Lack of Leads Frustrates Police Seeking Va. Girl

The search for 9-year-old Jennifer Short stretched into a fifth day Monday as frustrated authorities said they had found no signs of a struggle in the home where the girl’s parents were slain.

Sheriff Frank Cassell also confirmed that phone lines to the home had been cut some time before Thursday’s slayings and kidnapping. He has said the culprit likely knew Michael and Mary Short.

Separately, a search warrant released Monday revealed that officers had found a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, a 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun, shell casings and boxes of ammunition in the home.

But there were no signs that the couple or Jennifer resisted the intruder. Their red brick ranch home was notably uncluttered after the crimes, Cassell said.

“Bedcovers were thrown back and that’s about it,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show. “Rooms were clean, neat, well-maintained. That’s what’s frustrating about this investigation.”

Besides the guns and ammunition, investigators seized bedcovers, a note on paper from the kitchen table and an impression of the words “I’m glad to see” written on a window.

Cassell said he could not comment on last week’s search or on any evidence. It was not known whether the guns found were linked to the slayings.

Investigators said they have picked through the evidence, tips from around the country and calls from 20 to 30 psychics. Cassell said they still have few leads.

“I’m afraid it’s more of the same,” he said.

Cassell said nothing was found Monday in searches of a pond behind the Shorts’ home and horseback canvassing of woods in the area. Officials were also checking known sex offenders in the area.

Police have not ruled out robbery as a motive for the crimes, but a bag containing $485 in cash and a $211 check was found on the kitchen counter, according to the search warrant.

Cassell said on “The Early Show” on CBS that authorities are looking at the crime “from every angle” but that they had not been able to determine whether the target “was the child or the parents, or both.”

“We don’t have any suspects,” he added.