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CNN Live Saturday

FBI Search Ward Weaver's House

Aired August 24, 2002 - 17:01   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: As an Oregon man sits in jail facing rape charges, the FBI searches his home in connection with an unrelated missing teen's case. Last winter, in separate incidents, Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, both 13, disappeared on their way to school.
Let's go now to Oregon City and get the latest from reporter Ryan Deal of affiliate KP-TV. Hi there, Ryan.

RYAN DEAL, KP-TV CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Good evening to you.

We're looking at the house behind me of suspected rapist Ward Weaver. The FBI has converged here, about 40 FBI agents, as well as Oregon State Police officers searching his house. They have brought in police dogs, cadaver dogs today. They have been going around the property. This is a man who said about a month and a half ago that he was the FBI's number one suspect in the case of missing girls Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis. Since that time, he has retracted that statement, but was arrested last week on a rape charge, accused of raping his son's 19-year-old girlfriend.

So the police, the FBI have come here today. They have sealed off the area with a fence. They have brought in the dogs, and the security in this area is extremely, extremely tight right now. Here is FBI spokeswoman Beth Ann Steele (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH ANN STEELE (ph), FBI SPOKESWOMAN: You may see that they're being checked in, the security is very tight. It is important that there is a clear record of who is on the property and who is doing what, so that is one reason that they have the check-ins at the front gate. And they have a strict limit on who can be in there and what they're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAL: Now, the FBI has maintained that they have no suspects in this case. They're saying Ward Weaver is not a suspect. The FBI actually uses the word "subject," to be frank with you, but they're saying that they have no subjects right now. Ward Weaver is not one. However, you can see the search here is massive. They are attempting to collect evidence. The FBI tells me off camera, attempting to collect evidence in order to charge Ward Weaver in the abductions and possible deaths, if that is what has happened here to Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis.

Meanwhile, the mothers are at a distance away from here, at an undisclosed location. We have talked with people with them this morning all day here, and they tell us that the mothers are very distraught, they're upset, and any information that they are getting they are getting here from local television broadcasts. So the FBI has a pretty good blackout on what's coming out of here, and what is coming out of here is that the search is going on, and that's pretty much all people are saying now -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, Ryan, neighbors reportedly had complained about Mr. Weaver recently pouring some concrete in the backyard. What are FBI officials saying about that being part of the search, breaking up that concrete and including that in their very extensive search of this property?

DEAL: Certainly, certainly a big part of this search, we're told. And we asked the FBI if they plan to bring in jackhammers or other devices to, in fact, unearth that concrete slab; they told us, quote, "we're searching the entire property." So we can only assume -- behind that house, there is a concrete slab, of course. Over that is a large tent. And the FBI has erected that tent in order to keep media people from seeing what is going on in there. We can only imagine that as we speak, some unearthing of that concrete slab has begun.

It is also interesting to point out that Ward Weaver's father, by the same name, is in jail in California at present, serving a sentence there for murder, and reports are now surfacing that a concrete slab was somehow involved in that case as well. So something we want to watch here very closely. But clearly for a long time, residents here since the rape charge have been begging the FBI to unearth that concrete slab. That might be going on behind us right now. We just don't know.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ryan Deal of our affiliate KP-TV, thank you very much, from Oregon City.

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