Investigators in North Carolina have released new details in a cold case from nearly 25 years ago involving the disappearance and possible murder of a 9-year-old girl.
Asha Degree disappeared from her Shelby, North Carolina, home on Feb. 14, 2000. Authorities conducted multiple searches but could not find her. In the years that passed, investigators found a few of Asha’s belongings but nothing that could point them to her whereabouts.
Last week, local and state investigators executed eight search warrants at locations connected to Asha’s disappearance. Details from those warrants reveal that those locations are linked to Roy and Connie Dedmon, two people local outlets claim are named as suspects in police documents.
The locations for each warrant were chosen based on DNA evidence from 2001 that linked Asha with Annalee Dedmon Ramirez and Russell Underhill. That year, authorities found Asha’s clothing and backpack in trash bags at a construction site along Highway 18 in Burke County. The bag contained a library book and a shirt that did not belong to her.
A DNA analysis revealed that a hair stem found on Asha’s undershirt belonged to Dedmon Ramirez, one of Roy and Connie Dedmon’s three daughters, who was 13 when Asha disappeared. Underhill’s DNA was found on other items.
Underhill was a resident at a rest home the Dedmons own in Vale, North Carolina, which investigators also searched.
Before his residency at that home, he stayed at Cleveland Health Care, where now 80-year-old Roy Dedmon was listed as his emergency contact. When Cleveland Health Care shut down, the Dedmons opened the North Brook Rest Home in 2002, where Underhill stayed until he died in 2004.
In 2023, a Cleveland County deputy interviewed a social services worker who said Roy Dedmon would send one of his daughters, who wasn’t Dedmon Ramirez, to transport patients in an “unreliable vehicle” to the rest home from Broughton Hospital in Morganton. Investigators noted that Highway 18 would have been the “most logical” route between both facilities.
Investigators said in their affidavit, “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.”
Last week, investigators also found and towed a 1970s-era car that resembled the one Asha was seen getting into before she went missing. That car was found only a few miles from the site of her disappearance.
No human remains were found during any of the searches, but investigators now believe that Asha was a victim of homicide and that her body was concealed.
An attorney for the Dedmons denied the family’s involvement in Asha’s disappearance. Police documents show that the family had given numerous statements to investigators and passed polygraph tests linked to the case. However, investigators believe their help “would have been necessary in the execution and/or concealment of the crime.”
At another property the Dedmons own, a resident told authorities they “saw Roy Dedmon digging a chest-deep hole” several years ago. That resident also reported that three rooms at that property are padlocked and are said to contain Dedmon’s personal property. Investigators seized cameras, journals, a black trash bag, children’s clothing, and a rifle from that home.
“I know our community is anxious to learn about every aspect of our ongoing investigation,” Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said in a recent statement. “While we appreciate your support, I urge you to put yourself in the place of Asha’s family who for 24 years have entrusted law enforcement to do everything possible to find her. Please do not spread or share rumors on social media. Official information will be released by my office when appropriate. Pray for Asha, her family, and everyone who has worked for decades to locate Shelby’s Sweetheart.”
