CENTENNIAL — Shelley Lowe was worried that if she went to the police after Aarone Thompson’s death, she could lose custody of her children because, she said, one of the other children living in their Aurora home had sexually abused Aarone.
“That’s why I went the other way,” Lowe told friend Tabitha Graves during a secretly recorded conversation March 1, 2006 — 3 1/2 months after Aarone was reported missing.
The recordings, made when Graves turned police informant, were played Thursday in Arapahoe County District Court during the trial of Aarone’s father, Aaron Thompson.
Aarone would have been 6 years old when her father first told police she had run away because of a fight over a cookie. Police believe Aarone died two years earlier and the couple covered it up.
He faces 60 criminal counts. Lowe died a year before Thompson was indicted in 2007.
Lowe told Graves the abuse happened much earlier than November 2005 and left Aarone bleeding. And after Thompson found out, he took the boy downstairs and gave him a beating, Lowe told Graves.
She was apparently worried that medical examiners could detect the abuse. So Thompson and Lowe buried the child’s body in a field far away, Lowe’s former boyfriend, Eric Williams Sr., said she told him. The little girl’s body has never been found.
It was not clear whether Lowe’s claims that Aarone had been molested were true or if they had been investigated by police. There is a gag order in the case so no one involved can talk about the investigation. The case file is sealed.
In the recordings, Lowe maintained she had nothing to do with Aarone’s death. “I did not do this,” she told Graves. “Nobody did this to her.”
But in the recordings, it was apparent she was feeling guilty about something.
“The Lord knows my heart,” Lowe said. “He was the first one I ran to to beg for forgiveness and get me through this.”
Lowe also apparently told Graves that Aarone died in her sleep. That is in contrast to what Williams told police. He said Lowe said the little girl died in the bathtub at Thompson’s home on East Kepner Place. Graves knew about that too from police and apparently from Lowe as well.
“I was mixing up (expletive) to see how you would react,” Lowe told her.
It appears some of the other seven children who lived in the Thompson home may testify for three days starting Monday. The judge, prosecution and defense team ended Thursday’s proceedings with a discussion about the logistics of getting child witnesses in and out of the courthouse and courtroom.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
