NBC Charlotte has learned fresh eyes are taking a new look at the Asha Degree missing person case and new information could be released in a couple of days.
Next week marks 15 years since Asha disappeared from her Cleveland County home. She was 9 years old at the time.
A newly-released age progression photo from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children shows what Asha would look like today at age 24.
"It doesn't seem like it's been 15 years, and then it seems like it's been longer, but no, it's not easier," said Asha's mother Iquilla Degree Friday morning, at the family home in Shelby.
That's because they say they are no closer to an answer now to what happened to her than they were then.
"We still don't know more than we did 15 years ago," Degree said.
Asha's disappearance has always been an open case.
She's considered a missing person.
"I'm still looking for a person and until somebody can prove to me otherwise, I'm still looking for a person," Degree said.
Asha walked away from home in the middle of the night February 14, 2000.
Nobody knows why.
Truckers saw her walking along N.C.18 about a mile from home.
That's her last reported sighting.
Searchers soon found some belongings in a nearby barn.
A year and a half later, construction crews uncovered her book bag buried in the dirt nearly 20 miles from home.
The family figures someone came into contact with her, but say there's been no mention of a solid suspect to them by investigators.
What if any clues came from that book bag find were never relayed to them, they said.
There have been numerous tips, but nobody has been arrested or charged.
"We know somebody knows something," Degree said.
The hope all these years later is someone will talk.
Not knowing is the hardest part.
"This is worse than death, because with death you have closure. With this, there's no closure," Iquilla said.
On Saturday, the Degree family will host their annual walk for Asha, which starts at the family home and goes up the road to one of Asha's missing person signs.
