Asha Degree Podcast REAL

Asha Degree, a nine-year-old girl from North Carolina, went missing in 2000 and has not been found since. Her disappearance remains a mystery. There were sightings of her walking on the highway and getting into a car, but no concrete leads. Her backpack was found a year later, buried at a construction site. The investigation has been challenging due to limited technology at the time. The community has held annual walks and offered a reward for any information. The case is still open and her parents hope for her safe return. Asha Degree was a nine-year-old girl from Shelby, North Carolina, who always had a smile on her face and a bright future ahead. She was your average child, I guess you could say. She was loved by her parents, had a strong bond with her brother, and enjoyed playing sports such as basketball. Like most children in the United States, she was living in the security of her parents, filled with innocence and somewhat blinded to the worries of this world. That was until Asha disappeared from our home in the early mornings of February 14, 2000, and has never returned since over 23 years ago. It all began on the night of February 13, 2000. It was like any other school night with the routine of getting the kids in the bath and off to bed. They were having issues with the water that night, so Aquila and Harold Degree sent the kids to bed early and said they would have to wake up before school to take a shower. At around 6 a.m., Aquila walked into Asha and O'Brien's room to wake them up to find Asha missing and her brother still asleep in his bed. There were no signs of forced entry in the room or anywhere else in the home, nor did O'Brien account for any strange occurrences over the night, only some creaking of her mattress he has contributed to tossing and turning. Once they looked everywhere in the house, they began calling family members to see if she could be with them, but no one knew anything. Her father, Harold, then called 911 and a massive search for Asha had begun. Both law enforcement and her community had been very involved in the search during the days after her disappearance. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, along with the FBI, also assisted in the search. It was odd because not only had it been the night when she disappeared, but it was also raining. As the days went on and news had spread, they began receiving tips, some being from drivers saying they saw a young girl walking down Highway 18 in the direction of the city of Shelby, seeming as if it was her if she was walking towards town. Then another tip said they also saw a little girl walking down Highway 18 and they had decided to turn around to see if she was okay, but the child had run into the woods. Another tip said they saw Asha getting in a dark green car, which was never able to be identified, but the police released to the public that it could have been a 1970s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird. It is still unknown why Asha left her home that night or where she has been since. This leaves us wondering what could have possibly made her leave her home. Around a month after her disappearance, law enforcement discovered Asha's backpack was missing, indicating that she had packed her belongings prior to her disappearance. It wasn't until a year later that her backpack was finally found. It was discovered 20-odd miles north of Highway 18 in the county over Burke County. The backpack was wrapped and from what the investigators could tell, it had been buried for a while. All of a sudden, however, it was found at a construction site. There were some questionable items found in her backpack, which were a Dr. Seuss book that had been from her school library, but she was not the one who had checked it out, and new kids on a block t-shirt that did not belong to Asha either. This continues to be one of the most important pieces of evidence because it is some of the few things found after her disappearance. Since her disappearance in the early 2000s, it was before technology became very common. At the time of her disappearance, Asha didn't have a phone and the Degree family didn't even have a computer in their home. There also weren't many cameras in the surrounding towns or neighborhoods, so investigators couldn't rely on technology that much and instead had to rely on their early search parties that uncovered evidence and tips that they were receiving. Now that there have been advances in forensic technology, investigators have been trying to examine the evidence for any trace of what could have happened, though there are issues because still no one has been identified in 23 years she has been gone. After talking with local news reporter, Tim Lemon, he suggested that it may have been difficult to get good samples because her backpack hadn't been found for over a year and had been buried, both of which could lead to tests being inconclusive since the samples could be contaminated. There's also issues because there's also so much you can sample, so there has not been very much viable evidence. The morning of her disappearance, February 14th, was not only obviously Valentine's Day, but also the date of her parents' anniversary. There is a theory that Asha may have left her home to buy her parents an anniversary present or that she had been lured out by someone saying that they would help her do so. Another theory is that Asha was hit by a car while running down the street. The research questions at the foundation of our investigation were formulated as the following. Was Asha having problems at home causing her to run away? How has Asha been missing for 23 years and still not found? What evidence has been provided for this case? And is her family and community still looking for her after all these years? Our investigative research into the case brought us forward to contacting many different individuals in association with the case. Some were attempts rather than success in contacting. We attempted to contact a handful of reporters from outside the area of the disappearance to get insight on their personal theories and ideas they may have not included in their personal pieces, but we were never able to receive responses from them. Asha attended Faulston Elementary at the time of her disappearance 23 years ago, and through analysis of the school's staff directory, they came across a first grade teacher who has been teaching at the school for 22 years, only one year short of her disappearance. We felt that an educator might be able to give us an accurate picture of what the atmosphere was like at the school following her disappearance, but we were never able to receive a response to our request for an interview. We also attempted to contact the school's physical education teacher because of her connections to Asha's past basketball coach, but luck ran dry in that request as well. Two individuals who were successful in contacting and receiving interviews were for Detective Tim Adams and Reporter Ken Lemon. Detective Tim Adams is a part of the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department and came out of retirement in 2014 to lead the department's investigation of the case. We scheduled an over-the-phone interview with Detective Adams and were able to receive a clear overview of the case from a law enforcement's perspective at the time and present day. But Adams was seemingly unable to answer very many of our questions we had for him for legal reasons, specifically questions regarding specific leads and his personal theories. He did, however, disclose some of the obvious theories known to the public, such as the one about her getting hit by a car, and revealed that he does have theories of his own, just nothing he is willing to share openly with us. The interview went as following recorded. Our interview with Ken Lemon, on the contrary, was quite lengthy and filled with information he was willing to give us, much of which had to do with the forensics side of the case. The only man convicted of possibly being connected to Asha's disappearance was someone named Donald Preston Ferguson. He was never arrested, however, for anything to do with Asha's case. He was arrested for the sexual assault of another little girl named Shalona around the same time and his proximity to the area of her disappearance is what brought suspicions to him that he has passed away since in 2017. Interest in Asha's case has been prominent even from when the first disappearance happened. Interest in Asha's case has been prominent ever since the first. Okay, I don't know why I keep... Interest in Asha's case has been prominent even from when she first disappeared. When they first started searching for her, over 9,000 man hours were exhausted within the first week of her disappearance. And after she first disappeared, people in Shelby and nearby towns had yellow ribbons hanging everywhere as awareness to show hope for her safe return. Even years later, they still have the same original ribbons and missing posters from when she first disappeared hanging to preserve her memory. Even though Shelby didn't have particularly a small population with 20,000 people, they still deeply cared for Asha's case and hoped for her well-being. Starting a year after her disappearance, the community started hosting an annual walk dedicated to her and the possibility of her still being alive. They trekked down the highway she was last seen on, starting from her home on Oak Crest Drive. Not only that, but the community works with the Cleveland County Police Department to offer a reward of $20,000 on top of the $25,000 that was raised by the FBI for any tips about her. Unlike many cases of missing persons who were never found, Asha's case is still not yet cold. Asha's memory is still living on and residents in North Carolina and surrounding areas still keep her in their thoughts. It's clear that even though Asha has not been found, the community is even more tightly knit due to the collective feeling and desire for closure. This case leaves us wondering, did someone take advantage of this little girl's innocence? This is still an open case and still being investigated today in 2023. Asha's degree will be 32 years old today and her parents are hoping for her safe return one day.