Official conclusion: As mother was moving out, father murdered family, killed himself in Sinking Spring home

by Steve Reinbrecht

Mark Short Sr.’s wife and three pajama-clad children were on the living room floor among pillows and blankets when he killed them, and the dog, with a single bullet each.

Then he wrote a suicide note, left it on the dining room table, reloaded, and shot and killed himself.

On Monday, Berks County crime-fighters said the tragedy in Sinking Spring was the culmination of domestic problems and Megan Short’s decision to leave her marriage of 16 years. They gave the results of the investigation at a news conference in the county agricultural center.

Sinking Spring police found the bodies about 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, in the home at 51 Winding Brook Drive. County records show the Shorts bought it for $438,000 on Feb. 10, 2006.

The father was Mark Jason Short Sr., 40. The mother was Megan L. Short, 33. The children were Lianna G. Short, 8; Mark J. Short, 5; and Willow R. Short, 2. Willow had a heart transplant when she was six days old.

Law-enforcement officials and other sources gave this outline of events:

Over the summer, Megan and Mark Short were having marriage problems and were separating.

On June 4, hotel security staff were called for a domestic dispute in a room where Megan and Mark were staying in Philadelphia. On June 6, Mark turned 40.

On July 18, Megan called police from the home for help and told the dispatcher she had an argument with her husband and was afraid of him. When Sinking Spring police arrived, Mark had left, and they saw no evidence of physical injury. The officers advised Megan to get a protection-of abuse order, and she told them she would but didn’t follow up.

The next day, July 19, Mark bought a 5-shot, .38 caliber revolver and ammunition from a licensed dealer in Lancaster County. Investigators found the sales slip in the home.

On July 25, Megan leased an apartment in Yardley, Bucks County, and began moving.

On Aug. 1, Mark was demoted at his job as a loan officer because of poor attendance. On LinkedIn, Mark Short is listed as a sales manager [and previously a loan officer] at NVR Inc., a construction company in Reading.

On Friday, Aug. 5, Mark took his three children, but not Megan, to Hershey Park as part of a family day sponsored by his employer.

Friday night, a neighbor saw Megan park her car in the driveway about 7:30 p.m. behind her husband’s vehicle.

About 11:30 p.m., a post was made on her Facebook page.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, Megan’s mother and other relatives waited at her apartment to help her move in. Mark Short had agreed to rent a van to help his wife move to her new apartment that morning.

After Megan didn’t arrive, a family member called and asked a neighbor to check if Megan was home. The neighbor couldn’t contact anybody inside. She saw Mark's and Megan's cars in the driveway.

About 2 p.m., Megan’s mother called the police, and Sinking Spring officers broke into the house and found the bodies.

Investigators weren’t sure what time the victims were shot.

An autopsy Aug. 8 showed that Mark died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Investigators found five empty .38 caliber casings in the basement family room, close to a stock of ammunition. A fingerprint was discovered on an unfired cartridge in the gun recovered next to Mark. This round was placed in the gun after the first five rounds were fired and the gun was reloaded. That fingerprint was positively identified as Mark’s.

Investigators found a one-page, handwritten note on the dining-room table that Mark wrote after killing his family. Officials would not release the contents of the note other than that Short admitted to buying the gun and killing his family. State police had confirmed it as Mark’s handwriting. 

District Attorney John Adams would not say if the note explained Mark's reasons for killing his family. Adams described the writer as emotional over the pending separation from his wife. Mark’s family opposes releasing the contents, he said.

Investigators found no evidence of romantic affairs or that Mark was under treatment for a mental disorder.

Asked about the tragedy’s effect on the community, Adams said: “Whenever we lose youthful, innocent children, it’s never easy for a community to recover from that.”

A lesson is that it’s a dangerous time when an abused woman is leaving, Adams said. Women who are planning to move out should develop a safety plan and contact Berks Women in Crisis for assistance, he said.