Retired FBI agent haunted by Asha Degree case

CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. — A retired FBI supervisor spoke with Channel 9 about how he is still tormented 24 years after Cleveland County’s Asha Degree vanished.

A renewed search and the discovery of a potential clue has reignited the belief that there is hope for closure in the high-profile missing persons case.

The FBI got involved with the case the day after the 9-year-old girl disappeared on Feb. 14, 2000.

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“I have 38 years in law enforcement,” said Rick Schaffer, a retired FBI agent. “I would have to say there is not a single case that haunts me like this one.”

Schaffer said it was the most frustrating case he was assigned to.

He even carries her photograph.

“Her eyes were bright and full of life, and you could just tell she was a wonderful good-hearted child,” Schaffer said.

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Over the past couple of days, the FBI, SBI, and Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office searched the area off Cherryville Road in Shelby.

One of the items seized was a green car like the one that witnesses saw Asha possibly getting into.

“If they seized the car, it’s got to be for physical evidence and if there is physical evidence, then they are going to go over it with a fine-tooth comb and swab it for any sort of trace evidence that could have been there for years,” he said.

There was a lot of old-school detective work involved when agents worked the case in 2000.

There were not a lot of cellphones, and DNA testing and other technology were not nearly as advanced as things are nowadays.

There is one question agents were never able to answer with the hundreds of interviews that were conducted, including with family members.

“There has to be some reason why she decided to leave in the still of the night, out of her home and we were never able to determine it,” Schaffer said.

Schaffer is hoping that this latest search will lead to something that will give her family peace.

“I do tell you, every single time, every single, every single time,” he said. “Valentine’s rolls around I have some thoughts of poor Asha Degree and I think of that 9-year-old little girl walking all alone out on the road. Don’t understand how she did it, why she did it and it’s tormented me as well as every agent that’s had it.”

The FBI, who is leading the investigation, has not said what kicked off the recent searches in Cleveland County or if they are connected to any ongoing cases.

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