Officer Jason Ellis

In the early morning hours of May 25, 2013, Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis, 33, signed off duty and began driving home in his cruiser. On the Exit 34 ramp of the Bluegrass Parkway in rural Nelson County, Kentucky, he encountered freshly cut tree limbs lying across the roadway. Ellis got out of his vehicle to clear the debris so it would not endanger other drivers. As he did, he was shot multiple times with a 12-gauge shotgun and died at the scene from wounds to his head, neck, side, and arm. Investigators concluded the branches had been placed deliberately and that the gunman fired from a nearby hill overlooking the ramp — an ambush, in the words of Kentucky State Police, though whether Ellis himself was the intended target has never been publicly established.

Ellis was a seven-year veteran of the Bardstown Police Department. A native of Batavia, Ohio, he had been a standout catcher at Cumberland College and played minor league baseball in the Cincinnati Reds organization before leaving the sport and joining the department in 2006. He earned Governor's Awards for impaired-driving enforcement, was named the department's Officer of the Year in 2008, and served as Bardstown's only K-9 officer alongside his partner, a German Shepherd named Figo. He was survived by his wife Amy and two young sons. Thousands of mourners and officers from across the country attended his funeral on May 30, 2013, at Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown; Figo was retired to the family about a year later and died in May 2017, two days before the fourth anniversary of the murder.

Kentucky State Police led the initial investigation, which generated thousands of tips and hundreds of leads without producing an arrest. In 2013 the FBI offered a reward of up to $50,000, and combined reward money from various sources grew to more than $200,000; in May 2023 the Bardstown Police Department announced the reward for information leading to an arrest stood at $217,000. No suspect has ever been publicly named, and investigators have not announced a confirmed motive.

The Ellis killing became the first in a string of cases that drew national attention to Bardstown: the still-unsolved 2014 shooting deaths of Kathy and Samantha Netherland, the 2015 disappearance of Crystal Rogers, and the 2016 fatal shooting of Rogers' father, Tommy Ballard. The FBI later took a lead role in the Bardstown investigations, and in early 2023 Kentucky's attorney general appointed Commonwealth's Attorney Shane Young as special prosecutor over the Ellis, Rogers, and Ballard cases. In 2025, Rogers' former boyfriend Brooks Houck was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison — a verdict his attorneys are appealing — and two other men were convicted of conspiracy and evidence tampering. Prosecutors have said the broader Bardstown investigations remain active, but no charges have been brought in connection with Ellis' death.

As of 2026, the murder of Officer Jason Ellis remains unsolved. The FBI continues to seek information through its national seeking-information program and tip line, and Ellis' family and former colleagues have publicly expressed confidence that the case can still be solved. Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.