A two-day search for the remains of two Green Country girls missing for almost 20 years came up empty.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Tammy Ferrari said they used ground-penetrating radar at an old home site in Picher where they thought Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible may have been buried in an underground structure. The Tulsa Police dive team also searched some nearby ponds.
"The results were negative, but we just want to make sure that everybody is aware that this is not going to lessen our efforts, it’s not going to stop our efforts from continuing to try and recover the girls," Ferrari said.
Diver Justin Farley said he had to search by feel in the muck and cloudy water. Farley found a small bone at one point, but experts determined it was a steak bone.
"When you can come up with something that’s really just about as big as a half-dollar piece — and that’s what size this bone was — it’s not that we’re perfect, but I think we can say with a degree of accuracy that we searched that area and are satisfied that there were no remains in there," Farley said.
Rogers, Mayes and Craig Counties District Attorney Investigator Gary Stansill said it’s frustrating to think there are probably people out there who know where to find the girls.
"Now, of course, some of these people might have been associates of the suspects, and I think they may think that we think they are guilty by association, which is furthest from the truth," Stansill said. "We’re not going to be judging them. We’re not going to be looking at them in a negative way. We just want information from them."
The search also included the Quapaw Nation
Freeman and Bible went missing from Freeman's home Dec. 30, 1999. Both were 16 years old.
Freeman's parents were found shot to death inside the house, which was burned down. Ronnie Dean Busick is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the case, and authorities say two other suspects have already died.
