North Carolina detectives could be looking into a possible burial site for nine-year-old Asha Degree two decades after she vanished.
Asha’s case was one of America’s most notorious unsolved child disappearances after she vanished from her home during a storm in the early hours Valentine’s Day 2000.
A year later, the bag Asha had taken on the night of her disappearance was found. And Now, DNA testing has linked hairs found inside to a local family and a man named Russell Underhill, who died in 2004.
Police said that at they found a car of a similar model to the one sought in the initial search for Asha at the Cherryville property. Asha may have been ‘pulled into’ the vehicle along Highway 18 when she went missing, investigators added.
Asha’s school bag was discovered 17 months after she went missing by a construction crew more than 30 miles from where she was last seen. The bag and Asha’s clothes were ‘wrapped in two sealed black plastic garbage bags.’
Hairs found in her bag belong to Russell and AnnaLee Dedmon, who was 13 at the time of Asha’s disappearance.
Cops say the fact AnnaLee Dedmon was just 13 at the time suggests she had adult help, if she was involved in Asha’s disappearance.
‘Due to the ages of Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon’s three daughters in the year of 2000, investigators believe adult assistance from Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon would have been necessary in the execution and/or concealment of the crime,’ investigators said.
The search warrants were served on properties connected to Roy and Connie Dedmon.
Officials said on Monday that the FBI executed several search warrants as part of their investigation into the Asha’s case. They also named two suspects, Roy and Connie Dedmons, whose daughter’s DNA was found in Asha’s bag.
New court documents revealed that a woman told police earlier this month that ‘several years ago’ she saw Roy Dedmon digging a chest-deep hole on a property at 601 Cherryville Road.
The next day a detective ‘observed a 6-8 inch dent in the ground where it was obvious that the ground had been disturbed,’ as reported by WBTV.
Underhill lived in ‘at least two facilities’ operated by the Dedmons when Asha went missing, detectives said. The connection between Underhill and the family remains unclear but investigators say he ‘knew and associated with Roy Dedmon’.
Roy Dedmon’s attorney David Teddy has denied that his client has any involvement in Asha’s disappearance.
‘I think there will be info that sadly will link a person to the circumstances of Asha’s disappearance who is no longer living,’ Teddy claimed.
Dedmon, who is in his 80s, has no known ties with Asha or her family, the warrants said.
Asha left her home in Shelby, North Carolina, in the early hours of February 14 2000 during a ferocious storm and was never seen again.
The youngster, a well-behaved and well-adjusted little girl who came from a good family, packed her book bag and sneaked out of her house for reasons unknown.
She left her home during extreme weather and was seen by passing motorists shortly after, but vanished into a wooded area when they stopped to help her.
Investigators have since discovered that Roy Dedmon had used his daughters to ‘transport patients in an unreliable vehicle’ to and from Broughton Hospital in nearby Morganton.
Investigators say that at the time of Asha disappearing, Highway 18 was the ‘most logical route to travel.’
They say that Roy Dedmon would send his daughter, who was 16 or 17 at the time, and not AnnaLee.
Asha’s parents Iquilla and Harold told WBTV last year that they still believe their daughter, who would be 32, is still alive.
Iquilla told the outlet: ‘I never thought it would be 23 years. She was a happy kid, she was quiet, she liked everybody.’