Asha Degree /// Part 2 /// 476 | Forensic Files

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[Music] crime on March 14th 2000 it's now been 1 month since 9-year-old Asia degree
disappeared on this day Asia's parents appear on The Montel Williams TV show the degree family along with Asia's
basketball coach his name is Chad Wilson they did interviews on The Montel Williams show that aired that day and we
also have America's Most Wanted and the Oprah Winfrey show that did segments on the case as well on March 22nd the
degree family put up a billboard at the spot where Jeff the r iwitness said that
he saw Asia run into the woods that same day Sheriff Crawford stated that his Department was trying to rule out a
handful of unnamed suspects they contacted local sex offenders spoke to everyone who may have had contact with
Asia the FBI created a psychological profile of Asia's abductor which has never been released to the public I
can't remember and I was scouring my not notes to try to find the exact date Captain but there was a statement from
the sheriff uh Sheriff Crawford at some point this would be within weeks of her disappearance saying that the the
parents were cleared as suspects or no longer considered to be suspects remember we had him stating within 12
hours or 24 hours of her going missing that we're looking for Clues and everyone's a suspect well at some point
at least on the record in that newspaper on that day he says the parents are no longer suspects right and just like you
talked about before we we have no dog sent or any real evidence other than eyewitnesses to back up the idea that
she left the house on her own now now how she did that I think that is debatable but but we know that at some
point we we have to trust these eyewitnesses because there's so many of them and their all their stories seem
very similar not only are the stories similar they're reporting these independently of one another which adds
to The credibility and then when you go to the areas where they're saying that they saw Asia we're finding Asia's
belongings right so I mean it's it's this happened I mean yeah confirmation of the eyewitness accounts right so what
that means is investigators believe that Asia left her residence of her own accord but of course why and for what is
really anyone's guess we mentioned yesterday that people have said she was upset about a basketball game I I I just
find that incredibly difficult to believe that the outcome of that basketball game
would would really I mean look it's cold and raining it's a thunderstorm as you pointed out yesterday people have said
that she was scared of the dark scared of dogs mhm she's nine that's the thing that we need to
like Circle and underline a bazillion times even the national Center for missing and exploited children say that
typically they rarely see anyone run away under the age of 12 so a basketball game I'm upset about
a basketball game but I'm scared of the dark and scared of dogs well scared of storms as well and that and that's
that's what I keep coming back to if one were to run away this is not the ideal time to do it it seems to me like if
there was something going on at your home or you're upset about a basketball game or what have you you could pick a
different time to run away you could go well maybe I'll wait 24 more hours maybe
it won't be raining then yeah and we don't have anybody after the game other than the initial shock of her losing or
the initial emotions of her losing everybody says she bounc back she was fine during her brother's game she was
fine during a sleepover and one thing that we don't have that's not public information but law enforcement might be
fully aware of this one thing we are not armed with is the knowledge of when that
backpack was packed up that could be fairly important and we got to keep in mind too law enforcement may know this
because they're not going into this blind she's a 99-year-old child her parents are very involved in
her life MH it's very easy to go to Mom and Dad especially within those first few hours these are the questions you're
asking we need to try to determine what she may have taken with her so Mom Dad tell us what what items of hers are
missing from her room and so that's how they come up with this is what she probably took with her
now based off of the items you believe that that she took with her that are missing from your home you you can then
put together a different type of timeline of when she potentially packed up that bag it's very easy for mom to
say hey I wash that basketball uniform right after her game I do it every time so she must have packed it up afterwards
or she didn't wear this to the slumber party you see where I'm going with this it you can determine these things and
law enforcement May in fact know that my suspicion here one thing that's been pointed out is that her fourth grade
class at Fon Elementary School they were're recently reading The Whipping Boy book which is a book that I remember
we read when I was a kid well when I was a kid in school uh this is by Sid fman the book centers around a story of
a prince and a common child who receives lashes on behalf of the prince so if the prince does something
bad it's the it's the common child that gets physically punished for this the two create this unlikely friendship and
they decide to run away together and they go off on some adventures and then they both return safely later so some
people pointed out maybe maybe this is a possibility maybe she's going off on some Adventure I I don't know I can I
feel confident about certain things in this case and what I can say is I feel confident that for her to have left in
the middle of the night under those conditions weather conditions she's either a running away from
something or B running to something there was something that was uh of urgency that that required leaving that
night yeah I again disagree but we can argue till her bleue in the face on whether or not she was sleepwalking or
where she was heading to I just don't know what be so urgent or what kind of con somebody would have to um COA this
girl out that's Afraid of the Dark afraid of storms afraid of dogs 9 years old to leave her house in the middle of
the night without telling anybody in the summer of 2000 just a few months after she went missing there was a major tip
that came in for the case and this came out of the county jail in mecklinburg an inmate his name Baron
Ramsay started making collect calls to the Charlotte Observer and the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office insisting that
he knew what happened to the girl he's 32 years old at the time of this event he says that he and another man were
heading back to Shelby driving on nc18 in the early morning hours of February 14th this after buying drugs in Hickory
which would be 28 miles north of Fon 9.1 miles of that would be on this highway of nc18 he says that the other man was
driving a pickup truck and that they struck a girl as she was crossing the road he says that the girl was still
alive when the driver put her in the back of the pickup Ramsey says that the driver dropped him off at home and left
with the girl a few days later Ramsay said that the man returned to take him fishing on Moss lake near King Mountain
Ramsay says that he helped the man obviously he knows this man's name it's just not printed in the paper he helped
the man dumped the now dead girl's body in the lake the king's Mountain area is about 19 mies southeast of Fon of asa's
home uh Ramsay says he was reporting This months later because one his conscience was bothering him and two
he's facing a long federal prison day and he was hoping for a deal Ramsay robbed a besser City Bank in April of
2000 so after the girl went missing investigators searched nc18 for car parts and found nothing they're looking
for evidence that there would have been a hit and run or some type of accident they were doing that the day that she
went missing and the the day after they based off of his statements they dragged
Moss Lake twice and even used an infrared underwater camera and dive teams but found nothing they found zero
yeah no evidence of Asia at all in October of 2000 they moved the inmate they move Baron Ramsey to the Cleveland
County jail because Ramsay tells them hey let's put me here we can arrange for a meeting with the driver of the pickup
that that hit the girl and had me help him him dispose of her body yeah we can have him come and meet me here okay so
they move him to this Cleveland County jail once he's there Ramsay along with other inmates they plan to escape but
somehow the guards figure out their plan and they stopped this Escape Plan yeah cuz they figured out they're dumb asses
so the authorities are left wondering look she's not where you said she was or not where you said we would find her was
this all just a lie so you could get to Cleveland County jail and try to make an
escape and if you can't make the Escape is this is this like a really good plan because then maybe you could throw this
other guy under the B bus and receive some type of deal from us whether we found her or not typical criminal the
authorities say that that they were suspicious of him from the get-go they were suspicious of him especially after
this Escape Plan was discovered and he failed several polygraph test in regards to the information that he provided to
surpr law enforcement so surpr it doesn't seem like there is there's anything really here in fact authorities
have been on the record stating that they do not believe Ramsay at all and they think he had nothing to do with why
she is still missing and her family has said the same thing too that they they just don't believe this Ramsey guy story
yeah but the the point of contact though makes a lot of sense to me because you hear about you know in the marur case or
a Brian schaer or something like that where oh well maybe they just got hit by a vehicle and then somebody had to
dispos of the body well what the what would be the motive well when the guy's telling you well we we had a bunch of
drugs and we're criminals anyways we got a bunch of drugs and now we got this girl that we hit I wouldn't believe that
you would find a bunch of evidence because cuz she's nine she's small how much damage is she going to do to that
vehicle so the story starts out as PL as plausible I believe plausible enough where the cops
said we got to see where this goes but like you said the story starts falling apart pretty quickly well yeah and if
you're going to hope to receive any type of deal at all or even if you're just trying to do some good it's the very
least maybe her body could be where you say it's going to be yeah uh that would be a good starting point we know that
not to be the case on August 5th of that same year she's now been missing for several months and Asia would have
celebrated her 10th birthday now February 14th 2001 gets us up to the one-year marker asa's now been missing
for one year their parents her parents have their 13th year wedding anniversary and they said to the papers you know
that's something we will no longer celebrate um of course we're still married still in love with one another
we just cannot celebrate anything on that day going forward August 3rd of that same year 2001 Terry Fleming he's
the owner of Precision Grading he's working on a construction project in neighboring Burke County he uncovered
asa's missing book bag and how does he know that it's hers well it has her name and telephone number and some reports
State her address as well written in the bag hey and how far away was this from where she went missing okay so the the
book bag was located more than 26 miles from her family's home so this would be North
this is in a different direction from where she was seen walking that morning the general description of it is this
captain that buried off of Highway 18 the book bag was found 18 months after Asia disappeared the book bag was
double wrapped in black plastic trash bags found more than 26 mil from her family's home in a different direction
from where she had been walking the book bag was found off of nc18 about 6 Mi south of Morganton which is almost 30 m
north of the intersection of nc18 and NC 180 remember that's where she was roughly seen last yeah it was found in a
spot about 50 yard off of the highway here's a full description of what was found in the bag although I would like
to throw out a buyer beware here as I don't think officially there was ever a full inventory of what was in the bag
that was released to the public but but online this was the most comprehensive list that I could find so I thought it
was worth mentioning so they say that asa's black book bag and black Tweety Bird purse were missing from her room
after she disappeared along with a pair of blue jeans with a red stripe black sneakers a long sleeved white shirt with
purple lettering a red vest with black trim black overalls with Tweety Bird on them and a long sleeve black and white
shirt also we have asa's house key that would have been in her book bag now of course investigators searched this area
for several days after this find I mean this is a major find in the investigation all they found in this
area Captain was they found some animal bones which one would expect to find they also found a pair of men's khaki
pants that were found Jake from State the khaki pants thing is super weird to me but the statement that they put out
at the time was that they didn't believe that the pants had any connection to asa's book bag or to asa's case yeah
right and I don't know how they were able to determine that if it's something that I mean you might be able to look at
something and determine that it's been there for well over 18 months called science um or maybe they have other
reasons to believe that now well you also you have this book bag that is put in two trash bags and
buried so why wouldn't they take the same precautions with the pants if they were connected that brings us to another
piece here in the case where you really got to you really got to sift through the details to have a a
full idea of what's going on here because when I get rid of a pair of pants I put them in two bags and I bury
them off off the freeway of course well so this guy that found them he he was working in the area he's the owner of
that that company this is an area that's been going through some changes and being
worked on for quite some time so a lot of people have questioned well why would anybody double
bag her book bag and then bury it some have even said that this is similar to a parent killing one's
child and then wrapping them up in a blanket and in placing them somewhere like some form of
preservation and no I think it's to possibly uh Guard from scent dogs or something well the other thing too is
people say well if if someone killed her why would they bother bagging double bagging this item before burying it was
it so that they could retrieve it at another time to preserve it as some kind of trophy or to not get caught um I
think what I go to is the the sheriff's statements at the time and I found this to be very interesting because the story
that's lived on for 20 years is that the bags were found buried 50 yards off of the the side of the
highway the sheriff at the time said that because the the the land had been worked and worked over several times he
had evidence to believe that the bag that someone discarded this that the item was double bagged and simply thrown
out of a moving vehicle at some point and then it became buried over time because they were
working the landh so that puts a whole different spin on things and makes a lot more
sense when you think about it rather than someone killing a child double bagging this thing and burying it you
the placing the item in trash bag seems to defeat the purpose of burying it right uh but you do point out a good
thing of the idea that maybe you're trying to hide the scent or any type of scent that might might come from that
but you're you're 26 miles away from the area in question well and the double bagging and throwing out the window can
make sense I would say if if you're double bagging it maybe somebody's just less likely willing to try to rip open
two bags to see what's in it they could just assume that it's trash and discard of it on the side of the road yeah I
think the placing it in a trash bag one serves the purpose of concealing it until you have the opportunity to get
rid of it mhm and then it conceals it further even after you've discarded it people see
unfortunately uh we live in a world where people throw [ __ ] out their Windows ass hats and it sits on the side
of the highway filthy animals and so if you if you were to see a book bag well that might draw
someone's attention much much more than it would if someone saw a common black trash
bag now investigators with this finding announced that they considered Asia's disappearance to be a criminal matter
and Foul Play was suspected after the book bag's discovery of course that surrounding area was thoroughly searched
afterwards but other than the pants or the animal bones no additional evidence was reportedly located at that
time one thing that I found really interesting here captain and this is all based around the finding of the book bag
it was the sheriff's statement at the time he's kind of going through some of the facts of the case and he's given us
a little more information here so his statement was several drivers witnessed her Asia walking South along North
Carolina Highway 18 around 4:00 a.m. but didn't not alert police her parents reported her missing a few hours later
when they woke up and found Asia's bed empty more than a year later her book bag was discovered buried along the same
Highway where she was last seen walking based on our investigation we have reason to believe that individuals in
this community or the surrounding area have knowledge of or information pertaining to The Disappearance of
Asia varant interesting to me that what he's saying in general there is now this
area where the book bags found is the point of our investigation rather than where she went
missing from we think someone in this area 26 mil North has information pertaining to Asia's
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announcement we will be at crime Con in Austin Texas our promo code is tcg1 for 10% off if you use our promo
code and also I will be going uh Nick cannot make it this year to Crime con UK and our promo code is the same
tcg1 for 10% off your tickets in January of 2014 detectives announced that they were
looking into 57-year-old Donald Ferguson who who was arrested for the 1990 rape and murder of 7-year-old shalanda P
whose body was found behind an elementary school in Greensboro North Carolina while investigating a seemingly
unrelated sexual assault in 2013 the authorities in South Carolina entered his DNA into a National Database
and realized it matched the suspect sample in shala's case so they're in South Carolina they're investigating a
completely different case they have some DNA that they throw into the system and
they they come up with a hit to this other victim right this murdered victim seven-year-old murder victim shalanda P
so authorities of course are going to arrest this Donald Ferguson they try him for it he's found guilty but what this
gives us here is a potential suspect because they want to know what this guy would would have been doing in February
of 2000 yeah it's reported that he was living about 40 M from the city of Shelby at and around that time so he
could have had something to do I will throw this out there though in the the case of shalanda P she was a neighbor a
neighbor's daughter and her body was found fairly close to their home and unfortunately
when these cases are solved and I mean anybody can think back to cases that that they've heard elsewhere are seen on
TV a lot of times when it's younger victims like this especially young boys and girls it's often a a neighbor
someone that has seen this child time and time again maybe doesn't maybe has some type of relationship with the
family maybe doesn't but it's usually someone that's in close proximity to to the victim themselves the old creepy
[ __ ] neighbor yeah so they they looked into him I don't know I know nothing has
come of it because uh we would be having a much different discussion here today that was back from
2014 and well one of the things that you haven't got into is you know this was 2000 she was 9 years old the the family
didn't have a family computer which some people think that's odd and in today's standards I think that would be a little
strange for family not to have some kind of access to the internet whether it's through a cell phone a tablet or or some
other means but in 2000 I didn't have a computer I don't think uh you know my parents were divorced and I I don't
think either one of them had a computer at the time or or one that was working well or or had easy capabilities or easy
access to the internet so the grooming or the possibility that some uh pedo was in contact with her to get her to go out
of her house that night would be somebody that the family would have had to know and again I don't think there's
any evidence of or was connected to circles that the family would know about her school the church the basketball
team yeah you're right if if some creep lured this kid out of her house he did didn't use it he didn't do it via
computer into the home right and you're right there are people that like I've I've heard it and read it time and time
again people will say ASA had a very sheltered life all no they just didn't have a computer and there is now think
about how sheltered this is a couple days before she goes missing she's at her aunt's house you know and then the
next day she's at the basketball and then she goes to her brother slumber party that has almost a dozen kids there
she's in Bible study classes plays on the basketball team she goes to school right this is not a sheltered life this
is an extremely normal life I age uh her mother was on record at some point saying that they didn't have a computer
because um they didn't want any pro you know they had small children 10 and 9 years old they didn't see the need for a
computer nor did they want to mess with any of the headaches of monitoring what the kids may be doing on the computer
yeah keep the the other thing too sometimes if you can't afford something you just don't buy it I mean I was
trying to think I was going to say the same thing I was going to say Yeah in 2000 I didn't have a computer either
that doesn't mean that I was sheltered no I I had one it just it worked horribly I think it was one of those old
Gateway computers that was was all jammed up with Napster music yeah Napster music and porno and you know
what and I couldn't afford to replace the thing uh cuz I didn't make good money and they were expensive so so
there's it it doesn't point to a sheltered life in my opinion well you should have told your girlfriend not to
download all that porno all right back to the case so we have the FBI that comes out and they announce a
suspect vehicle which is believed to be either an early 1970s Lincoln Continental Mark
4 or possibly a Ford Thunderbird green in color with rust around the wheel wells yeah I mean look if you take these
two cars and put them side by side they look like the same car just maybe a like
this was the newer model and this is the older model but they are different cars
by different manufacturers yeah very similar vehicles um I can understand why if somebody's reporting this to
authorities that they wouldn't be able to 100% safe or certain that it was a Ford Thunderbird or a Lincoln Mark 4
what I do find extremely interesting about this tip is look she went missing in 2000 this is reported to be an early
1970s vehicle that makes it not oneof a kind but fairly unique yeah where if you
could find this vehicle or get a direct link to this V vehicle you're going to have a bigger
piece of the pie to work with if you're an investigator now one thing that I find weird is that
there's no specifics given on where this new information came from and I want to
put new in air quotes there air quotations there new information is this something that they had for
years or was this in fact new information because I I've seen a lot of people argue that because it could be
something that they had a tip that they had early on and now that they're they're pulling this out of their back
pocket and look and you know we we see this all the time and we've heard John Douglas talk about this these law
enforcement agencies need to sometimes make a decision early on are we going to use the public for help or not and if we
are then this tip you know if this is not a new tip but something they had early on this is something that would
have been better on to to know early on because it's pretty easy to get rid of a
vehicle well and that's going to be my major hang up with this case and with the investigation itself now when in
their press release what is stated is that the vehicle was occupied two times I don't know what that means the sheriff
at the time this is Alan Norman also said that the car was discovered by legwork you know because they want to
know where this new information's coming from it was discovered by leg workk between the Sheriff's Office
investigators and the FBI but would not go into any further detail about the new
lead the direct statement is that Asia may have been cited getting into a distinctive dark green vehicle early
1970s model car on the night that she was last seen the vehicle which had rust around the wheel wells again is thought
to have been a Lincoln markv or a Ford Thunderbird those photos pictures examples of those Vehicles come up
pretty regularly if you just Google Asia degrees name yeah and we'll post those on all social media Facebook Instagram
and Twitter this is going to bring us up to October 2018 I I I don't I mean this case just
leaves me shaking my head uh for for many many reasons and I and I don't want to sound like I'm Kerman the Frog being
Uber critical of the sheriff's department but I I just can't help but under I just don't understand this
investigation this is when the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office detectives appealed for information from the public
about two items of Interest this was a book this is melet's pool which is a children's book by Dr Seuss and a New
Kids on the Block concert T-shirt now an investigator said that these items are vital clues in the Asia
degree investigation at the time oh investigators would not say where these items came from or why they believe them
to be vital clues in Asia oh in her case it was later revealed that these two items were found in her book bag that
was found in August of 2001 MH the book itself was later determined to have been borrowed and we know this
per stamp inside the the book the book was borrowed from the Fon Elementary School library in early
2000 the statement from the police and the FBI is that Captain I tell you this makes me want to chug this beer and
punch myself in the face or punch yourself in the nuts MH they're stating that in the face Asia did not check this
book out they're ALS o stating that they we don't know who checked it out because
the records don't go back to the year 2000 holy [ __ ] let's explore all of the problems with everything that they just
said you can tell me that you know that the book was borrowed from the Fon Elementary School library in early 2000
but you can't tell me who checked it out but you can tell me that it wasn't Asia that seems awfully
bizarre the records don't go back to 2000 well when did you start looking for the records because now it's
2018 and you're saying the records don't go back to 2000 if these items did come
from the book bag like your website says yeah you found these items in August of
2001 you mean to tell me that the Fon Elementary School didn't have records of the previous school year then right
right this and if they didn't again how can you tell me that she didn't check out the
book it's it's absolutely just okay but the book zizar yeah but the book to me is not that big of a mystery uh she
checked it out or somebody else checked it out but she had that book I believe she probably had that book at her house
when she left that night it was in her book bag the the item that baffles me more is this um New Kids on the Block
shirt it almost looks like a nighty on on some level and maybe he she could have got it from somebody at that
slumber party but cuz the only record that I have of anybody talking about the New Kids on
the Block shirt is her parents saying that's that wasn't her shirt she didn't own that shirt okay well she was at a
slumber party with how many people but but they again I mean you would think they would would show that to all
persons involved to determine that it that it wasn't hers which is that's been the general statement that and and
that's what was weird about when the book bag was found originally back in 2001 there was a statement by the the
sheriff saying when asked what was in the book bag or in the trash bags he says something like 90% of 90 or 99% I
can't remember which one it was of everything was that was found belonged to Asia and at the time nobody knew what
the hell that could mean and then later we fast forward to 17 years later when they're telling us about this
book that and and I get what you're saying I think of much more importance is the New Kids on the Block t-shirt for
the investigation I just find it incredibly weird that they would say hey this book was checked out from her
school library but she didn't check it out you know you could simply say these items were found in her book bag tell us
that in 2001 so we can actually do something with the information not 17 years later and don't make it so damn
convoluted about the book itself just say it came from her school but we don't we we don't have any evidence that she
is brought it with her or that it that she checked it out it could have come from another source and by the way this
new kid's on the Block shirt it had to have come from another source because we've showed it to everybody that that
knew her and everyone says the same thing she had no reason to have that in her possession in fact that shirt would
have been that was from the 1989 1990 hanging tough World Tour that the New Kids on the Block went you know went on
this tour yeah absolutely classic she wasn't even born until August of 2000 I'm so I'm sorry of of 1990 still
could be a fan I mean of a legendary band like that I mean well I get that they're up there
with can we can can we all agree that if the authorities and her family say that
it's not hers it wasn't hers yeah my only issue with that is again that I don't know the number of
people that were at this slumber party I believe personally that most of those items in her book bag were in her book
bag probably starting on the 11th and then going into the Sleep the slumber party because the the candies that her
coach gave her on the on the 12th you know we we found those so that's what also makes me believe oh
yeah well her basketball uniform would have been packed away as well right and and I agree 100% with you but I I also
want to keep in mind this is something that law enforcement may know we've already seen time and time again they
have information on stuff in this case and they're just not releasing it to the public they may have confirmation from
Mom and or dad that that items were were packed at a different time and really really the cut off is that basketball
uniform yeah possibly cuz that's something that's that's very simple that we know that she she would have had to
have taken it out of a backpack at some point to wear it on Saturday and did it go right back into the backpack
afterwards or was it washed and put away in her room uh these are things that the
parents in law enforce ment would know at the time here's my big big problem with this case it's
time and time again I I feel like the most crucial pieces of evidence are just being swept aside it's almost like
they're brushed under the rug it seems like law enforcement for the most part believe that something weird was going
on that probably involved Foul Play very quickly in this little girl's disappearance they appealed to the
public for help they just didn't appeal to the public I think in the in in the right
manner right again like you said this case is really frustrating I mean one why did she leave her house doesn't make
a lot of sense maybe sleepwalking maybe she was lured out by somebody and then all these items that don't seem to be
connected to her that nobody can connect back to her a book a night shirt and then this this picture of this other
girl well we'll go through our thoughts uh in some some better detail here in a minute be before I want to hit on a
couple of other items here captain in November of last year November of 2020 an inmate named Marcus melon who is a
convicted he's been convicted of sex crimes against children from 2014 convicted piece of [ __ ] he wrote a
letter to the Shelby newspaper claiming that Asia degree was murdered and he knows where to find her M so of course
these claims were under investigation for many months but not uh verified again another problem with this
case though is that road itself is what do you say 180 some miles 145 yeah okay so that's that's a lot of distance for
even somebody to go oh yeah we picked this girl up and then eventually uh we put her remains back on that road or
whatever you know they if they're off by 10 miles probably too much for the Searchers to to to figure out so in his
letter to the um newspaper he wrote Asia degree has been missing for over 20 years about four months ago I had found
out her whereabouts and what had happened to her she was killed and then took and buried I do know how and what
town she is in I hope you get this letter and do come see me it's on the up and up so it took a while for
investigators to they were saying that it was Co that was slowing them down on interviewing
and it sounds like there was a an outbreak where this man is being housed where he was serving his time so that
seems very likely but later in fact just very recently can't remember if it was days or just a couple weeks ago but
authorities came out and said you know we've spoke to this inmate we've looked into everything he said it's not L us
anywhere we don't know if this is they're not questioning the credibility of the information as far as this guy
believing what he's telling them what it is is that they figured out that this is all information that he's
received second third fourth hand right it's it's information that's traveled from person to person to person to
person that seemed to have worked its way to him and by this point it has no relevant information or anything that
they can use for their investigation over the 21 years that asa's been missing there's been three different
inmates that's come forward saying they know where she is and what happened to her we discussed two of them in detail
the the third one I believe took place in 2004 and I kind of skipped over that because it it was really nothing it was
a it was an inmate saying this is where her body can be found they searched there and search there and search there
and it was just wa wasted expense wasted efforts they they found zero there nothing right so for me Captain when we
when we talk about the thoughts and feelings and suspicions that we have in this
case the thing that that really breaks my heart that that I mentioned in yesterday's episode
you know some of these cases really get to you and some of them it almost feels like the people aren't so real that that
they're you know actors on a screen somewhere but this one I what I cannot shake from from my mind and from my
heart is thinking about that young girl walking down walking down the side of the street out in the country in the
pitch black cold and rain on her own that that has has pierced my heart and will stick with me for some time
that breaks my my heart to think about that and then I keep going back to the idea of okay yes there's a chance she
might have been sleepwalking I can agree with that but if she wasn't she was this
is the act of a desperate person she's either running away from something horrible or running to toward something
and whatever it was if she it had a sense of urgency the storm was not going to stop
her the dark was not going to stop her whatever it was she was going to go and and carry out whatever Mission she she
set herself on and I don't have I know some people do and I'm no smarter than anybody else definitely not but I don't
have any suspicions about asa's parents or about the family I don't see any evidence that there was anything weird
going on I really don't think she was running away from anything I think she was very likely running towards
something and my gut will not allow me to to feel suspicious about the parents and and look I I've called out parents
in many many other cases M many other cases usually that's my go-to when I first started reviewing this thing my
go-to is normally the parents well when I first started reviewing this I I thought how could it not be the parents
or one of the parents yeah but what what's interesting I I think sometimes you have to have have the the eyeball
test and the ear ball test and like you said you can go look up uh interviews they've done with Montel Williams with
Oprah Winfrey uh being on America's Most Wanted a lot of times too they might seek out local publicity for a case but
if they're in on it a lot of times the parents will shy away from a bigger national attention nothing that they say
to me or I mean there's really nothing that they have said ever that I ever felt it was suspicious in any way and I
I know they both took polygraph tests and passed those and allowed in the court of law but it's like well Police
use those as a tool and and they P passed both of them and they just to me they passed the eyeball test in the year
ball test and it's 21 years later if if it were the parents usually that's a very easy conclusion to come to for law
enforcement we wouldn't be sitting here having the same conversation and then then you have to believe let's
say let's say you do suspect the parents well then you have to convince yourself
that somehow there's just some coincidence that that ASA or someone matching her
description was seen walking alone in the middle of the night on the side of the highway by multiple people and that
somehow her belongings ended up in this tool shed and that somehow her book bag was double bagged and thrown out the
side of the highway 26 mil North of that yeah and what I think here that this is
going back to the chugging a beer and punching myself in the face in the face the thing here that I I cannot get over
Captain is you know you hear you hear the old saying don't bury the lead you know sometime with with journalism oh
the the most important part of the story was three paragraphs down didn't even make the headline I feel like when I
review this investigation that unfortunately for Asia and her family I feel feel like investigators and
journalists have managed to bury the lead time and time again and it it makes zero sense to me the first bit of
information that was found that possibly could be connected to asa's Case and I say possibly because I'm
trying to be responsible I firmly believe that it is related to asa's Case and I'll tell you why it's that
photograph of the unknown girl there is no reason for that photograph to be in the Turner's Tool Shed this shed was
located more than a football field off of the highway it had no doors so it wasn't like something that ASA had to
figure out her way to get into and it had a light because I've I've read people saying that well she would have
had to have known where that tool shed was maybe she did maybe she didn't but the Turners Clearly say in an interview
we have a light that's on that toolshed you could spot it from the road even though it's that far from the road in
the pitch black maybe she simply went in there to get out from the rain or maybe
as you said maybe something spooked her or the the truck driver stopping attempting to help her scares her and
she decides to flee somewhere and that's her only her only shelter but what we do
know is regardless of how they got there items belonging to Asia degree were found in and around that tool shed along
with a wallet-sized photograph of an unknown girl a photo that was shown to her family to her school to people that
knew Asia and everyone said the same thing I don't know who that girl is in the photograph nor do I have any idea
where the photograph would have came from well it's clearly a school picture taking that information what did we do
with it to ask the public for help because here's here's the problem with this case Okay the the book the library
book it's quite unique and in fact that stamp putting it at the Fon Elementary School
makes it oneof a kind the New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt classic it's Unique it's not one of a kind but it is
from a specific tour they only had so many stops on that tour and to take it a step further I'm asking the public for a
little bit of help here if you read the fine print on that on that shirt that tour was the um hanging tough World Tour
from 1989 199 90 but the fine print on it says winterland Productions 1990 big step
Productions 1990 made in the USA so I I'm wondering does that mean that it was made in 1990 and only available for
purchase during the 1990 year of that two-year tour a good point if anybody has any information about that let us
know so that item is not unique but I I mean not one of a kind but it is unique right right the cars the description of
the vehicle very unique not one of kind but again unique what is unique what is one of a kind what is sorry I'm jumbling
my words like crazy what is one of a kind here in the story no matter what you cannot shake it is this little girl
that's in this other photograph M she is one of a kind we've not been able to identify who that person is and you know
why we haven't been able to identify her is because I don't think hardly anybody's seen this damn picture that
when they put it in the newspaper asking for people's help it was at the bottom of page 75 well and that's why the
prosecutors podcast reached out to us to cover this case that's where I get all my news the bottom of page 75 on a
Thursday if you really wanted to locate this girl or people that know this girl or where potentially this Photograph
came from you got to get it out there to the public it's not a picture of Asia it's not
anybody that anybody that knows Asia is saying that they know this little girl it would have helped if it was on
Oprah's show well I I have not seen the segment on Oprah Show nor did I see the segment on America's Most Wanted but
I very very little remains of this photograph in fact there's a lot of reports about asa's case to this day
that don't don't even include the photograph being ever found or mentioned anywhere can you send me the photograph
real quick I will send you the photograph but but this is on law enforcement this this Photograph should
have been you remind the public over and over again we're we're still looking for
Asia but we're also looking for information on this Photograph it's not just coincidence that this photograph is
found with her belongings in the same area on the day that she goes missing yeah but law enforcement's people and
people make mistakes and thank you thank you but but of course I make mistakes too also we don't we don't know
what information that they have that is not released to the public so we don't know what it's it's really hard to say I
I think sometimes to go oh well if it was me I would do this well we're we're also looking back on right but we also
know that according to their own statements that they sat on that book in the New Kids on the Block shirt for 17
years how long did they sit on the information about the car and like you pointed out if we're going to ask the
public for help let's ask the public for help well I think that's where law enforcement uh where they dropped the
ball and and here's the thing I understand more than no no no no it's not it's not always dropping the ball I
think it's it's what uh strategy are you going to take if you're going to ask for
the Public's help then you need to to go with that strategy full force not not half asset and I think some of these why
is it that we can look back on some of these investigations and just go man this seems like a chaotic horeshit it's
because they they didn't pick a strategy and just go with it and then you see these items come out 20 years later and
you go nobody's going to remember that or half the people that would remember that they died 10 years ago right and I
know better than most and understand better than most the idea of withholding information to save the Integrity of
your investigation and the Integrity of your case I really freaking get that the
problem though is what what I have here is what we're dealing with today in this
case there's information that could have been put out there in a better way in a
more timely manner that could have led us to a better situation than where we sit today okay so maybe you run the risk
of not being able to get a conviction Because You released too much to the public you don't know what else you
would find using that information what else you would find to get that conviction based off of the
information You released the other issue too is and this is her mother's words she's having a hard time grieving
for her daughter who's been gone for 21 years there's no body there's no grave site to go
to at the very least it's not what anybody would want but Justice finding this girl alive
would be amazing that's the goal Justice for this girl if something terrible happened to her and she's no longer with
us is the second goal but at the very least maybe we could find the remains for this suffering family and we would
still be in a better situation than we are here today so I think that law enforcement and I think that the media
in in a weird way uh intentional or not um buried the lead here on this case I think there was a lot of good
information out there that could have helped been provided to the public in a timely manner with better detailed
information something something good may have come of it now we want to point out
some things here real quick and this is a quote from a from Asia's mother Aquilla who said we're hoping and we're
praying that she's had a halfway decent life even though we didn't get to raise her she was 9 years
old and she'll be 30 this year so this is this is from an interview about a year ago so we've missed everything but
I don't care if she walked in the door right now I wouldn't care what I missed all I want is to see her now the FBI
continues to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the person or persons responsible for
Asia's disappearance the community and the Sheriff's Office are offering an additional
$220,000 reward bringing the total reward to $45,000 if you have any information
about Asia degree please call the tip line at 74 67261 or the national Center for missing
and exploited children at 1 1800 the lost that's 1-800-843-5678 [Music] for more True Crime garage make sure you
check out our old episodes they are now available everywhere you listen to podcast also check out our bonus show
called off the Record that's only available on Stitcher premium colonel do we have any recommended reading this
week we are recommending the new book Maniac by one of my favorite True Crime authors Harold sheer we have recommended
Harold sher's books before not too long ago we recommended his book Hell's princess well his new book Maniac the
bath school disaster and the birth of the modern Mass killer is out and available everywhere Mr sheer is a twice
nominated author for the Edgar award he specializes in serial killers and he is absolutely one of the best True Crime
historians and authors go see why by picking up his new book Maniac the bath school disaster and the birth of the
modern Mass killer check out that great title and many many more at true Crim garage.com on our recommended page and
until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams
when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled
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Asha Degree /// Part 2 /// 476

Part 2 of 2

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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

The episode discusses the mysterious disappearance of Asia Degree and the ongoing investigation into her case.

Key points

The Disappearance of Asia Degree. On March 14, 2000, 9-year-old Asia Degree disappeared, leading to a nationwide search.
Eyewitness Accounts. Multiple eyewitnesses reported seeing Asia run into the woods, adding credibility to their claims.
The Inmate's Confession. Inmate Baron Ramsay claimed to know what happened to Asia, but his story raises suspicions.
The Discovery of Asia's Book Bag. Asia's missing book bag was found 26 miles from her home, raising more questions.
Investigation Complications. The investigation into Asia's disappearance raises numerous questions and frustrations.
New Clues from the Past. Authorities appeal for information about items found in Asia's book bag years later.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's cold and raining; not ideal for running away.

Discussion about Asia's disappearance

6:52WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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