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GameChanger [Music] [Music] [Music] oh on September 30th 2003 Jennifer short was exhumed for
00:02:08
forensic purposes no one addressed why this was done or what tests were conducted or what the results of those
00:02:16
tests were this is very interesting here Captain because we're sitting here in our timeline and we had to go back in
00:02:24
time a little bit because we we left off with the 2005 charging of the three men lying to
00:02:31
police lying to law enforcement getting indictments getting convictions and all of those cases but now here we are back
00:02:39
in 2003 we are about 13 months after the homicides took place and now we're sitting here with the situation where
00:02:49
they're exhuming the remains of Jennifer short we know that at one time they exhumed the remains of Michael short and
00:02:59
we get a little bit of clarity and a little bit of reasons why they exhumed Michael's body but in 2003 we don't get
00:03:06
any explanation for why they are exhuming Jennifer Schwarz body or what tests were conducted or what the results
00:03:14
of those tests were well that's been the the way that law enforcement has handled
00:03:20
this case from the beginning is very tight lipped and they're not going to give too much away but very weird right
00:03:26
we've not seen I don't believe that we've seen a where they've exhumed more than one victim right and in such a
00:03:33
short period of time they've exhumed two of the three victims within 13 months of
00:03:42
the actual crime itself now let's skip ahead a bit right this will lead us to Spring of 2005 the Jennifer Renee short
00:03:51
homicide abduction task force was assembled in 2005 with the purpose of reviewing more than 3,000 leads compiled
00:04:00
in the case 3,000 tips that is according to the news and record the task force consists of two FBI agents two Virginia
00:04:09
State Police investigators two detectives from the Henry County Sheriff's Office and one from the
00:04:15
Rockingham County sheriff's office in North Carolina and an agent with the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and
00:04:24
explosives the task force met once a month and initiated a complete review of the case including
00:04:32
re-interviewing some of the people involved in August of 2007 it was reported in the Martinsville
00:04:41
Bulletin that the task force had developed people of Interest according to Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry he
00:04:49
would not elaborate but did state that Garrison Bowman was not a suspect the FBI would not go quite that far this per
00:04:58
a statement to uh a local online news states that investigators aren't going as far as saying he's innocent but they
00:05:07
admit it's time to turn their attention elsewhere in Mr Bowman's particular case
00:05:13
he was someone looked at early on in the investigation the evidence has not panned out to this point that any
00:05:20
indictments or arrests are imminent or pending in the foreseeable future so that's really interesting where you have
00:05:28
this guy that there's a lot of people pointing their finger to him we know that three
00:05:33
of them get convicted of lying to police and it seems like within the task force
00:05:39
itself there's a little bit of a discrepancy as to whether he should still be considered a suspect or not
00:05:45
where we have some people going on record stating he is not a suspect as of 2007 and then others saying well we're
00:05:54
not willing to say publicly that he is not a suspect at this time yeah there was a major hiccup worth mentioning
00:06:02
though in the course of this investigation and although the impact if truly any at all on the short case is
00:06:14
absolutely unclear but we should bring this up and this took place in November of 2006 when Federal investigators
00:06:21
charged 13 current and former members of the Henry County Sheriff's Office and a
00:06:28
racketeering case including the sheriff at the time who we quoted several times Frank Cassel there was a 48 count
00:06:37
indictment alleging theft of impounded property using selling and distributing ketamine crack and marijuana trafficking
00:06:47
and guns money laundering and obstruction of justice this was a huge deal and received National media
00:06:55
attention The Washington Post described the whole mess as the appal version of an HBO drama series sounds like a
00:07:03
Tuesday to me let's hope not let's hope Tuesdays get better right Captain Sheriff
00:07:09
casselle disgraced got eight months in prison for lying to investigators Cassell's successor Sheriff Lane Perry
00:07:18
he did not think this endemic corruption in the Henry County Sheriff's Office impacted the short
00:07:26
investigation of course it didn't the no effect on it yeah you know you sit there
00:07:32
and say that Mr Perry and you could be correct but the problem becomes for us on the outside looking in is twofold
00:07:42
you've not solved the short family murders yet and you've been very tight lipped on it and you're going to tell me
00:07:49
that these extracurricular activities that you're doing have no effect on your actual performance of your real job and
00:07:56
there's a huge black eye on the Sheriff's Office because of this these crimes basically that some of their
00:08:05
members were committing the FBI's ronoke resident agent in charge Kevin faou agreed though you know this is a
00:08:13
separate agency agreeing saying that we don't think that all of this activity of
00:08:19
course had impacted the short investigation but what was their alternative right admit that the
00:08:26
embarrassing corruption had blown the investigation or tainted it right so you're obviously
00:08:33
going to say no the the most the most infamous murder investigation that we have in our area was not impacted by
00:08:41
these wrongdoings of some of the members of our Sheriff's Office what's so wrong
00:08:45
with telling the truth hey this probably impacted it on some level we don't know
00:08:50
what level do we think that now look I would I'd have so much more respect if people would just tell the freaking
00:08:57
truth did did this have some effect effect or some impact probably do we think that the case would be solved if
00:09:04
this stuff didn't happen no see if they came out and said that I'd buy what they're selling a little bit more well
00:09:12
of course this made some people wonder could there be some kind of scenario where Michael short or his wife found
00:09:22
out that the cops were crooked and then the cops came and shut them up for good we we need to point out 100% and be
00:09:33
crystal clear here that there is absolutely zero evidence of this but of course this kind of malfeasance among
00:09:43
law enforcement is always going to stir up these kinds of conspiracy theories let's go on to some more positive
00:09:52
information in this investigation and this comes by way of the FBI themselves and and this is the course of 3 years
00:10:01
2008 2009 and 2010 when the FBI is releasing information about the short family murders so in 2008 the FBI's website on
00:10:13
the short family murders was updated with new information authorities had identified a possible vehicle associated
00:10:21
with the crime the FBI was looking for information from the public about an unidentified man seen sitting in a
00:10:29
vehicle near the short home along US 220 in Oak level on the morning of the murders also the website indicated that
00:10:39
the investigation had uncovered that Michael Short was trying to get a job as a mobile home mover in South Carolina at
00:10:47
the time of the murders they were looking to make contact with any people who had contact with Michael Short
00:10:56
regarding this relocation right apparently these Revelations did not yield sufficient information because in
00:11:05
February of 2009 the FBI updated the website to release a sketch of a flatbed truck that was seen parked near the
00:11:14
short home in the early hours the day of the murder the vehicle was described as
00:11:20
a 1998 to 2002 white single cab 2ton flatbed Stak body truck with wooden rails the cab of
00:11:31
the unknown vehicle was believed to be similar in appearance to a 4500 series International Truck the next month in
00:11:40
March of 2009 the FBI took the additional step of releasing a sketch of the man seen in the flatbed truck near
00:11:49
the short house he was described as a man in his 40s with a weathered complexion so just to make sure I'm
00:11:56
picking up what you're putting down seems like law enforcement saying hey maybe him trying to move and make a
00:12:02
transition in his life he maybe came across somebody that would want to do him harm
00:12:11
possibly I think they're trying to cast a wider net here but obviously you look at this situation and you see
00:12:18
information trickling out from the FBI and the first thing you wonder is 2008 is when we get some newly updated
00:12:28
information on the FBI's website and we go okay well what took you know what on Earth took so long 5 years or so to
00:12:36
release this information in the sketches they're selling illegal firearms and and
00:12:41
drugs well not the FBI this is information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation I'm sure they're doing it
00:12:48
too it's not very encouraging NOP to the investigation right and again this is what I just don't understand and I will
00:12:57
never I I don't know that I'm ever going to understand this math 2008 is when they say hey we're updating this and we
00:13:05
we're looking for information from the public about an unidentified man and a unidentified vehicle seen near the short
00:13:13
home on the morning of the murders yeah wh why why didn't this come out five years prior not only that why didn't
00:13:19
that come out 5 years prior why did then they wait till February of 2009 to go okay well here's a sketch to go along
00:13:26
with that information that we released last year wow right and then oh nothing comes of that so in in March let's
00:13:35
release a sketch of the man now we released a sketch of the vehicle now we're going to release a sketch of the
00:13:41
man it just seems like seems like their heads are shoved up their own asses look
00:13:48
I can get it I get it from a uh a what had corruption you know we have a sheriff's office that has corruption in
00:13:57
their office at the time we know this based off of the arrest and the charges that stemmed from that investigation of
00:14:04
corruption within the Sheriff's Office it almost appears too that the FBI in this
00:14:10
situation is kind of like figuring things out as they go and I know that that's how an investigation works you
00:14:16
figure things out as the evidence as you uncover evidence no doubt however they're making statements to the
00:14:24
public asking for help and not really releasing all of the information that they believe that they have at the time
00:14:29
cuz they're jackasses it seems very odd it just it it seems like they don't really have a leader or a direction for
00:14:39
this investigation and again that's not very encouraging seeing that we're looking at this thing at our timeline we
00:14:48
are now seven eight nine years into this timeline and it seems or would appear as though that the
00:14:59
investigation has no real Direction well again maybe because of the corruption maybe the FBI at this point said hey
00:15:06
look there was some stuff that we wanted law enforcement to put out and they didn't want to and and they were the
00:15:12
lead so we let that not happen we let them stay tight lipped but once this corruption came out we felt it it was
00:15:22
our duty to put this information out and that would at least explain the lazy timeline
00:15:29
one good thing for the case is we know that it was featured on America's Most Wanted twice so that's always a good
00:15:37
thing for a case usually when you have a case that needs to drum up possible tips
00:15:43
and information now one thing that was revealed during the course of one of the America's Most Wanted episodes one of
00:15:51
the episodes was the source of the information that authorities had fingerprints and hair that they
00:15:58
recovered from the murder scene that's kind of the Genesis of that information which is good information in
00:16:07
this case positive information for the investigation now back to the FBI's website updates investigators of the
00:16:15
Jennifer Renee short homicide abduction task force this is a statement that they
00:16:20
released to the public are seeking information from General Contractors independent contractors construction
00:16:27
companies mobile home dealers mobile home parts suppliers mobile home Transporters or mobile home salvage yard
00:16:36
owners who conducted business with Michael W short or Ms mobile home movers between January 1 2001 and August 15
00:16:50
2002 investigators are seeking information regarding the identities and locations of individuals who worked with
00:16:58
Michael W short or his company Ms mobile home movers on a weekly or day-to-day basis to include migrant workers some of
00:17:10
these individuals may have worked solely on a cash basis they are also interviewing anyone who utilized Michael
00:17:18
Short's mobile home moving business and they are attempting to identify any person or persons who saw or was in
00:17:27
contact with Mary or Michael Short between August 1st 2002 and August 14th 2002 this all seems and sounds very
00:17:38
Broad and shows that even years after the crime they are pretty much clueless about where to start in their
00:17:47
investigation even so now looking at it through new eyes through this new task force but the scope of the investigation
00:17:56
was even broader per the FBI's website several years prior to their deaths Michael and Mary operated a business
00:18:04
moving Mobile Homes at the time of their deaths the shorts were considering moving to South Carolina as a result
00:18:11
during the Spring and Summer of 2002 Michael Short made several trips to areas in South Carolina surrounding the
00:18:18
following cities bennettville Florence Conway and Myrtle Beach to seek employment investigators
00:18:27
from the Jennifer Renee short homicide abduction task force will be conducting interviews from May 17th to May 20th
00:18:35
2010 in the following South Carolina cities and at list the same cities that they list earlier so the investigators
00:18:42
travel to all of these areas and they put it out there in advance before going there hey if you spoke to Michael short
00:18:50
or you have anything to do with this investigation or his business or the family relocating if you might have any
00:18:57
information at at all you can meet us in one of these cities on those dates and speak with us which seems like a
00:19:05
desperate move it also seems like a a reasonably smart move to me though too but again you know I don't
00:19:12
know it really feels like they're kind of fishing for something anything at this point in their investigation but
00:19:20
you got to give them kudos for covering all bases and not giving up on this investigation and then a very strange
00:19:29
turn of events here Captain this brings us to February 20th of 2019 when the home that the shorts were
00:19:38
killed in burned down even though it was vacant at the time investigators say that they do not believe that there is a
00:19:47
connection between the fire and the murders keep in mind it's 17 years after the fact but note that years earlier the
00:19:56
home owned by Gary lemon remember he's the man that rented to Garrison Bowman and accused Garrison Bowman in the
00:20:06
murders Gary lemon's Rockingham County home also burned down there are those out there who believe that arsonist may
00:20:16
have had some kind of motivation to try to hide evidence in the short family murders case now I'm going to be frank
00:20:26
it seems like quite a stretch a very big stretch at that since it was so long after the murders but that
00:20:34
theory is out [Music] there this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
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00:22:59
mates to the windows to the walls crispy Frank this doesn't sound as good cheers Captain be Colonel we talked
00:23:09
about a theory being out there that leads us to the theories section of this week's show so let's talk about some of
00:23:17
the theories all sources and investigators seem to agree that the short family was completely normal no
00:23:24
drama no issues no secrets they almost certainly would have been uncovered you would hope in the two decades since they
00:23:32
were killed if they had any issues drama or Secrets it sounds like they minded their own business that they kept to
00:23:40
themselves and had no known enemies there is simply no apparent motivation for the murders so who killed them and
00:23:50
why the first Theory would be that Jennifer who was abducted that she was actually the Target all along this is
00:24:00
really interesting and it's an interesting bit from the FBI's website showing that one
00:24:07
angle of the investigation that was still being pursued even to this day is that Jennifer was the Target and it
00:24:17
states investigators are attempting to identify any person or persons who had contact or was in contact with Jennifer
00:24:25
Renee short between June 1 2002 and August 14th 2002 for instance there may be a coach teacher friend
00:24:37
parent or neighbor who was in contact with Jennifer through such events and or activities as softball dance Church
00:24:47
birthday parties Etc anyone who had such contact with Jennifer short during this
00:24:53
time period is requested to notify or reot notify investigators on the FBI tip line at 1
00:25:03
1800225 5324 doesn't this seem like a completely different angle they're going in as far
00:25:11
as the investigation is concerned it seems like a a different angle yes I don't know about completely different
00:25:17
and I don't think that they had ruled out the possibility of it being related to Michael Mary or Jennifer at any point
00:25:27
you're right though at different times of this investigation over the course of the last 20 years it appears like it was
00:25:35
going in different directions right they honed in on Mary for a little bit they honed in on victim Michael for a little
00:25:41
bit and then victim Jennifer is the one that seems to be sticking well in in regard to this Theory would have to
00:25:49
stick because that's what this whole theory is based around now expanding on this Theory a little bit you can go back
00:25:56
to August of 20 5 when Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry announced that the motive in his opinion for the short
00:26:05
parent murder may have been the Abduction of 9-year-old Jennifer he says as we saw he called on her friends from
00:26:13
school and her softball team to see if they remembered anyone Jennifer might have mentioned he was quoted on Fox 8
00:26:20
news saying was it a sexual predator that Jennifer was the target of the crime and we do believe the house the
00:26:29
way what did happen around the home and The Cutting of the phone lines and the things I do think this is a person that
00:26:38
could have been watching for some time and it is possible they were watching for patterns and behavior some online
00:26:47
slle posit that someone could have seen Jennifer at the Circle convenience store
00:26:54
and watched her walk to her home a couple of hundred hundred of yards away the planning the the very quick style of
00:27:04
the attack the not taking of the bag of cash the check credit cards purse any of
00:27:11
those things that we know were left behind so that points away from robbery and points toward a targeted goal so
00:27:20
perhaps Jennifer was the target all along shooting her parents was just a quick way to eliminate the obstacle that
00:27:27
presented and this does remind you this should remind our listeners of the jam Claus case right in which the
00:27:38
perpetrator shot down the front door in the middle of the night blasted Jaime's parents before abducting her right and
00:27:46
we know that Jaimie Claus's abductor simply saw her getting off of a school bus so is there a chance that
00:27:55
maybe somebody saw Jennifer at that con venience store I saw her walking up to her home one day and that this
00:28:02
abduction and these two murders that went along with the abduction were just that random so Theory number two is that
00:28:10
somebody had a score to settle with Michael Short the father had revenge against the father and again until this
00:28:19
case is solved and until we understand what motivated these murders in the abduction all of these theories do seem
00:28:26
plausible and we this is all something you know when you look at this investigation you kind of see the dog
00:28:32
chasing its tail right where you where one Theory seems to be something that they're honing in on and focusing in on
00:28:39
for a period of time and when that doesn't pan out then they Circle back to a previous Theory and so this is one of
00:28:47
those theories that has kind of come in and out of the Limelight the whole time of this investigation So based on all of
00:28:55
the information qu requested by the the FBI's website the agency seems to have not ruled out the possibility that
00:29:04
Michael's business contacts are somehow connected to the murders now some people
00:29:09
have pointed out that the mobile home moving business is tough and attracts unsavory Shady transient types who could
00:29:17
have nefarious motives maybe someone had an issue with Michael but then of course
00:29:24
you wonder well why take the kid why why kill Jennifer why kill Mary it's believed that the parents were
00:29:33
killed in their sleep so Jennifer wasn't taken as some kind of message to the shorts we know that they were killed
00:29:42
before she was taken so I don't know it's it's certainly a possibility and I think that it's obvious that the FBI has
00:29:50
not ruled that out and so we should keep it as a consideration when when looking at this
00:29:57
case here's a weird one Weir a theory that's certainly out there and should be out there okay so the way that theory
00:30:06
number three goes we'll just call this Theory Joseph Duncan oh Joseph Duncan that piece of [ __ ] Joseph Duncan who
00:30:14
longtime listeners of this show will know that I've said repeatedly is one of the most evil persons we've ever
00:30:20
discussed he likes to come up often on True Crime garage and so he's he's so evil that in fact the captain and I
00:30:28
threw a little party on off the Record when he died in prison that's show you how evil we are we don't throw parties
00:30:36
very often for any reason at all now Joseph Duncan unfortunately is a favorite suspect for the short family
00:30:43
murders on several websites this is primarily because of the modus operandi that he used that is so similar to what
00:30:53
may have happened here in the short family case right right so Joseph Duncan what we know that he did we Absolut he
00:31:01
was convicted in a federal court of law of this okay he we know that he broke into a home the home of the granies he
00:31:11
broke into the grony home chab Bron murdered what he would have perceived to have been obstacles that would be the
00:31:18
parents Brenda grony and Mark McKenzie and 13-year-old Slade who was one of the kids and then kidnapped the two younger
00:31:27
kids Shasta and Dylan he later murdered Dylan by shooting him in the head just like one of our Vic all three of our
00:31:35
victims here right just like Jennifer died by being shot in the head so the question is where was Joseph Duncan in
00:31:44
the summer of 2002 well there were portions of that year that we believe he was roaming the country according to
00:31:50
dark ideas.net he used Minnesota and North Dakota as home bases and had no known ties to Virginia where our crime
00:32:01
took place but he turned up in Idaho when he carried out the grony abduction even though he had no connections known
00:32:08
to there either so it's not out of the realm of possibility it seems like a stretch seems
00:32:14
unlikely but according to several online sources Duncan had a good friend that he
00:32:19
visited in Florida and he was known to roam far distances in search of prey we know that based off of his crimes his
00:32:27
other murders so Duncan would seem like a good suspect given his known modus operandi and targeting of children but
00:32:37
if it's true that authorities have DNA hair and prints and evidence that would seem to rule him out right we know that
00:32:45
he was in their custody up until the time of his death and so while we cannot safe or certain that Joseph Duncan was
00:32:53
either in or not in Virginia in 2002 it seems like if he would have left any physical evidence at the crime scene
00:33:04
that they would have by now linked him to this triple homicide yeah which makes let's just stay on that point for one
00:33:12
second if they have DNA at this point it has not been matched with anybody cuz we would have a
00:33:19
arrest yeah so it almost seems like the person that committed these crimes has just never committed another crime or
00:33:27
never been caught for another crime or remains unidentified in those crimes that they committed Right theory number
00:33:33
four well that it could have been Garrison Bowman all along he was the suspect that we discussed the most he
00:33:41
was the one that was pointed out by his landlord to law enforcement now we know that three men came forward and said we
00:33:49
think we saw him fleeing the crime scene oh boom they're convicted of lying to the police
00:33:55
MH so we've discussed this at length and what evidence pointed to him being the Killer and the problem though is that a
00:34:07
grand jury decided that there really wasn't a whole lot of evidence to pointing to him being the killer at the
00:34:12
end of the day because they decided not to charge him in the case now by all reports Bowman was a drunk who would not
00:34:20
have been this is kind of the general perception would not have been Savvy enough to eliminate all evidence that he
00:34:28
would have left clear-cut signs of himself at the murder scene or on the victims there is zero indication from
00:34:35
people who knew him that he was interested in children at all or that he was violent at all the only evidence is
00:34:43
the odd timing of his departure for Canada and the Unexplained map that we had mentioned and it seems like that's
00:34:51
kind of it I don't really think that he is the guy and I I do want to make sure that I
00:35:01
point out some of this other information here before we move off of Garrison Bowman the way that I look at this and
00:35:09
the way that I see things here Captain it looks to me that evidence against Bowman just wasn't there now per the
00:35:16
news and record this is from an old newspaper article and it states quote detectives say they have not
00:35:26
linked Bowman with the shorts neither through business or personal contacts nor through forensics test Bowman told
00:35:37
that media Outlet in 2004 this will hang over me for the rest of my life unless they find the person
00:35:45
who did it unfortunately Garrison Bowman was right he died in 2014 with his name forever linked to to
00:35:56
the short family murders to this very day 20 years after the short family was killed many in the area still believe
00:36:05
that he may be responsible and this is my problem with law enforcement sometimes in these cases is when it's
00:36:15
too tight lipped right they might have information like let's say they have Michael's phone records for his
00:36:24
business and there is no Conta between him and this individual there's there's no there is no known record of
00:36:34
having any contact with his business and this individual if if that's true and law enforcement can tell you that or
00:36:42
they can go look we looked into this guy over and over and what what we come to find over and over is that we don't
00:36:50
believe this guy is connected then people could could move on to other other theories and spend
00:36:58
time on other theories there are a couple of theories that are not so out there like the four that we just went
00:37:05
through those four are by far the most popular theories but a couple of thoughts that I have before we move on
00:37:14
to some more recent movement in this case if you want to call it that would be a couple of ideas of people that we
00:37:22
do know that are either close to the case or somehow injected themselves into the
00:37:30
investigation itself so one this Timothy Samson remember he's one of the three that was charged with lying to
00:37:43
police he is one that was charged with threatening the lives of two of the investigators that worked this triple
00:37:53
homicide the thought is that he wanted to claim he and his friend wanted to claim the reward money that was out
00:38:01
there now look this guy this guy this guy sharpest tool in the shed nah no nah not this guy no
00:38:14
playing with the full deck no not this guy does that elevator go all the way up Captain no not this guy elevator's
00:38:23
broken out of order my friends this guy smells like turds think about his scenario mhm he and his Idiot Friends
00:38:32
devis this plan of well we were going to burglarize some places out in the that area that night and we just so happened
00:38:38
to hear two gunshots come from the crime scene and we saw a man who looked like Honest Abe Lincoln fleeing the scene
00:38:46
child and gun in hand oh now I see a picture of Garrison Bowman that's the honest Abe that I was
00:38:55
talking about now give me me that reward money well wait a second here Timothy Samson CH
00:39:02
Ching i' I'd say dumbass but dumass as the commercial says It's Dumas it's Dumas this guy how does he think he's
00:39:14
going to get any of this reward money Gary lemons is the one that told police about Garrison Bowman to begin with and
00:39:22
then you have to wonder when they're cooling on Gary lemon's accusations against Garrison
00:39:29
Bowman did he somehow get in cahoots with these other three guys to come up with well now we need a witness to kind
00:39:34
of seal the deal here maybe we can split up some of this money I don't know I look at it and I see I don't know how he
00:39:42
thought he was going to be getting the money uh you want to say like you said earlier that you would hope that good
00:39:49
people good honest people are coming forward because you want to believe eyewitnesses especially when we're
00:39:55
talking about homicide but then we learned that these guys lied to police so much so that they were
00:40:02
convicted of doing so the other thing too with this Timothy Samson is and I I can't figure out how
00:40:12
this thing ended up shaking out but at one point he was charged with being involved in The Disappearance of a Dawn
00:40:22
inz Phillips age 28 so she disappears she lives with Timothy Samson and disappears the day
00:40:32
after Christmas in the year 2000 in the year 2000 he tells police she went out to buy
00:40:40
drugs never came back they eventually charge him with being involved with her Disappearance in some form or fashion
00:40:48
but he's not charged with this until 2004 this is after he's all wrapped up in this lying to police about the short
00:40:58
family murders case so this dude is not a good dude he doesn't make good decisions is he responsible for this Don
00:41:06
Phillips and what happened whatever happened to her we don't know because there's no conviction for that but we do
00:41:13
know that several newspapers reported him being arrested and charged with some kind of involvement in her disappearance
00:41:21
then that leads us back to Chris Thompson the man who found his employer Michael Short dead on the couch in the
00:41:30
garage and remember he was there the night before he was there the night before this is look this guy could be a
00:41:37
saint for all we know we do know in Chris Thompson's defense police have been vocal they've not been vocal about
00:41:44
a whole lot of things in this case but one thing that they've been clear about to the media is Chris Thompson's been
00:41:51
very Cooperative we've spoke with him on many occasions about the case and he is a witness he's a person that
00:42:00
can provide information to the police and to their investigation they've never considered him to be or publicly stated
00:42:08
for him to be a suspect or even a person of interest again another again I think
00:42:14
sometimes law enforcement needs to go if if we have all these suspects coming up
00:42:18
in the Public's eyes that maybe we need to clear some of them or or or at least to say this person is uh not a person of
00:42:28
interest so I've read two different accounts of the night before now I cannot say I want to be
00:42:35
clear here I cannot say that Chris Thompson's story doesn't match up that he has a different version of what went
00:42:42
down MH all I can say is that there were two versions reported and they're very short and and I and I'm a little ticked
00:42:51
off that they are so short because Captain's pointed this out everybody knows out there that the devil is in the
00:42:57
details what we need here in Chris Thompson's story is the details because one report that I read was that he state
00:43:06
that he worked with Michael Short until late and that when he left he presumed that they would be going to bed shortly
00:43:13
afterwards and that Jennifer short was already in bed when he left the other version of that story
00:43:21
is that the family went to Burger King came home and then after they got back it's thought that they went to bed right
00:43:29
what we need to know those two those two stories sound very different both of them could be absolutely true if we had
00:43:36
all of the details right is there a version where Chris Thompson says I went with the family to Burger King or only a
00:43:44
portion of the family went to Burger King to pick up food for the rest of us and when they got back I left after they
00:43:51
had returned you know there's any number of ways that both of those stories could
00:43:55
be true true the problem though is what are the details fill in the blanks of that story
00:44:02
because if he says that he left the house and Jennifer short is already in bed yeah she could have got up yeah they
00:44:08
could have woke her up and taken her to Burger King doesn't seem very likely with right with her being N9 years old
00:44:15
yeah doesn't doesn't seem likely but but but also there but at 9: there's she's out of school for the
00:44:24
summertime see I could somebody going hey I'm going to run to Burger King really quick you guys stay here but I
00:44:31
don't see both of the parents jumping in a car and leaving her in her bed so make
00:44:37
a lot of sense and again we need more details of that Burger King version of the story right does somebody see all
00:44:43
three family members does somebody see all three family members plus an extra person with them which could be Chris
00:44:50
Thompson riding along do they only see two of the family members you you see what I'm getting at
00:44:55
there right we need more details of that night I think that that there in lies a
00:45:01
big problem with th this case as far as the public anyway looking at it and questioning and rightfully so
00:45:09
questioning law enforcement as to why they've not solved this case and you talk about moving on from
00:45:16
somebody look again Chris Thompson could be an absolute saint for all we know the
00:45:22
person that we know that is not a saint is Timothy Samson he lied to police he threatened
00:45:30
law enforcement with their lives he is beli to be somehow involved in The Disappearance of Da Phillips this person
00:45:40
is not a saint and I would be really curious I'm I'm I'm really suspicious of this individual who is pointing the
00:45:49
finger at somebody else and he seems to be all wrapped up into criminal activity
00:45:55
I just feel like this has when you bring up Joseph Duncan that this just has a lot of similarities and
00:46:03
and not saying that he's involved but just this idea that this person would know that this 90-year-old was
00:46:10
there they abducted her they abducted her for a reason I think that's the cause of her parents being killed it's
00:46:20
so that they could abduct her and move her to a different location and and and who knows how long she was there for
00:46:29
that's what my gut feeling um tells me and and I think you were bringing up the point you know it could be somebody that
00:46:37
saw her you know playing a sport or somebody that met her through school um but I think this was very
00:46:45
calculated especially with I think there was a taunting uh and that is that's what the
00:46:52
message was but also the The Cutting of the phone line I think this was very calculated and we
00:46:59
we have you know almost zero physical evidence that we know of I mean they've stated that there's some items that
00:47:07
they're testing but we don't know if that has come back conclusive that it's the
00:47:14
perpetrator you could find hair on the the husband or hair on the wife and then later on find out that they're at their
00:47:22
friend's house and it's some dog hair or whatever so I just I think this leans towards and this is a scary crime it it
00:47:31
it leans towards the idea that they were targeting the 9-year-old they're targeting Jennifer I agree with that and
00:47:41
I'm going to base that simply off of the idea that that I'm so smart yes case closed case closed but let's go back to
00:47:49
the other ideas the Jamie Claus case and the yes Joseph Duncan the groy family case case in both of those cases very
00:47:58
weird scenarios where people are murdered at the scene there's some type of breakin into the home and then the
00:48:05
younger the youngest child or the child is abducted and both of those scenarios those are incredibly rare
00:48:14
crimes just like this short family case that we're working on here and in both of those cases it was a perfect stranger
00:48:23
it was somebody that didn't know the family at all but but for whatever reason locked in on one of the kids they
00:48:29
were targeted and then the perpetrator watched the home for a bit of time before making his
00:48:37
move right and I almost feel like cutting the phone lines is indicative of a person watching the home before they
00:48:47
make their move I hate to say this but I agree with you in October of 2021 so Les less than
00:48:55
a year ago and here we sit now Captain almost 20 years to the day that the short family was killed I'm hoping and
00:49:04
praying that we receive some kind of update some kind of movement some kind of proof that today the case is still
00:49:12
very active and heading in the right direction finally once we get to this 20th anniversary of such a dark day but
00:49:21
less than a year ago in October of 2021 the Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry held
00:49:27
a press conference about a new multi-jurisdictional task force he had convened earlier in the year to reopen
00:49:36
the short case making up the new investigative team he said is the Henry County Sheriff's Office the Rockingham
00:49:44
County Sheriff's Office the Virginia State Police and a Federal Officer they intend to reexamine all the evidence and
00:49:53
the case from start and will make use of any new technology and testing that is now available at the presser Sheriff
00:50:03
Perry seemed to imply that they have DNA evidence by saying that they need to sit
00:50:09
down and evaluate new testing methods and see whether they have evidence that might be suitable I'm going to break in
00:50:16
with my own little thought here for a second captain before finishing up this information that was released in this
00:50:22
presser but going back to the exclam of Michael's body and when police came out and said that we exed him because we
00:50:32
needed to collect hairs that we failed to collect during the course of the autopsy it makes you wonder did they
00:50:39
Identify some kind of physical evidence that was found on Mary short because keep in mind they had not recovered
00:50:45
Jennifer at this point had they had they found some kind of evidence some forensic physical evidence on Mary short
00:50:55
and then they go well let's compare that to our other victim did we find that on
00:50:59
our other victim and that's when they something alerted them that they had not collected hairs from Michael Short's
00:51:06
body right if that statement from law enforcement to us the public is true I wonder if it's as simple as a couple FBI
00:51:14
agents lending their time to the case because it got some higher profile and they go hey guys you you missed this you
00:51:23
you forgot to collect hair samples off off this victim it could be really something that simple and then back to
00:51:31
one of the other suspects that has been publicly named uh the man who passed away in 2014 Garrison Bowman so
00:51:38
interestingly enough at this press conference when asked about Garrison Bowman Sheriff Perry said no one could
00:51:46
be ruled out until the case is actually solved but he seemed to point in a different direction when it said we do
00:51:55
have people that this is focused around we're not at Liberty to say who but yes we do have things that point us in the
00:52:03
directions with people and we are working those leads and have worked them in the past Perry goes on to say that
00:52:12
there are some people that the evidence points to but they don't have enough to ensure a successful prosecution he said
00:52:20
quote I believe there's a couple key people that have information they know who they are and they have
00:52:29
been approached numerous times and he said he hopes that they are watching this press
00:52:37
[Music] conference there's still a reward for $2,500 leading to the arrest of the
00:52:59
suspects if you have any information please call the FBI tip line at 1 800225 5324 that's 1
00:53:09
1800225 5324 really fascinating case that we covered this week if you have thoughts
00:53:15
and opinions make sure you go to True Crim garage.com and comment on our blog Colonel do we have any recommended
00:53:22
reading for the beautiful listeners thank you Captain this week we are recommending met her on the mountain by
00:53:28
Mark Pinsky in June of 1970 the body of 24-year-old Nancy Morgan was found inside a government-owned car in Madison
00:53:38
County North Carolina it had been 4 days since anyone had seen or heard from Nancy met her on the mountain tells the
00:53:44
story of this murder and Chronicles pinsky's efforts to solve the 40-year mystery once and for all check out met
00:53:52
on the mountain by Mark Pinsky you can find that great title and many more on our website true Crim garage.com on the
00:53:59
recommended page and until next week be good be kind don't [Music] lter [Music] the Angie's List you know on trust is
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