Remembering a Forgotten Tragedy

Yesterday I found my mind wandering a little at work. It wasn't a particularly busy day and I began reflecting back on something much more important than any film or web series. And, like most thoughts, it came about through reflection on something else entirely. For some reason, while on my break at work, I started thinking about how much I hate most serial killer related films because so many of them try and take on that crazed psychedelic feel that is just so disassociated from reality. I've always been an avid studier of crime, as some of my earlier postings show, and I have studied serial killers a good deal, mostly because of the psychological aspect of them. But thinking on that transitioned into thinking about all of the bad serial killer films done out there with the exception of very few, such as "Zodiac", which is one of my favorite movies. More than anything else, I love it because it doesn't glorify or create another misguided example of psychedelia, but rather hones in on the story from a humane perspective wherein we see the way those who are trying to solve the case are troubled by it rather than following the killer around on his killing spree and loving him as some anti-heroic character.

It was amidst this pondering and reflecting on such morbid things that I found myself thinking about another morbid case that happened practically up the street from me. It's a case that has always loomed with me and had a much greater effect on me than any other murder cases (probably in part due to the fact that it happened so close to me). I remember when the whole sad experience came to an end in August, 2002 and my father told me, because I was hoping to be a successful writer back then, I needed to write a book on the case because people would forget about this event and people needed to remember. I, unfortunately, never got around to writing anything of real substance on the case (outside of some writings I did on it when it was still an unsolved case, in which I posed some of my theories). But it is sad that in the years since the case has become generally forgotten. Even around here, in my own neighborhood and those surrounding me the case hasn't been talked about in years. At the site of the events there is no plaque or memorial for the events that happened there and it just astounds me that such an event could be so easily swept under the rug because back in 2002 it was the murder tragedy of the year in America. Every major network in the country was following the case up until its bitter end, and ending which has always stayed with me.

The case I am talking about was the disappearance of two girls from Oregon City, Ashley Pond, 12, and Miranda Gaddis, 13. Back in 2002, children seldom ever seemed to disappear in the Portland area. Maybe in the city of Portland itself, but down in my neighborhood and places like Oregon City just a little south of me, if a young child went missing it was almost always a runaway. So when a 12-year old girl named Ashley Pond vanished on January 9, 2002 the whole Portland Metropolitan Area went into a frenzy. And there I was, only 16-years old myself. And I remember my parents telling me to keep a close eye on my friends and some of the girls I knew, even though this disappearance happened some 10 miles away from where I lived. But none of us really knew what was going on. All that was known was that Ashley disappeared, supposedly, while walking from her apartment up to her bus stop. Being a sophomore in high school and taking the bus I often took it upon myself to monitor girls around me to see if they were all right or being followed, and I'm sure many other students were doing the same thing.

Now I am constantly reminded of this case because I have, during two different stints, attended Clackamas Community College, which is in Oregon City and literally just a small hill away from where all the events in this case took place. I've driven by the location many times and it always perplexed me as to how Ashley had been abduction. She lived in a fairly compacted apartment complex and her bus stop was literally at the front of the driveway to this apartment complex. It's also located on Beavercreek Road which, for those who don't know or aren't from around here, is a wide, four-lane highway stretching from the middle of Oregon City and out past the college before it becomes a more rural two-lane road. There is a large shopping complex almost directly across the street. At practically every moment of every day there is lots of car and pedestrian traffic through there and there were other kids at Ashley's bus stop who never saw a thing. I choose to believe she vanished earlier than that, and I'll tell you why.

The defense that Ashley vanished on the way to her bus stop based on the story her mother gave, but as time went on it was found that her mother's account was somewhat shaky and inconsistent, suggesting that she hadn't seen her daughter right before she left, but rather had last seen her almost an hour before. Now anything can happen in an hour? It was discovered, in the midst of the search for Ashley, that she had been carrying on a rather strange relationship with the man who lived next door to her apartment, a man named Ward Weaver. Now Weaver is hardly a household name now, but again back in 2002 you couldn't find a person who didn't know exactly who he was. Ashley had lived for a period of a few months practically in Weaver's home at which time the 39-year old man had reportedly become so attached to her that his girlfriend at the time left him when he decided he'd rather sleep with this 12-year old girl than her. Weaver also had an extensive history of assault, often focused on the women of his past. And these were violent assaults, some of which could have killed his victims. Furthermore, his father was an ex-trucker and convicted serial killer who had killed multiple people, mostly hitchhikers, as he drove along the freeways of the west coast. There were lots of reasons to point the finger at Weaver as the individual who caused Ashley's disappearance.

It is known that after that period of time living in Weaver's home that those who knew Ashley claimed that she had gone through lots of changes and was much more reactive and yet also apprehensive. One of her teachers even saw her kissing Weaver on the lips when he dropped her off at school. Finally, I believe it was either the end of summer or the start of fall of 2001, Ashley finally came out and said that Weaver had assaulted her. Weaver immediately banned the girl from his home and Ashley became the target of hazing in her school, mostly targeted by Weaver's own daughter, who understandably, didn't want to believe her own father could be such an animal, and thus Ashley had to be a attention-seeking liar. There is little evidence to show whether there was any correspondence for the remainder of 2001 between Ashley and Weaver. One of the last things known about Ashley is that at a Christmas party she had told her mother that she was genuinely afraid of Ward Weaver. Then, 2 1/2 weeks later, she vanishes.

Weaver became a suspect and immediately thrust himself into the spotlight, claiming his innocence of course. However, taking such action, going out of his way to do public interviews and so on, only made him look more guilty. Ward Weaver was a rather unattractive man with a bushy head of hair and a bushy mustache. When he opened his doors for local news interviews he often dressed in a wife-beater, was captured chain-smoking on camera and despite his rather calm and sometimes eloquent way of speaking, he just looked guilty. I wasn't convinced yet, as a young man. And maybe it was his ability to act so calm. I just figured a guilty person wouldn't be able to play himself off like that. Of course, any real sane person probably couldn't. Then March came, and my opinion changed rapidly.

On March 8, 2002 another girl, Miranda Gaddis, vanished in the exact same way that Ashley Pond did, from the exact same apartment complex. It didn't take but a moment to realize that the two crimes were related; they were identical! Miranda Gaddis was quite the opposite of Ashley, much more active, popular, quirky and outgoing. But, like Ashley, she came from a troubled background. Her father was a convicted sex offender, who later died in a shooting after his release. Both Ashley and Miranda had experienced sexual assault at a young age. There were so many connections, but still they didn't convince me 100% that Weaver was the man who did it. After all, he didn't seem to have any connection to Miranda Gaddis at all. Then I read a story in the Portland Tribune, which had a few staff writers who had taken a vested interest in the case. Near the ending of it there was reference to Weaver's daughter's birthday party, of which Miranda was invited. At this party Miranda had begun spreading talk about when Ashley lived there and what Weaver and done to her. At one point she even told some of the other girls there not to spend the night because Weaver would probably do something to one of them. Angered, Weaver's daughter reported this to him, at which time he got very angry. Hearing that story changed everything for me. First, we have Ashey, 2 1/2 weeks before disappearing telling her mother that she was genuinely fearful of him and now we have Miranda, about 2 1/2 weeks before she vanished pointing the finger at Weaver as the probable abductor of Ashley. And Miranda and Ashley knew each other. Weaver had to ponder what Ashley may have told her. And Miranda was a very expressive outgoing girl who likely wasn't going to keep her mouth shut about the situation.

I also found it very intriguing that on the day of one of the girls' disappearance he went to a store and bought a whole bunch of bathroom, and specifically bathtub, cleaning supplies. That has always lead me to believe that he may have drowned or at least attacked one of his victims in his bathroom and later bought supplied to clean everything up.

But beyond that, right after the disappearance of these two girls, Weaver had a part of his backyard dug up so he could place barrels down there and then lay a slab of concrete over it for placement of a new hot tub. This caused frantic attention as Weaver's own father had buried one of his victims in his backyard and laid a concrete slab over her body. Weaver practically sealed his own fate as murder suspect #1 with this action. The media came calling again and angry parents all over the place were screaming for Weaver's head on a platter and for authorities to get back there and tear up that backyard. Even after the event ended we heard the same old clamor: if only the police had acted sooner! But the fact of the matter was, just because Weaver was following in the footsteps eerily similar to those of his father, this was note remotely sufficient evidence to even get a general search warrant for the property. Interestingly enough, Weaver had allowed multiple searches of his property, even one with police K9's, who sniffed all around the concrete slab and never reacted to it. There was just no, pardon the pun, concrete evidence to prove Weaver was guilty. There wasn't even a known crime scene to examine seeing as neither of the girls were seen being abducted and neither left any evidence behind. The evidence just wasn't there.

For months then the case dragged on and started losing traction. Any other possible suspects came and went and eyes always remained focused on Weaver. But by late summer the case was beginning to lose attention. Both Ashley and Miranda had been missing for months and much of the general public presumed they were dead. Then, on August 13, 2002, the case was launched back into the spotlight. There were signs that Weaver may have been about to split, possibly fleeing to Mexico. On this night however he was given a ride home by his son's pregnant 19-year old girlfriend. Once they arrived there the two went into the house and while inside Weaver attempted to rape her. She managed to break free and ran screaming from the house naked. She found a tarp to wrap around her body and dodged into traffic on Beavercreek Road, getting a man to stop for her. He quickly took her across the street to a nearby salon where police were contacted and alerted to the fact that Ward Weaver had just attempted to rape a young woman. Weaver immediately took off, leaping into his car and tearing out onto the street. It was a rather anti-climactic way to end things. The police tracked him to the nearby I-205 freeway where they pursued him briefly and he ultimately pulled over and was arrested. Later, Weaver's son Francis, the boyfriend of the rape victim, contacted police and told them that his father had admitted killing Ashley and Miranda to him. His claim had to be taken with great caution as he was most definitely angry and vengeful to his father for what he had done. But this event got the ball rolling.

It was at this time that Weaver was also evicted from his house, which was located directly next to the apartments where Ashley and Miranda lived. With Weaver evicted, the power of whether the police could search the property lay in the hands of Weaver's landlord, who openly allowed them to set up shop and search the property. On August 24th the search was underway. It was a media circus with at least four news helicopters circling overhead around this one little house. The property had been fenced off and people surrounded the fence line for practically the whole duration of the search. Over the course of the three days that the property was searched people began placing notes, signs, stuffed animals and things such as that into the fencing, turning it into a spontaneous memorial (and this was before it was even known if the girls were there - but someone it seems everybody knew deep inside). As the concrete slab was being torn up the police and FBI had focused a part of their search on a small shed in the background, wherein they found a set of human remains stuffed in a microwave box. I remember, about a hour before this discovery was mentioned in the news, watching the coverage and being unable to take my eyes off of it. This was right around the corner from me. These girls went to school at a place where I played youth basketball. A kid in my biology class was Miranda Gaddis' cousin, I mean, this hit right at home to me. And then, when nothing new seemed to be going on out of nowhere a coroners van pulled up and entered the property. There was this collective gasp. I remember it well because we were watching Channel 2's coverage of the events and Anna Song was the main news person on the scene who had spent more time than any other news person on this case. She had interviewed Miranda Gaddis personally when the search had begun for Ashley. I remember Song being in the midst of giving an update as the coroner's vehicle pulled up and she just completely went silent and was so overcome that they had to cut back to the main news room while she collected herself. I think, in that moment, everyone knew the worst had happened.

A short while later the discovery of these remains was announced and the following day, as the backyard had been practically torn apart, and the barrels below the concrete unearthed, another set of human remains were discovered. It was Sunday, August 25, 2002, one of the most agonizing days I have ever experienced and I didn't even know these girls. It was during the afternoon that another report was made for the news media. They announced that a second set of human remains had been recovered and that the remains discovered the day before belonged to Miranda Gaddis. There was a collective scream and just complete shock by everyone gathered there. And I just felt my heart feel like it was going to collapse down to my stomach. I was watching the coverage with my parents and even though it felt clear to us at that time that the two girls were in that backyard we all went silent with shock when this announcement was made. It was a forgone conclusion the next day when it was reported that the remains found in the barrel were those of Ashley Pond. I remember there was hardly a reaction when that announcement was made because everyone knew by then.

Weaver, being the heartless jackass that he was, denied guilt as long as he could, even trying to enter in a plead of insanity. He was sent to the state hospital where he was examined and found to be completely sane and just a sick, manipulative person. Once it was clear that Weaver would have to stand trial he took a plea and in admitting his guilt got life in prison over what would have likely been the death penalty. I seriously wonder how much longer Weaver will have. Child killers don't last long in prison. In 2007 a fellow prisoner who was going to cut his hair tried to stab Weaver to death. Weaver escaped with a few stabs to his neck and shoulders. And that was about it. It seems when Weaver confessed everyone was satisfied and the case has slowly faded from memory. I've talked to people about it who moved to the Portland area after 2002 and most of them have no knowledge of the event because it has gone forgotten. The location where Weaver's home once stood is just a grassy field with no memorial or reminder of what was taken from our world back in 2002. The apartment complex, once known as the Newell Creek Apartments, has changed its name understandably. Why would you keep an apartment name that had been nationally associated with disappearing children?

Going to school so close to that site I've walked by it so many times. I've looked down the entryway to the apartment complex and it looks more or less the same. I've stood right where Ashley and Miranda's bus stop was. I've walked by the salon where Weaver's almost third victim contacted the police. And it's such an ominous experience walking through there knowing everything that happened. But it's equally sad that so many people have no idea and drive through that small area completely clueless of what happened right under their noses in their own neighborhood. While others have forgotten there is no way that I can. It was an experience that altered me. Afterward, if I was ever around younger children, either family or relatives of friends, I always keep an eye on them, especially when those who should be watching them aren't. When I'm at work and I ever see a child walking around by his or herself I always keep a close eye on them to make sure they leave with the right person. Children are precious and sadly the prey of many sick and twisted people, many of which we don't even know are out there waiting for an opportunity. Those opportunities can occur at any time so we must always remember to keep our kids close to us so tragedies such as this become fewer and fewer.

Good day everyone.