Posted on 08/15/2002 8:26:28 PM PDT by Valpal1
Weaver's son says father admitted killings, police say
08/15/02
NOELLE CROMBIE,
STEPHEN BEAVEN and SARAH HUNSBERGER
OREGON CITY -- In a distraught 9-1-1 call, Ward Weaver's oldest son said his father claimed to have killed two missing Oregon City girls, according to a police summary of the call.
Francis Weaver, 19, called police Tuesday evening after his 19-year-old girlfriend accused Ward Weaver of raping her in his home on South Beavercreek Road. Crying, he told Clackamas County dispatchers that his father said he had killed the girls and was moving to Mexico, according to the dispatch summaries obtained by The Oregonian.
Ward Weaver, who was being held Wednesday on $1 million bail in the rape case, has said he is a suspect in the disappearances of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis. He also has insisted that he is innocent in the girls' disappearances. He has not been charged in the case.
Charles Mathews, special-agent-in-charge of the FBI in Oregon, declined to comment Wednesday on Francis Weaver's 9-1-1 call. Investigators have never named Weaver a suspect, and there is no indication that the 9-1-1 call was viewed as a major break in the case.
Oregon City Police Chief Gordon Huiras said investigators have found no new evidence regarding the disappearances as a result Weaver's Tuesday night arrest.
"We haven't developed anything from this investigation that ties into that case," he said.
Weaver, 39, has lived in a rented house near the entrance to the Newell Creek Village apartment complex, where Ashley and Miranda lived with their mothers. The 13-year-old girls, both seventh-graders at Gardiner Middle School, disappeared before school earlier this year.
Weaver has numerous ties to Ashley's family. His daughter was a friend of Ashley's, who vacationed with Weaver in California and often stayed overnight at his home. Ashley once accused him of fondling her, but he was never charged in that case.
Weaver appeared in Clackamas County Circuit Court on Wednesday on charges of first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse in Tuesday's attack at his home.
Deputy District Attorney Christine Landers told Judge Eve Miller that Weaver was a flight risk and that he had been planning a move to Mexico.
The district attorney's office will seek an indictment from a grand jury next week, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner. Weaver's next court date is scheduled for 3 p.m. Aug. 21. He was not assigned an attorney at Wednesday's hearing and said little during his brief appearance.
About 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oregon City police served a search warrant on Weaver' house. Investigators wearing plain clothes and latex gloves entered the ranch-style house where the alleged rape took place.
They took numerous photographs of the house and appeared to carry still and video cameras inside. One investigator also looked briefly at the back yard.
Shortly after 7 p.m., police carried several paper bags and boxes from Weaver's home and loaded them into cars and a van. Police then removed the yellow crime-scene tape that had been draped around the property since Tuesday evening and left.
Huiras declined to comment on what items investigators hoped to seize in the search. He said the search warrant was written to find evidence related to the rape allegation and not the disappearances.
Generally, he said, if investigators find evidence of a crime while searching for evidence in another case, they can seek a warrant to seize the new evidence or seize it on the spot, depending on the circumstances.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Francis Weaver's girlfriend, covered only in a blue tarp, flagged down a motorist who took her to a nearby shoe store. She called police and told them that Ward Weaver had choked and raped her in his home.
In his call to police, Francis Weaver said he wanted to turn his father in for killing the two girls. But on Wednesday, he declined to comment on the 9-1-1 call or his claims of his father's role in the girls' disappearances. He said his father's alleged attack on Tuesday shocked the family and that his girlfriend trusted Weaver.
"She thought he was like a father," he said.
Weaver's daughter was friends with Ashley and Miranda and attended school with the girls. In an interview with The Oregonian last month, Weaver said Ashley accused him of sexually abusing her.
Last August, Ashley told her aunt, Carolyn Amos, that Weaver abused her.
Weaver said the allegations were made as Ashley's father, Wesley Roettger, was set to go on trial for multiple counts of sexual abuse against Ashley.
According to Clackamas County Circuit Court records, Roettger was accused of abusing his daughter from March 1996 through December 2000.
Roettger, who was indicted on 40 felony counts involving sexual abuse of Ashley, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted unlawful sexual penetration. On Sept. 6, 2001, he was sentenced to 120 months of probation and is a registered sex offender in Multnomah County, according to the state police.
Roettger could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In March, Huiras said family members had been ruled out as suspects in the girls' disappearances.
Horner said his office learned of the allegations last summer from Roettger's defense attorney, Jerry Seeberger.
The deputy district attorney on the case contacted the Pond family to confirm the allegations had been made and immediately reported the allegations to the state child welfare officials, as required by Oregon law.
Horner said he does not know whether the case was forwarded to the Oregon City Police Department for review. But, he said, his office never received an investigative report to consider for prosecution.
Huiras declined to say whether his office investigated the allegations. "I wouldn't confirm or deny that," he said.
According to a Clackamas County Circuit Court record dated July 12, 2001, Ashley also told authorities she had been molested by two men other than Weaver and her father.
Amos said she thinks Ashley's accusation against Weaver, as her father faced trial, undermined the girl's credibility with authorities and the case against Roettger.
"It made it look like Ashley was making up stories," Amos said Wednesday of her niece's allegation against Weaver.
Staff writers Steve Mayes and Dennis McCarthy and news researcher Kathleen Blythe contributed to this report.
Noelle Crombie: 503-294-5927; noellecrombie@news.oregonian.com. Stephen Beaven: 503-294-5928; stevebeaven@news.oregonian.com
!
I can't argue with that. What I wonder is why LE hadn't gotten a search warrant before this third rape? It certainly seems that Ward Weaver was definitely playing an in-your-face, stop-me-if-you-can kind of game with the FBI. This is one weird, depraved guy. It is so sad for these girls. Frankly, I want to get a pitchfork and a torch.
I've been reading about the "social purity" movement of the 19th century, which pushed for raising the age of consent from 10-12 to 16-18. It's hard to believe that it was so low 150 years ago and that the exploiters of the world are once again demanding that it be pushed down to 10-12.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.