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Author Topic: Who killed Michael, Mary & 9-yr old Jennifer Short 8/15/02 - Henry County, VA  (Read 18970 times)
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Nut44x4
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« on: January 17, 2009, 02:35:15 PM »

FBI seeks leads on truck seen near Shorts' househttp://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/191437

Officials say they don't know whether the truck is connected to the unsolved triple slayings.
The task force investigating the 2002 triple homicide of the Short family in Henry County released a composite drawing Friday of a truck seen near the Shorts' home the day the bodies of Michael and Mary Short were found.

A witness has described the truck as a 1998-2002 white single-cab two-ton flatbed with wooden rails. The drawing has been posted on the Internet page the FBI uses to update the public on the investigation's progress.

FBI agent Mark MacKizer, a member of the Jennifer Renee Short Homicide/Abduction Task Force, said authorities are seeking more information about the truck and its driver. It's still unclear whether the driver will prove to have a direct connection to the case, he said.

However, investigators intend to explore the lead further. Next month, the task force will post a composite drawing of the truck's driver and a photograph that authorities hope will closely match the vehicle being sought, MacKizer said.

The deaths of Michael, Mary and 9-year-old Jennifer Short comprise this region's most notorious unsolved slayings.

On Aug. 15, 2002, an employee of Michael Short's mobile-home moving business discovered his body in the carport of the family's house in Oak Level. He had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Henry County investigators found Short's wife, Mary, dead in her bedroom, also killed by a shot to the head. Their daughter, Jennifer, was nowhere to be found.

On Sept. 25, 2002, her skeletal remains were found beneath a bridge in Rockingham County, N.C. She, too, had been killed with a bullet to the head.

On the Web site about the case, authorities have asked to hear from any "general contractors, independent contractors, construction companies, mobile home dealers, mobile home parts suppliers, mobile home transporters or mobile home salvage yard owners" who did business with Michael Short between January 2001 and the time of his death.

MacKizer has said the Web site postings are intentionally vague in order to encourage as many calls as possible.

A $67,000 reward has been offered for tips that lead to a conviction in the case.

The Web page about the Short case can be found by clicking "Wanted by the FBI" at richmond.fbi.gov. The FBI is accepting phone tips about the case at (800) CALL-FBI.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seekinfo/short_j2.htm
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« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2009, 02:36:42 PM »

Related
The case, online
On Aug. 15, the sixth anniversary of the slayings of Michael, Mary and Jennifer Short, the Jennifer Renee Short Homicide/Abduction Task Force will debut a new Internet site — richmond.fbi.gov — with information about the case and call for new input from the public. The FBI will also be accepting phone tips about the case at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324). The task force also intends to approach national television shows in hopes one or more will profile the case.

Links to Past coverage
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/191437
FBI seeks tips in Short killings
Six years after
Police lack suspects in Short slayings
Extended family unable to move on
Suspect's life upturned
Investigation into Short killings unlikely to end soon
2004 memorial service
Mystery of who killed the Shorts remains unsolved 1 year after
« Last Edit: January 17, 2009, 02:38:36 PM by Nut44x4 » Logged

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« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2009, 02:40:49 PM »

A bouquet of flowers was placed in front of the Short home not long after the announcement that Jennifer Short's remains had been identified. -- The Roanoke Times | File 2002
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« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2009, 02:42:55 PM »

August 10, 2008

Unsolved killings

Six years after Michael, Mary and 9-year-old Jennifer Short were killed, a task force is still searching for a way to break open the case.

The slayings of Michael and Mary Short and their 9-year-old daughter Jennifer remain Henry County's most notorious unsolved crime.

The law enforcement task force charged with solving the triple homicide has taken the leads they have as far as they can go, and now they're the calling for new help from the public.

"Any information that they have, even insignificant information, might be important to us," said Virginia State Police special agent Garland Snead.

On Aug. 15, 2002, a man who worked for Michael Short's mobile home moving business went to his employer's house, expecting to drive his boss to Christiansburg to buy a truck. Instead, he found Short lying in his carport, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

Henry County investigators summoned by his 911 call discovered Short's wife, Mary, dead in her bedroom, also killed by a shot to the head. Jennifer was nowhere to be found. The phone line to the house had been cut.

A nationwide search for Jennifer began, as did an intense media blitz that enveloped the Henry County Sheriff's Office and the relatives of the slain family, all of whom made televised pleas for Jennifer's life.

But the search ended in tragedy a month later when the missing girl's skeletal remains were found beneath a bridge in Rockingham County, N.C. She, too, had been killed with a bullet to the head.

As the crime's anniversary again rolls around, the task force wants more help from the public after years of sorting through thousands of leads.

The FBI office in Richmond will host a new Internet site offering information about the Short slayings and actively calling for tips from anyone who might know anything at all about what happened.

"We want to get this resolved," said FBI special agent Mark MacKizer. "Six years is too long."

The site will be updated every 30 days with more information and specific requests for tips in areas in which the task force needs more assistance.

Even after all this time, there are likely still people who have not come forward, because they are shy or because they've judged the information they have to be inconsequential, Snead said.

"We've identified individuals of interest," MacKizer said. "We've got separate pieces of the puzzle. We don't have the complete puzzle."

The task force is looking to the public to provide the missing pieces, he said.

"Is there a smoking gun at this point? No," he said.

The task force also is approaching national television shows in hopes one or more will profile the case.

"There's somebody out there who committed this horrible crime," and they're still at large, MacKizer said. The community's help is going to be the key to solving it, he said.

'I can't imagine'

Jennifer Renee Short's shy smile still haunts the county where she attended elementary school, played baseball and rode with her father when he went to haul a mobile home. For weeks while authorities were searching for the girl, her face peered out from countless "Missing" fliers plastered around the community.

"It's the biggest non-solved crime that's ever been in Henry County," said Ray Reynolds, who lives across U.S. 220 from the house where the Shorts lived.

He recalls seeing Jennifer play in the yard. The day before she was killed, he saw her buying candy in a nearby convenience story. "She was a bottle of joy," he said.

Reynolds coordinates an annual charity motorcycle ride in her memory; this year's ride is today. It starts near her home and ends at the bridge in North Carolina where her body was found.

"I can't imagine somebody taking a 9-year-old child and shooting her in the head," he said.

The Henry County Sheriff's Office put years of manpower and toil into the case, but those efforts were eclipsed by scandal in November 2006, when Sheriff Frank Cassell and 12 of his officers were indicted by federal authorities as the culmination of a corruption probe.

Cassell, who had appeared frequently on national television during the early stages of the Short investigation as a spokesman for law enforcement, ultimately was sentenced to eight months in prison for lying to a federal investigator.

Members of the task force say the federal indictments did not in any way impair the investigation.

"Luckily no one who was assigned to the task force was affected by the indictments," said Sgt. Curtis Spence of the sheriff's office.

Reynolds said he believes the negative publicity surrounding the indictments resulted in unfair suspicions about the handling of the Short case. The new sheriff, Lane Perry, "will not rest until it is settled," he said, and neither will others in law enforcement. "You can hear the emotion in their voices."

A red herring

Perhaps the most dramatic series of developments in the case began just before Jennifer's remains were identified, when a search warrant revealed that investigators had focused on Gary Bowman, a retired carpenter from Mayodan, N.C., who left for the northernmost regions of Canada the day after Mike and Mary Short's bodies were discovered.

Authorities had received a tip from Gary Lemons, Bowman's landlord, about behavior Lemons said he had observed before the slayings. Lemons had told police that Bowman had threatened to kill a mobile home mover in Virginia. Bowman has said that the FBI contacted him in Canada but at the time didn't seem too concerned.

Then Jennifer's remains were discovered not far from a trailer Bowman had owned.

Bowman, then 66, was deported from Canada and kept in custody for about a month without being charged with any crimes. All of the possessions he brought with him to Canada, including his van, were processed by forensic labs. In correspondence with Canadian authorities, Henry County investigators called him a "potential suspect."

Bowman repeatedly denied that he'd ever met the Shorts. He and two of his friends -- who insisted on his innocence -- testified before a federal grand jury. Yet he remained a person of interest for years, often stared at or shunned by members of his community.

But in March 2005, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee announced that three men faced federal charges for lying to investigators about the case. Two of the men, Timothy Fennon Sampson and Jerry Riley Mills, claimed to have seen Gary Bowman leaving the Shorts' house carrying a young girl on the night of the slayings. Federal authorities said that investigators spent hundreds of hours pursuing the tip before their story unraveled. The men invented the story in an attempt to collect reward money, Brownlee said.

An FBI agent said in 2007 that Bowman is no longer a suspect in the case.

Justice and patience

The same month Brownlee announced those indictments, the Jennifer Renee Short Homicide/Abduction Task Force was assembled to further probe about 3,000 leads gathered in the investigation into the Short killings.

The task force consists of two FBI agents, two Virginia State Police investigators, two detectives from the Henry County Sheriff's Office, one from the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina, and an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They meet once a month.

MacKizer declined to discuss the identities of any of the current "persons of interest," saying it wouldn't be appropriate. "Just because they're of interest doesn't mean they committed the crime."

He also declined to discuss investigators' theories.

"The longer it goes, the more theories there are," MacKizer said. "We're very careful to let the evidence drive the investigation, not theories. All the investigators on this case are cognizant of not having tunnel vision."

Spence, who has been part of the investigation from the start, admits that the slow progress can be aggravating. "We've had so many ups and downs in this case," he said. "The frustration has since gone into determination."

Especially for investigators who were there at the start, who refused to take breaks or go home while Jennifer was still among the missing, the toll can sometimes be heavy. "You're always wondering, is there something else that could have been done to find her before she was killed," MacKizer said.

"You can't sit here and say you don't get frustrated, but sometimes, you realize, some things just take time," Snead said. Solving the case properly, bringing the person responsible to justice, requires patience.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/172541
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« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2009, 02:44:05 PM »

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/172541
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« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2009, 01:38:35 PM »

Authorities release sketch in Short case
A man in a white truck was seen near the family's Henry County home the day the homicides were discovered

The task force investigating the 2002 triple homicide of the Short family in Henry County released a composite drawing Thursday of a man seen near the family's house the day the bodies of Michael and Mary Short were found.

The task force also released a photograph of a truck similar to the one the man was seen sitting inside.

FBI agent Mark MacKizer, a member of the Jennifer Renee Short Homicide/Abduction Task Force, emphasized that the task force specifically wants information related to a man of that appearance with a truck of that type who could have been in Oak Level on Aug. 15, 2002, the day the homicides were discovered. "We're looking for that combination," he said.

A witness has described the truck as a 1998-2002 white single-cab two-ton flatbed with wooden rails. The cab of the truck is supposed to look similar to that of a 4500 Series International Truck. The man was in his 40s, with a weathered complexion, according to a statement from the FBI.

It's unclear whether the man has any connection to the case. But the lead is a step in the right direction, MacKizer said. "This is obviously more than what we've had over the last few years," he said.

The deaths of Michael, Mary and 9-year-old Jennifer Short constitute this region's most notorious unsolved slayings.

On Aug. 15, 2002, an employee of Michael Short's mobile-home moving business discovered his body in the carport of the family's house in Oak Level. He had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Henry County investigators found Short's wife, Mary, dead in her bedroom, also killed by a shot to the head. Their daughter, Jennifer, was nowhere to be found.

On Sept. 25, 2002, the girl's skeletal remains were found beneath a bridge in Rockingham County, N.C. She, too, had been killed with a bullet to the head.

A $67,000 reward has been offered for tips that lead to a conviction in the case.

An FBI Web page devoted to the Short case can be found by clicking "Wanted by the FBI" at richmond.fbi.gov. The FBI is accepting phone tips about the case at (800) CALL-FBI.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/194559
Authorities released this sketch of an unidentified male described as being in his 40s and having a weathered complexion.
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« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2009, 12:12:52 PM »

April 20, 2009
Authorities make another appeal to the public in Short family murder case.


The FBI and Henry County authorities are making another appeal to the public as the seven year anniversary of the Short family murders draws near this August.

Investigators want information regarding the identities and locations of people who worked for Michael Short at MS Mobile Home Movers on a weekly or day-to-day basis, including migrant workers.

Authorities believe many of them solely worked on a cash basis.

In February, authorities released a sketch composite of a man possibly connected with a flat-bed truck seen sitting near Michael, Mary and Jennifer's home in Oak Level.

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=10212965
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« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2009, 05:24:14 PM »

Former employees sought in Short homicide investigation
The request seeks to know about migrant workers possibly paid only in cash

The law enforcement officials investigating the 2002 triple homicide of the Short family in Henry County are asking for information about employees who worked for Michael Short’s mobile home moving business, including migrant workers.

The request was posted last week on the FBI Web page dedicated to the case. The update asked for information about people who may have worked for M.S. Mobile Home Movers on a weekly or day-to-day basis, who were possibly paid only in cash.

The deaths of Michael, Mary and 9-year-old Jennifer Short are the region’s most notorious unsolved slayings. Michael and Mary Short’s bodies were found in their Oak Level home on Aug. 15, 2002; both had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head. Their daughter, Jennifer, was missing.

On Sept. 25, 2002, the girl’s skeletal remains were found beneath a bridge in Rockingham County, N.C. She, too, had been killed with a bullet to the head.

A $67,000 reward has been offered for tips that lead to a conviction in the case.

The FBI Web page can be found by clicking “Wanted by the FBI” at richmond.fbi.gov. The FBI is accepting phone tips about the case at (800) CALL-FBI.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/201779
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« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2010, 03:46:57 PM »

Friday, May. 14, 2010
Virginia authorities head to Myrtle Beach area to conduct interviews in 2002 murders

An investigation task force will be conducting interviews from May 17-20 in Myrtle Beach, Conway, Bennettsville, and Florence, pertaining to the 2002 murders of a Virginia man, his wife, and his daughter, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Virginia.

The bodies of Michael Short and Mary Short were discovered on August 15, 2002, in their Bassett, Henry County, Virginia home.

Michael Short was found on the couch inside the attached garage of the home with an apparent gunshot wound to his head, the news release stated.

His wife, Mary Short, was also found lying in her bed with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

The Shorts' 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was not located in the home and a search ensued for the missing child, the release stated. Jennifer’s remains were found on September 25, 2002, along a stream bed off of Grogan Road, Stoneville, Rockingham County, North Carolina. It was determined that Jennifer’s death was caused by a gunshot wound to the head, the release stated.

Several years prior to their deaths, Michael and Mary Short operated a business moving mobile homes.

At the time of their deaths, the Shorts were considering moving to South Carolina. During the spring and summer of 2002, Michael Short made several trips to areas in South Carolina surrounding the following cities: Bennettsville, Florence, Conway and Myrtle Beach, to seek employment.

Investigators from the Jennifer Renee Short Homicide/Abduction Task Force will be conducting the interviews next week, and will be using the Horry County Police's tip line while they are in the area.

Anyone with information pertaining to the Shorts' murders or who had any contact with the Shorts in 2002 is asked to contact investigators through the Horry County Police Department tip line 915-8477.

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/05/14/1474584/virginia-authorities-head-to-myrtle.html
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« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2010, 08:23:32 PM »

Award increased to $100,000 in 2002 slayings of Va. family
By DENA POTTER | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 14, 2010
 
Authorities investigating the 2002 slayings of a Southside Virginia family yesterday increased to $100,000 the reward for information that cracks the case, but the fattened prize will be available only for a limited time.

Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry said the increased reward, which is good through February, is an attempt to shake loose information about the murders of Michael, Mary and Jennifer Short.

"We firmly believe that there are a couple people out there that have key information that we need to know that they're not letting go of," Perry said. "This is an opportunity for someone to do the right thing to bring a heinous killer to justice and to obtain life-changing money in the process.

"What it offers a community and a family is closure, healing and solution."

Tomorrow will mark eight years since Michael and Mary Short were found dead inside their ranch home in Bassett, along busy U.S. 220. Michael, 50, was found dead in his garage, while Mary, 36, was inside the home. Both had been shot in the head.

The remains of the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer, were found six weeks later in Rockingham County, N.C., about 30 miles south of her home. She also died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

The small, wooden bridge that covered her remains was later renamed the "Jennifer Renee Short Memorial Bridge."

Last year, authorities released a sketch of a man seen near the couple's home the morning that Michael and Mary Short's bodies were discovered and asked for help locating former employees of Michael Short's mobile home moving business.

Investigators also recently traveled to South Carolina, where the Shorts planned to move so Michael Short could relocate his business.

Perry said members of the task force have agreed not to release details of their investigation, including whether they have a suspect.


Edit to snip article and add link per SuzieQ.  MB



 
« Last Edit: August 12, 2011, 11:40:13 AM by MuffyBee » Logged

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« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2010, 08:48:49 PM »

Link for above

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/aug/14/shor14-ar-425959/
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« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2011, 11:27:02 AM »

This weekend marks ninth anniversary of Short family murders

snip
Friday, the special task force assigned to the case will hold a news conference on their progress.  The ninth anniversary of the murders is weekend.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-this-weekend-marks-ninth-anniversary-of-short-family-murders-20110812,0,1634388.story
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