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Posted on 08/28/2002 9:16:50 AM PDT by Salvation
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08/28/2002
After a grueling weekend of work and two terrible discoveries, investigators finished their investigation of Ward Weaver’s rental house and turned the keys back over to the landlord Tuesday afternoon.
Steve Hopkins, the owner of the home, said investigators told him a little of what they found.
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They said they found Miranda Gaddis’ remains stuffed into a box in a shed behind the house, Hopkins said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oregon City police spent three days inspecting the shed where Gaddis’ remains were found and dug up a concrete slab behind the house under which Ashley Pond’s remains were found.
In an exclusive Northwest NewsChannel 8 interview, Hopkins took KGW’s C.W. Jensen through the rental property, where investigators found the bodies.
Close to Discovery
The shed behind Ward Weaver's house where Miranda's body was found. (KGW Photo) |
The FBI gave few details about what they found inside and outside the house, Hopkins said. According to investigators, Hopkins came close to stumbling upon a grisly discovery.
After Weaver was arrested on Aug. 13 on an unrelated rape charge, Hopkins came by the Oregon City rental home to place a no trespassing sign about a week before the FBI launched its investigation.
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Hopkins said he looked in the shed filled with what he assumed were Weaver’s belongings. He didn’t look through the boxes, but in hindsight, he noticed some things that were odd.
“I really didn’t nose around too much, but I did notice some fly strips, insect strips,” Hopkins said. “It attracted a lot of flies. There were about six of those strips.”
Hopkins was told later what was in the shed.
“(Miranda) was inside there, they said, in a box,” he said.
The FBI didn’t tell Hopkins where in the shed the box was located, but it was somewhere above the wooden floor.
“Anything they found, they didn’t talk to me about that,” Hopkins said.
Agents cut through the concrete slab where Ashley's body was found and replaced the concrete with gravel. (KGW Photo) |
FBI Removes Cement
Gravel covered the site of the two-inch thick, cement slab under which Ashley’s body was found.
Hopkins said the barrels under the slab were similar to the remnants of 55-gallon drums found still sitting in another shed on the property Tuesday.
Inside the House
Investigators left behind markings on a wall indicating possible evidence. (KGW Photo) |
The house Ward Weaver rented was barren of any valuables. Only some kitchen and cleaning supplies were left behind.
Weaver’s family had moved some of his belongings out of the house after he was arrested two weeks ago. Hopkins didn’t know what evidence the FBI took out of the house that may tie Ashley’s and Miranda’s disappearances to Weaver.
“They indicated they got everything they needed, they wanted, that was here to get,” Hopkins said.
The carpet was removed by investigators over the weekend.
Nothing of value was left in the house. (KGW Photo) |
Fibers and other evidence may have been in the carpet, Jensen said.
Above the wood stove in the living room and throughout the walls of the house were filled with black arrows, numbers and where technicians examined places for clues in the case against Weaver.
The door to Weaver’s daughter’s room still had the first two letters of her name – M-A – for Mallori. Stickers of a popular radio station were on the door along with other stickers on the walls of Mallori’s room.
Mallori Weaver's room door. (KGW Photo) |
Several black markings traced possible evidence in the young girl’s former room.
From floor to wall to ceiling, it was obvious that agents searched every inch of the small house.
One unfinished room was literally torn to shreds.
“It’s obvious now that the FBI stripped all the sheetrock and insulation looking for evidence,” said Hopkins.
Markings on the wall above the wood stove in the living room. (KGW Photo) |
Property’s Future
Hopkins doesn’t know what he’s going to do with the rental property, but he said he needed to act quickly.
“I need to talk to some others and see if I’m going to fix it or getting rid of it,” he said.
Like many of his neighbors and community members, Hopkins was mourning the losses of Ashley and Miranda.
“My condolences go to the family and friends,” he said. “As a community, I’m grieving just like the community about this situation.”
Remnants of 55-gallon barrels still sit in a shed on the property. (KGW Photo) |
Agents removed insulation from the walls of an unfinished room in the house. (KGW Photo) |
This society has good and bad and a society that kills its unborn youth for convenience is doomed.
In addition what I spew is not bullshit. Oregan is not the only state to have a sick murdering pedophile in it living a normal life while he is killing.
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