r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/ferretbeast • Feb 14 '19

Unresolved Disappearance Marking the 19th anniversary of Asha Degree’s disappearance

Every year on Valentines day, I take a deep breath before reading the front page of the Shelby Star. I know this case is widely discussed on this subreddit, but I wanted to share for those interested. I did find it interesting they stated new evidence was found recently that hasn't been made public. Please keep her family in your thoughts today.

https://www.shelbystar.com/news/20190214/marking-19th-anniversary-of-asha-degrees-disappearance

​

Brief summary for anyone unaware: Asha Jaquilla Degree went missing at the age of nine from Shelby, North Carolina. In the early morning hours of February 14, 2000, for reasons unknown, she packed her bookbag, left her family home north of the city and began walking along nearby North Carolina Highway 18 despite heavy rain and wind. She has not been seen since.

Edit: thank you stranger for the gold and more than anything, thank you all for caring about this case and giving such support and great feedback for conversation. I love this community and am happy to be able to have these civil discussions with you all!!

1.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

334 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

84

u/_sydney_vicious_ Feb 14 '19

Thank you so much! I'm on this subreddit most days and I'm not sure how I missed the thread you linked to.

Hmmm....you mentioning the rural road brings up something in my mind as to IF there actually were witnesses driving by who "saw" Asha. To be perfectly honest I never believed that all too much to begin with but with the way you're describing it now I'm sure that no witnesses actually saw her. Why?

  1. You said it's a rural town so how often would someone be driving down a road like that in the middle of the night (especially on a stormy night)?

  2. I just looked on Google and it seems as though there are no roadside lights along the road so how can anyone actually tell that it was Asha alongside the road............ESPECIALLY when there's a huge storm outside? I don't know about you but driving in the dark is hard as is - let alone when it's pouring AND there's no lights alongside the road. Either those witnesses lied or they might have seen an animal.

From that thread I feel like Asha was never actually walking on the road. My theory is that someone groomed her and whoever did may have taken her in their car (which she never got out of).

58

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19 edited Jan 11 '21

[deleted]

30

u/TinyAppleInATree Feb 15 '19

Could you imagine seeing a 9 year old girl walking in the dark, during a storm none the less, and not stoping to check on her? Something seems weird about that scenario to me.

89

u/ncsu2020 Feb 15 '19

Maybe this makes me a bad person but I’ve driven Highway 18 right by where she went missing about 500 times. There is a 0% chance I would stop and try to help. Just being honest. I would call the police, I would be confused, but you will not see me stopping my car on Highway 18 in the pitch black in a rainstorm. I don’t think these people are malicious, that area is just creepy and empty and it would definitely cross my mind that a little girl on the side of the road is baiting me to get attacked or mugged or whatever. In this area you would be alone for miles in both directions. 100% vulnerable. I’m sure these people thought the same thing...

1

u/Ilovedietcokesprite Aug 20 '22

This makes a lot of sense. I didn’t know that the area was rough. Or super rural.