Ward Weaver III

Ward Francis Weaver III (born April 6, 1963) is an American convicted murderer.

He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in Oregon City, Oregon.

Weaver was born April 6, 1963, in Humboldt County, California, to Trish and Ward Weaver Jr. In 1967, his father abandoned the family; several years later, his mother married Bob Budrow, an abusive alcoholic, and the family relocated to Portland, Oregon.

Weaver first exhibited antisocial behavior as a teenager; his sister, Tammi, later said that he physically and sexually abused at least one family member by the time he was twelve years old, and his half-brother, Robert Budrow, claimed that Weaver frequently beat him during their childhood.

In 1981, a teenaged relative reported that he had repeatedly raped and beaten her.

Police investigated allegations of abuse in 1981, but Multnomah County prosecutors decided not to pursue charges because Weaver had enlisted in the armed services and would be leaving Portland.

Shortly thereafter, Weaver graduated from Marshall High School in Portland, and joined the US Navy Reserve.

In 1981, Weaver's father murdered 18-year-old Air Force recruit Robert Radford and his 23-year-old girlfriend Barbara Levoy, whom was also raped.

Weaver Jr. found the couple in Tehachapi, California, where their car had broken down.

He later buried the victims in his backyard.

He was discharged the following year on May 17, 1982, for heavy drinking and dereliction of duty.

During his tenure in the Navy, he met his future wife, Maria Stout, a native of the Philippines.

The couple moved in with Weaver's parents and she was soon pregnant.

Five months into her pregnancy, she was physically assaulted by Weaver and hospitalized, but refused to press charges.

Their son, Francis, was born in December 1982, though it was later determined that he was not Ward Weaver's biological son.

Raised in Northern California by his mother, Weaver had a tumultuous childhood; his father, Ward Weaver Jr., was convicted in 1984 of a double-murder.

In 1984, he was sentenced to death for the crime.

Weaver Jr. is also a suspected serial killer, being suspected of up to 24 other murders.

Weaver married Maria Stout in 1984, and the couple relocated to Bakersfield, California.

On June 15, 1986, Weaver attacked the teenaged daughters of a friend in Fairfield, California, striking one of the girls—fifteen-year-old Jennifer Ordonoa—with a block of concrete.

He was sentenced to three years in prison for the assaults.

After his release, Weaver and wife Stout relocated to Canby, Oregon, where they operated a store.

After a stint in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Weaver was convicted of assaulting two teenage girls in Fairfield, California in 1988.

There, Maria gave birth to their fourth child, Mallori, in 1989.

Weaver's then-12-year-old daughter Mallori became friends with Ashley Marie Pond (born March 1, 1989) and Miranda Diane Gaddis (born November 18, 1988); the three girls were students at Gardiner Middle School, and were also members of the same dance class.

In 1993, Maria Weaver filed a restraining order against her husband, and their marriage ended in divorce.

In July 1995, Weaver beat his new girlfriend, Kristi Sloan, with a cast-iron skillet.

He was jailed for the incident, but Sloan refused to testify against him.

By October, they were back together and, in February 1996, they married.

The marriage lasted four years.

In August 1997, Weaver began an affair with a woman he met at work.

The couple moved into a rented house on South Beavercreek Road in Oregon City.

In August 2001, Pond accused Weaver of attempting to rape her at his home, and the incident was reported to police; however, charges were not formally filed by law enforcement.

In January 2002, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared en route to her bus stop in Oregon City, near Weaver's residence.

Two months later, Pond's classmate, thirteen-year-old Miranda Gaddis, also vanished under mysterious circumstances.

The disappearances received international media attention, and were profiled on various television programs, including Unsolved Mysteries.

The remains of both girls were discovered on Weaver's property in August 2002 during an investigation into the rape of his son's girlfriend, also committed by Weaver.

On the morning of January 9, 2002, Pond left her home at the Newell Creek Village apartments to walk to the nearby bus stop; she never arrived.

Friends and family, including Gaddis, began to search for her; Gaddis resided in the same apartment building as Pond.

In 2004, Weaver was sentenced to life without parole for the sexual assault and murder of both girls.