WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Asha Degree 0:00:46.480 --> 0:00:47.960 School of Humans. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.000 Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.200 an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:00.120 forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.760 by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.720 community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.520 point to the challenges of verifying facts inherent in cold cases. 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.800 We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.080 guilty in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.080 is intended to state or imply that anyone who has 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.600 not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:27.120 Thanks for listening. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.840 It was three forty five in the morning on February fourteenth, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:38.040 two thousand, Valentine's Day, and a truck driver was barreling 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.400 down Highway eighteen right outside Shelby, North Carolina. It was 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.960 pouring with rain, was a huge storm hitting the kind 0:01:45.960 --> 0:01:48.320 of rain where you have to focus hard to see, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.480 and through that heavy rain, the driver saw something outside 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:53.200 his windshield. 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:55.000 It was a black woman. 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.280 At first he thought that it was an adult, but 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.080 as he got closer he realized that it was a 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:05.840 little girl and she was walking alone. So he slowed 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.040 down and turned around. But when he pulled his vehicle 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.440 up toward her to see if she needed help, the 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.120 little girl ran off the side of the. 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:14.840 Road into the woods. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.240 He didn't know that this little girl was nine year 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.320 old Asia Degree, and that just a few miles away 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.760 on Oak Crest Drive, her family was asleep, totally unaware 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.840 that she was gone. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.720 eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.120 I've learned that there is no such thing as a 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:40.120 small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.080 of messages from people all around the country asking for 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.240 help with an un solve murder that's affected them, their families, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.480 and their communities. If you have a case you'd like 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.760 me and my team to look into, you can reach 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.240 out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.360 six seven eight seven four four six one four five. 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.720 That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.320 or you can send us a message on Instagram at 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:55.120 Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Aisha Degree 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.320 was born on August fifth, nineteen ninety and lived her 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.840 whole life in that house on Oakcrest Drive with her parents, 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:06.360 Harold and Iquilla Degree, and her older brother O'Brien in Shelby, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.400 North Carolina, a small city located approximately forty five miles 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:11.440 west of Charlotte. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:13.880 Asia was in fourth grade. 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.840 At Foston Elementary School and she was a very good student. 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.440 Aisha and her brother O'Brien would ride the bus home 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:24.120 from school and then start doing their homework. Her parents 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.640 both worked at the time. Iquilla worked at Kawhi America 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:33.240 Corporation in Lincolnton. She worked there building pianos, and Harold 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.000 was a dock worker at PPG Industries short for Pittsburgh 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.440 Plate Glass. This was a loving, happy family by pretty 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.440 much all accounts, and they stuck to routines. Nothing about 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.280 this family was chaotic or unstable. In fact, it was 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:53.200 exactly the opposite. The weekend before Asha disappeared started out 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.120 on Friday, February eleventh. There had been a lot of 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.800 school closures following a big snowstorm in January. The schools 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.360 were off that day, so while her parents worked, Asha 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.000 and her brothers stayed with their aunt, Keisha Degree, who 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.040 lived down the street. Both kids were heavily involved in sports. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.920 They both played Pewee basketball, and they had practiced that afternoon, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:19.000 so they went to practice as usual, then went home afterwards. Saturday, 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.640 February twelfth was also all about sports. Asha played basketball 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.840 at a nearby elementary school. Now something did upset Aysha 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.040 that day. Her team lost the game. She ended up 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.480 fowling and having to sit on the bench. This made 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.040 her cry, but her mom later said, even though Asia 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.080 was understandably sad by the loss and how it affected 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.040 her teammates, especially once she started crying, she actually stopped 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.840 pretty quickly. She dried her tears and got over it. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:53.080 Asha rejoined her friends. The sheriff told the Star newspaper quote, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.000 all the girls were crying, not just Asia, and they 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.440 had a good cry afterward because it was the first 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.440 loss end quote. Asia's brother O'Brien also had a game 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.200 that day, so after they were both finished, they went home. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.000 Later that night, Asha was at a slumber party with 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.240 some friends. On Saturday, February thirteenth, the family went to 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:18.240 their regular church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Waco. They 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.040 do this every Sunday, and then they went to Asha's 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.960 aunt's house to have lunch. Asia spent time with her grandmother, 0:06:25.280 --> 0:06:29.080 joe Anne Jackson on Sunday. Her grandma said later Asha 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.920 was happy because she was getting chocolates for Valentine's Day. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.720 Everything seemed completely. 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.920 Normal that Sunday night, as the family settled into their 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.600 evening routine, they were wrapping up a happy weekend. Asia's 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.240 dad said Asha was tired from the slam party the 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.880 night before, so she went to bed at around six 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.240 thirty pm, but she woke up two hours later to 0:06:50.280 --> 0:06:53.840 the sounds of a storm. Asia's dad said she watched 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.080 TV with the family before going back to bed. Then 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.440 sometime around nine PM, during that storm, power went out 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.400 in the neighborhood, so the entire house was dark for hours. 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.800 According to Good Morning America back in twenty ten, Harold 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.400 said he did leave the house briefly during this time, 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.520 at around eleven thirty pm, to buy Valentine's Day candy 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.040 at the store. He said he came back to the 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.440 house and by then the power was back on and 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.280 Asia and her brother were asleep. Harold told GMA that 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.960 he watched TV for a while, then he went to 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.760 bed at around two thirty am. At six thirty am, 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.200 after Harold and Aquilla woke up, they realized that Asia 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.720 wasn't in bed, and after frantically looking around, they called 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.440 the police. Equilla said that at some point it appeared 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.080 as if Asha had woken up and packed her bag 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:45.240 with some stuff and. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:46.480 Then headed out on her own. 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.200 North Carolina Highway eighteen is about a block from that house, 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.000 so Asia would have had to walk about a mile 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.800 down the road to the place where the truck driver 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.160 had seen her. Her parents said that when Asha left, 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.600 she was wearing white sneakers, white jeans, carrying a black 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.440 book bag and a purse with tweedybird on it. She 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.400 may also have been wearing a white nightgown with red 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.480 trim and a teddy bear on the front. This nightgown, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.000 by the way, is a detail that will become very 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.320 important later. There was some other clothing missing from Ashia's room, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.880 including her favorite blue jeans with a red stripe, a 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.360 long sleeved white Nilon shirt, and a red vest trimmed 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:26.800 in black. 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:30.840 Police immediately began. 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.840 Scouring the area, and soon some neighbors found some of 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:38.320 Asia's items scattered nearby, including candy wrappers and a hairbow 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.800 that belonged to Asia. So police were trying to figure 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.880 out exactly what went down. Had someone come into the 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:49.120 house and kidnapped Ashia. That seemed kind of unlikely because 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.520 even though the front door was unlocked, no one inside 0:08:52.560 --> 0:08:55.640 the house had heard anyone come in, so that plus 0:08:55.680 --> 0:08:59.680 the stuff scattered around, had them leaning toward another possibility 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.560 that Asha had for some reason left the house on 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.040 her own. So that would mean that sometime between two 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:11.400 thirty am and four am, Asha left her house, but why. 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.080 Her mother insisted Asha was afraid of storms, so she 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.240 didn't believe Asha would have gone out on her own. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.280 It wasn't until five pm on Monday that one of 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.960 the motorists who saw Asha call police. This happened after 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.080 they realized there was a little girl missing when they 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.840 saw the reports on the news. Of course, in a 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.320 case like this, once someone comes forward after the news bulletins, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.400 it's important to ask if they could have been mistaken 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.880 about the sightings. But police believed this was unlikely because 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.880 there was a second sighting. In addition to the truck 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:49.080 driver who saw Asha walking along Highway eighteen before disappearing 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.600 into the woods, there was another driver. This person said 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.400 they saw a girl matching Asha's description. At approximately four 0:09:56.560 --> 0:09:59.760 fifteen am, near where the first truck driver said he 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.960 saw her. This second witness said Asia was alone when 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.120 they saw her and was carrying a backpack and walking south. 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.880 So investigators went to the spot where the witnesses said 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.840 they saw Asia. The volunteers and law enforcement concentrated their 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:18.000 search there, and while searching a shed along Highway eighteen 0:10:18.560 --> 0:10:21.280 near the area where drivers had seen her walking a 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.040 few days after Asha went missing, they found something. It 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.520 was near a business called Turner's Upholstery. They found several 0:10:29.560 --> 0:10:34.000 small items that were Asia's. They included candy wrappers, a pencil, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.760 and a marker, among other small items from her backpack 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.480 in an old chicken house. Now I want to mention 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.120 here there was something else that Aisha cant in her 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:49.640 book bag, a spare key, and investigators have never released 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.360 whether or not they found that spare key among her belongings. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.320 So my question is did they find the key and 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.400 if they didn't, where was it. Could Asha have possibly 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.320 given that key to someone else, But if Asha did 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:10.560 run away, why, The Charlotte Observer reported the Cleveland County 0:11:10.560 --> 0:11:13.960 Sheriff Bob Crawford said there were no indications that there 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.360 was anything wrong at home? Had Asha wandered into that 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.040 shed to get off the road on her own or 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.080 did someone take her there? And then the trail went 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.600 cold for months. Even though they found the belongings, they 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:32.680 didn't find any trace of Asha. Then, on August second, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.040 two thousand and one, construction workers were on Highway eighteen 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.200 in Morganton in Burke County, which is around twenty six 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:44.640 miles from Shelby, when they found Asha's backpack. The backpack 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:59.000 was buried wrapped in two sealed black plastic garbage bags. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.720 About eighteen months after Asia Degree disappeared, her backpack was 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.440 discovered buried off a highway construction site. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:11.400 Police confirmed they. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.200 Had taken items out of the backpack that were associated 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:18.640 with Asia, including clothing and personal belongings, but they said 0:12:18.680 --> 0:12:22.240 there were also items there that were not hers. Crucially, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:27.160 they never mentioned her spare key. We can deduce that 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.600 whoever buried that backpack obviously went to great links to 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.760 try to conceal it. This must have been heartbreaking for 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.360 her parents to hear. One of the items that they 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.600 found was a photograph. This photograph was a young black girl, 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.440 but it was not Asia. It was a professional photograph, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.680 like one that you would have taken at a photo 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.440 studio or at school. But Asha's family didn't know who 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.640 the little girl in the photo, who appeared to be 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:59.280 around the same age as Asha was. Investigators weren't sure 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.160 whether this had meaning. Was this some kind of a 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.920 serial killer trophy, or could Asha have had the photo 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.040 with her with some of her stuff, Maybe she traded 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.360 her photo with another friend, or was this just another 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:17.080 red herring, something entirely unconnected to this case. This young 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.880 woman has never been publicly identified. Some online commenters claimed 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.040 the girl in the photo has been identified, but she 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.200 doesn't want to be named publicly. Since this is an 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.480 open investigation, which means police are only sharing the information 0:13:30.560 --> 0:13:34.560 they want shared, we don't know for sure. Over the years, 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.160 investigators considered multiple possibilities about why Asha would have walked 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.200 out of the door that night. Was she meeting someone, 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.440 Was she lured out by someone who groomed her? Or 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:47.680 had she left her house to have some kind of 0:13:47.680 --> 0:13:51.680 adventure and then something happened, Maybe she was abducted, or 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.640 could it have been some kind of an accident, possibly 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.560 like a hit and run, and maybe a cover up. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.000 What really happened along that remote stretch of highway that night. 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:07.520 In twenty sixteen, the FBI released information about another possible lead, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.080 a vehicle of interest that was described as a nineteen 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.840 seventies era green vehicle. The agency said Asia could have 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.280 been seen in an early Lincoln Mark four or for 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.000 a Thunderbird from the nineteen seventies on the night she 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:27.120 went missing, but then the case went quiet again. One 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.360 possibility investigators considered over the years was that maybe Asha 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.440 left the house to have some kind of adventure on 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.720 her own, but then someone intercepted her once she was out. 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.280 Maybe they just saw an opportunity and grabbed her. Or 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.280 maybe on that dark, stormy night, if if it was 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.120 a hit and run while it was raining out there, 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.440 maybe the driver panicked and let the scene. In twenty eighteen, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.560 the Cleveland County Sheriff's office came forward again. They announced 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.160 that their investigative team had found two new items of 0:14:58.160 --> 0:14:59.400 interest in Asia's case. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:01.240 The first one was a. 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:06.480 Library book written by doctor Seuss titled Mceelligant's Pool. Investigators 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.920 said that library records did not go back to two thousand, 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.640 which presumably meant they weren't sure whether Asia or someone 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.560 else checked out that particular book. Police said they wanted 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.000 to find anyone who may have had this book around 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.560 the time she went missing. The second item of interest 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.280 they released was a New Kids on the Block concert 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.080 T shirt. It was white with a photo of the 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.400 band on the front, and it said Maine Arena seven PM, 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.360 but there was no city name. The Sheriff's office also 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.000 asked that anyone who owned this T shirt or knew 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.160 someone who may have owned one to reach out to 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.560 law enforcement. We're going to be sharing photos of this 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.960 T shirt on Instagram at helen Gonpod. But I want 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.240 to say I did a deep dive on this T 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.520 shirt and spent way too much time investigating New Kids 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.440 on the Block. The timeline of the shirt is super 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.960 interesting to me, though, because by two thousand, New Kids 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.800 on the Block were not together anymore. They broke up 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.920 in nineteen ninety four. Asha was nine years old in 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.480 two thousand, so she was way too young in my opinion, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.760 to be an og New Kids fan. Was this shirt 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.000 a hand me down from an older relative. That seemed unlikely, 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.520 since Asha's parents didn't mention it being hers. From the 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.880 information that law enforcement has released, this shirt did not 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.160 belong to Asha, So if it wasn't hers, where did 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.920 this T shirt come from? When I asked Chat GPT, 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.920 and I mentioned this because a lot of people always say, 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.080 how do you use chat GPT in investigations? 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.120 I think that it is a reasonable question. 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.200 I do sometimes use chat GPT, but it's not as 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:43.320 useful as you would think. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.000 And this is going to kind of illustrate why. 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.640 When I asked Chat, it said this T shirt was 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.720 almost certainly from one of their two most massive tours, 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.720 the Magic Summer No More Games tour from nineteen eighty 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.800 eight to nineteen ninety or the one that immediately followed 0:16:57.920 --> 0:16:59.680 from nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety two. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:01.920 The ninety to ninety. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.600 Two tour was the massive global tour that had dates 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.200 all over the world, so this was peak New Kid's fame. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.360 But It told me that the shirt was almost certainly 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.600 a bootlegged concert T shirt sold by an unofficial vendor 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.680 who had a pop up stand outside of a concert. 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.560 I thought that Chat was wrong, and it turned out 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.280 I was right. I found out the T shirt was 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.880 actually a nightgown made to look like a T shirt. 0:17:26.360 --> 0:17:29.200 It was made by a company called rock Knights. They 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.880 made nightgowns for girls. There are several similar ones on 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.920 eBay advertised as vintage nineties. This rock Knights company designed 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.840 fantasy concert shirts so kids could feel like they went 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.400 to the concert even when they didn't. That's why they're 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.160 laid was more generic with no city names. I found 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.440 this the old school way by going through old eBay 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:54.600 listings and calling people. Side note, when I asked Chat 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.520 why it got it wrong, Chat explained, it's predictive, so 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.920 not great at picking up anomalies. Again, Chat has a 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.520 lot of uses in investigations, and I think it's important 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.520 to try every avenue. But in cases like this, there 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.000 are a lot of strange things happening that, in my opinion, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.440 are better investigated by a human staying up late, fueled 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.680 only by macho lattes and an obsession. So if the 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.160 new kid's shirt wasn't Asha's, how did it end up 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.840 buried with her stuff? Could it have belonged to her killer? 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.560 Or could it have been in a house or the 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.360 trunk of a car and been something they grabbed while 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.560 getting rid of a body. Another thing that I noted, 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.240 according to her mom, Asia was wearing a white nightgown 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.520 with red trim. When she went missing, it had a 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.920 Teddy bear on the front. The new kid's nightgown also 0:18:43.120 --> 0:18:45.800 was white with bright colors and red trim, so I 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.320 was thinking maybe someone grabbed it when they were getting 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.360 rid of Asiaus stuff. Maybe they grabbed the wrong piece 0:18:51.360 --> 0:18:55.360 of clothing. These are all just theories, but in an 0:18:55.400 --> 0:19:02.160 open investigation, it is important to consider all possibilities. As 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.920 the years ticked by, behind the scenes, police were investigating 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:10.560 multiple leads, including a local family, the dead Men's. It's 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.960 important to emphasize before we go into this these details 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.640 come from search warrants and investigated materials, which reflect suspicion 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.720 and theories, not proven facts. No one has been charged 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.880 in connection with Asia Degree's disappearance, and all individuals mentioned 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.840 are presumed innocent. With that said, the Deadmond family was 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.000 Roy Deadman and his wife Connie, and their three daughters, Lizzie, Sarah, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.480 and Annalie. Lizzie would have been sixteen years old in 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.960 two thousand when Asia disappeared, Sarah was about fifteen and 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.640 Annalie was thirteen. Roy and con operated two assisted living 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.120 facilities in the area, and one of the things that 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.000 they did was patient transport driving patients from point A 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.440 to point B. In twenty twenty three, an employee with 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.560 Cleveland County Social Services told police that back in two thousand, 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.520 Rory would send his oldest daughter, Lizzie to take patients 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.920 to and from Broughton Hospital in Morganton. Quote in an 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:12.880 unreliable car end quote. Now this town, Broughton is located 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.120 just off Highway eighteen in Burke County. This is the 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.440 same road that Asia was last seen on and the 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.400 same road where searchers found the evidence in black trash bags. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.960 One of the items that investigators found in Asha's book 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.160 bag was an undershirt. It belonged to Asia, and on 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.600 that undershirt, law enforcement found a piece of hair attached 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.760 that matched the DNA of the third deadman's sister, an A. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:41.120 Lee. 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:45.080 In twenty twenty four, investigators execucuted search warrants connected to 0:20:45.120 --> 0:20:48.960 the deadman's and specifically mentioned Roy and Connie as potential 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.360 people of investigative interests in Asia's case, since at the 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.480 time of the disappearance all of their daughters were miners. 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.360 Law enforcement executed these search warrants at a house in Shelby, 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.040 an assisted living facility in Vale, and a home in Charlotte, 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:07.280 several items were seized from Roy Deadman's home on Cherryville Road. 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.480 The locations were all described as being quote owned and 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.160 lived in by members of the Deadmon family end quote. 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.680 Roy Deadman's house on Cherryville Road is about three point 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.360 seven miles from where Asia was last seen by the 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:27.440 drivers on North Carolina Highway eighteen. But there was also 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:31.240 someone else named in the investigation, a man named Russell Underhill, 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.680 whose DNA was also found. 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:34.920 On items belonging to Asia. 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.320 So who was Russell Underhill and what was his connection 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:43.480 to Asia? There was no known connection between Russell under 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.600 Hill and Asia or her family, but there was a 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.880 connection between Russell Underhill and the dead Men's back in 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.720 two thousand, Russell Bradley Underhill was a patient in one 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:57.760 of the assisted living facilities operated by the Deadmon family. 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.680 Russell was a Vietnam VET who struggled with depression and 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.800 substance abuse. So one question that I had was how 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.240 incapacitated was Russell Underhill in two thousand? Could he drive 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:13.920 or could he have been one of the patients who 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.880 was transported by the dead Mens? And I haven't been 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.840 able to find a definitive answer to that question. So far, 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.520 at what point, if at all, could Russell have had 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:38.240 contact with Asia. Police did have physical evidence, including the 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.000 backpack and items found in and around it. Among that evidence, 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.440 they identified DNA longing to Russell Underhill, as well as 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:52.320 DNA from Annaalie Deadman. So let's talk about Asha's undershirt. 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.720 According to search warrants, investigators recovered a hair from that shirt, 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.640 complete with a root that allowed them to obtain a 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.400 DNA profile. This DNA did not match Russell Underhill. Instead, 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:08.640 it was linked to Annaalie Deadman now Annelie Ramirez. This 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:11.440 was the youngest daughter of the Deadman family. She would 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:13.920 have been thirteen years old at the time when Asha 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.240 went missing in two thousand. Now, importantly, we know DNA 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.720 evidence alone does not establish involvement in a crime. We 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:24.920 know that transfer can happen in a lot of ways, 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:30.160 through indirect contact, shared environments, or other types of situations, 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:33.920 all of which can have an innocent explanation. The search 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.160 warrant red quote due to the ages of Roy Deadman 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:39.720 and Connie Deadman's three daughters in the year two thousand. 0:23:40.360 --> 0:23:44.000 Investigators belief adult assistance from Roy Deadman and co Sawani 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.520 Deadmon would have been necessary in the execution and or 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:51.400 concealment of the crime. Roy and Connie Deadman are the 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:55.360 two common links between the profiles of Russell Bradley Underhill 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:59.840 and Annalie Victoria Deadmond. Ramirez collected and identified from Asia 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:04.240 Degree's undershirt and the trash bag which contained Ashia degrees. 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:06.040 Book bag end quote. 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:09.200 So you have the hair on Asha's undershirt that matched 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:13.920 Annale and other DNA evidence that matched Russell. So what 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.600 was the link between them? The initial search warrants named Roy, 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.480 Connie and all three daughters, and investigators did indicate they 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:24.640 believed that juveniles may have been involved in what happened 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:27.560 to Asha with help from adults. This is all according 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:31.240 to the search warrant. In September of twenty twenty four, 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.400 authorities finally said publicly they believed that Ashia was dead 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.200 and that her killing was a homicide, and then more 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:43.040 people started coming forward. The week after law enforcement search 0:24:43.120 --> 0:24:46.120 the deadman's properties, a man went to the Sheriff's office 0:24:46.120 --> 0:24:50.280 for an interview with investigators. According to court documents, this person, 0:24:50.360 --> 0:24:52.800 according to police records, said that he partied with the 0:24:52.840 --> 0:24:55.920 deadman's three daughters in the mid two thousands. He claimed 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:58.360 he was at a house party with Annalie and Sarah 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:01.800 when Annalie allegedly got upset and told him, while she 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:06.360 was intoxicated, quote I killed Asia degree end quote. The 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:10.160 witness claims Sarah then told her sister to quote shut 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.440 the fuck up. The man told investigators he was one 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:17.080