FBI seizes property connected to decades-old case of missing girl

SHELBY, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News) - A search warrant carried out this week at a property in North Carolina is connected with the decades-old case of a missing girl.

On Friday, Sept. 13, Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said the recent raid of a property along Cherryville Road in Shelby, North Carolina is tied to the case of Asha Degree.

Degree went missing in February 2000.

Members of the FBI, the state investigation bureau, and the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office searched the property on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Search warrants were obtained “based on physical evidence directly connected to Asha’s disappearance,” the press release read. It was not immediately clear what investigators were looking for at the property.

Investigators did not find a body while searching the property, Norman said in his release on Friday.

Officers and agents could be seen carrying boxes to and from a home during their search, and an older green vehicle was towed from a home on the property. “Multiple items of interest” were taken from the property and will be analyzed.

The vehicle towed on Wednesday drew particular interest due to its resemblance to a vehicle wanted in connection with Degree’s disappearance. Authorities believe Degree got into a 1970s-era green vehicle on the night she went missing.

In 2016, the FBI said they were looking for a 1970s-era green Ford Thunderbird or Lincoln Mark IV. The vehicle taken Wednesday from the Cleveland County property was not an exact match for those cars but did resemble them.

Authorities did not specify what else they found or removed from the Cleveland County property during their search. It wasn’t immediately clear how the search was tied to Degree’s case.

Several members of each agency could be seen at the property on Tuesday and Wednesday. Specially-trained police dogs were also called in to search the property, officials said.

The search wrapped up Wednesday night.

The sheriff’s office did request that the community “not spread rumors on social media” out of respect for Degree’s family.

Degree was reported missing on Feb. 14, 2000.

Around 6:15 a.m., Degree’s parents woke up to find the then-9-year-old girl missing. Both her and her backpack were gone.

Family members said they last saw Degree asleep in her bedroom.

Earlier that morning, at around 4 a.m., two truck drivers reported seeing a little girl walking on Highway 18. That girl matched Degree’s description.

At that point, she was about a mile from her home.

Investigators and community members spent months looking for Degree.

In August 2001, more than one year after Degree disappeared, her bookbag was found 30 miles away in Burke County.

The items in the backpack were reportedly sent to an FBI lab in Quantico.

In 2018, detectives released pictures of two items found in the girl’s backpack that didn’t belong to her. Inside the bag was a children’s book from her school library that Degree didn’t check out, and a t-shirt that wasn’t hers.

The FBI, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office have been investigating Degree’s disappearance for more than two decades.

The FBI Charlotte office previously told WBTV that they’d identified a number of people over the years who have been considered a “person of interest” for various reasons in this case. More specific details weren’t provided.

Investigators have been hopeful that new technology could help them solve the case. Detective Tim Adams with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office told WBTV in recent years that “technology has advanced quite a bit over the years,” which could eventually lead to answers.

Degree’s family recently said that they believe the girl, who would be in her early 30s now, is still alive.

For years, the family remained hopeful that Degree would be found.

As rumors of the connection swirled, family members spoke out, including Degree’s great uncle, Jesse Jackson.

Jackson told WBTV that he was moved by the community’s continued remembrance of his niece.

“Thank God for that,” Jackson said. “I thank God that they still have hope and faith.”

Jackson said the last 24 years have been very hard on the family, and that even the possibility of having more answers gives him hope of some closure for them.

“I hope and pray to God that they find her,” Jackson said. “Dead or alive. Then we can be at rest. And that’s all I can say.”

A $45,000 reward is available for information that leads to finding Degree.

Anyone with information can contact the FBI’s Charlotte office by calling 704-672-6100.

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