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If you lived in or near Shelby, NC in 2000 and you knew someone with a green 1970s model Ford Thunderbird or Lincoln Mark IV with rust around the wheel wells, please send in a tip.

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Harold Degree's Place of Employment

Turner Upholstery

Site excavation

Asha's Backpack

Burns Middle School

Asha's Church

Asha's School

Asha sighting

Asha's Home

This 9 year-old left her house in the middle of the night and disappeared.

Though often described as quiet and shy, 9-year old Asha Degree, came alive on the basketball court. She was a passionate point guard and she loved the game. She had dreams of being an illustrator when she grew up, and with her excellent attendance records and exceptional grades, it seems she was on her way to a bright future. Asha lived with her close knit family; parents, Harold and Iquilla, and 10-year old brother O’Bryant, in Shelby, North Carolina. The family prioritized school, church and visits with extended family, but were protective of the children’s social and extracurricular activities. Other than family and school, the most important thing in Asha’s life was basketball. Asha played on a youth league team in the Fallston area as point guard. The Saturday before her disappearance, Asha had a basketball game — the first in a tournament, but sadly, her team lost. Naturally, she was disappointed, but her mother says she recovered and stayed to watch her brother’s game. 

Asha Degree

O'Bryant Degree

Iquilla Degree

Harold Degree

Donald Preston Ferguson

The Disappearance of Asha Degree

Where Is Asha Degree?

The Disappearance of Asha Degree Part 1 -- Shelter From the Storm

MISSING & BLACK: WHAT HAPPENED TO ASHA DEGREE?

The Disappearance Of Asha Degree: How A Nine-Year-Old North Carolina Girl Vanished Forever

Sheriff: Inmate fails to lead investigators to Asha Degree

Asha Jaquilla Degree

‘Only thing we got is hope’: Family still seeking clues on 21st anniversary Asha Degree went missing

011 - The Vanishing Of Asha Degree

FBI releases new details in 2000 disappearance of Asha Degree

Cleveland County Sheriff's Office

FBI Charlotte

Harold and Iquilla have to work, so the Asha & O'Bryant spend the day at an aunt’s house and at basketball practice at the school. 


School is closed for 3-day President’s Day holiday weekend. 

Asha is upset when her team loses and she fouls out, but she seems to recover and watches her brother’s game.


Asha and her brother play in the first basketball matches of the seasons

The children spend the day with family, going to church. Harold works a split shift, his second shift starts in the afternoon.


Some reports say Asha was still up when he got home, possibly because she was cold after the power went out. It’s unclear as to whether Asha DID go to bed at 8pm and then got up again to wait for her dad to get home, or if she didn’t go to bed at all until Harold got home.


Harold leaves the house again to buy Valentine’s Day chocolates

Asha is seen by several drivers walking south along Highway 18, approximately a mile from her home. The weather is very bad; it’s cold and raining heavily but Asha is not wearing a coat, hat, scarf or gloves. One concerned driver turns to go past her three times, but it seems Asha gets spooked before he can approach her and she runs into the wooded area that lines the highway.


Iquilla goes to wake O'Bryant & Asha for school

Sweet wrappers, a pencil, a marker and a Mickey Mouse hairclip identified as belonging to Asha are found in a shed along the highway at about the same location where Asha was seen running into the woods by the driver.


Acting on a tip off from a man in prison, investigators conduct an excavation search at the corner of Shelby and Rube Spangler Roads near Lawndale, South Carolina. They found bones, which turned out to belong to an animal. They also find a pair of men’s khaki trousers.


Asha’s backpack is found by construction workers on a site 26 miles north of where she had last been seen. The bag is wrapped in rubbish sacks and has her name and telephone number written inside it.


New investigators looking into Asha’s case find a tip given back in 2000, a sighting of Asha getting into a 1970’s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird. There were two other people in the car.


Asha Degree

What's Left to be Uncovered

Important People

Timeline of Events

Feburary 11, 2000

Feburary 12, 2000

Feburary 13, 2000

Feburary 13, 2000

Feburary 13, 2000

Harold Degree's Place of Employment

Case Sources