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CNN Sunday Morning

Virginia Authorities Frustrated by Lack of Leads in Short Case

Aired August 18, 2002 - 08:02   ET

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

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators in Virginia are circulating some new photographs of 9-year-old Jennifer Short, in hopes of yielding more clues in that case, but authorities are frustrated by the few leads since she was discovered missing after her parents were found murdered early Thursday. Volunteers have halted their search for Jennifer, but authorities say that their investigation remains at full speed.
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SHERIFF H.F. CASSELL, HENRY COUNT, VIRGINIA: We've probably got more people to contact right now, tomorrow, than we had at noon Thursday, because the past, like I said, one things leads to another. So, we're a long way from beginning to cut back on any part of this investigation.

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CALLAWAY: Joining us now, with more about the Jennifer Short case and the investigation, CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks -- thanks for being with us, Mike.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning.

CALLAWAY: You know, I'm curious with the crime scene, interesting crime scene in this case, you had the father found dead, shot in the head in the garage, and the mother found in the bedroom, what does this tell us, if anything, about happened there.

BROOKS: Yes, both of them shot in the head, one if the carport, one in the garage. The little girl apparently was in her bedroom. Does it mean that there were multiple perpetrators, does it mean that maybe one was shot -- the other one came home, confronted someone, and then was shot in the carport?

And during all this, where was the little girl? It was initially thought that she possibly could have run into to woods from the house. Apparently a very rural area down in the southwestern Virginia, but apparently that's not the case. It looks as if she was in her bedroom, but there is no sign of any struggle apparently in the bedroom.

CALLAWAY: And they don't know yet about the timing of the shootings, or do they, as far as, when the mother shot, and when the father was shot, because it would hard not to hear that. BROOKS: It would be. I think they found the father, by one of his coworkers at about 9:00 a.m. The medical examiner will be able to take a core temperature to see about approximate time of death, but that hasn't been released, and probably will not be for quite some time. And so, there's a lot of questions remain to be asked.

Now, of course, law enforcement, Henry County, working with Virginia state police, and also now with the FBI, have taken all the fingerprints, have taken all the forensic evidence they said they need from the house. There are other leads that they're going on now. They apparently stopped the ground search, and are now looking at other investigative leads which apparently going to take them all the way somewhere to Missouri. What's the -- what the link in Missouri is, whether it maybe the mother or the father used to live there, that's unknown, and its -- we haven't seen any other family members coming out talking about this, like we have in some of the other cases either, so...

CALLAWAY: Right, that's interesting, isn't it?

BROOKS: Very interesting, and so, and maybe they're just, you know, and that part of the Virginia, maybe they're just more closed, more, you know, keep a little close things close to the vest. There's a lot of questions still remain to be asked.

CALLAWAY: You know, there's one thing that we have to get from this, is that it was, it was planned. There was no way this could have just been randomly done, really?

BROOKS: No, the house is up for sale. They're going back and looking to see if maybe someone who came in to look for, you know, look at the house, under a guy's real estate -- maybe that was it -- could have been a coworker or someone who worked with the father, you know, a disgruntled employee who worked with him -- someone who knew both of them.

Was it a domestic involvement here? We don't know, we don't know -- there's still a lot of questions remain to be asked, but it does seem, and the sheriff from Henry County has said, it does seem to indicate that the victim knew the perpetrator, knew them...

CALLAWAY: You know, normally in these cases we hear, there's sightings, or you know, possible leads in this case. We haven't heard that, we haven't heard of possible sightings of where she could be.

BROOKS: No, and there's no tag number, you know. They put out the information into the Amber Alert system.

CALLAWAY: Yes.

BROOKS: But, to make the Amber Alert system effective, it has to be done quickly after the crime is committed, or after the abduction is -- occurs. This, we don't know how much lead time this person had with her. We don't know exactly where she is, and what condition she's in. Hopefully she'll be found alive.

CALLAWAY: Yes, let's hope so.

BROOKS: But, as the days go by, it gets more grim.

CALLAWAY: CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks. Thanks, Mike, for being back with us and discussing this topic with us.

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