(NewsNation) — New warrants released in the case of Asha Degree, who disappeared 25 years ago, reveal new information, including an allegation that one of the current suspects admitted to murdering her.
The disappearance of Asha Degree
Degree was 9 years old when she disappeared from her home in Shelby, North Carolina. She left her house in the early morning of the hours on Valentine’s Day and was seen by witnesses walking alongside a highway during a heavy storm. One witness said they saw Degree being pulled into a vehicle.
More than a year after her disappearance, Degree’s bookbag and belongings were found by construction workers near where she was last seen. They were wrapped in black plastic trash bags that also contained some items that didn’t belong to her. DNA evidence was collected from those items.
Dedmon family named as suspects
The case has been investigated multiple times since Degree disappeared, and in September of 2024, investigators served several search warrants for properties and items belonging to the Dedmon family.
Investigators say DNA found on Degree’s belongings has been linked to one of the Dedmon daughters, who were teenagers when Degree disappeared, and a man named Roy Underhill, who lived at several properties owned by the family. Underhill is now deceased.
Roy and Connie Dedmon and their three daughters have all been named as suspects in the case. Investigators also revealed in those warrants that they believe Degree was killed and her body concealed somewhere.
Alleged admission to killing Degree
New documents include allegations that Lizzie Dedmon Foster admitted to killing Degree. Foster was 16 at the time Degree disappeared.
In September of 2024, a man told investigators that he used to go to parties and bars with Foster and her sister, Sarah Dedmon Caple. That was in the mid-2000s, and he said at one party, Foster was sobbing and made statements that she had “killed Asha Degree.”
He then claimed that Caple heard Foster and got angry, telling her to shut up. The man took and passed a polygraph test regarding his statement.
When investigators approached Foster about a polygraph in September, she refused to take one. In one taken this month, she was found to be deceptive.
The warrants also revealed that a vehicle seized during the search, which resembled the one Degree was reportedly seen being pulled into, was registered to Roy Lee Dedmon, and one of his daughters said she had been given the car when she was 16.
Text messages between Dedmon daughters
Another warrant for Foster’s cell phone showed text messages between herself and her two sisters, Caple and Annalee Dedmon Ramirez.
Ramirez told Foster she didn’t need to be talking to anyone about the case and texted Caple that investigators think she could be the suspect, with a theory that she accidentally killed Degree and covered it up with the help of her parents.
Foster also texted her ex-husband, saying she “caused this.”
No charges have been filed in connection with the case, and Degree’s body has not been located.