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American Morning

Virginia Authorities Issue Amber Alert

Aired August 16, 2002 - 08:02   ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this hour, a couple found murdered in Virginia. Police are desperately trying to find the couple's 9-year-old daughter. Michael and Mary Short found shot to death inside their home in Bassett, Virginia. Police fear their daughter Jennifer was abducted by the killer. She has not turned up to date.
From Western Virginia in the town of Bassett, Juliet Bickford of CNN affiliate WSLS is with us with a live report again this morning.

New developments now, Juliet? What do we have?

JULIET BICKFORD, WSLS CORRESPONDENT: Bill, we are awaiting a press conference right now from state police. They are going to give us the latest. But what we do know is that they still have not found 9-year-old Jennifer Short. Overnight, they did have people searching with flashlights and they had a helicopter up yesterday. They're hoping to get it back up again today, but they haven't done that yet.

Also, it was just about 24 hours ago that a family friend found her parents dead in the house. Investigators say Jennifer was at home when someone killed her parents, Michael and Mary, some time Thursday morning. Now, they aren't sure if she was taken or could be hiding somewhere, but they have talked to family and friends. They say that she is not there and at this point they're just not sure what happened. They're not sure if she was kidnapped but they do know that she's missing.

As we said before, they have issued an Amber Alert. They have gotten numerous leads, people calling in thinking they saw Jennifer, although those turned out to be false leads. Jennifer was not where they were looking. And so far they say that they're just going to keep the search around here, but, again, they don't even know if she's still in this area.

HEMMER: Jennifer, a question about the time line, your Juliet, rather. Excuse me. The time police believe the two parents were shot and killed inside the home to the time that they were discovered, how many hours elapsed? Do we know?

BICKFORD: It's about eight or nine hours. There was a family friend reportedly that was at the house that saw them around midnight. They saw the girl with them and then around 9:00 a.m. is when they were found.

HEMMER: And has there been any discussion through police investigators as to a possible motive for this killing or abduction? BICKFORD: There has been no idea yet on the motive. Family and friends tell us they don't know why someone would want to kill the Shorts. The police are saying that they think the person who killed them did know them.

HEMMER: Juliet, thank you.

Juliet Bickford reporting live there courtesy of WSLS in Bassett, Virginia. We will track that again throughout the morning here.

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