Missing Welch Girls /// Part 1 /// 107 | Forensic Files

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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime this is true crime
garage and this is the case of the missing Welch [Music] girls [Music] lore Bible is described as 5' 5 in tall
130 lb with brown hair and Hazel Eyes Ashley Freeman is 5 fo 7 in tall 145 lb with dark blonde hair and blue
eyes she has a scar on the upper left side of her forehead both are Caucasian females and
were 16 years old at the time of their disappearance they have been missing since December 30th 1999 from Welch
Oklahoma they are both classified as endangered missing this is true crime garage and this is the case of the
missing Welch girls the Freeman family lived in a trailer home outside of Welch Oklahoma and the
family consisted of parents Dany and Kathy Freeman and their 16-year-old daughter Ashley on December 29th 1999
the family was celebrating Ashley's 16th birthday yeah and like a typical thing she's going to have her best friend
spend the night and her best friend is Laura Bible yes they are both 16 years old by this point they are lifelong
friends both were very good students Ashley was a basketball player Laura was a cheerleader and both of them were very
well liked so Ashley and Laura went with Kathy Freeman who took the two girls out
to dinner some have stated that they went to a Pizza Hut others said that it was Big Bill's Barbecue but regardless
they go out to dinner that evening they also picked up feed for the Freeman's livestock and water from Cathy's mom's
house after dinner they went to their local Walmart store there Ashley met her boyfriend Jeremy Hurst Jeremy gave
Ashley a silver chain with a heart-shaped pendant that also contained her birth stone this was her birthday
gift and then after the Walmart Kathy Ashley and Laura all went back to the Freeman's home and Jeremy joined them as
well Laura already spent the night the night before at the Freeman's house but since it's getting dark they're going to
stop by her family's house to see if it's okay if she spends the night again yeah it was it was going to be for one
night turns into two nights because Laura's parents do not let her drive after dark she's already driving by this
time her car is parked at the Freeman house now they drop by just to make sure it to be okay because it's well after
dark by this point and we can assume that they're on winter break at at this point now back at the Freeman home
Jeremy Hurst the boyfriend he says that while he was there he didn't think anything was abnormal he didn't see
anything out of place uh he says that he left the Freeman home around 9:30 p.m. but Annie the father he had some
relatives there at the Freeman home and one of the relatives said that Jeremy left closer to 10:30 p.m. so about an
hour later than Jeremy remembers yeah but as we know with eyewitness accounts they can be off by a little bit both of
the girls the next day had things that they had to do Ashley was going to take her driver's test and Laura had
scheduled a dentist appointment for the following morning well the following morning around 5:30 a.m. a passing
motorist reported a fire in the vicinity of the Freeman's trailer mhm when fire and police First Responders first showed
up to find the trailer a blaze they put out the fire and inside on the bed they found the body of a female they would
learn that this is the body of Kathy Freeman and they learned that she was not killed by the fire she had been shot
in the head before the fire so now we have a dead mother and we have a missing father and we have the missing two
teenagers yes and Ashley the sheriff's department they're going to start investigating and they have a theory
they immediately have a theory and their theory is that Danny Freeman probably lost it and he shot his wife he set the
trailer on fire and he took off with both of the 16-year-old girls no he he was known to have a temper and he had a
few run-ins with the sheriff's department we'll get to that in a minute the next day Lor's parents Jay and Loren
Bible they are at the scene of the fire and the murder and they are looking amongst the rubble for Clues regarding
the girl's whereabouts mhm they see the Freeman Family Dog this is a Rottweiler so a very big dog and the dog is kind of
laying on a collapsed portion of the trailer and around the dog or as some have suggested underneath of the Dog Jay
spots something and it's clear to Jay that he is looking at the dead body of a man the body of Danny Freeman always
been super fascinating to me how in tune with the world and surroundings dogs are
well the the crazy thing here is that Laura Bible's parents they could tell that Dany did not die as a result of the
fire either because as they described it in quote he did not have anything from the upper teeth all the way to the top
of his head that portion of the face was totally gone Jesus now the first question so gunshot blast to the to the
face yes and the first question that we we have to ask ourselves is how did the police and the firefighters miss the
body of Dany you know and does this make you think that they could have overlooked the bodies of the two
16-year-old girls as well well and then obviously that the public has access to this crime scene yeah we have a
situation where the Bibles were up there looking for clues about their daughters
and her friend and the thing is here that once they call and report that they found the body of Danny they get a
little push back from law enforcement stating that you know we've been over that crime scene and you must be
mistaken well what took place I guess is that you know yeah we're mistaken we just saw a guy with his face blown off
they they showed up and they put out the fire and this probably took a good deal
of time but after that once they're looking amongst the the rubble and the debris they find the body of of Kathy
they fail to find Danny's body but they leave the crime scene around 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. that night now keep in mind
it's the winter month so it's getting dark about that same time right there was a good chance that they may not have
found it uh just due to Time by right so by the time they get the fire out you know the Sun is setting and they
find the one body but so let's not you know jump down law enforcement's throats too quick maybe it's like well now it's
dark we're just going to stop we'll start again in the morning exactly but I don't think they planned on starting
again in the morning because they release the crime scene they they they leave the area well that's that's an
error that's irresponsible now the now the bibles are up there looking for stuff they find Danny and we're also
talking about a very very small community extremely remote area as well it's like 6 600 people live there yeah
so I mean let's just say under a thousand we know for sure under a thousand so the bibles are up there
looking and now once they get pushed back from law enforcement uh Law Enforcement wants to take the crime
scene back however by this point the bibles are up there with a bunch of their friends and family that are
assisting them looking through the debris and they're actually lifting up heavy objects you know refrigerators
beds uh they're looking for anywhere that these girls might have hid and maybe passed away in the fire oh hold up
a second that's definitely not what they're thinking they're thinking if they died in that house it's not from a
fire they were murdered just like the other two victims well and they're also freaking out because all of the cars are
still there in front of the Freeman home and we're talking about a big stretch of
land too you know so there's a lot of area and ground to cover when you're when you're conducting this search but
one thing that I found interesting was that the Bibles had said to law enforcement you know all of the cars are
still here have you checked the vehicles they claim that that law enforcement tells them no we we didn't we haven't
checked the vehicles yet yet and of course you know the Bibles and and their family members and friends are there
wondering what kind of search is this you miss Danny the first day right and then you've not even thought to check
the vehicles could these girls be in the vehicles could they be in the trunk of one of these cars well I mean again
let's not jump down law enforcement too much because you're you're there with your friends and family touching all the
debris MH that's a crime scene there's two murdered victims and you just contaminated that so good luck you know
if you do find somebody responsible good luck having enough evidence to convict them well let's talk about Danny's
running with the law real quick right uh and to do this we're going to have to introduce Shane Freeman Shane was a was
Ashley's older brother deceased now yeah and we'll have to go back in time a little to tell this story um in
1998 Shane was experiencing behavioral problems the family was ordered to to participate in a counseling program this
was after Shane stole his uncle's pickup truck now I do want to be kind of clear
here because I've heard this story a few different ways unless Shane was out stealing multiple vehicles um I've heard
it reported that he had stolen the uncle's truck or he had taken the grandparents vehicle right um maybe it's
the one one and the same I don't know but for whatever reason he took this vehicle that's what teenagers like to
say borrowing yeah and now there's there's another story that has a few different uh perspectives let's say on
it um regarding this vehicle being stolen Dany calls it in and he reports his son Shane as missing at the same
time that the vehicle is reported as stolen M now Shane is picked up for this now during this
situation the Shane has been abused okay it's obvious to the deputy that that arrest him that that Shane has been
abused physically abused like beat up that's one way that The Story Goes the other way that The Story Goes was that
Shane was at school and a school counselor or a coach had noticed that his his buttocks area was was bleeding
and he was extremely bruised up uh to the point where it wasn't just you know well that's it wasn't just mom or dad
with a little discipline to to straighten Shane out it was it looked like an obvious beating type situation
and like we said before the father Danny was known to have a temper so maybe his
parenting was getting a little out of control yeah and this was not the only situation where we saw his temp temper
flare up um back in 1985 well hold on hold on we're assuming it was Dany that was disciplining him
too hard or maybe just being a drunk and beating his child well what are we assuming here we're assuming that it was
Danny because he would be charged with with child abuse in the situation and what what law enforcement would contend
that that this was excessive force that Dany had used where Dany is saying no you're you're taking a family situation
and you're blowing it way out of proportion um but again this is not the first time that his temper has got him
into trouble because back in 1985 he got Danny got in trouble for beating up his father-in-law they had
some kind of what sounds almost like a minor disagreement gets you know gets crazy and out of hand and Dany ends up
getting charged with that and that's the evidence of Dany having a temper problem
yeah and after Dany is charged with abusing his son in 1998 Shane does not want to return to his parents' home he
ends up staying briefly with the with Ashley's family with the Bible family and in early January 1999 the Bible
family filed a complaint with authorities stating that Shane took some of Laura's belongings and her money and
that he also stole several of the Bible's Firearms well you know no good deed goes unpunished come to our house
steal our stuff yeah he takes he takes some of lore's money he takes the Firearms now the police are looking for
Shane and he ends up taking another vehicle this is somebody in the Freeman family and while he's out on the Run
well he this is very strange when he takes the other car mhm he doesn't again he doesn't steal somebody else's car he
he takes one of his own family members cars correct and while the while the law enforcement are looking for him he he
tries to pull over a female driver and the the female does not believe that this person is a sheriff or a police
officer um you know he's he's 19 years old uh he probably doesn't look anything like law enforcement and she calls 911
and she reports the situation stating that you know there's this guy saying he's he's law enforcement trying to pull
me over I'm not going to pull over I'm going to drive somewhere where I feel safe before I pull over so well
interesting too because cell phones aren't really super popular in 99 and police are already looking for this guy
mhm so what ends up happening is the the vehicle that he has taken it it eventually breaks down and law
enforcement locate him on the side of Road when they encounter him they you know they're they're doing the
traditional things but keep in mind Shane's got Firearms with him by this point right and they know he does yeah a
reported stolen he had told some people you know friends and whatnot that he was
suicidal and that he was thinking about doing suicide by cop well in this situation suicide by cop yes and in this
situation he ends up reaching for the gun there's two different stories here one story is that he pulled the gun on
the officer the other story is that he was reaching for the gun what ends up happening is that the officer shoots
Shane and he kills him and what will be disputed though is what was the interaction between the officer and
Shane this is Oklahoma law enforcement officer David Hayes he shot and killed Shane on January 8th
1999 now the incident was investigated and Hayes's actions were found to be Justified David Hayes acted in
self-defense the Freemans believed that Shane was attempting to run away from Hayes at the time of his death several
of their family members believe that the autopsy results proved that Shane was killed as he he his back was turned to
the officer right so the Bullet entry would have been in Shane's back we can't say that for certain what we can say is
that the family members believed that his back was turned mhm that the incident was investigated and it was
ruled to be a Justified shooting now this is what's going to bring on this whole kind of thing that's going on
between Danny Freeman and law enforcement Because he believes that his son was murdered by the police now Dany
reportedly inquired about the location of David Hay's residence this was one month after his son was killed
investigators apparently believed that Dany was planning some kind of Revenge uh against Shane's death the Freeman
claimed that several officer Vehicles were parked in front of their trailer after after he had inquired about their
residence the way that I've heard that this has gone down was that that Dany would go and he would park his vehicle
in front of the officer's home and he would kind of follow around his family members from time to time and this is
mind you like we said this is a small town there's not a lot of people there these things don't go
unnoticed and so what ends up happening is we have a situation where it looks like Dany might be harassing law
enforcement or their families and then the Freemans believe that in turn law enforcement starts harassing them by
parking their vehicles in front of the Freeman home well right obviously that law enforcement has they have to protect
themselves and they have to protect their family on the flip side of things though Danny just lost his son and even
if it was based off his own actions that he you know wanted to have suicide by a
cop or or you know he I'm going to pull out a gun and they're going to shoot me or maybe he's just going to pull out the
gun to shoot at the officer he he lost his son you know and and so that grief is a lot to deal with
I mean you shouldn't go around harassing people but it's like I I kind of feel for him on that on that angle
now law enforcement they start following Danny basically everywhere he's going maybe looking for any reason to pull him
over or give him a citation or arrest him for something uh but he believes that he's being harassed by this point
to the point where he informs his brother as well as other family members stating that if anything ever would were
to happen to me um you know look at the sheriff department they they're the ones
that that are harassing me and you know he also gave a state that he said to the fact that when he
was uh in some kind of verbal altercation with law enforcement that they had told him that they could do
whatever they wanted to him and Danny's Family there was nothing that they could
do to stop them all right well but this is secondhand you know we don't know that this this interaction actually took
place or those exact words were said well we've all been pulled over by you know some jack wagon officer right
that's just run in their mouth you know over nothing so whether or not a police officer was in an altercation you know
verbal altercation with Danny and he's saying hey we'll do whatever we want we are the law yeah I Am the Law whatever
it is that doesn't necessarily mean that they are responsible for these deaths well we have this situation though here
Captain where two months after the death of Shane now Danny Freeman he's got to go on trial for the child abuse charg
and this takes place in March of 1999 the jury ended up they deadlocked on the situation because they asked the
judge if they could order Dany to attend counseling rather than to send him to jail or to prison right uh the judge
says no you can't do that this is this is the sentence he's he's either guilty and he's going to face these charges and
get sentenced in this way or he's not guilty and I think this is a tough thing for the the jury to to make a call on
here because we got a we got a case where we don't have the number one witness the the the the kid that was was
supposedly abused um we don't have him there to testify as to what took place in that situation and now you have to
question app parents you know where's the line when you discipline your child um so what they end up stating is that
they he's acquitted of these charges because they wanted to send him to counseling but the judge would not allow
it after the death of Kathy Freeman her father and mother they were telling people that you know Dany not only did
he have this bad temper but he was also abusive to his wife and to both of his children um so this leads us to some of
the early theories in this case one of those theories being that after years of physical abuse Ashley with the help of
her friend they shoot the parents with one of the parents own guns with their guns and they flee the area the next
theory is very similar to that but that the two girls left town with two men or boys that that may have assisted them in
the attack on Ashley's parents the third theory that we should discuss here is the police killed Dany and then his
family and set the fire to destroy evidence Theory number four is that law enforcement wasn't involved and Danny
was targeted due to drug activity Theory number five is that the girls were the actual Target that the motivation for
the attack was abduction and that the parents were killed and the fire was set just to Simply hide evidence and the
final theory is that someone that knew the family had killed and abducted the girls the this would be any example that
you can imagine but you could also consider possibly the boyfriend Jeremy Hurst who was there that night as well
as relatives of Danny's that were at the trailer that night so those are the the
Six Theories that they're working off of early into this investigation I think we
kind of need to look at this evidence and point us in the right direction and what theory makes the most sense let's
get into that right after this quick beer [Music] break this show is sponsored by better help do
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support us all right let's get to this evidence yes so we both we know that both Dany and Kathy had died of a result
of gunshot wounds MH the medical examiner determined that Danny's right collar bone had been fractured prior to
the Fatal shot the coroner also determined that Kathy died approximately 5 a.m. that morning
and of course investigators believe that the fire was intentionally set in an attempt to destroy evidence of the
crimes now regarding the Family itself regarding the Freeman Family in their home Lorraine Bible told reporters that
Ashley Freeman had been saving her money to purchase her first vehicle when she turned 16 in December of 1999 Lorraine
said that she believed that Ashley had accumulated $1,200 in her savings account now Jeremy Hurst the boyfriend
said that Ashley actually didn't have a savings account um but Ashley had told him that she had saved between $3,000
and $4,000 for her first vehicle she was employed part-time at Rosco which is a convenience store in Welch uh Jeremy
went on to say that that you know she didn't have a bank account and she kept her money sealed in tupperware in a
tupperware container and the family's freezer authorities were unable to locate any evidence of the cash after
the fire Lorraine stated that Ashley and Dany had been arguing earlier in the month regarding the vehicle you know she
wanted to purchase a certain vehicle he had a different one in mind and they were not agreeing
we've all kind of been there you know the teenager has earned their own money they want to make their own decisions
with their money and you know Dad is disagreeing with her well some of that could just be telling a tall tale as
well you know like well first of all you're telling your friend's parents well I got a savings account well
where's the evidence of that you know now that they're missing and then on top of that you're telling the boyfriend
well you got you got three to for Grand which where's the evidence that he had any
money um the the other thing here too which I want to kind of talk about this for a little bit because because it's
very unclear now the authorities at some point disclosed that there were rumors that Ashley had been sexually abused but
they were unable to confirm these rumors well that's why the father that's why I
wanted to talk about this because it nowhere does it claim to state by who you know could it have been could it
have been her father her her brother could have been a family friend or or you know somebody at the school right um
when you say sexually abused you know your your your imagination wonders immediately who could it be but we don't
have anybody to point the finger at the other thing I I kind of thought about here in this situation was we have you
have a whole you know this town of 600 people and a day goes by where the town the people of the Town they're under the
belief that the father killed the mother abducted his daughter and her friend well is that long enough that's got to
be long enough for the the people in the town to start you know talking about these rumors well if he abducted those
two girls he must have been sexually abusing her um and I I wonder if I think it's a little irresponsible of law
enforcement to say that there were rumors of this um but we're unable B to confirm these rumors again a very small
community so not probably the best or most uh Advanced law enforcement unit in the in the world here and that's causes
a lot of problems cuz one you leave the crime scene without knowing how many victims are there MH and then then you
don't close off that crime scene and you allow people to come in there and contaminate it and then on top of that
now we got this third third thing where you're creating rumors right and and you're you're
fueling the fire really is what you're doing and and you know but you're creative you're creating a motive and
what I'm saying is that the birth of those rumors could very well be that because they didn't discover Danny's
body until the following day well and right but that's if those rumors are established then or if they're
established after because if you establish that oh well there's rumors that she was uh sexually abused you're
creating a motive on why the girls would want to kill the parents mhm and I feel
like whoever is establishing look I've said it before there's been several cases that we covered and oddly people
will establish Alibi they're creating their own Alibi and when somebody starts creating their own Alibi that to me
that's a a sign of guilt right mhm and so it's odd than on the other side of the spectrum
when people are creating a narrative for motive for you to look at some other individual right and to me that's a
shade of guilt so you're what to be clear what you're saying is that the the sheriff's department by stating that
there's there are rumors of her being sexually abused that that's almost creating an alibi for the sheriff's
department because you're presenting a whole different theory that does not involve the sheriff's having committed
any crimes correct and and first of all it's just very irresponsible that you're
stating well there's rumors don't State rumors you're the law enforcement state facts State evidence I wish we knew
exactly how this went down and I'll tell you why because could it be something as
simple as as the Sheriff's Department's being interviewed they're asked by a reporter hey there there have been
rumors that Ashley was sexually abused and the sheriff simply says we have heard heard those rumors right and that
changes the whole then you have somebody later going on the record stating that the sheriff's department says that there
were rumors of her being sexually abused when really they're just acknowledging that they have heard those rumors I I
see what you're saying with them establishing an alibi I don't know that it's that for me because for me it for
me it seems like there was opportunity if that kind of stuff was going down um with how close Ashley was with Laura
they spoke on the phone all of the time and it seems to me like Loren uh Laura's
mom seemed to know a lot of what was going on in the Freeman household well she knew what she was told MH and there
was also that that mandatory counseling that took place as well regarding um the
situation with Shane so what I'm getting at is I think there was opportunity for
that to come out where I I Feel Like These are rumors that were just kind of created by the town's people during
during that time period that they felt that that she was abducted by her father and we know how these rumors go right
it's it's like the The NeverEnding game of telephone now you got 600 people involved where if I say you know what I
bet you he was sexually abusing her and that's why he took her and abducted her and then 24 hours later we find out poor
poor Danny he died too you know he was murdered and he was killed too we know that's not true but that doesn't
immediately put out the fire on those rumors well okay so answer me these couple questions one how did how did his
collar bone get broken right like do we know I mean is that reported uh this case is difficult
to cover because there wasn't it's such a small town and such a small community that there's just not a lot of you know
information as far as it goes on the internet so the but how but because there's multiple ways that that could
have been broken I mean could have been that collar bone could have been broken it's not too different difficult to
break a collar bone no it could be broke by a fist it could be a butt of a shotgun um and then what what is the
evidence that points of what kind of guns were they killed with right well they've not the law enforcement has not
disclosed what kind of gun they were shot with of course that they've they've held that back as well as they have
admitted that there was an accelerant used to start the fire this wasn't an accidental fire that happened after the
fact uh they know that an accelerant was used but they've also not stated What What In
fact that was now the thing here is if you were to be considering that the girls did it uh or were involved in it
you know we have okay we have a situation where the Freemans they had a lot of firearms in that home they could
have under that sit situation or scenario they could have been killed with one of their own firearms well and
the other problem there is they're Avid Hunters and the gun laws were different also
back then so how many guns were in the house that were weren't registered I mean there would be no way of knowing CU
cuz the two people that would know they're dead yeah so if there's a shotgun missing we wouldn't know so if
you have if you get the ballistics right if you if you're trying to test to to confirm if they were killed with one of
their own firearms you wouldn't be able if that firearm was not found in that home you couldn't confirm that one of
their own firearms were used because you would assume that if you didn't find it
that it was either taken from the scene or that the perpetrators brought their own firearms with them let's talk about
the the Freeman the house real quick okay so the Freeman's trailer it did not have running water um it was primarily
heated by a wood burning stove that was located in the living room um the family
as you had said was described as Avid Hunters uh an outdoor Enthusiast who enjoyed living in a remote location this
was a very remote location the trailer was equipped with a telephone and electricity uh there were numerous
Firearms stockpiled inside the home and Ashley assisted with hunting food the family would go out and sometimes hunt
their own food food Dany enjoyed walking outside on their property behind the mobile home uh he was a collector of
arrowheads um and his relative stated that he had an extensive collection of items that he had found that were
rumored to be valuable here's another one of these rumors right but we don't you don't well that's causing a motive
of the idea that somebody came in to break into the house to steal valuables and they killed two people in the
process and possibly stealing the cash that uh young Ashley was keeping in the freezer which I would argue that that is
more likely to happen if you live in a remote remote area I know that's going to sound maybe a little strange to some
people but I'm serious it's like when especially if you I've lived you know my house you're exactly right you are
exactly go ahead sorry but you know my house was out of the city a little bit and if somebody's coming onto my
property to steal something it could end up very bad for for me or them mhm so that that's all I'm saying is if you and
you also it's such a small town that you'd go well they're an avid Avid Hunter if I'm going to rob this person
we know how this is going down this is this is this is robbery by force MH and again but then that also goes with the
creating the motive because if he has drug activity then maybe it's like well uh you know he has a bunch of guns maybe
he has some drugs there maybe he has some drug money there you know yeah and we should talk about this drug activity
because there's there's several yeah so it's not just rumor right there's there's a lot of different stories about
what drug activity could have been going on in in the area so it's believed that
Dany was himself a drug user um that well but there's different kinds of drugs yeah and it's believed it's it's
pretty widely believed that he grew marijuana somewhere on that property for his own personal use MH okay so that's
that's what's widely believed there are some other things that come into play here though there are some people that
state that he was he was selling marijuana right that he was in cahoots with somebody else and they had a little
drug operation where they were both moving and potentially growing marijuana um there was one report that
stated that inside the trailer and I want to be very clear about this one single report out of all the little
reports out there there's one single report that says that they found evidence of drug manufacturer
which to me using those words is completely different than growing marijuana unless unless unless you're
claiming that mother nature is your manufacturer of marijuana so what that sounds like to me is that they must have
found some kind of drug equipment you know some kind of creating these drugs equipment now I don't think that he was
running any kind of meth operation because why not we've seen well because this is just my belief I have no
evidence of such but we have seen where where certain people will use certain terminology and certain
words and then when you dig down deep and you find out exactly what they're talking about well they've kind of
they've kind of stretched it a bit right they've kind of embellished a little bit
where evidence of drug manufacturing could be something as simple as that they found a small digital scale
somewhere in the trailer that might not have had anything to do with drugs at all but but right I get I get your point
see where I'm going with this if you if you find a digital scale and you find a stack of baggies that doesn't
necessarily mean that I'm manufacturing drugs be well right but they could be used for pot as well look if you're
growing your own pot to smoke it I I got nothing against you and if you have a little extra and you're selling a baggie
here or there to your buddy that's not to me that's you're not a drug dealer mhm you're just kind of helping out your
buddies that's not like drug operation but one report now let's go let's let's dive into this a little bit
because it's 1999 this is not a wide uh you know it's not this epidemic like it is now you
know heroin and crystal meth and all that stuff in these rural areas now it's killing the it's killing the country
so so maybe there's only one report because a lot of that crystal meth stuff is kind of household items and you might
not really know what it was that's true yep also accelerant well this stuff is very
flammable mhm so was that what was used for the accelerant it's almost like because of the lack of evidence or the
lack of them collecting the evidence or the lack of them presenting the evidence
to the public it just becomes more question after more question and we can speculate on that all day but I but to
me a a family that's not doing so well financially wants to move out to the country which nothing wrong with that
but maybe the the father was also using this as an opportunity to make in Meet yeah like
we're going to move out onto some land on into this trailer but because we're doing that I'm going to have some job
opportunities and that's going to be drug activity mhm yeah and Kathy was the bread winner um she had a good job um
Dany from my understanding was kind was often unemployed uh usually between jobs and
like you said maybe uh maybe selling a little dope here or there was was a way to make up for that well this is what I
find okay first you're the bread winner you're the mom this guy has a shitty temper you know and we know that he's
abusive to to your son so chances are he's abusive to you just leave you know what I mean to find somebody
else some and I understand you're you're in a town of 600 people but I moov to another town yeah they were originally
from the neighboring town which had like over 6,000 people in it um I believe they moved there just a few years before
this whole incident went down um but yeah I'm with you it seems like a but again there's different Dynamics to
every family every relationship but it from the outside looking in it definitely seems like the Freeman family
was odd and dysfunctional well I'm just saying that she could love a winner with
money as much as she can this loser with nothing that's all I'm saying Okay so let's you know before we move on from
the evidence and start seeing how that might apply to these different theories and maybe kind of ruling some of them
out as we go uh one more thing regarding the evidence though the police did state
that remember we said that the the Freeman had telephone service to the trailer M they did state that there were
no outgoing phone calls from the Freeman's trailer late that night or during the early morning before the fire
was set and there's no report by anybody that we know of that they had a cell phone of any kind correct correct and
the thing here is too um you know we stated that all of the vehicles were out front uh that were located on the
property none of the vehicles were missing but regarding Laura's car that was still there uh the keys were found
in the ignition this is probably probably just means that she never took them out of the car um that the house
was quite a bit of a ways off of the road there might not be any need to do so but she did have a purse and she had
approximately $200 in that purse the purse was located inside the trailer after this incident took place so where
you have money that that is rumored to have been in the freezer a substantial amount of money depending on who you
talk to between $1,200 and $4,000 where that is not found um we also have a situation where there's
money found in a in a purse uh $200 that could have been taken that was left behind yeah but here's my issue with
that is law enforcement and a lot of people looking into this case like to say well there's $200 left in a purse so
there that proves that proves right there that this wasn't a robbery what well that doesn't prove crap that just
proves it wasn't a robbery for just money or you know random belongings this could have been a robbery just for drugs
or just for drug money mhm and so that doesn't really prove anything just because there was money left
somewhere that's all I'm putting out there it's just time and time again when you see this stuff about this case well
there's $200 left over so therefore that definitely wasn't a robbery I don't think anybody's saying that
because because everyone's saying that there's everybody that's what it's reported all the time it's every almost
every video that you ever see made on this thing is like well there's $200 left so chances are it wasn't a robbery
it just wasn't a good robbery maybe they made off with the $1200 or $4,000 that was in the freezer and thought well this
is all the money they got I'm peace I'm out of here right or like I said I mean if he had some drug activity then that's
why that's why people would be there you know for his drugs and for his drug money mhm so do should we go back
through these theories that we well no no I think let's stay on this $200 right now right okay I think that $200 to me
means it starts ruling out the idea for me that the girls would be involved right and that's why I asked if you
wanted to go back through the theories because Theory number one is that after years of physical abuse Ashley with the
help of Laura that they shoot the parents and with one of the guns that they find in the home and they together
they flee the area to go off and live Wonderful lives elsewhere away from this you know and I'll say quote unquote
abusive father well I think you can say abusive father just on the evidence of physical abuse not sexual abuse but we
can definitely say that there is enough evidence that shows that this guy he Ed Shane we we we have evidence of that I
don't know that we have evidence that he abused Ashley is what I mean what I meant by that we have all the
speculation or all the the accounts brought up by um you know her her grandparents but I
think calling somebody an abuser of it's a very powerful label to to put on somebody and and I see what you're
getting at half of me agrees with you but the other half of me I'm talking half of you is smart and the other half
is is and the smart half the smart half of me is is stating that in this situation we're talking about a
situation where Shane no longer exists yeah I understand we're talking about a situation where we're going to say did
Ashley kill or participate in the murder of her own parents because she was being
abused by her father is a very powerful statement and I don't think that speculation would would point me in that
direction strong enough for me to believe that I would want hardcore evidence that he was in fact abusing
specifically Ashley okay so what's your long-winded point my longwinded point here is that I don't know why the smart
half of me cannot fix the creek in this chair that I'm sitting on every time I move it so I apologize everybody out
there if you're hearing weird noises it's it's it's coming from his ass that's that's where the creek noise from
that area so I didn't have a long-winded point I think you got me upset because we're calling him a
specific specific abuse uh but but regarding this Theory so so what do you think here this first Theory yeah right
it doesn't add up it doesn't you're exactly right because and I think that's why we bring up the $200 in Laura's
purse it seems strange to me that Laura would leave behind her own money right or or her own purse correct um even if
you wanted to try to make it look like you were abducted I don't know that kids these are kids right I know they're 16
years old I know they're good students I know that they are smart young ladies the thing here is though I don't know
that that a kid would come up with this wild theory that you know what we can kill these two and we'll take off and
maybe we'll get lucky and they'll think we were abducted so leave behind your purse you know and furthermore well
furthermore none of the vehicles none of the family's vehicles or Laura's vehicle
was taken so by that by that point alone you can cross off Theory one in my opinion because now you have to have
outside help there has to be some form of trans Transportation getting you out of the area well look the purse behind
not that big of a deal leave the purse behind the cash is Big you need the cash right and you know but I don't know was
there cash in the freezer I'm going to say not look we we've all look the other question I have too which might seem a
lot pretty silly to everybody but but how long was she dating her boyfriend uh I don't know and the only
reason why I want to know is because sometimes in the initial stages you kind of just you know OV exaggerate maybe a
little bit MH you know I I've had that happen before I've been on a date where somebody's you know telling you what
they do for a living you know and they kind of a little braggadocious about it and and I think and and these are you
know women in their 30s right so what's a girl in their her six you know she's 16 years old oh I'm going to get a car
well what kind of car you're going to get well I'm going to get a nice one cuz well how do you got money for that well
I got a couple thousand saved up I got some cold Hard Cash in the freezer right the thing here is though Captain okay so
I want to uh kind of present something that I was thinking about the other day what if I were to think that maybe
Ashley killed her parents um could could the Tipping Point or could the trigger moment could that have
been if she came home and discovered that all of her hard-earned money that she had saved and saved and saved for
her very first car that her father had taken it from the freezer and went off and did something with the
money yeah not look I look I see that uh again then you're going to drag you're going to drag your friend into this MH
and it's we're going on how many years now well it's been 16 years yeah so 16 years you've been in hiding and your
friend hasn't came forward no and the other thing too is I think if it was based on the abuse right MH then here's
what would happen or this is my speculation you're overcome with whatever an embarrassment or whatever
you're feeling rage that your father would be abused towards you sexually or physically and you've had enough and and
I'm not going to take it anymore and you snap and shoot your father MH how does that go on to shooting your mother right
and then on top of that then you have to light your house on fire I mean other than you're covering up one one murder
with another yeah but I think for somebody that by all accounts you know was a good kid you know had something to
live for was progressing in her own life didn't seem like she had many problems you know she's celebrating a happy time
you know 16 is a a great time you know you're going to get your freedom you're going to get your Independence more
Independence 16 is a good time so it's a snap and then on top of that then you have to have a friend going along with
this and she's going to drop everything that's going on in her life and she's 16
and has a bunch to live for so she can just help you out now it's you know to doesn't seem too likely then and then
when you run away you're going to forget the two $200 right and I think that's what does all those things that you said
plus the the other fact that they didn't take a vehicle and they left the $200 you just you wouldn't do that you
wouldn't leave behind a car you wouldn't leave behind additional funds when you know you're planning on starting a whole
new life elsewhere because you got to run from these murders you committed and just like the captain was stating there
is nothing in the background of either of these two young ladies these were smart young ladies honor students they
were good they you know worked um it sounded like it sounds to me like Laura Bible's family life was probably much
different than Ashley Freeman's family life it does sound to me though that Ashley Freeman was very close with her
mother even if she hated her home life or hated her father she only had two more years to go to be out of that house
and I I just don't see anything in their background to point toward them having committed this and taken off yeah
because you know we don't know what kind of gun they were shot with the thing that points towards them
is that half the dude's face was missing and to me that would be a shotgun blast
to me a shotgun or a rifle would be something if she was going to use something I would assume that she would
use something that she is more familiar with and I'm again just also assuming that she'd be more familiar with a rifle
based on Hunting um but but then you have to have the [ __ ] you got to be one bad umbre to shoot your father in the
face with a with a rifle and keep in mind his his collar bone was broken this almost points towards some kind of
scuffle before he shot where I would think you know if you're this situation if you're going to shoot your parents
you're going to walk into their bedroom in the middle of the night and shoot them in their sleep you know that that's
typically how these things go down it wouldn't lead to some kind of altercation so I think you can scratch
off the first theory that the two girls did it themselves and took off on their own and that kind of helps us scratch
off Theory number two as well because it's basically the same Theory but that they they had the assistance of one or
two men or one or two boys that may have assisted in the attacks and that they left town with this person person or
persons what's Your Gut Feeling on the boyfriend I mean I look you know he claims he left at 9:30 a lot of other
people say well it's probably at 10:30 I um I I that that doesn't bother me either way you know if you're off a
little bit we're not talking about a detail there was people there afterwards right so to me that little detail is not
you know he's not being nefarious and trying to You Know cover his his ass you know but uh what's Your Gut feeling on
this guy so Jeremy Hurst my gut feeling is I like him um I don't like him I don't like him I don't like him as a
suspect well I he I don't even know if he's attractive or not but the thing here is Captain first of all I like you
said doesn't bother me that he's off approximately an hour on his time because the other dude that said he
stayed later could be off on his time right um what I think we have is a situation where he reports that he left
their home at at such and such time he probably he's a child he's under 18 he goes straight home to his parents
house his time is probably accounted for that's what I'm getting at that his time
between and it's a small window it's not like these people this crime happen sometime in the week of this no this
crime happened sometime between let's say 10:30 p.m. and we believe the mom was killed at 5:00 a.m. the next morning
right so it's a small window I believe his time was easily accounted for during the course of that time and on top of
this this is gonna seem kind of strange but I'm gonna say it anyway go for it the birthday gift that he purchased for
his girlfriend you know don't we all love that young love right that's that's that's great those those High School
romances that you have his birthday watch where you're going with this his birthday well we were all I was in high
school once when you were in high school school look high school romancers are okay when you're in high school I no
longer participate in high school Romance um but to me I going to need you around
Colonel and and I'm playing to the ladies now okay okay ladies hey how you doing Jeremy's birthday gift to his
young girlfriend seems to me to be well thought out that he didn't cut any corners on this birthday gift and what I
mean by that what did we say it was a a silver chain with a heart-shaped pendant
yeah that also contained her birth stone let me tell you men as a whole sorry sry
men now I'm not I'm playing against the men sorry men especially when men are 16
17 18 years old we do not know what birth stone you have depending on what month you're he what I'm getting at is I
think he he put in good effort right he put put together a thoughtful gift that tells me that I think he truly cared for
that young girl and that I think that because of such he wouldn't do anything to harm her family or harm her yeah
but if he really cared about her that much maybe he would harm the family and help her cover it
up I don't know but then but then he stays in town he doesn't leave with this this young girl that he's men have done
some strange things for ladies before but you point out a good a good reason why I think that theory number two can
be scratched off as well because okay if they have the had the assistance of a boy boys or couple of men or whatever
where and who are these men men and boys you know wouldn't they be reported missing at some point as well or you're
living in a town of 600 people right right when two of them disappear if there's another two missing it's pretty
obvious you know so I think we can scratch off theories number one and number two all right Colonel way to
scratch off some theories I'm not the colonel I hold no rank anywhere it's the captain the colonel show I'm Nick we're
we're changing the name of the show to the captain the Colonel True Crime Gage anyways thanks for listening and uh
we're going to have to get to these theories and there's some suspects that are going to come up in this next
episode plus we need to get your chair fixed cuz I'm tired of hearing your your butt squeak thanks for listening thanks
for telling a friend thanks for sharing on social media and until next time be good be kind and don't
litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dream
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Missing Welch Girls /// Part 1 /// 107

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In the early morning hours of December 30th, 1999 in Welch, Oklahoma a trailer home fire is reported. Firefighters arrive and put out the blaze. The dead body of wife and mother Kathy Freeman is discovered. Her husband, daughter and a family friend are missing. Law Enforcement theorized Kathy’s husband Danny shot her, set the home on fire and abducted his daughter Ashley and her friend Lauria. The following day, to everyone’s surprise Lauria’s family looking for clues at the scene of the fire find the dead body of Danny Freeman. Tonight we gather in the garage and discuss what could have possibly happened that night in the trailer. We also want to know what happened to Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible.

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Brief Summary

The episode investigates the 1999 disappearance of Ashley Freeman and Laura Bible from Welch, Oklahoma, exploring theories and evidence surrounding the case.

Key points

The Case of the Missing Welch Girls. Two teenagers went missing after a family celebration, leading to a tragic investigation.
Murder and Mystery. A fire reveals a shocking murder, complicating the search for two missing girls.
The Search for Clues. The families search for answers amidst a chaotic crime scene.
Danny's Trial and Jury's Dilemma. Danny Freeman's trial ends in a deadlock as the jury struggles without key testimony.
Theories of the Freeman Case. Multiple theories emerge regarding the deaths of Danny and Kathy Freeman, including police involvement and drug activity.
The Digital Scale Debate. Finding a digital scale doesn't necessarily mean drug manufacturing is happening.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Host greeting the audience

1:51WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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