Murder: December 2005 Archives
Johnia Hope Berry was an ETSU graduate who moved to Knoxville to enter the master's program at UT. On December 6, 2004, someone entered her Brendon Park Apartment and brutally stabbed her to death. Her killer is still at large.
For more information on Johnia, please see the Metro Pulse Online Article about Johnia Berry, or vist the website set up by Johnia's family
There is a $37,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Johnia Hope Berry on December 6, 2004.
AURORA - No "credible" adult or child has seen Aaroné Thompson in at least 18 months, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates said during a news conference Friday, almost three weeks after the girl's father reported her missing.
Based upon that and other "useful evidence," which he would not discuss, Oates said his department is confident the girl, who would have turned 7 Wednesday, is dead.
"I'm here tonight to state emphatically that this is a homicide investigation," Oates said outside police headquarters. "Nothing that has been brought forward . . . by Aaron Thompson or Shely Lowe changes our position."
Oates also urged Thompson, the girl's father, and Lowe, his girlfriend, to cooperate with detectives instead of making their case in the media that Aaroné is alive and police aren't doing enough to find her.
"I'm a parent," said Oates, who has two school-aged daughters. "It's not logical that if my daughter was missing that I wouldn't cooperate with police. If they truly care, as they claim to about Aaroné, they need to come talk to us. They hold the key."
The couple's interview with reporters was arranged by Sam Riddle, who took on the role of family spokesperson shortly after Thompson reported Aaroné missing.
Riddle arranged for Denver attorney Leta Holden to represent Lowe, but just hours before Oates' news conference, Holden called one of her own to announce she was withdrawing from the case.
After declaring the case a homicide investigation, detectives focused their search on the East Kepner Place house, including using dogs that can detect decomposing bodies and digging up portions of the backyard.
Oates said there was no reason for the department to continue the missing person search when they had enough information to believe the girl had been killed months earlier.
"We have found not a single, credible person who has seen Aaroné in approximately 18 months," he said. "I'm a parent; many of you are parents. . . . When my children were 7 years old, by that point in their lives, there were hundreds of people who saw them, if not daily, then on a regular basis."
The couple's seven other children - including a week-old baby girl - and Lowe's teenage brother, have since been taken away from them, and placed into protective custody with Arapahoe County Human Services.
Holden was working with Lowe on trying to get the children back or placed with relatives. Another custody hearing is set for Thursday, but Holden was unsure exactly who would represent Lowe in that proceeding.
Down the street from the house where Aaroné reportedly lived, a prayer vigil was held to call on the community to renew the search for her.
Vigil organizer Alvertis Simmons said authorities would still be looking for the young girl if she were rich and white instead of poor and black.
"If she was blonde, blue-eyed, she'd be on the front of every national publication," Simmons said. "There isn't even a reward out for this baby."
olveraj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5113
In this case, I believe it is not a matter of race, but of the "identity" formula. Not many people can say "this could happen to me", because it is hard to understand a family with more than seven children, especially one that doesn't know where some of its progeny are.
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