Colorado group to assist search for missing Welch girls

Thursday, March 31st 2005, 9:41 am

By: News On 6

VINITA, Okla. (AP) _ A Colorado organization that specializes in searching for hidden graves will help in the search for two girls who disappeared from northeastern Oklahoma five years ago.

Craig County Sheriff Jimmy Sooter says NecroSearch International will join in the search for Ashley Freeman and Lauria (LORI) Bible. The two haven't been seen since December 30th, 1999, when Freeman's parents were found shot to death inside their burned mobile home.

Oklahoma and Kansas authorities plan to search for the girls' bodies in mine shafts in southeastern Kansas, about 12 miles north of the Oklahoma state line. Sooter says the search could begin in five to six weeks.

Authorities were directed to the mine shafts in Kansas by an Oklahoma man who now faces murder charges in three states. Jeremy Jones is jailed in Alabama on murder charges there and is suspected of killings in Louisiana and Georgia and is called ``a person of interest'' the missing girls' case.