WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Asha Degree Disappearance 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.680 Thinking Sideways is not brought to you by the abstract 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:08.520 existential horror of the passage of time. Instead, it's supported 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:13.080 by the generous donations of our listeners on Patreon. Visit 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.799 patreon dot com slash thinking sideways to learn more and 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:25.159 thanks Thinking Sideways. I don't I'm not going to do it. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:33.040 You never know stories of things we simply don't know 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:38.519 the answer too. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.520 Thinking Sideways the podcast I Am Devin joined per Hush 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:47.400 by Joe and Steve. Today we're going to talk about 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.600 a mystery. Uh. This mystery was suggested by Shannon and 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.600 Savvy Ann Bury and like probably body else in this 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.560 entire world. Uh, and we're going to talk about the 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.880 disappearance of Asia Degree. Yeah. I've looked into this one. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.360 It's been rather intriguing. Yeah, it's pretty good. I never 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.280 read on this one a couple of times as well. Yeah, 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.319 let's do a quick overview first and then you know, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.200 hop into everything. That quick overview is in the early 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:21.480 morning of Valentine's Day two thousand in the year two thousand, nine, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.160 year old Asia Degree left her house with a packed bag, 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.680 apparently totally of her own volition and by early morning, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.840 we're talking like three or four am. Yeah, like very 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.520 early morning when it's still dark out. By all reports, 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.720 her home life was stable, it was safe, it was 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:45.279 good and suffolks, they were close. She had no history 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.880 of running away before. And spoiler alert, a lot of 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.320 people think she was almost brainwashed into leaving her house. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.600 Chatter you see on the internet. It is. Yeah, So 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.640 we're gonna go ahead and break that down a little bit. 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.120 Let's dig deeper into the time. One first work for 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:05.600 you guys. Sure absolutely. Asia lived in Selby, North Carolina, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.839 with her parents and her brother, who was older than her. 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.520 The entire time I was reading it, for some reason, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.040 I kept thinking it was her younger brother. But he's 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.120 older than her. Yeah, he's what a year year and 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:19.480 a half old? I don't think it's a year and 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.320 a half. He was ten when she disappeared. She was nine, 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:27.200 almost ten, So I think it's really like rapid, Yeah, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:32.000 nine or ten months maybe, But as far as I 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.040 can tell, it's never explicitly listed. So just so you know, 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.560 but he is older than her. Asha and her brother 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.720 were what are what's called latch key kids. Um, if 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.079 you're not familiar with that term. Basically just means that 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.160 both of their parents had jobs, and so they would 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.560 come and let themselves in and take care of themselves 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.160 for a couple hours after school. Yeah they were old enough. 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.120 I mean they were Yeah, I did at that age. Yeah, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:56.600 it's not a big deal. I mean, latch key has 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.919 got kind of a negative, negative connotation, But then I 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.480 really I think it's okay. I mean, my boyfriend was 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.160 a lash key kid when he was younger, and he 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.040 turned out fine. And I think most kids turn out fine. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.680 I wouldn't be too worried about. I mean, actually, the 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.400 only last few kids that don't turn out fine are 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.320 the ones that come home and they unlashed the door 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.359 and there's like a freaking murder, a kidnapper waiting for them. 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.639 I mean, those guys, they become like mysteries for us. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.640 But this isn't one of those mysteries. Actually, Yeah, it 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.000 sounds like Asha's parents did shelter her and her brother, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.200 whose name is O'Bryant, from the outside world a little bit. 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.120 I mean nine and ten, that's still pretty young, and 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.960 they didn't have a computer at home, for instance, and 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.520 they weren't really allowed to watch the news or TV 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.040 very much because as Asha's mother, whose name is Aquila, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:47.800 she said, you know, every time you turn on the TV, 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.600 it's just another like kid getting abducted or something like that. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.520 And she had heard all of the news about kids 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.600 meeting predators online, and she was she was very protective. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.880 Kind of ironic in a sad way, it is, but 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.600 she also really trusted her kids. And it seems like 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.680 for good reason to really kind of respect the rules 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.480 that she and her husband, Harold had put into place. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.240 Seemed like good kids. It seemed like you're really good kids. Yeah, 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.720 they followed the rules, they did well. They don't seem 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.160 to be troublemakers in any way, shape or form totally. Um, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:28.360 the Degrees were social however, they attended school functions, they 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.359 attended church and church functions. Um, they had a really 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.520 close knit extended family. In fact, Um, wasn't some of 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:41.400 these dad living across the street's mom and his sister 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.599 lived across the street. Yeah, sorry, you know, it was 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.719 a it was a close knit community, I think, And um, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.240 I don't really I guess. I don't want to say this, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.920 but I'm going to say it anyway. Oftentimes that is 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:55.720 not the kind of community that kids who are running 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.680 away from home come from. Usually they come from more 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.400 broken communities and home usually. Yeah, and where they lived 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.440 was a really kind of a was it. It was 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.000 a rural area. But they lived in a little three 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.919 year six block section, a little a little tiny subdivision. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.080 You know, the houses, ranch houses on large lots. It 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.320 seem like, yeah, we should say the Degrees still live 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.440 in the house they do that they were living in 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.760 in two thousands. They've they've stayed there the entire time, 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.880 so that's it's not a past tense for them. They 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.440 continue to live there. Asia and O'Brien, you know, both 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.920 the kids. They were both active. They both played in 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.400 youth basketball and um, I think she played softball as well. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.720 Apparently she was a really good athlete. She seemed to 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:40.400 really enjoy it, and she was really good at it, 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.960 at least by our reports. However, she was shy, but 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.360 to remember several times she's afraid of dogs and of 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:54.240 the dark, which isn't you know, Yeah, it's not that 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.960 unusual at all. It's still I'm scared of certain kinds 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.360 of dark. And I'm twenty is older than her, so yeah, 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:03.479 I know, I'm being afraid of the dark. Definitely not 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.440 so much for me. Dogs. No, dogs are always my buddies. So, 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.160 I mean, my brother was afraid of dogs when we 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.200 were growing up, and he, I mean one of our 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.479 neighbors dogs nipped at him once and he thought, oh god, 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.120 it attacked me and it's awful. So he kind of 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.560 had that built in fear of dogs. But overall, I 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.360 think a show was she was well behaved, she seemed 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.799 to really respect the boundaries that her parents were setting 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.719 for her, and she was pretty shy and all that stuff. 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:35.040 So um, that's kind of the background of this one 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.440 thing I will just mentioned briefly because you'll see it 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.560 mentioned on the internet before we really dive into the 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.799 actual timeline up events leading up to her disappearance. Asha 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:48.400 was in fourth grade and she had recently finished reading 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.200 a book called The Whipping Boy that sounds kind of kinky. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.880 It's definitely not that kind of books. Okay, it's a 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.000 children's novel actually, that is, it's based about a spoiled 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.240 prince that can't be punished for his actions question Mark. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.040 So his parents, who are the King and Queen. I 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.479 don't know why they can't punish him. But okay, by 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.000 an orphan boy named Jemmy. I can answer that question. 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.200 Why why they can't punish him? Why? Because kings are 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.600 considered in certain at certain times in history. The king 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.720 was essentially God and could not could do no wrong 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.360 because God could do no wrong. So therefore you couldn't 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.760 punish the God. So that's where the idea of the 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.200 whipping boy came from. Was you wanted to make their 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.800 friends so they felt bad that their friend was getting beat. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.400 It didn't really work, but that's where it came from. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.400 I guess that's why they wouldn't do it for me. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.200 This is a bit of a diversion, but for me, like, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.000 you don't have to make it public that you're spanking 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.840 your child, but if they're spoiled little brat, maybe like, well, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.840 let's be honest, most of the kings and queens weren't 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.920 doing the punishing themselves of the disciplination. Back to the 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.880 whipping boy. The King and queen by an orphan boy 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:07.000 named Jemmy. Jimmy, Jemmy Jemmy, and he's meant to take 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.000 the punishment for the spoiled prince. Yeah, I understand the 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:14.760 concept there. Yeah, the prince again. You know, Steve's right 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.640 on the money there. The concept was that the prince 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.520 and the boy would become friends, and he would feel 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:22.840 really bad because he was getting the boy punished, so 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.280 he would stop being bad. But in the meantime he 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:27.440 had a good old time. Right, it doesn't matter, uh, 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.000 It turns out in this book, the prince runs away 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.079 and demands that Jimmy come with him as his servant 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.960 because princess don't do anything. There's a long, long story here. Basically, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.600 they learn a lot of things. They're joined by a 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.480 girl for a little while and a dancing bear I 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:48.000 think um. But they eventually return home safe from their adventures, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.800 having learned lessons and becoming best friends, and the prince 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.439 is no longer spoiled, and it's awesome the end, right, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:57.800 except when he comes back home when he finds out 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.400 is that after he disappeared, all the servants, afraid of 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.319 the king's wrath, ran out and finally found themselves a 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.800 peasant boy who was a double for him, and they 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.720 replaced him. The King and Queen, having hardly ever seen 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.000 their son, were totally fooled. It's a different And then 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.080 when he returned with his friends like, hey, I've learned 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.160 so much life adventures. And the servants went, uh, kid, 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.880 you're kind of superfluous right now, and they quietly liquidated 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.560 the prince and uh and yeah, and his friend Jimmy, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.560 and so you know, I guess that the lesson I 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:30.719 learned from that book is don't bother learning any life 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:37.480 lessons because you'll probably be killed anyway. Yeah, taway, Oh, anyway, 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.440 did you want to book? Oh? Many times. I don't 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.600 think the book has a whole lot to actually do 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.560 with this story, but it plays in with the theories, 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.640 and you will see it time and time again on 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.040 almost every description of this story. So I feel like 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.040 it's worth bringing up. I feel that it's a coincidence too, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.920 and that she didn't run away, but I'm pre judging it. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.600 Of course I shouldn't do that. So let's let's talk timeline. 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.200 I will say this is this is how you will 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.680 see it online. It turns out from some research that 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.480 maybe this is not actually accurate. But in two thousand, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.679 apparently President's Day and Valentine's Day were just a few 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.280 days apart. So President's Day was the Friday before Valentine's Day, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.079 which was on Monday that year, which I think actually 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.560 turns out, it turns out that's not true necessarily President's 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:29.560 Day two thousand so not so. Yeah. I talked to 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.000 a local reporter about why the kids had the day off, 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.920 and she wasn't really sure day. Yeah, that she was 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:37.719 sick of. It was probably like a teacher's work day 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:39.560 or in service day or something like that, but she 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.520 wasn't totally sure, but she but it wasn't President's Day. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:47.320 But the kids did have the day off, That's that's 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.439 the bottom line. But Asia and O'Brien had, so they 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.320 had the Friday off. But you know, obviously their parents 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.920 did not, So their parents were at work on Friday, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.440 so they spent the day at their aunt's house. I'm 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.760 not sure if the rules were different. I've never seen 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.320 any elaboration on their time at the aunt's house or 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.079 even like who that is related to or anything like that, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.760 but apparently spent the day there, And I don't know 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.000 if the rules were different, For instance, if they had 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.440 access to a computer there they were allowed to watch 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.200 a different kind of TV. The difference between the rules 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.880 at home and at Grandma and Graham. Yeah, Yeah, and 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.520 that was true. Growing up I have I have five 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.640 aunts and uncles, um, and so whenever we would go visit, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.920 the rules were different at all the different houses, and 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.320 so we got to, you know, play by the new rules. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.079 So it may or may not be important to know 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.960 there's never been anything on it, but there's never been. Yeah, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.120 So I think I would feel better about the case 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.800 if I knew what the situation was there. But again, well, 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:44.559 you know, there's not that it is. I don't think 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.600 there was enough of an influencer to actually cause her 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.920 to suddenly remarkably change your behavior or anything like that. No, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.600 but we'll we'll talk more about this, I guess in 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.160 the theories, a little bit after they had spent the 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.839 entire day at the aunt's house, Asia and O'Brien went 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.199 directly to basketball practice at school. So I guess it 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.800 probably was an in service day because they were still 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.160 doing basketball practice and stuff. If it had been a holiday, 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.520 they probably would have canceled basketball practice kind of like 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.599 I don't know. I mean, I don't know what the 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.800 pe wee leagues are like in every area, but I 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.960 do know some places where coaches want to have practice 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.880 no matter what. It's important stuff but it was really important. 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.079 But it was taking place at school, and in my memory, 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.000 at least in Portland, if the school was closed for 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.760 President's Day, no one was coming in. There was no 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.360 reason to unlock the school, so they would have to 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.800 have somebody come in special in the whole gym up 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.320 and everything. Like with the school I had, the gym 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.000 was it wasn't the only way to get in the 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.760 gymnasium was through the school. The gym had its own 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.000 set of entrances and exits for the gym as well, 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.720 you know, like where I went. But I mean there's 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.800 still school because then you have access to the whole school. Probably, 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:57.640 you know, in small towns, I'm sure it's a little 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:02.240 more relaxed. That's probably true. Yeah, although it Selby a 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.840 suburb kind of Shelby, Sorry, Shelby is kind of a 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.520 suburb of Charlotte, of Charlotte, it's not necessarily a small town. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.240 But they went to basketball practice and then they went 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:13.920 home and spent the rest of the evening with both 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.360 their parents as far as I can tell. The next day, 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.560 Asia's basketball team had a game which they lost. It 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.440 was their first loss of the season. She was a 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:26.640 point guard, and actually fouled out of that game. I 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.840 don't know how serious the rules are, how easy it 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.000 is to foul out in kids games, you know, if 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.120 you have to really be being aggressive, or if a 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.079 referee might say, oh, you bumped into that girl, it's 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:43.440 a foul. I don't know. I doubt their official referees. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.920 I think they're probably volunteer referees. Yeah, for games out size, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.640 which is why it is totally subjective things. I see 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.160 where you're headed. Yeah, But so I don't know if 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.920 she was being abnormally aggressive or anything like that, or 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.079 if some if the ref was just just a little 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:02.120 sensitive or people without really meaning to. Absolutely, that's easy 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.720 to do, absolutely, yeah, especially if you're a kid. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.560 she was upset about She was upset about the loss 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.560 and felling out, I mean both. She cried a little 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.960 about that she was going to leave and start a 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.240 new life. No, that's not how it happened. She she 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.760 cried a little bit, but seemed to recover because O'Brien, 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.480 her brother, had a game after her, and she stayed 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.120 for the whole thing and seemed to have calmed herself 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.440 down and was able to get over the loss, which 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.080 is a thing you are hoping that your nine year 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:35.040 old can do is chat with her and said, you know, 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:40.800 that's the way you. Both parents seemed to have been 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.640 home on Saturday after the game. After the game, well, 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.240 they both went to the game. They watched both games 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.040 and then they think, say I think, but again, I 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.320 don't know. I don't know that for sure. And then 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:56.240 on Sunday they attended church and then came home. Harold, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.880 the father of this family, was working a second shift 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.320 that day, so he left kind of in the early afternoon. 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.000 I quila, it sounds like was home with the kids 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.600 for kind of just a normal, typical Sunday night, just 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.840 hanging out, doing homework things like that. I'm not totally 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.680 clear on the timeline at this point because the kids, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:18.880 it sounds like we're sent to their room. They shared 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.320 a room. They were sent to their room at about 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.280 eight to start getting ready for bed. But then at 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.400 nine the power went out and apparently that affected their 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.120 ability to have a bath. That seems late to me 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.480 for nine and ten year old to be having a bath. 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.320 So I don't really know what the situation there is. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:38.160 I had heard the power went out earlier and that 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.960 apparently there was a car wreck not far away, and 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.080 I had heard as early as six the power went out. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.040 It's not that vilely important, but apparently that there was 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.400 an outage and they didn't take their baths right, so 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.560 they went to bed early without their baths. That's pretty 0:15:55.760 --> 0:16:00.640 solid fact. Harold comes home at about thirty midnight thirty 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.600 and checks on the kids, who, he says, we're both 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.480 asleep in their beds. It does sound like they tended 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.480 to kind of wake up a little bit um at 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.840 least O'Brien is able to say, I heard dad check 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:18.080 on us. I heard Dad check on us, so at least, 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.240 and he heard his sister moving around, but he at 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.880 least was aware of it. But you know, Harold says 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.120 the kids were at least in bed and seemed to sleep. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.680 He took a couple of hours fro himself. He went 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.880 out to uh like a late night store and bought 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.120 some candy for Valentine's Day the next day, came home 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.800 and then finally decided to go to bed at about 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.040 two thirty, at which time he checked on the kids again. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.320 And by the way, I've heard, I've seen a little 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.880 bits here and there about people talking about well, it's 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:49.120 so weird that he was up till two thirty, and 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.840 it's like he was shift and you don't come home 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.520 after work and immediately go to bed. You can wind 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.720 down for a couple of hours. Yeah. And the other 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.400 thing I'll add is, um, you know, he's uh, he's 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.320 got two kids who are younger. It's likely these were 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.879 some of the only moments he had to himself. Yeah, 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.040 so this was kind of dad's quiet time. Yeah, do 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.479 what he wanted to do, hang out, go he can 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.480 do something, do some errands for the family, get get 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.560 candy and stuff, but kind of have a little have 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:20.800 a couple hours of a lone time. And then he 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.639 went to bed. So at two thirty, he about two thirty, 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.600 he went to bed. He checked on the kids. They 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.720 were both there sleeping ish um. And then so he 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.159 went to bed. And then, as Joe said, O'Brien had 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.480 heard a kind of rolling around in bed. He said, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:38.960 he said, I've heard two different I've heard it two 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.320 different ways. One is that he woke up when his 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.040 dad checked on him and got up to go to 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.720 the bathroom and came back to bed, and she was 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.520 asleep but had been adjusting the other way that I 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.199 heard it is that he heard her moving around. And actually, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.040 I guess there's three way I've ways I've heard it. 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.119 He heard her moving around and thought she was just readjusting, 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.600 so he went back to sleep, or he heard her 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.480 get up to go to the bathroom and then come 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.879 back to bed. Either all three ways he accounts for 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:09.879 her in bed around that time as well, but moving awake. Okay, 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:16.320 At five five am, Aquila wakes up to get the 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.359 kids ready for Valentine's Day. Oh, by the way, I 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.440 don't think I mentioned this, but Harold and Aquila got 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.200 married on Valentine's Day, so it was also their anniversary, 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.080 so it was going to be kind of a big day, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:33.200 I mean Valentine's Day anniversary celebration family. And you will 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.800 remember the kids hadn't had a bath the night before, 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.520 so she drew bath for them so they can have 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.760 a bath before they went to school, because keeping kids 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.960 clean is actually really important. It turns out, Yeah, their 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.639 alarm was set to go off at six thirty, but 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:49.440 she says that she went in a couple of minutes 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.200 before to wake them up because they need a little 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.239 extra time for the bath. And when she came in. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.280 O'Brien was in bed, but a show was not. Initially, 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.520 she kind of, you know, did a search of the house, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.400 checked the cars, and then thought, well, maybe she went 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.600 over at Harold's mom's house. It's just across the street, 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.520 and apparently that was something that she did every once 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.480 in a while. So she called over to her mother 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.760 in law's house, and her sister in law picked up 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.040 the phone and said, Nope, she's not here, at which 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:20.080 point a Quilla starts to get a little nervoustment. She starts, 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.480 you know, she frantically searches the house again. She wakes 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:24.760 up Harold. Harold says, well, she was there a couple 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.040 of hours ago, but okay, So he gets up and 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:32.320 O'Brien you know, gets up to and either Harold or 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.920 I Quilla, I'm not totally sure, calls I Quilla's mom 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.600 just to make sure that somehow. Yeah, I was gonna 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.960 say I heard that I Quilla went outside and told 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.520 Harold to call across the street, but I've also heard 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.440 that the call was made before she went looking out. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.880 I think the person who ended up calling on when 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.879 one was a Quilla's mom, not Harold's mom. So I 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.200 think she was also local, and they you know, she said, 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.960 Harold called my mom, and you know, is is she there? No? Okay, 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.639 then call nine one one because Asia's missing. And then she, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:10.240 of course understandably starts yell, goes outside and starts yelling 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:16.359 for around the neighborhood basically everybody, which again is fineable. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.600 I wouldn't be I mean, i'd be a little annoyed, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.239 but as soon as I understood what was going on, 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.600 I'd be like, oh, yeah, I should be awake, I 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.520 help you. The whole neighborhood actually turned out and started 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.560 they did. Yeah, that's actually just what I was going 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.639 to say, is that everybody in the neighborhoods just like 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.560 woke up and started looking. The cops Unlike a lot 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.760 of stories that we cover, responded promptly and perfectly. As 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.679 far as I can tell, they were. They were at 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.520 the house by six forty am. By seven am, the 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.960 entire neighborhood was awake and searching for Asia. Many many 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.000 of the neighbors, many of the friends, many of the 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.560 family members called out of work that day to help 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.520 with the searches. All day they called in missing kid 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.760 instead of sick. I think Yeah, they probably were like, Hey, 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.840 this kid we know is missing, she's nine, I'm going 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.720 to help look for And the conditions were miserable to 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.520 be doing that. It was at least the previous night 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:13.880 it had been a storm, and I'm not sure if 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.200 it still was or not, but I don't think it was. 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:20.359 Actually it was because it was like thirty or forty 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.119 degrees and thirteen when the storm rolled in. It had 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.320 gotten ten or fifteen degrees or warmer, but it was 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.359