Aurora – A grand jury soon will hear evidence about the suspected killing of Aaroné Thompson, the 6-year-old girl who was reported missing in November.
Authorities announced Thursday that they were bringing the case before a grand jury, a move that will allow them to compel reluctant witnesses to testify and subpoena records that weren’t available to detectives.
“We think there is a more complete picture that we would like to get,” said 18th Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers. “We want to use the investigative powers of the grand jury because we think that will assist us in a unique way.”
Aaron Thompson, the father of Aaroné, and Shelley Lowe, his girlfriend, have been the focus of the criminal probe and have refused to speak to police.
Police already have enough evidence to warrant criminal charges, said Police Chief Dan Oates, noting that investigators have interviewed more than 450 witnesses and compiled more than 470 pieces of evidence.
“We were fully capable and prepared to file charges,” he said, though he wouldn’t specify who could be charged.
The chief acknowledged he was persuaded that a grand jury process would work best during a five-hour meeting Wednesday with officers from his department, the FBI, the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office and the district attorney’s office.
“I now believe (a grand jury) offers the strongest and best opportunity to create the most complete case to find justice for Aaroné,” Oates said.
Aaroné was reported missing by her father on Nov. 14. Three days later, the search for the girl was halted after Lowe’s former common-law husband told investigators that Aaroné was killed in the family home in Aurora and buried in a field more than a year before.
Eric Williams, who is serving time in a state prison for an escape conviction, told investigators Lowe had described how she had been doing something with the little girl that caused Aaroné to bleed, according to a document obtained in December by The Denver Post.
According to Williams, Aaroné stopped breathing in a bathtub and Lowe and Thompson buried Aaroné in a field, the document states.
Less than an hour after Chambers and the police chief spoke Thursday afternoon, the couple visited the eight children who were removed from their home and placed into foster care after police started the homicide investigation.
Lowe toted a pink diaper bag with baby bottles in side pockets, and Thompson carried a 12-pack of soda and a grocery sack filled with potato chips and other snacks.
They declined to comment as they headed into the county human services office.
Rev. Acen Phillips, who has ministered to the couple, believes the case is being given to a grand jury because police don’t have enough evidence to charge the couple.
“This is another way to extend it and have it out there and have some more loose investigation take place,” he said.
Sam Riddle, who has spoken on the couple’s behalf, said police “haven’t ever come up with anything strong … to substantiate anything. If they have something, they should bring it.”
David Lane, the Denver attorney who has been advising Aaron Thompson, said handing the case to the grand jury means police don’t have a case.
“There is obviously no probable cause to believe that Aaron Thompson has committed any crime, because you don’t need a grand jury to arrest someone if you have probable cause that they’ve committed a crime,” Lane told 9News.
Oates wouldn’t say whether the criminal probe has uncovered any physical evidence that suggests Aaroné was killed. He also said police haven’t found her body.
“The people who are responsible for this crime obviously have hidden the body in an effort to avoid prosecution,” he said. “There will be a positive resolution of this case with or without a body.”
Contacted in Detroit, Lynette Thompson, Aaroné’s mother, said: “Finally, it will come to the surface, what happened to my baby.”
The children who were removed from Aaron Thompson and Lowe’s home told investigators they hadn’t seen Aaroné for more than a year, according to a county record. Lowe’s teenage brother, RaJon Russell, who moved in with the couple in August 2004, told investigators he had never seen the girl, according to a social services document The Denver Post obtained last month.
RaJon contradicted that statement in March when he told The Post that police had coerced him into those comments, allegations Oates strongly denied.
On Thursday, Oates began the news conference standing before an enlarged photograph of Aaroné when the girl was only 3 1/2. The photo showed her in front of the Grand Canyon, holding the hand of an older boy whose face was obscured.
“We thought we would remind you all of what this case is all about,” Oates said.
“We subsequently found out that this is the single, sole photograph of Aaroné in (Thompson and Lowe’s) possession,” he said. “This photo has been used to motivate us.”
Oates said detectives keep copies of the photograph tacked to their cubicles. He also brought out another photo, a computer enhanced image of what Aaroné would look like now.
“This is a picture of a beautiful 7-year-old girl,” he said.
The grand jury, which had been convened in January and meets throughout the year, will get the case as soon as possible, said Chambers, the district attorney. The 12 jurors will likely meet twice a month.
“We’re not going to say we think anyone is responsible,” she said. “We’re going to step back. We’re going to present an overview of the evidence.”
Chambers said everyone connected to the case could get a chance to speak before the grand jury, but those who don’t want to talk have the constitutional right not to.
Without Aaroné’s body or some other physical evidence, it won’t be easy to get a conviction, even with a grand jury indictment, experts said.
“Obviously, it’s going to be a circumstantial case, and they are won and lost on the totality of the evidence,” said former FBI agent Greg McCrary of Virginia.
“What police and prosecutors will be doing is saying, ‘Here are all these facts; what other explanation can they have other than this little girl was murdered?”‘ he said. “The defense will take each circumstance and break it down and offer explanations.”
But everyone knows a child shouldn’t be missing for so long, Chambers said. Certainly, that will be a key point for the prosecution, McCrary said.
“If they are able to show her missing for two years, that is going to be awfully tough for the family to explain.”
Staff writers Annette Espinoza and Elizabeth Aguilera contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
