Thursday, October 10, 2002
Canada to hold hearing Friday
Man's role in Short slayings disputed

Friends say phone records and friendly visits back up their claims that Garry Bowman is innocent.

By MIKE ALLEN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   As investigators from Henry County and Virginia leave for Canada today to interview Garry Storm Bowman, who police are calling a witness in the killings of a Henry County family, new doubts are being raised as to whether Bowman has any knowledge of the crimes.

    Wednesday, a friend of Bowman's said he visited her house in Michigan on Aug. 17, two days after the bodies of Michael and Mary Short were found. Loree Butler, who was expecting Bowman to stop by on his way to Canada, said he seemed happy, unconcerned and in no hurry during the time he spent at her house.

    Another friend of Bowman's, Danny Sizemore of Sandy Ridge, N.C., said Wednesday he was with Bowman all day Aug. 14, and from 7:30 a.m. to noon Aug. 15, the day the bodies of Jennifer's parents were discovered in their Oak Level home.

    "He didn't have time to go anywhere," said Sizemore.

    Butler and Sizemore join a growing chorus of Bowman's friends and friends of the Shorts who have cast doubt on whether the retired carpenter has any connection to the deaths of the Shorts.

    Bowman, 66, was arrested Oct. 3 in Inuvik, Canada, and is being held in Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories, on immigration violations. Friday, Canadian authorities will hold a hearing on whether to deport him.

    The investigation into the family's slaying didn't focus on Bowman until after Sept. 25, when Jennifer's remains were found by a bridge near Stoneville, N.C. On Sept. 28, police searched Bowman's mobile home, which was parked in some woods about a mile from where Jennifer's remains were found. They seized bedclothes and hair samples.

    Although police have carefully refrained from using the term "suspect" to describe Bowman, their desire to question him stems largely from statements that Gary Lemons, Bowman's former landlord, made to investigators.

    According to North Carolina court documents, Lemons has told police that during a phone conversation Aug. 13, Bowman told Lemons that he had paid a Virginia man to move his mobile home. The man was refusing to do the job, Bowman told Lemons, and if the man didn't refund his money, Bowman would have to kill him. Michael Short owned a mobile home moving business.

    Lemons has also claimed Bowman brandished a pistol and ordered Lemons away when Lemons visited him Aug. 15, the day Michael and Mary Short were found shot to death.

    Lemons has declined interviews, saying police have told him not to discuss the case. Wednesday, an employee of Lemons' who declined to be identified said that Lemons stands by the statement detailed in the search warrants, but added, "Mr. Lemons has not said that the man's guilty."

    Interviews by The Roanoke Times, however, raise questions about Lemons' statements:

    John Beasley, a roofing contractor and longtime friend of Bowman's, says he spent a couple hours with Bowman at his Mayodan residence Aug. 15, the day the bodies of Jennifer's parents were discovered. He was helping Bowman make final preparations for a long-planned trip to Canada. Beasley said he went inside Bowman's mobile home, his van, and the house he rented to use for a workshop and noticed nothing unusual.

    A copy of Bowman's phone bill from July 22 to Aug. 14 details many long - distance phone calls to four states and Canada, but none to Virginia, where the Shorts lived.

    Butler, Beasley and Sizemore say Bowman never contacted any Virginia mobile home movers for the job. A North Carolina company moved Bowman's trailer. Bowman had signed the title of the trailer over to Butler, who said she intends to have it moved to Michigan.

    Jessie Rickmond, a close friend of Michael Short's who owns a mobile home business in Boones Mill, says Short never took jobs in North Carolina.

    Bowman had his last phone bill at the Mayodan address forwarded to Butler in Michigan, she said. The bill, obtained by The Roanoke Times on Wednesday, showed that Bowman made calls to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Montana and New Jersey. He also made calls to New Denver in British Columbia, a Canadian town where friends say he spoke of settling down. There are no calls to Virginia listed.

    Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page declined to comment on the phone bill, though he said that to his knowledge a call from Mayodan, N.C. to Oak Level in Henry County, where the Shorts' lived, would be a long-distance call.

    Bowman's friends say that he owned a shotgun, not a pistol, which he gave to Sizemore about two months before he moved.

    Bowman's friends say he and Lemons had a dispute over the mobile home because Bowman would not give Lemons the home. Lemons' employee said she was unaware of any conflict between the two men.

    Investigators focusing on Bowman are wasting their time, Sizemore said. "They need to get on the track on the one that done it, and quit looking at Garry."

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