She was nine. Quiet, shy, scared of dogs, a star point guard on her school basketball team whose parents kept her sheltered from the outside world, no computer in the house, everything centered on family and church, exactly the kind of childhood meant to keep a kid safe. Her name was Asha Degree, and on the night of February 13, 2000, in Shelby, North Carolina, she went to bed like any other night. Her father checked on her twice, once at 12:30am after a power outage, and again at 2:30am. Both times she was sound asleep in her bed. Sometime after that, she got up, packed a bookbag she had apparently prepared days in advance, and walked out into a storm. Around 4am, a driver spotted a small child alone on the highway in pouring rain and circled back, unsettled that a child would be out there by herself. When he did, she ran off the road into the woods and vanished. Her mother found her missing at quarter to six that morning. Police dogs couldn't pick up a scent. Searchers found a hairbow, a pencil, and candy wrappers nearby, along with a photo of a girl no one recognized. The case went national, a billboard went up, and a year later her bookbag turned up buried at a construction site, containing a library book and a concert shirt that had never belonged to her, meaning someone else had handled her things long after she vanished. For years the DNA on those items led nowhere. Eventually, genealogical testing narrowed the profiles to two people, a man named Underhill who has since died, and a blood relative of a family named Dedmon who lived nearby. Investigators noted that because the Dedmon daughters were only young teenagers in 2000, any involvement on their part would have required an adult's help concealing it, part of why their parents were named as suspects too. In 2024, investigators searched the Dedmon property and seized a damaged 1964 green AMC Rambler closely matching the old car Asha was reportedly seen being pulled into that night. One daughter, a teenager back in 2000, admitted she was the one driving that same car at the time. Then came the detail that changed everything. A man told investigators that at a party in the mid 2000s, he watched the older Dedmon daughter break down sobbing, drunk, and say out loud that she killed Asha Degree. Her younger sister reportedly grabbed her and angrily told her to be quiet in front of everyone. The witness passed a polygraph confirming his account. When the older sister was tested herself, she was found deceptive. Text messages between the sisters surfaced too, including one apologizing for something she'd said after investigators came asking questions. if you're reading this whole story, just comment "Trace The Truth with country flag you're watching from" so we know our "all reader" gang. And do follow this account, trust me, it helps me a lot :) The Dedmons, through a family spokesperson, have denied any involvement in her disappearance and dispute that the car was even theirs at the time she vanished, saying it wasn't registered to them until weeks later. Investigators have said there is no known connection between the Dedmon family and the Degrees, meaning if this family is involved, no one has ever explained why. No one has been arrested. No charges have been filed. 26 years is long enough for a missing nine year old to have grown into a woman with her own life, if she ever got the chance to live one. What would make someone confess something that horrifying out loud at a party, whether it was true or a drunken lie no one has explained. Why would a sister react with panic and anger instead of confusion, if there was nothing to hide. And after DNA, a matching car, a witnessed confession, and a failed polygraph, what is actually left standing between this family and formal charges, evidence or just time... #fyp #crimejunkie #truecrime #tracethetruth #crimestory #missingpersoncases #disappeared - @trace.the.truth