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Nationwide Alert For Nine-Year-Old Jennifer Short

Aired August 16, 2002 - 14:04   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: A nationwide alert for nine-year-old Jennifer Short, who vanished after her parents were found dead.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us now from Bassett, Virginia, where the search is intensifying.

Jeanne, this is a tragic and terrible story unfolding there.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marty, it is.

The search is being described as massive, and major, but as yet, there has been no sign of 9-year-old Jennifer Short. She is described as 4 feet 3 inches tall, 58 pounds and as a very nice kid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIE SPRADLIN, FRIEND OF FAMILY: Jennifer is a -- she's a sweet little girl. She's kind of shy. She behaves very well. I've never seen her be loud or disrespectful to her parents at all. She is just a very sweet little girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Investigators say Jennifer could be almost anywhere because there is a major north-south highway that runs right in front of this house, and she may have been missing for hours before anyone knew. One of the critical things for investigators do is construct instruct a timeline. They are trying to do that.

The first key will be the time of death of her parents, Mary and Michael Short. They were discovered dead in the house behind me. Each of them with a single gun-shout wound to the head. Those autopsy results expected later today.

As you can see the crime units are on the scene. They are still collecting forensic evidence. However, we are being told little about that. Authorities don't want to jeopardize this investigation. The search is continuing. It is a huge effort, involving police and volunteers. They are searching in cars, on foot and from the air. Dogs are also involved in this effort. The Amber Alert has been activated. There is nationwide publicity on this. They have gotten any number of leads, but as yet, none of them has led them to Jennifer Short.

Marty, back to you.

SAVIDGE: Jeanne, do we know why this crime of murder was carried out? Was there a break-in at the home?

MESERVE: Pardon me, Marty, I'm having a little trouble hearing you because of this highway.

SAVIDGE: I understand. I was asking, are there indications of break-in at the home, in other words, this was a stranger that came in?

MESERVE: Investigators are saying they believe the person who was responsible for the murders had some knowledge of the home, but they are not telling us why. We do know that this family was entertaining on Wednesday night. People were here until midnight, and then it wasn't until 9 o'clock the next morning that the bodies were discover. What happened in between those hours, those nine hours, just not known at this time, or at least they're not telling us -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: All right, Jeanne, we'll definitely stay in touch to follow this one. Thank you.

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