Cases Old and Cold

[koko]

I searched her name but didn't find any posts. She's only a few weeks younger than me. I don't remember ever hearing about her before. Thought I'd see if anybody here remembers her case, or has a theory about wtf happened? I've got an idea of what I think happened... but there's still so many questions.

Links to info
Wikipedia: Disappearance of Asha Degree
Finding Asha Degree blog **
Archive of articles by the Shelby Star
Reddit thread (where I first learned of her)
** (regarding the Finding Asha blog) While Iquilla Degree (Asha's mother) characterized the blog as containing "half truths" and said she did not take it too seriously, she allowed that it might prove to be of assistance in ending the mystery of Asha's fate. Local law enforcement were more welcoming. "People wanting to help doesn't burden the case whatsoever," said county sheriff Alan Norman.

Asha Degree

It's worth noting, it was reported that the father checked on the kids before going to bed at 2:30 AM and says they were both there. The rest of this time line came from the FindingAshaDegree blog.

• Happy, shy, quiet, obedient and fearful of dogs, the dark, and storms, 9-year-old basketball star, Asha Jaquilla Degree is discovered missing from her bed at 6:30 a.m. where she lives with her mom, dad and 10-year-old brother.
  
• Cleveland County Law Enforcement, along with the SBI and FBI, volunteer search and rescue teams as well as K-9 teams turned up nothing
  
• When the 5:00 nightly news hits the airways, two motorists call investigators and report seeing Asha in the wee hours of the morning walking alone in a near-freezing, raging rainstorm on dark, dark Hwy 18. One witness reports a 3:45 sighting and the other a 4:15 sighting.
  
• Asha is seen wearing only a white t-shirt, white jeans and white sneakers, carrying her bookbag
  
• She has no hat or coat and no flashlight. There are no highway lights in this rural community.
  
• One witness reported a ‘torrential downpour’ at the time of his seeing Asha. He turns around three times only to see Asha run into a patch of woods
  
• Despite ground, K-9 and heat-sensor air searches, not one scent was picked up. Nothing.
  
• On Thursday, several items confirmed to be Asha’s, were reported found in an open storage shed/barn
  
• Eighteen months later, Asha’s bookbag/backpack was unearthed 27 miles north by a worker grading a site for development
  
• The family had no internet, nor did either child have a cell phone or private land line; both children were adequately monitored with other close family living on the same street.
  

Map of their area, with points of interest marked. Note: the reported sighting is approx 1.3 miles from the Degree home.



Some of the reports list items supposedly found in the backpack...including her house key. I don't know if it was actually the same exact backpack she used for school or not. If so, it would be easier to explain the key. But she also had 3 family photos, her basketball uniform, and red clothes (likely a valentine's day outfit). Among some other things....but no flashlight, no coat, not even a hat. In a cold rain storm.at 3-4 AM.

Valentines day was also her parents anniversary...I can't help but wonder if she was lured out by someone she trusted under the pretense that they had to wait until the middle of the night, and would be setting up a surprise of some sort for her parents. Sounds crazy but I can't come up with any other reason that she'd go through with leaving THAT night, at that time.

Some people theorize she could have been sleepwalking...and possibly crossed paths with an opportunistic sick fuck. But idk.... I don't buy that one.
At the time, her 4^th grade class was reading The Whipping Boy and some people say she probably got the idea of running away from the book. I don't buy that either. She didn't like the dark, or storms. If her idea was to run away and have herself a little adventure....why not wait til the weather improves?
Some think she ran away because she fouled out of a basketball game earlier and they ended up getting their first loss.


In the past couple years (maybe last year) new info was released. From what I understand it was a detail that had been previously overlooked. Possibly because they didn't know exactly how credible it was? But it was about her supposedly being seen getting into a green car like the ones shown on her missing poster.