The Disturbing Real Crimes Behind 'Megan Is Missing'

Just south of Portland, Oregon, lies Oregon City. A historic city where families ended their journey on the Oregon Trail in the 1800s. But back in 2002, Oregon City was completely shattered. After a 12-year-old girl vanished on her way to the bus stop. This is not a good sign. This is just not a good sign. Her family, her community, her classmates were all terrified about what may have happened to her. But then only two months later, one of her closest friends also disappeared while she was on her way to the exact same bus stop. And we talked to all the officers and agents and told them, you know, that this morning you're going to be entering into a graveyard of little girls. This is a case filled with unimaginable horror and evil, a family of killers that might just have murder running through their veins. And in case so horrific, it went on to inspire one of the most disturbing horror movies that is currently going viral online. This is the unsettling case of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gattis. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Ashley Pond was born on May 1st, 1989. To her parents, Laurie and David, she also had three younger siblings. Ashley had lots of friends. She was very popular. She was a seventh grade student at Gardner Middle School. And she was a very good student. She was a part of the swim team and also took dance classes after school. But this young girl, only 12 years old, had already gone through so much turmoil and trauma in her very young life. When Ashley was around seven years old, her mother Laurie and the man David that she grew up believing was her father got a divorce. And it was during the divorce proceedings that it was revealed that David was not Ashley's biological father. And even worse, after this revelation, David, who Ashley had just spent her entire life believing was her biological father, decided that he didn't want anything to do with her because he was not her biological father. So she spends her whole life believing that this man is her father and then just one day he gets up and abandons her. And the thing about children is they don't care what a DNA test says. That was her father. At eight years old, Ashley did end up meeting and began regularly seeing her biological father. A man named Wesley Ruger Jr. But four years after meeting her biological father, it was revealed that he had been raping his biological daughter, Ashley, since the moment they met. He was arrested on 40 counts of sexually assaulting his daughter, but he ended up pleading no contest to these charges and walking away with zero prison time. Just a few months probation. He would plead no contest to these charges on September 6, 2001. And only four months later, Ashley pond would go missing. It was January 9, 2002. And that morning, Ashley pond 12 years old was running late for school. Her, her mother and her siblings lived in the New El Creek Village apartments. The school bus stopped for all the kids that lived in these apartments and the surrounding neighborhood was actually a bit of a walk away from where Ashley and her family lived in these apartment village complex. It was about like an eight to ten minute walk from their apartment to the bus stop, which I feel like is a pretty far away walk for a middle school student to have to take to get to their bus stop. Her mother Lori saw her daughter Ashley running off to the bus stop around 8 a.m. But Ashley would never get on her school bus. And she would never make it to school. She didn't even show up for her dance class after school that day that Ashley would have never missed. Ashley's mother Lori got the call that her daughter was missing around 130 in that afternoon. And she even said on that 911 call that despite everything that her daughter had been through recently, her daughter Ashley was not the type to run away. Unfortunately, her concerns were immediately dismissed by police that just immediately wrote off Ashley as a likely runaway. It would actually be over a week later and Ashley pond was still missing that the investigation turned from a likely runaway situation to something far more sinister. And police started to investigate Ashley pond's disappearance as foul play. The police even got the FBI involved into the investigation. And there definitely wasn't any shortage of suspects. Ashley's family really struggled with money and it's been said that her mother Lori had a very serious drinking problem. The apartment village that they lived in was a low income housing situation that was said to not be in the best of area. And I'm not trying to stereotype here. I'm just relaying what has been reported. It has been said that the apartment complex where Ashley and her family lived was filled with a lot of shady characters. It's been said that this apartment village was where people moved when nowhere else would take them. There were a lot of substance users and substance dealers that lived here. People with criminal backgrounds. There were also apparently a lot of single mothers that had a lot of shady boyfriends. And unfortunately, there were a lot of predators that lived here. There were actually 90 registered sex offenders within a one-mile radius of where Ashley lived with her family. The people in Ashley's community were terrified. The children were absolutely terrified. And time just kept passing and Ashley was still missing. And there seemed to be no leads in the investigation. Several weeks after Ashley went missing a journalist and a news crew were actually interviewing some of Ashley's friends and classmates, including one of Ashley's closest friends, a 13-year-old girl that lived in the same apartment complex as her, Miranda Gattis. And only two weeks after that interview, 13-year-old Miranda Gattis would also disappear. Miranda and Ashley were very similar girls. They were friends. They also had the same friends. They lived in the same apartment village. They went to the same middle school. They were in the same dance class. They, you know, had the same bus stop. And they also had very similar tragic upbringings. Miranda was born on March 18th, 1988 to her parents Michelle Duffy and Jason Gattis. And she also had three siblings. And just like Ashley, Miranda's father Jason was also a predator. In 1995, when Miranda was only six years old, her father Jason was arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting two minors. When the police showed up to arrest Jason, he grabbed his six-year-old daughter Miranda and tried to use her as a shield and a hostage threatening to hurt her if the police got any closer. Eventually, police were able to tackle him and bring him into custody. And he was sentenced to six years in prison with 54 years probation. And Miranda was unharmed physically in her father's arrest. But the emotional trauma left very deep scars as you can imagine. Miranda's mother got a new boyfriend, a man named Brian McKenney who was also very abusive to the children, which included Miranda. And four years later, he actually went to jail after he pled guilty to 15 counts of sexual assault and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. After this, Miranda and her siblings were removed from their mother's care and were placed in the foster care system temporarily before being returned to their mother. After this, Miranda and her siblings were then befriended by a man that lived in their apartment building, but turns out this man was also a sex offender and he would later be arrested on murder charges that are not related to this case. I'm just letting you know now that pretty much every single man that we're going to talk about in this case is a monster. On March 8, 2002, two months after Ashley Pond disappeared, her friend Miranda Gattis left her apartment complex that morning. The exact same apartment complex that Ashley left the morning that she disappeared. Miranda Gattis then walked to her bus stop to catch the school bus, the exact same school bus, the exact same bus stop that Ashley was walking to the morning that she disappeared. And then Miranda Gattis had never gone on that school bus and she never made it to school and she disappeared in the exact same way that her friend Ashley Pond vanished just two months earlier and just like with Ashley Miranda's mother also got a call that afternoon from school that her daughter never made it to school that day and her mother also called the police to report her daughter missing. talk to her and more than ever the people in this community were absolutely terrified without a doubt. There was a monster living amongst them stealing their children. And investigators were absolutely overwhelmed by just how many monsters both these little girls were surrounded by. But there was one more monster living in this community that I have not told you about. And that is a man named Ward Weaver. Ward Weaver was actually the single father of another 12 year old girl named Mallory Weaver. Mallory was actually best friends with both Ashley and Miranda. The girls all went to the same middle school. They lived close to each other and also had the exact same dance class together. And Mallory, Ashley and Miranda would frequently have sleepovers at Mallory and her father Ward Weaver's house. Ward Weaver definitely had a reputation amongst all the kids as being like the cool dad. His place was the place that you would go to if you wanted to kind of get away with things. He would let you bend the rules. And he was always super nice and everyone in the community pretty much had only good things to say about him. After Ashley's father was arrested for assaulting her, Ashley Pond actually moved in with her friend Mallory and her friend Mallory's father Ward Weaver for just a few months. So Ashley could just kind of escape everything and get away from everything. Ward would also frequently drive his daughter Mallory to school and would also drive her friends to school like Ashley and Miranda. And on one of these days while Ashley was staying with the Weaver family, he dropped off his daughter and Ashley off at school. And when he was dropping them off at school, a teacher actually witnessed Ward Weaver kissing Ashley Pond on the lips in a way that the teacher described as passionately sick. So this teacher asks Ashley Pond about this. And this is when Ashley admitted to her teacher that her friend's father Ward Weaver had been forcing her to sleep in his bed with him while she was staying with them whenever his wife was out of town and that he was molesting her. He was touching her and even attempted to rape her. Then she chilled me to the bone by saying quietly. Usually when I spend the night over there, he only lies on top of me. And again, Ashley Pond is just a 12-year-old girl and this was right after everything that happened with her father, her biological father, raping her since the moment that he met her when she was eight years old. Ashley Pond's biological father was actually currently on trial for assaulting her when all of this was happening to Ashley Pond again this time with her best friend's father Ward Weaver, which is just so so so unbelievably sad. It literally makes me feel sick to my stomach and Ashley even claimed that Ward threatened her that if she told anyone about what he was doing to her that he would testify in her father's defense at his trial and tell everyone that Ashley was lying. This teacher contacted the police and child services. DHS was supposed to conduct an investigation but nothing came from this at all. And this was only five months before Ashley Pond disappeared and then seven months before Miranda Gattis disappeared and his house, Ward Weaver's house, was directly in front of the bus stop that Ashley and Miranda both disappeared from. So Ashley's mother Laurie was definitely suspecting that Ward Weaver had something to do with the girls' disappearances and the community was definitely starting to suspect him as well but police were really not considering Ward Weaver a suspect at this time at all. After Ashley Pond disappeared, police went to Ward Weaver's home to question him and they said that Ward Weaver was very cooperative and very polite with the investigators. They asked him about Ashley Pond's accusations against him and he of course told the investigators that these were not true. That Ashley was a really sweet girl. She was a really good friend to his daughter Mallory and he tried to help her out during a very difficult time with everything that was happening with her father. He felt really bad for her that this happened to her with her biological father because he was a father himself. The fact that her father was currently on it trial and she kind of had to relive this all over again. He also talked about the fact that Ashley's mother was not that great either that she had this drinking problem and she was super neglectful of her children. She doesn't care about Ashley and with the little problems that that girl has and her mother that doesn't care she's better up hiding out wherever she's just you know found a place to live. But he also said that Ashley Pond was a very troubled girl and he thought that her accusing him of something so awful was just this young troubled girl kind of displacing her anger. Ashley has this habit of she gets in trouble by someone she makes accusations against that person and the first time that I actually had to come down on her about her mouth she did just that you know she made accusations that I had lost her. Ward welcomed the police into his home to search his home multiple times without a search warrant and because he was so cooperative and he was so polite and kind police really didn't suspect him at all. Ward Weaver did have a criminal history but police looked into this and saw that his previous charges were from 16 years earlier and thought that Ward Weaver was just you know a guy with not such a great background but he seemed like he was a changed man and he was just a family man. But after Miranda Gattis vanished then things really started to change. Ashley's family were very outspoken about their belief that Ward was involved somehow and after Miranda vanished rumors definitely started spreading especially after Ward Weaver poured cement down in his backyard just three days after Miranda Gattis disappeared and the timing of him laying down a slab of concrete in his backyard just three days after a second girl disappears right outside his own front yard was definitely super suspicious especially considering that Ward Weaver did not own his home it was a rental property. The community was absolutely outraged that seemed like nothing was being done. It seemed so obvious that Ward Weaver knew something and the police just were not looking his way at all. People would show up at Ward Weaver's home to protest all hours of the day. There were always cameras and news reporters outside of his home. Ashley's family even made up this big sign that read dig me up and then they snuck into Ward Weaver's backyard and they taped the sign on the concrete slab that Ward laid down in his backyard. And after all of this public pressure police would look into and investigate Ward Weaver a little bit more I think in total they ended up searching his home seven times and he let them do this without a search warrant but they never found anything. Ward Weaver also agreed to take a polygraph test to try and clear his name. He took two polygraph tests both that he failed. Ward Weaver even allowed news cameras into his home and did an on camera interview at his home to try and clear his name. In this interview he talked about the sleepovers that Ashley and Miranda used to have at his home. He also talked about the concrete slab that he poured down in his backyard. I know Ashley ran away you know and the fact that the FBI are throwing both of these cases you know into someone took them both it's like okay fine you know I don't see it that way and I would really not like to think that someone took Miranda either grow actually but I know you know well I don't have anything to do with what's going on but my gut instinct is Ashley's off somewhere where she would rather be than home. Dependent on how many girls were here. I guess that I've had some huge parties. He says there were times he ended up sleeping on the couch because his daughter's friends took up so much space. You could not walk anywhere in my front room without stepping on a body. I kept tabs on them when they were here you know just because you know I'm a parent and responsible because they're here. And then in the middle of Ward Weaver being looked at as the number one suspect in the court of public opinion Ward Weaver was arrested. Not for anything related to Ashley and Miranda's disappearances but for raping his son Francis's 19 year old girlfriend who was actually the mother of his grandchild. And it was after Ward Weaver was arrested that his son Francis who was the boyfriend of this girl that he just attacked called 911 to report that his father told him that he kidnapped and killed the two missing girls. And with Ward Weaver in custody, investigators once again returned to search his home, this time with a search warrant, and they found the bodies of Ashley and Miranda. Miranda was found in a shed off of his property, and Ashley was discovered buried underground in a barrel that was underneath that concrete slab that he poured in his backyard. Both girls were killed by being strangled after Ward sexually assaulted them and both girls were also found naked. Late in the afternoon, investigators processing the crime scene have discovered what appears to be human remains in the back outbuilding behind the house. Crime scene investigators processing the crime scene behind the house have recovered a second set of human remains. These remains were in the ground, in a barrel, underneath the area where the concrete slab was. At about 415 this afternoon, the Oregon State Medical Examiner has positively identified the remains discovered yesterday as the body of Miranda Gattis. When Ward Weaver had that news crew in his home, Miranda Gattis was actually in a deep freezer for several weeks at that point. She was in that deep freezer when the news camera came in, and you can see this deep freezer in the interview, and Ashley pond was already underneath that concrete slab that he walks right over in this interview. Now, we should talk a little bit more about the monster that Ward Weaver is, and a little bit about his family, because it shows a very disturbing pattern of a family of monsters, abusers, and killers. Just a quick warning, because this might be a little bit confusing. There's actually three Ward Weavers in this family, because one isn't evil enough. The Ward Weaver that we've been talking about so far is actually Ward Weaver III. His father was Ward Weaver Junior, and then there's a Ward Weaver senior, which is our Ward Weaver's grandfather. Now, to make sure I don't confuse you too much, I really hope this makes sense, so you know which Ward Weaver we're talking about. I'm gonna have the grandfather, we're gonna call him Senior, and then his father, we will call Junior, and then the Ward Weaver that we're talking about will just be Ward Weaver. So there's Ward Weaver, his father, Junior, and then his father, Senior. Really hope that that will make sense. Ward's grandparents, Senior and Dorothy, were a very unhappy married couple. Senior would frequently sexually assault his wife, and would also cheat on her all of the time. Together, they had multiple children, which included Ward Weaver's father, Junior, and Senior would also frequently rape his own daughters. And then when Junior had daughters, Senior would rape his son, Junior's daughters, his own granddaughters. Junior's mother, Dorothy, hated all men, which makes a good amount of sense, considering the man that she is married it to, but she took a lot of this hatred out on her own sons. She was very toxic and abusive mother. She would often beat her children, she also carried a knife around all of the time, and would tell her sons that all men deserved to have their penises cut off. But at the same time, Dorothy was oddly obsessed with her sons. Specifically Junior, she would actually make Junior sleep in bed with her until Junior was eight years old. She would also bite Junior as a form of punishment and discipline. Junior was an extremely disturbed child, and he would abuse and torture animals. When he was seven years old, and his sister was six years old, he cut off his sister's finger with a hatchet, and then when he was eight years old, and that sister was seven years old, he threatened to hang her. Junior would also frequently sexually abuse his sisters at this started when they were children, and it carried through into their teenage years until they were out of the house. So these poor girls were being assaulted and abused this way by their father and their brother, their entire childhoods. Junior joined the army, and he served in the Vietnam War, where he recalls him and his buddy's gang being a very young Vietnamese girl with her father's permission, and the assault only ended when this girl's father killed his daughter by slitting her throat. Junior married Ward Weaver's mother, and together they would have three children, two younger daughters, and Ward Weaver. Ward Weaver's father, Junior, would also have a second son with a different woman. And that son, Ward Weaver's younger brother is a man named Rodney, and as far as I can tell, seems to be the only man in this story that isn't a monster and isn't an abuser. Ward Weaver was four years old when his parents divorced, and as you can imagine, being married to Junior was a very abusive marriage. His mother remarried Ward Weaver's stepfather, who was also, unfortunately, a very abusive alcoholic who would spend all the family's money on alcohol. When Ward Weaver was about 15 years old, his father, Junior, would spend one year in prison in 1978 for rape, and after he got out, Ward Weaver's father, Junior, who was a long-haul truck driver committed, unthinkable crimes that would land him on death row. On February 5, 1981, a young couple, 23-year-old Barbara LaVoy, and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Robert Radford, were on a road trip to visit some of Robert's family when their car broke down in the desert. The first car that stopped to help out the young couple, Barbara, and Robert, was actually going in the opposite direction than they had to go to. So Robert, being a very polite and considerate man, turned down the offer for a ride and said that they would just catch the next person that stopped. But tragically, the next person that stopped for them was Ward Weaver's father, Junior. After picking up the young couple, Junior drove about five minutes before pulling over and asking Robert to get out and help him move some stuff around that was in the back of his truck. But while Robert had his back turned, Junior took out a four-foot-long lead pipe and hit Robert over the head with it 11 times. Junior then left Robert for dead on the side of the road, returned to Barbara, who was in the cab of the truck still, and then at knife point, he sexually assaulted Barbara repeatedly. After dropping off his delivery in San Francisco, Junior claimed that he planned to let Barbara go. But as he went to gag her, he claims that Barbara bit him. She bit him on his thumb and actually bit off the tip of his thumb. Her biting him made Junior so angry, likely bringing him back to when his mother Dorothy used to bite him as a form of punishment, and Junior claims that it filled him with so much rage that he brought Barbara back to his home where he strangled her to death. He then forced his two young sons to dig a hole in their backyard where he buried her body and then he poured cement over her grave site. Which I'm sure a lot of you have already connected the dots, this is the exact same thing that Junior's son Ward Weaver would also do when he became a killer. Literally the exact same method of death, both men, father and son, abducted a young girl repeatedly assaulted her, strangled her to death, and then dug a hole in their backyard buried her in their backyard, and then poured concrete slabs over her grave site. It's almost like Ward Weaver wanted to recreate his father's murders. Two months later, Junior is back on the road as a truck driver where he picked up two young runaway hitchhikers, a 15 year old girl named Michelle, and her 18 year old boyfriend David. After driving 800 miles with the young couple, Junior called one of his friends in California and asked his friend for a little favor. He asked his friend to kill David for him and his friend agreed and his friend took David into the middle of the woods and shot David three times in the head and then pushed his body off of an embankment. But miraculously, David would actually survive being shot three times in the head and actually crawled himself to a road where he waved down some passer by cars for help. David was rushed to the hospital where he actually ended up surviving. And while this is going on, Junior is holding Michelle hostage for several days in the back of his truck where he repeatedly assaults her before letting her go. Both Michelle and David were able to give detailed descriptions of Junior and the truck he drove, so Junior was arrested for his crimes against Michelle and David. Both Junior and his body were both sentenced to 42 years to life in prison and while Junior was serving out his sentence, he actually confessed to his cellmate to murdering Barbara and Robert. This cellmate told authorities about Junior's confession. That's when they found Barbara's body buried in Junior's backyard. Junior ended up making a full confession after they found Barbara. his body and then he was sentenced to death. Investigators actually believe that Junior is actually a serial killer and they matched his truck logs to 26 different missing and murdered hitchhikers. As of 2021, Wardweaver's father is still alive, he's currently in his 80s and is still on death row, but California has since suspended any executions so he will likely just die of old age or some kind of like disease in prison. So this is Wardweaver's father, a man that is currently on death row. Wardweaver, just like his father, would often rape his younger sisters. This started when Wardweaver was as young as 12 years old and these are the same sisters that senior Wardweaver's grandfather would also assault. In 1981, the same year that his father killed Barbara and Robert, Wardweaver was actually investigated for raping one of his young female cousins, but he was able to avoid criminal charges by joining the Navy. This is something I've never heard of before, but it seems like the police department thought that there was no use charging him because he was about to be like shipped out with the Navy to the Philippines. And while in the Philippines in the Navy, Wardweaver would meet his future wife, a native Filipino woman named Maria. The two fell in love and then after Wardweaver was less than honorably discharged from the Navy only a year after he joined, he brought Maria back to the United States with him where the two got married. And just like his father and his grandfather, Wardweaver was a very abusive husband to his wife. When she was actually five months pregnant with their son Frances, the same son that ended up turning his father in for murdering Ashley and Miranda, Wardweaver actually beat his wife to the point where she had to be hospitalized. And over the course of their entire marriage, the police would be called to their home like dozens and dozens of times. They were actually kicked out of a trailer that they were living in because of how many domestic violence situations were happening in the home. So in 1986, Wardweaver, Maria and their two young children were saying with another family, this family was called the Ordonia family. And this was a very kind family that was just trying to help out this young couple and this young family through some tough financial issues. But Wardweaver would repay this family's kindness with violence. One night, Wardweaver was out at a bowling alley where he got super, super drunk and he ended up calling the Ordonia family for a ride home. The parents sent their two teenage daughters, 16-year-old Jennifer and 15-year-old Jocelyn to go pick up Wardweaver from this bowling alley. But as they were driving home, Wardweaver asked the two girls to pull over. He got off the car. He picked up a cement block and he bashed 15-year-old Jocelyn over the head with it. He then got back in the car and attempted to sexually assault 16-year-old Jennifer, but luckily she was able to flag down a car for help. Wardweaver was arrested and he was sentenced to only three years in prison. And this crime would be the criminal history from 16 years ago that authorities thought Wardweaver just changed from and he was a changed man and a different person when they were investigating him for Ashley Pond's disappearance. After he was released from prison in 1989, the couple welcomed Mallory into the world. This was Wardweaver's daughter that would be best friends with Ashley and Miranda and not long after this, his wife Maria would file for divorce and also a restraining order against her husband, Wardweaver. Wardweaver would then marry an 18-year-old girl that was fresh out of high school when he was 31 years old, but the marriage did not last long because Wardweaver would have an affair and he would leave his 18-year-old wife for his mistress and this was the woman that he was currently living with when he murdered Ashley Pond and Miranda Gattis. And after the discovery of 12-year-old Ashley and 13-year-old Miranda's bodies in Wardweaver's home, he would actually claim that he was innocent and he was being set up. So if you didn't kill Ashley and Miranda, then how did they end up in your backyard? Public property. Who knows? That police has been public access since those apartments and those condos have been built. We'll kick out the back fence and walk up to my backyard. Do you have no idea how Ashley's body got under the concrete slab that you poured? Didn't know how deep, my understanding is you know how deep she was. We went all the way down to the water lines. But how she got underneath there, who knows, I mean it was open for access for a while, practically two months. But I think the point is, as far as for the investigators, is that in both instances, you were essentially home alone during the times that Ashley and Miranda disappeared. Correct. They went to account for what you were doing besides yourself. Well batten and everybody that knows me. Everybody knows I never leave the house, not even to work on my car without a shower. And everybody who knows me can tell you exactly how long my showers are. I'm also aware that they've taken my freezer and they're going to pay me for a new one because I'm pretty sure whatever chemicals are going to use to test the blood that's inside that thing is probably not going to be able to put food back in it again. Wait, there's blood inside the freezer? Food. You know, you put your meat in stuff in there? Blood? Am I going to go to the state? So you never stored Ashley and Miranda in it? No, I did not. The only thing that's ever been in that freezer is food from the store, period. I asked Weaver about the fingerprint police found with Miranda's remains, his fingerprint. They found Miranda in a box wrapped in plastic wrapped in another box inside another box wrapped in plastic and the only fingerprints of mine they found were on the tape on the outside of all that. Ever insists it makes sense that his fingerprint would be found on items in the shed because he stored other things in it, such as plywood, sheet rock, and spare parts for his car. The chances of my fingerprints being on the outside of everything that's in there are probably about 100%. But a sworn affidavit from Oregon City Detective Greg Fryett says Weaver's fingerprint was found on the clear tape securing the remains of Miranda Gattis inside the box. And finally, I ask Weaver if he has anything to say to the families of Ashley and Miranda. Well, let's see. To Miranda, to actually to Michelle and her family. Yeah, I'm sorry, but this, you know, everybody's barking up the wrong tree on me. I feel bad that Miranda's hurt, who got hurt and she's dead. She's not here anymore. Like I said, I've never had a problem with her. She was always very nice to be with, you know, turned Mallorca with great friends. You know, it bothers me that she is not here. As far as Ashley, I don't have anything to say to her family, other than her sisters. And that would be the same thing. What would you say to Ashley or Miranda if you had a chance to talk to them? But the prosecution was seeking the death penalty, meaning that word Weaver would likely end up on death row right next to his own father, even though it would actually be in different states because his father is serving his death row sentence in California. And word Weaver would be in Oregon, but to avoid the death penalty, word Weaver would take a plea deal and he would plead guilty. And he would be sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole. Despite pleading guilty, word Weaver would say that he is actually innocent and he only pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. Following word Weaver's arrest and conviction, the governor of Oregon launched a multi-agency investigation into the mishandling of Ashley Ponds allegations against word Weaver for assaulting her just months before he killed her. This actually completely absurd that no one launched an investigation and their negligence absolutely costs both of these young girls Ashley and Miranda their lives in my opinion. And this might actually not be the only negligence in this case. Despite authorities claiming that they did everything possible to solve this case as soon as possible, turns out there was actually a private investigator named Harvey Oaks that offered his services to the police department, but he was actually turned down. So Harvey decided that he would independently work the case for free. He brought a cadaver dog to word Weaver's house and asked if he could come in and search his property with his cadaver dog and word Weaver agreed. The cadaver dog alerted to human remains inside of the home in the hallway and also to the concrete slab the word Weaver had just poured down in his backyard where we know Ashley Pond was buried under. And this PI claims that he wrote all of this down in a report and gave it to the police department, but nothing was done. So Harvey would then call the police department multiple times. He wrote the multiple letters, but they just dismissed all of this evidence until word Weaver's son Francis called the police to turn his father in and the FBI and the chief of police with ladies and gentlemen. say that they were completely happy with their investigation. Ashley and Miranda's mothers would later file a lawsuit against the DHS for their negligence since they failed to launch an investigation after Ashley said that Ward Weaver was molesting her, but they later settled out of court for only $10,000. As Miranda's younger sister Mariah got older, she really wanted answers about what happened to her sister. She of course knew who killed her sister, but he was claiming that he was innocent and Mariah just wanted to know why her sister died and also what happened the day that her sister died. Because he pled guilty, there was not a trial, so this information, you know, was just still just locked inside of Ward Weaver's evil head. So Mariah actually started sending letters to Ward Weaver in prison pretending to be his friend and then she actually visited Ward Weaver in prison. And Mariah says that Ward told her that he killed Ashley because he was mad at her for telling people what he did to her and that he killed her sister Miranda because he thought that maybe she saw something or knew something about Ashley's murder. Apparently on the day that he abducted Miranda Gattis, he saw her outside his home at the school bus stop and he came outside and he told Miranda that Ashley actually did run away, but she came home and she was actually inside of his home right now, but she was scared to go back to her family and go back to her house. So Ward asked Miranda if she would come inside and try to convince Ashley that it was safe for her to go home. So this 13 year old girl Miranda runs inside Ward's home on her own free will, probably so excited to see her friend that has been missing for the past two months, but once she was inside Ward Weaver assaulted her and then he killed her. Ward Weaver also told Mariah Miranda sister that if he hadn't been caught, he had another victim already all lined up and that his next victim was going to be her. He told Mariah that she was going to be next and the crimes of the Weaver family do not end here. After watching her father go to jail for killing two of her best friends, Mallory, as you can imagine, struggled a lot. I know that she was placed in the foster system and from there I don't really know what else happened to her, but I'm sure those nose years were definitely a lot. And eight years after her father killed her two closest friends, Mallory, who was 21 years old in 2010, was arrested for punching a security guard while trying to break her mother, Maria, out of a psychiatric facility. But this is not the only Weaver child to face criminal charges. 12 years after his father murdered two girls, Ward Weaver's son Francis, the same man that called police to turn his father in for murder, was also arrested for murder. In 2014, Francis and a couple of his friends actually tried to rob another one of Francis's friends, a man named Edward Spangler. They tried to rob their friend Edward during a marijuana deal, but this substance deal went wrong and Edward was shot in the face and was killed. And even though Francis Weaver was not the one to pull the trigger and he did, at least during his trial and his sentencing hearing, did show a lot of remorse. Francis Weaver was charged with murder and was sentenced to life in prison, which makes three generations of men, grandfather, father, and son all convicted of murder, which is absolutely rare and not something I've personally ever seen before, especially in like different separate cases of murder. So after Francis was convicted of murder and it came out that his father, Ward Weaver was his infamous killer and then his father was also this infamous killer. This really blew up in the headlines, people believing that this family was just rotten and murder ran through their blood. So behind bars, Francis decided he wanted to confirm something that he had been suspecting for a while. So behind bars, Francis Weaver took a DNA test which confirmed that his mother actually had an affair and Francis Weaver was not the biological son of Ward Weaver. The abduction and murder of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gattis actually went on to inspire the movie, Megan is missing. I am going to include in this section of this episode spoilers for this movie, but I really do not suggest any of you coming out and watching this movie. And I'll tell you why in just a second, Megan is missing came out in 2011 and is a low budget horror film. It's also deeply disturbing. They show a lot of things on screen. They're just like I said, deeply disturbing and a very graphic, especially considering that the things in these very graphic scenes are depicting 14 and 13 year old girls and violence and sexual violence against 14 13 year old girls. In the movie, a young girl 14 year old girl named Megan goes missing. And then a few weeks later, her best friend Amy also goes missing, while both of these girls were kidnapped and murdered by the same man. And then they are buried underground in a barrel. This low budget film that came out 15 years ago was never like an extremely popular film. It definitely had a cult following, but very recently has had a huge resurgence and popularity, especially on TikTok. And because of this huge resurgence and popularity, 15 years after the first movie came out is actually just been announced very recently that they're coming out with a sequel to the Megan is missing movie. I first started covering true crime cases on TikTok. And for years now, I've gotten a lot of requests to cover quote, the Megan is missing case. And I've never been sure if these, you know, case suggestions has been to cover this case, the case of Ashley and Miranda or if because Megan is missing is a found footage film. If maybe the younger audience has on TikTok things that maybe this like low budget found footage horror film is actually like real footage and is a real case. I cannot stress enough how much I do not recommend anyone actually going out and watching the Megan is missing film. And honestly, considering what is in that movie, I really don't suggest anyone watching the sequel either. I know I definitely won't be watching this sequel. The violence depicted in this movie against very young teenage girls is so graphic and disturbing anyone that has seen this movie will tell you that a lot of people say that this movie absolutely traumatized them. It is very disgusting, very graphic, very disturbing. In my opinion, I really feel like this movie really blurs the line between what they were trying to do, which is apparently they were trying to create this like cautionary tale for teenagers about the dangers of the internet and also being like a borderline snuff film. In my opinion, the film definitely leaves an impact. And if that's what they were trying to do, they definitely succeeded. But the movie is so controversial that is actually banned in New Zealand because of the violence and sexual violence that is depicted against these two teenage girls. There is actually a continuous three minute long rape scene against a 14 year old girl in this movie. And I think that that is honestly gross considering that the director has come out and confirmed that his movie is directly inspired by this case, the case of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gattis. And just the fact that he would put so much disgusting material and very graphic and disturbing material like a three minute long scene like that. And it's supposed to be directly inspired by this real case with real victims and real families that were affected by this very real tragedy and this very real monster. In my opinion, I think that there is a lot more respectful way to create a cautionary tale than what they did in that movie. Ward Weaver still sits behind a jail cell to this very day just like his father and just like his son. I'm extremely interested to hear all of your thoughts and opinions on this case, especially about this Weaver family and how it seems like this is just a family of killers. Do you think that that is because of how many monsters were in this family or do you think that that's something that is just in their blood? Really, really interested to hear all your thoughts and your takes on this episode. But while you're in the comments, I cannot stress this enough, please always just remember to be respectful. Like I just said, this is a real case. These are not characters in the movie. This is not Megan is messing. This is very real case with real victims and real family members that might actually come across this episode and might see your comments. So just always please remember when you're leaving comments on real tragedies like this to just always be respectful. While you're in the comments, please let me know what case you want to see me cover next on Haunt in the case. I'm always reading your guys' comments. I read literally every single comment across all platforms and I get a lot of case suggestions for Haunt in the case and my other platforms where I covered True Crime directly from your comments. So please let me know what case you want to see me cover next and that's all I have for this week's episode and I will We'll see you guys all again next Friday when we are hot in the case once again.