Murder With My Husband - 14. Asha Degree - The Mysterious Disappearance
Episode Date: June 15, 2020In this episode of Murder With My Husband, Payton and Garrett cover the disappearance of Asha Degree and the mysterious way she went missing. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/mur...derwithmyhusband Case Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/abe6bi/the_unresolved_disappearance_of_asha_degree/ https://thehueandcry.com/asha-degree/ https://ashadegree.com https://www.dailyarmy.com/stories/the-story-behind-asha-degrees-disappearance-and-new-details-from-the-case/ Follow our socials: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Click here to donate to "End the Back Log", to help solve unsolved rape cases: http://www.endthebacklog.org If you have any sort of information regarding the Asha Degree case, please contact the Charlotte FBI at (704) 672-6100. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Payton
Marland and I'm Garrett Marland and he's the husband. I'm the husband. Well, here we are.
Another day, another podcast. We have the winner of the Dozzy ties giveaway that we did
for Father's Day. All you had to do was leave the review and we just drew that. We videoed
it and we're going to be putting it
up on our social medias,
but I'm also going to announce the winner on here.
So the winner was an Apple Podcast review
and it was from Kirsten Stout 8.
So DMS Kirsten, we have your $100 to DAUZY ready
and yeah, it's so exciting.
And thank you to everyone who left us a review,
it really helped. And this was fun. So maybe we'll have to do some more giveaways in the future.
Yeah, no, I was going to say I hope we can do some more in the future because that was fun.
Yeah, it was fun. And you guys seem to really like them as well.
Yeah. So I also just wanted to give an update. So for those of you who don't know,
there is a case going on right now. I'm going to call it the daybell case.
And it is happening in a small city called Rexburg that happens to be like, I don't know,
20 minutes, 10 minutes of garrison's driving away from my hometown.
It's about these two kids who went missing and it actually took a really long time
for someone to even notice that they were missing and
when they finally did realize the parents were kind of like we don't have to answer you and then they just ran off to Hawaii
Well, they disappeared and no one knew where they were and then eventually we found out that they were in Hawaii and
No one knew where the kids were but they weren't saying anything either.
And grandparents were worried and then come to find out there were people in their past
that had also gone missing.
And so there's a lot of information.
Yeah, it was just kind of a whole bunch tangled mess, but we just found out this week that
authorities found the remains of the two missing children on the husband's property.
Which is just devastating. I mean, I kind of felt that way because they weren't answering any questions and they were running from the law, but it really did also just create this
like whole almost for parents where they don't necessarily have to tell the authorities where
their kids are. And so it took a really long time to arrest them because the authorities had to come up with
Reason to I guess because the parents are like we don't have to tell you anything about our kids like they're not in danger
So it just took like a lot longer than you would think if parents
Killed their kids and then just were like we don't know where they are and it kind of it did like it's surface
This like wait it kind of, it did, like, it surfaced this, like, way to kind of get around it, which was really scary for everyone who
was watching. Like, why don't, why the heck won't the police just arrest them? Well, they literally
can't, like, they have no grounds. And so, anyways, they arrested, I'm finally got a search warrant.
I'm not quite sure how. And found the kids. And so we will be doing an episode on the daybell case
coming up.
My mom, who lives still in Idaho, actually knows
a ton of people who are involved in the case
and who know the daybells personally.
And so we kind of have a lot of inside information,
home town-y information about this case.
And I would say this case is pretty public.
I mean, it's been on a lot of national
news. And so I might bring my mom on here and she can kind of talk and discuss the case
with me because she has like I said a lot more information than I do. So I just want to
let everyone know that that's coming up. If we do hear any more updates, we will be posting
them on our social media for this case. So go ahead and follow us. We're murder with
my husband, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So yeah, I just wanted to let everyone know.
We had a couple people reach out and ask if we were going to cover it just because my hometown
is so close to it. So yeah. But that's all I have, I think, for the information before
this we start. Let's do it. Okay, let's jump into it. So where I got my
information for this case was reddit.com. The username nerdfather1 on reddit actually
did an amazing write-up on this case and I got a lot of information from it was
like eloquent. It was beautifully done. So if you want to read that go ahead and
I also got it from the hue and Cry.com, asha
degree.com and daily army.com.
All of those will be linked in our episode notes.
So this is the story of Asha degree.
So Harold and Aquila degree were married on Valentine's Day in 1988.
One quick year later, they had their son O'Brien.
On August 5, 1990, their daughter Aisha was born and she was so loved.
The degree family lived in the rural town of Shelby, North Carolina, and Harold's mother
and sister actually just lived across the street and right down the street from them and family was very very important to them. They were a very religious
family and they lived a pretty structured life. They would attend church and
Bible study every week. Both Asha and her older brother O'Brien were into
sports. They were both very talented. Asha had an almost perfect attendance
record at school and she performed at the top of her fourth grade class
She loved reading and writing and she was and she was very good at science and math
Which I can't relate to that at all me either so it said that the degree kids were very well behaved for their age
They would watch themselves after school
While their mom and dad were at work, and they would actually get their homework
and their chores done before their mom even came home.
So on February 13th, the degree family had a normal Sunday
like any other.
They went to church, followed up by a family lunch
with grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone.
And then the family finally went home for the night
and the kids were tuckered.
They were ready to go to bed.
They had school the next morning
and it had been a long three day weekend for them.
Harold, the father had to work that night shift
at his second job.
So he left and Equila put the kids to bed around 8 p.m.,
Aisha and O'Brien actually shared a room.
So it was just putting both into the room,
tuck them in, read them a book, go to bed, goodnight.
So around 12.30 a.m., Harold arrives home from his night shift
and he checks on nine year old Aisha and her brother.
They were both asleep.
So he went back out to living room, spent some time relaxing,
watching TV before finally going to bed at 2.30 a.m.
He says on his way to his bedroom,
he checked on the kids again
and they were both sleeping in bed. A short while later O'Brien, Aisha's brother,
awoke to Aisha getting out of bed to go to the bathroom. So he heard her bed squeak when she came
back in and so he was like oh she climbed back into bed and so he just went back to sleep.
Yeah. Equila the mom wakes up around 5.45 AM the next morning
and gets the bath running for her two kids.
They didn't bathe the night before
because they were with their whole family
and they had school this morning
so she had to kind of get up earlier this day
to get them ready.
So after she gets the bath running and everything,
she goes into the kids room to wake them up
around 6.30 and get them in the bath. It was at this moment that Aquila's life changed forever. Upon entering the room,
Aquila found O'Brien, sound asleep in his bed, but Aisha's bed was empty. She checked
throughout the house, hoping that maybe she just wandered out to the living room. She even went
and checked their cars, like I don't know if some reason she went into their car
or something, you know, maybe she went outside.
With no luck, she wakes up her older husband
and he tells her, you know, call grandma,
call the family that just lived down the street,
make sure, you know, she didn't just wander up
to their house for some reason or something.
At eight o'clock in the morning though, it's so early.
I know.
Devastation in panic starts to set in for Asia's parents
when grandma tells them, oh, she's not here either.
Oh, man.
So at this point, Harold calls the cops and tells them
the one sentence that no father should ever have to say.
His daughter was missing.
The police arrive at 640, which that is a fast response time
considering that the mom called it.
The mom woke the kids up at 630.
Oh, I thought you said 8 am for some reason.
No, 640.
Oh, so it's really early.
Yeah, because she had to bathe them and get them ready for school.
So yeah, the police came within 10 minutes of them finding out that she wasn't in her bed.
Oh, yeah, because when someone goes missing so early in the morning,
it's 630 AM, right?
So obviously, how do we burn in the middle of it's 6.30 a.m. right?
So obviously, how do we burn in the middle of the night
at the time?
Yeah, I think that's probably what was going on.
Yep.
So the police show up, search dogs were brought in,
but they couldn't pick up Asha's scent.
There had actually been a thunderstorm that night,
and that possibly masked the scent for the dogs
they're thinking.
I do want to say sometimes in older cases,
we see the authorities not taking missing children
very seriously at the beginning, telling parents,
you got to wait 48 hours, whatever, whatever.
But from the sources and all the research that I did,
it seems like the police responded fast
and we're diligent, like immediately bringing in the dogs.
And like you said, it was probably
because it was like an overnight abduction. And. And so they were like this is probably real.
But yeah, I mean every kid should be taken seriously. No, yeah, for sure.
So the police and the family searched the neighborhood with no luck by noon. Over 60 people
had joined the search for a helicopterO. A helicopter had even been released
with infrared technology,
hoping that if there was a body,
they could see it,
and no such luck.
They searched all afternoon for H.O.
The woods nearby,
all the surrounding area,
but nothing came up.
Back at the degree home,
police and family go through
H.O. and O'Brien's bedroom
to find any clue of what could have possibly happened. Like, how does a girl go missing and there's no evidence? How old and O'Brien's bedroom to find any clue of what could have possibly happened
Like how does a girl go missing and there's no evidence? How old is O'Brien again? I think he's like 11
Okay
Because she's nine and he's older so and they said you said at the beginning he heard her come back in
Yeah, he heard her get up go to the bathroom and come back and get back in bed
So it's not like he was a heavy sleeper
I mean that woke him up So how did someone come in and get her and it not wake him up?
They're so young and little. Yeah. Okay, I keep going. So, Aisha's parents notice in the bedroom
that her backpack with her house key is gone. And so once they realize this, they kind of start
going through her personal items like her closet and her drawers and stuff. Only to discover that her Tweety Bird purse is also gone and her two favorite outfits are missing.
What?
So not only did someone just come up and get her.
Well, we don't know if someone got her. She could have ran away, right?
But like, you know, I don't.
But like, there was stuff missing.
Yeah.
And so it seems as if Aisha, although we will be will be will during packed a back pack
up with clothing and personal items before she left the house.
Now whether someone was with her forcing her to do this or she did that on her own, we
don't know.
Yes, you have to think is her favorite things are missing though.
So it kind of puts a whole different perspective on it.
Yeah.
So even though it literally doesn't make sense, the cops and the family, you know, kind So she picked them. So she picked them. So it kind of puts a whole different perspective on it. Yeah.
So even though it literally doesn't make sense, the cops and the family, you know, kind of
start to believe that someone didn't come in and take her because O'Brien didn't hear
anything, she picked her favorite outfits, she took her backpack with her house key.
Maybe she packed the bag on her own and left on her own.
Even, you know, she even locked the door with her
house key on the way out because the doors were locked when the mom woke up.
Yeah, it's weird. Why, though? Why, you know, she wouldn't run away on her own. She's a nine-year-old
girl. It's storming outside. It's 6'4am, whatever middle of the night time it was. Where was she going?
Was she going to meet someone, a friend, a stranger, and in the
middle of the night, like it just, it didn't make sense to anyone, like it were immediately
puzzled.
Yep.
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Aisha get out of bed and go to the bathroom. He was actually hearing her pack her bags to leave for some reason.
Oh, okay.
So on the nighttime news that night in Shelby, North Carolina, they covered the disappearance
of young Aisha and this actually brought some leads for detectives.
Three separate people come forward, claiming that they saw Aisha
walking on the side of Highway 18 between 3.45 and 4.15 a.m. that morning.
Alone.
What in the middle of the night?
Nine years old.
Nine years old.
It's storming outside.
That's so strange.
These spottings were only about a block away from her home.
So she walked out of her house, walked to the highway, and started walking down it.
Oh man, I can't believe she got out of the... I mean, I just... it's crazy.
Okay, keep going.
One of the drivers who spotted her was worried because it was slightly storming outside,
and he said, Aisha didn't have a coat on.
Like, she was just walking in her regular clothes.
And so, he turned his car around after he drove by her and saw that's a nine-year-old little girl
at 3.45 AM.
And he started driving back to her to check on her, but when he got close, she got scared
and she ran off the road and directly into the woods that were lining the highway.
Oh, no. So, he just was like, okay, whatever the woods that were lining the highway. Oh, no.
So he just was like, okay, whatever.
He didn't call the cops.
Yeah, what's hard?
I mean, like, you know, do really, yeah.
So with that lead, police searched the area
that the witness said she ran into
and they actually end up finding evidence of Asia.
In a shed of a nearby business called Turner upholstery police
discover candy wrappers a pencil and a marker and a Mickey Mouse shaped hair
bow they assume the Asha head it was storming had run into the woods found this
shed and sheltered underneath the shed due to the storm and the temperature
outside it was cold and she ate candy, she got her pencil and
her marker out. This is so this is like sad. All of this leads police to determine that Aisha was
most likely not lured out of her home with someone. Nor did she meet someone directly outside of
her house. Seems as if she left and walked somewhere alone. Why? Yeah. The following month of March was hard
for this case. There were not many more leads and Asha had not been found still. The family was able
to raise $5,000 for a reward. And Asha's case was broadcast on some national television, but it really
wasn't insanely widespread. It was more just local news. Man, having, I think, one of your kids run away like that would be almost worse than
I'm getting stolen because you have zero closure at all of what's going on.
I know.
Like, wide-shear on a way. Where is she at? What's going on?
Why did she go on?
You know, like, totally.
Mm-hmm.
So I think with not much to go on, it was just an insanely mysterious disappearance at this point.
And sadly, the news that we see on TV is dramatic and eventful. You know, the Lorraine
of Bobbitts, you know, like you don't hear of a young girl who was seen walking down the highway
at 3.45 am and then there's no more leads. There's nothing to report on. On August 3rd, 2001, 26 miles away from her home in Burke County, a contractor working
on a construction project found a backpack that was wrapped in black plastic trash bags
and buried.
The backpack was confirmed to be Asha's.
It actually had her name and number on it.
It was buried, you said? Yes. I think if this bag hadn't been suspiciously
wrapped up in trash bags and buried, the contractor might not have even called
the cops or told anyone. Yeah. Like I don't think finding a backpack is that
strange. It's the fact that it was purposely hidden that made it not worth eating.
Even then I'm surprised they called considering they probably find so many different things.
When they're digging. Exactly. Yeah. I also think it's weird, though, that they wrapped this backpack
up in two trash bags. So it was like placed in one black one and then they put another one on top of it.
They probably, because they try to make it look like trash, probably. Well, if you're trying to get rid of evidence,
like if this is someone who has hurt her
or abducted her or whatever,
and they're trying to get rid of this evidence,
why would you protect it?
Wouldn't you destroy it?
Stored away or burn it?
Yeah, that's what literally what I wrote.
Why not burn it or just bury it without protecting it?
Because the backpack would burn pretty easily.
Like it's almost like whoever buried the backpack
to me at least was coming back for it.
Yeah, because they protected it.
They made sure nothing was going to get on it.
Like two bags were placed over it.
Hmm, look up.
So the other weird thing about this uncovering of the backpack was the fact that the backpack was buried
26 miles in the opposite direction
that Aisha had made her way that night.
So think of it like this, her house is the middle starting point.
She walks about a mile one way in the middle of the night and then runs into the woods
because she gets scared.
And then two months later, her backpack is found 26 miles back in the opposite direction
passing her house on the way to get there.
That's that isn't make any sense. Like she didn't walk that I don't think. I don't even know
what reason that that would happen. So police searched the surrounding area of the construction
site where the bag was found and they find a men's pair of khakis. What are you wearing, Jake, from State Farm?
Uh, khakis.
I'm gonna insert the little.
What are you wearing, Jake?
That's fun.
That's funny.
So they sent the pants in for testing,
but the results of those tests have never been shared with the public.
Oh, weird. Do you know why?
Nope.
So police do publicly say after this
testing though that they think that Aisha left willingly from her house and once she left she was
met with foul play out in the woods. Do they think she was meeting somebody or are we not there yet?
They yeah, we're not there yet. Okay. So it was at this point that Asha's case went completely cold.
There were absolutely no leads,
and it seemed like no hope in finding Asha
or discovering what had happened to her that cold night.
It wasn't until 13 years later,
in January 2014, the detectives hoped
that they had found a connection to Asia's case.
Oh, that's crazy.
So 52-year-old Donald Ferguson was arrested in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Remember, Asia's in North Carolina.
For the murder of a seven-year-old girl named Shalanda Poole, she was found behind an elementary
school strangled, stabbed, and had been sexually assaulted.
Seven.
Wow.
Oh, and by the way, Shalonda was in North Carolina.
So they arrested him in South Carolina, but Shalonda's body was found in North Carolina.
And so was.
And so, well, I mean, she went missing in North Carolina.
North Carolina, yeah.
Uh-huh.
So usually, predators have the same type of victims, which is how we are able to create better profiles.
Like, think of criminal minds, the same race, the same gender, the same age, sometimes even
down to the same hunting grounds, which could be cities, parks, malls, neighborhoods, whatever.
Like predators have patterns.
They like to hunt in the same way.
So if that's why sometimes it's really hard to catch people who switch
genders of victims or switch age of victims because then it's like well now I mean now we just
don't even know anything about this killer because we can't file them. I mean it's kind of like
animals right? They hunt the same things the same way they do it the. If you're successful in one
place you go back and do it the same way. Usually they don't stray from their pool of victims.
Like if you think for for Ted Bundy for instance. instance, a way that he was able to get victims was to pretend that he
was hurt. And once he did that successfully once, he continued to do that for the rest of his
victims. Like it's just their creatures of habit. So Donald Ferguson moved to Greensboro, North Carolina,
where he met in a salted slash murdered Shalanda, the seven-year-old girl. After her body was found by police, but they didn't know who had done it.
He, you know, felt the pressure. And so he moved to South Carolina,
where he was later arrested and charged with the assault of a 10-year-old little girl.
He went to trial and was sentenced to eight years, but got out in October 1997, serving only six years.
Okay.
So say it with me, more time for child abuse
and sexual assault convictions.
The child does not have to die for a punishment to be severe.
If you are sexually assaulting a child,
they do not have to die for you to go to prison
for a lengthy amount of time.
Because look what happens apparently.
Yeah, we see this happen all the time.
Mm-hmm.
Like it's almost like, oh, as long as they don't kill them
You know, which I'm like yeah grateful. They didn't kill them
But they still caused major major harm and permanent damage
It's probably like oh look that got in on good behavior. Well, yeah, there's no kids in the jail of course that got in good behavior
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So, Shalandas case back in North Carolina at this time had gone cold,
but was reopened in 2007 when the DNA from the case was retested
due to advancements in the testing, which we're seeing a lot lately.
I love DNA testing, and it's hard to say that.
And these idiots didn't realize back then
that you could even test DNA.
And so now we're catching a whole bunch of people
because they didn't.
Pretty awesome.
Yeah, so they test DNA comes back to Donald.
And so obviously they go, they rain him for the crime.
And local police notice the similarities
in Shalanda and H.S. case.
Like wow, you know. And so Shalanda and Aisha's case. Like wow, you know.
And so Shalanda had actually shared a room with her sister at the time of her disappearance.
And she too had vanished, left her home in the early morning hours of July 21st, 1990.
Oh, that is so freaky because then it just makes you think, okay, so is he just like spying
and watching these families, you know?
Oh yeah. So Donald actually knew, he like, he knew Shalanda's family. He went in and like connected
with them. Oh no. And, and, and he even helped search for Shalanda the day after she was reporting
missing already knowing that he had stabbed strangled and sexually assaulted her behind her elementary
school in the middle of the night. That's crazy. I know. So she was found only one day later after that with 19 stab wounds and she
had been manually strangled. So he... What? 19? Yeah. Not a good guy to say the most. Yeah, seriously.
Maybe we shouldn't have let him out of prison. Oh man. But the thing about it is, is back in Asia's case,
Asia's family didn't know him, which is a little weird
that he like God and connected with his one victim's family,
but didn't with the other.
So although the area is the same,
both in North Carolina, the race is the same,
the age is the same, the location,
police officially state that they don't think
Donald was involved with Asia's disappearance. that they don't think Donald was involved
with Asha's disappearance. And they haven't ever taken a photo.
They've never stayed in Hawaii.
Nope.
But apparently something pretty strong to be that blunt of a statement when it feels pretty
obvious.
Totally.
So he was convicted of Shalanda's murder and he confessed to, but he didn't confess to
Asha's.
Okay.
And in 2014, he was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
So he's put away.
Okay, good.
But someone had to die for that to happen.
Yeah, that's not good.
So, yes, good job.
Good job, Garrett.
So although a predator was taken off the streets,
this information from the police
about the case is not being connected
was extremely discouraging for everyone involved and
Following Aisha's case it felt like they had finally had the break
They were all looking for they were one step closer to finding her and receiving the answers
They needed just to be told oh we were right there, but no we weren't yeah
So it wasn't until May 2016 when the FBI had reexamined Aisha's case
So they came back in it was cold and they were like let's pop this baby out again So it wasn't until May 2016 when the FBI had reexamined Aisha's case.
So they came back in, it was cold and they were like, let's pop this baby out again and
let's reexamise.
I wonder what makes them do that, what makes is someone like, is a rookie coming and go,
oh, I've heard about this case.
You know what I'm saying?
I wonder what that happens.
I think so a lot of times it's a change.
I mean, a change of eyes is good for any case.
You hear about that all the time.
So if someone retires and a new person comes in, most of the time they look at all the
old cases because new eyes might bring, you know, they re-interview
all the same people. That should almost be done like once every two years or a year, right?
New people come in. We don't have enough new people. Some sort of system or something where
it's like, we're going to send this out to a new company or whatever. Yeah, I know.
It's almost like we could solve that because there's, I mean, there is, like, for instance,
for the rape cases and, like, DNA testing,
there's a huge backlog on, like, unsolved rape cases.
And there's just not enough money
or enough resources to get it done.
You need to start a, like, a crime company
where you just go and solve it.
I know there's, like, something you can donate to,
I'll put it in the episode notes.
I can't I can't think of it off the top.
My head, but you can donate to get those things tested.
Okay. But it's almost like we also need a company,
like a private third party company that comes in and looks at
these cold cases and gets access to all of the information and
gets access to all the evidence.
Totally. To get fresh eyes on it. Right. Yep.
And luckily, there are some police departments who have now made just a cold case force.
So all they focus on is cold cases, which is helpful.
You have like PIs and stuff, but.
Exactly.
But that, I mean, you know, the problem is in some cities, you know, granted, especially large cities,
there is a backlog of cold cases.
I can imagine.
They do not even get looked at a second time.
So, anyways, May 2016, so pretty recently, FBI comes in and reexamines Asia's case,
and they make a public statement claiming that there were credible sightings of Asia getting into a
dark green early 1970s Lincoln Continental Mark IV, or a Ford Thunderbird with rust along the will wells.
So I guess there were a couple witnesses who saw her climbing into a dark green car that were one
that were either or of those two cars I just named. Was this not mentioned before? No idea.
No idea. I don't know if this came from re-interviewing people.
You know, new people that they were looking for.
Did you possibly see this?
Mm-hmm.
And so it's the FBI.
And so apparently, there was enough credible sources
to claim, okay, this is what we think happened.
Okay.
So, you know, they put that out and say,
do you know anyone who owned a car or, you know,
and they get no leads?
So again, two years later, in 2018, the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office revealed that if anyone
from Falstone Elementary School, which was her elementary school, had checked out McGeliot's
McElegates pool.
McElegates pool?
I don't know, I don't have a kid yet, so I don't know these Dr. Seuss book names.
But if anyone had checked out this Dr.
Su's book to please contact them in regard to Aisha's case,
a Dr. Su's book. Yes. Oh, I think I know what's going on here.
What? What? Well, you talk. Oh, I just maybe this is a completely
far off. But I don't want to ruin it for this. No, I think that
inside the book, there was something written about leaving your house in the middle
of the night and like where to go.
Babe, that's so smart.
Is that not what topic?
No, but that is so smart because I'm going to tell you why.
Okay, okay.
Before?
I'm smart, everybody.
I hate smart.
So before she was left or whatever, She read at school, a book,
and I don't remember what it was called,
but like her whole fourth grade class read it,
and it was about these two boys who leave home
to go on an adventure and eventually come back.
And so some people think maybe that's what she was doing.
They were in that foul play,
but I didn't even include that
because it was just speculation on my read it.
Okay. Well. But you're so smart, you just speculation on my credit. Okay, well...
But you're so smart. You were just thinking about all of that.
Well, we're kind of going off topic, but so the other guy...
Donald?
That murdered.
Did they say how he got those girls out of the house or the...
It's murder victims?
It didn't say, but I'm sure it was the...
So I'm wondering...
So I'm wondering...
But I'm wondering if like they read the book as well, you know, and then they...
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? Like one of those books.
But you might have just solved this case.
I wonder if the book has made kids leave you for.
Because they never, they never said why they're asking for the book.
They just said, if you or anyone you know, checked out the book around this time, let
us know.
Oh, okay.
And I don't know what that book is about.
Just.
They're conspiracy theory.
I'm thinking of over here.
Okay, it's interesting.
So they also said,
if anyone owned or knew someone who owned a vintage new kids on the block, white t-shirt around the time of Asia's disappearance, you know, please call in. Police are hoping that they could jog
anyone's memory about someone who might have owned that or contained these items involved in the case.
Okay, it's kind of random. So sometimes I wonder why police wait so long
to release evidence as small and intricate as these details.
I mean, I know they can't give too much away in cases
so that their court case is stronger.
You know, if something's Google, Googleable,
if something's Googleable,
then it's hard to stand as evidence.
Or scaring the suspect away.
Exactly.
So, but asking people 18 years later, if they or someone they know checked out a book at this
elementary school or owned a shirt seems far-fetched. Like, how is someone going to remember 18 years ago?
Like, if they had released this information,
the day of her disappearance,
there was probably five parents who went,
well my kid just checked out that book,
and there was probably 10 adults who go,
hey, Mike, down the street has that shirt.
Especially when there's no context behind it,
I'm sure the parents are like, what?
What, what are you, can you like update me
why you guys need that stuff?
Need this stuff, like where did that come from?
Yeah, how come police 18 years ago didn't know about it if you just barely you know, that's yeah
I mean it seems so I'm I'm sure there's a reason behind it. Yeah, but it just seems so up in the air
So I'm now gonna bring you the side and dev stating news that this is all we currently have on the disappearance of A should
Wow, that's crazy.
I feel like it's important to spread awareness, no matter how small the platform is on these
type of cases that need attention and information spread. So I'm going to be posting a picture of
the cars and the book and the shirt. And if you live in North Carolina, I know we have a couple of listeners
and know someone or knew about this.
Like, you know, it's just important.
It's important to keep these cases going.
And so as much as I love the entertaining solved cases
that we share that come up with all the answers you could need,
we still have families out there waiting for answers
and closures. So it's
important that we cover cases like this as well to help raise awareness for these families.
I know they have like the missing kids, you know, like the website. I don't know exactly what you
could call them. The website for missing and exploited children. Yeah, it would be cool though if they've
like there was a bigger community of people who all came together and every single time
of kids missing, it's like everyone's aware and looking.
It's hard because back in the day,
with the milk carton kids and the amber,
missing kids, it was just kind of becoming a thing.
Before that, it was like, wait, people take children.
Like, it wasn't widespread.
And then all of a sudden it became widespread.
Stranger danger, oh my gosh. Every kid that went missing was on the news. people take children, like it wasn't widespread. And then all of a sudden it became widespread, stranger danger.
Oh my gosh.
Every kid that went missing was on the news.
And then it just became, wow, there's an overwhelmingly
amount of kids that go missing.
And so then some just, like on Twitter sometimes,
I'll see like viral post of like, oh, this person's missing.
And then oh, we found them.
Like a Twitter such a great way.
Twitter Facebook, any any social media has been such a great way for some of these kids
Yeah, but like I said, you know
There also is issues with minorities not being covered as well as the young six-year-old blonde girl from the rich family
That's missing you know what I'm saying? So we just run into these issues.
Or maybe the kids are runaway.
So you can't really cover it because they want it at all.
I mean, is there under 18?
Yeah, obviously.
Yeah, it's like what you're saying.
Like sometimes cops are just like, well, they're runaway.
They actually said they would say this about this case
because she has all the science.
She packed her own bag.
But she's not.
But she's not.
And so they were like, we don't think she's actually run away. Definitely.
Um but yeah so yeah it's just hard it's hard. I agree.
Grateful for social media for helping the situation because I too retweet
anytime I see things like that and hopes that someone somewhere may see
that but it's just an overwhelming amount of kids that go missing.
And it breaks my heart to think that there are kids out there that go missing that no one
even gives a second thought to.
Yeah.
That don't even get attention.
So if you were to drive through Shelby, North Carolina today, there are still missing
posters for Asia plastered throughout the town.
There's blue ribbons hanging from every surface as a reminder. And there's also a billboard
located in the exact place that the witness says that she ran into the woods with Asha's photograph from 2000.
And a scientifically updated one of what they think she would look like now that says missing Aisha degree, like this community has not forgotten about Aisha and the great injustice that
was done to her and her family. And so I, I just think that's cool. It is a community, you know,
not, you know, just this kid that went missing, they honestly don't have that much information on.
Yeah. Is still like, we information on yeah, it's still like
We're still looking we're still searching everyone's made here. I want to find her. I know so sad
I think everyone does I know
So so many questions left unanswered in this case. Why would Aisha have left her house willingly?
That's my biggest thing was in the middle of the night during a storm
Was she going to meet someone? Was she lured out by a stranger or a family friend who made empty promises? Oh,
coming in the middle of the night, we're going to go on an adventure. Oh, come meet me in the
middle of the night. I've got this person did it. You know, you you hear all these these ways
that predators get these kids to come to them. Or was she just a nine-year-old girl who loved to read about adventure and wanted to experience
it on her own and you know, read this book about these two boys who go off and have this
amazing adventure in Alice in Wonderland and all these things and I can do that for myself.
I think it's also kind of interesting that she didn't tell her brother.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Like I feel like if she was going to go on adventure, she would have been like,
Hey, I'm going to go do this.
Do you want to come with me?
Let's let's go.
Let's go do something because he was older, you know, when they're both.
You're both still young though, right?
So it's like, let's go do this.
Let's go hang out.
I know.
It's just strange.
Yeah.
The whole thing is, uh, you know, like, did she get lost?
Like, did she go out on her own own wanting an adventure and then unprepared for that night's weather and
conditions she just found that shed and huddled in and then tried to make her
home and got lost yeah or did she meet foul play did she you know really go
out as a little girl wandering alone in the middle of the night that's a
predator's perfect victim totally but it like, what are the chances that she comes across a child, a doctor, malester, a solter? If it's a little
way, whatever. In the middle of the night, on the night that she just happened to pack
her bags and wander outside. Or, you know, maybe, maybe she did this. And then just this
night she hit foul play. Maybe this wasn't a one-time thing like you just never know
Yeah, I know there's so many unanswered questions, especially because now it's a little different. There's 15
Doorbell cameras when I walk our street. I know see yeah, that's a there's no surveillance no I
Personally feel like
No. I personally feel like from my personal standpoint, I think the most probable thing is that
she met an adult or a janitor at her school or someone who befriended her, made her feel
safe, who said, meet me tonight in the middle of the night out at this spot.
I'll pick you up and we'll go do something.
Whatever, whatever it was, he lured her to attract her to it
And so she being young and naive she's only nine packed her bags for her with her favorite clothes and
Left in the middle of the night thinking that she was gonna go, you know
Yeah, sort of but the problem is then everything got messed up when she went and stayed in the shed and she saved their all night
Apparently well, she didn't say there. We in the shed and she saved their all night apparently. Well, she didn't say there
We don't know if she stayed there all night
We just know that it seems like she took shelter there. That's time
But maybe that was the meeting point
No, cuz she got scared and we're not from that guy. So that had been a big coincidence
You know, I don't know also because if someone was like gonna pick her up, like, oh, walk down this road and
I'll pick you up, a car wouldn't have scared her.
Exactly.
Yep, that's true.
Because she would have been expecting someone to pull off and pick her up.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
This one's hard.
Like, her family states that she was shy and that she was kind of like, like, Thunderstorms
would have scared her.
Yeah.
Like, there would have been no reason for her to just...
Going to thunderstruck.
I did see like a sleepwalking.
Maybe she slept well.
Oh, okay.
But I mean, I don't know.
I mean, I've heard stories of people
who legit sleepwalking out of the house.
But packing a bag with treats.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It just is so confusing.
It's so confusing.
So her brother O'Brien now has a daughter. He's obviously grown up
and he has a daughter that's the same age of Aisha when she disappeared. And she brings like a new
hope into the family apparently. Like I watch some interviews with the family and you know,
she kind of helps keep Aisha in their hearts and the family hasn't
given up the mom hasn't given up they they search every single year they hold vigils and
you know remembrance on her day which was Valentine's Day so ironically enough her parents
anniversary was the day she went missing so they got married wow and then she went missing
that Valentine's Day it'd be kind of hard though. I know
But yeah, so they haven't given up hope. Yeah, good for them
If you have any information or want to help out on this case
Please contact the Charlotte FBI at 704 672 6100
The FBI is currently offering a $25,000 reward and the community is offering an additional
$20,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in this case. So if you know anything,
I would obviously highly suggest calling, even if it is just about the book or the cars or
you know the shirt, I don't know, anything we
can do to help this family.
I think we should.
So yeah, totally.
Yeah, that's the story of Aisha Degree.
That was kind of sad.
It's sad, but it was crazy, but it was.
Someone knows something.
Yeah.
I don't think she did this all on her own.
If you're listening to this podcast to be contact the FBI right now
Someone has to know something and they might not even know that they know something. That's true. They just yeah, so
It's important that we cover these ones. Uh-huh. I agree. But yeah, that's that's all I got. Oh, yeah, that was a that was a I mean
I don't want to say a good one, but you know what I mean?
Again, the Aussie winner
Here's then go ahead and reach out to us on our social media on
Instagram or Facebook to claim your prize guys. We will do another giveaway soon
Yeah, we'll come up with a new way for you to enter doesn't have to be
way for you to enter doesn't have to be. Yeah, it doesn't have to be reviews. Maybe we'll do that. Maybe we'll do tagging on Instagram or something next time since it's a little
year. I don't know. Maybe we'll try out the influencer life. You guys let us know. You want
to see us as influencers. Keep sharing this with your friends. All you have to do is share.
Tag you three best friends. Post on your story for an extra entry. No, but keep sharing
with your friends, your family, whoever. It's super helpful.
I love the word toward, mouth to mouth.
Word to word.
Exposure, whatever it is.
It's fun to have connections.
Yeah.
And we've been getting more listeners, we really appreciate that.
Our little murder family is growing.
Pretty soon we are going to be the Adam's family.
Garrett and I will be the mom and dad. This is fun. We're having a good time.
Yeah. So remember to follow us on social media and thank you for listening. I love it.
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