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CNN Live Today

Virginia Kidnapping Case Still Baffling Investigators

Aired August 19, 2002 - 11:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: "Frustrating." "Bizarre." Those are the words that the sheriff is using to describe the -- search, rather for Jennifer Short. That search is now in its fifth day. The 9-year- old has been missing since her parents were discovered shot to death last Thursday morning. Even bloodhounds have not helped very much in the search.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve is covering this baffling case for us this morning. She is joining us now on the telephone from Bassett, Virginia with the very latest.

And Jeanne, as I understand it, the pond is now figuring in the search, correct?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Leon. Rescue workers have now finished examining the pond. It is on a farm that is not too far from Short home. It is in the middle of a cow pasture, and the water looks pretty inhospitable, so divers did not actually go into the water. Instead, they crisscrossed this pond, using a sort of fishhook apparatus to dredge, a process that took them about two and a half hours. They also used underwater cameras. They said despite the murkiness of the water that these were useful, that they had a visibility of about three feet, but the bottom line is they came up with absolutely nothing.

Now Sheriff H.K. Cassell said this morning that they are only looking at this pond because it is in the neighborhood of the Short home. There is no particular reason to look there. Nothing has directed them to this body of water.

Also we have seen some searchers on horseback, there are 15 to 20 of them. From a distance, all we can see that they are doing is looking at the ground as they traveled through in groups. Now this is ground that has gone over before by searchers on foot and in all terrain vehicles, but these horseback riders volunteered to come up from Rockingham County, North Carolina and take another look.

The sheriff figured why not, particularly because he thought on horseback, they might see something people on foot did not. We are very near to the Short home right now, and I can tell you, investigators are still on the scene there. There is now plastic up over all of the windows at that house. That's because investigators are using Luminol inside. This is a chemical which, when used under fluorescent light, will detect the presence of blood.

We don't know if they found any, but it would appear that that testing may still be in progress. We did learn today that the phone line into the house was cut. Sheriff wasn't sure what significance to draw from that, apart from the fact that it clearly indicated somebody went there to commit a crime, he also did tell us today that they are looking at the Virginia sex offender registry to see if they have any possible leads there. He is calling this the most unusual, bizarre case, and no visible progress in it yet. Still no sightings of young Jennifer, and no one has been named as a suspect -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. And Jeanne, as I understand it, I also listened to that press conference this morning with the sheriff to prove that no stone has been left unturned, I understand that they have been taking phone calls in from psychics?

MESERVE: They have. He mentioned this to us yesterday. They have been getting a fair number of calls, not really as many as they would have expected between the Amber Alert and all the national publicity, but he mentioned yesterday that there had been a number coming in from psychics, many of them, he said, from California. He expressed a little bit of irritation at this. He is clearly not taking it seriously. He said yesterday, you are afraid they are going to tie up the phone when something important is trying to get into you -- Leon.

HARRIS: Yes, tough situation there. Jeanne Meserve reporting to us live from southwest Virginia. Thank you very much, Jeanne. Get back to us when you hear something new there, please.

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