The Disappearance of Asha Degree

In the year 2000, little Asha Degree was a bright 9-year-old girl living in Shelby, North Carolina. Asha was shy and quiet, but when it came to one of her favorite sports, basketball, she was extremely competitive.

Her parents were often working when Asha and her older brother, O'Bryant, got home from school. Even so, the two children were expected to be either working on homework or already finished by the time their parents, Harold and Iquilla, got home.

Harold and Iquilla were quite protective of their children and focused on family, church, and school. Seeking to protect their children from online predators, Asha's parents refused to have a computer in their home.

"Every time you turned on the TV, there was some pedophile that lured somebody's child away via the internet," Iquilla stated in an interview with Jet.

On the night of February 13th, 2000, Shelby was hit with a massive storm. Wind and rain buffeted the entire town so badly that the rain would sting your face if you stayed out in it too long. Asha and her brother O'Bryant were in bed around 8:00pm. There was a power outage that night while the children slept, and when the power came back on at 12:30am, Harold checked on the children and found nothing amiss.

Harold once again checks on the children at 2:30am, and again, both of the children are in their beds. After Harold left from checking up on the kids, O'Bryant says he heard Asha's bed squeak, but he didn't investigate.

"She was scared to death of dogs, I never thought she would go out of the house," Iquilla said.

For reasons unknown, after her father Harold left, 9-year-old Asha Degree crept out of her bed and grabbed a bookbag she had previously packed with extra clothes and personal items. Quietly, she then left her house and walked into the blowing wind and rain.

Between 3:45am and 4:15am a truck driver and another motorist saw Asha walking south along Highway 18. They reported this to the police after seeing a story on Asha on the news. The motorist turned around because he thought it was so strange to see such a small child out at that hour. He circled three times before he saw Asha run into the woods on the side of the road and disappear.

Asha's mother awoke at 5:45am on February 14th to get the day started. At 6:30am she entered the children's rooms to wake them and she discovered O'Bryant in his bed sleeping, but Asha was not. After a frantic search of the house, Iquilla called the police.

Police arrived by 6:40am to start searching, but their efforts were hampered when the tracking dogs could not pick up Asha's scent. By 7:00am the Degree family had called all of their friends and family.

A massive turnout for the search as friends, family, and neighbors arrived was initially promising when searchers found a mitten, but this hope was dashed when it turned out not to belong to Asha.

On February 15, candy wrappers were found in a shed at a business nearby where Asha was seen running into the woods. Nearby there was also a pencil, a marker, and a Mickey Mouse shaped hair bow that belonged to Asha.

No other clues to Asha's whereabouts were found, and after 9000 man-hours, the search was called off.

Investigators had a difficult time piecing together why Asha left her house that night. They believe that Asha made plans to leave for several days prior to the early morning of the 14th.

"Not your typical runaway," said North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation agent Bart Burpeau. Ben Ermini of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that most children that run away are at least 12

FBI also notes a lack of issues at home to be running away from. There was no history of abuse in the family. Although Asha's parents were strict, Asha seemed content to respect her parent's boundaries. On the other hand, Asha's basketball team, on which she was a star point guard, lost the first game of the season. Asha had fouled out and seemed upset about it, but by the time her brother's game started she seemed to have gotten over it.

Police believe that Asha voluntarily left her home but somehow either had gotten off track or had been abducted.

A month after Asha went missing, the Degree family appeared on "The Montel Williams Show". Americas Most Wanted and Oprah devoted short segments to the case.

Iquilla lamented in an interview with Jet that she felt her daughter didn't get as much media attention because she was black.

"Missing white children get more attention. I don't understand why. I know if you ask them they will say it's not racial. Oh, really? I'm not going to argue because I have common sense." Iquilla stated.

On August 3rd, 2001, Asha's bookbag and other items were found during a construction project off Highway 18, in Burke County near Morganton. That is 26 miles (42km) north of Shelby. The bag had been wrapped in plastic as if to protect its contents until its owner returned. The bag had Asha's name and phone number in it.

Initially, the FBI did not release what items were found in Asha's bookbag. It wasn't till the 20th anniversary of Asha's disappearance that they revealed the items in the bookbag were a copy of Dr.Seuss's McElligot's Pool and a New Kids on the Block t-shirt. Neither items were Asha's. While the library book came from Asha's elementary school, there doesn't seem to be any connection between Asha and the t-shirt; it wasn't her's. To this date, it is the last evidence found in this case.

There were a lot of dead-end leads in this case. One time in 2004, the police were following a tip that Asha was buried near an intersection. After excavating the area, all they found were some animal bones.

In 2015, the FBI, Cleaveland County Sheriff's Office investigators and State Bureau of Investigation agents re-examined the case, including re-interviewing witnesses. They also announced a reward of $25,000 for information leading to a conviction. A community group raised an additional $20,000 to add to the reward.

In 2016, the FBI announced that Asha may have been seen getting into a dark green, early '70's Lincoln Continental Mark IV or possibly a Ford Thunderbird of the same vintage. It is described as having rust around the wheel wells.

In October 2018, the Cleaveland County Sheriff's Office detectives appealed to the public for information. They were looking for any information on the items found in Asha's bookbag. These items are "critical" to solving this case.

At the 20th anniversary of Asha's disappearance, her mother Iquilla stated, "After 20 years, I still believe my daughter is alive. I do not believe she is dead. And I know someone knows something. I'm not crazy enough to think that a 9-year-old can disappear into thin air without somebody knowing something." Every year Asha's family organizes a fundraising walk to keep Asha's story in the media.

Why did Asha leave her home that night? There are theories that Asha may have been groomed somehow by a predator, but her parents were very protective and didn't even allow a computer in the house. So it would be difficult for Asha to be in contact with anyone. Another theory is that maybe Asha took that loss of her basketball game harder than what everyone thought. That didn't seem too likely since she seemed to brush off the loss quickly. It just doesn't make sense why she left the house that night.

If Asha, fondly remembered as Shelby's Sweetheart, is still alive out there, she would be old enough to have her own children. Her mother Iquilla still holds out hope that one day her little girl will come home.