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CNN Live Today

Autopsy Could Confirm Second Body as Ashley Pond

Aired August 26, 2002 - 10:06   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the latest from Oregon and the crime scene that has surrendered grim clues into the mystery of two missing girls. One day after authorities identified a set of remains of 13- year-old Miranda Gaddis, an autopsy today could confirm the second body as her friend, Ashley Pond.
CNN's James Hattori is in Oregon City with the latest on that story -- James.

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Investigators are expected back here on the scene at Ward Weaver's house, which is of course now a crime scene. He is an official suspect in the kidnapping and deaths of -- still not official deaths, but kidnapping and disappearance of these two girls. They are going to be continuing to search the property. They don't expect to find more human remains, although at this point they believe this kidnapping case is essentially resolved.

Yesterday investigators did return, as you mentioned, a second set of human remains contained in a barrel that was buried beneath a concrete slab in the backyard of Weaver's home. They don't have an idea on that, but they presume that that will turn out to be the body of Ashley Pond.

Also announced yesterday, the identification of the first set of remains that was found in a shed Saturday in Weaver's backyard, identified via dental records, to be those of Miranda Gaddis.

Now, the two 13-year-old girls were of course kidnapped in separate incidents in January and March. Weaver is an acquaintance of both girls. They were both friends of his daughter. They spent time at his house. Weaver was at one point accused of sexually molesting Ashley Pond, but no charges were ever brought as a result of those charges. He is already is in custody on an unrelated rape charge, kidnapping. Charges of course will come after this investigation is complete and all of the evidence is processed.

Now if you have any doubts about the impact of this case on the community of Oregon City in suburban Portland, let's take a look at this police fence that surrounds the Ward Weaver home, a chain-link memorial is what's it's become, with teddy bears, and candles, and pictures of Ashley and Miranda, and personal messages of condolence to the family,a sign of all of the emotions that have been stirred up by this shocking crime.

And of course, perhaps one of the most shocking aspects of this crime, Carol, is that Ward Weaver's father is also on death row. He was convicted of murdering, among other things, a woman who he buried in his backyard under a concrete slab -- Carol.

LIN: James, has there been any reaction from Ward Weaver or his attorney to the human remains found in his backyard?

HATTORI: We attempted to contact Mr. Weaver. He is obviously in jail and has declined, to my knowledge, all media requests for interviews. Thus far, his attorney, we have also tried to contact, and have had very little contact with the media. He did, his attorney, did say to one reporter, for the local newspaper, "The Oregonian," that Mr. Weaver consented to consent of the search of his property this weekend in toward -- quote -- "bring closure" to the families of the kidnapped girls.

LIN: And that he did. Thank you very much, James Hattori if Oregon City.

HARRIS: Let's get some law enforcement perspective on this story. Our guest in the house this morning is Don Clark. He is a former FBI agent who has served as both a lead investigator and as a task force leader, and he joins us from Houston.

Good to see you again, Don.

DON CLARK, FMR. FBI AGENT: Good to see you, Leon.

HARRIS: Let's begin, I have quite a few things I would like to bounce off you this morning. Let's start with this missing girls case. Am I crazy to think that seven, eight months is along time for police to try get into this man's backyard and dig up. They were saying they got back there as quickly as legally possible; this case came up in the winter time.

CLARK: Well, it's not really a long time, Leon. These are extremely difficult cases. You and I have talked about these from time to time. What they have got to do is take step by step, and it usually starts in the neighborhood, and I suspect that the solution to this came about by going to that neighborhood and identifying suspects, and then working through for other evidence.

HARRIS: But some of the evidence, if you will, in this case, if -- of course, it's all circumstantial. But as I understand it, his ex-wife was telling the FBI this man was probably guilty, and they should search the premises. Also there's the fact that his father is on death row right now for committing a similar crime where he actually buried a body in his backyard.

CLARK: I heard that. You would like it say, like father, like son, but we can't say that completely until all of the evidence is in. It certainly looks like the FBI and the police out there have a really good site on who they should be prosecuting, and I suspect as time goes on, we'll hear of charges coming forth with this.

But also, those people in the community, to include his own son can be credited with helping to solve this, because that's where it all began, and it really never left that, and that's what the FBI and the police were able to do, was to connect all of these and to use the phrase, the dots again (ph).

HARRIS: Let me ask you about him. As I understand it, his son is actually the one who called 911, and got the police in on this. On the call, he told them that it was because he was accusing his father of raping his girlfriend, which is the charge for which he is -- Weaver is right now in jail. But during that call, in addition to making the accusation of rape, he also mentioned on that call that his father had killed and buried two girls in the backyard. That means the son had to know something. What happens to him?

CLARK: I don't know. I think at this point that the FBI and the local police will be talking to that son and to really to determine how did he that information, and when did he know that information. And they may reserve some rights to take some action in regards to the son. But I think that's a minor point at this time, but the main point at this time is to be able to put together a case against Ward out there, and prosecute him for these crimes.

HARRIS: All right, let's talk now about the Hatfill case. Mr. Hatfill being the bioweapons expert who has been declared as person of interest by the department that is investigating the anthrax threats and all. What do you make of what he did, and he came out this past weekend and went public in saying would he be willing to take blood tests and all that sort of stuff. Is what he's doing right now by waging his own media campaign. Is that moving him up or down the list of persons of interest or what?

CLARK: First of all, he is clearly making an effort to get his case out there. But I think where this thing went awry, Leon, is that this phrase, "person of interest," should be something that I hope law enforcement will not adopt. I think you're a suspect or a subject in a case because you're charged. There are many suspects in investigations as you go along, and you sort of weed those out and clear people as you go along. But this person of interest, I don't know what that means. When you start searching someone's property, I suspect it's a little bit more than a person of interest.

HARRIS: I would think so, if you are going to that length. How effective do you think this media campaign that Dr. Hatfill is waging, how effective do you think that is?

CLARK: I don't know that it's that significant. People will come up on one side or the other. But I think what the law enforcement people have to do is really try look at the evidence that they have, and they must have had some evidence, because keep in mind, Leon, two things happen. First was the consent search, which somebody gave their permission do, and second, a warrant search, which means an independent body, a judge today say, yes you had probable cause to do this. So something is there. That's why I dismiss this person of interest, and says, look, this person had to be a suspect.

HARRIS: We have to move on, because we've got other things to get to this morning. But we're also waiting for this press conference to get under way in Florida about that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) AMI building that the FBI is going to have an announcement about. If you could, would you please stick around, because I would like to ask you some questions about that after that gets under way.

CLARK: OK, you got it.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Don Clark, start right there in Houston, we'll get back to you in just a bit.

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