SHELBY, N.C. -- With every step and passing moment a mother longs for her child.
"This is worse than death," said Iquilla Degree, Asha's mother.
Saturday friends of family of Asha Degree walked in memory of her. The nine-year-old vanished nearly 15 years ago, but her parents still hold out hope.
"We do believe that she's still alive," said Iquilla Degree.
The years pass by with no clear suspects and no arrests. Every year though friends gather around this family like 72-year-old Laura McNeilly.
"I just wanted to be here in memory of her," said McNeilly.
The group walked nearly a mile and a half. The steps the family believes Degree walked the night she disappeared. A new picture from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, showing Asha at 24, makes the family realize how much of her life they've missed.
"That's one of the things that keep us going and keep up moving," said Degree.
The night she vanished a couple of drivers say they saw her walking on highway 18 about a mile from home. Some of her school supplies later showed up in a nearby barn. Then a year and a half later construction crews found her book bag buried nearly 20 miles from home.
As the steps find their resting place Iquilla Degree wants her worry to do the same.
"She's the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning and the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep at night. She's my child. I will never give up on her. I will never forget about her and if we don't keep hope and keep her name out why would anybody else do it," said Degree.
