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18 years later, finally answers: How investigators solved the murders of 2 Welch girls
Tulsa World ^ | Apr 23, 2018 | Shelia Stogsdill

Posted on 05/21/2018 2:35:16 PM PDT by Zhang Fei

VINITA — Eighteen years after two teenagers from Welch disappeared, police have arrested one of three men they say tortured and held the girls for days before strangling them to death.

The killers bragged that the bodies of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, both 16, are “in a pit in Picher,” according to an affidavit released at a news conference Monday.

Ronnie Dean Busick, 66, of Wichita, Kansas, faces a host of charges in the 1999 deaths of the girls and Freeman’s parents, Kathy and Danny Freeman. He is in custody at the Harvey County, Kansas, jail.

Two other suspects — Warren Philip Welch II, 61, and David A. Pennington, 56 — are now dead. Welch died in 2007; Pennington died in 2015.

Kathy and Danny Freeman’s remains were found in their burned mobile home. “The girls were kept alive for an unknown number of days following the fire,” and “Polaroid photographs of the girls in their final days were seen by multiple people,” said Matt Ballard, district attorney for Craig, Mayes and Rogers counties.

The teenagers were kidnapped, tied up, raped and held in a mobile home at 412 S. College St. in Picher for a “matter of days” before being strangled, according to the affidavit. Photos of the girls bound and gagged and lying on a bed with Welch, one of the suspects, are described in the affidavit.

“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 Ballard, who did not take questions during the news conference.

“There are several someones out there that can bring the girls home,” Lorene Bible said of finding the girls’ bodies. “It’s time to bring the girls home.”

(Excerpt) Read more at tulsaworld.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Kansas; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: ashleyfreeman; coldcase; dannyfreeman; kansas; kathyfreeman; lauriabible; ok; oklahoma; picher; ronniedeanbusick; wichita
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The wheels of justice finally begin turning for these victims, and two parents who were shot and killed. The remains of these two girls have not been located.
1 posted on 05/21/2018 2:35:17 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Zhang Fei

An earlier confession in 2005 by a serial killer, covered here, may have been erroneous. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1515164/posts


2 posted on 05/21/2018 2:35:30 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.)
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To: Zhang Fei

You wonder how many other poor girls were kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered. Thank God He knows and that He is the righteous judge.


3 posted on 05/21/2018 2:39:33 PM PDT by Jmouse007 (Lord God Almighty, deliver us from this evil in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Thought at first it was UK. In which case 2 Welsh girls would be from Wales not Welsh.


4 posted on 05/21/2018 2:44:37 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you)
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To: Zhang Fei

2018-1999 = 19...............


5 posted on 05/21/2018 2:45:32 PM PDT by Red Badger (Remember all the great work Obama did for the black community?.............. Me neither.)
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To: Zhang Fei
The link is behind a pay wall on my computer.

One strange thing strikes me immediately...

Two of the suspects were in their 40s, and the third suspect was almost 40.

Was there a Meth or other drug connection involved here?

6 posted on 05/21/2018 2:48:07 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: Zhang Fei
18 years later, finally answers: How investigators solved the murders of 2 Welch girls

Boy, I bet they really found themselves in a jam.

7 posted on 05/21/2018 2:50:44 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce

Yeah ... being kidnapped, tortured and murdered ...


8 posted on 05/21/2018 2:53:50 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: zeestephen

“Was there a Meth or other drug connection involved here?”

Most definitely! Meth and pot.

From reading the articles, it sounds like the two girls were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What a gawd-awful story to read.


9 posted on 05/21/2018 2:56:56 PM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: Jmouse007
"You wonder how many other poor girls were kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered."

In the 70's 3 young girls disappeared from a shopping mall in Fort Worth at Christmas time during broad daylight. The car with their purchases were in the parking lot. Nothing else has ever been found. A man I worked with daughter was one of them.

10 posted on 05/21/2018 2:57:10 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: ShadowAce
Boy, I bet they really found themselves in a jam.

Lame attempts at humor on such a thread as this has become more and more numerous and equally disgusting..........

11 posted on 05/21/2018 3:02:05 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Mother nature is a serial killer......)
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To: Zhang Fei
photographs of the girls in their final days were seen by multiple people...There are several someones out there that can bring the girls home

Sounds like a whole lot more arrests are needed. Anyone who saw the pictures and didn't call the cops needs to be in jail.

12 posted on 05/21/2018 3:05:33 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: Hot Tabasco; NorthMountain
It was more a comment on the headline, and the lack of editing than it was on the case.

Sorry you got so offended.

13 posted on 05/21/2018 3:05:53 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce
Sorry you got so offended.

Don't offer fake apologies. They're fake. They imply that you're fake.

Are you fake?

14 posted on 05/21/2018 3:09:36 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Zhang Fei

bookmark


15 posted on 05/21/2018 3:15:51 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: ShadowAce
Sorry you got so offended.

You didn't offend me bro, you offended common decency.

16 posted on 05/21/2018 3:18:52 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Mother nature is a serial killer......)
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To: Hot Tabasco; NorthMountain
I'm thinking “ShadowAce” (”found themselves in a jam”) might have been hacked.

His Free Republic home page opens with an Old Testament quote from Micah.

Also, he's been a Freeper since 2000.

I have exposed two hacked accounts from 1998-2000 from people who suddenly became belligerent fanatical Trump supporters.

The obvious evidence is in the archives, when there is a long unexplained gap in their posts, and then they suddenly re-appear with the writing style of an out of control teenager.

The problem with trying to detect these guys is that you have to click, page-by-page, sometimes through years of posts, until you finally find the “big gap” that shows the account was inactive and has now been hacked.

If there is a faster way to search the archives, I don't know about it.

17 posted on 05/21/2018 3:27:28 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen
I'm thinking “ShadowAce” (”found themselves in a jam”) might have been hacked.

Good observation, obviously the post was made by a Russian infiltrator on this site........Give me a frickin break!!!!!


18 posted on 05/21/2018 3:37:43 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Mother nature is a serial killer......)
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To: Zhang Fei

Is it me or did that article seem like you got started in the middle and each paragraph was missing a few key words.


19 posted on 05/21/2018 3:46:59 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: NorthMountain

Fake is really getting overused these days. The crime was hideous. But the story reads as though it was dictated to a Chimpanzee by a parrot.


20 posted on 05/21/2018 3:48:57 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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