Known as “Shelby’s Sweetheart,” Asha Jaquilla Degree went missing a quarter-century ago in a case that remains under investigation in her rural North Carolina hometown.
Nine-year-old Degree disappeared on February 14, Valentine’s Day, 2000. She was last seen walking along a state highway in Shelby, North Carolina. Her parents reported her missing that same day.
Based in Shelby, the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office is the primary agency investigating Degree’s disappearance, along with outside assistance from the FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators on the 25-year anniversary of Degree’s disappearance in February 2025 revealed they are close to solving the mystery and bringing closure to the girl’s heartbroken parents.
“It will always be our desire to bring Asha home and to bring the individuals to justice, because it’s going to happen,” North Carolina Sheriff Alan Norman said in a social media post. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been with the modern technology that we have.”
How Asha Degree Went Missing
Degree’s parents last saw her sleeping in her bed in the early morning hours of February 14, 2000. It is not clear how or why she left the home, but motorists reported seeing a Black girl walking along a state highway about 4 a.m. that day. She was last seen being pulled into a car.
Chief Deputy Durwin Briscoe, a longtime member of the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, said he remembers when the Degree family reported their daughter missing.
“Once I arrived on the scene and I saw who the family was, it had a personal touch to me,” Briscoe, a childhood friend of the girl’s parents, said in a video posted on social media. “This impacts the entire community of Shelby, impacts the entire County of Cleveland, because Asha was someone that everyone knows.”
On August 2, 2001, a year and a half after Degree went missing, investigators found her backpack buried in dirt off North Carolina State Highway 18 in Burke County about 20 miles from her home. Other contents recovered with the backpack included an undershirt belonging to Degree.
Later DNA testing on Degree’s undershirt found evidence of a hair sample belonging to a close blood relative of two persons of interest, according to September 2024 search warrant documents published by WBTV.
Was Asha Degree Killed?
Degree remains classified as missing, but investigators in their search warrants said she may have been killed.
Authorities are investigating a specific family in southwestern North Carolina after a witness came forward with new information in September 2024.
“I killed Asha Degree,” a person of interest told a cooperating witness during a neighborhood house party, WSOC-TV, a local North Carolina news channel, reported.
Who Is Responsible for Asha Degree’s Disappearance?
Although investigators have identified persons of interest in connection with Degree’s disappearance, no arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed to date. But a Cleveland County Superior Court judge has authorized search warrants allowing authorities to seize property belonging to persons of interest, including cell phones and a car.
Degree’s parents still have no answers explaining why their daughter vanished, which incidentally was on their wedding anniversary.
“I believe she’s still alive,” Degree’s mother Iquilla Degree told supporters during a community prayer walk February 8, 2025, The News & Observer reported. “Until somebody can prove me wrong, I’m still going to believe that, because all I have is hope.”
New Clues in the Case
“We remain committed to finding Asha,” a public affairs officer from the FBI’s Charlotte field office, which is about 40 miles west of Shelby, tells A&E True Crime.
The FBI has shared several videos on social media detailing how authorities are close to solving the case.
“The community saw in September 2024 some of our efforts,” Tim Adams, a local detective on the case, said in a social media video shared by the FBI’s Charlotte field office. “We were able to acquire court-ordered search warrants, multiple search warrants, where we went out and started a phase of investigation to try to find those answers.”
The investigating agencies are offering a combined cash reward of up to $45,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Degree’s disappearance. Anyone with information can call the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office at 704-484-4822 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
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