OR-Missing Oregon Women from the I-5 Area - Cases Related?

Auggie21

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Doing some other research, I recently became VERY aware of the number of missing women from Oregon who disapeared from towns around the I-5 corridor, including 8 since 1978 from Eugene (or within 10 miles of Eugene). I originally posted this in the Cold Cases forum, but it probably belongs here.

Many of the cases seem to share similarities, and it's clear that not all of them could be related to the Green River Killer (some too early, some too late, only one suspected of engaging in prostitution) or the I-5 Killer (who was arrested in 1981).

I hope some of you have done more reserach on this and can offer your thoughts.

Here are the cases I've found.

Benita Chamberlin (1761DFOR) missing February 23, 1978, Eugene, OR
Irin Meyer (1359DFOR) missing August 7, 1979, Gold Beach, OR
Linda Pleva (1414DFOR) missing June 21, 1981, Eugene, OR
Sherry Eyerly (1482DFOR) missing July 4, 1982, Salem, OR
Kerry Johnson (150DFOR) missing September 14, 1982, Salem, OR
Laronda Bronson (1619DFOR) missing November 19, 1982, Portland, OR
Joan Hall (1413DFOR) Missing September 30, 1983, Clatsop, OR (somewhat off of the I-5 corridor, but included anyway)
Christine Nelson (1357DFOR) missing August 24, 1986, Eugene, OR
Rhonda Sansovich (1760DFOR) missing March 7, 1988, Elmira, OR
Angela Chan (997DFOR) missing March 27, 1989, Redmond OR
Stephanie Douglas (1372DFOR) missing November 27, 1990 McMinnville, OR
Patricia Wilson-Swanberg (973DFOR) missing August 10, 1992, Corvallis, OR
Tanya Jackson (180DFOR) missing April 22, 1992, Portland, OR
Eryn McClary (1446DFOR) missing August 4, 1995, Eugene OR
America Chapman (see NAMPN) missing March 13, 1996, Newport, OR
Kaelin Glazier (1576 DFOR) missing November 6, 1996, Ruch OR
Rebecca Reid (see NAMPN) missing January 27, 1997, Eugene, OR (sketch of abductor suspect available)
Katrina Sweaney (see NAMPN) missing March 1998, Grants Pass, OR
Stephanie Condon (see NAMPN) missing October 30, 1998, Myrtle Creek, OR
Theresa Davidson-Murphy (see NAMPN) missing October 7, 1999, Rainer, OR
Leigh Bosch (see NAMPN) missing December 27, 2001, the Dalles, OR (off I-5 on I-84 a few hours from I-5)
Hazel Chamblen (see NAMPN) missing October 20, 2000, Winston, OR
Karen Kncaid (see NAMPN) mising October 3, 2002, Oakland, OR
Anne Magnuson (NCIC M-912732971) missing September 12, 2002, Pleasant Hill, OR
Kimberly Forbes (see NAMPN) missing October 31, 2004, Hood River, OR (again off of I-5 on I-84)
Nicole Hutchings (see NCMA) missing November 1, 2004, Bend, OR (somewhat off the corridor)
Wendy Dehoop (NCIC M-024845120) missing April 22, 2005, Eugene, OR

This list is not complete. For one thing, it does not include men, many of whom are also missing from the Eugene or I-5 area.
Also not included are:
Barbara Gallagher (120DFOR) suspect is husband
Christie Ferni (706DFOR) family suspected
Annalycia Cruz (1022DFOR) only a baby at the time
Rachanda Pickle (146DFOR) family suspected
brooke Wilberger (NCMA 989410) suspect charged
Barbara Waldron (NAMPN) husband suspected
Catherine Wallace (NAMPN) husband suspected
I've also not included children who were listed as family abductions.

I know that all of these cases are not related, but the sheer number shocks me for a state that has considerably less violent crime than other states.

What do you think? Do you have any information to add to that in the official files?

If you want a nice place to compare the case files, try
rebelcherokee.labdiva.com/oregonmissing.html
It has most of the files.
 
Hi Augie - I'm curious - are you from Oregon? I lived there from 1977-1998 on the South Coast. I must have had my head stuck in the sand because I always thought what a safe place is was to live. Shortly after I moved, there was a female Psychiatrist who was murdered on the beach (where I had been any number of times). It was done by a local very young teen boy who had raped her.

Recently, there was the trial on CourtTV of the man who killed his wife and several small children. They were living in Newport at the time. He put two of the children in suitcases and threw them off a bridge. He did the same with his wife and baby. He continued along his merry way until his arrest in Mexico.

There was also the teenage girl who was murdered by her friend's father. Guess Oregon really isn't the safe haven I had once thought it was. There are a lot of very remote areas - and meth is a big problem.
 
Shadowangel has pointed out to me that the Northwest has a fair share of really gruesome crime. I do live in Oregon, moved here from the Midwest last year.

The two cases you mentioned are pretty raw for folks around here. The fellow who murdered his family, Christopher Longo, also impersonated a journalist to try and get away with it. Here's a link to the story. www.sundayherald.com/49712

As for the Oregon City case about Miranda Gaddis and Ashley Pond, it was a really sad event here, especially since it appears that authorities had been informed that Ashley had been abused by her father, Ward Weaver, before he killed the girls. I think he pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. I don't know if he has been connected to any other unsolved cases, but I don't think so.
 
Auggie21 said:
As for the Oregon City case about Miranda Gaddis and Ashley Pond, it was a really sad event here, especially since it appears that authorities had been informed that Ashley had been abused by her father, Ward Weaver, before he killed the girls. I think he pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. I don't know if he has been connected to any other unsolved cases, but I don't think so.
It has been so long since I have heard anything about this case, but just had to ask was Ward Weaver really Ashley Pond's father???I had not heard this before.:confused: :confused:
 
MsPooh said:
It has been so long since I have heard anything about this case, but just had to ask was Ward Weaver really Ashley Pond's father???I had not heard this before.:confused: :confused:
I think I should have been clearer, Ward Weaver was not Ashley's father. Please see the following article.

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On a stormy winter morning, Ashley Pond, 12, a seventh-grader at Gardiner Middle School, left her South Beavercreek Road apartment complex in Oregon City, OR about 8 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2002, for the school bus stop. Ashley did not make it to school.

It had been a rough year for Ashley and she carried around more pain in her short life than any child should.

On January 5, 2001, just over a year before Ashley disappeared, her biological father, Wesley Roettger, Jr., was indicted on 40 counts of raping and sexually abusing her for over 4 years.

The following March, Ashley told a friend that two men were molesting her. That same spring, Ashley's reading teacher, Linda Virden, at Gaffney Lane Elementary School, reported to the principal, Chris Mills, that Ward Weaver, 39, kissed Ashley on the lips when he dropped her off at school. Then in June and July Ashley joined Ward, his girlfriend, Tammy Place, her 8-year-old daughter, and Mallori, Ward's 10-year-old daughter, on a two-week vacation to California. Then Ashley began living at their home. In early August: Ashley accused Ward of molesting her and moved out.

Meanwhile, on July 12, 2001, Roettger's lawyer moved to allow allegations that other men sexually abused Ashley as evidence to aid in her father's defense. Ashley told her reading teacher that Ward threatened to testify against her in her father's rape trial.

After learning of Ashley's allegations against Ward, Clackamas County deputy district attorney Chris Owen reported the child abuse to a hotline on Aug. 31st. The hotline report was forwarded to child welfare workers on Sept. 5th. Virden also called the child welfare office to report that Ashley told her that Ward abused her, tried to rape her, and threatened to testify against her. Roettger's ex-girlfriend, Mary Campobasso, also reported similar allegations. September 6, deputy district attorney, Owen, dropped all 40 counts against Roettger, who plead “no contest” to attempted unlawful sexual penetration. He was sentenced to 120 months probation. [/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Things seemed to be improving for Ashley that fall. During October and November, she seemed happier and more outgoing. However, a caseworker told police that child welfare received many calls about her and her family from concerned neighbors.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That Christmas Ashley told her family she was afraid of Ward. [/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On January 9 2002, Ashley disappeared. Police interviewed Ward and his daughter, Mallori, the following day.

"Ward Weaver said he felt sorry for Ashley and tried to help her as much as he could, but then she accused him of touching her, and that was it," Viola Valenzuela-Garcia, Oregon City Detective reported.

Clackamas County sheriff's deputy Marty Neiman, a dog handler, searched the property around Ward's house; on Jan. 19th with a search dog, but Ward refused to allow them to search inside his home.

Two months after Ashley's disappearance, on March 8, 2002, 13-year-old Miranda Diane Gaddis, an eighth grader, another friend of Mallori's, disappeared after she left her apartment at 8 a.m. on her way to the school bus stop, sparking a nationwide FBI search. Massive searches turned up no clues.

Ashley and Miranda had attended the same school, rode the same bus, and were in the same dance class. Recently, on February 23rd, Miranda spent the night at the Weaver home for Mallori's, birthday.

Investigators were focusing on Ward, who lived in a cheap rental home by the school bus stop where both girls were last seen. He seemed to be basking in the limelight. He invited television crews into his home to declare his innocence, and giving interviews on top of a concrete slab in his back yard.

On March 15th Harry Oakes, a private citizen, and his search dog, with permission from Lori Pond, offered to search the surrounding area. He was told by Ward to “stay away from freshly laid concrete” because he doesn't “want it messed up.” The dog gave a positive “death alert” behind the house.
After a May 5, 2002, surveillance of Ward, police interviewed his relatives and requesting other reports in June and July.
Ward was arrested on Aug. 13, 2002, at 5:30 p.m. near Place's apartment in Clackamas, after a 19-year-old girlfriend of his son, Francis Weaver, ran naked from Ward's Oregon City home screaming that he tried to rape her. Francis told emergency dispatchers that his father had admitted killing Ashley and Miranda in October. While in custody, for attempted rape, a grand jury indicted
Ward of aggravated murder charges. FBI investigators secured his back yard with a chain-link fence.

Between August 24 and 25 searchers found Ashley under the concrete slab in a barrel, and Miranda in a box in Ward's tool shed.
Weaver was charged with aggravated murder in the deaths.
Corvallis lawyers, Michael Barker and Peter Fahy were Ward's court-appointed representation that asked to be removed from the case for unknown reasons, but ended up staying on.
Initially defense claimed Ward was mentally unfit to stand trial but after an evaluation at the Oregon State Hospital they informed Judge Herndon that he had regained the capacity to assist in his defense.

Defense requested a change of venue claiming the media attention in the case tainted the jury pool, and was a detriment to a fair trial. Judge Herndon agreed with prosecutions arguments that Ward intentionally sought out media attention and turned the investigation into a media circus. After Ward gave numerous interviews to the media, Judge Herndon had issued a gag order.

While in jail, Weaver wrote letters to Mallori. In September he wrote, "You and me against the world," 2002. After being denied visits with his daughter in January 2004, Ward wrote a suicide note:

"I have spent this whole week trying to figure out how to make the pain (of my heart + soul not coming to see me) stop. I can only think of one thing. Cut my heart out and cut (off) the parts that hurt. She is my whole heart.”

Jan. 11, 2004, Ward was treated for razor wounds at Willamette Falls Hospital and released back to jail.

To avoid the death penalty, and claiming he wanted to give his daughter a sense of closure, in September 2004, Ward, 41, plead guilty to 17 counts, of rape, sex abuse, abuse of a corpse and killing his daughter's friends, Ashley and Miranda. He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole.

Ward's father, Ward Francis Weaver Jr., is on death row in California for raping, murdering, and burying a woman's body below concrete in his back yard. She was found in 1982. [/font]
 

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