Episode 121

Nine-year-old Asha Degree and her brother were sent to bed around 7 p.m., an hour earlier than usual, after the family home lost power.

Their father, Harold, checked on them when he returned from work at midnight. When their mother, Iquilla, went to wake the children, Asha was gone. Iquilla and Harold searched their home frantically for her. Iquilla then knocked on a neighbor's door and called Harold's mother and sister. No one had seen Asha.

Harold called 911 at 6:30 a.m. Police arrived 10 minutes later. By 8 a.m., nearly 100 volunteers were searching door-to-door and conducting grid searches. Authorities believe the 4th grader left home just before dawn. Witnesses saw Asha walking along Highway 18 in Shelby, North Carolina, a few miles from her home. A tipster reported that she may have gotten into a car.

More than a year later, Asha's backpack, which she had packed with her favorite outfits, was found at a construction site 30 miles away. That was 24 years ago. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office has now confirmed that a recent search at 621 Cherryville Road is connected to Asha Degree.

Nearly 50 investigators from the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, the FBI's Evidence Response Team, and North Carolina SBI agents spent two days at the site with K9s. Several items of interest were seized for testing, including a green four-door sedan with rusted wheel wells, similar to the car the FBI had been seeking.