Last week, North Carolina officials conducted additional searches in the unsolved 2000 disappearance of a 9-year-old girl.
Empty buildings searched in Lincoln County were on a property previously belonging to Roy Dedmon, 80. According to WCCB, Dedmon has been named a suspect in Asia Degree’s unsolved disappearance.
WSOC reported that last Friday’s search lasted about three hours.
READ: ‘I Killed Asha Degree’: Possible Confession in Girl’s Unsolved 2000 Disappearance
Degree, who vanished from her Shelby home in 2000, was last seen being pulled into a 1970s green Lincoln Thunderbird or a similar vehicle.
Last year, Cleveland County police said they believe Degree was murdered. Around the same time, the FBI seized a vehicle from a property miles from where Degree vanished decades earlier. The car reportedly resembled the car Degree was seen being dragged into.
According to reports, Dedmon’s wife, Connie, and their three daughters were also named as suspects.
In 2001, Degree’s items were discovered in double-bagged garbage bags on the side of Highway 18 in Burke County. One item of interest was Degree’s undershirt, which contained a hair stem sample.
DNA from two items in Degree’s backpack was linked to AnnaLee Dedmon Ramirez and Russell Underhill. Dedmon Ramirez is Roy and Connie Dedmon’s daughter, who was 13 when Degree vanished. Underhill lived at two properties owned by Roy Dedmon and Connie Dedmon around the time of Degree’s disappearance. Underhill died in 2004.
One of the couple’s daughters, Lizzie Grace Dedmon Foster, was 16 when Degree went missing. In September 2024, a man allegedly told Cleveland County police that he attended a house party in the mid-2000s with Lizzie and her younger sister, Sarah Dedmon. He claimed Lizzie was intoxicated and crying when she said, “I killed Asha Degree” — leading her younger sister to grab her head and tell her to “shut the f**k up,” according to the Shelby Star.
The man reportedly passed a polygraph test regarding his statements to police. Lizzie initially refused to speak to investigators, but she did take a polygraph test. According to the Shelby Star, the test determined she was being deceptive about concealing information in Degree’s case.
Sarah reportedly told police she would take a polygraph test at a later date. At some point, she allegedly told police that her father gave her a vehicle resembling the one Degree was last seen in.
Weeks earlier, police obtained a search warrant for Lizzie’s iCloud account. Detectives said they had discovered messages in which Sarah and Lizzie talked about a shirt.
“They think it’s our shirt. It’s not her shirt,” Sarah allegedly wrote. “Dad is probably going to be a huge suspect.”
In documents, police indicated that the text messages may be evidence of felony obstruction. They also stated that if the three Dedmon girls abducted and killed Degree, assistance from their parents was “necessary in the execution and/or concealment of the crime.”
Officials have not revealed what was discovered during last week’s search. No arrests have been made.
[Feature Photo: FBI Charlotte]
