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CNN Live Sunday

Police Find Human Remains on Ward Weaver's Property

Aired August 25, 2002 - 18:01   ET

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

KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we take you to Oregon, where a surreal scene has unfolded at the home where investigators in the Oregon missing girls case found human remains yesterday. CNN's James Hattori is standing by at the property of Ward Weaver in Oregon City. James, so more and more people keep coming out to pay their respects, even though the remains haven't been I.D.ed?
JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Kris. Indeed, it truly qualifies as a spectacle. You can probably see the steady procession of cars that has come by the Ward Weaver home, as well as a crowd of neighbors and friends of the two missing girls. Some have left teddy bears; some have left notes.

All outside the fence, and inside I think we have some recent aerial footage that shows about 40 or so forensic investigators and other police investigators who are doing the searching work inside Ward Weaver's home, in some cases using shovels and pick axes to dig up the dirt.

There has been seemingly a flurry of activity this afternoon. We saw what we thought was perhaps a medical examiner's van going in earlier. There was to be an update by FBI officials, but that has been delayed. We are expecting that perhaps later on today, into the evening perhaps.

Now, as I've mentioned, outside the grounds, along the fence that was erected by police, sort of a makeshift memorial which has sprung up, everything from teddy bears to candles to personal notes, heartfelt condolences from friends and neighbors, even perfect strangers who did not know Ashley Pond or Miranda Gaddis, the two teenagers who live in an apartment complex just down the road from where this house is being searched. Ashley disappeared in January, and Miranda back in March. And until now, there has not been a whole lot of apparent progress in this search for what happened to them.

Yesterday, as we've reported, remains were found in a shed in the backyard of Ward Weaver's home. As of the last word, there's no new discovery officially. We hope to be updated on that particular circumstance. Weaver was acquainted with both those girls. They both were friends of his daughter, had spent time at the house. And so the connection there is still coming together in the minds of investigators.

However, it's interesting. Investigators had to get a search warrant. In fact, got permission from Ward Weaver, who was in jail on an unrelated rape charge. And according to Weaver's lawyer, Kris, he said that he granted permission to the police to search his property in order to provide, quote, "some closure" for the missing girls' families. So we'll see just exactly how much closure results when the search is completed here, Kris.

OSBORN: Well, James, I wanted to ask you about that search. I read that investigators will be bringing in imaging technology to further their efforts to possibly find more remains at the site?

HATTORI: They have been all day. This morning, a spokeswoman described it as very high-tech equipment, it's kind of like sonar, which uses sound waves to pulse through the ground and detect if there's anything worth digging up. I imagine it's better than trying to dig up the entire yard willy-nilly.

They have been using that technology. As you know, we're obstructed from seeing what they're doing except from the occasional helicopter shot. As well as they have two tents covering some of the area as well. But that's what they said, and hopefully we'll have some word as to what they found, if anything, more today -- Kris.

OSBORN: Well, James, I wanted to ask you if you've heard anything further on questions that came up a little bit earlier about how police dogs were actually at that location several months back.

HATTORI: Yeah, that's true. We raised that with the FBI spokeswoman. And because many areas around here have been searched. It's been eight months since the first kidnapping, five months since the second one. And a lot of these areas have been searched by personnel as well as search dogs.

And the spokesperson -- in fact, I asked her, how could it be that they missed a body in a shed in a property that they've searched before allegedly with, or reportedly with dogs. And she said, well, that's a good question, they're looking into that, but it could be that the body wasn't there when they initially searched that property, which was some months ago.

OSBORN: James Hattori, live from the scene. Thank you very much.

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