CENTENNIAL — Aaron Thompson of Aurora is on trial in Arapahoe County District Court for the death of his daughter Aaroné, who was reported missing in 2005. The girl would have been 6 years old at the time of her disappearance. Her body has not been found.
Electronic devices cannot transmit from the courtroom, but The Denver Post is providing trial updates when possible.
2:25 p.m. The prosecution played a videotaped interview of Thompson and his girlfriend, Shelley Lowe, by Channel 7 reporter Tony Kovaleski that aired on Dec. 1, 2005, about two weeks after Thompson reported his daughter missing.
“I don’t know what to say because everything we’ve tried to do to defend ourselves has been turned around,” Lowe said.
When asked by Kovaleski whether Thompson killed his daughter, he answered, “No, no, I did not.”
Lowe calls herself and Thompson “unsung heroes” for providing for the eight children in their home. She also is upset about what police are saying.
“I’m hearing things that really set me off,” Lowe said. “I don’t want to hear any more lies.”
10:32 a.m. Inmate Jessie Reynolds and Thompson were in the Arapahoe County Jail in January, watching television when a news program on CNN featured a segment about a little girl in Florida who was killed by her mother.
Reynolds testified today that one of the inmates in the common area wondered aloud how someone could kill their own child.
Thompson, Reynolds said, then said: “Sometimes, you just snap and deal with the consequences.”
Then another inmate asked how authorities could not find the girl’s body when it was buried so close to home. Then, Reynolds recalled, Thompson said: “Sometimes, bodies are hidden so well they will never be found.”
Reynolds said he then turned to Thompson, who had a “smirk” on his face.
9:55 a.m. A human-resources employee where Thompson worked is called to take the stand. Dianna Sarsfield of Securitas Security Services tells the jury that Thompson took two weeks off, beginning Nov. 11, 2005 — three days before he reported Aaroné missing.
Sarsfield said it was not clear when the vacation time was requested.
9:15 a.m. Sister Mary Jo Anzik of Catholic Charities takes the stand. Thompson and his girlfriend Lowe were renting their home through a transitional-housing program with Catholic Charities.
Anzik visited the home on the morning of Nov. 14, 2005, for an annual inspection, the same day Thompson reported Aaroné missing. She got there after 11 a.m. and toured the home for about an hour and talked to Lowe.
“Shelley always kept a clean home,” Anzik testified.
She said she only saw one of the children at the home and not Aaroné.
Thompson told police that Aaroné ran away from home sometime between noon and 1 p.m. on that day over a fight about a cookie.
