00:00:11
thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] on September 30th 2003 Jennifer short was exhumed for
00:01:08
forensic purposes no one addressed why this was done or what tests were conducted or what the results of those
00:01:17
tests were this is very interesting here Captain because we're sitting here in our timeline and we had to go back in
00:01:25
time a little bit because we we left off with the 2005 charging of the three-man
00:01:31
lying to police lying to law enforcement getting indictments getting convictions
00:01:37
in all of those cases but now here we are back in 2003 we were about 13 months after the homicides took place and now
00:01:47
we're sitting here with the situation where they're exhuming the remains of Jennifer short we know
00:01:55
that at one time they exhumed the remains of Michael short and we get a little bit of clarity and a little bit
00:02:02
of reasons why they exhumed Michael's body but in 2003 we don't get any explanation for why they are exhuming
00:02:10
Jennifer Short's body or what tests were conducted or what the results of those tests were well that's been the the way
00:02:19
that law enforcement has handled this case from the beginning is very tight-lipped and they're not going to
00:02:24
give too much away but very weird right we've not seen I don't believe that we've seen a case where they've exhumed
00:02:31
more than one victim right and in such a short period of time they've exhumed two
00:02:37
of the three victims within 13 months of the actual crime itself now let's skip ahead a bit right this will lead us to
00:02:48
Spring of 2005. the Jennifer Renee short homicide abduction task force was assembled in 2005. with the purpose of
00:02:58
reviewing more than 3 000 leads compiled in the case 3 000 tips that is according
00:03:04
to the news and record the task force consists of two FBI agents two Virginia State Police investigators two
00:03:12
detectives from the Henry County Sheriff's Office and one from the Rockingham County sheriff's office in
00:03:19
North Carolina and an agent with the U.S Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and explosives the task force met once a
00:03:27
month and initiated a complete review of the case including re-interviewing some
00:03:35
of the people involved in August of 2007 it was reported in the Martinsville Bulletin that the task force had
00:03:43
developed people of Interest according to Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry he would not elaborate but did state that
00:03:52
Garrison Bowman was not a suspect the FBI would not go quite that far this per a statement to a local online news
00:04:02
states that investigators aren't going as far as saying he's innocent but they admit it's time to turn their attention
00:04:10
elsewhere and Mr Bowman's particular case he was someone looked at early on in the
00:04:17
investigation the evidence has not panned out to this point that any indictments or arrest are imminent or
00:04:24
pending in the foreseeable future so that's really interesting where you have this guy that there's a lot of people
00:04:32
pointing their finger to him we know that three of them get convicted of lying to police and it seems like within
00:04:38
the task force itself there's a little bit of a discrepancy as to whether he should still be considered a suspect or
00:04:45
not where we have some people going on record stating he is not a suspect as of 2007 and then others saying well we're
00:04:55
not willing to say publicly that he is not a suspect at this time yeah there was a major hiccup worth mentioning
00:05:03
though in the course of this investigation and although the impact if truly any at at all on the short case is
00:05:15
absolutely unclear but we should bring this up and this took place in November of 2006 when Federal investigators
00:05:21
charged 13 current and former members of the Henry County Sheriff's Office and a
00:05:29
racketeering case including the sheriff at the time who we quoted several times Frank Cassell
00:05:36
there was a 48 count indictment alleging theft of impounded property using selling and distributing ketamine crack
00:05:45
and marijuana trafficking and guns money laundering and obstruction of justice this was a huge deal and received
00:05:54
National media attention The Washington Post described the whole mess as the Appalachian version of an HBO drama
00:06:02
series sounds like a Tuesday to me let's hope not let's hope Tuesdays get better right Captain Sheriff Cassell
00:06:11
disgraced got eight months in prison for lying to investigators Cassell's successor Sheriff Lane Perry he did not
00:06:19
think this endemic corruption in the Henry County Sheriff's Office impacted the short investigation of course it did
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it the FBI no effect on it yeah you know you sit there and say that Mr Perry and
00:06:35
you could be correct but the problem becomes for us on the outside looking in is twofold you've not solved the short
00:06:45
family murders yet and you've been very tight-lipped on it and you're going to tell me that these extracurricular
00:06:51
activities that you're doing have no effect on your actual performance of your real job and there's a huge black
00:06:58
guy on the sheriff's office because of this these crimes basically that some of their members were committing the FBI's
00:07:08
Roanoke resident agent in charge Kevin Faust agreed though you know this is a separate agency agreeing saying that we
00:07:17
don't think that all of this activity of course had impacted the short investigation but what was their
00:07:24
alternative right admit that the embarrassing corruption had blown the investigation
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yeah or tainted it right you so you're obviously going to say no the the most the most infamous murder investigation
00:07:38
that we have in our area was not impacted by these wrongdoings of some of the members of our Sheriff's Office
00:07:45
what's so wrong with telling the truth hey this probably impacted it on some level we don't know what level
00:07:52
do we think that now look I would I'd have so much more respect to people just tell the freaking truth did this have
00:07:59
some effect or some impact probably do we think that the case would be solved if this stuff didn't happen no see if
00:08:08
they came out and said that I'd buy what they're selling a little bit more well of course this made some people
00:08:15
wonder could there be some kind of scenario where Michael short or his wife found out that the cops were crooked and
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then the cops came in and shut them up for good we need to point out 100 percent and be it crystal
00:08:34
clear here that there is absolutely zero evidence of this but of course this kind
00:08:42
of malfeasance among law enforcement is always going to stir up these kinds of conspiracy theories
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let's go on to some more positive information in this investigation and this comes by way of the FBI themselves
00:08:59
and this is the course of three years 2008 2009 and 2010 when the FBI is releasing information about the short
00:09:10
family murders so in 2008 the FBI's website on the short family murders was updated with new information authorities
00:09:19
had identified a possible vehicle associated with the crime the FBI was looking for information from
00:09:26
the public about an unidentified man seen sitting in a vehicle near the short home along U.S 220 and Oak level on the
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morning of the murders also the website indicated that the investigation had uncovered that Michael
00:09:42
Short was trying to get a job as a mobile home mover in South Carolina at the time of the murders
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they were looking to make contact with any people who had contact with Michael Short regarding this relocation right
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apparently these Revelations did not yield sufficient information because in February of 2009 the FBI updated the
00:10:09
website to release a sketch of a flatbed truck that was seen parked near the short home in the early hours
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the day of the murder the vehicle was described as a 1998 to 2002 white single cab two-ton flatbed stake body truck
00:10:29
with wooden rails the cab of the unknown vehicle was believed to be similar in appearance to a 4 500 series
00:10:39
International Truck the next month in March of 2009 the FBI took the additional step of releasing a sketch of
00:10:46
the man seen in the flatbed truck near the short house he was described as a man in his 40s with a weathered
00:10:54
complexion so just to make sure I'm picking up what you're putting down it seems like law enforcement is saying hey
00:11:00
maybe him trying to move and making transition in his life he maybe came across somebody
00:11:09
that would want to do him harm possibly I think they're trying to cast a wider net here but obviously you look at this
00:11:17
situation and you see information trickling out from the FBI and the first thing you wonder is
00:11:25
2008 is when we get some newly updated information on the FBI's website and we go okay well what took you know what on
00:11:33
Earth took so long information in the sketches there's some illegal firearms and and drugs well not
00:11:44
the FBI this is information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation I'm sure they're doing it too it's not very
00:11:51
encouraging nope to the investigation right and again this is what I just don't understand and I will never I I
00:11:58
don't know that I'm ever going to understand this math 2008 is when they say hey we're updating
00:12:05
this and we we're looking for information from the public about an unidentified man and a unidentified
00:12:11
vehicle seen near the short home on the morning of the murders yeah why why didn't this come out five years
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prior not only that why didn't that come out five years prior why did then they wait till February of 2009 to go okay
00:12:24
well here's a sketch to go along with that information that we released last year wow right and then oh
00:12:32
nothing comes of that so in in March let's release a sketch of the man now we released a sketch of the vehicle now
00:12:40
we're going to release a sketch of the man it just seems like seems like their heads are
00:12:46
shoved up their own asses look I can get it I get it from a uh what had corruption you know we have a sheriff's
00:12:55
office that has corruption in their office at the time we know this based off of the arrest and the charges that
00:13:03
stemmed from that investigation of corruption within the Sheriff's Office it almost appears too that the FBI in
00:13:10
this situation it's kind of like figuring things out as they go and I know that that's how an
00:13:16
investigation works you figure things out as the evidence as you uncover evidence however
00:13:23
they're making statements to the public asking for help and not really releasing
00:13:27
all of the information that they believe that they have at the time because they're jackasses it seems very odd it
00:13:33
just it seems like they don't really have a leader or a direction for this investigation and again that's not very
00:13:43
encouraging seeing that we're looking at this thing at our timeline we are now seven eight nine years
00:13:54
into this timeline and it seems or would appear as though that the investigation
00:14:00
has no real Direction well again maybe because of the corruption maybe the FBI at this point said hey look there was
00:14:08
some stuff that we wanted law enforcement to put out and they didn't want to and and they were the
00:14:13
lead so we let that not happen we let them stay tight-lipped but once this corruption came out we felt it it was
00:14:22
our duty to put this information out and that would at least explain the lazy timeline one good thing for the
00:14:31
case is we know that it was featured on America's Most Wanted twice so that's always a good thing for a case usually
00:14:40
when you have a case that needs to drum up possible tips and information now one
00:14:45
thing that was revealed during the course of one of the America's Most Wanted episodes one of the episodes was
00:14:52
the source of the information that authorities had fingerprints and hair that they recovered from the murder
00:15:00
scene that's kind of the Genesis of that information which is good information in
00:15:08
this case positive information for the investigation now back to the FBI's website updates investigators of the
00:15:15
Jennifer Renee short homicide abduction task force this is a statement that they
00:15:20
released to the public are seeking information from General Contractors independent contractors construction
00:15:27
companies mobile home dealers mobile home parts suppliers mobile home Transporters or mobile home salvage yard
00:15:36
owners who conducted business with Michael W short or Ms mobile home movers between January 1 2001 and August 15
00:15:50
2002 investigators are seeking information regarding the identities and locations of individuals who worked with
00:15:59
Michael W short or his company Ms mobile home movers on a weekly or day-to-day basis to include
00:16:09
migrant workers some of these individuals may have worked solely on a cash basis they are
00:16:16
also interviewing anyone who utilized Michael Short's mobile home moving business and they are attempting to
00:16:23
identify any person or persons who saw or was in contact with Mary or Michael Short between August 1st 2002 and August
00:16:34
14 2002. this all seems and sounds very Broad and shows that even years after the
00:16:42
crime they are pretty much clueless about where to start in their investigation even so now
00:16:50
looking at it through new eyes through this new task force but the scope of the investigation was
00:16:57
even broader per the FBI's website several years prior to their deaths Michael and Mary operated a business
00:17:05
moving Mobile Homes at the time of their deaths the shorts were considering moving to South Carolina as a result
00:17:12
during the Spring and Summer of 2002 Michael Short made several trips to areas in South Carolina surrounding the
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following cities Bennettsville Florence Conway and Myrtle Beach to seek employment investigators from the
00:17:28
Jennifer Renee short homicide abduction task force will be conducting interviews
00:17:33
from May 17th to May 20th 2010 in the following South Carolina cities and at least the same cities that they list
00:17:41
earlier so the investigators traveled to all of these areas and they put it out there in advance before going there hey
00:17:48
if you spoke to Michael short or you have anything to do with this investigation or his business or the
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family relocating if you might have any information at all you can meet us in one of these cities on those dates and
00:18:03
speak with us which seems like a desperate move it also seems like a reasonably smart move to me though too
00:18:10
but again you know I don't know it really feels like they're kind of fishing for something anything at this
00:18:19
point in their investigation but you got to give them kudos for covering all bases and not giving up on this
00:18:27
investigation and then in a very strange turn of events here Captain this brings
00:18:33
us to February 20th of 2019 when the home that the shorts were killed in burned down even though it was vacant at the
00:18:44
time investigators say that they do not believe that there is a connection between the fire and the murders keep in
00:18:51
mind it's 17 years after the fact but note that years earlier the home owned by Gary lemons remember he's the man
00:19:01
that rented to Garrison Bowman and accused Garrison Bowman in the murders Gary lemons Rockingham County home also
00:19:12
burned down there are those out there who believe that arsonists may have had some kind of motivation to try to hide
00:19:20
evidence in the short family murders case now I'm going to be frank it seems like quite a stretch a very big stretch
00:19:31
at that since it was so long after the murders but that theory is out there [Music]
00:20:01
[Music] foreign we are back cheers mates to the windows to the walls crispy Frank just doesn't sound as good
00:20:23
cheers Captain all right we talked about a theory being out there that leads us to the theories section of this week's
00:20:31
show so let's talk about some of the theories all sources and investigators seem to agree that the short family was
00:20:39
completely normal no drama no issues no secrets they almost certainly would have
00:20:45
been uncovered you would hope in the two decades since they were killed if they had any issues drama or Secrets it it
00:20:55
sounds like they minded their own business that they kept to themselves and had no known enemies there is simply
00:21:02
no apparent motivation for the murders so who killed them and why the first Theory would be that Jennifer who was
00:21:12
abducted that she was actually the target all along this is really interesting and it's an interesting bit from the
00:21:22
FBI's website showing that one angle of the investigation that was still being pursued even to this day is that
00:21:31
Jennifer was the target and it states investigators are attempting to identify any person or
00:21:38
persons who had contact or was in contact with Jennifer Renee short between June 1
00:21:45
2002 and August 14 2002. for instance there may be a coach teacher friend parent or neighbor who
00:21:57
was in contact with Jennifer through such events and or activities as softball dance Church birthday parties
00:22:06
Etc anyone who had such contact with Jennifer short during this time period is requested to notify or re-notify
00:22:15
investigators on the FBI tip line at 1-800-225-5324 doesn't this seem like a completely different angle they're going
00:22:27
in as far as the investigation is concerned it seems like a different angle yes I
00:22:33
don't know about completely different and I don't think that they had ruled out the possibility of it being
00:22:39
related to Michael Mary or Jennifer at any point and you're right though at different times of this investigation
00:22:47
over the course of the last 20 years it appears like it was going in different directions right they honed in on Mary
00:22:55
for a little bit they honed in on victim Michael for a little bit and then victim
00:23:00
Jennifer is the one that seems to be sticking well in in regard to this Theory it would have to stick because
00:23:06
that's what this whole theory is based around now expanding on this Theory a little bit you can go back to August of
00:23:14
2015 when Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry announced that the motive and his opinion for the short parent murder may
00:23:24
have been the Abduction of nine-year-old Jennifer he says as we saw he called on her
00:23:30
friends from school and her softball team to see if they remembered anyone Jennifer might have mentioned he was
00:23:36
quoted on Fox 8 news saying was it a sexual predator that Jennifer was the target of the crime and we do believe
00:23:45
the house the way what did happen around the home and The Cutting of the phone lines and the
00:23:52
things I do think this is a person that could have been watching for some time and it is possible they were watching
00:24:01
for patterns and behavior some online sleuths posit that someone could have seen Jennifer at the Circle convenience
00:24:10
store and watched her walk to her home a couple of hundreds hundred of yards away
00:24:16
the planning the the very quick style of the attack the not taking of the bag of cash the
00:24:25
check credit cards purse any of those things that we know were left behind so that points away from robbery
00:24:33
and points toward a targeted goal so perhaps Jennifer was the target all along shooting her parents was just a
00:24:42
quick way to eliminate the obstacle they presented and this does remind you this should remind our listeners of the
00:24:52
Jamie Kloss case right in which the perpetrator shot down the front door in the middle
00:24:59
of the night blasted Jaime's parents before abducting her right and we know that Jamie kloss's abductor
00:25:07
simply saw her getting off of a school bus so is there a chance that maybe somebody saw Jennifer at that
00:25:14
convenience store or saw her walking up to her home one day and that this abduction
00:25:20
and these two murders that went along with the abduction were just that random so Theory number two is that somebody
00:25:27
had a score to settle with Michael Short the father had revenge against the father and again until this case is
00:25:37
solved and until we understand what motivated these murders in the abduction all of these theories do seem plausible
00:25:44
and we this is all something you know when you look at this investigation you kind of see the dog chasing its tail
00:25:51
right where you where one Theory seems to be something that they're honing in on and focusing in on for a period of
00:25:57
time and when that doesn't pan out then they Circle back to a previous Theory and and
00:26:03
so this is one of those theories that has kind of come in and out of the Limelight the whole time of this
00:26:09
investigation So based on all of the information requested by the FBI's website the agency seems to have not
00:26:18
ruled out the possibility that Michael's business contacts are somehow connected
00:26:25
to the murders now some people have pointed out that the mobile home moving business is tough and attracts unsavory
00:26:32
Shady transient types who could have nefarious motives maybe someone had an issue with Michael
00:26:40
but then of course you wonder well why take the kid why kill Jennifer why kill Mary
00:26:48
it's believed that the parents were killed in their sleep so Jennifer wasn't taken as some kind of
00:26:56
message to the shorts we know that they were killed before she was taken so I don't know it's it's certainly a
00:27:04
possibility and I think that it's obvious that the FBI has not ruled that out and so we should keep it as a
00:27:11
consideration when when looking at this case here's a weird one yeah a weird one
00:27:17
a theory that's certainly out there and should be out there okay so the way that theory number three
00:27:24
goes we'll just call this Theory Joseph Duncan oh Joseph Duncan that piece of [ __ ] Joseph Duncan who long time
00:27:32
listeners of this show will know that I've said repeatedly is one of the most evil persons we've ever discussed he
00:27:38
likes to come up often on True Crime garage and so he's he's so evil that in fact the captain and I threw a little
00:27:46
party on off the Record when he died in prison that's to show you how evil we are we don't throw parties very often
00:27:54
for any reason at all now Joseph Duncan unfortunately is a favorite suspect for the short family murders on several
00:28:02
websites this is primarily because of the modus operandi that he used that is so similar to what may have happened
00:28:11
here in the short family case right right so Joseph Duncan what we know that he did we absolutely he was convicted in
00:28:19
a federal court of law of this okay he we know that he broke into a home the home of the groanies he broke into the
00:28:29
grony home jabroni murdered what he would have perceived to have been obstacles that would be the parents
00:28:36
Brenda groney and Mark McKenzie and 13 year old Slade who was one of the kids and then kidnapped the two younger
00:28:45
kids Shasta and Dylan he later murdered Dylan by shooting him in the head just like one of our Vic all three of our
00:28:53
victims here right just like Jennifer died by being shot in the head so the question is where was Joseph
00:29:00
Duncan in the summer of 2002 well there were portions of that year that we believe he was roaming the country
00:29:07
according to darkideas.net he used Minnesota in North Dakota as home bases and had no known ties to Virginia
00:29:17
where our crime took place but he turned up in Idaho when he carried out the grony abduction even though he had no
00:29:24
connections known to there either so it's not out of the realm of possibility it seems like a stretch seems unlikely
00:29:32
but according to several online sources Duncan had a good friend that he visited
00:29:36
in Florida and he was known to roam far distances in search of prey we know that
00:29:42
based off of his other crimes his other murders so Duncan would seem like a good
00:29:48
suspect given his known modus operandi and targeting of children but if it's true that authorities have DNA hair and
00:29:58
prints and evidence that would seem to rule him out right we know that he was in their custody up until the time of
00:30:05
his death and so while we cannot say for certain that Joseph Duncan was either in or not
00:30:12
in Virginia in 2002 it seems like if he would have left any physical evidence at the crime scene that they
00:30:21
would have by now linked him to this triple homicide yeah which makes let's just stay on that point for one second
00:30:30
if they have DNA at this point it has not been matched with anybody because we would have an
00:30:37
arrest yeah so it almost seems like the person that committed these crimes has just never committed another crime or
00:30:44
never been caught for another crime or remains unidentified in those crimes that they committed Right theory number
00:30:50
four well that it could have been Garrison Bowman all along he was the suspect that we discussed the
00:30:58
most he was the one that was pointed out by his landlord to law enforcement now we know that three men came forward and
00:31:06
said we think we saw him fleeing the crime scene oh boom they're convicted of lying to the police
00:31:14
so we've discussed this at length and what evidence pointed to him being the Killer
00:31:21
and the problem though is that a grand jury decided that there really wasn't a whole
00:31:27
lot of evidence to pointing to him being the killer at the end of the day because
00:31:31
they decided not to charge him in the case now by all reports Bowman was a drunk who would not have been this is
00:31:39
kind of the general perception would not have been Savvy enough to eliminate all
00:31:44
evidence that he would have left clear-cut signs of himself at the murder scene or on the victims there is zero
00:31:52
indication from people who knew him that he was interested in children at all or
00:31:57
that he was violent at all the only evidence is the odd timing of his departure for Canada and the Unexplained
00:32:05
map that we had mentioned and it seems like that's kind of it I don't really think that he is
00:32:14
the guy and I I do want to make sure that I point out some of this other information
00:32:21
here before we move off of Garrison Bowman the way that I look at this and the way that I see things here Captain
00:32:28
it looks to me the evidence against Bowman just wasn't there now per the news and record this is from an old
00:32:37
newspaper article and it states quote detectives say they have not linked Bowman with the shorts neither through
00:32:47
business or personal contacts nor through forensics test Bowman told that media Outlet in 2004 this will hang over
00:32:59
me for the rest of my life unless they find the person who did it unfortunately Garrison Bowman was right
00:33:08
he died in 2014 with his name forever linked to the short family murders to this very day 20
00:33:17
years after the short family was killed many in the area still believe that he may be responsible and this is my
00:33:26
problem with law enforcement sometimes in these cases is when it's too tight-lipped right
00:33:35
they might have information like let's say they have Michael's phone records for his business
00:33:42
and there is no contact between him and this individual there's there's no there is no known record of having any
00:33:52
contact with his business and this individual if if that's true and law enforcement
00:33:58
can tell you that or they can go look we looked into this guy over and over and what what we come to find over and over
00:34:05
is that we don't believe this guy is connected then people could could move on to other
00:34:14
theories and spend time on other theories there are a couple of theories that are not so out there like the four
00:34:21
that we just went through those four are by far the most popular theories but a couple of thoughts that I have before we
00:34:31
move on to some more recent movement in this case if you want to call it that would be a couple of ideas
00:34:39
of people that we do know that are either close to the case or somehow injected themselves into the
00:34:47
investigation itself so one this Timothy Sampson remember he's one of the three that was charged with lying
00:34:59
to police he is one that was charged with threatening the lives of two of the investigators that worked this triple
00:35:09
homicide the thought is that he wanted to claim he and his friend wanted to claim
00:35:16
the reward money that was out there now look this guy this guy this guy sharpest tool in the
00:35:28
shed no no not this guy no playing with the full deck no not this guy does that elevator
00:35:36
go all the way up Captain no not this guy elevator's broken out of order my friends this guy smells like turds think
00:35:45
about his scenario he and his Idiot Friends devise this plan of well we were going to burglarize some places out in
00:35:54
the that area that night we just so happen to hear two gunshots come from the crime scene and we saw a man who
00:36:00
looked like Honest Abe Lincoln fleeing the scene child and gun in hand oh now I see a picture of Garrison
00:36:09
Bowman that's the honest Abe that I was talking about now give me that reward money but wait a second here Timothy
00:36:17
Sampson cha-ching I'd I'd say dumbass but Dumas as the commercial says It's Dumas that's Dumas
00:36:28
this guy how does he think he's going to get any of this reward money Gary lemons
00:36:34
is the one that told police about Garrison Bowman to begin with and then you have to wonder when they're cooling
00:36:42
on Gary lemmon's accusations against Garrison Bowman did he somehow get in cahoots with these
00:36:49
other three guys to come up with well now we need a witness to kind of seal the deal here maybe we can split up some
00:36:55
of this money I don't know I look at it and I see I don't know how he thought he was going
00:37:00
to be getting the money uh you want to say like you said earlier that you would hope that good people good honest people
00:37:07
are coming forward because you want to believe eyewitnesses especially when we're talking about homicide
00:37:15
but then we learned that these guys lied to police so much so that they were convicted of doing so
00:37:22
the other thing too with this Timothy Sampson is and I I can't figure out how this thing
00:37:30
ended up shaking out but at one point he was charged with being involved in The Disappearance of a
00:37:39
dawn Inez Phillips age 28 so she disappears she lives with Timothy Sampson and disappears the day after Christmas
00:37:51
in the year 2000. in the year 2000. he tells police she went out to buy drugs never came back they eventually charge
00:38:00
him with being involved with her Disappearance in some form or fashion but he's not charged with this until
00:38:08
2004. this is after he's all wrapped up in this lying to police about the short family murders case so this dude is not
00:38:18
a good dude he doesn't make good decisions is he responsible for this Don Phillips and what happened whatever
00:38:25
happened to her we don't know because there's no conviction for that but we do know that several newspapers reported
00:38:32
him being arrested and charged with some kind of involvement in her disappearance
00:38:38
then that leads us back to Chris Thompson the man who found his employer Michael Short dead on the
00:38:46
couch in the garage I remember he was there the night before he was there the night before this is look this guy could
00:38:54
be a saint for all we know we do know in Chris Thompson's defense police have been vocal they've not been vocal about
00:39:01
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
00:39:08
very Cooperative we've spoke with him on many occasions about the case and he is a witness he's a person that can
00:39:17
provide information to the police and to their investigation they've never considered him to be or publicly stated
00:39:25
for him to be a suspect or even a person of interest again another again I think sometimes law enforcement needs
00:39:33
to go if we have all these suspects coming up in the Public's eyes that maybe we need to clear some of them
00:39:39
or or at least to say this person is uh not a person of interest so I've read two different accounts of the night
00:39:49
before now I cannot say I want to be clear here I cannot say that Chris Thompson's story
00:39:56
doesn't match up that he has a different version of what went down all I can say
00:40:02
is that there were two versions reported and they're very short and and I'm a little ticked off that they are so short
00:40:10
because captains pointed this out everybody knows out there that the devil is in the details what we need here in
00:40:17
Chris Thompson's story is the details because one report that I read was that he state that he worked with Michael
00:40:25
Short until late and that when he left he presumed that they would be going to bed shortly afterwards and that Jennifer
00:40:32
short was already in bed when he left the other version of that story is that the family went to Burger King came
00:40:41
home and then after they got back it's thought that they went to bed right what we need to know those two those two
00:40:49
stories sound very different both of them could be absolutely true if we had all of the details right is there a
00:40:57
version where Chris Thompson says I went with the family to Burger King or only a
00:41:01
portion of the family went to Burger King to pick up food for the rest of us and when they got back I left
00:41:08
after they had returned you know there's any number of ways that both of those stories could be true the problem though
00:41:15
is what are the details fill in the blanks of that story because if he says that he left the house and
00:41:22
Jennifer short is already in bed yeah she could have got up yeah they could have woke her up and taken her to Burger
00:41:27
King it doesn't seem very likely with right with her being nine years old yeah it doesn't doesn't seem likely
00:41:35
but but also there but at nine there's um she's out of school for the summer time see I could see somebody going hey
00:41:44
I'm going to run to Burger King really quick you guys stay here but I don't see both of the parents
00:41:50
jumping in the car and leaving her in her bed so now make a lot of sense and again we
00:41:56
need more details of that Burger King version of the story right does somebody see all three family members does
00:42:02
somebody see all three family members plus an extra person with them which could be Chris Thompson riding along
00:42:09
do they only see two of the family members you see what I'm getting at the right we need more details of that night
00:42:15
I think that that there in lies a big problem with the this case as far as the public anyway looking at it and
00:42:24
questioning and rightfully so questioning law enforcement as to why they've not solved this case and you
00:42:31
talk about moving on from somebody look again Chris Thompson could be an absolute saint
00:42:38
for all we know the person that we know that is not a saint is Timothy Sampson he lied to police he threatened law
00:42:47
enforcement with their lives he is believed to be somehow involved in the disappearance of Don Phillips this
00:42:57
person is not a saint and I would be really curious I'm I'm really suspicious of this individual who is pointing the
00:43:06
finger at somebody else and he seems to be all wrapped up into criminal activity
00:43:12
I just feel like this has when you bring up Joseph Duncan that this just has a lot of similarities and
00:43:20
not saying that he's involved but just this idea that this person would know that this nine-year-old was
00:43:27
there they abducted her they abducted her for a reason I think that's the cause of
00:43:35
her parents being killed it's so that they could abduct her and move her to a different location and
00:43:42
and who knows how long she was there for that's what my gut feeling um tells me and
00:43:50
and I think you were bringing up the point you know it could be somebody that saw her you know playing a
00:43:56
sport or somebody that met her through school um but I think this was very calculated
00:44:03
especially with I think there was a taunting uh and that was that's what the message was but also
00:44:11
the The Cutting of the phone lines I think this was very calculated and we we have you know almost
00:44:18
zero physical evidence that we know of I mean they've stated that there's some items that they're testing but we don't
00:44:26
know if that has come back conclusive that it's the perpetrator you could find hair on the the husband
00:44:35
or Heron the wife and then later on find out that they're at their friend's house
00:44:40
and it's some dog hair or whatever so I just I think this leans towards and this is a scary crime it it leans
00:44:49
towards the idea that they were targeting the nine-year-old they're targeting Jennifer
00:44:57
I agree with that and I'm going to base that simply off of the idea that I'm so smart yes case closed case closed but
00:45:05
let's go back to the other ideas the Jamie Kloss case and the yes Joseph Duncan the grony family case in both of
00:45:14
those cases very weird scenarios where people were murdered at the scene there's some type of break-in into the
00:45:21
home and then the younger the youngest child or the child is abducted in both of those scenarios those are incredibly
00:45:30
rare crimes just like this short family case that we're working on here and in both of those cases it was a
00:45:38
perfect stranger it was somebody that didn't know the family at all but but for whatever
00:45:43
reason locked in on one of the kids they were targeted and then the perpetrator watched the home
00:45:52
for a bit of time before making his move right and I almost feel like cutting the
00:45:58
phone lines is indicative of a person watching the home before they make their move I hate to say this but I agree with
00:46:07
you in October of 2021 so less than a year ago and here we sit now Captain almost
00:46:16
20 years to the day that the short family was killed I'm hoping and praying that we receive some kind of update some
00:46:25
kind of movement some kind of proof that today the case is still very active and
00:46:30
heading in the right direction finally once we get to this 20th anniversary of such a dark day but less than a year ago
00:46:39
in October of 2021 the Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry held a press conference about a new
00:46:47
multi-jurisdictional task force he had convened earlier in the year to reopen the short case making up the new
00:46:55
investigative team he said is the Henry County Sheriff's Office the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office the Virginia
00:47:03
State Police and a Federal Officer they intend to re-examine all the evidence and the case from start and will make
00:47:13
use of any new technology and testing that is now available at the presser Sheriff Perry
00:47:21
seemed to imply that they have DNA evidence by saying that they need to sit down and evaluate new testing methods
00:47:30
and see whether they have evidence that might be suitable I'm going to break in with my own little thought here for a
00:47:36
second captain before finishing up this information that was released in this presser but going back to the
00:47:42
exclamation of Michael Short's body and when police came out and said that we exhumed him because we needed to collect
00:47:50
hairs that we failed to collect during the course of the autopsy it makes you wonder did they Identify some kind of
00:47:58
physical evidence that was found on Mary short because keep in mind they had not
00:48:02
recovered Jennifer at this point had they had they found some kind of evidence some forensic physical evidence
00:48:10
on Mary short and then they go okay well let's compare that to our other victim did we find that on our other victim and
00:48:17
that's when they something alerted them that they had not collected hairs from Michael Short's body right if that
00:48:25
statement from law enforcement to us the public is true I wonder if it's as simple as a couple FBI agents lending
00:48:33
their time to the case because he got some higher profile and they go hey guys you missed this
00:48:40
you forgot to collect hair samples off of this victim it could be really something that simple and then back to
00:48:48
one of the other suspects that has been publicly named uh the man who passed away in 2014 Garrison Bowman
00:48:55
so interestingly enough at this press conference when asked about Garrison Bowman
00:49:00
Sheriff Perry said no one could be ruled out until the case is actually solved but he seemed to point in a different
00:49:09
direction when it said we do have people that this is focused around we're not at Liberty
00:49:16
to say who but yes we do have things that point us in the directions with people and we are working those leads
00:49:25
and have worked them in the past Perry goes on to say that there are some people that the evidence points to but
00:49:33
they don't have enough to ensure a successful prosecution he said quote I believe there's a couple key people that
00:49:41
have information they know who they are and they have been approached numerous times
00:49:48
and he said he hopes that they are watching this press conference [Music] there is still a reward for 62 500
00:50:13
leading to the rest of the suspects if you have any information please call the FBI tip line at
00:50:24
1-800-225-5324 that's 1-800-225-5324 really fascinating case that we covered this week if you have
00:50:32
thoughts and opinions make sure you go to truecrime garage.com and comment on our blog Colonel do we have any
00:50:39
recommended reading for the beautiful listeners thank you Captain this week we are recommending met her on the mountain
00:50:45
by Mark Pinsky in June of 1970 the body of 24 year old Nancy Morgan was found inside a government-owned car in Madison
00:50:55
County North Carolina it had been four days since anyone had seen or heard from Nancy met her on the mountain tells the
00:51:02
story of this murder in Chronicles penske's efforts to solve the 40-year mystery once and for all check out meta
00:51:09
on on the mountain by Mark Pinsky you can find that great title and many more on our website True Crime garage.com on
00:51:16
the recommended page and until next week be good be kind and don't litter thank you
00:51:40
foreign