About two dozen mourners sat scattered in otherwise empty pews at the Friday afternoon funeral for Shelley Marie Lowe, who suffered a fatal heart attack about a week after Arapahoe County officials announced that a grand jury would investigate Lowe in connection with the mysterious disappearance of young Aaroné Thompson.
Outside Mount Gilead Baptist Church, photographers and television crews waited uncomfortably in the hot May sun, knowing their presence was unwelcome. Many of the mourners hold the media at least partly accountable for Lowe’s death, at age 33, on May 12.
The puzzling case of Aaroné Thompson has remained in the headlines since November, when the girl, then 6, was reported missing by her father, Aaron Thompson, and Lowe, his girlfriend. Accounts of Aaroné’s whereabouts were so confused and contradictory that social services officials removed seven children from Thompson and Lowe’s custody, along with the baby subsequently born to Lowe in late November.
The Rev. Acen Phillips, who took Thompson and Lowe under his wing after the girl’s disappearance, officiated at Lowe’s funeral. He encouraged mourners to remember Lowe’s warm smile, her maternal love and a devotion to Aaron Thompson so complete that the two often dressed alike.
“Forgive those who trespass against us,” Phillips quoted, chiding the gossip that began with Lowe’s former boyfriend, a state prison inmate who claims Lowe told him that Aaroné was dead.
“There’s not one of us living on planet Earth that hasn’t made some mistake.”
As a photograph of Lowe flickered on a screen, clergy and relatives went to the altar, testifying that Lowe loved her children “more than she loved herself,” as Aaron Thompson said tremulously.
The child who propelled Lowe into the spotlight remained unnamed during the funeral. Still, Aaroné’s presence hung like a pall, evoked by the opening song, “Tears in Heaven,” written by Eric Clapton as he mourned the accidental death of his preschool-age son in 1991.
Aaroné and Lowe remained linked even as the two-hour service ended with “Over the Rainbow,” the wistful song of an unhappy girl hoping to go to a better place.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
