Each time you hear the words “missing child” in the news, the memory about horrific details of unsolved crimes you read years ago in newspapers is refreshed.
Suddenly you remember everything very clearly, and the worry that another similar heinous rape and killing could happen again creeps the spine.
A child can go missing for various reasons; the child may be lost or injured and could not find a way home, a victim of abduction or abandonment, runaway, or murdered.
Regardless of the reason, however, every child deserves the safety and security of being a protective adult. Alone out there among strangers, desperately vulnerable kids are easily exposed to all sorts of dangers.
When Asha Degree disappeared from home more than 20 years ago, many people thought she ran away, for she needed some time alone to cope with the disappointment over a defeat in a basketball game and that the little girl would return to her parents soon.
Hours turned into days, then days into weeks, months, and years. She never went home. Every lead has been investigated to no avail. Asha Degree is still missing.
10 /10 My Daughter Is Alive
In the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2000, a 9-year-old Asha Degree disappeared without much of a trace.
The disappearance of the fourth-grader sent a shockwave all across her rural community of Shelby, and until today remains a mystery.
The police, the FBI, and her family have been on the search for clues ever since. Her mother, Iquilla Degree, still believes Asha is alive even after more than 20 years of not knowing her daughter’s whereabouts.
The mother maintains that no 9-year-old could disappear into thin air without somebody out there knowing something.
9 /10 Local Person Of Interest
As of today, the case remains an open investigation. Local detectives are still receiving and reviewing leads.
FBI investigators from the Charlotte Field Office routinely revisit case files in the hope of finding plausible hints, new angles, or previously unseen patterns.
Although not proven, investigators think someone in the local area holds the key to unlock the case.
Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office Detective, Tim Adams, came out of retirement in 2014 to take the lead in the department’s probe of the case.