Family Still Hopes Daughter Will Be Found Alive

The family of 16-year-old Lauria Bible says despite how bad things look, they are praying for their daughter's safe return. They're Waiting by the phone for any information about Lauria and Ashley

Thursday, January 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The family of 16-year-old Lauria Bible says despite how bad things look, they are praying for their daughter's safe return. They're Waiting by the phone for any information about Lauria and Ashley Freeman. The girls are friends who have been inseparable for years.

Lorene Bible calmly set in a chair in her living room, watching and listening to the video tape that was playing on the television screen before here. She was trying to hear the last recorded words of her only daughter that are on home videos which were shot on Christmas Eve. The tapes showed the animated 16-year-old younger Bible celebrating with her family. Six days later, she and the Freeman girl disappeared.

The holiday was also the last day Mrs. Bible saw her daughter. "She just said, â€˜Daddy says I can go stay another night at Ashley's. Is it OK with you? We're going to have cake and ice cream. I love you, Mommy,â€™" remembered Mrs. Bible. "I said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' You blow the kisses and you never think that is the last time you are going to see your child," she said.

Freeman's parents were found dead in their burned trailer the next day. The state medical examiner has theorized that the Freemans were shot before the trailer was set on fire. But the girls weren't found, although they were believed to have spent the night in the trailer after celebrating the Freeman girlâ€™s 16th birthday.

Friends of Freeman and Bible were waiting at the house where they used to meet their friends. "I last saw them the night before it happened," said friend Jennifer Wills. "We just had a normal talk. I wished her a happy birthday. I saw her two or three times that week. She was also at my house for a Christmas party," Wills said.

Bibleâ€™s mother says her daughter was probably wearing the pajamas given to her as a Christmas present. Before the young Bible left home, her mother says she was working on her Future Farmers of America scrapbook. She earned the title as the family pig farmer raising swine for her schoolâ€™s 4-H Club. "She'd get in there and they'd surround her with the feed bucket," recalled Mrs. Bible. "She'd be muddy sometimes from head to toe."

It's a memory Mrs. Bible says she treasures. But she hasn't given up the hope that she'll see her daughter enjoying life again. The Bible family says hundreds of people in northeastern Oklahoma have called to let them know they're also searching for the girls. The family also says they're amazed at the outpouring of support they have received.