I combed through the local news articles at
AshDeg (848 views)
Sorry it's not better formatted but I'm on mobile and it really was a pain to copy and paste from that site.
Her older cousins (12 and 15) hosted a slumber party the night before that had a dozen people in attendance
"Asha plays basketball and likes riding her bike and jumping on a trampoline, her cousins said. (Name removed for privacy), said she, Asha and a dozen of their cousins had a sleepover Saturday night at a family member's house justup the street."She was real happy," (name removed for privacy) said. "She was dancing andlaughing."(name removed for privacy), 15, the cousin who hosted the weekend slumber party, slumped next to (name removed for privacy) on a lawn chair.She and other family members spent the entire day looking for Asha."
The pencil found at Turner Upholstery had Atlanta on it which is where the Degree's had a family reunion
"Detective Wayne Thomas.Crawford said he believed the most significant find was thepencil that had "Atlanta" on it. The Degree family held itsreunion there the following year."
The candy wrappers found were cinnamon disks that Asha happened to like
"Searchers moved on again. They formed a straight line,each searcher 10 feet from the next, and pored over theground looking for red cellophane cinnamon disk wrappers - one of the candies Asha favored."
The descriptions of the items found explained by the person that found them
"Rallie Turner, 59, found a yellow hair bow, candy, a greenmarker and a white pencil with writing on it in the old building, which now houses discarded furniture and a redCub Farmall tractor."There was a little picture next to the tractor," said Turner, who found the items Tuesday. "The hair bow was an inchand a half long. It's plastic and it had a little teddy bear onit. It was solid yellow."Investigators thought they had something when theDegree family identified the items as belonging to Asha.But nothing new turned up Friday. Volunteers and trained search-and-rescue teams have been searching for Asha since she was reported missingMonday.Searchers have covered about a 3-mile radius around theDegrees' home and searched in dozens of private yardsalong N.C. 18."
99.9 percent of the items found in Asha's bag were hers.
"Ninety-ninepoint nine percent of what was in that bag was Asha's."Investigators believe she left home on her own, but havenever determined why. They say she took a backpack, twofavorite outfits and a Tweety Bird purse. Asha's hair bow, candy wrappers and other items werefound in a toolshed just off N.C. 18, about a mile from herShelby home a day after two truck drivers reported seeingher walking on the highway about 4 a.m. A weeklong,massive search near there revealed nothing more. The casehad all but died until the book bag discovery.Previously, Crawford said he believed the fourth-gradermight have walked beyond the 4-mile radius of the originalsearch and died of natural causes. But the Burke Countyfind changes that, he said."It's highly unlikely Asha placed them there herself," hesaid. "We have reason to believe that was not Asha's plastic bag, so it certainly heightens our suspicion that one ormore people were involved."The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office flew the bundle,including the plastic bags, to an FBI lab in Quantico, Va.,for forensic tests that are still underway.It is unclear whether the clothing found was the outfit Asha wore when she left home."
A description of the route she would have taken to get to the shed from the highway. Also a neighbor directly behind the shed said his dogs did not bark that night
Authorities believe she got scared and left the road,seeking shelter in the shed. To get there, she would have walked the length of two football fields uphill and crosseda 3-foot-deep gully. A light outside the shed may haveguided her.The shed, filled with furniture and farm equipment theowners of nearby Turner's Upholstery stored there, wasdoorless so Asha could have easily stepped in.Neighbors don't remember anything unusual. The Rev.Mackie Turner, pastor of Buffalo Baptist Church, keeps six beagles in a dog lot behind the shed."They bark if they see anybody," he said. "But I didn't heara thing."