#danny freeman

New Releases: July 2022

This Way Out by Tufayel Ahmed (1st) Amar can’t wait to tell everyone his wonderful news: he’s found The One, and he’s getting married. But it turns out announcing his engagement on a group chat might not have been the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know that his happy-ever-after partner is a man―and a white man at that. Amar expected a reaction from his four siblings, but…

On the night of December 29, 1999, Ashley Freeman celebrated her 16th birthday with her parents, her boyfriend Jeremy Hurst and her best friend Lauria Bible, at her family's mobile home in Vinita, Oklahoma. At some point between Hurst leaving at 9:30pm and the early hours of December 30, the mobile home went up in flames. The Fire Department was called by a concerned neighbour at 5:30am, and upon inspection by police, the charred remains of Kathy Freeman, Ashley’s mother, were found. Shockingly, Kathy had not died as a result of the fire. Instead, she had been shot in the head prior to the fire starting.

As both girls and Ashley’s father, Danny Freeman, could not be accounted for, it was theorised that Danny had killed his wife and abducted the two girls. However, this was soon disproved when Danny’s remains were found a day later when Lauria’s parents visited the scene. An autopsy revealed that he too had been shot in the head before the fire broke out. The Bible family have criticised the police for failing to find Danny’s body when they originally investigated the scene.

Many theories surround the case, some involving the Craig County Sheriff’s Department, but none seem to completely add up. Robbery was ruled out as a motive given the fact that a purse containing $200 was left behind by Lauria. The generally accepted theory is that the girls were abducted by whoever killed Ashley’s parents. Both convicted killers Tomny Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones have claimed responsibility for the deaths of the Freeman’s and two girls’ disappearance. However, it is thought that neither are actually responsible.