SHELBY, N.C. — Friday marks 25 years since 9-year-old Asha Degree vanished from her home near Shelby. We’ve seen new information and developments in the case, and possible suspects -- but no closure.
Asha’s parents sat down with Channel 9 reporter Ken Lemon with a message for the people identified as suspects.
Harold and Iquilla Degree told Lemon they are happy for new information after two decades. Search warrants filed in September reveal that investigators believe Roy and Connie Dedmon, a couple from Shelby, are suspects in Asha’s disappearance and possibly helped conceal some sort of crime related to the case.
The Dedmons aren’t talking, and their attorney has said they’re innocent.
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Crews searched several properties owned by the couple because investigators say DNA found on Asha’s undershirt and belongings match that of one of the Dedmon’s daughters and a patient at one of the assisted living facilities the Dedmons owned.
While investigators are working to make their case, Asha’s parents want the Dedmon family to speak up.
“None of those people ever been to my home, so how could your DNA get on her stuff? Give us closure, ‘cause somebody knows something, this we know. All we can do is ask and beg and plead, that’s all I can do,” Iquilla told Lemon on Thursday.
Iquilla says when they drive by the Dedmons’ home, she whispers a prayer for strength until they get answers.
Painful Valentine’s Day memories
Asha was nine years old with a thirst for life and a love of sports when she disappeared. Bethany Boggs was her teammate and classmate for four years at Fallston Elementary School, and she remembered Asha’s joy.
“Asha always smiled, I mean that’s just what you can remember about her,” Boggs told Lemon.
She can’t forget Valentine’s Day of 2000, when Asha was reported missing and their tiny town became the center of attention.
“Seeing all the police vehicles and news vehicles, it was scary really,” Boggs said.
It was also scary for Jordan Bowen, who was 10 years old in south Shelby when Asha disappeared. He’s now an investigator assigned to her case.
“It’s a small community and everyone clearly was bothered that there was a child missing from the community,” said Lt. Bowen, now with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office.
The initial search for Asha lasted two weeks; investigators believed she walked away from her home with her bookbag and was later abducted. The book bag and Asha’s undershirt were discovered a year later in a trash bag in Burke County.
A break in the case?
A search warrant filed last year says DNA found in the trash bag matched that of a patient who stayed at two assisted living facilities owned by the Dedmons.
The other DNA match was for one of the Dedmons’ daughters.
For three days in September, federal, state and local investigators used those search warrants to comb through properties owned by the Dedmons. They focused heavily on a stretch of family land along Cherryville Road in Shelby.
“Everyone was talking, everyone wanted answers,” Boggs said.
Investigators have since towed a car as part of the investigation, and forensic experts say DNA can last for hundreds of years inside, though it may take new technology to reveal it.
The Degrees said the Dedmons are complete strangers to them. The warrants suggest a chance meeting between Asha and one of the Dedmons’ daughters, saying “Asha Degree was a victim of homicide with her body concealed ... [and] adult assistance from Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon would have been necessary in the execution and/or concealment of the crime.”
What’s next
Asha’s family wants the Dedmons or someone close to them to break their silence.
“I don’t believe just the people they are looking at are the people that know something,” Iquilla said.
Lt. Bowen says it has taken 25 years to get to this point, and 25 years since a 10-year-old had his eyes opened to crime in a new way.
“I’m personally involved, and I’m personally wanting to see things through until we find those answers,” Bowen told Lemon.
Bowen spent three years working on this case exclusively, and now he heads the detective division. He says everyone in the division is invested in finding answers.
“They say not to take the job home with you, but without a doubt we think about this case. We think about Asha Degree when we are off,” Bowen said. “We think about it when we are with family for Thanksgiving, for Christmas. We think about this case when we are in our bed at 3 a.m.”
Asha’s parents have long said they believe she is still alive. They told Lemon that hasn’t changed.
But the fact is, these search warrants have opened the real possibility that she may have died years ago. Her parents said they can accept that as the truth if there is evidence, but they just want closure one way or another.
Even though Asha’s body hasn’t been found, investigators say going undetected in a world full of cameras and publicly traded information is hard to imagine. The same genealogical technology available across the globe that has helped officers identify suspects hasn’t helped them to locate Asha. Officers say that fact, and no other known trace of Asha makes them pretty certain, but it can’t shake her family’s faith.
Asha would be 34 years old now.
(VIDEO: Investigators believe Asha Degree was killed and concealed, new warrants reveal)
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