The Strange Disappearance Of 9-Year-Old Asha Degree

In the early hours of Feb. 14, 2000, a 9-year-old North Carolina girl strapped on her backpack and slipped out of her family’s rural two-bedroom duplex apartment. To this day, no one knows why she left — or where she went.

A photo of Asha at 9 years old was used to create an age-progressed image of what she might look like decades later.Police early on ruled out Asha’s family as suspects. By all accounts, theirs was a happy home. Her father, Harold Degree, was a dockworker, and her mother, Iquilla Degree, worked for a piano manufacturer. They lived about 3 miles north of Shelby, and the children attended Fallston Elementary School, about 5 miles north of their home.

Police determined that the items all belonged to Asha. The shed was located about 100 yards west of the spot on Highway 18 where the truck driver saw Asha. At that spot, investigators found wrappers for the kind of candy that her parents said she had at home.The shed owner found something else near Asha’s belongings: a wallet-sized picture of another young girl.

In 2020, the Shelby Star received a letter from a man claiming to know how Asha had been killed and where her body had been buried. After interviewing the man, who was serving aSpeculation about Asha’s disappearance is rampant online. Many theories, however, are based on unverified reports or conflicting witness statements.

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