Editing Welch, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Welch was established in 1888 in the Cherokee Nation on land that D. B. Nigh leased from Frank Craig. The [[Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway]] (Katy) had built a line through the area in 1871, and in 1891 it built a switch on Nigh's property, providing a shipping point for local hay and grain. The town that began to grow around the switch was named for a Katy railroad official, A. L. Welch. A post office was established in 1892. The town plat was approved in 1902, and the town incorporated in 1909. A newspaper called the ''Welch Watchman'' began publication in 1902, and continued in business, although later renamed as the ''Welch American,'' until the mid 1960s.<ref name="EOHC-Welch"/>

A [[joint stock company]] established the first school in 1899, then sold it to the city in 1907. The first class graduated in 1911.<ref name="EOHC-Welch">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WE009 Barbara Stoner, "Welch," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Accessed May 3, 2015</ref>

In 2003, Welch had two convenience stores, a grocery store, a feed store, Thomas Funeral Home, the Blossom Shoppe, a meat processor, a livestock sale barn, two cafés, a new automotive shop, two saddle shops, an assisted-living retirement home, Graham Equipment Company, and a new medical office, among other enterprises.<ref name="EOHC-Welch"/>{{efn|Although the source of this information seems to imply that this growth resulted from the formation of the Welch Area Development Authority (WADA), this may not be accurate. Another source says that WADA is a private company with one employee that was formed in 1991 with one employee.<ref>[https://www.manta.com/c/mm423wk/welch-area-development-authority "Welch Area Development Authority." Manta. Undated.] Accessed September 9, 2018.</ref>}}

===1999 kidnapping and murders===
{{main|Murders of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman}}

On the night of December 29–30, 1999, firefighters responded to a fire reported at the home of Danny and Kathy Freeman in Welch. After extinguishing the blaze, they found the body of Kathy Freeman in one of the bedrooms, where she had been shot in the head, and also found that the fire had been deliberately set. Initially, they found no other bodies, but noticed that both Danny and their teen-age daughter, Ashley, were missing. The family car was in the driveway, with the keys in the ignition. The local police immediately assumed that the father had killed the mother and kidnapped Ashley.

When Lorene and Jay Bible woke on the morning of December 30, they discovered that their daughter, Lauria, had not come home after spending the previous day with Ashley Freeman, her best friend. They found Dan's body in the rubble. He too, had been shot to death. Later that day, they learned that the two girls and Kathy Freeman had been seen earlier that day in the local pizza parlor, celebrating Ashley's birthday. None of them had been seen since.

Sometime during the following decade, news media reported that two convicts, Tommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jones, had confessed to murdering the four victims. Their story did not check out, and they recanted their claims. ed murderer, Ronnie Busick, had bragged about killing the two girls. He and two alleged accomplices, Phil Welch and David Pennington {{efn|Both Welch and Pennington are now deceased, Welch in 2007 and Pennington in 2015. Basic was still in custody, as of April 2018. The case is still under active investigation.}} claimed that the victims owed them money, and that they kept the girls alive for awhile hoping to get the money back. They further claimed that they tortured the girls before killing them and dumping the bodies in an Oklahoma mine shaft.