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Betty Sue Short, a 65-year-old from Kingsport was found beaten to death in the apartment she shared with her son Scott. Scott, who had spent the night at his girlfriend's place, found his mother's body on October 17, 2011, the day after she was murdered.
He also said that a box of firearms was stolen from their house. There were no signs of a forced entry, which suggested that the victim knew her killer.
An investigation into the death and statements from eyewitnesses led to the arrest of Jonathan Slemp, who was spotted at Short's house the night she was murdered. Slemp alleged that the two had a drug-related arrangement - to trade pills - for which he had gone to the victim's house that night. Slemp was convicted of the murder and eventually pleaded guilty.
ID's latest true-crime series Murder in My House premieres on Tuesday, March 28, with Betty Sue Short's murder case. The episode, titled No Remorse, will air on the channel at 9 pm ET.
The synopsis states:
"Police discover Betty Sue Short murdered in her own home; the killer has turned the air conditioning down low to preserve the body, and there's no trace of a murder weapon; the scene shares similarities with a recent killing in the community."
Betty Sue Short's badly beaten body was found seated on the couch, which her face covered with a sheet
Betty Sue Short, a divorced mother-of-two, who had been diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy, lived in Kingsport in Sullivan County, Tennessee, in 2011. She shared her house with her son Scott, who was recently released from prison.
Scott was the first to find the horrifying crime scene at their house on October 16, 2011, after returning from his girlfriend's house.
Short was viciously beaten to death in her house the previous night and was found seated on the couch with a sheet covering her badly beaten face and head. Further examination confirmed that she died of severe blunt force trauma to the right side of her head.
At the time, investigators realized that there were no signs of forced entry, which led to the assumption that Short knew her killer. Additionally, nothing was stolen from the house except for a toolbox consisting that had three firearms that were reported missing from Scott's bedroom. The thermostat was also turned down to an unusually low temperature to slow down the body's decomposition.
Scott's alibi checked out when his girlfriend and her daughter confirmed his whereabouts the previous night.
Investigators then started looking at other potential leads. That was when multiple witness statements stated that Short had a visitor on the night she was murdered. The visitor in question was a close family friend named Jonathan Slemp, who visited the 65-year-old often.
Jonathan Slemp murdered Betty Sue Short while visiting her place for a drug-related arrangement
Slemp and Betty Sue Short supposedly had a drug-related arrangement where they would exchange pills with each other. Every time the former came across Percocets, a high-powered pain killer, he traded them with her in exchange for Valium. He claimed that he was at her house to do the same that night, but left after 15 minutes, telling cops that he returned to his house by 9:15 pm that night.
However, a witness at Slemp's house, where he lived with his ex-wife, claimed that he had returned home only after 10:30 on the night Betty Sue Short was murdered. He also had a gun that matched the description of one of those missing from the victim's house and carried a plastic bag similar to the ones Short used to store her drugs.
While investigating the 65-year-old's murder, investigators connected the case to the November 2010 stabbing death of Gary Jones in Kingsport. Reports stated that both killings were identical in nature.
Jones was stabbed over 20 times in an overkill just as Short had been beaten multiple times. Additionally, both the victims' bodies were found covered.
Jonathan Slemp was convicted in 2015, following which he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He later also pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 53-year-old Gary Jones, who was found stabbed to death in a pool of blood inside his mobile home in 2010.
ID's Murder in My House premieres with the 2011 beating death of Betty Sue Short on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, at 9 pm ET.
