SHELBY, N.C. — Authorities with multiple agencies are at a property in Lincoln County Friday serving search warrants related to the disappearance of nine-year-old Asha Degree, a law enforcement source told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon.

Cleveland and Lincoln County deputies, agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI were at the property Friday morning on N.C. Highway 182 at Highway 274.

The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office said the current property owner – who’s not connected to the ongoing investigation – gave them consent for the search.

Channel 9′s Ken Lemon and Dave Faherty were at the scene and spoke with neighbors who are hopeful for answers.

It’s been 25 years since Degree was reported missing from her home near Shelby.

“We hope this is the day that we have answers,” said Tiffany Porter, who was just 5 years old when Asha disappeared. “I’m thirty, so we are around the same age.”

Porter has been following updates in the case after a search in Shelby last year when investigators said Roy and Connie Dedmon were suspects who had a part in Asha’s disappearance and possibly her death. They think the couple may have concealed Asha’s body, though remains were never found.

The Dedmons owned the campus where investigators searched Friday.

Porter believes the connection is too close to ignore. She said she came to see justice for Asha.

“She deserves it. The family deserves it. The community deserves to know,” Porter said.

Brian Bryson lives nearby, and he says it’s hard to imagine finding uncontaminated evidence. The school is abandoned, but not empty.

“It’s run down pretty good. There’s been homeless people that have been in and out of there, numerous times since I’ve been here,” Bryson told Channel 9.

Another neighbor, Dale Williams, said he woke up to find the huge police presence across the street.

“I kinda didn’t know what was going on for a good while. How hard Is it to search that property? It’s probably going to take a while,” Williams said.

The searchers left after about three and a half hours.

Deputies in Cleveland County say they along with state and federal investigators will continue to follow leads in the case. They would not say what brought them to the property today.

Ashley Toney has closely followed the case and hopes police get answers soon, but she says the case changed the area.

“It did. It opened my eyes to when I have kids, my kids will not leave my side,” Toney said.

Neighbors highlight new search for Asha Degree

Decades of searching for Asha

In February, Channel 9 obtained new warrants in the case revealing text messages that were sent right after a recent search at a Cleveland County home. The warrants also detailed a polygraph test that was taken in connection with the investigation.

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Feb. 14 of this year marked the 25th anniversary of Degree’s disappearance. The new warrants show texts between family members of a man whose properties were searched in September 2024 in Cleveland County.

Last fall, authorities executed multiple search warrants and seized various items related to Asha’s disappearance, citing “physical evidence” as the basis for their actions. They towed away a green 1960s model car linked to the case. The property owner was identified as 80-year-old Roy Lee Dedmon, who lives at the property with his wife, Connie Dedmon.

Channel 9 just obtained warrants of phone records of calls and text messages made at that time when the Dedmons were identified as suspects in Asha Degree’s disappearance and accused of concealing her death.

These are the key texts between the Dedmon’s family members. Channel 9 is not publishing the names of the people involved since they haven’t been identified as suspects or charged with a crime.

One wrote, “The theory is I did it. Accident. Covered it up.”

The message back was, “They think it’s our shirt. It’s not her shirt. Her mom says it wasn’t hers.” They added: “I don’t remember that shirt. I’m scared though. Dad is probably going to be a huge suspect.”

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In another text message exchange, one of the family members said: “I feel so horrible ... So so horrible ... Idk what to do. I caused this.”

A relative responded, “No you didn’t!”

One of the family members mentions their attorney David Teddy in talking about that conversation.

“He was just like, ‘I will call Teddy we can go get a polygraph with honest people,’” the person wrote.

All this while investigators were trying to build their case that Asha Degree was not abducted 25 years ago. They feel she was a victim of a crime, and a family tried to conceal it.

Dedmon’s attorney did not want to comment on this development.

This is a developing story. Check back with wsoctv.com for updates.

(VIDEO >> 25 years after Asha Degree’s disappearance impacted the Shelby community, family prays for answers)