She Walked Into the Storm: The Disappearance of Asha Degree

From the series: The Last Known Moment -- A NaturalQueen77 TV True Crime Deep Dive

Introduction

A nine-year-old girl left her home in the middle of the night -- in a storm, in the dark -- and no one knows why.

Asha Jaquilla Degree vanished on Valentine's Day 2000 from her home in Shelby, North Carolina. She was nine years old, shy, responsible, and by every account, terrified of the dark. She packed a bag -- family photos, clothing, children's books -- and walked out into the storm. Two witnesses spotted her alone on Highway 18 in the early morning hours. One stopped to help. She ran into the woods.

For twenty-five years, the central question was why did she leave? Now, with DNA evidence linking members of a local family to items recovered from her backpack, and with the case officially reclassified as a homicide, the more urgent question is who took her once she did?

Who Was Asha Degree

Asha Jaquilla Degree was born on August 5, 1990, in Shelby, Cleveland County, North Carolina, to Iquilla and Harold Degree. She had one brother, O'Bryant. By every account from family, teachers, and neighbors, Asha was the kind of child people remembered -- bright, thoughtful, deeply devoted to her family. She loved school, took her responsibilities seriously, and was known to be close with her parents and brother.

She was also genuinely afraid of the dark. She didn't like being alone at night. She had never done anything like this before.

That context is what made Asha's case so difficult to understand for so long. The girl who left that night didn't match the girl her family knew. Something or someone compelled her to walk out into a storm in the middle of the night -- and whatever that was remained a mystery for a quarter century.

Valentine's Day, 2000

On the evening of February 13, 2000, the Degree family spent time together watching a basketball game before the children went to bed. Asha and O'Bryant shared a room. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Sometime around 2:30 a.m. on February 14th, Asha got out of bed. She packed a backpack with clothing, family photographs, children's books, and a concert T-shirt. She left the house.

Between 3:30 and 4:15 a.m., two separate motorists spotted a young girl walking alone along NC Highway 18 in the rain. One of the witnesses, later identified as Jeff Ruppe, was so alarmed that he turned around to check on her. When he approached, Asha ran into the woods and disappeared.

No one saw her again.

When her parents discovered she was gone that morning, they contacted law enforcement immediately. A massive search launched. Search dogs picked up her scent in those roadside woods -- but it went cold. Asha was not found.

She was 4 feet 6 inches tall, approximately 60 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white shirt, white jeans, and white tennis shoes, and was carrying a black Tweety Bird purse and a black backpack.

The Question That Haunted Everything

Investigators, journalists, and the public spent years asking: Why did Asha leave?

There was no documented abuse at home. Her family was described as loving and stable. She had no known conflicts at school and no history of running away. Her teachers reported nothing unusual in the days before her disappearance.

Theories circulated for years -- that she had been lured online, that she had an argument with a family member, that she had a rendezvous planned. None were confirmed.

What investigators noted was that her backpack appeared deliberately packed -- not grabbed in a panic, but thoughtfully assembled. Family photos. Books she cared about. Clothes. It read less like a flight response and more like a child who believed she was going somewhere.

Where she intended to go, and why, has never been established.

The Backpack Discovery -- And What It Changed

For over a year after Asha's disappearance, there were no physical leads.

Then, on August 3, 2001 -- eighteen months after Valentine's Day -- a construction worker discovered a plastic bag along Highway 18 in Burke County, approximately 30 miles from Asha's home in Shelby. Inside the bag was Asha's backpack.

The discovery immediately reframed the investigation. The backpack had not been left where Asha was last seen -- it had been moved, transported to a different county. This was not the act of a nine-year-old child who wandered off. This was someone deliberately relocating evidence.

Items from the backpack were collected for forensic analysis. The case entered a long period of incremental processing. It would take over two decades for those results to lead somewhere.

25 Years of Searching

For the Degree family, the years between 2001 and the early 2020s were defined by active advocacy, annual memorial walks, and the exhausting work of keeping Asha's name alive.

Iquilla and Harold Degree, along with O'Bryant, never stopped pushing for answers. The family participated in interviews, press events, and renewed appeals with each anniversary. The FBI maintained the case as an active missing persons investigation. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office periodically issued new appeals and raised reward funds.

What the public did not know was that forensic work had continued behind the scenes on the items from that backpack. And in 2024, that work produced results that would fundamentally change the nature of the investigation.

The Dedmon Connection: DNA and a Reclassification

In 2024 and into 2025, Asha Degree's case was officially reclassified as a homicide investigation by the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

The shift was driven by DNA evidence.

Forensic analysis of items recovered from Asha's backpack produced DNA profiles linked to AnnaLee Dedmon Ramirez and Russell Underhill (Bradley) -- both connected to the Dedmon family of Cleveland County. The Dedmon name had not previously been publicly associated with Asha's case.

On September 16, 2024, investigators executed search warrants at eight separate locations tied to Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon. The scope -- eight locations in a single day -- indicated a significant evidentiary basis and a coordinated law enforcement effort.

The public learned more in February 2025, when newly unsealed warrant documents revealed additional details. A witness named Thad Mellentine told investigators that a woman identified as Lizzie Foster -- a daughter in the Dedmon family -- had stated at a party that "I killed Asha Degree."

The warrant documents also described text messages among Dedmon family members revealing anxiety about the investigation and fear of exposure. Investigators also reported that a dark green vehicle consistent with descriptions from the 2000 witnesses -- who reported seeing a dark green 1970s-era car on Highway 18 the night Asha disappeared -- had been found in connection with the Dedmon family.

Investigators stated their belief that adult assistance was involved in what happened to Asha that night. Documents referenced Roy Dedmon directing daughters to "transport patients" -- language investigators found significant in context of the evidence gathered.

The April 2025 Searches

On April 4, 2025, the FBI, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office conducted coordinated searches at several new locations.

Among the sites searched was the old North Brook Elementary School in Lincoln County, as well as properties along Highway 274 and NC 182. The specific evidentiary targets of those searches have not been publicly disclosed.

As of the time of publication, no arrests have been made in connection with Asha Degree's disappearance.

The Rewards

Following the 2024-2025 developments, reward funding increased substantially.

The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office raised its reward to $75,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. In June 2025, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced an additional $25,000 state reward, bringing the combined total to approximately $100,000.

If you have any information about Asha Degree's disappearance, contact:

• ◦Cleveland County Sheriff's Office: (704) 484-4822
• ◦FBI Charlotte Field Office: 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324)
• ◦Submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov

What We Still Don't Know

For all the progress of the past two years, enormous gaps remain.

Asha's remains have not been recovered. No one has been charged. The exact sequence of events on the night of February 13-14, 2000 -- what Asha believed she was doing when she packed that bag and left the house, who she may have intended to meet, and precisely what happened to her once she entered those woods -- has not been established in public record.

What is clear is that the answer existed all along in a community Asha lived in. People knew. Evidence existed. A car. A family. Names. And for twenty-five years, Asha's family waited.

Asha Degree's Name

Asha Jaquilla Degree would have turned 35 years old on August 5, 2025. She was nine when she disappeared -- old enough to feel complicated things about the world, old enough to pack a bag and make a choice, young enough that she should have had decades ahead of her.

Her parents, Iquilla and Harold Degree, have never stopped saying her name. Her brother, O'Bryant, has kept her story moving. The family has held annual walks for twenty-five years. Their tenacity is part of why this case is still active.

Asha deserves to be remembered as more than a case number and more than a mystery. She was a child who loved her family, worked hard in school, and was known to the people around her as someone special. Her name does.

A Note on Ongoing Coverage

This article reflects the most current publicly available information as of June 2026. As the investigation is active and ongoing, details may develop. This blog will be updated as significant verified developments emerge.

Sources

FBI.gov -- FBI Renews Call for Information on Asha Degree's Disappearance (20th anniversary feature)

WBTV.com -- Search warrants issued in Asha Degree case name new suspects (September 2024)

WBTV.com -- Newly unsealed warrants in Asha Degree case reveal text messages, witness account (February 2025)

WBTV.com -- Governor announces reward in Asha Degree case (June 2025)

Spectrum News NC -- FBI, SBI search new locations in Asha Degree investigation (April 2025)

The Shelby Star -- New warrants reveal key details in Asha Degree case (February 2025)

NCSBI.gov -- Missing Persons listing, Asha Jaquilla Degree

WSOC-TV -- 25 years later: Family remembers Asha Degree (February 2025)

Listen to the Episode

This case is covered in depth on The Last Known Moment podcast. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

NaturalQueen77 TV is an independent true crime media channel. We cite court documents and credible sources. We believe these names deserve to be spoken.

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