It was evening, dark and cold. In a suburb of Portland, Oregon, when the call came into

dispatch, a mother reporting a missing daughter.

Strange, the immediate assumption of 12-year-old must be a runaway.

She began the long, strange tale of what happened to Ashley Pond.

Not with a bang, but a whimper. As a dawned on a young mother, what terrors could lie ahead.

Let me have my baby back.

Laurie Pond's daughter, Ashley, had simply vanished. Gone. Or so it seemed. On her way to school

in the town of Oregon City, January 2002.

It was very upsetting. A 12-year-old child had disappeared. This is a child.

Linda O'Neill is a member of Ashley's extended, blended family. Linda's husband was once

married to Ashley's grandmother. Not exactly a close relationship, but Linda certainly

knew about Ashley.

How would you describe her in this little group?

She was kind of known as having an attitude.

But Linda was not just family. She was also a licensed private investigator. And in

those first days her experience told her, Ashley was probably okay.

My first thought would have been that she probably ran away.

Police in Oregon City apparently agreed. But then a whole week went by. No sign of Ashley

anywhere. Runaways inevitably contact someone. She didn't. And so now local officials thinking

of Docton called in the FBI.

One of the problems with the cases that there was a wealth of suspects.

Jim Redden is a veteran crime reporter who worked at the Portland Tribune at the time.

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