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Saturday, November 08, 2025
The flat tire and phone call that solved a Kentucky murder case

After Crystal Rogers vanished in 2015, veteran prosecutor Shane Young spent years piecing together evidence to convict her presumed killer. He says a flat tire and a phone call is what helped prove his case in court.

Young said Rogers' boyfriend, Brooks Houck, feared he would lose custody of their 2-year-old son and murdered her. Investigators never found a body or murder weapon, but they did find her abandoned Chevrolet Impala on the side of the road days after she disappeared.

Prosecutors say Houck colluded with two men to dispose of her car. The driver got a flat tire in the process, leading to a 13-second phone call to Houck, which the FBI used decades later to charge Houck with murder.

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