Posted on 11/14/2008 3:47:45 PM PST by sevinufnine
Michael and Mary Short were found dead in their Henry County home on August 15, 2002. Jennifer's remains were found six weeks later under a bridge across the border in North Carolina. All three were shot once in the head.
>>>>> THIS IS AN UNSOLVED CRIME IN MY AREA - CAN ANYONE HELP WITH INFORMATION OUT THERE? <<<<<<
If you have any information about this case, contact the FBI Tip Line at 1-800-225-5324 or your local FBI office.
(Excerpt) Read more at wdbj7.com ...
If anyone out there in FreeRepublic-land was in the area or knows a family member, friend, enemy who is...please forward the article and ask if they know about this. I don't know the family, but it's a mysterious case.
Another article from a local site.
It is a very sad story, and I’d never heard about it before. It’s good of you to try to keep it in the public eye, especially since they are not people you know.
Weren’t all the initial investigators later indicted for drug related crimes?
YES!!! ABSOLUTELY! The LE in the area was so corrupt. I’ve wondered about ties to that over time.
This is another reason the case has intrigued me. Worst of the worst case scenario...kinda like the Aruba thing with Natalie Holloway, you know? Some of those bad cops are out of jail already too.
Thank you...you around here too?
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ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - Henry County Sheriff Frank Cassell and 12 of his employees have been indicted on federalcharges in an alleged drug-related racketeering conspiracy.
A U-S Postal Service employee, a probation officer and five citizens were also charged in the 34-count indictment, which wasunsealed today.
Charges in the indictment — which was handed down on Tuesday —include racketeering, narcotics distribution, obstruction ofjustice and perjury.
A spokesman for the U-S Marshal’s Service in Roanoke says federal agents arrested most of the defendants early this morning.
The indictment alleges that beginning in 1998, drugs seized bythe sheriff’s office were sold to citizens for distribution. Thedrugs include the cocaine, marijuana, steroids and the sedative Ketamine.
Cassell was charged with impeding the investigation by federal agents, who began their probe in March of last year.He’s been sheriff of Henry County since 1992, and his departmenthas 122 employees, including 96 sworn law enforcement officers.
Yea... you have to wonder if the cops who were running drug rings weren’t involved. The Shorts lived on a VERY main road next to a gas station.
I have to wonder what poor, Mr. Short may have known that someone (in the dirty-side of LE) would have found so incriminating as to kill off the entire family? Unless some creepy, child/abduction for sex thing, I cannot imagine what else? I mean, they lived in a trailer and werern’t all rich. Why do this to them in the middle of no where?
I’m not familiar with the area, I’m in Pulaski Co, but travel to Roanoke daily. Have family in Franklin Co and Roanoke Co, so we were all sadden by this news and have followed hoping to learn it was resolved. Both sides of family have also had some in LE, so it’s more sad to realize what was going on there could have had just SO much to do with anything that happened in their jurisdiction.
Like I said...as if trying to get information out of Aruba about those boys who took off with the girl who never was seen again. Police were protecting some judge’s son. What do you know?
Maybe it was a Mena-type situation. Remember, the boys on the tracks? Maybe a member of the Short family was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and saw something that got them all killed.
Corruption in law enforcement is very frightening.
I thought of Mena too when I read the earlier posts.
Mena?
I remember this case. I used to drive by their house every day on my way to Roanoke for my job. I remember driving by that morning and seeing all the cop cars and activity at the house. I can’t believe this hasn’t been solved yet, but you have to expect that with a breathtakingly corrupt police department
why this fbi bulletin now?....after all these years....
the parents were killed by a 22 gun....the little girl was then kidnapped and killed elsewhere.....
I've often thought about Duncan the murderer of the Groene family, who abducted the kids to sexually assault them and kill one of them before he was caught....
sexual predators being so bold to attack adults just to take the children...
Duncan was a wanderer and I have no idea if he could have been in that area...Virginia/NorthCarolina at that time...but is sure makes me think...
the Shorts lived right along side a highway, similar to the Groene's
HENRY COUNTY, Va. - Sheriff Harry Cassell and a dozen current or former employees of the Henry Country Sheriff's Office, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering charges.
A total of 20 defendants have been charged for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy that included the distribution of illegal drugs, theft of drugs and firearms under the custody of the Henry County Sheriff's Office, money laundering and obstruction of justice, U.S. Attorney John L. Brownlee of the Western District of Virginia announced.
Cassell, 68, a former state trooper and sheriff since 1992, is in his 49th year in law enforcement. He has been charged with impeding the federal investigation and with money laundering. He has been released on $25,000 bond and Henry County supervisors are seeking his resignation.
Prosecutors say that for the past eight years, cocaine, steroids, marijuana and other drugs seized by the sheriff's department were then resold to the public.
“The members of this conspiracy took advantage of the trust placed in them as law enforcement officers,” stated U.S. Attorney Brownlee. “Their illegal activities included drug distribution, money laundering, and stealing property that was in the custody of the Henry County Sheriff's Office. Then, when they were confronted by investigators, the defendants lied in an attempt to hide their criminal conduct. The men and women in law enforcement are respected for their bravery and commitment to service. We will not allow the criminal activities of a small group to tarnish the honorable work that officers in this district perform each day.”
According to the indictment, since 1998, sworn officers, employees, and associates of the Henry County Sheriff's Office engaged in a continuous scheme to steal narcotics, firearms, and other contraband from the seized evidence property room. The defendants took cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, and firearms, and then sold the stolen drugs and guns back into the community. The indictment also alleges that several of the defendants stole seized firearms and other contraband for their own personal use.
On March 4, 2005, agents from the Philadelphia office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notified agents in Roanoke, Va., that an express mail package containing two kilograms of Ketamine was being delivered to a residence in Martinsville, Va. Ketamine is a sedative/date rape drug. DEA agents made a controlled delivery of the Ketamine to the Martinsville home and arrested William Randall Reed and charged him with illegal possession with the intent to distribute Ketamine.
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