Shelby’s Sweetheart: The Disappearance of Asha Degree
The mysterious middle-of-the-night disappearance of a young girl has baffled law enforcement for more than two decades
Asha Degree was an intelligent and friendly nine-year-old girl who lived outside of Shelby, North Carolina. Her parents, Harold and Iquilla Degree, had gotten married on Valentine’s Day in 1988. The following year, they had their first child, a son they named O’Bryant. Asha was born the year after that, in August 1990. The family lived in a two-bedroom duplex on Oakcrest Drive, which was located in a rural area to the north of Shelby. The children were raised in a very close-knit family. Harold’s mother and sister lived right across the street, and there were numerous other family members who lived in the same general area.
Asha and her brother were extremely close and spent a lot of time with each other. Their parents, though not overly strict, did what they could to make sure that the children were protected from negative outside influences. They didn’t have a computer at home, so the kids had no access to the internet. Neither child had a cell phone or separate phone line, and their parents monitored what they watched on television. The kids were both well-behaved and didn’t seem bothered by any of these restrictions.