Police: Cell Phone Links Suspect to Murder

Father of victim’s unborn child had attended doctor’s appointment with her

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
November 07, 2021
Posted in: Crime and Police News

County detectives used cell phone records to track the accused killer of Karli Short to her Christy Park neighborhood at the time police believe she was murdered, affidavits state.

Isaac C. Smith, 25, of McKeesport is being held without bond in the Allegheny County Jail pending a preliminary hearing Nov. 24 before Magisterial District Judge Kim Berkeley Clark.

Smith is charged by Allegheny County police with homicide and homicide of an unborn child in connection with the Sept. 13 death of Short, 26, who had worked at a personal care home and did catering on the side. Smith was arrested Friday in Pleasant Hills.

County police and family said that Smith was the father of Short’s unborn baby boy, who was due in February 2022. Detectives called the slaying “pre-planned.”

According to the criminal complaint, no one in the family had met Smith, a McKeesport Area High School graduate and former football player who was working at a bank.

Police said Short told family members only that the father of her child was named “Isaac” — and that he worked at a bank.

The criminal complaint states Smith had not told any of his friends about the pregnancy, but two days before Short’s death, on Sept. 11, Short invited him to a “gender reveal” party. In addition, Smith told police that he had gone with Short to one of her pre-natal doctor’s appointments.

Short was found at approximately 10:30 a.m. Sept. 13 in the backyard of her home on 25th Avenue and pronounced dead at the scene. She had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said.

According to the criminal complaint, Short received a phone call early that morning from a wireless phone connected to Smith, and a relative who was staying with her at the time overheard Short saying, “Are you coming to the front (door) or the back?”

A short time later, police said, a video security camera captured Smith leaving the back door of her home. She never returned.

A ShotSpotter sensor operated by McKeesport police detected a gun shot in the neighborhood at 12:23 a.m., county detectives said.

Police said Short’s cell phone was found in her pocket and allege that text messages to and from Smith’s phone were on the phone.

Police allege that Smith called Short at 12:20 a.m. — apparently to lure her outside — and that the call was connected through cell towers near Short’s home.

Although Smith texted Short’s phone after her death and said that he had been “sleeping,” police allege that his phone continued to send and receive text messages until nearly 2 a.m.

Police allege that Smith had been staying with his current girlfriend on the evening of Sept. 12 but left at approximately 11 p.m., telling her that he was going to Homestead to visit a friend who had a new dog.

A $20,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the arrest of Short’s murderer, and billboards asking for the public’s help were erected on West Fifth Avenue and Evans Avenue in the city.

Short’s father, Brandon Short, told told Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV her murder and the aftermath has “been a nightmare.”

“Sometimes I can’t even believe it’s real,” he told the station. “Now my family and I know what happened, we know the motive, we know who did it, and it puts us one step closer to finding some way to deal.”

Originally published November 07, 2021.

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