09/20/2002

By ABE ESTIMADA and KYLE IBOSHI, KGW Staff

A Clackamas County grand jury will convene next week to consider charges against Ward Weaver in connection with the disappearances of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis.

The move could be the first step in charging Weaver for the slayings of Ashley and Miranda. Clackamas County prosecutors have said in the recent past that they don't know if they'll seek the death penalty against Weaver if he is charged in their homicides.

Weaver was arrested last month for allegedly raping his son’s fiancé. A distraught Francis Weaver, his son, called 911 dispatchers and said his father told him that he had raped and killed the two girls. However, Weaver has not been charged in their deaths.

Weaver is now lodged at the Clackamas County Jail in Oregon City.

Ward Weaver. (Police/KGW Photo)

Weaver’s daughter, Mallori, was best friends with Ashley. Ashley usually hung out at Weaver’s house, which is close to the apartment complex where her and Miranda lived.

Relatives and friends of Ashley later said Weaver had an unusual, if not inappropriate, interest in the girl.

But last summer, Ashley told a teacher and other adults that Weaver had sexually abused her. Charges were never leveled against Weaver because authorities failed to investigate the allegations, prompting an investigation by the state.

After Ashley disappeared January 9 and Miranda vanished March 8, Weaver told a Portland Tribune newspaper that the FBI had identified him as its prime suspect. Weaver also told reporters that police said he had miserably failed a polygraph test.

Weaver’s arrest Aug. 13 on unrelated rape charges broke the cases of the missing Oregon City girls. After obtaining search warrants and permission from Weaver himself, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oregon City police began searching for the remains of Ashley and Miranda on Aug. 25.

Later that day, investigators found Miranda’s corpse stuff inside a box placed on the floor of an old shed behind Weaver’s rental home. The next day, authorities dug underneath a concrete slab poured recently in the backyard by Weaver and found Ashley’s remains in a barrel.

Crews leveled Weaver's rental house last week to help the community heal and move on from the tragedy of Ashley and Miranda.