MURDERED: Lauria Bible & Ashley Freeman || Crime to Burn for Cases that Haunt Us
Update: 2025-10-25
Description
In Memory of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman
On December 30, 1999, a trailer home in rural Oklahoma went up in flames. Inside, investigators found the body of Kathy Freeman — shot to death — but her husband, Danny, and their teenage daughter, Ashley, were nowhere to be found. Outside the burned-out trailer sat a vehicle belonging to Ashley’s best friend, Lauria Bible, who had spent the night with her — and was now missing without a trace. What began as a fire scene quickly unraveled into one of the most confounding and heartbreaking missing persons cases in the Midwest.
For nearly two decades, families and investigators chased false leads, rumors, and dead ends through a maze of small-town secrets and criminal networks. The brutal truth of what happened that night — and who took the girls — remained unanswered for years, delayed by investigative failures and the silence of a community that knew more than it said.This is the story of two best friends whose disappearance still echoes through Oklahoma — a case where justice was lost to infuriating investigative missteps for decades. But it’s also the story of a mother who never gave up, who still fights to preserve her daughter’s memory, and of two teenage girls whose legacy lives on in Oklahoma through new laws bearing their names.
SOURCES:
- KJRH Tulsa. 25 years: Mother, community mark anniversary of Bible, Freeman disappearance. January 2, 2024. People.com
- KJRH Tulsa. Oklahoma's Cold Case Files: Lauria Bible & Ashley Freeman. May 8, 2025.
- People Magazine. Polaroids Prompt Arrest in 1999 Disappearance of 2 Oklahoma Teens.
- People Magazine. How an Overlooked Clue Cracked Open 1999 Murder Case More than a Decade After Teen Girls Were Killed. June 7, 2021. People.com
- Miller, Jax. Hell in the Heartland: Murder, Meth, and the Case of Two Missing Girls. Berkley Books, 2020.
- Sirens: A Southern True Crime Podcast. (2022, December 6–24). Hell in the Heartland [Audio podcast series]. Season 3, Episodes 1–6. Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com
- Oklahoma House of Representatives – Coverage of Lauria and Ashley’s Law, including legislative progression and final passage
- KJRH News – Report on Governor Kevin Stitt signing Lauria and Ashley’s Law into effect
- KSWO News – Details on the law’s provisions and its scheduled effective date of November 1, 2025
- News 9 – Coverage of the law’s requirements, with statements from Lorene Bible and law enforcement officials
- KOCO News – Overview of the bill’s signing and related legislative actions
- Lauria and Ashley’s Law Signed by Governor
- Lauria and Ashley’s Law Passes Oklahoma Senate
- Lauria and Ashley’s Law Passes House
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All proceeds from Cases That Haunt Us will be donated the the volunteer organization: The Jason Landry Search Team
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This is a “Podcasters Give Back” series: Cases That Haunt Us from the women-owned Fire Eyes Media LLC network
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