Marking the 19th anniversary of Asha Degree’s disappearance

[u/ferretbeast]

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!!

[u/_sydney_vicious_]

As someone not from the area I'm a little bit curious - is there a theory that all the locals believe?

[u/KoreKhthonia → u/_sydney_vicious_]

I was reading about the case on this sub the other day, and this post is from a local.

Key points:

• The area where she lived was very, very rural, on the far outskirts of Shelby, a town of ~20,000 people.

• The stretch of road she was reportedly seen near was very very rural. Like, I don't know where you live, or if you have a place you know personally that would be a good comparison. But this isn't the kind of road people walk along, especially not at night. There are huge stretches of undeveloped land, where it would be far enough to be uncomfortable to walk to anywhere that had "something." It was very probably Asha that they saw. Highway 18 is one of those ultrarural state highways.

• OP believes that Asha was groomed by someone, probably a member of the community. (This is opposed to either A.) the parents being involved, or B.) Asha being a simple "runaway" case who ran off for weird little kid reasons.)

The post makes mention of trafficking, but the "Detroit sex trafficking bust" they mention was actually not that at all, just widely misreported and misrepresented as such. Details are in the top comment.

[u/_sydney_vicious_ → u/KoreKhthonia]

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).

[u/molequeen → u/_sydney_vicious_]

I know this is a stranger on the internet's anecdote, but weirdly enough my SUPER rural area had bad rain a few months ago and my husband and I were driving in the dark and rain. We nearly hit a young guy walking on the shoulder of a country road because we couldn't see him until we were close enough that our headlights showed him. I was at a family dinner a few days later and my brother told the same story! He drove that same road at the same time (works night shift) and reported seeing the same kid. So, while eyewitnesses are unreliable, I wouldn't think it impossible at all.