Hey guys, welcome back to my channel and welcome back to another 'Where Is' video if you're new to my channel,
'Where Is' is a series where we are focusing on different
missing-persons cases trying to raise some awareness about some of these cases you know get the
Names and faces out as much as possible and today we have another
Unsolved missing persons case and that is the case of Asha Degree before we get started with our case, I get to do something really exciting
if you didn't catch my last
'Where Is' video for Kyron Hormon I started a new project for this series with hopes to raise money for an organization
That I'm really passionate about. It's called 'Thorn'.
It's actually co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and they are digital defenders of children
Technology can be used to enable slavery, but it can also be used to disable slavery
And that's what we're doing. So, basically what's going on
Is that in tons and tons of these missing-persons cases,
Oftentimes people are sold into sex trafficking it's a sad reality of it
That's where a lot of these cases most likely end up, sadly, and since the age of the internet
It's become way easier for people who run, you know, pedophile
Operations and sex rings and just terrible things it's easier for them to now
communicate and send information back and forth you know across the dark web. You meet a stranger that has a similar interest to you and
Next thing you know you're sharing
Content around that particular interest. Well, that might happen with cars and that might happen with
Hobbies, but it also happens with with child pornography and human trafficking of underage children. Thorn is trying to pave the way in
Areas that the government sort of lacks in as far as coming up with new ways to catch people online
the internet is being used for child sexual exploitation and
Thorn is the organization that said let's go use technology and innovation to solve this issue
They, you know, bust operations,
They rescue children, so it's an amazing organization
really paving the way for the future where I think our government lacks and and I'm really excited that we're raising money for them and
That my channel is so receptive to it because last month we raised over
$1,500 for Thorn if you didn't catch the last video this is all being done through t-shirts
I've asked some of my subscribers who are graphic designers to design pieces that they think just fit the channel
They don't have to be certainly anything specific, but it comes in shirts hoodies, whatever you want. There's like tons of different colors
I'll put a link below. 100% of what we earn goes to Thorn
And I'm going to be doing this every single 'Where Is' video
Hopefully we can raise a decent amount of money over time
So not only do you get a cool shirt,
In fact, if you really like this series you can get all of them and collect them all that's what I'm doing
you're also you know contributing to Thorn. I'm about to make the donation right now
I want to do it on camera. okay, and we're done. So thank you guys. Thank you to everyone who bought a shirt
Yes, there's a new 'Where Is' campaign for this video designed by a subscriber named Amanda and it's kind of a body positivity design
It's really cool really unique. I love that it's just simple and kind of speaks for itself
hopefully
we'll be able to raise a decent amount again and
Send it off to Thorn
So they can keep doing amazing work to defend children. And a huge thank you to Amanda for
Designing this. But today we are talking about being case of missing Asha Degree
Asha's case is really frustrating because there's like just such a lack of evidence
Honestly this video might end up being kind of short because there's not that much to talk about and she has been missing for over
17 Years now. she actually went missing on Valentine's day of 2000 and it sucked because her parents
It was actually their anniversary they got married on Valentine's day
Obviously years before and Asha was actually nine years old at the time and when you hear what she did and how this went down
You're going to be kind of amazed that she was only nine. I think she would be 26 now. Here's her picture
Just in case if you see her there's information in the description box to get the information to the right people
This is obviously age progressived on a picture of her
But this is a picture from when she was nine years old from the time that she went missing so her parents, named
Harold and Iquilla Degree, and they have a son named O'Bryant as well, and this all happened in Shelby
North Carolina. the day that it happened
It was a pretty big rainstorm it knocked out the power for them in fact. that night her father
He actually worked a second job, and he had late night shifts
So it was really common for him to be working like late hours of the night, odd hours
So he was working until 11:30 that night. Iquilla put her kids to sleep, both of her kids and they actually shared a bedroom
Iquilla says that she put both of the kids to bed around 8:00 p.m.
and about an hour after they went to sleep the power actually went out for the neighborhood due to a car crash because of the
Storm that was going on. It was like really pretty heavy rain so Harold returned from work at around 12:30 a.m.
And the power was back on at that point
He says that he came in checked on both of the kids probably they were asleep and when people work obviously
Like Odd hour shifts their sleep schedule is really messed up. So he stayed up that night and just like watched TV and stuff
He went to bed around 2:30 thinking the kids are both sleeping in their bed most bizarre thing happened
I don't understand it okay so Asha was only nine years old and that night, She had a pre packed bag
This is sort of premeditated, It feels like. sometime during the night, She
Gets up and packed her
regular school bag put clothes in it she
walks out of the house and
Heads down 18 south. I don't know how many of you ran away when you were a kid
I ran away when I was a kid didn't even make it across the street
I remember it happened to be raining when I ran away too, and I was like so mad at my mom
But I came back after like probably three minutes
I had packed a little bag with my clothes and my toothbrush
and "I'm never coming back", and she packed a whole little bag herself like outfit changes and everything and they think she just
Left her house. Like, just ran away
Which is bizarre because what like
Nine-Year-old gets up in the middle of the night and runs away, and her brother O'Bryant actually says that he heard like
Squeaking in her bed, and he just thought she was rolling over, so he didn't pay any attention to it, but he remembered
She must have been getting up and getting ready to leave. So, Iquilla says that she woke up at around
5:45 a.m.
And woke up to draw a bath for the kids because they couldn't the night before without the power so she had to get them up
and have them take a bath before their day. she obviously went into their room and noticed that O'Bryant was the only one there and
Asha was just gone
So obviously as a mother you're going to just panic when your kid is not in there bed. You think they're there
And they're not there. That's like horrifying situation. I feel so badly for her mother
I can't even imagine the panic. and they were like pretty solid parents like they they were really
Protective of them knew where they were the kids were well-behaved well disciplined not like a bad way
But they were sort of almost sheltered they didn't even have a TV in their house
They said that they really tried to make sure that their whole life was church family and friends
And that's pretty much what it was and keep in mind. This is on Valentine's day and her wedding anniversary
So not a great way to spend your wedding anniversary, right?
Pretty horrible thing to wake up to so she obviously
Ran to Harold and he thought maybe she went to his mother's house across the street
When they called her sister-in-law said that she wasn't there
And that's when the panic set in she freaked out called the police the police arrived there around 6:40 a.m.
Onto the scene and Iquilla was running around the neighborhood and whole family they had tons of family friends and neighbors stop whatever they
were doing that day and join in to search for Asha with them they obviously didn't find her that day and after the
Report what happened had aired on TV,
They got a few calls. Two drivers said that they saw a Asha walking down highway 180. They said around 4:00 a.m.
In the pouring rain, it was like a huge downpour. This little girl
she just
Walking on the side of the highway in the middle of the night with a backpack and they said that she was wearing a long
white t-shirt with white pants. several people say that they see her
But no one stops to make sure she's okay
It's really bizarre
Because no one
Bothered to call the police and multiple people saw her one driver in fact actually circled around a few times
and he said that when he
Came up to her
she got spooked or freaked out which maybe she thought he was a kidnapper or something like that and she
took off into the woods according to him. and he didn't call the police, no one called the police. she runs off into the woods and
No one has seen her since. people thought that this must have been a premeditated run away because she had a packed bag
But it's odd for a nine-year-old girl to just run away in the middle of the night at four in the morning in the torrential
Rain I mean it's kind of bizarre right there was really no reason for Asha to run away, like she was happy she had a great
Family and Great friends she was a really smart kid in school
like, got good grades and she's actually on the basketball team
And it's kind of leads into the first theory I guess of what could have happened
She actually had a basketball game a few days prior. and it was like the first game this season
She was super excited and they lost and she and some of the other players were actually so upset after this basketball game
They were crying. and so some people think maybe should so upset about the game that she decided to run away
And I don't know that just doesn't sit well with me
I don't understand why a little girl would get that upset about a game from a couple days ago like most kids
It's like out of their mind at that point that she would run away from home at four a.m in the middle of the night
It's so bizarre.
I do have to say a lot of this case has been held like pretty secretive like the police haven't released a ton of
Useful information as far as like DNA tests just you know more evidence and stuff
I think it's been kept a little bit secret
No one seems to think that she was abducted which is I don't know
I believe it's kind of odd because that seems more likely to me or someone maybe someone she knew like
Lured her out of her house like maybe a family friend or something like came in and was like hey, I got it
I'm taking you for this
We're gonna surprise your parents for their anniversary and let's go and and took her, but when she was walking she was seen alone
So it doesn't really hold up. some people don't even think that they actually saw Asha. That could have been someone else
But I'm not really sure what her parents think about that. I don't know to me, I feel like kids who run away often come back
I don't think she just ran away forever
I don't think she just left and started a new life because she was only nine
I just most kids would come back, so to me. It feels like foul
Play someone could have taken her, someone could have done something to her and it's really sad
But I think that's the most likely scenario. she also was reading this book in school
They were reading it to the whole class and it was about kids that like ran away, and all these cool adventures and stuff
It's just something that people have thrown out there that maybe she was inspired to run away by the book
Her mom was pretty shocked that she even left the house because she said hey, she was actually really scared of dogs
So if she's scared of dogs like that
You know is she going to be brave enough to leave her house in the middle of the night? I don't know
There's just so much confusion. I really can't believe that no one called the police when they saw her just walking on the highway
Imagine what could be different if one person had called you know
I mean we talked about the bystander effect in the past
Everyone always assumes someone else is going to call and no one did. when they brought out search dogs
dogs couldn't even pick up her scent which is odd because
Actually in the rain when there's more moisture scents are actually more noticeable to dogs because there's moisture to carry the scent well
I've seen people
talk about this case and say like well the rain washed all the scent away
But that's actually not true at all so first day that they were searching for her
They did find a mitten, but her mom said there was no way
It was Asha's, "none of our winter supplies or gear missing from our house"
And then they had somewhat of a break in the case February 17th
So a couple days after she went missing on the early hours of February 14th
there was actually a shed in the direction that she was seen running off into the woods and in the shed they found candy wrappers and
A hair bow and it was a mickey mouse-shaped hair bow there was also a pencil and a pen found there as well
And they have confirmed that these belonged to her that leads us to believe she ran off to the woods and ran into that shed
But that's really where the trail goes cold. There is like literally nothing for them to go off of, no answers
No, leads it's like, You know really looking bleak and then in august of 2001 so about a year and a half later
They actually found her bookbag, and it was actually found at a construction site buried and the weird thing about it
Is it was wrapped in two
Trash bags and it's so weird because if you were trying to get rid of evidence like if someone did something to her and wanted
To like get make sure that you know the book bag was never found
Why would you save it? like whoever put that there literally put two trash bags
Around it to ensure that it wouldn't you know get damaged from the elements.
It's almost like they wanted someone to find it super Super weird
And it was found actually like 26 miles away from Shelby in an area near Morganton
And when they found the bag it had several sets of clothes it had her basketball uniform it also had pictures of her family
so that kind of leads us back to the running away idea because if you're leaving
I mean most people would probably take pictures of their family. if she was a little older like a teenager the running away theory would
Really make sense to me. I think maybe she even ran away for good, but being nine years old. It's very,
It seems very unlikely to me that she just ran away and is like off living another life
Maybe she really did run away
But maybe someone came in contact with her at some point and who knows what happened after that
So the FBI took the bag and ran tests on it however none of the information on those tests were ever released so I don't
Know anything more about that
But it is good is that in may of 2016 the FBI announced that they possibly have a new lead in the case
You know some kind of fresh information
And they have asked the public to look for a car where multiple people think they witnessed Asha possibly getting into they think that it
was possibly a
1970s Lincoln Continental Mark 4
in Dark Green or possibly a Ford
Thunderbird from around the same time and the police do say that they're receiving tips daily about it
So maybe this will get solved who knows they can have a lot more information than what is on the internet right now. investigators
Believe Asha Degree was abducted today her family are still hopeful they'll see Asha again
Cleveland County Sheriff who told us
He could not go into detail
but said
Investigators are still making progress in this case. Her family has done everything they can to find her I feel so badly for them
They've done some really good stuff since then though. They started a scholarship in her name
They have an annual walk that they do so the community is very involved with it. each year Asha's family returns to the very place
She was last seen along Highway 18 in Cleveland County where they've marked her memory with this sign
I just wish we could find her. and they don't walk alone
But instead are joined by neighbors friends and the Cleveland County Sheriff who told us he could not go into detail but said
Investigators are still making progress in this case the main thing is to bring closure to this family
Or captain Durbin Briscoe who remembers working that day 17 years ago when Asha disappeared
They're you know never going to give up on their daughter
I think that's so amazing and I was very inspired by their will to find her
Just to make this video and get the word out about her if you do have any information on this case or you think you
Know something no matter how small you think it is please call it into the Cleveland County Sheriff's department
I will put their information in the description box
I really really hope though that they get this figured out
But they can at least bring closure to the family even they can't bring Asha back. Which I mean
It's possible that they could so who knows you know got to keep hope alive. As her mother
I just got enough faith in God that if he already had her so that he would let us know
So I don't believe she's dead, I can just keep the hope that
She's gonna walk through that door one day. all we got is hope and I just refuse to let
Anybody take that away from me
if you are inspired by Asha's story and want to purchase the shirt for the 'Where Is' campaign like I said 100 percent of the proceeds
For that go to Thorn if you want to get yourself asweet shirt and also give back
but I want to know what you think let me know in the
Comments what your theories are what your thoughts are on this
Like always, please share this video on your social media and stuff get Asha's face out there
It's always helpful to spread awareness about these cases
I hope you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a thumbs up if you are
Wanting to see more 'Where Is' videos in the future, and that's it from me today guys
I hope you're having a great day and I will see you next time. Bye