NC NC - Asha Degree, 9, Shelby, 14 Feb 2000

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FBI: Asha Degree may have gotten into a dark green car on night of disappearance


I will add....MSM Article...

"The 9-year-old may have gotten into a dark green vehicle on the morning of her disappearance. Someone matching Asha's description was seen getting into a car on Highway 18 around the area where she was last seen. The vehicle is being described as an early 1970s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird with rust around the wheel wells.

"This vehicle is right now considered a vehicle of interest, and it was occupied two times on the day of her disappearance," Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said. "It had been discovered by leg work with by the sheriff office investigators along with the federal government."
"So why has the new lead come after all this time?

Sheriff Norman said the new information was generated after a meeting of the joint task force that meets regularly regarding the girl's disappearance.

"It goes to show that this case is actively worked and will be worked until there is closure for the family and the community," Norman said.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Asha's disappearance

What does "it was occupied two times" mean? Asha was seen getting into it twice?
 
Has the other man ever been named? What became of Mr. Ramsey?

There's a Barron Bernard Ramsey on the BOP Inmate Locator, he's 51 which is exactly the right age so i think it's him. If so he was released last October.

BARRON BERNARD RAMSEY
Register Number: 16038-058
Age: 51
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Released On: 10/14/2018
 
So, seems that this info was known by one of the agencies and never was shared. This could have been a game changer back when she was taken.. Still can be. Any locals remember this car? I bet someone does. MOO

I think the car sighting if accurate possibly backs up the grooming theory since it says she got into it and doesn't describe her being forced into it, when we know she ran away from other vehicles that would suggest she knew the driver, considering the time of night a chance meeting would seem very unlikely. Of course they could have left out her being forced in, or she may have just been verbally threatened which the witness couldn't discern.
 
I've been researching Asha's case for a few weeks now, and I think that the books McElligot's Pool & The Whipping Boy could possibly hold some clues to where and why Asha left her house that morning.

In McElligot's Pool, a boy named Marco fishes in a small, trash-filled pond (McElligot's Pool). A local farmer laughs at the boy and tells him that he is never going to catch anything. Nevertheless, Marco holds out hope and begins to imagine a scenario in which he might be able to catch a fish. First, he suggests that the pool might be fed by an underground brook that travels under a highway and a hotel to reach the sea.

In The Whipping Boy, Two boys, a prince and a orphan, run away together. They come across a girl named Betsy searching for her lost dancing bear, Petunia, and she directs them to the river where they find a kind man with a wagon full of potatoes.

Both of these stories bring up the idea that Asha could have been possibly running away to find some type of body or water and, "...the pool might be fed by an underground brook that travels under a highway and a hotel to reach the sea..." possibly supports why she was traveling along N.C. 18 . Also, There is a character in The Whipping Boy that travels to a prison aboard a ship.

I have a strong feeling that Asha could have been influenced by these books, since they are both relevant pieces of her case.
 
Tonight is the night that Asha disappeared. For someone, it is a memory that gives them pleasure. For us, it is a truth that we seek justice for. To think that this was the night that dad snuck out to get valentines, then woke up to his daughter missing forever, is absolutely heartbreaking. MOO
 
FEB 14, 2020
Looking for Asha — FBI
It was 20 years ago today that Asha Degree, a shy 9-year-old North Carolina girl, went missing in the middle of the night. The spirited fourth-grader’s disappearance in 2000 shook her rural community of Shelby and remains an enduring mystery, even as police, the FBI, and her family continue to actively search for clues.

“After 20 years, I still believe my daughter is alive,” said Iquilla Degree, who, with her husband Harold, still harbors hope that Asha (pronounced Ay-shuh) might find her way home. “I do not believe she is dead. And I know someone knows something. I’m not crazy enough to think that a 9-year-old can disappear into thin air without somebody knowing something.”

[...]

... In 2015, the sheriff’s office teamed up with the FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation in a top-to-bottom re-examination of the case, which has since generated more than 350 leads, including 45 in the past year.

[...]


What is known from the earliest hours of the investigation is that Asha disappeared from her bedroom sometime between about 2:30 a.m. on February 14, 2000, when Harold checked on Asha and her older brother, and 6:30 a.m., when Iquilla went in to wake the kids for school. There was no sign of forced entry and no promising scent trail for search dogs to follow. That afternoon, investigators received at least two separate reports from individuals who said they saw a young female walking along Highway 18, in the opposite direction of the Degrees’ home, around 4 a.m. One person said they went back to check on the girl but she had left the roadway and disappeared into the woods.

[...]

There are few clues about why Asha left her house on Valentine’s Day, which is also her parents’ wedding anniversary. If she was upset about her poor performance at a basketball game the Saturday before her disappearance (she fouled out and her team lost by one point), it seemed to have dissipated by the next morning, when the family went together to church and Sunday school. ...

“Apparently, she packed her bag prior to leaving, but the contents—from what we can tell—looked like something a child would pack rather than her parents preparing her for an overnight stay,” Det. Adams said.

[...]
 
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