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