February 28, 2023 • 57 mins
When murder becomes a family business and girls go missing, always look under the concrete slab.
Sources
https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/2014/02/ward_weaver_iii_like_his_fathe.html
https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/2014/02/francis_weavers_father_grandfa.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/step-by-step-in-oregon-killer-case/
http://www.argusobserver.com/articles/2007/05/07/news/news03.txt
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oregon-town-mourns-slain-girls/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2216310.stm
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125821&page=1
https://allthatsinteresting.com/ward-weaver-iii
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11065622
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marcy (00:02):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
(00:24):
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
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(00:45):
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We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:14):
Three sits in the front room of his house staring
vacantly at the street throughsparse trees.
This has been his vigil forweeks.
The neighbors up and down thestreet are quiet this early in
the morning.
The few that actually have jobs,the housekeepers, the
construction workers all gone.
(01:35):
Now the quiet neighborhood seemsalmost secluded.
Three's mind wanders back to histime in the Navy in the
Philippines.
He felt like a king there.
You could do anything, buyanything.
The poor girls would literallyroll over for a piece of
chicken.
He hadn't fully appreciated theprivilege, but he had brought
himself back a trophy from hisfavorite bar.
(01:57):
The bitch.
Three smiled to himself.
For years three had kept hisgirls in line.
There was that early stupid slipup.
The pair of sisters that hadn'ttaken their life lesson and shut
the fuck up.
He'd paid dearly for that one.
Three hadn't liked prison, so hetread carefully after that.
(02:18):
The girls came and went.
Some legal, some poached.
Nothing had ever come of it.
After all the girls tookwhatever he gave, so they owed
him.
Part of this deal was that theyhad to pay him back and then
keep their mouth shut.
Three learned his life lessonsand applied them.
Recently the new one was theyounger the girl, the more
(02:39):
likely they were to run theirmouth.
Two of his daughter's friendshad betrayed him.
He had been so good to both ofthem.
The booze, the dope, theparties.
He took cool dad to a newfucking level.
That he wasn't something inreturn.
Shouldn't have been a surprise.
That's how the world works.
Call it their life lesson.
And in three's opinion, 13 was afine age for a girl to learn it.
(03:03):
One of those little chicks hadbeen his favorite, almost a
girlfriend experience.
She liked the dope.
He liked her, well, he likedher.
That second girl, that bitch hadruined at all.
Ran her mouth like a freighttrain.
She must have been jealousspreading shit about him and the
friend.
Next thing, three knew hisdaughter was hearing things she
(03:26):
never should have known.
The rumor spread, the pressurebuilt.
Then the cops were coming aroundasking uncomfortable questions
with their smug, accusing looks.
He told them where to take theirbullshit.
Right back to the girls' homes.
Those girls came to him forshelter.
Both girls one and two had beenraped by their daddies.
(03:46):
Tried and convict.
and the police wanted to accusehim for helping them, giving
them shelter, generosity,guidance.
Those cops had tucked tail andrun when he told them that.
But that didn't change the fact.
Girl two had been spreading theword when she should have been
spreading her legs.
(04:08):
Girl one, as much as he'd lovedhaving her had opened her
fucking mouth when the policecame by.
They had both betrayed him.
That bought the next life lessonfor him, and for them.
The question had been, what washe gonna do about it?
He'd once heard the best defenseis a good offense.
He'd borrowed a page outtadaddy's book.
(04:30):
Only he was better.
Girl one had been easy.
She didn't want to betray him.
He'd watched and waitedpatiently, like one of those
trap door spiders.
Then one day he saw her walkingto the stop alone.
He'd lured her with the promiseof forgiveness, practically
waving the candy under her nose.
(04:51):
She willingly took from himdrunk little bitch.
Then he'd had his fun.
It was a bittersweet memorytheir last time together, but
he'd memorialized the event witha slab.
Now three sits in his hidey-hole blind again, by his
reckoning, enough time haspassed.
He knows not to be greedy.
He figures it's like fishing.
(05:13):
Nobody cares if you fish, but ifyou take too many, that brings
attention.
He's smarter than that and waytoo smart for the pigs.
The cops are like flies buzzingaround, but three knows of the
law, and they have to have areason to land on him.
This day, this lucky day, threesees the other girl.For the
first time in two weeks she'swalking alone.
(05:36):
He starts to move around thedark house using the best angles
to see up and down the street.
It's still quiet.
No one's moving.
Three unlatched the front doorwithout opening it, and assumes
a crouched position behind thedoor.
He can see the approach througha side window.
The girl looks distracted.
Perfect.
(05:58):
In the quiet morning, air threecan hear the footfalls crunching
gravel on concrete.
He times it perfectly, rippingthe door open and surging out.
The big man towers over thegirl.
There's a flash of fearfulrecognition in her eyes, and she
instinctively pulls away.
Too slow.
Three wraps, one arm around herneck, and the other hand clamps
flat across her mouth justbefore she can scream.
(06:21):
Without pause, three forcefullyturns and drags her back into
the dark front of the house,slamming the trap door behind
them.
Three has fantasized about thismoment for a long time.
She is completely his.
He revels in the power, thecontrol.
The girl's crying.
Three slaps her across herstupid little face as he drags
(06:42):
her to the back of the house.
She cries out, but it's okay.
No one can help her now.
He turns on her again forcefullyshaking hands wrapped around the
girl's throat as he yells ragefilled accusations of betrayal.
She cries out apologies as threespins her small body and slams
her down on the bed.
He has a rope there and a knife.
(07:03):
He flashes the blade in front ofher face, promising to gut her
right there if she doesn'tcooperate.
With the threat, the girl triesto control her body's natural
reaction.
Her wide crimson eyes bulge.
She convulses and heavesfighting against racking sobs.
Three watches the girl strugglewith herself beneath him.
(07:23):
He's seen it all before and he'sthrilled.
This girl is different from theother.
There will be no regrets forher.
No memorial for her.
Three looses merciless brutalitybeating while he rapes, and
after a while when his lust andanger are almost spent three
wraps his hands around thelittle girl's throat and
squeezes.
He stares into her eyes asconvulsions hit, and life
(07:46):
escapes her body.
Marcy (07:59):
Ashley pond, a 13 year old girl from Oregon City, a
suburb of Portland left her homeon the morning of January 9th,
2002, and never returned.
When she didn't walk in the doorthat afternoon, Ashley's mother,
Lori called the school.
She found out Ashley hadn'tattended any of her classes.
(08:21):
The call to the school wasquickly followed by contacts
with friends, relatives,hospitals, and finally the
police.
The police responded, took areport and repeated the same
inquiries that Lori Pond hadmade earlier.
They got the same response.
No one had seen Ashley all day.
(08:41):
What the police knew was thatAshley Pond was a troubled
teenager.
She was too young to have muchof a record of her own, but
there was a record of what hadbeen done to her.
They had recently convicted herbiological father of molesting
her.
She had an alcohol problem.
She had been a runaway.
(09:01):
Despite mother's assertions tothe contrary, the police felt
Ashley was simply another angrygirl trying to escape a bad
family situation.
One neighbor and father of oneof Ashley's close friends had
even suggested as much.
Lori Pond didn't believe it.
(09:22):
Things had been better in herhouse recently, and she thought
Ashley was finally emerging fromthe pall that had been cast by
her father's betrayal.
For the next few weeks, Loriloudly beat the drum in the
neighborhood and surroundingcommunity that something had
happened to her daughter, andthe police were not taking her
seriously.
(09:43):
For the police, the problem wasmore of a nowhere to start
issue.
First, it was unclear that anyharm had befallen Ashley, the
apartment complex she lived inwasn't great.
Catering to impoverished peoplewho found themselves on the
ropes.
Everyone was receivinggovernment services.
(10:04):
Many tenants had mental andemotional problems.
There were single mothers tryingto keep track of hordes of
children.
Their boyfriends came and wentfrom the complex in droves,
often bringing chaos andviolence with them.
In the days following thereport, Ashley hadn't turned up
in the hospital or dead in aditch.
(10:25):
To the police who were busyholding other lawlessness at
bay, no news was good news.
The problem with Ashley Pond wasthat she stayed missing a week,
then two, then almost two monthswent by with no trace.
Ashley's mother continued tomake noise in the neighborhood.
(10:48):
Then it happened again.
On March 8th, 2002, MirandaGaddis, one of Ashley's best
friends, left her apartmentheaded for school.
She never made it.
The story was sensational and itwas irresistible to the press.
Two 13 year old girls, sameapartment building, same school,
(11:12):
same dance group, and sameapparent fate.
It was the talk of Portland fordays.
It scared parents to let theirchildren out to play.
Whispers about dead girls andserial killers grew louder.
They scourged the policedepartment for their apparent
inactivity.
For missing girls, no newswasn't good enough anymore.
(11:37):
In response to the publicoutcry, the police department
formed a missing girls taskforce.
They were joined by severaldozen agents from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
The problem with where to startthe investigation hadn't
changed.
The girls had many things incommon.
Both girls had been molested bytheir father figures, who had
(12:00):
subsequently been convicted forthe crime.
This made them statisticallymore vulnerable.
Outside the house, the risk poolhadn't changed since Ashley's
disappearance.
As they looked for suspects andleads across the broader
neighborhood, police found atarget-rich environment.
(12:20):
Close to a hundred registeredsex offenders lived within a
mile of the apartment building.
The police fanned out and begantalking to everyone.
Hundreds of interviews producedleads that took them in various
directions.
Thousands of tips poured in fromlocal sources, and when the case
got national and internationalcoverage suggestions poured in
(12:43):
from across the globe.
The already beleagueredinvestigators soon became bogged
down, slogging through any bitof information that looked even
remotely useful.
What had once been a problemwith police inactivity became a
frenzied mess.
Police considered many men primesuspects.
(13:04):
These men bitterly complained tothe media about what they
characterized as policeharassment.
One said that they hadinterrogated him half a dozen
times, adding that detectiveseven tore apart his favorite
camping site in their searches.
Evidence of an active policeinvestigation could be seen in
the neighborhood as detectivessearched properties either with
(13:26):
consent or by search warrant.
They seized suspect cars fordetailed evidence searches.
Surveillance teams, some obviouscrisscrossed roadways as they
tried to keep up with theirquarry.
As the weeks and months passedthe task force investigators
scrutinized dozens of suspects,singling out several favorites.
(13:48):
They found nothing thatindicated the fate of either
missing girl.
No trace of them had beenuncovered in the thousands of
man hours spent searching.
Then five months in, there was abreak.
On August 13th, 2002, A mannamed Francis Weaver called into
the 9 1 1 Center.
(14:10):
Francis told the dispatcher thathis father, ward Weaver III, had
raped his 19 year oldgirlfriend, Randy Onida.
In her statement to police,Randy Onida said that Weaver
Three had given her a ride homeearlier in the day.
As he drove his behavior seemednormal.
Weaver three was her boyfriend'sfather, and he hadn't really
(14:33):
given her a reason to distrusthim in the past.
When they walked into the house,Weaver Three's demeanor changed
suddenly.
Without warning, he becameenraged.
Three, tackled Randy to thefloor, ripped off her clothing
and raped her.
When three finished, he grabbeda cushion and tried to smother
her.
(14:53):
Randy fought and kicked threeoff of her.
She fled, completely naked fromthe rear of the house.
As she sprinted up the sideyard, Randy grabbed a blue tarp
off the patio and wrappedherself in it.
She ran out of the yard and downthe street where she flagged
down a car.
Francis arrived soon after andcalled the police.
(15:16):
By the time investigatorsinterviewed Francis Weaver, he
told them that he had confrontedhis father, Weaver three.
Francis said that Weaver Threewas distraught and confessed
that he had killed the missinggirls.
Weaver three then fled from thehouse.
After the rape investigation,police tracked down, arrested
and remanded Weaver three oncharges related to the sexual
(15:38):
assault of Randy Onida.
Weaver three had been one of thetop suspects in searching for
the missing girls, even beforeRandy Otus rape.
Then considering the new chargeand Francis assertions the focus
of the investigation coalescedon Weaver three and him alone.
Detectives dug deep in their newprime suspects past.
(16:02):
What they and the mediauncovered was horrific.
To understand Weaver iii, youmust first know about the first
and the second.
Weaver one was the kind of manwho beat his wife, Dorothy and
his kids regularly.
He liked to force sex on femalemembers of the family.
Dorothy couldn't tell him no,and when he tired of her, he
(16:26):
brought women home and had sexwith them while she was there.
Weaver one sexually molested hisdaughter, and later two of his
granddaughters.
Dorothy took drugs to numb thepain of her life and molested
her son, Weaver two.
During his early life, Weavertwo suffered beatings from his
father and worse from hismother.
(16:47):
Dorothy would sometimes punishyoung Weaver two by biting him
until he bled.
Weaver two responded by becomingbrutal in his own right.
As a boy he tortured animals.
Later he graduated to beatinghis siblings.
Weaver two was particularlycruel to his sister, he would
rape her and afterward taunt herthat she was pregnant with his
(17:10):
baby.
In 1967, Weaver two was draftedinto the Army and sent to
Vietnam.
He saw brutal combat andwitnessed friends die in battle.
When he returned from the war tocivilian life, weaver two became
a truck driver and a serialkiller, murdering people he
encountered on the roadsides ashe traveled the Western states.
(17:34):
By 1983, Weaver two was in SanQuentin Prison on rape and
attempted murder charges.
Sheriff Investigators for KernCounty, California went to talk
to him about the murder of 18year old Robert Radford and his
missing girlfriend, 23 year oldbarbara LaVoy.
In 1982, Radford and Lavoys carhad broken down on the side of
(17:57):
Highway 58, just east ofTehachapi.
Radford was found, beaten todeath near the car, but they
found no sign of LaVoy.
During his incarceration, Weavertwo told another prisoner what
had happened to the missingwoman.
The confidant turned informant,which led to two's Orville,
(18:18):
California Home.
Lavoy's body was found under anewly poured concrete slab
patio.
During the subsequent interview,Weaver two refused to say
anything until he had talked tohis.
The next day, Dorothy went toSan Quentin.
She didn't think her son couldhurt anyone, so cooperating with
(18:38):
investigators, she urged him toget it out.
Weaver two confessed that a yearearlier he had come across
Radford and LaVoy broken down onthe side of the road.
He stopped beat Radford to deathwith a pipe and kidnapped LaVoy.
He admitted to raping the womanand planned to keep her captive
at his home in Orville until shebit his finger.
(19:02):
Enraged, two strangled Lavoy todeath.
They charged Weaver two withcapital murder for the Tehachapi
double homicide.
He tried to make a deal to avoidthe death penalty.
Two volunteered to give them thedetails of 26 other murders.
They refused.
At trial, the jury took lessthan 45 minutes to convict him
(19:25):
of murder.
The next day they sentenced himto die.
In the follow-up investigation,it was determined that Weaver
Two's trucking logs lined upwith two or so dozen other
unsolved murders along hisdriving routes.
Weaver Three was born on April6th, 1963 in Humboldt County,
(19:48):
California, a region north ofSan Francisco, appropriately
referred to as the Lost Coast.
Mom, Trish Weaver had threechildren during her miserable
marriage to Weaver two.
The grandiosely named third,followed by daughters Teresa and
Tammy Weaver.
When Weaver two tired of hisunhappy little family, he split
(20:10):
appearing only periodically inthe kids' lives.
Trish Weaver finally able tobreathe, decided she didn't
really like the freedom so much,and set out to replace what her
family was missing.
She achieved success in a EurekaCalifornia bar in 1967.
Bob Boudreaux, 6 2, 200 poundsof brutal, abusive alcoholic fit
(20:35):
the bill.
It wasn't long before Tricia andBob were living together, then
married.
Tricia's second Nuptials turnedout to be every bit as miserable
as the first.
But the unhappy couple welcomedtheir first child, Bob Jr.
Within the year.
With the tutelage of his fatherand stepfather, weaver three was
well placed to develop his ownviolent streak, praying on his
(20:58):
siblings.
Growing up, they largely leftthe children to their own
devices.
The family moved to Portland, soBob Sr.
Could work as a longshoreman.
He was away all day, followed bylong shifts on a bar stool.
That routine wasn't good for thefinances.
Trish worked as a secretary alsoworking long hours in a vain
(21:20):
attempt to meet needs.
years later, Tammy would sum upher young life as,"we were never
a family.
We were six people growing up inthe same house, in a very
violent house.
Ward has put me through so muchhell.
For years after I left, I hadnightmares about him." it was a
(21:41):
poorly kept secret among familythat Weaver Three was sexually
abusing members of the family bythe time he was in high school.
In April 1981, police detainedhim when a female relative
accused him of raping her.
In a hearing, the police andcourt agreed not to pursue
charges in lieu of Weaver threeenlisting in the military.
(22:04):
By the end of 1981, Weaver threefound himself posted as a cook
aboard the aircraft carrier US SCoral Sea, Home Base, the
Philippines.
Weaver Three's Navy career wasnot long.
He abused alcohol and was oftenawol.
By May, 1982, the Navy hadslapped him with an other than
(22:26):
honorable discharge and bootedhim out.
One souvenir Weaver threebrought back from the
Philippines was a wife whom he'dmet in a bar.
He and bride Maria Stout arrivedin Portland and moved into the
basement of the Boudreau'sHouse.
Perhaps not surprisingly, themarriage of Weaver Three and
(22:47):
Stout was not a happy one.
The police regularly went to theBoudreaux Weaver home for
domestic clashes, some of whichended in an assault charge for
the male half.
Into this unhappy home Weaverthree s first child, a son named
Francis, arrived in December,1982.
(23:07):
In 1984, Weaver three and Mariapacked up and moved to
Bakersfield, California to becloser to Weaver two, who is in
San Quentin awaiting trial forcapital murder.
The marriage hadn't gotten anyeasier, but the family was
growing.
They had a second son namedAlex.
Weaver three had problemsholding down a steady job so
(23:29):
they moved in with the Ordinoahfamily.
The agreement was in exchangefor shelter, Weaver three would
help with the OA family businessselling products within the
local Filipino community.
On June 15th, 1986, two of theOA family daughters ages 15 and
16 were sent in the company vanto pick up Weaver three from a
(23:53):
local bar.
During the drive home, he askedthat they pull off the side of
the road so he could relievehimself.
When they stopped, Weaver threehit one girl in the head with a
chunk of concrete knocking herout.
Then he raped the sister.
Years later, the victimsdescribe that.
Weaver went from acting calm toattacking unprovoked and rage
(24:16):
filled with no warning.
They sentenced Weaver to threeyears for the attack on the
Ordinary Sisters.
During the pre-sentenceevaluation, he told a probation
officer that he had troublecontrolling his temper.
His greatest fear was that hewould end up like his father on
California's death row.
When he was released fromprison, Weaver three and Maria
(24:39):
moved to Oregon, where in 1989,the unhappy family welcomed
their fourth child, Mallory.
By 1993, the marriage was over.
Maria took out a DV restrainingorder and filed for divorce.
Over the next few years, Weaverthree's unimpressive life AMD
on.
He sold low end drugs and wasarrested for it.
(25:02):
He had relationships with youngwomen choosing the ones he
thought he could control.
When he couldn't, he beat themand was arrested for that.
In the late 1990s and early twothousands, Weaver three and
family had a house in OregonCity.
The neighborhood was barelylower.
Middle class.
It was mixed residential, smallhouses and small, sometimes
(25:24):
wooded, lots and largemulti-unit apartment complexes,
most of which you couldcharitably label as rundown.
Weaver three fancied himself thecool dad, as his kids progressed
through their teenage years, hewould allow parties.
He supplied booze and sometimesdrugs.
He used the situation to getclose to vulnerable girls.
(25:47):
It was this situation thatAshley Pond and Miranda Gaddis
stepped into.
They were friends of WeaverThree's youngest daughter,
Mallory.
The girls all went to the samemiddle school and were members
of the dance team.
Pond and Gaddis had eachexperienced abuse at home, so
they escaped by hanging out andsometimes staying overnight.
(26:09):
As the summer of 2001 ended,rumors circulated.
The word was that Weaver Threewas sexually involved with
Ashley Pond.
A teacher reported seeing himinappropriately kissing Ashley
as he dropped her off at school.
The police investigated.
Ashley confirmed that WeaverThree had raped her frequently.
(26:30):
Weaver three denied it and nocharges were filed in that case.
On the morning of January 9th,2002, Ashley Pawn walked to the
school bus alone.
Coincidentally, her route tookher near Weaver's house.
She never showed up at school.
Two months later, Miranda GataSpanish.
(26:50):
Under similar circumstances.
After Ashley Pond'sdisappearance, Weaver three and
his son Francis, dug a hole inthe ground beside their house.
Francis later said that hisfather told him it was going to
be a concrete pad for a hot tub.
That account was confirmed laterwhen after Miranda's
disappearance, reporters floodedthe neighborhood, interviewing
(27:13):
residents.
In one on camera, weaver threeproudly proclaimed,"I'm putting
in a jacuzzi.
The last time I checked thatwasn't against the law" Around
the same time, Weaver Three toldanother reporter that he
understood himself to be theFBI's top suspect.
As the missing girls task forcepressure increased, weaver
(27:36):
distinguished himself withseveral such media statements.
On July 9th, 2002, he appearedon Good Morning America
portraying the Girls as comingfrom troubled homes.
He made himself the victimsaying that his daughter's
friends were practically dumpedon his doorstep begging for
help.
He said he did what he could.
(27:59):
The rape of Randy Onida, theallegations of Francis Weaver
and all the backstory, gave thetask force ample evidence to get
search warrants for the Weaverproperty.
The search occurred on August24th, 2002.
They found Goddess's decomposingremains in an empty microwave
(28:20):
box inside a storage shed behindthe house.
The next day, the concretejacuzzi slab minus the hot tub,
was jack hammered apart.
Ashley Pond's body was thereencased in a 55 gallon barrel.
Ashley's body was mummified.
She was clothed, but wore noshoes.
(28:42):
She had a large contusion to herskull.
Toxicology showed she had ablood alcohol level of 0.17%.
The medical examiner theorizedthat he had kept her frozen for
a period after her death, andinvestigators found a chest
freezer in a storage unit rentedby Weaver three.
Miranda's body was in a far moreadvanced state of decomposition.
(29:05):
She was nude except for socks.
there was a microwave oven inthat storage unit that matched
the cardboard box containingMiranda's body.
The trace evidence and witnessinterviews filled in some
blanks.
In the days following themissing girls, weaver three
bought concrete mix, plasticshower curtains, and a cleaning
(29:28):
solution.
They found rolls of industrialplastic at a relative's house
matching the type that hewrapped the bodies in.
Weaver three's fingerprints werefound on tape used to pack the
bodies.
Victim head hair was recoveredfrom a vacuum cleaner, owned by
Weaver Three's employer.
The bodies had been trussed withropes so they could fit into
(29:49):
containers.
Matching cords were found atsome of the search sites.
One of Weaver's three'srelatives said that she helped
him move property from his houseto the storage facility because
he was planning to move toIdaho.
On October 2nd, 2002, Weaver wasindicted for the crimes against
pond and Gaddis (30:08):
aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse,
sexual abuse in the firstdegree, attempted rape in the
second degree, attemptedaggravated murder, first degree
attempted rape, sexual abuse inthe second degree, and sexual
abuse in the third degree.
Two years later, Weaver threepled guilty.
(30:31):
A plea bargain allowed him toavoid the death penalty.
They sentenced him to two lifesentences with no parole.
More than 1000 people attended amemorial service for the girls.
The crowd was filled withfamilies carrying flowers and
card.
Teenage girls from their school,neighborhood and regional dance
(30:54):
teams came.
Many wearing yellow memorialribbons.
Relatives and teachers showedphotos and talked about the
girls' lives and what they meantto them.
The Oregon City Police Chief andthe task force investigators
were also there.
Chief Gordon Huries said,"although most of us have never
(31:15):
met them, we feel we have alwaysknown them.
We adopted them into our lawenforcement family, and we will
never forget them." in theinvestigations aftermath, law
enforcement took scathingcriticism about the pace of the
inquiry and points where inretrospect, the murders might
(31:35):
have been prevented.
Many people wanted to know whyWeaver three wasn't arrested
after Ashley Pond's rapeallegation.
Critics pointed out weaver'sviolent past, and that he had
made media challenges invitinglaw enforcement to search his
property at any time.
In response, police said thatWeaver three allowed limited
(31:56):
searches.
They even used cadaver dogs, butthe bodies had been moved.
Francis Weaver received publicpraise for his courage in
cooperating with prosecution andhis public statements about the
killings.
From the beginning, he did notmince words saying that he was
certain his father was guilty ofthe murders.
(32:18):
On March 4th, 2007, WeaverThree's prison Barber attacked
him at the Snake RiverCorrectional Institution.
The barber, also an inmate,pulled a shank and stabbed
Weaver three's neck andshoulder.
Three sustained seriousinjuries, but he survived.
Miranda Gaddis youngest, MirandaGaddis younger sister Mariah
(32:41):
went to the prison to speak withWeaver three in 2009.
She was seeking closure andwanted to know exactly what
happened to her sister.
Weaver three told her that hekilled both girls with his bare
hands.
He also told Mariah that it washis intent if he hadn't been
arrested to murder her next.
(33:03):
On February 17th, 2014, FrancisWeaver was charged with murder.
Francis and his twoco-defendants were accused of
planning the ripoff of anassociated drug dealer.
Their plan was to seal 15 poundsof marijuana.
During the robbery, the dealerwas shot and killed.
(33:23):
The robbery team then staged acar accident involving the body
with the intent of confusinghomicide investigators.
There was no confusion, and thegroup was rounded up the
following day.
(33:48):
One of the most striking thingsabout this case.
I guess the series of cases isthe generational trauma and
abuse and what it created.
Mark (33:59):
This case is a lot.
It's pretty amazing.
There is a question that pops upin the articles when I was
reviewing for this case, is thisgenetic, the nature versus
nurture thing?
And, it was later determined, Ithink during the investigation
that Francis wasn't actually thebiological son of Weaver three.
So that kind of kills the ideathat this is all genetics.
The people that said that weredisappointed, obviously.
(34:22):
This was nurture, right?
The worst family environment's,creating the worst human beings.
That's what we have here.
Three generations of that.
Marcy (34:30):
Four, if you count Francis.
Commenting on the case againstFrancis Weaver, Annette Jolan,
who was a professor at PortlandState University's division of
criminology and criminal justicesaid"when I was a police
officer, there were somefamilies known to all officers
because of their involvement incrime, but I think it's very
rare to have two generations ofmurderers and another generation
(34:54):
accused of murder." and Dr.
Jalan went on to say modernstudies discount the idea of a
genetic crime, predispositionand the focus in criminology is
really on the social factors.
Mark (35:09):
I think that's completely right.
I too worked in a city wherecertain names where we had
generational sons, grandsonsknown, were doing all kinds of
even violent crimes.
And I'm convinced, based on whatI've seen, is that's how
families raised their kids andhow they functioned that made
them stand out.
Marcy (35:31):
Being a victim of sexual abuse makes you at a
statistically higher risk ofbeing vulnerable to further
sexual abuse or becoming aperpetrator.
That cycle of sexual abusereally is the gift that keeps on
giving.
Mark (35:45):
We've talked about this before and that's a phrase that
pediatricians used.
And having worked in sexualassault and with the crimes
against children unit in mydepartment, I know that to be
true.
Both these girls were abused athome and that makes them more
vulnerable.
First it's, who knows chicken oregg, the home situation not
good.
And it creates a judgment issueswith the children going out as
(36:09):
to what is appropriate behavior.
And the other side of thisweaver three from an abused
family that had crazy levels ofdysfunction it made him the kind
of person he was.
The other thing about this wholething with the two girls is I
was once again stricken by 1980sera sexual abuse of minor
sentences, despite having beenconvicted of sexual abuse.
(36:32):
One of the girls offendersreceived three years despite
taking the full conviction.
And the other one, despitetaking the full conviction, just
got probation.
Marcy (36:43):
Maybe it's geography.
You did just say that the Lostcoast of California where Weaver
two was born is the lost coastfor a reason.
Mark (36:52):
I was joking.
It's beautiful there.
A full disclosure, I was born inSacramento.
But that area, which isbasically, if you go north of
the really ritzy area justacross the bay from San
Francisco and you continuenorth, that's a region that is,
has a reputation for beinglawless.
It was the epicenter, of bigillegal commercial marijuana
(37:12):
grows.
It's isolated and rugged likeHill Country.
The reason I said that is itdoesn't surprise me that a long
haul trucker, serial killeroperated from there for years
without detection.
Marcy (37:24):
We could make up our own conspiracy theories with the
lost Coast marijuana grow thing,and Francis Weaver's murder
charge.
Wasn't that a marijuana rip?
Mark (37:34):
technically it did happen way north of the lost coast, but
that's just the details.
And it did involve weed and amurder, the family's apparent
business and a really crappyattempt at and disposing of a
body, which apparently he getsfrom his father and his
grandfather.
Marcy (37:49):
The weed owner was shot in the head multiple times and
they thought a fake car crashwas gonna cover that up.
Mark (37:55):
Car crashes don't generally involve through and
through holes in the head.
And it was so unconfusing.
They put the body in the car andcrashed it into a tree thinking
that there'd be head traumathere would cover up.
But no, it did not fool the copsand everybody just picked up
within 24 hours.
Like I said, maybe it's apredisposition to a crappy
disposal of bodies.
Marcy (38:18):
There was a homicide task force in this case and you
supervised part of a homicidetask force.
Do you wanna talk about that alittle bit?
Mark (38:25):
Yeah, it is for large, complex cases, and in this case
it wasn't an enormous case, butit did have a ton of, they had
tips coming from all over theworld and no sign of where the
girls went.
So it's complicated and having atask force is really the way to
put down a large, complicatedset of cases.
In my case, one of them was wewere having drug related rips
(38:48):
across Anchorage.
The crimes were brutal.
People were getting shot, couplepeople killed.
It really caught people'sattention because one kid was
killed in the middle of the dayin the parking lot of Costco.
Very busy place.
And the other kid was killed inthe back of a friend's car in
the parking lot of a brand newdrug store.
One of the big chains on one ofthe busiest corners in the city.
(39:12):
And he was just basically killedexecution style by a bad guy.
there was supposed to be amarijuana exchange from the bad
guy.
The kid was there.
He is gonna exchange it and takeit off to his very nice
neighborhood and sell the weed.
Instead, they took the money.
Bad guy basically shot him inthe side of the head
unexpectedly.
Pretty alarming.
On a task force, the duties areclearly defined and parted out.
(39:33):
What happened with me is I tookthe afternoon and night shift,
and another sergeant took theday shift.
We each were assigned ourinvestigative units.
I had my crime suppression guysand attached me was my former
unit, the vice unit, and alsohad a swat element at my
disposal.
a couple of my investigatorswere sent over the FBI Fusion
Center, and their job was tocoordinate intelligence
(39:53):
information that we gathered andhomicide gathered.
So every day we'd meet in thehomicide office, we'd work
through old information andthings we'd come up with, and
we'd go through new information,new intelligence.
And the idea is we all plannedtogether what we thought were
the best next steps.
We'd, decide these things, whatwe need to accomplish who we're
gonna interview, who we're gonnasurveil who need to be hit with
(40:16):
search warrants, as weprogressed, what arrest and what
order.
And with such an organized,intense approach, it wasn't long
before we formed a strategy onthe best way to roll them up cuz
we the key was to build tensionwithin that group.
So they were like rats jumpingoff a ship, everybody scrambled
to save themselves.
And I'd say if you had goodleadership that, and we can keep
(40:36):
clear goals.
This is the best system forthese big cases.
The downside is it's very laborintensive and, the investigative
paste, the aggressive pace can'tbe maintained forever.
I guess in my experiencesrelates to this case is, it's
surprising to me with how highWeaver three s level in the
(41:00):
chain of, key suspects must havebeen that they weren't in his
house searching it, searchwarrant.
Within the first few weeks.
You set up a hierarchy, you hitthe highest scoring targets and
you work from there.
And I can't believe that, justbased on what was known at the
time.
You can see things inretrospect.
Oh boy, he's a big one, but he Ithink he had to be a big one,
(41:20):
pretty early on.
And I can't believe within a fewweeks that, that they said there
was up to 60 FBI agents attachedto this.
That's a huge number even for alarge geographical area.
That's a huge number.
And I can't believe they weren'tin there before.
Before they were.
Marcy (41:39):
Before we move on to the missing girl specifics.
Weaver two got off really light.
He as much has confessed to twodozen murders, but the
prosecutors wouldn't make thedeal with him because they
didn't want him to escape thedeath penalty.
But we found out later becauseof some technicality, he was
actually let off death row.
(42:00):
So he avoided the death penaltyand he never had to disclose
anything about those othermurders.
Mark (42:07):
Yeah it's really disturbing.
I can't remember what thetechnicality was.
It was something about his ageor the limit on time limit on
death row.
So he's still in for life.
But he's able now to, he's offdeath row and he's able to live
in the general population, whichallow, allows him to participate
in services and stuff and have amuch better life than on death
(42:27):
row.
There's a lot of.
Lavoys relatives really screamedabout how unjust is that they,
he was convicted and put ondeath row, and now he's just a
gen Popper.
The really horrible thing is ifthe prosecutors had made a deal
with him he would've ended up inthe same status as he is now.
But two dozen families or sowould've known the facts about
the deaths and disappearance oftheir loved ones who he killed,
(42:49):
and they don't have that now.
Marcy (42:52):
The rape allegation with Ashley Pond, we have a middle
school teacher who saw them openmouth kissing, in the drop off
line?
And they talked to her and shesays, yeah, Weaver three's been
raping her when she stayed athis house, and yet they don't
file any charges.
How is this possible?
Mark (43:10):
I don't know the answer to this.
I can tell you in my departmentthis would've been what's called
P priority one.
Case P one a father molesting achild's friends.
This is all uncommon, but as faras allegations of this kind go,
that's not all that uncommon.
And it's also very concerning.
There are numerous avenues to,to corroborate Ashley Pond's
disclosure.
I won't go into here and I don'tknow what length the police went
(43:31):
to get there whether they pulledout all the stops or not, but
that should have been whathappened.
I would say the risk in theinvestigation, the downside to
that case is the environment inwhich it occurred.
It's the environment in whichhampered the missing person
investigation.
It's a world of victimization,suspects everywhere, drug and
alcohol abuse.
(43:51):
You can't depend on some of thepeople that you're taking
interviews from especially thisage young kids to keep things
quiet.
So for example, you're, ifyou're gonna run a wire do
something like that you reallyrun the risk of being
compromised so I don't know whatthey did.
Maybe they did get screwed andcompromised.
I don't know.
So I can't say whether this caseworked to its end or just fell
through the cracks.
(44:12):
I do have my suspicions thatit's the latter based on how the
missing persons case reallystarted off sluggish.
What we do know is no chargesever resulted from the Ashley
pond rape disclosure.
Marcy (44:25):
In 2002, the Governor of Oregon announced that there
would be an audit of the actionsof the police agencies involved
in the pond and Gaddisinvestigations, and in
particular, why no action wastaken in the Ashley Pond rape
allegation.
Do you know anything about whathappened?
Mark (44:42):
I looked and I saw nothing.
The governor of Oregon gotcaught up in a scandal, which
caused him to resign severalyears later.
I could not find any finding on,the audit he called for.
My guess is that the auditorshad nothing to sink their teeth
into.
My hope and expectation is, likeI said, the investigators went
to the mat and just couldn'tcover, couldn't get over the
resistance.
(45:03):
But on the other hand, Even acrappy investigation can end by
saying they had nowhere to go.
They had no further leads.
People they talked to wereuncooperative.
And second guessing aninvestigation is difficult
unless you have obviousnegligence on things that went
undone.
On any given day, a greatinvestigator can take, get shut
down or break the case, andbased on factors that are
(45:25):
largely beyond his or hercontrol.
Luck skill can maximize results,but they're not a guarantee.
Marcy (45:32):
So the criticism that law enforcement took about the
missing girl investigation, doyou think that was legitimate?
Mark (45:38):
It's hard to say without knowing what they had.
And when they had it.
In retrospect, things seemedvery clear, like I said about,
especially about Weaver threebeing the guy.
But what I did see in this iseverybody there's all these
private investigators involvedand there's people from the
outside who all had their ownprime suspect.
And it's like the ones whopicked Weaver either hit the
right number or maybe they justknew enough what to look at for
(46:00):
profiling that they got itright.
For me, if I was looking at thisfrom the outside and I knew all
their prime suspects and couldread a little folder on the
facts, Weaver's familiarity withthe girls and her rape
allegation would've put him atthe top of my list.
Marcy (46:17):
Do you think they could have or should have gotten a
search warrant sooner for thathouse?
Mark (46:20):
Could have.
Yes.
I think there was enough to puttogether a complete search
earlier than they did.
just based on what I knew theyknew.
And they were slow.
They waited 10 days even afterthe Randi Oneida rape to go into
the house.
And some of the stuff that theyput in their affidavit even 10
days later, was stuff that theyknew before Randi Oneida rape.
They used the news video, theconcrete pad, and some of his
(46:43):
statements for the media isjustification.
Statements he made well beforethe rape I don't know if they
could have done that beforeGaddis went missing.
The most problematic thing aboutthe investigation was there no
sign or witnesses of where thegirls may have been last seen or
where they disappeared to.
But, we know they were bothheaded to school and they both
disappeared and he lived rightnear the bus stop.
So that's a little tick againsthim or pro getting a search
(47:05):
warrant for his place.
There were other, his history.
For example, 15 and 16 year oldgirls picked him up, he knocked
one of out and raped him.
Those are things that go into asearch warrant to add to the
probable cause of you gettinginto his place to look at where
he may have taken and hit thegirl.
I think that they could haveshould have put it together
before.
some of the things that wereembarrassing, the task force is
(47:28):
pawns stepmother goes over andputs a sign on right beside the
jacuzzi tub slab, and the signsays, dig me up.
There's some embarrassment herefor the task force that people
knew.
And when he was arrested, theywent, ah, see yeah, we told you.
And that's a bad, that's a badlook for the cops.
the idea that everyone knew andthe cops didn't do anything,
(47:49):
whether that's legit or not.
I think based on some of thethings I said, it might have
been legit in some respects.
Marcy (47:57):
You said Randy Onida running down the street wrapped
in her blue tarp is greatevidence.
What did you mean by that?
Mark (48:04):
Yeah, let me qualify this by when I say good, useful to
achieve justice.
No facts in a sexual assaultcase are good in the usual
sense.
So what you have to overcome asa sexual assault investigator
who's trying to put a casetogether that will weather the
beyond a reasonable doubtburden, when those facts like
that, when I read that detail, Ithought, Boy, that's great.
(48:28):
Circumstantial evidence.
In sex assault consent is alwaysthe issue.
So if you imagine they went toWeaver and Weaver says, yeah, we
had sex, but it was consensual.
She just freaked out because shethought my son was coming home
and was gonna find out about it.
Something in that kind of, thatrealm of excuses is actually
pretty common, and that's why wehave to overcome that consent
(48:49):
issue.
When you look at what actuallyhappened here that common excuse
is unbelievable in the light ofher extreme response.
Proving that beyond reasonabledoubt can be tough.
But this situation is reallygood at evidence.
Here you'd probably be able toprove sexual contact through
trace, and her reaction is apowerful statement that what
happened is not consensual.
Marcy (49:11):
Talk about how search warrants are investigative and
not conclusive.
That's something that you'vementioned before.
Mark (49:17):
Yeah.
That's a common mistake foryoung investigators or new
investigators, new cops.
You feel like, boy, youabsolutely have to prove a case
before you get a search warrant.
That's not correct.
Search warrants are aninvestigative tool.
They don't have the same beyondreasonable doubt standard as
required for court.
The burden is much lower.
It's probable cause.
Having said that, you don'twanna risk too much.
It can't be just a fishingexpedition.
(49:39):
You have to be pretty sure thatthis is what you put in the
affidavit is what has happenedand where evidence is likely to
be.
And if you don't do your job, ifyou don't take into account why
you could be wrong.
It could be painful.
I remember once somebody put upa copy of a search warrant
affidavit up on our policebulletin board as a cautionary
(50:00):
tale.
It was a beautiful longaffidavit.
All the drug informationsupporting a marijuana grow how
they wanted to go into thisplace, and when they went in and
it was a grow beautifulzucchini! Yeah.
This is a big problem, right?
You gotta be able to investigateand tell the difference between
a marijuana grow.
Why do you think it's marijuanaand not just somebody growing
(50:20):
something perfectly legal?
And so that's search warrantsare not a final investigation,
but search warrants are seriouswhen you put your stuff down.
This is why I believe ithappened.
And you gotta get a judge to buyoff on it.
Marcy (50:33):
Oh, that's horrible.
I can't, I bet they never livedit down.
So have you ever doneapplications where you did find
nothing in a search?
Mark (50:40):
Yes.
And you don't like to do that,but it does happen.
The case that comes to mind, Iwas looking for a huge stash of
stolen property, like$150,000worth of equipment that was
taken from an auto shop.
I had pretty good informationand what I thought was a
reliable informant.
he turned out to be a reliableinformant.
But he just didn't have the mostcurrent information.
(51:01):
So I wrote a search warrant forthe suspect's house, and it was
like three hours south ofAnchorage.
Long way.
And I knew it was a risk, but Ihad to try and get this stuff
back.
We hit the house and the stuffwasn't there.
It was disheartening.
But there is a silver lining tosome of this.
First of all, the guy that wesearched, his wife divorced him
because now she believed that ithappened.
(51:23):
It put the Yeah, it was bad forhim.
You know what he did when weshowed up?
He said, oh, I'm going fishingand left.
Very suspicious.
Unusual thing for a guy to dowhen you're searching his house
is a split like that.
And his wife was left behind todeal with us and she was unhappy
and later divorced him becauseshe realized he was a thief.
But anyway, the search put thepressure on people who gave us
(51:43):
additional information, thecase.
So it wasn't a total waste.
but anytime you search and don'tfind anything, you have to
return that search affidavit tothe court.
And I never wanted to send backto a judge why he shouldn't
believe or have confidence in myinvestigation.
I always like to update judgeswhen I went in to any successes.
You take a swing sometimes youmiss.
Marcy (52:04):
It seems like there were a lot of indications that Weaver
three might be the problem.
Can you go into some of those?
Mark (52:11):
sure.
Like I said before, bludgeoningof 15 and 16 year old girls
earlier is a indicator ofpotentially future of conduct.
It also sets him apartdefinitely as a sadistic rapist,
but also potentially apreferential pedophile.
He might like the young girls,which you could put in affidavit
for the pond and gaddis.
The other thing is both pond andgaddis are potential witnesses
(52:33):
to other collateral crimes, thedope or contributing delinquency
of minors.
Pond made an allegation ofsexual assault against him, so
retribution is a possibility.
So they're.
At risk from him, right?
So if you're looking atassessing the victim potential
criminal relationship, this is avery good thing to put in your
search warrant.
So the other thing is ChristieSloan, I didn't really talk
(52:54):
about her in the investigationpart, but she was 18 years old
when she gets outta high schooland he basically takes her under
his wing, marries her, and istrying to control her, but she
ultimately gives divorces him.
But she knew things when theytalked to her.
He bought cement right afterpond went missing and poured the
slab just a couple days later.
(53:14):
The fact that Weaver three'sdad, Weaver two.
did the same thing, burying awoman under a slab.
I didn't talk about this either.
Weaver two had his stepson, 10years old at the time, help him
dig that slab down in Orville,California.
So they both father and soncommit a crime, bury a woman
using labor from their sons.
(53:34):
A little eerie.
You couldn't use that in asearch warrant, but it is very
compelling, and the other thingabout Christie Sloan is she gave
background.
He was abusive, controlling.
She hated him.
She feared him, and she knew hewas capable of the abductions.
That's that kind of thing talkto his wives, find out what he
is like, they say, oh yeah, he'scapable of this.
Some of that could be put in asearch warrant.
(53:59):
The other thing is you have hisvery unusual demeanor.
Most people that are suspects ina major crime like this don't
stand in front of news media andsay, Hey, I'm the FBI's Prime
suspect.
That is very unusual behavior.
He wanted attention
Marcy (54:14):
right after Miranda's disappearance, Weaver consented
to a search of his yard.
And what did investigatorsnotice?
Mark (54:23):
one of the investigators in his notes noted the newly
port concrete and I wanted totalk about consent a little bit.
So consent is great and mostpolice searches are done under
consent circumstances but that'sgenerally not the way things
happen in murders or otherserious crimes.
In those, you cover your basesyou avoid losing evidence
because you've applied for asearch warrant.
The whole idea is the judge is athird party who takes a look at
(54:47):
your affidavit and canobjectively determine if your
case is good enough to overcomea citizen's fourth Amendment
right against search.
A warrant basically, it goes along way to ensuring the search
warrant will not be overruled ina later evidence hearing.
But consent on the other hand,can be much less certain.
A defendant who gives youconsent can say things like, he
(55:08):
didn't allow a search on his ownfree will, that he was
intimidated into allowing it.
He can say I have a cop thing,and anytime a cop talks to me, I
feel intimidated.
And if you get the right judgeis gonna shoot down that, that
search, and you're gonna losewhatever you found in there.
When we were granted a search ofparts of his property early in
the missing girls case,basically he limited them to
(55:30):
where he knew the girls weren't.
Obviously he knew they weren'tgonna find him based on where he
told them they could look.
Marcy (55:35):
I do think it's weird that Weaver Three kept the
bodies at his house.
His father buried a woman underconcrete slab and was on death
row for it.
Why didn't he get rid of them?
Why didn't, why
Mark (55:47):
I don't know.
Lack of imagination.
I have thought about this andmost people that do this dump
bodies in the middle of nowhereor bury them out somewhere, and
it's where they can't beimmediately, directly linked to
a suspect.
I think it might be that he'sjust such a control freak, and
he was so confident in hisability to move them, hide them
whenever he wanted.
He thought he could control thenarrative by going on the
(56:10):
offensive like he did with themedia.
He felt confident the policedidn't have the ability or the
desire to take him on or get asearch warrant.
Clearly what he didn't take intoaccount is that he was his own
worst enemy.
Marcy (56:22):
With four generations of murdering men in this one
family.
I think it's important to endwith saying that those
intergenerational cycles ofviolence do not have to
continue.
However, it takes a community tohelp break that cycle.
Every missed opportunity wheresomeone looked the other way or
decided not to intervene was atragic failure.
(56:51):
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(57:14):
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(57:38):
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Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
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Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
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(00:24):
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Mark (01:14):
Three sits in the front room of his house staring
vacantly at the street throughsparse trees.
This has been his vigil forweeks.
The neighbors up and down thestreet are quiet this early in
the morning.
The few that actually have jobs,the housekeepers, the
construction workers all gone.
(01:35):
Now the quiet neighborhood seemsalmost secluded.
Three's mind wanders back to histime in the Navy in the
Philippines.
He felt like a king there.
You could do anything, buyanything.
The poor girls would literallyroll over for a piece of
chicken.
He hadn't fully appreciated theprivilege, but he had brought
himself back a trophy from hisfavorite bar.
(01:57):
The bitch.
Three smiled to himself.
For years three had kept hisgirls in line.
There was that early stupid slipup.
The pair of sisters that hadn'ttaken their life lesson and shut
the fuck up.
He'd paid dearly for that one.
Three hadn't liked prison, so hetread carefully after that.
(02:18):
The girls came and went.
Some legal, some poached.
Nothing had ever come of it.
After all the girls tookwhatever he gave, so they owed
him.
Part of this deal was that theyhad to pay him back and then
keep their mouth shut.
Three learned his life lessonsand applied them.
Recently the new one was theyounger the girl, the more
(02:39):
likely they were to run theirmouth.
Two of his daughter's friendshad betrayed him.
He had been so good to both ofthem.
The booze, the dope, theparties.
He took cool dad to a newfucking level.
That he wasn't something inreturn.
Shouldn't have been a surprise.
That's how the world works.
Call it their life lesson.
And in three's opinion, 13 was afine age for a girl to learn it.
(03:03):
One of those little chicks hadbeen his favorite, almost a
girlfriend experience.
She liked the dope.
He liked her, well, he likedher.
That second girl, that bitch hadruined at all.
Ran her mouth like a freighttrain.
She must have been jealousspreading shit about him and the
friend.
Next thing, three knew hisdaughter was hearing things she
(03:26):
never should have known.
The rumor spread, the pressurebuilt.
Then the cops were coming aroundasking uncomfortable questions
with their smug, accusing looks.
He told them where to take theirbullshit.
Right back to the girls' homes.
Those girls came to him forshelter.
Both girls one and two had beenraped by their daddies.
(03:46):
Tried and convict.
and the police wanted to accusehim for helping them, giving
them shelter, generosity,guidance.
Those cops had tucked tail andrun when he told them that.
But that didn't change the fact.
Girl two had been spreading theword when she should have been
spreading her legs.
(04:08):
Girl one, as much as he'd lovedhaving her had opened her
fucking mouth when the policecame by.
They had both betrayed him.
That bought the next life lessonfor him, and for them.
The question had been, what washe gonna do about it?
He'd once heard the best defenseis a good offense.
He'd borrowed a page outtadaddy's book.
(04:30):
Only he was better.
Girl one had been easy.
She didn't want to betray him.
He'd watched and waitedpatiently, like one of those
trap door spiders.
Then one day he saw her walkingto the stop alone.
He'd lured her with the promiseof forgiveness, practically
waving the candy under her nose.
(04:51):
She willingly took from himdrunk little bitch.
Then he'd had his fun.
It was a bittersweet memorytheir last time together, but
he'd memorialized the event witha slab.
Now three sits in his hidey-hole blind again, by his
reckoning, enough time haspassed.
He knows not to be greedy.
He figures it's like fishing.
(05:13):
Nobody cares if you fish, but ifyou take too many, that brings
attention.
He's smarter than that and waytoo smart for the pigs.
The cops are like flies buzzingaround, but three knows of the
law, and they have to have areason to land on him.
This day, this lucky day, threesees the other girl.For the
first time in two weeks she'swalking alone.
(05:36):
He starts to move around thedark house using the best angles
to see up and down the street.
It's still quiet.
No one's moving.
Three unlatched the front doorwithout opening it, and assumes
a crouched position behind thedoor.
He can see the approach througha side window.
The girl looks distracted.
Perfect.
(05:58):
In the quiet morning, air threecan hear the footfalls crunching
gravel on concrete.
He times it perfectly, rippingthe door open and surging out.
The big man towers over thegirl.
There's a flash of fearfulrecognition in her eyes, and she
instinctively pulls away.
Too slow.
Three wraps, one arm around herneck, and the other hand clamps
flat across her mouth justbefore she can scream.
(06:21):
Without pause, three forcefullyturns and drags her back into
the dark front of the house,slamming the trap door behind
them.
Three has fantasized about thismoment for a long time.
She is completely his.
He revels in the power, thecontrol.
The girl's crying.
Three slaps her across herstupid little face as he drags
(06:42):
her to the back of the house.
She cries out, but it's okay.
No one can help her now.
He turns on her again forcefullyshaking hands wrapped around the
girl's throat as he yells ragefilled accusations of betrayal.
She cries out apologies as threespins her small body and slams
her down on the bed.
He has a rope there and a knife.
(07:03):
He flashes the blade in front ofher face, promising to gut her
right there if she doesn'tcooperate.
With the threat, the girl triesto control her body's natural
reaction.
Her wide crimson eyes bulge.
She convulses and heavesfighting against racking sobs.
Three watches the girl strugglewith herself beneath him.
(07:23):
He's seen it all before and he'sthrilled.
This girl is different from theother.
There will be no regrets forher.
No memorial for her.
Three looses merciless brutalitybeating while he rapes, and
after a while when his lust andanger are almost spent three
wraps his hands around thelittle girl's throat and
squeezes.
He stares into her eyes asconvulsions hit, and life
(07:46):
escapes her body.
Marcy (07:59):
Ashley pond, a 13 year old girl from Oregon City, a
suburb of Portland left her homeon the morning of January 9th,
2002, and never returned.
When she didn't walk in the doorthat afternoon, Ashley's mother,
Lori called the school.
She found out Ashley hadn'tattended any of her classes.
(08:21):
The call to the school wasquickly followed by contacts
with friends, relatives,hospitals, and finally the
police.
The police responded, took areport and repeated the same
inquiries that Lori Pond hadmade earlier.
They got the same response.
No one had seen Ashley all day.
(08:41):
What the police knew was thatAshley Pond was a troubled
teenager.
She was too young to have muchof a record of her own, but
there was a record of what hadbeen done to her.
They had recently convicted herbiological father of molesting
her.
She had an alcohol problem.
She had been a runaway.
(09:01):
Despite mother's assertions tothe contrary, the police felt
Ashley was simply another angrygirl trying to escape a bad
family situation.
One neighbor and father of oneof Ashley's close friends had
even suggested as much.
Lori Pond didn't believe it.
(09:22):
Things had been better in herhouse recently, and she thought
Ashley was finally emerging fromthe pall that had been cast by
her father's betrayal.
For the next few weeks, Loriloudly beat the drum in the
neighborhood and surroundingcommunity that something had
happened to her daughter, andthe police were not taking her
seriously.
(09:43):
For the police, the problem wasmore of a nowhere to start
issue.
First, it was unclear that anyharm had befallen Ashley, the
apartment complex she lived inwasn't great.
Catering to impoverished peoplewho found themselves on the
ropes.
Everyone was receivinggovernment services.
(10:04):
Many tenants had mental andemotional problems.
There were single mothers tryingto keep track of hordes of
children.
Their boyfriends came and wentfrom the complex in droves,
often bringing chaos andviolence with them.
In the days following thereport, Ashley hadn't turned up
in the hospital or dead in aditch.
(10:25):
To the police who were busyholding other lawlessness at
bay, no news was good news.
The problem with Ashley Pond wasthat she stayed missing a week,
then two, then almost two monthswent by with no trace.
Ashley's mother continued tomake noise in the neighborhood.
(10:48):
Then it happened again.
On March 8th, 2002, MirandaGaddis, one of Ashley's best
friends, left her apartmentheaded for school.
She never made it.
The story was sensational and itwas irresistible to the press.
Two 13 year old girls, sameapartment building, same school,
(11:12):
same dance group, and sameapparent fate.
It was the talk of Portland fordays.
It scared parents to let theirchildren out to play.
Whispers about dead girls andserial killers grew louder.
They scourged the policedepartment for their apparent
inactivity.
For missing girls, no newswasn't good enough anymore.
(11:37):
In response to the publicoutcry, the police department
formed a missing girls taskforce.
They were joined by severaldozen agents from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
The problem with where to startthe investigation hadn't
changed.
The girls had many things incommon.
Both girls had been molested bytheir father figures, who had
(12:00):
subsequently been convicted forthe crime.
This made them statisticallymore vulnerable.
Outside the house, the risk poolhadn't changed since Ashley's
disappearance.
As they looked for suspects andleads across the broader
neighborhood, police found atarget-rich environment.
(12:20):
Close to a hundred registeredsex offenders lived within a
mile of the apartment building.
The police fanned out and begantalking to everyone.
Hundreds of interviews producedleads that took them in various
directions.
Thousands of tips poured in fromlocal sources, and when the case
got national and internationalcoverage suggestions poured in
(12:43):
from across the globe.
The already beleagueredinvestigators soon became bogged
down, slogging through any bitof information that looked even
remotely useful.
What had once been a problemwith police inactivity became a
frenzied mess.
Police considered many men primesuspects.
(13:04):
These men bitterly complained tothe media about what they
characterized as policeharassment.
One said that they hadinterrogated him half a dozen
times, adding that detectiveseven tore apart his favorite
camping site in their searches.
Evidence of an active policeinvestigation could be seen in
the neighborhood as detectivessearched properties either with
(13:26):
consent or by search warrant.
They seized suspect cars fordetailed evidence searches.
Surveillance teams, some obviouscrisscrossed roadways as they
tried to keep up with theirquarry.
As the weeks and months passedthe task force investigators
scrutinized dozens of suspects,singling out several favorites.
(13:48):
They found nothing thatindicated the fate of either
missing girl.
No trace of them had beenuncovered in the thousands of
man hours spent searching.
Then five months in, there was abreak.
On August 13th, 2002, A mannamed Francis Weaver called into
the 9 1 1 Center.
(14:10):
Francis told the dispatcher thathis father, ward Weaver III, had
raped his 19 year oldgirlfriend, Randy Onida.
In her statement to police,Randy Onida said that Weaver
Three had given her a ride homeearlier in the day.
As he drove his behavior seemednormal.
Weaver three was her boyfriend'sfather, and he hadn't really
(14:33):
given her a reason to distrusthim in the past.
When they walked into the house,Weaver Three's demeanor changed
suddenly.
Without warning, he becameenraged.
Three, tackled Randy to thefloor, ripped off her clothing
and raped her.
When three finished, he grabbeda cushion and tried to smother
her.
(14:53):
Randy fought and kicked threeoff of her.
She fled, completely naked fromthe rear of the house.
As she sprinted up the sideyard, Randy grabbed a blue tarp
off the patio and wrappedherself in it.
She ran out of the yard and downthe street where she flagged
down a car.
Francis arrived soon after andcalled the police.
(15:16):
By the time investigatorsinterviewed Francis Weaver, he
told them that he had confrontedhis father, Weaver three.
Francis said that Weaver Threewas distraught and confessed
that he had killed the missinggirls.
Weaver three then fled from thehouse.
After the rape investigation,police tracked down, arrested
and remanded Weaver three oncharges related to the sexual
(15:38):
assault of Randy Onida.
Weaver three had been one of thetop suspects in searching for
the missing girls, even beforeRandy Otus rape.
Then considering the new chargeand Francis assertions the focus
of the investigation coalescedon Weaver three and him alone.
Detectives dug deep in their newprime suspects past.
(16:02):
What they and the mediauncovered was horrific.
To understand Weaver iii, youmust first know about the first
and the second.
Weaver one was the kind of manwho beat his wife, Dorothy and
his kids regularly.
He liked to force sex on femalemembers of the family.
Dorothy couldn't tell him no,and when he tired of her, he
(16:26):
brought women home and had sexwith them while she was there.
Weaver one sexually molested hisdaughter, and later two of his
granddaughters.
Dorothy took drugs to numb thepain of her life and molested
her son, Weaver two.
During his early life, Weavertwo suffered beatings from his
father and worse from hismother.
(16:47):
Dorothy would sometimes punishyoung Weaver two by biting him
until he bled.
Weaver two responded by becomingbrutal in his own right.
As a boy he tortured animals.
Later he graduated to beatinghis siblings.
Weaver two was particularlycruel to his sister, he would
rape her and afterward taunt herthat she was pregnant with his
(17:10):
baby.
In 1967, Weaver two was draftedinto the Army and sent to
Vietnam.
He saw brutal combat andwitnessed friends die in battle.
When he returned from the war tocivilian life, weaver two became
a truck driver and a serialkiller, murdering people he
encountered on the roadsides ashe traveled the Western states.
(17:34):
By 1983, Weaver two was in SanQuentin Prison on rape and
attempted murder charges.
Sheriff Investigators for KernCounty, California went to talk
to him about the murder of 18year old Robert Radford and his
missing girlfriend, 23 year oldbarbara LaVoy.
In 1982, Radford and Lavoys carhad broken down on the side of
(17:57):
Highway 58, just east ofTehachapi.
Radford was found, beaten todeath near the car, but they
found no sign of LaVoy.
During his incarceration, Weavertwo told another prisoner what
had happened to the missingwoman.
The confidant turned informant,which led to two's Orville,
(18:18):
California Home.
Lavoy's body was found under anewly poured concrete slab
patio.
During the subsequent interview,Weaver two refused to say
anything until he had talked tohis.
The next day, Dorothy went toSan Quentin.
She didn't think her son couldhurt anyone, so cooperating with
(18:38):
investigators, she urged him toget it out.
Weaver two confessed that a yearearlier he had come across
Radford and LaVoy broken down onthe side of the road.
He stopped beat Radford to deathwith a pipe and kidnapped LaVoy.
He admitted to raping the womanand planned to keep her captive
at his home in Orville until shebit his finger.
(19:02):
Enraged, two strangled Lavoy todeath.
They charged Weaver two withcapital murder for the Tehachapi
double homicide.
He tried to make a deal to avoidthe death penalty.
Two volunteered to give them thedetails of 26 other murders.
They refused.
At trial, the jury took lessthan 45 minutes to convict him
(19:25):
of murder.
The next day they sentenced himto die.
In the follow-up investigation,it was determined that Weaver
Two's trucking logs lined upwith two or so dozen other
unsolved murders along hisdriving routes.
Weaver Three was born on April6th, 1963 in Humboldt County,
(19:48):
California, a region north ofSan Francisco, appropriately
referred to as the Lost Coast.
Mom, Trish Weaver had threechildren during her miserable
marriage to Weaver two.
The grandiosely named third,followed by daughters Teresa and
Tammy Weaver.
When Weaver two tired of hisunhappy little family, he split
(20:10):
appearing only periodically inthe kids' lives.
Trish Weaver finally able tobreathe, decided she didn't
really like the freedom so much,and set out to replace what her
family was missing.
She achieved success in a EurekaCalifornia bar in 1967.
Bob Boudreaux, 6 2, 200 poundsof brutal, abusive alcoholic fit
(20:35):
the bill.
It wasn't long before Tricia andBob were living together, then
married.
Tricia's second Nuptials turnedout to be every bit as miserable
as the first.
But the unhappy couple welcomedtheir first child, Bob Jr.
Within the year.
With the tutelage of his fatherand stepfather, weaver three was
well placed to develop his ownviolent streak, praying on his
(20:58):
siblings.
Growing up, they largely leftthe children to their own
devices.
The family moved to Portland, soBob Sr.
Could work as a longshoreman.
He was away all day, followed bylong shifts on a bar stool.
That routine wasn't good for thefinances.
Trish worked as a secretary alsoworking long hours in a vain
(21:20):
attempt to meet needs.
years later, Tammy would sum upher young life as,"we were never
a family.
We were six people growing up inthe same house, in a very
violent house.
Ward has put me through so muchhell.
For years after I left, I hadnightmares about him." it was a
(21:41):
poorly kept secret among familythat Weaver Three was sexually
abusing members of the family bythe time he was in high school.
In April 1981, police detainedhim when a female relative
accused him of raping her.
In a hearing, the police andcourt agreed not to pursue
charges in lieu of Weaver threeenlisting in the military.
(22:04):
By the end of 1981, Weaver threefound himself posted as a cook
aboard the aircraft carrier US SCoral Sea, Home Base, the
Philippines.
Weaver Three's Navy career wasnot long.
He abused alcohol and was oftenawol.
By May, 1982, the Navy hadslapped him with an other than
(22:26):
honorable discharge and bootedhim out.
One souvenir Weaver threebrought back from the
Philippines was a wife whom he'dmet in a bar.
He and bride Maria Stout arrivedin Portland and moved into the
basement of the Boudreau'sHouse.
Perhaps not surprisingly, themarriage of Weaver Three and
(22:47):
Stout was not a happy one.
The police regularly went to theBoudreaux Weaver home for
domestic clashes, some of whichended in an assault charge for
the male half.
Into this unhappy home Weaverthree s first child, a son named
Francis, arrived in December,1982.
(23:07):
In 1984, Weaver three and Mariapacked up and moved to
Bakersfield, California to becloser to Weaver two, who is in
San Quentin awaiting trial forcapital murder.
The marriage hadn't gotten anyeasier, but the family was
growing.
They had a second son namedAlex.
Weaver three had problemsholding down a steady job so
(23:29):
they moved in with the Ordinoahfamily.
The agreement was in exchangefor shelter, Weaver three would
help with the OA family businessselling products within the
local Filipino community.
On June 15th, 1986, two of theOA family daughters ages 15 and
16 were sent in the company vanto pick up Weaver three from a
(23:53):
local bar.
During the drive home, he askedthat they pull off the side of
the road so he could relievehimself.
When they stopped, Weaver threehit one girl in the head with a
chunk of concrete knocking herout.
Then he raped the sister.
Years later, the victimsdescribe that.
Weaver went from acting calm toattacking unprovoked and rage
(24:16):
filled with no warning.
They sentenced Weaver to threeyears for the attack on the
Ordinary Sisters.
During the pre-sentenceevaluation, he told a probation
officer that he had troublecontrolling his temper.
His greatest fear was that hewould end up like his father on
California's death row.
When he was released fromprison, Weaver three and Maria
(24:39):
moved to Oregon, where in 1989,the unhappy family welcomed
their fourth child, Mallory.
By 1993, the marriage was over.
Maria took out a DV restrainingorder and filed for divorce.
Over the next few years, Weaverthree's unimpressive life AMD
on.
He sold low end drugs and wasarrested for it.
(25:02):
He had relationships with youngwomen choosing the ones he
thought he could control.
When he couldn't, he beat themand was arrested for that.
In the late 1990s and early twothousands, Weaver three and
family had a house in OregonCity.
The neighborhood was barelylower.
Middle class.
It was mixed residential, smallhouses and small, sometimes
(25:24):
wooded, lots and largemulti-unit apartment complexes,
most of which you couldcharitably label as rundown.
Weaver three fancied himself thecool dad, as his kids progressed
through their teenage years, hewould allow parties.
He supplied booze and sometimesdrugs.
He used the situation to getclose to vulnerable girls.
(25:47):
It was this situation thatAshley Pond and Miranda Gaddis
stepped into.
They were friends of WeaverThree's youngest daughter,
Mallory.
The girls all went to the samemiddle school and were members
of the dance team.
Pond and Gaddis had eachexperienced abuse at home, so
they escaped by hanging out andsometimes staying overnight.
(26:09):
As the summer of 2001 ended,rumors circulated.
The word was that Weaver Threewas sexually involved with
Ashley Pond.
A teacher reported seeing himinappropriately kissing Ashley
as he dropped her off at school.
The police investigated.
Ashley confirmed that WeaverThree had raped her frequently.
(26:30):
Weaver three denied it and nocharges were filed in that case.
On the morning of January 9th,2002, Ashley Pawn walked to the
school bus alone.
Coincidentally, her route tookher near Weaver's house.
She never showed up at school.
Two months later, Miranda GataSpanish.
(26:50):
Under similar circumstances.
After Ashley Pond'sdisappearance, Weaver three and
his son Francis, dug a hole inthe ground beside their house.
Francis later said that hisfather told him it was going to
be a concrete pad for a hot tub.
That account was confirmed laterwhen after Miranda's
disappearance, reporters floodedthe neighborhood, interviewing
(27:13):
residents.
In one on camera, weaver threeproudly proclaimed,"I'm putting
in a jacuzzi.
The last time I checked thatwasn't against the law" Around
the same time, Weaver Three toldanother reporter that he
understood himself to be theFBI's top suspect.
As the missing girls task forcepressure increased, weaver
(27:36):
distinguished himself withseveral such media statements.
On July 9th, 2002, he appearedon Good Morning America
portraying the Girls as comingfrom troubled homes.
He made himself the victimsaying that his daughter's
friends were practically dumpedon his doorstep begging for
help.
He said he did what he could.
(27:59):
The rape of Randy Onida, theallegations of Francis Weaver
and all the backstory, gave thetask force ample evidence to get
search warrants for the Weaverproperty.
The search occurred on August24th, 2002.
They found Goddess's decomposingremains in an empty microwave
(28:20):
box inside a storage shed behindthe house.
The next day, the concretejacuzzi slab minus the hot tub,
was jack hammered apart.
Ashley Pond's body was thereencased in a 55 gallon barrel.
Ashley's body was mummified.
She was clothed, but wore noshoes.
(28:42):
She had a large contusion to herskull.
Toxicology showed she had ablood alcohol level of 0.17%.
The medical examiner theorizedthat he had kept her frozen for
a period after her death, andinvestigators found a chest
freezer in a storage unit rentedby Weaver three.
Miranda's body was in a far moreadvanced state of decomposition.
(29:05):
She was nude except for socks.
there was a microwave oven inthat storage unit that matched
the cardboard box containingMiranda's body.
The trace evidence and witnessinterviews filled in some
blanks.
In the days following themissing girls, weaver three
bought concrete mix, plasticshower curtains, and a cleaning
(29:28):
solution.
They found rolls of industrialplastic at a relative's house
matching the type that hewrapped the bodies in.
Weaver three's fingerprints werefound on tape used to pack the
bodies.
Victim head hair was recoveredfrom a vacuum cleaner, owned by
Weaver Three's employer.
The bodies had been trussed withropes so they could fit into
(29:49):
containers.
Matching cords were found atsome of the search sites.
One of Weaver's three'srelatives said that she helped
him move property from his houseto the storage facility because
he was planning to move toIdaho.
On October 2nd, 2002, Weaver wasindicted for the crimes against
pond and Gaddis (30:08):
aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse,
sexual abuse in the firstdegree, attempted rape in the
second degree, attemptedaggravated murder, first degree
attempted rape, sexual abuse inthe second degree, and sexual
abuse in the third degree.
Two years later, Weaver threepled guilty.
(30:31):
A plea bargain allowed him toavoid the death penalty.
They sentenced him to two lifesentences with no parole.
More than 1000 people attended amemorial service for the girls.
The crowd was filled withfamilies carrying flowers and
card.
Teenage girls from their school,neighborhood and regional dance
(30:54):
teams came.
Many wearing yellow memorialribbons.
Relatives and teachers showedphotos and talked about the
girls' lives and what they meantto them.
The Oregon City Police Chief andthe task force investigators
were also there.
Chief Gordon Huries said,"although most of us have never
(31:15):
met them, we feel we have alwaysknown them.
We adopted them into our lawenforcement family, and we will
never forget them." in theinvestigations aftermath, law
enforcement took scathingcriticism about the pace of the
inquiry and points where inretrospect, the murders might
(31:35):
have been prevented.
Many people wanted to know whyWeaver three wasn't arrested
after Ashley Pond's rapeallegation.
Critics pointed out weaver'sviolent past, and that he had
made media challenges invitinglaw enforcement to search his
property at any time.
In response, police said thatWeaver three allowed limited
(31:56):
searches.
They even used cadaver dogs, butthe bodies had been moved.
Francis Weaver received publicpraise for his courage in
cooperating with prosecution andhis public statements about the
killings.
From the beginning, he did notmince words saying that he was
certain his father was guilty ofthe murders.
(32:18):
On March 4th, 2007, WeaverThree's prison Barber attacked
him at the Snake RiverCorrectional Institution.
The barber, also an inmate,pulled a shank and stabbed
Weaver three's neck andshoulder.
Three sustained seriousinjuries, but he survived.
Miranda Gaddis youngest, MirandaGaddis younger sister Mariah
(32:41):
went to the prison to speak withWeaver three in 2009.
She was seeking closure andwanted to know exactly what
happened to her sister.
Weaver three told her that hekilled both girls with his bare
hands.
He also told Mariah that it washis intent if he hadn't been
arrested to murder her next.
(33:03):
On February 17th, 2014, FrancisWeaver was charged with murder.
Francis and his twoco-defendants were accused of
planning the ripoff of anassociated drug dealer.
Their plan was to seal 15 poundsof marijuana.
During the robbery, the dealerwas shot and killed.
(33:23):
The robbery team then staged acar accident involving the body
with the intent of confusinghomicide investigators.
There was no confusion, and thegroup was rounded up the
following day.
(33:48):
One of the most striking thingsabout this case.
I guess the series of cases isthe generational trauma and
abuse and what it created.
Mark (33:59):
This case is a lot.
It's pretty amazing.
There is a question that pops upin the articles when I was
reviewing for this case, is thisgenetic, the nature versus
nurture thing?
And, it was later determined, Ithink during the investigation
that Francis wasn't actually thebiological son of Weaver three.
So that kind of kills the ideathat this is all genetics.
The people that said that weredisappointed, obviously.
(34:22):
This was nurture, right?
The worst family environment's,creating the worst human beings.
That's what we have here.
Three generations of that.
Marcy (34:30):
Four, if you count Francis.
Commenting on the case againstFrancis Weaver, Annette Jolan,
who was a professor at PortlandState University's division of
criminology and criminal justicesaid"when I was a police
officer, there were somefamilies known to all officers
because of their involvement incrime, but I think it's very
rare to have two generations ofmurderers and another generation
(34:54):
accused of murder." and Dr.
Jalan went on to say modernstudies discount the idea of a
genetic crime, predispositionand the focus in criminology is
really on the social factors.
Mark (35:09):
I think that's completely right.
I too worked in a city wherecertain names where we had
generational sons, grandsonsknown, were doing all kinds of
even violent crimes.
And I'm convinced, based on whatI've seen, is that's how
families raised their kids andhow they functioned that made
them stand out.
Marcy (35:31):
Being a victim of sexual abuse makes you at a
statistically higher risk ofbeing vulnerable to further
sexual abuse or becoming aperpetrator.
That cycle of sexual abusereally is the gift that keeps on
giving.
Mark (35:45):
We've talked about this before and that's a phrase that
pediatricians used.
And having worked in sexualassault and with the crimes
against children unit in mydepartment, I know that to be
true.
Both these girls were abused athome and that makes them more
vulnerable.
First it's, who knows chicken oregg, the home situation not
good.
And it creates a judgment issueswith the children going out as
(36:09):
to what is appropriate behavior.
And the other side of thisweaver three from an abused
family that had crazy levels ofdysfunction it made him the kind
of person he was.
The other thing about this wholething with the two girls is I
was once again stricken by 1980sera sexual abuse of minor
sentences, despite having beenconvicted of sexual abuse.
(36:32):
One of the girls offendersreceived three years despite
taking the full conviction.
And the other one, despitetaking the full conviction, just
got probation.
Marcy (36:43):
Maybe it's geography.
You did just say that the Lostcoast of California where Weaver
two was born is the lost coastfor a reason.
Mark (36:52):
I was joking.
It's beautiful there.
A full disclosure, I was born inSacramento.
But that area, which isbasically, if you go north of
the really ritzy area justacross the bay from San
Francisco and you continuenorth, that's a region that is,
has a reputation for beinglawless.
It was the epicenter, of bigillegal commercial marijuana
(37:12):
grows.
It's isolated and rugged likeHill Country.
The reason I said that is itdoesn't surprise me that a long
haul trucker, serial killeroperated from there for years
without detection.
Marcy (37:24):
We could make up our own conspiracy theories with the
lost Coast marijuana grow thing,and Francis Weaver's murder
charge.
Wasn't that a marijuana rip?
Mark (37:34):
technically it did happen way north of the lost coast, but
that's just the details.
And it did involve weed and amurder, the family's apparent
business and a really crappyattempt at and disposing of a
body, which apparently he getsfrom his father and his
grandfather.
Marcy (37:49):
The weed owner was shot in the head multiple times and
they thought a fake car crashwas gonna cover that up.
Mark (37:55):
Car crashes don't generally involve through and
through holes in the head.
And it was so unconfusing.
They put the body in the car andcrashed it into a tree thinking
that there'd be head traumathere would cover up.
But no, it did not fool the copsand everybody just picked up
within 24 hours.
Like I said, maybe it's apredisposition to a crappy
disposal of bodies.
Marcy (38:18):
There was a homicide task force in this case and you
supervised part of a homicidetask force.
Do you wanna talk about that alittle bit?
Mark (38:25):
Yeah, it is for large, complex cases, and in this case
it wasn't an enormous case, butit did have a ton of, they had
tips coming from all over theworld and no sign of where the
girls went.
So it's complicated and having atask force is really the way to
put down a large, complicatedset of cases.
In my case, one of them was wewere having drug related rips
(38:48):
across Anchorage.
The crimes were brutal.
People were getting shot, couplepeople killed.
It really caught people'sattention because one kid was
killed in the middle of the dayin the parking lot of Costco.
Very busy place.
And the other kid was killed inthe back of a friend's car in
the parking lot of a brand newdrug store.
One of the big chains on one ofthe busiest corners in the city.
(39:12):
And he was just basically killedexecution style by a bad guy.
there was supposed to be amarijuana exchange from the bad
guy.
The kid was there.
He is gonna exchange it and takeit off to his very nice
neighborhood and sell the weed.
Instead, they took the money.
Bad guy basically shot him inthe side of the head
unexpectedly.
Pretty alarming.
On a task force, the duties areclearly defined and parted out.
(39:33):
What happened with me is I tookthe afternoon and night shift,
and another sergeant took theday shift.
We each were assigned ourinvestigative units.
I had my crime suppression guysand attached me was my former
unit, the vice unit, and alsohad a swat element at my
disposal.
a couple of my investigatorswere sent over the FBI Fusion
Center, and their job was tocoordinate intelligence
(39:53):
information that we gathered andhomicide gathered.
So every day we'd meet in thehomicide office, we'd work
through old information andthings we'd come up with, and
we'd go through new information,new intelligence.
And the idea is we all plannedtogether what we thought were
the best next steps.
We'd, decide these things, whatwe need to accomplish who we're
gonna interview, who we're gonnasurveil who need to be hit with
(40:16):
search warrants, as weprogressed, what arrest and what
order.
And with such an organized,intense approach, it wasn't long
before we formed a strategy onthe best way to roll them up cuz
we the key was to build tensionwithin that group.
So they were like rats jumpingoff a ship, everybody scrambled
to save themselves.
And I'd say if you had goodleadership that, and we can keep
(40:36):
clear goals.
This is the best system forthese big cases.
The downside is it's very laborintensive and, the investigative
paste, the aggressive pace can'tbe maintained forever.
I guess in my experiencesrelates to this case is, it's
surprising to me with how highWeaver three s level in the
(41:00):
chain of, key suspects must havebeen that they weren't in his
house searching it, searchwarrant.
Within the first few weeks.
You set up a hierarchy, you hitthe highest scoring targets and
you work from there.
And I can't believe that, justbased on what was known at the
time.
You can see things inretrospect.
Oh boy, he's a big one, but he Ithink he had to be a big one,
(41:20):
pretty early on.
And I can't believe within a fewweeks that, that they said there
was up to 60 FBI agents attachedto this.
That's a huge number even for alarge geographical area.
That's a huge number.
And I can't believe they weren'tin there before.
Before they were.
Marcy (41:39):
Before we move on to the missing girl specifics.
Weaver two got off really light.
He as much has confessed to twodozen murders, but the
prosecutors wouldn't make thedeal with him because they
didn't want him to escape thedeath penalty.
But we found out later becauseof some technicality, he was
actually let off death row.
(42:00):
So he avoided the death penaltyand he never had to disclose
anything about those othermurders.
Mark (42:07):
Yeah it's really disturbing.
I can't remember what thetechnicality was.
It was something about his ageor the limit on time limit on
death row.
So he's still in for life.
But he's able now to, he's offdeath row and he's able to live
in the general population, whichallow, allows him to participate
in services and stuff and have amuch better life than on death
(42:27):
row.
There's a lot of.
Lavoys relatives really screamedabout how unjust is that they,
he was convicted and put ondeath row, and now he's just a
gen Popper.
The really horrible thing is ifthe prosecutors had made a deal
with him he would've ended up inthe same status as he is now.
But two dozen families or sowould've known the facts about
the deaths and disappearance oftheir loved ones who he killed,
(42:49):
and they don't have that now.
Marcy (42:52):
The rape allegation with Ashley Pond, we have a middle
school teacher who saw them openmouth kissing, in the drop off
line?
And they talked to her and shesays, yeah, Weaver three's been
raping her when she stayed athis house, and yet they don't
file any charges.
How is this possible?
Mark (43:10):
I don't know the answer to this.
I can tell you in my departmentthis would've been what's called
P priority one.
Case P one a father molesting achild's friends.
This is all uncommon, but as faras allegations of this kind go,
that's not all that uncommon.
And it's also very concerning.
There are numerous avenues to,to corroborate Ashley Pond's
disclosure.
I won't go into here and I don'tknow what length the police went
(43:31):
to get there whether they pulledout all the stops or not, but
that should have been whathappened.
I would say the risk in theinvestigation, the downside to
that case is the environment inwhich it occurred.
It's the environment in whichhampered the missing person
investigation.
It's a world of victimization,suspects everywhere, drug and
alcohol abuse.
(43:51):
You can't depend on some of thepeople that you're taking
interviews from especially thisage young kids to keep things
quiet.
So for example, you're, ifyou're gonna run a wire do
something like that you reallyrun the risk of being
compromised so I don't know whatthey did.
Maybe they did get screwed andcompromised.
I don't know.
So I can't say whether this caseworked to its end or just fell
through the cracks.
(44:12):
I do have my suspicions thatit's the latter based on how the
missing persons case reallystarted off sluggish.
What we do know is no chargesever resulted from the Ashley
pond rape disclosure.
Marcy (44:25):
In 2002, the Governor of Oregon announced that there
would be an audit of the actionsof the police agencies involved
in the pond and Gaddisinvestigations, and in
particular, why no action wastaken in the Ashley Pond rape
allegation.
Do you know anything about whathappened?
Mark (44:42):
I looked and I saw nothing.
The governor of Oregon gotcaught up in a scandal, which
caused him to resign severalyears later.
I could not find any finding on,the audit he called for.
My guess is that the auditorshad nothing to sink their teeth
into.
My hope and expectation is, likeI said, the investigators went
to the mat and just couldn'tcover, couldn't get over the
resistance.
(45:03):
But on the other hand, Even acrappy investigation can end by
saying they had nowhere to go.
They had no further leads.
People they talked to wereuncooperative.
And second guessing aninvestigation is difficult
unless you have obviousnegligence on things that went
undone.
On any given day, a greatinvestigator can take, get shut
down or break the case, andbased on factors that are
(45:25):
largely beyond his or hercontrol.
Luck skill can maximize results,but they're not a guarantee.
Marcy (45:32):
So the criticism that law enforcement took about the
missing girl investigation, doyou think that was legitimate?
Mark (45:38):
It's hard to say without knowing what they had.
And when they had it.
In retrospect, things seemedvery clear, like I said about,
especially about Weaver threebeing the guy.
But what I did see in this iseverybody there's all these
private investigators involvedand there's people from the
outside who all had their ownprime suspect.
And it's like the ones whopicked Weaver either hit the
right number or maybe they justknew enough what to look at for
(46:00):
profiling that they got itright.
For me, if I was looking at thisfrom the outside and I knew all
their prime suspects and couldread a little folder on the
facts, Weaver's familiarity withthe girls and her rape
allegation would've put him atthe top of my list.
Marcy (46:17):
Do you think they could have or should have gotten a
search warrant sooner for thathouse?
Mark (46:20):
Could have.
Yes.
I think there was enough to puttogether a complete search
earlier than they did.
just based on what I knew theyknew.
And they were slow.
They waited 10 days even afterthe Randi Oneida rape to go into
the house.
And some of the stuff that theyput in their affidavit even 10
days later, was stuff that theyknew before Randi Oneida rape.
They used the news video, theconcrete pad, and some of his
(46:43):
statements for the media isjustification.
Statements he made well beforethe rape I don't know if they
could have done that beforeGaddis went missing.
The most problematic thing aboutthe investigation was there no
sign or witnesses of where thegirls may have been last seen or
where they disappeared to.
But, we know they were bothheaded to school and they both
disappeared and he lived rightnear the bus stop.
So that's a little tick againsthim or pro getting a search
(47:05):
warrant for his place.
There were other, his history.
For example, 15 and 16 year oldgirls picked him up, he knocked
one of out and raped him.
Those are things that go into asearch warrant to add to the
probable cause of you gettinginto his place to look at where
he may have taken and hit thegirl.
I think that they could haveshould have put it together
before.
some of the things that wereembarrassing, the task force is
(47:28):
pawns stepmother goes over andputs a sign on right beside the
jacuzzi tub slab, and the signsays, dig me up.
There's some embarrassment herefor the task force that people
knew.
And when he was arrested, theywent, ah, see yeah, we told you.
And that's a bad, that's a badlook for the cops.
the idea that everyone knew andthe cops didn't do anything,
(47:49):
whether that's legit or not.
I think based on some of thethings I said, it might have
been legit in some respects.
Marcy (47:57):
You said Randy Onida running down the street wrapped
in her blue tarp is greatevidence.
What did you mean by that?
Mark (48:04):
Yeah, let me qualify this by when I say good, useful to
achieve justice.
No facts in a sexual assaultcase are good in the usual
sense.
So what you have to overcome asa sexual assault investigator
who's trying to put a casetogether that will weather the
beyond a reasonable doubtburden, when those facts like
that, when I read that detail, Ithought, Boy, that's great.
(48:28):
Circumstantial evidence.
In sex assault consent is alwaysthe issue.
So if you imagine they went toWeaver and Weaver says, yeah, we
had sex, but it was consensual.
She just freaked out because shethought my son was coming home
and was gonna find out about it.
Something in that kind of, thatrealm of excuses is actually
pretty common, and that's why wehave to overcome that consent
(48:49):
issue.
When you look at what actuallyhappened here that common excuse
is unbelievable in the light ofher extreme response.
Proving that beyond reasonabledoubt can be tough.
But this situation is reallygood at evidence.
Here you'd probably be able toprove sexual contact through
trace, and her reaction is apowerful statement that what
happened is not consensual.
Marcy (49:11):
Talk about how search warrants are investigative and
not conclusive.
That's something that you'vementioned before.
Mark (49:17):
Yeah.
That's a common mistake foryoung investigators or new
investigators, new cops.
You feel like, boy, youabsolutely have to prove a case
before you get a search warrant.
That's not correct.
Search warrants are aninvestigative tool.
They don't have the same beyondreasonable doubt standard as
required for court.
The burden is much lower.
It's probable cause.
Having said that, you don'twanna risk too much.
It can't be just a fishingexpedition.
(49:39):
You have to be pretty sure thatthis is what you put in the
affidavit is what has happenedand where evidence is likely to
be.
And if you don't do your job, ifyou don't take into account why
you could be wrong.
It could be painful.
I remember once somebody put upa copy of a search warrant
affidavit up on our policebulletin board as a cautionary
(50:00):
tale.
It was a beautiful longaffidavit.
All the drug informationsupporting a marijuana grow how
they wanted to go into thisplace, and when they went in and
it was a grow beautifulzucchini! Yeah.
This is a big problem, right?
You gotta be able to investigateand tell the difference between
a marijuana grow.
Why do you think it's marijuanaand not just somebody growing
(50:20):
something perfectly legal?
And so that's search warrantsare not a final investigation,
but search warrants are seriouswhen you put your stuff down.
This is why I believe ithappened.
And you gotta get a judge to buyoff on it.
Marcy (50:33):
Oh, that's horrible.
I can't, I bet they never livedit down.
So have you ever doneapplications where you did find
nothing in a search?
Mark (50:40):
Yes.
And you don't like to do that,but it does happen.
The case that comes to mind, Iwas looking for a huge stash of
stolen property, like$150,000worth of equipment that was
taken from an auto shop.
I had pretty good informationand what I thought was a
reliable informant.
he turned out to be a reliableinformant.
But he just didn't have the mostcurrent information.
(51:01):
So I wrote a search warrant forthe suspect's house, and it was
like three hours south ofAnchorage.
Long way.
And I knew it was a risk, but Ihad to try and get this stuff
back.
We hit the house and the stuffwasn't there.
It was disheartening.
But there is a silver lining tosome of this.
First of all, the guy that wesearched, his wife divorced him
because now she believed that ithappened.
(51:23):
It put the Yeah, it was bad forhim.
You know what he did when weshowed up?
He said, oh, I'm going fishingand left.
Very suspicious.
Unusual thing for a guy to dowhen you're searching his house
is a split like that.
And his wife was left behind todeal with us and she was unhappy
and later divorced him becauseshe realized he was a thief.
But anyway, the search put thepressure on people who gave us
(51:43):
additional information, thecase.
So it wasn't a total waste.
but anytime you search and don'tfind anything, you have to
return that search affidavit tothe court.
And I never wanted to send backto a judge why he shouldn't
believe or have confidence in myinvestigation.
I always like to update judgeswhen I went in to any successes.
You take a swing sometimes youmiss.
Marcy (52:04):
It seems like there were a lot of indications that Weaver
three might be the problem.
Can you go into some of those?
Mark (52:11):
sure.
Like I said before, bludgeoningof 15 and 16 year old girls
earlier is a indicator ofpotentially future of conduct.
It also sets him apartdefinitely as a sadistic rapist,
but also potentially apreferential pedophile.
He might like the young girls,which you could put in affidavit
for the pond and gaddis.
The other thing is both pond andgaddis are potential witnesses
(52:33):
to other collateral crimes, thedope or contributing delinquency
of minors.
Pond made an allegation ofsexual assault against him, so
retribution is a possibility.
So they're.
At risk from him, right?
So if you're looking atassessing the victim potential
criminal relationship, this is avery good thing to put in your
search warrant.
So the other thing is ChristieSloan, I didn't really talk
(52:54):
about her in the investigationpart, but she was 18 years old
when she gets outta high schooland he basically takes her under
his wing, marries her, and istrying to control her, but she
ultimately gives divorces him.
But she knew things when theytalked to her.
He bought cement right afterpond went missing and poured the
slab just a couple days later.
(53:14):
The fact that Weaver three'sdad, Weaver two.
did the same thing, burying awoman under a slab.
I didn't talk about this either.
Weaver two had his stepson, 10years old at the time, help him
dig that slab down in Orville,California.
So they both father and soncommit a crime, bury a woman
using labor from their sons.
(53:34):
A little eerie.
You couldn't use that in asearch warrant, but it is very
compelling, and the other thingabout Christie Sloan is she gave
background.
He was abusive, controlling.
She hated him.
She feared him, and she knew hewas capable of the abductions.
That's that kind of thing talkto his wives, find out what he
is like, they say, oh yeah, he'scapable of this.
Some of that could be put in asearch warrant.
(53:59):
The other thing is you have hisvery unusual demeanor.
Most people that are suspects ina major crime like this don't
stand in front of news media andsay, Hey, I'm the FBI's Prime
suspect.
That is very unusual behavior.
He wanted attention
Marcy (54:14):
right after Miranda's disappearance, Weaver consented
to a search of his yard.
And what did investigatorsnotice?
Mark (54:23):
one of the investigators in his notes noted the newly
port concrete and I wanted totalk about consent a little bit.
So consent is great and mostpolice searches are done under
consent circumstances but that'sgenerally not the way things
happen in murders or otherserious crimes.
In those, you cover your basesyou avoid losing evidence
because you've applied for asearch warrant.
The whole idea is the judge is athird party who takes a look at
(54:47):
your affidavit and canobjectively determine if your
case is good enough to overcomea citizen's fourth Amendment
right against search.
A warrant basically, it goes along way to ensuring the search
warrant will not be overruled ina later evidence hearing.
But consent on the other hand,can be much less certain.
A defendant who gives youconsent can say things like, he
(55:08):
didn't allow a search on his ownfree will, that he was
intimidated into allowing it.
He can say I have a cop thing,and anytime a cop talks to me, I
feel intimidated.
And if you get the right judgeis gonna shoot down that, that
search, and you're gonna losewhatever you found in there.
When we were granted a search ofparts of his property early in
the missing girls case,basically he limited them to
(55:30):
where he knew the girls weren't.
Obviously he knew they weren'tgonna find him based on where he
told them they could look.
Marcy (55:35):
I do think it's weird that Weaver Three kept the
bodies at his house.
His father buried a woman underconcrete slab and was on death
row for it.
Why didn't he get rid of them?
Why didn't, why
Mark (55:47):
I don't know.
Lack of imagination.
I have thought about this andmost people that do this dump
bodies in the middle of nowhereor bury them out somewhere, and
it's where they can't beimmediately, directly linked to
a suspect.
I think it might be that he'sjust such a control freak, and
he was so confident in hisability to move them, hide them
whenever he wanted.
He thought he could control thenarrative by going on the
(56:10):
offensive like he did with themedia.
He felt confident the policedidn't have the ability or the
desire to take him on or get asearch warrant.
Clearly what he didn't take intoaccount is that he was his own
worst enemy.
Marcy (56:22):
With four generations of murdering men in this one
family.
I think it's important to endwith saying that those
intergenerational cycles ofviolence do not have to
continue.
However, it takes a community tohelp break that cycle.
Every missed opportunity wheresomeone looked the other way or
decided not to intervene was atragic failure.
(56:51):
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Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
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(57:14):
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(57:38):
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