The Horrific Case of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman

2021-01-17 15:59:59 Written by Kashif wasli

The Horrific Case of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman 

Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman had been best friends since kindergarten. Lauria’s mom fondly remembers their friendship: “Lauria and Ashley would call each other at least once a week. What one was thinking, the other was thinking. It’s sort of like when two people—one can finish the sentence when the other one starts one.”

The two girls resided in a small town in rural Oklahoma; Ashley played basketball, and Lauria was a cheerleader. Ashley liked to hunt and fish. Lauria raised pigs to show at livestock competitions.

December 29, 1999, was Ashley’s 16th birthday, and the girls schemed to celebrate with a sleepover at Ashley’s. After eating pizza at a regional restaurant, Ashley, Lauria, and Ashley’s mother fled to the Freemans' home.

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Mere hours later, around 5:30 A.M., firefighters were summoned to the Freemans' mobile home. The whole trailer was inundated in flames. After extinguishing the fire, the firefighters found the corpse of Kathy Freeman, Ashley’s mother. She had been lying near the bed, shot in the skull before the fire began. Ashley’s father, Ashley, and Lauria were missing. The first theory: Danny had murdered his wife, kidnapped Ashley and Lauria, and burned the home down to wreck any indication.

This theory was shortly disproven. When Lauria’s parents came to the charred remains of the mobile home to search for an indication as to their daughter’s whereabouts, they found new evidence. What remained of Danny’s Rottweiler lay next to a bundle of debris–and underneath was Danny Freeman's corpse. It was obvious that Danny had been shot before the fire as well. With Danny’s corpse now located more questions arose. Where were the girls? Who shot the Freemans? Did the shooter take the girls?

The next finding made by authorities was Lauria’s purse. Inside, they discovered her driver’s license and almost $200. Authorities drew two decisions from this finding. First, Lauria, in leaving behind her purse, likely did not leave the home willingly. Second, robbery appeared less reasonable as the reason for the turmoil, as any thief would have taken the money.

Theories proceeded to abound. Danny was a rumoured drug dealer. Maybe the homicides had been a drug deal gone bad. Ashley and her father didn’t get along. Perhaps the girls killed Ashley’s parents and then disappeared. Yet none of the theories held up to attention. All the authorities understood for sure: A couple was dead, and two girls were missing.

The regional authorities launched a search for the teenagers. Nearby lakes, mine shafts, and quarries were searched to no avail. The search spanned far beyond Oklahoma's state lines, but to no avail. At least two convicted murderers even admitted before recanting their statements. Soon, the case went cold.

Then, in 2017, nearly two decades after that disastrous December night in Oklahoma, there was a break in the case. The Craig County Sheriff’s Department found out a box of previously unknown notes and documents associated with the investigation. The previous sheriff’s administration had reportedly accumulated the documents. Among the cache were the names of witnesses and statements giving fresh leads. One of the most crucial pieces of indication rediscovered was an insurance card discovered at the crime scene. The insurance card related to a woman who lived with a man named Phil Welch, who had borrowed her car around the time of the killings.

Phil Welch was a meth dealer with a criminal record. Investigators speculated that Welch and two of his cronies–David Pennington and Ronnie Busick–visited the Freeman house that night about a drug deal. The conflict grew heated; the men murdered the Freemans. After murdering the couple, the men abducted the girls and set the home on fire.

According to witnesses, the trio took Ashley and Lauria to Welch’s trailer, where they were bound and raped. After a “matter of days”, they were suffocated and “thrown in a pit”.

Welch, the sick ringleader, seemingly covered the walls of his trailer home with the missing posters of Lauria and Ashley. He also took problematic pictures of his victims.

Welch retained about a dozen Polaroids documenting the torture he caused on the young girls. He kept them covered in a leather briefcase. When his girlfriend found the pictures, she said that he threatened her life: “Don’t you ever tell anybody or you will end up in a pit ... like those two girls.” Another witness contends that Welch and Pennington had shown him the pictures of their own volition, bragging about what they had done.

While Oklahoma law enforcement never recovered the photos, they had earned reports of images; the three suspects were even on their radar. Yet there was never sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. The newly found cache—from the witness reports to the borrowed car and insurance card—was enough to seek charges.

Both Welch and Pennington had expired before this major break. Nonetheless, Ronnie Busick, now 66 years old, was still alive. In April 2018, he was caught in Wichita and accused with four counts of murder.

Despite the arrests, the families of Lauria and Ashley have yet to find relief. As stated in a post on their Facebook page, the Bible family will never find peace until the corpses of the two teenagers are discovered: “At this time all focus is on discovering Lauria and Ashley. We welcome all data leading to their recovery. Until they are home with us, this will never be over.”