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Sunday, February 09, 2003
By MIKE ALLEN
Jennifer Short, holding a daisy by its stem and mugging for the camera. Jennifer in a jumpsuit, one hand on her hip in a comically exaggerated pose. Jennifer beside a Christmas tree, clutching the arm of her big-bellied, ruddy-faced father, Mike Short. Almost six months have passed since Michael Wayne Short and his wife, Mary Hall Short, were found shot to death in their home in Oak Level, and 9-year-old Jennifer Renee Short went missing. A nationwide search for her ended Sept. 25, when her skeletal remains were found near Stoneville, N.C. Like her mother and father, she also died from a single gunshot to the head. Despite thousands of hours of investigation by local, state and federal investigators from at least five law enforcement agencies, the killings remain unsolved. Arrington, who is Mike Short's uncle, spends his days puzzling over the horrific crime. "I wish that I could just go out and put my finger on something and say, here's a clue right here." "There's days when you have frustration," said Henry County sheriff's Capt. Kimmy Nester, who leads the investigation into the Short slayings. At the start, more than 50 investigators pursued the case, but their numbers have dwindled to about 10. Those detectives continue to log 12- to 14-hour days in a quest to solve the killings, Nester said. Virginia State Police, the FBI and officers from Rockingham County, N.C., continue to work with Henry County detectives. For now, the killer or killers who committed the worst crime in Henry County in recent memory remain free. "I try not to dwell on it," said Chris Young, Mary Short's brother-in-law. "It just stirs up too much anger." He doesn't want to believe that the killers could get away scot-free. "Somebody had to see something." An unprecedented crime As time has gone on, leads have seemingly dwindled, and the case has faded from headlines. The highest-profile lead that police chased led them to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, one of the northernmost villages in Canada. Based on a tip from his landlord, North Carolina resident Garry Bowman was arrested there and taken to Roanoke. After he appeared before a federal grand jury, he returned to North Carolina. He has not been charged with any crimes in relation to the Short case. Little has been heard of the case since Bowman was released Oct. 30, and some of the Shorts' relatives have grown impatient with Henry County authorities. "It's like nobody's interested in keeping the family informed," Arrington said. "I'm bitter." Carolyn Hodges, Mike Short's sister, echoed those feelings. "They don't stay in contact with us like they should." "We give them updates when there's anything to update," Henry County Sheriff Frank Cassell said. "I don't blame them for being impatient, and I hope they'll bear with us." Other members of the Shorts' extended family see the investigators differently. "They're still on it; they're working day in and day out on it," said Young, who works as a jailer for Henry County. "I'm sure it's frustrating to them in a different way. Captain Nester, he takes stuff like this personally." So do other investigators. Jay Gregory, who is assigned to the case full time, has a picture of Jennifer on his office door. "We're just not spinning our wheels every day," Gregory said. "The more we do, it seems like the more avenues we need to look into." One of the challenges police have run into is that there aren't similar crimes they can use as a model in trying to solve this one. "We're not aware of any other cases in this country where the family was killed and a child was abducted," Lt. D.J. Runge said. Another challenge that came early on was where to start the investigation. With both parents dead, there was no immediate family to turn to for information about Jennifer. The Shorts, who lived alongside northbound U.S. 220, were not part of a close-knit neighborhood, and their extended family had not been in close contact with them before their deaths, Nester said. Mike and Mary Short were each killed by a single gunshot to the head from a .22-caliber weapon, probably while they slept. The telephone line near Jennifer's bedroom window was cut. Not long after the killings, Cassell said police believed the crime could have been carefully orchestrated by someone who knew the Shorts. Nester said he thinks it's unlikely the killings were done randomly by a stranger. But he also cast doubt on the idea that the crime was necessarily planned. "You could have somebody who's simple-minded, all the factors fell in place, and luck fell their way." Investigators found few clues to go on at the Shorts' house. Arrington believes that is partly the fault of the police - that Henry County investigators let too many people into the house and onto the property after Mike and Mary Short's bodies were found. That could have contaminated the crime scene or destroyed valuable evidence such as footprints or tire tracks, he said. "That's not true. We only allowed the people in the house that were doing the forensics," Cassell said. As for deputies and investigators being allowed onto the Shorts' property, "we were searching, trying to find this little girl," the sheriff said. A thousand questions The police tape around the Shorts' house is long gone. The house was sold at an auction in December and has since been put up for sale by the new owner. For now, it's unoccupied. Teddy bears and flowers, faded from exposure to the elements, still decorate the bridge near Stoneville, N.C., where Jennifer's remains were found. A waterlogged poem on mildewed paper reads, "Nothing compares to the pain since you have been gone." The autopsy report on Jennifer indicates that she was shot in the back of the head. Police believe she was killed soon after she was abducted, Nester said. "It's just chilling that somebody could do this to an innocent little girl," Arrington said. The relatives say they don't know of any enemies the Shorts may have had. "I've asked myself that thousands of times," Young said. "I don't see how anybody could hold anything against them." Relatives describe the Shorts as private people. Although Mike Short was the most outgoing of the three, even he was rather taciturn until you got to know him, Arrington said. Carolyn Hodges, Mike Short's sister, said her brother had a tough life growing up, which makes the slayings even harder for her to cope with. Raised on a tobacco farm in Franklin County, Short often had disputes with his alcoholic father. He didn't finish high school and married his first wife at 17. By the mid-1980s, when he met Mary Hall in a Rocky Mount laundry facility, he had three sons and had been through three divorces, relatives said. Mary Hall was 14 years younger than Short and painfully shy. He was her first boyfriend, Young said. Under Mary's influence, Mike Short's life stabilized, and the two worked together to build a business moving mobile homes. Only memories remain Relatives agree that Jennifer was the center of the Shorts' lives. She had her mother's shyness and a nervous habit of shifting from foot to foot, Young said. The Shorts often took her with them when they went to dig ditches or move trailers. Arrington remembers Mike Short coming to one of his rental properties to dig a ditch. Jennifer followed him, he said, carrying a tiny shovel of her own. The Shorts would come to the Youngs' house for Christmas. The first Christmas without them was painful, Young said. He misses the gentle ribbing he would give his niece at get-togethers, such as teasing her for being too loud when she was sitting quietly in a corner. "She didn't try to stand out, but she loved attention," he said. Jennifer played baseball, and Young regrets that he never saw any of her games. "You can't go back in time," he said. "I can hold onto the memories that I have." Back at the sheriff's office, investigators hold out hope that there may be someone who has information valuable to the investigation who still hasn't come forward. It's not uncommon for someone to withhold information for a long time after a crime, Runge said. Or they may not even realize that what they know could be valuable to the police. "A call could come in that could lead the investigation in an entirely new direction," Nester said. The Henry County Sheriff's Office asks that anyone with information call (276)638-8751. There is a reward of more than $40,000 for tips leading to a conviction.
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