Remains identified as missing Virginia girl

Man wanted for questioning detained in Canada

Jennifer Short

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STONEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- The partial skull and bones recently found in North Carolina are those of missing 9-year-old Jennifer Short, police said Friday.

A new round of tests showed a "positive match" with Short's DNA profile, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said.

Tests conducted earlier in the week on a part of the remains were inconclusive, so investigators at the Virginia DNA lab in Roanoke were given more bones to analyze. Those results came back late Thursday, police said.

Jennifer vanished August 15, the day her parents were killed in their Bassett, Virginia, home 30 miles away.

Authorities have not named a suspect in the case, however, Page said, "We have been interviewing a lot of witnesses."

A man police describe as one of a handful of people they want to interview has been detained in Canada for immigration violations, Page said late Friday.

Page said it was not clear whether the man, described as a local outdoorsman, would be deported to the United States. He has not been named a suspect in the case, and police describe him as only one of four or five people they want to interview.

During a search of his mobile home in Rockingham County, police recovered a map on which the community around the Short home was marked.

A resident of Rockingham County, about 30 miles from the Short home, found the skull, with hair still attached, September 25 when he spotted his dogs with what he initially thought was a wig. Authorities called to investigate also found a part of a rib cage.

Other remains have since been found in the area.

An employee of Jennifer Short's father found the bodies of the girl's parents, Michael and Mary Short, in their home on August 15. Both died from a single gunshot wound to the head; a spent .22-caliber shell casing was found near each body.

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