Aurora – For nearly three hours Saturday, investigators dragged a radar device over the floors in an Aurora home, hoping to unearth clues – if not the body – of 6-year-old Aaroné Thompson.
Outside, volunteers again searched for clues by knocking on doors a few blocks away.
They found nothing they would comment on later.
“I’d trade all my successes to find this little girl,” said geophysicist Clark Davenport, co- founder of NecroSearch.
The nonprofit, Colorado- based organization of volunteer scientists and investigators specializes in helping law enforcement agencies search for clandestine gravesites.
Davenport joined lead Detective Randy Hansen and two members of the city’s police crime lab inside the home, dragging ground-penetrating radar, an orange device that resembled an oversized vacuum cleaner, over wooden floors and the concrete slab in the basement.
“I don’t like to call it searching,” Hansen said, declining to characterize the work inside the house in the quiet cul de sac, as neighborhood children at play could be heard hooting and squealing in the distance.
Aaroné was reported missing Nov. 14, but the case shifted to a homicide investigation after police received a “credible tip” that the little girl had been killed, according to Aurora interim Police Chief Terry Jones.
Police believe the girl has been missing for as long as 18 months.
Volunteers passed out about 3,000 fliers Friday and Saturday, asking anyone with information to help police. About 20 volunteers took part Friday, and nine showed up Saturday morning.
“We don’t expect to find Aaroné alive, out walking around,” said organizer Richard Berrelez, as volunteers gathered after daylight at nearby Rocky Ridge Park. “Our objective is to put out information to every single house.”
Aaron Thompson, Aaroné’s father, had been expected to join the search Saturday, but he did not. His live-in girlfriend, Shelley Lowe, was expected to give birth at any time, said the Rev. Acen Phillips, the family’s spokesman.
Thompson and Lowe are considered “persons of interest” whom police want to interview. The other children in the house were removed Nov. 17 and placed in protective custody.
“He has one child on the way, another one missing, and the rest have been taken away from him,” Phillips said. “I don’t know how he’s holding it together.”
Aaroné’s step-grandfather, Jessie Cloman, was among those going door to door both days.
In a quiet voice and with sad eyes, he told people he was Aaroné’s grandfather, handed them a flier and asked for their help.
“If you see anyone or know anything, please call the Aurora police,” he told one woman. “If nothing else, pray for her.”
Volunteers voiced concern, but none said they expected to find the child alive.
“Everyone has a family, everyone feels this pain, everyone hurts for children,” Mohammed Aslami, a neighborhood resident and an immigrant from Afghanistan, said after leaning in a car window to tell another volunteer that the child’s fate “is in the hands of God.”
Staff writer Jeremy Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
