Leads dwindle in Virginia missing girl case

'No concrete evidence of any kind,' sheriff says

Jennifer Renee Short, 9, has been missing since the bodies of her parents were found Thursday in their southwest Virginia home.

COLLINSVILLE, Virginia (CNN) -- Phone calls providing investigative leads are decreasing in the case of a missing 9-year-old Virginia girl and her slain parents, a sheriff said Wednesday.

"We were getting a lot of phone calls the first two or three days, probably peaking late Sunday," Henry County Sheriff H.F. Cassell said. "Since then, we've had very few."

Cassell said investigators were continuing to follow clues and interview people, especially employees of a moving business owned by Michael Short, 50, and his wife, Mary, 36.

An employee found the couple dead in their Bassett home in southwest Virginia on Thursday. Both died from a single gunshot wound to the head; two spent .22-caliber shell casings were found near the bodies. Their daughter, Jennifer Renee, is missing.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO Relatives of 9-year-old Jennifer Renee Short make an appeal for her safe return. CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports. (August 20) Play video    CNN NewsPass Video    •  Westerfield case enters sentence phase  MORE STORIES   •  Body of missing girl's father exhumed   •  More arrests in California boy's kidnap   •  Ricci's widow: Police had the wrong man   •  Smart's dad: More than one person took daughter  RESOURCES   •  Gallery: Technology to keep children safe   •  Safety experts offer tips   •  Facts: Missing children   •  Gallery: Recent missing youngster cases   •  AMBER Alert System  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  TIME.com: Keeping your children safe   •  National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Tip line Henry County, Virginia, Sheriff's Department 276-638-8751

"We've got some people we're looking real strongly at," Cassell said, "but we have no concrete evidence of any kind."

Relatives of Michael Short appeared at a Wednesday news conference, a day after his wife's family made an appeal, to beg for Jennifer's release.

"We're pleading for whomever has Jennifer to please return her, release her to a secure location," said Frank Arrington, Michael Short's uncle. He suggested that the kidnapper take Jennifer to a store open 24 hours a day and attach a note to her.

"She may not be capable of telling someone who she is. She's kind of shy," Arrington said. "She doesn't deserve to be going through what she's going through right now.

"To my knowledge, they [the Shorts] were very protective of Jennifer, extremely protective of Jennifer," he said. "They worshipped the ground she walked on, and she worshipped the ground that they walked on."

Earlier Wednesday, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, police said they were investigating reports by two people who said they may have seen the girl in vehicles parked at different locations Tuesday night. They said they recognized the child from pictures posted across the country, police said.

But Cassell said a Winston-Salem police official reported that nothing the department checked out so far has been legitimate.

In the first instance, a man said he saw a girl who resembled Jennifer in a dark blue truck. When he sought to get a closer look, the driver pointed a gun at him, the man told police.

Also Tuesday night, a woman reported seeing a girl who looked like Jennifer in a car in front of a convenience store. A man carrying what appeared to be a gun later approached the car from the rear exterior of the store.

Cassell said police determined the woman wasn't a credible witness.

Winston-Salem police Detective Lt. David Clayton said it appears the descriptions of the girl in each case were different. It also was unclear, he said, whether the callers had seen a gun.