Jon Snow, who led the investigation into the disappearance of Crystal Rogers before his 2019 retirement as a detective from the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office, began his second day of testimony Thursday at the trial of two men accused of crimes related to Rogers’ vanishing.

Rogers was a 35-year-old Bardstown mother of five when she was last seen July 3, 2015. Her mother reported her missing two days later and authorities now presume Rogers is dead.

Rogers’ then-boyfriend, Brooks Houck, 43, is on trial on charges of complicity to commit murder and complicity to tampering with physical evidence.

Joseph Lawson is also being tried on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and complicity to tampering with physical evidence, but proceedings in the Warren County Justice Center have focused to this point on Houck’s alleged role in the case.

The crimes were charged in Nelson County, but pretrial publicity led to the trial being moved to Warren County.

Snow took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon and, under questioning from special prosecutor Shane Young, laid out a timeline of the actions he took in the days immediately following Rogers being reported missing on July 5, 2015.

Snow recalled driving to the site on the Bluegrass Parkway where Rogers’ car was found abandoned and ensuring that the car was taken by authorities to be processed.

Forensic samples analyzed by police did not establish who drove the car to the parkway.

Snow said that Houck agreed to come to the sheriff’s office for an interview on July 5, 2015, and jurors were played portions of that interview Wednesday afternoon.

Houck told Snow that he had traveled with Rogers and their young son to the Houck family farm on the night of July 3, 2015, leaving their house around 7:30 p.m. and returning around 11:30 p.m.

Houck said that he went to bed while Rogers stayed up and played a game on her phone, and that Rogers was not at home when he woke up around 7 a.m. the next morning.

Prosecutors have said that Rogers’ phone had been shut off at 9:27 p.m. on July 3, 2015.

Young asked Snow if anything about the initial interview stood out to him.

“It is a little bit unusual that (Houck) did not report (Rogers) missing, knowing that he had gotten up and not found her there,” Snow said.

Police conducted their first search of the Houck family farm on July 7, 2015, searching through a burn pile that Snow said appeared to consist primarily of “construction debris” and ultimately finding nothing of evidentiary value.

Snow said he was inundated with tips about Rogers’ disappearance in the early days of the case.

“We had numerous tips – they ranged from ‘we spotted her at a Waffle House in Rhode Island’ to ‘she’s working at a restaurant in another state,’ “ Snow said Wednesday.

Jurors also viewed surveillance footage from multiple locations that established Houck’s truck had left his home around 7:30 p.m. the evening of July 3, 2015, and returning a few hours later.

More interviews played Thursday

Snow returned to the stand Thursday morning, during which jurors viewed and listened to footage of another two interviews Houck did, one with Snow and another with Kentucky State Police.

Snow noted that Houck came to the sheriff’s office on July 6, 2015, to be fingerprinted.

Jurors then listened to audio of a July 7, 2015, interview KSP conducted with Houck.

Officers are heard asking Houck what the worst thing that ever happened to him was, and Houck not being able to provide an answer.

Houck returned to the sheriff’s office on July 8, 2015, providing a written statement to Snow.

Snow testified that he learned later that Houck had brought a recording device to this interview, but said that he would have allowed the device there if Houck had mentioned it to him.

Snow mentioned to Houck that he was a “person of interest” and wanted the written statement in order to clarify Houck’s timeline of his actions the night Rogers disappeared.

At one point, the video shows Houck alone in the interview room reading his written statement aloud.

Questioned by Young, Snow testified that it was not typical for a police interview subject to read their written statement to themselves.

During the interview, Snow asked Houck if there had been times that he wanted to end the relationship with Rogers, with Houck responding that the relationship had been “stressful” at times, but they were interested in going forward together and that they loved each other “very much.”

Houck also told Snow that he tried calling Rogers when he realized she was not at home the morning after going to the farm, going on to tell the detective that Rogers sometimes stayed out all night with friends to “fantasy parties.”

Snow testified that he had not gotten any indication during his investigation that Rogers had engaged in any such parties, and Houck said during that interview that Rogers was not a user of hard drugs and had given no indication of being suicidal.

As Houck was being interviewed, he received a phone call from his brother, Nick Houck, then a Bardstown Police Department officer, who told Brooks Houck to stop talking to police.

Snow testified that the call occurred as he was about to wrap up the interview, and the detective requested that Nick Houck come in for an interview the next day, but was declined.

Nick Houck’s cruiser was taken by the Bardstown Police Department and tested at a KSP crime lab, but nothing of evidentiary value was recovered, Snow said.

Brooks Houck’s phone was downloaded by sheriff’s deputies during the interview, which revealed a call that Steven Lawson made to Houck shortly after midnight on July 4, 2015.

Houck, who said he did not remember the late-night phone call, called Lawson from the sheriff’s office and asked him what the conversation from days earlier was about.

Jurors heard Lawson talk about doing work for Houck and then asking about the availability of a rental house, with Houck saying that Lawson should talk to Rogers about that.

Rogers had a number of responsibilities at the company Houck operated that developed and managed rental properties.

Snow asked Houck why he did not just give Rogers the phone so she could talk to Lawson, and Houck said in the video that Rogers would not have wanted to talk about business that late in the night.

An exchange between Snow and Houck after the phone call from Nick Houck culminated with the detective saying that he was not for or against Brooks Houck.

“My job is to find Crystal,” Snow said in the video. “You have been nothing but cooperative. If Nick thinks you should not talk, I’m not offended by that. My job is not to make you happy, my job is to find Crystal.”

Jurors were also played portions of an audio interview that Brooks Houck did with TV host Nancy Grace in which Houck recounted his actions on the night of July 3, 2015, telling Grace he went with Rogers and their then 2-year-old son to the family farm, that Rogers was playing a game on her phone when he went to bed that night at their home and that Rogers was not there when he woke up the next day.

Snow testified that multiple searches of properties associated with Houck have failed to turn up anything linking him to Rogers’ disappearance or presumed death.