Robert Aragon, 55, the father of an 11-year-old girl who died of hypothermia while trying to walk to her mother's in the snow, has been charged with murder.
That old adage of "walking 10 miles through to the snow to get to school?" We all know it's generally not true. So why would Robert Aragon let his 12-year-old son Bear and 11-year-old daughter Sage try to walk 10 miles through knee-deep snow to their mother's house?
The children live with Aragon in Jerome, Idaho and he was taking them to visit their mother, JoLeta Jenks, in West Magic on Christmas Day. But his truck became snowbound, and authorities allege Aragon told them to walk to their mother's house while he and another adult stayed behind to work on the truck.
Jenks finally called Aragon when no one showed up at her house. To make matters worse, once he freed his truck, Aragon drove back to Jerome, not even bothering to make sure they were OK.
A Blaine County search and rescue team found the boy at a rest area near the highway shortly before 10 PM on Thursday night. Bear was only wearing long underwear, as hypothermia had affected him to the point of delusion. There was no sign of Sage, but he told authorities she had said she was going back to the truck.
Sage Aragon was found the next morning, dead of suspected hypothermia, after search and rescue dogs found her at about 2 AM.
Robert Aragon is accused of felony injury to a child and second-degree murder. Bail has been set at $500,000.
Aragon's family members do not believe the charge is justified. Personally, it's a difficult decision. He is going to have to live with this the rest of his life, and perhaps rather than being guilty of a crime, he is simply guilty of being foolish or negligent.
However, it is amazing that he would not have called the mother to tell her the children were walking to her house however. The search for the children did not begin until 7 PM, and he let them out of the truck at 9 AM.
Temperatures in the area at the time of the incident ranged from 27 degrees above zero to -5.
Judge Mark Ingram on Monday set a bond review hearing, to perhaps loweer Aragon's bail, for Wednesday, appointed a public defender for Aragon, and scheduled a pretrial hearing for Jan. 7.
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