NC NC - Asha Degree, 9, Shelby, 14 Feb 2000 #2

[Bounceycat]

New search warrants reveal more details in disappearance of 9-year-old Asha Degree

Search warrants reveal new details in case of a Shelby girl who went missing 25 years ago.

www.shelbystar.com

says what she said about her dad doing it,.

Thanks for that link! Definitely looking like the oldest sister knows the most about what happened, IMHO

 

[BananaBreaderz]

Hit-and-hide seems to be the most plausible theory. But another possibility is that this was a racial profiling incident. Maybe Roy was out driving and saw Asha coming out of the Turner shed or some other property and, because he’s a racist, he assumed the worst about her. Maybe he thought she was out stealing. It’s 3 or 4 in the morning after all. He may have gone into vigilante mode and decided he was going to haul her into the police station. She would not have gone willingly. She could have fought his attempts to get her into his car. The resulting altercation may have killed her.

 

[gnpbw1991]

Hit-and-hide seems to be the most plausible theory. But another possibility is that this was a racial profiling incident. Maybe Roy was out driving and saw Asha coming out of the Turner shed or some other property and, because he’s a racist, he assumed the worst about her. Maybe he thought she was out stealing. It’s 3 or 4 in the morning after all. He may have gone into vigilante mode and decided he was going to haul her into the police station. She would not have gone willingly. She could have fought his attempts to get her into his car. The resulting altercation may have killed her.

The AMC Rambler in question belonged to the daughter. The police made well sure to establish that at the time of the disappearance the daughter was the one who drove the car and it had been given to her by her father. Why Roy Deadmon would be driving that early in the morning in his daughters car (Which even 25 years ago would've been a piece of junk) just seems unlikely. So a hate crime doesn't seem plausible.

The police have also noted several times now they have not established any previous links between the Deadmon and Degree family, Asha was much younger than all three of the daughters and thus wouldn't have been in school with them nor been involved in any recreational sports with them so it is also hard to believe she would have known them. So her being lured away also doesn't have much supporting evidence.

A hit and run is something that can make sense, especially if we are talking about teenagers, but that still doesn't come close to explaining why Asha left her house (and the police clearly don't have any clue as to why either) or if one of the Deadmon daughters did accidentally hit Asha, why they didn't just flee the scene if they were panicked so much. Hit and runs mean you get out of there once you hit somebody or something. Getting out and placing the body into your car is something that doesn't generally happen either in a hit and run.

There's still so many pieces to the puzzle that aren't there, the police have presented some of the dots, Asha left her home, she was seen being dragged into a car resembling the AMC Rambler, her backpack was found along a route that the Deadmon daughters drove residents of the nursing homes to the hospital regularly at the time, a family member saw Roy Deadmon digging a hole in his backyard back in 2019 around the time he was moving out of the home to live on the property next door (this hole was identified by police), but we don't have the why's, why did Asha leave her home? Why would any member of the Deadmon family want to harm Asha? Are Asha leaving her home and running into foul play unconnected? And until one of the family members cooperates we are not close to a motive or a reason.

 

[Bounceycat]

A hit and run is something that can make sense, especially if we are talking about teenagers, but that still doesn't come close to explaining why Asha left her house (and the police clearly don't have any clue as to why either) or if one of the Deadmon daughters did accidentally hit Asha, why they didn't just flee the scene if they were panicked so much. Hit and runs mean you get out of there once you hit somebody or something. Getting out and placing the body into your car is something that doesn't generally happen either in a hit and run.

I don't think there's any link between the Dedmons and why Asha left her house that night. But I do think that if the sisters hit her with their car, they panicked and brought her home to their parents to help them. Almost no one had cell phones back then, especially teens. Then I think it's entirely plausible that RD told the girls he'd take care of things and let Asha die and hid her body, because there's clear evidence he didn't view Black people as equal humans. He'd have had no qualms about doing that to keep his daughters' lives from "getting ruined." JMO

 

[mbc_24]

I have a different possible theory:

Does anyone know what the AMC Rambler fenders are made of? I looked and think it was steel? If so, and if Asha was hit by the Dedmon vehicle, wouldn’t she likely have had noticeable injuries to the person who saw her bring pulled in the vehicle? She was wearing white, so blood would be apparent.

So, what if Asha witnessed Lizzie hit something and they pulled her in the car in fear she would tell on them?

Lizzie’s texts, her comment to LE during her polygraph and her sister’s/ex husband’s statements are that “Lizzie did not do it”, “it wasn’t her fault” and the comments that they are worried for her dad as well as “if my dad did it he did it” makes me believe Lizzie didn’t hurt Asha but did take Asha to her dad, who (likely) did hurt Asha. If he did, I can understand that Lizzie would feel guilty and as if it was her fault and she did start the chain of events that led to her death.

 

[scrimpies]

I have a different possible theory:

Does anyone know what the AMC Rambler fenders are made of? I looked and think it was steel? If so, and if Asha was hit by the Dedmon vehicle, wouldn’t she likely have had noticeable injuries to the person who saw her bring pulled in the vehicle? She was wearing white, so blood would be apparent.

So, what if Asha witnessed Lizzie hit something and they pulled her in the car in fear she would tell on them?

Lizzie’s texts, her comment to LE during her polygraph and her sister’s/ex husband’s statements are that “Lizzie did not do it”, “it wasn’t her fault” and the comments that they are worried for her dad as well as “if my dad did it he did it” makes me believe Lizzie didn’t hurt Asha but did take Asha to her dad, who (likely) did hurt Asha. If he did, I can understand that Lizzie would feel guilty and as if it was her fault and she did start the chain of events that led to her death.

I once saw a girl about Asha's age get hit by a somewhat fast car. She had some teeth knocked out (4 i think) but was able to hobble off the road. I think she had a broken arm afterwards.

 

[horselightning]

Thanks for that link! Definitely looking like the oldest sister knows the most about what happened, IMHO

welcome . i bet every time the case is in the news. the family starts talking.

 

[horselightning]

I have a different possible theory:

Does anyone know what the AMC Rambler fenders are made of? I looked and think it was steel? If so, and if Asha was hit by the Dedmon vehicle, wouldn’t she likely have had noticeable injuries to the person who saw her bring pulled in the vehicle? She was wearing white, so blood would be apparent.

So, what if Asha witnessed Lizzie hit something and they pulled her in the car in fear she would tell on them?

Lizzie’s texts, her comment to LE during her polygraph and her sister’s/ex husband’s statements are that “Lizzie did not do it”, “it wasn’t her fault” and the comments that they are worried for her dad as well as “if my dad did it he did it” makes me believe Lizzie didn’t hurt Asha but did take Asha to her dad, who (likely) did hurt Asha. If he did, I can understand that Lizzie would feel guilty and as if it was her fault and she did start the chain of events that led to her death.

sounds plausible. that picture book in asha's bag drives me nuts. it came from her school but she didnt check it out. strange. asha's undershirt also had a hair on it in her bag. first time i ever heard of a kid who runs away and packs underwear. i'm sure the pieces will come together.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Wouldnt there have been some sign of that in the roadway, like blood, or hair?

People can be hit by a car but the injuries mostly all internal, if they don't end up underneath the car.

Let's hope answers will finally come for Asha's family. It would increase this tragedy if they are still left without knowing and without recovering her, after all of this.

 

[Benthic Depths]

The problem with the hit and hide theory is this- why open Asha's backpack in order to place a NKOTB shirt in it? Why move it all seperate it from body you intend to hide? This is NC- why wrap it and move it instead of, say, Roy Dedmon burning it in a firepit or burn barrels on any of his properties?

There are other problems- the alleged "confession" only appears 24 years later and only after everyone in the community has been talking about the family spotlit by a half-dozen warrants. (Literally September 2024, after the warrants were served.) That the "investigators" leak a polygraph to bolster their credibility makes it even worse. (Post Colonial Parkway Murders being solved polygraphs are not evidence, are worse than no evidence at all.)

People attending high school with them should check their photos- in the chaos of being accused-but-not-charged with murder, no one has thought to ask what car did the oldest drive after the Rambler? It is possible that car disappeared just after February 14, 2000, but at a minimum I would check their photo albums and those seized VHS tapes. If Lizzie drove the undamaged Rambler to Prom sophomore year in March 2000, the damaged fender was most likely not caused by Asha.

Finally, a grown man's DNA was found on the wrapping of the backpack. You can dismiss that as secondary transfer, but then you need to explain how the 13yo Dedmon's hair, a solid piece of dna, wasn't also secondary transfer. (We get down a rabbit hole there, with people wearing gloves and a hairnet to go through the backpack in order to.. insert a shirt that didn't belong to Asha, along with a 13 yous stray hair? In order to litter the side of the highway with it?)

 

[maamager]

Below was found at Your True Crime Library. I found it extremely illuminating.

The Days Before Asha’s Disappearance​

February 7 - 10, 2000​

• Asha picked out a Tweety Bird purse from a “treasure chest” in her classroom. Her teacher, Susan Beam, regularly rewarded her students for good behavior and being helpful.
  • Asha is described as a good student who was often awarded “student of the week.”

February 12, 2000​

• Asha and O’Bryant both had basketball games.
  • This was Asha’s first year playing basketball. She was a point guard and according to O’Bryant Degree, ended up being their “star player.”
• Asha’s team lost their championship game, their first loss of the season.
  • It seems like they lost due to Asha fouling out.
  • She was sad but by the end of O’Bryant’s game, she seemed fine.
• Asha attended a sleepover, along with about a dozen cousins, hosted by her 15-year-old cousin Catina Degree.

February 13, 2000​

• The Degree family attended church. Asha brought her new Tweety Bird purse.
• 6:30 PM: (Approximate time) Asha was tired from the basketball game, staying up late at the sleepover, and visiting with cousins at her aunt’s house. According to O’Bryant Degree she had a headache and went to bed early.
• 8:30 PM: (Approximate time) The rest of the family watched the NBA All-Star Game until the power went out.
  • Sometime later, the storm woke Asha. According to O’Bryant, she joined the rest of the family in the living room where Harold set up a kerosene heater.
• 9 PM: (Approximate time) The kids went to bed.

February 14, 2000, Before Asha is Reported Missing​

• It was Harold and Iquilla Degree’s 12th wedding anniversary.
  • According to O’Bryant Degree they both scheduled the day off from work.
• 12:30 AM: (Approximate time) Asha went to the bathroom. O’Bryant says he turned the lights off and they went back to sleep.
  • Note: We believe this is the last time Harold Degree saw Asha. As the last to bed, Harold had to turn off the kerosene heater, possibly taking additional time to put it away. Although some reports give his final sighting as 2:30 AM, it seems likely that it has been confused with the earliest time Asha could’ve left home.
• 3:30 - 4:15 AM: Around this time, Asha was reportedly seen by multiple motorists, walking south down NC 18.
  • Roy Blanton, Sr., then-current truck driver and former Cleveland County Sheriff’s Deputy, and his son Roy Blanton, Jr., were driving north on NC 18 when they saw someone walking down the highway.
    • They would later describe a “small figure wearing light-colored clothing.”
    • Blanton, Sr. thought it was a woman and figured it was related to domestic violence. They didn’t stop but they did warn other truckers in the area to be alert of a pedestrian via CB radio.
  • Jeff Ruppe, a truck driver for Sun Drop Bottling Co., saw a little girl walking down the highway.
    • He got a good look at her because he drove past her three times. The first time, he saw her and thought it was strange, so he turned around. The second time was as he headed north and confirmed he did see a child. The third was as he headed back on his correct route.
    • She was wearing a “little dress and white tennis shoes and her hair was in pigtails.” He noticed she had her book bag, too.
• According to Ruppe, Asha “looked like she knew where she was going” and “was walking at a pretty good pace.”
• There is at least one witness that seems to have never been named.

 

[RoseTree]

The problem with the hit and hide theory is this- why open Asha's backpack in order to place a NKOTB shirt in it? Why move it all seperate it from body you intend to hide? This is NC- why wrap it and move it instead of, say, Roy Dedmon burning it in a firepit or burn barrels on any of his properties?

There are other problems- the alleged "confession" only appears 24 years later and only after everyone in the community has been talking about the family spotlit by a half-dozen warrants. (Literally September 2024, after the warrants were served.) That the "investigators" leak a polygraph to bolster their credibility makes it even worse. (Post Colonial Parkway Murders being solved polygraphs are not evidence, are worse than no evidence at all.)

People attending high school with them should check their photos- in the chaos of being accused-but-not-charged with murder, no one has thought to ask what car did the oldest drive after the Rambler? It is possible that car disappeared just after February 14, 2000, but at a minimum I would check their photo albums and those seized VHS tapes. If Lizzie drove the undamaged Rambler to Prom sophomore year in March 2000, the damaged fender was most likely not caused by Asha.

Finally, a grown man's DNA was found on the wrapping of the backpack. You can dismiss that as secondary transfer, but then you need to explain how the 13yo Dedmon's hair, a solid piece of dna, wasn't also secondary transfer. (We get down a rabbit hole there, with people wearing gloves and a hairnet to go through the backpack in order to.. insert a shirt that didn't belong to Asha, along with a 13 yous stray hair? In order to litter the side of the highway with it?)

I wonder if they brought Asha to the house and she was all wet and cold and they gave her something else to wear. And then after they did whatever they did to her, whoever disposed of her just assumed it was her shirt.

 

[Quill]

The problem with the hit and hide theory is this- why open Asha's backpack in order to place a NKOTB shirt in it? Why move it all seperate it from body you intend to hide? This is NC- why wrap it and move it instead of, say, Roy Dedmon burning it in a firepit or burn barrels on any of his properties?

There are other problems- the alleged "confession" only appears 24 years later and only after everyone in the community has been talking about the family spotlit by a half-dozen warrants. (Literally September 2024, after the warrants were served.) That the "investigators" leak a polygraph to bolster their credibility makes it even worse. (Post Colonial Parkway Murders being solved polygraphs are not evidence, are worse than no evidence at all.)

People attending high school with them should check their photos- in the chaos of being accused-but-not-charged with murder, no one has thought to ask what car did the oldest drive after the Rambler? It is possible that car disappeared just after February 14, 2000, but at a minimum I would check their photo albums and those seized VHS tapes. If Lizzie drove the undamaged Rambler to Prom sophomore year in March 2000, the damaged fender was most likely not caused by Asha.

Finally, a grown man's DNA was found on the wrapping of the backpack. You can dismiss that as secondary transfer, but then you need to explain how the 13yo Dedmon's hair, a solid piece of dna, wasn't also secondary transfer. (We get down a rabbit hole there, with people wearing gloves and a hairnet to go through the backpack in order to.. insert a shirt that didn't belong to Asha, along with a 13 yous stray hair? In order to litter the side of the highway with it?)

Good post. But I do want to point out one thing. The backpack wasn't thrown out on the Side of the highway. It was buried in a hole and unearthed by a construction crew if I recall correctly. It's not like it was planted or discarded so that someone could find it. If I have misunderstood, please help me out.

 

[bearfossils]

Good post. But I do want to point out one thing. The backpack wasn't thrown out on the Side of the highway. It was buried in a hole and unearthed by a construction crew if I recall correctly. It's not like it was planted or discarded so that someone could find it. If I have misunderstood, please help me out.

You aren’t misunderstanding the evidence; the backpack was wrapped in trash bags and buried miles from the site where the sightings of Asha and the presumed crime occurred. I can’t recall the specifics now, but the location of the buried evidence is relevant to the Dedmons.

In reference to the original message: the NKOTB shirt might have ended up in the backpack purely by coincidence. If the adults transferred or had Asha’s body at the home, the shirt might have been stuffed accidentally into the backpack while they collected evidence. Maybe Asha had the shirt, for one reason or another, and packed it with her that night. We don’t know if the shirt was in Asha’s backpack when she left, or deposited there after her death. I don’t believe it means much in regards to the case, unless LE informs us otherwise.

 

[horselightning]

Good post. But I do want to point out one thing. The backpack wasn't thrown out on the Side of the highway. It was buried in a hole and unearthed by a construction crew if I recall correctly. It's not like it was planted or discarded so that someone could find it. If I have misunderstood, please help me out.

wrong the police believe it thrown out on the highway and it was laying then not buried. just coverd with brush wrapped in trash bags.

 

[Quill]

wrong the police believe it thrown out on the highway and it was laying then not buried. just coverd with brush wrapped in trash bags.

Nope, not wrong. Check your facts. This is all well known. The backpack was wrapped in garbage bags and buried in the ground miles away from where she was last seen. A crew digging with heavy equipment found it. The garbage bag is where some of the touch DNA was found. It's all upthread if you want to find it.

 

[PawneeDew]

I a

I couldn’t agree more. I think the fallacy we have to recognize with this case is approaching the possibilities of why Asha left the house from an adult mindset. As a child, I was a well-behaved, straight A student with extracurriculars, much like Asha. I also had night terrors, and often needed a television or a small light on at night, even when older, because of the anxiety I had about nightmares and sleeping. Even still, there were a few times where I snuck out of my window in the middle of the night, just to walk around the block. I couldn’t give you a good reason why I did it, other than it made me feel a little older and more independent. Never did it occur to me that something bad could happen to me. Our brains operate differently at that age, and children have an internal logic all their own.

That being said, it’s worth noting that before her disappearance, Asha’s class read a book (The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman) where children run away from their home and go on an adventure. IIRC, she also was upset about her performance in a recent basketball game. Maybe she felt adventuring out into the night would make her feel brave. Maybe she didn’t know it would storm that night, but she went out anyway, so she could feel more mature than she was. It’s hard to put ourselves into her shoes when most of us haven’t been children for many years.

I’m not saying I don’t believe she could have been lured or enticed out in some way, but I think it’s just as possible that she left the house that night for completely innocent reasons of her own and run into foul play in the course of the night.

Well...I love walking at night because it's so quiet. I used to be scared of the dark. Does anyone know if Asha lived in a rural area? Not like the city. It gets a lot darker in the country, or rural areas. Especially if it's cloudy and you can't see the stars...

 

[Benthic Depths]

It would make sense for the perp to put a shirt they believe had Asha's DNA into the backpack*. But if someone is taking Asha someplace with dry clothes, and she is alive/conscious enough to change clothes, we are no longer talking "Hit and Hide"*, we are talking abduction. Which has implications for who (access to the vehicle, clothing, privacy from a search that begins a few hours later, the ability to handle those items without leaving contact/trace dna) and for why she left her home that night in the first place.
(Hit and Hide seems, to me, like an attempt to put Lizzie in the frame, but I can't make it work in my mind. Ruhee(sp?) describing Asha running from him when he approached her struck me as girl aware of her surroundings- add-in the absence mutual transfer evidence on Hwy 18, and I just can't get there.)
ETA: Horses. The backpack contained a red vest and black overalls. Where other people saw Valentines Day in the vest, that pair, together, make me think of a child's idea of Cowgirl, wonder about what access or interest Asha had in horses. As a way to lure young girls, intentionally or otherwise, it is potent. That (redacted) had a starving horse would be irresistible to certain girls.

 

[dotr]

September 20, 2024

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article292626279.html

''In 2001, Asha’s backpack was found buried along N.C. 18 in Burke County, with some belongings inside — a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt and a “McElligot’s Pool” by Dr. Seuss book. The book had been checked out of her school library.'

 

[Benthic Depths]

September 20, 2024

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article292626279.html

''In 2001, Asha’s backpack was found buried along N.C. 18 in Burke County, with some belongings inside — a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt and a “McElligot’s Pool” by Dr. Seuss book. The book had been checked out of her school library.'

I don't know if you ever perused the August 2001 search plan map, but it seems to suggest, to me, that the person may have used a much less well-known back road to approach the burial site, rather than the 18. The absence of the Laurel Haven area from subsequent discussion felt odd, given someone knew it and felt comfortable hiding trophies there. (But not the Tweety purse...) Asha Degree - Google My Maps