Large-scale search in Shelby: FBI, SBI and local law enforcement on scene

Local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies were conducting a large search on Wednesday in the Shelby area of Cleveland County. They wouldn’t yet say what it’s about.

“The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the SBI are currently executing a court authorized search warrant at a property on Cherryville Road in Shelby,” read a statement from the agencies released by an FBI spokeswoman.

The search included an FBI evidence team and specially-trained police dogs, and was expected to last all day, the statement said.

Further information was not immediately released.

Neighbor wonders if search relates to missing girl

Larry Hannah was one of dozens of people sitting in a parking lot across the street from a home on Cherryville Road where law enforcement had overtaken the front yard. The scene is close to Spake Farms.

When he heard about them arriving on Tuesday, he thought it might be a routine case or a drug house bust.

But his wife told him there was a rumor law enforcement may have found the remains of Asha Degree, who vanished one dark early morning outside her rural North Carolina home 24 years ago.

The FBI and her family have said they believed “someone in the area may hold the key that could unlock the case,” The Charlotte Observer reported in 2020 , when the FBI released an age-progressed photo of Asha, who went missing in Shelby on Feb. 14, 2000, when she was 9 years old. She was described as a spirited but shy 4th grader.

Her disappearance “remains an enduring mystery, even as police, the FBI, and her family continue to actively search for clues,” the FBI posted on its homepage in Februrary 2020 .

Hannah decided to see what was going on in person.

He watched Wednesday as law enforcement officers walked around the property and searched the surrounding woods with dogs. He said he doesn’t know the person who lived at the property, but he sometimes hunted nearby.

Asha has been on the mind of Cleveland County for over two decades, he said.

“Of course, we’re all anxious and nosy too, but it’s something that’s went on for a long, long time,” Hannah said. “We’re all eager to see it be closed.”

Jacqueline Degree was among the onlookers on Cherryville Road, her granddaughter on her hip.

Degree said she’s a cousin by marriage to Asha’s family, and saw her the morning of the day she disappeared.

It’s been hard for her and Asha’s family to see the rumors swirling on social media, she said, but after hearing how large the law enforcement presence was, she decided to stop and look Wednesday.

She said she hopes people will pray for the family and there will be some kind of closure in the end.

“My heart is with the family,” she said. “They’re beautiful people.”

Lance Allen said Asha Degree has never left his mind over the last two decades.

“I’m a father myself,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

He said it was scary to see law enforcement searching a property he drives by regularly.

“She’s Shelby’s sweetheart,” Allen said. “It would bring us closure as well.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.