Case of missing girl Asha Degree led to Shelby property search, Cleveland sheriff confirms

Sheriff Alan Norman of Cleveland County confirmed on Friday that the large-scale search in Shelby this week related to the 2000 disappearance of 9-year-old Asha Degree, a case that has haunted the region and never been forgotten by the community.

No human remains were found at the Cleveland County property on Cherryville Road, where multiple law enforcement agencies were seen working on Tuesday and Wednesday , a statement from the sheriff said.

The statement said multiple items of interest were taken from more than one site to be analyzed.

People gathered to watch on Wednesday as the sheriff’s office, along with the FBI and the State Bureau of Investigation, searched the Cherryville Road property with police dogs on hand. Law enforcement at that point had not confirmed any details about the search other than multiple search warrants were obtained.

“The search warrants were obtained based on physical evidence directly connected to Asha’s disappearance,” Norman’s statement said.

On Wednesday, authorities towed a green 1960s-model car from the property.

The Charlotte Observer previously reported that the FBI and Cleveland County received information that someone matching Asha’s description may have been seen getting into a “distinctive vehicle” along N.C. 18, where she was last seen.

The vehicle was described as an early 1970s Lincoln Mark IV or possibly a Ford Thunderbird, dark green, and with rust around the wheel wells.

The sheriff’s office said in its press release that authorities wanted to dispel rumors that human remains were found.

No other details were released Friday.

A longstanding mystery

The FBI and Asha’s 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 (pronounced Ay-shuh), who went missing in Shelby on Feb. 14, 2000. 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 . The community never forgot.

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 on Wednesday. That’s near Spake Farms.

Hannah watched 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.”

Asha’s family last saw her around 2:30 a.m., when she was asleep in her bedroom , according to the FBI. About 90 minutes later, drivers on N.C. 18 in Shelby saw her walking on the side of the road.

Her parents reported Asha missing around 6:30 that morning, the FBI said in 2020.

“There was no sign of forced entry and no promising scent trail for search dogs to follow,” according to the FBI post. “That afternoon, investigators received at least two separate reports from individuals who said they saw a young female walking along Highway 18, in the opposite direction of the Degrees’ home, around 4 a.m.

“One person said they went back to check on the girl but she had left the roadway and disappeared into the woods.”

No one has seen Asha since, a Cleveland County sheriff’s detective said in 2020.

In 2001, her backpack was found buried along N.C. 18 in Burke County, with some belongings still inside, according to investigators.

In 2020, the FBI also re-released photos of a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt and a “McElligot’s Pool by Dr. Seuss” book that were found in the backpack. The book had been checked out of her school library, FBI officials said.

The book shows a fish chasing a worm on a hook on its cover.

“If you, or someone you know, had this Dr. Seuss library book around the time of Asha’s disappearance and lost track of it, call us,” Detective Jordan Bowen said in a 2018 video.

Library records at the Fallston Elementary School Media Center don’t go back to the year of Asha’s disappearance, Bowen said.

In 2020, a reward of $45,000 was being offered for information that would solve the case, the FBI said in a post that remains on its website .

Mom’s nightly prayer

Iquilla Degree said in the 2020 FBI post that she prayed for someone who knew of her daughter’s whereabouts to tell authorities.

At a news conference at the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office that year, she sat beside her husband and held an album full of pictures of Asha.

“That’s my prayer every night, that God will get into their heart and let them come forward, because it’s got to be a weight on them,” Iquilla Degree said.