AURORA, Colo.-
He reported his daughter missing a year and a half ago but police became suspicious of his story, partly because he couldn’t provide any recent pictures of her.
On Wednesday, authorities announced Aaron Thompson was arrested and booked into jail on a charge of cruelty towards a child causing death. He was being held on $500,000 bail.
Thompson’s daughter Aarone was 6 when he told police on Nov. 14, 2005, that she became upset and left the family’s house when he refused to let her have a cookie.
The only photo the family had of Aarone was more than a year old and after three days, police announced that they believed the girl may have been dead for as long as 18 months. They have not released any details, other than to say they received a tip.
Thompson’s attorney, David Lane, did not immediately return a message left at his office by The Associated Press after business hours. He told KUSA-TV: “Aaron Thompson has consistently said that he had no knowledge of or involvment in the disappearance of Aarone.”
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined comment, citing grand jury secrecy rules and during a news conference, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates declined to release additional details.
In March, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld a civil court jury’s Feb. 8 finding that Aaron Thompson was “responsible for serious bodily injury or the death” of his daughter. The jury ruled in April of last year in a dependency and neglect case brought against Thompson by social service services which resulted in seven children being taken from his Aurora home. Thompson appealed the ruling.
Police had said Thompson and his girlfriend, Shely Lowe, were “persons of interest” in the case. Both denied any involvement in the girl’s disappearance, and Lowe died May 12, 2006, of an apparent heart attack, just over a week after Oates said he recommended that charges be filed.
Instead, the case was handed to an Arapahoe County grand jury at the urging of Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers.
Aarone would have turned 8 on Nov. 30 if she were still alive.
Police reportedly interviewed more than 450 witnesses in six states, and have traveled to the Caribbean island nation of Haiti to find answers, as well as collected more than 470 pieces of evidence.
