Small Skull Found; May Be Jennifer Short's
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
STONEVILLE, N.C. — Authorities and search dogs descended on a rural area where a small human skull was found Wednesday, some 30 miles from where a 9-year-old Virginia girl disappeared last month.
The officials included a contingent from Henry County, Va., where police have been hunting for Jennifer Short since Aug. 15. Officials believe the girl was kidnapped after her parents were slain in their Henry County home.
The skull "appears to be from somebody young," said Jeannie Justice, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office in Rockingham County.
Investigators brought a sample of hair from the skull and other evidence found here to Roanoke, Va., where Jennifer's belongings are being held, in an attempt to make a preliminary finding. Results of the analysis were to be announced Thursday, Henry County investigators said.
Until then, authorities said, they would not speculate on the remains or whether they had any connection to the missing girl.
"We're not sophisticated enough to determine this," Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said.
Rockingham County resident Eddie Albert discovered the skull Wednesday afternoon after noticing his two dogs tossing around what he at first thought was a brown wig, said his daughter, Lisa Albert.
"There were small fragments of jaw, teeth and other bones strewn all over the place," Page said.
Authorities searched for the rest of the body Wednesday night. They drained a pond near Albert's property, but there was no immediate indication whether anything had been found.
The girl disappeared almost six weeks ago. For days after her disappearance, authorities combed the rolling hills behind her parents' house on horseback and four-wheelers. Search dogs only picked up the girl's scent in the house and the neighboring convenience store, where the family regularly shopped.
Jennifer's parents, Michael Short, 50, and Mary Hall Short, 36, were shot to death in their red-brick ranch house along busy U.S. 220, about 35 miles south of Roanoke. No arrests have been made.
Wednesday's discovery comes four days after a Henry County judge made Jennifer's uncle and aunt her legal guardians