
Speaker 1: a mama. Hold on, whoa whoa, whoa whoa? So they
21:40
Speaker 1: weren't both shot, are you telling me one was bludgeoned
21:43
Speaker 1: in the head. Correct, Okay, that tells me a lot
21:47
Speaker 1: about the m of a killer. Once again, this is
21:50
Speaker 1: a male at work. If you look at risk and
21:54
Speaker 1: a method and assessment of homicides and suicides, overwhelmingly blood
22:00
Speaker 1: deaths are perpetrated by men, just like I doubt a female.
22:06
Speaker 1: Go ahead, accuse me of stereotyping. I'm just telling you
22:09
Speaker 1: what I know. I doubt a female purpose is going
22:13
Speaker 1: to drag trees down from the forest and blockade the
22:15
Speaker 1: interstate at two am. That's not how our minds think.
22:20
Speaker 1: We would not go to all that effort to kill somebody.
22:22
Speaker 1: We think of a better way. Okay, so bludgeoning. Tell
22:26
Speaker 1: me what part of the home? In what part of
22:29
Speaker 1: the home they were found? Did they have on their pajamas?
22:32
Speaker 1: Was their breakfast on the table? Was their dinner on
22:35
Speaker 1: the table? Did they still have on their clothes from
22:36
Speaker 1: the day before? What do we know, Shay Nancy, That's
22:40
Speaker 1: the tricky part. We don't know any of that. Police
22:43
Speaker 1: have never released any information about what the inside of
22:47
Speaker 1: the home looked like. We've never known exactly where their
22:52
Speaker 1: bodies were located from police, We've never known what they
22:55
Speaker 1: were wearing. We do know that police believe the killer
23:01
Speaker 1: or an accomplice was in a black car that was
23:05
Speaker 1: parked in the driveway when the killings happened, and then
23:09
Speaker 1: that black car black and Paula took off. That is
23:14
Speaker 1: the big clue that they have given us. The brutal
23:18
Speaker 1: murders of a Nelson County mother and child still not solved.
23:26
Speaker 1: At least five years have passed and not a word
23:29
Speaker 1: from Kentucky State Police while the family still begs for help.
23:36
Speaker 1: That's right, Kathy Netherland and her sixteen year old little girl, Samantha,
23:41
Speaker 1: we believe, according to what we have learned, were killed
23:44
Speaker 1: around eight p m. In the evening, not found in
23:49
Speaker 1: their home till the next morning. Now, if you, Jessica
23:53
Speaker 1: Nola Shaman Allister, know differently, let me know. But you
23:57
Speaker 1: could go into a crime scene. You don't need a
24:00
Speaker 1: medical examiner to tell you everything. You can go into
24:04
Speaker 1: a crime scene and figure out a lot. For instance,
24:07
Speaker 1: in the murder of doctor Teresa Severs Okay and Benita Springs, Florida,
24:12
Speaker 1: we know she came home from the airport on a
24:16
Speaker 1: Sunday night. We know that when she was found bludge
24:20
Speaker 1: and dead in her kitchen floor. She still had on
24:23
Speaker 1: her high heels, in her clothes she wore on the plane.
24:27
Speaker 1: We know that her rollerboard was still in the garage,
24:30
Speaker 1: so I know that she was killed immediately after she
24:34
Speaker 1: came in from the airport. She hadn't had a bash,
24:37
Speaker 1: she didn't have on her PJ. She hadn't even brought
24:39
Speaker 1: her bags. That she never made it past the kitchen.
24:41
Speaker 1: So I, as just a JD, can tell you of
24:46
Speaker 1: the approximate time of death. In this case, the time
24:51
Speaker 1: of death has been placed around eight PM, probably based
24:57
Speaker 1: on them still wearing their clothes from that day. Of course,
25:00
Speaker 1: there are medical ways to determine the time of death
25:04
Speaker 1: based on the temperature of the body, the degree of
25:08
Speaker 1: liver mortis, which is the settling of your blood. It
25:12
Speaker 1: takes a period of time for blood to settle in
25:14
Speaker 1: a body. For instance, if you're lying on your back,
25:17
Speaker 1: all the blood will settle your arm in your back.
25:19
Speaker 1: It takes a minute to do that. Then there is
25:23
Speaker 1: of course rigor mortis, when your limbs begin to stiffen up.
25:28
Speaker 1: All that takes time based on the ambiance air in
25:32
Speaker 1: the room, and it can be calculated fearly easily. Of course,
25:35
Speaker 1: there's the time proven method of figuring out the last
25:41
Speaker 1: time you ate and determining how far the food had
25:44
Speaker 1: gone through your digestive tract. There's a million ways to
25:47
Speaker 1: determine time of death. But we believe this happened that
25:51
Speaker 1: evening around eight pm. Question, do you, Jessica all do
25:54
Speaker 1: we know if there was a forced entry? We do
25:57
Speaker 1: not know if there was forced entry and cracked me.
26:01
Speaker 1: If I'm on, say jumpin shay. So police have never
26:04
Speaker 1: told us about any kind of forced entry. We've also
26:07
Speaker 1: heard about different rumors about items missing from the homes
26:12
Speaker 1: or not. The police really are tight lipped on this
26:16
Speaker 1: case in particular, and really will not tell us anything
26:20
Speaker 1: about what the home looked like. Take a listen to
26:23
Speaker 1: our Friensic Crime Watch daily. Kathy Now, a single mother,
26:27
Speaker 1: was raising her two girls while working as a special
26:30
Speaker 1: education teacher. Holly was away at college and her little sister,
26:34
Speaker 1: Samantha was so excited to be going to her first
26:37
Speaker 1: high school prom. Remember her sending me pictures of dress's
26:41
Speaker 1: going Holly, help me? Should I go blue? Should I
26:44
Speaker 1: go pink? Should I go pobble? And she was babbling
26:47
Speaker 1: on and on about her dress, how she couldn't went
26:50
Speaker 1: to ear it. Kathy took Samantha shopping and she found
26:54
Speaker 1: her prom dress. It was very beautiful blue dress. They
26:57
Speaker 1: both were tickled that they had found what Antha wanted.
27:01
Speaker 1: A few days later, Holly got a scary wake up
27:04
Speaker 1: call from her aunt. I got a call from my aunt, Stephanie, saying, hey, Holly,
27:08
Speaker 1: don't know why you but we can't find your moment's sister.
27:12
Speaker 1: You know, let him get a hold of them. Holly's
27:15
Speaker 1: family drove over to Kathy's house. They slowly opened the
27:19
Speaker 1: front door inside horror and heart rank. When I first
27:25
Speaker 1: arrived on the scene, it was obviously still chaotic. The
27:30
Speaker 1: scene was still being secured. We were still trying to
27:33
Speaker 1: figure out exactly what was going on. Kentucky State Police
27:37
Speaker 1: had never encountered a grisly double homicide like this in Bardstown.
27:42
Speaker 1: Shocking news reports detailed the horrific way Kathy and Samantha
27:47
Speaker 1: were viciously murdered. Death certificates obtained by Way three News
27:51
Speaker 1: revealed that Kathy Netherland was shot several times, her sixteen
27:55
Speaker 1: year old daughter Samantha beaten multiple times in the head.
27:58
Speaker 1: They were attacker all so cut there. Let me ask you,
28:01
Speaker 1: is there any connection between these two Kathy and Samantha
28:04
Speaker 1: Netherland and Jason Ellis the cop Shay Any connection that
28:08
Speaker 1: we know of other than they both are from Bartstown.
28:11
Speaker 1: No connection, And in fact, Kathy and Samantha Netherland's family
28:16
Speaker 1: have come out in recent years saying that there is
28:20
Speaker 1: no connection between their case and any of the other
28:23
Speaker 1: Bardstown CASA crime stories. With Nancy, Grace Brooks runs into
28:41
Speaker 1: Crystal's mom. I've met her mother to gas station somewhere
28:46
Speaker 1: one of those days, her mother, Sharry. Crystal's mother, Sharry
28:51
Speaker 1: came up here in my window and asked me if
28:56
Speaker 1: I had seen Crystal. And when you told her what,
29:00
Speaker 1: I haven't, Senior don't know where she is, and she
29:03
Speaker 1: just said okay, and she thought that she thought that
29:07
Speaker 1: the wisest thing for us to do. Well. She says,
29:09
Speaker 1: She's going to go to the police station and then
29:13
Speaker 1: I'll went home. Meanwhile, Crystal's mom files a missing person's
29:17
Speaker 1: report at the Nelson County Sheriff's office around three pm.
29:21
Speaker 1: Two hours later, her father, Tommy, gets a call Crystal's
29:25
Speaker 1: car has been found along the Bluegrass Parkway. Tommy goes
29:28
Speaker 1: and uncovers her keys, phone, and purse. Inside. Brooks tells
29:34
Speaker 1: Detective Snow that he wasn't concerned until Sunday because she'd
29:38
Speaker 1: quote done this before. Wow, you are hearing our friend
29:42
Speaker 1: Jessica Nola shamanc allister on their Bardstown podcast. In this
29:47
Speaker 1: small Kentucky town, people dropped like flies and steal Not
29:51
Speaker 1: one of these cases have been resolved. I don't understand it.
29:57
Speaker 1: What happened now to Crystal Rogers? Absolutely beautiful young mom,
30:02
Speaker 1: and I hear a connection between Crystal Rogers and Jason
30:05
Speaker 1: Ellis both killed along the Bluegrass Parkway. Now, let me
30:09
Speaker 1: ask you this. Jessica Noles Shay McCallister have just come
30:12
Speaker 1: out with a digital form of the Bardstown Podcast and
30:18
Speaker 1: it's awesome. Jessica. Before I get into the murder of
30:21
Speaker 1: Crystal Rogers, Jessica, tell me how do I find your
30:24
Speaker 1: digital story. You can go to Bardstown podcast dot com
30:30
Speaker 1: and that's where you will find everything to do with
30:33
Speaker 1: these cases and the podcast. Say what led you to do?
30:35
Speaker 1: A digital form of the Bardstown murders is supposed to
30:40
Speaker 1: just the podcast. All of the credit for the digital
30:42
Speaker 1: long form goes to Jessica, she has spent so many
30:46
Speaker 1: hours on this and I am even fascinated by it.
30:49
Speaker 1: There are autopsy reports, police reports, photos giving you behind
30:54
Speaker 1: the scene looks of the podcast for moments that were
30:57
Speaker 1: really interesting that you only got to hear, and that
31:00
Speaker 1: you can actually see them and watch them. So we
31:03
Speaker 1: just wanted to get everybody this opportunity to go even deeper.
31:06
Speaker 1: And it was all Jessica. She did an awesome job.
31:09
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm even fascinated by it. I love
31:11
Speaker 1: looking through it. Okay, you've got me Hootline and Sinker.
31:15
Speaker 1: I could read autopsy reports all day long. In this
31:20
Speaker 1: new digital form of the Bardstown Podcasts, the story of
31:24
Speaker 1: a series of murders in quote America's most beautiful small town.
31:29
Speaker 1: You see evidence. You get to read and pour over
31:32
Speaker 1: evidence in each case listed there. You get to read
31:36
Speaker 1: the documents, you get to see photos. It's just like
31:40
Speaker 1: going into the police files. You also get to hear
31:45
Speaker 1: Jessica and Shay explain so much. Back to Crystal Rogers,
31:48
Speaker 1: well we know, vation tell me about the Bluegrass Parkway.
31:53
Speaker 1: How far apart was Crystal Rogers car fan from where
31:56
Speaker 1: Jason ellis the police officer, The father of two little
31:59
Speaker 1: boys was murdered. How far apart jess Canal, I would
32:04
Speaker 1: say probably between ten and fifteen miles apart in opposite directions.
32:10
Speaker 1: When you're leaving Bardstown. Blue Rass Parkway is kind of
32:14
Speaker 1: that main thoroughfare of Bardstown, So if you get on
32:18
Speaker 1: it going one way, you would get to exit thirty four.
32:21
Speaker 1: If you get on it going another way in another
32:23
Speaker 1: direction towards Elizabethtown, you would see where Crystal Rogers car
32:29
Speaker 1: was found. You know, I've listened to every single one
32:32
Speaker 1: of your podcasts on this, and there's so much evidence there.
32:38
Speaker 1: I just is the local population angry shay McAlister that
32:44
Speaker 1: the cases have not been solved or brought to justice. Absolutely,
32:48
Speaker 1: they are so frustrated, and quite frankly, I think some
32:53
Speaker 1: of them are scared just knowing that there couldn't be
32:56
Speaker 1: people out there in their community capable of doing this,
33:00
Speaker 1: and the local police law enforcement aren't so far capable
33:05
Speaker 1: of catching them and holding them accountable. The frustration is
33:09
Speaker 1: very real in the Bardstown community. Jessica Noll, where's the
33:12
Speaker 1: FBI in this? Have they big footed local police yet?
33:16
Speaker 1: Because clearly local police aren't doing anything. I believe the
33:19
Speaker 1: FBI is involved, at least in the case and Elis case.
33:24
Speaker 1: They've offered a reward. We don't know the extent of
33:29
Speaker 1: their involvement in that investigation, and whether or not they're
33:32
Speaker 1: also involved in the other investigations that the Kentucky State
33:36
Speaker 1: Police have taken over, such as the Tommy Bowler cave
33:41
Speaker 1: and the Kaffee and Samantha Netherlands case. Take a listen
33:45
Speaker 1: to this. I probably I probably woke up around you know,
33:48
Speaker 1: in between that time, by six or seven o'clton and
33:51
Speaker 1: I left. You know, I got did my normal thing
33:54
Speaker 1: to you know, change my home, put my clothes on,
33:56
Speaker 1: and and headed out, you know, shortly at that. You know,
34:03
Speaker 1: So you get up between six and seven, and where's
34:06
Speaker 1: Eli at? When you wake up, he's next to me.
34:09
Speaker 1: He's in the bed with you. Okay, so you get up.
34:13
Speaker 1: Does he get up with you? He's still he's still
34:16
Speaker 1: sleeps on their rye whenever I get up. But I
34:18
Speaker 1: got room and all that kind of stuff, and he's
34:20
Speaker 1: still sleeping, sleeping there on the bed. But Crystal isn't
34:25
Speaker 1: there when he gets out. Yes, I noticed, I mean
34:27
Speaker 1: I noticed that she wasn't there. I didn't know what
34:29
Speaker 1: was I didn't know exactly what to think. I don't
34:31
Speaker 1: know what time I called her. Yes, I called her
34:33
Speaker 1: that morning. Brooks takes his son to the farm, but
34:37
Speaker 1: his lack of concern for Crystal's whereabouts gives the detective pause.
34:41
Speaker 1: You are hearing Jessica Olasha McCallister, and they're awesome Bardstown
34:44
Speaker 1: podcasts looking for answers. It seemingly they are not getting
34:48
Speaker 1: in the murders of five people. Listen. Broger's family is
34:52
Speaker 1: hopeful the new detective will bring a fresh look to
34:54
Speaker 1: the most high profile case at the Sheriff's office. With
34:59
Speaker 1: cha comes fear of the unknown, nervous, But on this day, Tuesday,
35:06
Speaker 1: the tides of change could be turning. I mean, I'll
35:09
Speaker 1: be lin if I didn't say I was a nervous.
35:11
Speaker 1: The Nelson County Sheriff's Office announced Chief Deputy Jody Gilliland
35:16
Speaker 1: as the new lead detective tasked with solving what happened
35:20
Speaker 1: to Crystal Rogers. I just want to experience there. I'm
35:24
Speaker 1: assuming they think he can do the job, or he
35:26
Speaker 1: wouldn't be put in that position. Let's talk about the
35:29
Speaker 1: new detective. To Jessica and Ellens Shaye McAllister hasn't made
35:33
Speaker 1: any difference that a new detectives brought on the case
35:36
Speaker 1: of Crystal Rogers while we still don't have an arrest.
35:40
Speaker 1: So I will say when we spoke to the sheriff,
35:47
Speaker 1: he indicated that he's put together an a team to
35:51
Speaker 1: look at Crystal's case. And the newest edition to that
35:56
Speaker 1: was this new detective who was part of the Nelson
36:01
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office. But we don't have any updates of
36:06
Speaker 1: where the case is at this point. No rest have
36:08
Speaker 1: them made. They have named Brooke how her boyfriend at
36:12
Speaker 1: the time, as the prime suspect, and that's still where
36:17
Speaker 1: we are today. Then after Crystal Rogers murder, her father
36:21
Speaker 1: Tommy Ballard dies, what happened to him? Sha McAllister. Tommy
36:26
Speaker 1: Ballard was shot and killed on family property an early
36:30
Speaker 1: morning right before Thanksgiving in two sixteen. He and his
36:36
Speaker 1: grandson had gone out there to hunt. They were going
36:39
Speaker 1: to be meeting his son and his son son his
36:43
Speaker 1: other grandson for some early morning hunting. But soon after
36:49
Speaker 1: Tommy Ballard and his grandson, Triton, got to the farm,
36:54
Speaker 1: Tommy was shot and killed early on and I mean
36:58
Speaker 1: within the first hours and days. Police said that they
37:02
Speaker 1: were considering the possibility that this was a hunting accident,
37:06
Speaker 1: but now in the years that have passed, police have
37:10
Speaker 1: said that they do investigate this as a murder. They
37:13
Speaker 1: do believe the tiny dollard was murdered. If you want
37:17
Speaker 1: to know more as I do about the series of
37:21
Speaker 1: unsolved murders in Bardstown, Kentucky, go to www dot Bardstown
37:26
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. See read Experience Shaye McAllister and Jessica
37:31
Speaker 1: Knowles's new long form digital investigation into the murders. As
37:38
Speaker 1: of right now, still unsolved. Nancy Grace Crime Stories, signing
37:44
Speaker 1: off goodbye friends,