May 19—Ronnie Busick was whisked away from prison Friday to a waiting bus as the mother of slain teen Lauria Bible was kept at bay across a highway from the Lexington Correctional Center south of Oklahoma City.

"We didn't get to see Mr. Busick; they took him out sideways," Lorene Bible said after the release of the 71-year-old inmate and lone suspect ever charged in the abduction and murder 23 years ago of her daughter and daughter's friend, Ashley Freeman, both 16, and the shotgun slayings of the Freeman girl's parents.

Busick, who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for being an accessory to the crime, served just a little more than five years in jail and prison combined before being let out on probation.

Busick benefitted from a state corrections policy granting 90 days' credit for every 30 days served with good behavior, a policy based on a state law. The department had previously told the Globe that the policy granted 60 days' credit for each 30 days served.

According to investigators, Busick still maintains that he was not with the other suspects, Warren "Phil" Welch and David Pennington, the night of Dec. 30, 1999, when the Freemans were killed, their home set on fire and the girls abducted. Busick claims his knowledge of the crime came basically secondhand from Pennington and Welch, both of whom died without ever having been charged.

The girls are believed to have been held, and possibly sexually assaulted, at Welch's home in Picher, Oklahoma, for a number of days before being killed and their bodies disposed of at a location that is yet to have been found.

Lorene Bible hoped to be able to confront Busick as he emerged from lockup Friday to let him know that she will never stop looking for her daughter and that he needed to come clean regarding all he knows about the murders and disposal of the girls' bodies.

Under terms of a plea agreement reached in July 2020, Busick was to help investigators by telling them all he knew. What information he has provided to this point has not led to recovery of the girls' remains.

Lorene Bible said what she wanted to say to him Friday was: "You are going to be on this earth walking about and doing whatever you want. Those two girls are not."

She wanted to let him know that she intends to keep an eye on him until he does give up all he knows. Her intentions were frustrated by prison officials who kept her and others, including media, off prison grounds.

"They told us to stay across the highway," she said.

One of the officials informed a member of the media at 8:45 a.m. that Busick actually had been escorted out of the prison about two hours earlier, she said. But she thinks he may not actually have left until 9:45 a.m. when a black van was spotted leaving prison grounds.

Kay Thompson, acting chief of communications for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said Busick was taken to a bus station by transport van sometime shortly after 6:30 a.m. in a manner consistent with the institution's "normal procedure" for release of inmates.

Lorene Bible believes Busick was put on a bus to Wichita, Kansas. Thompson said that is not correct but declined to say where he was going. She said she is prohibited by policy from revealing the destinations of released inmates.

Under the terms of his sentence, Busick must serve five years on probation but will be under supervision just the first of those years.

Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.