Possible suspect in Asha Degree case?

Authorities are looking at Donald Ferguson to see if he has any connection to the 2000 disappearance of Asha Degree. Her case is kind of bizarre: the nine-year-old, who had no history of running away and didn’t live in a troubled home, apparently sneaked out of bed in the middle of the night, taking a backpack full of stuff with her, and was seen walking along the state highway in the wee hours. Then she vanished, just like that.

Earlier this week, Mr. Ferguson was charged with the 1990 murder of Shalonda S. Poole, who was seven. (The authorities initially arrested a mentally disabled man who worked at Shalonda’s school; he was eventually acquitted.) I’m assuming there must be DNA tying Ferguson to the crime scene, but the cops aren’t saying much.

It’s natural that they would look and see if he’s been involved in the disappearance of a black girl who was of similar age and lived in the area.

Legions of the disappeared

My friend Sean Munger, who runs Charley’s Twitter feed, has published another blog entry — one in a series of four so far — profiling some of the Charley Project’s more puzzling and frustrating cases.

This time he wrote about:

Wojciech Fudali (22, missing from Rhode Island since 2008, I’ve blogged about him before);
Myoung “Mike” Noah (60, missing from California since 2007);
Asha Degree (9, missing from North Carolina since 2000);
Benjamin Cannon (20, missing from Nebraska since 1995);
Anna Christian Waters (5, missing from California since 1973); and
Ruth Baumgardner (22, missing from Ohio since 1937).

He’s got some intriguing info on Mike Noah that I don’t have on Charley. I wonder where he found it.