FACELESS KILLERS

The Brutal Ambush That Started It All in ‘Murder, U.S.A.’

The Daily Beast revisits a shocking 2013 killing that has led some to believe a monster is stalking a small Kentucky town.

When a 35-year-old mother of five mysteriously went missing in a small Kentucky town in 2015, residents were already reeling from a series of murders that had yet to be solved—and that some still believe are connected. The first killing happened in May 2013, when someone went to great lengths to kill a young cop who, by all accounts, was kind even to those he arrested. Thirty-three-year-old Jason Ellis, a father of two and a respected police officer, was blown away by a shotgun blast while attempting to clear a bundle of tree branches off a highway exit ramp—an apparent trap set by his faceless killer or killers. Five years on, Ellis’ killers have still not been found, and subsequent murders leave many to believe a monster is still walking freely among Bardstown residents. In April of 2014, an elementary-school teacher and her teenage daughter were slaughtered in their own home. About a year after that, mother Crystal Rogers would disappear without a trace, a mystery that her father would then be killed while investigating. Is there a conspiracy behind this bloody chain of events? Are all these killings connected? Sign up for Beast Inside and join The Daily Beast as we try to get to the bottom of how “The Most Beautiful Small Town in America” turned into “Murder, U.S.A.” for our Beast Files series.