Lives of missing Oregon girls overlap

By

Posted 7:52AM on Monday, March 18, 2002

OREGON CITY, Ore. - After 12-year-old Ashley Pond vanished in January, her friend Miranda Gaddis became angry with her. The 13-year-old thought Ashley was needlessly alarming her friends, her family and police. "She thought she ran away and didn't want to come back," said Miranda's mother, Michelle Duffey. Two months later, Miranda herself disappeared. Now the FBI believes both girls were kidnapped and has launched a nationwide search. FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said Saturday that investigators are making "good progress" in following up on more than 500 leads. She said agents have contacted a number of people both known and unknown to the missing girls and have stopped cars in neighborhoods to hand out posters. On Saturday, five dogs were used to search near the apartment complex where the girls lived a few doors down from each other. There remains every reason to hope the pair remains alive, Steele said. The two had many similarities: They were both pretty, raised in single-mother homes and loved to shop. They attended the same middle school and were teammates on the school dance team. But 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 dyed 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 tucked into a forested valley south of Portland. Ashley disappeared on Jan. 9, Miranda on March 8. Duffey last saw her daughter in a bathrobe eating breakfast. She left for her job as an office manager at an engineering company, and reminded Miranda to lock the apartment door when she left for school. Duffey 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, her eyes swollen from crying. "I hand out fliers but I can't look at them myself." Duffey 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, adding that Miranda would try to provoke her by saying "I'm gonna go alone and get kidnapped." Ashley's mother, Lori Pond, did not respond to interview requests from The Associated Press and has made few media appearances since her daughter went missing. Lori Pond's stepfather, Don Martin, said Ashley had been warned not to talk to strangers and to stay away from the woods that surround the apartment complex. "We always taught her you don't get up around that wooded area," Martin told The Oregonian for Saturday's editions. "Somebody could be standing there and you wouldn't see them until they got you." Martin said Lori Pond was on the couch while Ashley got ready for school on the day she disappeared. She told her daughter she'd see her that night, and Ashley responded, "I love you" before leaving the apartment about 8 a.m., Martin said. Investigators have not found any witnesses who saw Ashley after she left the apartment. The FBI has made the cases a priority and last week brought in about 70 agents and support staff. But hundreds of hours of police work have turned up no trace of the teens. In each case, authorities first mulled the possibility the girls ran away. But the FBI, local authorities and relatives now believe all of the evidence points to a crime. Authorities have ruled out family members as suspects. 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. She did not pack any clothes or any of her makeup. As the weeks went by after Ashley's disappearance, Miranda stopped scoffing at the idea her friend had been abducted, 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 Linkin Park, Duffey said. The concert is scheduled for March 23 and will raise money for a reward for both girls.