Where Is Asha Degree?

A note on this post: this case contains a fair about of conflicting information from different sources. I have tried to use what seems to be the most accurate information. Links and further reading are at the bottom of the post. 

There was a heavy rainstorm in the early hours of the morning of 14 February, 2000, in Shelby, North Carolina. There was also a power-cut that night, apparently unrelated to the storm.

By the time Harold Degree had finished work late that night, the power was back on. Harold lived with his wife of twelve years, Iquilla, and their two children, nine year-old Asha and ten year-old O’Bryant.   

When Harold got home, Asha was still up, fully dressed and lying on the sofa.  

Asha went to bed in the room she shared with O’Bryant not long after her father got home. Harold checked in on the children twice before he went to bed at about 2.30am. 

Iquilla got up at around 5.45am the next morning. It was her and Harold’s wedding anniversary, but the kids had school and needed a bath as they had missed theirs the night before because of the power cut.  Their alarm was set for 6.30pm, but Iquilla went to wake them up before the alarm went off.

 Iquilla found Asha’s bed empty. Iquilla searched the house and the cars on the driveway.  She then phoned Asha’s grandmother, who lived across the street, but her sister-in-law, who picked up, said Asha wasn’t there. 

O’Bryant said that sometime in the night, he had heard his sister’s bed squeak, but thought it was just her moving around in her sleep.

Police arrived with scent dogs at the Degree house an hour later, at 6.40am. The dogs were not able to track Asha at all. Further information of scent dog ability can be found in previous posts about Elisa Lam (Every Contact Leaves A Trace) which will dispute the theory that the dogs weren’t able to track her because of inclement weather. 

Asha had left her home before dawn, taking a bag that contained changes of her favourite clothes, (a pair of blue jeans with a red stripe, black trainers, a red vest with black trim, black overalls with Tweety Pie on them, a long sleeved white t-shirt with purple lettering and a long sleeved black and white shirt.) her Tweety-Pie purse, her clean basketball kit, photos of her family and some sweets.

Asha kept her house key in her backpack, and she had locked the front door behind her.

She was last seen at around 3.30 – 4.15am, walking south along North Carolina Highway 18, just over a mile from her home, by several passing motorists. It was raining heavily, but Asha, who was dressed all in white, wasn’t wearing a coat. A truck driver went past her three times, but on the third time he circled round and drove past her, she ran off the road and into the woods. He said that he had turned around because he thought it was "strange such a small child would be out by herself at that hour,”

On 17 February, some sweet wrappers were found in a shed belonging to Turner’s Upholstery, located along the stretch of highway where Asha had last been seen running into the woods. With the wrappers were a pencil, a green marker pen and a Mickey Mouse shaped hair clip. The items were identified as belonging to Asha. It’s not known if these had been there since the morning of 14, or were planted there later.

The initial search for Asha covered a 2 -3 mile radius of where she had last been seen, taking 9,000 man hours of following the 300 something leads that ranged from possible sightings to tips about what places to search. After a week, the search was called off. There were no clues as to what had happened to Asha, or where she had gone.

In August 2001, construction workers on a site at Highway 18 in Burke County, 26 miles north of Shelby - the opposite direction from when Asha had last been seen - dug up her bag, which had her name and telephone number written inside it.

The bag had been wrapped in plastic rubbish sacks. The FBI took the bag for testing, but the results have never been made public. In October that year, similar rubbish sacks were found and taken for testing.

In May 2016, the FBI announced that they had a possible new lead in the case and revealed that Asha may have been seen getting into either a dark green, early 70s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird with rusted wheel arches the night she disappeared from Highway 18. This was actually a tip that been given back in 2000, and was revealed when new investigators took over the case. To date, it is the only other piece in the puzzle of what might have happened to Asha.

Background

Asha (pronounced Ay-sha) Jaquilla Degree was born on 5 August, 1990.

The Degrees were what some people might consider over protective of their children. There was no computer in the house, and Asha and O’Bryant’s lives centred around church, school, and family. As both Harold and Iquilla worked, the children let themselves in after school and were expected to have their homework finished by the time their mum and dad got home.

Asha was the starred point guard on her school’s basketball team. For those not familiar with basketball, this is a specialised position. The point guard players are expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that it gets to the right players at the right time. Above all, the point guard must totally understand and accept their coach's game plan. While the guard must understand and accept the coach's game plan, he must also be able to adapt to what the defence is allowing, and he also must control the pace of the game. (from Wikipedia)

The team played its first game of the season on 12 February, but it didn’t go well for Asha. She fouled out (Basketball foul) and they lost the game. Her parents recalled her being very upset about this, and crying with her teammates.  She seemed to recover quickly though, and watched her brother’s game.

Asha’s class were reading  ‘The Whipping Boy’ by Sid Fleischman. The story is about two boys, a prince and his servant, that run away.

Asha is African-American, and at the time of her disappearance was 9 years old,  4’6 in height, and weighed 60lbs (about 4 stone) she has brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a long sleeved white t-shirt, white jeans and white trainers. She was afraid of storms and dogs.

Timeline

Friday 11 February

School is closed for lessons because of the three day President’s Day holiday weekend.  Harold and Iquilla have to work, so the children spend the day at an aunt’s house and at basketball practice at the school. 

Saturday 12 February

Asha and her brother play in the first basketball matches of the seasons. Asha is upset when her team loses and she fouls out, but she seems to recover and watches her brother’s game.

Sunday 13 February

The children spend the day with family, going to church. Harold works a split shift, his second shift starts in the afternoon.

8pm – 9pm some reports say this is the time Asha and O’Bryant went to bed, missing their bath because of the power cut.

11.30pm: Harold comes back from work. Some reports say Asha was still up when he got home, possibly because she was cold after the power went out. It’s unclear as to whether Asha DID go to bed at 8pm and then got up again to wait for her dad to get home, or if she didn’t go to bed at all until Harold got home.

Monday 14 February

12.30: Harold leaves the house again to buy Valentine’s Day chocolates.

2.30pm: Harold checks on his children before going to bed. Both of them are sleeping.

3.30 – 4.15am: Asha is seen by several drivers walking south along Highway 18, approximately a mile from her home. The weather is very bad; it’s cold and raining heavily but Asha is not wearing a coat, hat, scarf or gloves. One concerned driver turns to go past her three times, but it seems Asha gets spooked before he can approach her and she runs into the wooded area that lines the highway.

17 February

Sweet wrappers, a pencil, a marker and a Mickey Mouse hairclip identified as belonging to Asha are found in a shed along the highway at about the same location where Asha was seen running into the woods by the driver.

August 2001

Asha’s backpack is found by construction workers on a site 26 miles north of where she had last been seen. The bag is wrapped in rubbish sacks and has her name and telephone number written inside it.

October 2001

Rubbish bags similar to the ones that were used to wrap Asha’s bag are found and sent for analysis.

2004

Acting on a tip off from a man in prison, investigators conduct an excavation search at the corner of Shelby and Rube Spangler Roads near Lawndale, South Carolina. They found bones, which turned out to belong to an animal. They also find a pair of men’s khaki trousers.

2016

New investigators looking into Asha’s case find a tip given back in 2000, a sighting of Asha getting into a 1970’s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird. There were two other people in the car.

Lincoln Mark IV

Ford Thunderbird

Questions and Notes

Why was Asha dressed all in white? So she could be seen easily in the dark?

None of the drivers called the police after they saw Asha. The driver that turned round 3 times only called them after he saw news reports that she was missing.

She was seen by the drivers walking SOUTH, her bag was found NORTH, 26 miles in the opposite direction.

When and why was her bag buried in that particular location?

Theories:

Grooming for various purposes and problems with this theory

Some people have tried to discredit this theory, saying that Asha’s family didn’t have a computer, so she could not have been vulnerable to grooming. This doesn’t mean that she wasn’t groomed. Was it someone she knew through school? Through basketball? Did someone convince her to run away, or say they were going to take her somewhere special, like Disney Land/World? Was this place somewhere warm, which was the reason why she didn’t take a coat with her? Did they use her parent’s anniversary as a ruse? Or ‘romantic’ Valentine’s Day?

Why did she leave house at 3am but was seen over an hour later? Was someone supposed to pick her up? Had she walked to meet someone, realised something was wrong and run away from them, which was when the drivers saw her? If this was the case, perhaps she was scared anyone driving past might be the person she was running away from.  This would explain why she ran into the woods. But what happened to her after that?

Were the items planted in the shed? How come her bag was found so neatly wrapped, as if preserved? Did someone want it to be found? Was it buried on the site knowing someone would soon find it? Why have test results not been made public? Because there are clues as to what happened to Asha that the police can’t make public in case it jepodises the investigation?

Runaway and problems with this theory

Had Asha been inspired by The Whipping Boy and decided to run away to have adventures?  If so, why would she choose a night of terrible weather to go when she was afraid of storms? Why would she leave without a coat?  Children aged ten and under are not considered ‘runaways’ by law enforcement, and children  only truly run away when things are very bad at home, where abuse, violence and neglect are present.  It didn’t seem like any of these things were happening in the Degree home. Asha’s parents may have been protective and strict, but she seemed happy and enjoyed sports and hanging out with her family.

Sleepwalking 

There’s no real evidence for this theory. Asha did not have a history of sleepwalking, and it seems like her bag was pre-packed (before she went to sleep that night) so she was prepared to leave the house.

Hit and Run

If Asha had been struck by a car walking along the highway, there would be evidence of this; marks on the road, someone who had taken a dented car to be repaired. There were other drivers along that road on the morning of 14^th who would have witnessed a hit and run.

Asha is alive but can’t get home

It’s possible Asha was taken and has been held captive somewhere, like Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Lee Dugard and Natascha Kampusch. There’s no evidence to suggest this happened, other than a girl matching her description was seen getting into the 1970s green car.

Hypothermia 

After Asha ran into the woods, did she try and hide, but succumb to hypothermia? If this is the case, wouldn’t the scent dogs have been able to track her? Wouldn’t she have been found? 

2017

Harold and Iquilla hold a walk every year along the North Carolina Highway 18, travelling Asha’s last known route. A billboard stands at the spot where she was last seen running into the woods.  Her parents still live in the same house, and have the same telephone number in case their daughter ever comes home.

Asha's walk

Anyone with information on Asha’s case can contact the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office on 704 4844822.

Further reading and information:

The Charley Project

Dark Matters (Cayleigh Elise Youtube video)

Brainscratch Searchlight (LordanARTS youtube video)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Asha_Degree

Shelby Star

https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/  (this is a very indepth website, but Asha's parents have said that not all the information on it is accurate)

Reddit Unresolved  One of many Reddit threads discussing what may have happened to Asha.