The murder of two parents, who were executed before their daughter’s skeletal bones were found weeks later, is still a mystery.
The shocking killings of the Short family, whose murders are still unsolved 20 years later, shook a little Virginia hamlet.
On August 15, 2002, a member of their staff discovered the remains of Michael Short, 50, and Mary Short, 36, but their daughter, age 9, was nowhere to be seen.
Jennifer was unable to be discovered after the couple was shot in the head and left for dead inside their Oak Level, Virginia, home.
A bridge in Rockingham County, North Carolina, some 45 minutes from the scene of her parents’ tragic deaths, was where her tragically unidentified remains were tragically found six weeks later.
A shocked family discovered the young girl’s teeth and pieces of a human skull on their home.
They initially believed the teeth belonged to some kind of wild animal, Lisa Albert-Vaughn recalled in the podcast Who Killed Jennifer Short?
Her husband didn’t call the police to check anything out until after their family dogs were playing with what they mistook for a turtle shell.
Albert-Vaughn remarked, “He replied [the officer] I’m afraid that’s not a turtle shell, that’s a skull.
Jennifer, according to the police, had her skull shot.