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American Morning

FBI Trying to Unravel Mystery Surrounding Two Missing Girls in Oregon

Aired March 13, 2002 - 09:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI this morning is trying to unravel the mystery surrounding two missing girls in Oregon. They disappeared from the same apartment complex in Oregon City two months apart. Investigators think the two cases are related, and they think that foul play was involved.

Yesterday, the FBI took a computer that belonged to one of the girls in hopes it might provide clues as to who she may have contacted on the Internet.

In a moment, we'll talk with the mother of one of the missing girls, but first, this report from CNN's James Hattori.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to pray that God will be with us as a community, that he will be overseeing our young people.

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prayers and tears filled the Oregon City Christian Church Tuesday night as a community copes with the disappearance of two young girls in as many months from a nearby apartment complex. They gathered not to memorialize, but to seek strength and hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It helps comfort me that many people really cared.

HATTORI: Michelle Duffey's 13-year-old daughter, Miranda Gaddis, vanished last Friday morning, apparently after leaving for school. Around the same time, eight weeks earlier, 12-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared on her way to catch the bus. Both girls attended the same middle school and were on the dance team.

Over the weekend, dozens of law enforcement officers scoured a wooded area adjacent to the apartment complex. The investigation turned up no evidence of a crime, but no signs the girls planned to run away either, leading officials to presume that foul play was involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think all the investigators have concluded that we are dealing with abductions here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a dream, and I am imagining it's someone else's kid I'm looking for. That way, I can deal with it better.

HATTORI (on camera): The FBI is calling in a team of behavioral experts to profile a possible suspect. Meantime, investigators hope a witness will step forward, someone who may have unwittingly seen something, or someone, to provide a break in this case.

CHARLES MATTHEWS, FBI: They may have jotted down a license plate, or noted a particular car, or van or a truck, with somebody in an area that they just simply didn't belong in, around a schoolyard, around a play yard,

HATTORI: Until some new information surfaces, friends and families of the missing girls are praying for answers.

James Hattori, CNN, Oregon City, Oregon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us now from Oregon City is Miranda Gaddis' mother, Michelle Duffey. And her daughter, as we mentioned, has been missing since Friday.

Thank you very much for being with us.

MICHELLE DUFFEY, MIRANDA GADDIS' MOTHER: Thank you.

ZAHN: We just heard a number of the investigators talk about why they are convinced that this is a criminal case and that foul play might be involved. What have they told you about the circumstances surrounding your daughter's disappearance?

DUFFEY: They just told me that they are checking into it, and that they're having a lot of progress. They're not going into a lot of detail with me right now.

ZAHN: Tell us a little bit about the last time you saw Miranda.

DUFFEY: She was excited about her dance competition the next day, and was telling me stuff she would do after school, and go to her dance practice, and that would see me there, and I left for work.

ZAHN: And what we would like to do put up a picture of Miranda and have you describe her and what she was wearing, and at the same time, also put a phone number up that the FBI has recommended people call if they have seen her. What should people know about your daughter?

DUFFEY: Miranda is a really pretty blonde girl, and she does talk really fast, a little bit more than normal kids talk fast. I'm not sure what she was wearing when she left, because she had her bath robe on when I left. She hadn't changed yet. She's very bubbly and outgoing, and loves talking to people, and can't sit quiet for very long. So she would be talking to somebody.

ZAHN: And as we look at the pictures of Miranda and Ashley, I guess the investigators clearly are making link between Ashley's disappearance in January. And they've also made the point that not only do these young girls look alike, they are about the same age, they go to the same school, they're on the same dance team, and they live in the same housing complex. They both were also on their way to school.

Is that what you're most worried about, that perhaps Miranda and Ashley were on their way to school when something happened?

DUFFEY: Yes, I really am, and I don't think either of them would have gotten in a car with someone they didn't know. Miranda was pretty wild and like fighting and wrestling, and I don't think she would have got in a car with someone she didn't know. I'm really worried that that is what happened.

ZAHN: Michelle, the investigators also have said publicly that they have taken her computer hard drive, I guess, from your home or the computer altogether, because they think was on the Internet the night before her disappearance. Have they told you anything about what they've been able to glean from doing that?

DUFFEY: She was on two different computers, mine and her dance coaches, so they took both of them, and they just told me they found a lot of people that she chatted with, and that they were checking into all of them.

ZAHN: And did there team so be...

DUFFEY: I'm not sure who all they were.

ZAHN: Yes, so at this point, they can't establish any kind of pattern of perhaps striking some sort of online conversation with somebody?

DUFFEY: Yes, they just know her basic friends, which she chatted with a lot, but I don't know if found someone else she talked to. They kind of hinted things, but they don't exactly tell me straight up, because they're still investigating.

ZAHN: We've seen a little bit of how your community is reacting not only to your daughter's disappearance, but Ashley's as well. How afraid are people who live in your complex.

DUFFEY: In my complex, they're really scared. A lot of people are moving out, they're breaking their leases.

I know of four or five just in the two days that she disappeared. After Ashley disappeared, there was a lot of them that did that, and after things cooled off, people were OK. But I've heard that like 11 -- at least 11 people are going to be moving in the next couple of weeks.

ZAHN: And how are you holding up?

DUFFEY: I am holding up. I imagining it's someone else's child. But it's been, like, five days, and it's starting to really hit home. ZAHN: Well, our heart goes out to you, and I'm just going to leave up this number for a moment of the FBI hotline, because we know these first hours that someone is missing or critical in the investigation. Is there anything that you want our audience to know so they can all effort some help here in this search?

DUFFEY: Just that we all love Miranda and really want her home. Her friends and her family miss her really, really bad.

ZAHN: I know this is a very, very tough time for you. Thank you for getting up so early in the morning to talk to us about this investigation, and our thoughts will be with you as investigators and the FBI really turn on the heat here.

DUFFEY: Thank you.

ZAHN: Thank you so much, Michelle Duffey. Good luck to your family.

DUFFEY: Thank you.

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