Asha Degree was nine years old and lived with her family in Shelby, North Carolina. Sometime after 2:30 a.m. on February 14, 2000, she packed a book bag, dressed and walked out of the house into a storm. Two drivers on Highway 18 saw a small girl walking south along the shoulder in the rain. One turned around several times to check on her, and on the last pass watched her run into woods beside the road. She was never seen again. Nothing in her home life ever explained why she left. The next day searchers found candy wrappers, a pencil and a hair bow belonging to her inside a shed near the highway. In August 2001 her book bag was found buried at a construction site about 26 miles away, wrapped in black plastic. It held items that were not hers, including a library book and a concert T-shirt. The FBI and Cleveland County investigators have conducted hundreds of interviews. Beginning in 2024 agents searched several properties and seized a vehicle and phones, and search warrants unsealed in 2025 identified members of one local family as suspects. The most haunting photos ever taken:

College degree attainment in every U.S. state 🇺🇸 District of Columbia — 63.6% 🇺🇸 Massachusetts — 46.6% 🇺🇸 Colorado — 44.7% 🇺🇸 New Jersey — 42.9% 🇺🇸 Maryland — 42.7% 🇺🇸 Vermont — 42.6% 🇺🇸 Connecticut — 41.9% 🇺🇸 Virginia — 41.5% 🇺🇸 New Hampshire — 39.8% 🇺🇸 New York — 39.6% 🇺🇸 Minnesota — 38.8% 🇺🇸 Washington — 38.8% 🇺🇸 Rhode Island — 37.3% 🇺🇸 Illinois — 37.2% 🇺🇸 Utah — 36.9% 🇺🇸 California — 36.5% 🇺🇸 Oregon — 36.2% 🇺🇸 Hawaii — 35.5% 🇺🇸 Delaware — 35.3% 🇺🇸 Maine — 35.3% 🇺🇸 Kansas — 35.2% 🇺🇸 North Carolina — 34.7% 🇺🇸 Montana — 34.5% 🇺🇸 Pennsylvania — 34.5% 🇺🇸 Georgia — 34.2% 🇺🇸 Nebraska — 34.1% 🇺🇸 Florida — 33.2% 🇺🇸 Texas — 33.1% 🇺🇸 Wisconsin — 32.8% 🇺🇸 Arizona — 32.6% 🇺🇸 North Dakota — 32.3% 🇺🇸 Missouri — 31.9% 🇺🇸 Michigan — 31.8% 🇺🇸 South Carolina — 31.5% 🇺🇸 Alaska — 31.2% 🇺🇸 Idaho — 31.2% 🇺🇸 South Dakota — 31.1% 🇺🇸 Iowa — 30.9% 🇺🇸 Ohio — 30.9% 🇺🇸 Tennessee — 30.4% 🇺🇸 New Mexico — 30.2% 🇺🇸 Wyoming — 29.9% 🇺🇸 Indiana — 28.8% 🇺🇸 Alabama — 27.8% 🇺🇸 Oklahoma — 27.8% 🇺🇸 Nevada — 27.4% 🇺🇸 Kentucky — 27.0% 🇺🇸 Louisiana — 26.6% 🇺🇸 Arkansas — 25.1% 🇺🇸 Mississippi — 24.2% 🇺🇸 West Virginia — 23.3% Note: Share of adults 25+ with a bachelor's degree or higher Source: U.S. Census Bureau