Posted on 03/17/2002 6:27:34 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
The Oregon City apartment complex where Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis disappeared has yielded new clues that lead investigators to believe the two girls are still alive.
The FBI would not describe the evidence that a search dog found over the weekend in the dense woods that surround the complex. But agents said the find encourages them that they are closer to finding the missing girls.
Federal agents have launched a nationwide search for the two girls. America's Most Wanted highlighted the case late Saturday, asking a nationwide audience for help finding Ashley and Miranda.
Investigators now believe the disappearances are linked, said Charles Mathews, the FBI special agent in charge of the Portland office. The cases share too many circumstances beyond coincidence, he said.
"There is someone that is aware of who they are, what their routines are, what time they leave for school, what time they come home, and has used that to their advantage," he told the show.
'Good Progess' in Investigation
FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said that investigators are making good progress in following up on the more than 700 leads that have come in. She said agents have contacted a number of people both known and unknown to the missing girls.
"Investigators go to bed at night and they wake up in the morning believing these girls are alive," Steele said.
The two girls share many similarities.
They were both pretty, raised in single-mother homes and loved to dance and shop. They lived a few doors down from each other in the same apartment complex.
Girls Disappear from Same Walk
Miranda was more outgoing than Ashley. She wore flared pants and pink T-shirts. She liked to sprinkle glitter on her face and arms during dance contests. Her belly button and tongue were pierced. The night before she disappeared, she had died her brown hair a lighter hue.
Ashley liked to practice her dance moves in private, but would perform karaoke at home for her family.
Both went missing while on their way to a school bus stop near the Newell Creek Village apartments, Ashley on Jan. 9, Miranda on March 8.
Duffey last saw her daughter in a bathrobe eating breakfast.
Duffey left for work, as an an office manager at an engineering company, and reminded Miranda to lock the apartment door when she left for school. She has not seen Miranda since.
Duffey misses the sounds of Miranda and her two sisters horsing around.
"The kids used to run around and play. I just want her to come home," said Duffey, her eyes swollen from crying.
'She Gave Me a Big Hug'
She spends her days posting fliers and pleading in television interviews for her daughter's safe return. Duffey said she can barely stand to look at pictures of Miranda, she misses her so much.
"They have the picture on the news, and I look the other way," she said. "I hand out fliers but I can't look at them myself."
Also missing Miranda is her grandfather, Wes Duffey.
"Whenever she came over to the house she gave me a big hug. I miss that more than anything," said Duffey, who also lives in Oregon City, a Portland suburb.
When Ashley disappeared, Miranda became angry for causing so much turmoil. Miranda watched as sheriff's deputies on horseback scoured woods near the apartment complex.
Duffey, however, wasn't so sure that Ashley was a runaway.
Case a Priority
She recalled telling Miranda she could not walk alone to a friend's house.
"She'd say 'just because Ashley ran away doesn't mean I'm gonna get kidnapped,"' Duffey said.
Duffey said Miranda would try to provoke her by saying "I'm gonna go alone and get kidnapped."
The FBI has made the case a priority. The agency brought in about 70 FBI agents and support staff last week to the working-class apartment complex tucked into a forested valley south of Portland.
Agents have brought in dogs to search the woods around the apartment complex, and stopped cars in the neighborhoods to hand out posters carrying the missing girls' pictures.
But hundreds of hours of police work have turned up no trace of the teens.
No Evidence Girls Ran Away
In each case, authorities first mulled the possibility the girls ran away. But the FBI, local authorites and relatives now believe all of the evidence points to a crime.
Miranda did her homework the evening before she vanished. She told her mother she was looking forward to a dance team competition the following day at Gardiner Middle School. She did not pack any clothes or any of her makeup.
The mystery has unnerved other tenants in the complex.
At least six have moved out of the 125-unit complex, saying they fear for the safety of their children, said Rus Peterson, a manager with the company that owns the apartments.
Investigators Rule Out Family
Mike Morrow, the FBI's acting special agent in charge in Portland, says past cases show child abductors are usually male and often motivated by sex.
When the victims are under age 12, most often the attacker is an acquaintance or member of the victim's family, Morrow said. After that age, about half the kidnappings are carried out by acquaintances, half by strangers.
Authorities say they have ruled out family members as suspects in this case.
As the weeks went by after Ashley's disappearance, Miranda stopped scoffing at the idea her friend had been kidnapped, according to her mother.
"She was starting to believe (Ashley) had been kidnapped," Duffey said.
Miranda decided to help in the search in her own way.
She had been practicing for a benefit by the dance team to raise money for a reward for Ashley. Miranda planned a routine to the music of "N Sync, Britney Spears and Lincoln Park, Duffey said.
The concert is scheduled for March 23 and will raise money for a reward for both girls.
Seems that victims of Danielle van Dam's age are normally abducted by people they knew, regardless of the parent's "social" activities.
And these "girls" were 13 years old?
WTFO?
"Investigators Rule Out Family Mike Morrow, the FBI's acting special agent in charge in Portland, says past cases show child abductors are usually male and often motivated by sex.
When the victims are under age 12, most often the attacker is an acquaintance or member of the victim's family, Morrow said. After that age, about half the kidnappings are carried out by acquaintances, half by strangers. "
Yeah, and at 12 it's 50 - 50 stranger vs known..
I'm SHOCKED they say it's motivated by sex... Well, what is it if it isn't rape and power and abnormal obsessions? ??? WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE? SHEESH!
I've been reading on Andrew Vachss site Here about Child Pornography and other things. Check it out.
I heard on the evening news this evening that the "evidence" leading the FBI to believe the girls were still alive was that the "cadaver" dogs searched the area and didn't alert on anything.
This seems like pretty flimsy evidence to me. How long has the Pond girl been missing, something like two months now?
The only scenario I can envision for her being missing for that length of time without a single contact is that she is dead. Sorry, but that's the way it seems to me.
Whoever did this very likely transported the bodies way out of the area. So it's not unusual that cadaver dogs wouldn't find anything to alert on. I wish the FBI wouldn't engage in this kind of optimism based on such flimsy evidence. It only leads to greater grief down the road.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.