Hey there, DETECTIVES! DETECTIVE WRITER here to tell you all about an unsolved disappearance: the case of 9-year-old, Asha Degree.
Asha Degree was born on August 5th, 1990 in Shelby, North Carolina. She had an older brother, O’Bryant who was born in 1989. He was ten years old when his sister disappeared. Both children had a childhood centered close to the church, school, and family. Asha Degree’s parents had worked regular jobs so when school was over, the siblings would let themselves in. At the time of her disappearance in February 2000, Asha was in the fourth grade attending the Fallston Elementary School and going on a three-day weekend.
On February 13th, 2000, the kids went to church and came back home. Around 8 P.M., the kids went to sleep. However, about an hour later, the power went out in the neighborhood due to a car accident that occurred nearby. Asha’s father, Harold came to check on the kids around 12:30 A.M. on February 14th, 2000, which is when the power came back on. He came back to check on them again around 2:30 A.M. and the kids were still asleep in bed in their shared room.
O’Bryant remembered hearing his sister’s bed squeak but he thought she was trying to make herself more comfortable. For an unknown reason, Asha packed her bookbag and walked out of her home. She was wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt and white pants. Despite the heavy rain, she was walking along the North Carolina state highway 18, and a truck driver and a motorcyclist spotted her, they tried to talk to her but she ran away into the woods near the highway. When her mother woke up a few hours later, Asha was already gone and the police were immediately called.
When police dogs could not pick up Asha’s scent and her mother, Iquilla could not find her in the neighborhood, only a mitten was found but Iquilla that did not belong to her daughter. On February 15th, candy wrappers, a pencil, a marker, and a Mickey Mouse-shaped hair bow were discovered in a shed that was confirmed to be hers. On February 16th, her mother found that in Asha’s bedroom, she was missing a pair of blue jeans with a red stripe, her favorite clothes. On August 3, 2001, Asha’s bookbag was found near Highway 18 in Burke County during a construction project. It was wrapped in a plastic bag. The contents contained a “New Kids On the Block” t-shirt and a Dr. Seuss book. Several years after she disappeared, a photo of Asha was placed as to how she may have appeared as an adult.
Although, there have been multiple leads, unfortunately, they have not been successful. Asha Degree has not been seen since the night she disappeared but her family still holds hope that she will come back and is still out there. Where do you think Asha could have gone? Why did she leave her home in the middle of the night? Why did she run away when people tried to talk to her? What do you think, DETECTIVES?
I hope you have enjoyed this storytime as much as I did, DETECTIVES! Please let me know in the comments if you want to have more storytime! Have a great day, night, afternoon, or evening, DETECTIVES! Stay tuned for next week’s post; until then, keep on sleuthing, DETECTIVES!
Detective Writer 