Authorities believe NC girl Asha Degree, who went missing in 2000, was murdered

Investigators believe 9-year-old Asha Degree, who went missing on Feb. 14, 2000, from her home in Shelby, was murdered and her body concealed, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The records marked the first time law-enforcement investigators publicly said they believed Asha was dead, in a case that the Shelby community and many in the region have never forgotten.

“Pray for Asha, her family, and everyone who has worked for decades to locate Shelby’s Sweetheart,” Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said in a statement Monday.

Last week, investigators searched multiple locations in Cleveland County in connection to the case, including a property where they took a vehicle and other evidence.

Investigators believe local individuals may have had a hand in Asha’s disappearance, the affidavit said.

Authorities allege local connection

Asha’s (pronounced Ay-shuh) family last saw her around 2:30 a.m. asleep in her bedroom 24 years ago, according to the FBI. But about 90 minutes later, drivers on Highway 18 would report seeing her walking on the side of the road.

She was later seen “being pulled” into a 1970s green Lincoln Thunderbird, or a similar vehicle, the affidavit said. She has not been seen since.

Over a year later, on Aug. 2, 2001, a construction crew in Burke County found evidence — including Asha’s bookbag and clothing — double bagged in black trash bags, approximately 21 miles north of where she was last seen. The bags contained some of Asha’s possessions and others that were not hers, the affidavit said.

“Various items of evidence were sent for analysis,” the affidavit said. “Two of those items returned evidentiary results. Genealogical data narrowed the samples down to two (2) individuals.”

The affidavit identified suspects.

The affidavit said investigators tested a hair sample from Asha’s undershirt and had examined results of a DNA comparison.

Last Friday, Norman said no human remains were found during the property searches. Police seized evidence, including a green 1960s-model car from 621 Cherryville Road.

People gathered nearby last Wednesday to watch as the search progressed, hopeful that Asha’s family, and the community overall, might get some closure on a case that has haunted Cleveland County for over two decades.

Larry Hannah was one of dozens of people sitting in the parking lot across the street near Spake Farms.

“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 disappearance

Asha’s parents reported her missing around 6:30 the morning she went missing, 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.”

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.

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.

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.