The last trace of the 16-year-old best friends was a scent police dogs picked up that led across the Freeman yard to a dirt road in rural Craig County.
Hundreds of thousands of fliers have been distributed across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Leads have been followed up, but the girls remain missing.
"There is no closure when no bodies are found,” Craig County Sheriff Jimmie Sooter said.
The investigation has been thorough, leading authorities to several places over the years, he said.
The girls were reported missing on Dec. 30, 1999, the day Ashley’s parents, Danny and Kathy Freeman, were found shot to death in the charred remains of their Welch mobile home.
Both families believe the girls are dead.
"I don’t think she is alive,” said Celeste Chandler, Ashley Freeman’s grandmother. "I couldn’t handle it if she was mistreated — but I need to know where she is.”
Lorena Bible, Lauria’s mother, said, "We just take one day at a time.”
For years, the Bibles left their family Christmas tree standing, waiting for Lauria to return home and take it down.
The tree fell down on its own a couple of years ago, she said.
Who was responsible? Oklahoma law enforcement officials have said convicted murderer Jeremy Jones confessed to killing Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible and throwing their bodies into an abandoned mine near Galena, Kan. A search in June 2005 turned up nothing.
A former construction worker from Miami, Jones also confessed to killing Danny and Kathy Freeman and several other people whose slayings have remained unsolved, authorities said. Jones has denied to the media any involvement in the homicides.
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