SHELBY, N.C. (WNCT) — Nine-year-old Asha Degree went to bed like normal on the night of February 13, 2000. Her family would wake up the next morning and find her missing.
February 13, 2000, was a Sunday and like many families, Asha’s went to church that morning. After church, the family decided to spend time with Asha’s aunt and grandmother. They left for home at around 8 p.m. to get the kids to bed.
In the family’s neighborhood, the power had gone out that night, due to a vehicle striking a utility pole. Asha and her brother, O’Bryant, shared a bedroom. Both had gone to their room as soon as they were home.
Iquilla, Asha’s mother, woke up early on February 14, to give her kids the baths they didn’t have the night before because of the power outage. Iquilla would find her daughter’s bed empty. She immediately called the police and a missing persons search was underway before 8 a.m.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and hundreds of volunteers from the community worked together to find any trace of Asha. As the search continued throughout the day, the local news ran the story of Asha’s disappearance. A few people called in to say they saw a little girl walking on Highway 18 towards Shelby. The description of the child matched Asha.
One of the callers reported that he tried to get out of his car and check on her, but by the time he turned around Asha had disappeared, running into the woods.
About a mile away from Asha’s home was Debbie Turner’s Upholstery Shop. The owners of the shop called the police when they found something strange on their property. Police found items belonging to Asha in a tool shed behind the shop.
It was noticed that Asha’s bookbag and some personal items were missing from her home. This implied that Asha packed prior to her disappearance. The bookbag was found over a year later, on August 3, 2001. Her bookbag was buried at a construction site 20 miles away from her home. A book that had been borrowed from Asha’s school library, “McElligot’s Pool” by Dr. Seuss, was inside the backpack along with a New Kids on the Block T-shirt. The T-shirt was not Asha’s.
There are several theories about what happened to Asha. Among them is that she was groomed by an adult and led out of the house to be taken. Also, she was meeting a friend for some reason. There was even the theory she was sleepwalking, which she was not known to do.
Asha’s case is still open to this day and is being investigated by former Gastonia Police Chief Tim Adams and another detective at the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office. Anyone with information can call
- Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office (704) 484-4822
- FBI at (704) 672- 6100
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or 1-800-843-5678
Information was used from uncovered.com, fbi.gov, and thecrimewire.com.
