What Happened to Asha Degree? A Family’s Nightmare and an Unsolved Disappearance

10 years old at the time, O'Bryant recalls hearing Asha's bed squeak in the early morning. Naturally assuming she was just rolling over in her sleep, he didn't wake up to investigate.

But it was at this time, shortly after their father had come in to check on them, that Asha got up to grab her bag pre-packed with clothes and other personal items.

She left their home on Oakcrest Drive—a street in a subdivision that sat on the western border of the Charlotte metropolitan area—and began her journey through the poor weather.

As rain and wind whipped around her, she traveled along the North Carolina Highway 18, where she was spotted by multiple motorists between 3:45 and 4:15 am. One driver began to approach her roughly 1.3 miles from her home, and she darted off the roadside to vanish into the woods.

Asha's mother woke up to get her kids ready for school at 5:45 am. It was an especially early start that morning, as they had to bathe before school, since the power outage prevented them from doing so the night prior.

When Iquilla went into their room just before their 6:30 alarm, she found only her son in the shared space. She searched all over the house and even checked for her daughter in the family cars, but Asha was nowhere to be found.

Iquilla told Harold their daughter was missing, and his first thought was that she might have gone across the street to his mother's house. However, when Iquilla called over there, her sister-in-law said she hadn't seen her.

Iquilla was overcome by panic. When she called her mother, she was instructed to inform the police.

It was very unlike Asha to venture out on her own. Not only was she a cautious and shy child, her mother claimed she was terrified of dogs, a fact she thought would keep her daughter safely tucked away inside.

But something strange occurred that Valentine's Day morning. Something that would change the lives of the Degree family forever.

The police first arrived at the scene at 6:40 am. Unfortunately, the K-9 unit couldn't pick up Asha's scent.

Meanwhile, Iquilla was searching on her own, shouting Asha's name throughout the neighborhood. The commotion had roused everyone by 7:00 am, and a large number of friends, family, and neighbors cleared their schedules to help with the search.

An exhaustive search carried on all day, but there was no sign of Asha. A singular mitten was all that turned up, and Iquilla said that it did not belong to her daughter.

As the story hit the local news, the drivers who had spotted Asha along the highway reported what they saw to the authorities. The search expanded to the highway on February 15th, achieving some progress in the case.

At a business just off the highway, several candy wrappers were discovered in a shed. At the same site, investigators found a pencil, a green marker, and a yellow hairbow that was positively identified as belonging to Asha.

An unusual addition to the evidence was the photograph of a black girl roughly the same age as Asha. This child has never been identified.

After a week of searching, no other evidence or leads turned up, and the search was called off. 9,000 man-hours had been dedicated to combing through the three-mile radius where Asha had last been spotted.

Flyers were plastered all over the area, and despite 300 tips submitted to the police ranging from potential sightings to suggestions of abandoned places to investigate, no significant leads ever arose.

Though the local search ended, county Sheriff Dan Crawford dedicated resources to taking the search “long-range.” The FBI, along with North Carolina's SBI, added Asha to their databases of missing children and participated in the desperate search.

Though answers evaded the authorities, the national media attention kept the investigation alive. Asha's disappearance was discussed on The Montel Williams Show, America's Most Wanted, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

A month after Asha vanished, the police put up a full color billboard along the highway with Asha's picture and relevant information on the case.

On August 3rd, 2001, more than a year since Asha went missing, the case saw another break. 

Asha's backpack and other personal effects were found amid a construction project off Highway 18, about 26 miles from Shelby, North Carolina. The backpack was wrapped up in two black trash bags, and the worker that first discovered the bag said that it had Asha's name and phone number inside.

While the FBI took the bag to their Quantico, Virginia laboratory, they have not publicly shared the results of their forensic analysis.

On February 14th, 2020—two decades after Asha disappeared—the FBI released information about the contents of Asha's backpack. Inside was a copy of the book McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss and a New Kids on the Block t-shirt.

Neither of these items belonged to Asha before her disappearance. In fact, the book belonged to her elementary school's library.

Every few years, new information and efforts stirred up the cold case.

In 2004, an inmate at the county jail gave the sheriff's office information regarding an intersection in Lawndale. The authorities began digging in the area, but all they recovered were animal bones.

FBI agents, Cleveland County Sheriff's Office investigators, and State Bureau of Investigation agents began re-examining the case in February of 2015. As they started to re-interview witnesses, they offered $25,000 to anyone who could provide information that lead to an arrest or conviction in the case.

An additional $20,000 reward was offered by a community group.

In May of 2016, the FBI announced that they had discovered a new lead. According to them, Asha may have been spotted getting into either a dark green early 1970s Lincoln  Continental Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird from around the same time.

The car was further described as having rust around its wheels.

In September 2017, the FBI sent its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team to help with the investigation in Cleveland County. Agents of the FBI, SBI, and local offices worked for 10 days going over their information.

These authorities meet several times a month to trade the latest on the investigation. To date, they have conducted more than 300 interviews.

In November of 2020, Marcus Mellon, an inmate convicted of sex crimes against children in 2014, penned a letter to The Shelby Star. In this missive, he claimed that Asha had been murdered, and he knew where her remains were.

Unfortunately, these claims lead the authorities down another dead end.

The latest break came in September of 2024, when a search warrant was issued by the FBI and the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office based on physical evidence in the case.

The search didn't turn up any human remains, but did produce several items of interest. Among them was a green 1964 AMC Rambler, a car which resembles the previously suspected Lincoln or Ford.

When the vehicle was retrieved, it showed significant damage to its front left fender near the headlight.

According to the warrant, the police believe Degree to have been a victim of a homicide. A local husband and wife, Roy and Connie Dedmon, are currently being considered as suspects.

One of Roy Dedmon's daughters was around 16 years of age when Asha went missing, and claims that she was gifted the Rambler by her father in 1999. In this car, she was known to transport patients to and from Broughton Hospital along the highway where Asha walked that Valentine's Day morning.

Also in September of 2024, it was documented that a witness came forward to inform investigators that she saw Roy Dedmon digging a chest-deep hole several years earlier. A detective then went out to the specified property and observed a dent in the ground where the dirt had obviously been disturbed.

It has come to light that the search warrant was issued after DNA from Asha's backpack was linked to two individuals: AnnaLee Dedmon Ramirez and Russell Underhill. AnnaLee would have been 13 when Asha disappeared, and was one of three teenage daughters living with Roy and Connie at the time.

No remains have been recovered and no arrests have been made. The Dedmon's deny any involvement in the disappearance of Asha Degree.

It's difficult to say if the public or her family will every truly know what happened to Asha Degree. Though pieces of information slowly come forward, there are still big questions in the case.

At the forefront of everyone's mind is, why would Asha Degree leave her home that fateful morning?

Based on Iquilla's account of her daughter taking her favorite clothes with her, investigators have concluded that Asha planned for her journey at least several days in advance. However, Asha did not exhibit any of the circumstances or behaviors of a typical runaway.

Most compellingly to suggest she wasn't a plain and simple runaway was the fact that she was younger by at least three years than most children who decide to flee home.

She didn't seem to have a motive to run away either, as she neither came from a dysfunctional home nor performed poorly in school.

Investigators concluded that, no matter the reason Asha decided to leave home that day, the reason she didn't return was that she was abducted.

Despite the news coverage and the continuing efforts to find answers in this case, Iquilla Degree has always felt that her daughter would have gotten even more media attention and manpower if she were not a Black girl.

Though many deny claims that white victims receive favorable treatment in investigations and reporting, a racial disparity is well documented in true crime.

However the media may have failed Asha Degree, her family is determined to keep her memory alive and her case active. Back in 2008, the Degrees founded a scholarship in Asha's name, which goes to a worthy local student each year.

 To keep word of Asha's case circulating and raise money to fund their search, the Degrees host an annual walk from their home to Asha's Highway 18 billboard.

Originally held on the anniversary of her disappearance, this event has been moved to the week prior, as Harold and Iquilla didn't want to darken Valentine's Day for any participants.

Pictures of Asha both at the time of her disappearance and aged up to how she might look today continue to circulate. Iquilla still holds onto hope that her daughter will return home.