The lone survivor from a trio believed to be behind the 23-year-old double homicide of two adults and disappearance of two teenage girls is now free.
Busick
Ronnie Dean Busick, 71, was released Friday morning from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Lexington Correctional Center after serving 2½ years of a 10-year sentence.
Busick, who was convicted of accessory to murder, remains the only person ever held responsible in the disappearance of 16-year-olds Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman and the murders of Freeman’s parents, Danny and Kathy Freeman, on Dec. 30, 1999, outside of Welch. Authorities believe that the girls also were murdered, and periodic searches for their bodies are still ongoing.
The disappearance of two teen girls from the scene of a double homicide in Welch stands as one of Oklahoma's most haunting and enduring mysteries. But while a recent break in the cold case provided some answers, there's still much more to this story than most people know.
The other suspects in the case, Warren Phillip Welch II and David A. Pennington, died before they could be charged.
Busick was released between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. Friday, DOC spokeswoman Kay Thompson said.
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Bible’s mother, Lorene Bible, and a group of protesters gathered outside the prison Friday morning. The family and their supporters have spoken out against the release since the news broke in April.
Bible said Friday that her main motivation in being there was for Busick to see her.
“I want him to know that I’m here and I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “He’s out walking around. He gets to go on, but my child does not.”
“I’m not going to do him any harm,” Bible added. “But as long as he’s out, I’m going to be watching. Everything he does I’m going to question.”
She said it’s not too late for Busick to do the right thing and help authorities locate her daughter’s body.
“He knows,” she said. “And if he takes that information to his grave with him, to meet his maker, I really don’t want to think what that’s going be like for him.”
Officials said Busick earned credits to reduce his sentence under state law, while also receiving credit for county jail time served while awaiting trial.
Busick, who pleaded guilty to the charge in August 2020, also received five years’ probation, with one year under official supervision.
Danny and Kathy Freeman were found shot to death inside their burned-out mobile home. The whereabouts of the two girls, who had been having a birthday sleepover at the home, have remained a mystery ever since.
The case was cold for years, but after a break in 2018, prosecutors charged Busick while also implicating the late Welch and Pennington.
In the lead-up to Busick’s release, the Bible family sought the intervention of Attorney General Gentner Drummond, but he said in a letter that there was nothing he could do.
Under state law, DOC inmates can earn credits to reduce their sentences if they receive outstanding evaluations for such things as work, education, hygiene and maintenance of living area.
Bible said she was shocked because she expected Busick to serve eight years in prison. She said the family was never informed that earlier release was a possibility, and she said they never would’ve supported the plea deal if they had known.
Bible and other critics of Busick’s release are now calling for new legislation to make accessory to murder an “85% crime.”
That would require perpetrators to serve at least 85% of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole consideration.
Bible said Busick’s release is just the latest way her family’s case has pointed out flaws in the system.
“From the beginning, we’ve seen that changes are needed across the board,” she said. “If good change can come from this, how better to honor the girls and know that their deaths were not in vain?”
Investigators think Welch, Pennington and Busick went to the Freeman farm the night of Dec. 29, 1999, to confront Danny Freeman over a drug debt.
After the murders of Freeman and his wife, the girls likely were kidnapped. Investigators believe they were taken to a mobile home in Picher, where they were tortured and sexually assaulted for two weeks before being killed.
On Friday, Busick was transported by Department of Corrections van to a bus station. In accordance with DOC policy, officials declined to reveal his destination.
They said catching a bus was Busick’s choice and that his time of release was coordinated around his scheduled departure.
The “Find Lauria Bible” Facebook page, which is operated by the family and has more than 32,000 followers worldwide, asked supporters on Friday to light a candle in honor of the girls.
“Please continue to let your lights shine for the girls all day long!! They deserve the light, not him!,” a post on the page says.
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Timeline: Welch girls Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible go missing in 1999
September 2018: Inside the Welch Girls Investigation
Dec. 29, 1999
Ashley Freeman (left) and Lauria Bible, both 16, celebrate Ashley’s birthday with friends, her mother, Kathy Freeman, and Ashley’s boyfriend at a Vinita pizza restaurant. The teen girls planned to spend the night at the Freeman farm to celebrate, but at the last moment, Lauria Bible is the only friend to spend the night. (Courtesy photo)
Dec. 30, 1999
Sometime between midnight and 6 a.m., Danny and Kathy Freeman are shot and their mobile home is set on fire. The girls aren’t found. Bible's car was still parked out front, but searchers could find no trace of their whereabouts. (Courtesy image)
Dec. 31, 1999
Danny Freeman's remains are found by Lorene and Jay Bible in the mobile home. Law enforcement had to be called back out to the scene to investigate.
Dec. 31, 1999
Kathy Freeman is found dead in a burned-out mobile home where the Freemans lived. Her husband, Danny, and daughter, Ashley, and Ashley's best friend Lauria are missing.
January 2000
Prompted by separate tips, searches of Grand Lake, a mine shaft near Picher, and a water-filled quarry near Chelsea for the girls’ bodies yield no signs of the girls. Also, the case quickly garners national attention, with the case of the missing teen girls even being featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
January 2000
The case of the missing Welch girls is featured on “America's Most Wanted.” (MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World file photo)
March 15, 2000
Lorene Bible, mother of Lauria, holds a sign asking for her return in front of her house. (MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World file photo)
Jan. 1, 2001
One year after their disappearance, a memorial service is held for Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible.
June 14, 2001
Authorities search the Wyandotte home of a man named Paul Glover based on information from a jailhouse snitch. OSBI removes a patch of blood-stained carpet, however, testing reveals it’s not related to the missing teens. A few weeks later in July, authorities also search near Twin Bridges State Park in Ottawa County, with no success.
July 26, 2001
The search for the missing girls in Ottawa County near Twin Bridges State Park proved unsuccessful. Jay Bible, father of Lauria, is pictured here talking with a deputy sheriff after the search. (Tulsa World file photo)
July 26, 2001
Cadaver-sniffing dogs were used to search for the girls in a remote area southeast of Miami. Lorene Bible, mother of Lauria, is pictured here waiting at dawn for the search to begin at Twin Bridges State Park. (Tulsa World file photo)
Jan. 24, 2003
Authorities search a field in Wyandotte after bones were discovered. It was later ruled the discovery was horse bones.
(Google Maps image)
2009
Then-Craig County sheriff Jimmie Sooter is pictured in his office in January 2001. After private investigator Joe Dugan died in 2009, his family reportedly attempted to turn over his investigative files to the sheriff's office, which turned them down, an affidavit states. The family destroyed the files. (Tulsa World file photo)
2010
Ashley Freeman declared legally dead by her family, per court records. (Photo courtesy of the The Mobile County Sheriff's Department)
May 2011
Case featured on "Vanished with Beth Holloway" series on Lifetime network. (Screengrab via mylifetime.com)
January 2013
Case featured in "Out of the Ashes" TV special on Investigation Discovery. (Screengrab via investigationdiscovery.com)
December 2017
Craig County authorities announce the discovery earlier that year of a long-lost set of investigation files related to the case that they described as "extremely valuable." The files were discovered after Heath Winfrey was sworn in as the new sheriff in early 2017.
(Photo by GARY CROW/For the Tulsa World)
April 2018
Craig County district attorney holds a news conference to reveal "a recent and significant development" in the investigation. (Photo by GARY CROW/For the Tulsa World)
April 23, 2018
Craig County district attorney Matt Ballard’s investigator, Gary Stansill, files a 29-page affidavit.
April 23, 2018
“They’ve (the Freeman and Bible families) learned these young ladies’ final days were certainly horrific, and today’s announcement no doubt comes as little solace to their grief,” said Craig County district attorney Matt Ballard (pictured), who did not take questions during the news conference. (Photo by GARY CROW/For the Tulsa World)
April 23, 2018
Ronnie Busick (left), 66, of Wichita, Kansas, is arrested and charged in the 1999 deaths of the girls and Kathy and Danny Freeman. Two other suspects — Phil Welch (middle), 61, and David Pennington, 56 — are also implicated, but Welch, described as the “mastermind” behind the killings, died in 2007 and Pennington in 2015.
June 2019
A new documentary series on the disappearance of two Welch girls, "Hell in the Heartland," debuts.
The HLN network four-part series will explore the murders of Kathy and Danny Freeman and the case of their missing daughter Ashley and her best friend Lauria Bible.
Lorene Bible, Lauria's mother, attended a preview of the series in New York earlier in May and told the Joplin Globe that outrage was the most prominent public reaction.
June 14, 2019
Quadruple murder suspect Ronnie Busick was offered “immunity and reward money” in change for information on an almost two-decade-old case involving the disappearance of two Craig County teenage girls, according to a court document.
The problem is his attorneys claim Busick can’t remember anything about the slayings of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the disappearance of their 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, and her best friend, Lauria Bible.
July 29, 2019
The area surrounding a former mobile home site where authorities believe Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman were kept the last week of their lives will be the subject of a search by investigators and the Tulsa police dive team.
The search will be centered on the former residence of Warren Phillip Welch II in the abandoned town of Picher.
Welch is implicated by prosecutors, along with David Pennington and Ronnie Busick, in the fatal shootings of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the burning of their mobile home on Dec. 30, 1999.
July 30, 2019
Ground-penetrating radar and the Tulsa Police Department’s dive team were brought in to assist in an in-depth examination of the last location that authorities believe 16-year-olds Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible were seen alive.
“This is the first time that we’ve had this,” said Bible’s mother, Lorene Bible. “That’s technology we didn’t have before.”
July 31, 2019
The latest search of a football-field-size mining pond failed to recover the remains of two teenage girls who have been missing since 1999.
“The results were negative,” Tammy Ferrari, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agent, said at the conclusion of two days of searching in the Picher area. “But it’s not going to stop our efforts in continuing to try and recover the girls.”
Nov. 19, 2019
A jury trial to determine competency is set for Dec. 13 for quadruple-murder suspect Ronnie Dean Busick in connection with the presumed deaths of two Craig County teens missing for almost two decades.
Using a cane, Busick appeared in Craig County District Court before Special Judge Jacqueline Stout in connection with the slayings of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the kidnapping and presumed deaths of their daughter, Ashley Freeman, and her friend, Lauria Bible.
Nov. 23, 2019
A mine shaft in the Tar Creek area of northern Ottawa County where a witness reported to authorities he saw two deceased murder suspects leave will be looked at by authorities to determine whether a camera can be lowered into the shaft.
“This is not a search for the Welch girls,” said Gary Stansill, District 12 District Attorney’s Office investigator, referring to Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, the two missing 16-year-old Craig County best friends who disappeared almost two decades ago.
Nov. 26, 2019
A camera outfitted with lights was lowered 175 feet down an old mine shaft by members of the Tulsa Dive Team as part of an ongoing investigation into the disappearance and presumed deaths of two missing 16-year-old Welch girls — Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible — 20 years ago.
The abandoned mine shaft is in the Tar Creek area of northern Ottawa County.
“It’s the same mine shaft where a witness reported to authorities he saw three men,” said Gary Stansill, investigator for the District 12 District Attorney’s Office.
Dec. 13, 2019
Quadruple-murder suspect Ronnie Busick “could walk away looking like a hero” if he would tell authorities what happened the night when Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman disappeared, his attorney said at his competency hearing.
The trouble is, he doesn’t remember, said Gretchen Mosley, the attorney.
A jury of three men and three women, along with two alternates, was chosen to decide whether Busick is competent to stand trial in the slayings of Danny and Kathy Freemen and the kidnapping and presumed deaths of their daughter, Ashley, and her best friend, Lauria Bible.
Dec. 18, 2019
Quadruple murder suspect Ronnie Busick was found competent to stand trial in the killings of a Craig County couple and the disappearance and presumed deaths of their teenage daughter and her best friend two decades ago.
The three-man, three-woman jury deliberated for 45 minutes before coming back with the verdict.
Busick, who was dressed in street clothes throughout the two-day trial, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
July 16, 2020
Ronnie Dean Busick, the only still-living suspect, enters a guilty plea in an agreement that makes his sentence dependent upon whether he can lead authorities to the bodies of the missing girls.
Sept. 1, 2020
Ronnie Busick was handed a 10-year prison sentence and five years of probation for his involvement with the disappearance and presumed deaths of 16-year-old best friends Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman. He will receive credit for time served since his April 2018 arrest.
Oct. 1, 2020
An investigator outlined the details provided by a convict in the case.
Ronnie Busick told authorities two of his now-deceased associates, Warren Phillip Welch II and David Pennington, were the masterminds behind the bloodbath that left the Freeman mobile home in Welch in ashes on Dec. 30, 1999, and the kidnapping, torture, rape and eventually death of the teenagers.
Oct. 11, 2020
“The most misunderstood part of this is I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I am the one doing time,” Ronnie Busick said in a phone interview from the Craig County jail.
April 26, 2021
Based on information given to authorities by relatives of a now deceased suspect in the kidnapping and presumed deaths of two Craig County teens, authorities will search two lots in Picher, concentrating on finding an abandoned root cellar.
“It may be our most promising lead,” said Gary Stansill, Craig County District Attorney’s Office investigator, referring to the whereabouts of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman’s remains.
April 27, 2021
Several locations on the property where a now deceased suspect in the kidnapping and presumed deaths of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman is being excavated.
Investigators are digging on adjacent lot near what was a driveway.
April 29, 2021
A search team looking to recover the remains of two Craig County teenagers who have been missing for over 21 years plans to return to April 27's search site after reinterviewing former neighbors and property owners.
Weather-related issues may push the second search at 629 S. Ottawa St. in Picher, now a ghost town in the Tar Creek Superfund site, to about two or three weeks from now.
The property once belonged to David Pennington, a suspect along with Phil Welch and Ronnie Busick in the Dec. 30, 1999, arson and shooting deaths of Danny and Kathy Freeman.
Special report: Missing Welch girls investigation
Part I: Two girls went missing from Welch almost two decades ago. Why did it take so long for law enforcement to name their killers when there were so many clues early on?
From the car insurance card found at the crime scene, to the car’s owner and the car itself, to the name of the man who’s now believed to be the mastermind behind the killings of Danny and Kathy Freeman, and the kidnapping, rape and likely deaths of Ashley Freeman and her best friend Lauria Bible.
But why? And how?
Part II: Who are the three men accused in the case of the missing Welch girls? Hear from those who knew them
Details that have emerged about the three suspects in the killings of Danny and Kathy Freeman and disappearance of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible are as bewildering as they are damning. The alleged mastermind even claimed to be an ordained minister. Who were they really?
Part III: In first in-depth interview, cold-case investigators explain why they haven't given up on finding two missing Welch girls
While the duo has made the only arrest they say they will likely ever make in the kidnapping and deaths of 16-year-olds Ashley Freeman and Bible and slayings of Ashley’s parents, Danny and Kathy, they want the public to know one thing: Their investigation is more active than ever.
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