Body in barrel identified as second missing girl

OREGON CITY, Ore. -- A body found in a barrel buried under a concrete slab has been identifed as one of two girls who vanished last winter.

Oregon City Police Chief Gordon Huiras said Monday night that the 12-year-old girl, Ashley Pond, had been identified through dental records. Her remains were found Sunday, one day after authorities found the body of 13-year-old Miranda Gaddis in a shed.

Both sets of remains were found behind the rental home of man who authorities say is a suspect in the girls' disappearance.

The suspect, Ward Weaver, had been jailed since Aug. 13 on an unrelated rape charge, and hasn't been charged in the girls' deaths. However, chief deputy district attorney Greg Horner said Monday that he would present the case to a grand jury in hopes of obtaining an indictment.

Weaver's attorney, Tim Lyons, said: "We are going to await the return of the indictment and see what the charges are and proceed from there."

The girls went missing last winter, prompting a nationwide search that ended over the weekend just a few hundred yards from the apartment complex where they had lived.

FBI investigators returned to Weaver's property Monday with high-tech equipment, a backhoe, shovels and pickaxes to search for any evidence that might be hidden in the earth.

FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said investigators didn't believe there were any more bodies on the property, but said they "want to clear the property to make sure there's nothing else."

The girls' relatives said Monday they were frustrated and devastated that the bodies were found so close to the girls' apartment complex.

"Detectives and police stood out here all hours with posters and they were right here all along," said Terri Duffey, Miranda's aunt.