Shelby’s Sweetheart: The Disappearance of Asha Degree
**Edited March 14, 2020
In the year 2000, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief upon our survival of Y2K. N*Sync had released their iconic single, "Bye, Bye, Bye", setting the tone for the new millennium of pop. AOL merged with Time Warner and forever implanted the memory of a dial up tone in everyone's heads. It was a year of change--a new decade, a new century, and a new millennium. It was also the year when 9-year-old Asha Degree left her Shelby, North Carolina residence, never to be seen again.
Asha Degree was described as a shy child. She was part of a tight knit family that valued God and hard work. The Degree children were raised to be self-sufficient--instead of being two trouble making latchkey kids, they let themselves into the apartment after school and were finished with their homework by the time their parents were home. After all, being the star player of her basketball team, she needed to keep her grades up.
Though Asha was young, she had promise. With a supportive family, good academics, and being a superstar in sports, no one could have foreseen that she would leave and never return.
The night Asha disappeared; an intense storm was upon Shelby. The southern heat was gone for the winter and the rain lent to the chill of the night. A car accident happened near the Degree home, knocking out the neighborhood's power. This changed the routine--Asha and her brother O'Bryant would have had a bath before bed. Iquilla, her mother, would just have to wake them up an hour earlier than usual, but instead it would only be O'Bryant that morning. Howard, her father, claimed that he checked on the children at 2:30 am, both were in the room asleep. But remember--there was a power outage. That power outage makes this case harder to track. The times differ with every iteration of the story.
O'Bryant was a light sleeper and heard Asha shuffle twice in the night. Once was to go to the bathroom and the other, he assumed she was changing positions in bed. But by morning, she was gone. Howard's information leads us to believe that she left after 2:30 am and O'Bryant lets us know that they were put to bed for a bit before she left as he was able to sleep.
That morning, Iquilla frantically searched for Asha. She asked her sister if Asha was nearby at her house. She asked neighbors what they saw. Not Asha. Had someone taken her? The apartment had suggested no. No signs that anyone had forced their way in to snatch a little girl. To confirm? She had packed a bag. Iquilla took inventory and noted some of her clothes were missing, and most of all, a Tweety bird purse. She left on her own.
It had been known she was afraid of dogs. Her shy and cautious nature coupled with that made it hard to believe she would leave on her own, into the turbulent storm of a pitch-black night.
When the news hit that a little girl went missing, locals took notice. Someone had seen something, and it was odd to say the least. Early morning February 14, 2000, a little girl dressed in only a white long sleeve shirt and white pants was seen walking along Highway 18. It caused curiosity, someone came back around to check on her, but Asha had become frightened and took off into the woods. This event was the last confirmed sighting of her. But her movements could still be tracked.
Candy wrappers and one of her favorite bows were found in a shed. Perhaps she'd taken shelter during the storm. Another interesting find? A photo of a girl on the floor of the shed who remains unidentified to this day. Why did Asha have this photo? Did she and this girl decide to meet up? Who is she and is she alive to this day? The shed is where the story lapsed. Asha was gone.
In August of 2001, 26 miles away, a case that was fading would be back in the media. Terry Fleming, a contractor in Morganton was working a construction site. He broke ground and made an odd discovery. It was a trash bag. Something was in it. A second trash bag, but there was something in that bag. The backpack, belonging to Asha Degree.
It seemed the case couldn't get any stranger. Why was Asha's bag 26 miles away from where she was last seen? And more importantly, who had buried it with such an obvious intention to preserve it? The case went stale once again and has remained that way. In 2018, law enforcement finally released some small details in hopes of reinvigorating the case and having someone with information come forward. A book titled "McElligot's Pool" from Fallston Elementary Library and a New Kids on the Block t-shirt were deemed vital in cracking this case. Anyone with a connection to these items is urged to contact the Cleveland County Sheriff's office.
My take? This case is confusing. It feels wrong in every way. It's never good when a child goes missing, but there's no possible suspects. By all accounts, it looks like Asha left of her own volition. It's the backpack that leads me to believe in something more sinister. For it to be 26 miles away from where she was last seen, it had to have ended up there by some other means of transport. Despite Asha being an athlete, it is impossible that she could have travelled that far on foot in the conditions of that night. The burial? Oddly meticulous. Someone wanted to protect this--possibly to unearth again--so they wrapped it in 2 trash bags. My mind travels to trophy behavior.
Trophy behavior is exhibited by killers that want to relive their crimes. They keep something from the victim, a body part or one of their belongings, and they relish in what they've done and that they're the only one that knows about it. Asha's case is still that of a missing person. Her body has never been found and in fact, not everyone believes it's a body we're looking for. The Charley Project classifies Asha as "endangered missing". This is a term usually reserved for people who are presumed to have met with foul play or have conditions that require medical attention. Other outlets report that law enforcement is operating on the idea that Asha is alive.
As for the 26 miles away? We may have an answer for that, but it's incomplete. In May 2016, police revealed they were looking for an early 1970's Lincoln Mark IV or Thunderbird after obtaining information that a girl fitting Asha's description had been seen getting into one around the time of her disappearance. We can't know if it was Asha that had been seen getting into the vehicle. Someone had tried to approach her which led to her fleeing into the woods. If in fact it was her, who was driving the car? How did they get the shy Asha to let her guard down and get in? Did they bury the backpack?
No suspects have officially been named and while some names took residence on the suspect list, they no longer live there. Donald Preston Ferguson was convicted for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Shalonda Poole in Greensboro, North Carolina. Shalonda's case bore similarities to Asha's which caused police to focus on him for her disappearance. He was involved in search efforts for Shalonda, exhibiting similar behavior to a person that collects a trophy. He liked seeing the pain and chaos he caused. While he was ultimately discredited, I think police could be on the right track. While it was unlikely that Asha met a predator on the internet as her family didn't own a computer--she still could have been groomed by someone in the close circle of the Degrees.
Harold and Iquilla have been cleared as suspects and fight for their daughter to this day. But maybe someone they know doesn't share the same intention. The shy and cautious Asha packed a bag to leave. How did she get a photo of an unknown girl? This says that Asha could have been in contact with someone that encouraged her to make her escape that fateful night, perhaps another child also groomed by an adult? As mentioned with Donald Ferguson, it's not unusual for a killer to aid in search parties or involve themselves in the case. A neighbor of the Degrees keeps Asha's memory alive with a small "shrine" dedicated to her in his front yard. He claims Asha was like the neighborhood's baby and it's like he lost someone too. It's easy to see this as a concerned neighbor, but the level of concern can strike people a certain way. Is there something behind his concern? So far, law enforcement has deemed no. All the public knows is that Asha is gone. We don't know who took her, or if she was even taken.
On February 14, 2020, her parents will have another anniversary of their marriage, and 20 years without their daughter. The case of Asha Degree is still open.