Miranda Gaddis' Mother Speaks Out
P O R T L A N D, Ore., Aug. 28 -- Miranda Gaddis' mom still speaks about her daughter in the present tense.
"She's a real happy kid. She loves dancing and bouncing around and always smiling.That's why we try to keep our spirits up as much as we can because she's the one that always would make you laugh and smile in the hard times if you are upset, she will come and make you smile," Michelle Duffey told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
Duffey learned on Sunday that Miranda was dead. The 13-year-old's remains had been in a shed behind neighbor Ward Weaver's home in Oregon City.
"I was very surprised. We still really believed she wasOK," Duffey said today on Good Morning America.
The next day, medical examiners confirmed that a second body found on Weaver's property was that of Gaddis' friend Ashley Pond, who was 12 when she disappeared.
"We are still in a lot of shock right now. It's been really hard. We've had the detectives with us a lot the last four days," Duffey said. "I've had Sharonda, my sister, with me and my family and a lot of our friends and my other kids, of course, and it's really hard to deal with."
Body Discovered
Miranda and Ashley disappeared within two months of each other — Ashley in January and Miranda in March. The two girls lived in the same Oregon City apartment complex, not far from Weaver's home.
Clackamas County District Attorney Greg Horner announced that his office would seek a grand jury indictment against Weaver, a neighbor of both girls, in their deaths.
Ashley's remains were found Sunday in a barrel beneath a cement slab Weaver poured at his home after the girls disappeared. No cause of death for either victim has yet been determined, and it is not known when they died.
Weaver has been jailed since Aug. 13 on charges that he raped the 19-year-old girlfriend of his son, Francis.
‘The Whole Thing Just Disgusts Me’
Asked whether he believed his father had killed Ashley and Gaddis, Francis Weaver told ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday: "I'm certain, yes."
