People are hopeful that a well-known cold case will soon be solved after more than twenty years.
On Valentine’s Day 2000, Asha Degree, nine years old, went missing from her home in North Carolina during a storm. Passing drivers saw her go into a nearby wooded area before she was last seen.
No one ever saw her again. The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office now says that after 24 years, they think Asha was killed and her body was hidden. Her body parts have not been found.
This week, search warrants were carried out by sheriffs, the FBI, and other police departments at a home, an assisted living center, and other places.
According to the search order, police think Degree is a “victim of murder, with her body concealed.” It also said that members of the Dedmon family owned or lived in the places.
A child was related to AnnaLee Dedmon Ramirez and a man named Russell Underhill through DNA samples. This led to the search warrants being asked for.
Some of Asha’s things were found more than a year after she went missing from her North Carolina home in Shelby. Someone found her backpack on a highway more than 30 miles from the last place she was seen. It was wrapped in sealed black bags.
Some of the things in the backpack were said to have DNA that connected Dedmon Ramirez (13 years old at the time) and Underhill.
Sheriff Alan Norman has said before that he thinks the neighborhood is the key. He said, “This has been going on for a while, and I’m sure there is someone out there who knows something very important about this case.”
The family has been hurting for a long time, and we want you to come forward to comfort them. The day Asha Degree disappeared 15 years ago was February 14, 2014. Many people in the area still remember that terrible day.
In 2015, Asha’s mother, Iquilla Degree, said, “Please keep praying for us because we believe she is still alive.” We’re still looking for someone to walk in, and we know we’ll see her again someday.