Saturday, October 12, 2002

RALEIGH, N.C. — Canadian officials said they would deport the North Carolina man whom officials have said they want to question as a witness in the deaths of 9-year-old Jennifer Short and her parents.

The deportation order for Garrison Storm Bowman was given a hearing Friday in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

"He will be deported as soon as possible," said Fanny Ho, operations coordinator of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Bowman has a Canadian charge of impaired driving. Ho said she was not certain what would happen with that charge since Bowman has a hearing scheduled Nov. 7.

Canadian immigration officials argued at Friday that Bowman, 66, did not disclose a criminal history that included drinking and driving convictions when he entered the country in August -- grounds for deportation.

Investigators in the Short case have called Bowman a witness rather than a suspect. Bowman, who owned a trailer in North Carolina near where the girl's remains were found Sept. 25, has been held in Canada since Thursday, Oct. 3, and has been charged with immigration violations.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Bowman had been living in the town of Inuvik, about 700 miles north of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories.

Investigators with Rockingham County, N.C., and Henry County, Va., arrived Thursday in Yellowknife, hoping to interview Bowman. But Henry County Sheriff Frank Cassell said they changed their plans after a conference call involving federal authorities from both countries and local officials.

"The consensus decision was not to try to interview him," he said in a phone interview Friday. "We're going to wait until he gets back into the U.S."

When Canadian immigration officials deport Bowman, "some of us will be there and try to meet him and talk to him at that time," Cassell said.

He said he expected Bowman to be deported sometime next week, unless he appeals.

The bodies of Michael and Mary Short were found Aug. 15 in their home near Bassett, Va., and the remains of their daughter, Jennifer Renee Short, were found Sept. 25 in Rockingham County. All three had been shot in the head.

Police searched a house Bowman rented and his mobile home. North Carolina authorities seized nine maps, one of which was marked to show the location of the Shorts' home, from Bowman's trailer.

According to court documents, two days before the Shorts were found dead and Jennifer disappeared, Bowman had threatened to kill a Virginia man with whom he was having a dispute about moving his mobile home. Michael and Mary Short owned a mobile home moving business.

In addition, court documents said Bowman's landlord had found a Virginia map in the house Bowman rented that was marked with the location of the Shorts' house.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002