Town in Turmoil After Disappearances

March 27 -- Since Jan. 9, everyday moments, like getting on the school bus and little girls going to dance class, have been replaced by fear.

When 12-year-old Ashley Pond vanished, it was only the beginning of a tragic ordeal. Since then,

On that day, 12-year-old Ashley Pond vanished...it was the beginning of an ordeal that would only get more bizarre and more tragic. Fear has now gripped the entire community -- and nothing in Oregon City is normal anymore.

NARRATION NEW A few months ago, Ashley Pond was at home with her family for Christmas ? now she is a missing person.

Ashley photographs and/or the home video from Christmas ?I have not seen the video - use the stills if the video does not work ?. SOT ASHLEY POND Christmas home video and/stills

NARRATIONOne chilly January morning, Ashley's mother Lori watched her 13-year-old daughter rush out the door for school. LORI POND [Pond intv. , Page 7 09;07;00] She said: Bye, mom, I love you! She said: Everything's okay 'n ch- out the door she went and that was the last time I saw my daughter.

STAND UPAshley walked the same route every morning - from home up this driveway to catch the school bus on the road just over that rise. This section - about a forty-foot stretch - is hidden from the apartments below and the road above. Investigators think this the spot where Ashley was abducted. In one FBI agent's words, "It was like she was beamed up into a spaceship" - vanished without leaving a trace - seemingly into thin air. LORI [Lori Pond , Page 9 09;08;08] Nobody had saw her..//.. she obviously didn't even make it up to the bus stop, none of the kids saw her at the bus stop. So from my home to the bus stop my daughter came up missing.

Police investigation montage NARRATIONThe Portland police called in the FBI. A search every square inch of the complex yielded no leads. As search dogs combed the apartments, officers solicited any scrap of information from passing motorists ? Information that is desperately needed by FBI agent Charles Mathews. CHARLES MATHEWS[Matthews FBI , Page 7] we have no uh - crime scene. We have no forensic evidence and we have no direct evidence and what we're looking for now, or speedy resolution is - is somebody in the public uh - having information that will help us. NARRATION NEW The FBI questioned all the neighborhood kids, including Ashley's friend Miranda Gaddis who was even interviewed on television.