A Mysterious Box Of Evidence Could Solve This Years-Old Missing Persons Case

If there's one thing true crime fans love more than just a regular true crime docuseries, it's a true crime docuseries that teases new evidence. Such is the case for Oxygen's The Disappearance of Crystal Rogers which promises to examine the three-years-old case in a new light when it begins Saturday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. ET. No, Crystal Rogers has not been found, but her family is dedicated to solving the case, and they have a never-before-explored evidence box that could shed new light on her tragic disappearance.

According to Oxygen, the Kentucky native went missing on July 3, 2015. Her family became concerned when she stopped responding to text messages, so they filed a missing persons report. Two days later, her car was found empty on the side of the highway. The car keys, Rogers' purse, and her cellphone were still inside. She's been missing ever since, and Oxygen reported that the mother of five is presumed dead.

Her family hasn't had any closure with regards to her disappearance, but her father was completely dedicated to the case. So much so, that his family believes it resulted in his death. Oxygen reported that her father, Tommy Ballard, was fatally shot in a hunting field in November 2016. The family thinks Rogers' disappearance and Ballard's death are linked — even though police haven't ruled his death a homicide according to Wave 3 News.

"My husband was being followed," Rogers' mother Sherry Ballard told Megyn Kelly in a recent interview, as reported by Wave 3 News. "I think someone wanted my husband out of the way. I think my husband was getting close. My husband was never gonna give up looking for my daughter. And he was a threat to them."

Sherry's theory is just that, but the Oxygen series will explore the supposed evidence Tommy gathered about his daughter's disappearance before his death. And, according to what Sherry told Oxygen, Tommy had gathered a lot.

“From the minute my daughter started missing my husband was like the investigator. He went around town, we picked up every video he mapped out every area he thought maybe our daughter could have been in,” Sherry said. “If he wasn’t physically looking for my daughter, he was on the internet looking at everything.”

Detective Dwayne Stanton is examining the case for the Oxygen series and told the network that the box of evidence makes his quest for the truth that much easier. “Tommy kept his entire investigation inside of that box. Videotape, locations, addresses, communication documented — categorized, inventory,” Stanton said. “I’ve been doing this almost 40 years now. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

What's in the box, and whether it will lead to any answers about Rogers' disappearance or Tommy Ballard's death remains to be seen, but Rogers' family can rest assured that Stanton will explore every avenue to try to bring them much needed closure on these two terrible tragedies. He may not have been able to find his daughter, but Tommy may have collected the missing piece of evidence that could answer the question of what happened to her on that fateful July 3 night.