As the search resumes for two girls missing since 1999, teams from Kansas are helping with renewed search efforts in Picher, Oklahoma.
Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman are believed to have been killed and dumped in the area, which is full of collapsed and flooded mine shafts. The girls were found to be missing after a fire at the Freeman home in Welch, Oklahoma. Bodies of Ashley’s parents were found in the burned home but the girls were not there.
An arrest in the case was not made until 2018. Ronnie James Busick was charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Bible and the Freeman family. The case is ongoing. There were two other suspects in the case but they died before Busick’s arrest.
Search efforts to find the girls are focused in Picher because of testimony from someone who lived with one of the suspects. She states she heard all three men talk about dumping the girls there.
In 2018, U.S. Senator Jim Inhoffe, of Oklahoma, committed to reaching out to federal agencies in hopes of bringing in additional resources and expertise to bring the girls home. This led the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to send a team to help with search efforts.
Search efforts ramped up in July of 2019, with the availability of technology that had not been an option in the past.
Federal, state, and local groups are helping to look for the missing girls. Teams will start their searches at 11:30 Tuesday morning and they will continue to work through Wednesday.
