Ward Francis Weaver III (born April 6, 1963) is an American convicted murderer. He served a life sentence with no possibility of parole for sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murder of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in Oregon City, Oregon.
Raised in Northern California by his mother, Weaver had a troubled childhood; his father, Ward Weaver Jr., was convicted in 1984 for double killing. After serving in the US Navy Reserve, Weaver was convicted of attacking two teenage girls in Fairfield, California in 1988.
In January 2002, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared on his way to his bus stop in Oregon City, near Weaver's residence. Three months later, Pond's classmate, the thirteen-year-old Miranda Gaddis, also vanished under mysterious circumstances. This disappearance received international media attention, and was profiled on various television programs, including the Unresolved Mystery . The remains of the two girls were found on Weaver's property in August 2002. In 2004, Weaver was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for sexual violence and the killing of the two girls.
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Weaver was born on April 6, 1963 in Humboldt County, California to Trish and Ward Weaver Jr. In 1967, Weaver's father left the family; A few years later, Weaver's mother, Trish married Bob Budrow, a cruel alcoholic, and her family moved to Portland, Oregon.
Weaver first showed antisocial behavior as a teenager; his sister, Tammi, later said that he physically and sexually harassed at least one family member by the time he was twelve, and his half-brother Robert Budrow claimed that Weaver often beat him during their childhood.
In 1981, a teenage relative reported that he had repeatedly raped and beat him. Police investigated alleged harassment in 1981, but the Multnomah District Attorney decided not to pursue the cost because Weaver had been enlisted in military service and would leave Portland. Shortly thereafter, Weaver graduated from Marshall High School in Portland, and joined the US Navy Reserve. He was released the following year on May 17, 1982 for drunkenness and neglect of duty. During his naval tenure, he met his future wife, Maria Stout, who is from the Philippines. The couple moved with Weaver's parents and she soon became pregnant. Five months after her pregnancy, she was physically attacked by Weaver and hospitalized, but refused to file a lawsuit. Their son, Francis, was born in December 1982.
In 1981, Weaver's father killed a young couple whose car was damaged in Tehachapi, California, and buried them in his backyard; he was sentenced to death for crimes in 1984.
Marriage and early crime
Weaver married Maria Stout in 1984, and the couple moved to Bakersfield, California. On June 15, 1986, Weaver attacked a friend's teenage daughter in Fairfield, California, hitting one of Jennifer Ordonoa's fifteen-year-old girls with a concrete beam. He was sentenced to three years in prison for assault. After being released, Weaver and wife Stout moved to Canby, Oregon, where they operate a store. There, the couple gave birth to their fourth child, Mallori, in 1989.
In 1993, Maria Weaver filed an order of detention against her husband, and their marriage ended in a divorce. In July 1995, Weaver beat his new girlfriend, Kristi Sloan, with a cast iron skillet. He was jailed for the incident, but Sloan refused to testify against him. In October they returned together and, in February 1996, they married. The marriage lasted four years.
Maps Ward Weaver III
The killing of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis
Disappearance
In August 1997, Weaver began an affair with a woman he met at work. The couple moved to a rented house on South Beavercreek Road in Oregon City. Weaver's 12-year-old daughter Mallori is friends with Ashley Marie Pond (born March 1, 1989) and Miranda Diane Gaddis (born November 18, 1988); the three girls are students at Gardiner Middle School, as well as members of the same dance class. In August 2001, Pond accused Weaver of attempting to rape him at his home, and the incident was reported to the police; however, the indictment is not officially filed by law enforcement.
On the morning of 9 January 2002, Pond left his home in Newell Creek Village apartment to walk to the nearest bus stop; he never came. Friends and family, including Gaddis, started looking for him; Gaddis lives in the same apartment building as Pond. The second dance team of the girls are members of an organized fundraiser to help assist Pond search, which they planned for March 23, 2002.
On the morning of March 8, the Gaddis disappeared in a state similar to Pond. After the disappearance of Gaddis, the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up 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 is little hope that they have escaped, there is a growing belief that there is some kind of criminal activity involved.
After the two girls disappeared, Weaver (with the help of his son) dug a hole in his yard and covered it with concrete; Weaver told his son that it was a pedestal for the hot tub. KATU, the television reporter, Anna Song, interviewed Weaver before his arrest, where he stood on the concrete floor where Ashley Pond was buried. When asked about the plate, Weaver told The Oregonian: "I was wearing a Jacuzzi.The last time I checked it was not breaking the law." Portland Tribune reporter Jim Redden got two initial tips - one from Linda O'Neal, private investigator and relative of Pond - who encouraged her to interview Weaver. Weaver told Redden that he was the FBI's chief suspect, at the time it was generally believed there were no such suspects. During a July 9, 2002 interview with Good Morning America , Weaver commented:
I have no problem with them seeing me as a suspect. The problem comes with what they do as far as the questions my family asks. They told my parents my daughters friends not to let their daughters stay overnight, because I was the prime suspect, and their daughter might be next.
Discovery
On August 13, 2002, Weaver's son Francis called the police who claimed Weaver was trying to rape his nineteen-year-old girlfriend. When speaking with the authorities, Francis stated that his father was involved in the murder of Pond and Gaddis. Weaver was arrested for attempted sexual violence, and law enforcement then initiated a warrant to investigate his property. Pond's stepmother, who had suspected Weaver in both disappearances, put a sign next to a concrete slab on his property that read: "Dig me up."
The FBI began searching for Weaver property on South Beavercreek Road on August 24, 2002. That day, FBI agents found Gaddis's body in an empty microwave box in the storage warehouse behind Weaver's house. On August 25, the remains of Pond were dug from beneath the concrete slab in Weaver's backyard, where they were stored in a 55-gallon barrel.
Media coverage
The loss of Pool and Gaddis attracted the attention of the international media, receiving coverage on The Oregonian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and the BBC. The disappearances were also profiled in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries , which aired on September 20, 2002 after the bodies of the girls were found.
Journalist Linda O'Neal went on to write a book about the case, titled The Missing Girls , published in 2006. The book was somewhat fictional, featuring combined characters and reconstructed conversations. O'Neal argued 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 resolved.
Conviction and aftermath
In 2002, Governor John Kitzhaber launched a multi-agency investigation into handling the first report of Weaver of Pond abuse. Weaver remained in custody for attempted rape of his son's lover until October 2, 2002, when he was charged and charged: six counts of exacerbated murder; two alleged abuses of bodies at the second level; one count of first-degree sexual harassment; one count of attempted rape at the second level; one count of attempted murder being exacerbated; one count of the first level of attempted rape; one count of first-degree sexual harassment; one count of sexual harassment at the second level; and two counts of sexual harassment at the third level. In September 2004, Weaver pleaded guilty to two counts and there was no contest for the rest. Bargaining allows him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole.
On March 4, 2007, Weaver walked to a barber shop in the Snake River Penitentiary for a haircut when another barber - revealing an emergency knife and attacking him, caused a neck and shoulder injury. He was in prison. The barber is placed in the discipline unit.
In 2009, Gaddis's sister Miriah visited Weaver in prison on two separate occasions: "I have to know what happened, it was the only way I could put it behind me," he told reporters. During the visit, Weaver confessed to killing Pond and Gaddis "empty-handed," and told Miriah that she had planned to kill him next.
On February 17, 2014, son of Weaver Francis was arrested and charged with murder. He and three others allegedly robbed and killed a drug dealer in Canby, Oregon the day before.
Note
References
The work cited
- Cornwell, Nancy C. (2004). Press Freedom: Legal Rights and Freedoms . ABC-CLIO. ISBN: 978-1-851-09471-4.
- Geberth, Vernon J. (2014). Murder and Investigation Related Sex Death: Practical and Clinical Perspective (Second Edition). Press CRC. ISBN: 978-1-439-82656-0.
- Gottlieb, Glenn (2002). Wanted: The World's Most Searched After Fugitive . Press Platinum. ISBN: 978-1-879-58260-6.
- O'Neal, Linda; Watson, Rick; Tennyson, Philip (2007). Missing Girls: The True Story of Kidnapping and Killing . Macmillan. ISBN: 978-0-312-94161-1.
- Schram, Pamela J.; Tibbetts, Stephen G. (2017). Introduction to Criminology: Why Do They Do It? (Second Edition). SAGE Publications. ISBN: 978-1-506-34755-4.
External links
- Summary of cases in the Thought Catalog
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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