Shelley Lowe, one of the key figures in the mysterious disappearance of 6-year-old Aaroné Thompson, died suddenly Friday of an apparent heart attack.
Lowe, 33, was the girlfriend of Aaron Thompson, Aaroné’s father, and police have called her and Aaron “persons of interest” in the Aurora girl’s disappearance, reported in November.
At 4:30 Friday morning, Aaron Thompson called 911 saying that Lowe was having trouble breathing. Paramedics took her to the Medical Center of Aurora South by 5:25 a.m. Five minutes later, doctors pronounced Lowe dead, said hospital spokeswoman Beverly Husted-Petry.
“This appears to be the result of a medical emergency,” Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates said. “It appears to be a natural death.”
Lowe had a history of heart trouble and took several medications, Oates said. But others were quick to point to the strain the high-profile case exerted.
“The Police Department had a continuous, unrelenting publicity campaign,” said Denver lawyer Walter Gerash, who was advising Lowe. “She was under a lot of pressure.”
Lowe’s death throws into uncertainty both the criminal investigation into Aaroné’s disappearance and the fate of eight children removed from Lowe and Thompson’s custody.
The case began Nov. 14, when Aaron Thompson called Aurora police to report that Aaroné had run away from home. Authorities launched a large-scale search in the neighborhoods around Thompson and Lowe’s Aurora house, using dogs, helicopters, airplanes and hundreds of officers.
Police soon began describing Lowe and Thompson as uncooperative, and three days after Aaroné’s reported disappearance, police announced that they believed she was dead and had been for more than a year.
Documents obtained by The Denver Post show that Lowe’s ex-boyfriend told police that Lowe told him she had been doing “something” with Aaroné when the girl began bleeding and quit breathing in a bathtub. According to the documents, Lowe told her ex-boyfriend that she and Thompson buried the little girl in a field.
Lowe and Thompson have said they didn’t kill Aaroné.
Officials removed the seven children, ages 8 to 15, still living in the house – Lowe’s five children and her brother, as well as Thompson’s son – and placed them in foster homes. A baby girl born later in November also was taken into custody.
Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers said a grand jury investigation into Aaroné’s disappearance scheduled for next week will go forward but may go slower than planned out of deference to witnesses, including Lowe’s children.
“My first thought is how awful this must be for the children,” Chambers said during a news conference Friday morning. “The loss of their mother must be profound.”
She said the investigation could take several months.
Lowe and Thompson’s efforts to get the children back through the court system have been unsuccessful.
Arapahoe County Human Services spokeswoman Katrina Seymour refused to comment specifically on the case Friday. Generally, she said, it is possible for one parent to continue working toward regaining custody after another dies, and she said judges usually like to keep families together as much as possible.
“But every case is so incredibly individual, there’s no blanket statement for any of them,” she said.
Family law attorney Kevin Massaro, who isn’t involved in the case, said the death raises numerous questions for the case.
“Those ones that are Shelley’s kids are going to be a wild card now,” he said. “Who’s going to get them? Certainly the family members on her side of the family would want to be a part of that. And the question is whether Aaron would want to continue to be the psychological parent.”
Lowe grew up in the Detroit area, and poverty and turmoil often were part of her life.
Court records obtained by The Post recount allegations of abuse against Lowe’s children, with the earliest coming in Michigan in 1997 and the last in Colorado in 2001. In one of the Michigan cases, according to the documents, case workers found Lowe living in a two-bed motel room with her boyfriend and five children.
Lowe told a reporter from Westword in 2000 that she moved to Denver in 1998, after visiting a friend here and deciding she wanted to stay. At one point she and her children spent time living in a downtown homeless shelter, she said, before finding subsidized housing. She was going to school and had hopes of opening a temp agency, she said.
According to documents, in 2001 she began dating Thompson, who had moved to Denver from Michigan that same year, leaving behind his wife and the mother of two of his children, including Aaroné. Thompson and Lowe soon moved in together.
In the few visits she and Thompson were allowed with their children since the investigation began, they would often bring food and treats for the kids. On Christmas they brought presents, and Lowe offered a quiet “Merry Christmas” to the assembled news media.
Sam Riddle, a friend who has spoken on behalf of the family, said that stress took its toll on Lowe as the Aaroné investigation stretched on, The Associated Press reported.
“I am firmly convinced the Aurora police and the state of Colorado hounded Shelley Lowe to death,” Riddle said. “I had numerous conversations with Shelley where the stress was so severe she would break down and cry.”
Oates said it is ridiculous to suggest that police hounded Lowe to death, adding that Lowe and Thompson are primarily responsible for the investigation’s taking so long.
“It might not have been a lengthy investigation had she cooperated with police,” he said.
David Lane, an attorney advising Aaron Thompson, said the death is a tragedy.
“My heart goes out to the people who loved her and who are left behind,” Lane said.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
