14. Asha Degree - The Mysterious Disappearance
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The soft lounge from Skims. The entire collection is so good. And then let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Okay, we love you. Bye. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Well, here we are. Another day, another podcast. We have the winner of the Dossie Ties giveaway. Uh,

that we did for Father's Day. All you had to do was leave the review, and we just drew that. We videoed it, and we're going to be putting it up on our social medias. But I'm also going to announce the winner on here. So the winner was an Apple Podcast review, and it was from Kirsten Stout 8. So DM us, Kirsten. We have your $100 to Dossie ready. Woo!

Yeah, it's so exciting. And thank you to everyone who left us a review. It really helped. And this was fun. So maybe we'll have to do some more giveaways in the future. I was going to say, I hope we can do some more in the future because that was fun. Yeah, it was fun. And you guys seem to really like them as well. Yeah.

So I also just wanted to give an update. So for those of you who don't know, there is a case going on right now. I'm going to call it the Daybell case. And it is happening in a small city called Rexburg that happens to be like...

I don't know, 20 minutes, 10 minutes of Garrett's driving away from my hometown. It's about these two kids who went missing and it actually took a really long time for someone to even notice that they were missing. And when they finally did realize the parents were kind of like, we don't have to answer you. And then they just ran off to Hawaii and

Well, they disappeared and no one knew where they were. And then eventually we found out that they were in Hawaii and no one knew where the kids were, but they weren't saying anything either. And grandparents were worried. And then come to find out there were people in their past that had also gone missing. And so it was a lot of information. Yeah, it was just kind of a whole bunch tangled mess. But we just found out this week that authorities found the remains of the two missing children on the husband's property.

Which is just devastating. I mean, I kind of felt that way because they weren't answering any questions and they were running from the law. But it really did also just create this like hole almost for parents where they don't necessarily have to tell the authorities where their kids are. And so it took a really long time to arrest them because the authorities had to come up with excuses.

Reason to I guess because the parents were like we don't have to tell you anything about our kids like they're not in danger So it just took like a lot longer than you would think if parents Killed their kids and then just were like we don't know where they are and it kind of it did like it surfaced this like way to kind of get around it which was really scary for everyone who was watching like Why don't why the heck won't the police just arrest them? Well, they literally can't like they have no grounds and so

Anyways, they arrested him, finally got a search warrant. I'm not quite sure how and found the kids. And so we will be doing an episode on the Daybell case coming up. My mom, who lives still in Idaho, actually knows a ton of people who are involved in the case and who know the Daybells personally. And so we kind of have a lot of inside information, hometown-y information about this case. And I would say this case is pretty public. I mean, it's been on a lot of national news lately.

And so I might bring my mom on here and she can kind of talk and discuss the case with me because she has, like I said, a lot more information than I do. So I just want to let everyone know that that's coming up. If we do hear any more updates, we will be posting them on our social media for this case. So go ahead and follow us. We're Murder With My Husband, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So yeah, I just wanted to let everyone know we had a couple people reach out and ask if we were going to cover it just because my hometown is so close to it. So yeah.

But that's all I have, I think, for the information before we start. Let's do it. Okay, let's jump into it. So where I got my information for this case was reddit.com. The username nerdfather1 on Reddit actually did an amazing write-up on this case, and I got a lot of information from it. It was eloquent. It was beautifully done. So if you want to read that, go ahead. And I also got it from the hueandcry.com website.

asiadegree.com and dailyarmy.com. All of those will be linked in our episode notes. So this is the story of Asha Degree. So Harold and Aquila Degree were married on Valentine's Day in 1988. One quick year later, they had their son, O'Brien. On August 5th, 1990, their daughter Asha was born and she was so loved.

The Degree family lived in the rural town of Shelby, North Carolina. And Harold's mother and sister actually just lived across the street and right down the street from them. And family was very, very important to them.

They were a very religious family and they lived a pretty structured life. They would attend church and Bible study every week. Both Asha and her older brother, O'Brien, were into sports. They were both very talented. Asha had an almost perfect attendance record at school and she performed at the top of her fourth grade class.

Me neither. Uh-huh.

So on February 13th, the Degree family had a normal Sunday like any other. They went to church, followed up by a family lunch with grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone.

And then the family finally went home for the night and the kids were tuckered. They were ready to go to bed. They had school the next morning and it had been a long three-day weekend for them. Harold, the father, had to work that night shift at his second job. So he left and Aquila put the kids to bed around 8 p.m. Asha and O'Brien actually shared a room. So it was just put them both into the room, tuck them in, read them a book, go to bed, good night. Mm-hmm.

So around 1230 a.m., Harold arrives home from his night shift and he checks on nine-year-old Asha and her brother. They were both asleep, so he went back out to the living room, spent some time relaxing, watching TV before finally going to bed at 230 a.m. He says on his way to his bedroom, he checked on the kids again and they were both sleeping in bed. A short while later, O'Brien, Asha's brother, awoke to Asha getting out of bed to go to the bathroom.

So he heard her bed squeak when she came back in. And so he was like, oh, she climbed back into bed. And so he just went back to sleep. Yeah.

Aquila the mom wakes up around 5 45 a.m. The next morning and gets the bath running for her two kids They didn't bathe the night before because they were with their whole family and they had school this morning So she had to kind of get up earlier this day to get them ready So after she gets the bath running and everything she goes into the kids room to wake them up around 6 30 and get them in the bath It was at this moment that Aquila's life changed forever. She

Upon entering the room, Aquila found O'Brien sound asleep in his bed, but Asha's bed was empty. She checked throughout the house, hoping that, you know, maybe she just wandered out to the living room. She even went and checked their cars. Like, I don't know, for some reason she went into their car or something.

You know, maybe she went outside with no luck. She wakes up Harold, her husband, and he tells her, you know, call grandma, call the family that just lived down the street. Make sure, you know, she didn't just wander up to their house for some reason or something. It's eight o'clock in the morning, though. It's so early. I know. Devastation and panic starts to set in for Asha's parents when grandma tells them,

Oh, she's not here either. Oh man. So at this point, Harold calls the cops and tells them the one sentence that no father should ever have to say. His daughter was missing. The police arrive at 640, which that is a fast response time considering that the mom called it. The mom woke the kids up at 630. Oh, I thought you said 8 a.m. for some reason. No, 640. Oh, so it's really early. Yeah, because she had to bathe them and get them ready for school.

So, yeah, the police came within 10 minutes of them finding out that she wasn't in her bed. Oh, yeah. Because when someone goes missing so early in the morning at 630 a.m., right? So obviously it had to have been in the middle of the night. Yeah, I think that's probably what was going on. Yep.

So the police show up, search dogs were brought in, but they couldn't pick up Asha's scent. There had actually been a thunderstorm that night, and that possibly masked the scent for the dogs, they're thinking. I do want to say sometimes in older cases we see, you know, the authorities not taking missing children very seriously at the beginning. Yeah.

you know, telling parents, you know, you got to wait 48 hours, you know, whatever, whatever. But from the sources and all the research that I did, it seems like the police responded fast and were diligent, like immediately bringing in the dogs. And like you said, it would probably cause it was like an overnight abduction. Yep. And so they were like, this is probably real, but yeah, I mean, every kid should be taken seriously. I feel like for sure.

So the police and the family searched the neighborhood with no luck. By noon, over 60 people had joined the search for Asha. A helicopter had even been released with infrared technology, hoping that if there was a body, they could see it. And no such luck. They searched all afternoon for Asha, the woods nearby, all the surrounding area, but nothing came up.

Back at the degree home, police and family go through Asha and O'Brien's bedroom to find any clue of what could have possibly happened. Like, how does a girl go missing and there's no evidence? And how old is O'Brien again? I think he's like 11. Okay.

Because she's nine and he's older. And you said at the beginning he heard her come back in. Yeah, he heard her get up, go to the bathroom, come back and get back in bed. So it's not like he was a heavy sleeper. I mean, that woke him up. So how did someone come in and get her and it not wake him up? They're so young and little. Yeah. Okay, keep going. So Asha's parents notice in the bedroom that her backpack with her house key is gone.

And so once they realize this, they kind of start going through her personal items like her closet and her drawers and stuff, only to discover that her Tweety Bird purse is also gone and her two favorite outfits are missing. What? So not only did someone just come up and get her. Well, we don't know if someone got her. She could have ran away, right? But like... Well, you know. I don't. But like there was stuff missing. Yeah. And so...

It seems as if Asha, although bewildering, packed a backpack up with clothing and personal items before she left the house. Now, whether someone was with her forcing her to do this or she did that on her own, we don't know. Yeah, see, that's the thing is her favorite things are missing, though. So it kind of puts a whole different perspective on it. Yeah. So even though it literally doesn't make sense, the cops and the family, you know, kind of start to believe that

Someone didn't come in and take her because O'Brien didn't hear anything. She picked her favorite outfits. She took her backpack with her house key. Maybe she packed the bag on her own and left on her own. Even, you know, she even locked the door with her house key on the way out because the doors were locked when the mom woke up. Yeah, it's weird.

Why, though? Why, you know, she wouldn't run away on her own. She's a nine-year-old girl. It's storming outside. It's 6, 4 a.m., whatever middle of the night time it was. Where was she going? Was she going to meet someone, a friend, a stranger? No.

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So on the nighttime news that night in Shelby, North Carolina, they covered the disappearance of young Asha. And this actually brought some leads for detectives. Three separate people come forward claiming that they saw Asha walking on the side of Highway 18 between 345 and 415 a.m. that morning alone in the middle of the night. Nine years old. Nine years old. It's it's storming outside. That's so strange.

These spottings were only about a block away from her home. So she walked out of her house, walked to the highway, and started walking down it. Oh, man. I can't believe she got out of the... I mean...

I just is crazy. Okay, keep going. One of the drivers who spotted her was worried because it was slightly storming outside and he said Asha didn't have a coat on. Like she was just walking in her regular clothes. And so he turned his car around after he drove by her and saw that's a nine-year-old little girl at 345 a.m.,

And he started driving back to her to check on her. But when he got close, she got scared and she ran off the road and directly into the woods that were lining the highway. Oh, no. So he just was like, okay, whatever. He didn't call the cops. Yeah. Well, it's hard. I mean, you know, do you really? Yeah. So with that lead, police searched the area that the witness said she ran into and they actually end up finding evidence of Asha. Yeah.

In a shed of a nearby business called Turner Upholstery, police discover candy wrappers, a pencil and a marker, and a Mickey Mouse-shaped hair bow. They assume that Asha had, it was storming, had run into the woods, found this shed, and sheltered underneath the shed due to the storm and the temperature outside. It was cold. And she ate some candy. She got her pencil and her marker out.

This is so, this is like sad. All of this leads police to determine that Asha was most likely not lured out of her home with someone, nor did she meet someone directly outside of her house. Seems as if she left and walked somewhere alone. Why?

Yeah. The following month of March was hard for this case. There were not many more leads and Asha had not been found still. The family was able to raise $5,000 for a reward. And Asha's case was broadcast on some national television, but...

It really wasn't insanely widespread. It was more just local news. Man, having, I think, one of your kids run away like that would be almost worse than them getting stolen because you have zero closure at all of what's going on. I know. Like, why did she run away? Where is she at? Why did she go out on her own, you know? Totally. So I think with not much to go on, it was just an insanely mysterious disappearance at this point. And sadly...

The news that we see on TV is dramatic and eventful. You know, the Lorena Bobbitts, you know, like you don't hear of a young girl who was seen walking down the highway at 345 a.m. And then there's no more leads. There's nothing to report on. On August 3rd, 2001, 26 miles away from her home in Burke County,

A contractor working on a construction project found a backpack that was wrapped in black plastic trash bags and buried. The backpack was confirmed to be Asha's. It actually had her name and number on it. It was buried, you said? Yes.

I think if this bag hadn't been suspiciously wrapped up in trash bags and buried, the contractor might not have even called the cops or told anyone. Yeah. Like, I don't think finding a backpack is that strange. It's the fact that it was purposely hidden. Yeah.

That made it noteworthy to him. Even then, I'm surprised they called considering they probably find so many different things. When they're digging. Exactly, yeah. I also think it's weird, though, that they wrapped this backpack up in two trash bags. So it was like placed in one black one and then they put another one on top of it. Because they tried to make it look like trash, probably.

Well, if you're trying to get rid of evidence, like if this is someone who has hurt her or abducted her or whatever, and they're trying to get rid of this evidence, why would you protect it? Wouldn't you destroy it? Throw it away or burn it? Yeah. Like, yeah, that's literally what I wrote. Why not burn it or just bury it without protecting it? Because a backpack would burn pretty easily. Like it's almost like whoever buried the backpack, to me at least, was coming back for it.

Yeah. Because they protected it. They made sure nothing was going to get on it. Like two bags were placed over it. Okay. So the other weird thing about this uncovering of the backpack was the fact that the backpack was buried 26 miles in the opposite direction that Asha had made her way that night.

So think of it like this. Her house is the middle starting point. She walks about a mile one way in the middle of the night and then runs into the woods because she gets scared. And then two months later, her backpack is found

26 miles back in the opposite direction, passing her house on the way to get there. That doesn't make any sense. Like she didn't walk that, I don't think. I don't even know what reason that that would happen. So police search the surrounding area of the construction site where the bag was found, and they find a men's pair of khakis. What are you wearing, Jake from State Farm? Uh...

khakis i'm gonna insert the little what are you wearing that's funny so they sent the pants in for testing but the results of those tests have never been shared with the public oh weird do you know why nope so police do publicly say after this testing though that they think that asia left willingly from her house and once she left she was met with foul play out in the woods

Do they think she was meeting somebody or we're not there yet? They, yeah, we're not there yet. Okay. So it was at this point that Asha's case went completely cold. There were absolutely no leads and it seemed like no hope in finding Asha or discovering what had happened to her that cold night.

It wasn't until 13 years later, in January 2014, the detectives hoped that they had found a connection to Asha's case. Oh, that's crazy. So 52-year-old Donald Ferguson was arrested in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Remember, Asha's in North Carolina. For the murder of a 7-year-old girl named Shalonda Poole.

Wow.

Oh, and by the way, Shalonda was in North Carolina. So they arrested him in South Carolina, but Shalonda's body was found in North Carolina. And so was... And so, well, I mean, she went missing in North Carolina. North Carolina, yeah. So usually predators have the same type of victims, which is how we are able to create better profiles. Like think of criminal minds, the same race, the same gender, the same age, sometimes even down to the same hunting grounds, which could be citizens.

cities parks malls neighborhoods whatever like predators have patterns they like to hunt in the same way so if that's why sometimes it's really hard to catch people who switch genders of victims or switch age of victims because then it's like well now i mean now we just don't even know anything about this killer because we can't profile them

I mean, it's kind of like animals, right? They hunt the same things the same way. If you're successful in one place, you go back and do it the same way. Usually they don't stray from their pool of victims. Like if you think for Ted Bundy, for instance, a way that he was able to get victims was to pretend that he was hurt. And once he did that successfully once, he continued to do that for the rest of his victims. Like it's just, they're creatures of habit.

So Donald Ferguson moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he met an assaulted slash murdered Shalonda, the seven-year-old girl. After her body was found by police, but they didn't know who had done it, he, you know, felt the pressure. And so he moved to South Carolina, where he was later arrested and charged with the assault of a 10-year-old little girl.

He went to trial and was sentenced to eight years, but got out in October 1997, serving only six years. Okay. So say it with me. More time for child abuse and sexual assault convictions.

The child does not have to die for a punishment to be severe. If you are sexually assaulting a child, they do not have to die for you to go to prison for a lengthy amount of time. Because look what happens apparently. Yeah. We see this happen all the time. Like it's almost like, oh, as long as they don't kill them, you know, which I'm like, yeah, grateful they didn't kill him, but they still caused major, major harm and permanent damage. It's probably like, oh, look, they got it on good behavior. Well, yeah, there's no kids in the jail. Of course they got it on good behavior. Yeah.

So Shalonda's case back in North Carolina at this time had gone cold, but was reopened in 2007 when the DNA from the case was retested due to advancements in the testing, which we're seeing a lot lately. I love DNA testing. I just have to say that. And these idiots didn't realize back then that you could even test DNA. And so now we're catching a whole bunch of people because they didn't. Pretty awesome. Yeah. So they test the DNA, comes back to Donald and

And so, obviously, they go, they arraign him for the crime. And local police noticed the similarities in Shalonda and Asha's case. Like, wow, you know? And so, Shalonda had actually shared a room with her sister at the time of her disappearance. And she, too, had vanished, left her home in the early morning hours of July 21st, 1990. Oh, that is so freaky because...

Then it just makes you think, okay, so is he just like spying and watching these families, you know? Oh, yeah. So Donald actually knew. He like, he knew Shalonda's family. He went in and like connected with them. Oh, no. And he even helped search for Shalonda the day after she was reported missing, knowing that he had stabbed, strangled, and sexually assaulted her behind her elementary school.

In the middle of the night. That's crazy. I know. So she was found only one day later after that with 19 stab wounds and she had been manually strangled. So he... What? 19? Yeah. Yeah.

Not a good guy to say. Yeah, seriously. We shouldn't have, you know, let him out of prison. Oh, man. But the thing about it is, is back in Asia's case, Asia's family didn't know him, which is a little weird that he like got in and connected with his one victim's family, but didn't with the other.

So, although the area is the same, both in North Carolina, the race is the same, the age is the same, the location, police officially state that they don't think Donald was involved with Asha's disappearance. And they haven't ever given grounds why. They never stated why? Nope.

But apparently something pretty strong to make that blunt of a statement when it feels pretty obvious. Totally. So he was convicted of Shalanda's murder and he confessed to, but he didn't confess to Aisha's. Okay. And in 2014, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So he's put away. Okay, good. But someone had to die for that to happen. Yeah, that's not good. So, yes, good job. Good job, Garrett. So although a predator was taken off the streets...

This information from the police about the cases not being connected was extremely discouraging for everyone involved and following Asha's case. It felt like they had finally had the break they were all looking for. They were one step closer to finding her and receiving the answers they needed just to be told, oh, we were right there, but nope, we weren't. Yeah. So it wasn't until May 2016 when the FBI had reexamined Asha's case. So they came back in, it was cold, and they were like, let's...

Pop this baby out again and let's reexamine it. I wonder what makes them do that. What makes someone like as a rookie come in and go, oh, I've heard about this case. You know what I'm saying? I wonder why that happens. I think so. A lot of times it's a change. I mean, a change of eyes is good for any case. You hear about that all the time. So if someone retires and a new person comes in, most of the time they look at all the old cases because new people.

New eyes might bring, you know, they re-interview all the same people. That should almost be done like once every two years or a year, right? Yeah. New people come in. We don't have enough people. Some sort of system or something where it's like, hey, we're going to send this out to a new company or I don't know, whatever. Yeah, I know. It's almost like we could solve that because there's, I mean, there is like, for instance, for the rape cases and like DNA testing, there's a huge backlog on like unsolved rape cases. And there's just not enough money. I know.

or enough resources to get it done. You need to start a crime company where you just go and solve. I know there's something you can donate to. I'll put it in the episode notes. I can't think of it off the top of my head, but you can donate to get those things tested. Okay. But it's almost like we also need a company

Like a private third party company that comes in. Exactly. And looks at these cold cases and gets access to all of the information and gets access to all the evidence. Totally. To get fresh eyes on it, right? Yep.

And luckily there are some police departments who have now made just a cold case force. So all they focus on is cold cases, which is helpful. You have like PIs and stuff. Exactly. But that, I mean, you know, the problem is, is in some cities, you know, granted, especially large cities, there is a backlog of cold cases. I can imagine. They do not even get looked at a second time. So anyways, May, 2016. So pretty recently FBI comes in and reexamines Asia's case and

And they make a public statement claiming that there were credible sightings of Asha getting into a dark green early 1970s Lincoln Continental Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird with rust along the wheel wells. So I guess there were a couple witnesses who saw her there.

into a dark green car that were either or of those two cars I just named. Was this not mentioned before? No idea. No idea. I don't know if this came from re-interviewing people.

you know, new people that they were looking for. Did you possibly see this? And so it's the FBI. And so apparently there was enough credible sources to claim, okay, this is what we think happened. So, you know, they, they put that out and say, do you know anyone who owned a car or, you know, and they get no leads.

So again, two years later in 2018, the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office revealed that if anyone from Fallstone Elementary School, which was her elementary school, had checked out McElligot's Pool,

McElligot's pool. I don't know. I don't have a kid yet. So I don't know these Dr. Seuss book names. But if anyone had checked out this Dr. Seuss book to please contact them in regard to Asha's case. A Dr. Seuss book. Yes. Oh, I think I know what's going on here. What? What? Well, you talk. Well, I just maybe this is a completely far off, but I don't want to ruin it for this. No, tell me.

I think that inside the book there was something written about leaving your house in the middle of the night and like where to go. Babe, that's so smart. Is that not what's happening? No, but that is so smart because I'm going to tell you why. Okay, okay. Before. I'm smart, everybody. I am smart. So before.

she was left or whatever. She read at school a book and I don't remember what it was called, but like her whole fourth grade class read it. And it was about these two boys who leave home to go on an adventure and eventually come back. And so some people think maybe that's what she was doing and they met foul play. But I didn't even include that because it was just speculation on like Reddit. Okay. Well, but you're so smart. You were just thinking.

Well, we're kind of going off topic, but so the other guy. Donald. That murdered. Donald. Did they say how he got those girls out of the house or the kids murder victims? It didn't say, but I'm sure it was the same thing. He lured them out. But I'm wondering if like they read the book as well, you know, and then they, you know what I'm saying? Like, I wonder if this book. Babe, you might have just solved this case.

case. I wonder if the book has made kids leave before. Because they never said why they're asking for the book. They just said, if you or anyone you know checked out the book around this time, let us know. Okay. And I don't know what that book is about, but...

Another conspiracy theory I'm thinking of over here. Okay, that's interesting. So they also said if anyone owned or knew someone who owned a vintage New Kids on the Block white t-shirt around the time of Asha's disappearance, you know, please call in. Police are hoping that they could jog anyone's memory about someone who might have owned that or contained the

these items involved in the case. Okay. It's kind of random. So sometimes I wonder why police wait so long to release evidence as small and intricate as these details. I mean, I know they can't give too much away in cases so that their court case is stronger. You know, if something's Google, Google-able,

If something's Google-able, then it's hard to stand as evidence. Or scaring the suspect away. Exactly. But asking people 18 years later if they or someone they know checked out a book at this elementary school or owned a shirt seems far-fetched. How is someone going to remember 18 years ago? If they had released this information...

the day of her disappearance, there was probably five parents who went, well, my kid just checked out that book. And there was probably 10 adults who go, Hey, Mike down the street has that shirt, especially when there's no context behind it. I'm sure the parents are like, what? What?

Exactly. Can you like update me why you guys need that stuff? Like where did that come from? And how come police 18 years ago didn't know about it if you just barely, you know? I mean, it seems so. I'm sure there's a reason behind it, but it just seems so up in the air.

So I am now going to bring you the sad and devastating news that this is all we currently have on the disappearance of Asha Degre. Wow, that's crazy. I feel like it's important to spread awareness no matter how small the platform is on these type of cases that need attention and information spread. So I'm going to be posting a picture of the cars and the book and the shirt. And if you...

Live in North Carolina. I know we have a couple of listeners and know someone or knew about this. Like, you know, it's just important. It's important to keep these cases going.

And so as much as I love the entertaining solved cases that, you know, we share that come up with all the answers you could need. We still have families out there waiting for answers and closure. So it's important that we cover cases like this as well to help raise awareness for these families. I know they have like the missing kids, you know, like the website. I don't know exactly what it's called. The website for missing and exploited children. Yeah. It would be cool though if they've like,

There was a bigger community of people who all, you know, came together. And every single time a kid's missing, it's like everyone's aware and looking. It's hard because, like, back in the day, you know, with the milk carton kids and the Amber Alerts.

missing kids it was just kind of becoming a thing like before that it was like wait people take children like it wasn't widespread and then all of a sudden it became widespread stranger danger oh my gosh yeah every kid that went missing was was on the news and then it just became wow there's an overwhelmingly amount of kids that go missing and so then some just like on twitter sometimes i'll see

viral post of like oh this person's missing and then oh we found them like a week later. And Twitter's such a great way. Twitter, Facebook, any social media has been such a great way for some of these kids. But like I said you know

There also is issues with minorities not being covered as well as the young six-year-old blonde girl from the rich family that's missing. You know what I'm saying? And so we just run into these issues. Or maybe the kids are runaway, so you can't really cover it because they want it. Well, I mean...

Well, if they're under 18. Yeah, obviously. But yes, I get what you're saying. Like sometimes cops are just like, well, they're a runaway. They actually said they would say this about this case because she has all the signs. She packed her own bag. She left, but she's nine. And so they were like, we don't think she's actually a runaway. Definitely. But yeah. So yeah, it's just hard. It's hard. I agree. Grateful for social media for helping the situation because I too retweet anytime I see things like that in hopes that someone somewhere may see that.

But it's just an overwhelming amount of kids that go missing. And it breaks my heart to think that there are kids out there that go missing that no one even gives a second thought to. Yeah. That don't even get attention. Mm-hmm. So...

If you were to drive through Shelby, North Carolina today, there are still missing posters for Asha plastered throughout the town. There's blue ribbons hanging from every surface, as a reminder. And there's also a billboard located in the exact place that the witness says that she ran into the woods with Asha's photograph from 2000 and a scientifically updated one of what they think she would look like now that says, Missing Asha Degree, like...

This community has not forgotten about Asha and the great injustice that was done to her and her family. And...

So I just think that's cool. It is a community, you know. Totally. You know, just this kid that went missing that they honestly don't have that much information on. Yeah. Is still like, we're still looking. We're still searching. Everyone's made aware. I want to find her. I know. That's so sad. I think everyone does. I know. So, so many questions left unanswered in this case. Why would Asha have left her house willingly? Yeah.

That's what my biggest thing was. In the middle of the night during a storm, was she going to meet someone? Was she lured out by a stranger or a family friend who made empty promises? Oh, come meet me in the middle of the night. We're going to go on an adventure. Oh, come meet me in the middle of the night. I've got this person. You know, you hear all these ways that predators get these kids to come to them. Yeah.

Um, or was she just a nine-year-old girl who loved to read about adventure and wanted to experience it on her own and, you know, read this book about these two boys who go off and have this amazing adventure in Alice in Wonderland and all these things. And I can do that for myself. I think it's also kind of interesting that she didn't tell her brother. Um, I don't know. Like, I feel like if she was going to go on an adventure, she would have been like, Hey,

I'm going to go do this. Do you want to come with me? Let's go. Let's go do something. Especially because he was older, you know? Well, they're both still young though, right? Yeah. So it's like, let's go do this. Let's go hang out. I know. It's just strange. Yeah. The whole thing is, ugh. You know, like, did she get lost? Like, did she go out on her own wanting an adventure and then unprepared for that night's weather and conditions, she just found that shed and huddled in and then tried to make her way home and got lost? Yeah. Or did she meet foul play? Did she, you know, react?

really go out as a little girl wandering alone in the middle of the night. That's a predator's perfect victim. Totally. But it's like, what are the chances that she comes across a child abductor, molester, assaulter. If basically whatever, yeah. In the middle of the night on the night that she just happened to pack her bags and wander outside. Yeah.

Or, you know, maybe she did this. And then just this night she hit foul play. Maybe this wasn't a one-time thing. Like, you just never know. Yeah, I know. There's so many unanswered questions. Especially because now it's a little different. There's 15 doorbell cameras when I walk our street. I know. See, yeah, there's no surveillance. No.

I personally feel like, from my personal standpoint, I think the most probable thing is that she met an adult or a janitor at her school or something.

Someone who befriended her, made her feel safe, who said, meet me tonight in the middle of the night out at this spot. I'll pick you up and we'll go do something. Whatever it was, he lured her to attract her to it. And so she, being young and naive, she's only nine, packed her bags with her favorite clothes and left in the middle of the night thinking that she was going to go, you know...

Yeah, sort of. But the problem is then everything got messed up when she went and stayed in the shed and she stayed there all night, apparently. Well, she didn't stay there. We don't know if she stayed there all night. We just know that it seems like she took shelter there. But maybe that was the meeting point. No, because she got scared and ran off and that guy. So that would have been a big coincidence. You know what I'm saying?

I don't know. Also, because if someone was like going to pick her up, like, oh, walk down this road and I'll pick you up. A car wouldn't have scared her. Exactly. Yep. Because she would have been expecting someone to pull off and pick her up. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. This one's hard. Like her family states that she was shy and that she was kind of like, like thunderstorms would have scared her. Like there would have been no reason for her to just go in a thunderstorm. I did see like a sleepwalking.

Like maybe she slept well. Oh, okay. But I mean, I don't know. I mean, I've heard stories of people legit sleepwalking out of the house. But packing a bag with treats. Yeah. I don't know. It just is so confusing. It's so confusing. So her brother O'Brien now has a daughter. He's obviously grown up and he has a daughter that's the same age of Asha.

When she disappeared. And she brings like a new hope into the family. Apparently, like I watched some interviews with the family. That's awesome. You know, she kind of helps keep Asia in their hearts. And the family hasn't given up. The mom hasn't given up. They search every single year. They hold hands.

and, you know, remembrance on her day, which was Valentine's Day. So ironically enough, her parents' anniversary was the day she went missing. So they got married. Wow. And then she went missing that Valentine's Day. That'd be kind of hard though. I know.

But yeah, so they haven't given up hope. Yeah, good for them. If you have any information or want to help out on this case, please contact the Charlotte FBI at 704-672-6100. The FBI is currently offering a $25,000 reward and the community is offering an additional $20,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in this case.

So if you know anything, I would obviously highly suggest calling, even if it is just about the book or the cars or, you know, the shirt. I don't know. Anything we can do to help this family. I think we should. Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's the story of Asha Degree. That was kind of sad.

It's sad, but... It was crazy, but it was... Someone knows something. Yeah. I don't think she did this all on her own. If you're listening to this podcast, you better contact the FBI right now. Someone has to know something and they might not even know that they know something. That's true. They just... Yeah. So...

It's important that we cover these ones. Uh-huh. I agree. But yeah, that's all I got. Oh, yeah. That was a, I mean, I don't want to say a good one, but you know what I mean. Again, the Aussie winner. Kirsten, go ahead and reach out to us.

on our social media, on Instagram or Facebook to claim your prize. Guys, we will do another giveaway soon and we'll come up with a new way for you to enter. It doesn't have to be. Yeah, it doesn't have to be reviews. Um, it was super helpful. Maybe we'll do tagging on Instagram or something next time since it's a little easier. I don't know. Maybe we'll try out the influencer life. You guys let us know. Do you want to see us as influencers? Keep sharing this with your friends. All you have to do is share, tag your three best friends, post on your story for an extra entry. Yeah.

No, but keep sharing this with your friends, your family, whoever. It's super helpful. I love the word to word, mouth to mouth. Word to word. Exposure, whatever it is. Like it's fun to have connections. Yeah. You know, so. And we've been getting more listeners. We really appreciate that. Our little murder family is growing. We are growing. Pretty soon we are going to be the Adams family. Garrett and I will be the mom and dad. This is fun. We're having a good time. Yeah.

So remember to follow us on social media and thank you for listening. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.