Aarone Thompson died suddenly after she stopped breathing in a bathtub, but the death was covered up because the child was sexually abused by a sibling and had a bad scar from being disciplined, according to an account by a jail inmate.

Shely Lowe and her boyfriend, Aaron Thompson, buried Aarone in a field out of fear that authorities would take their other seven children away, he said.

Eric Williams broke a long silence this week to share what he says a haunted Lowe told him about Aarone's last hours.

In the late 1990s, Williams fathered two of Lowe's children before she met Thompson, who was Aarone's father. Lowe eventually moved in with Thompson but kept in touch with Williams.

Williams believes Lowe sought him out to make a sort of confession because he was one of the few people she could confide in. She also asked him for money to help pay for an attorney for Thompson, Williams said.

Williams said he's unsure of what happened to the child since she was reported missing in 2005, when she would have been 6.

"I don't know what to believe," Williams said. "But I know she (Lowe) loved our kids. She would do anything to protect those kids."

Williams, 40, is in the Denver County Jail awaiting arraignment on an escape charge from a halfway house. He has spent most of the past few years in prison on various escape and drug charges.

'Justice for Aarone'

Aaron Thompson reported his daughter missing Nov. 14, 2005, but within days Aurora police called off the search and said the child had been murdered up to 18 months earlier. Thompson and Lowe were named as persons of interest, but Lowe died last year and Aarone's body has never been found.

Williams is a key witness in the case, which is in the hands of a grand jury. Because of that proceeding, Aurora police declined to comment on the details of Williams' story except to say they had interviewed him.

"Although this has been a long case, we're not concerned about the time it's taking," said Police Chief Daniel Oates. "Our goal is the ultimate resolution, which is justice for Aarone."

Thompson declined Wednesday to comment on Williams' story. But in the past Lowe and Thompson denied having anything to do with Aarone's death and insisted she may still be alive.

Get-out-of-jail card

Sam Riddle, a Thompson family friend, said Williams was telling a story to get lenient treatment in the courts and to bash Lowe's character.

"He's the one that played the get-out-of- jail card," Riddle said. "This is a guy that Shely had to remove her kids from."

Williams has talked with Aurora police - up to 10 times by his count - but said he decided to talk to the Rocky Mountain News after Lowe's death figured into a case of alleged insurance fraud. Lowe, 33, died last year of heart disease.

The Colorado attorney general is investigating a $100,000 life insurance policy on Lowe that would pay $90,000 to two churches connected to the Rev. Acen Phillips, who has defended the Thompson family.

The policy, which is also part of a civil lawsuit regarding insurance fraud, would pay the remaining $10,000 to Thompson.

"For her to leave nothing to her kids, that's impossible," Williams said. "We always wanted the best for our children."

Jailhouse account

Sitting on a plastic bench at a table, wearing square glasses with court papers in front of him, Williams spoke for four hours Tuesday in a jail meeting room.

He calmly answered most questions but choked up when talking about the safety of the children, including his own, who once lived with Lowe and Thompson. The children have since been removed by social services.

Williams said it was late January 2004 while Lowe was driving him around Denver in a Ford Expedition that she told him about the death of Aarone, whom he had never met.

Aarone was in the bathtub when Lowe turned to do something, Williams said. When Lowe turned to the child again, Aarone had stopped breathing.

Lowe had trained to become a nurse and started mouth-to- mouth resuscitation but could not revive the girl, Williams said.

The bathtub was not bloody, he said, despite an earlier published report indicating he had told that to police. "I don't recall saying anything about no bloody bathtub," he said.

After the incident, according to Williams, "They took Aarone far away and buried her in a field."

The only other person Lowe told was an aunt in Florida, according to Williams. The woman did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment.

In the aftermath of Aarone's death, another child was put on the phone and pretended to be Aarone when Thompson's mother called around Christmas 2003, according to Williams.

Lowe and Thompson came up with a plot to conceal the girl's death, Williams said.

Lowe told him that the original plan was to say Aarone was kidnapped while Thompson was driving to Michigan to get Aarone's birth certificate, Williams said.

What's heaven like?

Williams believes Lowe carried out the other part of the plan, to take the other children to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. However, the idea of the kidnapping story was apparently abandoned.

Williams surmises that Aarone's "disappearance" was reported in November 2005 because a social worker was visiting the home.

Williams says he told two fellow inmates about his conversation with Lowe, and one went to authorities. Police told Williams he could be charged with accessory or conspiracy to murder - he cannot recall which - if he did not cooperate.

Williams says he also agreed to talk to police to protect the safety of the remaining children.

"Any other man would have done the same thing in my shoes," he said. "If he was a man and cared about his children."

Williams did not attend Lowe's funeral; he was in prison at the time. But he said his son Eric Jr. wrote him a letter telling him about his mother's death and asking what heaven was like.

Williams wrote him back.

"I told him heaven is a much better place."

Who's who in nearly 1 1/2-year-old case

• Aarone Thompson is an Aurora girl who was reported missing by her father, Aaron Thompson, on Nov. 14, 2005.

She would have been 6 at the time. Her father described her as "talkative and strong-headed."

Days after police undertook a search for her, they declared that they believed she had been killed up to 18 months earlier. Her body has never been found.

• Aaron Thompson, Aarone's father, was named by police as a "person of interest" in her disappearance.

He spoke with police early on but then drew back.

He also has spoken, sometimes extensively, with the media to declare his innocence.

• Shely Lowe was Aaron's live-in girlfriend.

They had a child who was promptly taken by social services in response to the allegations surrounding Aarone's disappearance.

Lowe, 33, died last year of heart disease.

• Eric Williams, who once had a live-in relationship with Shely Lowe and fathered two of her children, has a criminal history that spans nearly nine years.

The 40-year-old is currently in Denver County Jail, where he is awaiting trial on allegations that he escaped from a Department of Corrections facility.

Records show he's been convicted previously on drug and escape charges. He's also faced a variety of misdemeanor offenses, including trespassing, disturbing the peace and obstructing police.

Williams has been known to use the alias Dustin Henson, according to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation report.

Differing versions

What Shely Lowe told the Rocky Mountain News on Dec. 1, 2005:

• "We've done nothing. We're trying to find our little girl."

• "It's all been inaccurate. The only thing accurate is that the baby's missing."

What Shely Lowe's mother, Mary Lowe, said:

• "She explained to me, 'Mother, I don't know anything. I don't know what's going on.' "

• "She loved her kids. That was the most important thing in her life - her children."

What Shely Lowe allegedly told Eric Williams in January 2004:

• "Aaroné was in the bathroom. I believe she (Lowe) was giving Aaroné a bath at the time. She (Lowe) turned around to do something."

• "Shely was crying and hysterical. She swore she did not do anything to the child. The kid just stopped breathing on her own."

• "Then it was about him (Aaron Thompson). She couldn't let him go to jail. She had to protect him."

Differing versions

What Shely Lowe told the Rocky Mountain News on Dec. 1, 2005:

• "We've done nothing. We're trying to find our little girl."

• "It's all been inaccurate. The only thing accurate is that the baby's missing."

What Shely Lowe's mother, Mary Lowe, said:

• "She explained to me, 'Mother, I don't know anything. I don't know what's going on.' "

• "She loved her kids. That was the most important thing in her life - her children."

What Shely Lowe allegedly told Eric Williams in January 2004:

• "Aaroné was in the bathroom. I believe she (Lowe) was giving Aaroné a bath at the time. She (Lowe) turned around to do something."

• "Shely was crying and hysterical. She swore she did not do anything to the child. The kid just stopped breathing on her own."

• "Then it was about him (Aaron Thompson). She couldn't let him go to jail. She had to protect him."

IN HIS OWN WORDS: ERIC WILLIAMS

Eric Williams recounts his recollection of an alleged conversation with Shely Lowe, in which she admitted that Aarone Thompson was dead:

"When she told me all this she was crying, she was hysterical. She swore she didn't do nothing to the child and the child just stopped breathing on her own. . . . I never wanted to believe that.

Kids don't just up and stop breathing on their own. I told her then she should have called the authorities. But then she told me she was scared that they was gonna take her other kids and she didn't want to lose her other kids.

And I told her if she didn't do anything, she'd get the kids back. . . . You're in a whole bunch of trouble now, because, you know, I mean, you all did away with this child and if you would have just turned it in, they would've found out she didn't breathe on her own or whatever it was.

I mean, she was crying, she was hysterical and she was going through all these emotions and stuff, and I just told her I don't want to be involved in this, this is getting to be too much. . . . It was all bizarre.

But then from that time, when she'd come and pick me up later, it was never about her, it was always about him (Aaron Thompson), that she couldn't let him go to jail, she wouldn't let him go to jail. She had to protect him."

kassj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2406

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