We conclude our investigation into the disappearance of Asha Degree. Did she run away, or did someone trick her? #truecrime
59. Asha Degree Part 2
We conclude our investigation into the disappearance of Asha Degree. Did she run away, or did someone trick her? #truecrime
The Prosecutors Podcast 
I believe she went to meet someone known to the family. The picture may have been given to her to lure her out of the house.
Maybe she believes it was a cousin she never met.
Could be someone from the church. There is a lot of child abuse in religious communities.
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Has anyone ever checked any computers she may have had access to? I’m a little older than Asha and a big thing around that time were chatrooms. They weren’t as regulated as they are now, and a huge problem back then were adults posing as kids in these chatrooms. Could that have been a factor? I don’t remember hearing about whether anyone checked computers or any chatrooms she may have been in. And most schools at that time had computers and people had computers at home.
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I have a 9.5 year old daughter, so I explained the case to her. I explain true crime stories to my child frequently because I figure the cold hard truth and a little fear is the best way to prevent bad things happening to her. Her first observation was that there wasn’t enough food. She was horrified that Asha had only candy. I asked her what would get her to do something like that and she couldn’t think of anything her only concern was about the food situation. Kids this age are bottomless pits: my daughter wakes me up at midnight to get her snacks because she’s “starving.”
I don’t think Asha was planning to be away from a food source long.
Regards!
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I feel that most parents trust their “church family members” & may let their guard down when folks interact with their children. This would also be true for children. Possible that Asha was lured away by a church aquaintance?
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Do we know if the book is hers?
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I believe the same thing. Someone had been talking to her. Perhaps someone that worked at the school or church and she was enlisted to save the girl in the picture. I know that at age nine it was all about adventure for me and my friends and I did some dangerous things in the name of adventure. Sounds like someone had been grooming this girl to run towards a dangerous situation.
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I agree with you. You didn’t hear about the sex trafficking back then but no doubt it was going on. What if the little girl was someone she was talking to from another basketball team who was told to recruit Asha. As a mom of both a very active daughter and son, when I’m trying to get one out of their game and on to the other, I’m not watching the crowd to watch strangers closely, I could easily miss a secret grin or wave between little girls. Could this be the reason she has the pic, a pic of her new secret best friend? And the new best friend has a really good story of why she needed Asha to go with her THAT night. Because Asha didn’t take food and only took a couple of outfits, I feel like Asha was planning to come back after a few days, she wasn’t planning to be gone forever. She doesn’t appear to have a reason to be gone forever.
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I think she was promised a photo shoot. She was dressed cute and packed a few more cute outfits. It was a family member. I think this planned photo shoot was done at her cousin’s home and she was told to keep it secret as a surprise for her parents. The trusted family member assured her that she would be back home before her parents woke up. Is there an uncle or older cousin who was around Saturday night at the sleepover?
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