Casefile True Crime - Case 03: Lauria Bible & Ashley Freeman

Episode Date: January 23, 2016

On the 29th of January 1999, best friends Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman had a sleepover at Ashley’s house to celebrate her 16th birthday. Ashley’s parents Danny and Kathy Freeman were also home. It was a quiet uneventful evening, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until 6 am the next morning when a neighbour reported the Freeman house was on fire. For all credits and sources please visit http://casefilepodcast.com/case-03-lauria-bible-and-ashley-freeman

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Molson Everyone in Must be legal drinking age On the 29th of January 1999 best friends Laura Bible and Ashley Freeman had a sleepover at Ashley's house to celebrate her 16th birthday Ashley's parents Danny and Kathy Freeman were also at the house Which was actually trailer on a rural property in Welsh located in Craig County, Oklahoma, USA It was a remote area It was a pretty quiet uneventful night of eating cake and watching TV. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary

But about 6 a.m. The next morning a neighbor reported that the Freeman house is on fire Emergency services rushed to the scene and found the body of Kathy Freeman But where were Danny Laura and Ashley You Laura Bible and Ashley Freeman grew up in Veneta a town in Craig County, Oklahoma The population at the time was about six and a half thousand people Laura's born on the 18th of April 1983 Ashley was born later that year on the 29th of December 1983 Laura and Ashley first met each other in kindergarten

They formed an instant bond and were basically inseparable ever since they only got closer as time went on and were the best of friends About as close as friends could get Loren Bible Laura's mother says that Laura and Ashley would call each other at least once a week What one was thinking the other was thinking when one of them started a sentence the other one would be able to finish it They attended the same schools and spent every waking minute together throughout their early school years But then in 1995 Ashley's parents decided to make a move to Welsh still in Craig County, Oklahoma about 32 kilometers away or 20 miles Well, it was a rural area with a population of about 600 at the time The Freedman's moved into a trailer on a rural property that they owned which was about 40 acres in size

It was a pretty isolated remote quiet spot It was a testing time for the girls friendship, but they got through it They remained best of friends and still managed to see each other quite regularly. They called each other on the phone almost daily Laura and Ashley were your typical teenage girls. They loved hair makeup shopping clothes the usual stuff Both were also very good students and they were in the top 10% of their classes Laura was a cheerleader and had a passion and love for animals. Ashley was more of an athletic type that she was in the basketball team She loved hunting as well. She shot her first year around the age of 12 Ashley also had a job at a local convenience store and she hoped to save enough money by the time she turned 16 to buy a car

Ashley's mother Kathy Freeman was described as a loving and caring person She was a hard worker and was the main breadwinner for the family her father Danny Freeman He was known to have a little bit of a violent temper Ashley also had an older brother Shane He was three years older than her and after moving to Welsh there were a few issues starting to happen in the Freedman household There were reports of friction between Ashley and her father Not only that there was friction between her father and a brother In 1998 Shane ran away from home

Danny rang the local sheriff's office to report Shane missing and they located him shortly after But Shane had injuries He reported to the local deputy that he had run away because his father had whipped him for disobeying him and his injuries were Significant enough that there was bleeding coming through his underwear As a result Danny Freeman was charged with assaulting Shane and a court date was set for the next year in 1999 But about four months later on January 8th 1999 the Freeman household would be devastated Shane had started to develop a bit of a taste for theft and on January 8th 1999 he stole his native vehicle and a gun I

Little while later deputy David Hayes from Craig County Sheriff's Department spotted the vehicle on the side of the road He made his approach He pulled up and got out but almost immediately Shane confronted him and pulled a gun Deputy Hayes drew his gun and Screamed at Shane to drop it Shane refused forcing deputy Hayes to fire Shane died almost instantly An investigation by the County District Attorney found that deputy Hayes was acting in self-defense and the shooting was justified

This was devastating for the Freeman family and actually really struggled to come to terms with the death of a brother Laura played a big party in helping her friend through that tough time The Freeman family refused to believe the shooting was in self-defense They had grave doubts about the deputy's version of events They were of the belief that was a cold-blooded murder I can't find any information as to what made the Freemans think this if there was something in particular that led them to believe it But it's not unusual in cases of police shootings. It's a natural and understandable reaction from the family to blame the police Not their dead loved one

The Freeman family started the post silence around town saying justice for Shane They really started to make noise about it and as a result a little bit of a feud started between the local sheriff's office and the Freeman family About a month after the shooting Danny Freeman was arrested after driving around attempting to find out where deputy David Hayes lived In response to that the local deputy started to sit outside the Freeman house in their patrol cars The tension was starting to run lower Later that year Danny still had to face court on the charge of assaulting Shane, but he was acquitted Laura played a huge part in helping Ashley come to terms with her brother's loss throughout that year And towards the end of the year on the 29th of December it was time to celebrate Ashley's 16th birthday

Ashley was still grieving she didn't feel like doing much. She didn't want to party Instead deciding to spend the day with the mother Kathy and of course Laura They went in the town. They went shopping They ate they spent the day together The girls decided that they wanted to have a sleepover And so after finishing up in town they stopped in at Laura's home And she got permission from her parents to sleep over at Ashley's house for a birthday It was about 7 p.m.

Laura was driving she was 16. She had her own car and she drove herself to Ashley's She also took a purse with her and about two hundred dollars in cash And so Laura made her way to Ashley's place and they continued the birthday celebrations all still very low-key They ate cake and they watched a hunting show on TV a Little while later Ashley's boyfriend Jeremy Hurst turned up and gave Ashley her birthday present He stayed for a little while before leaving at about 9 30 p.m. He said everything was normal. It was a quiet night Just Laura and Ashley and Ashley's parents sitting around talking and watching TV

Nothing crazy going on at all Everything appeared normal until about 6 a.m. the next morning Thursday the 30th of December 1999 About 6 a.m. That next morning a neighbour of the Freemans called in to report the Freeman trailer was on fire It was still dark before sunrise There was a remote isolated area so the neighbour wasn't close But a trailer on fire obviously is hard to miss even from a long way away Welles volunteer firefighters rushed to the scene when they got there the Freeman trailer was still well alight, but they managed to put it out The Craig County Sheriff's Office arrived soon after and a crime scene was established

The area was taped off It was about 7 30 a.m. When the rent Bible got a phone call that would turn her and her family's life upside down Her son called her at work to tell her the Freeman trailer had been destroyed by fire Pretty much as soon as she hung up local deputy arrived to tell her the bad news in person and that one body had been located But he didn't have too much more information The rent immediately called her husband and they rushed to the scene When they got there still in a state of shock and panic They saw it was taped off and there were a lot of deputies standing around but no one seemed to be doing too much

No one was searching through the debris The Bibles were panicked and immediately questioned deputies about what they were doing to find their daughter They were told the investigation would not be starting until an agent arrived from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Otherwise known as the OSBI You see the deputies were well aware of what the Freeman family thought of them after Shane's death and they deemed it to be a conflict of interest for them to investigate They refused to handle the matter and instead called in the OSBI The OSBI is the state law enforcement agency for Oklahoma independent of the local county departments

This decision by Craig County Sheriff's Department may not have been the greatest as we'll see later The agent from the OSBI who would come to be in charge of the matter was agent Steve Nutter He arrived at the scene and the investigation commenced The body they had located was identified to be Kathy Freeman And by about 5 30 p.m. That afternoon they had decided that they had concluded their investigation of the scene They'd collected all the evidence they possibly could and Kathy's body was removed They told the Bibles that they were a hundred percent sure that there were no other bodies in the house As far as the Bibles could see though no search was conducted of the 40 acre property the Freemans lived on

The police were only worried about the trailer and the immediate surrounding area So Laura's father organized to fill the local ranges and they searched some of the property and horseback themselves But there was no trace of Danny or the girls So this raised some serious alarm bells Four people went to sleep in the trailer that night Three were unaccounted for Where were Danny Laura and Ashley? The Bibles were taken back to the police station where they were interviewed by OSBI agents

They were interviewed till around midnight Obviously a million things were been running through their minds But the number one thing was that Danny may have killed his wife and abducted the girls That was the only thing making sense at the time Otherwise what else could it be? There was a problem with that theory though both Danny and Kathy's cars were still parked in the driveway as was Laura's car It even still had the keys in the ignition Remember this is a remote area and they didn't own any other cars. So how did Danny get away with the girls?

The Rembibble also informed the OSBI agents that she was aware Danny had a history with drug use and maybe a little bit of drug viewing This immediately raised the possibility of another scenario a drug deal gone bad It did make sense and it would explain what Danny, Kathy and Laura's cars were still there if someone else had gone there and maybe taken them somewhere The Danny theory ended the drug theory. These were the two that were making the most sense at the time Much more sense than the other possibilities a random attack That seemed pretty unlikely It was a remote location. What are the chances of someone just stumbling across the Freeman's trailer? What about the possibility of the girls being responsible for this?

Well, that was unimaginable not Laura and Ashley. There's no way they could have done it Earlier that next morning the 31st of December agent Nutter received some shopping news Kathy didn't die from the fire. She died from a shotgun blast to the head The time of death was estimated to be at 5 a.m. on the 30th It was also confirmed the fire was deliberately lit and accelerant had been used Not long after receiving that info the police got their first tip off Someone had called in to say that they saw Danny Freeman in a white Ford truck with both Laura and Ashley inside The caller said they saw them about 7 a.m

So now the police the Bibles and relatives of the Freeman family thought they had their answer Danny murdered Kathy set the house on fire and a duck of the girls Seemed a likely scenario But that's not what happened Also earlier that morning on the 31st of December the Bibles returned to the Freeman property There was no longer a crime scene or the police and investigators had gone

Just imagine what horrible thoughts and feelings they were going through They went back to the scene just to look around and Just in the hope maybe the police missed something Surely there's got to be a sign of the girls and what happened. They needed answers They needed to know where their daughter was Well, they found an answer all right They found a very big answer Not long after arriving at the Freeman property and sifting through the debris

They found the burnt body of Danny Freeman steering back at them This was a major major problem There was already friction between the Freemans and the local sheriff's department And for that reason they called in the OSBI to take over of the matter and to avoid any conflicts of interest But somehow between them they managed to miss Danny Freeman's body Which took the Bibles all of about five minutes to find when they started sifting through the debris Somebody failed miserably The Bibles called Craig County Sheriff's office again and they arrived shortly after

Another crime scene was established and the OSBI was called back in The Bibles were told to leave the area because it was a crime scene, but they refused Lorraine raised a good point saying We let you do your job yesterday and look how well you did The Bibles weren't going anywhere Their daughter's body could very well be in amongst that debris It was determined soon after that Danny Freeman had also been killed with a shotgun blast to the head His charred body was found near where his wife's body was found in the bedroom

No shotgun was found nearby ruling out murder suicide Now imagine what the Bibles are thinking If the police missed Danny's body, they've probably missed Laura and Ashley's body as well An extensive search was carried out of the scene, but by the end of it the Bibles were told the police were a hundred percent sure There were no other bodies on site I'm not too sure how accompanying that was for the Bibles because that they had heard that story before The Bibles' grisly discovery had put an end to the theory that Danny had murdered his wife and abducted the girls

And obviously the tip-off the police had received earlier that morning was a false lead But it now raised the question Could Laura and Ashley have done this? It seemed impossible to loving caring girls good at school. No history of violence But police had to consider it Of course, there was the same problem as the Danny theory. How did they get away? What did they do murder Danny and Kathy set the trailer on fire and then run into the woods? All the cars were still in the driveway. Laura's purse was found at the scene still had the money in it and her ID

Nothing was adding up. The only thing that made sense if Laura and Ashley were responsible Was that it was self-defense? What if Danny and Kathy had gotten into an argument Danny had shot Kathy then Ashley defending her mother shot Danny Ashley was an avid hunter and she had her own guns. It still seemed crazy, but it had to be considered As the investigation continued police learned that Danny had a large gun collection himself rifles and shotguns They were around 14 found at the scene But they wouldn't save the murder weapon was among them Police also learned that Ashley had close to $4,000 in cash saved up hidden in the freezer

That was the money she was going to use to buy her car But that money was gone There was no sign of it Someone who knew it was there had taken it The Freeman family Ashley's uncle and grandmother had their own theory which was pretty bizarre They were convinced the local sheriff's department was responsible finally putting an end to the bit of feud they had been having with the family since Shane's death Danny's brother even said that just prior to his death

Danny had an animated discussion with him and said if anything ever happens to me look at the sheriff's department Danny's brother said Danny was deadly serious when he said this pointing finger in his face Obviously Danny could easily have just been letting off steam by saying this being a bit worked up in a heated discussion Tensions were high with the sheriff's department and it could be a natural thing to say It then came out that the Freeman family were actually trying to save enough money to file a wrongful death suit in relation to Shane's death They only had one week left to come up with the money to file the suit Otherwise a year would have passed since Shane's death and they would no longer be able to file Danny's brother said the local deputies were trying to threaten and intimidate Danny Freeman not to go ahead with the case

The Freemans wouldn't drop this theory and were convinced the local deputies had killed Danny and Kathy and buried the girl somewhere The OSBI responded and put the local deputies on a lie detector test all passed with flying colors Agent Steve Nutter had this to say All cleared themselves as a result of those examinations The overall conclusion of our efforts was that the sheriff's office had nothing to do with the murders of Danny and Kathy And did not know the whereabouts of the two missing girls That's a pretty far reach to think that local deputies could have murdered Danny and Kathy and then abducted the two girls over a wrongful death suit

Wrongful death suits are nothing new to police departments and the death had already been real justifiable at the time by the district attorney It seems a bit of a stretch Clearly there was friction there and naturally the remaining members of the freeman family are going to look to put some blame on the local deputies The information received that the freemans were trying to come up with enough money to file a wrongful death claim was interesting It was found out that that amount of money they needed was $5,000 a pretty significant sum to come up with in one week It's already been mentioned that Danny was known to be involved in drugs. They may be a little bit of dealing Could he have gone in over his head looking for a big quick payday? Only to have the big deal go horribly wrong

It was certainly possible Or was it the OSBI didn't seem to think so Agent nutter thought that nothing fit correctly if it was drug related and that the very last thing anyone would want to do is Abduct the two girls if it was a drug matter Now here's privy to information that we aren't but that's an incredible comment If it was a drug deal gone horribly wrong Do you not think that the person or people responsible for shooting two people in the head and then burning their house down Wouldn't be capable of abducting two girls

Of course they would be and for any number of reasons I don't think you need too much of an imagination to know why people Capable of such horrific violence would want to take two 16-year-old girls with them By now an autopsy had been performed on Danny and it was revealed he had a fracture on his right collar bone Indicating there could have been a fierce struggle before he was killed On New Year's Day the local community banded together and over 500 people performed a large search of the Freeman property But the search turned out nothing It's like Laura and Ashley disappeared off the face of the earth

On friday the 7th of january 2000 a memorial service was held for Danny and Kathy Over 400 people were in attendance The investigation continued but the police had nothing no witnesses no leads no real suspects It was 18 months later when they got their first solid break or so they thought A couple of inmates at the local county jail reported that they saw Ashley and Laura at a farmhouse in Ottawa County on New Year's Eve 1999 the day after their disappearance And it wasn't any house it was a house well known to police It belonged to the Glover family who were known meth manufacturers

These inmates reported seeing Ashley and Laura being drugged raped and tortured at the house and apparently someone had filmed it One of the inmates had saw the tape Police immediately applied for a search warrant and on the 26th of july 2001 they raided the Glover house But the only thing they found was evidence of drug manufacture They did find a spot of blood in the house and the sample was taken back to the lab But the lab was busy the Bible family were told they would have the results back in a year One whole year As if the Bible's on the rest of the Freeman family hadn't suffered enough

Now they had to wonder for a whole year if this story by the inmates at the local county was true And if that blood belonged to either Ashley or Laura Well, they suffered through the year and were told that it wasn't a match It wasn't actually all Laura's blood No trace of the girls were found in the Glover house police were back to square one Like a lot of cases that garner significant media attention There were all types of crazy tip-offs and people calling in with sightings of the girls all over the country These calls only got worse when a $50,000 reward was offered in exchange for information leading to an arrest

Police were even receiving calls putting the girls in totally opposite parts of the country on the same day As the investigation went on police decided to look into other cases that had been committed around the time of the Freeman case Both in Oklahoma itself and in neighboring states to see if any similar crimes were committed with a similar remote And they found one case that stuck out It was the case of Tommy Lynn cells Tommy Lynn cells was on death row for the horrific murder of 13 year old Kaleen Harris In the evening of the 30th of December 1999 Tommy was drinking at a bar and he eventually got kicked out for inappropriate behavior towards a barmaid After being kicked out he decided to force his way into a nearby trailer

He murdered Kaleen and then cut the throat of a friend Her friend acted dead and Tommy left Kaleen's friend then rushed to a neighbor's house police were called and Tommy Lynn cells was arrested soon after Incredible bravery from Kaleen's friend only 10 years old This happened in the early hours of the 31st of December 1999 Only the day after the Freeman attack And it happened in Texas, which is the neighboring state to Oklahoma So Tommy would have had enough time to go from the Freeman case to Texas and commit this murder

There were differences in the two crimes, but both were horrific in their nature And police wanted to look into Tommy Lynn cells a little bit more Agent Nutter and the new Craig County Sheriff Jimmy Souter made their way to death row to interview him At first he gave them nothing But after about six hours of interrogation he started to confess to the crime He claimed to have buried Laura and Ashley at Red River on the border of Oklahoma and Texas Police took cells to the site and he pointed out where he thought he had buried him, but there was a problem Not only were no remains found, but the site was completely different to what cells had described earlier

Also cells had a complete lack of knowledge of any of the more intimate details of the case He only knew what was in the paper And cells had a habit of confessing to murders While he was on death row he confessed to over 70 Police do think he was responsible for around 20 of the murders But they also think he was playing the system confessing to a whole heap of crimes. He didn't commit Maybe he just wanted to gain more notoriety Maybe he liked the attention. Maybe he was trying to get special privileges

And he did get out of his cell for a day after confessing to the Freeman crime to go to the alleged burial site So as crazy as confessing to a murder he didn't commit sounds There were a number of reasons why Tommy would make a false confession And he had nothing to lose. He was already on death row But whatever the reason was it became pretty clear to police that cells most likely had nothing to do with the Freeman case And he wasn't charged He was executed by the state of texas on april 3rd 2014 Oh

Tommy glean cells wasn't the only inmate on death row to confess to the murders of the freemans and laura bible Jeremy B. Jones was on death row for a sickening murder and police became very interested in him when he confessed In december 2000 Jeremy B. Jones was wanted on two separate rake charges in oklahoma He fled the state and went to alabama He managed to steal somebody's identity and his new identity was john paul chatman Not long after he got himself into trouble again, and he was arrested of fingerprint The prince was sent to the fbi and incredibly their system failed to match his prince to his real identity Jeremy B. Jones

So a new profile was created for him under his new identity john paul chatman And he was never arrested or died at back to oklahoma to face the rape charges On september 18th 2004 45-year-old lisa nichols was found dead She had been raped and shot in the head inside her trailer, which was then set on fire Very similar to what happened in the freemen case Jones was arrested after his vehicle was seen out the front of lisa's trailer the night of the murder Police caught up with him and this time they eventually worked out his real identity as being Jeremy B. Jones, not john chatman Jones admitted to killing nichols, but that's not all he confessed to

He confessed to 13 other murders across six states Although police could only find enough evidence to charge him with three of those murders Jones was convicted and sentenced to death And while he was on death row in july 2005, Jones confessed to four more murders Those of danny kathy and ashley freeman and laura bible It didn't take long for the police to really like to look of jeremy b. Jones Not only was the murder of lisa nichols very similar in nature to the freemen case But on the night the freemen's were murdered

Jeremy B. Jones was arrested for public intoxication only 16 kilometers away from the freemen property Or 10 miles if you prefer so that put him in the area And he was arrested for the murder of lisa nichols Agent nutter and sheriff suitor immediately went to the state of alabama to interview jones Strangely at first he denied any knowledge of the crime even though he had just confessed to it But as the interrogation went on he started to admit his involvement He said that danny owed him drug money So he shot him he then shot kathy and set the house on fire

He didn't even know the two girls were there until they ran out of the house screaming He tied the girls up put them in his truck and then he killed them and dumped them in a kansas mine shaft Unlike the confession of tommy lindsell's Jeremy B. Jones knew some things about the case that really got the attention of suitor and nutter He knew the exact accelerant that was used to start the fire and he knew the type of shotgun that was used to commit the murders This information had never been released to the public Police immediately set up a search of the kansas mine shaft where jones said he dumped the bodies, but there were problems There were over a hundred mines in the area and there was a system of underground water tunnels

So anything you dumped in would float away Regardless the area was searched extensively over several days including the use of underwater camera equipment But no trace of the girls was found When jones found out the police had come up empty he immediately took back his confession setting made it all up He's setting made it up to get special privileges. He got extra phone calls extra visitation and special meals Police also had another look at his arrest for public intoxication Now first I thought it was great news as I put him in the area

But they saw he was arrested at 4 a.m. On the 30th of december The time of death on catty freeman was estimated at 5 a.m. And the drive from the freeman property To the mine where he said he dumped the bodies and back It was about an hour The latest he could have left was 3 a.m Two hours before the estimated time of death And it's thought the fire was started after catty was killed as well. So the times weren't really adding up

But this didn't mean jeremy b jones wasn't responsible in some way anyway The crimes could easily have been committed by more than one person And for whatever reason jeremy b jones may have been left to wander away from the freeman residents While whoever else that was responsible Drove off with the girls Jeremy may have been mixing in what he did now about the case and making up the rest In order to confess to the crime to get those extra privileges But then for whatever reason decided to take back their confession

Jeremy b jones remains a suspect, but he's never been charged with the crime He's still on death row for the other murders Cells and jones are as close as the police have ever gotten to arresting anyone for the murders and for their disappearance of ashley and laura For some reason 11 years after the murders in 2010 the osb I thought it would be a good idea to release details of a suspicious vehicle seen in the area of the freeman property around the time of the murders The vehicle was described as a dark four-door sedan and it was seen between 5 30 a.m. And 6 a.m The osb I said they did not release details of this vehicle at the time because it was a vague description And they decided to keep that information within law enforcement ranks

A ridiculous decision that information should have been released to the public at the time Somebody might have seen it or somebody might have been able to shed some light on People that own similar cars who could have been persons of interest It's extremely optimistic to think that any information is going to come to light 11 years later At the same time they also released details of a second vehicle seen around the area of the freeman property around the same time between 5 30 a.m. And 6 This vehicle was described as a dark colored heavy-duty pickup truck and it was seen heading north towards kansas The osb I said this information was received in a recent interview, which at the time was 2010

So how reliable that information was in that interview 11 years later is anyone's guess And obviously the osb I didn't get any useful information because the case is still unsolved And continues to be investigated to this day Leads have been followed up all around the country, but there is still no trace of law nationally So what happened to the girls it's like they dropped off the face of the earth It seems unlikely two 16-year-old well behaved girls would be able to commit such a horrible crime and then vanish without a trace Taking none of their belongings with them This seems to leave only one scenario they two were victims

But why weren't they shot dead and left in the house with Danny and Kathy? Why were they taken? Where were they taken? Who took the $4,000 that actually had hidden and how did they know it was there? There are still no solid suspects in the case other than maybe Jeremy B. Jones, but he hasn't been charged yet 11 years after his confession It's highly unlikely police are ever going to charge him. They obviously don't think he was responsible There is surprisingly little mention of Ashley's boyfriend in all the material of source in this case He was there that night. He was the last one to see anyone alive All I've been able to find out about him since is that he suffers depression and survivors guilt Somebody out there knows something

Hopefully in time that somebody comes forward or there is a piece of information that helps break the case wide open Ashley's family have since had her ruled legally dead. That is a step that the bible's refused to take with laura Every night the rem bible leaves the porch light on Just in case laura comes home All right I can see you're not all right After all the absent nights If I had the chance to make the problems go away, I swear I would

Kill them today I swear I would Kill them today