Valentine's Day of 1988. North Carolina couple Harold and Ekela Degree couldn't have picked

a more romantic date for their matrimony. They settled on an oak crest drive near the

small town of Shelby, and within two years were the proud parents of children, O'Brien

and Asha. But as the children grew, so did their parents' careers, and by the time they

were in double digit ages, they were regular latchkey kids, letting themselves into their

home after school while being trusted to complete their homework unsupervised. Despite

this advanced level of responsibility, the degree children remained relatively sheltered,

with their parents ensuring that their lives revolved around family, school, and most importantly,

church. And while many of their friends and neighbors were investing in newly affordable

personal computers, the degrees issued that kind of connection to the wider world. Every

time you turn on the TV, there was news of some predator who's lured somebody's

kid away, Ekela later said. Asha in particular seemed to take this

inner stride, and seemed more than content to remain within the boundaries her parents had

set. She was a shy girl, Harold added, scared to death of dogs too. I don't think she'd

ever have left the house unless she'd absolutely had to. And in retrospect, this makes what

happened next even more difficult to comprehend. By February of the year 2000, Asha was

a fourth grader at the nearby Falston Elementary School. Then on Saturday February 12, Asha

fouled out of her basketball team's first game of the season. Asha was their star point

card, and the team went on to lose the game, something which would severely upset her.

However, her father later said that she seemed to get over the loss relatively quickly,

and was engrossed in her brother's game which commenced shortly afterward. Befitting

their routine, both children attended church the next morning, before returning home

...