#ashley pond

[adventurealldays]

[crimesandcuriosities]

On 13th August 2002, 39 year old Ward Francis Weaver III (pictured top left) was arrested for raping his son’s 19 year old girlfriend. His son made the phone call to report the crime and also suggested to emergency dispatchers that his father had been involved in the unsolved disappearances of Ashley Pond (12 - right) and Miranda Gaddis (13 - left). 

In August 2001, Ashley accused Weaver of attempting to rape her and the incident was reported to police, but the case was not pursued by law enforcement. The two girls had been friends with Weaver’s own daughter, Mallori, and they both vanished without a trace near to his home in early 2002. On 24th August, around 2 weeks after Weaver’s son made the phone call to police, authorities uncovered the remains of Ashley Pond underneath a concrete slab in Weaver’s garden. Weaver had actually enlisted the help of his son to dig a hole and lay the concrete slab, telling him it was the foundation to place a hot tub.
 The following day, police also discovered Miranda’s body hidden in a box inside a storage shed on the same property. 

Although Weaver attempted to deny his guilt, stories began to emerge of his past violent behaviour. As well as the attempted rape of his son’s girlfriend, Weaver’s sister also claimed that he had exhibited sexually and physically abusive behaviour by the time he was 12 years old. Additionally, another relative reported that he had also beaten and raped her, and there was also a history of him attacking and hospitalising his pregnant girlfriend.

In September 2004, Ward Weaver was sentenced to life imprisonment without any possibility of parole. A plea bargain meant he was able to avoid the death penalty. He was convicted on the grounds of sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis. Even after his conviction, Weaver continued to deny his guilt. In a series of interviews conducted from prison, he offered documents which ‘proved’ that the police had deliberately concealed evidence which showed that Ashley and Miranda had actually died at the hands of drug dealers and outlaw bikers. The documents did actually reveal some potential issues with Weaver’s case, including that the autopsies of Ashley and Miranda had failed to determine where, when or how they had died. The documents emphasised the extent to which Weaver’s conviction relied predominantly on circumstantial evidence alone.

In March 2007, while attending a scheduled hair cut at Snake River Correctional Institution, the barber produced a knife and attacked Weaver, which inflicted significant neck and shoulder injuries. Weaver’s wounds were treated at the prison and the barber was sent to the disciplinary unit for his actions. Later in 2009, Miranda’s younger sister, Miriah, visited Weaver in prison to seek answers. During her visit, Weaver admitted murdering both girls with his bare hands and admitted that Miriah would have been his next victim.

[pizza-soup]

[adventurealldays]

Irises

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At the pond

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