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subject to credit approval see store or ashley.com for details [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage where you
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are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is my friend and when we were
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kids we bought baseball cards because of the gum here is the captain yeah there's
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nothing better than a hard stick of stale gum it's good to be seen good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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telling a [Music] friend today I am excited because this week we are featuring Ash chill hazy IPA
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here's a toast to some of our friends who are just amazing first up a cheers to Mary in Scarsdale New York and a big
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everyone we just mentioned went to True Crim garage.com clicked on the Donate button told us what city they're in and
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we are shouting you out thank you all for helping out with this week's Beer Run yeah BW R you in beer run make sure
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you checked your email cuz we sent out some emails with promo codes celebrating 600 episodes of our nasly drones and
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Colonel that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:16
[Music] crime [Music] Chris Thompson worked for a man named Michael Short Michael was the owner of a
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company called Ms mobile home movers Ms of course stands for Michael Short the mobile home movers part means
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just what it says if you have a mobile home that you need moved well then Michael short and his team are the
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people to call so Michael and Chris work together and with a team of day labors they specialized in lifting those prefab
00:04:14
trailer homes off their foundations placing them on special flatbeds and transporting them to new
00:04:22
locations we have all seen the oversized loads traveling on America's highways now on Thursday August 15th
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2002 Chris was supposed to accompany Michael on a trip to purchase another truck so on that morning Chris was to
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meet Michael at Michael's house first thing Chris had been to his boss's home many times for work including for
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several hours on the evening before helping Michael repair one of those large trucks the business used
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Chris pulled into the driveway of Michael's red brick home on Route 220 in the Oak Level neighborhood of Basset
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Virginia around 9:00 a.m. and parked his car to Chris's surprise when he pulled up to the house that Michael shared with
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his family Michael wasn't waiting for him outside No in fact no one was outside it was quiet
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Chris got out of his car spotted the garage door was open so he approached there in the garage he found
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Michael Short Michael was a large man and Chris could see he was lying on his back on a old floral couch inside a
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garage that Michael used as a sort of man cave with a TV and all the garage door was open and Chris
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could see in right from where he was standing from the driveway but it was only when he walked
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closer to Michael that he could see that there was a problem Michael looked like he was
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asleep but unfortunately he was not Chris was horrified he can now see a gaping gunshot wound to Michael's
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head Chris was quick to call police Henry County deputies raced to the short home and swarmed the
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place they entered the deathly quiet house guns drawn soon they found Michael's wife
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Mary in the master bedroom she too was lying down having been shot in the couple's bed she too
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was dead authorities confirmed that Michael and Mary were killed this was not a murder suicide
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the sheriff's department stated someone else had shot these two people presumably as they
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slept the couple were each shot once with a 22 caliber gun the murder weapon was not found at the scene and more
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importantly something else was missing from the scene the couple's 99-year-old daughter
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Jennifer who killed this well liked and hardworking married couple and where was their 9-year-old
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daughter this it's true crime [Music] garage Michael Mary and their daughter Jennifer short were a wonderful little
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family of three the community of Henry County Virginia was absolutely wrecked by this case and this is a unique case
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they all are but this is an unusual case for investigators most detectives will work a very long career and never have
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to investigate something like this a double homicide followed by the Abduction of the couple's little girl we
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said the community was wrecked and that was very true but not just wrecked puzzled would be another great word to
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describe the situation that's because everyone was having an incredibly difficult time trying to figure out just
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what happened and of all of the possibilities why did this happen what was the motive here the short family
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were universally described as a close family who did a lot together Jennifer was a fairly shy little girl always
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attached to one of her parents photos of her show an adorable All-American looking freckled girl with a toothy
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smile and brown hair Jennifer loved to play Barbies softball and dance she was looking forward to starting the fourth
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grade the school secretary Tammy Joyce said Jennifer is a precious little girl and a role model student Mary worked at
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a factory for a time but when she died she was doing the books for Michael's moving business so both of them working
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for Michael's company Michael operated his business he was a hard worker committed to his family and that was
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pretty much that when it came to the short family Michael's sister Carolyn Short said the couple was very happy and
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kept to themselves Mary Short's brother-in-law Thomas Lynch told the associate press they were good people
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and he was completely stunned by what had happened let's start our investigation here Captain we will get
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into some details about the timeline the location and the actual investigation as
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well okay the night before the murders the shorts seem to have spent a quiet night together as a family they were
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seen getting dinner at a local Burger King drive-thru by some reports quite late they have them there as late as
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11:00 p.m. now keep in mind at some point that evening we have Michael Short who is working with his employee Chris
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Thompson at their home working on getting a truck ready to go for the next day so we have people that see them
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through the drive-thru or going through the drive-thru at Burger King around 11:00 p.m. and then they're going to
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head home obviously to eat their dinner yes after the trip to that local Burger King the family apparently went home and
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as said it was quite late that night so they would have went to bed shortly after that that's the last point that we
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know anything about their life other than the discovery of their bodies the next morning that is according to the
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now Sheriff Lane Perry what he has said in some interviews the details of what happened later are still unknown really
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to this day all we know is that after that trip to Burger King at approximately 11:00 p.m. that at 9:00
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a.m. two of them were dead and one of them were missing the short residence their home was located on US 220 35
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miles south of ronoke Virginia this is in Henry County the home sat on a busy four-lane highway surrounded by CD
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motels and gas stations there was a Circle C convenience store and also a Circle SE motel that were some people
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call them next door to the short family home by some reports they have these two
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locations being approximately 100 yard away the shorts were at the convenience store very often buying snacks drinks
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and gasoline Jennifer the little girl was the one who would go in and pay and she made friends with the owner which is
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Lorraine stclair the closest neighbor to the short family lived 300 ft away but very
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few residents were in the area so basically the length of a football field one neighbor Ruby everon told newspapers
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there was no sign of any trouble with the family they were always outside they were always Outdoors together in the
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yard they seemed as happy as could be across from the shorts house was a flea market and a junkyard and on the side
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next to the Circle C was an abandoned Farm Stand it was a fair fairly rural area and if you want to look this up on
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any Maps you will see just that this is mostly lower income families in this general area just trying to eek out a
00:13:11
living the sheriff's department was quick to state that they were certain that Jennifer's bed had been slept in
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saying the covers were pulled back as if she had been in bed and then thrown back
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the covers to get up and that's what Henry County Sheriff's captain Nester said they assumed at first
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Jennifer had been awakened by the sounds of the gun blast and had been terrified
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she probably crept out of the house and was hiding somewhere so this is their early suspicions right we find both
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mother and father killed at the home presumably as they slept we have the father who's found in the garage area of
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the home we have the mother Mary short who is found in the master bedroom and then we have have the daughter
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9-year-old Jennifer short her bed appears that she slept in it the night before and she is missing from the scene
00:14:06
the sheriff's department is saying look we think what happened here is that we have both parents having been shot the
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little girl must have heard something and she snuck out of the house and she's probably hiding for safety and waiting
00:14:21
to come out at some point when she knows that it is safe to come out of hiding we've actually seen this in some other
00:14:28
cases so it's interesting that they are looking at that as a possibility very early on in the case a couple things
00:14:36
that are of interest to me here Captain is one we got the father who is in the garage and then we have the mother found
00:14:44
in the master bedroom there doesn't appear to be based off of any of the neighbors or family memb statements that
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there was any kind of issue between Mom and Dad during this time that there was any kind of fighting or that they
00:15:00
weren't getting along in fact it was said that Michael it wasn't uncommon for him to sleep in the garage and some of
00:15:08
these occasions it sounds like it was happen stance that he didn't purposely sleep in the garage on the couch but
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often would be out there watching TV and would simply fall asleep on the couch and end up staying the night there a
00:15:24
little pin in this in the information is that we have three victims in their in three different locations and not only
00:15:31
that one thing that's incredibly curious here that we don't have a definitive answer on is remember when Michael
00:15:38
Short's employee Christopher Thompson arrives that morning at roughly 900 a.m. and finds Michael Short killed in the
00:15:47
garage Chris states that when he arrived the garage door was open so we don't know could this be a situation where
00:15:56
Michael Short fell asleep on the couch accidentally left the garage door open this is the middle of the summer
00:16:04
Southern Virginia it's going to be warm out they also said that it wasn't uncommon for him to sleep out there on
00:16:10
warmer nights and so you wonder did he happen to leave this garage door open or did the killer for whatever reason leave
00:16:20
the garage door open after fleeing the home and if you're in law enforcement you're going to want to know when Chris
00:16:26
Thompson got there the day before and what time he left left and then what time he arrived the next day because
00:16:33
he's the last person seen with the family and he's the person that found the family yes and we will continue to take
00:16:41
a look at Chris Thompson throughout our coverage of this week's uh case but one thing that's interesting to me is think
00:16:48
about how complicated this situation is immediately for the sheriff's department
00:16:54
right you immediately have several different intense situations going on all at once
00:17:02
right you have a crime scene that you have to secure you have to start looking through the
00:17:10
crime scene of this double homicide to collect evidence to try to figure out what happened but at the same time you
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have a missing little girl that you have to look for and until you have evidence
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to suggest to you that she might have been killed or something Parable has happened to her you have to investigate
00:17:31
it as if she is alive and you're hoping to find her alive and well and you also have a witness Chris Thompson who
00:17:41
arrived there at the scene that morning at 9 a.m. so right away police are instantly thrust into the situation
00:17:49
where they have a lot of stuff going on we have a little girl that we need to find we have this house that we need to
00:17:55
secure we have an investigation that we need to kick off and so immediately we have about 25 deputies on the scene
00:18:04
Fanning out across the shorts family property and the hills behind the home and they're looking for this little girl
00:18:13
unfortunately there was no sign of Jennifer and she did not respond to any of their calls while they're out there
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looking for at only 9 years old the police didn't think that she would have gotten very far on her own now relatives
00:18:29
of the shorts who lived nearby and quickly heard about the shootings they show up at the scene unfortunately these
00:18:36
relatives knew nothing about where Jennifer could be had no idea why this would have happened to Michael and Mary
00:18:44
short well if you don't find her in the immediate area you start thinking well she's maybe she was kidnapped and if she
00:18:51
was is this the motivation for killing the parents Yeah by early afternoon with the girl not showing up authori started
00:19:00
to lean toward a different Theory and as you said Captain it's the another bad Theory here Jennifer was the victim of
00:19:10
an abduction that's the theory that they started working that afternoon some evidence at the scene helped them to
00:19:16
come to this conclusion and that evidence is Jennifer's mattress was moved her bed
00:19:22
was moved approximately 2 in and her pillow was on the floor so this might suggest some sign of a struggle in her
00:19:31
room but more significantly the phone lines to the home the phone lines outside of the house had been cut yeah
00:19:41
so if there were anyone and I don't think that there there were anyone on the scene but you also have to keep in
00:19:50
mind there is a possibility that Jennifer shot both of her parents in their sleep and then left
00:19:57
the home that's got to be on your mind when you're at the scene and you're taking a look at that scene now of
00:20:04
course these other items are going to suggest to you that that is not what happened a little girl does not go
00:20:11
outside and cut the phone lines kill her parents and then flee the scene yeah it's a level of sophistication for sure
00:20:18
and then to maybe have a better understanding do we know like was her father found laying on the couch was her
00:20:27
mother found laying in our bed yes that's correct father on the couch mother on the bed see that's a to me
00:20:34
another level of sophistication in this cases you almost think that this murderer would have known where they
00:20:40
would sleep and so you'd have to have some knowledge of this family to know that the the husband sleeps in the
00:20:46
garage on the couch sometimes possibly but if you also have the wandering psychopath who observes a garage door
00:20:54
open at 2: a.m. and just approaches the house you could have a completely different situation yeah very good point
00:21:01
now the thing here is again now no suspicion as to the the daughter being involved in any manner
00:21:10
other than we think oh no my God she she may have been abducted after this this went down so the police urgently needing
00:21:19
to find Jennifer they issued an amber alert and Captain Nester at the time he says nobody knows where this child is
00:21:29
that's not normal he is right that is not normal this is a very bizarre situation but Jennifer's whereabouts was
00:21:37
just one of many puzzling questions plaguing this case in the wake of the Amber Alert a massive search effort was
00:21:46
launched to find Jennifer a command center was set up outside of the home to coordinate the search parties and serve
00:21:54
as a central location according to the local paper ERS searches included dogs helicopters ATVs horses boats dredging
00:22:05
nearby ponds and grid searches by deputies on foot scent dogs alerted to Jennifer at several different locations
00:22:14
of course at the home at the motel and at the convenience store again these places located next door right the
00:22:23
problem with this is these three places obviously are places that Jennifer frequent in on and some say almost on a
00:22:34
daily basis so the police did not consider these hits by the dogs significant for that reason they
00:22:43
actually expected the dogs to hit at these three different locations searches extended onto
00:22:51
Friday by this time Captain we have we're calling out all the stops right we we have so many different
00:23:00
agencies involved we have the FBI State Police and troopers from North Carolina state police involved as well and
00:23:07
there's still no sign of Jennifer short canvases of the neighborhoods turned up very little and no one at the Circle C
00:23:17
Motel Next Door seemed suspicious despite the fact that this was a known Gathering Spot for transients and drug
00:23:24
addicts this according to the Daily Press by Friday afternoon police said they were sure that Jennifer was not
00:23:33
anywhere in the immediate area frustrated sheriffs and we should be clear here there were
00:23:40
two head sheriffs involved in this case and that is because the shorts that family they lived very close to the
00:23:48
Henry and Franklin County Line so we have both sheriffs involved and they are up front and center and they are
00:23:56
frustrated because they a can't find this little girl but B they also say at this time we have no
00:24:05
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[Music] all right we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain well unfortunately the search
00:26:50
and rescue team called it quits on Saturday now keep in mind the discovery of the dead parents takes place on
00:26:58
Thursday August 15th 2002 we have searched for this little girl in the immediate area for a little
00:27:07
over 48 hours before they call it quits well I just want to disagree with you when when you said that they had no
00:27:17
suspects that's probably what they stated but we have to assume that Chris is at the top of their early suspect
00:27:26
list well I think suspect is a tricky word right of course anybody that finds the homicide victim anybody that
00:27:36
was last seen with a homicide victim right those are always people of of Persons of Interest and if you want to
00:27:43
call them suspects you can I think that you need a little more than oh this person just happened to be with them
00:27:49
these are people that they are of course you're 100% actively looking at vetting
00:27:55
their story trying to figure out do we make them a suspect but what we have here is at least on the public level
00:28:03
they weren't willing to state that they had any suspects and not necessarily specifically name anybody for the papers
00:28:11
just saying we don't have any any suspects which is quite unfortunate because you feel like this is very early
00:28:19
on in their investigation you wonder how quickly these leads are drying up if they had any at all to begin with and
00:28:28
now you're left with this situation of well we really need to find this little girl one because we hope that she is
00:28:34
alive and well but two she's now a big part of our investigation whatever happened to her
00:28:40
might lead us to the person's responsible for this homicides but also help us understand what the motivation
00:28:49
was what the motive was for any of this mess at all what also makes you question
00:28:55
some things too like as far as as eyewitnesses go because we have this big we have a house with a garage door and
00:29:04
did anybody see what time this garage door was shut or did they see did they come out of their house at 3:00 a.m. cuz
00:29:12
they heard something or they went outside to smoke and then saw the garage door was still open because I would
00:29:19
assume I mean it's 22 so it's not going to be super loud but it's still gunshots
00:29:24
and in a garage you'd think that Echo and maybe a a neighbor would hear something so maybe we don't have a
00:29:31
eyewitness but we have an ear witness yeah we don't have anybody that's telling us or leading us at this point
00:29:39
in this direction of where we should be looking in fact what we have is the the chief of the search and rescue
00:29:49
team saying we need to keep looking but we realistically and logically putting all of the evidence together over the
00:29:57
past last couple of days we don't have a direction to look in and of course he's
00:30:01
talking about looking for the little girl but you almost feel like that carries over to their thoughts on who
00:30:09
could have killed the parents because if you're if you're working the case and again they've not released a ton of
00:30:17
stuff we're coming up on 20 years next week we'll be 20 years since this double homicide and we don't have a lot of
00:30:26
information that's been released publicly especially at the time and and we need to keep in mind we're going to
00:30:34
go through this point by Point here but what you're going to see is especially early on police were incredibly vague
00:30:44
and quiet about what it was that they were seeing at the scene what their theories and suspicions were because the
00:30:53
little girl's still miss missing and right now in our investigation that is your number one goal to get her
00:31:00
back to retrieve her alive and well and so they are purposely keeping things vague and keeping things
00:31:07
quiet with the idea that whoever took her maybe following the case maybe keeping an eye on the situation we don't
00:31:15
want that person to panic and kill this little girl right the other thing that was popular back then that's not really
00:31:25
popular now that I wonder if they would question is you You' probably have a newspaper
00:31:31
boy so your newspapers are going to be coming between I don't know safely let's say 5:30 to
00:31:40
7:00 did did did their local paper boys see anything well I again I would recommend that people look up their home
00:31:51
on a map because if there's a kid riding his bicycle to deliver a newspaper to their
00:31:58
house I would be incredibly surprised they their closest neighbor was about 300 feet or so from their home and if
00:32:08
you're working this case and you're thinking that oh we're seeing evidence here that both of the
00:32:15
parents were still asleep when they were shot and killed we don't know who was shot and killed first right but if Mary
00:32:22
was asleep in the master bedroom and did not hear her husband being shot on the couch in the garage well then those
00:32:29
neighbors 300 ft away or further they didn't hear anything either and the this situation is is weird because
00:32:41
again I don't want to I don't want to Circle in on this idea that it was some total and complete random stranger here
00:32:48
but we're talking about they live on a highway they live on an actual highway it's Highway
00:32:55
220 and they don't have any very close neighbors there's a it's a four-lane road there's enough traffic on this
00:33:04
highway that even in this little area this little pocket that they live in this Oak Level Virginia a a a town
00:33:13
that's so small that most people have never heard of it there's still four lanes two traveling north and two
00:33:19
traveling southbound is and so we're talking about a a well-traveled highway and not a whole lot of people
00:33:29
living off of this highway now back to the crime scene we have crime scene techs who are combing the house this
00:33:39
after of course that it was secured they find no evidence that Jennifer was harmed when she was taken
00:33:46
you know we don't have any blood at the scene all we have is what may appear to be some kind of scuffle that may have
00:33:54
taken place in her bedroom now now we have the police captain who tells the media that he believed that Jennifer was
00:34:01
grabbed and abducted very quickly we have Henry County Sheriff Frank casselle that said that they believe Jennifer was
00:34:09
taken from her bed and that her parents had been asleep when they were each shot
00:34:16
as we said the murder weapon was not found at the home but a shotgun and a rifle were
00:34:23
found these were removed from the scene and they belong to the shorts and evidently were not the murder
00:34:32
weapon both Michael and Mary were killed with a single shot to the Head photos show them both lying as if they were
00:34:41
still asleep it's pretty clear that they were sound asleep when they were killed
00:34:46
is a is a statement released by one of the officers the thinking is that they were in totally separate parts of the
00:34:54
house so the sound of the 20 2 firing into one of the victims would not have woke up the other one right and in
00:35:04
regard to the location of each parent when shot and killed again it it sounds like it was commonplace that Michael
00:35:12
would sleep out in the garage on hot summer nights there's also people that stated that his snoring would keep his
00:35:20
wife up and so sometimes he would simply sleep out there to appease her to to let
00:35:26
her get a good night's sleep what we don't know is whether he just left the overhead garage door open for fresh air
00:35:35
or if the killer left the overhead garage door open after entering the home another way killing the two victims
00:35:42
presumably taking Jennifer with him or with them and then leaving the garage door open obviously it's tough to know
00:35:50
for certain but I think with the phone lines being cut I lean towards it not just being a crime of opportunity
00:35:58
because the garage door was open yeah it's a weird situation the The Cutting of the phone lines to me indicates more
00:36:05
of the idea that I'm probably going to kill somebody or do something very horrible once I go into this home right
00:36:13
that that's what it kind of points out to me here now we also have to wonder there's no mention of any type of forced
00:36:21
entry into the home and that's why I kind of keep circling around this idea about the garage door maybe possibly
00:36:28
still being left open we know that we had that as a strong suspicion in fact some neighbors stating that that was
00:36:35
actually fact in the Aurora Hammer Slayer case but here let's move past the garage door
00:36:42
Captain we have to wonder did the killer have access to the home somehow or would
00:36:48
the killer have gained access through an unlock door or unlock window um again no mention of forced entry at
00:36:57
any time throughout the 20 years of this investigation in this case now we do have a statement from someone who knew
00:37:06
the shorts that said it doesn't appear that they locked up very much that they were concerned about uh keeping closed
00:37:14
tabs on whether doors and windows were locked or maybe even garage do shut at night well my gut is telling me with the
00:37:22
the phone lines being cut my gut is saying that this is again a higher level of sophistication almost like this was
00:37:30
planned out well what we can surmise from the situation is two things we don't know who's responsible we don't
00:37:36
know what the motive was but it appears to me murder weapon not found at the scene they removed two of the shorts
00:37:44
guns and so we know that those guns were not used at the scene we know that the phone lines were cut so regardless of
00:37:51
how the killer or Killers entered the home two things happened that they were prepared to do one
00:38:00
kill some of the occupants of the home they brought a gun with them to the scene and two they brought some kind of
00:38:08
instrument with them to cut the phone lines to the house so whoever did this they showed up prepared for whatever it
00:38:16
was that they intended to do now at this point in our timeline Captain we have Jennifer who's been
00:38:23
missing for about a week and the hunt for her had just run into brick wall after brick wall by this
00:38:31
point and so we have a family member her aunt that resorted to making a public plea this to Jennifer's abductor a
00:38:40
public plea to bring the little girl home Ruby Young was Mary Short's sister her husband Chris Young was a deputy for
00:38:51
the Henry County Sheriff's Office so not just because they're family but he's working for the sheriff's office
00:39:00
they know and fully understand just how bad this whole situation is and in fact Chris Young had the unbelievable task of
00:39:10
telling Mary and Michael's families that they were killed and that Jennifer was missing when this case first broke the
00:39:20
Virginia investigators worked around the clock for several weeks looking for little Jennifer Sheriff
00:39:28
casselle said to the Daily Press you can't rest knowing there's a child out there the deputies were obsessed with
00:39:35
finding the missing little girl and everyone held out hope that she was still alive friends family and
00:39:43
acquaintances of Michael Mary and Jennifer short were interviewed and looked at and law enforcement were
00:39:48
running down leads these were leads that were brought in on a national level so now we have leads out side of their
00:39:57
County and of course these were brought in on a national level by the Amber Alert that was placed looking for
00:40:05
Jennifer short closer to home police put Chris Thompson the guy who found the bodies through routine
00:40:14
questioning and more he was brought back in a number of times for follow-up interviews but police said he was
00:40:21
cooperating and was not considered a suspect they started digging into to the shorts life their the family life to see
00:40:31
if there was anyone who might have had beef against them family members like Ruby Young Mary's sister and Daniel Hall
00:40:39
Mary's brother told the media that quote we just can't make heads or tals of it end quote no one could think of any
00:40:48
enemies the couple had any drama or any feuds or unsettled scores that that the short family had
00:40:57
Captain Nester commented we were just trying to get a handle on who shorts business associates were find out if he
00:41:05
had any disgruntled people he was working with and they even had the Secret Service that sent
00:41:12
Spanish-speaking Personnel to go and question some former employees of Michael's mobile home business with him
00:41:20
owning his own business you'd think maybe the Moe of is money but looking into their financials they were kind of
00:41:26
hurting for money yeah it's very weird here Captain because you have to wonder and you always have to wonder in these
00:41:32
types of Investigations what was going on in this family's life what is different about
00:41:38
today this week or this month or this year that was different than the other days weeks months and years when
00:41:45
everything was fine when something this horrific didn't happen and to me sitting
00:41:52
here from you know 30,000 ft above the situation looking down I'm wondering if there was actually
00:42:00
a lot going on with this family at the time and one of it being that two things so it appears that they were kicking the
00:42:10
tires on moving and two that they were that Michael Short the business owner was
00:42:17
kicking the tires on moving his business eventually as well and so the way that that goes is that on August 5th now
00:42:26
remember their bodies were found on August 15th so about 10 days prior the shorts had started working
00:42:35
with a local realtor this is uh marleene Dalton and this was to list their home their home was listed it was for sale at
00:42:44
the time of their murders Michael had told the real tour that business was slow and that they planed to move into
00:42:54
their own trailer home they had a trailer of their own that they were going to move into
00:43:00
and they thought that they would live there for some time and save up some money till they get back on their feet
00:43:07
now according to investigators for some months prior to the murders Michael had considered moving his family and his
00:43:14
business to another state to South Carolina and he had done some Recon in some towns there to get a feel for
00:43:24
whether his business would drive there or not apparently he had some business ties to South Carolina and there was
00:43:33
reason for him to believe that he could generate quite a bit more business in this area that things were
00:43:41
kind of drying up where they were business was once good now he just doesn't have as many customers as he
00:43:48
used to have now we do know that the real estate agent that they hired hosted at least one open house that we could
00:43:57
find reference to and we're simply throwing this out there and underlining that idea and that
00:44:04
thought because look if somebody was planning something terrible and had been planning
00:44:12
it for quite some time if somebody wanted to familiarize themselves with the shorts family home with the inside
00:44:20
layout of that home well an open house would be an easy and somewhat what Anonymous way to do so right so anybody
00:44:30
that wanted to could have toured that home shortly before Michael and Mary were killed and like you were saying
00:44:38
earlier law enforcement was hoping that the little girl gets scared cuz she hears gunshots and she's hiding in the
00:44:45
woods but it's 8 days later and there is no sign of the little girl again it makes me wonder what the heck the motive
00:44:54
was here you start you start thinking by this point at least I would be thinking that maybe Jennifer was the
00:45:00
target all along that maybe the abduction was the purpose of the homicides because look I could see a
00:45:08
situation where let's say somebody has a problem with Michael short and look people whether they're successful in
00:45:16
business and we know he was at one time or not successful and he was you know the business was drying up toward the
00:45:22
time that he was killed whether business is good great or or neither here nor there it's easy to create enemies when
00:45:31
you own your own business when you're in business for yourself and he had employees over the
00:45:38
years could he have upset somebody could he have upset the wrong person somebody
00:45:42
that's got a few screws loose right and you wonder is there a situation where somebody has a score to
00:45:51
settle with Michael Short thinks that you know what I might have to silence his wife if he has one or should she be
00:46:00
home but you wonder could there be a situation where the Killer is just surprised that oh there was a little kid
00:46:07
here I didn't intend on doing something bad to a little kid uh maybe I'll take the kid and figure things out later
00:46:15
right and so you're hoping at this point like you said Captain either she's in hiding and would come out probably hours
00:46:23
after feeling like it was safe to come out or at this point you're wondering well if somebody took her just because
00:46:30
they panicked and didn't know what to do you're hoping they would have dropped her off or released her by this point
00:46:37
but now you're 8 days in she's still missing this is August 23rd Sheriff casselle tells the Daily Press we have
00:46:46
no suspects casselle goes on to say that he believed that the killer or Killers knew the family but admitted they didn't
00:46:53
have a clear profile of the person who would kill the shorts and abduct a 9-year-old girl and he also acknowledged
00:46:59
that they didn't even know what motivated the crime was it a beef with one of the parents or was someone
00:47:07
targeting Jennifer all along yeah where's the beef one thing that was very puzzling was that we would learn that
00:47:17
robbery was clearly not no not the motive and the sheriff's office is saying this is because a bag you know
00:47:28
you can't you can't write this stuff right you say well it's not like there was a bag of money just sitting there
00:47:33
well in this case there was a bag of money some Moola a bag containing $485 in cash that was that was sitting
00:47:41
in plain sight on a kitchen counter mhm this was not touched there was also a $211 check that was sitting in plain
00:47:51
sight in the kitchen as well the check was not touched so someone cuts the phone lines shoots and kills Michael and
00:47:59
Mary and takes Jennifer and all of this whatever it was went down for clearly a different purpose well and the father
00:48:10
being in a different location being in the garage mother being in their room but I thought that was weirder at first
00:48:18
but talking with law enforcement they're like well both of them were where they would sleep at normally so they
00:48:25
basically were attacked where they'd sleep at yeah and I also think that the cutting of the phone lines indicates to
00:48:33
me that the person likely didn't just happen to see the garage door open yeah yeah I agree right like I to me that
00:48:43
that shows me that they're they're concerned of somebody calling for help where as if somebody just saw the
00:48:52
garage door open and saw some type of opportunity you would that that to me seems a little more impulsive where the
00:48:59
cutting of the phone line seems 180 80 degrees in a different direction of impulsive and if if you're just there on
00:49:10
an impulsive crime why not take the bag of money it it's all very weird to me because the cutting of the phone lines
00:49:19
means you you want to set up a scenario where they a person cannot call for help that you are there to carry
00:49:26
something out but you're also the bag of money being found in the kitchen tells me that maybe they didn't want to be in
00:49:36
the house very long either right which as you said you're using a loud weapon a gun you wouldn't want to stick around
00:49:43
for very long after firing those shots this sadly all points to me that that very likely Jennifer may have
00:49:54
been the motivating factor here in this this attack this this home invasion M now we do get the FBI we mentioned them
00:50:04
already but they are assisting in not just looking for the little girl but they're also assisting in the
00:50:11
investigation as well and one thing that they did early on Was preparing a list of
00:50:18
behaviors and providing that list to the local authorities this is a list of behaviors that might be indicative of a
00:50:26
suspect in that crime in this crime specifically and they are saying that the behaviors include a hasty departure
00:50:34
from the area changes in habits especially an increase in drinking or smoking an unnatural interest in
00:50:43
publicity about the case or changes in facial hair or haircut so basically saying whoever did this we would expect
00:50:54
to see that they would want to change their appearance in some form or fashion that they would likely want to leave
00:51:00
this general area and get out of Dodge and oh by the way they may increase their drinking and or smoking habits in
00:51:08
the process meanwhile in the meanwhile summer break is going to end yes for kids in the area right we we are now
00:51:19
well into August and so summer break ends for other boys and little girls in Jennifer for's fourth grade class at
00:51:27
figsboro elementary her teacher vows to keep a desk for Jennifer with her name on it and this is so that she has a desk
00:51:36
to come back to when she is found and returned to her extended family that again still lives in the area Michael
00:51:45
and Mary were buried after a somber well-attended funeral the family was sad and distracted by the knowledge that
00:51:52
Jennifer was still out there somewhere still missing no nobody knows where she is police filmed this is very smart
00:51:59
police filmed the entire proceedings of the funeral hoping that some person might stand out right there might be
00:52:07
somebody there exhibiting strange behavior that maybe this would lead them to the killer but if they saw anything
00:52:16
that they thought was strange we are not ever made aware of that we being the public so it appears that
00:52:23
either that didn't happen or they spotted something investigated it and found out that it was nothing of great
00:52:31
concern right the Sheriff's Office was as said very tight lipped about what forensic evidence was found at the
00:52:39
murder scene remember that we said that the house was on the market at the time it was listed for sale we have
00:52:46
Lieutenant Curtis Spence of the Henry County Sheriff's Office who told Fox 8 News the house was up for sale and it
00:52:54
looked like a a Showplace you could have put it in a magazine there was nothing out of place inside the house I stayed
00:53:02
in that house for over two weeks myself just collecting evidence we fingerprinted everything you can think
00:53:09
of including the walls and quote that quote to me is very interesting right because when we first reviewed what they
00:53:17
said they were finding in Jennifer's room this somewhat subtle disturbance in Jennifer's room that seemed to me like a
00:53:26
big question mark like why are they honing in on this this seems too subtle right but we have law enforcement on
00:53:33
record saying the place looked like a show place looked like it was ready to be fil you know filmed or photographed
00:53:38
for a magazine well yeah cuz they're trying to sell it correct and that might be why these items stood out so well to
00:53:46
police with the bed being moved just a couple of inches right and the bed being unmade and unkempt so it looked to them
00:53:54
that whatever happened whatever went down with Jennifer went down in her room based off of what they were finding
00:54:01
investigators also didn't disclose whether Mary and Michael were shot with the same gun um and they didn't really
00:54:09
yeah they really didn't address the murder weapon at all we do know that it was two well we believe that the gun was
00:54:17
a 22 yes and and we have evidence backing up that uh the detectives also didn't address whether there was forced
00:54:26
entry to the home they don't address whether neighbors heard the shots whether shell shell casings were
00:54:34
found whether there was any finger or shoe prints found at the scene so they're not really addressing anything
00:54:42
but we kind of get some kind of a a back alley information right we we we can sidestep law enforcement and get some
00:54:53
information on this case and and that is finding answers about the crime scene and the evidence because of the Gang
00:55:01
Busters work done by Fox 8 news so they did a whole series on the case and one thing that they featured in their
00:55:09
coverage was search warrants and affidavits that were reviewed by Fox 8 news and based off of the search
00:55:18
warrants and the information there in we learned that detectives took 138 items from the shorts home and this
00:55:29
included two one two 22 caliber bullet shell casings found near the bodies of Michael and Mary short who were each
00:55:41
shot once we know that they took a 22 caliber shotgun and a rifle and ammunition from the home and the cash in
00:55:50
a bag that was found on the kitchen table they also reportedly collected fingerprints and hair or hairs that are
00:56:00
from an unidentified person or persons there were reports early on that there was a note found on the kitchen
00:56:09
table and a finger writing on one of the windows that read I'm glad to see but this last bit has not been verified and
00:56:19
has not been reported in the past several years so these SE are reports that we found early on from years ago in
00:56:29
regard to the note that may have been found on the kitchen table my understanding Captain is that that was
00:56:36
sent off to the FBI for for handwriting analysis I don't know what that note said again both of these items while
00:56:46
they're reported early on they're never reported again for several years uh up to this date that we're recording here
00:56:55
in the garage today so I question the the validity of these two items if they're more rumor than than truth or it
00:57:08
would appear that if there is anything significant about either one of these items that police are either holding
00:57:15
that very close to the vest or there's nothing significant about either one of these items we have a family of three
00:57:22
the the father found dead in the garage the mother found dead in her bed their 9-year-old daughter
00:57:30
missing we have the phone lines being cut what other evidence do we have so this is very interesting to me as well
00:57:41
this is another piece of potential potential evidence that was collected and we know that this was collected
00:57:48
based off of a report by the ronoke times and they're reporting this on August 22nd and their report States
00:57:56
investigators on a double homicide and kidnapping in Henry County have seized an answering machine tape from the home
00:58:04
of victims Michael and Mary short and sent it to the FBI for analysis because it appears to contain an obscene message
00:58:14
according to law enforcement sources close to the investigation it was difficult for
00:58:20
deputies to distinguish the words on the tape the source is set police hope the FBI can enhance it and make the message
00:58:30
more intelligible if they did make heads or Tales of this message if they believe
00:58:37
that it was related to the case unfortunately for our investigation here in the garage today they've not said so
00:58:45
so we know they took this in we know that they sent it off for analysis and the vague description we get is that it
00:58:52
may have been an obscene message that the police were not able to make out the entirety of the message right so we know
00:59:00
some stuff right but not much not a ton like for instance we know that the shorts were each shot once but we don't
00:59:07
even know whether the shorts were shot with the same gun the police said early on that no weapon was found at the scene
00:59:14
so it appears that the guns that were taken into evidence might have been those just owned by the family and the
00:59:20
killer or Killers brought his own gun or guns to the home that at night we also don't know what kind of implement was
00:59:28
used to cut the phone lines or how the killer found those in the dark of night one thing that investigators seemed to
00:59:36
agree on though was that he or they definitely came to the murder scene prepared well good job Sherlock Holmes
00:59:45
now this is interesting Sheriff Cassell remarked on August 26th that DNA evidence had come back
00:59:53
from the crime scene but he would not give any details about what this could [Music]
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