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

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[Music] crime in [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 9 years old but the case has other reasons for
not going cold because just as strange as Asia'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 Asia'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 lock 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 Jamie CLA who just 2 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 is 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 first ever 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 that beat you 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 asa'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 asan degree are often considered to be lost
causes and 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 dugar Jamie Claus 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 [Music] 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 Asa de agree Asia if she is still out there
somewhere she would be 30 years old Asia 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 14th 2000 Asia resided with her family in an apartment on oakrest Street
located just south of f which is just a touch north of Shelby North Carolina Asia was born and raised
in this area Asia's family consist of her mother and father this is Aquilla and Harold and her brother who is just
about one year older than her and his name is o'briant 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 and Northeast Ohio this
case has several potentially good leads but none that lead to our state here in Ohio Shelby is located between Charlotte
in 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 schoolwork 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 she'd 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 asa's family and her home life right no rumors negatively towards the family ASA was in
the fourth grade at falston elementary school now for purposes that will become quite clear very soon I'm going to point
out that Asia's School Fon Elementary is located almost exactly 5 miles north of
her home both her street oakrest street and the school are almost directly off of Highway 18 Highway 18 is a
predominantly two lane rural Highway that travels 1452 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 Leno wilksboro and North wilksboro 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 oakrest
street oakrest street is one block west of Highway 18 the degrees residence 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 oakrest Street looks like it would be a rather quiet street there's only about 18 houses on oakrest
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 oakrest street and asa'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
oakrest 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 9-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 11th 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 Asia's parents are working full-time jobs at this time Aquilla worked at ha American
Manufacturing in nearby lincolon uh 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 ASA and O'Bryant being just N9 and 10 years
old will need to go somewhere while Mom and Dad are at work so they spent that day at their aunt Kesha'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 asa'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
back 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'briant had basketball games at Burns Middle School Asia's team was undefeated going into
this game but on this day her team struggled ASA 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 so 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 8 n 10 year-old kids know that their their mood swings are
are fast and furious yeah your kid loses in 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 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 ASA 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 ASA and about a dozen
of her friends or her cousins were at this slumber party at the cousins 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 Aquilla and O'Bryant picked up Asia after early in
the morning to go to church so when we say Church Harold Asia's father says Asia
attended Bible studies classes every Sunday sometimes churches will have Bible study classes for the kids while
adults are attending Church um Services yeah church services uh 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 shalanda Brown's home so a family
get together of sorts after church at the get together asa's grandmother handed out some Valentine's Day gift 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 Brewing a thunderstorm started in the 8:00 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 could have could have been in a 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 Aquilla 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 900 p.m. 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 Harold stepped out for a last minute trip to buy some Valentine's 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 the 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 2000 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 which right but all all I'm stating is that in 2000 things shut down
earlier heck in my town now you go out at midnight and there's there's cars everywhere and there's people shopping
and and get in fast food but in 2000 most of the fast food places closed around 10:00 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 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 Works 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 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 midnigh is uh 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 it'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 Aquilla 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 2 hours he's watching TV sitting on the couch in the living room
he says at 2:30 a.m. he shuts off the TV and checks on the kids again a second time and at this time he finds Asia and
O'Brien sleeping peacefully in their beds he went to join Aquilla in their bedroom and falls asleep relatively
quickly he checked on the kids twice and again this is another thing that people
note 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 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 ASA
shared a room with her older brother sometime during the night O'Brian says he wakes up and he hears his sister ASA
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 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 that 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 the night or toss and turn and
and wake him up at some point I would like to know what the parents could see when they're laying in their bed what
can they see into the hallway and would they be able ble to see somebody if somebody came into the
house to take their little baby girl [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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cheers to you Colonel cheers Captain so this home is is a one-story small ranch 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'briant 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 300 a.m. or maybe a little later now o'briant 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 and the rain I don't want to n pick on details but we have no proof that she packed her
bag up because on the 11th you you stated she spent time with with her aunt because of no school right mhm 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 cuz that would been the day that she had a basketball game right M so at some
point they they go to the 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 slum correct that's uh quite the possibility
so we do know that she is last seen inside her home at approximately 2:30 a.m. on February 14th 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
asa's father Harold when he 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 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 Aquilla got up and this is when she notices that
Asia is gone now the family says that all of the doors and windows were locked when they got up and Asia and o'briant
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 the kids they each had a key to the house
ASA 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 911 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 in television Crews were
actually out in front of the degree house fairly early that morning by 2: p.m. 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 thre M 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 911 is called It's Just 2 minutes before an officer arrives at the home then the the boss the sheriff in charge
is there two minutes later K9 unit on the scene reporters there interviewing people it's smart work right away the
Boss shows up doesn't hesitate to go hey Brandon a k9 let's try to track her scent she's a 9-year-old she couldn't
have gone that far no 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 911 call and it's my understanding that he makes this
call either his wife instructs him to call 911 this is 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 my I wake woke up and asa'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 911 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 Sol 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 9 111 call and they should have
we know they're canvasing the area um going door too that 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
911 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 asa'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 46 in tall weighing 65
lbs 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 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 I don't want to I don't know the science of it but that's what I've always been told 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 anything as 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'briant must have heard her moving or leaving around 3:00 right
Asia 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 oh so her school is about 5 miles north that's why I
wanted to point out where everything is here because she's she's only 9 years old you're not going to have a great
sense of direction or or any of that mess at 9 years old but if you're used to waking up every day going out to your
bus stop riding the bus 5 miles north to your school you're going to have some you're going to know that the lay of
that land she's walking in the opposite direction so she's about 1 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 911 or call the police and which is
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
9-year-old walking in the dark along the highway than if you saw an adult walking
along onside the road in the middle of the night right so the way that these stories work is Roy Blandon senior and
his son Roy Blandon Jr they're on a trucking run from Shelby to Fon so they're traveling north on
nc18 they said this is right around 4:00 a.m. they were driving Northbound on nc18 they spotted a small figure wearing
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 Senor 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 rup he's a trucker for the Sundrop Bottling Company driving his regular route he said that he saw a
young girl walking Southbound on nc18 now that's his words young girl now again he may have heard woman over the
CB I don't know he says this again is around 4:00 a.m. it's cold and pouring rain at this time both sightings were on
nc18 near that intersection that we talked about the the Highway 180 the fact that two men called into police
independently of each other so both of these Witnesses are not aware that somebody else is phoning in basically
the same tip phoner 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 and 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 degree's 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 4:00 a.m. 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 him some help or a ride or whatever he says that
when he tried to get their attention the person he saw ran into uh 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 Blandon 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 nc18 MH 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 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 roadcap 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 aways from her house and once those
911 calls come in from the parents we know the parents whereabouts so if we have evidence that
she's still alive then and I'm not saying that you shouldn't question or interrogate the
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 uh within a couple days of her going missing yeah and this is another one of those things in this story
Captain where I I I can't help it but time and time again her disappearance is such a freaking mystery very confusing
think that you do question everything I think you question the family I think you question what ASA was doing I think
you question why these truckers didn't immediately call police justes 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 the 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 that
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 mhm 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 they 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 asa'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 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 size 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 siiz 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
ASA have this possibly have this in her belongings they wanted to know did it have anything to do with Asia's case at
all then 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 owner ERS 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 BL stiff and that picture these were found in a toolshed that is off of on their
property off of nc18 and the report reports state that this Tool Shed was located anywhere
between 300 ft and 600 ft 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 asa'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 um 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 100 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 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 3M 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 ASAS 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 a 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 Asia
at all this photograph is found near the candy rappers 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 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 asa'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
asa's but they can go yeah that yellow hair bow that was hers that 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that was hers the candy
rappers yes she had candy in her possession that was like that that was of that type and oh we had this
wallet-sized photo of a little girl that probably came from her there was no reason you know the Turner say
there's no reason for any of this stuff to be in our toolshed 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 I think that you pointed out which I think is good and everybody's probably noting in their
heads that she's 9 years old and her sens 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 a the SL slightest clue to say we we we know that family members live close to
her mhm uh but we don't have anybody saying hey well maybe she was trying to walk a mile to to her grandmother's
house or 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 mhm 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
Bizarro 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 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 MH tked a mile and
a half through the cold and Rain never woke up react to a a truck driver and 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 nor 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 could do mini task 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
is 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
stopped 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 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
eyewitness witnesses 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 Gang
Busters 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 look a lesser Sheriff's Department might not think to do this so I applaud this effort here I think it's
something it'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 4 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
2: in the morning to maybe 6:00 in the in the morning or 3:00 in the morning to maybe 7:00 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
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 on of page 75 which would be page one of the gas 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 toolshed with Asia's belongings and it says Cleveland County authorities are
trying to determine whether this photo is connected with the case of 9-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 ASAS were found asa'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
[Music] Office we want to hear from you if you have thoughts or theories on this case please
go to True Crim 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
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Asha Degree /// Part 1 /// 475

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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 9-year-old girl, vanished in 2000; her case remains unsolved despite numerous leads and community efforts.

Key points

Rosetta Stone's Impact. Discover how Rosetta Stone is revolutionizing language learning with its immersive approach.
The Disappearance of Asia Degree. A deep dive into the mysterious case of a missing girl who vanished at just 9 years old.
Hope Amidst Darkness. The narrative explores the haunting fears of families with missing children and the hope that persists.
Late Night Outing Raises Questions. Why would he go out during a thunderstorm? Some find it suspicious.
Search Dogs Fail to Find Scent. Despite the rain, search dogs could not pick up Asia's scent anywhere.
Asia's Disappearance. Asia was last seen inside her home at approximately 2:30 a.m. on February 14th.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Asia's mother expresses her unwavering hope.

5:23WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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