Unknown Short Family Killer - Virginia - 2002

I'll admit, it's possible that maybe he kidnapped her with intent to have his way with her, but maybe she put up such as struggle and fight that he figured it wasn't worth it. But then again, that means he committed triple murder for nothing. Also, I wonder if Duncan was ever thought as a suspect in this case.

I highly doubt it was Duncan. It was revealed on the last AMW airing that investigators have hair samples and fingerprints of whoever is responsible. Whoever left those prints is not in the FBI system and surely Duncan HAS to be in the FBI system.

articles.wdbj7.com/2011-01-24/short-family_27047238

However I'm at a loss of actual theories myself. The FBI press release mentioned that they wanted to speak to people who worked for Michael Short, which would include migrant workers. Also to answer a question from theczar, Jennifer's remains were found as a partial skeleton, so detecting sexual assault would have been near-impossible. Authorities feel that Jennifer was the most likely target of this, however, how the perpetrator learned about Jennifer is a mystery.

Something else that interests me is from a local poster on another crime-related forum claimed that no one could have traveled that highway in the dark and saw the face of the person depicted in the sketch that theczar provided. It's also unusual that this person recalled the details of this individual seven years after the crime occurred. I also want to point out that even the amw.com page for this case doesn't have the person in the sketch as the main picture featured (in fact, no actual sketch or photo is featured). There's nothing to say that the person in the sketch is necessarily even involved in this or may have even have been an accomplice. (The FBI hasn't even called this person a suspect)

With that in mind, it's quite possible that an illegal migrant worker could be involved. Since not even a fingerprint exists on file, the perpetrator could be a Latin American national and fled the United States shortly after the crime occurred. This is just one possibility however. My feeling is that whoever is responsible, doesn't live in the local area anymore.


transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0210/04/bn.08.html
www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=73169

I remember back when AMW first aired this case, one possibility police were looking at was an incident that involved Mary back in the early 90s. Apparently a man nobody knew showed up at her employer and demanded to see her. Her fellow employees refused, and when they threatened to call the police, the man disappeared. Mary never mentioned the man to anybody, and I don't think anybody ever figured out who the guy was.

Like everybody else has said, it really makes you wonder if Jennifer was the intended target. Why else would her body have been dumped so far away? Such a strange and tragic case.

It has now sadly been 14 years since the Short Family murders:

wset.com/news/local/fourteenth-anniversary-of-the-short-family-murders