O’Bryant Degree, second from right, walks with friends along North Carolina Highway 18 during a walk to commemorate the 25th year of Degree’s younger sister, Asha, disappearing along Fallston Road in Shelby, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 8. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez [email protected]

The 25-year anniversary of Asha’s disappearance “didn’t open old wounds,” Iquilla Degree said. “For us, the wounds never closed,” she said, standing next to her husband. Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said the case remains “very fluid” and “very active.” It is not a “cold case,” he told the Observer.

A group of over 50 people gathered outside a small Shelby church to walk the same path that Asha Degree, a 9-year-old who vanished in 2000, was last seen.