Asha Degree /// Part 1 /// 475 | Forensic Files

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[Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] listeners of True Crime garage come here to give strength to the victims and
nothing breaks your heart more than a child victim and parents of that child unfortunately that is what we have here
today A missing little girl a case that refuses to go cold due to the efforts of the girl's family the
hard work of law enforcement agencies both local and federal and the commitment of a tight-knit community
the missing little one that we are talking about this week is Asia degree she vanished on a cold rainy night 21
years ago she was just nine years old but the case has other reasons for not going cold
because just as strange as Aisha's disappearance are the leads and tips that have come in over the years
we have discussed many missing persons cases here in the garage one thing we continually see when a
child goes missing is that hope can never fade because unfortunately too often hope is
all they have Aisha's mother does not watch the news as stories of abused children and murdered women haunt her
in 2013 she told then Charlotte Observer Reporter Mandy Locke quote God won't let
me believe she's dead in Asia's case every few years there's another solid lead that presents some
Hope For answers more importantly since February 2000 there's been many abduction victims
located and brought home JC Dugard was found in 2009 after being held captive for 18 years
Michelle Knight Gina De Jesus and Amanda Barry all three were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004. they were rescued
together in 2013. and of course there's the story of Jimmy Claus who just two years ago in 2019 was
found alive it's stories like these in the bravery and strength of these women that helped
to keep hope alive for the parents of the missing and for all of us but with this glimmer of hope and these
rays of positivity there's still a lot of Darkness there are the nightmares that visit the
families mercilessly for the parents it's the overwhelming hurt of closing your eyes and imagining your loved one
trapped hungry and cold the relatives look at everyone suspiciously even stopping to examine the faces of
children who do not seem to resemble their parents for these people cannot trust anyone anymore
they know someone took their child maybe even someone they know is responsible maybe someone they trusted before they
lost the ability to do so could it be that someone in the beginning of the case who tried to help the family took
the little one it's the reoccurring haunting and nagging fears that naturally creep into
the minds of the family did someone follow the child home was it a neighbor who watched and waited
for the perfect time to snatch the child it's the forever heightened sense of one's surroundings
it's the staring at a driver trying to memorize the make and model of a suspicious vehicle that for some reason
or other squealed its tires it's your heart jumping every time the phone rings it's the looking into the eyes of the
unknown man at the diner looking for what something anything some kind of breadcrumb that
will lead you to embrace that loved one once again it's these things to beat you up tear
you down and can drive you to insanity maybe it's one's faith in God themselves or something that they simply cannot
explain that keeps hope alive asha's mother says she ignores the speculation that her daughter is dead
she believes if that were true God would quote Give Me A Sign and prepare me the disappearances of children like Asia
degree are often considered to be lost causes after 72 hours the odds of finding a Child Alive are low
but for the parents the child are alive Frozen in time and just out of their reach
officials at the national Center for missing and exploited children point to cases like JC Dugard Jamie Kloss
and of course the unforgettable Rescue of the three young ladies in Ohio in 2013.
and say these examples should bring a Resurgence of energy to Old cases Lena Holmes a family advocacy specialist at
the center says we hope these cases can be a reminder that kids are still out there it reinforces the need for
vigilance if you see something funny or suspicious reach out it could mean everything
this is True Crime garage [Music] this week we are going to be talking about a truly bizarre case this is a
missing person's case one that I have seen many say that there is reason to believe that the missing little girl may
be alive and well others are not so hopeful and suspect some kind of Foul Play or maybe even an accident we will
lay out the facts of this case and offer some thoughts along the way I suspect the blog at truecrime garage.com will be
Rife with theories and speculation for this case here captain now I'm going to be perfectly honest here
and every week we are talking about someone's real life tragedy and I have said this before
I have been able to grow a rather hard and cold soul from looking at so many of these cases for so long but once in a
while I can't explain why heck most times I don't even know why but once in a while a case really gets to me
sometimes the victim or victims seem more human more real and stand out from the other cases this is certainly one of
those cases for me but in this case I do know why and I'll explain that when we get there our missing person is Asia
degree Asia if she is still out there somewhere she would be 30 years old Aisha jaquil degree was born on Sunday
August 5th 1990. by everything I could find it looks to us that Asia had a very normal childhood leading up to our day
in question the day in question will be February 14 2000. Asia resided with her family in an apartment on Oak Crest
Street located just south of Fallston which is just a touch north of Shelby North Carolina Asia was born and raised
in this area Asia's family consists of her mother and father this is Aquila and Harold and her brother who is just about
one year older than her and his name is O'Bryant Shelby is a city in Cleveland County North Carolina so if you hear us
say Cleveland we are talking about Cleveland County North Carolina not Cleveland in Northeast Ohio this case
has several potentially good leads but none that lead to our state here in Ohio Shelby is located between Charlotte and
Asheville North Carolina the population of Shelby back in 2000 was just under under 20 000 people this is a rural area
Asia is described as quiet and shy she was a good student there were no known issues at school not with her behavior
attitude or school work by all appearances she had a happy home life now I say by all appearances she
had a happy home life because it is always extremely difficult to understand a family Dynamic and what is really
going on behind closed doors if there was stuff going wrong in her house she wasn't I think of the age where it
should be reporting it or telling her friends about it yeah I just wanted to make sure we pointed out that there were
no warning flags here in regards to Asia's family and her home life right no rumors negatively towards the family
Asia was in the fourth grade at Fallston Elementary School now for purposes that
will become quite clear very soon I'm going to point out that Aisha's School Fallston Elementary is located almost
exactly five miles north of her home both her street Oakcrest Street and the school are almost directly off of
Highway 18. Highway 18 is a predominantly two lane rural Highway that travels 145 and a half miles
traveling north south through the Foothills region which is the western side of North Carolina
nc18 as I'm going to call it connects the cities of Shelby Morganton Lenoir Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro
most Reports say the degree family lived in an apartment while they may have been
renters they were living in a double the address was 3404 Oakcrest Street Oakcrest street is one block west of
Highway 18. the degrees residents faces West and this looks like a ranch style Brick
House there are two front doors because it is a double there are two driveways and each of those doubles have a carport
Oakcrest Street looks like it would be a rather quiet street there's only about 18 houses on Oakcrest when you count up
both sides of the street probably about five or so of them being doubles there are single family homes that back
up to the houses on Oakcrest Street and Asia's side of the street so that these are single family homes along the west
side of highway 18. so if she were to walk out the back of her house she would cut through
someone's yard and then she would be right at Highway 18. right these houses and homes on
Oakcrest they are spaced out nicely so they're not all cramped together I know this sounds like I'm being overly
descriptive here however on the night that Asia first goes missing all of the evidence says that the child left her
home on foot in the middle of the night so I'm trying to present the lay of the land so we can have a general sense of
where she was walking that night so you heard me right if you don't know this case this might
be a shock to you but we're talking about a nine-year-old little girl leaving the house on her own in the
middle of the night and her reasons for leaving are not clear in fact that's really just
an extension of the mystery of her Vanishing it's very similar some other missing person cases I mean obviously
the victim here is way younger but if you can solve why she left maybe you could solve what happened to her yes and
in this case probably more importantly so than in most now we're going to kick things off with Friday February 11 2000.
on this day there was no school and from my understanding it was a teacher work day with no school for the students so
both asha's parents are working full-time jobs at this time Aquila worked at Kawaii American manufacturing
and nearby Lincolnton she worked the first shift Harold worked the second shift as a dock loader for PPG
Industries in Shelby North Carolina so no school means Asia and O'Brien being just nine and ten years old will need to
go somewhere while Mom and Dad are at work so they spent that day at their aunt Keisha's house just down the street
from their own house right I'm assuming this might be Harold's brother's wife because it sounds like Harold's mother
and his brother and his brother's family all lived in that same neighborhood maybe even on the same street as Asia's
family later that Friday Asia attends basketball practice she was the star point guard for her school's little
bulldogs girls basketball team next we have Saturday February 12th the kids basketball games were on Saturdays it
looks like the degrees like most families had a fairly regimented routine you know school and practices during the
week basketball games on Saturdays and church on Sundays so on this typical Saturday both Asia
and O'Brien had basketball games at Burns Middle School Asia's team was undefeated going into
this game but on this day her team struggled Asia found out late in the game and the team received their first
loss of the season Asia was very upset about the loss to the point of crying at this event well just to be clear this
was 2000 so at that point they're keeping score they're keeping stats of the players I know that doesn't happen
normally now in elementary school sports but it happened in 2000. many people over the last 20 or so years have
pointed to this as a possible reason that Asia would sneak out or run away and I cannot express how absolutely
silly I think that that thought would be as if this one basketball loss was the end of the world right so yes it is
confirmed that Asia was upset to the point that she cried either during or after the game but we should point out
that a lot of her teammates did the same thing they cried as well some of them even went to the point of maybe faking
an injury to have something to blame the loss on right regardless what we have from her parents and from everybody
else's account of this incident leading up to her disappearance is that Asia snapped out of this pretty quickly I
mean anybody with eight nine ten-year-old kids know that their their mood swings are are fast and furious
yeah your kid loses a basketball game and you go hey do you want to get some ice cream the problem's over it's done
with yes now we're on to ice cream yeah so she gets over it fairly quickly and she attends her brother's basketball
game I know that her mom was present I'm assuming Harold her father was present for the entirety of this day but I can't
say for sure so we know she bounced back pretty quickly she's watching her brother play his basketball game then
that night Asha went to a sleepover party at her 15 year old cousin's house this was a fairly large slumber party
from what I could find one report says that Asia and about a dozen of her friends or her cousins were at this
slumber party at the cousin's home that night it's reported that they stayed up rather late as one could imagine young
girls doing a whole big gaggle of young girls up being loud they stayed up late watching TV and dancing anybody that has
a small child that goes over to the sleepover knows the next day they're going to be dog tired on Sunday February
13th Harold Aquila and O'Brien picked up Asia after early in the morning to go to church so
when we say Church Harold Asia's father says Aisha attended Bible studies classes every Sunday
sometimes churches will have Bible study classes for the kids while adults are attending church services yeah church
services I can't say that that was the situation here but that's what has been reported the degrees church was the
Macedonia Baptist Church in Waco North Carolina after church the degree family of four went to their cousin Shalonda
Brown's home so family get-together of sorts after church at the get-together Asia's grandmother handed out some
Valentine's Day gifts to the grandchildren Asia received a bottle of perfume and of course Valentine's Day
candy now from here they're going to go home Asia was up most of the night like the
captain was pointing out having fun at the sleepover party so she is very tired from the night before
she falls asleep very early and this is right around 6 30 p.m but there's a storm of Bruin a thunderstorm started in
the 8 P.M hour this was a loud thunderstorm with thunder and lightning which woke Asia up so she went and
watched some TV with her family in the living room there are a few questionable items
some Reports say that Harold worked that evening however I really think that this is just confusion right I don't
think he worked that night nor do I think Sunday was even a normal work night for him again sounds like they're
pretty regimented in their routine kids go to school mom and dad work during the
week you might have practices in the evening for for both the kids playing basketball
Saturdays is devoted to the basketball games Sundays devoted to church and routine family get-togethers it could
have could have been in position though that he got called in well I actually think this is just one of those bad
telephone game type items I agree where it's where it's it's certainly a possibility but I think it's kind of
sprung up over the years and some places it's worked its way into becoming fact when anytime I have a report of Harold
or Aquila giving an account of that Sunday neither of them ever mention him going to work right so we can get into
that a little bit more while that probably came up but sometime before 9 pm the power went out at the degree home
so during the storm someone crashed into a utility pole this knocking out power to some of the neighborhoods in that
area this next part Captain is a big gray area even more so than if Harold worked
or not that night so it is stated that Herald stepped out for a last minute trip to buy some Valentines Day candy
or a shopping trip of some sorts some Reports say that he went out at 10 or so and got back at 11 30 p.m other reports
state that he didn't go out until 11 30 p.m now to be perfectly clear I could not find anywhere that Harold is
saying he went out or his wife says that he went out so we should say that he may not have gone
out at all it's it's part of the the weirdness of this story but let's say that Harold did go out for a last minute
late night shopping trip again let's remind everybody it's 2 000. things weren't like for today you have grocery
stores that are open 24 hours a day that wasn't as common back in 2000 on top of
that they live in a pretty rural community you would think that place to get candy wouldn't be open at 11 30.
possibly I mean I would expect there to be CVS Walgreens regular grocery stores they're not terribly far from Charlotte
North Carolina which is a huge City but let's let's pretend that in fact he did go out right but all I'm stating is that
in 2000 things shut down earlier back in my town now you go out at midnight and there's there's cars everywhere and
there's people shopping and getting fast food but in 2000 most of the fast food places closed around 10 o'clock so if he
went out many think that this is awfully suspicious you know people want to know
they question why would he go out so late why would he go out in a bad thunderstorm for some last minute
Valentine's shopping so I think we should offer up a couple of thoughts here one I don't find this to be a red flag
at all so Harold worked second shift so he gets off work much later than most people goes to bed much later than most
right so while the time might be late for some of us to him it is not he routinely is up late now why go out
in a storm my guess is that there if he did go out there must have been some urgency to something he intended to pick
up while he's out on the shopping trip and some items I could think of maybe he needed to get Valentine's for the kids
to pass out at school right the next day you know so the next day is Valentine's
Day some schools do a little exchanging of cards or treats or whatever amongst the children but isn't February 14th his
anniversary with his wife well that's the other thing and I think that kind of gets gets lost in the shuffle a little
bit here right so that's a little more important than your kids taking Valentine's to school yes so that day
the next day would be his and his wife's 12th wedding anniversary right and the report that I saw said that the two plan
to spend the day home alone so they had the day off from work my thought is Captain maybe he needed
some anniversary gifts for the wife right so that's not something you're going to put off especially if you're
already planning to spend the day together now if he went out the the report is that he
returned at some point maybe as late as midnight ish and then fell asleep on the
couch when he got back again he may have gone out he may not I don't actually think that's important one I don't find
it to be suspicious if he did and again I also suspect that maybe he didn't go out at all is what really went on
regardless what we do know is that the power at their home kicked back on around 12 30 A.M so by this point
Captain we know that everyone is at home the kids and Aquila are in their beds it is said that Harold checked on the
kids around this time at 12 30 A.M then for about the next two hours he's watching TV sitting on the couch in the
living room he says at 2 a.m he shuts off the TV and checks on the kids again a second time and at this
time he finds Aisha and O'Brien sleeping peacefully in their beds he went to join
Aquila in their bedroom and falls asleep relatively quickly he checked on the kids twice and again this is another
thing that people know that they find to be strange or suspicious again I don't see anything weird about
this at all you know people people say well I don't check on my kids more than once I think I I can relate this to my
own world here when I had a younger daughter my home was relatively small and I can say that just out of natural
habit anytime I happen to be near the bedroom at night I would just I just look in real quick
double check that that she's sleeping their home was not very big it's a double it's it's actually fairly small
it's a two bedroom him and his wife are in the master and the two kids share the
other bedroom it's very likely I've not seen the layout but I know from my old house that was rather
small if I just if I'm going to bed that my bedroom door is right next to the other ones you just peek in real quick
and I think that that's probably what happened here that it's a small dwelling and he's just peeking in on his kids to
make sure that they're okay so as we said Captain Asia shared a room with her older brother sometime during
the night O'Brien says he wakes up and he hears his sister Aisha moving about in her bed
he thought she was tossing and turning in her sleep he did say that he then heard her at some point get up and he
thought that she was going to the restroom now reports differ on this next item and that would be if he ever heard her
return some say that he heard her return into the room others say that she did not yeah I'm not too clear on this but
the the brother states that he saw her out of bed but doesn't the father State then as well no so the the reports that
I have just the brother and well and to take it a step further the reports I have say that the brother didn't see her
he hears her right and he he just kind of made of assumptions I mean they've shared a room for years so it's probably
not uncommon that she would get up and use the restroom in the middle of night or toss and turn and wake him up at some
point I would like to know what the parents can see when they're laying in their bed
what can they see into the hallway and would they be able to see somebody if somebody came into the house to take
their little baby girl away [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers
to you Colonel cheers captain so this home is a one-story small Branch style house
my guess here is that they probably could see pretty much most of the doors bedrooms typically are across the
hallway from one another so my guess would be if their door was open and if they were awake they could see something
however both of the parents slept through the night we have O'Brien saying that he hears his
sister at some point in the night maybe even heard her leave the room whether she came back or not is still up in the
air but it's believed that this would have been around 3 A.M or maybe a little later now O'Brien says he hears these
noises that he thinks is his sister tossing and turning and then leaving the room to go the restroom however we will
quickly learn that the noises he is hearing is very likely Asia getting up getting dressed and maybe even packing
up some last minute things that night in the early morning hours she got up at some point packed her book bag with two
of her favorite outfits her basketball uniform and a Tweety Bird purse and then apparently she slipped out of her house
into the dark in the rain I don't want to pick on details but we have no proof that she packed her bag up
because on the 11th you s you stated she spent time with her aunt because of no school right and then on the 12th she
goes to the slumber party I'm guessing that she took her book bag with her basketball outfit in it because that
would be the day that she had a basketball game right so at some point they they go to this slumber party and
maybe that's when she changed out of her basketball uniform keeping her basketball uniform in her book bag and
then now they're back at their house on the 13th I'm just saying we have no proof that she she packed anything up
everything that she took with her could have been in her bag because of the slump correct
that's of quite the possibility so we do know that she is last seen inside her home at approximately 2 30 a.m on
February 14 2000 but this is coming from a 10 year old what's coming from a 10-year-old the last time she's seen in
her house no this is coming from Asia's father Harold when he says he went to sleep at that time
and said that he checked on on his daughter and son and saw them both sleeping in their beds so the father was
the last one to actually see her but then these Rumblings that her brother is talking about we're assuming is maybe a
half an hour to an hour later yeah and I I don't know that he is providing a time
frame for when he thinks he's hearing this my guess is I mean he's 10 he's probably saying I'm hearing this in the
middle of the night but there's other things that are going to happen in our timeline which will allow us to place
that event somewhere in that General time frame right so on Monday February 14th Aquila got up and this is when she
notices that Aisha is gone now the family says that all of the doors and windows were locked when they
got up and Asia and O'Brien rode the bus to and from school each day they would walk from their home over to
Highway 18 or to the bus stop near Highway 18. get on the bus there so the kids each
day when they would return home from school mom and dad were both at work at this time right so both of the kids they
each had a key to the house Asia kept hers in her book bag so we're guessing here that she got up and left the house
and likely using the key her key she locked the door behind her right again there's no sign that anybody came into
the house the doors are all locked they couldn't determine if she went out the front door or the back door regardless
the family calls 9-1-1 this call comes in at 6 38 a.m the first police officer on the scene was there in just minutes
it's logged that he was there at 6 40 a.m at 6 42 Sheriff Dan Crawford arrives he immediately calls for a canine unit
to get out to the scene now newspaper reporters and television Crews were actually out in front of the
degree house fairly early that morning by 2PM Agents from the North Carolina State
Bureau of Investigation SBI for short arrived at the degree home and they immediately taped off this whole area
it's it's now a crime scene by the end of the day Searchers had covered a three mile wide area finding nothing and now
21 years later Asia still has not come home now so you can see things start moving very quickly once 9-1-1 is called
it's just two minutes before an officer arrives at the home then the the boss the sheriff in charge is there two
minutes later K-9 unit on the scene reporters they're interviewing people it's smart work right away the Boss
shows up doesn't hesitate to go hey bring in a canine let's try to track her scent she's a nine-year-old she couldn't
have gone that far now she's left on foot there's some interesting little things though along the way that one so
one the the call came in from Harold Harold was the one that placed the 9-1-1 call
and it's my understanding that he makes this call either his wife instructs him to call
9-1-1 this would be after she's called some relatives you know that's that's never
anyone's first thought and and I mean we all live these routine lives and such and so of course you don't
you don't immediately jump off the cliff you just kind of inch your way to it so
she called relatives remember we have relatives that live in the same neighborhood she called relatives to say
hey might I woke up and Asia's gone is she at your house for some reason right getting no answers and and that's when
Harold calls one thing that I found strange on the there there's a 9-1-1 transcript that was available in one of
the newspapers at the time and he says that one of the neighbors said that they spotted or thought they
saw Asia walking out that night which they never there's never really any clarification on who the neighbor
was you know what I mean like what I mean is we know that they have family living in the immediate area was the
neighbor a family member of of the degrees Yeah I think that's a good point but some people also think this is
possibly the parents setting something up to say hey look somebody else saw her but we're not going to tell you which
neighbor that that was well I I hope that police would have followed up on that I mean that's something he stated
on the 9-1-1 call and they should have we know they're canvassing the area um going door to door that would be
normal police protocol so if that got missed then somebody somebody severely dropped the ball I'm
just pointing out I don't know there's no necessary reason for that information to make its way to the newspapers I'm
just pointing out that that was something that was said on the 9-1-1 call that's not a well-known
piece of information in this case you also said that uh Asia left by foot but at this point law enforcement nor her
parents really have any idea if she did or not other than there's no sign of breaking and entering there's no sign of
you know that she struggled with anybody the the door was locked so everything leads us to believe that she left for
whatever reason locked the door and headed somewhere that's correct and just to point out how fast everything's kind
of moving and really there's there's just a really a lot of chaos going on around the degree family immediately
with the discovery that their daughter is missing so we even have Aisha's father Harold he does a telephone
interview with the Charlotte Observer he says in this you know because some people have wanted to know well was this
an issue did had Asia gone missing before or left the house before and in this interview on that same day he says
to the Charlotte Observer Asia had never run away before and that there were no family problems that would make his
daughter want to leave now that newspaper gives a description of Asia listing her at four foot six inches tall
weighing 65 pounds she's African-American and wears her hair in pigtails her parents say that they found
all the doors in the House locked and according to sheriff's deputies there was no sign of forced entry into the
home and then here's here's a really troubling piece of information in this same article it says unfortunately
search dogs did not pick up Asia's scent at anywhere which is really bizarre they
didn't pick up her scent even near the home now we do know that it was cold and raining and there was a big thunderstorm
that night and it was still raining when she is believed to have left the house everything I've ever read about scent
dogs is that the rain is not a deterrent for the scent dogs in fact in a lot of cases it's it's actually helpful to
because it makes I don't I don't want to I don't know the science of it but that's what I've always been well it's
very science but the deterrent here is is the wind yes that that could be the situation from what I've read the rain
can help the scent dogs but once you mix in the rain with the wind it becomes a very big issue for the scent dogs and
they sometimes again in this case we know that they weren't able to pick up on her scent what we do have to go off
of even though the dogs couldn't find any anything is we do have a couple of eyewitnesses that come forward so two
truck drivers reported seeing Asia walking South on Highway 18 North of Shelby between 3 30 and 4 15 a.m that's
how we can kind of come to the idea that he must have O'Brien must have heard her
moving or leaving around three o'clock right Aisha was apparently near the intersection of Highway
180 at that time so this would be the intersection of Highway 18 and Highway 180. this is about a mile south of her
home is this heading in the direction of her school no it's the opposite direction so her school is about five
miles north that's why I wanted to point out where everything is here because she's she's only nine years old you're
not going to have a great sense of direction or or any of that mess at nine years old but if you're used to waking
up every day going out to your bus stop riding the bus five miles north to your school you're going to have some you're
gonna know that the lay of that land she's walking in the opposite direction so she's about one mile south of her
home it's thought that this is the last confirmed sighting of the child now one thing that's always been stated was
that when when these first sightings take place neither of these truckers call 9-1-1 or call the police and
somebody's ridiculous well I actually I don't think so I've I've heard it stated
like I wish it would have been a normal person that would have seen her because they would have called the police and
and I think you have to go to the core of the of the story in the eyewitness accounts to understand possibly why
nobody thought to alert the authorities first off they're big dummies wouldn't you have a very different
reaction to seeing a nine-year-old walking in the dark along the highway than if you saw an adult
walking alongside the road in the middle of the night right so the way that these
stories work is Roy Blanton senior and his son Roy Blanton Jr they're on a trucking run from Shelby to Fallston so
they're traveling north on nc18 they said this is right around 4 a.m they were driving Northbound on NC
18 they spotted a small figure wearing a light-colored clothing walking Southbound on the road so they're only
going to see this person very briefly she's walking in the opposite direction they're on a highway heading north they
say that they thought it was a woman so Roy senior used the CB radio radio to alert other truckers to keep an eye out
that there's a pedestrian there's a woman walking alongside the road he he calls this in on his CB to
warn the other truckers because it's dark out it's raining he's worried that this person might get hit
when he radios it out remember he tells the newspaper I thought it was a woman he may have said
that on the CB right so our next witness is Jeff Rupp he's a trucker for the Sun
Drop Bottling Company driving his regular route he said that he saw a young girl walking Southbound on NC 18.
now that's his words young girl now again he may have heard woman over the Seabee I don't know he
says this again is around 4am it's cold and pouring rain at this time both sightings were on nc-18 near that
intersection that we talked about the the highway 180. the fact that two men called in to police independently of
each other so both of these Witnesses are not aware that somebody else is phoning in
basically the same tip the owner law enforcement and FBI says this makes both of these statements extremely credible
so neither of these Witnesses call anything in when they spot neither the girl walking along the road right they
call it in later in the way that this works is Jeff he's on his lunch break having lunch somewhere later that same
day and remember we said the news reporters were already out front of the degrees home he sees it on the news that
there's a missing girl so he calls police and says look this is what I saw at 4am this morning in fact I rolled
down my window and tried to get the person's attention to I don't know if he was going to offer some help or a ride
or whatever he says that when he tried to get their attention the person he saw ran into a field
almost like they were running from him so he sees this news report on his lunch break he calls in and tells this
information to the Sheriff's Department the other man Roy Blanton senior who was
traveling with his son they were driving a long distance I believe they were all
the way up in Chicago right when they finished their route that day he had no idea that anybody was missing again he
said he thought he saw a woman on that brief passage on NCAA team he happens to be on the phone with his wife later that
day once they're in their hotel and she tells him hey there's uh there's a little girl that's missing from you know
from our area and he says I think that might be could be the person that I saw this morning so
he phones it in at that time so I mean three eyewitnesses correct three eyewitnesses and this this
all goes to backing up the idea that she left on her own for whatever reason whether she packed up that night or or
packed planning for some kind of trip or just as you said maybe grabbed a backpack that was already packed with
some things from the slumber party before there's nobody else seen with her she's not seen fleeing anything this all
points to the idea that she got up and left on her own for some weird reason in the middle of the night right the next
day on February 15th this is after 12 hours of searching Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Bob
roadkapp announced quote right now we don't have anything and everyone is a suspect yeah I get that idea but when
you have eyewitnesses seeing this girl a ways from her house and once those 9-1-1 calls come in from
the parents we know the parents whereabouts so if we have evidence that she's still
alive then I'm not saying that you shouldn't question or interrogate the the parents
I'm just saying they should be more on your radar to vet out than to try to point the finger towards well and to add
to the confusion but this is also another good lead here some of Asia's belongings would be found
within a couple days of her going missing yeah and this is another one of those things in this story Captain where
I I can't help it but time and time again her disappearance is such a freaking mystery very confused that I think that
you do question everything I think you question the family I think you question what Asia was doing I think you
questioned why these truckers didn't immediately call police does pineapple go on pizza and when you get to the core
of the story you really start to understand the the simple facts of it and and can apply those and go okay I
get it that the trucker didn't call police he he thought he was seeing an adult walking along this if I called the
police every time I saw an adult walking alongside the road at night I mean what
kind of life would I have so um but this is one of those bizarre things that the the way that it's
reported again makes people question some people that are fairly close to the case and this would be the Turners so
there's a old married couple named the Turners that they live in the area where Asia was last seen by these two truckers
okay they when they were notified that Asia was missing and a lot of people within you know miles of her home were
told hey could you could you check your properties to see if you find anything because in these types of situations
it's very possible that a child or any missing person could simply have just gotten injured somewhere and then
they're unable to go and get help that they're just lying there somewhere waiting for someone to find them
and so that's you ask people to check their properties for that reason amongst other reasons in Asia's case they did
just that and the Turners Tina and I the wife she says that she found some items
in what is best I would best describe it as an old tool shed on their property it's
I've seen it described as a chicken house as a shack I don't know how that came about because she describes it as
an old tool shed but she says that she found um some items that appear that they
would have belonged to possibly a little girl along with a small wallet-sized photo of a little girl
now the way that this has been reported 20 years later is that the Turners found
these items and they failed to tell police about them that's actually not true at all
the truth is that they handed over this little picture the wallet-sized photo of
a little girl that they found the other items they kept them and they handed the photo over to the
Sheriff's Department because they don't know what Asia looks like they thought maybe the picture could be
of Asia or one of her friends so armed with this Photograph the sheriff's department quickly speak with the degree
family and nobody knows who this picture is of who you know who's the little girl
in the picture they don't know and why would Asia have this possibly have this in her belongings they wanted
to know did it have anything to do with Aisha's case at all you've done it inspired the song by Nickelback look at
this Photograph when we sift through this stuff we do need to point out for the Turners that in fact they gave this
picture to the authorities almost immediately so the way that this works so we're going to dive in here real
quick it's Charles and Debbie Turner they're the owners of Turner upholstery company which was located on
nc18 a little more than a mile from Asia's home this is south of her home so in the direction that she
was walking Debbie Turner and her daughter found a hair ribbon a marker and a pencil and a black stiff and that
picture these were found in a tool shed that is off on their property off of nc18 and
the reports state that this Tool Shed was located anywhere between 300 feet and 600 feet from the highway so reports
vary on the the exact location the interesting thing here though the way that this goes down is now they got this
Photograph they show it to police police go yeah we don't know what this is Asia's family no we don't know what this
is they kind of dismiss it immediately going well this is probably just garbage you know it's
probably just some random picture that has nothing to do with with our case with Asia's case right again we I I'd
like to know when the trash was put out that week and because like we said we have a storm that night
we got winds blowing you could find items next to each other doesn't mean that they're actually coming from the
same individual that's true I mean this is either a football field or two football fields off of the highway right
that's not going to be the issue with the picture for me what's your issue well we're going to get into that I want
to go through the this this portion of the story is it my Nickelback impersonation so what happens here
Captain we have both of those eyewitnesses the truck drivers the sheriff's department says okay we need
both of you guys to come back and meet us at Highway 18. we want you to point and show us where you believe you saw
Asia when you were driving that night that because I mean this is a stretch of highway that we said is over a hundred
miles long right so let's narrow it down here we got people out searching for this girl they really think that they
can still find her at this time and they have a huge search party and they're going to Major efforts to try to find
her so very quickly within this would be about I would say maybe 36 hours of her
going missing maybe 48 at the most both truck drivers are on location with the sheriff in charge and they're pointing
to this is where I saw the girl and this is what I saw her doing right so using that information they're now expanding
their search because at first their search was really centered on her home in a three mile
radius around that now we're moving down about a mile and a half half south of where her home would be on nc18 and we
can really start searching here now so they start searching there and they find candy wrappers near where the trucker
said that they saw Asia right they take these candy wrappers and they show them to family and friends of Asia's and
people point out they said that those rappers are the same brand and type of candy that we received at school
I don't know if it was after the basketball game or before the break but they received some candy
uh and they they're confirming this is stuff that she would have had right in her possession so now they're like okay
this is this really is one of those weird cases where there's an actual breadcrumb Trail you know here it's
candy wrappers so now they're going wait a second that photograph that we have even though we don't know who's in it or
if it has any connection to Aisha at all this photograph is found near the candy
wrappers right so now it's starting to look like it is connected to Asia's disappearance somehow that's when police
go back to the Turners and they they're questioning them about this Photograph and the Turners are saying by the way we
found other stuff with the photograph too but again we didn't know if it was just debris trash or what so we never
turned it in so that's when they show them hey we found this green marker in the shed we
found a yellow hair bow with um a lot of times this is reported as a Mickey Mouse hair bow but it was a it
was a yellow one and you probably can Envision what I'm talking about here it was a yellow plastic hair bow that had a
plastic bear on it but it was all one solid color which was yellow the uh and then they found a pencil now this pencil
is interesting because it was a 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that's the year of the Olympic bombings which asha's
family with her her parents immediately say yes she had a pencil just like that one
so this is all starting to look like these things are all involved in her case you know the green marker who knows
who that belongs to it probably was Asia's but they can go yeah that yellow hair bow
that was hers that 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that was hers the candy wrappers
yes she had candy in her possession that was like that that was of that type and
oh we have this wallet-sized photo of a little girl that probably came from her there was no
reason you know the Turners say there's no reason for any of this stuff to be in
our Tool Shed So to find any of it and find it all together must mean that it's all came from the same Source on
February 20th Captain this would be after basically a week of searching for Asia
this is when authorities finally decide to suspend their ground search for her so very early on they have a lot of
people looking they're pulling out all of their resources to try to find this little girl the best they could do is
track her movements somehow from her house down to this space that's about a mile and a half south of her home they
find those items that everyone agrees belong to her and after that there's really no no
trace of her uh in the next several days while they're they're searching all over
the place and the thing that you pointed out which I think is good and everybody's probably noting in their
heads that she's nine years old and her sense of direction would be not so great and then you have
she's on the main road that Main Road would take her into town it would take her to her school but she's heading in
the opposite direction and it doesn't seem like we have even uh the slightest clue to say we we know that family
members live close to her but we don't have anybody saying hey well maybe she was trying to walk a mile to her
grandmother's house or her cousin's house or whatever what I can say off of what I know that uh regarding the
location of her other family their the location of their homes she was well past their houses too right so
she she had she had walked past that there again is a big part of this mystery she's
one she's nine and she's out in the middle of the night which makes zero sense to anybody
you and I have seen a lot of stuff and covered a lot of weird stuff here in the garage and this is
out of bounds from from any of that stuff she walks past all these family members homes she's not heading toward
her school I've heard some people say oh she was sleepwalking I call [ __ ] on that that seems bizarre
Bizarro thinking to me it's it's I don't think it's bizarre I think it's it's it
is a possibility I think the percentage is pretty small because she reacts to the truck driver
yeah but that right but you can be sleepwalking and reacting to it and no I understand I'm just when when I put
together the totality of all of the evidence it it seems it seems like a highly highly unlikely scenario that she
grabbed her book bag trekked a mile and a half through the cold and Rain never woke up reacts to a
truck driver and runs off in the opposite direction and is sitting there eating candy at some point it just it
doesn't it doesn't track for me right as far as sleepwalking goes it normally affects males more than it does females
but this is something that most kids will grow out of by their teenage years so she's nine so that puts her at a
great age to be a candidate for sleepwalking also it's normally happens after after the
individual has some kind of sleep deprivation so we know that she was at a slumber party the night before was she's
so sleep deprived that that caused her to sleepwalk that night when people are sleepwalking they can do mini tasks I
mean walking a couple miles wouldn't be that crazy driving a car people are known to drive a car sometimes people
have even murdered people in their sleep and got off as sleepwalking as their defense right I again I mean she gets up
puts her shoes on grabs a book bag manages not to get run over on the highway I I find it again is is it is it
impossible that she was sleepwalking no well I very well I think you're being a little dismissive of the idea no no
anyway let's move on uh because too many people have spent too much time on that
already on February 20th this is when they stop the ground search at that point Captain it was estimated that the
sheriff's department and all parties involved remember they're using a lot of different resources here that they that
they expended approximately 9 000 professional Searcher hours during that time looking for the little girl so you
think that if there was any other trace of her out there other than those items being found in that tool shed or these
eyewitnesses that they would have come across that during that very first week they were not just sitting on their
hands waiting to get a call or for something to happen they were out actively looking for this girl like
gangbusters for that whole week on February 21st this is a brilliant move here and this is something that
um I I don't know that a like a lesser Sheriff's Department might not think to do this so I applaud this
effort here I think it's something that's very it shows a level of intelligence out of this Sheriff's
Office not that I had any questions but on February 21st the sheriff's officials
they set up roadblocks along highway 18. this would have been for a block of hours I think it was about four hours
that they set up these roadblocks they did this during the time frame of when she would have been missing you
know so you set it up about two in the morning to maybe six in the morning or three in the morning to maybe seven in
the morning right and what they're doing is they're stopping every vehicle that that is driving that area driving that
stretch of road and they're interviewing each driver because first they want to know okay
you you are here on a Monday early morning hours is this a typical drive for you on a Monday all it is okay did
you happen to see something last Monday on your way to wherever you're going did you see a little girl she's missing
did you see you know her get into a vehicle did you see anything suspicious so this is a really smart way of
gathering some more information because you may be stopping and interviewing people that
are not from the area that travel that area for routinely for whatever reason but we're unaware that they had some
information or maybe you happen to stumble upon some information by stopping these people on Thursday
February 24th the Charlotte Observer newspaper runs an article containing the mystery photo
that's what I'm going to call it the mystery photo that was found in the shed along with Asia's belongings the article
is titled do you know this girl and it runs this is weird it runs at the bottom of
the page of page 75 which would be page one of the Gaston section of the Thursday's newspaper again that's page
75 of 108 pages of newspaper and I'll read the article real quick here for you Captain well it's Prime spot do you know
who this girl is and then it shows the picture the wallet size photo that was found in that tool shed with Asia's
belongings and it says Cleveland County authorities are trying to determine whether this photo is connected with the
case of nine-year-old Asia degree missing from her home near Shelby since February 14.
the picture turned up in the same shed off of nc18 where items identified as asias were found Aisha's family did not
recognize the girl in the photo and neither do sorry and neither did officials at Asia's School
anyone with information about the photo should call the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office
[Music] oh we want to hear from you if you have thoughts or theories on this case please go to truecrime
garage.com and leave a comment on the blog and while you're there check out our store Page we will see you back here
in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't live [Music] thank you

Asha Degree /// Part 1 /// 475

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Join us in the Garage as we discuss one of the most bizarre missing persons cases we have seen. In the middle of a cold rainy night 9 year old Asha Degree left her home on foot. Where was she going? No one knows. Why did she leave? No one knows. Where is she now? Someone knows! Make no mistake, the evidence is obvious and mysterious but foul play is most certainly involved. There is a weird “bread crumb trail” in this case that is just a further extension of this big mystery. Who took Asha Degree?

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Brief Summary

Asia Degree, a nine-year-old girl, vanished in 2000; her case remains unsolved with ongoing search efforts and eyewitness accounts discussed.

Key points

The Disappearance of Asia Degree. A case that refuses to go cold, involving a missing girl and the community's efforts.
A Mother's Hope. Asia's mother refuses to believe her daughter is dead, holding onto faith.
The Night of the Storm. Asia's disappearance coincides with a thunderstorm that knocked out power.
The 9-1-1 Call. Harold Degree called 9-1-1 at 6:38 A.M. after realizing his daughter was missing. The police response was swift, arriving just minutes later. "It's just two minutes before an officer arrives."
The Night of Disappearance. On February 14, 2000, Asia Degree was last seen in her home around 2:30 A.M. Her father checked on her before going to sleep, but she was gone by morning. "Asia had never run away before."
Eyewitness Accounts. Two truck drivers reported seeing a young girl walking alone on Highway 18 around 4 A.M. This sighting raises questions about her disappearance. "I thought it was a woman."

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

God won't let me believe she's dead.

Asia's mother holds onto hope for her missing daughter.

4:20WatchNov 8, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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