Posted on 08/24/2002 6:00:22 PM PDT by Jolly Rodgers
BREAKING NEWS: Human Remains Found at Weaver's Home
08/24/2002
By DOUG IRVING, kgw.com Staff
Investigators found the apparent remains of a single body hidden in a backyard shed as they searched Ward Weaver’s former property Saturday for evidence of two missing girls.
Police had not identified the remains. Search crews continued to search a concrete slab behind Weaver’s Oregon City house, not far from the apartment complex where Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis disappeared.
Weaver had identified himself as a top suspect in the months-old case, but had denied any involvement. He was jailed earlier this month on unrelated rape charges.
Investigators had obtained a search warrant late Friday to search the house and quarter-acre property Weaver had rented. They would not say what led them to the site.
They found “what appear to be human remains” late in the afternoon, Oregon City Police Chief Gordon Huiras said. They had searched for several hours with dogs and dozens of police.
Charles Mathews III, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland office, would not elaborate on the condition of the remains. He said only that it was “secreted in the shed.”
Police have not filed charges in connection with the missing girls, Huiras said. They will decide what charges to pursue after the finish investigating the scene, he said.
Investigators spoke to the mothers of the missing girls around 4 p.m., telling them about the discovery. They also told other family members who had been waiting at the scene to leave and comfort the mothers.
Shortly before 5 p.m., a medical examiner’s van pulled up to a large tent that had shielded the backyard shed and removed the remains. Huiras said it could take several days to establish an identity. “We do not know what remains they are,” he said.
Investigators obtained the “legal authority” late Friday to search the house and quarter-acre property that Weaver had rented, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said. She would not give further details, though she mentioned a search warrant during an afternoon briefing.
At a hastily called press conference late Friday, Steele said the search is “directly related to the Miranda Gaddis and Ashley Pond kidnapping.” The girls vanished within two months of each other this past winter.
"We're here for a reason," Steele said Saturday. "And the reason is that they have information that hopefully will bring Ashley and Miranda home."
A chain-link fence goes up around Ward Weaver's former house shortly after the FBI announced it will search the property. (KGW Photo)
Police set up two large white tents earlier Saturday: One in the backyard, one closer to the house, near a concrete slab Weaver poured shortly after the girls disappeared. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire ringed the property.
Weaver has said he poured the concrete as a base for a hot tub he kept nearby. Friends of the girls have urged police to dig it up and check underneath. The FBI would not say Saturday whether investigators will excavate the slab; "We'll be searching every inch of the property over the course of the next few days," Steele said.
Three dogs were searching the yard, house and a shed Saturday morning. Steele said evidence technicians will move in after the dogs have finished. Those searches likely will last into the evening and resume Sunday morning, she said.
Dogs have searched the property before, shortly after the girls went missing from a nearby apartment complex. Investigators also searched Weaver’s house earlier this month after his son’s girlfriend accused him of raping her.
A police officer locks the fence in front of Weaver's former house. (KGW Photo)
Steele would not say what led investigators back to Weaver’s property. “The investigators have gotten to the point where they are able to do the search today,” she said.
About 40 police officers and investigators from the FBI, Oregon City and the Oregon State Crime Lab were helping in the search, Steele said. Security was so tight at the property that even crime technicians had to check in at a front gate.
Weaver is being held in the Clackamas County Jail on the unrelated rape charge. His landlord had posted eviction notices on the property.
Don Martin, Ashley's grandfather, said Friday night his family was shocked by the announcement of the search.
"We're a little upset. We're nervous wrecks now," he said.
"I'm kind of shocked. I guess I figured it would happen sooner or later. I know there's been a lot of pressure on the FBI by the public. Hopefully the waiting will be over pretty quick. At least now, we will know one way or another," he said.
Ashley disappeared Jan. 9. She was last seen eating breakfast with her younger sister and was to walk about eight minutes to a bus stop near Weaver's home. Michelle Duffey, Miranda's mother, last saw her daughter in a bathrobe eating breakfast on March 8.
The girls' mothers have been taken to an undisclosed location for privacy at their own request, Steele said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hardly. Weaver is an aberration in human nature. If human nature was to be an animal like he appears to be (and his father was convicted of being), then society would not exist at all. We would have decimated each other long ago. The fact that we generally live and work together peacefully is a testament to the high quality of our nature. This is one area where religion is seriously flawed.
Would you mind sharing? I have not found a better forum than FR. Then again if there are "other good forums", why are you here?
Why indeed? This is the day for the ideologues to dump on the owner of the forum.
There is a tendency to blame this country for crimes such as this, and my point is that this is a problem through out this world, with the human race. Not just in the United States.
Sure there are factors that may encourage the Evil as this act is within our country, but there are also aspects that just make it more visible and also fight against it more effectively. The United States in no way has cornered the market in perverse behavior. We just sell it better than most.
I also am not convinced there is more Good than Evil within the Human Race. Though I would like to hope there is.
Advertising works and people do what they are told. The sex and mayhem sites of the internet are advertising for the real thing.
We drastically overestimate human beings.
Not with you.
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