05/03/2002

By KELLY LOVE and DOUG IRVING, KGW Staff

Teams of FBI agents and volunteers continue to search for clues to the disappearances of two Oregon City girls, fighting time and a drop in public interest.

Ashley Pond disappeared 114 days ago. Her classmate, Miranda Gaddis, disappeared 56 days ago.

More than 60 neighbors, friends and family fanned out Saturday to search the steep and densely forested hillsides near the apartment complex where both girls lived. It was one of the largest search efforts so far, but failed to turn up any new clues.

“It’s not unusual in these cases for it to take quite a bit of time to solve the case,” said Beth Ann Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland. “It’s a matter of working through the day and going at it again.”

Tips poured into investigators in the weeks after Gaddis disappeared, as national media focused on the cases. That flow of information has slowed along with media coverage.

Since then, friends and family members of the missing girls have organized their own search parties to look for clues. One such team discovered unrelated human remains.

The FBI still staffs a tip line at 1-800-822-0962.

“We continue to investigate believing they are alive until we have evidence that says otherwise,” Steele said.