Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Asha Jaquilla Degree,

known to her family and peers simply as Asha,

was a curious, empathetic, and sensitive young girl.

Her deep-rooted love for family, school activities,

and innocent youthful passion for basketball

was cut short by an unexplainable, unsolved disappearance

in the early morning hours of Valentine's Day, 2000,

leaving all who knew her across her hometown

of Shelby, North Carolina grasping for answers

in a sea of evidence that drowned us all in doubt.

As I hope to provide more substantial reasoning

built upon observable evidence and situational analysis,

this is an examination of the disappearance of Asha Degree

and the trail of clues near the woods

along state highway, NC 180.

This is "Cold Case Detective."

(suspenseful music)

(ominous music)

On February 14th, 1988,

a Valentine's Day full of endless joy,

the energy of true love and excitement for the future

saw the happy couple of Harold

and Iquilla Degree get married.

Two years later on August 5th, 1990,

the husband and wife gave birth to a little girl, Asha.

And soon, the couple became a family of four,

adding a baby boy named O'Bryant.

The Degrees stuck to their roots in Shelby, North Carolina,

and blossomed as a close-knit family

in a cozy residential home in the northern rural area

the state west of Charlotte.

Both Harold and Iquilla worked regular daytime jobs,

making Asha and O'Bryant latchkey kids

once they reached the age to attend school.

This youthful independence

didn't deter the children, however.

And the Degree parents were 100% comfortable

in trusting the Fallston Elementary School's efforts

to return their son and daughter safely home.

Asha, specifically, understood the security needed

to navigate afterschool loneliness

and was wary of strangers even as a toddler.

From kindergarten onwards,

Harold and Iquilla knew their children would be

at home completing homework or chores

when they returned from their respective workplaces.

As Asha's mind flourished in an educational environment,

so did her interests and personalities.

While she spent a bulk of her free time at home,

she did involve herself in extracurricular activities

at Fallston, joining the local youth basketball league.

Through patience, teamwork,

and an innocently competitive spirit,

Asha quickly developed into a star point guard for her age,

and she often lifted her teammates to greatness.

In fact, two days before her disappearance,

Asha played in a league basketball game.

Her team was undefeated at the time

but suffered their first loss the day

after Asha fouled out of the game.

Because of Asha's competitive fire

and love for her teammates,

she and the other girls cried as a result,

but quickly mustered their resolve soon after

and supported O'Bryant in his own basketball game.

It was a perfect example of Asha's skill,

passion, and sympathy.

Despite her academic and athletic duality,

Asha was still quite reserved back at home.

Her mother and father were quite suspicious

at the world back in the late 1990s

and the effects new technology, specifically the internet,

had on young children's developing brains.

Thus the couple decided to focus raising their son

and daughter mostly around the extended family,

their church community, and local schools

instead on the electronic atmosphere.

As a byproduct of these methods,

the Degree household did not include a computer.

The mother, Iquilla, reasoned that at the time,

the nightly news seemed to have daily stories

about pedophiles coaxing young minds via the internet.

Nevertheless, Asha didn't mind the lack of technology,

already cautious by nature

and shy in bigger social climates.

She was more than okay with settling

within the parameters of her parents' close watch

and never strayed far from good behavior.

It was this simple, if not hypersecure, way of living

that made Asha's disappearance that much more puzzling.

She showed zero signs of disturbance

or inclination to up and leave.

Her intense fear of dogs led her parents

to believe she didn't even like leaving the house

in general when it could be avoided.

Regardless, when Harold and Iquilla woke up

to celebrate their 12th-year anniversary in marriage,

the joy, love, and excitement from 1983 was replaced

with trepidation, mystery, and helpless terror.

On Valentine's Day, 2000, Asha Degree vanished.

(suspenseful music)

The mystery begins on February the 11th, 2000.

It's a Friday, and the Degree siblings,

Asha and O'Bryant have the day off from school.

They go to their Aunt Kisha's house

just down the street in their home neighborhood,

and later, to their respective basketball practices.

The following day on Saturday, February 12th,

Asha and her youth basketball team

suffer their first loss of the season.

The loss upsets Asha and her friends,

who walk around the court faking injuries

before a fellow teammate asked them to stop.

Asha eventually comes around and understands the situation,

reverting back to her normal self later in the day.

That evening, Asha sleeps over at her cousin's slumber party

where the girls watch television late into the night.

On Sunday, February 13th,

Harold and Iquilla Degree pick up their daughter,

and the family attends church.

Immediately following, they go to the residence

of another cousin, Shalonda Brown,

where Asha's grandmother gifts her cologne and candy.

Exhausted from the slumber party,

Asha returns home and goes to bed at 6:30 p.m.

Her rest is disturbed a couple of hours later

when a gusty thunderstorm hits the Shelby area.

Asha heads to the living room

to watch television with her parents.

At around 9:00 p.m., a motorcycle crash

in the neighborhood takes down power lines,

causing the Degree household to lose electricity.

Iquilla decides to wait for the children's bath

until the morning and sends Asha and O'Bryant to bed early.

About two hours later at 11:00 p.m.,

Harold Degree runs out to the store

to get some last-second gifts for his wife,

excited to celebrate their 12th anniversary

as a married couple.

After the clock strikes midnight and Valentine's Day begins,

the power is restored at about 12:30 a.m.

Iquilla wakes her husband up, who sleeps on the couch,

and tells him to move the kerosene lamp.

Harold can't go back to sleep and watches more TV,

later checking on Asha and O'Bryant,

who are both soundly asleep in their beds at 2:30 a.m.

Sometime in the very early a.m. hours,

O'Bryant Degree wakes up

and hears his sister stirring in bed.

At one point, hearing her climb out of bed

and walk to the bathroom.

It is unconfirmed whether or not he heard Asha return.

It's between this moment and 4:00 a.m.

on February 13th, 2000 that Asha grabs her backpack

stuffed with clothes and sneaks out of her room.

Her family, none the wiser.

At 5:45 a.m., Iquilla wakens to get her children up

and ready for Monday morning classes.

However, when she checks the kids' bedroom,

she finds O'Bryant asleep and Asha's bed empty.

She soon finds the rest of the house void

of her daughter's presence,

and restlessly searches the nooks

and crannies of their home.

Harold soon joins the immediate search.

And when they find Asha's set of house keys also missing,

they call her grandmother who lives across the street.

The grandmother informs them that she never saw

or heard from Asha.

Harold and Iquilla are left to walk up

and down the street screaming their daughter's name,

desperate and afraid.

When no trace can be found

in the first hour of their search,

the Degree couple calls police at 6:39 a.m.

Authorities show no hesitation

and arrive on the scene six minutes later.

They comb the neighborhood, find zero clues,

and decide the situation is indeed bigger

than originally thought.

The sheriff's office calls in search dogs,

rescue ops, special detectives,

and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations.

At 2:00 p.m., the Degree residence is taped off

by state investigators who find there are no signs

of forced entry, forced exit,

or foul play from anywhere inside the home.

Through the search of Asha's bedroom and belongings,

with the help of Iquilla's familiar recognition,

they build an inventory of Asha's missing items

that she most likely brought with her.

This consists of a red vest, blue jeans with a red stripe,

a white shirt, a black-and-white shirt,

black overalls with a Tweety Bird image,

a black Tweety Bird pocketbook, candy, and her house keys.

Later that afternoon, two truck drivers come forward

with stories of their potential Asha sightings

from earlier that morning.

The first man, Jeff R., states he saw a little girl walking

along the North Carolina Highway 18

in a downpour at approximately 3:30 a.m.

His location was just over a mile south from Asha's house.

The second man, retired sheriff's deputy, Roy B.,

along with his son, saw what they first thought

to be a short-statured woman at 4:15 a.m.

Walking down Highway 18

just before the Highway 180 intersection.

This was also about a mile south of Asha's house.

And Roy sent out an alert to fellow truck drivers

to keep their eyes open.

After he circled back a few times

to get a better glimpse of the wandering figure,

she'd run off the road and into the nearby woods.

This would be the last known, though unconfirmed,

sighting of Asha Degree.

After Jeff and Roy came forward with their leads,

investigators set up a five-mile radius search

in the woods near Highway 18 and Highway 180.

Unfortunately, the weather takes away

the bloodhounds' abilities to pick any scent,

and the muddy search turns up nothing.

When the sun goes down that Valentine's Day,

Harold and Iquilla are interviewed by State Bureau.

They are quickly ruled out as suspects

and fully cooperate with police.

The first major clue in the case

comes the following day on February 15th.

A volunteer search team asks Shelby citizens,

Rallie and Debbie Turner,

if they can check their property for signs of Asha,

considering their property was a mile south of the Degrees

and somewhere close to the highway sighting marks.

The Turner couple happily obliges

and opens their doorless structure in their backyard

where old furniture was stored.

In it, they discovered candy wrappers, a green marker,

a 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil,

and a small photograph of a young girl

who looks very much like Asha.

These items are classified as evidence

and thought to be artifacts

from Asha's book bag she took with her.

Another day passes before police arrive on scene

at the Turner's on February 16th.

They hand over the little photograph,

but theorize the house is too far for Asha to stumble upon.

Another one of their neighbors, Reverend Mackie Turner,

says that his beagles usually barked

whenever a stranger approached his home.

But they were quiet on Valentine's morning.

On February 17th, investigators find more candy wrappers

around the Turner residence,

and the couple turns over the rest of their findings.

Police then interview other families

of the girls on Asha's basketball team

and confirm the candy wrappers matched the candy

handed out to the players

from Asha's basketball game that previous Saturday.

However, none of the Degree family members

nor Fallston Elementary School students

recognized the young girl in the wallet photograph.

And it's decided, while related to the investigation,

the photo is not that of Asha Degree.

After three more days of exhaustive searches,

authorities scale back the hunt

and end the official search on February 20th, 2000.

In a twofold act, apart of law enforcement investigation,

March 22nd produced the next two updates.

First, supporters erect a missing person's billboard

at the exact spot the truck driver saw Asha run

into the woods off Highway 18.

Second, police announce they've interrogated a bevy

of potential suspects ranging from Degree family friends

to sex offenders in the area.

During these interviews,

the authorities build a psychological profile

of a possible abductor,

but never release it to the public in hopes to protect Asha.

The next major clue is unearthed by grading contractor,

Terry Fleming, on August the 2nd, 2001,

a year and a half since Asha vanished.

He is etching a driveway on the side of a hill

when his tractor hits a clunky object

covered with dark plastic.

He cracks it open and finds a black book bag inside

with an unknown name and address.

Without cell service but an unsettling feeling,

Terry cannot contact anyone but writes the information down.

The morning after on August 3rd,

Terry gives the name and address to his wife

who recognizes the info and tells Terry to call the police

because the credentials belong to Asha Degree.

Officials arrive on the scene

and discover the book bag had been wrapped in two trash bags

and intentionally buried long before the unearthing.

The bureau would not directly identify

what exactly is in the book bag,

but says it's 95% Asha's possessions.

And "The Charlotte Observer" reports the contents

included clothes and school supplies.

A new search is soon put forth on August 15th,

but the terrible conditions of both the terrain

and weather make it almost unbearable.

The three-mile long dig turns up little outside

of some animal skeletons and a pair of men's khaki pants,

items neither confirmed nor denied

to have relation to Asha's case.

Another massive search goes underway in October of 2001,

this time combing a six-mile stretch down Highway 18.

It would later be the first portion

of a lengthy 26-mile-long trail of sleuthing

from Asha's home to the book bag excavation site

and still turn up no clues.

Over the next decade or so,

authorities interview countless suspects, nearby criminals,

searching endlessly across North Carolina

and the lands linked to Asha and her family's past.

In May 2016, investigators say they're looking

for a dark green, 1970s Ford Thunderbird

or Lincoln Mark IV with rusty wheel wells.

How or why the car connects to Asha is unknown

but still a current major point of interest.

Biggest clues of all, however,

pop up later in October of 2018.

Investigators from the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office

release a video pinpointing two major pieces

of evidence they're seeking information about,

giving zero context or details,

but claiming these items have advanced

their meticulous search for Asha Degree.

(suspenseful music)

Because of how tightly wound

the entire investigation has been kept,

vital pieces of evidence are hard to signify,

important only by the word of police

through the funneling of local media.

Thus, the most important case point

can only be the most recent,

providing a fresh chance for someone to come forward

with a lead that could solve the mystery.

The following is the exact video

the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office released last October

in 2018, pleading for public knowledge

regarding two clues surfaced in the search.

Listen closely, especially if you or anyone you know

is familiar with the greater Shelby, North Carolina area.

- Nine-year-old Asha Degree disappeared

from her home in Shelby, North Carolina

on February 14th of 2000.

Since that day, the Cleveland County Sheriff's office,

the Federal Bureau of Investigation,

and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation

have followed hundreds of leads in an attempt to find her.

Now we're asking everybody in the community for help

with new possible clues on the case.

I'm Detective Jordan Bowen

with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office.

Our investigative team has discovered two items

of interest that could possibly provide new leads

about Asha's disappearance.

The first one is a library book.

If you or someone you know had this Dr. Seuss library book

around the time of Asha's disappearance

and lost track of it, call us.

Library records do not go back to the year 2000.

The second item of interest is a T-shirt like this one.

It is a concert T-shirt from the New Kids On The Block band.

They are a boy band that first became popular

in the early 1980s.

They are still performing today.

If you had a T-shirt like this one,

or know somebody who did at any point in time,

please call us.

The number to reach the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office

is 704-484-4822.

Again, that number is 704-484-4822.

Asha Degree is Shelby's sweetheart.

And we know that everyone in this community

wants the same thing when it comes to this case,

and that's to find out what happened to her

and to bring Asha home.

Remember, there is a reward of up to $45,000

for information that helps find out

what happened to Asha Degree.

Thank you, and please help us spread this message

on social media by sharing our post.

- [Narrator] While the background to Dr. Seuss' book

and T-shirt are unknown,

the ambiguity still holds weight to the case.

They can most certainly be connected,

but they can also be wholly separate from one another.

So even if you only know something

about 1/2 of the equation,

do not hesitate to shed light on these peculiar subjects.

(suspenseful music)

Early on in the case, many Shelby residents

and interested onlookers pondered if Asha woke up

in the middle of the night

and decided to leave unannounced on her own authority.

Many of these supporters couldn't get past the situation

of a packed book bag with so much clothing and candy.

It certainly seems as if Asha was planning

for a nine-year-old's idea of an adventure,

making sure she had her favorite outfits

and plenty of candy to provide the sugar

and energy necessary for an imaginative quest.

What was missing from the theory was any clear motive

and sensible reasoning to explain a single-digit-aged girl

leaving a simple, sufficient life.

While Asha had more of a sheltered childhood,

she loved the friendly conclusion

and was still able to maintain a healthy social life

in extracurricular activities at school.

She was close with her family,

both in personal relationships and geographic proximity,

and obviously found tight-knit friendships

in her cousins and fellow peers on her basketball team.

There were no reports of youthful rivalries or bullying.

And Harold and Iquilla provided

everything their children needed.

Thus, if Asha did leave as a runaway child,

it was for a completely unexpected, unexplainable reason.

Maybe she had a goal only she was aware of

as the result of a creative young mind.

Or maybe it was the result of an unknown sinister encounter

she had the previous weekend.

Maybe she made innocent plans to meet a friend

or even a stranger for a Valentine's Day engagement

and packed the only way she knew how,

instructed to leave before dawn

at the ignorance of her parents and brother.

It's a hard theory to swallow considering the complete lack

of supporting evidence

and the fact that Asha had little connection

to anyone outside of her controlled circle.

The idea of a potential kidnapping

spawned whispered speculation

about Asha's disappearance as well.

Obviously, police ruled it out right away

after a few detailed inspections

of the Degree children's bedroom,

and exit routes proved foul play was a non-factor.

Of course, there's always a possibility

that an abductor was stealthy enough to get in and out,

careful not to leave fingerprints or any trail behind.

Or as a few corners of the internet like to hypothesize,

the culprit came from within the household,

placing suspicion on Harold Degree himself.

The theory is based on the fact

that Harold was the last person to see his daughter,

spent most of the evening away from his wife on the couch,

and made an unscheduled trip

to the grocery store late at night.

However, the circumstantial facts end there.

Asha's father, and entire family for that matter,

have denied any such rumors or conspiracies.

They point to Harold's underlying love for Asha,

apparent all throughout her young life.

He along with Iquilla have spent hundreds of dollars,

thousands of hours,

and never-ending energy looking for their precious daughter.

He has cooperated with the police investigations

and was ruled out by the authorities very early on.

And for what it's worth, passed polygraph tests.

While it's easy to point fingers at physical people

with faces we can see,

it's more than likely a figure yet to be identified

who took Asha's life into their own hands.

Still keeping an abductor theory in mind,

some internet sleuthers wonder

if a serial killer was involved.

North Carolina has had its share of murderous minds

such as the Edgecombe County serial killer,

but very few line up their insidious activity

with the timeline of Asha's disappearance.

The one interesting possibility is Scott Williams,

a serial killer who murdered three women spanning 10 years

in 1997, 2004, and 2006.

The homicides took place near Monroe, North Carolina,

only a couple counties over from Cleveland County

and the Degrees' hometown of Shelby.

Scott Williams' whereabouts in late 1999 are unknown.

However, he was also charged with kidnapping and rape,

leading to two other women in 1995,

and most interestingly, in 2000.

Yet considering all of the potential in Scott's history

and criminal inclinations,

his modus operandi doesn't match Asha's profile.

Scott mostly preyed upon middle-aged white women

and had no prior incident with young African American girls.

Also, because he was entering into the criminal database

of the United States Justice Department,

his DNA and fingerprints would be available to match

if the investigators on Asha's case discovered either type

of evidence in their hunt for answers.

It's more than likely Scott Williams

is a circumstantial suspect,

holding little weight in a line-up of theoretical suspects.

In terms of other possible serial killers or murderers,

the sad fact of the matter

is many cases involving African American children,

teenagers, and women are left unsolved, unaccounted for,

and kept out of the media.

Thus, evaluating patterns and creating a database

for killers with similar profiled victims doesn't exist,

leaving the world to ponder

if there was indeed a serialized string

of kidnapped black females in the Carolinas

at the turn of the millennia left in the mud

and forgotten, or worse, ignored.

(pensive piano music)

Before we divulge our hypothesis

of Asha's unsolved disappearance,

we want to make known our conclusions presented

in "Cold Case Detective" are purely logical speculation

based on evidence, circumstance, and factual subtext.

We are only privy to the same information presented

in each video, and we do not attempt to promise certainty

or an expert guarantee on the findings we reach in closing.

We simply observe, research, and report.

In regards to the nine-year-old girl

who vanished without a trace on Valentine's Day of 2000,

we believe an explanation derives as a combination

of the theories discussed in the previous segment.

The seemingly intentional packing of her book bag leads us

to figure Asha did indeed leave the household on her own.

Why?

It's nearly impossible to fathom.

Whether or not someone asked her to leave

is too vague of an assumption

to try and hone in on the details,

but still a curious speculation.

Then sometime after leaving her house,

Asha lost herself along the North Carolina highways

and wandered into the woods,

meandering without a goal or comfort,

and surviving on the candy she packed.

Somewhere along the way,

she probably ran into something sinister,

or rather, someone sinister ran into her.

It's at this point Asha's trail goes cold,

most likely taken against her will

in the clutches of unidentified shadows.

There are zero signs pointing to either life or death,

but with resounding optimism,

there is a chance Asha's heart beats just the same

that it did 19 years ago.

In the end, the stronger conclusions rest

within the clues presented by detectives in October of 2018,

the Dr. Seuss' children's book, "McElligot's Pool,"

and the concert T-shirt

for the pop band, New Kids On The Block.

There's a good possibility that either these items

were found in Asha's book bag recovered in August of 2001,

that these items were confirmed

to be in the Degrees' household when Asha went missing,

but disappeared afterwards,

or these items were recovered separately

and tested positive with Asha's DNA.

We believe Asha's DNA was in fact found on the book

as well as other sets of unidentified DNA.

Asking people to come forward

who may have checked the book out from the library

or known someone to have touched it at some point

would help investigators inquire about further DNA testing.

The same can be hypothesized with the shirt.

In a similar scenario, the sheriff's deputy

might not actually have the shirt in evidence,

but have proof that Asha owned one

at the time of her disappearance.

And finding one out in the public

could bring in new suspects

and find new leads via testimony or DNA data.

In conjunction with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office

and the newly presented clues,

we plead for anyone with connection to the book

or the shirt to come forward with information.

Even if it seems trivial, nonsensical,

or completely unrelated to Asha's case,

you never know when the key will come

from within the cracks.

The Degree family is certain Asha

is still alive out there in the world

and are hopeful to learn of her fate in their own lifetimes.

With the help of a wider audience,

Harold and Iquilla can find a growing optimism

in their 19-year-old wish,

a wish to reunite with their bubbling daughter,

a wish to find the spark of the light

in their lives that was Asha Degree,

so passionate about her friends and her family,

and growing as an individual,

a wish to give their missing child

the potential she had so many years ago,

to experience a full life complete with hopes and dreams,

successes and trials, lessons, and laughter, and love.

And regardless of how it's achieved,

let's shed some light on Asha Degree's mystery

and make sure that next Valentine's Day,

Harold and Iquilla return to the days

where their anniversary was defined by joy and excitement,

a day full of family bonding,

a February 14th void of confusion and sponsored by closure.

This has been "Cold Case Detective."