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Officials meeting today to discuss another search for Asha DegreeBy Joy SconSpecial to The GazetteManpower and assets will be determining factors in a decision to conduct another search for clues in the 19-month-old mystery of missing Asha Degree.Officials will meet today to discuss the possibility of another search, said Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Billy Benton.On Valentine’s Day 2000, Asha Degree, then 9 years old, left her family’s Fallston home off Highway 18 early in the morning.Investigators, rescue workers and volunteers combed the areanear her home for several days,A - -...........but did not find the girl. A hair bow, marker, pencils and candy wrappers were found by a neighbor in a tool shed Decree off Highway 18.On Aug. 3 this year, a construction worker found a book bag with Asha’s name, address and phone number written in it off Highway 18 in Burke County. After the findings, Cleveland County Sheriff Dan Crawford announced five days later in a press conference that the office is treating the case as an abduction.One week later, searchers combed thick brush and found bones, thought to belong to ananimal, and a pair of men’s khaki pants. The book bag and the items found in this year’s search have been sent to an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., for testing.If another search is planned, Benton said select areas between Fallston and the Cleveland County line, mostly rural areas, would be searched.The number of searchers, equipment, terrain and time will determine which areas will be searched.“We’d determine if we could search the area over a period of time or can we knock out the area we select in a day?” Benton said.Benton said searchers would mostly be looking “for placesthat would be a possible dumping site.”Benton said land surveys would be done before investigators could begin searching to determine the landscape of the area.While officials plan, Asha’s father remains in critical condition in a Charlotte hospital.On Aug. 27, Harold Degree was involved in a head-on collision with another car on West Zion Church Road. Degree’s car crossed the centerline into oncoming traffic. Degree was pinned in the car and firefighters had to pry the door off to get him out.Sheriff’s Office Detective Wayne Thomas, an investigator in Asha’s case who also has become a friend of the family, saidA“We’d determine if we could search the area over a period of time or can we knock out the area we select in a day?”Capt. Billy Benton with Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office on another possible search for missing Asha DegreeDegree’s condition is improving.But on Wednesday, Degree was still in the intensive care unit of Carolinas Medical Center where he was airlifted to after the wreck.
Newspaper Details
The Gaston Gazette
Gastonia, North Carolina, US
Thu, Sep 06, 2001
Page 27
Full Page
Clipped by
Ashley P.
NA, 22 Sep 2024
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