Mary Short: The Unsolved Short Family Murders in Virginia

The Short family murders remain one of Virginia’s most notorious unsolved crimes. On August 15, 2002, Michael Wayne Short, 50, and his wife Mary Hall Short, 36, were found shot to death inside their home in the Oak Level community of Henry County, Virginia. Their nine-year-old daughter, Jennifer Renee Short, was missing from the house and was found dead six weeks later across the state line in North Carolina. More than two decades on, no one has been arrested or charged, and the investigation is still active.¹

What Happened in August 2002

On the evening of August 14, 2002, Michael Short was working on a truck with one of his employees at the family’s home off U.S. 220 near Bassett. When Michael did not show up for work the next morning, the employee called 911 to request a welfare check. Deputies found Michael and Mary dead inside the house. Both had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, in what investigators later described as execution-style killings. The phone line at the house had been cut.²³

Jennifer, who had been in the home, was gone. She had been taken from her bed the night her parents were killed.⁴³¹

Who the Shorts Were

Michael Short owned and operated M.S. Mobile Home Movers, a Henry County business that moved and set up mobile homes. In the months before the murders, he had made several trips to South Carolina, visiting Bennettsville, Florence, Conway, and Myrtle Beach, and was considering relocating his family there for work. The Oak Level home was for sale at the time.²¹

Mary lived at the Oak Level residence with her husband and daughter. People who knew the family described them as keeping to themselves and living a normal life, and no one could point to an obvious reason anyone would want to harm them.⁵

What Investigators Have Found

Investigators spent at least two weeks processing the crime scene in August 2002, collecting roughly 1,000 pieces of evidence. Among the items recovered were two .22-caliber shell casings, a .22-caliber shotgun, a rifle, and ammunition. DNA evidence was also collected from the home.²⁴

No suspects have ever been publicly named. Investigators explored tips that someone had stalked Mary Short at a previous workplace, but those leads reportedly went nowhere. Officials have said they cannot rule out a sexual assault given that the case involved the abduction of a child, though they have never established that one occurred.⁵²

Michael Short’s business contacts have been a long-running focus. The FBI has asked anyone who did business with M.S. Mobile Home Movers between January 2001 and August 2002, including contractors, mobile home dealers, parts suppliers, and day laborers paid in cash, to come forward.¹

In 2009, the FBI released composite sketches of a flatbed truck seen near the Short home in the early morning hours around the time of the murders, along with a drawing of a man believed to have been inside the truck. The man was described as having a weathered complexion and being approximately in his 40s. Neither the truck nor the man has been publicly identified.²

The Material Witness: Garrison Bowman

The only named material witness in the case was Garrison “Storm” Bowman, a 66-year-old carpenter from Mayodan, North Carolina. Bowman drew investigators’ attention because Jennifer’s remains were found roughly one mile from a mobile home he leased, his former landlord reported that Bowman had expressed thoughts about killing an unidentified man in Virginia over a dispute related to moving a mobile home, and he left North Carolina for Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories on August 16, 2002, the day after the murders.⁶⁷

Bowman was arrested on a federal material witness warrant in Inuvik, Canada, on October 3, 2002, and returned to the United States. On October 30, 2002, prosecutors dropped the warrant in exchange for his cooperation, and a U.S. magistrate judge released him. He was required to testify before a grand jury in Roanoke on November 12, 2002. Authorities said he was not considered a suspect, and his attorney said Bowman did not believe he knew the Short family. He was never indicted. Bowman has since died.⁷⁶⁴

The 2019 House Fire

On February 20, 2019, the vacant Short family home on Virginia Avenue in Bassett burned to the ground. The house had no electricity and had been without power for months, and no storms were reported at the time. Investigators found a plastic gas can in the backyard and bagged it as a precaution, though the fire investigator cautioned it did not confirm anything. The Henry County Fire Marshal’s Office ultimately ruled the cause “undetermined.”⁸⁹ Sheriff Lane Perry said the fire did not appear connected to the 2002 murders and would not impede the investigation because all usable evidence had already been recovered from the home.¹⁰

The Current Task Force and DNA Retesting

In 2021, a multi-agency task force was formally organized to reexamine the case from the start, bringing together the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police, the FBI, and North Carolina state police. The task force received a grant to fund advanced forensic testing and retesting of hundreds of pieces of evidence collected over the prior two decades.¹¹

In 2023, a reconfigured task force was established with two Henry County investigators, Virginia State Police special agents, and FBI members working directly with the full case file. That same year, Henry County Sheriff Wayne Davis, who had been a patrol officer responding to the original 911 call in 2002, confirmed that evidence was being retested using what he described as the “most advanced DNA technology in the world.” Modern DNA analysis can generate a complete profile from a much smaller sample than older methods required.¹¹²

As of August 2025, evidence is being processed at DNA Labs International with additional FBI funding. Sheriff Davis has said the task force has made “substantial progress” over the past two years, though no specific results from the DNA testing have been publicly released. The sheriff’s office has a dedicated investigator working the case nearly every day. The broader investigation has also led to arrests of what authorities describe as “numerous other child predators” identified during the inquiry.¹

Reward and How to Submit a Tip

A reward of $62,500 is offered by Henry County and Martinsville-Henry County Crimestoppers for information leading to an arrest and conviction.¹³ Investigators are particularly interested in hearing from anyone who had contact with the Short family between August 1 and August 14, 2002; anyone who was a client of M.S. Mobile Home Movers in 2002; and anyone who had contact with Michael Short in the Bennettsville, Florence, Conway, or Myrtle Beach areas of South Carolina during the spring or summer of 2002.¹

Tips can be submitted to:

Henry County Sheriff’s Office: (276) 638-8751
Crimestoppers: (276) 632-7463 or (336) 349-9683
FBI tip line: 1-800-225-5324
Virginia State Police: bci-salem@vsp.virginia.gov

¹⁴

1
Henry County Enterprise. 23 Years In, Investigators Still Pursue Justice in Short Family Killings
2
WFXR. After 20 Years, Are We Any Closer to Answers in Short Family Murders in Henry Co.
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RBS News Now. 23 Years Later, Short Family Murders Still Unsolved in Henry County
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FOX8. Who Killed Jennifer Short
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WDBJ7. Fire Generates Fresh Suspicion About Short Family Murders
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CNN. Short Warrant
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WIS. Man Held in Short Killings Released
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WSLS. Short Family’s Former Henry County Home Destroyed by Fire, Cause Unknown
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WFXR. Cause Released in Fire at Short Family Home
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Forensic Magazine. More Agencies Looking at Evidence in Murder of Short Family in 2002
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WXII. Memorial Ride Honors Short Family Unsolved Murders
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WFXR. Henry County Sheriff Is Hopeful New Advancements in DNA Testing Will Help in 21-Year Murder Investigation
13
WFXR. $62K Reward Offered for Information About 2002 Short Family Murders
14
Virginia State Police. Virginia State Police Case 02-19828