Ward Weaver III

American convicted murderer (born 1963)

Ward Francis Weaver III (born April 6, 1963) is an American convicted murderer. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in Oregon City, Oregon. Raised in Northern California by his mother, Weaver had a tumultuous childhood; his father, Ward Weaver Jr., was convicted in 1984 of a double murder. After a stint in the U. S. Navy Reserve, Weaver was convicted of assaulting two teenage girls in Fairfield, California in 1988. In January 2002, twelve year old Ashley Pond disappeared en route to her bus stop in Oregon City, near Weaver's residence. Two months later, Pond's classmate, thirteen year old Miranda Gaddis, also vanished under mysterious circumstances. The disappearances received international media attention, and were profiled on various television programs, including Unsolved Mysteries. The remains of both girls were discovered on Weaver's property in August 2002 during an investigation into the rape of his son's girlfriend, also committed by Weaver. In 2004, Weaver was sentenced to life without parole for the sexual assault and murder of both girls.

Weaver was born April 6, 1963, in Humboldt County, California, to Trish and Ward Weaver Jr. In 1967, his father abandoned the family; several years later, his mother married Bob Budrow, an abusive alcoholic, Shortly thereafter, Weaver graduated from Marshall High School in Portland, and joined the US Navy Reserve. In 1981, Weaver's father murdered 18 year old Air Force recruit Robert Radford and his 23 year old girlfriend Barbara Levoy, whom was also raped. Weaver Jr. found the couple in Tehachapi, California, where their car had broken down. He later buried the victims in his backyard. In 1984, he was sentenced to death for the crime. Weaver Jr. is also a suspected serial killer, being suspected of up to 24 other murders.

Weaver married Maria Stout in 1984, and the couple relocated to Bakersfield, California. On June 15, 1986, Weaver attacked the teenaged daughters of a friend in Fairfield, California, striking one of the girls—fifteen year old Jennifer Ordonoa—with a block of concrete. In 1993, Maria Weaver filed a restraining order against her husband, and their marriage ended in 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. By October, they were back together and, in February 1996, they married. The marriage lasted four years.

In August 1997, Weaver began an affair with a woman he met at work. The couple moved into a rented house on South Beavercreek Road in Oregon City. Weaver's then 12 year old daughter Mallori became friends with Ashley Marie Pond (born March 1, 1989) and Miranda Diane Gaddis (born November 18, 1988); the three girls were students at Gardiner Middle School, and were also members of the same dance class. Friends and family, including Gaddis, began to search for her; Gaddis resided in the same apartment building as Pond. The dance team, of which both girls were members, organized a fundraiser to help assist the search for Pond, which they scheduled for March 23, 2002. When asked about the slab, Weaver told The Oregonian: "I'm putting in a Jacuzzi. The last time I checked that wasn't against the law." Weaver told Redden that he was the FBI's prime suspect, at a time when it was generally believed there was no such suspect. During a July 9, 2002 interview with Good Morning America, Weaver commented:

On August 13, 2002, Weaver's stepson, Francis, called police claiming that Weaver had attempted to rape his nineteen year old girlfriend. That day, FBI agents discovered Gaddis's remains inside an empty microwave box in a storage shed behind Weaver's home. On August 25, the remains of Pond were unearthed from beneath the concrete slab in Weaver's backyard, where they had been stored in a 55 gallon barrel.

The disappearances of Pond and Gaddis drew international media attention,efn|The girls' disappearances and murder cases were publicized in various national media, as well as international publications, such as the BBC. Journalist Linda O'Neal went on to co write a book about the case, entitled The Missing Girls, published in 2006. The book was somewhat fictionalized, featuring composite characters and reconstructed conversations. O'Neal contended 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 solved.

In 2002, Governor John Kitzhaber launched a multi agency investigation into the handling of the first report of Weaver's abuse of Pond. In 2009, Gaddis's younger sister, Miriah, visited Weaver in prison on two occasions: "I had to know what happened. It was the only way I could put it behind me," she told reporters. During the visits, Weaver admitted to murdering Pond and Gaddis "with his bare hands," and told Miriah that he had planned to murder her next. On February 17, 2014, Weaver's stepson Francis was arrested and charged with murder. He and three others had robbed and killed 43 year old Edward Spangler in Canby, Oregon the day prior. Francis Weaver was convicted of murder in 2016, though it was later reduced to manslaughter. Francis' three accomplices were also convicted for their roles in the murder. Michael Orren was sentenced to life in prison for aggravated murder. Shannon Betancourt and Brittany Endicott were sentenced to 7 and a half years for first degree robbery.

The 2011 film Megan Is Missing is loosely based upon the murders of Pond and Gaddis.