Ep 18 Missing: Asha Degree

Asha Jaquilla Degree went missing from the home she shared with her parents and her brother when she was just 9 years old. Witnesses reported seeing the little girl walking along the highway in the rain. Without realising at the time, these witnesses were the last people to see Asha. 2020 marks 20 years since Asha’s disappearance, her family still believe that their little girl is out there, somewhere.

If you have any information in the case of Asha Degree please contact the FBI Charlotte Field Office on 704-672-6100

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Music is Drumming in the Rain Instrumental by Chad Crouch

Resources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Asha_Degree
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/20th-anniversary-of-asha-degree-disappearance-021420
https://www.dailyarmy.com/stories/the-story-behind-asha-degrees-disappearance-and-new-details-from-the-case/
https://youtu.be/Y-9FtGTRWnk
https://www.shelbystar.com/news/20201116/inmate-says-he-knows-what-happened-to-asha-degree?template=ampart

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Asia Degree went missing from the homeshe shared with her parents and brother on
the fourteenth of February two thousand.She was just nine years old. She
disappeared under very strange circumstances, whicheven now have baffled investigators. Twenty years
later, Asia's families still believe thattheir little girl is out there, except

(00:34):
now she'd be twenty nine years old. If anyone listening has any information,
I'll include the relevant contact details inthe show notes. Hello everybody, and
welcome to episode eighteen of the Student'sVerdict Podcast. Thank you for joining me

(00:59):
on another the true crime adventure.To all you new listeners, welcome.
My name is Emily and I'm yourhost. If you haven't already, please
go and listen to some of ourearlier episodes. I've covered cases such as
that of Harry Potter, actor RobKnox, and the Toolbox Killers. Please
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(01:23):
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(01:46):
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(02:06):
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(02:29):
Harold and Aequila Degree married on Valentine'sDay in nineteen eighty eight. The following
year they had a son, O'Briant, and the year after that they had
a little girl, Asia, whowas born on the fifth of August nineteen
ninety. The Degree family lived ina rural area north of Shelby, North

(02:50):
Carolina, on a road called OakcrestDrive. Both Harold and Aequila worked nearby,
and so the children often let themselvesin the house after school. When
Harold and Aquila got home, theywould often find the children doing their homework.
Asia was in the fourth grade atFulston Elementary School. The family's lives

(03:13):
largely centered around three main things family, church, and school. I think
we can all agree this was afairly run of the mill kind of family.
During the second week of February twothousand, Asha was going into a
three day weekend. Cleveland County schoolswere closed on Friday, eleventh of February.

(03:36):
Harold and Aquila still had work,and so Asia and O'Briant spent the
day at their aunt's house. Shelived in the same neighborhood as the degrees.
From there, they went to theyouth basketball practices at their school the
following day. On Saturday, thetwelfth of February, Asia's basketball team had
a game. She was described asa star point guard. However, during

(04:00):
this particular game, she fouled outand her team would end up losing their
first game of the season, whichreally upset Asia. She even cried along
with her team mates. Asia's parentsrecalled that she eventually seemed to get over
the loss and went on to watchher brother's game, which began after hers.

(04:21):
That brings us to Sunday, thethirteenth of February two thousand. On
this day, both Asia and O'Bryantwent from church to a relative's house,
and then they returned home. Ateight p m. Both children went to
bed in the room that they bothshared. One hour later, there was
a power cut in the neighborhood aftera nearby car accident. At twelve thirty

(04:46):
am, the power came back onand Harold went and checked on the children,
who were both tucked up in theirbeds. At two thirty a m.
On the fourteenth of February two thousand, Harold checked on the children again
before he went to bed. Bothchildren were still sound asleep. Shortly after
this, O'Briant ten reported hearing Asha'sbed squeak. He assumed that Asia was

(05:12):
just changing positions in her sleep.However, it's believed that around this time
Asia actually got out of bed andgrabbed her book bag. She had previously
packed this bag with several sets ofclothes and personal items. And then the
nine year old left the house.It's unclear where she was heading to.

(05:33):
She was spotted by both a truckand a motorist between three forty five and
four fifteen am. She was seenwalking south along Highway eighteen, just north
of its junction with Highway one eighty. She was wearing a long sleeved white
t shirt and white trousers. Bothwitnesses later reported the sighting to the authorities

(05:58):
after a TV report follow her disappearance. The motorist claimed to have tried to
turn his car around because it struckhim as particularly odd that such a small
child would be wandering along by herselfso early in the morning. He circled
three times, but when he triedto approach the little girl, she ran
into the woods by the roadside anddisappeared. Iquila awoke at five forty five

(06:25):
am on the fourteenth of February twothousand to get the children ready for school.
This day was not only Valentine's Day, but also the degree's wedding anniversary.
When she opened the door to thechildren's room to wake them before their
six thirty am alarm, she foundher son still tucked up in bed,

(06:45):
but there was no sign of herdaughter. Iquila didn't panic. She thought
that Asia must be in the housesomewhere. However, when she couldn't find
Asia in the house or in thecars, she began to panic. When
Aquila told her husband she couldn't findAsia, Harold suggested that she may have
gone to his mother's house across thestreet. Unfortunately, this was not the

(07:11):
case, as Aquila soon found outwhen she called to her mother in law's
Ichila later recalled quote, that's whenI went into panic mode. I heard
a car door, I put shoeson and ran outside. Ikeila then called
her own mother, who told herto call the police, which she did.
Despite the extensive searches, only amitten was found, which Aquila said

(07:35):
did not belong to her daughter.All Asia's winter clothes were accounted for at
the house. It wasn't long beforethe local media caught wind of Asia's disappearance,
which caused the two witnesses to comeforward. On the fifteenth of February,
some sweet wrappers were found in ashed at a nearby business, which

(07:56):
was situated along the highway near towhere Asia had run into the woods.
Along with the sweet wrappers, therewere some other items, including a pencil,
a marker, and a Mickey mouseshaped her bow, which were later
identified as belonging to Asia. Thiswas the first trace of Asia that had
been found. The following day,when searching Asia's room, Iquila realized that

(08:22):
some of her daughter's favorite clothing wasmissing, including a pair of blue jeans
with a red stripe. Over thenext week, flyers were posted all over
the area. Three thousand leads wereinvestigated, which ranged from possible sightings to
tips about abandoned houses and wells whereAsia might have ended up. After nine

(08:46):
thousand man hours, the search wascalled off. County Sheriff Dan Crawford said
that investigators never really had a good, substantial lead. Despite this, he
urged the media to keep sharing Asia'sstory. During a news conference on the
twenty second of February, Sheriff Crawfordtold the media that he would be going

(09:09):
long term in his search for Asia. What he meant by this was that
both the FBI and North Carolina's StateBureau of Investigation or SBI would be called
in to help the search. Bothorganizations put Asia on their respective databases for
missing children. Sheriff Crawford insisted thatthey were following every lead. After her

(09:33):
daughter's disappearance, Iqila degree searched herdaughter's room to account for what was missing.
To the authorities, it seemed asthough Asia had planned to run away
for several days before her disappearance.What's particularly strange about Asia's disappearance is that
she was considered quite young for arunaway. Being just nine years old,

(09:56):
she was three years younger than theaverage age for a juvenile runaway. This
is according to ben Ermini of theNational Center for Missing Unexploited Children. Another
odd thing that stood out to investigatorswas the absence of any stresses in Asia's
life that might have driven her torun away from home. Sometimes children run

(10:16):
away from home to escape school pressuresor a dysfunctional family, but Asia did
not experience either of these things.She was well liked by her teachers,
had several good friends, and wasfriendly with numerous others, and was academically
and athletically engaged. Despite this,the evidence still suggested that she did run

(10:37):
away from home. One theory peoplehave come up with for why Asia ran
away is as follows. So Itsaid that Asia had recently read a book
at school, The Whipping Boy bysid Fleischmann. The book tells the story
of two boys who ran away fromhome before eventually going back. It's theorized

(10:58):
that Asia could have been attempting somethingsimilar, but possibly met misfortune on her
way. Now you might be thinkingwhat I was thinking, which is that
she might have got talking to someoneonline and left home to meet up with
them and was then subsequently abducted.However, the Degrees were smart and were

(11:20):
very worried about their children having accessto the Internet, so they didn't even
have a computer in the family home. Iquila even told Jet in an interview
from twenty thirteen, quote, everytime you turned on the TV, there
was some pedophile who had lured somebody'schild away via the Internet. Iquila said
that Asia didn't mind not having acomputer. She was quite shy and content

(11:43):
and would stay within the limits herparents had set. One month after Asia's
disappearance, her family were invited tothe Montell Williams Show to talk about their
missing daughter. Both America's Most Wantedand the Oprah Winfrey Show also devoted airtime
to the missing nine year old.It wasn't until the third of August two

(12:05):
thousand and one that there was asignificant development in the case. It was
on this day, thirty miles northof the last sighting of Asia, at
a construction site along the Highway eighteennear the town of Morganton, the Asia's
bookbag and some other items were foundburied and wrapped in a plastic bag.

(12:26):
The worker who found the bag knewit belonged to Asia, degree as it
had her name and phone number insideit. Morganton is approximately forty miles north
of Shelby, and based on myresearch using Google Maps, the two towns
are indeed connected via Highway eighteen.When this book bag was found, resources

(12:48):
confirmed that the FBI conducted forensic analysison the items, but they did not
share the results with the public.I'm sad to say that these items were
the last piece of evidence to befound in Asia's case. Later, the
FBI confirmed that the book bag containeda copy of Doctor Seuss' I don't know

(13:09):
if I'm pronouncing this right, mageligotsPool, Let's just pretend that was right,
and a T shirt featuring the bandNew Kids on the Block. What's
strange is that neither of these itemsactually belonged to Asia. Inquiries concluded that
the book was from the library atAsia's school, Detective Adams said, quote,

(13:31):
Apparently she packed her bag prior toleaving, but the contents, from
what we can tell, looked likesomething a child would pack, rather than
her parents preparing her for an overnightstay. The Degrees were briefly suspects in
this case, but they were ruledout as suspects after they undertook polygraph tests
and all of them passed without incident. In two thousand and four, authorities

(13:56):
received a tip, reportedly from aninmate at the county jail, telling them
to look at the intersection in Lawndale. However, the bones turned out to
be animal bones. In two thousandand eight, the Degrees established a scholarship
in Asia's name for a deserving localstudent who has proven themselves to have promise

(14:16):
and determination. The family also hostsan annual walk to raise awareness and to
fund their search. The walk startsat the Degree's home and ends at the
Missing Person's billboard for Asia along Highwayeighteen, where the little girl was last
seen. Iquila Degree said in atwenty and thirteen Jet interview that she felt

(14:41):
her daughter's disappearance had not gotten asmuch media attention over the years as some
subsequent cases of missing children. Shebelieved that this was because her daughter was
black. Quote, missing white childrenget more attention. I don't understand why.
I know if you ask the theywill say it's not racial. Oh

(15:01):
really, I'm not going to arguebecause I have common sense end quote.
Pictures of Asia, both real andthe age progression pictures showing what she might
look like now decorate the degrees home. Iquila says that she still expects her
little girl to walk through the door. In February two and fifteen, the

(15:24):
FBI announced that the authorities would bere examining the case, which included re
interviewing the witnesses. They also putup a reward of twenty five thousand dollars
for any information leading to the arrestand conviction of the person or persons responsible
for Asia's disappearance. The community ralliedtogether and added an additional twenty thousand dollars

(15:50):
to the reward money. In Maytwo and sixteen, there was a possible
new lead. It was said thatAsia may have been seen getting into a
dark green early nineteen seventies Lincoln ContinentalMark four, or possibly a Ford Thunderbird

(16:12):
from the same era. A LongRoute eighteen, near where she was last
seen that night. The car reportedlyhad rushed around the wheel wells. In
September twenty seventeen, the FBI announcedthat its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team was

(16:32):
in Cleveland County to assist in theinvestigation and quote provide on the ground investigative,
technical, behavioral analysis, and analyticalsupport to find out more about what
happened to Asia. All agencies workedtogether for ten days. These agencies also

(16:53):
meet several times a month to goover the latest on the investigation. Local
agents and investigators have conducted approximately threehundred interviews in relation to Asia's disappearance.
In October twenty and eighteen, theCleveland County Sheriff's Office appealed for information about

(17:14):
the book bag, the book andthe Kids on the Block t shirt.
According to an article by The ShelbyStar on the sixteenth of November, which
was kindly sent to me by atShameless promo Thank you so Much, a
prison inmate, Marcus Mellon wrote tothe Star claiming to know what happened to
Asia degree. He wrote to theeditor to say that Asia was deceased.

(17:40):
He also claimed to know how andwhere to find her body. It should
be noted that Marcus Mellon was originallysentenced to fourteen years in two thousand and
fourteen for sexual offenses against children inCleveland County. But back to his letter,
he requested that investigators come and seehim in prison to find out what
happened, writing quote, Asia Degreehas been missing for over twenty years.

(18:07):
About four months ago I had foundout her whereabouts and what had happened to
her. She was killed and thentook and buried. I do know how
and what town she is in.I hope you get this letter and do
come see me. It's on theup and up end. Quote. Cleveland
County Sheriff Alan Norman said the tipwould be followed, but that it might

(18:30):
be a slow process. Unfortunately,this is largely because of COVID nineteen.
Melan is housed at Alexandra K CorrectionalInstitute, where there is currently an outbreak
of COVID. Sheriff Norman confirmed thatthey will interview Melan once the virus is
under control in the prison, sayingquote, we treat every piece of information

(18:52):
that we receive as good information untilwe prove otherwise. Here's a quote from
Aquila Degree. After twenty 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 thata nine year old can disappear into thin

(19:15):
air without someone knowing something. Thecase remains an open investigation. Sheriff Norman
pleaded quote. If anyone knows anythingwhatsoever that they think is insignificant, it
may be the piece of the puzzleto bring Asia home and bring closure to
the family. If you have anyinformation regarding the disappearance of Asia Degree,

(19:40):
I've put the relevant contact details inthe show notes. I'd like to end
with a quote from Asia's parents.That's my prayer every night that God will
get into their heart and let themcome forward, because it's got to be
a weight on them. We're hopingand praying that she'd had a halfway decent

(20:03):
life, even though we didn't getto raise her. She was nine years
old and she'll be thirty this year, so we've missed everything. But I
don't care. If she walked inthe door right now, I wouldn't care
what I missed. All I wantedto do is see her, and that's

(20:23):
the end of today's episode. Thankyou so much for joining me today.
The Student's Verdict is a bi weeklypodcast, so follow us on social media
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(20:45):
one, and remember to keep livingthe dream.