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CNN Sunday Morning

No New Leads in Jennifer Short Abduction Case

Aired August 18, 2002 - 11:01   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In rural southwestern Virginia, the search intensifies for 9-year-old Jennifer Short. Law enforcement officials say she was kidnapped after her parents were killed by someone the family knew. We get the latest now from CNN's Jeanne Meserve in Collinsville, Virginia. Good morning, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. Sadly, the progress report is there is nothing to report. Sheriff H.F. Cassell held a briefing about an hour ago and said his department had received a number of promising leads overnight. They chased them down; they did not pan out.

I want to show you some videotape, this CNN obtained yesterday. It shows young Jennifer Short, 9 years old, playing with some of her friends on a trampoline. As you look at that, let me tell you more about the investigation. Sheriff Cassell says that investigators are chasing down some other new leads this morning. They hope they will take them somewhere fruitful.

Meanwhile, they're continuing that painstaking process of interviewing and re-interviewing people who are connected with the family. The sheriff saying again this morning that he does believe this was a crime committed by somebody who had a connection with this family.

The sheriff also saying there is what he called "a roomful of forensic evidence." He said a good part of that has not been tested yet by the state lab. He said that would probably be done or it will start anyway on Monday, but he didn't sound particularly hopeful that any of that would take the direction down any new roads.

The investigation overall, he said, was one of great difficulty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF H.F. CASSELL, HENRY COUNTY, VIRGINIA: It's very difficult in that you have such a small amount of evidence. We've got a combination of a double murder and an obvious abduction. It's difficult in that we have no sightings, we have no tag number, we have no vehicle description. And all we've got is running down what we're doing right now. We have nothing positive to start with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The sheriff's department did put out some new pictures of Jennifer Short last night. They are more current. They show her with a shorter haircut. They were hopeful that putting out these photographs might provoke some more calls into the department. This morning, we were told that there has not been an increase in the number of calls that they're receiving.

Meanwhile, the search, the ground search around Jennifer's home has been called off. Searchers felt they had gone over this ground pretty carefully. That search will be picked up again if and when authorities have something specific that they want the searchers to check into. But for the moment, this boils down to good, old- fashioned detective work, trying to generate leads and eliminate leads -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you very much, Jeanne Meserve from Collinsville, Virginia.

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