Asha Degree /// Part 1 /// 826

Summary

True Crime Garage - Episode: Asha Degree Part 1 (Episode 826) Summary

Release Date: March 5, 2025
Hosts: Nic and the Captain

---

Introduction

In Episode 826 of True Crime Garage, hosts Nic and the Captain delve deep into the haunting case of Asha Degree, a nine-year-old girl who disappeared on February 14, 2000. The episode is a meticulous exploration of the events leading up to her disappearance, the immediate aftermath, and the ongoing investigation that continues to stir public interest two decades later.

---

Case Background

Asha Jaquella Degree was born on August 5, 1990, and was the youngest child in the Degree family, residing in Fallston, Cleveland County, North Carolina. Described as timid, quiet, and an excellent student, Asha was also a skilled athlete, excelling in basketball as a point guard.

---

Timeline of Events on February 14, 2000

Friday, February 11, 2000:
Asha spent her day at her Aunt Keisha's house, enjoying a typical family day.

Saturday, February 12, 2000:
Asha had a challenging day as her undefeated basketball team suffered their first loss. The emotional toll was evident as both Asha and her teammates were visibly upset. Later that night, she attended a sleepover party at her cousin’s house, marking a fun-filled evening with numerous family members.

Sunday, February 13, 2000 (Valentine's Day):

• Morning:
  The Degree family attended church services at Macedonia Baptist Church, followed by a family gathering at Cousin Shalonda Brown's home. Gifts were exchanged, adding to the day's significance as it was also Harold and Aquila Degree's 12th wedding anniversary.

• Evening:
  A severe thunderstorm hit the area around 8:00 PM, causing power outages. The Degrees ensured all doors were locked as both parents worked full-time jobs. Around 2:30 AM, Harold Degree checked on his children, finding Asha and her older brother, O'Brien, asleep. Shortly after, unusual noises suggested Asha might have been moving within her sleep.

• Early Morning, February 14, 2000:
  Asha reportedly left her home quietly, dressed in specific clothing. Despite the locked doors, she was equipped with her house key in her book bag. By 6:30 AM, her mother discovered Asha was missing, prompting an immediate police search.

---

Discovery of Asha's Belongings

February 17, 2001:
Nearly a year after her disappearance, Asha's book bag was discovered in a tool shed near Highway 18 by Terry Fleming from Precision Grading. The bag contained:

• A black Tweety Bird pocketbook
• Candies from her recent basketball game
• Her house key
• Various clothing items, including a red vest with black trim and a pair of blue jeans with red stripes

Notable Quote:
Nick emphasizes the significance of these items:
"Asha Degree was born August 5, 1990... her house key is irrefutable evidence she had planned to stay long enough to head to school or get something she needed." [02:17]

---

Eyewitness Accounts and Initial Investigation

Two truck drivers reported seeing a girl matching Asha's description walking south on Highway 18 between 3:30 AM and 4:15 AM. This sighting occurred approximately 1.3 miles from her home, raising suspicions about her intentions and possible reasons for leaving.

Notable Quote:
The Captain reflects on the emotional impact of the case:
"As a parent, you’re still holding out hope... it's crushing." [29:32]

---

Investigation Developments

2015 Reinvestigation:
A renewed effort was made to uncover new leads, utilizing advanced technology and extensive detective work. This led to a significant breakthrough involving a sighting of Asha entering a dark green 1970s Lincoln Continental Mark 6 or Ford Thunderbird.

2018 Leads:

• Found Items:
  A photograph of an unidentified girl and a children's book, McEll's Pool by Dr. Seuss, were discovered alongside Asha's belongings. However, these items did not belong to Asha, adding layers of mystery to the case.

• Age-Progressed Photos and Rewards:
  In 2020, the FBI released age-progressed images of Asha at 29 years old and increased the reward for information to $45,000, combining local sheriff rewards with federal incentives.

Notable Quote:
Nic discusses the emotional toll on the Degree family:
"Their polygraph results were clear, and there was no evidence whatsoever to indicate this mother or father or child are responsible for Asia's disappearance." [45:33]

---

Public Outreach and Challenges

Despite extensive investigations and community involvement, key questions remain unanswered:

• Why Did Asha Leave?
  The primary question revolves around Asha’s intentions for leaving her home in the middle of the night, especially given the absence of any known family conflicts or personal issues.

• Handling of Evidence:
  Items found, such as the green marker and wallet-sized photograph, have puzzled investigators and have not clearly linked to any suspects.

• Media and Public Perception:
  The Charlotte Observer’s handling of the case, particularly the placement of Asha's photograph on page 75, has been criticized for not giving the case the prominence it deserves. Additionally, online speculation and unfounded accusations towards the Degree family have complicated the investigation.

Notable Quote:
Colonel expresses frustration with media handling:
"Do you know this girl? They ran the story at the bottom of page 75... it's ridiculous." [39:38]

---

Ongoing Efforts and Conclusion

The investigation into Asha Degree's disappearance remains active, with law enforcement urging anyone with information to come forward. The case continues to evolve with new leads and persistent community support, embodying the unwavering hope of finding Asha and bringing closure to her family.

Notable Quote:
Nick reinforces the call for public assistance:
"If anybody has any information about Asia Degree, about this case, anything at all, even if you think it's nothing, call it in." [62:30]

---

Looking Ahead

The episode concludes with a promise of continuing the investigation in Part 2, urging listeners to stay tuned as more information unfolds about Asha Degree's mysterious disappearance.

---

Key Takeaways:

• Asha Degree's Disappearance: Occurred on February 14, 2000, under mysterious circumstances with scant initial evidence.
• Ongoing Investigation: Renewed efforts have introduced new leads but have yet to solve the case.
• Community and Media Role: Significant community involvement and media coverage are crucial yet have faced criticism for handling aspects of the case.
• Public Appeal: Continual appeals for information highlight the enduring hope and dedication to resolving Asha’s disappearance.

For listeners seeking an in-depth understanding of the case, Episode 826 of True Crime Garage offers a comprehensive overview, setting the stage for Part 2 where further developments are anticipated.

Transcript

[Colonel]

SA.

[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage, wherever.

[Captain]

You are, whatever you are doing.

[Nick]

Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me.

[Captain]

As always, is a man who has been through the desert on a horse with no name.

[Nick]

Here is the Captain.

[Colonel]

He had a name, but we wouldn't tell anybody that name, so we just called him the Captain. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Captain]

Today in the garage we are proudly.

[Nick]

Featuring Zoatec by the Fun brewers over at Yellow Springs Brewery. Zoetech is an American pale ale filled with citra hops, some hearty English malt with a nice and easy clean finish, garage grade 4 out of 5 bottle caps. And let's give some thanks and some cheers to some of our good garage friends for helping us out with this week's beer run.

[Captain]

First up, a big cheers to Kimberly.

[Nick]

Dotseth in San Diego.

[Colonel]

And a big we like you Jib goes out to Caroline, Bryan and Costa Rica.

[Captain]

And cheers to Joy in Lincoln County, Oregon.

[Nick]

And last but certainly not least, we had Christy L. In Tualutin, Oregon. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to.

[Captain]

Truecrimegarage.Com clicked on the pint glass and.

[Nick]

Hooked us up for this week's beer fun.

[Colonel]

Yeah, BWR you and Beer Run. You need more True Crime Garage for your earballs. You know you do. Make sure you subscribe to our bonus content either through the Apple podcast app or through Patreon and Colonel. That's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer.

[Captain]

Let's talk some true crime. This week, we dive right back into a haunting case. This is a missing persons case that as of the last two weeks is heating up in the news with the recent flurry of online headlines and true crime podcasters who covered the case years ago as we did, or podcasts that first heard of the case and offered their first presentation last September when the case hit the news once again. Our original coverage of the Asha degree missing persons case was back in March of 2021, episodes 475 and 476. This is when we reminded folks new to the podcast that listeners of True Crime Garage come here to give strength to the victims. And nothing breaks your heart more than a child victim and the parents of that child. Unfortunately, today we are once again talking about that missing little girl. This is a case that truly 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 beyond listening today, please take a moment to think about and send a blessing, a prayer or anything from deep down inside of your heart out to this little girl, wherever she is. Little Asha Degree vanished on a cold rainy night over 20 years ago. She was just nine years old. Think of her family who has had to endure so much years of questions and heartbreak, years of being cast into the shadows themselves by people who do not know them, who do not know their family, their history, nor their torture or torment. They need our compassion. This is true.

[Nick]

Crime garage. Due to the recent news in the latter part of last year and with even more details coming out early this year, this is becoming one of the more well known missing persons cases with many waiting on more information. And I am here to tell you these investigators from multiple agencies are far beyond driven to find Asha degree and to make an arrest or arrests. And we will be close. I think we are close, my friends. We keep inching and inching our way, getting closer and closer. Asha Jaquella Degree was born August 5, 1990. She was the baby of the family, the little girl in a happy family of four. Mom and dad are Aquila and Harold Degree and Asia's older brother is O'Brien. We will likely be saying Cleveland a lot today, but make note that we are talking about Cleveland County, North Carolina. This is where Asia lived with her family in Fallston, which is just a touch north of the larger city of Shelby, North Carolina. And most of the news is going to be coming out of Shelby. The day in question that we're going to be talking about here, captain, will be February 14, 2000, Valentine's Day. That is the day that Asha went missing. As of two weeks ago, Asha has now been missing for 25 years. The Degree family of four lived on Oak Crest Street. Shelby is located between two big cities, Charlotte and Asheville. The population of shelby back in 2000 was just under 20,000 people. This is a somewhat rural area, likely what most would consider to be rural. Asha is described as timid, quiet and shy. She was a good student. There were no known issues at school with her behavior, with her attitude or her schoolwork. No known issues at home either. And by all accounts and all appearances, she had a happy life. Asia was in the fourth grade at Fallston Elementary School. Asia was quite the athlete as well. She excelled at basketball and was a pretty badass little point guard. Now let's go back just a couple of days before Asia disappeared.

[Colonel]

On our timeline, we're going to start on Friday, February 11th on this day.

[Nick]

There was no school. This was a teacher work day with no school for the students. Both of Asia's parents worked full time jobs. So same applies. It's a parents work day with no school for the kids. But mom Aquilla worked at a manufacturing plant. This is in nearby Lincoln Town. She worked the first shift. Her husband Harold worked the second shift at PPG Industries in Shelby. Asia and O'Brien spent a good portion of that Friday at their aunt Keisha's house. This is just down the street from the Degree household. So it's the same neighborhood as Asha's family. And in fact, from my understanding here, Captain, a lot of the larger family lived in this neighborhood or lived very close to where Asia and her family lived. Later that Friday, Asia has basketball practice. As said, she's kind of the star of her school's Little Bulldogs girls basketball team. Next we go to Saturday, February 12, 2000. Now, at this time of year, Saturdays were largely reserved for the kids basketball games. Those were held on Saturdays. Saturdays were basketball and Sundays were church for the Degree family. On this typical Saturday, both Asia and her older brother O'Brien had basketball games that took place at Burns Middle School. Asia's team was undefeated going into the game. But on this day, the team struggled and Asia fouled out late in the game and the team received their first loss of the season. Asia was upset to the point of crying, but so did some of her teammates. A lot of her crying during this basketball game or afterwards? A lot of that, A lot has been made of that over these years. But keep in mind, they're little kids. They experienced their first loss. And she was not the only girl on the team to get emotional about the loss. That night, Asia went to a sleepover party at her 15 year old cousin's house. This was a fairly large slumber party and I saw a report that says that there was like a dozen kids at this slumber party, mostly cousins, and they stayed up late watching tv, hanging out, dancing, just having a great time.

[Colonel]

Let's jump to Sunday, February 13.

[Nick]

Harold, Aquila and O'Brien picked Asha up early that morning to go to church. Harold says Asha attended Bible study classes every Sunday. The Degrees church was the Macedonia Baptist Church. This is in Waco, North Carolina, not terribly far from their home. After church, the Degree family of four went to their cousin Shalonda Brown's home. A bunch of family were there together after church, including grandma, who handed out some Valentine's Day gifts to the kiddos. After this family gathering, Asia, mom and dad and big brother, they all went home. Due to her late night slumber party just the night before, Asia was very tired, so she fell asleep quite early. This would be around 6, 6:30pm Then a pretty loud and ferocious thunderstorm hit the area around 8pm that Sunday night, around the same time Asia wakes up. So we got some thunder, we got some lightning, and we got someone nearby smashing into a utility pole, knocking out the power in the neighborhood. This around 9pm so you got some young kids in the house. It's late enough, the power's out. It's time for bed. There's school the next day. Valentine's Day is the next day, which is also a Monday. And this should have been, this should have been a happy day for many reasons, Valentine's Day, but most importantly, it will also be harold and Aquila's 12th wedding anniversary. And when I review this part of this true crime story here, Captain, this is where I feel like I just got punched in the gut.

[Colonel]

It's right.

[Nick]

It's like a freaking bowling ball is in my stomach right now. You have, we all know the sequence. You fall in love, you get married. You get married because you're in love. You get married because you want to build a family. You want to have kids. And on your wedding anniversary, your little baby girl goes missing. And it's been 25 wedding anniversaries and your baby's still gone. Now, reports say that power kicked back on just after midnight. The kids in Aquilla are in their beds. It said that Harold checked on the kids around this time, like midnight to maybe 12:30 ish. Then he watched TV sitting on the couch in the living room. He says that at 2:30am is about the time that he shut off the TV. He checks on his kids again, just looks in the room. Asha and O'Brien are sleeping peacefully in their beds at this time. And he went to the master bedroom and he falls asleep pretty quickly. Asa shared a room with her older brother. From my understanding, Captain, it's, it's a two bedroom dwelling, right? Sometime during the night. We don't get a great Tim stamp for this activity here, but sometime during that night, O'Brien says that he woke up. When he's up, briefly, he doesn't get out of bed, but he's, he's awake in his bed. And very briefly, he says he hears his sister Asia moving around. Now, he would tell his family and police later that he thought that she was just tossing and turning in her sleep. Then he says that he heard her get up and he assumed that she was going to go to the restroom. Now, some of the reports out there differ on whether he ever heard her return or not. Some say that that he heard her return, others say not. It's believed that this would be about 3am or so. I think it's probably a little bit later. Now, in hindsight, we would have to believe that the noise that he is hearing is actually Asia getting up, getting out of bed, getting dressed, and packing up some of her things in the early morning hours.

[Colonel]

I think one of the things that is shocking about this case is how standard a lot of these events are. We, we've all experienced having a power outage due to weather or due to the weather causing maybe an accident. And then the standard practice of a mother or father staying up past the time their kids go to bed and then doing the check to make sure everything in the house is okay before I go to bed. And then also the standard practice whether you're a child or you're a parent, hearing somebody else in the house moving midnight in the middle of the night and then whether you hear them resettle back into bed or maybe you doze off beforehand. We have all shared these experiences, but what's coming next in the timeline is something that none of us will probably ever experience in our lifetime.

[Nick]

It's about as abnormal and strange as you could imagine. So apparently Asha, she got dressed, packed up her book bag, and slipped out of the house into the dark, rainy early morning. Asha is believed to have been wearing a white shirt, white jeans, and white Nike tennis shoes. She did not bring a coat with her. She did not bring a hat with her. Keep in mind it's raining out. But an inventory of her belongings found that she had taken the following items. So she packed up a book bag and these are the items that it's listed that she took with her. A black Tweety Bird pocketbook, candies that she received at her basketball game on that Saturday, her house key, clothing. So she took some clothing with her. It's a red vest with black trim, blue jeans with a red stripe on each side, a white nylon long sleeve shirt, a black and white long sleeve shirt, and black overalls with Tweety Bird on it. When we're looking at this, at one time it was listed that she possibly also took with her a white nightgown, the one that she wore to bed that night and that she possibly took with her her basketball uniform. Now, on the basketball uniform that would later be confirmed, but not until over a decade later that the basketball uniform was something that she took with her. Right. So she's last seen inside her home at approximately 2:30am on February 14, 2000. Asia's father, when he went to sleep, that's about the time that he said that he saw his daughter asleep in her bed when he checked on them. Asia's mother wakes up. She went to the kid's bedroom at approximately 6:30am she's going to go there to wake up the children for school. She discovers that Asha is not in her bed at that time. Asia's school she goes to, Falston elementary is located almost exactly five miles north of their home. Both her street, Oak Crest street and her school are almost directly off of Highway 18. Highway 18 is a predominantly two lane rural highway that travels 145 miles. In this area, it is also known as Fallston Road. The Degree family lived at 3404 Oak Crest Street. Oak Crest street is one block west of Highway 18. The Degrees residence faces west. Oak Crest street looks like it would be a rather quiet street. There's only about 18 houses. There are single family homes that back up to the houses on Oak Crest and Asia's side of the street. So these are single family homes along the western side of Highway 18. These houses and homes on Oak Crest, they are all spaced out nicely so they are not all cramped together.

[Colonel]

Am I wrong to assume that she didn't walk to school because of the distance being five miles or more?

[Nick]

Correct. She rode the bus to school.

[Colonel]

So that's another confusing thing. If she was heading to her school, why would she walk there? Because that's not her typical routine.

[Nick]

Well, I'm giving the lay of the land to point out that she, if she was heading to her school, if that was her intention, she was going in the wrong direction.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

So soon after this there will be a sighting of someone matching Asia's general description walking alongside of Highway 18, again also called Fton Road. The evidence says that the child left her home on foot in the middle of the night. Let's ruminate on that for just a second. If you've not heard of this story before, it's a nine year old little girl left the house on her own in the middle of the night and her reasons for leaving are not clear at all.

[Colonel]

Well, and that's one of the biggest questions in this case for me is why? One, why did Asia leave in the middle of the night? And then I think the caveat to that question would be how do we know that she left on her own. We have this eyewitness report, but we have seen in many other cases eyewitness reports not being factual.

[Nick]

Upon this discovery, Captain, the family calls 91 1. The call came in at 6:38am and the first police officer on the scene, he was there by 6:40. And by 6:42, we have Sheriff Dan Crawford arrived. He's in charge.

[Captain]

He.

[Nick]

He immediately calls for a K9 unit. Her parents say they found all of the doors in the house locked. And according to the sheriff, there was no sign of forced entry into the home. Asha and O'Bryant rode the bus to and from school each day when they would get home. Mom and dad were both at work at this time. So both kids had a key to the house. Asia kept hers in her book bag. If she did leave on her own accord, it looks like she packed up her book bag, left the house, and because they found all the doors locked, we can presume that she used her key to then lock the door behind her. Newspaper reporters and television crews were out front of the degree house in the early morning hours. By 2pm we have agents from the North Carolina state bureau of investigation had arrived at the home. Asia's father, Harold, in a telephone interview with the Charlotte observer, said Asia had never run away before and that there were no family problems that would make his daughter want to leave. The newspaper gives a description of Asha, listing her as 4 foot 6 inches tall, weighing about 65 pounds. She's African American and wears her hair in pigtails. And if anybody's seen pictures of Asia, these pigtails cannot go unnoticed. By the end of the day, by the end of that Valentine's Day, Captain, police and search and rescue efforts, they had covered three miles wide but found nothing. And unfortunately, the search dogs did not pick up Asia's scent. But we do get a couple of eyewitnesses. Two truck drivers reported seeing a girl matching Asia's description walking south on Highway 18 north of Shelby between 3:30am and 4:15am that's why I wanted to go through the information about her school, because as we said earlier, if her intention was to walk to her school, she was going in the opposite direction. And Asia was apparently near the intersection of Highway 118 at the time of these eyewitness sightings. This is a mile from her home. In fact, some of the information I found, Captain, states that it was 1.3 miles from her home. So she made it a good distance before people spot her there walking alongside of this country highway. Now, what's interesting about these eyewitnesses. They are it's two different reports. So both sightings were on Highway 18 near the 180 intersection. And the fact that two men called into police independently, each unaware of what the other reported, made both statements incredibly credible. But as far as Valentine's Day, February 14th goes, that's. That's it. That's all the information we have regarding that day. These poor parents wake up. Mom wakes up and finds that her little girl is gone, calls police. Police are on the scene looking for this girl, looking for her throughout the area and the alarm is raised. So much so that news reporters are showing up that same day. And everybody's wondering, where the heck did this little girl come?

[Captain]

This message is sponsored by Green Light. Who taught you about money?

[Nick]

Was it your parents? Your school?

[Captain]

Let's be honest, most of us learned about saving and budgeting way later than we should have.

[Nick]

But here's the good news.

[Captain]

You can give your kids a head start with Greenlight. Greenlight is a debit card money app made for families that lets kids learn how to save, invest and spend wisely. Parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye on kids spending and saving.

[Nick]

The Green Light app even includes a chores feature where you can set up.

[Captain]

One time or reoccurring chores, customize to your household and reward kids with allowance for a job well done.

[Nick]

I love Greenlight because it's a debit.

[Captain]

Card and money app that gives the power to the people. It is our job, our responsibility as parents to teach our children how to be financially smart and wise. The schools will not do it. Green Light is the most powerful tool.

[Nick]

I know of to help you teach your kids how to be financially safe and smart.

[Captain]

Start your risk free Greenlight trial [e-mail] garage. That's greenlight.com garage to get started. Greenlight.com garage you know what they say the most important part of your spring.

[Nick]

Cleaning routine is your sock drawer.

[Captain]

Yep, you heard that right. It's time to ditch any mismatched tired pairs.

[Nick]

You know the ones with the hole at the heel.

[Captain]

Get rid of those and refresh your collection with some fresh Bombas. Bombas has the cushioned arch hugging socks that'll keep you comfy while you spruce up your house. And you know what goes great with new spring socks, fresh white T shirts, waterproof slides and a few pairs of buttery soft underwear.

[Nick]

Bomba makes all of that too.

[Captain]

Bombas is a better sock, a better brand of socks that gives back and helps communities because one pair purchased means one pair donated and they're my favorite kind of socks. Bombas is my favorite socks. They are my go to and Bambas is going international. Enjoy worldwide shipping to over 200 countries. Head over to bombas.com garage and use code GARAGE for 20% off your first purchase.

[Nick]

That's B O M B A S.com.

[Captain]

Garage code GARAGE for 20 off your first purchase bombas.com Garage and use code Garage it's always nice to keep your money where you can see it. Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers also seem.

[Nick]

To like keeping your money.

[Captain]

If you're tired of crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks that actually cost more in the long run, switch to Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile offers premium plans starting at $15 per month with high speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. Plus you can keep your phone and number along with all of your contacts. That's right, keep your phone, keep your number, all your contacts, but save a whole bunch of money. It's a new year. Everybody's trying to figure out how to save money and everybody has experience paying way too much for phone service. Get premium service with Mint Mobile without the premium price. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans@mint mobile.com tcg that's mint mobile.com tcg upfront payment of $45 for three month five gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Want the fastest working GLP1 for half the list price?

[Nick]

Ro's got you.

[Captain]

Ro now offers FDA approved weight loss vials for half the list price of auto injector pens. Without applying insurance or savings cards and with results you can see faster, your RO affiliated provider can help you understand if GLP1s are right for you and your goals. But that's just the beginning. RO members have support throughout the process. Plus you can sign up online from the comfort of your own home. That means no waiting for an in person doctor's appointment, no commute to the doctor's office and no waiting rooms. Weight loss Faster confidence higher price cheaper. Join the over 385,000 people who have already chosen RO to access GLP1s. Go to Ro Co Garage to see if you qualify. That's Ro Co Garage. Go to Ro Co Safety for boxed warning and full safety information about GLP1 medications. Medication indicated with diet and exercise.

[Colonel]

All right, we are Back. Cheers, mates. To the windows, to the walls. Tall cans in the air. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

To the walls, to the windows.

[Colonel]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Cheers to you, Captain.

[Colonel]

February 14, 2000. You wake up, your kid is gone. My first thought, if I'm her parents, is somebody took our daughter. And maybe what I was hearing in the middle of the night wasn't my daughter just getting up to use the restroom, but it was possibly somebody in the house taking my daughter. But then we get multiple eyewitness reports seeing this little girl walking on her own in the rain. And not great weather. It's February 14th. It can't be that warm. I'm sure it wasn't freezing or anything, but. Because they're in North Carolina, but it's not the summer. And so you have all these eyewitness reports, and like you said, one eyewitness report is troubling. When you have multiple eyewitness reports, those stories start backing up one another. So then, as the parent, you have to be thinking, why did she leave on her own? What was the purpose? And I think we can actually rule out confusion because she's headed in the wrong direction. She doesn't walk to school. So none of this makes sense. With her typical routine, you could make an argument to me if she did walk to school and she was walking in the correct direction, that maybe she woke up early and was just confused, or possibly half sleepwalking and packed up her stuff and was heading to school like she normally did. But again, these are not normal movements or actions by Asha.

[Nick]

Three days later, after the disappearance. So now we're at February 17th. A pencil marker and yellow hair bow with a bear on it were discovered on the ground in a doorway of a tool shed. This is at Turner's upholstery on Highway 18. So this is the same stretch of road where she had been spotted by the two truck drivers independently. Her belongings were found near the stretch of road. This stretch of road. So this is more than a mile from Asia's residence. Right. It's almost exactly where one of the truckers spotted a little girl walking on the side of the road. The Turners, who own this land, they owned an old outbuilding. The outbuilding has no lock on it. It doesn't even have a door.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

And the reports are that this outbuilding is approximately 300ft, maybe a little more from the roadway. And they use this outbuilding to store supplies for their upholstery business. This discovery is interesting. When they checked this shed, they found an odd assortment of items. So it was A green marker, a 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil, a yellow hair bow, some cellophane candy wrappers. And then the strangest item of all, and we'll get to this in just a second, is a wallet sized photo of a little girl. Not of Asia. Degree of, of some other little girl that might be. To me, I've seen the photo, looked at it a hundred times. It, it looks to me to be a girl that is approximately about the same age as Asia, which makes it even more bizarre.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

But so these items, while they seem pretty random here, here's a couple things about this case in this true crime story that, that stand out beyond other stories. So first, you, it's easy. It would be easy for anybody to go, you know what, okay, those truckers were trying to do something nice. They called in some information to the sheriff's department. But how do we know that they saw Asia? We, we don't know that 100%. But let's think about it for a second. When two different people call in, seeing a little girl walking on the side of the road at like 4:15, 4:30 in the morning, how many little girls are walking alongside the road at 4:15, 4:30am they're not, it's not like a parade of little kids are walking at that time of day. So it's an easy leap to say that that was Asia. Both of those eyewitnesses say that she was alone. In fact, one of them was concerned that she might get hit. And one of the truck drivers says that when I first passed her, when I passed her, I thought that she, that it was a just a small woman. But after the missing persons report goes out to the public, hey, we're looking for this little girl. It clicked. And he goes, no, I, that was a little girl that I saw. The, one of the truckers says that he was so concerned that she was walking so close to the road and that's, it's a highway, so it's a high speed road. He turned around because he was worried that the person would get hit. Examine these items. Here's the second part of this. You could go, well, these items may have something to do with the case. They may have nothing to do with the case.

[Colonel]

Correct.

[Nick]

But we have her parents that say those items were my daughters. And so this 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil, they had visited the, the family took a trip to Atlanta not too long before her going missing. And I, I don't mean like days. I mean this was, would have been months, maybe even a year or so, but they're saying that that is an item that was purchased while they were there, amongst other items. And this hair bow is distinctive, right? It's got a bear on it. It's yellow. They're saying, that's our daughters. And then furthermore, they believe that the cellophane candy wrappers that were found matches the candy that was given to her that weekend.

[Colonel]

Right. At the basketball game. And again, these are things that we have all experienced. When you're a child and you visit the Empire State Building or something like that, and your parents buy you a souvenir pencil, that pencil is important for some weird reason, and it's. It's one that you don't want to sharpen. And so this would be an item that her parents would remember, or the fact that she got candy at the basketball game. And. And they remember what kind of candy. And then you got this green marker. What doesn't make sense in these items? I hear the whole scenario where the parents say, well, these items match what our daughter would have. Okay, so now that makes it relevant to this case. My issue with these items is that picture of this unknown girl.

[Nick]

I said it in the trailer leading into the story today. Our original coverage of the Asia Degree case was from March of 2021, episodes 475 and 476 on your garage radio dial. And so I'm not going to harp on it here, because we have a lot of stuff that we need to get to. But if you want to hear me rant and rave about how angry this next portion of the case made me that those episodes are there available for free for anybody to listen to. So let's talk about this photograph. Right February 24th. This photograph is found on the 17th. I'm sure I feel very confident stating that the sheriff's department probably wanted to do their due diligence to make sure that these items had anything to do with the case at the. At all, number one. And then number two, how significant are they to the case? So what could they mean? They probably wanted to run a little bit of investigation on it before making this well known to the public. But on the 24th of February. So she's been gone 10 days now by this point. The Charlotte observer runs an article, a news article, containing this mystery photograph that was found in the shed along with Asha's belongings. So as far as this photograph goes, the people that own the building, this little shed, they don't know the person in the photograph, the kid in the photograph. They say they've never seen it before. And so we're making an assumption that because Asia left other items there, this photograph may have been with her and she may have left that there.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

So if in fact that would be the case, we need to figure out if anybody knows anything about this photograph. Who's the little girl in the photograph? So the Charlotte Observer. And this is one of those tightropes that we have to walk here because while I want to commend them for actually running an article, I also have to blast them at the same time because of their handling of it. They ran an article titled do you know this girl? And they showed the picture, that little wallet size photograph of the little girl. Do you know this girl? They ran the story at the bottom of page 75.

[Captain]

Thanks.

[Nick]

Thanks a lot.

[Colonel]

Yeah, that helps because.

[Nick]

Because when I get the newspaper, I know nobody gets the newspaper anymore, but I used to love reading the box scores. When I used to get the newspaper, that's the first thing I turned to, is page 75 to see what the hell's going on. So again, page 75, it was a hun. That day's newspaper. I found that day's newspaper. It's 108 pages. They could, I mean, might as well put it on. On it might have been better to put it on page 107. I don't know. But, but that seems ridiculous.

[Colonel]

So regardless, ridiculous. And on top of that, we have.

[Nick]

A missing child, nine years old. It's not nine years old.

[Colonel]

Put it on the front page, you piece of you, Pete.

[Nick]

Well, again, publication.

[Colonel]

If you're not putting that on page one.

[Nick]

Right. No, I say, I, I understand what you're saying, and I'm just as angry as you, but I do also want to point out that the Charlotte observer ran the article. Nobody else did, right? Nobody else did. They're a little. A little lower on the piece of shit scale than every other publication out there.

[Colonel]

Still in the pile, though, my friend. Still in the pile.

[Nick]

August 3, 2001. Again, we're gonna have to move along this timeline a little faster and less detailed than we did in our original coverage. I can't stress this enough. If you have enough time, review those older episodes because there's going to be a lot that we discussed and talked about on those two episodes that we can't get to in this week's coverage. So now we're at August 3rd, 2001. We have a gentleman named Terry Fleming. He's the owner of Precision Grading. He's working at a construction site. This is in Burke County. So Burke county is a neighboring county of Cleveland County, North Carolina. While there, his team uncovers a trash bag. They look to see what's in the trash bag. Thank God they did. I mean, yeah, could you imagine? Just throw it away, Throw it in there. So they look inside the trash bag. They find a book bag. Now, this may mean nothing most of the time to anybody, but the book bag has Asia Degrees name and phone number on it. This story, even though we're at a neighboring county, Burke county, this story was not a quiet story. The Asia Degree in this area is known as Shelby's sweetheart. Everybody in this area, maybe even region by this time knew who Asha Degree was. Everybody's looking for her. And so they find this book bag. It's got her name and telephone number written on it. It's buried off of Highway 18. This is the same highway that she was spotted on. It's found roughly 18 months after she disappeared. The book bag had been found double wrapped in two black plastic trash bags. And it's found more than 26 miles from the family's home in the complete different direction. The opposite direction of where the girl had been seen walking. Yeah. And this spot where they find these trash bag, double bag. Trash bag with the book bag in it is about 50 yards off of the highway. Here is a full description of what was found in the bag after it's turned over to police. Now, and I do want to say this, I don't think officially there's ever been a full inventory that's been released to the public, but this is what we could find and what we've double triple checked. Here we have Asia's black book bag, a black tweety bird purse or pocketbook. Again, these are two items that we knew were missing from her room at the time of her disappearance. They also found a pair of blue jeans with red stripe. They found black sneakers, a long sleeved white T shirt with purple lettering, a red vest with black trim, black overalls with tweety bird on them, and a long sleeved black and white shirt and Asha's house key. After this finding, investigators announced that they considered Asha's disappearance to be a criminal matter and foul play was suspected. Here's a statement from the sheriff. He says several drivers witnessed her walking south along North Carolina Highway 18 around 4am or a little after, but did 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, of or information pertaining to the disappearance of Asia. Detectives say that the degrees have always cooperated with the investigation and have, quote, bent over backwards, end quote. To help find their daughter. They allowed authorities to search their home and insisted on polygraph examinations, which they all passed. Sheriff Crawford put it, and this is, this is one thing that I, we need to hit home here because there are people that are following this case and they know where a lot of this is going. There are people that have followed this case through the ups and downs of the investigation throughout the 25 years. And then there are people that have. They know of the case a little bit, but they don't know about any of the new information. There has been a good deal of speculation about the family, about Asia's family over the years on the Internet. A lot of people throwing shade on either the mother, the father, or both. Sheriff Crawford, who would know this case better than any of us on this podcast, anybody listening to it, and anybody on the Internet, Sheriff Crawford said, quote, there was no and is no evidence whatsoever to indicate this mother or father or child are responsible for Asia's disappearance. So scrub the Internet, if you could, of any of that speculation because it's getting in the way of finding the truth.

[Colonel]

If I'm law enforcement in this case, I'm wondering so many things. One, why did these eyewitnesses not contact the authorities right away? You see a little child walking by herself, why aren't you calling authorities right away? But also because we have multiple eyewitnesses that place this girl outside of her house and then not. And she's not in. She's not in the company of her parents. And like you said, they've been cooperative with law enforcement. They take polygraph tests, search our house, do whatever you need to do. You want to look into us, that's fine. And that's how it should be in all these cases, These people that go, I don't know why law enforcement's looking into us. Well, because everybody's a suspect until you're not. Until we can rule you in or rule you out. But I keep coming back to the idea of where was she gone, why was she going there? And because of her age, you then have to question, was she heading in the right direction of where she thought she was going.

[Nick]

Yeah. The thing here is these, the degrees from. From my 30,000 foot view of the degree family. These. They're family centric people. We can see this in the. In the short timeline that we went through. They spend a lot of time with their. The larger part of their family. The kids do, the parents do, the. Everybody does. Yeah, there. There were two. In the matter of three days, there were two events that had a bunch of family coming together. So they're family centric people and likely some of their family, extended family, attend the same church. So that might be all three days. They hung out with some of their family. Now they're God fearing people. They attend church. They didn't just cooperate with the investigation. According to the sheriff's words, they insisted on being on being tested, on having that polygraph conducted. You can do this if you want. I will warn you, it may ruin your day. There's interviews with the parents online. It might ruin your day because that's how you can see it, plain as day on their faces, how heartbroken they are. And then this part of the story, look, it's been. It's been a year, over a year. Your kid's missing. But from what the evidence is telling you and what the sheriff is telling you, like, we got some people that spotted your daughter walking by herself on the side of the road. As a parent, you're still holding out hope at this point, right? Maybe there's a chance she walks somewhere and she. And for some reason she's shacked up with some nice family somewhere or what have you. Like, there's been stranger stories out there. But the finding of this backpack and her personal belongings inside of it, 26 miles away from her home in the opposite direction. And it's no question that it's hers. Her name and phone number are on it. All of these items are items that you told the sheriff was missing from her room the morning that you found that she was gone. That's crushing. It's absolutely crushing. Yeah.

[Colonel]

And maybe some of these items you can dismiss and say they don't belong to Asha. But the house key, that's. You're not getting around that evidence. I don't know if it's the fact that it's double bagged or that it's found, because I don't think it's. And maybe, correct me if I'm wrong, it's. It's found like in a construction area, but I don't think there's like.

[Nick]

So it was buried, right? It would have. It was buried either purposefully or it was tossed in over time, had been covered up. But the description is that it was two pretty standard Trash, black trash bags like most of us have in our homes. Not little grocery sacks, the, the big black trash bags and double bagged. And when found by the construction people, it was buried. Now could they have been moving earth around? Yes, they absolutely were. Maybe. Did they bury it on accident and then recover it later? Could be. We don't know. But what we do know is whether it was buried or not, somebody was attempting to discard and get rid of these items 26 miles away from north of the family's home.

[Colonel]

Well, like you said, you're hopeful that you're going to get some weird but positive outcome. Your law enforcement, you're going. Well, we don't have all the answers and we don't have details, but we have a good idea now. And it's bad. It's real bad. And think about that if you're law enforcement. Okay, now we know it's bad. Well, we got to keep digging. We got to keep going down this rabbit hole. And guess what? It's just going to get worse. Everything that we find from here on out will just get worse.

[Nick]

Well, in 2015 it was decided that there would be. So they put together. We're going to start the investigation all over in 2015 and we're going to pull out all the stops. We're going to have every resource available to us. We got new technology, we're going to. It's all hands on deck. So in 2015, they're doing good old fashioned detective work, a lot of legwork. And what that leads to is a possible lead. Now, where this lead comes from, the extent of the details are still a little confusing and I don't think we know everything that was said to police or by how many people. But here is the version of what was released to the public in 2015. The reinvestigation, if you will, turned up another possible lead that Asia may have been seen getting into a dark green or green 1970s model Lincoln Continental Mark 6 or Ford Thunderbird with rust around the wheel wells. Okay, those two cars look very similar. So I think we're just getting a general description here, but this, she goes missing in 2000. This is a 1970s model vehicle. So it's going to stick out. It's going to stick out.

[Colonel]

Well, also the color, the color is not a normal color. So it's going to be a smaller percentage of these vehicles that even existed.

[Nick]

The FBI publicly announced this lead in 2016. So they held on to this information, wherever it came from, and they worked it quietly to see what they could do with it. And then when. When we see this happen, what it tells me about the investigation, Captain, is that they hit every dead end that they could with this lead, and they said, you know what? Now we got to release this to the public. So what they did was they released this information with the. To the public, along with images of those vehicle models at that color to try to, you know, spark someone's memory. I don't know when, but this information that says Asia may have been seen getting into a green 1970s car at some point. It morphed into she was seen getting pulled into a car. Anybody that's spent more than 15 minutes listening to this show throughout the years or any other True crime show, you know that. That are two very different things. Getting into a car and getting pulled into a.

[Colonel]

And for anybody that's listened to True crime garage for over 15 minutes, we want to thank. Publicly apologize to you and publicly thank you.

[Nick]

Yes.

[Colonel]

So thank you.

[Nick]

You are kind and understanding. 2018 captain.

[Colonel]

Yes, sir.

[Nick]

We get an announcement. Okay. That, along with the other items that we discussed that were found in that black trash bag that was located over a year after she disappeared, they also recovered a T shirt. Now, when we covered this in 2001, the way that I reported it was that they had recovered a concert T shirt featuring the boy band New kids on the block and a children's book, McEll's Pool by Dr. Seuss. Neither belong to Asia. That was the statement from police. So, again, this is a situation where they knew in 2001 that these items didn't belong to the little girl. They're working it or trying to figure out if, you know what, if we can connect these to somebody's home or to some individual, we have got the best lead, the best break in the case that we will have yet to date. We might even have the person that is responsible for her disappearance.

[Colonel]

Well, what's nice is even if somebody doesn't come forward, because by coming forward, it might lead law enforcement to the fact that you're a criminal. But even if somebody doesn't come forward, you can then test these items.

[Nick]

And I want to clear up something here, though, because I feel I was irresponsible to call this a concert T shirt when we covered it in 2021. And I know I spent a good deal of time working and trying to figure out this concert T. I was convinced that. That maybe we could even track it down to a specific concert or a specific group of concerts, because you go to concerts, and sometimes they will Make a shirt specifically for that night or specifically for that stop or. Or at the very least, specifically for that tour. Upon further research, I spent a lot of time with this shirt again, leading up to our coverage the second time around. And the best I can tell with this shirt, it's, It's. It's actually referred to as a nightgown or a sleep shirt. And if you look at the pictures available, it's clearly that. It's. It's something that was designed for a little girl. It's going to hang down pat, you know, above the knee, but, well, much lower than a shirt would. And it looks like something that a little kid would wear to bed, a little girl would wear to bed, but it's a pretty generic shirt. It. So it looks like it was either made for a tour or. Anybody that's my age has a good understanding of how big New Kids on the Block were. Back when I was a little boy, they were. I mean, they were huge. You couldn't. You could not walk. You could not go into a home that had a young girl living there. You know, a lot of my buddies, sisters, or a lot of my cousins, they all had New Kids on the Block posters in their rooms. They had all the tapes, the cassette tapes. They were huge. It actually looks. And. And I been tracking this online. I actually think it's a quite generic shirt because they were so big. I actually think this was one that was printed and sold in department stores so that mom and dad or whomever could buy this for their daughter. And it almost gives off the feel of, like, oh, you know, you got something unique or you got something that's maybe even from one of the tours, but I don't think that it is. I think that it's a pretty generic shirt that was sold in department stores. I even found somebody online that said that they had thought that they purchased the same shirt by mail or order, but we're talking many, many moons ago, my friends.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

The best I can tell, and going off of memory here, I didn't spend a whole lot of time dissecting New Kids on the Block, but they were huge. From like 89 to what, 91? 92.

[Colonel]

Yeah. I just remember one Christmas they were so popular that our grandma bought you. Oh, I was a couple of their tapes, I think it was like their. Their Hanging Tough tape and then like their Christmas album. And I. I still remember you opening them up and looking over and. And the. The extreme disappointment on your face of why would she buy me these? I'm not into New Kids on the Block. But they were so big that I think people just thought, well, if you get a kid, the New Kids on the Block tape or T shirt or whatever, they're going to love it.

[Nick]

So. Yeah. So let's expand on this a little bit here. I was like nine, maybe even younger, I don't know. But I was way into Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Aerosmith. That's what I was listening. And Bon Jolie Jovi listening to a lot of that. That stuff. And here's what I. What I've been able to deduce over the years, because this was a mystery to me for many years. When I was young, I figured that my parents probably told my grandparents when they asked for Christmas ideas, oh, what's. What is he into? They probably said, oh, he listens to a lot of music. And so grandparents go to the store. Helpful store clerk says, what are you looking for? They said, well, I don't know. My. My grand son is 8 or 9 years old.

[Captain]

What's he into?

[Nick]

He's into music. Oh, well, come over here. We have some New Kids on the Block cassettes. And so I'm convinced that that's how I received those gifts. And as angry, as confused and weird as the moment was, it actually paid off quite good because all the girls at school listen to the New Kids on the Block. Not all of them had the cassettes. So I now became the boy that was willing to lend them out to the different girls.

[Colonel]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Which gave me, you know, lend them.

[Colonel]

Out to the girls or lend them out to your little baby bro so he could hang tough in his room.

[Nick]

Sparked up a lot of conversations with. With cute young girls that I wanted to talk to back in my. My day now.

[Colonel]

Yeah, I. I changed my name to Donnie for a couple years with this shirt.

[Nick]

The best I can tell is it a. From my little Internet investigation, it was printed in either 1989 or 1990. That's the consensus that I can find. So probably being sold in stores 90, 91 at the latest. You know, they're not gonna. They're gonna move on and sell new shirts. They're not gonna keep selling the same old shirt because you wanna. You want these kids to buy five new Kids on the Block shirts, not just one. This is critical here because Asia was nine when she left her home in 2000.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Nick]

Even if this shirt's being sold in 91 or 92, she's one one and a half. Like, I mean, this is not her shirt. And her parents say that this is not her shirt. But we don't learn from police that this shirt even exists, that it was found in the black trash bag with the book bag and or even inside of the book bag until 2018. The other part of this is this Dr. Seuss book. The sheriff's department have said this book did not belong to Asha. However, the book came from her school. And upon further investigation, they figured out that Asha did not check the book out. Now, there is enough mystery here without trying to sort through every single piece of this. Now, these could be very crucial parts of the investigation. I get that. I'm not just trying to move past them, but these are items that we spent a good deal of time on in those other episodes. The thing here is, with this book, the longer and the more and more I think about this book, I think it's very likely that she got the book from her school library and that it's just an oversight. That's the only thing that will make that makes sense. And I think it might make more sense once we get to some more information.

[Colonel]

Yeah, there's many possibilities. Or a friend of hers checked it out from the library and she was going to borrow it for the night and bring it back.

[Nick]

The other part of this too is the new kids on the block shirt that. So investigators released images of the shirt and the book in 2018, hoping to jog the memories of people who may have some helpful information. In this case, the image of the book, it's not the actual book that they found. So keep in mind that the image of the shirt you're seeing is likely not the exact shirt that was found. It's probably stock footage or they found a picture of it on the Internet and used that picture. So the one that those two pictures, you're not seeing what was actually found. So what state could that shirt have been in? Could there have been evidence on that shirt? Could there have been blood on that shirt? Could it have had rips or tears in it?

[Colonel]

Again, it's common that law enforcement is going to hold back some of this information.

[Nick]

In 2020, working with the national center for Missing and Exploited Children, ncmec, the FBI released multiple age progressed photographs of Asia. And so we have in 2020, they release what NCMEC believes she may look like at the age of 29 years old. @ the same time, the FBI was offering up $25,000 as a reward. This was on top of the $20,000 that was set aside by the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office in the community. So now, the reward for information in this case, $45,000. Last year, I was lucky enough to tour the national center for Missing and Exploited Children's office in Virginia. And one part of that tour was where they do these age progressed images. And it was fascinating to learn from the artists there how they do it and what they choose to include and what they choose to not include in all of these images, if anybody ever gets the opportunity to do so. It's not open to the public. It's invite only. But they are, they are there to serve the public. So it's not like they're. They keep their doors closed and locked and everybody shut out. We'll continue to get into the new information regarding the disappearance of Asia Degree. But if anybody has any information about Asia Degree, about this case, anything at all, even if you think it's nothing, call it in, phone it in. Please call the tip line at 704-672-6100 or call the national center for Missing and exploited children at 1, 800, the lost. That's 1, 800, the lost.

[Colonel]

So much more to get to in this case. Stick around for part two. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.