KSNF/KODE — As the search for two missing Northeast Oklahoma teens enters its 25th year, family members aren’t giving up hope of finding their remains.
Lauria and Ashley – their names are synonymous with one of Oklahoma’s most heinous crimes.
A memorial service for the girls will be held Monday at the Welch Civic Center. The program starts at 6:30; all are welcome to attend.
Sixteen-year-old best friends Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman went missing on December 30, 1999. After celebrating Ashley's birthday with pizza, Lauria spent the night at Ashley's house in rural Craig County.
An early morning fire to the Freeman mobile home brought out the fire department and the Craig County Sheriff's Department.
When the smoke cleared, the remains of Kathy Freeman were taken to the Medical Examiner's Office in Tulsa. Hours later, the Bible family discovered Danny Freeman's body in the rubble that was once the Freeman homestead, burned beyond recognition.
Both of Ashley's parents were killed execution-style, and there was no sign of the girls.
Authorities believe the teens were kidnapped in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, 1999, and for around two weeks, they were tortured, drugged, raped, beaten, and ultimately killed in a Picher mobile home belonging to Phil Welch, Jr.
Welch, Jr., David Pennington, and Ronnie Busick, three known drug dealers, reportedly drove to the Freeman’s rural Welch homestead with plans to settle a drug debt. In an earlier interview, Busick, the only surviving suspect and the only person charged with the crime said the drug debt was over “one or two ounces of meth.”
Welch died in 2007 from “ALS.” Shortly after his death, lightning struck his house, and it burned to the ground. Pennington died in 2015 in a drug-related death.
Busick received a 10-year prison sentence in 2020, with five years of probation and only one year of supervision. Because of good behavior and time credited while in the Craig County jail, Busick was released after just three years in prison. It is believed he is living in a Tulsa nursing home.
Busick denied being at the scene but gave investigators details of what happened that night from his alleged conversations with Pennington. One of the conditions of his prison sentence was he was to lead authorities to where the girls' remains were located.
In his only interview, Busick said Welch was carrying a loaded shotgun under his trench coat when he approached the Freeman mobile home.
He said Danny went for his loaded .357-caliber Magnum revolver, and that’s when Welch fatally shot Danny and Kathy Freeman before he and Pennington looted the house, stealing money and marijuana and then torching the mobile home.
After the shootings, the girls escaped out a back door and hid by lying on the ground in an open field.
Scared and cold, the teens stood up in the open field when the mobile home was set on fire. Pennington and Welch corralled the girls as they tried to escape and were held in the cab of Pennington’s truck as he tore down the rural dirt road toward Picher, where Welch had a mobile home.
Busick staunchly and repeatedly maintains he doesn't know where the girls are buried.
Over the past 25 years, investigators have searched countless mine pits, ponds, Grand Lake, root cellars, and abandoned wells. Investigators have followed leads that have criss-crossed the United States.
All the searches were fruitless, and the girls were never heard from again.
In the years since, Lauria's mom, Lorene Bible, has continued the search and works to keep the girls' memory alive. After years of no answers, Lorena and her niece, Lisa Brodrick, created a Find Lauria Bible - BBI social media page.
With its 32,000 followers, the page has been a source for people to drop news tips - some anonymous and some not. Those tips are turned over to investigator Gary Stansill and Oklahoma Burua of Investigation Cold Case Detective Tammy Ferarri.
Stansill and Ferrari are just committed today to bringing the girls home as the day they were handed the cold case file.
Another person committed to bringing justice to the Freeman and Bible families but in a different manner is Rep. Steve Bashore, R-Miami.
Bashore refiled the “Lauria and Ashley” bill for the 2025 legislative session, which convenes on Feb. 3.
For two years, Bashore and other legislatures have led the charge in passing a bill that adds accessory to murder in the first or second degree to the list of crimes that would require an offender to serve 85% of their prison sentence before being eligible for parole consideration. Those convicted would also be ineligible to earn credits that would reduce their sentence below 85% of what the court imposed.
The bill is in response to Busick’s early release from prison in May 2023.
In an earlier interview, Lorene Bible said the family was never told that accessory to felony murder was not an 85% crime, and had they known, they would never have agreed to Busick’s sentence if they knew that would mean an early release.
A $50,000 reward remains open in the case. Individuals with information about where the girls’ bodies are buried are encouraged to call the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation hotline at (800) 522-8017.
