Vanished in the Night: The Mysterious Disappearance of Asha Degree
In 2000, Asha Degree was a busy and active fourth-grader living in Shelby, North Carolina. Asha especially enjoyed playing basketball that year and was good at it.
Her future was bright. Not only was she growing into a stand-out young athlete, she was also an excellent student and was getting very good grades. Asha, who lived with her mom, Iquilla, Dad, Harold, and brother, Obryant, didn’t have access to computers or the internet. Her mom wanted the children to be raised without those outside influences.
By all accounts that year, Asha was a happy child and had a stable family life. On Monday, February 14, 2000, when Iquilla went to wake Asha up for school, she was nowhere to be found. She woke up Obryant to ask if he knew where she was. He didn’t.
They quickly searched the home, and the yard and even called her grandmother who lived next door. Still no Asha. Asha has never been seen or heard from since.
Where is Asha Degree?
Who was Asha Degree in February 2000?
Asha was a very ambitious and competitive child. She wanted to be good at everything she did, and for the most part, even at age nine, she was. She tried hard and practiced at everything she did, from sports to schoolwork to church activities.
Asha was an excellent student and as a fourth-grader, was excelling. Asha recently joined basketball and just happened to be her team’s star point guard. Those who knew Asha said it was exciting to watch her grow because they knew whatever she took on, she would be good at, or would at least work super hard to be as good as she could be.
Asha lived in a duplex home in Shelby, North Carolina with her mom- Iquilla, dad- Harold, and brother- Obryant. Her grandmother and aunt lived across the street, so Asha had a lot of family close by.
Asha’s family was very devoted to church, and attended every Sunday, and Asha was involved in her church as well. She enjoyed Sunday school, and the family never missed a day at church.
Iquilla, Asha’s mother, wanted to raise Asha without the influence of the internet and electronics. She wanted Asha to be a kid, and she wanted her to be safe from those outside influences.
All in all, Asha’s life seemed happy and stable in 2000.
The Disappearance.
On Friday, February 11, 2000, Asha, who was in fourth grade, and Obryant who was just a year older, didn’t have school that day. Since their parents had to work, the nine and ten-year-old stayed with their grandmother and their aunt, who happened to live across the street from the Degree’s.
Their grandmother will remember that day, and will talk about how it was just a normal day, and that she watched the kids often. Nothing at all unusual about the day.
That evening, once Iquilla got home from work, she took Asha and Obryant to their basketball practices.
Saturday, February 12, 2000.
Asha had her first basketball game on this day. She was so excited and began the game giving it all her all. She was the point guard, and she was one of the stars of the team. It was a close game, and in the fourth quarter, Asha fouled out. The team went on to lose the game, but just one point. Asha took it hard. She blamed herself and her mom talked about how devastated Asha was for the majority of the day. Not only was Asha disappointed in herself, but she was sad and felt that she let her team down.
This just goes to show what a dedicated child Asha was, even at just 9 years old.
The rest of the day the family hung out at home. While Asha moped around for a bit, Iquilla said her daughter would pep back up by the evening.
She wasn’t too worried, because that’s how Asha was. She took things to heart because she worked so hard at everything, but she also bounced back quickly.
Sunday, February 13, 2000.
The Degree’s went to church, as they always did. Asha went to Sunday School and had a great time, which she chatted to her family about afterward.
It seemed the drama from the basketball game the day prior, had completely subsided. Asha was her happy, bubbly, excited self.
Later on, in the evening, Harold had to leave for work. He was working two jobs during this time and would leave for several hours.
Iquilla said that she spent the evening with Obryant and Asha, and both kids were really tired that night and would go to bed around 8:00 p.m. Asha and Obryant shared a bedroom in their two-bedroom duplex, but it seemed to work for the time being.
That night, Shelby, North Carolina got hit with a thunderstorm, and the power was going in and out through the night. Asha was able to fall asleep, but Asha hated storms and her mom knew it. She checked on her a couple of times before going to bed herself.
I want to add- some reports say the power outage was due to a car accident in the neighborhood. Whatever the real cause of the power outage was, it doesn’t change two things that are important here:
- There was a power outage
- There were storms that night
Now, Harold got home from work around 12:30 a.m. He said, that because of the weather and power outages, he walked around the house to check on everything- including the kids- and noted they were fast asleep in their beds.
He stayed up for a couple more hours to make sure the power stayed on and wind down, and then around 2:30 a.m., he finally went to bed himself, checking on the kids one last time before turning in.
Both were still fast asleep.
Monday, February 14, 2000.
This was a special day. Not only was it Valentine’s Day, it was also Iquilla and Harold’s 12th wedding anniversary.
Iquilla woke up around 6:00 a.m. — she went to wake Obryant and Asha up for school around 6:30 a.m. She poked her head in the room as she always did, calling to them. Obryant lifted his sleepy head, but she saw no movement from Asha’s bed. She went closer and realized to her shock, that Asha wasn’t in bed.
While she was startled to find Asha’s bed empty, she also immediately didn’t think the worst. Maybe Asha had already gotten up. Maybe she was in the kitchen or the bathroom.
Iquilla walked around the home calling out for Asha. When she didn’t find her in the house, she began calling her name louder and louder. Soon, Harold woke up. When he realized that Asha was missing, he told Iquilla to call his mom across the street and see if Asha had gone over there.
But she had not.
Both Harold and Iquilla were in a panic, and immediately called the Shelby Police, who responded right awaited, even bringing search dogs with them right off the bat.
I don’t always say this because we don’t always see this type of response from law enforcement, but Shelby law enforcement acted just like we would hope any police department would react in the case of a missing child.
The Search.
As mentioned, law enforcement came out gangbusters. Some started talking to neighbors, while others searched the house and talked to the family.
They had narrowed down the timeline of her disappearance to happening between 2:30 a.m. when her dad saw her, and 6:30 a.m. when her mom went to wake her up.
Something had happened between 2:30 and 6:30 a.m.
Of particular interest to officers, was talking to Obryant. He, after all, shared a bedroom with his sister.
Obryant said he had heard Asha’s bed squeak sometime during that night, but figured she was just either rolling over or maybe going to the bathroom. He didn’t get up or even open his eyes. I’m sure sharing a small room, they just learned to tune out little noises like that.
He also didn’t know what time that might have been.
Officers searched the house and looked for anything out of the ordinary or any signs of a possible break-in. There were none.
Friends, family, and neighbors all came together that day. They canceled plans, called in to work and everyone searched for Asha.
As word of the missing 9-year-old spread through the town, a few different people came forward saying they saw a young girl that fit Asha’s description walking down the highway between 3:45 am and 4:15 am. One man, in particular, said he turned around and went back to see if he could offer her any help, but when he rolled the window down to talk to her, this girl darted off into the woods.
He had seen her walking south along Highway 18, wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt and white pants
He also said he drove by a few times to see if he could spot her, but he couldn’t. He also noted that there was a 'raging storm' going on outside.
Which, remember, little Asha was terrified of storms.
A couple of other reports came in from motorists seeing a girl that could have been Asha, walking down the same highway. All the reports said that they saw this girl in the same area of the highway, giving more credibility to their statements.
What’s kind of interesting to me about all of these sightings, is that no one called the police until after they had heard of Asha’s disappearance. And I don’t understand that. A 9-year-old girl, walking along a highway, at 4:00 in the morning, during a storm and not properly dressed for it? And no one called the police?
But no one did, at least until reports of Asha started swirling around and hitting the TV news stations.
And yet, law enforcement does believe these sightings are credible. I just want to say, that if you see a young child out walking at 4:00 a.m., on a highway, during a storm, please call the police.
Searches that day were pretty immense, despite the weather. The only item found that day was a girl's mitten, but Iquilla and Harold said it did not belong to Asha. The search dogs used that day also, did not pick up any scent of Asha.
The parents were looked at fairly closely too, as is the case with any missing children reports. They were both given polygraphs, which they reportedly passed, and were very cooperative with investigators. Neither Iquilla nor Harold was ever considered a suspect.
The next day, February 15, searchers who were concentrating on the area where Asha was seen running into the woods did find some items in a shed that belonged to a nearby business. They found some candy wrappers, markers, a pencil, and a Mickey Mouse hair bow. Iquilla confirmed that those items did indeed belong to her daughter.
On February 16th, Iquilla realized that Asha’s favorite pair of jeans, along with another one of her shirts, were missing. This led investigators to believe that Asha had run away from home.
But why?
Asha seemed happy. There weren’t any family problems, and Asha wasn’t mad about anything, at least that her parents were aware of.
It didn’t make any sense.
Plus, Asha was terrified of storms. What would prompt her to run away in the middle of the night, during a storm?
On February 22, after over 300 leads were investigated that led detectives nowhere, the mass local search for Asha was called off. But investigators never stopped looking for her or working on her case.
Iquilla and Harold worked the media rounds in the months that followed, not only appearing on local television but also appearing on the Montel Williams Show and even the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Authorities continued to believe that Asha ran away, and something happened to her afterward. She either became lost or someone abducted her. Many people believe that she had to have been lured out of her home by someone because there was just no reason for Asha to run away. Asha certainly wouldn’t be the first child to run away from home, but most end up coming back after a short time, or they are found.
The fact that Asha was terrified of storms is questioned a lot as well. Would she have left during the middle of the night on her own accord, when it’s dark and stormy outside?
Or was she possibly supposed to meet someone?
The case went cold, although detectives and family continued to search and never really considered it a cold case.
It wasn’t until August 3, 2001, a year and a half after Asha went missing, that investigators caught a break. A contractor working in Burke County, about 26 miles from where Asha was last seen in Shelby, dug up a black garbage bag that had been buried. Inside the bag was another black garbage bag that held a backpack. The backpack was confirmed to be Asha’s.
The contents of the backpack however were pretty mysterious. There was a New Kids on the Block tee-shirt or nightshirt, which did not belong to Asha, and a Dr. Suess book, which Asha’s parents had never seen before. The book was actually from Asha’s school library, however, while police are being tight-lipped about this, it was learned that it was NOT checked out by Asha.
Even with the discovery of the backpack, the police found no new evidence as to where Asha was and what happened to her.
Theories.
So let’s look at a few theories.
Theory #1: Asha ran away on her own. The runaway theory is a viable one. Even though it doesn’t make sense, it does. There were no signs of breaking and entering. Asha planned for something as she packed a backpack. She was seen, alone, walking along a highway. It looks like a runaway situation by all accounts.
Because Asha was just 9 years old, no one believed that Asha continued to be a runaway at this point. While it may have started that way, something might have happened to her. Perhaps someone abducted her after seeing her walking. However, if you ask me, that would be quite a crime of coincidence, especially in Shelby, North Carolina.
Or, she had some type of accident that resulted in her demise. I hate to think about it, but something kept this child from coming back home, which at some point would have likely happened if she was ‘just’ a runaway.
Interestingly, in school, she had just read a book called “The Whipping Boy” by Sid Fleishman. The book tells the story of a young boy who runs away from home. Some people suggested that maybe she was motivated by the book to run away for some reason.
Theory #2: Asha was groomed by someone else. This theory seems very possible also. Did someone Asha know promise something to her? Convince her she had to meet them in the middle of the night?
They must have promised her something great to get her out in the middle of a storm.
Her family was investigated and cleared, and remember Asha had no access to the internet to have any connections with anyone there. But she was very active in her church and school. Could it have been someone she knew there? Or maybe, even someone she knew through her family, not necessarily a family member, but maybe a friend of a family member? Maybe a neighbor?
It’s a scary thought, but possible. Something got Asha out of her house that night.
And then, it is quite odd that someone took the time to double bag and bury her backpack instead of destroying it or just disposing of it somewhere. Or, did someone just find it and take it for themselves?
It’s also crazy that no one has come forward to claim the items in the backpack as theirs. Who’s shirt was that in the bag? Why was it in the bag?
As the years went on, some strange connections would arise in Asha’s case.
In January of 2014, almost 14 years after Asha went missing, detectives arrested a Spartanburg, South Carolina man named Donald Preston Ferguson for the murder of 7-year-old Shalonda Poole. Shalonda had been murdered in 1990, but Ferguson wasn’t identified as the suspect until 2014 through DNA. He had been arrested and served time for assaulting a 10-year-old girl prior and served six years in prison. He was released for that crime in 1997, and it wasn’t until 2014 that he was arrested again for the murder of Shalonda.
Detectives noted the similarities in that case to that of Asha’s.
Shalonda had shared a room with her sister and had gone missing in the early hours of the morning. Her body was found the next day bound and gagged, having suffered multiple stab wounds.
Donald Ferguson did ultimately plead guilty to Shalonda’s murder but denied any involvement in Asha’s.
Investigators have now said they have ruled him out as a suspect.
Another viable new lead was made public in May 2016. Police released a statement claiming that it is possible Asha was seen getting into a dark green 1970s Ford Thunderbird or Lincoln Continental Mark 4 with rust along the wheel wells. Police have not given any more details on this lead.
Since then, there have been no additional solid leads. Investigators continue to work on this case, even involving the FBI and the North Carolina Bureau of Investigations. The town has dubbed Asha, “Shelby’s Sweetheart”.
The case of Asha Degree is still open.
What do you think happened to little Asha?
Asha, in 2000, was a 9-year-old girl. She is described as being an African-American female, 4’6 inches tall, and weighing 60 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has black hair and brown eyes. Asha often wears her hair in pigtails.
What do you think happened? If you have any information about Asha Degree, please call the tip line at (704) 672–6100 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1–800-THE-LOST.
SOURCES:
https://truecrimereport.news.blog/2021/07/31/the-disappearance-of-asha-degree/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/asha-degree
https://myfox8.com/news/arrest-made-in-1990-rape-murder-of-seven-year-old-shalonda-poole/
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