OKLAHOMA 1999 COLD CASE SOLVED

         OKLAHOMA COLD CASE SOLVED AFTER 27 YEARS 
There were twelve witnesses that knew the truth of what happened to two 16 year old best friends, Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, who disappeared from Welch, Oklahoma in December 1999.  The twelve witnesses kept silent because of fear from those responsible for the girls' disappearance.  They didn't come forward until the ones responsible had died.  

December 29, 1999 was Ashley Freeman's 16th birthday.  The Freeman Family planned a very small celebration.  Only one invited guest, Ashley's best friend Lauria Bible.  The two girls attended school together at Welch Public Schools and were inseparable.  They were always together.  If you saw one, you would see the other.  The two families Freeman's and Bible's were very close friends as well.  The two families lived in a very small town in Oklahoma where everyone knew each other.  The celebration started by Kathy Freeman taking the two girls to the local pizzeria in town, and the plan were to continue the celebration with a sleepover at the Freeman's.  The Bibles lived in town, but the Freeman's lived in a mobile home on a rural road outside of Welch, Oklahoma.  

Jay Bible, Lauria's dad, agreed to let her sleepover at the Freeman's home with one stipulation, Lauria had to be home by noon the next day, December 30th.  Kathy took the two girls to the local pizzeria to start the celebration.  After eating they headed to the Freeman's home.  That was the last time anyone saw the three.  

Early on Sunday morning December 30, 1999 at about 5:30 a.m. a passing motorist made a 911 call.  The Freeman's mobile home was engulfed in flames.  Although the firemen got there within minutes of the 911 call, they were to late.  The Freeman home was nothing but ashes.  In investigating the fire, only one body was found, which was that of Kathy.  Her body was found face down in the bedroom floor with a bullet hole in her forehead.  Since the police didn't find Danny Freeman's body or the two 16 year old girls, the authorities figured it must have been Danny that shot and killed his wife Kathy.  He then set the mobile home on fired to cover up his crime then fleeing with the two girls.  The authorities found the Freeman's car parked in the driveway, with the keys in the ignition.   Who could have done such an awful crime?  

The Bibles had been notified that their daughter was missing along with Ashley and Danny Freeman.  Lorene Bible just couldn't sit around and do nothing.   She wanted to find the three missing people, one being her daughter.  The police must have overlooked something at the crime scene.  Lorene and Jay went to the Freeman's burnt out mobile home to see if they could find something that would give a clue as to where Danny Freeman and the girls were.   In shifting through the rubble and ashes they discovered something very disturbing.  They found another body that had been trampled on many times not realizing it was a body.  It was the body of Danny Freeman.  He had been shot in the head also.  Now the only ones missing were the the two girls.  Who could have done such a heinous crime? and why?  Several weeks went by with no answers.  There just wasn't enough clues to pursue.  

There were secrets about the Freeman's Danny and Kathy, that most people didn't know.  The Freeman's had gotten tangled up with some unsavory people who it was said supplied the Freeman's with drugs.  Some thought they had borrowed money and got behind on their payments.  Unknown to the Freeman's, a unfamiliar car and driver had been seen in town on the street not far from the pizzeria where Kathy had taken the girls for the birthday celebration.  It is assumed they followed the three home.  Got out of the car and pointed a gun at them, so the three had abandoned the Freeman's car and fled to the mobile home.  No clues were found to prove what happened.  It is assumed the perpetrators, came into the mobile home and shot Danny and Kathy.  The girls must have escaped, but later they probably had  been kidnapped by the thugs and taken with them, or shot and the bodies buried.  With nothing to go on, the case was stalled.  

In the decade following the disappearance of two 16 year old friends, two convicted killers Tommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones confessed to murdering them, but later recanted their admissions.  Jones claimed that he murdered Freeman's parents as a favor for a friend over a drug debt, then took the girls to Kansas where he shot them and threw their bodies into an abandoned mine.  There was also a fourth man in connection to this crime, David Pennington.  Searches of the mine Jones identified where the bodies were proved fruitless, however Jones subsequently admitted he had fabricated the story in order to get better food and additional phone privileges in prison. 

On April 26, 2018, it was reported that Ronnie Dean Busick, then age 66, had been arrested and was being charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of the Freeman couple and the two sixteen year old girls.  Two other, albeit deceased suspects were named as well:  Warren Phillip "Phil" Welch II who died in 2007 and David Pennington who died in 2015.  According to The Washington Post, "at least a dozen" witnesses claimed all three men bragged about raping and murdering Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible and took Polaroid photographs of them.  Several witnesses alleged that the three men killed the Freeman's over drug money, and that the girls were held captive in Welch's trailer for several days before being murdered.  

A female witness who lived with Welch a short time after the disappearance of the girls, provided a sworn affidavit that she heard conversations between the three men where they disclosed that the murdered Freeman's had owed money, and Welch kept a briefcase containing the Polaroid photos which showed both girls "bound and gagged with duct tape and lying on a bed" with Welch lying next to the girls in some of the photographs.  According to the affidavit, Welch Pennington, and Busick had claimed to have raped and tortured the girls before deposing of their remains "in a pit" or mine shaft in Picher, Oklahoma.  Law enforcement also stated they believed the girls remains could have been "dumped in a cellar that was later covered in concrete.

In a public address, the Bible Family issued a statement in which they stated they had been aware of the alleged photographs "for years" and that "At that time all focus was on finding Lauria and Ashley.  We welcome all information leading to their recovery.  Until they are home with us, this will never be over.  On April 26, 2018, Bible's mother Lorene, confirmed she spoke with Busick, but he denied knowing the whereabouts of her daughter or Ashley Freeman. 

On July 15, 2020, Busick pleaded guilty to accessory to first-degree murder in the deaths of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the torching of of their home near Welch, Oklahoma, and the abduction and presumed slaying of the two girls.  He admitted having withheld information about the involvement of Welch and Pennington.  He was sentenced to 15 years for the crime, 10 of those years to be spent in prison plus five years probation.  The  Oklahoma Department of Corrections had said Busick was considered a "level 4" prisoner., i.e., he was known for being  respectful to the prison staff and following orders, while staying to himself and not being known as a problematic inmate.  Furthermore, a level-4 inmate usually does not already have an extensive criminal history beyond their current conviction, but Busick had criminal convictions dating back to the 1980s.   

Busick received 60 credits/month, or two days worth of credit for every day served, plus the credit for time he served in jail.  Ultimately, Busick's positive track record while behind bars lead to an early release, for good behavior.  He was released on May 19, 2023, after serving only 38 months of his 10-year sentence. What a disappointment for the Bible Family with no leads to the two 16 year old girls that were still missing.    

In a 2021 profile on Unsolved Mysteries, it was mentioned that rumors had circulated among locals that the Craig County Police  Department had been feuding with the Freeman's over the death of their son, Shane.  Who had been shot by a deputy after stealing a car. 
While his death was ruled justifiable, the Freeman's had threatened to file wrongful death lawsuit.  Danny's brother, Dwayne, claimed that Danny had confided that the deputies had tired to intimidate him.  On October 7, 2021, a new search was conducted in the root cellar of a home formerly occupied by David Pennington, one of the deceased suspects accused by the convicted Busick.  Investigators claim that Busick kept repeating "the root cellar", and Pennington's step-daughter alleged that he had forbidden anyone from accessing it.  News reports after the search wrapped up indicated it had been yet another dead in.  

The authorities to this day are still searching for Ashley and Lauria's bodies in the pits in Picher, Oklahoma.  There are about 167 pits to search.  So far no bodies have been found.  This case was featured in an four-part series on HLN titled Hell In the Heartland starting June 2, 2019, which hoped to shed more light on the disappearances of the girls and the main suspects.  The show was hosted by the creator of the show and crime writer Jax Miller, who also wrote a book on the girls' disappearances.  Released in July 2020, it is titled Hell in the Heartland:  Murder, Meth and the case of Two Missing Girls.

October 27, 2022, a repot was done on KOCO NEWS 5 (abc) entitled "The Welch Girls: Ongoing searches for missing Oklahoma girls".  Brooke Withrow reporting, Picher, Oklahoma, Over the past few decades, countless searches have been conducted by family, friends, and law enforcement to bring Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible home.  So far, all of the searches continue.  As time passes, those involved refuse to lose hope.  

Below is a list of searches, provided by investigators, that have been done since 1999.

January 2000: The Federal Bureau of Investigation had information that the bodies of the girls were in a mine shaft near Picher, Oklahoma.  Using an underwater camera, the FBI searched the flooded mine shaft.  No bodies were found.

January 2000: Another unsuccessful search was conducted beneath Tyanns Bluff at Grand Lake near Cleora, Oklahoma.

June 2000:  Delaware County officers received a tip about a dump site near Craig County line with two graves marked by rocks.

June 2000:  The Tulsa Police department Dive team searched water-filled quarry on the north side of Oologah Lake.

July 25, 2001:  Cadaver sniffing dogs were used by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department near the Twin Bridges State Park.

After convicted killer and rapist Jeremy Jones' false confession, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation searched a property in Kansas, including a mine shaft, for three days in June 2005.

January 2016:  An abandoned well was searched near Chetopa, Kansas.  

September 19, 2018:  Investigators conducted a forensic dig near Quapaw, Oklahoma after a cadaver dog hit.

Fall 2018:  cadaver dogs were used in Picher, Oklahoma at the site of the Phil Welch mobile home, as well as the nearby site of David Pennington's mobile home.

August 2019:  Ground penetrating radar was used at 412 S. College Street in Picher.  Several areas were dug up as part of the search, as well as a nearby cellar excavation.  Three nearby ponds were also searched by the Tulsa Police Department Dive Team.

On October 2022:  Law enforcement with the FBI, OSBI, Quapaw Tribe, Delaware County Sheriff's office and Ottawa County Sheriff's Office had an organized dig at two different locations in Picher.  The first location was at the property where the girls were last known to be alive.  It is now the site of a memorial.  The second location was an old root cellar near the memorial site.  Cres used ground penetrating radar and a drone in their searches.  However, both searches were unsuccessful.

KODE News Search for Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman ends without answers.  Posted March 12, 2026.  Cherokee County Kansas mine shaft yielded no answers for investigators looking for the remains of two Craig County teenage girls in Oklahoma, prompting investigators to call off the search.  The search for the two girls was done at a 35-foot mine shaft.  OSB will continue to search for the girls said Hunter McKee of the OSB.  "We will continue to look for the girls.  McKee said the authorities received many tips during the recent search.  Authorities still believe the teens were kidnapped in the early morning hors of Dec. 30, 1999 and for two weeks, they were tortured, drugged and raped, beaten and ultimately killed in a Picher, Oklahoma mobile home, which belonged to Phil Welch, Jr, who died in 2007 from ALS.  Shortly after his death, lightening struck his mobile home and it burned to the ground.  

Investigators from multiple agencies are on private property just across the Oklahoma State Line, in the abandoned community of Treece, Kansas, using a crane to search a mine shaft.  Earlier, Lorene Bible, Lauria's mom said, she was told dogs had hit on something in the search area.  Lisa Brodrick, Lauria's cousin, posted a video on Facebook describing the scene and Lorene Bible was interviewed by KSN/KODE Local News Anchor Tiffany Alaniz at the site with updates.

A1983 report found 189 shafts below Treece and 97 hazards resulting from mining operations, according to the Kansas Historical Society.  

Over the past 26 years, investigators have searched countless mine pits, ponds, root cellars, and abandoned wells in the Picher, Oklahoma area known as Tar Creek for the 16 years old best friends.

After years of chasing leads and interviewing countless suspects and witnesses, authorities now believe Phil Welch, Jr, David Pennington, and Ronnie Busick drove to the Freeman mobile home to collect on a drug debt involving Ashley's dad, Danny Freeman, and one or two ounces of meth.  Danny and Kathy Freeman were shot execution style, and the mobile home was destroyed by fire.  Kathy Freeman's charred remains were taken to the Medical Examiner's Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After releasing the scene to the family, the Bibles Jay and Lorene, discovered Danny Freeman's body in the rubble. 

Busick has repeatedly said he doesn't know where the girls are buried.  I am not so sure that is the truth, but I guess we will never know.

I believe the search will continue until all places have been searched that come to mind.  Pray that the Bible Family gets answers soon.

Connie James, Oklahoma resident.