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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who never returned his copy of Tropic of Cancer
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back to the library here is the captain yes Mr Bookman I returned that book Joy boy it's good to be seen and good to see
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you thanks for listening thanks for telling my friends today we are sipping on another
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delicious beer from the great Folks at tactical Brewing Company this is fog of hostility it's an imperial New England
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IPA it's dank it's Piney and citrusy it's also nine percent ABV so best to drink this one at home in your garage
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garage grade how about four and a quarter bottle caps now time for some praise and thank yous first up a cheers
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to the angry Italian in Rialto California and a big shout out to Hannah and Lake Stevens Washington next we have
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a shout to the always kind and never littering Meg and buffalo and a big we like your Jeep goes out to Chris and
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Shira in Toronto Canada here's a cheers to Noah and Laura and Tula Houma Tennessee and last but certainly not
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least we have Augustine and Sean Jennifer in Chicagoland everyone we mentioned went to truecrime garage.com
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and they helped us out with this week's beer fun beer run for beer run t-shirts check out
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our store Page we also have be good be kind and don't Litter shirts and so much more check out the store today and
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that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] on March 14 2000 it's now been one month since nine-year-old Asia degree
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disappeared on this day Asia's parents appear on The Montel Williams TV show the degree family along with Asia's
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basketball coach his name is Chad Wilson they did interviews on The Montel Williams show that aired that day and we
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also have America's Most Wanted and the Oprah Winfrey show that did segments on the case as well on March 22nd the
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degree family put up a billboard at the spot where Jeff the our eyewitness said that he saw Asia run into the woods that
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same day Sheriff Crawford stated that his Department was trying to rule out a handful of unnamed suspects they
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contacted local sex offenders spoke to to everyone who may have had contact with Asia the FBI created a
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psychological profile of Asia's abductor which has never been released to the public I can't remember and I was
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scouring my notes to try to find the exact date Captain but there was a statement from the sheriff sheriff
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Crawford at some point this would be within weeks of her disappearance saying that the the parents were clear to
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suspects are no longer considered to be suspects remember we had him stating within 12 hours or 24 hours of her going
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missing that we're looking for clues in everyone's a suspect well at some point at least on the record in that newspaper
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on that day he says the parents are no longer suspects right and just like you talked about before we
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we have no dog scent or any real evidence other than eyewitnesses to back up the idea that she left the house on
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her own now now how she did that I think that is debatable but but we know that at some point
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we we have to trust these eyewitnesses because there's so many of them and they're all their stories seem very
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similar not only are the stories similar they're reporting these independently of
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one another which adds to The credibility and then when you go to the areas where they're saying that they saw
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Asia we're finding Asia's belongings right so I mean it's it's this happened I mean yeah confirmation of the
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eyewitness accounts right so what that means is investigators believe that Asia left
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her residence of her own accord but of course why and for what is really anyone's guess we mentioned yesterday
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that people have said she was upset about a basketball game I I I just find that incredibly
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difficult to believe that the outcome of that basketball game would would really I mean look it's cold and
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raining it's a thunderstorm as you pointed out yesterday people have said that she was scared of the dark scared
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of dogs she's nine that's the thing that we need to like Circle and underline a bazillion
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times even the national Center for missing exploited children say that typically they rarely see anyone run
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away under the age of 12. so a basketball game I'm upset about a basketball game but I'm scared of the
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dark and scared of dogs well I'm scared of Storms and that's that's what I keep coming
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back to if one were to run away this is not the ideal time to do it it seems to me like if there was
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something going on at your home or you're upset about a basketball game or what have you
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you could pick a different time to run away you could go well maybe I'll wait 24 more hours maybe it won't be raining
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then yeah and we don't have anybody after the game other than the initial shock of her
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losing or the initial emotions of her losing everybody says she bounced back and she
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was fine during her brother's game she was fine during a sleepover and one thing that we don't have that's not
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public information but law enforcement might be fully aware of this one thing we are not armed with is the
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knowledge of when that backpack was packed up that could be fairly important and we
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got to keep in mind too law enforcement may know this because they're not going into this blind she's a nine-year-old
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child her parents are very involved in her life it's very easy to go to Mom and Dad
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especially within those first few hours these are the questions you're asking we
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need to try to determine what she may have taken with her so Mom Dad tell us what what items of
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hers are missing from her room and so that's how they come up with this is what she probably took with her now
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based off of the items you believe that that she took with her that are missing from your home
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you can then put together a different type of timeline of when she potentially packed up that bag
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it's very easy for mom to say hey I watched that basketball uniform right after a game I do it every time so she
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must have packed it up afterwards or she didn't wear this to the slumber party you see where I'm going with this it you
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can determine these things and law enforcement May in fact know that my suspicion here one thing that's been
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pointed out is that her fourth grade class at falston elementary school they were recently reading The Whipping Boy
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book which is a book that I remember we read when I was a kid well when I was a kid in school this is by Sid Fleischmann
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the book centers around a story of a prince and a common child who receives lashes on behalf of the prince
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so if the prince does something bad it's the it's the common child that gets physically punished for
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this the two create this unlikely friendship and they decide to run away together and they go
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off on some adventures and then they both return safely later so some people pointed out maybe maybe this is a
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possibility maybe she's going off on some Adventure I I don't know I can I feel confident about certain things in
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this case and what I can say is I feel confident that for her to have left in the middle of the night under those
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conditions weather conditions she's either a running away from something or B running to something there was
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something that was uh of urgency that that required leaving that night yeah I again I disagree but we can argue to a
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blue in the face on whether or not she was sleepwalking or where she was heading to I just don't know what be so
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urgent or what kind of con somebody would have to um coax this girl out that's Afraid of the
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Dark afraid of storms afraid of dogs nine years old to leave her house in the middle of the night without telling
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anybody in the summer of 2000 just a few months after she went missing there was
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a major tip that came in for the case and this came out of the county jail in Mecklenburg
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an inmate his name Baron Ramsey started making collect calls to the Charlotte Observer and the Cleveland County
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Sheriff's Office insisting that he knew what happened to the girl he's 32 years old at the time of this event he says
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that he and another man were heading back to Shelby driving on NC 18 in the early morning hours of February 14th
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this after buying drugs and Hickory which would be 28 miles north of Fallston 9.1 miles of that would be on this
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highway of nc18 he says that the other man was driving a pickup truck and that they struck a girl as she was crossing
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the road he says that the girl was still alive when the driver put her in the back of the pickup Ramsay says that the
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driver dropped him off at home and left with the girl a few days later Ramsay said that the man returned to take him
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fishing on Moss lake near Kings Mountain Ramsay says that he helped the man obviously he knows this man's name it's
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just not printed in the paper he helped the man dump the now dead girl's body in
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the lake the king's Mountain area is about 19 miles south east of Fallston of Aisha's home Ramsay says he was
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reporting This months later because one his conscience was bothering him and two
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he's facing a long federal prisons day and he was hoping for a deal Ramsay robbed a Bessemer City Bank in April of
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2000 so after the girl went missing investigators searched nc-18 for car parts and found nothing they're looking
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for evidence that there would have been a hit and run or some type of accident they were doing that the day that she
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went missing and the the day after they based off of his statements they dragged Moss Lake twice and even used an
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infrared underwater camera and dive teams but found nothing they found zero yeah no evidence of Asia at all in
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October of 2000 they moved the inmate they moved Baron Ramsey to the Cleveland County Jail
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because Ramsay tells them hey let's put me here we can arrange for a meeting with the driver of the pickup
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that that hit the girl and had me help him dispose of her body yeah we can have him come and meet me here
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okay so they move him to this Cleveland County jail once he's there Ramsay along
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with other inmates they plan to escape but somehow the guards figure out their plan and they stop this Escape Plan yeah
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because they figured out their dumbasses so the authorities are left wondering look she's not where you said she was or
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not where you said we would find her was this all just a lie so you could get to Cleveland County jail and try to make
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an escape and if you can't make the Escape is this is this like a really good plan because
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then maybe you could throw this other guy under the bus and receive some type of deal from us whether we found her or
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not typical criminal the authorities say that that they were suspicious of him from the get-go they were suspicious of
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him especially after this Escape Plan was discovered and he failed several polygraph tests in regards to the
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information that he provided to surprise enforcement so surprised it doesn't seem
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like there is there's anything really here in fact authorities have been on the record stating that they do not
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believe Ramsay at all and they think he had nothing to do with why she is still missing and her family has said the same
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thing too that they they just don't believe this Ramsay guy's story yeah but the the point of contact though makes a
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lot of sense to me because you hear about you know in the mara Murray case or Brian Shafer or something like that
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where oh well maybe they just got hit by a vehicle and then somebody had to dispose of the body well what the what
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would be the motive well when the guy is telling you well we we had a bunch of drugs and we're criminals anyways we got
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a bunch of drugs now we got this girl that we hit I wouldn't believe that you would find a bunch of evidence because
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she's nine she's small how much damage is she gonna do to that vehicle so the story starts out as plot as
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plausible I believe plausible enough where the cop said we gotta see where this goes but like you
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said the story starts falling apart pretty quickly well yeah and if you're gonna hope to receive any type of deal
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at all or even if you're just trying to do some good at the very least maybe her body could
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be where you say it's going to be yeah uh that would be a good starting point we know that not to be the case on
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August 5th of that same year she's now been missing for several months and Asia would have celebrated her 10th birthday
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February 14 2001 gets us up to the one year marker Asia's now been missing for one year their parents her parents have
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their 13th year wedding anniversary and they said to the papers you know that's something we will no longer celebrate
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um of course we're still married still in love with one another we just cannot celebrate anything right on that day
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going forward August 3rd of that same year 2001. Terry Fleming he's the owner of Precision
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Grading he's working on a construction project in neighboring Burke County he uncovered
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Asia's missing book bag and how does he know that it's hers well it has her name
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and telephone number and some reports State her address as well written in the bag hey and how far away was this from
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where she went missing okay so the the book bag was located more than 26 miles from her family's home so this would be
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North this is in a different direction from where she was seen walking that morning the general description of it is
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this captain that buried off of Highway 18. the book bag was found 18 months after
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Asia disappeared the book bag was double wrapped in black plastic trash bags found more than 26 miles from her
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family's home in a different direction from where she had been walking the book bag was found off of nc18 about six
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miles south of Morganton which is almost 30 miles north of the intersection of nc18 and NC 180. remember that's where
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she was roughly seen last yeah it was found in a spot about 50 yards off of the highway here's a full description of
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what was found in the bag although I would like to throw out a buyer beware here as I don't
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think officially there was ever a full inventory of what was in the bag that was released to the public
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but online this was the most comprehensive list that I could find so I thought it was worth mentioning so
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they say that Asia's black book bag and black Tweety Bird purse were missing from her room after she
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disappeared along with a pair of blue jeans with a red stripe black sneakers a long sleeved white shirt with purple
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lettering a red vest with black trim black overalls with Tweety Bird on them and a long sleeve black and white shirt
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also we have Asia's house key that would have been in her book bag now of course
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investigators searched this area for several days after this find I mean this is a major find in the investigation all
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they found in this area Captain was they found some animal bones which one would
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expect to find they also found a pair of men's khaki pants that were found Jake from State Farm khaki pants thing is
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super weird to me but the statement that they put out at the time was that they didn't believe that the pants had any
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connection to Asia's book bag or to Asia's case yeah right and I don't know how they were able to determine that if
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it's something that I mean you might be able to look at something and determine that it's been there for well over 18
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months called science or maybe they have other reasons to believe that now well you also you have this book bag that is
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put in two trash bags and buried so why wouldn't they take the same precautions with the pants
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if they were connected that brings us to another piece here in the case where you really gotta you really gotta sift
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through the details to have a full idea of what's going on because when I get rid of a pair of pants I put them in two
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bags and I bury them all right off the freeway of course well so this guy that found them he he was working in the area
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he's the owner of that that company this is an area that's been going through some changes and being worked on
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for quite some time so a lot of people have questioned well why would anybody double bag
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her book bag and then bury it some have even said that this is similar to a parent killing one's child and then
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wrapping them up in a blanket and and placing them somewhere like some form of preservation
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and no I think it's to possibly uh Guard from scent dogs or something well the other thing too is people say well if if
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someone killed her why would they bother bagging double bagging this item before
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burying it was it so that they could retrieve it at another time to preserve it as some kind of trophy or to not get
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caught um I think what I go to is the the sheriff's statements at the time and I
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found this to be very interesting because the story that's lived on for 20 years is that the bags were found buried
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50 yards off of the the side of the highway the sheriff at the time said that because the the the land had been worked
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and worked over several times he had evidence to believe that the bag that someone discarded this
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that the item was double bagged and simply thrown out of a moving vehicle at some point and then it became buried
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over time because they were working the land so that puts a whole different spin on
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things and makes a lot more sense when you think about it rather than someone killing a child double bagging this
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thing and burying it you the placing the item in trash bags seems to defeat the purpose of burying it right
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but you do point out a good thing at the idea that maybe you're trying to hide the scent or any type of scent that
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might might come from that but you're you're 26 miles away from the area in question well and the double bagging and
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throwing out the window can make sense I would say if if you're double bagging it
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maybe somebody's just less likely willing to try to rip open two bags to see what's in it they could just assume
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that it's trash and discard of it on the side of the road yeah I think the placing it in a trash bag one serves the
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purpose of concealing it until you have the opportunity to get rid of it and then
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it conceals it further even after you've discarded it people see unfortunately uh we live in a world where people throw
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[ __ ] out their Windows ass hats and it sits on the side of the highway filthy animals and so if you if you were to see
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a book bag well that might draw someone's attention much much more than it would if someone saw a common black
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trash bag now investigators with this finding announced that they considered Asia's
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disappearance to be a criminal matter and Foul Play was suspected after the book bag's discovery of course that
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surrounding area was thoroughly searched afterwards but other than the pants or the animal bones no additional evidence
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was reportedly located at that time one thing that I found really interesting here captain and this is all
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based around the finding of the book bag it was the sheriff's statement at the time he's kind of going through some of
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the facts of the case and he's given us a little more information here so his statement was several drivers witnessed
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her Asia walking South along North Carolina Highway 18 around 4 a.m but did not alert police her parents reported
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her missing a few hours later when they woke up and found asha's bed empty more than a year later her book bag was
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discovered buried along the same Highway where she was last seen walking based on our investigation we have
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reason to believe that individuals in this community or the surrounding area have knowledge of or information
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pertaining to The Disappearance of Asia very interesting to me that what he's saying in general there is now this area
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where the book bags found is the point of our investigation rather than where she went missing from we
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think someone in this area 26 miles north has information pertaining to Asia's case
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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right we're back a quick
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announcement we will be at crime Con in Austin Texas our promo code is tcg10 for 10 off if you use our promo
00:25:35
code and also I will be going uh Nick cannot make it this year to Crime con UK on our promo code is the same TCG 10 for
00:25:46
10 off your tickets in January of 2014 detectives announced that they were looking into 57 year old Donald Ferguson
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who was arrested for the 1990 rape and murder of seven-year-old Shalonda poll whose body was found behind an
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elementary school in Greensboro North Carolina while investigating a seemingly unrelated sexual assault in 2013 the
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authorities in South Carolina entered his DNA into a National Database and realized it matched the suspect's sample
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in shalonda's case so there in South Carolina they're investigating a completely different
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case they have some DNA that they throw into the system and they they come up with a
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hit to this other victim right this murdered victim seven-year-old murder victim Shalonda Poole so authorities of
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course are going to arrest this Donald Ferguson they try him for it he's found guilty but what this gives us here is a
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potential suspect because they want to know what this guy would have been doing in February of 2000 yeah it's reported
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that he was living about 40 miles from the city of Shelby at and around that time so he could have had something to
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do I will throw this out there though in the the case of Shalonda poll she was a
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neighbor a neighbor's daughter and her body was found fairly close to their home and unfortunately
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when these cases are solved and I mean anybody can think back to cases that that they've heard elsewhere or seen on
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TV a lot of times when it's younger victims like this especially young boys and girls it's often a neighbor
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someone that has seen this child time and time again maybe doesn't maybe has some type of relationship with the
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family maybe doesn't but it's usually someone that's in close proximity to to the victim themselves the old creepy
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[ __ ] neighbor yeah so they they looked into him I don't know I know nothing has
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come of it because uh we would be having a much different discussion here today that was back from 2014. and well one of
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the things that you haven't got into is you know this was 2000 she was nine years old the the family didn't have a
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family computer some people think that's odd and and today's standards I think that would be
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a little strange for our family not to have some kind of access to the internet whether it's through a cell phone a
00:28:35
tablet or or some other means but in 2000 I didn't have a computer I don't think uh you know my parents were
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divorced and I I don't think either one of them had a computer at the time or or
00:28:50
one that was working well or or had easy capabilities or easy access to the internet so the grooming or the
00:29:01
possibility that some uh pedo was in contact with her to get her to go out of her house that night would be
00:29:11
somebody that her the family would have had to know and again I don't think there's any evidence or was connected to
00:29:18
circles that the family would know about her school the church the basketball team yeah you're right if if some creep
00:29:25
lured this kid out of her house he didn't use it he didn't do it via computer into the home right and you're
00:29:32
right there are people like I've I've heard it and read it time and time again people
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say Aisha had a very sheltered life oh no they just didn't have a computer and they think about how sheltered this is a
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couple days before she goes missing she's at her aunt's house you know and then the next day she's at the
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basketball and then she goes to her brother party that has almost a dozen kids there she's in Bible study classes
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plays on the basketball team she goes to school right this is not a sheltered life this is an extremely normal life uh
00:30:06
her mother was on record at some point saying that they didn't have a computer because
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um they didn't want any Pro you know they had small children 10 and 9 years old they didn't see the need for a
00:30:19
computer nor did they want to mess with any of the headaches of monitoring what the kids may be doing on the computer
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yeah the other thing too sometimes if you can't afford something you just don't buy it I mean I was trying to
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think I was going to say the same thing I was going to say Yeah in 2000 I didn't
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have a computer either that doesn't mean that I was sheltered no I I had one it's
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just it worked horribly I think it was one of those old Gateway computers that was was all jammed up
00:30:48
with Napster music yeah Napster music and porno and you know what and I couldn't afford to replace the thing
00:30:55
because I didn't make good money and they were expensive so there's it doesn't point to a sheltered life in my
00:31:01
opinion well you should have told your girlfriend not to download all that poor now all right back to the case so we
00:31:07
have the FBI that comes out and they announce a suspect vehicle which is believed to
00:31:16
be either an early 1970s Lincoln Continental Mark IV or possibly a Ford Thunderbird green in color with rust
00:31:28
around the wheel wells yeah I mean look if you take these two cars and put them side by side they look like the same car
00:31:36
just maybe a like this was the newer model and this is older model but they are different cars by different
00:31:42
manufacturers yeah very similar vehicles um I can understand why if somebody's reporting this to authorities that they
00:31:50
wouldn't be able to 100 percent say for certain that it was a Ford Thunderbird or a Lincoln Mark IV what I do find
00:31:58
extremely interesting about this tip is look she went missing in 2000 this is reported to be an early 1970s vehicle
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that makes it not one of a kind but fairly unique yeah where if you could find this
00:32:17
vehicle or get a direct link to this vehicle you're going to have a bigger piece of
00:32:24
the pie to work with if you're an investigator now one thing that I find weird is that
00:32:32
there's no specifics given on where this new information came from and I want to
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put new in air quotes there air quotations there new information is this something that they had for years
00:32:43
or was this in fact new information because I I've seen a lot of people argue that because it could be something
00:32:51
that they had a tip that they had early on and now that they're they're pulling this out of their back pocket and look
00:32:58
and you know we we see this all the time and we've heard John Douglas talk about
00:33:02
this these law enforcement agencies need to sometimes make a decision early on are
00:33:09
we going to use the public for help or not and if we are then this tips you know if this is not a new tip but
00:33:18
something they had early on this is something that would have been better on to to know early on because it's pretty
00:33:24
easy to get rid of a vehicle well and that's going to be my major hang up with this case and with the investigation
00:33:30
itself now when in their press release what is stated is that the vehicle was occupied two times I don't know what
00:33:40
that means the sheriff at the time this is Alan Mormon also said that the car was discovered by legwork
00:33:49
you know because they want to know where this new information is coming from it was discovered by legwork Between the
00:33:54
Sheriff's Office investigators and the FBI but would not go into any further detail about the new lead the direct
00:34:02
statement is that Asia may have been cited getting into a distinctive dark green vehicle early 1970s model car on
00:34:12
the night that she was last seen the vehicle which had rust around the wheel wells again is thought to have been a
00:34:18
Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird those photos pictures examples of those Vehicles come
00:34:25
up pretty regularly if you just Google Asia degrees name yeah we'll post those on all social media Facebook Instagram
00:34:33
and Twitter this is going to bring us up to October 2018. I I don't this case just leaves me
00:34:45
shaking my head uh for for many many reasons and I and I don't want to sound like I'm
00:34:54
Kermit the Frog being Uber critical of the Sheriff's Department but I I just can't help but under I just
00:35:02
don't understand this investigation this is when the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office detectives appealed for
00:35:09
information from the public about two items of Interest this was a book this is mcelligott's pool which is a
00:35:18
children's book by Dr Seuss and a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt now an investigator said that these
00:35:28
items are vital clues in the Asia degree investigation at the time oh investigators would not say where these
00:35:35
items came from or why they believe them to be vital clues in Asia oh in her case
00:35:42
it was later revealed that these two items were found in her book bag that was found in August of 2001.
00:35:52
the book itself was later determined to have been borrowed and we know this per a stamp inside the the book the book was
00:36:01
borrowed from the Fallston Elementary School library in early 2000. the statement from the police and the
00:36:09
FBI is that Captain to tell you this makes me want to chug this beer and punch myself in the
00:36:15
face or punch yourself in the nuts they're stating that in the face Asia did not check this book out
00:36:27
they're also stating that they we don't know who checked it out because the records don't go back to the year 2000.
00:36:34
hmm holy [ __ ] let's explore all of the problems with everything that they just
00:36:41
said you can tell me that you know that the book was borrowed from the Fallston Elementary School library in early 2000
00:36:48
but you can't tell me who checked it out but you can tell me that it wasn't Asia
00:36:51
that seems awfully bizarre the records don't go back to 2000 well when did you start looking for the
00:36:58
records because now it's 2018. and you're saying the records don't go back to 2000. if these items did come
00:37:06
from the book bag like your website says yeah you found these items in August of
00:37:12
2001. you mean to tell me that the Fallston Elementary School didn't have records of the previous school year then
00:37:19
right right and if they didn't again how can you tell me that she didn't check out the book
00:37:25
it's it's absolutely just okay but the Bizarro yeah but the book to me is not that big of a mystery uh she checked it
00:37:35
out or somebody else checked it out but she had that book I believe she probably
00:37:39
had that book at her house when she left that night and it was in her book bag the the item that baffles me more is
00:37:46
this um New Kids on the Block shirt it almost looks like a nightie on on on some level and maybe he she could have
00:37:55
got it from somebody at that slumber party but because the only record that I have of anybody talking about the New
00:38:02
Kids on the Block shirt is her parents saying that's that wasn't her shirt she didn't own that sure okay well she was
00:38:08
at a slumber party with how many people but but they again I mean you would think they would would show that to all
00:38:16
persons involved to determine that it that it wasn't hers which is that's been the general statement that and that's
00:38:24
what was weird about when the book bag was found originally back in 2001 there was a statement by the the sheriff
00:38:31
saying when asked what was in the book bag or in the trash bags he says something like 90 of 90 or 99 I can't
00:38:42
remember which one it was of everything was that was found belonged to Asia and at the time nobody
00:38:48
knew what the hell that could mean and then later we fast forward to 17 years later when they're telling us
00:38:57
about this book that and and I get what you're saying I think of much more importance as the New
00:39:03
Kids on the Block t-shirt for the investigation I just find it incredibly weird that they would say hey this book
00:39:12
was checked out from her school library but she didn't check it out you know you
00:39:17
could simply say these items were found in her book bag tell us that in 2001 so we can actually
00:39:24
do something with the information not 17 years later and don't make it so damn convoluted about the book itself just
00:39:31
say it came from her school but we don't we we don't have any evidence that she is brought it with her or that it that
00:39:39
she checked it out it could have come from another source and by the way this new kid's on the Block shirt it had to
00:39:44
have come from another source because we've showed it to everybody that that knew her
00:39:49
and everyone says the same thing she had no reason to have that in her possession
00:39:53
in fact that shirt would have been that was from the 1989 1990 hanging tough World Tour that the New Kids on the
00:40:03
Block went you know went on this tour yeah absolutely classic she wasn't even born until August of two thousand
00:40:12
I'm so I'm sorry of 1990. still could be a fan I mean of a legendary band like that I mean well I get there but they're
00:40:20
out there don't you can we can we can we all agree that if the authorities and her family say that it's not hers it
00:40:29
wasn't hers yeah my only issue with that is again the I don't know the number of people
00:40:38
that were at the slumber party I believe personally that most of those items in our book bag were in our book bag it's
00:40:46
probably starting on the 11th and then going into the Sleep the slumber party because the the candies that her coach
00:40:56
gave her on the on the 12th you know we we found those so that's what also makes me believe oh yeah well
00:41:06
her basketball uniform would have been packed away as well right and and I agree 100 with you but I also want to
00:41:14
keep in mind this is something that law enforcement may know we've already seen time and time again they have
00:41:21
information on stuff in this case and they're just not releasing it to the public they may have confirmation from
00:41:28
Mom and or dad that that items were were packed at a different time and really really the cutoff is that
00:41:37
basketball uniform yeah possible because that's something that's that's very simple that we know that she she would
00:41:43
have had to have taken it out of a backpack at some point to wear it on Saturday and did it go right back into
00:41:49
the backpack afterwards or was it washed and put away in her room uh these are things that the parents in law
00:41:57
enforcement would know at the time here's my big big problem with this case it's time
00:42:07
and time again I I feel like the most crucial pieces of evidence are just being swept aside it's almost like
00:42:15
they're brushed under the rug it seems like law enforcement for the most part believe that something weird was going
00:42:22
on that probably involved Foul Play very quickly in this little girl's disappearance they appealed to the
00:42:29
public for help they just didn't appeal to the public I think in the in in the right manner
00:42:36
right again like you said this case is really frustrating I mean one why did she leave her house it doesn't make a
00:42:43
lot of sense maybe sleepwalking maybe she was lured out by somebody and then all these items that don't seem to be
00:42:51
connected to her that nobody can connect back to her a book a night shirt and then this this picture of this other
00:43:00
girl well we'll go through our thoughts uh in some some better detail here in a minute before I want to hit on a couple
00:43:07
of other items here captain in November of last year November of 2020 an inmate named Marcus Mellon who is a convicted
00:43:17
he's been convicted of sex crimes against children from 2014 convicted piece of [ __ ] he wrote a letter to the
00:43:26
Shelby Star newspaper claiming that Asia degree was murdered and he knows where to find her
00:43:34
so of course these claims were under investigation for many months but not verified
00:43:43
again another problem with this case though is that road itself is what do you say 180 some miles
00:43:50
145 yeah okay so that's that's a lot of distance for even somebody to go oh yeah
00:43:56
we picked this girl up and then eventually we put our remains back on that road or whatever
00:44:03
you know they if they're off by 10 miles probably too much for the Searchers to to figure out so in his letter to the um
00:44:13
newspaper he wrote Asia degree has been missing for over 20 years about four months ago I had found out her
00:44:20
whereabouts and what had happened to her she was killed and then took and buried
00:44:25
I do know how and what town she is in I hope you get this letter and do come see
00:44:31
me it's on the up and up so it took a while for investigators to they were saying that it was coveted
00:44:40
that was slowing them down on interviewing and it sounds like there was a an outbreak where this man is
00:44:47
being housed where he was serving his time so that seems very likely but later in fact just very recently I can't
00:44:57
remember if it was days or just a couple weeks ago but authorities came out and said you know we've spoke to this inmate
00:45:03
we've looked into everything he said it's not let us anywhere we don't know if this is they're not questioning the
00:45:10
credibility of the information as far as this guy believing what he's telling them
00:45:18
what it is is that they figured out that this is all information that he's received second third fourth hand right
00:45:25
it's a it's information that's traveled from person to person to person to person that seems to have worked its way
00:45:30
to him and by this point it has no relevant information or anything that they can use for their investigation
00:45:38
over the 21 years that Asia has been missing there's been three different inmates that's come forward saying they
00:45:46
know where she is and what happened to her we discuss two of them in detail the the third one I believe took place in
00:45:52
2004 and I kind of skipped over that because it it was really nothing he was a it was an inmate saying this is where
00:46:00
her body can be found they search there and search there and search there and it was just a wasted expense wasted
00:46:08
efforts there they found zero there nothing right so for me Captain when we when we talk about
00:46:15
the thoughts and feelings and suspicions that we have in this case the thing that that really breaks my
00:46:23
heart that I mentioned in yesterday's episode you know some of these cases really get
00:46:29
to you and some of them it almost feels like the people aren't so real that that
00:46:33
they're you know actors on a screen somewhere but this one I what I cannot shake from from my mind and from my
00:46:40
heart is thinking about that young girl walking down walking down the side of the street
00:46:47
out in the country in the pitch black cold and rain on her own that that has has pierced my heart and
00:46:57
will stick with me for some time that breaks my my heart to think about that and then I keep going back to the
00:47:04
idea of okay yes there's a chance she might have been sleepwalking I can agree with that but if she wasn't
00:47:11
she was this is the act of a desperate person she's either running away from something horrible or running towards
00:47:19
something and whatever it was if she it had a sense of urgency the storm was not going to stop her the
00:47:27
dark was not going to stop her whatever it was she was going to go and and carry
00:47:33
out whatever Mission she she set herself on and I don't have I know some people do and I'm no smarter than anybody else
00:47:42
definitely not but I don't have any suspicions about Aisha's parents or about the family
00:47:50
I don't see any evidence that there was anything weird going on I really don't think she was running away from anything
00:47:56
I think she was very likely running towards something and my gut will not allow me to
00:48:03
to feel suspicious about the parents and and look I I've called out parents in many many other cases many other cases
00:48:12
usually that's my go-to when I first started reviewing this thing my go-to is normally the parents well when I first
00:48:19
started reviewing this I thought how could it not be the parents or one of the parents what's interesting I think
00:48:25
sometimes you have to have have the the eyeball tests and the ear ball test and like you said you can go look up
00:48:33
interviews they've done with Montel Williams with Oprah Winfrey uh being on America's Most Wanted a lot of times too
00:48:42
they might seek out local publicity for a case but if they're in on it a lot of times the parents will shy away from a
00:48:50
bigger national attention nothing that they say to me or I mean there's really nothing that they have said ever that I
00:48:58
ever felt it was suspicious in any way and I I know they both took polygraph tests and past those and allowed in the
00:49:05
court of law but it's like well please use those as a tool and they pay past both of them and they just to me they
00:49:11
pass the eyeball tests in the year ball test and it's 21 years later if if it were the parents usually that's a very
00:49:20
easy conclusion to come to for law enforcement we wouldn't be sitting here having the same conversation and then
00:49:27
then you have to believe let's say let's say you do suspect the parents well then
00:49:32
you have to convince yourself that somehow there's just some coincidence that that
00:49:38
Asia or someone matching her description was seen walking alone in the middle of
00:49:43
the night on the side of the highway by multiple people and that somehow her belongings ended up in this tool shed
00:49:48
and that somehow her book bag was double bagged and thrown out the side of the highway 26 miles north of that yeah and
00:49:58
what I think here that this is going back to the chugging of beer and punching myself in the face
00:50:04
in the face the thing here that I I cannot get over Captain is you know you hear you hear the old saying don't bury
00:50:11
the lead you know sometimes with journalism all the the most important part of the story was three paragraphs
00:50:18
down didn't even make the headline I feel like when I review this investigation that unfortunately for
00:50:24
Asia and her family I feel like investigators and journalists have managed to bury the
00:50:31
lead time and time again and it makes zero sense to me the first bit of information
00:50:39
that was found that possibly could be connected to Asia's case and I say possibly because I'm trying to
00:50:47
be responsible I firmly believe that it is related to Asia's case and I'll tell you why it's that photograph of the
00:50:55
unknown girl there is no reason for that photograph to be in the Turner's Tool Shed this shed was
00:51:03
located more than a football field off of the highway it had no doors so it wasn't like
00:51:10
something that Asia had to figure out a way to get into and it had a light because I've read people saying that
00:51:16
well she would have had to have known where that tool shed was maybe she did maybe she didn't but the Turners Clearly
00:51:22
say in an interview we have a light that's on that tool shed you could spot it from the road even though it's that
00:51:29
far from the road in the pitch black maybe she simply went in there to get out from the rain or maybe as you said
00:51:35
maybe something spooked her or the the truck driver stopping attempting to help her scares her and she decides to flee
00:51:43
somewhere and that's her only her only shelter but what we do know is regardless of how they got there items
00:51:52
belonging to Asia degree were found in and around that tool shed along with a wallet-sized photograph of
00:52:00
an unknown girl a photo that was shown to her family to her school to people that knew Aisha and everyone said the
00:52:08
same thing I don't know who that girl is in the photograph nor do I have any idea where
00:52:14
the photograph would have came from well it's clearly a school picture taking that information what did we do with it
00:52:19
to ask the public for help because here's here's the problem with this case Okay the the book the library book
00:52:27
it's quite unique and in fact that stamp putting it at the folson elementary school makes it one of a kind
00:52:33
the New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt classic it's Unique it's not one of a kind but it is from a specific tour
00:52:41
they only had so many stops on that tour and to take it a step further I I'm asking the public for a little bit of
00:52:47
help here if you read the fine print on that on that shirt that tour was the um hanging tough World Tour from 1989 1990
00:52:56
but the fine print on it says winter land Productions 1990 big step Productions 1990 made in the USA
00:53:06
so I I'm wondering does that mean that it was made in 1990 and only available for purchase during the 1990 year of
00:53:15
that two-year tour a good point if anybody has any information about that let us know
00:53:21
so that item is not unique but I mean not one of a kind but it is unique right right the cars the description of the
00:53:29
vehicle very unique not one of a kind but again unique what is unique what is one of a kind
00:53:36
what is sorry I'm jumbling my words like crazy what is one of a kind here in this
00:53:42
story no matter what you cannot shake it is this little girl that's in this other
00:53:48
photograph she is one of a kind we've not been able to identify who that person is
00:53:55
and you know why we haven't been able to identify her is because I don't think hardly anybody's seen this damn picture
00:54:01
when they put it in the newspaper asking for people's help it was at the bottom of page 75. well that's why the
00:54:09
prosecutors podcast reached out to us to cover this case that's where I get all my news the bottom of page 75 on a
00:54:16
Thursday if you really wanted to locate this girl or people that know this girl or where potentially this Photograph
00:54:23
came from you got to get it out there to the public it's not a picture of Asia it's not
00:54:29
anybody that anybody that knows Asia is saying that they know this little girl it would have helped if it was on the
00:54:34
Oprah's show well I I have not seen the segment on Oprah Show nor did I see the segment on America's Most Wanted
00:54:40
but I very very little remains of this photograph in fact there's a lot of reports about Aisha's case to this day
00:54:49
that don't don't even include the photograph being ever found or mentioned anywhere can you send me the photograph
00:54:55
real quick I will send you the photograph but but this is on law enforcement this this Photograph should have been
00:55:03
you remind the public over and over again we're we're still looking for Asia but
00:55:08
we're also looking for information on this Photograph it's not just coincidence that this photograph is
00:55:13
found with her belongings in the same area on the day that she goes missing yeah
00:55:18
but law enforcement's people and people make mistakes and thank you thank you but but of course I make
00:55:26
mistakes too but also we don't we don't know what information that they have that is not released to the public so we
00:55:32
don't know what it's it's really hard to say I I think sometimes to go oh well if it was
00:55:40
me I would do this well we're also looking back on right but we also know that according to their own statements
00:55:46
that they sat on that book and the New Kids on the Block shirt for 17 years how long did they sit on the information
00:55:53
about the car and like you pointed out if we're going to ask the public for help let's ask the public for help well
00:55:59
I think that's where law enforcement and here's the thing I understand no no no no no it's not it's not always
00:56:08
dropping ball I think it's it's what uh strategy are you going to take if you're
00:56:14
going to ask for the Public's help then you need to to go with that strategy full force not not half asset and I
00:56:22
think some of these why is it that we can look back on some of these investigations and just go man this
00:56:27
seems like a chaotic horseshit it's because they they didn't pick a strategy and just go with it and then you see
00:56:34
these items come out 20 years later and you go nobody's going to remember that or half the people that would remember
00:56:41
that they died 10 years ago right and I know better than most and understand better than most the idea of withholding
00:56:49
information to save the Integrity of your investigation and the Integrity of your case I really
00:56:59
freaking get that the problem though is what what I have here is what we're dealing with today in this case there's
00:57:06
information that could have been put out there in a better way in a more timely manner that could have led us to a
00:57:13
better situation than where we sit today okay so maybe you run the risk of not being able to get a conviction
00:57:21
Because You released too much to the public you don't know what else you would find
00:57:26
using that information what else you would find to get that conviction based off of the information
00:57:33
You released the other issue too is and this is her mother's words she's having a hard time grieving for
00:57:43
her daughter who's been gone for 21 years there's no body there's no grave site to
00:57:51
go to at the very least it's not what anybody would want but Justice finding this girl alive would be
00:58:01
amazing that's the goal Justice for this girl if something terrible happened to her and she's no longer with us is the
00:58:09
second goal but at the very least maybe we could find the remains for this suffering family and we would
00:58:18
still be in a better situation than we are here today so I think that law enforcement and I think that the media
00:58:24
in a weird way intentional or not um buried the lead here on this case I think there was a lot of good
00:58:32
information out there that could have helped been provided to the public in a timely
00:58:37
manner with better detailed information something something good may have come of it
00:58:44
now we want to point out some things here real quick and this is a quote from H from Aisha's mother Aquila who said
00:58:53
we're hoping and we're praying that she's had a halfway decent life even though we didn't get to raise her she
00:59:00
was nine years old and she'll be 30 this year so this is this is from an interview about a year ago so we've
00:59:07
missed everything but I don't care if she walked in the door right now I wouldn't care what I missed all I want
00:59:15
is to see her now the FBI continues to offer a 25 000 reward for information leading to
00:59:22
the person or person's responsible for Asia's disappearance the community in the Sheriff's Office are offering an
00:59:29
additional twenty thousand dollar reward bringing the total reward to forty five
00:59:36
thousand dollars if you have any information about Asia degree please call the tip line at 704
00:59:48
672-6100 or the national Center for missing and exploited children at 1-800 the lost that's 1-800-843-5678
01:00:01
[Music] for more True Crime garage make sure you check out our old episodes they are now
01:00:14
available everywhere you listen to podcasts also check out our bonus show called off the Record that's only
01:00:22
available on Stitcher premium Colonel do we have any recommended reading this week we are recommending the new book
01:00:30
Maniac by one of my favorite True Crime authors Harold Schechter we have recommended Harold schechter's books
01:00:37
before not too long ago we recommended his book Hell's princess well his new book Maniac the bath school disaster and
01:00:45
the birth of the modern Mass killer is out and available everywhere Mr Schechter is a twice nominated author
01:00:53
for the Edgar award he specializes in serial killers and he is absolutely one of the best True Crime historians and
01:01:02
authors go see why by picking up his new book Maniac the bath school disaster and
01:01:09
the birth of the modern Mass killer check out that great title and many many more at truecrime garage.com on our
01:01:17
recommended page and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you
01:01:49
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