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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime
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[Music] Mary and Michael Short were found dead in their home on the morning of August
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15 2002 their 9-year-old daughter missing from the scene apparently abducted after the parents were killed
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and then over two weeks later in our investigations timeline here we are and there's still no sign of little Jennifer
00:04:01
SH now things really start to get weird here in this investigation so in early September of
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2002 the Sheriff's Office engineered the exhumation of Michael short now they would not say why and they also did not
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say why the plan didn't include the exhumation of Mary that's strange but Michael was exhumed and sent to the
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State medical examiners office for forensic testing the Daily News Leader later reported that court records
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indicated that Michael was exhumed in order to collect hairs that were not collected at autopsy so this was to
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write a wrong or to correct an error Sheriff Cassel stated that the exhumation was done in order to correct
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an error the oversight of not collecting hairs during the course of the autopsy but he also commented that test proved
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that Mary short was the biological mother of Jennifer short but would not address whether the same was true for
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Michael Short weird he said the exclamation had nothing to do with the paternity test and that investigators
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knew the answer of whether Michael was Jennifer's dad and the information was important to the
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investigation okay so wait a minute here so now we are concerned with patern test
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and a double homicide case that involves a missing and presumed abducted 9-year-old kid Follow That by a long
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line of question marks right so basically they probably talk to people close to the family and it might have
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been kind of understood by people close to them that that Michael wasn't the father well and this is interesting to
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me too and they they have other reasons for doing this but let's pretend that they're just
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simply thinking outside of the box here you got to give big Kudos here for that as being a possibility right because
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what's the number one reason for child abduction in our country it's based off of custody disputes that's right or a a
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parent who has taken their own child mhm that happens daily it's unfortunately it's probably happened several times
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through the course of recording this episode in our country and so you walk into the scenario and go well let's
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assume nothing and knowing the statistics on parents abducting their own children go well let's double check and
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make sure that we have all of our facts correct before we really start to try to
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see this scenario for what it actually is well this case is very strange for multiple reasons we have two parents
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dead we have a missing child we have the phone lines being cut and then we have this message that was left on the
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answering machine which I'm assuming based on what was left we don't know the context of
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that message but I'm guessing that it is directly related to this crime or not at
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all I mean this is these that's one of the items that has disappeared from the reporting over the course of years in
00:07:28
this case and in this uh investigation that's going on 20 years now but at this point
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in the investigation in September so just a couple weeks after this case breaks it looks like police at least
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some are believing that there is a possible Theory here that Mary so Mary is 14 years younger than Michael so were
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they working off of a possible theory that she may have have had an affair or some type of relationship 9 to 10 years
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prior and perhaps Jennifer was not Michael's biological daughter right and maybe the real father killed Michael and
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Mary and had come to collect his daughter for good well as it turns out that was actually one of the working
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theories at this time and keep in mind they're trying to find this little girl double triple down on the amount of of
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stress going on in this situation because they're not just investigating a double homicide they're trying to find a
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little girl so clearly when you're not getting answers when you can't find her when you don't have suspects in your
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double homicide you start to get a little desperate so it it would be it would be perfectly fine for us to assume
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that there's some desperation on the part of investigators at this point in our timeline yeah and I know we give law
00:08:56
enforcement [ __ ] sometimes but could you imagine and having to wake up and knowing that your job is to try to find
00:09:03
a 9-year-old that you know has been taken from her house that you know her parents have been murdered in their
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sleep I mean that would be a a stressful job and it would appear that the agencies working the case didn't simply
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arrive at that theory completely on their own no because in the course of their investigation they discovered that
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a decade earlier when Mary was working at the pluma sewing Factory she had been harassed by a man on more than one
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occasion who seemed to be stalking her and this was all released to the public in an article that came out
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because once this Theory grows some legs and starts running here now we have a situation
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where the investigators are going to be asking the public for information right so this Theory carries some weight right
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right one of the investigators Captain Nester States in this asking the public for information article says he
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especially hopes that someone will remember an incident that occurred in 1992 or 1993 when a man apparently
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harassed Mary short at the pluma plant the man was asked to leave the parking lot of the pluma plant in the Bulls
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industry Park on several occasions yeah it makes you wonder if it's a affair that went wrong like maybe she was
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having an affair with this guy then she tried to break it off and he's like not so fast the man entered the plant on one
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occasion and pluma officials removed him from the property police investigating the short murders acknowledged these
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incidents and that an unknown man was angry with Mary but 10 years prior that that's a long time to hold a grudge this
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man was not recognized by Mary's co-workers but interestingly reportedly Mary had asked for no charges to be
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brought against the man as pointed out by someone on webo maybe someone believed either that Jennifer was his
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daughter or maybe just felt that she should have been his daughter anyway investigators released a 10-year-old
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photo of Mary to show to the public to show what she looked like at the time of these events and hopes that some of her
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old co-workers may have a memory of these events and come forward and be able to fill in some of the blanks for
00:11:39
investigators so yeah the rough timing that law enforcement put on this incident 9 to 10 years earlier it would
00:11:46
appear that this may be what sparked not just the police's Theory but also that looking into confirming paternity status
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I think that this is why law enforcement was checking on Jennifer's paternity they thought that that just maybe Mary
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had actually engaged in relations with this guy and maybe he thought Jennifer was his daughter or was his daughter
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right now releasing this photo were they able to get any leads on this individual
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if they were we do not know of that information here's the crazy thing though too and you're right Captain
00:12:25
that's something that you really want to know more about isn't it like that's one
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of the pieces and parts in this investigation that really stands out at the moment and you go okay well even if
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even if she had no Affair at all even if no one would have any reason to believe
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that Jennifer was their daughter this is still one of those things that you want
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to know more about especially when you have no real leads it looks like at this point and when you have a situation
00:13:01
where you have sheriffs coming forward saying we have no suspects tell me if I'm correct you you you just said a
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couple minutes ago law enforcement knows the answer to this question but they're
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not giving us the answer correct they're they're Sid stepping the the question they're Sid stepping the answer and
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there's good reason for that and we'll get into that in just in just a minute here but I should point out I want to
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kind of throw out a counter to what the person on web SLO says I don't believe 100% that
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Mary and and again I even question if this even happened but the statement of Mary said that she didn't want to press
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charges against this guy that would imply to me a few different things what the person on webo is saying that it
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implies to them is that maybe knew this person felt sympathetic and didn't want to press any charges against him or
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didn't want to call you know more attention to the situation right I look at this a different way one I don't
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believe that maybe there was even an opportunity for anyone to press charges because it sounds to me like just the
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simple Act of trespassing into the plant the company themselves could have pressed charges against this individual
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they don't need Mary's permission to do so number one and then number two where's this guy's name where's the
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paper trail on this dude if you were to the point where somebody was questioning
00:14:41
should we press charges then his identity should be known and we can't find anybody that says they know who the
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hell this guy was from 9 or 10 years prior so this would be 92 1993 and the other thing though too I
00:14:55
worked security for a long time we had had several individuals that we that we snatched up for trespassing or even
00:15:04
harassing people and the majority of the time the person who did not know the person that was trespassing or harassing
00:15:14
them or people in the area the majority of the time nobody wanted to be bothered
00:15:19
with it they just felt like it was a matter for security to handle and they didn't want to press charges so it's not
00:15:26
completely out of character or completely common for a person in the situation to not press charges well all
00:15:34
this is going to lead us to September 21st 2002 by this point we have Jennifer's aunt and uncle who were
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appointed as her legal Guardians this by the Henry County courts and a Henry County Judge everyone continued to hope
00:15:52
against hope that the little girl was coming home and coming home soon but but then on September
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25th about five or 6 weeks after she was abducted unfortunately Jennifer was found and it was not good news a man
00:16:10
named Eddie Albert who resided off of Grogan Road in Stoneville North Carolina was startled when his dogs blue girl and
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Zeke seemed to be playing with what he thought was a wig in his backyard he threw it away then his 20-year-old
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grandson found a tennis shoe a few days later his daughter Lisa found some teeth
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which she assumed were an animals but then Eddie's dogs were playing with what they thought at first was a turtle shell
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well it wasn't a shell it was a small human skull with some hair still attached authorities descended on this
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area drained a pond that was nearby and found more bones scattered about in multiple locations near a small stream
00:17:00
on the Albert's property the Rockingham County Sheriff said there were small fragments of jaw teeth and other bones
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strewn all over the place end quote the skull was deemed to be from someone young given its small size the Henry
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County investigators traveled to the area and were sent back with some hair from the skull to try to match it to
00:17:25
hairs from Jennifer's belongings that were collected did from the murder scene but that's not how the identification
00:17:32
was confirmed it wasn't until early October the DNA tests conducted by a Virginia laboratory in
00:17:40
ronoke concluded that the remains that were found were that of Jennifer short and she had been shot once in the head
00:17:49
just like her parents she was dumped off of a small Bridge into a stream on the Alberts ryal Pro property now we should
00:18:01
point out that unfortunately it's been reported that only about 25 to maybe 30% of her remains were ever recovered uh
00:18:11
which complicates things but it appears that her manner of death was the same as
00:18:17
her parents with this single shot to the head I'm assuming it's also with the 22
00:18:24
I've not seen any information to indicate with what caliber of bullet they believe killed
00:18:31
the little girl right but now that Jennifer was found your mind goes immediately to all right what about
00:18:39
those paternity tests well the paternity test actually showed that Michael was was was Jennifer's father and that angle
00:18:51
of the investigation LED nowhere now Sheriff casselle addressed this later when he said that you know he he he's
00:19:02
apologizing for not conclusively identifying Michael short as the biological father of Jennifer until a
00:19:09
press conference at which that he's stating that DNA test results confirmed that they found Jennifer and she in fact
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is dead he's apologizing saying that if the biological father or the person who thought he was the biological father
00:19:27
had ER in his possession that the sheriff in his office was afraid that this man would dispose of her learning
00:19:39
that he was not the father right so just to kind of move on from this idea here because we know that it in the grand
00:19:46
scheme of things it's it's part of the story but it doesn't mean so much to our current investigation into trying to
00:19:53
figure out who killed abducted and later killed these three people because what he's saying here is yes
00:20:00
that was an angle that we were working that was a theory that we had however quickly once we went down that road of
00:20:08
that theory very quickly we knew that Michael was the father but at that point we didn't want to publicly announce that
00:20:15
because we were working under the idea that Jennifer short was still alive and any
00:20:23
news could potentially change that for the investigation especially if whoever abducted her was keeping close
00:20:34
eyes and close watch on the investigation yeah which I understand but also at the same time you could
00:20:41
still have an individual out there that thought this is a possibility that she's
00:20:46
my daughter or is 100% convinced that's my daughter and still kidnaps her yes 100%
00:20:55
he's simply apologizing that he had to to withhold that information on purpose from everyone during the course of
00:21:03
searching for Jennifer sh but what we have now is we have a second crime scene the area where Jennifer's body was found
00:21:12
and this location is about 30 or so miles south of the short family's home again this is a rural area this is
00:21:22
Rockingham County North Carolina there was no known connection between this location and anybody in the
00:21:31
short family and authorities weren't giving much out as to whether they thought this new location was
00:21:39
significant to their investigation now we have to talk about another Sheriff because now we're
00:21:46
talking about another location right another County so Sheriff Paige who is known for his tough Law and Order type
00:21:53
attitude and his love of the cameras would not comment about whether they thought Jennifer had been killed where
00:22:00
she was found or if she had been killed elsewhere and then later dumped in this location nor would he or anyone else
00:22:09
comment on whether evidence indicated the little girl had been sexually assaulted or otherwise assaulted right
00:22:16
to expand on that a little bit here Captain this is one of those things where it it's so incredibly frustrating
00:22:23
and spoiler alert there are a lot of people out there that know this case so we're not going to hide from the fact
00:22:30
that it's 20 years later it's still unsolved but this is one of those things where you go it's been all these years
00:22:37
later there's so much that they have withheld from the public can can we can we start to release some of this
00:22:44
information is it probably too late to really have any meaningful impact on the investigation to release any of this
00:22:51
information now could be but you know here we sit 20 years later we have a lot of a lot of questions about the short
00:22:59
family's home that crime scene but we now have questions about this secondary crime scene the crime scene where the
00:23:06
little girl was eventually found we don't know whether clothing was found uh we do know that she was
00:23:12
skeletonized by this point we do know that bones were scattered they could not tell whether she was assaulted no one
00:23:20
has reported on when Jennifer was killed we don't know if she was killed the same
00:23:24
night that she was abducted or days later or weeks later right skeleton eyes to me would indicate that she was
00:23:31
probably killed weeks before the body was found yeah at least and it might even indicate that she was killed
00:23:40
shortly after the time that she was abducted well I agree with you they have some stuff that maybe they could release
00:23:47
but let's say this tape this voice message is connected to the crime the problem with releasing
00:23:56
that because that could be a possible identifier of of the murderer's voice it's but what is the content of that
00:24:05
message and is that appropriate to release to the public yeah it's difficult to say because we don't know
00:24:11
what that message is we don't know if it is even connected at all to this case but don't you so badly just want to hear
00:24:20
that message um yeah there's there's a lot of things that I would like to know in this case I would like to know more
00:24:26
about the bodies being found at the home right I would like to know more about things like clothing I would want to
00:24:33
know if there was any indication if the killer or Killers spent any amount of time in the home and and you know any
00:24:42
somebody out there is going well of course they spent some time in the home Colonel right no duh uh thanks uh what I
00:24:50
mean is thanks how long were they in there you know it's it it's one of those crimes where you go okay there's there's
00:25:00
efforts made to carry out this crime The Cutting of the phone lines the avoiding
00:25:06
of taking the money there's very weird things about this crime that indicate to me that the person or person's
00:25:13
responsible did not want to spend any length of time in the home yeah shots to the head but then we had yeah then we
00:25:20
had the weird statement of well there was there might have been somebody that wrote something with their
00:25:26
finger somewhere on on a window there might have been an obscene message that was left on the answering machine tape
00:25:35
it to me like I also see a scenario too where if that answering machine tape is of any
00:25:41
importance why it wasn't just grabbed by the killer on his way out of the home would make a lot of sense to me I mean
00:25:49
you went to the trouble of cutting the phone lines but of course that's why in part some of these
00:25:57
cases are still unsolved it's not meant to make sense to all of us it's not meant to make sense to you and I when we
00:26:03
sit here again elevated 30,000 ft above looking down on the scenario trying to make heads or Tales of things but there
00:26:12
was a suspect that came onto the radar shortly after the little girl's remains were
00:26:18
found so the Daily News Leader put out an article on the case dated October 5th that says investigators say they have
00:26:28
not made any arrest but want to interview a man who lived in the county where Jennifer schz remains were found
00:26:37
and whose rented house and mobile home were recently [Music] searched this show is sponsored by better help do
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00:29:24
the people in the back and the ones in the front row just the front not the second row second row screw you kind of
00:29:34
stinky this person that comes on the radar here Captain his name is Garrison Bowman age 66 and this is somebody that
00:29:42
we will learn was it sounds like a tip is received just a couple days after the murders
00:29:51
that indicates that Garrison Bowman age 66 is someone that police should be looking at and this tip came in from a
00:29:59
man named Gary lemons he called the police and named a tenant or a former tenant of his
00:30:06
depending on how you want to look at the situation as being somebody that they should look at so the news and record
00:30:13
reported they got their hands on a search warrant of the home that Bowman was renting from this uh Gary lemons
00:30:25
and it sounds more like he was renting the property but we'll get into that here in just a minute so according to
00:30:32
the search warrants his former landlord Gary lemons he's Harrison Bowman's former landlord
00:30:40
said that Bowman told him that he had paid an unnamed mobile home mover remember Michael Short owns a mobile
00:30:48
home moving company Gary lemon says that Bowman told him that he had paid an unknown unnamed mobile home mover in
00:30:56
Virginia I again where the shorts live to move a mobile home he owned but that the man never moved it and that either
00:31:04
the mobile home mover is going to pay him his money back or he's going to move the trailer or I'm going to have to kill
00:31:12
the son of a [ __ ] this is what lemons tells police that Bowman told him well there's your motive and he states that
00:31:20
Bowman told him this via a phone conversation and of course as we pointed out Michael owned a mobile home moving
00:31:29
company in Virginia we should be clear here because some people might be scratching their heads a bit but Gary
00:31:34
lemons and Harrison Bowman live in North Carolina now lemons Gary lemons said that on the night of August 15th this is
00:31:43
the day that the short family was killed uh that he went to the home of Harrison
00:31:49
Bowman and Bowman confronted him and at that time he was carrying a gun and ordered Gary lemon's off of his property
00:31:59
sometime before that day lemon said he saw Harrison Bowman drilling holes in the passenger section of the Ford
00:32:07
alkaline van he drove and placing a false bottom in the van Harrison Bowman left for Canada the day after the
00:32:19
shootings also found was a map that was left behind in this abandoned home was marked with a red X in the approximate
00:32:28
location of the shorts home in Henry County Virginia before he left Harrison Bowman gave some of his belongings away
00:32:36
including $110,000 worth of carpentry tools and his mobile home which he moved to a site on Webster Road Jennifer schz
00:32:47
remains were found on Grogan Road this just about a mile from the Webster Road Site Gary lemons had called in this tip
00:32:57
about Harrison Bowman just two or 3 days after the murders authorities had searched the home and mobile home and he
00:33:04
had vac and started trying to track him down and the FBI had spoken to Harrison Bowman on the phone from Canada asking
00:33:13
him about the case and look they're probably also looking for that 22 but it wouldn't be that hard for this
00:33:20
individual to discard that weapon because there's quite a bit of distance between him
00:33:27
and and where the murders took place yeah we have about 30 miles or so we also have a good distance between where
00:33:34
he used to live and where uh he is found in Canada one thing that we should point
00:33:39
out though that that Bowman was not look he's in another country he could Dodge them fairly easily and he spoke to them
00:33:47
on the phone the investigators on the phone several times this shortly after the tip comes in remember they when
00:33:55
these tips come in when they first start looking at Harrison Bowman they've not found Jennifer short yet and so he's
00:34:03
basically tells law enforcement yeah I move from the area I'm in Canada now this is where I am if you need to get a
00:34:11
hold of me in the future but I don't know who the the shorts are I don't know who that family is I I've never been to
00:34:18
that area that I can recall Henry County Virginia Highway 220 I've never been to that area if you need
00:34:26
to a hold of me this is how you can get a hold of me going forward but basically
00:34:30
I have no knowledge of this crime nothing to help you with your investigation that seems to be good
00:34:38
enough for investigators early on what's not good enough is once they find Jennifer schar's body yeah that connects
00:34:45
her way more to this suspect they find her body part of her remains located about a mile from the site where he
00:34:55
moved his mobile home to before leaving the area oh and by the way the FBI said that the person you're
00:35:04
looking for might want to get out of Dodge might want to flee the area shortly after the crimes what I think as
00:35:14
humans law enforcement armchair detectives whatever you want to call us two dumb asses in the garage when you
00:35:22
see a crime like this this is a awful crime two parents dead in Abduction of a young
00:35:32
girl later found dead you you don't want to think that it's over something so simple as well I wanted this guy to move
00:35:41
my trailer and he didn't want to or possibly couldn't or took my money right yeah it
00:35:51
just doesn't seem like it adds up or should add up but obviously the evidence is starting to point in this direction
00:36:01
on October 3rd Harrison Bowman was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in unic which is a town north of
00:36:13
the Arctic Circle in Canada's Northwest Territories he had been arrested in Canada on August 31st for drunk driving
00:36:23
and his failure to disclose previous Criminal convictions in the US related to Canadian immigration laws
00:36:32
so the way that this works Captain is when he went across the border he is supposed to let them know hey you know
00:36:39
have you ever been convicted of of a serious crime where you're coming from and he says no but when he was arrested
00:36:47
on August 31st in Canada for drunk driving what they learn is well he had in fact been arrested for a DUI arrest
00:36:57
back when he lived in the states so he lies to immigration and violates Canada's immigration laws by not
00:37:08
disclosing of that previous DUI arrest so now he's arrested October 3rd but he's arrested simply for the the reasons
00:37:19
of holding him to deport him back to the States but also so he can be transferred
00:37:27
to the custody of the persons individ investigating the triple homicide case so Bowman was held in Canada and the US
00:37:37
authorities investigating the short murders flew up there to talk with him they went through all of his belongings
00:37:43
while he was held pending deportation back to North Carolina they publicly announced that they were talking to him
00:37:50
as a material witness not as a suspect in the short murders on o October 15th of 2002 by then Bowman was deported and
00:38:01
he arrived back in Virginia back in Virginia by October 22nd of that year now Harrison Bowman for his part he
00:38:10
swore up and down that he had no idea who the shorts were he had no idea what had happened to them he didn't even
00:38:18
understand why he was being wrapped up in this whole thing he denied saying any of those menacing things about a mobile
00:38:25
home move to his landlord he said I never said that I was going to have to kill a mobile home mover I never
00:38:33
discussed a mobile home mover with my landlord why would this guy just make this up he also states that when the
00:38:42
landlord came to his home and says that I I was holding a gun and told him to leave the property well that didn't
00:38:49
happen either I don't even own a gun I've never owned a gun and he stated too he goes look I get get that it looks
00:38:57
awfully suspicious that these people were killed and I'm up here in Canada but I was planning to move to
00:39:06
Canada for months this wasn't just something that I just decided and and moved here after they were killed I was
00:39:13
planning on moving here for months the timing for me is just bad the timing is just a coincidence for your
00:39:22
investigation so that was his defense but it appears that there was some circumstance
00:39:27
evidence that Bowman might have just killed the short family again he lived very close to where Jennifer's body was
00:39:35
found that's a bizarre coincidence because this really is out in the middle of nowhere he also owned a mobile home
00:39:45
that indeed was in the process of being relocated and Michael Short owns that mobile home moving
00:39:52
company but it doesn't seem like police were able to find anything physically at
00:39:58
his former residence or in his possession when they pick him up in Canada that would tie him directly to
00:40:06
this case to these crimes the triple homicide well I'd love to see this Assad's phone records well he's
00:40:12
certainly being looked at in this case and looked at quite well again back to his defense here you know he's saying
00:40:23
that he left for Canada but that was well planned it was something that he had planned for months and he he also
00:40:32
denied again stating that that he would have to kill the man that he paid in Virginia to
00:40:39
move his mobile home that if he didn't do the job or he didn't get his money refunded he would
00:40:45
have to kill him so he denies this he says look couple problems with this story is the statement about me killing a
00:40:55
virgin man to move my mobile home because he cheated me that never happened he said that he had arranged
00:41:04
for his mobile home to be moved onto his buddy John Beasley's property for storage and Harrison Bowman intended to
00:41:12
give the mobile home to a person named Lori Butler who is a friend and former employee of his who lived in Michigan
00:41:21
and we should also point out that prior to this that Harrison Bowman had been to
00:41:27
Canada several times before and had also been to Alaska so it's not like he's just up and up and leaving his life this
00:41:37
is something he's contemplated probably for a while not only that he's saying that some of this suspicion that is cast
00:41:45
on to him from his previous landlord Gary lemons is based off of a dispute the two
00:41:53
of them had leading up to the time that he was going to leave so he was planning
00:41:58
on leaving the area according to Bowman and going to move to Canada and so he's an older man at this point I he's 66
00:42:07
years old and it sounds to me Captain like his plan was well I'm I'm kind of done I'm going to kind of retire and
00:42:16
it's always been a dream of mine to live up in Canada now's the time for me to do
00:42:21
this so what we see by this individual is not only is he leaving this area he's rented this property from this Gary
00:42:29
lemons for years right well over a decade that I could find and he says that the dispute happened one because
00:42:39
Gary kind of turned on him once he was going to no longer be renting from him he was going to lose a renter but he
00:42:46
also says look Gary just assumed that he was going to inherit my mobile home that when I leave
00:42:53
the area he would just take possession of it because I wouldn't be taking it with me and so there he said that a lot
00:43:00
of this stems from a dispute over this mobile home to me that's a little difficult to believe that somebody would
00:43:07
try to Mark you up and frame you for triple homicide I don't think framed is a good
00:43:14
word maybe this happened and then Gary lemons just got susp suspicious of this guy for for one reason or another but
00:43:23
what we do know about the situation is it doesn't appear that he had been making these arrangements for some time
00:43:29
he had gifted the mobile home to a friend he was giving away approximately $10,000 worth of tools that was his old
00:43:39
business he no longer needs that business because he's retiring and moving to Canada so some of his actions
00:43:47
prior to the triple homicide would indicate that there may be some truth to his defense yeah but I think this guy I
00:43:56
would have to admit that there's definitely a couple things pointing into his Direction it's not just all Fab
00:44:04
fabricated so we have a suspect but this this Chris Thompson guy the Michael's employee the one that was there the
00:44:11
night before and then the one that found them um I I wish we knew more about him
00:44:19
and and why law law enforcement hasn't brought him into the Forefront well yeah I mean they they looked at him
00:44:28
several times they've interviewed him several times over the course of the years we don't know a lot about Chris
00:44:34
Thompson that's for certain but the other thing here though too we're not ready to move off of this Harrison
00:44:41
Bowman because as you said he you me and everybody else involved would agree that
00:44:47
there seems to be some reason some possibly good reasons for them to be looking at him and considering them him
00:44:55
as as their Prime Suspect right so I mean he's not just arrested and sent back for his violation of the of
00:45:04
Canadian immigration laws no he's he's sent back because of that violation but he's also sent back for the purpose of
00:45:11
investigating him in this triple homicide and we have the sheriff's offices as well as the FBI who
00:45:20
interrogate Harrison Bowman for approximately three and a half hours and he ends up telling a a local
00:45:29
newspaper afterward he said look Nester he's referring to one of the sheriffs Nester told me right out you
00:45:37
did it I know you did it Bowman said I looked him right in the eye and said I didn't do it I I know I didn't do it and
00:45:46
God knows I didn't do it and that was the end of the interview now in Virginia Harrison Bowman faced a federal judge
00:45:54
who ruled he he could be held pending his appearance before the grand jury but on the 30th both prosecutors and the
00:46:02
defense lawyers asked that he be released as long as he promised to appear before the Federal grand jury on
00:46:09
November 12th okay so one thing we need to point out though too is even though this dude was in Canada he wasn't
00:46:20
dodging police the police made it well known that they were looking for Harrison Bowman well before they spoke
00:46:27
with Harrison Bowman right so the way you're saying he's not dodging them he's not dodging them at all and again he was
00:46:33
in a whole different country it would have been I'm guessing fairly easy for him to dodge them or to delay them
00:46:41
finding him right but what happens is remember the person that he was gifting the mobile home to who lived in
00:46:47
Michigan she becomes aware that they are looking for her friend Harrison Bowman she knows where he is and Canada she
00:46:57
reached out to him and said hey there was a murder down there in Virginia in South Virginia right before you left for
00:47:04
Canada and the police are actively saying that they would like to interview you as a possible witness right he
00:47:11
contacts police Harrison Bowman not the other way around it wasn't police that contacted him he figures out how to get
00:47:19
in touch with the law enforcement agency that is investigating this homicide and
00:47:24
he reaches out to them so the friends of Garrison Bowman Gary lemons pointed the finger at him in this
00:47:32
August 15th slangs of the Virginia family that this was all based off of an angry landlord who wanted Garrison
00:47:41
Bowman's mobile home and had ordered him to move out weeks before Bowman left Rockingham County for Canada the
00:47:51
landlord Gary lemons was Furious because Bowman deeded his his 1966 mobile home to a friend in Michigan instead of
00:48:00
leaving it for lemons when Bowman left Rockingham County in August this based off of the two longtime friends of
00:48:08
Garrison Bowman so the two friends are John Beasley and this Lori Butler we've mentioned both of them already they're
00:48:17
coming to Garrison Bowman's defense here and they state that the situation is this that Gary lemons the landlord is
00:48:27
ordering Bowman off of the property and Rockingham County where they live does not allow mobile homes built before 1976
00:48:37
to be moved and set up again within the county according to the County Planning Department that's why Bowman gave it to
00:48:46
a friend out of state according to Lor Butler the person that he gave it to his only option for keeping what was valued
00:48:56
at a $115,000 mobile home in Rockingham County would have been to leave it hooked up on Gary lemon's property so
00:49:05
does that make sense to everybody out there that this guy was in a situation where either he has to move this trailer
00:49:15
this mobile home and gift it to somebody out of state or he would be either forced to sell it to his landlord Gary
00:49:24
lemons or just leave it there and Gary lemons would take possession of it and Gary lemons would know all of this so if
00:49:32
he were to try to sell it to him well he would be almost forced to sell it to Gary lemons for whatever price lemons
00:49:38
wanted to offer to him well you said that there were threats but are these threats only heard by one individual the
00:49:47
only person that reported these threats was Gary lemons and in his defense Bowman States look I I didn't know who
00:49:57
Michael Short was I never hired Michael Short to move my trailer he says that he hired a mobile
00:50:04
home mover in Eden although this is not great for Bowman he was unable to provide the name of the person that he
00:50:13
hired in Eden but he does go on to State on record saying look you don't get somebody from Virginia to come down to
00:50:20
North Carolina to move your trailer you get somebody local and he says he's a contractor himself and he States as a
00:50:29
contractor I know you never pay somebody in advance or you can just kiss that money goodbye so he's saying look based
00:50:38
off of the threat I don't pay people in advance especially contractors to do work for me right there would be no
00:50:45
reason for me to get revenge on somebody because I would never pay them in advance he also goes on to point out
00:50:53
what is just simply fact here is is Michael Short on Michael Short's end they don't find anything paperwork or
00:51:01
otherwise to suggest that he did any work for Bowman right or that he was scheduled to do any work for Bowman or
00:51:10
that he collected any kind of payment from Bowman and Bowman States look Michael
00:51:16
Short he doesn't have a license to do this kind of work in North Carolina I live in a different state than Michael
00:51:23
sha and then as for the threatening Gary Lemons with the handgun telling him to get you know off of his property or or
00:51:31
away from his home he simply States I never owned a gun so that's not true I've never borrowed a gun so that's not
00:51:38
true on the allegations that he had some kind of secret compartment that he built
00:51:44
in his van Bowman said he had no idea how to build a false floor on the bottom of the van Bowman's 2001 Ford van that
00:51:53
he took to Canada well they searched it it's pretty easy for law enforcement to determine he did
00:52:00
not put a false floor in that van there was no secret compartment that was built
00:52:05
into that van so where this idea Gary lemons came up with however he arrived at that idea he did tell that
00:52:14
information to law enforcement and law enforcement can look at that van and know well this this one part at the very
00:52:21
least you know we have a lot of he said he said situations here but this one part is not
00:52:28
true this one statement that Gary lemons gave us about Bowman building a false floor in a secret compartment in his van
00:52:35
well that's just simply not true right it's a lie so we could then assume that some of these other accusations against
00:52:42
him that like Point him to be a a good suspect are also lies the other thought too he States about Canada he says I
00:52:51
wasn't running from anything that was my third trip up in that country country I
00:52:55
was going to Canada with the idea of moving to Canada I just love it up there I love the people I love the country
00:53:03
Bowman said that he had been planning the trip for months and had given some of his tools to friends weeks before he
00:53:09
left and that was proof that he was leaving Bowman's friends John Beasley and Danny seore have both corroborated
00:53:16
this portion of his story both the law enforcement and publicly in the media about the map now remember there was map
00:53:25
on it and what the media was reporting was that this map had an X that marked the spot on the map and this was the
00:53:34
same location as where the shorts home would have been located on on that map and Bowman basically says look I I don't
00:53:45
have an explanation for the map I can't give you a great answer why they would have a map with an x on it where the
00:53:53
shorts family home was located and and found this map in a place that I previously rented right he did say that
00:54:02
it was he believed it was his map he said that he was an avid canoer and that he would typically underline he would
00:54:11
make a single line of locations that he canoed or wanted to canoe so again he's he's saying I don't I'm not denying that
00:54:20
you found a map in my previously rented home I'm just don't understand what the x is and I
00:54:28
understand that that that X May implicate me for a triple homicide but I don't make x's on maps I make a single
00:54:36
line he did point out that maybe his exwife may have marked an x on the map at one point for some reason or other
00:54:44
she was interviewed and states that she does not recall ever marking an x on a map belonging to
00:54:52
Bowman but then later we find out that while this whole x marks the spot of the triple homicide on the map seems very
00:55:03
shady a huge red flag on the part of Bowman we learned that that was not really 100% truthfully reported in the
00:55:13
media it was sensationalized a bit they did find a map with an x on it and the X
00:55:19
was somewhat near where the shorts home would be located however after looking at the map they determined
00:55:28
that it would be approximately 5 miles from where the shorts lived so while it sounded good in the papers it's not
00:55:36
going to sound so great in a court of law and the other thing too this is found after Bowman left the
00:55:43
area it's a possibility that somebody else put that X on that map it's a possibility that Gary lemons put the X
00:55:52
on that map yeah it seems like there's some things to make some things of evidence that make you want to look into
00:56:01
this individual but it doesn't seem like a lot of them stick or hold up and but then you just wonder why would this guy
00:56:08
just because they had a dispute he would want this individual looked into to this
00:56:13
double homicide well the thing here is we have a lot of he said he said scenarios
00:56:20
within this situation we do have things that were proven to be wrong allegations
00:56:26
by Gary lemons that were proven to be not factual not correct but Gary lemons wasn't the only one he was not the only
00:56:35
one that was pointing the finger at Bowman for these homicides in fact what we had was we have three men Timothy
00:56:44
Samson Jerry Mills and Tony erson who two of these three men came forward and stated that they may have
00:56:52
seen Bowman leaving the murder scene the night of the double homicide we have Mr
00:57:00
Samson who began anonymously contacting a Captain Bobby Lawson of the Rockingham
00:57:09
County Sheriff's Office in August of 2003 so this is a year after the murders Mr Samson claimed that he and another
00:57:20
man Mr Mills had been scouting an area near near the short home to conduct burglaries and the date given on this he
00:57:31
States is August 15th 2002 he states that when they were out there he and Mr Mills heard two gunshots coming from the
00:57:40
short family home he then claimed that he saw a man who resembled Abraham Lincoln later identified as Gary Bowman
00:57:51
carrying a child who was wearing a night gown from the short home I'm sorry this
00:57:58
so when you have this he said he said scenario going on and you don't know who's right and who's wrong one guy
00:58:04
defending himself one accusing the other now we have these Witnesses coming forward that somebody matching Bowman's
00:58:14
description was seen by these guys carrying a child wearing a night gown from the home after hearing two gunshots
00:58:24
well that's probably the most damning piece of evidence against him is would be these eyewitnesses well and you're
00:58:30
right here Captain it looks very bad for Garrison Bowman that now we have these Witnesses
00:58:38
saying that they saw him fleeing the scene carrying the the the child with him as he's leaving the
00:58:46
scene there's all kinds of problemo with this investigation and not just on the Garrison Bowman front
00:58:56
so looking at the Garrison Bowman portion of this we we have people coming forward telling law enforcement look
00:59:05
this guy he he's would have been 66 years old at the time we've known him forever we've never known him to be
00:59:12
violent we've never known him to carry a gun so we question all these things that
00:59:16
this Gary lemons is saying about him oh by the way we do know that and this is fact we know that Garrison Bowman took a
00:59:26
polygraph test we do not know the actual results of th that test what we do know
00:59:34
is Garrison or Gary Bowman has said on record that he was told that he passed that polygraph but we only have his word
00:59:43
to take for it because police have never commented on that polygraph test but now we have these Witnesses who
00:59:51
are saying we see him leaving the area the the problem though becomes there must not have been that great of a case
00:59:59
against Garrison Bowman because it goes to a grand jury and they decide that there is not enough evidence or enough
01:00:07
reason to charge him in the crime and he's present and he's cooperating for all of these parts and
01:00:15
pieces of this investigation what we end up having happen is that in 2005 this is
01:00:22
in March of 2005 three men Timothy Samson Jerry Mills and Tony erson were indicted for making up a
01:00:33
bunch of lies to try to collect reward money in this case which is just sad because you want to believe eyewitnesses
01:00:41
you don't you don't want to believe that they just came forward to put try to put
01:00:45
the nail on somebody's coffin so they can get some money it's uh pretty despicable and not honorable people
01:00:55
WFMY News 2 had coverage on the story they State investigators say Samson Mills and erson all lied to officers
01:01:03
about what they observed the night the short family was murdered according to the indictment Samson and Mills told
01:01:11
police that they were in betet Virginia the night of the short family murders the two told investigators they were
01:01:18
scoping out the area for a possible burglary Samson claimed he heard two gunshots coming from inside the schs
01:01:25
home and then saw a man resembling Abraham Lincoln carrying a child and a gun out of the house Samson later
01:01:34
identified the man as Gary or Garrison Bowman investigators say this whole story is a lie made up by Samson and
01:01:42
Mills in addition the indictment alleges Samson and Mills also made threats against two Law Enforcement Officers
01:01:52
working the case both of these officers have had their lives threatened simply because they were doing their job by
01:02:00
investigating the case says John brownley us attorney for the Western District of Virginia Timothy Samson 40
01:02:09
at the time of Rudolph county is charged with threatening to kill two law enforcement officers and forcing his
01:02:18
daughter to falsely testify in the case also Jerry Mills 42 of Guilford County is accused of conspiracy perjury and
01:02:27
providing false information Tony erson aged 32 of Stokes County is accused of providing false information to the task
01:02:36
force investigating the murders so not only do police not believe their story of these
01:02:42
Witnesses they don't believe them so much that they can prove that they lied to police and charg them with conspiracy
01:02:51
with perjury with providing false information right and one of the deags goes out of
01:02:57
his way to threaten the lives of two of the law enforcement officers working the
01:03:02
homicide case yeah what deags these deags now have become peab bags and we're going to look at them as suspects
01:03:11
now we won't go into the trials and convictions of these yahoos the US Attorney John brownley
01:03:18
said of the men Mr Samson's conviction makes it clear that we will not tolerate anyone lying to investigators or wasting
01:03:27
government resources in this manner and Mr erson provided false information to investigators during
01:03:35
17 that's 17 17 separate interviews he wasted the investigators valuable time and caused them to spend limited
01:03:47
[Music] resources [Music] join us back here in the garage it's always exciting when the case turns into
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