Aurora – When Shelley Lowe and Aaron Thompson return to court today to argue for the return of their children, the couple must convince an Arapahoe County judge they won’t flee the state while police investigate the disappearance of Thompson’s daughter.
While citing concerns for the children’s safety, county officials also suggest the couple would leave the state since they have no ties to Colorado. Thompson and Lowe are persons of interest in the suspected homicide of Thompson’s daughter, Aaroné.
In a court document obtained this week by The Denver Post, a caseworker states that the couple have refused to be interviewed and recommends that the infant and seven children remain in Arapahoe County custody.
“Because the parents have not yet been willing to speak with the caseworker or police, there is no way to monitor the safety of the children during the ongoing investigation into Aaroné’s whereabouts,” the caseworker wrote in a Nov. 28 report.
The children were taken into custody Nov. 17, three days after Aaroné was reported missing. Eight days later, Lowe gave birth to a girl who was immediately taken into custody.
The caseworker cites alleged statements by Lowe that suggest Lowe was “planning to leave the state to give birth so that the Department (of Human Services) wouldn’t take her.”
Police continue their investigation into the disappearance of Aaroné, whose seventh birthday was last week. They believe she may have been dead for as long as 18 months.
A state prison inmate who is the father of two of Lowe’s children told Aurora police that Aaroné died in the care of Lowe, and that Lowe and Thompson buried the girl in a field, according to the social-services report.
The children told authorities that they hadn’t seen Aaroné since before Halloween last year, and that Thompson and Lowe coached them to say they had seen her recently, according to the social-services report.
Meanwhile, Thompson’s attorney has renewed a request for the notes from the children’s interviews as well as other details of the investigation. The subpoena was quashed last week.
Aurora Police Legal Advisor Rob Werking said the city will continue to fight the subpoena.
“We will do everything possible to protect the integrity of this investigation,” Werking said. “That means I will not voluntarily release it (any investigation details) to a person of interest or the public.”
The county alleges that the children have been abused, neglected and mistreated; that they lack proper parental care; that their living environment is dangerous; and that they haven’t been provided a proper education or medical care.
The Arapahoe County Department of Human Services says Lowe and Thompson may visit the children under certain conditions. It is unknown whether either parent has done so.
Family spokesman Sam Riddle said some of the children’s grandparents have visited them.
“I know that (Thompson and Lowe) have been … seeing that they had the clothes they needed,” Riddle said.
The children range in age from a 15-year- old boy who is Lowe’s brother to the 10- day-old girl who is the only child of Thompson and Lowe.
