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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who is just about two
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hours of Studio work away from a sausage McMuffin and hash brown here is the captain yeah when I go to McDonald's I
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like to order lasagna for breakfast it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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called off the record on Stitcher premium and Colonel that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] oh [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] listeners of True Crime garage come here to give strength to the victims and
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nothing breaks your heart more than a child victim and parents of that child unfortunately that is what we have here
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today A missing little girl a case that refuses to go cold due to the efforts of the girl's family the
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hard work of law enforcement agencies both local and federal and the commitment of a tight-knit community
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the missing little one that we are talking about this week is Asia degree she vanished on a cold rainy night 21
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years ago she was just nine years old but the case has other reasons for not going cold
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because just as strange as Aisha's disappearance are the leads and tips that have come in over the years
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we have discussed many missing persons cases here in the garage one thing we continually see when a
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child goes missing is that hope can never fade because unfortunately too often hope is
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all they have Aisha's mother does not watch the news as stories of abused children and murdered women haunt her
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in 2013 she told then Charlotte Observer Reporter Mandy Locke quote God won't let
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me believe she's dead in Asia's case every few years there's another solid lead that presents some
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Hope For answers more importantly since February 2000 there's been many abduction victims
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located and brought home JC Dugard was found in 2009 after being held captive for 18 years
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Michelle Knight Gina De Jesus and Amanda Barry all three were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004. they were rescued
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together in 2013. and of course there's the story of Jimmy Claus who just two years ago in 2019 was
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found alive it's stories like these in the bravery and strength of these women that helped
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to keep hope alive for the parents of the missing and for all of us but with this glimmer of hope and these
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rays of positivity there's still a lot of Darkness there are the nightmares that visit the
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families mercilessly for the parents it's the overwhelming hurt of closing your eyes and imagining your loved one
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trapped hungry and cold the relatives look at everyone suspiciously even stopping to examine the faces of
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children who do not seem to resemble their parents for these people cannot trust anyone anymore
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they know someone took their child maybe even someone they know is responsible maybe someone they trusted before they
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lost the ability to do so could it be that someone in the beginning of the case who tried to help the family took
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the little one it's the reoccurring haunting and nagging fears that naturally creep into
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the minds of the family did someone follow the child home was it a neighbor who watched and waited
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for the perfect time to snatch the child it's the forever heightened sense of one's surroundings
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it's the staring at a driver trying to memorize the make and model of a suspicious vehicle that for some reason
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or other squealed its tires it's your heart jumping every time the phone rings it's the looking into the eyes of the
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unknown man at the diner looking for what something anything some kind of breadcrumb that
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will lead you to embrace that loved one once again it's these things to beat you up tear
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you down and can drive you to insanity maybe it's one's faith in God themselves or something that they simply cannot
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explain that keeps hope alive asha's mother says she ignores the speculation that her daughter is dead
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she believes if that were true God would quote Give Me A Sign and prepare me the disappearances of children like Asia
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degree are often considered to be lost causes after 72 hours the odds of finding a Child Alive are low
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but for the parents the child are alive Frozen in time and just out of their reach
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officials at the national Center for missing and exploited children point to cases like JC Dugard Jamie Kloss
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and of course the unforgettable Rescue of the three young ladies in Ohio in 2013.
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and say these examples should bring a Resurgence of energy to Old cases Lena Holmes a family advocacy specialist at
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the center says we hope these cases can be a reminder that kids are still out there it reinforces the need for
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vigilance if you see something funny or suspicious reach out it could mean everything
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this is True Crime garage [Music] this week we are going to be talking about a truly bizarre case this is a
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missing person's case one that I have seen many say that there is reason to believe that the missing little girl may
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be alive and well others are not so hopeful and suspect some kind of Foul Play or maybe even an accident we will
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lay out the facts of this case and offer some thoughts along the way I suspect the blog at truecrime garage.com will be
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Rife with theories and speculation for this case here captain now I'm going to be perfectly honest here
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and every week we are talking about someone's real life tragedy and I have said this before
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I have been able to grow a rather hard and cold soul from looking at so many of these cases for so long but once in a
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while I can't explain why heck most times I don't even know why but once in a while a case really gets to me
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sometimes the victim or victims seem more human more real and stand out from the other cases this is certainly one of
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those cases for me but in this case I do know why and I'll explain that when we get there our missing person is Asia
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degree Asia if she is still out there somewhere she would be 30 years old Aisha jaquil degree was born on Sunday
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August 5th 1990. by everything I could find it looks to us that Asia had a very normal childhood leading up to our day
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in question the day in question will be February 14 2000. Asia resided with her family in an apartment on Oak Crest
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Street located just south of Fallston which is just a touch north of Shelby North Carolina Asia was born and raised
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in this area Asia's family consists of her mother and father this is Aquila and Harold and her brother who is just about
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one year older than her and his name is O'Bryant Shelby is a city in Cleveland County North Carolina so if you hear us
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say Cleveland we are talking about Cleveland County North Carolina not Cleveland in Northeast Ohio this case
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has several potentially good leads but none that lead to our state here in Ohio Shelby is located between Charlotte and
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Asheville North Carolina the population of Shelby back in 2000 was just under under 20 000 people this is a rural area
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Asia is described as quiet and shy she was a good student there were no known issues at school not with her behavior
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attitude or school work by all appearances she had a happy home life now I say by all appearances she
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had a happy home life because it is always extremely difficult to understand a family Dynamic and what is really
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going on behind closed doors if there was stuff going wrong in her house she wasn't I think of the age where it
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should be reporting it or telling her friends about it yeah I just wanted to make sure we pointed out that there were
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no warning flags here in regards to Asia's family and her home life right no rumors negatively towards the family
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Asia was in the fourth grade at Fallston Elementary School now for purposes that
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will become quite clear very soon I'm going to point out that Aisha's School Fallston Elementary is located almost
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exactly five miles north of her home both her street Oakcrest Street and the school are almost directly off of
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Highway 18. Highway 18 is a predominantly two lane rural Highway that travels 145 and a half miles
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traveling north south through the Foothills region which is the western side of North Carolina
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nc18 as I'm going to call it connects the cities of Shelby Morganton Lenoir Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro
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most Reports say the degree family lived in an apartment while they may have been
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renters they were living in a double the address was 3404 Oakcrest Street Oakcrest street is one block west of
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Highway 18. the degrees residents faces West and this looks like a ranch style Brick
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House there are two front doors because it is a double there are two driveways and each of those doubles have a carport
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Oakcrest Street looks like it would be a rather quiet street there's only about 18 houses on Oakcrest when you count up
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both sides of the street probably about five or so of them being doubles there are single family homes that back
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up to the houses on Oakcrest Street and Asia's side of the street so that these are single family homes along the west
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side of highway 18. so if she were to walk out the back of her house she would cut through
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someone's yard and then she would be right at Highway 18. right these houses and homes on
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Oakcrest they are spaced out nicely so they're not all cramped together I know this sounds like I'm being overly
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descriptive here however on the night that Asia first goes missing all of the evidence says that the child left her
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home on foot in the middle of the night so I'm trying to present the lay of the land so we can have a general sense of
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where she was walking that night so you heard me right if you don't know this case this might
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be a shock to you but we're talking about a nine-year-old little girl leaving the house on her own in the
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middle of the night and her reasons for leaving are not clear in fact that's really just
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an extension of the mystery of her Vanishing it's very similar some other missing person cases I mean obviously
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the victim here is way younger but if you can solve why she left maybe you could solve what happened to her yes and
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in this case probably more importantly so than in most now we're going to kick things off with Friday February 11 2000.
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on this day there was no school and from my understanding it was a teacher work day with no school for the students so
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both asha's parents are working full-time jobs at this time Aquila worked at Kawaii American manufacturing
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and nearby Lincolnton she worked the first shift Harold worked the second shift as a dock loader for PPG
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Industries in Shelby North Carolina so no school means Asia and O'Brien being just nine and ten years old will need to
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go somewhere while Mom and Dad are at work so they spent that day at their aunt Keisha's house just down the street
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from their own house right I'm assuming this might be Harold's brother's wife because it sounds like Harold's mother
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and his brother and his brother's family all lived in that same neighborhood maybe even on the same street as Asia's
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family later that Friday Asia attends basketball practice she was the star point guard for her school's little
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bulldogs girls basketball team next we have Saturday February 12th the kids basketball games were on Saturdays it
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looks like the degrees like most families had a fairly regimented routine you know school and practices during the
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week basketball games on Saturdays and church on Sundays so on this typical Saturday both Asia
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and O'Brien had basketball games at Burns Middle School Asia's team was undefeated going into
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this game but on this day her team struggled Asia found out late in the game and the team received their first
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loss of the season Asia was very upset about the loss to the point of crying at this event well just to be clear this
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was 2000 so at that point they're keeping score they're keeping stats of the players I know that doesn't happen
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normally now in elementary school sports but it happened in 2000. many people over the last 20 or so years have
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pointed to this as a possible reason that Asia would sneak out or run away and I cannot express how absolutely
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silly I think that that thought would be as if this one basketball loss was the end of the world right so yes it is
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confirmed that Asia was upset to the point that she cried either during or after the game but we should point out
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that a lot of her teammates did the same thing they cried as well some of them even went to the point of maybe faking
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an injury to have something to blame the loss on right regardless what we have from her parents and from everybody
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else's account of this incident leading up to her disappearance is that Asia snapped out of this pretty quickly I
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mean anybody with eight nine ten-year-old kids know that their their mood swings are are fast and furious
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yeah your kid loses a basketball game and you go hey do you want to get some ice cream the problem's over it's done
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with yes now we're on to ice cream yeah so she gets over it fairly quickly and she attends her brother's basketball
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game I know that her mom was present I'm assuming Harold her father was present for the entirety of this day but I can't
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say for sure so we know she bounced back pretty quickly she's watching her brother play his basketball game then
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that night Asha went to a sleepover party at her 15 year old cousin's house this was a fairly large slumber party
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from what I could find one report says that Asia and about a dozen of her friends or her cousins were at this
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slumber party at the cousin's home that night it's reported that they stayed up rather late as one could imagine young
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girls doing a whole big gaggle of young girls up being loud they stayed up late watching TV and dancing anybody that has
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a small child that goes over to the sleepover knows the next day they're going to be dog tired on Sunday February
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13th Harold Aquila and O'Brien picked up Asia after early in the morning to go to church so
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when we say Church Harold Asia's father says Aisha attended Bible studies classes every Sunday
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sometimes churches will have Bible study classes for the kids while adults are attending church services yeah church
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services I can't say that that was the situation here but that's what has been reported the degrees church was the
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Macedonia Baptist Church in Waco North Carolina after church the degree family of four went to their cousin Shalonda
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Brown's home so family get-together of sorts after church at the get-together Asia's grandmother handed out some
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Valentine's Day gifts to the grandchildren Asia received a bottle of perfume and of course Valentine's Day
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candy now from here they're going to go home Asia was up most of the night like the
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captain was pointing out having fun at the sleepover party so she is very tired from the night before
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she falls asleep very early and this is right around 6 30 p.m but there's a storm of Bruin a thunderstorm started in
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the 8 P.M hour this was a loud thunderstorm with thunder and lightning which woke Asia up so she went and
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watched some TV with her family in the living room there are a few questionable items
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some Reports say that Harold worked that evening however I really think that this is just confusion right I don't
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think he worked that night nor do I think Sunday was even a normal work night for him again sounds like they're
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pretty regimented in their routine kids go to school mom and dad work during the
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week you might have practices in the evening for for both the kids playing basketball
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Saturdays is devoted to the basketball games Sundays devoted to church and routine family get-togethers it could
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have could have been in position though that he got called in well I actually think this is just one of those bad
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telephone game type items I agree where it's where it's it's certainly a possibility but I think it's kind of
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sprung up over the years and some places it's worked its way into becoming fact when anytime I have a report of Harold
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or Aquila giving an account of that Sunday neither of them ever mention him going to work right so we can get into
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that a little bit more while that probably came up but sometime before 9 pm the power went out at the degree home
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so during the storm someone crashed into a utility pole this knocking out power to some of the neighborhoods in that
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area this next part Captain is a big gray area even more so than if Harold worked
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or not that night so it is stated that Herald stepped out for a last minute trip to buy some Valentines Day candy
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or a shopping trip of some sorts some Reports say that he went out at 10 or so and got back at 11 30 p.m other reports
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state that he didn't go out until 11 30 p.m now to be perfectly clear I could not find anywhere that Harold is
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saying he went out or his wife says that he went out so we should say that he may not have gone
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out at all it's it's part of the the weirdness of this story but let's say that Harold did go out for a last minute
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late night shopping trip again let's remind everybody it's 2 000. things weren't like for today you have grocery
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stores that are open 24 hours a day that wasn't as common back in 2000 on top of
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that they live in a pretty rural community you would think that place to get candy wouldn't be open at 11 30.
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possibly I mean I would expect there to be CVS Walgreens regular grocery stores they're not terribly far from Charlotte
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North Carolina which is a huge City but let's let's pretend that in fact he did go out right but all I'm stating is that
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in 2000 things shut down earlier back in my town now you go out at midnight and there's there's cars everywhere and
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there's people shopping and getting fast food but in 2000 most of the fast food places closed around 10 o'clock so if he
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went out many think that this is awfully suspicious you know people want to know
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they question why would he go out so late why would he go out in a bad thunderstorm for some last minute
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Valentine's shopping so I think we should offer up a couple of thoughts here one I don't find this to be a red flag
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at all so Harold worked second shift so he gets off work much later than most people goes to bed much later than most
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right so while the time might be late for some of us to him it is not he routinely is up late now why go out
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in a storm my guess is that there if he did go out there must have been some urgency to something he intended to pick
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up while he's out on the shopping trip and some items I could think of maybe he needed to get Valentine's for the kids
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to pass out at school right the next day you know so the next day is Valentine's
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Day some schools do a little exchanging of cards or treats or whatever amongst the children but isn't February 14th his
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anniversary with his wife well that's the other thing and I think that kind of gets gets lost in the shuffle a little
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bit here right so that's a little more important than your kids taking Valentine's to school yes so that day
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the next day would be his and his wife's 12th wedding anniversary right and the report that I saw said that the two plan
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to spend the day home alone so they had the day off from work my thought is Captain maybe he needed
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some anniversary gifts for the wife right so that's not something you're going to put off especially if you're
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already planning to spend the day together now if he went out the the report is that he
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returned at some point maybe as late as midnight ish and then fell asleep on the
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couch when he got back again he may have gone out he may not I don't actually think that's important one I don't find
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it to be suspicious if he did and again I also suspect that maybe he didn't go out at all is what really went on
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regardless what we do know is that the power at their home kicked back on around 12 30 A.M so by this point
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Captain we know that everyone is at home the kids and Aquila are in their beds it is said that Harold checked on the
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kids around this time at 12 30 A.M then for about the next two hours he's watching TV sitting on the couch in the
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living room he says at 2 a.m he shuts off the TV and checks on the kids again a second time and at this
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time he finds Aisha and O'Brien sleeping peacefully in their beds he went to join
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Aquila in their bedroom and falls asleep relatively quickly he checked on the kids twice and again this is another
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thing that people know that they find to be strange or suspicious again I don't see anything weird about
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this at all you know people people say well I don't check on my kids more than once I think I I can relate this to my
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own world here when I had a younger daughter my home was relatively small and I can say that just out of natural
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habit anytime I happen to be near the bedroom at night I would just I just look in real quick
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double check that that she's sleeping their home was not very big it's a double it's it's actually fairly small
00:28:09
it's a two bedroom him and his wife are in the master and the two kids share the
00:28:14
other bedroom it's very likely I've not seen the layout but I know from my old house that was rather
00:28:21
small if I just if I'm going to bed that my bedroom door is right next to the other ones you just peek in real quick
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and I think that that's probably what happened here that it's a small dwelling and he's just peeking in on his kids to
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make sure that they're okay so as we said Captain Asia shared a room with her older brother sometime during
00:28:44
the night O'Brien says he wakes up and he hears his sister Aisha moving about in her bed
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he thought she was tossing and turning in her sleep he did say that he then heard her at some point get up and he
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thought that she was going to the restroom now reports differ on this next item and that would be if he ever heard her
00:29:09
return some say that he heard her return into the room others say that she did not yeah I'm not too clear on this but
00:29:17
the the brother states that he saw her out of bed but doesn't the father State then as well no so the the reports that
00:29:25
I have just the brother and well and to take it a step further the reports I have say that the brother didn't see her
00:29:33
he hears her right and he he just kind of made of assumptions I mean they've shared a room for years so it's probably
00:29:41
not uncommon that she would get up and use the restroom in the middle of night or toss and turn and wake him up at some
00:29:47
point I would like to know what the parents can see when they're laying in their bed
00:29:52
what can they see into the hallway and would they be able to see somebody if somebody came into the house to take
00:30:02
their little baby girl away [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers
00:30:40
to you Colonel cheers captain so this home is a one-story small Branch style house
00:30:48
my guess here is that they probably could see pretty much most of the doors bedrooms typically are across the
00:30:56
hallway from one another so my guess would be if their door was open and if they were awake they could see something
00:31:02
however both of the parents slept through the night we have O'Brien saying that he hears his
00:31:09
sister at some point in the night maybe even heard her leave the room whether she came back or not is still up in the
00:31:18
air but it's believed that this would have been around 3 A.M or maybe a little later now O'Brien says he hears these
00:31:27
noises that he thinks is his sister tossing and turning and then leaving the room to go the restroom however we will
00:31:34
quickly learn that the noises he is hearing is very likely Asia getting up getting dressed and maybe even packing
00:31:42
up some last minute things that night in the early morning hours she got up at some point packed her book bag with two
00:31:52
of her favorite outfits her basketball uniform and a Tweety Bird purse and then apparently she slipped out of her house
00:32:00
into the dark in the rain I don't want to pick on details but we have no proof that she packed her bag up
00:32:10
because on the 11th you s you stated she spent time with her aunt because of no school right and then on the 12th she
00:32:19
goes to the slumber party I'm guessing that she took her book bag with her basketball outfit in it because that
00:32:26
would be the day that she had a basketball game right so at some point they they go to this slumber party and
00:32:33
maybe that's when she changed out of her basketball uniform keeping her basketball uniform in her book bag and
00:32:40
then now they're back at their house on the 13th I'm just saying we have no proof that she she packed anything up
00:32:47
everything that she took with her could have been in her bag because of the slump correct
00:32:52
that's of quite the possibility so we do know that she is last seen inside her home at approximately 2 30 a.m on
00:33:02
February 14 2000 but this is coming from a 10 year old what's coming from a 10-year-old the last time she's seen in
00:33:10
her house no this is coming from Asia's father Harold when he says he went to sleep at that time
00:33:16
and said that he checked on on his daughter and son and saw them both sleeping in their beds so the father was
00:33:23
the last one to actually see her but then these Rumblings that her brother is talking about we're assuming is maybe a
00:33:30
half an hour to an hour later yeah and I I don't know that he is providing a time
00:33:38
frame for when he thinks he's hearing this my guess is I mean he's 10 he's probably saying I'm hearing this in the
00:33:44
middle of the night but there's other things that are going to happen in our timeline which will allow us to place
00:33:51
that event somewhere in that General time frame right so on Monday February 14th Aquila got up and this is when she
00:34:00
notices that Aisha is gone now the family says that all of the doors and windows were locked when they
00:34:07
got up and Asia and O'Brien rode the bus to and from school each day they would walk from their home over to
00:34:17
Highway 18 or to the bus stop near Highway 18. get on the bus there so the kids each
00:34:25
day when they would return home from school mom and dad were both at work at this time right so both of the kids they
00:34:33
each had a key to the house Asia kept hers in her book bag so we're guessing here that she got up and left the house
00:34:41
and likely using the key her key she locked the door behind her right again there's no sign that anybody came into
00:34:50
the house the doors are all locked they couldn't determine if she went out the front door or the back door regardless
00:34:58
the family calls 9-1-1 this call comes in at 6 38 a.m the first police officer on the scene was there in just minutes
00:35:07
it's logged that he was there at 6 40 a.m at 6 42 Sheriff Dan Crawford arrives he immediately calls for a canine unit
00:35:18
to get out to the scene now newspaper reporters and television Crews were actually out in front of the
00:35:25
degree house fairly early that morning by 2PM Agents from the North Carolina State
00:35:34
Bureau of Investigation SBI for short arrived at the degree home and they immediately taped off this whole area
00:35:43
it's it's now a crime scene by the end of the day Searchers had covered a three mile wide area finding nothing and now
00:35:53
21 years later Asia still has not come home now so you can see things start moving very quickly once 9-1-1 is called
00:36:01
it's just two minutes before an officer arrives at the home then the the boss the sheriff in charge is there two
00:36:09
minutes later K-9 unit on the scene reporters they're interviewing people it's smart work right away the Boss
00:36:16
shows up doesn't hesitate to go hey bring in a canine let's try to track her scent she's a nine-year-old she couldn't
00:36:24
have gone that far now she's left on foot there's some interesting little things though along the way that one so
00:36:34
one the the call came in from Harold Harold was the one that placed the 9-1-1 call
00:36:39
and it's my understanding that he makes this call either his wife instructs him to call
00:36:46
9-1-1 this would be after she's called some relatives you know that's that's never
00:36:52
anyone's first thought and and I mean we all live these routine lives and such and so of course you don't
00:37:01
you don't immediately jump off the cliff you just kind of inch your way to it so
00:37:05
she called relatives remember we have relatives that live in the same neighborhood she called relatives to say
00:37:12
hey might I woke up and Asia's gone is she at your house for some reason right getting no answers and and that's when
00:37:21
Harold calls one thing that I found strange on the there there's a 9-1-1 transcript that was available in one of
00:37:29
the newspapers at the time and he says that one of the neighbors said that they spotted or thought they
00:37:37
saw Asia walking out that night which they never there's never really any clarification on who the neighbor
00:37:46
was you know what I mean like what I mean is we know that they have family living in the immediate area was the
00:37:53
neighbor a family member of of the degrees Yeah I think that's a good point but some people also think this is
00:37:59
possibly the parents setting something up to say hey look somebody else saw her but we're not going to tell you which
00:38:07
neighbor that that was well I I hope that police would have followed up on that I mean that's something he stated
00:38:13
on the 9-1-1 call and they should have we know they're canvassing the area um going door to door that would be
00:38:20
normal police protocol so if that got missed then somebody somebody severely dropped the ball I'm
00:38:26
just pointing out I don't know there's no necessary reason for that information to make its way to the newspapers I'm
00:38:33
just pointing out that that was something that was said on the 9-1-1 call that's not a well-known
00:38:39
piece of information in this case you also said that uh Asia left by foot but at this point law enforcement nor her
00:38:47
parents really have any idea if she did or not other than there's no sign of breaking and entering there's no sign of
00:38:56
you know that she struggled with anybody the the door was locked so everything leads us to believe that she left for
00:39:05
whatever reason locked the door and headed somewhere that's correct and just to point out how fast everything's kind
00:39:14
of moving and really there's there's just a really a lot of chaos going on around the degree family immediately
00:39:21
with the discovery that their daughter is missing so we even have Aisha's father Harold he does a telephone
00:39:29
interview with the Charlotte Observer he says in this you know because some people have wanted to know well was this
00:39:36
an issue did had Asia gone missing before or left the house before and in this interview on that same day he says
00:39:46
to the Charlotte Observer Asia had never run away before and that there were no family problems that would make his
00:39:52
daughter want to leave now that newspaper gives a description of Asia listing her at four foot six inches tall
00:40:00
weighing 65 pounds she's African-American and wears her hair in pigtails her parents say that they found
00:40:10
all the doors in the House locked and according to sheriff's deputies there was no sign of forced entry into the
00:40:17
home and then here's here's a really troubling piece of information in this same article it says unfortunately
00:40:25
search dogs did not pick up Asia's scent at anywhere which is really bizarre they
00:40:32
didn't pick up her scent even near the home now we do know that it was cold and raining and there was a big thunderstorm
00:40:39
that night and it was still raining when she is believed to have left the house everything I've ever read about scent
00:40:48
dogs is that the rain is not a deterrent for the scent dogs in fact in a lot of cases it's it's actually helpful to
00:40:56
because it makes I don't I don't want to I don't know the science of it but that's what I've always been well it's
00:41:02
very science but the deterrent here is is the wind yes that that could be the situation from what I've read the rain
00:41:11
can help the scent dogs but once you mix in the rain with the wind it becomes a very big issue for the scent dogs and
00:41:19
they sometimes again in this case we know that they weren't able to pick up on her scent what we do have to go off
00:41:27
of even though the dogs couldn't find any anything is we do have a couple of eyewitnesses that come forward so two
00:41:34
truck drivers reported seeing Asia walking South on Highway 18 North of Shelby between 3 30 and 4 15 a.m that's
00:41:43
how we can kind of come to the idea that he must have O'Brien must have heard her
00:41:50
moving or leaving around three o'clock right Aisha was apparently near the intersection of Highway
00:41:58
180 at that time so this would be the intersection of Highway 18 and Highway 180. this is about a mile south of her
00:42:09
home is this heading in the direction of her school no it's the opposite direction so her school is about five
00:42:16
miles north that's why I wanted to point out where everything is here because she's she's only nine years old you're
00:42:23
not going to have a great sense of direction or or any of that mess at nine years old but if you're used to waking
00:42:31
up every day going out to your bus stop riding the bus five miles north to your school you're going to have some you're
00:42:40
gonna know that the lay of that land she's walking in the opposite direction so she's about one mile south of her
00:42:48
home it's thought that this is the last confirmed sighting of the child now one thing that's always been stated was
00:42:57
that when when these first sightings take place neither of these truckers call 9-1-1 or call the police and
00:43:06
somebody's ridiculous well I actually I don't think so I've I've heard it stated
00:43:10
like I wish it would have been a normal person that would have seen her because they would have called the police and
00:43:16
and I think you have to go to the core of the of the story in the eyewitness accounts to understand possibly why
00:43:24
nobody thought to alert the authorities first off they're big dummies wouldn't you have a very different
00:43:33
reaction to seeing a nine-year-old walking in the dark along the highway than if you saw an adult
00:43:41
walking alongside the road in the middle of the night right so the way that these
00:43:47
stories work is Roy Blanton senior and his son Roy Blanton Jr they're on a trucking run from Shelby to Fallston so
00:43:56
they're traveling north on nc18 they said this is right around 4 a.m they were driving Northbound on NC
00:44:05
18 they spotted a small figure wearing a light-colored clothing walking Southbound on the road so they're only
00:44:12
going to see this person very briefly she's walking in the opposite direction they're on a highway heading north they
00:44:20
say that they thought it was a woman so Roy senior used the CB radio radio to alert other truckers to keep an eye out
00:44:28
that there's a pedestrian there's a woman walking alongside the road he he calls this in on his CB to
00:44:36
warn the other truckers because it's dark out it's raining he's worried that this person might get hit
00:44:42
when he radios it out remember he tells the newspaper I thought it was a woman he may have said
00:44:49
that on the CB right so our next witness is Jeff Rupp he's a trucker for the Sun
00:44:57
Drop Bottling Company driving his regular route he said that he saw a young girl walking Southbound on NC 18.
00:45:05
now that's his words young girl now again he may have heard woman over the Seabee I don't know he
00:45:13
says this again is around 4am it's cold and pouring rain at this time both sightings were on nc-18 near that
00:45:21
intersection that we talked about the the highway 180. the fact that two men called in to police independently of
00:45:29
each other so both of these Witnesses are not aware that somebody else is phoning in
00:45:36
basically the same tip the owner law enforcement and FBI says this makes both of these statements extremely credible
00:45:45
so neither of these Witnesses call anything in when they spot neither the girl walking along the road right they
00:45:53
call it in later in the way that this works is Jeff he's on his lunch break having lunch somewhere later that same
00:46:01
day and remember we said the news reporters were already out front of the degrees home he sees it on the news that
00:46:07
there's a missing girl so he calls police and says look this is what I saw at 4am this morning in fact I rolled
00:46:14
down my window and tried to get the person's attention to I don't know if he was going to offer some help or a ride
00:46:21
or whatever he says that when he tried to get their attention the person he saw ran into a field
00:46:29
almost like they were running from him so he sees this news report on his lunch break he calls in and tells this
00:46:37
information to the Sheriff's Department the other man Roy Blanton senior who was
00:46:43
traveling with his son they were driving a long distance I believe they were all
00:46:48
the way up in Chicago right when they finished their route that day he had no idea that anybody was missing again he
00:46:55
said he thought he saw a woman on that brief passage on NCAA team he happens to be on the phone with his wife later that
00:47:05
day once they're in their hotel and she tells him hey there's uh there's a little girl that's missing from you know
00:47:12
from our area and he says I think that might be could be the person that I saw this morning so
00:47:19
he phones it in at that time so I mean three eyewitnesses correct three eyewitnesses and this this
00:47:27
all goes to backing up the idea that she left on her own for whatever reason whether she packed up that night or or
00:47:36
packed planning for some kind of trip or just as you said maybe grabbed a backpack that was already packed with
00:47:42
some things from the slumber party before there's nobody else seen with her she's not seen fleeing anything this all
00:47:51
points to the idea that she got up and left on her own for some weird reason in the middle of the night right the next
00:47:59
day on February 15th this is after 12 hours of searching Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Bob
00:48:07
roadkapp announced quote right now we don't have anything and everyone is a suspect yeah I get that idea but when
00:48:16
you have eyewitnesses seeing this girl a ways from her house and once those 9-1-1 calls come in from
00:48:24
the parents we know the parents whereabouts so if we have evidence that she's still
00:48:31
alive then I'm not saying that you shouldn't question or interrogate the the parents
00:48:39
I'm just saying they should be more on your radar to vet out than to try to point the finger towards well and to add
00:48:47
to the confusion but this is also another good lead here some of Asia's belongings would be found
00:48:56
within a couple days of her going missing yeah and this is another one of those things in this story Captain where
00:49:05
I I can't help it but time and time again her disappearance is such a freaking mystery very confused that I think that
00:49:13
you do question everything I think you question the family I think you question what Asia was doing I think you
00:49:20
questioned why these truckers didn't immediately call police does pineapple go on pizza and when you get to the core
00:49:27
of the story you really start to understand the the simple facts of it and and can apply those and go okay I
00:49:33
get it that the trucker didn't call police he he thought he was seeing an adult walking along this if I called the
00:49:39
police every time I saw an adult walking alongside the road at night I mean what
00:49:43
kind of life would I have so um but this is one of those bizarre things that the the way that it's
00:49:50
reported again makes people question some people that are fairly close to the case and this would be the Turners so
00:49:57
there's a old married couple named the Turners that they live in the area where Asia was last seen by these two truckers
00:50:06
okay they when they were notified that Asia was missing and a lot of people within you know miles of her home were
00:50:16
told hey could you could you check your properties to see if you find anything because in these types of situations
00:50:22
it's very possible that a child or any missing person could simply have just gotten injured somewhere and then
00:50:29
they're unable to go and get help that they're just lying there somewhere waiting for someone to find them
00:50:35
and so that's you ask people to check their properties for that reason amongst other reasons in Asia's case they did
00:50:44
just that and the Turners Tina and I the wife she says that she found some items
00:50:51
in what is best I would best describe it as an old tool shed on their property it's
00:50:59
I've seen it described as a chicken house as a shack I don't know how that came about because she describes it as
00:51:07
an old tool shed but she says that she found um some items that appear that they
00:51:13
would have belonged to possibly a little girl along with a small wallet-sized photo of a little girl
00:51:21
now the way that this has been reported 20 years later is that the Turners found
00:51:26
these items and they failed to tell police about them that's actually not true at all
00:51:33
the truth is that they handed over this little picture the wallet-sized photo of
00:51:38
a little girl that they found the other items they kept them and they handed the photo over to the
00:51:45
Sheriff's Department because they don't know what Asia looks like they thought maybe the picture could be
00:51:51
of Asia or one of her friends so armed with this Photograph the sheriff's department quickly speak with the degree
00:52:01
family and nobody knows who this picture is of who you know who's the little girl
00:52:09
in the picture they don't know and why would Asia have this possibly have this in her belongings they wanted
00:52:17
to know did it have anything to do with Aisha's case at all you've done it inspired the song by Nickelback look at
00:52:25
this Photograph when we sift through this stuff we do need to point out for the Turners that in fact they gave this
00:52:31
picture to the authorities almost immediately so the way that this works so we're going to dive in here real
00:52:38
quick it's Charles and Debbie Turner they're the owners of Turner upholstery company which was located on
00:52:45
nc18 a little more than a mile from Asia's home this is south of her home so in the direction that she
00:52:53
was walking Debbie Turner and her daughter found a hair ribbon a marker and a pencil and a black stiff and that
00:53:01
picture these were found in a tool shed that is off on their property off of nc18 and
00:53:11
the reports state that this Tool Shed was located anywhere between 300 feet and 600 feet from the highway so reports
00:53:19
vary on the the exact location the interesting thing here though the way that this goes down is now they got this
00:53:27
Photograph they show it to police police go yeah we don't know what this is Asia's family no we don't know what this
00:53:32
is they kind of dismiss it immediately going well this is probably just garbage you know it's
00:53:40
probably just some random picture that has nothing to do with with our case with Asia's case right again we I I'd
00:53:49
like to know when the trash was put out that week and because like we said we have a storm that night
00:53:55
we got winds blowing you could find items next to each other doesn't mean that they're actually coming from the
00:54:01
same individual that's true I mean this is either a football field or two football fields off of the highway right
00:54:09
that's not going to be the issue with the picture for me what's your issue well we're going to get into that I want
00:54:15
to go through the this this portion of the story is it my Nickelback impersonation so what happens here
00:54:22
Captain we have both of those eyewitnesses the truck drivers the sheriff's department says okay we need
00:54:28
both of you guys to come back and meet us at Highway 18. we want you to point and show us where you believe you saw
00:54:39
Asia when you were driving that night that because I mean this is a stretch of highway that we said is over a hundred
00:54:46
miles long right so let's narrow it down here we got people out searching for this girl they really think that they
00:54:52
can still find her at this time and they have a huge search party and they're going to Major efforts to try to find
00:54:58
her so very quickly within this would be about I would say maybe 36 hours of her
00:55:04
going missing maybe 48 at the most both truck drivers are on location with the sheriff in charge and they're pointing
00:55:12
to this is where I saw the girl and this is what I saw her doing right so using that information they're now expanding
00:55:19
their search because at first their search was really centered on her home in a three mile
00:55:27
radius around that now we're moving down about a mile and a half half south of where her home would be on nc18 and we
00:55:36
can really start searching here now so they start searching there and they find candy wrappers near where the trucker
00:55:45
said that they saw Asia right they take these candy wrappers and they show them to family and friends of Asia's and
00:55:52
people point out they said that those rappers are the same brand and type of candy that we received at school
00:56:02
I don't know if it was after the basketball game or before the break but they received some candy
00:56:08
uh and they they're confirming this is stuff that she would have had right in her possession so now they're like okay
00:56:16
this is this really is one of those weird cases where there's an actual breadcrumb Trail you know here it's
00:56:22
candy wrappers so now they're going wait a second that photograph that we have even though we don't know who's in it or
00:56:30
if it has any connection to Aisha at all this photograph is found near the candy
00:56:34
wrappers right so now it's starting to look like it is connected to Asia's disappearance somehow that's when police
00:56:41
go back to the Turners and they they're questioning them about this Photograph and the Turners are saying by the way we
00:56:48
found other stuff with the photograph too but again we didn't know if it was just debris trash or what so we never
00:56:57
turned it in so that's when they show them hey we found this green marker in the shed we
00:57:04
found a yellow hair bow with um a lot of times this is reported as a Mickey Mouse hair bow but it was a it
00:57:11
was a yellow one and you probably can Envision what I'm talking about here it was a yellow plastic hair bow that had a
00:57:18
plastic bear on it but it was all one solid color which was yellow the uh and then they found a pencil now this pencil
00:57:27
is interesting because it was a 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that's the year of the Olympic bombings which asha's
00:57:36
family with her her parents immediately say yes she had a pencil just like that one
00:57:41
so this is all starting to look like these things are all involved in her case you know the green marker who knows
00:57:50
who that belongs to it probably was Asia's but they can go yeah that yellow hair bow
00:57:55
that was hers that 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that was hers the candy wrappers
00:58:02
yes she had candy in her possession that was like that that was of that type and
00:58:07
oh we have this wallet-sized photo of a little girl that probably came from her there was no
00:58:13
reason you know the Turners say there's no reason for any of this stuff to be in
00:58:17
our Tool Shed So to find any of it and find it all together must mean that it's all came from the same Source on
00:58:25
February 20th Captain this would be after basically a week of searching for Asia
00:58:33
this is when authorities finally decide to suspend their ground search for her so very early on they have a lot of
00:58:42
people looking they're pulling out all of their resources to try to find this little girl the best they could do is
00:58:50
track her movements somehow from her house down to this space that's about a mile and a half south of her home they
00:58:58
find those items that everyone agrees belong to her and after that there's really no no
00:59:06
trace of her uh in the next several days while they're they're searching all over
00:59:10
the place and the thing that you pointed out which I think is good and everybody's probably noting in their
00:59:16
heads that she's nine years old and her sense of direction would be not so great and then you have
00:59:24
she's on the main road that Main Road would take her into town it would take her to her school but she's heading in
00:59:31
the opposite direction and it doesn't seem like we have even uh the slightest clue to say we we know that family
00:59:39
members live close to her but we don't have anybody saying hey well maybe she was trying to walk a mile to her
00:59:48
grandmother's house or her cousin's house or whatever what I can say off of what I know that uh regarding the
00:59:55
location of her other family their the location of their homes she was well past their houses too right so
01:00:03
she she had she had walked past that there again is a big part of this mystery she's
01:00:10
one she's nine and she's out in the middle of the night which makes zero sense to anybody
01:00:15
you and I have seen a lot of stuff and covered a lot of weird stuff here in the garage and this is
01:00:21
out of bounds from from any of that stuff she walks past all these family members homes she's not heading toward
01:00:28
her school I've heard some people say oh she was sleepwalking I call [ __ ] on that that seems bizarre
01:00:35
Bizarro thinking to me it's it's I don't think it's bizarre I think it's it's it
01:00:40
is a possibility I think the percentage is pretty small because she reacts to the truck driver
01:00:46
yeah but that right but you can be sleepwalking and reacting to it and no I understand I'm just when when I put
01:00:53
together the totality of all of the evidence it it seems it seems like a highly highly unlikely scenario that she
01:01:03
grabbed her book bag trekked a mile and a half through the cold and Rain never woke up reacts to a
01:01:12
truck driver and runs off in the opposite direction and is sitting there eating candy at some point it just it
01:01:20
doesn't it doesn't track for me right as far as sleepwalking goes it normally affects males more than it does females
01:01:27
but this is something that most kids will grow out of by their teenage years so she's nine so that puts her at a
01:01:35
great age to be a candidate for sleepwalking also it's normally happens after after the
01:01:44
individual has some kind of sleep deprivation so we know that she was at a slumber party the night before was she's
01:01:52
so sleep deprived that that caused her to sleepwalk that night when people are sleepwalking they can do mini tasks I
01:02:00
mean walking a couple miles wouldn't be that crazy driving a car people are known to drive a car sometimes people
01:02:09
have even murdered people in their sleep and got off as sleepwalking as their defense right I again I mean she gets up
01:02:18
puts her shoes on grabs a book bag manages not to get run over on the highway I I find it again is is it is it
01:02:27
impossible that she was sleepwalking no well I very well I think you're being a little dismissive of the idea no no
01:02:35
anyway let's move on uh because too many people have spent too much time on that
01:02:40
already on February 20th this is when they stop the ground search at that point Captain it was estimated that the
01:02:48
sheriff's department and all parties involved remember they're using a lot of different resources here that they that
01:02:55
they expended approximately 9 000 professional Searcher hours during that time looking for the little girl so you
01:03:03
think that if there was any other trace of her out there other than those items being found in that tool shed or these
01:03:11
eyewitnesses that they would have come across that during that very first week they were not just sitting on their
01:03:17
hands waiting to get a call or for something to happen they were out actively looking for this girl like
01:03:24
gangbusters for that whole week on February 21st this is a brilliant move here and this is something that
01:03:32
um I I don't know that a like a lesser Sheriff's Department might not think to do this so I applaud this
01:03:39
effort here I think it's something that's very it shows a level of intelligence out of this Sheriff's
01:03:45
Office not that I had any questions but on February 21st the sheriff's officials
01:03:51
they set up roadblocks along highway 18. this would have been for a block of hours I think it was about four hours
01:04:00
that they set up these roadblocks they did this during the time frame of when she would have been missing you
01:04:07
know so you set it up about two in the morning to maybe six in the morning or three in the morning to maybe seven in
01:04:13
the morning right and what they're doing is they're stopping every vehicle that that is driving that area driving that
01:04:22
stretch of road and they're interviewing each driver because first they want to know okay
01:04:29
you you are here on a Monday early morning hours is this a typical drive for you on a Monday all it is okay did
01:04:37
you happen to see something last Monday on your way to wherever you're going did you see a little girl she's missing
01:04:45
did you see you know her get into a vehicle did you see anything suspicious so this is a really smart way of
01:04:52
gathering some more information because you may be stopping and interviewing people that
01:04:58
are not from the area that travel that area for routinely for whatever reason but we're unaware that they had some
01:05:06
information or maybe you happen to stumble upon some information by stopping these people on Thursday
01:05:13
February 24th the Charlotte Observer newspaper runs an article containing the mystery photo
01:05:22
that's what I'm going to call it the mystery photo that was found in the shed along with Asia's belongings the article
01:05:28
is titled do you know this girl and it runs this is weird it runs at the bottom of
01:05:36
the page of page 75 which would be page one of the Gaston section of the Thursday's newspaper again that's page
01:05:45
75 of 108 pages of newspaper and I'll read the article real quick here for you Captain well it's Prime spot do you know
01:05:54
who this girl is and then it shows the picture the wallet size photo that was found in that tool shed with Asia's
01:06:01
belongings and it says Cleveland County authorities are trying to determine whether this photo is connected with the
01:06:07
case of nine-year-old Asia degree missing from her home near Shelby since February 14.
01:06:14
the picture turned up in the same shed off of nc18 where items identified as asias were found Aisha's family did not
01:06:23
recognize the girl in the photo and neither do sorry and neither did officials at Asia's School
01:06:31
anyone with information about the photo should call the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office
01:06:36
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