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AN eerie potential connection has emerged between the suspect arrested in Crystal Rogers’ disappearance and the missing woman’s ex-boyfriend.
Rogers disappeared on July 3, 2015, after she was last seen at a Walmart in Bardstown, Kentucky.
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Her body has never been found and she has been presumed dead.
Now, more than eight years after her disappearance, an arrest has been made.
Joseph Lawson, 32, has been charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in Rogers’ death, according to local Fox affiliate WDRB.
Lawson pleaded not guilty on Thursday and is being held on one bond at $500,000 and a second for $50,000.
In the months after Rogers disappeared, her ex-boyfriend, Brooks Houck, was deemed the main suspect in the case.
Houck has never been charged.
But now, new evidence has emerged possibly linking Lawson and Houck.
Video footage from one of the first interviews conducted following Rogers’ disappearance has been released, per local ABC affiliate WHAS.
Nelson County Detective Jon Snow interviewed Houck and asked about a phone call made late at night on the day Rogers went missing.
Snow asked who was on the other end of the line, saying: “Who’s Steve Lawson?”
“Steve Lawson works for me,” Houck responded.
Houck continued, telling Snow he couldn’t recall why Steve had called so late at night.
He then called Steve during the interrogation at the Nelson County Sheriff’s Department.
“The other night you called me really, really late. I can’t remember what you were calling me about,” Houck said to Steve.
Steve responded that he called to ask a question about rental properties.
Houck replied that he needed to ask Rogers – but this response prompted Snow to ask another question based on a statement Houck had given earlier.
“So that begs the question in my mind – if she’s in the truck next to you when she called, why would you need to call her?” Snow asked.
Steve Lawson has a son named Joseph Lawson, according to WHAS11.
However, it has not yet been confirmed if that’s the same Joseph Lawson who was arrested in the case.
Joseph Lawson, who is being held at the Grayson County Detention Center, is due back in court on October 26.
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