New court records provide details in Asha Degree disappearance investigation
New court records in the disappearance of 9-year-old Asha Degree from Cleveland County 25 years ago focus on children of the couple who were named in court records as suspects last fall.
One of the couple’s daughters once made an admission to killing the girl, according to search warrants filed in court Feb. 13.
The records don’t say how much credibility law enforcement gave to the statement. No one has been charged with any crime in the disappearance of the girl known as “Shelby’s Sweetheart.”
What happened in 2000?
Asha, a Fallston Elementary school fourth-grader, went missing in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2000. Police and many others have searched for her since.
Truckers said they saw a girl fitting her description walking early that morning on the side of North Carolina’s Highway 18. More than a year later, her backpack was found buried three counties away. Police didn’t share until 2016 that they believe Asha was last seen being hoisted into a long, retro green car sometime after 4 a.m. that rainy night.
In September, Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office deputies towed a green car matching that description away from a Shelby property. It had front-end damage.
Officials found the car while searching a series of properties belonging to Roy and Connie Dedmon. DNA testing on Asha’s undershirt, which was found with her backpack, matched one of the Dedmons’ daughters and a man, now dead, who was once in their care, according to September search warrants.
New February court filings
The new Feb. 13 search warrants requested that a judge grant Cleveland County deputies permission to seize cell phones related to the case. The documents relate in part to the Dedmons’ daughters, who were 13, 15 and 16 when Asha disappeared.
The documents include new information about a police interview with a tipster and text messages sent between Dedmon family members following the September searches.
Police last week told a judge they believe phones belonging to Roy Dedmon and two of his daughters “may contain evidence identifying and linking, victims, suspects, and possible witnesses” to felony obstruction of justice.
The records include information on recent police interviews with a man who says he used to go to bars and house parties with the Dedmon daughters.
Police interviewed the man about a week after searching Dedmon properties in September.
According to the man, the Dedmons’ eldest daughter said at a house party in the mid-2000s: “I killed Asha Degree.”
One of her sisters then grabbed her sibling’s head and told her to “shut the f--- up,” the man told police, according to court records.
The sister who made the comment was “sobbing and balling while extremely intoxicated,” he told police, according to court records. She made “several statements admitting to killing Asha Degree,” the man told police, saying “he was 100% positive” in his memory.
More on police investigation
After police searched the elder Dedmon homes, they tried to interview their daughters and others associated with the family. The eldest daughter repeatedly agreed to be interviewed by police then backed out, according to court records.
In October, police obtained a search warrant for her iCloud account.
Police referenced messages found on her iCloud account in their Feb. 13 search warrant requesting a judge allow them to seize Roy Dedmon’s cellphone and his daughters’ cellphones.
“It’s a nightmare that’s going to keep getting worse,” the eldest daughter texted her ex-husband on Sept. 12, a day after police searched her family’s homes. “I can see nothing good happening anytime soon…There is no way this is going to be okay… Idk what to do. I caused this.”
Law-enforcement officials have not commented on these details or the status of the investigation other than to say they are actively working on it.
The new court records also included the following transcripts of text message exchanges:
“The theory is I did it,” the oldest daughter wrote to her sister after talking to “Teddy” on Sept. 12. Shelby lawyer David Teddy represented Roy Dedmon during the September searches. “Accident. Covered it up.”
“No,” the sister replied. “Why would it be you?”
“Is everybody mad at me?” the eldest daughter wrote to her sister after a phone call with her father.
“Nobody is,” the sister replied. “This is NOT YOUR FAULT.”
Weeks later, on Sept. 29, the oldest daughter texted her sister: “I mean, I wanna do what dad says… but damn…”
Her sister replied: “Right. You don’t want something we do or say impact him but we also can’t be living like this either.”
Teddy, the attorney, declined to comment on the case earlier this month. The Dedmon family has not responded to several calls the Observer has made since September.
Asha Degree’s family
A week before the 25-year anniversary of Asha’s disappearance, her mother, father, brother and more than 50 others walked the same steps authorities believe Asha took before vanishing along N.C. Highway 18.
“At least this year, we know a little bit more than we knew 24 years ago,” said Iquilla Degree, Asha’s mother, referencing September’s searches to the crowd.
Sheriff Alan Norman promised closure for the family and told the Observer the case “will be solved.”
“And, if the right person is reading this in print,” he said, “you know what you did, and it’s quite possible I know who you are. Turn yourself in before I knock on your door.”
He and the family asked anyone with information on the case to call the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office at 704-484-4756 or the FBI’s Charlotte office at 704-672-6100.
“A nine year old does not disappear off the face of the earth without somebody knowing something,” Iquilla Degree said.
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
