12/05/2002

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

Police investigating the murder of two Oregon City girls found plastic bags of hair, extension cords and handcuffs in a storage unit rented by the man accused of killing them, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

The storage unit in Gresham was rented by suspect Ward Weaver, according to the document.

Weaver is accused of killing 12-year-old Ashley Pond and 13-year-old Miranda Gaddis, whose bodies were found on Weaver's property in Oregon City in August. The two girls disappeared last Jan. 9 and March 8, respectively, prompting a nationwide search.

Police and FBI agents search Weaver's backyard and storage shed. (KGW File Photo)

Weaver is charged with six counts of aggravated murder in the case, as well as abuse of a corpse, sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse. He also is charged with sexually abusing Ashley in 2001. The district attorney's office will seek the death penalty.

More than 200 pages of court documents, including search warrant affidavits and lists of evidence, were unsealed Thursday following a judge's ruling on a lawsuit filed by The Portland Tribune and The Oregonian.

The documents, which represent the most detailed information made public so far, tell the story of a winding, complicated investigation that included searches of Weaver's rental home, his sister's Gresham home, several cars and a Clackamas business where Weaver once worked.

Ward Weaver. (KGW File Photo)

Police conducted searches of the storage unit and Weaver's sister's attic on Aug. 29 -- less than a week after detectives found the girls' bodies on Weaver's rental property and two weeks after Weaver was arrested on charges of raping his son's girlfriend.

Ashley's body was found in a barrel buried beneath a concrete slab beside his house; Miranda's was inside a General Electric cardboard microwave box in his shed. Both bodies were wrapped in plastic sheeting believed to be from Weaver's Clackamas employer, Manufacturer Tools Service.

Ashley's body was likely stored in a freezer because of its mummified state, according to a medical examiner's statement included in Thursday's court documents.

Ashley Pond (KGW File Photo)

At the storage unit, detectives found a General Electric microwave matching the box and a Frigidaire freezer that opens from the top. Police also served several search warrants to find the key to the freezer; it was unclear from the documents whether they found the key.

Weaver's sister, Teresa Quintero, told investigators she helped Weaver move the items to storage because he planned to move to Shoshone, Idaho. Quintero also told police that Weaver kept the freezer -- which had once been in his kitchen -- always locked and he had the only key.

Police also searched Quintero's attic and seized a roll of black plastic, two sets of tangled ropes and bungee cords.

Miranda Gaddis (KGW File Photo)

Police also found clumps of head hair and other debris in a red vacuum cleaner stored at Manufacturer Tools Service, according to the affidavits.

Weaver's ex-girlfriend, who also worked at MTS, told police she had given Weaver the vacuum as a gift earlier in the year.

The affidavits for search warrants indicate that police were specifically searching for Miranda's clothing, school books belonging to both girls, Ashley's shoes, plastic cords and sheeting and digging tools, including trowels and shovels.

In an affidavit released Nov. 23, police state that Miranda's body was nude except for her socks and that the hands, feet and necks of both girls were "elaborately bound" with plastic cords. Ashley's body was clothed except for shoes.

That affidavit also said that Weaver's fingerprints were found on tape used to seal the cardboard box containing Miranda's body, and that a 3-inch by 3/4-inch hemorrhage was found on Ashley's head.

Ashley showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal level of intoxication for adults.

The documents also include a list of Weaver's purchases in the days following Miranda's March 8 disappearance.

On March 12, Weaver bought two shower curtains and 10 60-pound bags of concrete mix.

Three days later he bought Tilex Mildew remover, Dawn Anti-bacterial soap, toilet bowl cleaner and Lysol spray. The same day Weaver consented to a police search of the outside of his home and lawn.

During the search, an investigator noticed an "occupant of the residence" hosing down "newly poured concrete," the documents state, without identifying that person. Ashley's body was found beneath the concrete slab outside Weaver's home more than five months later.

Both girls lived in an apartment complex down the road from Weaver's rented home.

Weaver has a violent past.

He spent three years in jail in California in the 1980s for clubbing a baby sitter over the head with a chunk of concrete, and in 1995 his future wife accused him of doing the same with a cast iron skillet.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)