This was an interesting report. Unfortunately, it has already aired, but maybe it can be caught during a re-run. Although this short excerpt doesn't mention it, the FBI's suspect failed his polygraph. This could explain why agents weren't focusing on the man who would later be charged in the crimes. Another example of the agency's over reliance on the polygraph? 

Did a private eye crack a case before the FBI?

In a multi-part report, "Dateline's" Keith Morrison travels to the suburbs of Portland, Oregon to report on a controversial investigation that still has many wondering why it took so long to capture a serial killer. In an exclusive television interview, the FBI reveals to Morrison never before heard details about the case and offers a stinging rebuke to those who question their investigative techniques. In addition, the 21-year-old woman who believes she was to be the killer's final victim speaks out about her brush with death for the first time on "Dateline NBC," Friday, Jan. 27, 9 p.m.

In the winter of 2002, two young girls vanished from the same apartment complex within weeks of one another in Oregon City, Oregon.  Despite an FBI Task Force comprising dozens of agents working feverishly on the case, it appeared to many in the community that important clues pointing to one suspect were ignored. Linda O'Neal, an author, private eye, and grandmother with ties to one of the missing girls, shares with Morrison findings from her own investigation, including incendiary claims that an FBI agent told her: "We really don't need help from private investigators," when O'Neal says she approached the FBI with concrete information about the man who eventually turned out to be the killer.

Viewers will hear both the FBI's response to that charge, and one woman's claims that the attack that nearly killed her might have been prevented, if the task force had put together all the clues that pointed to the serial killer, Ward Weaver.

Twoblock,

I agree it was an interesting piece and truly a sad story, especially since the second death seems to have been preventable. Mentioning Linda O'Neal's name may or may not have made a difference as you point out. The FBI sure wasn't about to admit that O'Neal had contacted it with her investigative information. Instead, it said it had no record of her call, which either way is bad. Taking a report and doing nothing or being so flip about it that the agent doesn't even bother to make a report. Too bad the media didn't catch wind of the investigator whose dog tracked one victim's scent to the concrete slab behind Ward Weaver's home. I'm not surprised that the media had never mentioned O'Neal's name since she wasn't really an important part of the story at first, but maybe the driving force behind it. The correspondent pointed out in the story that Ward Weaver's name appeared in print for the first time after O'Neal contacted that newspaper reporter who published it. The agency had given her the brush off and she turned to the media as a last resort when all else had failed. Once the case was solved and it turned out to be exactly as O'Neal had said, the story changed from solving the case to why did it take the FBI so long to solve it and could the death of a young girl and the rape of another have been prevented had the agency paid attention to a viable suspect right under its nose? I wonder if investigators were thrown off track by that  suspect who failed his polygraph and just began focusing on him?. Truly a sad case, which I'm sure deeply affected the community. As you said, you followed it daily.