Missing: The Oregon City Girls. Rick Watson
had two more kids. One of them, Lori, had a child—well several children—one of whom is Ashley Pond, the girl who’s missing. I don’t really know a lot of these people well, but my husband is involved in all their lives.”
Within minutes, most are assembled around the fireplace. Linda stands in front of smoldering coals and her voice is strong and firm. “I’m here to create an effective investigative structure. With everyone’s cooperation, we can inject more energy into the challenges ahead. Maria feels the police don’t seem to be looking for Ashley. I have agreed to donate some of my time to the case, but remember, I’m a private investigator; all of my work will be done in addition to what the cops may or may not be doing. So, Lori and her mother have nothing to fear from that standpoint. My trails may cross the paths the police are following. They may not. But I can promise all of you, we will sooner or later find Ashley.”
From her briefcase, Linda retrieves her unofficial copy of the police report. “The police are treating the disappearance as a ‘suspicious circumstances incident, no crime scene, no witnesses, probable runaway.’ Now this was partly due to the fact that the Pond family had domestic disturbances causing police visits over the past year.”2
Maria scowls. “That’s not fair,” she says. “Most of those police visits didn’t even involve Lori or the kids.”
“Fair or not, you’ve got to understand how the police view situations. And the fact is, in their experience, regardless of who was actually making the disturbances, they had been dispatched several times to quell situations.” For emphasis Linda holds up a folder and thumps the side with her hand. “It’s all here, every call and when you read through it, if you’re a cop, you’re going to get the idea that Ashley was much more likely to be a runaway than a kidnap victim.”
Maria shakes her head. “Well, I still think it isn’t fair.”
“It may not be, but I found out that the detective charged with handling this case just entered Lori’s 9-1-1 call into evidence. And they wouldn’t have done that unless there were some inconsistencies.”
Maria shakes her head. “I want you to talk to Ward Weaver.”
Linda is puzzled. “You’ve never mentioned him before. Who’s Ward Weaver?”
“Ward Weaver is the father of one of Ashley’s friends. And Ashley told me that he tried to have sex with her. I talked to one of Ashley’s school friends and she was really freaked out about it.”
“Who?”
“Miranda Gaddis. She goes to school with Ashley and is on the dance team with her. And she lives at Newell Creek with a bunch of sisters. Anyway, you know what she told me? She said that she had once seen Ward Weaver stop Ashley from leaving his house by pressing his body up against her, even though Ashley wanted to leave. He just held her there. That’s what she said.”
“Maybe Mr. Weaver tried to compromise Ashley, sexually. Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding. Investigating the disappearance of a person requires asking a lot of tough questions and demanding answers that are not easy to come by.” Linda writes on her pad. “I promise I’ll dig into this Weaver fellow’s background and try to find out if the police have found anything on him, but we need to keep an open mind so we can gather any pertinent evidence.”
“Can we at least go over to his place and see if there are any clues?”
“No, no, no, not now,” Linda replies quickly. “Remember, as of today there is no evidence that officially connects this guy to any crime. If we traipse over there, we might contaminate the place if it is a crime scene. We’ve got to keep our investigation totally legal and above board. If we don’t, I can’t be involved. I cannot afford to lose my license. In most investigations you have to chase down dozens of leads to get the solution. It’s almost a mathematical equation. Rarely does it turn out to be the first guy you’re suspicious of. Too pat. Right now, Ashley Pond is a straw in a tornado.”
Suzie taps Linda’s arm. “What do we do next?”
“Well, the first thing we need to do is establish a list of every adult that may have had any kind of contact with her. And Maria, those friends of Ashley that you called, you need to call each of them again, every three days until we find Ashley. We also need to find out if any of Ashley’s acquaintances are missing or have run away, because first time runaways usually take off in pairs. Now, most of what we will be doing is drudgery and most of it will lead nowhere. But, there is no other way to conduct a missing person’s investigation except with diligence. That’s what it’s going to take.”
Allison raises a hand. Linda smiles. “What’s on your mind?”
“What’s your best guess, Linda? Do you think Ashley ran away?”
“I certainly hope she did, because that would be the best of all possible scenarios to lead to her safe return. Another possibility: maybe an adult had something to do with her disappearance. But the least likely scenario—and that’s what can give us a positive basis for hope—the least likely is a stranger abduction. From what I’ve been told, Ashley is a feisty, energetic child. The odds that some stranger grabbed her and forcefully took control of her are slight. And that’s good for us too, because you must all realize, in stranger abductions, the odds of finding the victim alive are cut in half in three hours and then cut in half again in eight hours.”
Tony interrupts. “We were told there would be a TV news story about Ashley. They said five o’clock, and it’s five o’clock. Maybe we ought to watch it.”
Linda nods. “Definitely.”
The group shifts to the nearby family room and focuses attention on the fifty-inch big screen TV in the back. Within minutes the male anchor introduces Ashley’s story. “Today marks the seventh day since twelve-year-old Ashley Pond mysteriously disappeared from the Newell Creek Apartments in Oregon City. News Channel 15’s special correspondent, Pinski Brown, has the details. Pinski?”
Pinski Brown is walking up the hill near Pond’s apartment to the school bus stop. This is the place Ashley disappeared from and Brown comments that there were no eye witnesses. She says, “Local law officials tell us that they see this case as most likely a possible runaway under suspicious circumstances. Experts in the field, however, inform us that time is the enemy in disappearance cases. If the disappearance is a stranger abduction, the odds of finding the victim alive are dramatically reduced if the person has been missing a week. But at this point, they believe she most likely is a runaway, not a kidnap victim.”
The TV screen juxtaposes a series of brief shots showing police passing out flyers, knocking on doors and talking to citizens. “Today marks the seventh day—the seventh consecutive day that has passed with no sign of the missing seventh grader. During the past seven days, police have canvassed the neighborhood, stopped commuters and interviewed dozens of passersby, so far, all to no avail.”
Ashley’s photo abruptly dominates the screen. Brown continues, “This case has baffled the local authorities as they have virtually nothing to go on. So, anybody out there, if you know anything at all about the disappearance of Ashley Pond, please call the Crime Stopper number at the bottom of your screen. They urgently need your help in solving this mystery. Back to you, Bill.”
“And there you have it, the latest on the missing Oregon City girl.” Tony switches the news off.
“Alright,” Linda says, “let’s try to give them the help they need.”
Oregon City was the first incorporated city west of the Mississippi River. Established in 1829, by Dr. John McLoughlin, as a lumber mill near Willamette Falls, it was later designated as Oregon’s territorial capital and was known as the end of the Oregon Trail. Now it is a working class suburb of Portland.
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