I have only been visiting the websleuth community since the dissapearance of Taylor Behl. I have learned a great deal about this community and honestly think there are some great websleuths here. I was really surprised when I went to do a search here for Jennifer Short, and found there were other's who remember this crime.
I am only about 10 minutes from where the deaths of Jennifer's parents were, and about 20 minutes from where her body was found. I have family that could almost throw a rock at the short house from their house. My husband and I were on one of the very first search teams dispatched to look for Jennifer after her parents were found. I also have a son that had played on a baseball team against Jennifer Short, and at that time, I was coaching little league sports, so I very well remember seeing this lovely girl. To say this has been a very troubling case in our area is an understatement, at least for those that I know.
I don't have any inside information about the case, only what has been in print, but I thought I would give a little inside information about our area in hopes that some of you that have been in this websleuthing community might can give me some information about other predators that you know about. This area is not that big of a community, but it is very spread out. The area that the father and mother were killed in was on one of our major highways, 220. This is a very heavily travelled road, and it also leads to the area where Jennifer's body was found. But given the fact of the exact location of Jennifer's body, it appears that someone would almost have to had knowledge of that particular area in order to have left her body there. It is not a place that someone would usually just happen upon as it is several turns off any main road.
The area that the short murders were committed in, has long been an area that has been known as the "moonshine capital of the world". We don't have that many serious crimes that are not solved, and our lead investigator, Kimmie Nester is a top notch detective who has worked this case from day one, and I'm sure will not rest until it is solved, however long it takes. I cannot say much about the investigators in Rockingham county where Jennifer's body was found. Our area has been one of a very high unemployment rate for several years due to most of our manufacturing being moved to Mexico and related places because of the North American Trade Agreement. We have been compared in recent years to having a crime rate equal to that of NY, if looking at demographics, and alot of criminals that are arrested here seem to have some link with NY.
I have always sort of thought that the main person of interest in this case "could" have something to do with it all, but I've never been fully sure. I think there were way to many concidences connecting him to the case, and no evidence to prove any of it. As of this time, we don't get many updates on the case, although there was recently a memorial bike ride in honor of Jennifer Short which was a huge success. I do know that there was alot of media attention in the beginning, but as the case became colder, so did the media attention, which is a shame. The family does not have the resources to keep this case in the limelight, or to place a big reward, because they mostly had to sell everything they could in order to pay for the funeral expenses.
Ok, now my questions. Can any of you think of any major criminal, serial killer, etc, that was anywhere near this area? I have researched serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan as a possibility, and really cannot find any sort of connection, as all of his activities seemed to be out west. I have also done some research on a child molester, John Dallas Lockhart
, an ohio resident who was accused of raping a 4 month old baby. I cannot find any link to him either. These are the only 2 serial killers that come to my mind, but since I am new to all of this, I thought instead of reading through the tons of other cases discussed in this forum, I would start out by asking for a heads up from some of you.
I would love to bring this case back into the limelight and am trying to work on a website to try and get it back into the faces of people somehow. I don't think it is an unsolvable case, I just think it lost it's attraction at the early stages to most of the media, and for that reason alone, no new information has been forthcoming. This is a case that is so different to follow. The killing of 2 parents, the abduction and killing of a little girl, no evidence of burglery, the cutting of a phone line so no calls could be placed during the crimes. No real suspects, and really, we don't know if this was a killing to abduct a little girl or just a random act that took it's own turn of events and led to Jennifer's abduction and killing. It just doesn't follow any certain patten of any other crimes that I have been looking at.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and any leads to possible other serial killier or well know pedifiles would be greatly appreciated. I intend to spend a great deal of time looking into this whole case to see if I can find anything that might give it a reason to come back into the limelight.
This is a link that provides information about where exactly highway 220 runs thru and to, which might help with your memory of known criminals in any of these areas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Highway_220#Major_cities