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CRAIG Canton, Okla. – Later on 18 years, authorities say they now know who is responsible for killing an Oklahoma couple and kidnapping two teen girls.

More than a dozen people with data most the grisly crimes kept silent for almost two decades, some out of fearfulness for their own lives, according to a court affidavit obtained past KFOR.

Lauria Bible and her friend Ashley Freeman, both 16, disappeared on December 30, 1999 from Welch, Okla.

Lauria was at Ashley's domicile for a sleepover.

That nighttime, the Freeman's mobile habitation went upwards in flames, and the charred remains of Ashley'south parents, Danny and Kathy Freeman, were establish inside.

Danny and Kathy both suffered gunshot wounds to the head, an autopsy showed.

Merely Lauria and Ashley were nowhere to exist found.

Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible (family photo)

The Craig Canton sheriff chosen Oklahoma Country Bureau of Investigation special agents to help .

For years, agents and many other investigators followed numerous leads, interviewing a multitude of possible witnesses and suspects while searching wells and other possible burying sites.

In Dec 2017, officials said they discovered new leads that could be a turning point in the case.

In December 2017, Craig County Sheriff Heath Winfrey provided investigators with previously unknown notes and documents he discovered referencing the Freeman/Bible case. The previous sheriff's administration had apparently stashed the cache of information.

Those notes and documents have proven extremely valuable.

The probable crusade affirmation states the documents contained "some information pertaining to Warren Phillip "Phil" Welch Ii, David Pennington, and Ronnie Busick, as being involved in the murders and missing girls. The crate likewise contained names of individuals that may possess information."

An OSBI agent and District 12 District Attorney's Part investigator interviewed several people who the say had cognition nigh the murders and the missing girls.

Through those interviews, investigators determined Welch, Pennington and Busick murdered Danny and Kathy Freeman, set their home on fire, and kidnapped Ashley and Lauria, and eventually killed them likewise.

Warren Phllip Welch (deceased), Ronnie Busick and David Pennington (deceased), are suspected in the 1999 disappearance of 2 Oklahoma girls.

More 12 people kept their mouths close about the murders

Courtroom documents reveal more than a dozen people said they knew or had fifty-fifty seen evidence of the crimes.

More than a dozen interviews are cited in the probable crusade affidavit. Many of the interviewees had apparently dated and lived with the accused men.

All of the witnesses said either Phil Welch, David Pennington, or Ronnie Busick bragged about the murders, and threatened to kill anyone who went to police.

Welch and Pennington were allegedly known to melt methamphetamine together, and several of those interviewed reported the three killed the Freemans over money owed for drugs.

A woman identified equally TW lived with Phil Welch in the months following the murders.

She said she heard conversations betwixt the three men in which they implied that the suspects killed the couple over a drug debt, with Pennington and Busick setting burn to the home. TW told investigators that, based on the conversation, she believed they had abducted and later killed the two girls.

She besides told police she discovered Welch had briefcase full of Polaroids of the girls bound and gagged with duct tape, lying on a bed she recognized to be his, and "in some of the Polaroids she observed Welch lying next to the girls."

TW said she confronted Welch about it and he told her, "don't you lot ever tell everyone or yous will end upwardly in a pit in Picher (OK) like those two girls."

A friend of TW, identified as CM in court documents, said TW showed her a Polaroid of the two girls on a bed, bound and gagged, facing each other, and said they looked "emaciated."

She said Welch threatened to kill her and her children several times, and throw them in the same pit equally the two girls.

A woman who lived with Pennington, identified as LE, told investigators he talked about the missing girls all the fourth dimension she was with him.

The affirmation states LE said he chosen it a "bad drug deal," and that he "told her that if she ever left him that he would kill her too."

RE, the son of LE, told investigators while he and his mother were living with Pennington, Welch and Pennington showed him the Polaroids of the girls and "told him that they killed the girls by strangling them."

Witnesses reportedly overheard Welch and Pennington talking well-nigh the girls and said "if they wouldn't accept taken off running … they would still exist alive."

A man identified equally RH said Busick admitted his involvement in the murders and the missing girls.

According to the affidavit, RH stated that "Busick told him almost how the girls were tied upwardly in a trailer house in Picher where they were raped and tortured."

He said Busick told him Welch was the shooter the night the Freemans were killed, only that Busick and Pennington stayed behind and started the burn.

RH said Welch threatened to kill him as well.

A man identified every bit JR was interviewed while he was incarcerated, and told investigators he walked into a trailer while Pennington, Welch, and Busick and one other unnamed man were looking at the Polaroids of the girls.

Others interviewees include friends of one or all of the suspects, friends of their lovers and fifty-fifty Pennington'southward brother.

No one investigators spoke to could say where the Polaroids are today.

Some witnesses reported they were told by the three men the girls were thrown in a pit, others said that they were dropped down a mine shaft in Picher, "later on covered in concrete."

Witnesses told investigators that Welch had nailed the teens' missing poster to a wall of his mobile home.

Private Investigators Allegedly Told To End Investigating the Case

Throughout the interviews, the OSBI and DA investigators learned a private investigative team had also begun an investigation immediately following the incident.

Joe Dugan, a private investigator living in Miami, OK, and his partner Tom Pryor had interviewed several people and discovered one of Welch's ex-girlfriends' motorcar insurance verification course near the Freeman'southward burned down house.

The vehicle the insurance card was registered to was thought to be the car the men were driving when they kidnapped the girls.

When the OSBI/DA team went looking for the Dugan and Pryor, they discovered Dugan had died in 2009.

Pryor told them Dugan's family unit tried to give the files on the Freeman case to the Craig County Sheriff'south Role, but that the sheriff'due south office refused to take them at the fourth dimension.

Eventually the family destroyed the records.

Pryor also said he was told past police enforcement to finish investigating the case.

The Arrest of Busick

On Sunday, authorities arrested Ronnie Dean Busick, 66, for the crimes.

He'due south charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of arson.

Ronnie Dean Busick

Welch and Pennington both died during the investigation.

In 2017, investigators interviewed Ronnie Busick 3 times before he was arrested.

At beginning, the affidavit states that when Busick was asked about Welch, "his response was that the proper noun 'sounds familiar,'" that he "remembers the proper name."

As the interviews continued, he admitted that the three of them "were pretty tight back in those days."

When asked about the murders, he went from saying he remembered hearing about them on the news, to conceding that Welch was probably responsible and that Pennington may have been every bit well.

The investigators criticized him for never directly denying he was involved when they accused him of existence there the night the Freemans were killed.

After that, the affirmation shows he vacillated between denying his interest and challenge he couldn't remember.

The terminal interview with Busick was conducted November 2, 2017.

Information technology lasted several hours, during which time he was primarily interrogated past OSBI Agent Michael Dean.

The affirmation states Dean asked him what was keeping him from beingness truthful, if it was fright of what his (Busick'south) sister would think.

The affidavit states "Busick responded by stating, 'Well yeah.' Later Agent Dean stated, 'You're scared of what your sis would think almost y'all if yous told truth. That'south what it is, right?' Busick responded, 'yes.'"

The affidavit states that "Amanuensis Dean told Busick that he believes this has been 'eating' at him for the by 17 years and that he would be in relief once he told the truth. Busick would mind and nod, but never disclosed his involvement."

Where Are The Teens' Bodies?

Investigators say the case is not yet over.

They are nonetheless searching for Ashley and Lauria'south remains.

Regime believe in that location are people who may accept information that could lead them to the girls.

Anyone with information is urged to call the OSBI at i-800-522-8017 or e-mail at tips@osbi.ok.gov.  Officials said the private reward of $50,000 still stands for information related to the location of the girls.

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