North Carolina officials now believe that Asha Degree, who was 9 years old when she went missing over two decades ago, was killed.
Degree went missing from her home in Shelby in February of 2000.
Investigators with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI executed search warrants at multiple properties in the county on Monday.
A search warrant affidavit obtained by WSOC-TV reveals new details about Degree’s disappearance.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
A construction crew discovered two sealed black plastic bags along Highway 18 near Morganton seventeen months after Degree was reported missing. Investigators said the contents of the bags included Degree’s backpack and clothing.
Two of the items in the garbage bags were determined to have “evidentiary results” with DNA samples. The DNA connected to two people.
One result was Russell Underhill, who died in 2004.
The other piece of evidence was a hair stem on Degree’s shirt, which connected to a daughter of Roy Dedmon.
Officials determined that Degree “is a victim of homicide, with her body concealed,” because no one has had contact with her since her disappearance.
The warrant refers to Roy Dedmon and wife Connie Dedmon as “suspects.”
The Dedmons’ three daughters were not listed as suspects.
“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,” the document said.
Investigators found that Underhill was under the care of Roy Dedmon at the time of the alleged crime.
“Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon are the two common links between the [DNA] profiles of Russell Underhill and [the Dedmons’ daughter] collected and identified from Asha’s undershirt and the trash bag which contained Asha Degree’s bookbag,” the affidavit said.
Among the items seized by officials were a car, journals, cameras, film, a black trash bag, a human tooth in a Ziploc bag, children’s clothing and computers and laptops. No human remains were found in the search.
A neighbor also told investigators during an interview last week that she saw Roy Dedmon digging a chest deep hole on his property.
Missing Child Case Ends in Tragedy
Human remains found by a hunter on private property were determined to belong to Elijah Vue, who was 3 years old at the time of his disappearance.
Officials in Two Rivers, Wisconsin shared the tragic update on Friday. Vue would have celebrated his fourth birthday last month.
He was last seen by his mother’s boyfriend, Jesse Vang. Vue went missing from Vang’s home in February.
An AMBER Alert issued for the child was canceled on Friday.
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