What the private eye knew

After all the waiting, the investigating, the discovery of the bodies of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, and the arrest and conviction of their killer, Ward Weaver—  that’s when the questions really began. It was a question splashed in a banner headline: Why exactly had it taken so long?

And now, for the first time, police and the FBI agreed to answer their Portland critics. Were they in some away ashamed of their investigation? 

Well, as a matter of fact, absolutely not.

Robert Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: This was a very, very successful investigation.

Robert Jordan is special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Portland. He came to Oregon city after murders were solved. The FBI, with the Oregon city police department, were the two agencies that made up the task force on this case, and they bristle at suggestions that they didn’t move as quickly as they should have.

Gordon Huiras, chief of Oregon City police department: The investigators involved were driven to solve that case. They put their heart and soul in that case. They would have arrested someone just as soon as they had probable cause to make an arrest in that case.

Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent: There are those who believe though that probable cause existed long before the rape of Randi Oneida.

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: People who were not associated with the investigation.

People, like Linda O’Neal. She’s now co-written a book detailing her investigation, called ‘Missing: the Oregon City Girls.” Remember, it was Linda who said she called the FBI in June 2002, two months before Weaver’s arrest to outline what she said was solid circumstantial evidence that Weaver was the killer, and that the girls’ bodies were buried on his property. Information, it turns out, that was true.

Linda says the FBI agent she spoke to wasn’t interested in her opinion. And reporter Jim Redden confirms Linda told him the same story.

But the head of Portland’s office now says no record of such a call exists.

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: The first and only documented contact our investigators had with the author was in March 27 and she said she had a tip she wanted to pass on. The tip was a psychic tip and that is the only documented contact this investigation had with the author.

No documents. But, we wondered, could an agent have spoken to Linda, heard her allegations about Ward Weaver, without keeping a full record of the call?

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: Absolutely. We had over 4,000 tips that came into us. But we had many people who wanted to tell us Ward Weaver did it, but all those people were interviewed, and none of those interviews provided us with a witness or something we could put in an affidavit for probable cause to arrest Mr. Weaver, or search his property.

The FBI says Weaver was always among the top three suspects, especially after flunking a polygraph.

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: Our polygrapher followed him out to his car, literally haranguing him, trying to get him to confess. He wouldn’t. This is the United States of America. We don’t have any physical ways to make somebody confess.

And so, the investigation continued, say police, until Weaver was arrested for raping Randi Oneida. And Weaver’s own sons came forward with incriminating information that allowed prosecutors and the task force to agree that finally, 10 days after the arrest, that they now had “probable cause” to search his property.

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: We were working an investigation, to try to a) find the girls, and if we couldn’t find them safe and alive, b) find out who did it. We did that. That’s a successful investigation.

Morrison: Is that what you’d say to Randi Oneida?

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: No, I don’t think I’d say that to Randi Oneida.

Morrison: What would you say to her?

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: She was at risk, no question about it. She was at risk from Ward Weaver.

As for Linda and her book, the task force has come out swinging. The FBI says the book is not credible, and points to an author’s note that tells of “reconstructed conversations,” “composites of characters” and the fact that some “names have been changed.”

Jordan, FBI special agent in charge: The book is fictionalized, in some manner. So what’s fiction, what’s real, it’s hard to say.

Linda O’Neal, private investigator, author: Well, I was offended.

Linda says she made it quite clear that while some names and narrative details were altered.. her story is a true telling of events from her own perspective.

Morrison: Do they have some point? That it’s easy for you to say, “We  could have moved quicker, but you weren’t part of the investigation, so how would you know what went on?”

O’Neal: I wasn’t part of their investigation.  I was on my own, conducting my own investigation.  And all I know is what I did and what I found out.

Should Ward Weaver have been stopped sooner than he was?  The question, for Randi Oneida, is altogether too personal.

Morrison: What has he done to you?

Randi Oneida, Ward Weaver's victim: He’s ruined me. I really believe that they could have stopped him before he had gone as far as he did.

And around Oregon City, Oregon, the strange disconnect lingers: Bitterness among some who believe it took too long to solve the murder of two little girls; and among police, satisfaction for a job well done.

We contacted Ashley Pond’s mother for comment. She said that she will be forever grateful to the FBI and all the police agencies who worked on the case, and that any criticism of their efforts is unfair.

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