Asha Degree Missing From North Carolina in 2000

[AliceInChains]

You're way more generous than me Chris. If two truck drivers told me they saw a missing 9 year old, alone, at 4am and didn'tget help, I'd be looking at them very closely indeed.

[chris]

I can almost see a random trucker not wanting to approach a child at 4AM, but fuck that, I would. Yet even if some trucker didn't want to approach her, at least they could have contacted the police, that's what they are there for.

[Pyramid_Head]

Sounds like she wanted to run away or something and was found by a bad person. Sad but you do read all the time about kids running away from home or leaving to go somewhere.

[AliceInChains]

Originally Posted by chris

I can almost see a random trucker not wanting to approach a child at 4AM, but fuck that, I would. Yet even if some trucker didn't want to approach her, at least they could have contacted the police, that's what they are there for.

Oh, yeah - sad times, but if I was a guy I wouldn't even get out of the truck, as shitty as that is (I *hate* the fact that honest, decent men even have to think about BS like this tbh). I'd sure as hell call the police though.

[Kimber]

Originally Posted by chris

You know, not blaming them, but what person see's a nine year old walking down the street at 4AM and does not think something may be up. Would have taken 5 minutes to call 911 and let a deputy know there is a young person wandering the streets at 4AM and they might want to check on her.

I reported a 3 year old in a diaper walking down one of our main drags, by the time we turned around he was gone and cops never found him.

[Morbid75]

New information has come out about Asha Degree yesterday. I am still wondering how a witness comes forward after all these years but then again someone could have been afraid or something I guess. I am gathering since they went public with the information the FBI and SBI is taking this seriously. There is a video at the link and transcript is below.

SOURCE

New information was uncovered Wednesday in a 16-year-old case from Cleveland County.

Asha Degree was 9 years old when she walked away from her family’s home in Fallston.

The FBI is now searching for a car that might have picked her up.


The car is a green 1970s model Lincoln Mark IV or Ford Thunderbird.

Authorities said she might have gotten into the car on Highway 18 near Shelby, where she was last seen by a trucker.

Whoever was inside might be the last known person to see her since she walked away from her Fallston home in 2000.

Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said his detectives have never stopped working on the case since the day Asha vanished.

A year after her parents reported her missing, a passerby found what what's believed to be her shoe and her backpack in a wooded area near Morganton, but searchers never found anything else.

"There is hope that we can bring closure to the family first, and the community," Norman said.

The FBI, the SBI and the Sheriff's Office last year launched a new effort to re-examine every piece of evidence in the case and interview every witness again.

FBI agents said the new tip came from that effort.

Neighbors of Asha’s family were happy about the new finding in the case.

“I'm very happy,” Lisa Carson said. “This has been a long time coming."

Carson hopes the new clue means that Asha will come home to her family.

"Something like that really doesn't happen in this town, and when it did it hurt a lot of people," Carson said. "It hurt me too my heart because I have a daughter about what Asha Degree would be her age now."

There is also fear in the community where Asha grew up.

"It's kind of scary, you know, because you don't want someone driving around who possibly picked up a child and they are just still out there, you know," business owner James Hutchins said.

Authorities are offering a combined $45,000 reward for information leading to Asha’s discovery.

[Amy]

I think odds are stacked against them. It would take a confession and who is going to confess to a 16 year old murder (I assume she is dead since they found her belongings) knowing the police have zero evidence? The person is likely to be in their 50's or 60's by now if still living. They are taking that to the grave. May get a deathbed confession.

Could be wrong but this seems the most likely result.

[Morbid75]

Originally Posted by Amy

I think odds are stacked against them. It would take a confession and who is going to confess to a 16 year old murder (I assume she is dead since they found her belongings) knowing the police have zero evidence? The person is likely to be in their 50's or 60's by now if still living. They are taking that to the grave. May get a deathbed confession.

Could be wrong but this seems the most likely result.

I figure someone will come across her bones at some point. But it is pretty rural out that way. Lots of places to hide a body. That is the first I heard about the shoe or at least that I remember. I remembered the backpack.

I talked to the SBI guys once when that random report came she was in Salisbury and I was doing a ride along at the time. They do work that case. So sad and frustrating it must be when a lead comes and goes nowhere.

The Salisbury lead was just a case of mistaken identity. Some people have those faces. I think you do. So do I or more my nose does

[Amy]

Originally Posted by morbid75

I figure someone will come across her bones at some point. But it is pretty rural out that way. Lots of places to hide a body. That is the first I heard about the shoe or at least that I remember. I remembered the backpack.

I talked to the SBI guys once when that random report came she was in Salisbury and I was doing a ride along at the time. They do work that case. So sad and frustrating it must be when a lead comes and goes nowhere.

The Salisbury lead was just a case of mistaken identity. Some people have those faces. I think you do. So do I or more my nose does

My biggest nightmare is having someone I love just vanish. I wouldn't make it through a kid.

I do have one of those faces.

[ItsGotHair]

Originally Posted by Pyramid_Head

Sounds like she wanted to run away or something and was found by a bad person. Sad but you do read all the time about kids running away from home or leaving to go somewhere.

One of her elementary school's assigned reading tasks, "The Whipping Boy", may have served as a catalyst for her misadventure. The book details the story of a prince who decides, on a whim, to run away - a story which seems to closely mirror the events of Asha's disappearance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whipping_Boy