Menu Close

WQXE News

Your source for local community news, weekdays at 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8, 9 and Noon.

School districts announce new administrative team members

WQXE News 0 Comments

Area school districts are celebrating new additions to their administrative teams.

Elizabethtown Independent Schools has named Wesley Hatfield as the district’s new Curriculum Specialist. The district said in a release: “A dedicated educator with nearly 20 years of classroom experience, Hatfield brings a deep understanding of instructional excellence, collaboration, and student-centered learning to this new leadership role.”

EIS also announced Daniel Lockwood as the district’s new Assistant Superintendent of Student Learning. The district said: “Lockwood brings more than two decades of educational leadership experience to the role, including service as a teacher, principal, and most recently, a leader at the Kentucky Department of Education.”

Meanwhile, Hardin County Schools announced that John Hardin High School Vice Principal Tiffany Jones will serve as the district’s new Director of Federal Programs and Leadership Development. She replaces Debbie Wyatt, who is retiring following a 33-year career with HCS.

Vehicle owned by Houck’s grandmother topic of testimony as Houck-Lawson trial continues

WQXE News 0 Comments

The prosecution continued its case as the trial of Crystal Rogers investigation suspects Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson continued at the Warren County Justice Center Monday morning.

The prosecution called Amber Bowman, who was dating Houck’s brother Nick at the time of the disappearance. Bowman testified that the weekend of July 3, 2015, she and Nick Houck were in the process of moving from their home on Glenview Drive to a home on Olympia Drive, but the morning of July 3 he said he was going to help Brooks Houck with a property. The prosecution submitted phone records that showed Bowman called Nick Houck 15 times between 11:43 a.m. on July 3 and 10:49 a.m. on July 4, all of which went straight to voicemail.

The prosecution called Charlie Girdley, who worked for Houck in 2015 and was a friend of the Lawsons. Girdley testified that Joseph Lawson once told him he would bury Rogers with a skid steer “and nobody would ever find her.” Girdley also testified, as he did when called to testify in the trial of Steven Lawson last month, that he and Joseph Lawson went to Houck’s home to pick up their money from work and he saw Houck give Lawson the keys to Rogers’s car, which Lawson told him he was going to work on.

Two racoon hunters, Ryan Cecil and Daniel Donahue, testified that while participating in a coon hunt on July 3,2015 at a farm neighboring the Houck farm they found a white Buick parked along a road running through the woods behind the farm. Donahue testified he knew Rogers’s brother Casey Ballard and told him about the car, and participated in a search for Rogers to point out the location of the car.

Detective Jamie Brooks with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and a member of the IRS Special Crimes Task Force testified on the contents of three audio recorders found during the execution of a search warrant on the Houck farm. Brooks also testified that he received the tip from Donahue on the white Buick, but it wasn’t until a Facebook post by Tommy Ballard asking for information on the Buick from April 28, 2016, that law enforcement made a connection. Brooks testified that in May of 2016 a search warrant for the vehicle was executed at the home of Anna Whitesides, Houck’s grandmother. Officers instead found a vehicle with a 30-day temporary tag, and after further investigation it was found Nick Houck had taken Whitesides to a Louisville dealership on May 2, 2016, to trade in the Buick for a different car.

Brooks testified that the Louisville Metro Police Department took the Buick in for processing, and lab analysis on a hair found in the back left of the trunk came back as being a microscopic match for Rogers’s hair. On cross examination, Brooks testified that Nick Houck’s DNA was not found in the car despite it being known he was in the vehicle.

Hardin County Chief Deputy Coroner Shana Norton was called to testify, although her testimony was unrelated to her job. Norton testified that while driving home from Shelby County during daylight hours on July 4, 2015, she saw Rogers’s vehicle on the shoulder of the Bluegrass Parkway with a truck pulling a trailer with a flat tire behind the car. Norton reported what she saw to law enforcement after seeing coverage of the Rogers case on TV on July 9.

The prosecution will continue its case as the trial resumes Tuesday morning.

Shepherdsville man charged with Murder after shooting

WQXE News 0 Comments

A Shepherdsville man has been charged with murder as part of a shooting investigation in Bullitt County.

According to the Kentucky State Police, the Pioneer Village Police Department contacted KSP Post Four at around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, requesting troopers investigate a fatal shooting that occurred at a residence on the 3,000 block of Pioneer Trail.

The investigation by KSP detectives indicates that 33-year-old Aaron Welker of Shepherdsville sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Detectives interviewed Kent Russell of Shepherdsville, who was on the scene when officers arrived, and he was later charged with Murder.

The Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office transported Welker’s body to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville for an autopsy. Russell was lodged in the Bullitt County Detention Center.

Measles outbreak declared in Central Kentucky as health officials urge residents to vaccinate

WQXE News 0 Comments

State health officials are urging Kentucky residents to get immunized against measles as a measles outbreak is declared in Central Kentucky.

Kentucky health officials on Friday announced four more cases of measles have been reported, including three from a household in Woodford County and one for a Todd County resident exposed while traveling internationally. None of the four infected were vaccinated against the disease.

According to the Kentucky Health and Family Services Cabinet, “measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause serious health complications, especially in young children.” Early symptoms include high fever, cough, runny nose, and red/watery eyes. The characteristic measles rash typically appears three to five days after symptoms begin.

The Health Cabinet says these cases are part of the largest measles outbreak in the United States since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, with more than 1,200 cases across the country reported. This comes as the immunization rate for Kentucky kindergartners is reported at only 86.9 percent, lower than the national average of 93 percent.

The first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is 97 percent effective against measles, is routinely administered at 12 to 15 months, with a second dose at ages 4 through 6. The Lincoln Trail District Health Department offers vaccinations at all of their area health clinics. Contact the health department or your primary care provider for more information about vaccination.

More witnesses testify and phone data discussed as Houck-Lawson trial continues

WQXE News 0 Comments

The prosecution continued calling witnesses as the trial of Crystal Rogers investigation suspects Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson continued at the Warren County Justice Center Friday morning.

The prosecution called Heather Snellen, who dated Steven Lawson and co-owned a vehicle with him. She testified that Lawson took the vehicle from her in early 2015, and then on July 3, 2015, she spotted the vehicle at the 62 South bar in Bardstown. After using her key fob to confirm the vehicle was hers, she drove the vehicle to her then-husband’s grandparents’ house on Boston Road.

Snellen testified that she cleaned the vehicle out the next day and discovered needles, tourniquets, a bag of wet clothing, and a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Lawson testified at his trial last month that Joseph Lawson owned a Louisville Slugger which Steven Lawson said he removed from Rogers’s vehicle when he picked Joseph Lawson up on the Bluegrass Parkway.

Snellen testified that she and Lawson resumed dating in 2017, during which time she was a methamphetamine user and Joseph Lawson was her supplier. She testified that while doing laundry at Steven Lawson’s residence one night, she overheard the Lawsons talking about moving a body at the Houck farm, although they did not say whose body. She testified that she did not bring this to the FBI or Kentucky State Police in subsequent interviews because drugs were her “main focus” at this time. She eventually told a grand jury what she overheard. Defense attorneys for Houck questioned Snellen about the pressure she was put under by investigators with the Kentucky State Police, but on redirect  Snellen said: “The truth is I overheard them talking about moving a body at the Houck Farm.”

The prosecution called Louisville Metro Police Department Detective Tim O’Daniel as an expert witness to discuss call detail records and location analysis he conducted on Houck and Steven Lawson at the request of the KSP in 2022. O’Daniel testified that on July 3, 2015, Houck’s phone was at the Houck farm from about 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., which contradicts Houck’s statement to police on his whereabouts that day. O’Daniel testified that Houck’s phone was at the farm until 11:57 p.m., after which it was shown at the My Old Kentucky Home Campground before arriving back at Houck’s home right before 12:19 a.m. 

The prosecution called Mary Mattingly, who moved in across the street from Houck and Rogers about 10 months prior to the disappearance. She testified that prior to the disappearance Nick and Rosemary Houck were never at the house, but she then started seeing them at the house almost every day. Mattingly testified that one day she saw Nick Houck carry four white bags out of the home and place them in the back of his and Rosemary’s cars, and a few days later she saw Rosemary Houck removing flowers Rogers had planted.

The prosecution will continue their case as the trial resumes Monday morning.