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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:01:44
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who is just about 2 hours of Studio work away from a sausage
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McMuffin and hash brown here is the captain yeah when I go to McDonald's I like to order lasagna for breakfast it's
00:01:57
good to be seen and good good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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Company fog of hostility is an imperial New England IPA double dry hopped with Citra and Cascade hops garage grade 4
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you filthy animals for everything true crime check us out at True Crime garage.com and check out our bonus show
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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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around grab a chair grab a here let's talk some true [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
00:03:43
[Music] crime in [Music] listeners of True Crime garage come here to give strength to the victims and
00:04:11
nothing breaks your heart more than a child victim and parents of that child unfortunately that is what we have here
00:04:18
today A missing little girl a case that refuses to go cold due to the efforts of
00:04:25
the girl's family the hard work of law enforcement agencies both local and Federal and the commitment of a
00:04:31
tight-knit community the missing little one that we are talking about this week is Asia
00:04:38
degree she vanished on a cold rainy night 21 years ago she was just 9 years old but the case has other reasons for
00:04:48
not going cold because just as strange as Asia's disappearance are the leads and tips that have come in over the
00:04:56
years we have discussed many missing persons cases here in the garage one thing we continually see when a child
00:05:04
goes missing is that hope can never fade because unfortunately too often hope is
00:05:11
all they have Asia's mother does not watch the news as stories of abused children and murdered women haunt her in
00:05:20
2013 she told then Charlotte Observer Reporter Mandy lock quote God won't let me believe she's dead in Asia's case
00:05:30
every few years there's another solid lead that presents some Hope For answers more importantly since February 2000
00:05:39
there's been many abduction victims located and brought home JC Dugard was found in 2009 after being held captive
00:05:49
for 18 years Michelle Knight Gina De Jesus and Amanda Barry all three were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004
00:06:00
they were rescued together in 2013 and of course there's the story of Jamie CLA who just 2 years ago in
00:06:08
2019 was found alive it's stories like these in the bravery and strength of these women that helped to keep hope
00:06:17
alive for the parents of the missing and for all of us but with this glimmer of hope and
00:06:24
these rays of positivity there is still a lot of Darkness there are the nightmares that visit the families
00:06:32
mercilessly for the parents it's the overwhelming hurt of closing your eyes and imagining your loved one trapped
00:06:39
hungry and cold the relatives look at everyone suspiciously even stopping to examine
00:06:46
the faces of children who do not seem to resemble their parents for these people
00:06:51
cannot trust anyone anymore they know someone took their child maybe even someone they know is
00:07:01
responsible maybe someone they trusted before they lost the ability to do so could it be that someone in the
00:07:08
beginning of the case who tried to help the family took the little one it's the reoccurring haunting and
00:07:15
nagging fears that naturally creep into the minds of the family did someone follow the child home was it a neighbor
00:07:24
who watched and waited for the perfect time to snatch the child it's the first ever heightened sense of one's
00:07:31
surroundings it's the staring at a driver trying to memorize the make and model of a suspicious vehicle that for
00:07:37
some reason or other squealed its tires it's your heart jumping every time the phone rings it's the looking into the
00:07:44
eyes of the unknown man at the diner looking for what something anything some kind of breadcrumb that will lead you to
00:07:54
embrace that loved one once again it's these things that beat you you up tear you down and can drive you to Insanity
00:08:04
maybe it's one's faith in God themselves or something that they simply cannot explain that keeps hope alive asa's
00:08:12
mother says she ignores the speculation that her daughter is dead she believes if that were true God would quote Give
00:08:20
Me A Sign and prepare me the disappearances of children like asan degree are often considered to be lost
00:08:28
causes and after 72 hours the odds of finding a Child Alive are low but for the parents the child are alive Frozen
00:08:37
in time and just out of their reach officials at the national Center for missing and exploited children point to
00:08:45
cases like JC dugar Jamie Claus and of course the unforgettable Rescue of the three young ladies in Ohio in
00:08:54
2013 and say these examples should bring a resurgence of energy to Old cases Lena
00:09:02
Holmes a family advocacy specialist at the center says we hope these cases can be a reminder that kids are still out
00:09:11
there it reinforces the need for vigilance if you see something funny or suspicious reach out it could mean
00:09:20
everything this is true crime [Music] garage [Music] this week we are going to be talking
00:09:45
about a truly bizarre case this is a missing person's case one that I have seen many say that there is reason to
00:09:54
believe that the missing little girl may be alive and well others are not so hopeful and suspect some kind of Foul
00:10:01
Play or maybe even an accident we will lay out the facts of this case and offer some thoughts along the way I suspect
00:10:09
the blog at truecrime garage.com will be Rife with theories and speculation for this case here captain now I'm going to
00:10:18
be perfectly honest here and every week we are talking about someone's real life
00:10:24
tragedy and I have said this before I have been able to grow a rather hard and cold soul from looking at so many of
00:10:33
these cases for so long but once in a while I can't explain why heck most times I don't even know why but once in
00:10:40
a while a case really gets to me sometimes the victim or victims seem more human more real and stand out from
00:10:47
the other cases this is certainly one of those cases for me but in this case I do
00:10:52
know why and I'll explain that when we get there our missing person is Asa de agree Asia if she is still out there
00:11:02
somewhere she would be 30 years old Asia jaquil degree was born on Sunday August
00:11:09
5th 1990 by everything I could find it looks to us that Asia had a very normal childhood leading up to our day in
00:11:18
question the day in question will be February 14th 2000 Asia resided with her family in an apartment on oakrest Street
00:11:27
located just south of f which is just a touch north of Shelby North Carolina Asia was born and raised
00:11:34
in this area Asia's family consist of her mother and father this is Aquilla and Harold and her brother who is just
00:11:42
about one year older than her and his name is o'briant Shelby is a city in Cleveland County North Carolina so if
00:11:50
you hear us say Cleveland we are talking about Cleveland County North Carolina not Cleveland and Northeast Ohio this
00:11:58
case has several potentially good leads but none that lead to our state here in Ohio Shelby is located between Charlotte
00:12:07
in Asheville North Carolina the population of Shelby back in 2000 was just under under 20,000 people this is a
00:12:15
rural area Asia is described as quiet and shy she was a good student there were no known issues at school not with
00:12:24
her behavior attitude or schoolwork by all appearances she had a happy home life now I say by all appearances she
00:12:32
had a happy home life because it is always extremely difficult to understand a family Dynamic and what is really
00:12:40
going on behind closed doors if there was stuff going wrong in her house she wasn't I think of the age where she'd be
00:12:48
reporting it or telling her friends about it yeah I just wanted to make sure we pointed out that there were no
00:12:54
warning flags here in regards to asa's family and her home life right no rumors negatively towards the family ASA was in
00:13:03
the fourth grade at falston elementary school now for purposes that will become quite clear very soon I'm going to point
00:13:11
out that Asia's School Fon Elementary is located almost exactly 5 miles north of
00:13:17
her home both her street oakrest street and the school are almost directly off of Highway 18 Highway 18 is a
00:13:27
predominantly two lane rural Highway that travels 1452 miles traveling north south through
00:13:37
the Foothills region which is the western side of North Carolina nc18 as I'm going to call it connects
00:13:45
the cities of Shelby Morganton Leno wilksboro and North wilksboro most Reports say the degree
00:13:54
family lived in an apartment while they may have been renters they were living in a double the address was 3404 oakrest
00:14:02
street oakrest street is one block west of Highway 18 the degrees residence faces West and this looks like a ranch
00:14:14
style Brick House there are two front doors because it is a double there are two driveways and each of those doubles
00:14:22
have a carport oakrest Street looks like it would be a rather quiet street there's only about 18 houses on oakrest
00:14:31
when you count up both sides of the street probably about five or so of them being doubles there are single family
00:14:38
homes that back up to the houses on oakrest street and asa's side of the street so that these are single family
00:14:46
homes along the west side of Highway 18 so if she were to walk out the back of her house she would cut through
00:14:57
someone's yard and then she would be right at Highway 18 right these houses and homes on
00:15:04
oakrest they are spaced out nicely so they're not all cramped together I know this sounds like I'm being overly
00:15:11
descriptive here however on the night that Asia first goes missing all of the evidence says that the child left her
00:15:18
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
00:15:26
where she was walking that night so you heard me right if you don't know this case this might be a shock to you but
00:15:33
we're talking about a 9-year-old little girl leaving the house on her own in the
00:15:38
middle of the night and her reasons for leaving are not clear in fact that's really just an extension of the mystery
00:15:47
of her Vanishing it's very similar some other missing person cases I mean obviously the victim here is way younger
00:15:57
but if you can solve why she left maybe you could solve what happened to her yes
00:16:03
and in this case probably more importantly so than in most now we're going to kick things off with Friday
00:16:10
February 11th 2000 on this day there was no school and from my understanding it was a teacher work day with no school
00:16:19
for the students so both Asia's parents are working full-time jobs at this time Aquilla worked at ha American
00:16:31
Manufacturing in nearby lincolon uh she worked the first shift Harold worked the second shift as a dock
00:16:38
loader for PPG Industries in Shelby North Carolina so no school means ASA and O'Bryant being just N9 and 10 years
00:16:48
old will need to go somewhere while Mom and Dad are at work so they spent that day at their aunt Kesha's house just
00:16:57
down the street from their own house right I'm assuming this might be Harold's brother's wife because it
00:17:04
sounds like Harold's mother and his brother and his brother's family all lived in that same neighborhood maybe
00:17:11
even on the same street as asa's family later that Friday Asia attends basketball practice she was the star
00:17:19
point guard for her school's little bulldogs girls basketball team next we have Saturday February 12th the kids
00:17:28
back basketball games were on Saturdays it looks like the degrees like most families had a fairly regimented routine
00:17:35
you know school and practices during the week basketball games on Saturdays and church on Sundays so on this typical
00:17:44
Saturday both Asia and o'briant had basketball games at Burns Middle School Asia's team was undefeated going into
00:17:52
this game but on this day her team struggled ASA found out late in the game and the team received their first loss
00:18:00
of the Season Asia was very upset about the loss to the point of crying at this event well just to be
00:18:09
clear this was 2000 so at that point they're keeping score they're keeping stats of the players I know that doesn't
00:18:16
happen normally now in elementary school sports but it happened in 2000 many people over the last 20 or so years have
00:18:26
pointed to this as a possible reason that Asia would sneak out or run away and I cannot express how absolutely
00:18:37
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
00:18:45
confirmed that Asia was upset to the point that she cried either during or after the game but we should point out
00:18:52
that a lot of her teammates did the same thing they cried as well so some of them
00:18:59
even went to the point of maybe faking an injury to have something to blame the loss on right regardless what we have
00:19:07
from her parents and from everybody else's account of this incident leading up to her disappearance is that Asia
00:19:16
snapped out of this pretty quickly I mean anybody with 8 n 10 year-old kids know that their their mood swings are
00:19:24
are fast and furious yeah your kid loses in a basketball game and you go hey do you want to get some ice cream the
00:19:30
problem's over it's done with yes now we're on to ice cream yeah so she gets over fairly quickly and she attends her
00:19:38
brother's basketball game I know that her mom was present I'm assuming Harold her father was present for the entirety
00:19:47
of this day but I can't say for sure so we know she bounced back pretty quickly she's watching her brother play his
00:19:53
basketball game then that night ASA went to a sleepover party at her 15-year-old
00:19:59
cousin's house this was a fairly large slumber party from what I could find one report says that ASA and about a dozen
00:20:08
of her friends or her cousins were at this slumber party at the cousins home that night it's reported that they
00:20:15
stayed up rather late as one could imagine young girls doing a whole big gaggle of young girls up being loud they
00:20:24
stayed up late watching TV and dancing anybody that has a small child that goes over to the sleepover knows the next day
00:20:32
they're going to be dog tired on Sunday February 13th Harold Aquilla and O'Bryant picked up Asia after early in
00:20:41
the morning to go to church so when we say Church Harold Asia's father says Asia
00:20:48
attended Bible studies classes every Sunday sometimes churches will have Bible study classes for the kids while
00:20:56
adults are attending Church um Services yeah church services uh I can't say that
00:21:03
that was the situation here but that's what has been reported the degrees church was the Macedonia Baptist Church
00:21:11
in Waco North Carolina after church the degree family of four went to their cousin shalanda Brown's home so a family
00:21:20
get together of sorts after church at the get together asa's grandmother handed out some Valentine's Day gift to
00:21:29
the grandchildren Asia received a bottle of perfume and of course Valentine's Day
00:21:35
candy now from here they're going to go home Asia was up most of the night like the captain was pointing out having fun
00:21:45
at the sleepover party so she is very tired from the night before she falls asleep very early and this is right
00:21:54
around 6:30 p.m. but there's a storm of Brewing a thunderstorm started in the 8:00 p.m. hour this was a loud
00:22:03
thunderstorm with thunder and lightning which woke Asia up so she went and watched some TV with her family in the
00:22:09
living room there are a few questionable items some Reports say that Harold worked that evening however I really
00:22:18
think that this is just confusion right I don't think he worked that night nor do I think Sunday was even a normal work
00:22:26
night for him again sounds like they're pretty regimented in their routine kids go to school mom and
00:22:33
dad work during the week you might have practices in the evening for for both the kids playing basketball Saturdays is
00:22:40
devoted to the basketball games Sundays devoted to church and routine family get
00:22:47
togethers could have could have been in a position though that he got called in well I actually think this is just one
00:22:53
of those bad telephone game type items I agree where it's where it's it's certainly a possibility but I think it's
00:23:01
kind of sprung up over the years and some places it's worked its way into becoming fact when anytime I have a
00:23:09
report of Harold or Aquilla giving an account of that Sunday neither of them ever mention him going to work right so
00:23:18
we can get into that a little bit more while that probably came up but sometime before 900 p.m. the power went out at
00:23:26
the degree home so during the storm someone crashed into a utility pole this knocking out power
00:23:34
to some of the neighborhoods in that area this next part Captain is a big gray area even more so than if Harold
00:23:44
worked or not that night so it is stated that Harold stepped out for a last minute trip to buy some Valentine's Day
00:23:52
candy 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
00:24:02
reports state that he didn't go out until 11:30 p.m. now to be perfectly clear I could not find anywhere that
00:24:10
Harold is saying he went out or his wife says that he went out so we should say that he may not have gone out at all
00:24:19
it's it's part of the the weirdness of the story but let's say that Harold did go out for a last minute late night
00:24:26
shopping trip again let's remind everybody it's 2000 things weren't like for today you have grocery stores that
00:24:33
are open 24 hours a day that wasn't as common back in 2000 on top of that they live in a pretty rural community you
00:24:43
would think that place to get candy wouldn't be open at 11:30 possibly I mean I would expect there to be CVS
00:24:50
Walgreens regular grocery stores they're not terribly far from Charlotte North Carolina which is a huge City
00:24:58
but let's let's pretend that in fact he did go out which right but all all I'm stating is that in 2000 things shut down
00:25:06
earlier heck in my town now you go out at midnight and there's there's cars everywhere and there's people shopping
00:25:13
and and get in fast food but in 2000 most of the fast food places closed around 10:00 so if he went out many
00:25:22
think that this is awfully suspicious you know people want to know they question why would he go out so late why
00:25:29
would he go out in a bad thunderstorm for some last minute Valentine shopping so I think we should offer up a
00:25:37
couple of thoughts here one I don't find this to be a red flag at all so Harold Works second shift
00:25:45
so he gets off work much later than most people goes to bed much later than most
00:25:50
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 in a
00:25:59
storm my guess is that there if he did go out there must have been some urgency to something he intended to pick up
00:26:07
while he's out on the shopping trip and some items I could think of maybe he needed to get Valentine for the kids to
00:26:14
pass out at school right the next day you know so the next day is Valentine's Day some schools do a little exchanging
00:26:23
of cards or treats or whatever amongst the children but isn't February 14th his anniversary with his wife well that's
00:26:31
the other thing and I think that kind of gets gets lost in the shuffle a little bit here right so that's a little more
00:26:38
important than your kids taking Valentine's to school yes so that day the next day would be his and his wife's
00:26:47
12th wedding anniversary right and the report that I saw said that the two plan to spend the day home alone so they had
00:26:55
the day off from work my thought is Captain maybe he needed some anniversary gifts for the wife right so that's not
00:27:06
something you're going to put off especially if you're already planning to spend the day together now if he went
00:27:12
out the the report is that he returned at some point maybe as late as midnigh is uh and then fell asleep on the couch
00:27:22
when he got back again he may have gone out he may not I don't actually think that it's important one I don't find it
00:27:29
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 regardless
00:27:37
what we do know is that the power at their home kicked back on around 12:30 a.m. so by this point Captain we know
00:27:46
that everyone is at home the kids and Aquilla are in their beds it is said that Harold checked on the kids around
00:27:57
this time at 12:30 a.m. then for about the next 2 hours he's watching TV sitting on the couch in the living room
00:28:06
he says at 2:30 a.m. he shuts off the TV and checks on the kids again a second time and at this time he finds Asia and
00:28:16
O'Brien sleeping peacefully in their beds he went to join Aquilla in their bedroom and falls asleep relatively
00:28:23
quickly he checked on the kids twice and again this is another thing that people
00:28:28
note that they find to be strange or suspicious again I don't see anything weird about this at all you know people
00:28:36
people say well I don't check on my kids more than once I think I I can relate this to my own world here when I had a a
00:28:45
younger daughter my home was relatively small and I can say that just out of natural habit anytime I happen to be
00:28:55
near the bedroom at night I would just I just look in real quick double check that that she's
00:29:03
sleeping their home was not very big it's a double it's it's actually fairly small it's a two-bedroom him and his
00:29:11
wife are in the master and the two kids share the other bedroom it's very likely
00:29:16
I've not seen the layout but I know from my old house that was rather small if I
00:29:21
just if I'm going to bed that my bedroom door is right next to the other ones you
00:29:26
just peek in real quick and I think that that's probably what happened here that
00:29:32
it's a small dwelling and he's just peeking in on his kids to make sure that they're okay so as we said Captain ASA
00:29:40
shared a room with her older brother sometime during the night O'Brian says he wakes up and he hears his sister ASA
00:29:48
moving about in her bed he thought she was tossing and turning in her sleep he did say that he
00:29:56
then heard her at some some point get up and he thought that she was going to the
00:30:01
restroom now reports differ on this next item and that would be if he ever heard
00:30:08
her 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
00:30:16
but the the brother states that he saw her out of bed but doesn't the father state that as well no so the the reports
00:30:24
that I have just the brother and well and to take it a step further the reports I have say that the brother
00:30:31
didn't see her he hears her right and he he just kind of made of assumptions I mean they've shared a room for years so
00:30:40
it's probably not uncommon that she would get up and use the restroom in the middle of the night or toss and turn and
00:30:45
and wake him up at some point I would like to know what the parents could see when they're laying in their bed what
00:30:52
can they see into the hallway and would they be able ble to see somebody if somebody came into the
00:31:00
house to take their little baby girl [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
00:31:18
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00:33:22
cheers to you Colonel cheers Captain so this home is is a one-story small ranch style
00:33:30
house my guess here is that they probably could see pretty much most of the doors bedrooms typically are across
00:33:39
the hallway from one another so my guess would be if their door was open and if they were awake they could see something
00:33:45
however both of the parents slept through the night we have o'briant saying that he hears his sister at some
00:33:53
point in the night maybe even heard her leave the room whether she came back or not is still up
00:34:00
in the air but it's believed that this would have been around 300 a.m. or maybe a little later now o'briant says he
00:34:09
hears these noises that he thinks is his sister tossing and turning and then leaving the room to go the restroom
00:34:15
however we will quickly learn that the noises he is hearing is very likely Asia getting up getting dressed and maybe
00:34:24
even packing up some last minute things that night in the early morning hours she got up at some point packed her book
00:34:33
bag with two of her favorite outfits her basketball uniform and a Tweety Bird purse and then apparently she slipped
00:34:42
out of her house into the dark and the rain I don't want to n pick on details but we have no proof that she packed her
00:34:51
bag up because on the 11th you you stated she spent time with with her aunt because of no school right mhm and then
00:35:01
on the 12th she goes to the slumber party I'm guessing that she took her book bag with her basketball outfit in
00:35:08
it cuz that would been the day that she had a basketball game right M so at some
00:35:13
point they they go to the slumber party and maybe that's when she changed out of
00:35:18
her basketball uniform keeping her basketball uniform in her book bag and then now they're back at their house on
00:35:24
the 13th I'm just saying we have no proof that she she packed anything up everything that she took with her could
00:35:33
have been in her bag because of the slum correct that's uh quite the possibility
00:35:38
so we do know that she is last seen inside her home at approximately 2:30 a.m. on February 14th 2000 but this is
00:35:47
coming from a 10-year-old what's coming from a 10-year-old the last time she's seen in her house no this is coming from
00:35:54
asa's father Harold when he he says he went to sleep at that time and said that he checked on on his daughter and son
00:36:02
and saw them both sleeping in their beds so the father was the last one to actually see her but then these
00:36:09
Rumblings that her brother is talking about we're assuming is maybe half an hour to an hour later yeah and I I don't
00:36:18
know that he is providing a time frame for when he thinks he's hearing this my guess is I mean he's 10 he's probably
00:36:26
saying I'm hearing this in the middle of the night but there's other things that
00:36:29
are going to happen in our timeline which will allow us to place that event somewhere in that General time frame
00:36:37
right so on Monday February 14th Aquilla got up and this is when she notices that
00:36:44
Asia is gone now the family says that all of the doors and windows were locked when they got up and Asia and o'briant
00:36:53
rode the bus to and from school each day they would walk from their home over to
00:37:00
Highway 18 or to the bus stop near Highway 18 get on the bus there so the kids each day when they would return
00:37:09
home from school mom and dad were both at work at this time right so both the kids they each had a key to the house
00:37:17
ASA kept hers in her book bag so we're guessing here that she got up and left the house and likely using the key her
00:37:27
key she locked the door behind her right again there's no sign that anybody came
00:37:32
into the house the doors are all locked they couldn't determine if she went out the front door or the back door
00:37:40
regardless the family calls 911 this call comes in at 6:38 a.m. the first police officer on the scene was there in
00:37:49
just minutes it's logged that he was there at 6:40 a.m. at 6:42 Sheriff Dan Crawford arrives he
00:37:59
immediately calls for a canine unit to get out to the scene now newspaper reporters in television Crews were
00:38:07
actually out in front of the degree house fairly early that morning by 2: p.m. Agents from the North
00:38:16
Carolina State Bureau of Investigation SBI for short arrived at the degree home and they immediately taped off this
00:38:25
whole area it's it's now a crime scene by the end of the day Searchers had covered a thre M wide area finding
00:38:34
nothing and now 21 years later Asia still has not come home now so you can see things start moving very quickly
00:38:43
once 911 is called It's Just 2 minutes before an officer arrives at the home then the the boss the sheriff in charge
00:38:51
is there two minutes later K9 unit on the scene reporters there interviewing people it's smart work right away the
00:38:59
Boss shows up doesn't hesitate to go hey Brandon a k9 let's try to track her scent she's a 9-year-old she couldn't
00:39:07
have gone that far no she's left on foot there's some interesting little things though along the way that one so one the
00:39:17
the call came in from Harold Harold was the one that placed the 911 call and it's my understanding that he makes this
00:39:25
call either his wife instructs him to call 911 this is would be after she's called
00:39:32
some relatives you know that's that's never anyone's first thought and and I mean we all live these routine lives and
00:39:40
such and so of course you don't you don't immediately jump off the cliff you just kind of inch your way to
00:39:47
it so she called relatives remember we have relatives that live in the same neighborhood she called relatives to say
00:39:55
hey my I wake woke up and asa's gone is she at your house for some reason right getting no answers and and that's when
00:40:04
Harold calls one thing that I found strange on the there there's a 911 transcript that was available in one of
00:40:11
the newspapers at the time and he says that one of the neighbors said that they spotted or thought they saw Asia walking
00:40:23
out that night which they never there's never really any clarification on who the neighbor was you know what I mean
00:40:30
like what I mean is we know that they have family living in the immediate area was the neighbor a family member of of
00:40:38
the degrees Yeah I think that's a good point but some people also think this is possibly the parents setting something
00:40:45
up to say hey look somebody else Sol her but we're not going to tell you which neighbor that that was well I I hope
00:40:52
that police would have followed up on that I mean that's something he stated on the 9 111 call and they should have
00:40:58
we know they're canvasing the area um going door too that that would be normal police protocol so if that got missed
00:41:06
then somebody somebody severely dropped the ball I'm just pointing out I don't know there's no necessary reason for
00:41:12
that information to make its way to the newspapers I'm just pointing out that that was something that was said on the
00:41:17
911 call that's not a well-known piece of information in this case you also said that uh Asia left by
00:41:26
foot but at this point law enforcement nor her parents really have any idea if she did or not other than there's no
00:41:35
sign of breaking and entering there's no sign of you know that she struggled with
00:41:41
anybody the the door was locked so everything leads us to believe that she left for whatever reason locked the door
00:41:51
and headed somewhere that's correct and just to point out how fast everything's kind of moving and really there's
00:41:58
there's just a really a lot of chaos going on around the degree family immediately with the discovery that
00:42:05
their daughter is missing so we even have asa's father Harold he does a telephone interview with the Charlotte
00:42:14
Observer he says in this you know because some people have wanted to know well was this an issue did had Asia gone
00:42:22
missing before or left the house before and in this interview on that same day he says to the Charlotte Observer Asia
00:42:30
had never run away before and that there were no family problems that would make
00:42:35
his daughter want to leave now that newspaper gives a description of Asia listing her at 46 in tall weighing 65
00:42:45
lbs she's African-American and wears her hair in pigtails her parents say that they found
00:42:53
all the doors in the House locked and according to to sheriff's deputies there was no sign of forced entry into the
00:43:00
home and then here's here's a really troubling piece of information in this same article it says unfortunately
00:43:08
search dogs did not pick up Asia's scent at anywhere which is really bizarre they
00:43:15
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
00:43:22
that night and it was still raining when she is believed to have left the house everything I've ever read about scent
00:43:31
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
00:43:39
because it makes I I don't want to I don't know the science of it but that's what I've always been told well it's
00:43:45
very science but the deterrent here is is the wind yes that that could be the situation from what I've read the rain
00:43:53
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
00:44:02
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
00:44:10
of even though the dogs couldn't find anything as we do have a couple of eyewitnesses that come forward so two
00:44:17
truck drivers reported seeing Asia walking South on Highway 18 North of Shelby between 3:30 and 4:15 a.m. that's
00:44:26
how we can kind of come to the idea that he must have o'briant must have heard her moving or leaving around 3:00 right
00:44:36
Asia was apparently near the intersection of Highway 180 at that time so this would be the intersection of
00:44:45
Highway 18 and Highway 180 this is about a mile south of her home is this heading
00:44:53
in the direction of her school no it's the opposite direction oh so her school is about 5 miles north that's why I
00:45:01
wanted to point out where everything is here because she's she's only 9 years old you're not going to have a great
00:45:07
sense of direction or or any of that mess at 9 years old but if you're used to waking up every day going out to your
00:45:16
bus stop riding the bus 5 miles north to your school you're going to have some you're going to know that the lay of
00:45:24
that land she's walking in the opposite direction so she's about 1 mile south of
00:45:30
her home it's thought that this is the last confirmed sighting of the child now one thing that's always been stated was
00:45:39
that when when these first sightings take place neither of these truckers call 911 or call the police and which is
00:45:49
ridiculous well I actually I don't think so I've I've heard it stated like I wish
00:45:54
it would have been a normal person that would have seen her because they would have called the police and and I think
00:46:00
you have to go to the core of the of the story in the eyewitness accounts to understand possibly why nobody thought
00:46:08
to alert the authorities first off they're big dummies wouldn't you have a very different reaction to seeing a
00:46:17
9-year-old walking in the dark along the highway than if you saw an adult walking
00:46:25
along onside the road in the middle of the night right so the way that these stories work is Roy Blandon senior and
00:46:33
his son Roy Blandon Jr they're on a trucking run from Shelby to Fon so they're traveling north on
00:46:42
nc18 they said this is right around 4:00 a.m. they were driving Northbound on nc18 they spotted a small figure wearing
00:46:50
light colored clothing walking Southbound on the road so they're only going to see this person very briefly
00:46:58
she's walking in the opposite direction they're on a highway heading north they say that they thought it was a woman so
00:47:05
Roy Senor used the CB radio radio to alert other truckers to keep an eye out that there's a
00:47:12
pedestrian there's a woman walking alongside the road he he calls this in on his CB to warn the other truckers
00:47:19
because it's dark out it's raining he's worried that this person might get hit when he radios it
00:47:27
out remember he tells the newspaper I thought it was a woman he may have said that on the CB right so our next witness
00:47:36
is Jeff rup he's a trucker for the Sundrop Bottling Company driving his regular route he said that he saw a
00:47:44
young girl walking Southbound on nc18 now that's his words young girl now again he may have heard woman over the
00:47:54
CB I don't know he says this again is around 4:00 a.m. it's cold and pouring rain at this time both sightings were on
00:48:02
nc18 near that intersection that we talked about the the Highway 180 the fact that two men called into police
00:48:11
independently of each other so both of these Witnesses are not aware that somebody else is phoning in basically
00:48:19
the same tip phoner law enforcement and FBI says this makes both of these statements extremely credible so neither
00:48:29
of these Witnesses call anything in when they spot neither the girl walking along
00:48:34
the road right they call it in later and the way that this works is Jeff he's on
00:48:39
his lunch break having lunch somewhere later that same day and remember we said the news reporters were already out
00:48:47
front of the degree's home he sees it on the news that there's a missing girl so
00:48:52
he calls police and says look this is what I saw at 4:00 a.m. this morning in fact I rolled down my window and tried
00:48:58
to get the person's attention to I don't know if he was going to offer him some help or a ride or whatever he says that
00:49:05
when he tried to get their attention the person he saw ran into uh a field almost
00:49:12
like they were running from him so he sees this news report on his lunch break he calls in and tells this information
00:49:20
to the Sheriff's Department the other man Roy Blandon senior who was traveling with his son
00:49:28
they were driving a long distance I believe they were all the way up in Chicago right when they finished their
00:49:34
route that day he had no idea that anybody was missing again he said he thought he saw a woman on that brief
00:49:41
passage on nc18 MH he happens to be on the phone with his wife later that day once they're in their hotel and she
00:49:51
tells him hey there's uh there's a little girl that's missing from you know from from our area and he says I think
00:49:59
that might be could be the person that I saw this morning so he phones it in at that time so I mean three
00:50:06
eyewitnesses correct three eyewitnesses and this this all goes to backing up the
00:50:13
idea that she left on her own for whatever reason whether she packed up that night or or packed planning for
00:50:20
some kind of trip or just as you said maybe grabbed a backpack that was already packed with some things from the
00:50:26
slumber party before there's nobody else seen with her she's not seen fleeing anything this all points to the idea
00:50:35
that she got up and left on her own for some weird reason in the middle of the night right the next day on February
00:50:43
15th this is after 12 hours of searching Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Chief
00:50:49
Deputy Bob roadcap announced quote right now we don't have anything and everyone
00:50:55
is a suspect yeah I get that idea but when you have eyewitnesses seeing this girl aways from her house and once those
00:51:05
911 calls come in from the parents we know the parents whereabouts so if we have evidence that
00:51:13
she's still alive then and I'm not saying that you shouldn't question or interrogate the
00:51:21
the the parents I'm just saying they should be more on your radar to vet out than to try to point the finger towards
00:51:29
well and to add to the confusion but this is also another good lead here some of Asia's belongings would be
00:51:38
found uh within a couple days of her going missing yeah and this is another one of those things in this story
00:51:47
Captain where I I I can't help it but time and time again her disappearance is such a freaking mystery very confusing
00:51:55
think that you do question everything I think you question the family I think you question what ASA was doing I think
00:52:02
you question why these truckers didn't immediately call police justes pineapple go on pizza and when you get to the core
00:52:10
of the story you really start to understand the the simple facts of it and and can apply those and go okay I
00:52:16
get it that the trucker didn't call police he he thought he was seeing an adult walking along the if I called the
00:52:21
police every time I saw an adult walking alongside the road at night I mean what
00:52:25
kind of life would I have so um but this is one of those bizarre things that that
00:52:32
the way that it's reported again makes people question some people that are fairly close to the case and this would
00:52:38
be the Turners so there's a old married couple named the Turners that they live in the area where Asia was last seen by
00:52:47
these two truckers mhm okay they when they were notified that Asia was missing and a lot of people within you know
00:52:56
miles of her home were told hey could you could you check your properties to see if you find anything because in
00:53:03
these types of situations it's very possible that a child or any missing person could simply
00:53:09
have just gotten injured somewhere and they they're unable to go and get help that they're just lying there somewhere
00:53:16
waiting for someone to find them and so that's you ask people to check their properties for that reason amongst other
00:53:24
reasons in asa's case they did just that and the Turners Tina and I the wife she
00:53:31
says that she found some items in what is best I would best describe it as an old tool shed on their property
00:53:41
it's I've seen it described as a a chicken house as a shack I don't know how that came about because she
00:53:49
describes it as an old tool shed but she says that she found um some items that appear that they would have belonged to
00:53:57
possibly a little girl along with a small wallet size photo of a little girl now the way that this has been reported
00:54:06
20 years later is that the Turners found these items and they failed to tell police about them that's actually not
00:54:15
true at all the truth is that they handed over this little picture the wallet siiz photo of a little girl that
00:54:22
they found the other items they kept them and they handed the photo over to the Sheriff's Department because they
00:54:29
don't know what Asia looks like they thought maybe the picture could be of Asia or one of her friends so armed with
00:54:39
this Photograph the sheriff's department quickly speak with the degree family and
00:54:46
nobody knows who this picture is of who you know who's the little girl in the picture they don't know and why would
00:54:55
ASA have this possibly have this in her belongings they wanted to know did it have anything to do with Asia's case at
00:55:02
all then it inspired the song by Nickelback look at this Photograph when we sift through this stuff we do need to
00:55:11
point out for the Turners that in fact they gave this picture to the authorities almost immediately so the
00:55:18
way that this works so we're going to dive in here real quick it's Charles and Debbie Turner they're the owner ERS of
00:55:25
Turner upholstery company which was located on nc18 a little more than a mile from Asia's home this is south of
00:55:34
her home so in the direction that she was walking Debbie Turner and her daughter found a hair ribbon a marker
00:55:41
and a pencil and a BL stiff and that picture these were found in a toolshed that is off of on their
00:55:50
property off of nc18 and the report reports state that this Tool Shed was located anywhere
00:55:57
between 300 ft and 600 ft from the highway so reports vary on the the exact location the interesting thing here
00:56:07
though the way that this goes down is now they got this Photograph they show it to police police go yeah we don't
00:56:12
know what this is asa's family no we don't know what this is they kind of dismiss it immediately going well this
00:56:20
is probably just garbage you know it's probably just some random picture that has nothing to do with with our case
00:56:28
with Asia's case right again we I I'd like to know when the trash was put out that week and because like we said we
00:56:37
have a storm that night we got winds blowing you could find items next to each other doesn't mean that they're
00:56:43
actually coming from the same individual that's true I mean this is either a football field or two football fields
00:56:49
off of the highway right um that's not going to be the issue with the picture for me what's your issue well we're
00:56:56
going to get into that I want to go through the this this portion of the story is it my Nickelback impersonation
00:57:04
so what happens here Captain we have both of those eyewitnesses the truck drivers the sheriff's department says
00:57:10
okay we need both of you guys to come back and meet us at Highway 18 we want you to point and show us where you
00:57:20
believe you saw Asia when you were driving that night that because I mean this is a stretch of highway that we
00:57:27
said is over a 100 miles long right so let's narrow it down here we got people out searching for this girl they really
00:57:34
think that they can still find her at this time and they have a huge search party and they're going to Major efforts
00:57:40
to try to find her so very quickly within this would be about I would say maybe 36 hours of of her going missing
00:57:48
maybe 48 at the most both truck drivers are on location with the sheriff in charge and they're pointing to this is
00:57:56
where I saw the girl and this is what I saw her doing right so using that information they're now expanding their
00:58:02
search because at first their search was really centered on her home in a 3M radius around that now we're moving down
00:58:12
about a mile and a half half south of where her home would be on nc18 and we can really start searching here now so
00:58:21
they start searching there and they find candy wrappers near where the trucker said that they
00:58:28
saw Asia right they take these candy wrappers and they show them to family and friends of ASAS and people point out
00:58:36
they said that those rappers are the same brand and type of candy that we received at school I don't know if it
00:58:46
was after the basketball game or before the break but they received some candy uh and they they're confirming
00:58:54
this is stuff that she would have had right in her possession so now they're like okay this is a this really is one
00:59:00
of those weird cases where there's an actual breadcrumb Trail you know here it's candy wrappers so now they're going
00:59:08
wait a second that photograph that we have even though we don't know who's in it or if it has any connection to Asia
00:59:14
at all this photograph is found near the candy rappers right so now it's starting
00:59:19
to look like it is connected to Asia's disappearance somehow that's when police go back to the Turners and they they're
00:59:27
questioning them about this Photograph and the Turners are saying by the way we found other stuff with the photograph
00:59:33
too but again we didn't know if it was just debris trash or what so we never turned it
00:59:40
in so that's when they show them hey we found this green marker in the shed we found a yellow hair bow with um a lot of
00:59:51
times this is reported as a Mickey Mouse hair bow but it was a it was it was a yellow one and you probably can Envision
00:59:57
what I'm talking about here it was a yellow plastic hair bow that had a plastic bear on it but it was all one
01:00:03
solid color which was yellow the uh and then they found a pencil now this pencil
01:00:10
is interesting because it was a 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that's the year of the Olympic bombings which asa's
01:00:19
family with her her parents immediately say yes she had a pencil just like that one so this is all starting to look like
01:00:26
these things are all involved in her case you know the green marker who knows who that belongs to it probably was
01:00:34
asa's but they can go yeah that yellow hair bow that was hers that 1996 Atlanta Olympics pencil that was hers the candy
01:00:44
rappers yes she had candy in her possession that was like that that was of that type and oh we had this
01:00:50
wallet-sized photo of a little girl that probably came from her there was no reason you know the Turner say
01:00:57
there's no reason for any of this stuff to be in our toolshed so to find any of it and find it all together must mean
01:01:05
that it's all came from the same Source on February 20th Captain this would be after basically a week of searching for
01:01:16
Asia this is when authorities finally decide to suspend their ground search for her so very early on they have a lot
01:01:25
of people looking they're pulling out all of their resources to try to find this little girl the best they could do
01:01:33
is track her movements somehow from her house down to this space that's about a mile and a half south of her home they
01:01:41
find those items that everyone agrees belong to her and after that there's really no no
01:01:48
trace of her uh in the next several days while they're they're searching all over
01:01:53
the place and I think that you pointed out which I think is good and everybody's probably noting in their
01:02:00
heads that she's 9 years old and her sens direction would be not so great and then you have she's on the main road
01:02:08
that Main Road would take her into town it would take her to her school but she's heading in the opposite direction
01:02:15
and it doesn't seem like we have even a the SL slightest clue to say we we we know that family members live close to
01:02:24
her mhm uh but we don't have anybody saying hey well maybe she was trying to walk a mile to to her grandmother's
01:02:32
house or cousin's house or whatever what I can say off of what I know that uh regarding the location of her other
01:02:40
family their the location of their homes she was well past their houses too right
01:02:46
so she she had she had walked past that there again is a big part of this mystery
01:02:51
she's one she's nine and she's out in the middle of the night which makes zero sense to anybody mhm you and I have seen
01:02:59
a lot of stuff and covered a lot of weird stuff here in the garage and this is out of bounds from from any of that
01:03:06
stuff she walks past all these family members homes she's not heading toward her school I've heard some people say oh
01:03:13
she was sleepwalking I call [ __ ] on that that seems bizarre Bizarro thinking to me it's it's I don't think it's
01:03:21
Bizarro I think it's it's it is a possibility I think the percentage is pretty small because she reacts to the
01:03:28
truck driver yeah but that right but you can be sleepwalking and reacting to no I
01:03:34
understand I'm just when when I put together the totality of all of the evidence it it seems it seems like a
01:03:42
highly highly unlikely scenario that she grabbed her book bag MH tked a mile and
01:03:49
a half through the cold and Rain never woke up react to a a truck driver and and runs off in the opposite direction
01:03:58
and is sitting there eating candy at some point it just it doesn't it doesn't track for me right as far as
01:04:06
sleepwalking goes it normally affects males more than it does females but this is something that most kids will grow
01:04:13
out of by their teenage years so she's nine so that puts her at a great age to be a candidate for sleepwalking also
01:04:23
it's nor normally happens after after the individual has some kind of sleep deprivation so we know that she was at a
01:04:32
slumber party the night before was she's so sleep deprived that that caused her to sleepwalk that night when people are
01:04:40
sleepwalking they could do mini task I mean walking a couple miles wouldn't be that crazy driving a car people are
01:04:49
known to drive a car sometimes people have even murdered people in their sleep and got off as sleepwalking as their
01:04:57
defense right I again I mean she gets up puts her shoes on grabs a book bag manages not to get run over on the
01:05:06
highway I I find it again is is it is it impossible that she was sleepwalking no
01:05:12
is very well I think you're being a little dismissive of the idea no no anyway let's move on uh because too many
01:05:22
people have spent too much time on that already on February 20th this is when they
01:05:26
stopped the ground search at that point Captain it was estimated that the sheriff's department and all parties
01:05:33
involved remember they're using a lot of different resources here that they they
01:05:38
expended approximately 9,000 professional Searcher hours during that time looking for the little girl so you
01:05:46
think that if there was any other trace of her out there other than those items being found in that tool shed or these
01:05:53
eyewitness witnesses that they would have come across that during that very first week they were not just sitting on
01:06:00
their hands waiting to get a call or for something to happen they were out actively looking for this girl like Gang
01:06:06
Busters for that whole week on February 21st this is a brilliant move here and this is something that um I I don't know
01:06:15
that a look a lesser Sheriff's Department might not think to do this so I applaud this effort here I think it's
01:06:23
something it's very it shows a level of intelligence out of this Sheriff's Office not that I had any questions but
01:06:31
on February 21st the sheriff's officials they set up roadblocks along Highway 18
01:06:39
this would have been for a block of hours I think it was about 4 hours that they set up these
01:06:45
roadblocks they did this during the time frame of when she would have been missing you know so you set it up about
01:06:52
2: in the morning to maybe 6:00 in the in the morning or 3:00 in the morning to maybe 7:00 in the morning right and what
01:06:57
they're doing is they're stopping every vehicle that that is driving that area driving that stretch of road and they're
01:07:07
interviewing each driver because first they want to know okay you you are here on a Monday early morning hours is this
01:07:16
a typical drive for you on a Monday all it is okay did you happen to see something last Monday on your way to
01:07:24
wherever you're going did you see a little girl she's missing did you see you know her get into a vehicle did you
01:07:31
see anything suspicious so this is a really smart way of gathering some more information because you may be stopping
01:07:40
and interviewing people that are not from the area that travel that area for routinely for whatever reason but we
01:07:47
unaware that they had some information or maybe you happen to stumble upon some information by stopping these people on
01:07:56
Thursday February 24th the Charlotte Observer newspaper runs an article containing the mystery
01:08:04
photo that's what I'm going to call it the mystery photo that was found in the shed along with Asia's belongings the
01:08:11
article is titled do you know this girl and it runs this is weird it runs at the bottom
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of the page on of page 75 which would be page one of the gas section of the Thursday's newspaper
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again that's page 75 of 108 pages of newspaper and I'll read the article real quick here for you Captain well it's
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Prime spot do you know who this girl is and then it shows the picture the wallet
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size photo that was found in that toolshed with Asia's belongings and it says Cleveland County authorities are
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trying to determine whether this photo is connected with the case of 9-year-old Asia degree missing from her home near
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Shelby since February 14 the picture turned up in the same shed off of nc18 where items identified
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as ASAS were found asa's family did not recognize the girl in the photo and neither do sorry and neither did
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officials at Asia's School anyone with information about the photo should call the Cleveland County Sheriff's
01:09:19
[Music] Office we want to hear from you if you have thoughts or theories on this case please
01:09:33
go to True Crim garage.com and leave a comment on the blog and while you're there check out
01:09:40
our store Page we will see you back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't
01:09:52
litter [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
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