Lauria Jaylene Bible (/ˈlɔːrə/; born April 18, 1983) and
Ashley Renae Freeman (born December 29, 1983) were American teenagers who
disappeared between the evening of December 29 and the early morning hours of
December 30, 1999, from Freeman's home in Welch, Oklahoma.
Firefighters arrived at the Freeman home shortly after 5:30
am on December 30, when a passerby reported a fire at the residence. After the fire had been extinguished, the
bodies of Freeman's parents, Danny and Kathy, were recovered. Both had been shot to death at close range. However, law enforcement was unable to find
any trace of Bible or Freeman in the rubble of the home.
On April 26, 2018, it was reported that Ronnie Dean Busick
(/ˈbjuːsɪk/) was being charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the
killings of Bible and of the Freeman family.
Disappearance
On December 29, 1999, high school friends Lauria Bible and
Ashley Freeman spent the evening together celebrating Freeman's sixteenth
birthday. Bible received permission from
her parents to spend the night at Freeman's home. Earlier that day, the girls had spent time at
a local pizzeria with Freeman's mother Kathy.
At approximately 5:30 am on December 30, 1999, a passerby
called 9-1-1 reporting that the Freeman home was engulfed in flames. Law enforcement determined the fire had been
an arson. Inside the home, the charred
remains of Kathy was discovered lying on the floor of her bedroom; she had been
shot in the head. Initially, no other
remains were located, leading local law enforcement to extrapolate that Ashley's
father, Danny Freeman, had slain his wife and fled with both girls. Bible's parked car was in the driveway of the
home with the keys in the ignition.
On December 31, Bible's parents Lorene and Jay returned to
the scene, hoping to find any additional clues that law enforcement may have
missed. Amidst walking around the
extensive rubble, they discovered what appeared to be another body and notified
the police. The second body was
determined to be that of Danny; like his wife, he had also been shot in the
head execution-style. Following this
discovery, the crime scene was reexamined, yet no sign of Bible or Freeman was
found. In 2010, the Freeman family
initiated court proceedings to have Ashley declared legally dead.
Investigation
Suspects and
confessions
In the decade following the disappearance of Bible and
Freeman, two convicted killers—Tommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones—confessed to
murdering them, but subsequently recanted their admissions. Jones had claimed that he murdered Freeman's
parents as a favor for a friend over drug debt, then took the girls to Kansas,
where he shot them and threw their bodies into an abandoned mine. Searches of the mine Jones identified proved
unfruitful, however, and Jones subsequently admitted he had fabricated the
story in order to get better food and additional phone privileges in prison.
In a 2001 profile on Unsolved Mysteries, it was mentioned
that rumors had circulated among locals that the Craig County Police Department
had been feuding with the Freemans at the time over the death of their son,
Shane, who was shot by a deputy after stealing a car. While his death was ruled justifiable, the
Freemans had threatened to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Danny's brother, Dwayne, claimed that Danny
had confided that deputies had tried to intimidate him.
2018 arrest of Ronnie
Busick
In April 2018, it was reported that Ronnie James Busick, age
66, had been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder for
the deaths of Bible and the Freeman family. Two other suspects—Warren Phillip “Phil” Welch
II (died 2007) and David Pennington (died 2015)—were also identified. According to The Washington Post, "at
least a dozen" witnesses claimed all three men bragged about raping and
murdering Bible and Freeman, and went so far as taking Polaroid photographs of
them. Several witnesses alleged that the
three men killed the Freemans 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
disappearances provided a sworn affidavit that "she heard conversations
between the three men where they disclosed that the murder victims had owed
them money," and that 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 disposing 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 this time all focus is on finding Lauria and Ashley.
We welcome all information leading to their recovery. Until they are home with
us, this will never be over." After
his arrest, Busick told reporters he wished to speak to the Bibles. On April 26, 2018, Bible's mother Lorene
confirmed she spoke with Busick, but that he denied knowing the whereabouts of
her daughter or Freeman.
Media coverage
The disappearances of Bible and Freeman were profiled on America's
Most Wanted in 2000, and on Unsolved Mysteries in 2001. The case was later featured on the series Vanished
with Beth Holloway. In 2013, it was
profiled on the documentary series Disappeared on Investigation Discovery.
In September 2018, one of the main witnesses in the case
against Ronnie Busick, as well as the cold case investigators who filed the
charges, gave their first interviews to the Tulsa World for a special report.
The case was featured in a new four part series on HLN
titled "Hell in the Heartland" starting June 2nd 2019, which will
shed more light on the disappearances of the girls and the main suspects. The show will be hosted by the creator of the
show and crime writer Jax Miller who is also writing a book on the girls'
disappearances which will be released in July 2020 titled Hell in the
Heartland: Murder, Meth and the case of Two Missing Girls.
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