The Virginia Cold Case That Haunted a Small Town for Decades | True Crime

Someone cut the phone line first, then they slipped inside a home in rural Virginia in the early hours of the morning. And by the time the sun came up, a father was dead in his garage and a mother was dead in her bedroom, both shot once in the head, and their 9-year-old daughter was gone. What followed was one of the largest searches the region had ever seen.

 And more than two decades later, no one has ever been arrested. And whoever did this has never been found. Welcome back to Old Case Book, where we cover the  cases that refuse to stay buried. Today, we have two stories from Virginia. One that remains one of the most haunting unsolved cases in the state’s history.

 And one that took 40 years, but finally got an answer. Let’s start with the one that still doesn’t have one. Michael Wayne Short was born on February 18th, 1952. By the summer of 2002, he was 50 years old and a well-known figure around Henry County, Virginia, where he owned and operated a mobile home moving company called MS Mobile Home Movers.

He had three grown sons from an earlier marriage. And those who knew him described him as hardworking,    down-to-earth, and someone who never bothered a single soul. His wife, Mary Frances Short, was born Mary Frances Hall on April 20th, 1966 in Franklin County, Virginia, one of seven children. She worked factory jobs over the years, helped run the paperwork side of the family business, and by all accounts, was a devoted wife and mother whose entire world revolved around her daughter.

That daughter was Jennifer Renee Short. Born July 12th, 1993. 9 years old that summer. Bright and outgoing with a beautiful smile. Known around the neighborhood for running back  and forth between her house and the nearby convenience store. She was about to start the fourth grade at Vicksburg Elementary.

  Her family was said to be fiercely protective of her. On the evening  of Wednesday, August 14th, 2002, Michael worked on a truck with one of his employees. Later that night, around 11:00 p.m., he drove Mary and Jennifer  to pick up food from a local Burger King and returned home. After that, they were never seen alive again.

The next morning, when Michael failed to show up for work and couldn’t be reached, one of his employees drove out to check on him. Michael was dead in the detached garage, a spot where he routinely spent his  nights watching television and sleeping because of his loud snoring.  Shot once in the head.

 Inside the main house in the bedroom, Mary was also dead. A single gunshot wound to the head. Investigators recovered .22 caliber shell casings, one near each of them. And the phone line running to the house had been cut. This was not a random break-in. Someone had planned this. Jennifer was nowhere to be found. Initially, everyone hoped she had escaped and was hiding somewhere nearby.

A search of the surrounding fields and woods found nothing. An Amber Alert went out across the region. Jennifer’s photograph led the local news for weeks. Virtually the entire town joined  the search for her. And for a time, hope remained high. But as the days turned into weeks, investigators arrived at a  darker conclusion.

That Jennifer had been taken by her parents’ killer. Nearly 6 weeks later, on September 25th, 2002,  that theory was confirmed in the worst possible way. Jennifer’s remains  were discovered along a stream off Gordon Road, near the town  of Stoneville in Rockingham County, North Carolina. Roughly 30 to 35 miles  across the state line from her home.

She, like her parents, had been shot with a .22 caliber firearm. Due to advanced decomposition,  forensic pathologists couldn’t establish an exact time of death. But they theorized she had been murdered within a day or two of being abducted. A 9-year-old girl gone within 48 hours of the night. Someone cut a phone  line and slipped inside a home.

Back at the original crime scene, one detail stood above all the others. Nothing of value had been taken. Cash, valuables, all left  completely untouched. This was not a robbery gone wrong. These murders were deliberate, planned, and personal. Someone had come specifically for the Short family. Over the years, investigators questioned multiple people and chased down dozens of tips.

They examined an old report of someone from one of Mary’s former workplaces who had been fixated on her. They looked at people Michael had crossed paths with through his moving business, including minor work disputes. One of those disputes eventually led them to the only known person of interest in the case.

His name was Garrison Bowman, nicknamed Storm, a 60-year-old carpenter living in Madison, North Carolina. His landlord had reported that Bowman threatened to  kill an unnamed Virginia mobile home mover over a business dispute. That was Michael’s exact profession. Investigators moved quickly. What they found only deepened the suspicion.

The day after the killings, Bowman had abruptly vanished, traveling to a remote area of Canada. He left behind a van, which his landlord claimed had a false floor and hidden compartment constructed 3 days before the murders. When investigators searched  the van, they found no evidence of either. But when they searched his abandoned trailer, they found a map of Virginia with a location marked near the Short family home.

And that trailer sat just 1 mile from the bridge where Jennifer’s remains were eventually discovered. The FBI located Bowman in Yellowknife, Canada. He was deported back to the United States to face a federal grand jury. He maintained his innocence throughout. He said he had never met the Short family. He said the trip to Canada was simply him looking for work and a summer home.

Friends stepped forward and said that Bowman’s severe daily heavy drinking would have made it impossible for him to execute  a coordinated triple homicide and abduction. On the map, he said his ex-wife had made that mark long before the murders, indicating an antique stealer they had planned to visit.

  Extensive forensic testing was performed on his van, his clothes, and his bedding. No DNA, no hair, no ballistic evidence connecting him to the crime. Two men also came forward claiming they had witnessed Bowman commit the murders. They were later charged with fabricating their stories. They had been after the reward money.

Garrison Bowman was officially cleared as a suspect. And after that, the trail went cold. In 2019,  the home where Michael and Mary were murdered was destroyed in a fire. Two years later, Henry County assembled a multi-agency task force to re-review the entire case. The team included the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina, the Virginia State Police, the FBI, and the US Attorney’s Office.

DNA samples from inside  the home were uploaded to CODIS. No matches were found. As of August 2026, the murders of Michael, Mary, and Jennifer Short remain officially unsolved. A reward of $62,500 is currently being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. If you or anyone you know has any information, please contact the Henry County Sheriff’s Office    at 276-638-7511 or the FBI tip line at 1-800- 225- 5324.

A family of three was executed in their own home. Jennifer Short was 9  years old. And whoever did this has never faced a single day of accountability. Now, a second case from Virginia. One that also went unanswered for decades. But this one finally got there. On the morning of May 15th, 1986 a groundskeeper in Virginia Beach was going about his usual day when he made a horrifying discovery.

In an open field behind Old Donation Elementary School  the body of a 22-year-old woman. She had been stabbed multiple times and sexually assaulted. For 40 years, the man responsible was a stranger to everyone who knew her. Hidden behind  a single DNA profile that investigators could see but couldn’t  put a name to until May of 2026.

Roberta Lee Walls, known to everyone as Bobby was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on August 6th 1963. She was 22 years old that spring. Described [snorts] as kind and compassionate she volunteered at the Bayside Public Library which is where she spent her last evening alive. On the night of Tuesday May 14th 1986 Bobby left the library and stopped briefly at home before heading out to spend time with  friends.

Around midnight she placed a call from a payphone  outside the library. Virginia Beach police later confirmed it was not a call for help but more of a social check-in with a friend. After she hung up she was never seen alive again. Investigators believe she began walking  across the school field across the street when she was attacked.

Her body was found the following morning stabbed multiple times sexually assaulted. In 2001, 15 years after Bobby’s murder, investigators developed a male DNA profile from evidence that had been carefully preserved from the 1986 scene. They now had the genetic fingerprint of the man they were looking for. The problem was that a profile is only as useful as the database it’s compared against.

When Bobby’s case profile was searched, there was no match. Whoever had killed her had never had their DNA entered into the system. Investigators also tested more than 30 men from  Bobby’s immediate social circle. Each one voluntarily provided  a DNA sample. Every single one was excluded. In 2017, detectives tried a different approach.

They sent the DNA  to a laboratory in northern Virginia where analysts used it to build a composite image of what the killer  likely looked like and released sketches showing the person of interest at two possible ages, around 25 and around 55. The new lead reignited public interest. It didn’t lead to an arrest.

The case went  cold again. The breakthrough finally came through forensic genetic genealogy, the same technique that has cracked open cold cases across the country in recent years. In 2023, the Virginia Beach Police Department received grant funding that allowed investigators to pursue this approach on Bobby’s case.

Instead  of simply comparing the unknown DNA profile against convicted  offenders in a law enforcement database, analysts uploaded the profile to genealogy platforms, identified distant relatives who shared segments of DNA, and used those matches to build out a family tree branch by branch until the branches narrowed toward a single person.

That work pointed investigators to a name that had never once surfaced in 40 years of investigation. A 66-year-old man living quietly in Newington, Connecticut. His name was Charles Randall Berry. When detectives  looked into Berry’s history, they found a connection to Virginia Beach that had gone unnoticed for decades.

Back in 1986, Berry was a member of the United States Navy and had been living near the crime scene at the time of the murder. Investigators looked into whether Bobby and Berry had known each other. They found no such connection. The current theory is that it was a chance encounter. Bobby walking across  that school field in the dark and Berry being there.

To move from a genealogical lead to a case that could stand  in court, investigators obtained a warrant for a sample of Berry’s DNA and compared it against the profile generated back in 2001.  It was a match. On May 18th, 2026,  almost exactly 40 years to the week after Bobby’s body was found, Charles Randall Berry was arrested  in Newington, Connecticut.

He was charged with capital murder and sexual assault. He was ordered held on a $10 million bond while the extradition process plays out. Once that process is complete, he is expected to be transferred to Virginia to face the charges. As of August 2026, Charles Berry remains held in Connecticut awaiting extradition.

DNA has linked him to Bobby’s murder, but he remains innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. Two cases from Virginia, two families waiting for answers. One answer came 40 years late through a strand of DNA and a family tree built backwards from a distant relative. The other answer still hasn’t come. Bobby Boles was 22 years old.

She had just made a late-night  phone call to a friend and was walking home. Michael and Mary Short were a working couple raising their daughter in a small Virginia  community. Jennifer Short was 9 years old. She was about to start fourth grade. If you know anything about what happened to the Short family on the night of August 14th, 2002, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are still listening.

The reward is $62,500 and a family of three is still waiting for someone to speak. Leave your thoughts on both of these cases in the comments below. We read every single one.