Ward Weaver III | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | Ward Francis Weaver April 6, 1963 |
Conviction(s) | Aggravated murder (2 counts) Rape Sexual assault Attempted murder Aggravated Assault |
Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole |
Details | |
Victims | 2 |
Span of crimes | January 9 –March 8, 2002 |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Oregon |
Date apprehended | August 13, 2002 |
Ward Francis Weaver III (born April 6, 1963) is an American convicted murderer. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in Oregon City, Oregon. [1]
Raised in Northern California by his mother, Weaver had a tumultuous childhood; his father, Ward Weaver Jr., was convicted in 1984 of a double-murder. After a stint in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Weaver was convicted of assaulting two teenage girls in Fairfield, California in 1988.
In January 2002, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared en route to her bus stop in Oregon City, near Weaver's residence. Two months later, Pond's classmate, thirteen-year-old Miranda Gaddis, also vanished under mysterious circumstances. The disappearances received international media attention, and were profiled on various television programs, including Unsolved Mysteries . The remains of both girls were discovered on Weaver's property in August 2002 during an investigation into the rape of his son's girlfriend, also committed by Weaver. In 2004, Weaver was sentenced to life without parole for the sexual assault and murder of both girls.
Weaver was born April 6, 1963, in Humboldt County, California, to Trish and Ward Weaver Jr. [2] In 1967, his father abandoned the family; several years later, his mother married Bob Budrow, an abusive alcoholic, [3] and the family relocated to Portland, Oregon. [4]
Weaver first exhibited antisocial behavior as a teenager; his sister, Tammi, later said that he physically and sexually abused at least one family member by the time he was twelve years old, [3] and his half-brother, Robert Budrow, claimed that Weaver frequently beat him during their childhood. [4]
In 1981, a teenaged relative reported that he had repeatedly raped and beaten her. Police investigated allegations of abuse in 1981, but Multnomah County prosecutors decided not to pursue charges because Weaver had enlisted in the armed services and would be leaving Portland. [5] Shortly thereafter, Weaver graduated from Marshall High School in Portland, [4] and joined the US Navy Reserve. [3] He was discharged the following year on May 17, 1982, for heavy drinking and dereliction of duty. During his tenure in the Navy, he met his future wife, Maria Stout, a native of the Philippines. [3] The couple moved in with Weaver's parents and she was soon pregnant. Five months into her pregnancy, she was physically assaulted by Weaver and hospitalized, but refused to press charges. [4] Their son, Francis, was born in December 1982, though it was later determined that he was not Ward Weaver's biological son. [3] [6]
In 1981, Weaver's father murdered 18-year-old Air Force recruit Robert Radford and his 23-year-old girlfriend Barbara Levoy, who was also raped. Weaver Jr. found the couple in Tehachapi, California, where their car had broken down. He later buried the victims in his backyard. In 1984, he was sentenced to death for the crime. Weaver Jr. is also a suspected serial killer, being suspected of up to 24 other murders. [3] [7] [8]
Weaver married Maria Stout in 1984, and the couple relocated to Bakersfield, California. On June 15, 1986, Weaver attacked the teenaged daughters of a friend in Fairfield, California, striking one of the girls—fifteen-year-old Jennifer Ordonoa—with a block of concrete. [3] [4] He was sentenced to three years in prison for the assaults. [3] After his release, Weaver and wife Stout relocated to Canby, Oregon, where they operated a store. [3] There, Maria gave birth to their fourth child, Mallori, in 1989. [3]
In 1993, Maria Weaver filed a restraining order against her husband, and their marriage ended in divorce. In July 1995, Weaver beat his new girlfriend, Kristi Sloan, with a cast-iron skillet. [9] He was jailed for the incident, but Sloan refused to testify against him. By October, they were back together and, in February 1996, they married. The marriage lasted four years.
In August 1997, Weaver began an affair with a woman he met at work. The couple moved into a rented house on South Beavercreek Road in Oregon City. Weaver's then-12-year-old daughter Mallori became friends with Ashley Marie Pond (born March 1, 1989) [10] and Miranda Diane Gaddis (born November 18, 1988); [11] the three girls were students at Gardiner Middle School, [12] and were also members of the same dance class. [13] In August 2001, Pond accused Weaver of attempting to rape her at his home, and the incident was reported to police; however, charges were not formally filed by law enforcement. [14]
On the morning of January 9, 2002, Pond left her home at the Newell Creek Village apartments to walk to the nearby bus stop; she never arrived. [15] Friends and family, including Gaddis, began to search for her; Gaddis resided in the same apartment building as Pond. [16] The dance team, of which both girls were members, organized a fundraiser to help assist the search for Pond, which they scheduled for March 23, 2002. [15]
On the morning of March 8, Gaddis disappeared under similar circumstances to Pond. [15] After Gaddis's disappearance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation instated a task force to search for the girls; FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele stated during a press interview: "There is a growing belief that the cases are related, and while there's a slight hope that they have run away, there is a growing belief that there was some kind of criminal activity involved." [15]
After both girls vanished, Weaver (with the help of his son) dug a hole in his yard and covered it with concrete; Weaver told his son it was a pad for a hot tub. KATU television news reporter Anna Song conducted an interview with Weaver prior to his arrest, during which he stood on top of the concrete slab where Ashley Pond was buried. [17] When asked about the slab, Weaver told The Oregonian: "I'm putting in a Jacuzzi. The last time I checked that wasn't against the law." [16] Portland Tribune reporter Jim Redden got two tips early on – one from Linda O'Neal, a private investigator and a relative of Pond – which prompted him to interview Weaver. [18] Weaver told Redden that he was the FBI's prime suspect, at a time when it was generally believed there was no such suspect. [19] During a July 9, 2002 interview with Good Morning America , Weaver commented:
I have no problem with them looking at me as a suspect. The problems are coming with what they're doing as far as questions that are being asked of my family. They're telling parents of my daughter's friends not to let their daughters spend the night, because I'm a prime suspect, and their daughter might be next. [20]
On August 13, 2002, Weaver's stepson, Francis, called police claiming that Weaver had attempted to rape his nineteen-year-old girlfriend. [16] [21] When speaking to authorities, Francis suggested that his stepfather had been involved in the murders of Pond and Gaddis. [16] Weaver was arrested for the attempted sexual assault, and law enforcement subsequently initiated a warrant to investigate his property. [16] Pond's stepmother, who had suspected Weaver in both disappearances, erected a sign next to the concrete slab on his property which read: "Dig Me Up." [22]
The FBI began a search of Weaver's property on South Beavercreek Road on August 24, 2002. [13] That day, FBI agents discovered Gaddis's remains inside an empty microwave box in a storage shed behind Weaver's home. [23] [21] On August 25, the remains of Pond were unearthed from beneath the concrete slab in Weaver's backyard, where they had been stored in a 55-gallon barrel. [24] [25]
The disappearances of Pond and Gaddis drew international media attention, [lower-alpha 1] receiving coverage in The Oregonian , People , The Los Angeles Times , The New York Times , [16] and the BBC. [23] The disappearances were also profiled in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries , which aired on September 20, 2002, after the girls' bodies had been discovered. [26]
Journalist Linda O'Neal [ clarification needed ] went on to co-write a book about the case, entitled The Missing Girls, published in 2006. [27] The book was somewhat fictionalized, featuring composite characters and reconstructed conversations. O'Neal contended that the substance of the book was accurate, but the FBI criticized the book, and took exception to O'Neal's characterization of how the case was solved. [18] [28]
In 2002, Governor John Kitzhaber launched a multi-agency investigation into the handling of the first report of Weaver's abuse of Pond. [5] Weaver remained under arrest for the attempted rape of his son's girlfriend until October 2, 2002, when he was indicted and charged with six counts of aggravated murder; two counts of abuse of a corpse in the second degree; one count of sexual abuse in the first degree; one count of attempted rape in the second degree; one count of attempted aggravated murder; [3] one count of first degree attempted rape; one count of sexual abuse in the first degree; one count of sexual abuse in the second degree; and two counts of sexual abuse in the third degree. In September 2004, Weaver pleaded guilty to two charges and no-contest to the rest. A plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole. [3]
On March 4, 2007, Weaver was walking to the barber shop at the Snake River Correctional Institution for a haircut when the barber – another inmate – revealed a makeshift knife and attacked him, causing neck and shoulder injuries. He was treated at the prison. The barber was placed in the disciplinary unit. [29]
In 2009, Gaddis's younger sister, Miriah, visited Weaver in prison on two occasions: "I had to know what happened. It was the only way I could put it behind me," she told reporters. During the visits, Weaver admitted to murdering Pond and Gaddis "with his bare hands," and told Miriah that he had planned to murder her next. [30]
On February 17, 2014, Weaver's stepson Francis was arrested and charged with murder. He and three others had robbed and killed 43-year-old Edward Spangler in Canby, Oregon the day prior. [31] Francis Weaver was convicted of murder in 2016, though it was later reduced to manslaughter. [32] Francis' three accomplices were also convicted for their roles in the murder. Michael Orren was sentenced to life in prison for aggravated murder. Shannon Betancourt and Brittany Endicott were sentenced to 7+1⁄2 years for first degree robbery. [33]
Neil Edward Goldschmidt was an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state, and federal offices over three decades. After serving as the United States Secretary of Transportation under President Jimmy Carter and governor of Oregon, Goldschmidt was at one time considered the most powerful and influential figure in Oregon's politics. His career and legacy were severely damaged in 2004 by revelations that he raped a young teenage girl in 1973, during his first term as mayor of Portland.
Randall Brent Woodfield is an American serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, robber, burglar and former football player who was dubbed the I-5 Killer or the I-5 Bandit by the media due to the crimes he committed along the Interstate 5 corridor running through Washington, Oregon and California. Before his capture, Woodfield was suspected of multiple sexual assaults and murders. Though convicted in only one murder, he has been linked to a total of 18 murders and is suspected of having killed up to as many as 44 people.
Marcia Virginia Trimble was a nine-year-old girl who disappeared on February 25, 1975, while delivering Girl Scout Cookies in the affluent Green Hills area of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Her body was discovered 33 days later on Easter Sunday near the Trimble family home. She had been sexually assaulted. During the early years of their inquiry into the assault and murder, the police persisted in investigating one particular suspect, finally charging him in 1979 but he was released in 1980 for lack of evidence.
Brooke Carol Wilberger was an American student from the state of Oregon who was abducted and later murdered. Her disappearance was covered by the national media; her murder investigation was one of the most publicized in Oregon's history. Joel Patrick Courtney ultimately pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder of Wilberger; he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Tre Arrow is a green anarchist who gained prominence in the U.S. state of Oregon in the late 1990s and early 2000s for his environmental activism, bid for Congress as a Pacific Green Party candidate, and then for his arrest and later conviction for committing acts of arson on cement and logging trucks. He unsuccessfully sought political asylum in Canada, and was extradited to Portland, Oregon, on February 29, 2008, to face 14 counts of arson and conspiracy. These actions were claimed as acts of protest by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). On June 3, 2008, Arrow pleaded guilty to 2 counts of arson and was sentenced with 78 months in prison. He was released to a halfway house in 2009.
Molly Anne Bish was a sixteen-year-old American girl from rural Worcester County, Massachusetts, who disappeared while working as a lifeguard in her hometown of Warren, Massachusetts. Her remains were found three years later in neighboring Hampden County after what became the largest search in the state's history. Police believe Bish was the victim of a homicide and several suspects have been publicly identified, but the case remains officially unresolved as of 2024.
Habis Abdulla al Saoub, a.k.a. Abu Tarek, was a Jordanian national and member of the Portland Seven, and later a member of an al Qaeda cell. In February 2003, he was added to the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list, wanted in connection with a federal grand jury indictment returned on October 3, 2002, in United States District Court for the District of Oregon at Portland, Oregon, in which he was charged with conspiracy to levy war against the United States, conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al-Qaeda, conspiracy to contribute services to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and possessing firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence. The FBI offered a five million dollar reward for his capture.
FamilyTreeDNA is a division of Gene by Gene, a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. FamilyTreeDNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA to individuals for genealogical purpose. With a database of more than two million records, it is the most popular company worldwide for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, and the fourth most popular for autosomal DNA. In Europe, it is the most common also for autosomal DNA. FamilyTreeDNA as a division of Gene by Gene were acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company, in January 2021.
In 1985, a group of high-ranking Rajneeshees, followers of the Indian mystic Shree Rajneesh, conspired to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Rajneesh's personal secretary and second-in-command, Ma Anand Sheela, assembled the group after Turner was appointed to investigate illegal activity at the followers' community, Rajneeshpuram. Turner investigated charges of immigration fraud and sham marriages, and later headed the federal prosecution of the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon.
Jack Owen Spillman III is an American rapist and serial killer from Spokane, Washington. He is known as the Werewolf Butcher.
The 2010 Portland car bomb plot involved an incident in which Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American student, was arrested in an FBI sting operation on November 26, 2010, after attempting to set off what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, Oregon. He was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. An attorney for Mohamud argued that his client was entrapped. On January 31, 2013, a jury found Mohamud guilty of the single charge against him. He was scheduled to be sentenced on December 18, 2013, however the sentencing was cancelled in anticipation of the filing of new motions by the defense. In September 2014, Mohamud was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison with credit for time served, as well as lifetime supervision upon release in 2040.
Bobby Jack Fowler was an American rapist and suspected serial killer who was active in the United States and Canada from 1973 to 1995. He died in prison of lung cancer during a 16-year sentence following a conviction for rape, kidnapping and attempted rape in Newport, Oregon, in 1996.
Marvin Charles Gabrion is an American murderer, rapist, and suspected serial killer convicted of the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman, of Cedar Springs, Michigan. Timmerman and her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon, disappeared two days before Gabrion was set to stand trial on rape charges filed by Rachel the previous summer. Rachel's body was found in Oxford Lake, weighted down by cinder blocks. Shannon remains missing, but is presumed deceased. Although Gabrion was not tried for killing Shannon, court documents describe her murder as “virtually undisputed.”
On January 2, 2016, an armed group of Right-wing militants seized and occupied the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, and continued to occupy it until law enforcement made a final arrest on February 11, 2016. Their leader was Ammon Bundy, who participated in the 2014 Bundy standoff at his father's Nevada ranch. Other members of the group were loosely affiliated with non-governmental militias and the sovereign citizen movement.
The Two Rivers Correctional Institution is a state prison for men located in Umatilla, Umatilla County, Oregon on the Columbia River, owned and operated by the Oregon Department of Corrections.
On May 26, 2017, Jeremy Joseph Christian fatally stabbed two men and injured a third after he was confronted for shouting racist and anti-Muslim slurs at two black teenagers, Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed, on a MAX Light Rail train in Portland, Oregon. Two of the victims, Ricky John Best of Happy Valley and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche of Portland, were killed; the third victim, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, survived with serious wounds.
Gerald "Jerry" Walter McFadden, known as The Animal, was an American serial killer and sex offender who was convicted of the May 1986 murders of two women and one man in Smith County, Texas. He fled from jail shortly after his arrest, leading to the biggest manhunt in Texas history, with it coming to an end in July. He was later sentenced to death and executed in 1999. Years after his execution, he was found to have perpetrated an earlier 1979 murder in Oregon through DNA evidence, and authorities have since speculated he could have committed other killings.
The Ghosts of Highway 20 refer to a number of individuals who disappeared, or were victims of rape and murder, along Highway 20 in the U.S. state of Oregon from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. John Arthur Ackroyd, a highway mechanic with the Oregon Department of Transportation, was a suspect in these cases. Detectives were able to prosecute the murder of Kaye Turner of 1978, for which he was sentenced to five life sentences for aggravated murder. Ackroyd pleaded no contest in the murder of his stepdaughter Rachanda Pickle and agreed to not seek parole for the murder of Turner. A case was developed against Ackroyd for the murders of Melissa Sanders and Sheila Swanson, but Ackroyd died before the case could be presented to the Lincoln County, Oregon grand jury. Marlene Gabrielsen was the only known victim to have lived and is the first known victim. Her case was not prosecuted.
Hugh Bion Morse was an American serial killer who committed numerous crimes across the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. With the help of the FBI, Morse was arrested, tried, and convicted on one count of murder in Minnesota, and is known to have committed murders in Alabama and Washington beforehand. He also committed rape, burglary, assault, attempted murder, and child molestation in at least four other states.
Darren Dee O'Neall is an American convicted murderer, serial rapist, suspected serial killer, and former fugitive. O'Neall was convicted of the kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old girl in Portland, Oregon, after having already been convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Robin Smith in Edgewood, Washington. O'Neall was suspected to have killed six women in total.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)